In college, Spring Break （春假）is usually associated with the beach, parties and sleepless nights, bringing about relaxation, free time and friends. Students who wish to spend their break doing something productive and rewarding, however, may choose to participate in the Alternative Break Program. It places college students in communities both at home and abroad.
The Program allows students to take part in various projects dealing with issues such as literacy （识字）, homelessness and the environment. It includes helping kids with their lessons, raising money for families in need and collecting data for environmental research.
The hope is that, by getting themselves involved in different environments, students will have the opportunity to learn about members of communities and broaden their view. In turn, they will incorporate (融合) their experiences and lessons learned into their own communities. In a word, the Program aims to encourage students to be active citizens and engage themselves in making a difference in society.
In the spring of 2006, about 36,000 students in the USA participated in the Alternative Break Program.
Samantha Giacobozzi, now director of the Program, has been on five alternative break trips herself, including trips to New Orleans, India and Dominican Republic. “I was a student who went on alternative break trips and had my life totallytransformedby that experience,” she said. “Every year, we meet many students who have attended the Program. You can see changes in their life that are connected with their alternative break experiences.”
The Program began in 1991.Today, it has become increasingly popular with college students in the United States.
1.Who may choose to participate in the Alternative Break Program?(No mare than 10 words)
2.What is the aim of the Program?(NO more than 15 words)
3.What is the meaning of the underlined word "transformed" in Paragraph 5? (1 word)
4.What is Samantha's attitude toward the Program?(No more than 10 words)
5.If you take part in the Program, which project are you interested in? And why?(No more than 25 words)
根据所给的首字母和中文写出所缺单词的完整形式
1.Regular visits from a social worker can be of i_________（巨大的）value to old people living alone.
2.The weather is terrible today because of the d _______（毁灭）of nature by human beings.
3.Though the weather in Britain is so changeable and u ________（不可预测）, the climate is in fact a favorable one.
4.After her c ________（同事们）had talked with her several times, she became a bit more cheerful.
5.They found s ________（遮蔽物）from the storm in a barn.
6.This incident left a v ________（生动的）impression on me.
7.We've been working all week without a moment’s l ________（休闲）.
8.You might want to consider t ________（暂时的）work until you decide what you want to do.
9.The disease was spreading more r ________（迅速地）than expected.
10.Long complex sentences are d ________（与众不同的）of Henry James’s later style.
People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating(评价)？ Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions(互动). In her new book, “Presence”, Cuddy says people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you: Can I trust this person? Can I respect this person?
Psychologists refer to these factors as warmth and competence(胜任) respectively, and ideally you want to be considered as having both. Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional environment, believe that competence is the foremost factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to qualify your business.
But in fact warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important factor in how people evaluate you. “From an evolutionary view,” Cuddy says, “it is more important to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust.” It makes sense when you consider that in cavemen days it was more important to figure out if your fellow man was going to kill you and steal all your possessions than if he was competent enough to build a good fire.
Cuddy’s new book explores how to feel more confident. While competence is highly valued, Cuddy says it is evaluated only after trust is established. And focusing too much on displaying your strength can backfire(产生事与愿违的不良后 果). Cuddy says MBA interns(实习生) are often so concerned about coming across as smart and competent that it can lead them to skip social events, not ask for help, and generally come off as unapproachable.
These overachievers are in for a rude awakening when they don’t get the job offer because nobody got to know and trust them as people. “If someone you’re trying to influence doesn’t trust you, you’re not going to get very far; in fact, you might even cause doubt because you come across as manipulative(会 摆布人的),” Cuddy says. “A warm, trustworthy person who is also competent gains admiration, but only after you’ve established trust does your strength become a gift rather than a threat.”
1.What does the passage mainly tell about?
A.People judge you on your look and mind at first sight.
B.People judge you on your presence at first sight.
C.People judge you on your interaction at first sight.
D.People judge you on your warmth and competence initially.
2.The underlined word “foremost” can be replaced by .
A.very valuable B.changing
C.extremely important D.accessible
3.Why does Cuddy refer to cavemen days?
A.To stress the importance of survival.
B.To show the hardship of ancient times.
C.To stress the importance of trust.
D.To tell us the importance of ability.
4.According to the passage, Amy Cuddy .
A.thinks highly of confidence
B.lays trust on the basic position
C.has a negative attitude to overachievers
D.says people who want to influence others are approachable
As the international demand for narrative(叙事的) film/TV content continues to increase with popular streaming services like Netflix and others the two questions then come: will the coming generations receive most of their entertainment through visual means rather than through the written word and will such an increase of narrative film/ TV reduce the importance of reading?
Growing examples of this trend include the diminishment(减少) of fiction in the common core (核心的)curriculum, the ever－rising culture of computer games, the wave of streaming services of wide international reach, and movies filled with special effects made for children and teenagers. Nor must we ignore the economic dangers that lie ahead for the written word. The narrative film industry is a moneymaker that dwarfs(使相形见绌) the publishing industry.
The other underlying question, of course, is “does it really matter if the written word bows to the world of film/TV?” From my point of view, any diminishment of fiction delivered by words is a loss for mankind.
There is no greater human feature than the imagination. It lies at the very soul of the human species. It is the brain’s most powerful engine. It is the essential muscle of life and like all muscles it must be exercised and strengthened.
Writing and reading are the principal tools that inspire, create and empower our imagination. Anything that diminishes that power is the enemy of mankind.
It should be known that I am not opposed to new media and technological advances. Instead, I have always felt it necessary to adapt to advancing technology. In fact, a number of my novels are in various stages of development for film, TV, and live stage productions. My hope is that the written word will only stand to be complemented(补充)by its visual counterparts(对应物), not pushed to the edge of extinction.
Of course, there are those who will present arguments for the superiority of the moving image over the written word. Each has its place. My argument is for finding the right balance between it and the moving image.
1.In what way does narrative film/TV embarrass the written word?
A.Economic benefits B.International reach
C.Cultural influence D.Educational importance
2.Why does the author value the role of the written word?
A.It strengthens our muscles. B.It helps sharpen imagination.
C.It distinguishes man from each other. D.It paves the way for narrative film/TV.
3.What is the author’s attitude towards technology?
A.Cautious B.Skeptical
C.Positive D.Critical
4.What’s the author concerned about?
A.The fate of reading. B.The extinction of fiction.
C.The impact of the written word. D.The future of the moving image.
For as long as there have been gifts, we naturally make choices based on the recipient (接受者). But what if we have been wrong all along and that we could turn things around, which not only made gift buying easier, but the recipient happier?
In 2015, psychologists Lauren Human and Lara Aknin conducted an online survey, which suggested that when people buy gifts, they prefer to choose something based on the recipient’s personality and tastes. Most people also said that they preferred receiving gifts bought with them in mind: gifts for them.
But Human and Aknin wondered if this approach to giving failed to take advantage of the way we connect as people. So they sent 78 volunteers into a shopping centre before Mother’s Day. Half were told to buy a card that “reveals(揭示) your knowledge of the recipient” while the others set out to buy a card that “reveals your true self”. After the purchase, the givers who had thought partly of themselves reported feeling emotionally closer to their mothers.
To find out how that approach goes down with recipients, the psychologists did another test, asking more than 100 students to choose a song on iTunes to give to a friend, partner or family member. Each half of the group received the same instructions as the card buyers. Results revealed that recipients of songs that revealed something of the givers felt closer to them than those who received gifts bought only with them in mind.
Human and Aknin suggest it might apply to all gifts. “If building stronger social connections is the underlying (潜在的)goal” of a gift and surely it should be — then we “may well be advised to offer more self-reflective gifts”. In short, for a present to be meaningful, you need to give away a bit of yourself, even if there is a risk that the gift might not so closely suit the recipient’s practical needs or tastes as one acquired purely with that in mind.
Moreover, giving something of oneself can be a safer act, the psychologists added. Because it reduces the risk of revealing poor knowledge of a recipient by attempting to buy something that fits their character — and failing.
But a note of caution here: what the research does not examine is the potential risk in repeated, unsympathetic giver-centered giving, which, according to Human and Aknin “could signal self-obsession” — and nobody wants to reveal that about themselves.
1.From the Mother’s Day card test, we can conclude that .
A.gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the giver
B.most people choose gifts with the recipient in mind
C.most people choose gifts based on their personal tastes
D.gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the recipient
2.What does the author think is the significance of gift giving?
A.Making the giver’s life happier.
B.Showing one’s knowledge of the recipient.
C.Establishing and strengthening social connections.
D.Meeting the recipient’s practical needs.
3.Which of the following is Human and Aknin’s advice on gift giving?
A.Choose gifts that reflect more of yourself.
B.Just focus on your own tastes when choosing gifts.
C.Buy something that fits the recipient’s character most.
D.Be careful not to signal your true personality.
4.Which is the best title of this passage?
A.The tradition of gift giving B.The purpose of gift giving
C.The effect of gift giving D.The psychology of gift giving
News anchors(主播) must have been reluctant to read out the following news: Xin Xiaomeng began working as the world’s first female artificial(人工的) intelligence news anchor at Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, three months after a male robot joined the profession.
Unlike previous news robots though, Xin does not read news like a cold machine; she reads it almost like a human being. The muscles on her face stretch and relax — and her reactions change as she continues reading. That’s why many news anchors were worried: Will AI replace us in the near future?
To find the answer, we have to analyze the technologies that support Xin at her job. Three key technologies are used to support Xin. First, samples of human voices are collected and synthesized (合成). This is followed by the collection and synthesis of human muscle movement samples. And third the voices and movements are married in a way that when the AI news anchor reads, the micro- electric motors behind her face move to make her expressions seem more human.
Yet we need a thorough knowledge of deep learning technology to make a robot imitate a person’s voice. The developer needs to collect tens of thousands of pieces of pronunciations, input them into the machine and match them with the text for the AI to learn and read. The process for imitating facial movements is similar. The developer has to analyze the movements of the 53 muscles in the human face, make a model set from the collected data for the AI news anchor to learn, and imitate the movements of facial muscles via programs
Both the technologies used to make Xin’s performance impressive are mature. The real difficulty lies in the third — the technology to match the pronunciations with facial movements so that Xin’s expressions vary according to the content of the news report. In fact, Xin’s expressions don’t always change according to the content. As a result, her expressions look anything but human. Actually, AI is still no match for human qualities.
1.What does the underlined word “reluctant” in the first paragraph mean?
A.Delighted B.Unwilling
C.Confused D.Optimistic
2.What can we infer about previous news robots?
A.They read news without expressions. B.They looked like a human being.
C.They could interview sports stars. D.They could interact with audience.
3.From the last paragraph, we can draw a conclusion that .
A.human news anchors should learn from AI anchors to save their jobs
B.Al anchors perform much better than human news anchors at present
C.Al news anchors won’t replace human news anchors in the near future
D.Xin Xiaomeng’s expressions vary so naturally that they are true to life
