The Different Engine: Rewiring the Brain
A. It's a question that's bothered cultural critics for decades: while we know more than ever, are we getting dumber as a result of the increasing amount of technology at our disposal? Reading historical debates, and hearing of the attention paid to them by a thoughtful person, certainly makes one wonder. Speaking in the 1820s of the mechanical Difference Engine he had devised for computing polynomial functions, Charles Babbage, the father of the programmable computer, told the House of Commons: B. 'On two occasions I have been asked by Members of Parliament, Tray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?, I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.' C. Sharp-tongued eloquence—in Latin and Greek as well as their mother tongue—was common fare among Georgians and Victorians lucky enough to have had at least a dozen years of schooling. One wonders how the founders of Facebook, Twitter or YouTube might respond to similarly stale queries tossed at them during congressional testimony. D. The current debate about intelligence, sparked by Nicholas Carr's recent and eminently readable 'The Shallows,' asks what is the Internet doing to our brains? Like Susan Jacoby's 'The Age of American Unreason' and Adam Winer's 'How Dumb Are You?' earlier in the decade, Mr. Carr taps into the sense of despair among American intellectuals about the country's poor educational showing when compared with other countries. E. In reading, mathematics and science, American 15-year-olds suffer in the lower half of the OECD rankings for the 30 wealthiest countries. Other English-speaking nations such as Canada, New Zealand, Australia and even Britain are all in the upper quartile (四分之一). South Korea and Japan are in the top decile (十分之一). F. Such indisputable facts are rightly a concern for policy-makers and parents throughout the United States. But the reasons for the crushing failure of American education—especially at middle- and high-school levels—are well understood, and the corrective measures widely accepted. Implementing them, however, remains as politically tricky as ever. G. But it is not just the disappointment of seeing a nation's youth so poorly served. Even more so, an unspoken nostalgic mood for an age when book-learning was the noblest of pursuits has animated the debate about the dumbing down of America. Tellingly, the sharpest critics are always middle-aged or older. H. Among other things, Ms. Jacoby blames a rising tide of anti-intellectualism. She notes that the reading of books, newspapers and magazines has declined across the board. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing whatsoever (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004—a period that oversaw the rise of personal computers, the Internet and video games. She sighs that the way electronic media, with their demand for spectacle and conciseness, have shortened our attention spans. Sound bites by presidential candidates, she points out, dropped from 42 seconds in 1968 to less than eight seconds by 2000. I. But things are rarely as they seem. For one thing, e-books barely existed a decade ago, but have exploded in popularity since Amazon introduced its Kindle a few short years back, and a host of rivals rushed in with copycat versions. For many readers, the ability to interact with e-books digitally—searching them automatically, inserting digital bookmarks, zooming in on the small type—has rendered hardcovers and paperbacks outdated. So much so, e-books are now outselling hardcovers. Perhaps we are witnessing not a decline in book reading but a renaissance. The irony is that had computers been invented before books, we would now be wringing our hands over the loss of multi-media, multi-tasking, computer-gaming skills as our children wasted their time by burying their noses in single-topic paper books. J. To the specific question that Mr. Carr asks about what the Internet is doing to our brains, the simple answer is that it is making us think and behave differently. Of that, there is no doubt. But that does not mean we are getting dumber in the process. What makes people intelligent is their ability to learn and reason--in short, to adapt and thrive within their environment. That fundamental capacity has not changed in thousands of years, and is unlikely to do so because some new technology comes along, whether television, mobile phones or the Internet. K. Adaptation to one's changing surroundings is a different matter. Every new medium introduced since the invention of the printing press has molded our minds in different ways. It would be alarming if it didn't. Today, confronted with the popularity of the Internet, we need a whole new set of skills to navigate the information-loaded environment we inhabit. In other words, each new set of skills we learn and memories we create builds on our existing mental capacities without changing them in any fundamental way. L. Still, the Jeremiahs have a point. Their concern is that prolonged use of the Internet—with its buffet of mouthwatering delicacies of information—is producing a generation of magpie minds, as users hop from one small bright ornament to another, rarely focusing long enough on any one topic to comprehend it thoroughly. According to this view of the brain, the lack of 'deep thinking' lies at the heart of the present generation's inability to sweat the hard stuff. M. The problem, says Mr. Carr, is that most of us with access to the web spend at least a couple of hours a day online—and sometimes much more. During that time, we tend to repeat the same or similar actions over and over again. As we go through these motions, the net delivers a steady stream of inputs to our visual, somatosensory (体觉的) and auditory cortices (皮层). There is evidence, the author affirms, that the Internet is damaging people's long-term memory consolidation that he singles out as the true basis of intelligence. N. As reasonable as it may sound, such an explanation is markedly different from anything your correspondent has experienced. Perhaps that's because he, like so many other computer users, spends far less time online than social critics imagine. According to Nielsen, a media research company, Americans with access to the Internet devote around 26 hours a month to online activity—in other words, just 5% of their waking hours. Even then, half that time is taken up with proactive, even creative, activities—social networking, playing games, e-mailing, and instant messaging. Pecking at the despised low-hanging fruit found on Google and other search engines accounts for a tiny 3.5% of the average user's online time.
延安位于陕西省北部,地处黄河中游,是中国革命的圣地。毛泽东等老一辈革命家曾在这里生活战斗了十三个春秋,领导了抗日战争和解放战争,培育了延安精神,为中国革命做出了巨大贡献。延安的革命旧址全国数量最大、分布最广、级别最高。延安是全国爱国主义、革命传统和延安精神教育基地。延安有9个革命纪念馆,珍藏着中共中央和老一辈革命家在延安时期留存下来的大量重要物品,因此享有“中国革命博物馆城”的美誉。
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on how to balance work and leisure. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
The Doctor Will Skype You Now [A].Fazila is a young woman that has been dealing with eczema (湿疹), a common skin condition, for the past five years, but never got it treated. The nearest hospital is an hour away, by boat and bus, and her skin condition didnt seem serious enough to make the trek, so she ignored it—until a new technology brought the doctor to her. Fazila lives on one of the remote river islands in northern Bangladesh. These islands are low-lying, temporary sand islands that are continuously formed and destroyed through sand buildup and erosion. They are home to over six million people, who face repeated displacement from flooding and erosion—which maybe getting worse because of climate change —and a range of health risks, including poor nutrition, malaria (疟疾) and other water-bome diseases. [B].The most dangerous thing for these remote island dwellers island erosion. The second is lack of access to medical supplies and doctors. There are no doctors within miles, and while childmortality and maternal death have gone down in the rest of the country, this is not the case for the islands. The medical situation is so bad that it really takes away from the quality oftheir life. Yet for many island inhabitants -some of Bangladeshs poorest -paying for health care is a costly ordeal. Victims of erosion lose their houses, agricultural land and jobs as farmers, fishermen and day laborers. Though government hospitals are free, many people hesitate to go, citing long commutes, endless lines and questionable diagnoses. For conveniences sake, one-third of rural households visit unqualified village doctors, who rely on unscientific methods of treatment, according to a 2016 study in the peer-reviewed journal Global Heath Action. [C].On the islands, theres even a colloquial (口头的) expression for the idea of making medical care your lowest priority:Its known as"rog pushai rakha"in Bengali,which roughly translates to"stockpiling their diseases"-waiting to seek medical attention until a condition becomes extremely serious.Now,a new virtual medical service called Teledaktar(TD)is trying to make heath care more easily accessible.Every week,TDs medical operators travel to the islands by boat,carrying a laptop,a portable printer for prescriptions and tools to run basic medical screenings such as blood pressure,blood sugar,body temperature and weight. They choose an area of the island with the best Internet reception and setup a makeshift(临凑合的)medical center which consists of plastic stools and small tables borrowed from the localshomes,a tent in case of rain and a sheet that is strung up to give the patients privacy during their session. [D].Launched in October 2018,TD has eight centers in towns and villages across ruralBangladesh and on three islands.It is funded by a nonprofit organization founded by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs,finance and technology professionals.Inside the center,the laptop screen lights up to reveal Dr.Tina Mustahid,TDs head physician,live-streamed(网络直播)from the capital city of Dhaka for free remote medical consultations.Affectionately called Doctor Apa—“older sister"in Bengali—by her patients,she is one of three volunteer doctors at TD. [E]."I diagnose them through conversation,"says Dr.Mustahid."Sometimes its really obvious things that local doctors dont have the patience to talk through with their patients.For example,a common complaint mothers come in with is that their children refuse to eat their meals.The mothers are concermed they are dealing with indigestion,but its because they are feeding the children packaged chips which are cheap and convenient. I tell them it is ruining their appetite and ask them to cut back on unhealthy snacks."Dr. Mustahid says building awareness about health and nutrition is important for island patients who are cut off from mainland resources. [F].Even off the islands, Bangladesh faces a critical deficit of health services. The country has half the doctors-per-person ratio recommended by the World Health Organization: roughly one doctor per 2,000 people, instead of one doctor per 1,000 people. And of those physicians, many are concentrated in cities: 70% of the countrys population live in rural areas, yet less than 20% of health workers practice there. Over 70% of TDs 3,000 patients are female, in part because many are not comfortable speaking with local doctors who tend to be male. The rural women are mostly not literate or confident enough to travel on their own to the nearest town to visit medical facilities. Many have spent their entire lives rebuilding their homes when the islands flood.Early marriage and young motherhood,which are prevalent in these parts of Bangladesh,also contribute to the early onset of health problems. [G].For most TD patients on the islands,Dr.Mustahid is the first big-city doctor that theyve ever consulted.TD doctors are not meant to treat serious illnesses or conditions that require a doctor to be physically present,such as pregnancy.But they can write prescriptions,diagnose common ailments-including digestive issues,joint pain,skin diseases,fever and the common cold-and refer patients to doctors at local hospitals.The visit is also an opportunity for the patients,especially women to air their concerns about aging,motherhood and reproductive health according to Dr.Mustahid.The doctors also offer health,dietary and lifestyle advice where necessary,including insight on everything from recognizing postnatal(产后的)depression to daily exercise.Dr.Mustahid regularly recommends her patients to take a daily thirty-minute morning walk before the sun gets too intense. [H].After a few sessions about general health issues Fazila finally opened up about something else that was bothering her: persistent skin condition. It can get expensive to travel to the doctor, so usually the women living on the islands describe their illness to their husbands.The husbands then go to the pharmacy, tell them what is the issue and return home with some random medicines. Nothing worked for Fazila until she started seeing Doctor Apa. [I].Other nonprofits are also starting to provide health services in the islands. A local non-governmental organization called Friendship operates floating boat hospitals that providehealth services to islands all over Bangladesh, docking at each for two months at a time. Friendship also runs satellite clinics in which one doctor and one clinic aide who are residents of the community disperse health and hygiene information. [J]. TD still has a few major challenges. Many patients complain the medicine they are prescribed are sometimes unaffordable, but the government isnt doing enough for them.Patients often ask why the medicine isnt free along with the consultations from the doctors.The originations are linked to local pharmacies and offer discounts to the patients and make sure to prescribe the most cost-effective brands, but still, many residents cant afford even that. [K].Nevertheless, TDs remote consultations seem to be popular: Of 3,000 patients at least 200 have returned for follow-ups, according to TD. The reason, explains one resident might be the simple gesture of treating the island inhabitants with respect. "Doctor Apa is patient,"he says. "At government hospitals, the doctors treat us very badly, but here they listen to us, I can repeat myself many times and no one gets annoyed."
南京长江大桥是长江上首座由中国设计、采用国产材料建造的铁路、公路两用桥,上层的4车道公路桥长4589米,下层的双轨道铁路桥长6772米。铁路桥连接原来的天津——浦口和上海——南京两条铁路线,使火车过江从过去一个半小时缩短为现在的2分钟。大桥是南北交通的重要枢纽,也是南京的著名景点之一。南京长江大桥的建成标志着中国桥梁建设的一个飞跃,大大方便了长江两岸的物资交流和人员往来,对促进经济发展和改善人民生活起到了巨大作用。_____Part IV Translation(30 minutes)Directions:For this part,you are allowed 30 minutes to translate a passage from Chinese into English.You should write your answer on Answer Sheet 2.
Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on Why should we trust each other at work? You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
Tiny pieces of gold could be used in the fight against cancer, new research has suggested. Scientists at Edinburgh University have just completed a study which shows the 27 metal increased the effectiveness of drugs used to treat lung cancer cells. Minute fragments, known as gold nanoparticles (纳米粒子), were 28 in a chemical device by the research team. While this has not yet been tested on humans, it is hoped such a device could one day be used to reduce side effects of current chemotherapy treatments by 29 targeting diseased cells without damaging healthy tissue. Gold is a safe chemical element and has the ability to 30 chemical reactions. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh discovered properties of the metal that allow these catalytic abilities to be accessed in living things without any side effects. The device was shown to be effective after being 31 in the brain of a zebrafish, suggesting it can be used in living animals. The study was carried out in 32 with researchers at the University of Zaragoza's Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon in Spain, with funding coming from Cancer Research UK (CRUK). Dr. Asier, from the University of Edinburgh's CRUK Edinburgh Centre, said: 'We have discovered new 33 of gold that were previously unknown and our findings suggest that the metal could be used to 34 drugs inside turnouts very safely. There is still work to do before we can use this on 35 , but this study is a step forward. We hope that a similar device in humans could one day be implanted by surgeons to activate chemotherapy directly in tumours and reduce harmful effects to healthy organs.' The next steps will be to see if this method is 36 to use in people, what its long- and short-term side effects are, and if it's a better way to treat some cancers. A. accelerate B. cautiously C. collaboration D. elaboration E. encased F. implanted G. patients H. precious I. precisely J. previous K. properties L. release M. relieve N. safe O. unsafe
Just off the coast of Southern California sits Santa Cruz Island, where a magical creature called the island fox 27 . A decade ago, this island's ecosystem was in 28 . Wild pigs attracted golden eagles from the mainland, and those flying 29 crashed the fox population. So the Nature Conservancy launched a 30 war against the pigs, complete with helicopters and sharp shooters. And it worked. Today, federal agencies are pulling the island fox from the Endangered Species List. It's the fastest-ever recovery of a mammal, joining peers like the Louisiana black bear as glowing successes in the history of the Endangered Species Act. But the recovery of Santa Cruz Island isn't just about the fox. The Nature Conservancy has 31 war on a multitude of invasive species here, from sheep to plants to the 32 Argentine ant. 'Our philosophy with the island has always been, 'OK, 33 the threats and let the island go back to what it was,'' says ecologist Christina Boser. And it appears to be working. Native plants are coming back, and the fox once again bounds about carefree. But keeping those foxes from harm will occupy Boser and her colleagues for years to come. You see, humans are still allowed on Santa Cruz Island, and they bring dogs. So Boser has to vaccinate her foxes against various diseases. 'We're obligated to keep a pulse on the population for at least five years after the foxes are delisted,' says Boser. That includes tagging the foxes and 34 their numbers to ensure nothing goes wrong. This is the story of the little fox that has come back, and the people who have 35 their lives to protecting it. This is the story of wildlife conservation in the age of mass 36 . A. aggressive B. chaos C. configuration D. declared E. dedicated F. dwells G. extinction H. fierce I. hinders J. mammal K. monitoring L. predators M. remove N. tempt O. underlying
Part I Writing (30 minutes) Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay that begins with the sentence "Nowadays more and more people choose to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle."You can make comments, cite examples, or use your personal experiences to develop your essay.You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.__________
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta wants to move Georgia out of the top 10 list for childhood obesity (肥胖), officials said. Doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the largest children healthcare organization in the United States, said they treat patients in their Health4Life Clinic as young as age 3 for complications (并发症) 27 to obesity. The healthcare system's officials said it began its Strong4Life in early 2011, a large-scale public awareness 28 , along with programs and partnerships to 29 kids and their parents. The first phase of the campaign, the 'warning' ads, was designed to raise awareness and 30 conversation about childhood obesity. 'A 31 finding in the research is that while 96 percent of respondents viewed childhood obesity as a somewhat or very serious problem, only 28 percent of parents of an obese child considered their child overweight or obese, and only 36 percent were 32 about their child's weight,' Dr. Richard Lutz of the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business Administration said in a statement. 'This 33 disconnect, known as the 'perceived personal immunity' effect, has been 34 for issues such as being 35 affected by lung cancer, skin cancer and AIDS.' The program also included training more than 1,000 healthcare providers, nurses and dietitians to discuss obesity with their patients; going to more than 100 schools to share with children the importance of healthy eating and physical 36 and educating more than 430 daycare centre staff to use Strong4Life tool kits to each healthy habits at an early age. A. activity B. apparent C. campaign D. concerned E. contributed F. documented G. easily H. fatal f. immediately J. interact K. practice L. reach M. related N. remarkable O. spark
A few weeks ago, a well-meaning professor tried to explain the physiological process behind viruses and the human body in a tweet and was immediately criticized for a mistake in his information. He then issued an apology and deleted his erroneous tweet.Communicating science beyond the academic bubble is necessary to augmenting public understanding of health and environmental issues and helping individuals make well-informed personal decisions. However, scientists who engage in science communication must acknowledge that even in their area, their expertise is deep but narrow. They need to recognize the constraints in their own knowledge. That is not to suggest that they only write or present on their own research, but rather, that they consult with an expert if the topic is outside of their discipline. Fact-checking with a scientist who works in the specialty will prevent the unintentional spread of misinformation, and the process of doing so may yield interesting new information that can be incorporated.Some have argued that the public is not educated enough to understand scientific information, especially for any complex phenomena, but this is absurd. Science instruction can be found at all levels of public education with most secondary schools offering classes or biology, physics, andchemistry. If anything, social media has shown that the public craves knowledge based on a solid scientific foundation. Even the public discourse that follows most scientific articles shows that online readers can understand even the most baffling of scientific principles.It is equally imperative to emphasize that being an expert on a topic doesnt automatically make a scholar qualified to communicate it to a nonscientific audience. A number of scientists recently have been offering public-aimed explanations of scientific phenomena. Even though theyhave appropriate credentials, they often do very little in the way of explaining. One biologist shared a complicated analogy involving a library, books, paper, a recipe, ingredients, and a cake to explain the process behind vaccines. Any explanation that requires written key to keep track of what each item represents is not a clear example for public consumption. Science communication is a science in and of itself. It requires rigorous training and instruction. A scientist should take communication courses that can teach a person how to identify and eliminate jargon and how to develop effective analogies to explain complex concepts. One cannot assume communicationexpertise -imagine if someone just decided that they were a physicist and started trying to contribute to the field without the necessary background. Doing a poor job communicating science to the public will only create confusion and widen the gap between science and society, a gap that scientists are trying to close.
The failure of an application is far more often the fault of the applicant, for many applicants do not set about their task in the right way. They do not study the job requirements 27 enough and dispatch applications to all and sundry (所有的人) in the hope that one will bear fruit (奏效). The personnel manager of a textile's manufacturer, for example, 28 for designers. He was willing to consider young people without working 29 provided they had good ideas. The 30 contained many remarks like this, 'At school I was good at art', 'I like drawing things' and even I write very interesting stories'. Only one applicant was sensible enough to 31 samples of her designs. She got the job. Personnel managers emphasize the need for a good letter of application. They do not look for the finest writing paper or perfect typing, but it is 32 to expect legible writing on a clean sheet of paper, not a piece tom roughly from an exercise book. As soon as the applicant is lucky enough to receive an invitation to attend all interviews, he should 33 the letter and say he will attend. But the manager does not end there. The wise 34 will fill in the interval making himself familiar with the activities of the company he hopes to join. Some applicants have not the 35 idea what the company does and this puts them at a great 36 when they come to answer the questions that will be put to them in the interview. A. enclose B. rumor C. reasonable D. experience E. harmful F. realistic G. faintest H. deeply I. advertised J. virtually K. replies L. acknowledge M. join N. applicant O. disadvantage
Scientists scanning and mapping the Giza pyramids say they've discovered that Great Pyramid of Giza is not exactly even. But really not by much. This pyramid is the oldest of the world's Seven Wonders. The pyramid's exact size has 27 experts for centuries, as the 'more than 21 acres of hard, white casing stones' that originally covered it were 28 long ago. Reporting in the most recent issue of the newsletter 'AERAGRAM,' which 29 the work of the Ancient Egypt Research Associates, engineer Glen Dash says his team used a new measuring approach that involved finding any surviving 30 of the casing in order to determine where the original edge was. They found the east side of the pyramid to be a 31 of 5.5 inches shorter than the west side. The question that most 32 him, however, isn't how the Egyptians who designed and built the pyramid got it wrong 4,500 years age, but how they got it so close to 33 . 'We can only speculate as to how the Egyptians could have laid out these lines with such 34 using only the tools they had,' Dash writes. He says his 35 is that the Egyptians laid out their design on a grid, noting that the great pyramid is oriented only 36 away from the cardinal directions (its north-south axis runs 3 minutes 54 seconds west of due north, while its east-west axis runs 3 minutes 51 seconds north of due east)—an amount that's 'tiny, but similar,' archeologist Atlas Obscura points out. A. chronicles B. complete C. established D. fascinates E. hypothesis F. maximum G. momentum H. mysteriously I. perfect J. precision K. puzzled L. remnants M. removed N. revelations O. slightly
The biggest television drama of the past decade has been the story of how people watch it. Ten years ago nearly nine out of ten American households subscribed to cable or satellite. Today little more than half do. But not everywhere. On the other side of the Atlantic, cord-cutters are outnumbered by cord-knotters. As Americans tear up their contracts, Europeans are signing up for cable and satellite in greater numbers than ever. Why has American media's mega-trend missed Europe? One reason is price. America's cable industry may look competitive: the largest player, Comcast, has only a quarter of the market. But it is highly regionalised, so most homes have few options. The result is an average monthly cable bill of nearly $100. British homes pay less than half as much. Tax loopholes (漏洞) have made pay-TV an even better deal in parts of Europe. Take-up in France rocketed from 30% to 90% between 2004 and 2014, after the government imposed a lower rate of value-added tax on television services than on telecoms, unintentionally giving phone firms an incentive to throw in a cheap TV package and pay the lower rate of tax. The loophole has been closed, but subscriptions remain high. A second factor is content. American cable TV is running out of shows as studios move their best ones to their own streaming platforms. In Europe, where some streamers have yet to launch, pay-TV firms retain the rights to many of the most popular titles. Britons seeking the third season of Warner Media's 'Succession', for instance, must go to Sky, a Comcast-owned satellite firm, since Warner's HBO Max has yet to stream outside the Americas. The last reason Europe still favours cable is that American streamers have forged partnerships with European pay-TV firms rather than competing with them. In the race for subscribers, the quickest way for streamers to bulk up in Europe has been to join forces with satellite and cable incumbents (现任者). They are the ones with access to consumers and the ability to handle local marketing and ad sales. Will cord-cutting eventually cross the Atlantic? As long as Hollywood studios continue to license their programming to local players, consumers will have every reason to stick with pay-TV. For the studios themselves those deals are lucrative (利润丰厚的). In the long run, though, studios would rather bring viewers onto their own platforms, as in America. In that scenario, pay-TV firms may be left with little to offer but sport, alongside streaming bundles of the sort offered by France's Orange or Britain's Virgin Media. Warner plans a gradual European roll-out of HBO Max over the next few years. By the time the fourth season of 'Succession' is out, audiences may be watching it online.
听力题Questions 11 to 14 are based on the conversation you have just heard
听力题Questions 22 to 25 are based on the conversation you have just heard
听力题Questions 23 to 26 are based on the conversation you have just heard
听力题Questions 31 to 33 are based on the passage you have just heard