Spreading an Infection
I’ve made it a habit to smile at people as often as possible, saying some kind words, “hello, thank you, have a nice day”, whatever fits. I have the right situation as I am living in 1. big city with many, many people.
I’m doing this for quite a while now, so I’ve seen all 2. （kind）of reactions, from people feeling 3. （threaten） by a friendly word, reacting 4. （angry） or even aggressively, to people 5. faces lit up with a huge smile and gave me the 6.（impress） that I’ve made this moment good for them.
Today something happened that I hadn’t yet experienced: Two people, complete strangers 7. me, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, whom I passed on the street without 8. （smile）at them, 9. with a friendly face, looked up from their inner focus, looked at me, started to smile and greeted me friendly while they 10.（pass）.
Have I started a “kindness virus”? That would be great! It makes my day, and I’m still smiling. I hope you do too!
I’m proud of myself for this kindness I did last night. I did it ______ and did the right thing. However, I was unwilling to ______, because by sharing I am also sharing the ______ and more self-centered side of myself.
It was last night and I ______ my shift at work. It was late and I wanted to go straight home. On my way out of the door I ______ a fellow staff member and colleague. She doesn’t have a ________ and usually either catches a taxi home or ______ for an hour waiting for ______ staff member and friend of hers to finish work.
In the past I’ve ______ to drive her home as she ______ on my side of town. But last night I really did not want to. I wanted to ______ straight home, alone. And I did not have to make “small talk”.
So I tried to ______ her, walking past her, heading down, and stealing out（偷溜）to the
____ without letting her see me and ______ without offering her a lift.
Yet, something in myself was stopping me. Something in myself made me ______ her and put myself in her shoes. She had young ______ who she wanted to go home to attend to and, she could go home right now ______ I took her, not an hour later when the other staff member and friend of hers who was taking her. So I offered. She ______. And of course, she was extremely ________.
Well, I learned a great ______ last night about not being so self-centered and selfish!
1.A. nervously B. proudly C. exactly D. carefully
2.A. share B. remark C. do D. consider
3.A. pleasure B. respect C. honour D. selfish
4.A. changed B. kept C. finished D. missed
5.A. noticed B. greeted C. followed D. helped
6.A. home B. choice C. friend D. car
7.A. hangs around B. hides away C. watches over D. calms down
8.A. each B. another C. either D. that
9.A. hated B. happened C. offered D. refused
10.A. works B. lives C. plays D. remains
11.A. fly B. ride C. drive D. walk
12.A. remind B. avoid C. attract D. please
13.A. workroom B. office C. playground D. park
14.A. therefore B. even C. however D. instead
15.A. rely on B. spy on C. look at D. point at
16.A. neighbours B. pets C. children D. friends
17.A. since B. although C. as D. if
18.A. accepted B. hesitated C. approached D. urged
19.A. reliable B. upset C. generous D. grateful
20.A. gift B. lesson C. treasure D. method
How to Become an Activist （活动家）
Activists are people who see the need for change and devote their time to doing something about it. 1. If you are interested in it you can do so.
2. This could be anything from a student club to a national organization （like the American Civil Liberties Union or the National Organizers Alliance）. Most activist organizations offer different levels of involvement, so you can do whatever you feel most comfortable with, whether that means attending meetings and demonstrations or just donating a little money when you can.
Volunteer your time. One of the best ways to make a difference is to volunteer your time. Reach out to organizations in your community that do work for your cause, and ask how you can help.
Donate money or supplies. 3. If you can’t afford to donate money to an organization that supports your cause, you may be able to donate other things they need, like clothing or canned food.
Reach out to family and friends. Tell your family and friends about your cause, and invite them to get involved. If they are interested, share literature about your cause or just talk to them about what you have learned. 4.
Promote your cause on social media. You can use social media to help keep your friends and followers informed about the causes you support. 5. Also, you can invite your friends to attend events or donate to fundraisers for your cause.
A. Take classes on issues related to your cause.
B. Join an organization that supports your cause.
C. They are driven by passion and a vision for a better future.
D. If you do volunteer work, invite them to volunteer with you.
E. Most activists or charitable organizations need resources to do their work.
F. Post useful articles and write about what you are doing to stay involved.
G. If you can’t reach out to them in person, then try connecting to people online.
Food storing is common in members of the crow（乌鸦）family. A new study tested the birds outside this naturally occurring behaviour, which may have evolved（进化）specifically because it gives crows a survival advantage. Some crow species are known to naturally use tools to recover food. So the researchers tested whether the birds could store and recover a tool so they could get it at their food after a gap of 17 hours—something we wouldn’t expect them to do naturally. But they were able to instantly select the tool out of a number of unnecessary items.
In another experiment, the researchers taught crows to select a token （礼品券）from a number of items so that they could then exchange for food. Again, the birds then showed that they could plan for the future using this new behaviour. This is different from all of the previous studies in future planning, which have focused on naturally occurring behaviour. For example, we know that chimpanzees select, transport and save appropriate tools for future needs.
These studies have shown that animals can plan for the future—but they left an important question open for debate. Are animals only able to plan to use abilities that have evolved to give them a specific advantage, or can they flexibly and intelligently apply planning behaviour across various actions? Most critics would say the former, as the animals were tested in naturally occurring behaviours.
But the new research provides the first evidence that animal species can plan for the future using behaviour that doesn’t typically occur in nature. This supports the view that at least some recognitive abilities in animals don’t evolve just in response to specific problems. Instead, it suggests that animals can apply these behaviours flexibly across problems in a similar way to humans. We need to investigate how flexible behaviour evolved. Then we might be able to see how crows’ ability to plan for the future fits in with their broader cognitive powers.
1.What’s the new finding about some crows according to Paragraph 1?
A. They can store food. B. They can use tools to recover food.
C. They can store and recover tools. D. They can select and store food.
2.What are crows trained by scientists to do when given a token?
A. Reject it casually. B. Exchange it for food.
C. Save it as their food. D. Build a nest with it.
3.What do scientists think of the studies that animals can plan for the future?
A. They are controversial. B. They are disappointing.
C. They are contradictory. D. They are convincing.
4.What can be inferred about recognitive abilities in animals?
A. They develop only with age.
B. It is unclear how they’ve evolved now.
C. No animals but crows benefit from them.
D. Planning for the future helps their evolution.
Self-driving vehicles will rely on cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence（AI）to recognize and respond to road and traffic conditions, but sensing is the most effective for objects and movement in the neighborhood of the vehicle. Not everything important in a car’s environment will be caught by the vehicle’s camera. Another vehicle approaching at high speed on a collision （碰撞）track might not be visible until it’s too late. This is why vehicle-to-vehicle communication is undergoing rapid development. Our research shows that cars will need to be able to chat and cooperate on the road, although the technical challenges are considerable.
Applications for vehicle-to-vehicle communication range from vehicles driving together in a row, to safety messages about nearby emergency vehicles. Vehicles could alert each other to avoid collisions or share notices about passers-by and bicycles.
From as far as several hundred metres away, vehicles could exchange messages with one another or receive information from roadside units（RSUs）about nearby incidents or dangerous road conditions through 4G network A high level of A1 seems required for such vehicles, not only to self-drive from A to B, but also to react intelligently to messages received. Vehicles will need to plan, reason, strategize and adapt in the light of information received in real time and to carry out cooperative behaviours. For example, a group of autonomous vehicles might avoid a route together because of potential risks, or a vehicle could decide to drop someone off earlier due to messages received, a foreseen crowding ahead.
Further applications of vehicle-to-vehicle communication are still being researched, including how to perform cooperative behaviour.
1.What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A. The reasons for the accidents by self-driving vehicles.
B. The research about applications for self-driving vehicles.
C. The importance of artificial intelligence of self-driving vehicles.
D. The reasons for developing communication between self-driving vehicles.
2.What does the underlined word “alert” mean in Paragraph 2?
A. Alarm. B. Condemn.
C. Ignore. D. Govern.
3.What can we learn about roadside units （RSUs）?
A. They classify the vehicles on the road.
B. They can improve bad road conditions.
C. They take over the passing vehicles.
D. They serve as efficient information stations.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. When do vehicles communicate?
B. The reasons why a high level of AI is important
C. Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is coming
D. What do applications for vehicle-to-vehicle communication need?
To the people who came to Christopher Morley Park in Roslyn, he had no name. To them, he was “the ice cream man”. He was just two hands and a smile handing back ice cream from the van（面包车）window. To me, he was my older brother, Andrew.
Once, he worked on Wall Street. But later he spent his days selling ice cream to an endless line of kids, moms and dads in swimming suits, perhaps daydreaming of a beach faraway.
All day long, while he sold bags of potato chips, cans of soda, and all types of ice cream, he would do this sort of robotic motion—turn to the right, stoop down, hand the item out of the window and collect the money.
His drinking days were over now. They neared their end one night after he took a severe beating when someone followed him home and robbed him when he was drunk. It left him memories of pain and misery. He was determined he would never take another drink again.
One day years later, I went to look for him. I slipped into the high driver’s seat and sat quietly watching him work. Occasionally, he would ask me to hand him a diet root beer or a bag of chips for sale, all the time bending over as he worked the long line.
As I watched him sell ice cream from a van window, he taught me something about living this life that we all pass through too quickly. It was a lesson about trying to live it with grace and dignity and style, no matter what.
He died in March 1999. He had served in the Army for two years in Europe in the 1950s. They gave him a soldier’s funeral with a folded flag.
1.Where was Andrew likely to sell the ice cream?
A. On a train. B. In a park.
C. On Wall Street. D. In a supermarket.
2.What did the author think of Andrew’s job?
A. Busy and hard. B. Challenging but time-consuming.
C. Honorable and well-paid. D. Busy but badly-paid.
3.What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. The robbers. B. The painful memories.
C. The consumers. D. The drinking days.
4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To remember his brother. B. To tell a regrettable story.
C. To share a sad life lesson. D. To state his attitude towards life.
