Whatislife？Likemostgreatquesti

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更新 2023-12-05
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What is life？Like most great questions，this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple：we know of just one type of life and it's challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life﹣called ALife for short﹣is the systematic attempt to spell out life's fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners，so﹣called ALifers，think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.

So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism，such as declarations of the field's doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith，a complexity scientist，is tired of such complaints. Asking about "the point" of ALife might be，well，missing the point entirely，he says. "The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything." Alan says. "Some people ask me，'So what's the worth of artificial life？'Do you ever think，'What is the worth of your grandmother？'"

As much as many ALifers hate emphasising their research's applications，the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife's cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamoured by a concept called open﹣ended evolution（演化）.This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity，to be a sort of "novelty generator". The only system known to exhibit this is Earth's biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life's endless "creativity" in some virtunl model，those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.

Compared with the developments of Al，advances in ALife are harder to recognise. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept﹣﹣life itself﹣is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn't help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse，ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled（混乱的）progression is a striking parallel（平行线） to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.

Undefined and uncontrolled，ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be，of course，that these characteristics aren't in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps，just like life itself throughout the universe，the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.

（1）Regarding Alan Smith's defence of ALife，the author is 　　

A．	supportive
B．	puzzled
C．	unconcerned
D．	doubtful

（2）What does the word "enamoured" underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean？　　

A．	Shocked.
B．	Protected.
C．	Attracted.
D．	Challenged.

（3）What can we learn from this passage？　　

A．	ALife holds the key to human future.
B．	ALife and AI share a common feature.
C．	AI mirrors the developments of ALife.
D．	AI speeds up the process of human evolution.

（4）Which would be the best title for the passage？　　

A．	Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out？
B．	Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve，Too？
C．	Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day？
D．	Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve，Too？

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It is a typical case. A young professional has just moved to a new city. She is very active in her new job but wishes to meet people socially outside of work. How does she do this？
　　Signing up for a night class is always a good starting point. Not only is it an ideal way to meet like-minded people，it can also be a great new learning experience. Pubs and clubs can be a good meeting place but can be a bit hard if you are on your own.
　　Join a gym
　　GL-14 health club in Manchester city centre is a gym which also has lots of member activities outside the gym from charity fashion shows to dinner dances giving members a chance to socialize away from the treadmill（繁忙的工作）. Or if you want a gym with a difference，try a“Green Gym”for people who want to exercise but wish to be outdoors and doing something that will benefit the environment at the same time. The“work out”could involve such activities as practical conservation or gardening work. It’s a great way to get people’s heart and muscle working. And many agree that meeting other people and having a matter and a laugh is a big attraction of the scheme.
　　Reading groups
　　In the Reading Groups，Jenny Hartley suggested that there may be as many as 50，000 people in reading groups in the UK. They range from informal groups of friends or colleagues who meet in someone’s home or at the local pub，to discuss a book. If you want something a bit more structured，lots of libraries have reading groups and could have a broader group of members.
　　Statistics
　　The BBC recently conducted a survey called Going solo：single life in the 21st century. You can look at the overall results or search by area. It found that：
　　*69％ of people thought that the gym was a good place to meet new
　　*Pubs or clubs were considered to be good meeting places by 58％ of people in the UK
　　*68％ thought that work was a good place to meet people
　　*72％ thought that internet chat was not an ideal way to meet people
（  ）56．“Green Gym”in Paragraph 3 refers to an activity in which you can________.
A．have night classes with like-minded people
B．do something good for the environment on your own
C．discuss a book with other members at a pub
D．benefit the environment while doing outdoor exercise
（  ）57．Which of the following is a Green Gym activity？
A．Gardening work.         B．Chatting on the Internet.
C．A charity fashion show.    D．A dinner dance away from the treadmill.
（  ）58．What’s the most popular place to meet new people outside of work？
A．Pubs or clubs. 　B．The Internet. C．The working place. D．The gym.

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There is an old saying：No one thinks he’s a bad driver. Here’s an updated 21st century version: No one thinks he sends annoying (令人烦恼的) e-mails.
But, plenty of us do.
A Princeton University research found that 22 per cent of Americans say e-mail has added to their work pressures and caused misunderstandings. Here’s a guide on e-mail etiquette (礼节) to help you avoid being annoying.
Experts say there are three types of e-mails with different rules-close friends, office and public e-mails.
The close friends e-mail
You can send your lover, your closest friends and your siblings (brothers and sisters) anything, from jokes to “you got to see this!”. But bear in mind that not everyone shares your sense of humour and you may expose them to viruses.
The office e-mail
Don’t add to people’s workload. Keep e-mails short and to the point.
◆Make the subject line factual and brief.
◆Write in clear, concise (简练的) sentences.
◆Provide your name and phone number at the end.
The public e-mail
Occasionally we have to send an e-mail to a group of people. If possible, write your public e-mails with a who, what, when, where structure. For example:
Who: All members of the soccer team
What: Team photo
When: Saturday, March 25, at noon
Where: Playing field 2.
Finally, before you hit “Send”, check the following:
◆Is the e-mail a “flame”? Never send an e-mail in anger, It could stay around forever and haunt (萦绕心头) your professional and personal life.
◆Check the “To” field. Is this really who you want to send the message to?
◆Spell-check the message. Does it have an error that can affect you badly?
68. The writer may want to tell the reader that _____.
A. mails online are often sent to wrong places
B. different e-mails should be written in different ways
C. sending office e-mails is sure to add to people’s workload
D. the public e-mail is usually sent to a large number of people
69. According to the writer, _____.
A. e-mails with some misspellings may hurt the receiver
B. before sending an e-mail, the sender should ask someone to check it
C. jokes sent to a close friend online sometimes may be harmful
D. about 80％ of Americans like sending and receiving e-mails
70. If an e-mail is a “flame”, the sender of it must be very _____ at the moment.
A. angry B. excited C. worried D. disappointed

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Everywhere you look, large quantities of information in the world are pouring. This data flood is already starting to transform business, government, science and everyday life. It has great potential for good — as long as consumers, companies and governments make the right choices about when to restrict the flow of data, and when to encourage it.
A few industries have led the way in their ability to gather and take advantage of the data. Credit-card companies monitor every purchase and can identify cheats with a high degree of accuracy. Stolen credit cards are more likely to be used to buy hard liquor than wine, for example, because it is easier to overlook. Insurance firms are also good at combining clues to spot doubtful claims: dishonest claims are more likely to be made on a Monday than a Tuesday, since policyholders (保险客户) who stage accidents tend to assemble friends as false witnesses over the weekend. By combining many such rules, it is possible to work out which cards are likeliest to have been stolen, and which claims are untrue. By analyzing “basket data”, supermarkets can make promotions to appeal to particular customers’ preferences. The oil industry uses supercomputers to help them before drilling wells.
But the data flood also poses risks. There are many examples of databases being stolen: disks full of social-security data go missing, laptops loaded with tax records are left in taxis, credit-card numbers are stolen by online purchase. The result can be privacy made public, identity stolen and cheats permitted large space. Rather than owning and controlling their own personal data, they very often find that they have lost control of it.
The best way to deal with the data flood is to make more data available in the right way, by requiring greater transparency in several areas. First, users should be given greater access to and control over the information held about them, including whom it is shared with. Google allows users to see what information it holds about them, and lets them delete their search histories or modify the targeting of advertising, for example. Second, organizations should be required to disclose details of security breaches (安全漏洞), as is already the case in some parts of the world, to encourage bosses to take information security more seriously. Third, organizations should be subject to an annual security check, with the resulting grade made public (though details of any problems exposed would not be). This would encourage companies to keep their security measures up to date.
64. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Information Flood B. Benefits of Data Flood
C. Harms of Data Flood D. How to Use Data in a Right Way
65. From the passage we can infer that _____.
A. lots of data are lost because of hardware problems
B. online purchases are becoming more and more popular
C. credit cards are not so secure to use and will go out of use very soon
D. insurance firms have to investigate before they confirm their policyholders’ claims
66. Which of the following is the writer’s opinion about how to deal with the data flood?
A. Personal information should be used for public benefits.
B. The users should be given the right to access public information.
C. Companies should update their measures to guarantee their data safety.
D. Organizations should keep their resulting grade of security checks unknown to the public.
67. From the passage we can conclude that _____.
A. the data flood makes peoples’ life less convenient and more expensive
B. companies and insurance firms are responsible for the data flood
C. the information flood is more useful to organizations than to individuals
D. the information flood has both positive and negative influence on modern life

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Did you get a flu shot this year? For the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US is recommending that all children ages 6 months through 18 years receive the flu vaccine.
Vaccines battle diseases caused by bacteria and viruses. A weakened form of the germ is introduced into the body. The body makes special substances called antibodies to fight the germs. If the actual germs were to attack, the antibodies would fight them.
Because there are many kinds of flu viruses, scientists must create a new vaccine formula (配方) each year. Researchers must make a prediction.
“The flu vaccine is not as effective as the polio (小儿麻痹症) vaccine or the measles(麻疹) vaccine,” says Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
“It’s not a great vaccine, but it is quite a good vaccine.”
But a flu vaccine doesn’t work for everyone. There are certain people who should be careful about taking it. Because the vaccine is produced from eggs, those who are allergic (过敏的) to eggs should not take it. If you have a fever, you should wait until you recover.
Some people are afraid that they might get the flu from the flu shot. Scientist say that it is not possible, because the viruses in the flu shot are inactivated (灭活的). But some minor side effects such as low-grade fever and body aches could occur. If they do, they begin soon after the shot and usually last only one to two days.
60. What is an antibody?
A. An antibody is a vaccine formula
B. An antibody is a germ that is introduced into the body
C. An antibody is a vaccine that fights diseases.
D. An antibody is a special substance to fight germs.
61. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. Not everyone is suitable for the flu vaccine.
B. The flu vaccine is not so effective as the measles vaccine
C. Flu viruses create new vaccine formulas each year.
D. People can’t take the flu vaccine at anytime.
62. It can be inferred from the text that _____.
A. scientists should change the vaccine formula each year
B. vaccines can battle diseases caused by bacteria and viruses
C. all children ages 6 months through 18 years can receive the flu vaccine
D. scientists are responsible for the side effects of the flu vaccine
63. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. The flu vaccine B. Side effects of the flu vaccine
C. How to prevent the flu D. Not everyone can get the flu shot

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Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer (发动机防盗系统), and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro-processor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicle crime has changed,” says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools, but only if the car is more than ten years old. Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won’t allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key (汽车等的点火开关).
In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting hold of the owner’s keys .And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking system. If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal. Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicle’s movements via the car’s GPS unit.
56. What’s the function of the remote immobilizer fitted to a car?
A. To allow the car to lock automatically when stolen
B. To prevent the car thief from restarting it once it stops
C. To help the police make a surprise attack on the car thief
D. To prevent car theft by sending a radio signal to the car owner
57. By saying “The pattern of vehicle crime has changed” (Lines1-2,Para.3) Martyn Randall suggests that _____.
A. Self-prepared tools are no longer enough for car theft
B. the thief has to make use of computer technology
C. it takes a longer time for the car thief to do the stealing
D. the thief has lost interest in stealing cars over 10 years old
58. What is essential in making a modern car tougher to steal?
A. A GPS satellite positioning receiver
B. A unique ID card
C. A special cellphone
D. A code ignition key
59. Why does the tracking system set a 100-metre minimum before sending an alarm to the operations centre?
A. To give the driver time to contact the operation centre
B. To allow for possible errors in the GPS system
C. To keep police informed of the car’s movements
D. To leave time for the operations centre to give an alarm

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