If the lady in the Mona Lisa painting could talk, she could tell us why she was smiling for the pose, isn’t it? But, of course, that is not possible because she is just a painting.
However, recently, Samsung Labs in Moscow demonstrated an Al program that could create a video of a person talking just from one single profile picture. The result? A talking Mona Lisa, thanks to a technology, known as deepfake!
The word “deepfake” is a combination of the words “deep learning” and “fake”. Deep learning refers to the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to create images of human faces. The word was used first in 2017 when an anonymous person using the name “deepfake” began to post images of celebrities’ faces on other people’s bodies.
To start with, video recordings of a person are broken down into the smallest levels of detail that capture how their mouth and facial features move when they pronounce a sound like “oo” or “ah”. These, along with the 3-D model of the lower face, are then put together and the person can be made to say words he (or she) never did.
Deepfakes use a technology called generative adversarial networks (GAN). This system uses two separate artificial intelligence systems that are trained such that one generates the images and the other attempts to tell if they are fake. The machines continue to teach each other over and over again until one produces a video that the other cannot tell it is fake!
Fake news would easily go out of hand if people believed the fake videos as real and it could have political and social effect. There is a lesson here for each of us to be careful about what we post on the Internet. In the future, you might see a picture or video of yourself and may not be able to tell that it is fake! It all just goes to show that seeing is not always believing.
1.How does the writer develop the third paragraph?
A.By defining a concept. B.By introducing an app.
C.By testing a scientific method. D.By providing different examples.
2.What can we infer about GAN from the passage?
A.It needs to be trained. B.It can learn all by itself.
C.It produces perfect pictures. D.It is used to identify fake images.
3.What is implied in the last paragraph?
A.People can use deepfakes to become famous.
B.The public aren’t easily cheated by deepfakes.
C.All of us may become a victim of deepfakes.
D.Deepfakes make what you have done known to all.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Mona Lisa：a Talking Picture
B.Fake Videos：Recording of a Person
C.AI Program：Creating a Video
D.Deepfakes：Believing or Not
Sometimes fishing ships disappear: Captains turn off the radios that broadcast their locations, leaving regulators wondering whether the ships are fishing illegally. Now, researchers have shown that albatrosses(信天翁)bearing small detectors can find these doubtful ships, even in the middle of the open ocean. After a 6-month study with the large seabirds, the researchers say that more than one-third of ships in the southern Indian Ocean are fishing illegally.
“These are animal police,” says Boris Worm of Dalhousie University. “You’re empowering animals to survey their own environment, ”Worm says. “That’s pretty cool.” The method could also help albatrosses themselves, which can be killed when they get caught or accidentally eat fishing hooks. The researchers will be there on time.
Illegal fishing is a major concern for environment biologists, especially in remote areas. Over the past decade, scientists have studied the problem with data from automatic identification systems (AISs) on ships, which send their identity, location, speed, and direction to satellites. But AlSs can be turned off. Researchers suspect that fishing ships turn off AISs when they are fishing illegally or want to prevent competitors from knowing where they are getting a good catch.
Albatrosses make good spies. The birds, which live on fish, can spot a fishing ship from as far away as 30 kilometers. Some species fly hundreds or thousands of kilometers while hunting. Between December 2018 and June 2019, the birds met 353 ships. Those locations were sent to the lab in less than 2 hours. If they did not match the locations of ships with an active AIS, the team knew the ships had switched it off. In international waters, 37% of detected ships had their AlS switched off and fished illegally.
Although the albatrosses can detect ships, they cannot track them over longer distances, one scientist says. He says, “What you need to do is to look for patterns to take pictures as evidence.” More albatrosses will be arranged in March and April around the Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean to reveal the illegal fishing.
1.What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A.Fishing ships disappear sometimes.
B.Illegal fishing is very serious in the open ocean.
C.Some seabirds are used to monitor the illegal fishing.
D.One-third of ships in the southern Indian Ocean are fishing illegally.
2.What benefit will the method do for the albatrosses?
A.They can get enough food.
B.They can get saved when in danger.
C.They can protect their own rights of fishing.
D.They can avoid being killed or eating fishing hooks.
3.How do the seabirds offer help?
A.By sending locations of ships.
B.By turning off AISs of the ships.
C.By following the ships as far as possible.
D.By taking the pictures of ships fishing illegally.
4.In which column of a newspaper can this text be read?
A.Education. B.Politics. C.Science. D.Health
Last weekend marked one of the nicest days so far this spring.
It was warm with a tiny breeze; the sun penetrated through lightweight sweaters to warm the skin; the male choir was warming up, and the graduates were walking around the lawn behind the throng of six-thousand-plus observers.
With all of the parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the state university was a center of activity. My nephew was going to receive his bachelor’s degree. Who would have guessed that four years would go by so quickly?
As the crowd of freshly elegant candidates wandered, joked, hugged and chattered behind the platform, I heard several cell phones ring. There were several nonsensical(无意义)conversations going on with the accompanying giggles of the not-quite-mature students, but then one conversation in particular caught my attention.
“Yes, Grandma, I’m really graduating. I can’t believe it, either!I never thought I’d be here today, you know? Really!Like, I know it!Yes, it’s a very special day...Hold on, we’re lining up...Oh wow, they’ve got hundreds of balloons they’re going to release!Yes, Kelly’s here...Okay, I’ll give her your love…here we go!Gran, I’m graduating!…Love you too, Gran. I’m so glad you could be here with me!”
And somehow, my initial surprise and annoy at the use of cell phones during such a serious occasion left me. These little representatives of modern technology had joined a young woman and her devoted Gran to share a very special moment in time.
1.The author went to the university to______.
A.enjoy the beautiful spring day B.see how the graduates act
C.see a relative graduate D.receive a bachelor’s degree
2.Why was the author’s attention was caught?
A.Because the conversation was carried on the cell phone.
B.Because the young woman sounded different from other students.
C.Because several nonsensical conversations were going on.
D.Because a young woman was sharing a special moment with her gran.
3.How did the author feel after he heard the conversation between the young woman and her grandmother?
A.Surprised. B.Annoyed. C.Puzzled. D.Moved.
4.What’s the purpose of the author in writing the passage ?
A.To describe an exciting moment in life.
B.To explain the convenience technology brings us.
C.To advise us to use cell phones properly in public places.
D.To describe a common scene in life.
Essay
Epic Fails: The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving into History By Erik Slader and Ben Thompson. Ages 6 to 12. The first book in the Epic Fails series deals with one of the most ambitious goals humans have pursued: the quests to fly. Authors Slader and Thompson focus on life-or-death scenes, such as when the Wright brothers crashed their glider over and over on the sandy coast of North Carolina; it took them two more years to get it right. |
Epic Fails: The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff By Erik Slader and Ben Thompson. Ages 6 to 12 Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He made it look easy, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple. Our first attempt was a failure. Still, we didn’t give up. We tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better. |
Fantastic Failures: True Stories of People Who Changed the World by Falling Down First By Luke Reynolds. Ages 6 to 12. Teacher Luke Reynolds opens each chapter with a quick, impossibly perfect version of one person’s life and then says how that person actually had to face huge challenges to accomplish goals. In this book, Reynolds writes about various common men, women and children. |
Cyrus Field’s Big dream：The Daring Effort to Lay the First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable By Mary Morton Cowan. Ages 6 to 12. In 1853，it took at least a week to relay a message between the United States and Europe because people had to be transported on ships over the Atlantic Ocean. Cyrus Field tried to reduce that transmission（传送）time to just minutes by laying a long undersea cable. In this book，Cowan describes many failures Field suffered before he achieved this major breakthrough. |
1.Who are the four books intended for?
A.Children. B.Teenagers. C.Adults. D.Old people.
2.What do we know about Fantastic Failures?
A.It was written by a famous actor. B.It tells stories of ordinary people.
C.It is about science fiction stories. D.It is a picture book by a teacher.
3.What lesson can we learn from the four books?
A.All roads lead to Rome. B.Failure is the mother of success.
C.An early bird catches worms D.Actions speak louder than words.
假定你是李明，你们班正在为即将举行的英语戏剧节 (English Drama Festival) 排练节目The Million Pound Bank Note，请你给外教Mr. Green写一封电子邮件寻求他的指导和帮助，要点如下：
1. 排练时间、地点；
2. 请他指导台词；
3. 表示感谢。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：排练 rehearsal [n.]；台词 line [n.]
Dear Mr. Green,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Ming
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。每处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。
Great changes have been taken place in my village. Ten years ago, the small and low houses of my village lie on the north of a lake. The villagers produced much waste. As result, the lake was serious polluted. To the west of the village was a sandy field, where was the source of much dust.
Now the poor house have been replaced by green trees. Beside, the sandy field that the villagers used to plough has been covered of fruit trees. On the lake, now clean and clear, the villagers often spend their spare time fish.
In a word, their village has become a green one.
