Google, hoping to put down a protest by employees upset that the technology they were working on could be used for deadly purposes, will not renew a contract with the Pentagon(五角大楼) for artificial intelligence work when a current deal expires next year.
Diane Greene, who is the head of the Google Cloud business that won a contract with the Pentagon’s Project Maven, said during a weekly meeting with employees Friday that the company was backing away from its AI work with the military, according to a person familiar with the discussion but not permitted to speak publicly about it.
Google’s work with the Defense Department on the Maven program, which uses artificial intelligence to interpret video images and could be used to improve the targeting of drone strikes, riled the internet giant’s workforce.
About 4,000 Google employees signed a petition（请愿书） demanding “a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology,” and a handful of employees resigned in protest.
The money for Google in the Project Maven contract was never large by the standards of a company with profit of $110 billion last year — $9 million, one official told employees, or a possible $15 million over 18 months, according to an internal email.
But some company officials saw it as an opening to much greater revenue down the road. In an email last September, a Google official in Washington told colleagues she expected Maven to grow into a $250 million-a-year project, and eventually it could have helped open the door to contracts worth far more.
1.What does the underlined word “renew” most probably mean?
A. fix B. sign C. recover D. extend the period of time
2.Why did Google employees go on rebellions protest?
A. Because they were not paid enough.
B. Because they thought Google should go on cooperate with Pentagon.
C. Because they thought the company cheated them about the Maven Project.
D. Because they thought Google should end the cooperation on a warfare technology with Pentagon.
3.The last two paragraphs are aimed to _______________________.
A. show what else Google could do to make money
B. show what consisted of the revenue of Google last year
C. show what big loss of revenue Google’s decision of giving up the cooperation with Pentagon will cause
D. show the money that the Project Maven contract Google brought last year was not large by the standards of a company with revenue of $110 billion last year
4.What can we infer from the article?
A. Google chose humanity over profit.
B. The employees’ rebellions didn’t work at all.
C. Pentagon will definitely give Google a big lesson.
D. Google is a company that is not qualified enough in the field of AI technology.
Police officer Jody Thompson first met his son John in 2015. He was pulling into the car park at the Poteau Police Department in Oklahoma when he overheard a call about a case of physical child abuse. Despite being off duty, Thompson responded to the call.
He arrived at the scene to find a severely underweight boy, who was covered in bruises (淤青) with his wrists tied. The eight-year-old, who weighed just over 25 kilograms at the time, had been left in a dustbin full of cold water.
“He didn’t have a spot on his body that didn’t have a bruise. It was the worst thing I’d ever seen,” Thompson said. Thompson drove John to hospital and sat by his side all night as the child recovered in the intensive care unit.
The following day, he contacted the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) to request he become the child’s foster parent (养父). Within just a few days, Thompson had brought John into the safety of his own home.
“When I’d seen him in that house shivering and his hands tied – just wet to the skin and confused – I knew at that moment, the only time I would be satisfied and sure that he was safe is if he was with me,” he said.
Thompson already had two sons, aged 15 and 18. He didn’t tell his family about his plan at first, but said they had faith he was doing the right thing. In an extraordinary twist, just two days after bringing John into the family home, he found out his wife was pregnant with their third biological son.
And seven months later, DHS called the Thompsons to ask if they wanted to foster John’s newborn sister, Paizly, who was born in prison. They picked her up the next day – when she was just a day old – and brought her straight home. Both John and Paizly were later adopted by Thompson and his wife.
“The example of love that Thompson has shown to this young man and his sister is an example everyone should follow,” Poteau Police Chief Stephen Fruenr said in a statement. “It’s men like Thompson that make me proud of our police force brothers and sisters. I am proud to serve with him.”
1.How was John when Thompson found him?
A. Seriously ill. B. Badly injured. C. Unconscious. D. Overweight.
2.Why did Thompson bring John back home?
A. He wanted to find a companion for his sons.
B. He thought that John was smart.
C. He was requested to do so by DHS.
D. He wanted to give John a safe home.
3.How did Thompson’s family feel about his decision?
A. Supportive. B. Excited. C. Doubtful. D. Uncaring.
4.What does the underlined word adopt mean?
A. take into one’s family B. take care of C. take up D. take over
5.What can we infer from the article?
A. It wasn’t the first time for Thompson to adopt a child.
B. John was born in prison like his sister.
C. Fruenr showed great respect to Thompson.
D. Thompson regretted bringing John home.
Jianbing guozi（煎饼果子）has long been one of the most popular street snacks in China – many people enjoy eating it for breakfast with a cup of warm soy milk. But according to a new set of standards, we may not have been eating “real” jianbing guozi at all.
On May 26, the Tianjin Catering Industry Association introduced a set of standards that say how jianbing guozi should be made. Tianjin is believed to be the birthplace of the snack.
The new standards say that the snack should be made with mung bean flour, eggs and scallions (葱). And it should be between 38 and 45 centimeters in diameter. They also state that its packaging should show the snack’s expiry date (有效期) and the name, address and phone number of its maker.
Jianbing guozi is a traditional food that’s sold all over China, and it’s even started to become popular in other countries. However, the way the snack is prepared in different regions varies. While traditional jianbing guozi often consists of a pancake and eggs, sea cucumber, hotdog sausage or even squid (鱿鱼) are sometimes added in some places.
“Different street sellers all have various ways to cook jianbing guozi, but they don’t care about how to develop it better for the future. They just focus on making money,” Song Guanming, chairman of the Tianjin Catering Industry Association’s jianbing guozi branch, told The Telegraph. Song believes that the new standards will preserve the traditional flavor of the snack.
However, the introduction of the standards has raised heated debate among Chinese internet users. Some believe that part of the fun of eating jianbing guozi is that its flavor varies by seller, but the rules will destroy its variety, according to The New York Times.
In response, Song explained that the standards would not be strictly carried out. “It’s not our aim to make it standard like KFC fast food,” Song told China Daily. “We just aim to better regulate the cooking process, techniques and safety of this time-honored Tianjin snack in its hometown.”
1.What’s the right understanding of the underlined sentence in Paragraph One?
A. The jianbing guozi most people eat is fake, not authentic（地道）at all.
B. The jianbing guozi most people eat is not made in Tianjing, so it’s not authentic.
C. The jianbing guozi most people eat isn’t made according to the newly introduced standards.
D. The jianbing guozi most people eat is something else. The seller uses the name, because jianbing guozi sells well.
2.Why are some people against the new standards?
A. It’s too complicated for jianbing guozi makers to follow.
B. The new standards will rob the traditional flavor of the traditional Tianjin snack.
C. The new standards will make it impossible for people to eat jianbing guozi outside Tianjin.
D. The new standards will rob the fun of choosing jianbing guozi whose flavors vary.
3.What’s the writer’s attitude towards the new standards?
A. Neutral.(中立的) B. critical C. For the standards. D. Against the standards.
There are campus museums all over China that offer various collections and make for eye-opening visits.
Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University
Admission fee: free (book online at http://airandspacemuseum.buaa.edu.cn/)
Opening hours: Tuesday and Saturday, 9 am – 12 pm
Highlights: Included among the more than 300 historic aircraft and space artifacts are one of the two Northrop P-61 Black Widows in the world and China’s first light airliner, Beijing 1.
Fudan University Museum
Admission fee: free
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 9 am – 11:30 am and 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Highlights: A unique collection of native artifacts from the Gaoshan aborigines in Taiwan. Some of them, such as pearl vests, are rarely even seen in Taiwan.
China Ichthyic Culture Museum at Shanghai Ocean University
Admission fee: 10 yuan
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9 am – 11:30 am and 1:30 pm – 4 pm
Highlights: In this collection of more than 40,000 specimens of about 3,000 ocean-dwelling species, the most eye-catching one is an 18.4-meter long sperm whale skeleton.
Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences
Admission fee: 40 yuan; half price for students
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am – 12 pm and 2:30 pm – 5 pm; weekends and holidays, 9 am – 4:30 pm
Highlights: It houses a collection of more than 30,000 mineral and rock specimens, more than 2,000 of which are rare ones like the museum’s well-known dinosaur fossils.
China Academy Museum at Hunan University
Admission fee: 50 yuan
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 8 am – 6:30 pm in summer and 8:30 am – 6 pm in winter
Highlights: China’s only museum to feature the history of academies and cultural education in the country.
1.If you want to visit a museum for free, you should choose ______.
A. Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University
B. China Ichthyic Culture Museum at Shanghai Ocean University
C. Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences
D. China Academy Museum at Hunan University
2.All the museums are open on Saturday EXCEPT ______.
A. Beijing Air and Space Museum at Beihang University
B. Fudan University Museum
C. Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences
D. China Academy Museum at Hunan University
3.Those who are interested in dinosaurs should visit ______.
A. Fudan University Museum
B. China Ichthyic Culture Museum at Shanghai Ocean University
C. Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences
D. China Academy Museum at Hunan University
1.This conversation is about the harm of second-hand smoking.
A. T B. F
2.The man has never heard of third-hand smoking before.
A. T B. F
3.The woman heard about third-hand smoking from her parents.
A. T B. F
4.If parents keep away from children when smoking, the children will not have disease.
A. T B. F
5.Smoking parents had better give up smoking completely because when they get close to children, they may pass dangerous matters in their mouth to them.
A. T B. F
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.Where is the speaker?
A. On a plane. B. In a bus. C. At a tourist site.
2.Why is food or drink not allowed on the journey?
A. To avoid annoying others.
B. To show respect for the guide.
C. To guarantee passengers’ safety.
3.How long can the tourists stay at the first destination?
A. 15 to 30 minutes. B. About an hour. C. About two hours.
4.What is the second destination famous for?
A. Stonehenge. B. The River Avon. C. The Roman Baths.
