Researchers have found bees can do basic mathematics, in a discovery that deepens our understanding of the relationship between brain size and brain power. Recently, A study conducted by researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia showed that bees could perform arithmetic operations like addition and subtraction (减法).
Solving math problems requires a complex level of involving the mental management of numbers, long-term rules and short-term working memory. The finding that even the tiny brain of a honeybee can grasp basic mathematical operations has a possible effect on the future development of Artificial Intelligence, particularly in improving rapid learning.
RMIT’s Professor Adrian Dyer said numerical (数字的) operations like addition and subtraction are complex because they require two levels of processing. “You need to be able to hold the rules around adding and subtracting in your long-term memory, while mentally using skillfully a set of given numbers in your short-term memory,” Dyer said. “On top of this, our bees also used their short-term memories to solve arithmetic problems, as they learned to recognize plus or minus as abstract concepts.”
The findings suggest that advanced numerical cognition (认知) may be found much more widely in nature among non-human animals than previously suspected.
“If math doesn’t require a massive brain, there might also be new ways for us to include interactions of both long-term rules and working memory in designs to improve rapid AI learning of new problems,” said Dyer.
Many species can understand the difference between quantities and use this to search for food, make decisions and solve problems. But numerical cognition, such as exact number and arithmetic operations, requires a more complex level of processing.
Previous studies have shown some primates (灵长目动物), birds, babies and even spiders can add and/or subtract. The new research, published in Science Advances, adds bees to that list.
1.What have the researchers from RMIT University discovered?
A. The relationship between brain size and brain power.
B. Long-term rules and short term working memory.
C. Bees can perform complex arithmetic operations.
D. Bees can do basic mathematics.
2.According to Adrian Dyer, bees’ numerical cognition ________.
A. requires addition and subtraction two complex processing
B. has a possible effect on the future development of AI
C. only involves their short-term working memory
D. calls for a lot of maths knowledge
3.What does the finding of the new research suggest?
A. Bees can recogize the exact number.
B. Arithmetic operations exist in human and bees.
C. Numerical cognition has been found in many more species.
D. Some primates, birds and even spiders can add and substract.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. A Discovery About the Tiny Brain of Bees
B. New Findings About Bees Having Numerical Cogintion
C. Numerical Cognition Requires a Complex Level of Processing
D. The Relationship Between Brain Size and Brain Power
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Researchers have found bees can do basic mathematics, in a discovery that deepens our understanding of the relationship between brain size and brain power. Recently, A study conducted by researchers from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia showed that bees could perform arithmetic operations like addition and subtraction (减法).
Solving math problems requires a complex level of involving the mental management of numbers, long-term rules and short-term working memory. The finding that even the tiny brain of a honeybee can grasp basic mathematical operations has a possible effect on the future development of Artificial Intelligence, particularly in improving rapid learning.
RMIT’s Professor Adrian Dyer said numerical (数字的) operations like addition and subtraction are complex because they require two levels of processing. “You need to be able to hold the rules around adding and subtracting in your long-term memory, while mentally using skillfully a set of given numbers in your short-term memory,” Dyer said. “On top of this, our bees also used their short-term memories to solve arithmetic problems, as they learned to recognize plus or minus as abstract concepts.”
The findings suggest that advanced numerical cognition (认知) may be found much more widely in nature among non-human animals than previously suspected.
“If math doesn’t require a massive brain, there might also be new ways for us to include interactions of both long-term rules and working memory in designs to improve rapid AI learning of new problems,” said Dyer.
Many species can understand the difference between quantities and use this to search for food, make decisions and solve problems. But numerical cognition, such as exact number and arithmetic operations, requires a more complex level of processing.
Previous studies have shown some primates (灵长目动物), birds, babies and even spiders can add and/or subtract. The new research, published in Science Advances, adds bees to that list.
1.What have the researchers from RMIT University discovered?
A. The relationship between brain size and brain power.
B. Long-term rules and short term working memory.
C. Bees can perform complex arithmetic operations.
D. Bees can do basic mathematics.
2.According to Adrian Dyer, bees’ numerical cognition ________.
A. requires addition and subtraction two complex processing
B. has a possible effect on the future development of AI
C. only involves their short-term working memory
D. calls for a lot of maths knowledge
3.What does the finding of the new research suggest?
A. Bees can recogize the exact number.
B. Arithmetic operations exist in human and bees.
C. Numerical cognition has been found in many more species.
D. Some primates, birds and even spiders can add and substract.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. A Discovery About the Tiny Brain of Bees
B. New Findings About Bees Having Numerical Cogintion
C. Numerical Cognition Requires a Complex Level of Processing
D. The Relationship Between Brain Size and Brain Power
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Can wine really improve our health? 1. (science) are beginning to say “Yes!”
Researchers have found that red wines contain antioxidants (抗氧化剂), 2. help the body resist cancer and heart disease. 3.(general), red wines contain more antioxidants than most white wines. So, the best bet for drinking wine for our health is to stick to the dryer red wines. 4., this doesn’t give us freedom to get drunk every night. Don’t overdo it—but adding a glass of red wine to your daily diet can definitely make 5.difference to our health.
Paracelsus, the noted 16th-century Swiss physician 6. (write), “Wine is a food, a medicine and a poison it’s just a question of dose(剂量).” As with almost any food or drink, wine 7.(consume) in large doses can be harm to our health.
Most health officials agree that one or two four-ounce glasses of red wine per day can be8.(benefit) to men, while women should limit their consumption to one four-ounce serving per day.
Professor Roger Corder, has spent years studying the evidence of health benefits 9.red wine. In his new book, “The Wine Diet”, he says he 10.(convince) that most of us should include red wine in our everyday lifestyle.
高三英语短文填空困难题查看答案及解析
阅读下面短文,并按照要求用英语写150词左右的文章。
Researchers have found that learning two languages can greatly improve our mental development. For example, researches show us that bilingual experience helps us to rapidly make sense of information.
When given a task where children have to focus on one thing and ignore distracting information, bilingual children have shown themselves to the task. When they are asked to change their focus elsewhere, bilingual children also do this more effectively.
Focusing and changing attention are important abilities that go beyond bilingualism: This ability helps us to rapidly learn and progress information and function well in school and other learning environments.
(写作内容)
1.用约30个单词概括上述信息的主要内容;
2.用约120个单词简要介绍学习第二语言的好处(至少两点)。
(写作要求)
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句;
2.作文中不能岀现真实姓名和学校名称;
3.不必写标题。
(评分标准)
内容完整,语言规范,语篇连贯,词数适当。
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
高三英语读写任务困难题查看答案及解析
Scientists in Norway have more good news for coffee drinkers. Researchers have already found evidence that the drink — or the beans can help with weight loss, _______one's risk of developing some diseases, _______ muscle growth, protect against certain types of cancers and can even reduce one's risk of _______ death. Now comes word that a cup of coffee reduces physical pain.
The surprising finding is based on a study _______ 48 volunteers who agreed to spend 90 minutes performing fake computer tasks meant to mimic office work. The tasks were known to _______pain in the shoulders, neck, forearms and wrists, and the researchers wanted to _________ how people with pain and those who were pain-free tolerated the pain of such tasks. As a matter of convenience, the scientists allowed people to drink coffee before taking the test "to avoid _______effects of caffeine deprivation, e.g. decreased vigor and alertness, sleepiness, and fatigue," they reported.
But when it came time to analyze the data, the researchers from Norway's National Institute of Occupational Health and Oslo University Hospital noticed that the 19 people who drank coffee reported a lower _______ of pain than the 29 people who didn't. In the shoulders and neck, _______, the average pain intensity was rated 41 (on a 100-point scale) among the coffee drinkers and 55 for non-coffee drinkers. Similar gaps were found for all pain sites measured, and coffee's apparent pain-reduction effect ________.
However, the authors of the study, which was published this week in the journal BMC Research Notes, cautioned that since the study wasn't designed to test coffee's influence on pain, the results came with many ________. For starters, the researchers don't know how much coffee the coffee drinkers consumed before taking the computer tests. ________they doubt whether the coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers were ________in all respects except for their coffee consumption. Problems like these tend to ________ the importance of the findings. But those doubts are ________ to trouble the coffee drinkers looking for any reason not to cut back on their daily caffeine habit.
1.A.rise B.reduce C.release D.suffer
2.A.shape B.establish C.boost D.preserve
3.A.mutual B.subtle C.premature D.prepared
4.A.involving B.researching C.interviewing D.qualifying
5.A.cause B.endure C.ease D.cure
6.A.warn B.compare C.relieve D.treat
7.A.unpleasant B.modest C.significant D.positive
8.A.tendency B.intention C.intensity D.extension
9.A.on the contrary B.as a result C.for instance D.in one word
10.A.turned up B.broke out C.pointed out D.took up
11.A.satisfactions B.uncertainties C.consequences D.qualifications
12.A.Moreover B.However C.Otherwise D.Nevertheless
13.A.contemporary B.similar C.temporary D.initial
14.A.realize B.attach C.demonstrate D.weaken
15.A.unlikely B.sensible C.influential D.definite
高三英语完形填空困难题查看答案及解析
Plants do not listen to the radio. But a team of researchers in Greece recently found a way to turn lemons into very small “radio stations” that can broadcast information about their trees’ moisture content to a smartphone—the first step toward creating what the researchers call an “Internet of plants.”
Scientists had previously attached sensors to trees to measure their water use, but “no other team had created a wireless radio network among plants, sending information while consuming only a few microwatts and costing just a few dollars,” says project leader Aggelos Bletsas, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Technical University of Crete.
The network consists of several basic components: an existing FM radio station, an antenna (天线) attached to a lemon growing on a tree, a humidity (湿度) sensor in the lemon, a transistor connected to an antenna and an FM receiver. First, the antenna picks up the signal from the FM station, and then passes the signal to the transistor, which is modulated by the humidity sensor. The sensor switches the transistor on and off at a rate dependent on the plant’s moisture level: if the soil is wet or if the atmosphere is humid, that rate is lower; if it is dry, the rate is higher. Finally, the antenna broadcasts this information to the radio receiver on a mobile phone.
In this way, plants can tell farmers if they are thirsty. “We can literally ‘listen’ to the moisture of the plant, using our mobile FM radio with a $3.4 sensor,” Bletsas says. “Two of these sensors for every acre on any given farm might change the way we conduct agriculture and ‘understand’ plants.” He notes that more sensors may be needed for the best possible results. Such real-time information could enable better control of air and soil moisture.
Why go through all this trouble and not just use already common wireless technology, such as Bluetooth? “Not only is our technique less complex, as we are just borrowing signals in the environment,” Bletsas says, but “a Bluetooth-based sensor costs about $25. Our final aim is to launch sensors onto the market costing less than $1.”
“Bletsas and his team are completely changing the way of environmental sensing using very simple equipment and surprisingly little power,” says Alexandros Dimakis, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the research. “Their work could be a transformational Internet of Things technology for agriculture and for monitoring the environment.”
Bletsas and his colleagues have already applied for a patent for their innovative technology in America.
1.The radio network created by Greek researchers _________.
A.consumes much energy
B.can be put in a smartphone
C.uses simple technology at low cost
D.broadcasts radio programs to plants
2.What does the underlined word “modulated” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.Monitored. B.Adjusted.
C.Measured. D.Connected.
3.What is Alexandros Dimakis’ attitude to the “radio network”?
A.Positive. B.Critical.
C.Neutral. D.Doubtful.
4.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To discuss methods of studying plants.
B.To assess the efficiency of Internet of plants.
C.To stress the importance of keeping soil’s moisture.
D.To introduce a new way of measuring plants’ water use.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers in the United States have developed the first wirelessly controlled device that can supply a drug directly into the body. A small chip is implanted (植入) under the skin. It contains the medicine, which it releases at preset times. The developers say the device could improve the lives of millions of people who take medicine for long-term illnesses. A company called Microchips began developing the device about fifteen years ago. Last month, the company released the results of its first successful tests in humans. The tests took place in Denmark with seven women with osteoporosis(骨质疏松症).
Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and break easily. The disorder is common among older people especially women. Many patients have to give themselves daily injection(注射)of medicine. One type of treatment requires injections for two years. The patients stop taking the medicine because of the pain and stress of the injections. As a result, only twenty-five percent of the patients will go through the entire twenty-four months of treatment.
The microchip is a few centimeters long. It has small sections and each section holds a single dose(单次剂量)of medicine. The device has to be programmed with the times to release the drug. Doctors will be able to reprogram the device from a computer or even a cell phone.
For osteoporosis, the physician will program the device, and the device has the ability to release a dose at a given time, every single day. For other diseases, where the physician may want to change the dosing schedule, they will have the ability to wirelessly reprogram that dosing schedule.
The seven women in the study were ages of sixty-five to seventy. The researchers say the implants were just as effective as daily injections. And they say the medicine amounts were more exact than patients often give themselves.
1.The best title for the passage should be ______.
A.A New Company Called Microchips
B.A New Way to Take Medicine Every Day
C.Good News for Women with Osteoporosis
D.Taking Medicine, with Microchip under Skin
2.What does the underlined word “released” in paragraph 1 mean?
A.Announced. B.Planned. C.Got rid of. D.Caught hold of.
3.We can learn from Paragraph 2 that ______.
A.older people especially men easily develop steoporosis
B.bones’ becoming weak and breaking easily causes steoporosis
C.a quarter of the patients will go through the entire two years of treatment
D.pain and stress of the injections lead all patients to stop taking medicine
4.What advantages does the microchip have?
a. effective implants
b. less exact medicine amounts
c. purposely—changed dosing schedule
d. only one centimeter long and having small sections
e. improving the lives of millions of people
A.a, b, c B.c, d, e C.a, c, e D.b, c, d
5.In which column of a newspaper could we find this passage?
A.Arts. B.Jobs. C.Sports. D.Medicine.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers have created a backpack that has a computer and medicines in it that can help even untrained soldiers save the lives of wounded troops. Wounded soldiers have a better chance of survival if they get help soon after being hurt and are quickly taken to a hospital or clinic. But soldiers who do not have medical training may not know how to help their injured friends.
Doctors and engineers have developed what they call an “intelligent backpack”.It has a computer and electronic measuring devices. The backpack also has robotic instruments and medicines ready to give to injured troops.
About 16 doctors and engineers from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and several other places are working on the project. The U. S. Department of Defense has given money to the project.
Ron Poropatich leads the project. He is a retired army surgeon. He says the backpack will help soldiers care for those who are injured. The devices included in the backpack can monitor a person^ heart rate and blood pressure. The robotic instruments can even tell whether the soldier has a collapsed lung.
The intelligent backpack's computer can compare information gathered about the injured soldier with thousands of similar cases, and quickly tell the best methods to use to save the soldier’s life.
Sometimes, it is not always possible to quickly remove the injured soldier from the battlefield.So,Dr. Poropatich says, the researchers hope to create a backpack that will have devices .that can keep a .soldier alive for a long time. Dr. Poropatich hopes the backpack and its instruments will be ready for testing animals in about three years.
1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. The backpack can play a big part in the battlefield.
B. Most of the soldiers can’t use the backpack correctly.
C. Soldiers should have taken medical training.
D. War or battle has brought harm to the world.
2.How many kinds of items are mentioned in the backpack?
A. 4. B. 5.
C. 3. D. 2.
3.What can we know according to Ron Poropatich?
A. The project got support from the whole world.
B. The robotic instruments can monitor lungs.
C. The injurer's heart disease can he cured.
D. The devices can adjust soldiers’ blood pressure.
4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Researchers and Their Wonderful Discovery
B. Medical Care Tested on the Wounded Soldiers
C. Emergency Medical Care in a Backpack
D. Robotic Devices Used in the Battlefield
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
Researchers have created a backpack that has a computer and medicines in it that can help even untrained soldiers save the lives of wounded troops. Wounded soldiers have a better chance of survival if they get help soon after being hurt and are quickly taken to a hospital or clinic. But soldiers who do not have medical training may not know how to help their injured friends.
Doctors and engineers have developed what they call an “intelligent backpack”.It has a computer and electronic measuring devices. The backpack also has robotic instruments and medicines ready to give to injured troops.
About 16 doctors and engineers from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and several other places are working on the project. The U. S. Department of Defense has given money to the project.
Ron Poropatich leads the project. He is a retired army surgeon. He says the backpack will help soldiers care for those who are injured. The devices included in the backpack can monitor a person^ heart rate and blood pressure. The robotic instruments can even tell whether the soldier has a collapsed lung.
The intelligent backpack's computer can compare information gathered about the injured soldier with thousands of similar cases, and quickly tell the best methods to use to save the soldier’s life.
Sometimes, it is not always possible to quickly remove the injured soldier from the battlefield.So,Dr. Poropatich says, the researchers hope to create a backpack that will have devices .that can keep a .soldier alive for a long time. Dr. Poropatich hopes the backpack and its instruments will be ready for testing animals in about three years.
1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. The backpack can play a big part in the battlefield.
B. Most of the soldiers can’t use the backpack correctly.
C. Soldiers should have taken medical training.
D. War or battle has brought harm to the world.
2.How many kinds of items are mentioned in the backpack?
A. 4. B. 5. C. 3. D. 2.
3.What can we know according to Ron Poropatich?
A. The project got support from the whole world.
B. The robotic instruments can monitor lungs.
C. The injurer's heart disease can he cured.
D. The devices can adjust soldiers’ blood pressure.
4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Researchers and Their Wonderful Discovery
B. Medical Care Tested on the Wounded Soldiers
C. Emergency Medical Care in a Backpack
D. Robotic Devices Used in the Battlefield
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
For the first time, researchers have discovered that some plants can kill insects in order to get additional nutrients. New research shows that they catch and kill small insects with their own sticky hairs near the roots and then absorb nutrients through their roots when the insects are killed and fall to the ground.
Professor Mark Chase, of Kew and Queen Mary, University of London, said: “The cultivated (改良的) tomatoes and potatoes still have the hairs. Tomatoes in particular are covered with these sticky hairs. They do trap small insects on a regular basis. They do kill insects.”
The number of these carnivorous plants is thought to have came up to 50 percent and many of them have until now been wrongly regarded as among the most harmless plants. Among them are species of petunia(矮牵牛), some special tobacco plants and cabbages, some varieties of potatoes and tomatoes, etc. Researchers at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, which carried out the study, now believe there are hundreds more killer plants than previously realized.
It is thought that the technique was developed in the wild to get necessary nutrients in poor quality soil – and even various plants grown in your vegetable garden still have the ability.
The researchers, publishing their finding in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, said: “We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think.” “We are accustomed to thinking of plants as being immobile and harmless, and there is something deeply frightening about the thought of meat-eating plants," they added.
1.Tomatoes and potatoes kill insects to _____.
A. get more sticky hairs
B. make themselves grow better
C. make their roots stronger
D. avoid falling down to the ground
2.The word “carnivorous” in Paragraph 3 most probably means _____.
A. fast-growing
B. harmless
C. insect-killing
D. nutritious
3.The insect-killing technique of vegetables is developed most probably through _____.
A. evolution of species
B. helps from other garden plants
C. artificial cultivation
D. nutrients preserved in rich soil
4.The text is probably taken from _____.
A. a student book
B. a science fiction
C. a scientific repot
D. a bulletin board
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
For the first time, researchers have discovered that some plants can kill insects in order to get additional nutrients. New research shows that they catch and kill small insects with their own sticky hairs near the roots and then absorb nutrients through their roots when the insects are killed and fall to the ground.
Professor Mark Chase, of Kew and Queen Mary, University of London, said: “The cultivated (改良的) tomatoes and potatoes still have the hairs. Tomatoes in particular are covered with these sticky hairs. They do trap small insects on a regular basis. They do kill insects.”
The number of these carnivorous plants is thought to have came up to 50 percent and many of them have until now been wrongly regarded as among the most harmless plants. Among them are species of petunia(矮牵牛), some special tobacco plants and cabbages, some varieties of potatoes and tomatoes, etc. Researchers at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, which carried out the study, now believe there are hundreds more killer plants than previously realized.
It is thought that the technique was developed in the wild to get necessary nutrients in poor quality soil and even various plants grown in your vegetable garden still have the ability.
The researchers, publishing their finding in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, said: “We may be surrounded by many more murderous plants than we think.” “We are accustomed to thinking of plants as being immobile and harmless, and there is something deeply frightening about the thought of meateating plants,” they added.
1.Tomatoes and potatoes kill insects to ________.
A.get more sticky hairs
B.make themselves grow better
C.make their roots stronger
D.avoid falling down to the ground
2.The word “carnivorous” in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.
A.fastgrowing B.harmless
C.insectkilling D.nutritious
3.The insectkilling technique of vegetables is developed most probably through ________.
A.evolution of species
B.helps from other garden plants
C.artificial cultivation
D.nutrients preserved in rich soil
4.The text is probably taken from ________.
A.a student book B.a science fiction
C.a scientific repot D.a bulletin board
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析