Radio newsreaders and television hosts at Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE are mostly up in arms at being told to pronounce words according to the Queen’s English.
A report in The Irish Sun newspaper says that RTE’s workers have been given an A-Z style guide of words which instructs them on how to pronounce certain words in an effort to make sure they are clearly understood. The A-Z comes with videos containing lessons of how to “properly” pronounce the “problem” words. An official at RTE told the Irish Sun that producers gave the guide to keep up standards. “The guide is there for anyone who needs it.” he said, “RTE often get letters from the public over how certain words were mispronounced. The word ‘issue’ is a big one at the moment, people don’t like how it’s pronounced. There is an expectation that as the national broadcaster we are correct.”
However, Irish linguistics expert Professor Raymond Hickey, who took the side of most of the radio newsreaders and TV hosts, called the RTE’s actions “internalized colonialism (内化殖民主义)”. He expressed his disbelief that Irish speakers were being asked to use words with an English accent. He said: “The basic problem is RTE expects its workers to speak as if they were English. Why? We have our own form of English, which is different but fully reasonable and accepted worldwide.” Professor Hickey specially talked of some examples of the words Irish hosts are being asked to pronounce with a British English accent. He said: “The Irish don’t pronounce the TH [in ‘birthday’] as a fricative, but as a stop with no breath…. The same is true of ‘news’ — the Irish pronunciation is and always has been ‘nooze’.”
1.When told to speak the Queen’s English, RTE’s workers showed great ________.
A. anger
B. interest
C. curiosity
D. disappointment
2.RTE provides its workers with an A—Z style guide in order to ________.
A. instruct them to pronounce clearly
B. keep up pronunciation standards
C. meet their work demands
D. make sure that the public are correct
3.What’s the official’s in s intension of mentioning the letters from the public?
A. To warm the national broadcaster of the mispronunciation.
B. To show how “problem” words are mispronounced.
C. To explain why RTE take the actions.
D. To prove the public are believable.
4.According to Professor Raymond Hickey, the RTE’s actions ________.
A. are reasonable and acceptable
B. are impractical and foolish
C. will win the Irish trust
D. make no sense
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making it possible for companies to monitor workers’ behavior in great detail and in real time. Start to slack off (懈怠), and AI could talk to your boss.
One company offering such services is London-based start-up Status Today. Its AI platform relies on a regular supply of employee data, including everything from the files you access to when you use a key card. From this, it builds a picture of how employees normally function and signals any unusual performance. The idea is to spot when someone might become a security risk by doing something different from their usual behavioral patterns. “All of this gives us fingerprint of a user, so if we think the fingerprint doesn’t match, we raise a warning”, says Mircea Dumitrescu, the company’s chief technology officer.
The system also aims to catch employee actions that could accidentally cause a security breach (漏洞), like opening malware (恶意软件).“We’re not monitoring if your computer has a virus.” says Dumitrescu. “We’re monitoring human behaviors.”
But catching the security breach means monitoring everyone, and the AI can also be used to track employee productivity. “It seems like they are just using the reputation of AI to give an air of lawfulness to old-fashioned workplace surveillance (监视),” says Javier Ruiz Diaz of digital campaigning organization the Open Rights Group. “You have a right to privacy and you shouldn’t be expected to give that up at work.”
Exactly how companies use the system will be up to them, but it’s hard to shake the picture of an AI constantly looking over employees’ shoulders. “It will bother people, and that could be counterproductive if it affects their behavior,” says Paul Bemal at the University of East Anglia.
Phil Legg at the University of the West of England says it will never catch every security risk. “If people know they’re being monitored, they can change their behavior,” he says.
1.According to the text, AI monitors employees by ________.
A. taking pictures of them B. getting access to their data
C. signaling their usual performance D. catching their actions
2.What’s Javier Ruiz Diaz’s attitude towards the system?
A. Doubtful. B. Supportive.
C. Uncaring. D. Negative.
3.What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 4 refer to?
A. Security breach. B. Employees’ productivity.
C. The right to privacy. D. Workplace surveillance.
4.Phil Legg’s concern about the system suggests that ________.
A. it is too risky to be used at work
B. it will affect employees’ emotions
C. it may not be so effective as expected
D. it will encourage employee, productivity
When I was eleven, my parents gave me the first book I ever owned—The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. I distinctly remember opening it, reading the first lines of “The Cast of Amontillado,” and remarking to myself. “So this is what reading is!” My delight was unbounded. Little did I know at the time that I was at the beginning of a lifting journey.
So, if I read my first real book at 11, what was I reading before then? In a word, readers: relatively plotless, repetitive if well-intentioned attempts to teach child to recognize letters and their sounds and to build their vocabularies. Being a dutiful boy, I went through the motions and I learned what words were. But I had no idea what writing was until Poe. In Poe’s stories, the sentences were more complex and stylish than anything I had ever read before.
Poe, in short, was a star. My parents gave me that first book, but then I went off on my own. I liked science, which led me to discover Jules Verne, the Father of scene fiction and H G. Wells, well known for his novel The Time Machine. Other writers followed quickly one after another: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke. But I didn’t limit myself to science fiction. Other titles that deeply impressed me early on, and which I have carried on my life’s journey, include The Yearling, Shane, Ivanhoe, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Good Earth.
It went on from there. I became that kid who, long after his parents told him to turn the lights off, hid under the covers with a flashlight and a book, his greatest fear of being discovered and having his lighting taken away. I realize that my parents must have known I was defying (违背) them. But in their wisdom they pretended to be ignorant of it. And so I owe my star as a reader to my parents.
1.What did the author feel about The Tates of Edgar Allan Poe?
A. Attractive and interesting.
B. Complex and dull.
C. Distinct but difficult.
D. Plotless but easy.
2.From paragraph 3 we Can learn that the author ________.
A. liked reading tales best
B. enjoyed reading science fiction most
C. took no interest in realistic novels
D. liked reading freely and widely
3.What did the authors parents react to his reading by flashlight?
A. Told him to turn off the flashlight.
B. Took away his book.
C. Made allowance for him.
D. Scolded him at once.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. My Start as a Real Reader
B. The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
C. When I Began to Like Reading Freely
D. Edgar Allan Poe Was My Favorite Star
What is geocaching?
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting activity using GPS-enabled devices. Participants make an attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
How did geocaching start?
It’s a very cool Story, actually. So cool that it deserves its own page.
How is teaching played?
At its simplest level, Reaching requires these steps:
1. Register for a free Basic Membership.
2. Visit the “Hide & Seed a Cache” page.
3. Enter your postal code and click “search”.
4. Choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.
5. Use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache.
6. Sign the logbook and return the geocache to its original location.
7. Share your geocaching stories and photos online.
There are many other levels to the geocaching. Keep reading the guide to learn more!
What are the rules of geocaching?
1. If you take something from, the geocache (or “cache”), leave something of equal or greater value.
2. Write about your find in the cache logbook.
3. Log your experience at www. geocaching. com.
What do I need to go geocaching?
The only necessities are a GPS device or a GPS-enabled mobile phone so that you can navigate to the cache, and a Geocaching. com Membership.
Where are geocaches located?
Geocaches can be found all over the world. It is common for geocachers to hide caches in locations that are important to them, reflecting a special interest or skill of the cache owner. These locations can be quite diverse. They may be at your local park, at the end of a long hike, underwater or on the side of a city street.
1.The author’s purpose of writing the text is to ________.
A. introduce a game
B. advertise a mobile phone
C. suggest a Journey
D. recommend a website
2.If you want to go geocaching, you have to ________.
A. be good at hungting
B. own a membership card
C. get a GPS enabled mobile phone
D. share your information online
3.Under the rules of geocaching, you are required to ________.
A. return what you take from the cache
B. put in the logbook about your find
C. tell about the skill of geocaching
D. avoid GPS mistakes in the activity
假设你是李华。你的英国笔友杰克刚刚升入高中,但他一时无法适应新的校园生活，写信向你征求建议。请你就此问题给他回一封信，内容主要把包括：
1.不必过分焦虑；
2.制定合理的学习计划；
3.多参加集体活动，结交新朋友；
参考词汇：适应 adjust to
注意：1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dare Jack,
I am sorry to hear that you’re having trouble adjusting to your high school life._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
单句改错
1.Though he failed many times in election, he never lost his heart.
2.There was no person to who I could turn for help in the street last night.
3.Judged from his accent, he must be from Australia.
4.I lived in that you call “Ancient Greece” and I used to write about the Olympic Games a long time ago.
5.In return his help, I will give him a new CD.
6.He is such a good teacher that we all respect.
7.He was about to go to bed while there was a knock on the door.
8.It was dangerous because if I was caught I could be put in the prison.
9.It was in this city where we met for the first time last year.
10.The old lady survived her husband for 5 years.
