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Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
For several decades, various types of artificial intelligence kept shocking the world. Robots could 1. people in highly competitive games and then quickly destroyed their human competitors.
AI long ago mastered chess, the Chinese board game Go and even the Rubik's cube, which it managed to solve in just 0.38 second.
Now machines have a new game that will allow them to 2. humans: Jenga, the popular game in which players 3.remove pieces from an increasingly unstable tower of 54 blocks, placing each one on top until the entire structure would 4..
A newly released video from MIT shows a robot developed by the school's engineers playing the game with surprising accuracy. The machine is equipped with a soft gripper(夹子), a force-sensing wrist and an external camera, allowing the robot to detect the tower’s 5. the way a human might do
Unlike in purely recognitive tasks or games such as chess or Go, playing the game of Jenga also requires mastery of physical acts such as pushing, pulling, placing, and arranging pieces. It must 6. interactive physical operation, where you have to touch the tower to learn how and when to move blocks.
Imitating it is rather difficult, so the robot has to learn in the real world, by working with the real Jenga tower. Recently, a relevant research was published in the journal Science Robotics. Researchers say the robot demonstrates that machines can learn how to perform certain tasks through actual touching instead of relying heavily on visual 7.. That physical 8. is significant, researchers say, because it provides further proof that robots can be used to perform 9. tasks, such as separating recyclable objects from landfill trash and assembling consumer products.
In a cellphone assembly line, the felling of any component is coming from force and touch rather than vision. To become an accomplished Jenga player, the robot did not require as much repetitive practice as you might imagine. Hoping to avoid reconstructing a Jenga tower thousands of times, researchers developed a method that allowed the robot to be trained on about 300 games. Researchers say the robot has already begun facing off against humans, who remain 10. players—for now.
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Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given behind. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Living off grid
When you need electricity, you just plug in the machine and switch it on. If you need water, you turn on the tap. 1. For many people, these facilities are the basics of civilized society and the idea of living without them seems risky. Yet for a growing number of people, the idea of living off grid — without electricity, water or sewage — is an increasingly attractive lifestyle.
Off-gridders do not have to give up electricity or a modern lifestyle — some choose to, but most use small hydroelectric power systems, solar panels or windmills to generate enough power for their needs. Heating and cooking needs are met by solar energy or wood burning systems, and toilet facilities range from non-water toilets to outside compost toilets. 2. It ranges from traditional yurts (a type of tent) to luxury house with high-speed internet and central heating. Whether they live in simple homes or luxury houses, what they all have in common is that their lifestyles do not create any pollution or carbon emissions — the ultimate goal for off-gridders.
Around 100,000 people are thought to be living off grid in the UK now. 3. They grow their own food, home-school their children and provide their own medical care. They are people who have been priced out of the housing market or who have grown disillusioned with what modern society can offer and who decides that an alternative lifestyle isn’t a pipe dream, but a viable option.
A part from living an alternative lifestyle, cost is a big factor in choosing to live off-grid. Off-grid houses are far cheaper to build than ordinary homes since they don’t need to be connected to the electricity or water supplies and even road access is not necessary. Materials tend to be cheaper, too. Popular options include straw or old tyres and cement.
Surprisingly, the biggest problem off-gridders face is not building their homes or becoming self-sufficient but getting permission to build. Rural areas away from town are the perfect choice but these are often protected by law from construction of any kind or have building restrictions. There are now several websites dedicated to land-sharing so that the costs of buying land and getting permission can be shared, and there are increasing numbers of off-grid communities. 4. Off-gridding could soon be common all over Europe and America.
A.Many are self-sufficient, not just providing their own electricity, water and sewage systems, but in all aspects.
B.After you use the toilet, you flush it and the waste disappears.
C.This shift from individual to group off-gridding reflects the fact that the trend is growing noticeably.
D.They live in a huge variety of types of accommodation.
E.Living off-grid still has a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream way of living.
F.Rather than building permanent homes, vans or mobile homes or even old shipping containers are other options.
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Directions: Read the following. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Are Bamboo-Eating Pandas Really Herbivores?
On the outside, giant pandas look like herbivores(食草动物). They spend nearly all of their waking hours eating bamboo. But on the inside, they're built like carnivores(食肉动物). About half of the calories they eat come from protein, according to a new study.
The ancestor of giant pandas were omnivorous(杂食的). They are both animals and plants, and had the digestive system and gut bacteria to metabolize(使发生新陈代谢)them. They had ''umami taste receptors'', to appreciate the flavors of meat.
However, about 2.4 million years ago, things began to change. 1. Their jaw and teeth evolved to help them crush bamboo, and their wrist bone became capable of grasping the stalks(杆)of their favorite plant. Scientists think pandas switched to eating bamboo partly because they didn't have to fight with other animals to get it. Bamboo is high in fiber but has a low concentration of nutrients, so pandas have to eat 20 to 40 pounds of the plant every day just to get by.
David Raubenheimer, a nutritional ecologist at the University of Sydney, and his colleagues put GPS trackers on two giant pandas and followed their movement throughout the year. They discovered that the pandas followed the protein. 2. At the start of the cycle, they ate Bashania fargesii leaves until they got the chance to feast on young shoots, which contained more protein.
The more the shoots grew, the more their protein was diluted(冲淡)by fiber. That caused the pandas to move to higher ground, where Fargesia qinlingensis grew. First, they ate the shoots, but these, too, went from being protein - rich to fiber-rich as they grew. The panda responded by switching to the leaves. 3. The researchers found that about half of the calories the pandas ate were in the form of protein.
4. ''They can know exactly where to go, and when to go, so they can get the most of the nutrients that their ecosystem can provide, '' said Silvia Pineda - Munoz, who was not involved in the study.
The work also shows that classifying an animals as herbivore or carnivore is more complex than one might sassume. ''It's not whether you’re eating plants but what of the plants you’re eating, '' said Pineda - Munoz.
A.Between August and April, they sought food in low elevations(海拔)on China's Qinling Mountains.
B.Scientists think the research show that pandas are very clever.
C.Pandas eat bamboo all day long except when they are sleeping or playing.
D.The gene for their ''umami taste receptors'' became inactive.
E.They fed on them until they went back down the mountain and started eating Bashania fargesii leaves again.
F.Scientists have conducted many studies on pandas' eating habits.
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Directions: Read the following. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Framing risk,reducing panic
For four decades,psychologists have studied how people see risk and what causes them to overreact to terrorist attacks and other extreme events.Those misplaced reactions can lead to the shame of people and prevention of daily activities,causing a new set of problems on top of a current crisis.1.
Timely,honest communication from a source an audience considers credible is essential to containing fear,but governments have the tough job of explaining risk and telling people how to act without also seeding alarm.2.
Messages may be more helpful when delivered in creative formats.Visuals are very powerful.We can't just tell people things,we have to show them.When people are using the more primary part of their brain,visuals are more powerful than our higher order tools, including language.
3. People can understand just about anything if you do your job right as a communicator.That includes keeping it simple and communicating what people need to know,versus what is nice to know,expressing risk in numbers--”there's a 30 percent chance of rain”--and reminding people of the opportunity cost of waiting for more evidence.
Psychologists working in the field of risk communication assume we have too much control through our messaging.4.
A.Research has shown that different threats push different psychological buttons.
B.It's also important that the content and tone of communications speak to the intended audience.
C.Giving people concrete, detailed actions to take can help reduce panic and overreaction when a new threat emerges.
D.In response, psychologists are helping governments and other groups communicate real risk levels to the public to help make sure actions meet needs.
E.The discipline is very straightforward: Identify the few things that people most need to know and figure out how to explain them in clear, trustworthy terms.
F.We need to step back and allow for high emotions and missteps by people as long as we help them make well-informed decisions that eventually protect them.
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Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
No matter what the reason, though, juggling more than one job is guaranteed to be a crash course in time management. If you’re not careful, the word “crash” could become more than figurative.
We all know that we’ll have to figure out a time management system when we take on a second job. Equally obvious is the fact that what works for one person (and their jobs) probably won’t work for anyone else. 1. There are a few tricks, though, that can help.
2.. Even if you are the boss on your second job——you’re working for yourself——you have an obligation to keep that work separate from you day job. Focus on what’s in front of you. There’s actually a benefit to punching a clock when you work for more than one supervisor. When you’re on the clock for Company A, you know exactly which projects you should be working on. If Company A is paying for this time, you should be theirs, heart and soul, at least until you clock out.
Good records can also help. I’m not just talking about the calendars and task lists most of us rely on, either. Making sure that you have any contact information available no matter whether you’re at Job A, Job B or home can take some extra effort, but it’s worth it. 3.
I know plenty of people who bring their work to their primary job. It seems to be a favorite tactic of folks starting up a freelancing career or small business. I don’t think that’s the best way to manage a packed schedule. If you don’t have your primary employer’s permission, the best advice is to just keep things quiet. Give preference to the employer who is paying you for this specific chunk of time.
Some companies don’t want you to work anywhere else. They want you to put in your eight hours, go home, sleep well and come back rested. Others consider employees who go looking for other projects as its benefits —— such employees have a jump start on networking and have a wider variety of experiences.
4.. Because it can be very hard to figure out your boss’s attitude, the general rule seems to be that you keep quiet on your extracurricular activities. I wouldn’t talk about Job A at Job B, although, if my boss was to bring up the matter, I’d be entirely truthful.
A. Priority should definitely be given to your day job.
B. The same goes for your notes and other paperwork.
C. It’s up to you to find a system and stick with it.
D. Sometimes it is no easy task to make decisions between Job A and Job B.
E. Keep firm dividers between your different jobs.
F. Unfortunately, most supervisors do not come with a label which variety they are.
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Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
No one enjoys the moment. You are stuck at the back of a queue and as those in other lines move ahead and get served, the time to decide arrives. 1.
This question has now been solved by researchers at Harvard Business School. According to what they have found in a new study, they suggest people think twice before switching queues.
The research was led by Ryan Buell, an expert in service management. He looked into consumer queuing behavior after working with economists on what is known as “last-place aversion,” the discomfort people feel when they know they earn less than others or consider themselves at the bottom of the social pile for some other reason. As a result of this aversion to being the last, when a person finds himself at the end of a queue, he can make decisions that he will later regret.
Buell began by observing people at a multi-checkout grocery store and then set up an online survey. People who took part in the survey were told it would take about five minutes. In reality, it took only one minute, but when participants logged in for the survey, they were forced to wait in a virtual queue displayed on the screen. They started at the back and could wait, switch to a second queue or choose to leave.
2. On average, however, those who switched waited 10 percent longer than if they had stayed put. Those who switched twice ended up waiting 67 percent longer than if they had never moved.
“When we join a queue, we tend to make the most rational choice we can, which means joining the shortest queue. 3. Unfortunately, we can often get it wrong,” said Buell.
4. After that, the aversion fades. The researcher suggests people have a chat with the person in front so that they can pass the time more comfortably until someone else joins behind them. “Remember that the person in front of you was the last until you arrived, so someone will show up if you hang around long enough,” Buell said.
A. If we see a line moving faster, we might switch without having enough extra information.
B. About one in five people grew impatient at the back of the queue and switched to the other line in the hope of speeding things up.
C. Do you hold your nerve and stay put, switch to another line in the hope it moves faster, or give up altogether?
D. Based on his study, Buell says people should think hard about switching queues when they are the last in a line.
E. In an unpublished working paper on the research, Buell notes that people tend to feel unhappiest at the back of a queue for the first 10 seconds or so.
F. Although the number of people behind you has nothing to do with how long you are going to wait, it shapes your behavior.
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Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Is Multitasking Always Good?
Not only do smart-phones provide unrestricted access to information, they provide perfect opportunities to multitask. Any activity can be accompanied by music, selfies or social media updates. Of course, some people pick poor times to tweet or text, and lawmakers have steeped in. 1. In Honolulu, it’s illegal to text or even look at your phone while crossing the street, and in the Netherlands they’ve banned texting while biking.
2. You need to self-regulate. Understanding how the brain multitasks and why we find multitasking so appealing will help you realize the danger or pulling out your phone.
Multitasking feels like doing two things at the same time, so it seems the danger lies in asking one mental process to do two unrelated things -- for texting drivers, watching the screen and the road.
Twenty states have instituted bans on driving using a hand - held phone while still allowing hands - free calls. Yet hands - free or hand - held makes no difference. 3. The real problem is the switch of attention between the conversation and road, and that affects performance.
Please sense this, and when on the phone they drive slower and increase their following distance, but they are far too confident that these measures reduce risks. This overconfidence extends to other activities. A 2015 survey showed that a majority of students who use social media, text or watch TV while studying think that they can still comprehend the material they’re studying.
People multitask merely because they see no harm in it; they see benefits. 4. Most people will still choose to multitask. But they should, at the very least , be fully aware of how that choice affects them and the potential consequences for themselves and others. They need to pay attention to how much -- or how little -- they are paying attention.
A. But legislation（法律）won’t ban all situations in which multitasking is unwise.
B. They multitask for efficiency, to fight boredom or to keep up with social media.
C. Forty - eight states have banned texting while driving.
D. However, texting while biking seems so undemanding as to be harmless.
E. They damage driving equivalently as far as external dangers go.
F. Instead of multitasking, they take more rest breaks and get a social media fix during a break.
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Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
The Ban on Trading Ivory(象牙) is Unfair but Necessary
As in some countries elephant population have recovered, there are competing proposals about how absolute the ban on elephant trading should be. Countries seeking a modest relaxation have a strong case to make. But it is not strong enough. The ban must stay.
Understandably, countries that have done a good job protecting their elephants feel this is unfair. 1. And the real burden of all this is borne by poor local people who are in competition with wildlife for resources, and sometimes in conflict with it—elephants can be destructive. People and governments, so the argument goes, need to have an economic stake(利害关系) in the elephants’ survival. The ivory trade would give them one.
To understand why these reasonable-sounding proposals should be rejected, consider what
has happened to elephant numbers since some legal trade was authorised, when Botswana, Namibia and South Africa were allowed in 2007 to sell a fixed amount of ivory to Japan. 2.
A survey conducted in 2014-15 estimated that elephant numbers had fallen by 30% across 18 countries since 2007.
3. In better-resourced national parks, drones are used to make it easier for park keepers to spot illegal hunters. DNA testing of ivory can identify where they came from, and thus whether they are legal. As prices of the technologies fall and countries get richer, both technologies are likely to spread.
The objection to trade in products of endangered species is not moral. When the world is confident that it will boost elephant numbers rather than wipe them out, the ivory trade should be encouraged. 4. And until it does, the best hope for the elephant—and even more endangered species, such as rhinos(犀牛)—lies not in easing the ban on trading their products, but in enforcing it better.
A. Regrettably, that point has not yet come.
B. Elephant numbers started falling.
C. The existence of even a small legal market increases the opportunities for illegal trade.
D. They point out that they have devoted huge resources to the elephant.
E. In the long run technology can help make trade coexist with conservation.
F. One animal, as so often in the past, will attract much of the attention: the African elephant.
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Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Search for a Human Face for Robots
Looking for a $130,000 payday? Geomiq, a British engineering and manufacturing firm is searching for a “kind and friendly” face to be the face of a robot once it goes into production. “This will entail（需要）the selected person’s face being reproduced on potentially thousands of versions of the robots worldwide,” Geomiq says in a blog post about the project.
Robots have been at the forefront of technology for decades, and are widely considered the future of our technological advancement. With the number of adults over 85 expected to triple by 2050, according to some estimates, robots designed to keep the elderly company are becoming increasingly common. 1.
They do things like responding to voice commands, offering proactive（积极主动的）notifications and advice and letting relatives monitor conditions at home. There is still a long way to go but new robotic products are coming into fruition all the time. Geomiq says the robot line has been in the works for five years and will result in a companion for seniors.
The designer has noted in an interview with a select press pool that they can’t release too many details at this stage. 2. The designer has also stressed that unsuccessful candidates will not be contacted. The company says the need for anonymity（匿名）is due to the secretive nature of the project. However, it believes the robot will soon be “readily available” to the public and hopes the campaign will create extra buzz ahead of its eventual release. “We know that this is an extremely unique request, and signing over the licenses to your face is potentially an extremely big decision,” Geomiq said.
3. The designer has said that the project has been in development for five years, and in that time frame taken on investment from some independent venture capitals as well as a top fund based in Shanghai. the company says the robots’ purpose will be to act as a “virtual friend” for elderly people and is set to go into production next year.
The blog past doesn’t share age or gender parameters（参数）. 4. Candidates who make it to the next phase will get full details on the project. “The secrecy,” Geomiq says, “is due to non-disclosure agreement it’s signed with the robot’s designer and investors.”
A. A technology company wants to buy the rights to use someone’s face for its robots.
B. It just asks people who want to license their face to submit a photo via email for the chance at $130,000.
C. It is a once - in - a - while opportunity for the right person.
D. They also serve a practical purpose.
E. The company is privately - funded.
F. However, ideal candidates will be given the specifics of the project.
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Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
How Colleges Can Measure Up in Teaching “Critical Thinking”
After becoming president of Purdue University in 2013, Mitch Daniels asked the teaching staff to prove that their students have actually achieved one of higher education’s most important goals: critical thinking skills. 1. Mr. Daniels needed to justify the high cost of attending Purdue to its students and their families. After all, the percentage of Americans who say a college degree is “very important” has fallen dramatically in the last 5-6 years.
Purdue now has a pilot test to assess students’ critical thinking skills. 2. However, they need not worry so much. The results of a recent experiment showed that professors could use standard grading scale to measure how well students did in three key areas: critical thinking, written communication and language literacy.
3. The organizers of the experiment concluded that far fewer students were achieving at high levels on critical thinking than they were doing for written communication or language literacy. And that conclusion is based only on students nearing graduation.
American universities, despite their global reputation for excellence in teaching, have only begun to demonstrate what they can produce in real-world learning. Knowledge-based degrees are still important, but employers are demanding advanced thinking skills from college graduates. 4.
A. If the intellectual worth of a college degree can be accurately measured, more people will seek higher education―and come out better thinkers.
B. Two years before, a nationwide study of college graduates had shown that more than a third had made no significant gains in such mental abilities during their school years.
C. Despite the success of the experiment, the actual results are frustrating, and mostly confirm earlier studies.
D. Many can’t reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems.
E. Yet like many college teachers in the U.S., the professors remain doubtful that their work as educators can be measured by a “learning outcome” such as a graduate’s ability to investigate and reason.
F. It is important to identify the common goals of general higher education and translate them into the design of the learning outcomes assessment.