For two centuries, the famous University of Cambridge debating society has hosted many prominent figures, from world leaders to scientists to comedians.
On Nov 21, the Cambridge Union hosted another extraordinary guest—a non-human debater called Project Debater. Designed by IBM, Project Debater is a machine that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to form a spoken argument. It can even listen and answer to opposite statements, much like a real person.
In the Cambridge test debate, it argued the topic: Al will ultimately (最终) do more harm than good. Before the debate, more than 1,100 arguments for the positives and negatives of AI were submitted (递交) to the IBM website. The machine then analyzed these sources and formed the basis of its arguments in minutes. Project Debater then showed off its AI by arguing for both sides of the debate.
Over a four-minute speech, it argued first that, “AI can only make decisions that it has been programmed to solve, while humans can be programmed for all situations.”
In support of AI, it then argued that AI would create new jobs and “bring a lot more efficiency” to the workplace.
This isn’t the first test for Project Debater. In June 2018, the machine went back-and-forth for 20 minutes against champion debater Harish Natarajan.
According to New Scientist, on both occasions, Project Debater repeated points and didn’t always sufficiently (充分地) support them.
Speaking to Cambridge Independent, Noam Slonim, the project’s lead engineer, said, “The AI is not perfect, but it’s going in the right direction.” The team hopes to improve the AI by researching why humans find certain arguments more persuasive than others. They also hope the test might provide well-informed viewpoints for society, governments and private companies.
1.What does the underlined word “prominent” mean in paragraph one?
A.Intelligent. B.Outstanding.
C.Well-educated. D.Creative.
2.According to the passage, Project Debater ________.
A.can make decisions for all situations
B.argued with itself in the Cambridge test debate
C.can always find enough evidence to support its idea
D.defeated champion debater Harish Natarajan in June 2018
3.What does Noam Slonim think of the AI?
A.It’s not so beneficial to humans. B.It will defeat humans in time.
C.It remains to be improved. D.It will ultimately do more harm than good.
4.This passage above can be most probably read in ________.
A.a newspaper B.a guidebook
C.a textbook D.a research paper
Since September about 11m hectares of Australia have been in flames. This year’s fires are the worst on record, with at least 26 people dead, about half-billion animals burned alive, and over 2300 homes destroyed. Australians of all species are suffering the most. But the fires have serious consequences for the rest of the world, too.
New Zealand, one of Australia’s closest neighbors, is feeling the effects of the bushfires. The most important effect of the fires might be on the country’s glaciers, about which Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former prime minister, tweeted: “Australian bushfires have created haze in New Zealand with particular impact on the South Island yesterday and now spreading more widely. Impact of ash on glaciers is likely to speed melting.” Melting glaciers could open up a future none of us wants to suffer.
There’s no such thing as weather that happens in isolation. As a recent Forbes article reports, fires have the potential to not only block visibility for airplanes, grounding them, but to create pockets of hotter or colder air, or create situations where the weather is increasingly less stable — although no one is yet certain how far from the Australian continent those effects might wander, or how harmful they may prove to be.
In addition to coal, Australia also exports all kinds of agricultural products — like beef and wool—particularly to Asian countries including China and Japan. But what happens when the land it uses to grow all that food and fiber is destroyed by fire? Obviously, no more goods to export, which creates a huge problem in the international supply chain. Thanks to globalization, pretty much no country eats only the food it grows. What happens to the global food supply as agricultural land in Australia and other export nation’s burns to a crisp?
1.What can we learn about the Australian bushfires?
A.They’ve left most of Australian land in flames.
B.They’ve speeded the melting of glaciers.
C.They will certainly create hotter air.
D.No one is certain how harmful their effects will be on climate.
2.What’s the author’s attitude towards the future of the global food supply?
A.Doubtful. B.Objective.
C.Concerned. D.Indifferent.
3.What is the best title for the text?
A.The Effects of the Australian Bushfires on Climate Change
B.Australian Bushfires: a Big Disaster to the Country
C.What the Australian Bushfires Mean for the Rest of the World?
D.Why the Australian Bushfires Affect the Rest of the World?
A handwritten letter by a little boy asking Santa for a “very good dad” has captured hearts worldwide.
The boy, known only as “Blake” in the letter, wrote, “Dear Santa, We had to leave our house. Dad was mad. We had to do all the chores. Dad got everything he wanted. Mom said it was time to leave and she would take us to a safer place where we don’t have to be scared.”
“Blake is a 7-year-old boy in one of our shelters, and his mom found this letter in his backpack...” Posted by SafeHaven of Tarrant County on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.
“I’m still nervous. I don’t want to talk to the other kids,” he continued. “Are you going to come this Christmas? Can you bring a dictionary, and a compass and a watch?”
The most heart-wrenching part of the letter was the last line that read, “I also want a very very very good dad. Can you do that too?”
Officials with SafeHaven of Tarrant County, a group seeking to help end domestic (家庭的) violence, posted Blake’s letter to its Facebook page. Now, some of the child’s wishes have come true. All of the gifts he asked for have been donated by people in the community. Though SafeHaven received more than 10,000 gifts this year, they want to shine a light on the bigger issue of domestic violence.
“To us, it was kind of a story that we’ve heard all the time,” Kathryn Jacob, the organization’s president and CEO, told Today. “Like tonight, we have 73 kids in the shelter. Blake is just one of many.”
1.The little boy asked Santa for a “very good dad” because ________.
A.his dad was too strict with him B.he was forced to do all the chores
C.he was ill-treated by his dad D.his dad didn’t buy him any gifts
2.What do we know about SafeHaven?
A.It has received a lot of concern so far. B.It provides services for homeless children.
C.It posted Blake’s letter without permission. D.Part of its goal is to earn money.
3.What is Kathryn Jacob’s purpose by saying the words in the last paragraph?
A.To advertise their shelter. B.To introduce their shelter.
C.To tell more information about Blake. D.To draw attention to domestic violence.
假定你是李华，想邀请你的新西兰朋友Kevin参加你校将要举行的“劳动周”相关活动。请给他写 封邮件，内容包括：
1.活动时间；
2. 活动内容（如：校园环境美化、校内垃圾分类等）；
3. 活动意义.
参考词汇：Labour Week劳动周
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误, 每句中最多有两处。每次错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(
)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处, 多者（从第11处起）不计分。
One evening after work, I found a beautiful little fox with a injured leg. He was like a Disney fox. Then I feed her some fish. A couple of weeks later, the fox was back, much better and had visited ever since. She was comfortable enough to come really close me. She allowed me to take photo of her, the best of whom I posted on social media. Soon after, she took her cubs together to visit to me, which was really unexpected. It's amazing to have this connection with something so wildly in this busy city, but happily the loving fox still keeps turning up.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
As countries and regions across the globe are left dealing 1. the coronavirus crisis, most people are not 2. (satisfy) with their leaders’ response to the outbreak, according to a new report.
Citizens from just 7 out of 23 countries and regions rate their governments’3. (measure) as broadly positive, 4. (base) on the “Global Crisis Perceptions” index. The research, 5. surveyed approximately 12,500 people across 23 countries and regions between April 3 and 19, 6. (ask) respondents to rate their countries and regions across four key indicators: political leadership, corporate leadership, community and media.
China ranked 7. (high) in the citizens’ survey, with a score of 85 out of 100. The world’s second-largest economy was followed by Vietnam (77), the United Arab Emirates (59) and India (59), in 8. list which saw Asian countries and regions take the top spots.
9. is surprising is that only one Western country — New Zealand (56) — scored higher than the global average of 45. Australia, the US, and all four western 10. (Europe) countries surveyed — Germany, the UK, Italy and France — all ranked below the global average.
