An increasing part of the world is becoming artificially lit. Artificial light is often seen as a sign of progress: the march of civilization shines a light in the dark; it takes back the night. But some scientists argue that unnaturally bright nights are bad not just for astronomers but also for nocturnal (夜间的) animals and even for human health.
Now research shows the night is getting even brighter. From 2012 to 2016 the earth’s artificially lit area expanded by about 2.2 percent a year, according to a study published last November in Science Advances. However, the measurement does not include light from most of the energy–efficient LED lamps that have been replacing sodium-vapor (钠气灯) technology in cities all over the world ,says Christopher Kyba, a postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam.
The new data came from a NASA satellite instrument called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIRS). It can measure long wavelengths of light, such as those produced by traditional yellow-and-orange sodium-vapor street lamps. But VIIRS cannot see the short-wavelength blue light produced by white LEDs. This light has been shown to disturb human sleep cycles and nocturnal animals’ behavior.
The team believes the ongoing switch to LEDs caused already bright countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. to register as having stable levels of lighting in the VIIRS data. In contrast, most nations in South America, Africa and Asia brightened, suggesting increases in the use of traditional lighting.
In 2016, a study showed that one third of the world’s population currently lives under skies too bright to see the Milky Way at night. Between 2012 and 2016 the median nation pumped out 15 percent more long-wavelength light as its GDP increased by 13 percent. Overall, counties' total light production correlated with their GDP.
1.Which of the following can best describe artificial light?
A.Convenient but unnatural. B.Useful but energy-consuming.
C.Progressive but uncomfortable. D.Civilized but harmful.
2.What can we know about the already bright countries?
A.Traditional lighting is not used in those countries.
B.LED lights are increasingly used in those countries.
C.Efforts to reduce harmful light work in those countries.
D.People do enjoy stable lighting in those countries.
3.Why does the author mention “the median nation” in the last paragraph?
A.To show artificial light has an association with GDP.
B.To demonstrate GDP plays an important part in the median nation.
C.To stress the median nation was to blame for the light problem.
D.To suggest artificial light should be banned in the future.
4.Where is the passage most probably taken from?
A.A biology textbook. B.A book review.
C.A science magazine. D.A science fiction.
高三英语阅读理解困难题
An increasing part of the world is becoming artificially lit. Artificial light is often seen as a sign of progress: the march of civilization shines a light in the dark; it takes back the night. But some scientists argue that unnaturally bright nights are bad not just for astronomers but also for nocturnal (夜间的) animals and even for human health.
Now research shows the night is getting even brighter. From 2012 to 2016 the earth’s artificially lit area expanded by about 2.2 percent a year, according to a study published last November in Science Advances. However, the measurement does not include light from most of the energy–efficient LED lamps that have been replacing sodium-vapor (钠气灯) technology in cities all over the world ,says Christopher Kyba, a postdoctoral researcher at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam.
The new data came from a NASA satellite instrument called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIRS). It can measure long wavelengths of light, such as those produced by traditional yellow-and-orange sodium-vapor street lamps. But VIIRS cannot see the short-wavelength blue light produced by white LEDs. This light has been shown to disturb human sleep cycles and nocturnal animals’ behavior.
The team believes the ongoing switch to LEDs caused already bright countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. to register as having stable levels of lighting in the VIIRS data. In contrast, most nations in South America, Africa and Asia brightened, suggesting increases in the use of traditional lighting.
In 2016, a study showed that one third of the world’s population currently lives under skies too bright to see the Milky Way at night. Between 2012 and 2016 the median nation pumped out 15 percent more long-wavelength light as its GDP increased by 13 percent. Overall, counties' total light production correlated with their GDP.
1.Which of the following can best describe artificial light?
A.Convenient but unnatural. B.Useful but energy-consuming.
C.Progressive but uncomfortable. D.Civilized but harmful.
2.What can we know about the already bright countries?
A.Traditional lighting is not used in those countries.
B.LED lights are increasingly used in those countries.
C.Efforts to reduce harmful light work in those countries.
D.People do enjoy stable lighting in those countries.
3.Why does the author mention “the median nation” in the last paragraph?
A.To show artificial light has an association with GDP.
B.To demonstrate GDP plays an important part in the median nation.
C.To stress the median nation was to blame for the light problem.
D.To suggest artificial light should be banned in the future.
4.Where is the passage most probably taken from?
A.A biology textbook. B.A book review.
C.A science magazine. D.A science fiction.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Interviews are becoming an increasingly common part of the application process for US universities. Since many Chinese applicants are unable to meet admissions officers in person, some rely on phone or video interviews to connect with recruiters. Software like Skype and FaceTime helps students to bridge the distance. 1.
● 2.
Before the interview, review your experiences fully and be prepared to explain them in vivid detail. In particular, think about what you’ve done outside of academia. Remind yourself why you would be a strong candidate. To improve your storytelling skills, New Oriental Education recommends you remember the “STARS”. It refers to “situation, tasks, actions, result and self”. 3. What situations did you find yourself in? What tasks were you faced with? How did you react, and what was the outcome?
● Master the art of interviewing electronically.
4. The right clothes can help put you in the mindset of a professional conversation. Also, remember to smile while you are speaking. Experts from Villanova University say it can help improve the tone of your voice. Still, remember to look into your webcam-not at your monitor during the Skype video interviews, as this will stimulate direct eye contact.
● Be thankful and send a thank-you e-mail.
Make sure to write a thank-you e-mail after you finish the interview and address it specifically to the admissions representative. 5. If there is something about the interview that was helpful to you, let your interviewer know. If you share an interest with your interviewer over a book or a band, make sure you mention it in the e-mail. Send it within 24 hours after the interview while it’s still fresh in your mind and your interviewer’s.
A. Be a good storyteller.
B. Think carefully before the interview.
C. Dress professionally, even for phone interviews.
D. Here are some tips while doing long - distance interviews.
E. Most importantly, the e-mail should be kept short and right to the point.
F. These words can help you highlight the most important parts of your resume.
G. Express your interest in the school and thank your interviewer for meeting with you.
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
The AlphaGo program’s victory is an example of how smart computers have become.
But can artificial intelligence (AI) machines act ethically, meaning can they be honest and fair?
One example of AI is driverless cars. They are already on California roads, so it is not too soon to ask whether we can program a machine to act ethically. As driverless cars improve, they will save lives. They will make fewer mistakes than human drivers do. Sometimes, however, they will face a choice between lives. Should the cars be programmed to avoid hitting a child running across the road, even if that will put their passengers at risk? What about making a sudden turn to avoid a dog? What if the only risk is damage to the car itself, not to the passengers?
Perhaps there will be lessons to learn from driverless cars, but they are not super-intelligent beings. Teaching ethics to a machine even more intelligent than we are will be the bigger challenge.
About the same time as AlphaGo’s triumph, Microsoft’s ‘chatbot’ took a bad turn. The software, named Taylor, was designed to answer messages from people aged 18-24. Taylor was supposed to be able to learn from the messages she received. She was designed to slowly improve her ability to handle conversations, but some people were teaching Taylor racist ideas. When she started saying nice things about Hitler, Microsoft turned her off and deleted her ugliest messages.
AlphaGo’s victory and Taylor’s defeat happened at about the same time. This should be a warning to us. It is one thing to use AI within a game with clear rules and clear goals. It is something very different to use AI in the real world. The unpredictability of the real world may bring to the surface a troubling software problem.
Eric Schmidt is one of the bosses of Google, which own AlphaGo. He thinks AI will be positive for humans. He said people will be the winner, whatever the outcome. Advances in AI will make human beings smarter, more able and “just better human beings.”
1.What does the author want to show with the example of AlphaGo’s victory?
A.Computers will prevail(战胜) over human beings. B.Computers have unmatched potential.
C.Computers are man’s potential rivals. D.Computers can become highly intelligent.
2.What does the author mean by AI machines acting ethically?
A.They are capable of predicting possible risks.
B.They weigh the gains and losses before reaching a decision.
C.They make sensible decisions when facing moral dilemmas.
D.They sacrifice everything to save human lives.
3.What is said to be the bigger challenge facing humans in the AI age?
A.How to make super-intelligent AI machines share human feelings.
B.How to ensure that super-intelligent AI machines act ethically.
C.How to prevent AI machines doing harm to humans.
D.How to avoid being over-dependent on AI machines.
4.What do we learn about Microsoft’s ‘chatbot’ Taylor?
A.She could not distinguish good from bad. B.She could turn herself off when necessary.
C.She was not made to handle novel situations. D.She was good at performing routine tasks.
5.What does Eric Schmidt think of artificial intelligence?
A.It will be far superior to human beings. B.It will keep improving as time goes by.
C.It will prove to be valuable to human beings. D.It will be here to stay whatever the outcome.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Some kids start to drink alcohol （酒精） at a young age． They think it is part of becoming an adult．They also think drinking is not that bad because so many people do it．They feel it is not as bad as taking drugs （毒品）． It is easy for kids to get liquor（酒精饮料）by using fake identification （伪造证件）．
Parents may start to notice a change in their child’s behavior if the child starts drinking． Kids who drink sometimes stop doing things they normally liked to do．They may keep telephone calls and meetings a secret and not want anybody to touch their things．They act moody（喜怒无常） and do not have the same eating and sleeping habits．
Parents need to stay involved （牵涉） in their kids’ lives． They should talk to their children about their problems to be aware of any changes．
Parents can be the best protection． Children who get a lot of love can feel good about themselves． It helps them resist（抵抗） doing bad things even when other kids are doing them． Parents can also help set a good example by not drinking and driving． They can have firm rules in the home that everyone follows．
Give the children good ideas on how to say “no” to drinking, even when they are at a party． Try not to overreact or panic （惊慌） if the child tries alcohol． How you handle it can affect their attitude． It may be helpful to talk to other parents about setting up curfews （宵禁令） and rules about parties or other events．
1.Which of the following is NOT the reason why some kids have an early start of drinking?
A．They want to show their maturity （成熟） by drinking alcohol．
B．Drinking alcohol is much cooler than taking drugs．
C．They are affected by many other people around them．
D．They can get liquor easily．
2.According to the passage, what changes may happen to the kids who start drinking?
A．Nothing serious will happen to them．
B．They keep the same eating and sleeping habits．
C．They can control their moods quite well．
D．Sometimes they act secretly．
3.According to the writer, if parents find their children try alcohol, they had better ________．
A．punish them at once
B．ask the police for help
C．ask their children’s friends for help
D．set up curfews and rules about parties or other events with other parents
4.Which is the main subject discussed in the passage?
A．Teen health． B． Teen education．
C．Teen drinking D． Parents’ worries．
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. And with it, the conventional thinking of yesterday is no longer sufficient. Creating real breakthrough opportunities requires a fundamental change in our thinking. As Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
There's no better example of this than the myth of the four-minute mile.
For centuries, runners had been attempting to run a mile in under four minutes. In the 1950s, the attempt to break the barrier took on renewed importance, and a number of famous runners publicly and unsuccessfully attempted the challenge. Many of the newspapers of the day began to question whether humans would ever be able to run a sub-four-minute mile. Then, in 1954, a man named Roger Bannister did the unthinkable. He broke through the imaginary barrier, running the mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. It was an amazing achievement.
But here's what's really interesting: it was only forty-six days later that another runner broke Bannister's record. And the following year, two new runners broke the four-minute mark in the same race. Dozens followed, and as of this writing, more than 1,400 runners have accomplished the goal, including one runner who ran two miles in less than eight minutes.
Did something change with respect to human body, track conditions, weather patterns, running shoes, or the human diet between the start of Bannister's race and the few years that followed? No. So what explains the sudden and dramatic explosion of athletic achievement?
The myth's unimaginable power over runners had lifted. What Bunnister had done was not just break the four — minute — mile barrier; he shattered(粉碎)the myth that created the barrier in the first place. This paradigm (榜样)had offered a set of actions available for runners to take. Runners were really free to run through the invented boundary.
Creating breakthroughs requires shattering the myths that limit our imagination and lock us into conventional thinking. Think about your own situation. What myths are you stuck in? And what would be possible if you had the courage to challenge the myths?
1.What is needed to create breakthroughs?
A.Conventional thinking. B.Changes in our thinking.
C.Complex situation. D.Einstein's encouragement.
2.What was the real barrier that kept runners succeeding in the four-minute mile?
A.The belief that it was unachievable.
B.Lack of professional training.
C.The poor track conditions.
D.Lack of sufficient diet.
3.The example of Roger Bannister is used to .
A.list a new record in the race B.prove newspapers are wrong
C.show barrier can be broken D.call on us to learn from him
4.What does the writer try to explain in Paragraph 6?
A.The power of the myth.
B.The achievements of Bannister.
C.The importance of running freely.
D.The significance of breaking barriers.
5.What is the best title of the passage?
A.Creating Breakthroughs B.Accepting the Myths
C.Locking Your Imagination D.Becoming the Best Athlete
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
The world’s first beer brewed (酿造) with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) is now on sale. Four beers have been created, with each recipe changed based on customer feedback (反馈) received by a program.
The system is hidden behind a Facebook Messenger robot, which takes feedback from customers and sends it onto human brewers who change recipes accordingly. Intelligent X, the company behind the beers, said the use of AI would help brewers receive and test customer feedback “more quickly than ever before”.
Codes printed on the bottles direct people towards the robot, which then asks a series of questions. This information is then interpreted by the program, which learns from customer feedback to ask better questions in the future.
The robot asks questions based on customer preference and flavour and answers are normally marks out of ten, yes or no and multiple choice. The AI uses a system known as reinforcement learning to learn from how it has acted and get better outcomes in the future. In this sense the AI is “rewarded” based on hard-coded biases that instruct it to please customers— those who like hoppier beers or stouts, for example.
This feedback is then accumulated to notice trends and inform the brewing process, with beers slowly changing over time.
“The AI is about putting all the customers in the same room as the brewer,” said Intelligent X co-founder Hew Leith. It would be extremely difficult and time-consuming for a human to collect this much data, Leith continued, but the AI can gather and interpret it with ease. The team behind the AI hope it could one day help them win a major beer brewing competition.
Intelligent X’s four beers have evolved eleven times so far based on initial feedback collected during trials over the last 12 months. The beers are currently being toured around in East London and are also being stocked by co-working space We Work. The four Al-brewed beers-golden, amber, pale and black—are available now from Ubrew for £ 4.50 each.
1.What can we know about the beer?
A. It is made by the customers themselves.
B. It is the first kind of beer in the world.
C. It can be changed with the feedback.
D. It can be bought from the website Facebook.
2.Who can change the beer’s recipes?
A. The human brewers. B. The customers. C. The system. D. The Facebook.
3.What do we learn from the feedback?
A. It changes the recipes of the beer directly.
B. Customers can make it via the Internet.
C. Everyone can get any kind of beer according to it.
D. It is only based on customer preference.
4.What do Hew Leith’s words tell us?
A. The AI is ready to call on all the customers to get together.
B. It was once hard for us to get the feedback from the customers.
C. The AI can consume more time to collect the necessary data.
D. The team has already won many competitions about beer.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Governments around the world increasingly ________ artificial intelligence to help promote economic growth.
A. put out B. roll out C. make out D. reach out
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
World Read Aloud Day is celebrated each year 1. the first Wednesday of March. It2.(start) by the LitWorld.org website in 2010 and has now reached 65 countries. The aim is to encourage people worldwide who cannot read to enjoy the benefits of a book. The website asks everyone3.(celebrate) the day by taking a book, finding an audience, and reading out aloud. It is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write4.(belong) to all people.
The website asks5. (visit) to join in the movement to reduce6.number of illiterate (不识字的) people in the world. It is7.(absolute) necessary to help those who cannot read. The website says, "It's time to start by reading aloud to 8.might like it. Share a book with a child who might need 9., share a story with someone who would treasure it, listen patiently to someone else's story as they share with you." The United Nations says, "Literacy involves a variety of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge, and to participate fully in society." In that way, World Read Aloud Day 10. help make a difference.
高三英语短文填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
The modern age of science and technology has witnessed an increased combination of the world, which requires us to _____ the intention of international co-operation into action.
A. translate B. innovate C. involve D. classify
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Nobody likes an old poop（傻子）. Developing a sense of humor is part of becoming a mature, emotionally healthy individual. Laughter is good for the soul, builds friendships and relieves stress. It serves as the glue for social situations and as an ice-breaker for sadness and boredom. If you’ve ever been told to “lighten up” or “chill out”, you should save the blue attitude for serious situations and develop your sense of humor.
Forgive the accidental. A sudden fall is humorous not because we like to see people fall, but because it surprises. From a spilled（溢出）water glass in a meeting to Aunt Rae’s teeth coming off in the Thanksgiving turkey, the embarrassment of accidents can be relieved by humor and a helping hand. After making sure that nobody’s hurt, forgive accidents with a chuckle（咯咯地笑）rather than a scolding.
Look for the unexpected. The kid who used to look at you with his eyes closed during a test had the idea. Parents who serve green eggs and ham to their children on graduation day get the idea. Unexpected actions lighten an atmosphere and relax people.
Learn to laugh with your kids. Most of what children say and do is funny. Help them learn that accidents are sometimes funny and sometimes occasions for joining in and helping another human being. By sharing laughs and attempting to explain humor, you develop your sense of humor, as well as help kids develop their own sense of humor.
1.If you’ve ever been told to “lighten up” or “chill out”, it means ______.
A. you are humorous B. you are blue
C. you lack humor D. you are funny
2.According to Paragraph 2, when your friend falls, you can ______.
A. laugh at him B. chuckle
C. scold him D. feel embarrassed
3. In the author’s opinion, if your mother serves green eggs and hum to you on your graduation day, she is ______.
A. boring B. serious C. considerate D. humorous
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A. How to Develop a Sense of Humor
B. Ways to Become a Healthy Individual
C. The Function of Humor
D. Proper Attitudes Toward Humor
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析