Four out of the 48 self-driving cars on public roads in California have been involved in accidents in the last eight months, according to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
The agency began issuing permits for the testing of self-driving vehicles in September 2014.
Three of the four cars belonged to Google, the fourth to parts supplier Delphi.
Both firms denied their vehicles had been at fault.
Under Californian law, details of car accidents remain secret.
However, Google said its driverless cars had never been the cause of an accident and that the majority of "minor fender-benders(擦撞)" had been in the form of rear-end(后尾) collisions from other drivers.
"Safety is our highest priority. Since the start of our programme six years ago, we've driven nearly a million miles automatically, on both freeways and city streets, without causing a single accident," said a spokesperson.
Delphi told the BBC its vehicle was hit while still at a crossroads and was in human driving mode at the time.
"A police report indicates the fault of the accident is with the second vehicle, not Delphi. No-one was hurt in the incident," said a spokesperson.
An unknown source told the Associated Press that two of the accidents occurred while the vehicles were occupied by human drivers, and all four vehicles were going very slowly at the time of the collisions.
Chris Urmson, director of Google's self-driving car programme, wrote in a blog post that there have been 11 accidents involving Google cars since the project began six years ago but not one has been caused by one of its vehicles.
"Rear-end crashes are the most frequent accidents in America, and often there's little the driver in front can do to avoid getting hit," he said.
1.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Self-driving car accidents. B. Motor vehicle problems.
C. Self-driving vehicle problems. D. Traffic accidents in California.
2.We can learn from the passage that the self-driving cars ______.
A. caused the accidents when driven by human drivers
B. hit other cars and caused the accidents
C. were responsible for the accidents
D. were knocked into from behind
3.The passage intends to tell us that the self-driving cars ______.
A. are just road killers B. need to be improved
C. are in good quality D. shouldn’t be produced
What will the future be like? Good or bad? A lot of science-fiction writing imagines a world which is dark and scary. In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford hunts robots in a chaotic (混乱的) Los Angeles. Planet of the Apes shows a hopeless future for humankind.
There's a word to describe the kind of future world which often appears in science fiction: dystopia. It means an imagined place where things are unpleasant or bad. The opposite is utopia. But does tomorrow's world have to be so disappointing?
No. A new project wants to use the power of science fiction to inspire people to create a better future. Project Hieroglyph brings together writers, scientists, engineers and artists to create optimistic stories about things which really could happen in the next 50 years.
It's just a matter of making an effort. Experts say it's easier to create a dystopia than write a feel-good story. There's more conflict in a world full of problems, and stories are interesting when there are a lot of problems to solve. No challenge, no story!
But the project produced a book with some promising plots. One of them is about environmentalists who fight to stop entrepreneurs (创业者) from building the first hotel in Antarctica. Well, there's conflict there and it seems reasonable, so it could be a good story.
But will these stories actually change anything or just keep us entertained? Ed Finn, the book's editor, thinks the former. He says: "A good science-fiction story can be very powerful. It can inspire hundreds, thousands, millions of people to do something that they want to do."
The influence of science fiction can already be seen in modern research, says Professor Braden Allenby. He asks: "Why are people working on, for example, invisibility cloaks (斗篷)? Well, it's Harry Potter, right?"
Time will tell how far we can go. Let's dream big and think outside the box. Who knows the wonderful things we can come up with?
1.The underlined word “utopia” in paragraph 2 most probably means “______’.
A. a real world where people can do anything they like
B. an imagined place where things are unpleasant or bad
C. an imaginary perfect world where everyone is happy
D. a wild and terrible place where no one can live happily
2.Experts say it’s easier to create a dystopia than a feel-good story because ______.
A. a dystopia needs less imagination
B. a feel-good story is more interesting
C. there is no conflict in a feel-good story
D. there are more problems to solve in a dystopia
3.Professor Braden Allenby takes “invisibility cloaks” as an example ______.
A. to cause readers’ attention
B. to amuse science fiction readers
C. to introduce a science fiction story
D. to show the influence of science fiction
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A. What is science fiction?
B. Can science fiction help us?
C. What will man do in the future?
D. Shall we live a better life in the future?
Girls do better at school
Around the world, girls do better than boys at school. These are the findings of a recent study that looked at the test results of 1.5 million 15-year-olds in 74 regions across the globe.
The level of gender equality in those regions made no difference to the results. Other causes, such as the income level of the region also had little impact on the findings. In only three regions – Colombia, Costa Rica and the Indian state Himachal Pradesh – was the opposite with boys doing better.
So what are the causes of girls’ stronger performance? In the UK, girls outperform boys in exams that are taken at the age of 15 or 16, called GCSEs(普通中等教育证书). According to education expert Ian Toone, this is down to the way girls and boys are brought up. “Boys are encouraged to be more active from an early age, whereas the restless movements of baby girls are calmed… Hence, girls develop the skill of sitting still for longer periods of time, which is useful for something like studying for GCSEs."
He goes on to say that boys often get together in larger groups than girls. Because of this they are more likely to be influenced by peer(同龄人) pressure and develop a gang mentality (帮派心态). He says that GCSEs require a lot of personal work and are not viewed as 'cool' in a childish culture.
This is backed up by research in the UK that says girls are out-performing boys at the age of five. So what is the answer? Should girls and boys be educated separately? Or do exams and school curricula need to be changed to better reflect boys’ skills? These are the questions facing educators in many countries.
1.What are the two things that made little or no difference to the results?
A. Gender equality and intelligence.
B. Gender equality and income level.
C. Income level and feelings.
D. Income level and intelligence.
2.According to Ian Toone, girls do better at school than boys because girls ______.
A. study harder B. are cleverer
C. can sit still longer D. are more restless
3.What does Ian Toone say can influence boys?
A. Gang mentality. B. Personal work.
C. Peer pressure. D. Childish culture.
4.What could be changed to include the skills boys have?
A. Exams and school curricula.
B. Ways of education and evaluation.
C. Outdoor activities and performances.
D. Separate education and different curricula.
Because Skyler and Kreed are speechless teens with autism (自闭症), making friends hasn’t always been easy for them. Now that they have each other, their friendship is stronger than what any word could ever describe.
Aside from having autism, 14-year-old Skyler is currently deaf and is losing his sight. He also has no effective means to communicate. Kreed, 17, uses a device to communicate and has multiple medical conditions. Once Kreed learned Skyler was also speechless, their friendship began.
“We were able to explain to Kreed that Skyler is deaf and also speechless like him,” Kreed’s mother, Erin Polk, said. “He seemed to understand and ever since then has wanted to be with Skyler and calls him his best friend.”
The best friends, who live down the street from each other, hang out just like typical teenagers. They eat pizza and French fries and watch movies together. They also give each other a helping hand.
“Kreed will help Skyler by leading him to places he is afraid to walk into,” Polk said. “We think his lack of good sight makes it scary for him in new places, so Kreed will always offer his hand to help him through those times.”
For Kreed, his best friend role has given him confidence. According to his mom, being able to help others helps him as well.
“Skyler has given Kreed more social confidence. By having a friend, he can 100 percent be himself and finally to be able to actually help another peer rather than being the person always helped,” she said.
Even though they're speechless, the teens communicate in their own way by giving certain looks or connecting through touch. Kreed doesn’t mind if Skyler gets close to him or touches him, which seems to please Skyler. According to Polk's blog, the teens simply want to be around each other.
It's clear that something unites Kreed and Skyler, but it's more than their autism or speechless communication. It's their beautiful friendship --- that clearly has no boundaries.
1.From the passage, we can learn that Skyler and Kreed ______.
A. have something in common B. are of the same age
C. are unable to see each other D. have no ability to communicate
2.How does Kreed help Skyler?
A. By taking him where he dare not go alone.
B. By giving him good advice on where to go.
C. By taking him to the places where he used to go.
D. By getting rid of his scare on the way to school.
3.According to his mother, by helping Skyler, Kreed ______.
A. has gained confidence B. is also benefited
C. is able to communicate better D. is more outgoing
4.We can infer that in Skyler and Kreed’s culture, it is the custom for people ______.
A. to touch each other a lot in small talk B. to talk to each other in close distance
C. to avoid eye contact while chatting D. to keep their distance while chatting
______ a clear head when in danger and you’ll protect yourself from serious harm.
A. To keep B. If you keep
C. Keeping D. Keep
If it ______ fine tomorrow, we would go boating on the Lianhua Lake.
A. were B. is
C. will be D. would be
