I still remember the happiest moment of my life. I decided to hold a party for my Italian friends while living in Florence, Italy. My friends didn’t speak any English. And I vividly remember 1. (try) to only speak Italian in 2. party. And then, someone asked me to tell a joke.
I don’t know if you know this, 3. telling jokes in 4. language is one of the most painful experiences you can imagine.
I began the joke.“C’era una volta (Once upon a time) ...”
Halfway through the joke, I began to get nervous, so I suddenly forgot the Italian words. And 30 Italians were staring at me, 5. (wait) for the joke to come to an end. At the last minute, I remembered and completed the joke. I waited for the sound of crickets ... But instead I experienced a 6. (thunder) laugh and a round of applause. I made dozens of Italians laugh, in their country, in their language.
7. today, that memory continues to be one of the 8. (happy) moments I’ve ever experienced. And it’s the reason 9.， over the last four years, I 10. (study) languages and now I can speak five: English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
1.正好与人们认为的相反，鲨鱼很少攻击人类。
__________ __________ __________ many people might assume, evidence shows that sharks seldom attack humans.
2.发现了新的证据，导致小偷被抓住了。
The discovery of new evidence __________ __________ the thief__________ __________.
3.“非常感谢您帮忙，”波莉如释重负地说到。
“Thank you so much for coming to my __________,”said Polly __________ __________.
1.By the 10th century, Old English had become the ____________ (官方的,正式的) language of English.
2.The two were fighting violently, ____________ (忽视) all the others around them.
3.My best friend has a(n) u_________(独特的) way to make me happy, so we always get along very well.
4.Drive carefully when you come to a _______________(十字路口).
5.She leaned over and __________(小声说) something in his ear.
6.My uncle is doing so well in his business that he has to e__________ another five people in his restaurant.
7.If you v__________ to do something, you offer to do it without being forced to do it.
8.With the exam a________________, more and more students show signs of anxiety.
9.I p__________ when I saw smoke coming out of the engine.
10.King Henry Ⅶ was a poet who showed great c__________ for language.
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
When was the last time you read a book or a magazine article? Do your everyday reading habits centre around updates on the Internet? In case you are one of countless individuals who don't make a habit of reading you may be passing up a great chance: Reading has a number of advantages and only a couple of advantages of reading are recorded below.
Everything you read fills your head with new bits of information and you never know when it might be useful to you. The more knowledge you have, the better-equipped you are to overcome any challenge you'll ever face. Besides, here's a bit of food for thought：Should you ever find yourself in a terrible situation, remember that although you might lose everything else — your job, your possessions, your money, even your health — knowledge can never be taken from you.
At the same time, the more you read, the more words you gain, and they'll surely make their way into your everyday vocabulary. Being able to express your ideas clearly in words is of great help and knowing that you can speak to higher-ranking people with self-confidence can be a great encouragement to your self-esteem（自尊）. Reading books is also important for learning new languages, as non-native speakers gain exposure to words used in context, which will improve their own speaking and writing fluency.
When you read a book, you have to remember a lot of characters, their backgrounds, ambitions, history as well as the various plots(各种各样的情节) through every story. That's a fair bit to remember, but brains are wonderful things and can remember these things with ease. Amazingly enough, whenever you remember something new, new synapses(神经元的突触) are formed and existing ones are strengthened. How cool that is!
No matter how much stress you have at work, in your personal relationships, or countless other issues faced in daily life, it all just slips away when you lose yourself in a great story. A well-written novel can transport you to other fields while an interesting article will distract(使分心） you and keep you in the present moment, letting stress away and allowing you to relax.
You Should Read Every Day | |
Knowledge Accumulation (积累) | ◆ The more you read, the more adequately it 1.you for different troubles in life. ◆ Knowledge is what will stay with you 2.. |
3.expansion | ◆ You can enlarge your vocabulary by reading, which may help you in your job and make you 4. when you talk with your leaders. ◆ Words in context will help a foreign language learner use the language 5.. |
6. improvement | ◆ You will try to 7. in mind the contents of a book while reading and that is somewhat 8. for your brain. ◆ The more you try to remember, the9.you will be at remembering. |
Stress reduction | ◆ An interesting writing will transfer your attention to its plot so that you feel 10. and forget about your worries. |
Most teens can't wait to learn to drive. Not so with me. Driving made me nervous. I didn't get a license until I turned 24 years old. As a result, when I first married, we only had one car and car pooled to work. My husband's hours were different from mine by one hour. I worked earlier. So he dropped me off and went to the diner to drink coffee until work time.
Then, in the afternoons, I leisurely walked the three miles to his work place where I waited in his car, reading a book.
One day while waiting for him, I noticed the most beautiful Cadillac pull in the lot. It was powder blue and sleek looking. The kind of car you dream about. I was busily admiring the car, when I noticed the driver. Honestly, she was probably the prettiest woman I had ever seen off the movie screen.
She pulled into the spot beside our car and it was all I could do not to stare. There was a striking resemblance to Liz Taylor. Jet black hair and alabaster skin. Our eyes made contact and she smiled at me. Her eyes were as blue as the sea, and teeth like an even row of pearls. She was wearing a light blue shirt that just matched her car. Peeking through her long, softly curled hair I could see gold hoop earrings. They had to be gold to shine like that. A couple of minutes later, a nice looking man came out of the building, entered her car, leaned over and kissed her and she drove away.
Sitting there in my jeans, shirt and hair in a pony tail, I wanted to cry. How could some people have it all?
Maybe I would have forgotten about her, but the following week, I saw her again. Then it became almost routine to see her about once a week. She seemed friendly and always waved, flashing a big smile. My envy lingered long after she drove away.
Many nights when sleep evaded me, I would think about the beautiful lady. I wondered if she and her husband ate out, and where they dined, and what she was wearing. I wanted her to get out of the car and let me see her full length. Did she wear really high heeled shoes and pants, or a skirt.
I would get my answers in a couple of weeks.
Sitting in our usual parking lot, I was holding my book, watching her over the top of it. She was waiting and when her husband came to the car, she called to him. They spoke a few words and he opened the car door for her to step out. He took her arm and helped her out of the car. I could see very well as she moved to get out. She was wearing a skirt.
She haltingly walked around to the passenger side very slowly, leaning on a walking cane. Sitting sideways in the car, she lifted one leg with her hands and then the other one. The beautiful lady had a prosthesis on the left leg and a brace on the right leg. I couldn't watch them drive away as the tears were blinding me. For weeks I had envied this woman and her way of life, while I had been able to walk three miles to our car!
When my husband arrived and found me crying, he immediately asked what was wrong. Through my tears, I told him about the beautiful lady. He said he knew her husband and also knew the story. The beautiful lady and her parents were in a car that either stalled or got caught on the railroad tracks and was hit by a train. Both parents were killed and she was severely injured. She was only 12 years old. The railroad made a large settlement with her because the crossing had no signals. He explained her car was specially built for her needs as well as the home.
I prayed for forgiveness all the way home. The lady I thought had everything I didn't. I realized how lucky I was to have my parents, the ability to walk, run or dance through life and many wonderful things money can't buy. I would not have traded places with the beautiful lady for anything.
When you meet a person who seems to be much better off than you, don't be fooled.
1.After seeing the beautiful lady, the woman concluded_______.
A. the beautiful lady led a rich and happy life
B. the beautiful lady liked to show off herself
C. she and her husband must make more money
D. she shouldn't have married her husband
2.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The woman learned that health and family are more important.
B. The woman was poor and couldn't afford another car and fancy clothes.
C. The woman envied the beautiful lady of her capable husband.
D. The woman regretted marrying her husband.
3.The underlined word “haltingly”(paragraph 10) probably means ________.
A. proudly B. excitedly C. difficultly D. steadily
4.Which of the following do you think can be the best title of the passage?
A. Seeing is believing B. Trust her heart instead of her look
C. Looks can be deceiving D. Fooled by her look
Program fools humans
Have you ever been so bored that you started a conversation with a “chatbot (聊天机器人)”? You probably discovered quickly that it wasn't much fun, because the things it says hardly ever make any sense and chatting with it doesn't provide the same kind of back-and-forth as a human conversation.
That might have made you wonder: will a computer ever be able to talk like a human?
That day is certainly getting closer now. A computer program named “Eugene Goostman” has successfully passed the Turing test – by fooling people into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy, reported AFP on June 9.
While you may have never heard of the Turing test, it means a lot in the world of artificial (人工的) intelligence.
According to USA Today, the test was first invented in 1950 by Alan Turing, a British computer expert best known for his code-breaking work during World War II. In his test, a group of human judges take turns having keyboard conversations for five minutes with two subjects – a human and a piece of computer software. If up to 30 percent of the judges fail to tell the two apart, the program is considered to have passed the test.
“If a machine is indistinguishable (无法区分的) from a human, then it could be said to be ‘thinking’,” wrote Turing in his paper Computing, Machinery & Intelligence back in 1950.
No computer had ever passed the Turing test before. But this time, Eugene Goostman, developed by two Russian scientists to simulate (模拟) a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33 percent of judges that it was human.
Machines are close to “reaching the milestone of communicating with us in a way that we are comfortable with”, Professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, UK, told The Telegraph. “This brings closer the time in which robots start to play an active role in our daily lives.”
Some people feel a bit disturbed by the news. They worry that computers will outsmart humans in the near future and take over the world. But Warwick said that it is unlikely that this will happen any time soon. After all, computers have only just learned to have a five-minute conversation, while we humans can do so much more than that.
1.What is the main purpose of the article?
A. To inform us about the disadvantages of talking with a “chatbot”.
B. To introduce the background and significance of the Turing Test.
C. To explain how the computer program “Eugene Goostman” works.
D. To report on a recent breakthrough in the world of artificial intelligence.
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the Turing Test according to the article?
A. Several computer programs have successfully passed the test since it was introduced.
B. A program that is believed to have passed the test must fool at least half of the judges.
C. The Turing Test is used as a way to determine whether machines can think.
D. Machines that have passed the test can communicate with us freely.
3.What is Warwick's attitude toward the invention of Eugene Goostman?
A. He expects it to play a more active role in our daily lives.
B. He is optimistic about humans' control of computers in the coming years.
C. He is concerned that computers might one day get the better of humans.
D. He feels uncomfortable communicating with machines like Eugene Goostman.
