For years scientists have been worried about the effects of air pollution on the earth’s natural conditions. Some believe the air inside many houses may be more dangerous than the air outside. It may be one hundred times worse.
Indoor air pollution can cause a person to feel tired, to suffer eye pain, headache and other problems. Some pollutants(污染物)can cause breathing disorders, diseases of blood and even cancer. Most scientists agree that every modern house has some kind of indoor pollution.
People have paid more attention to the problem now. It is true that when builders began making houses and offices they did not waste energy. To do this they build buildings that limited the flow of air between inside and outside. They also began using man-made building materials. These materials are now known to let out harmful gases.
As the problem became more serious, scientists began searching for a way to deal with it. They discovered a natural pollution control system for building—green plants. Scientists do not really know how plants control air pollution. They believe that a plant’s leaves absorb(吸收)or take in the pollutants. In exchange the plant lets out oxygen through its leaves and tiny organizations on its roots. Scientists suggest that all buildings should have one large plant or several small plants inside for every nine square meters of space. Studies of different plants show that each absorbs different chemicals. So the most effective way to clean the air is to use different kinds of plants. Having green plants inside your house can make it a prettier and healthier place.Generally speaking, indoor air pollution may be more harmful than the air outside because .
A.indoor air pollution can often make people seriously ill |
B.man-made building materials give off dangerous gases |
C.there may be more harmful gases outside the buildings |
D.the air indoors is polluted, which is very harmful |
Some kind of indoor pollution can be found in .
A.every modern house | B.every old house |
C.all kinds of houses | D.all kinds of offices |
The indoor air pollution is caused by .
A.the limit of the flow of air between inside and outside |
B.the building way that the builders want to save energy |
C.the building things that are made of man-made materials |
D.the man-made building materials and the limit of air-flow |
The reason why we should use different kinds of plants to clean the air is that
A.plants can let out all kinds of pollutants indoors |
B.plants may take in more oxygen (氧气)which people need |
C.plants can absorb all kinds of harmful indoor chemicals |
D.plants can make our houses prettier and more healthy |
In May 1987 the Golden Gate Bridge had a 50th birthday party. The bridge was closed to motor traffic so people could enjoy a walk across it. Organizers expected perhaps 50,000 people to show up. Instead, as many as 800,000 crowded the roads to the bridge. By the time 250,000 were on the bridge, engineers noticed something terrible: the roadway was flattening under what turned out to be the heaviest load it had ever been asked to carry. Worse, it was beginning to sway(晃动). The authorities closed access to the bridge and tens of thousands of people made their way back to land. A disaster was avoided.
The story is one of scores in To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure, a book that is at once a love letter to engineering and a paean (赞歌) to its breakdowns. Its author, Dr. Henry Petroski, has long been writing about disasters. In this book, he includes the loss of the space shuttles (航天飞机) Challenger and Columbia, and the sinking of the Titanic.
Though he acknowledges that engineering works can fail because the person who thought them up or engineered them simply got things wrong, in this book Dr. Petroski widens his view to consider the larger context in which such failures occur. Sometimes devices fail because a good design is constructed with low quality materials incompetently applied. Or perhaps a design works so well it is adopted elsewhere again and again, with seemingly harmless improvements, until, suddenly, it does not work at all anymore.
Readers will encounter not only stories they have heard before, but some new stories and a moving discussion of the responsibility of the engineer to the public and the ways young engineers can be helped to grasp them.
"Success is success but that is all that it is," Dr. Petroski writes. It is failure that brings improvement.
(1)What happened to the Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th birthday?
A. |
It carried more weight than it could. |
B. |
It swayed violently in a strong wind. |
C. |
Its roadway was damaged by vehicles. |
D. |
Its access was blocked by many people. |
(2)Which of the following is Dr. Petroski's idea according to paragraph 3?
A. |
No design is well received everywhere. |
B. |
Construction is more important than design. |
C. |
Not all disasters are caused by engineering design. |
D. |
Improvements on engineering works are necessary. |
(3)What does the last paragraph suggest?
A. |
Failure can lead to progress. |
B. |
Success results in overconfidence. |
C. |
Failure should be avoided. |
D. |
Success comes from joint efforts. |
(4)What is the text?
A. |
A news report. |
B. |
A short story. |
C. |
A book review. |
D. |
A research article. |
The end of the school year was in sight and spirits were high. I was back teaching after an absence of 15 years, dealing with the various kinds of "forbidden fruit" that come out of book bags. Now was the spring of the water pistol (手枪).
I decided to think up a method of dealing with forbidden fruit.
"Please bring that pistol to me," I said."I'm going to put it in my Grandma's Box."
"What's that?" they asked.
"It's a large wooden chest full of toys for my grandchildren," I replied.
"You don't have grandchildren," someone said.
"I don't now," I replied. "But someday I will. When I do,my box will be full of wonderful things for them."
My imaginary Grandma's Box worked like magic that spring, and later. Sometimes students would ask me to describe all the things I had in it. Then I would try to remember the different possessions I supposedly had taken away ﹣ since I seldom actually kept them. Usually the offenderwould appear at the end of the day,and I would return the belonging.
The years went by, and my first grandchild Gordon was born. I shared my joy with that year's class. Then someone said, "Now you can use your Grandma's Box." From then on,instead of coming to ask their possessions back, the students would say,"That's okay. Put it in your Grandma's Box for Gordon."
I loved talking about the imaginary box, not only with my students but also with my own children. They enjoyed hearing about all the forbidden fruit I had collected. Then one Christmas I received a surprise gift ﹣ a large, beautifully made wooden chest. My son Bruce had made my Grandma's Box a reality.
(1)What was the author's purpose in having the conversation with the students?
A. |
To collect the water pistol. |
B. |
To talk about her grandchildren. |
C. |
To recommend some toys. |
D. |
To explain her teaching method. |
(2)What do the underlined words"the offender" in paragraph 8 refer to?
A. |
The student's parent. |
B. |
The maker of the Grandma's Box. |
C. |
The author's grandchild. |
D. |
The owner of the forbidden fruit. |
(3)What did the students do after they learned about the birth of Gordon?
A. |
They went to play with the baby. |
B. |
They asked to see the Grandma's Box. |
C. |
They made a present for Gordon. |
D. |
They stopped asking their toys back. |
(4)What can we infer about the author?
A. |
She enjoys telling jokes. |
B. |
She is a strict and smart teacher. |
C. |
She loves doing woodwork. |
D. |
She is a responsible grandmother. |
Pali Overnight Adventures offers children and teens exciting experiences this summer. From broadcasting to street art, these are just 4 of the 17 highly unique camps being offered.
Broadcasting Camp
Become the next star reporter, news writer, director or producer. While running every aspect of our own news station, kids and their follow campers will create and host a broadcast airing each night at dinner for the entire camp. Every night it goes on the web, keeping parents and the world informed of the happenings at Pali.
Secret Agent Camp
In the movie Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise made being a secret agent seem like the coolest job ever. Campers who sign up for the 2﹣week secret agent camp can get to know about the life of real secret agents by learning strategies and military skills on the paintball field.
Culinary Camp
If your child enjoys being in the kitchen,then the culinary camp is definitely the right fit. Campers learn technical skills of roasting, frying and cutting, as well as some recipes that they can take home and share with their families.
Street Art Camp
This camp takes creative license to an entirely new level. Campers will share their colorful ideas and imagination with each other and work together to visualize, sketch and paint with non﹣traditional techniques to create the coolest mural(壁画)which will be displayed in public for all to see.
(1)How many camps does Pali Overnight Adventures offer this summer?
A. |
2. |
B. |
4. |
C. |
17. |
D. |
21. |
(2)What will campers do at the Broadcasting Camp?
A. |
Create a website. |
B. |
Run a news station. |
C. |
Meet a star reporter. |
D. |
Hold a dinner party. |
(3)Which camp will attract children who are interested in cooking?
A. |
Broadcasting Camp. |
B. |
Secret Agent Camp. |
C. |
Culinary Camp. |
D. |
Street Art Camp. |
Certain forms of AI are indeed becoming ubiquitous. For example, algorithms (算法) carry out huge volumes of trading on our financial markets, self﹣driving cars are appearing on city streets, and our smartphones are translating from one language into another. These systems are sometimes faster and more perceptive than we humans are. But so far that is only true for the specific tasks for which the systems have been designed. That is something that some AI developers are now eager to change.
Some of today's AI pioneers want to move on from today's world of "weak" or "narrow" AI, to create "strong" or "full" AI, or what is often called artificial general intelligence (AGI). In some respects, today's powerful computing machines already make our brains look weak. AGI could, its advocates say, work for us around the clock, and drawing on all available data, could suggest solutions to many problems. DM, a company focused on the development of AGI, has an ambition to "solve intelligence". "If we're successful," their mission statement reads, "we believe this will be one of the most important and widely beneficial scientific advances ever made."
Since the early days of AI, imagination has outpaced what is possible or even probable. In 1965, an imaginative mathematician called Irving Good predicted the eventual creation of an "ultra﹣intelligent machine …that can far surpass all the intellectual (智力的) activities of any man, however clever." Good went on to suggest that "the first ultra﹣intelligent machine" could be "the last invention that man need ever make."
Fears about the appearance of bad, powerful, man﹣made intelligent machines have been reinforced (强化) by many works of fiction﹣Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Terminator film series, for example. But if A I does eventually prove to be our downfall, it is unlikely to be at the hands of human﹣shaped forms like these, with recognisably human motivations such as aggression (敌对行为). Instead, I agree with Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom, who believes that the heaviest risks from AGI do not come from a decision to turn against mankind but rather from a dogged pursuit of set objectives at the expense of everything else.
The promise and danger of true AGI are great. But all of today's excited discussion about these possibilities presupposes the fact that we will be able to build these systems. And, having spoken to many of the world's foremost A I researchers, I believe there is good reason to doubt that we will see AGI any time soon, if ever.
(1)What does the underlined word "ubiquitous" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A. |
Enormous in quantity. |
B. |
Changeable daily. |
C. |
Stable in quality. |
D. |
Present everywhere. |
(2)What could AGI do for us, according to its supporters?
A. |
Help to tackle problems. |
B. |
Make brains more active. |
C. |
Benefit ambitious people. |
D. |
Set up powerful databases. |
(3)As for Irving Good's opinion on ultra﹣intelligent machines, the author is .
A. |
supportive |
B. |
disapproving |
C. |
fearful |
D. |
uncertain |
(4)What can be inferred about AGI from the passage?
A. |
It may be only a dream. |
B. |
It will come into being soon. |
C. |
It will be controlled by humans. |
D. |
It may be more dangerous than ever. |
For the past five years, Paula Smith, a historian of science, has devoted herself to re﹣creating long﹣forgotten techniques. While doing research for her new book, she came across a 16th﹣century French manuscript (手稿) consisting of nearly 1,000 sets of instructions, covering subjects from tool making to finding the best sand.
The author's intention remains as mysterious (神秘) as his name; he may have been simply taking notes for his own records. But Smith was struck mainly by the fact that she didn't truly grasp any of the skills the author described. "You simply can't get an understanding of that handwork by reading about it," she says.
Though Smith did get her hands on the best sand, doing things the old﹣fashioned way isn't just about playing around with French mud. Reconstructing the work of the craftsmen (工匠) who lived centuries ago can reveal how they viewed the world, what objects filled their homes, and what went on in the workshops that produced them. It can even help solve present﹣day problems: In 2015, scientists discovered that a 10th﹣century English medicine for eye problems could kill a drug﹣resistant virus.
The work has also brought insights for museums, Smith says. One must know how an object was made in order to preserve it. What's more, reconstructions might be the only way to know what treasures looked like before time wore them down. Scholars have seen this idea in practice with ancient Greek and Roman statues. These sculptures were painted a rainbow of striking colours. We can't appreciate these kinds of details without seeing works of art as they originally appeared﹣ something Smith believes you can do only when you have a road map.
Smith has put the manuscript's ideas into practice. Her final goal is to link the worlds of art and science back together. She believes that bringing the old recipes to life can help develop a kind of learning that highlights experimentation, teamwork, and problem solving.
Back when science﹣then called "the new philosophy"﹣took shape, academics looked to craftsmen for help in understanding the natural world. Microscopes and telescopes were invented by way of artistic tinkering (修补), as craftsmen experimented with glass to better bend light.
If we can rediscover the values of hands﹣on experience and craftwork, Smith says, we can marry the best of our modern insights with the handiness of our ancestors.
(1)How did Smith feel after reading the French manuscript?
A. |
Confused about the technical terms. |
B. |
Impressed with its detailed instructions. |
C. |
Discouraged by its complex structure. |
D. |
Shocked for her own lack of hand skills. |
(2)According to Smith, the reconstruction work is done mainly to .
A. |
restore old workshops |
B. |
understand the craftsmen |
C. |
improve visual effects |
D. |
inspire the philosophers |
(3)Why does the author mention museums?
A. |
To reveal the beauty of ancient objects. |
B. |
To present the findings of old science. |
C. |
To highlight the importance of antiques. |
D. |
To emphasise the values of hand skills. |
(4)Which would be the best title for this passage?
A. |
Craftsmen Set the Trends for Artists |
B. |
Craftsmanship Leads to New Theories |
C. |
Craftsmanship Makes Better Scientists |
D. |
Craftsmen Reshape the Future of Science |