Jack Ma, whose Chinese name is Ma Yun, became the richest man in China, when the company he founded floated on the stock market last year with a value of around ￡140 billion. Here are some interesting stories about him.
1. "Beer" was the first word that Jack Ma searched for on the Internet
In 1995 Ma made his first trip to the US and used the Internet for the first time. After searching for "beer" and then "China", he saw that no results came up relating to China. He decided to set up a Chinese website一the seed for Alibaba had been sown.
2. Jack Ma applied to study at Harvard 10 times and was rejected (拒绝) each time
Ma failed the entry exams for colleges in China three times and was also rejected for many jobs in China, including one at KFC. He was turned down by the Harvard 10 times after applying.
3. Jack Ma learnt English by giving tourists free guides一every day for nine years.
Limited resources meant it was difficult to learn English when Ma was young. However, he found that he could learn the language by giving tourists free tours around his hometown of Hangzhou一something that he did during his teenage years every morning for nine years. He found everything they said and did was so different from what he had been taught at school and by his parents, which opened his mind.
4. Jack Ma named his company Alibaba because it's a globally known story
Ma simply wanted his company to have a global and interesting name, and realised that Alibaba is a story known across the world and it begins with A, appearing top of lists.
The company was founded in 1999 and since then has grown from 15 employees to more than 30,000. Ma hopes to keep expanding Alibaba outside of China.
1.Ma Yun decided to set up a Chinese website when _______.
A. he applied to Harvard B. he visited America for the first time
C. he began to learn English D. he wanted to make a fortune
2.Which of the following is not mentioned about Ma Yun in the passage?
A. He took the entry exams for colleges three times.
B. Some employers didn’t offer him a job.
C. Harvard turned down his application for his poor English.
D. He once wanted to work at KFC.
3.Ma Yun’s experience of learning English tells us that ______.
A. he is a man with strong will B. he made a lot of money as a guide
C. he accepted the values of foreigners D. what he had been taught at school was wrong.
4.From the passage we can conclude that Ma Yun will______.
A. make more profit (利润) abroad. B. settle in America
C. merge (合并) with other companies D. expand his business in China
Can dogs and cats get along well in the same home? People who are thinking about getting a dog as a friend for their cat are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found that if the cat is taken back home before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. In two-thirds of the homes cats and dogs have a good relationship.
However, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression(侵略，好斗) and fighting were found in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body languages are just different. For example, when a cat turns its head away it means aggression, while a dog doing the same means submission(顺从).
In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers found a surprising behavior. They are learning how to talk each other’s language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk “Dog”, and dogs can learn how to talk “Cat”.
What’s interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to become smarter. They can learn to read each other’s body languages, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was expected. Once familiar with each other’s body language, cats and dogs can play together, and enjoy sleeping together on the sofa.
The importance of this research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets — to people who don’t get along well, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even countries. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.
1.The underlined word “swimmingly” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ________.
A. early B. mostly
C. quickly D. smoothly
2.Some cats and dogs may fight when ________.
A. they are cold to each other
B. they look away from each other
C. they misunderstand each other’s body languages
D. they are introduced at an early age
3.It is suggested in Paragraph 4 that cats and dogs ________.
A. have common interests
B. are less different than thought
C. have a common body language
D. are not so smart as expected
4.What can we human beings learn from cats and dogs?
A. We should learn to get along well with others
B. We should know more about animals.
C. We should live in peace with animals.
D. We should learn more body languages.
It is easier to float in the ocean than it is to float in a swimming pool. Do you know why?
Ocean water is full of salt— and salt water can hold up more weight than fresh water. See for yourself!
You Will Need:
● 3 cups of warm water
● Measuring cup (量杯)
● Wide-mouthed jar
● Salt
● Spoon
● Raw (生的)potato
You Will Do:
1. Pour 1.5 cups of warm water into the jar.
2. Add 1/3 cup of salt.
3. Stir(搅拌) until the salt is completely dissolved.
4. Add another 1.5 cups of water. Pour it slowly over the back of the spoon into the jar so that the two liquids will not mix together.
5. Gently place the potato into the jar. Do not drop it.
What Will Happen:
The potato will sink— but only halfway!
Why?
Salt water is heavier than fresh water, so it will stay on the bottom. The fresh water will remain on top.
The potato is heavier than the fresh water, but it is lighter than the salt water. That is why the potato will sink halfway down.
1.In the experiment, what should you do right after you pour the water over the spoon?
A. Add the salt to the water. B. Stir the salt into the water.
C. Place the potato in the jar. D. Pour warm water into thejar.
2.In Step 4 of the experiment, why do you pour the water over the spoon “slowly”?
A. It is easier to see what you are doing.
B. It pushes the fresh water to the bottom.
C. It will keep the water from coming out.
D. It will keep the liquids from mixing together.
3.In which step of the experiment do you add the salt?
A. Step 1 B. Step 2
C. Step 3 D. Step 4
请认真阅读下面文字，并按要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Authorities have called for nationwide enforcement of food standards in schools amid an ongoing investigation into a Shanghai-based food supplier accused of serving low-quality lunches with expired ingredients at a private school in the city.
The Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that students at the SMIC Private School in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park were served expired food, including rotten and moldy produce. Expiration dates on the packaging of some products had been altered. The investigation confirmed what the students’ parents reported during a surprise inspection of the school’s kitchen on Friday.
The State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Education urged local education and food authorities on Tuesday to strengthen inspections of campus canteens to ensure their safety. On Saturday, SMIC Private School apologized to students, staff and parents and promised to take full responsibility for failing to supervise the vendor, according to its website. The principal of the school has been dismissed.
（写作内容）
1.用约30个词概述所给信息的主要内容；
2.简要分析校园食品安全的重要性。
3.就如何保障学校食品的安全性提出你的建议（不少于两条建议）。
（写作要求）
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2.作文中不能出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。
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“Whatever your job is, the chances are that one of these machines can do it faster or better than you can.”
As innovation accelerates, thousands of jobs will disappear, just as it has happened in the previous cycles of industrial revolutions. Machines powered by narrow AI algorithms can already perform certain 3-D tasks (“dull, dirty and dangerous”) much better than humans. This may create enormous pain for those who are losing their jobs over the next few years, particularly if they don't acquire the computer-related skills that would enable them to find more creative opportunities. We must learn from the previous waves of creative destruction if we are to lessen human suffering and increasing inequality.
For example, some statistics indicate that as much as 3% of the population in developed countries work as drivers. When automated cars become a reality in the next 15 to 25 years, we must offer people who will be “structurally unemployed” some sort of compensation income, training and re-positioning opportunities.
Fortunately, the Schumpeterian waves of destructive innovation also create jobs. History has shown disruptive innovations are not always a zero-sum game. In the long run, the loss of low-added-value jobs to machines can have a positive impact in the overall quality of life of most workers.
The ATM paradox is a good example of this. As the use of automatic teller machines spread in the 1980s and '90s, many predicted massive unemployment in the banking sector. Instead, ATMs created more jobs as the cost of opening new agencies decreased. The number of agencies multiplied, as did the portfolio of banking products. Thanks to automation, going to the bank offers a much better customer experience than in previous decades. And the jobs in the industry became better paid and were of better quality.
This optimist scenario assumes, however, that education systems will do a better job of preparing our children to become good at what humans do best: creative and critical thinking. Less learning-by-heart and more learning-by-doing. Fewer clerical skills and more philosophical insights about human nature and how to cater to its infinite needs for art and culture.
To become creative and critical thinkers, our children will need knowledge and wisdom more than raw data points. They need to ask “why?”, “how?” and “what if?” more often than “what?”, “who?” and “when?” And they must construct this knowledge by relying on databases as cognitive partners as soon as they learn how to read and write.
Thus, the future of human-machine cooperation looks less like the scenario in the Terminator movies and more like a Minority Report-style of “augmented intelligence”. There will be jobs if we adapt the education system to equip our children to do what humans are good at: to think critically and creatively, to develop knowledge and wisdom, to appreciate and create beautiful works of art. That does not mean it will be a painless transition. Machines and automation will likely take away millions of low-quality jobs as it has happened in the past. But better-quality jobs will likely replace them, requiring less physical effort and shorter hours to deliver better results.
No, artificial intelligence won’t 1. your children’s jobs | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
A 2. phenomenon | With the rise of AI, machines 3. threaten the security of people’s current jobs, making the future of the workforce look rather dark and gloomy. |
An objective analysis | Those not skilled in computer using need to plan 4., for they are at a higher risk of losing their jobs to machines. Drivers, faced with the increasing popularity of automated cars, need to be compensated, 5. for re-employment. ATMs, though, create well-paid jobs as well as increase customers’ 6.. |
A practical solution | Adjustments need to be made to education systems by 7. our children for the jobs 8. creative and critical thinking. 9. of learning philosophy and change in the way of learning styles will be introduced for developing critical thinkers. |
A safe conclusion | AI won’t cost your children their jobs. Instead, it will make them more creative and 10.. |
When Oscar Pistorius was convicted (证明有罪的)murder last month, the judge described the case as a “human tragedy of Shakespearean proportions”. The Paralympic athlete’s fall from grace made this comparison appropriate: overcoming severe disability to reach “Olympian heights”, falling in love with a beautiful model, and, in a coincidence that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the plays, taking her life on Valentine’s Day. Mr. Pistorius’s tragic flaw was that he was an excessive paranoia（偏执狂）, which showed itself in an enthusiasm for guns.
Mr. Pistorius’s case is, indeed, peculiarly Shakespearean. But Justice Eric Leach, who delivered the judgment, is but one of those who have turned to the playwright in times of legal need. In 2012, Britain’s High Court quoted “King Lear” in a trial regarding a “threatening” joke on Twitter — they eventually overturned a conviction on the grounds that social-media users “are free to speak not what they ought to say, but what they feel”. A choice snippet of “Hamlet” (“a little patch of ground that hath no profit in it but the name”) was quoted in a 2008 boundary dispute. “Henry VIII” was called forth by Senator Sam Ervin Jr during the Watergate hearings. The condemnation of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, involved in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, was sealed with lines from “Julius Caesar”: “the evil that men do lives after them; the good is often buried with their bones.”
Lawyers’ love of Shakespeare is appropriate given that more of his lines are devoted to discussing law than any other profession. Some think his knowledge of the law was so detailed that the “real” Shakespeare must have been a lawyer. A study by Scott Dodson and Ami Dodson published last year set out to discover “the most literary justice” of those currently sitting(开庭), and which authors were regularly turned to for quotable wisdom. The “most abundant citer and the widest read” was found to be Antonin Scalia, and — no surprise — William Shakespeare topped the list of the often-quoted, along with Lewis Carroll. Both Shakespeare and Carroll accumulated sixteen references from five justices. Other popular authors among the bench were George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Aldous Huxley and Aesop.
The words of Shakespeare are likely to be sounded around courtrooms for decades to come as many universities — particularly in America and Britain — have included him in their law courses. Harvard Law School offers a seminar which focuses entirely on “justice and morality in the plays of Shakespeare”. King’s College London’s “Shakespeare and the Law” model is co-taught by the Literature and Law faculties, and explores “the role of the law in mediating the place of the individual within society”. There are sensible reasons behind this; the University of Southampton, in line with recent studies, states that it offers the opportunity to study law through a literary prism of Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka and others in order to “help law students to become more ethically sharp”. A study argues that reading literary fiction makes people show empathy, challenge prejudice, and be more flexible in their decision-making. A literary sensibility enables lawyers to present clear, structured opinions and briefs.
But what is it about the work of Shakespeare, in particular, that lends itself to legal quotation and reflection? After all, as Robert Peterson pointed out in “The Bard and the Bench”, all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays have been quoted by American courts, in over 800 judicial opinions. One answer lies in the fact that Shakespeare’s status embodies high culture; quoting him seeks to invest the judgment with credibility and induce a sense of history. Mr. Peterson notes that this can “drive decisions in authentic ways”. Another option is Shakespeare’s universality — everyone has either read, or claims to have read, plays like “Hamlet”. His works have become globally shared; the term “Shakespearean tragedy” induces a rise-and-fall story even if the listener is not familiar with the works themselves. The horrifying details of Mr. Pistorius’s actions on that night, placed in a familiar Shakespearean frame, helps members of the court, and the public, to make sense of the unnecessary bloodshed.
1.Why is Oscar Pistorius mentioned in the first paragraph?
A. To introduce the topic of the passage.
B. To explain why he was announced guilty of murder.
C. To show the appropriateness of Shakespeare’s comparison.
D. To highlight how Shakespeare influenced his conviction.
2.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Studying law makes people more flexible in making right decisions.
B. The quotation from Shakespeare in court will keep up in the following decades.
C. The accusation against Twitter was overturned by Britain’s High Court in 2012.
D. It is a must for law students in America and Britain to take courses in Shakespeare’s play.
3.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “embodies” in the last paragraph?
A. Creates. B. Shapes.
C. Promotes. D. Represents.
4.The reason why Shakespeare is often quoted in court is that__________.
A. he is universally recognized as a productive playwright
B. the quotation from him adds credibility to the judgment
C. there are many professional legal terms in his works
D. Shakespearean tragedy is globally read by people
5.How is the passage mainly developed?
A. By listing data. B. By presenting examples.
C. By analyzing phenomena. D. By making comparisons.
6.Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
A. Why Lawyers Love Shakespeare
B. Famous Quotations from Shakespeare
C. How Shakespeare Created Popular Works
D. The Most Influential Playwright in History
