阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
China has always been famous for being a “State of Etiquettes (礼仪)”. According to 1.(history) documents, as early as 2,600 years ago, this nation has already established a thorough set 2. dining etiquettes. A famous 19th century Russian writer, Anton Chekhov, once invited a Chinese man 3.(have) a drink in a bar. Chekhov said, “Before drinking from his cup, he held 4. with his hands and presented to me and the bar owner and bar tenders, 5. (say) “qing (please).” This is the custom of China. They are not like us to finish it in one drink, 6. prefer to drink by taking a small amount at a time. With every sip(一小口), he 7.(eat) some food. Afterwards he handed me some Chinese coins to show 8.(grateful). This is a rather interestingly polite nationality. This was the most valuable opinion of a Chinese person 9. was given by a foreigner two centuries ago. Chinese traditional dinner procedures used to be long and dealt seriously with. The 10.(important) the occasion, the more complex the procedures were.
One day I overheard my mom talk about a family whose work schedules overlapped (重叠), leaving no one to watch their two children. Upon hearing their _______, I decided to help this _______ out by babysitting (当临时保姆). I finally continued with it due to the _______ I obtained. For example, on the first day, while we were playing outside, the neighborhood kids _______ playing on the swings. I _______ came up with the solution of rock-paper-scissors: the kids who _______ swung first. I _______ I had the ability to change a negative situation into an enjoyable _______ for the children. The two children _______ me how creativity can come from the __________ things, with imagination being the only tool needed. We turned plates into masks and the backyard into a medieval (中世纪的) castle. They also taught me things can’t always be __________ and sometimes things can get messy but you can always clean a mess up. I __________ more about myself each of the four times a week I spent at the household than I could have __________.
I continued babysitting throughout my high school __________ the bond I’d formed with the children and the __________ I’d felt I was making in their family. It was __________ to watch the kids __________ and learn from things I was able to instill(灌输) in them. After the swing argument, whenever a __________ needed a solution, the kids would do rock-paper-scissors. I’ll never __________ the lifetime skills I obtained from the experience that has __________ me into the person I am today.
1.A. vacation B. accident C. application D. situation
2.A. relative B. family C. friend D. mother
3.A. prizes B. surprises C. gifts D. lessons
4.A. focused on B. waited for C. argued over D. thought about
5.A. quickly B. patiently C. casually D. hardly
6.A. competed B. won C. tried D. stopped
7.A. realized B. expected C. remembered D. agreed
8.A. game B. holiday C. party D. trip
9.A. shocked B. embarrassed C. convinced D. taught
10.A. dullest B. craziest C. simplest D. cheapest
11.A. complex B. perfect C. obvious D. new
12.A. wrote B. talked C. worried D. learned
13.A. insisted B. afforded C. claimed D. imagined
14.A. except for B. because of C. instead of D. as for
15.A. demand B. fortune C. decision D. difference
16.A. confusing B. rewarding C. challenging D. disappointing
17.A. smile B. survive C. grow D. graduate
18.A. conflict B. mystery C. subject D. trick
19.A. doubt B. forget C. believe D. regret
20.A. shaped B. fooled C. reasoned D. followed
Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month.1.
One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. 2. We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.
Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons (神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day.3.
Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right.4. The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.
If Tononi’s theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night’s, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.
Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. 5. “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.
A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.
B. It’s as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.
C. That’s why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.
D. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.
E. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.
F. Tononi’s team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.
G. “Sleep is the price we pay for learning,” says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.
Air travel can be annoying. But research now suggests global warming could make it much worse. To get off the ground in really hot weather, planes may be forced to carry fewer passengers. That might mean a little more space, which would be good. However, it also would make the passengers pay more.
Average air temperatures around the world are rising because people are polluting the air with an increasing number of greenhouse gases, which, such as carbon dioxide, are a byproduct (副产品) of burning fuels. Those warmer temperatures can influence an airplane’s ability to fly because air molecules (分子) spread out more as the air warms. This produces less lift under a plane’s wings, so a plane must be lighter to take off in hot weather than on cooler days.
It can even prove too dangerous for some planes to attempt a take-off. A record of June heat wave in the American Southwest, for instance, caused flight cancellations in Phoenix, Ariz. One airline’s planes were cleared to operate only up to 47.8 degree Celsius. On June 20, Phoenix reached 48.3°C!
Radley Horton is a climate scientist at Columbia University. Two years ago, he and his graduate student Ethan David Coffel studied the impact of warming at four U.S. airports and found that warming of track could triple(使成三倍) the number of days when planes face weight restrictions. Later, they explored the impact of rising temperatures on live types of commercial planes flying out of 19 of the world’s busiest airports. In the coming decades, as many as one to three out of every 10 flights that take off during the hottest time of day could face weight. That would be equal to taking a dozen people off the plane, the researchers calculated.
1.How would global warming affect air travel according to the first paragraph?
A. It’ll add to the danger of flying.
B. It’ll increase passengers’ travel cost.
C. It’ll make flying much more comfortable.
D. It’ll encourage more people to travel by plane.
2.What is the second paragraph actually intended to explain?
A. How global warming is happening.
B. What decides a plane’s ability to fly.
C. Why global warming affects flying.
D. Where greenhouse gases are created.
3.What is the last paragraph mainly about?
A. Reasons for flight cancellation.
B. The findings of a weight-related research.
C. The tendency of temperature change.
D. Effects of hot air on financial growth.
4.What should be the best title for the text?
A. Air Travel Isn’t Recommended during Hot Weather
B. Rising Temperatures May Reduce the Number of Flights
C. Weight Restrictions Are More Common in More Airports
D. Hotter Air May Lead to Planes Carrying Fewer Passengers
Many leading AI researchers think that in a matter of decades, artificial intelligence will be able to do not merely some of our jobs, but all of our jobs, forever transforming life on Earth.
The reason why many reject this as science fiction is that we’ve traditionally thought of intelligence as something mysterious that can only exist in biological organisms, especially humans. But such an idea is unscientific.
From my point of view as a physicist and AI researcher, intelligence is simply a certain kind of information-processing performed by elementary particles(基本粒子) moving around, and there is no law of physics that says one can’t build machines more intelligent than us in all ways. This suggests that we’ve only seen the tip of the intelligence iceberg and that there is an amazing potential to unlock the full intelligence that is potential in nature and use it to help humanity.
If we get it right, the upside is huge. Since everything we love about civilization is the product of intelligence, amplifying(扩大) our own intelligence with AI has the potential to solve tomorrow’s toughest problems. For example, why risk our loved ones dying in traffic accidents that self-driving cars could prevent or dying of cancers that AI might help us find cures for? Why not increase productivity through automation (自动化) and use AI to accelerate our research and development of affordable sustainable(可持续的) energy?
I’m optimistic that we can develop rapidly with advanced AI as long as we win the race between the growing power of our technology and the knowledge with which we manage it. But this requires giving up our outdated concept of learning form mistakes. That helped us win the race with less powerful technology: We messed up with fire and then invented fire extinguishers (灭火器), and we messed up with cars and then invented seat belts. However, it’s an awful idea for more powerful technologies, such as nuclear weapons or superintelligent AI— where even a single mistake is unacceptable and we need to get things right the first time.
1.How do many people feel about leading AI researchers’ predictions?
A. Worried B. Curious
C. Doubtful D. Disappointed
2.What does the author think of intelligence?
A. We know little about it. B. It belongs to human beings.
C. It is too difficult to understand. D. We have a good command of it.
3.What does the underlined word “upside” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Cost. B. Potential.
C. Quantity. D. Advantage.
4.What’s important for us in the race between people and technology?
A. Learning from failure. B. Increasing our intelligence.
C. Avoiding making mistakes. D. Making accurate predictions.
On November 7, Lewis Pugh completed a one-kilometer swim in the freezing waters of King Edward Cove, off South Georgia in Antarctica. He was wearing only his swimming glasses, cap and speedos!
Pugh is an advocate for our oceans and seas, working to protect these ecosystem with their large diversity of marine life. When asked why he doesn’t wear a wetsuit, Lewis says, “I ask world leaders to do everything they can to protect our oceans. Sometimes the steps they need to take are difficult and unpopular. If I’m asking them to be courageous, I must also be. Swimming in a wetsuit would not send the right message.”
It took Pugh about 19 minutes to complete the one-kilometer swim in Antarctica where the water averaged about 1.6 degrees Celsius . He says that his body can only tolerate about 20 minutes in the freezing waters before it starts shutting down. As he swims, his body temperature steadily drops, which in turn causes his muscle control to drop, slowing him down. When he is done with his swim, his support team rushes him to a hot shower and it takes almost an hour for his body temperature to return to normal.
Doctors and Pugh caution that one must receive months of training to swim in such cold waters. Even expert swimmers who are unused to freezing water can drown within minutes because of the physical shock experienced by the body. Pugh says he trained for six months before this swim.
This is not the first time that Lewis has swum in dangerous conditions. In 2007, he swam one kilometer in the North Pole to draw attention to the melting Arctic ice due to climate change. In 2015, he swam in the Bay of Whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea as part of his successful campaign to help set up a marine reserve there.
1.Why did Lewis Pugh swim without a wetsuit?
A. To swim faster. B. To show his bravery.
C. To build up his body. D. To win public attention.
2.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. His body. B. The water.
C. His body temperature. D. The water temperature.
3.What’s Pugh’s advice about swimming in freezing waters?
A. One must be fully prepared.
B. One should be expert at swimming.
C. One should be ready to take on challenges.
D. One must be used to long-distance swimming.
4.What may be the best title for the text?
A. Lewis Pugh: swimming for a cause
B. How to survive a swim in cold waters
C. How to prepare for extreme swimming
D. Lewis Pugh: achieving the impossible
