It was a quiet early afternoon in the library, and we librarians were enjoying a chat at the library desk. Suddenly, a regular reader, who had been reading a magazine, marched up to us, gave us an annoyed “Shush (嘘)!” and went back to her seat.
Shocked into silence, we tried not to laugh. How strange for a group of librarians to be shushed by a reader! Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Well, it seems hard to explain. If you’re a baby boomer (婴儿潮出生的人) like me, you probably remember libraries as places of adults’ silent reading. These days, however, libraries are more like busy community centers, where being noisy to some degree is the new normal, especially when kids are taking part.
I am a loud librarian. My voice is naturally on the louder side. The hundreds of programs I led as a children’s librarian were filled with singing, dancing, movement exercises and cheerful readings of books with crowds of children and their caregivers. No shushing allowed!
Growing knowledge about the importance of kids and teens learning through hands-on experiences has since caused a sea change in how public libraries connect with young readers. These types of programs like board games, poetry reading and story times certainly aren’t designed to be silent.
But it’s a balancing act. Not all readers—or librarians—like the idea of a noisy library. It’s clear to me now that on the day my colleagues and I were shushed by a reader, we should have been using our “library voices” as we talked. Still, it’s unlikely that libraries will ever return to the days when they were places of silence. There’s just too much fun and learning happening. I heartily agree with my friend Rachel Payne, an early-childhood service educator at the Brooklyn Public Library, who told me, “When I visit a library and it is quiet, I always feel a bit sad. A library where conversations are happening and tables are full is a very good thing!”
1．How did the author think of the shush from a reader?| A．Unexpectedly funny. | B．Really annoying. | C．Quite necessary. | D．Very heartwarming. |
| A．They serve kids only. | B．They become quieter. |
| C．They are less popular. | D．They have different functions. |
| A．To show different voices. | B．To express the author’s idea. |
| C．To make the end interesting. | D．To promote a new reading method. |
| A．How to Act in the Library | B．It’s OK for a Library to Be Noisy |
| C．Why to Keep Silent in the Library | D．It’s Necessary for Librarians to Change |
| A．On Monday. | B．On Tuesday. | C．On Thursday. |
| A．Admission is free. |
| B．It will be at the theater. |
| C．There will be two performances. |
| A．In the piazza. | B．In the concert hall. | C．In the theater. |
| A．$8. | B．$10. | C．$15. |
Weeks ago, the longest I had ever run was 5K.What’s more, I didn’t like running, so often I would fasten my old shoes, walk out of the house with heavy steps, get less than a mile in and wonder why I was bothering, especially when there are many more satisfying ways of exercising.Before last summer, I had never participated in any kind of race at all.
At the end of July, I had completed triathlon(铁人三项) after two weeks of training. At the end of it came the run—which ended up more like a walk. But afterwards, I realized something about it appealed to me. The extremely painful fun of doing something I hated and was unprepared for turned out to be like a difficult task to test my abilities and skills.
So when an invitation to do the Berlin Marathon dropped into my inbox a couple of weeks later, it felt like a twist of fate. After the triathlon, hadn’t I been saying that I should start running, precisely because I hated it so much? The joy of the triathlon had been that I challenged my limits. It felt necessary to find out again where those limits might lie. There was a very good chance that I would not only fail but embarrass and hurt myself in the process. But there were plenty of reasons not to do it, I said yes.
Marathon training is supposed to take at least 20 weeks or more, and that is for someone who has run before. But I don’t even know what speed I’m aiming for. Finally the training plan becomes something to stop me worrying when the race seems too frightening. This happens often, as I count the days to the race and picture I fell over in the middle of a Berlin street. This anxiety feels sure to happen, but there is something equally unavailable about the training plan; if I follow it, then I have done everything I can; if I do everything I can, then I can’t regret what comes at the end. In the most extreme training week, I run about 40 miles.
1．What can we infer from the first paragraph about the author?| A．He had less practical experiencing in running. |
| B．He had difficult in walking after try hard. |
| C．He failed to find satisfying ways of exercising. |
| D．He preferred staying indoors to do exercise. |
| A．He did a perfect job in the triathlon. |
| B．Running is part of triathlon. |
| C．He knew his limits in the triathlon. |
| D．He start running because he liked it after the triathlon. |
| A．To adjust himself. |
| B．To amuse himself. |
| C．To protect himself. |
| D．To challenge himself. |
| A．Nothing is impossible |
| B．Roman is not build in a day. |
| C．Everything is worth trying. |
| D．It is no use crying over spilt milk. |
| A．take up | B．carry out | C．keep on | D．put off |
| A．regard | B．is regarded |
| C．are regarded | D．regards |
We live in a world increasingly dominated by science. Since elementary school, I have always
Before I entered the classroom, I was
A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones — “but you can call me Rob” — was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had
It
| A．chosen | B．evaluated | C．favored | D．avoided |
| A．formulas | B．puzzles | C．challenges | D．innovations |
| A．automatically | B．consciously | C．accurately | D．impatiently |
| A．reason | B．answer | C．method | D．direction |
| A．surprise | B．experience | C．incident | D．adventure |
| A．hopeful | B．confident | C．doubtful | D．nervous |
| A．supposedly | B．mistakenly | C．naturally | D．previously |
| A．unique | B．common | C．different | D．strange |
| A．mentioned | B．encountered | C．expected | D．missed |
| A．engaged | B．tested | C．persuaded | D．invited |
| A．choices | B．abilities | C．obstacles | D．doubts |
| A．objective | B．effective | C．encouraging | D．appealing |
| A．confused | B．struck | C．warned | D．convinced |
| A．pride | B．concern | C．assessment | D．prejudice |
| A．open | B．strong | C．sharp | D．ready |
Reading on the go
A standard reading app for eBooks and audiobooks, FReader supports a variety of formats. The program is very pleasant to the eye and is adjustable to various spectrums (光谱). Apart from being a reading app, FReader has an integrated translator for five languages (English, Russian, German, French, and Ukrainian), making the app attractive to people across the world. You can also select a section of the page you are reading and share it via social networks, Bluetooth, SMS and other methods.
Although it can read every type of book, AlReader is specially designed for Sci-Fi lovers. The app doesn’t support iOS but you can open many book formats on your Android phone. This app has enhanced graphical (图解的) features and a wide range of customization options that focus on providing the best quality for fictional book reading.
Nook is strongly integrated with the online store Banes & Noble, where you can find over a million free books on their website or purchase new titles for the price of as low as $0.99. You can also buy you eBooks anywhere and they will automatically appear in the Nook library. The app supports most eBook formats.
Scribd has come a long way from the document-reading app it was initially. Today, it is one of the most famous programs with over a million titles in its library. Upon registration, you get a 30-day demoaccount that lets you read all the books you want for free! Apart from books, Scribd provides comic books, audiobooks articles, scientific studies, court cases and uncommon genres that no other app offers. You can even publish your own book on this platform.
1．Why is FReader attractive to international readers?| A．It doesn’t harm your eyes. |
| B．It has many customization options. |
| C．It has a powerful integrated translator. |
| D．Users can share what they read via social networks. |
| A．Buy Sci-Fi books. | B．Enjoy great graphics. |
| C．Read on an iOS device. | D．Publish your own writing. |
| A．FRcader. | B．AlReader. |
| C．Nook. | D．Scribd. |
The young woman was feeling a little sad on that Sunday in May. After all, it was Mother’s Day and 800 miles separated her from her parents in Ohio.
She had called her mother that morning to wish her a happy Mother’s Day, and her mother had mentioned how colorful the yard was with spring arriving. The young woman could almost smell the fragrance of purple lilacs (丁香花) hanging on the big bush outside her parents’ back door.
Later, when she mentioned to her husband how she missed those lilacs, he said, “I know where we can find all you want.”
So off they went with the kids, driving along the country roads of northern Rhode Island on the kind of day—only mid-May can produce.
Where they stopped, there wasn’t a lilac insight. “Come with me,” the man said. “Over that hill is an cellar (地下室) hole, from somebody’s farm of years ago, and there are lilacs all round it. The man who owns this land said I could hang around here anytime. He won’t mind if picking a few lilacs.
Before they got halfway up the hill, the fragrance of the lilacs drifted down to them, and the kids started running. Soon, the mother began running, too, until she reached the top.
There were the towering lilacs bushes with beautiful flowers. The woman walked among the lilacs. Carefully, she picked some lilacs.
Finally they returned to their car for the trip home. When they were within three miles of home, she suddenly shouted to her husband, “Stop the car. Stop right here!”
The man stopped the car. The woman was out of the car and running towards the top of the hill with lilacs still in her arms. At the top of the hill was a nursing home. The parents were outdoors walking with relatives or sitting on the porch (门廊). The young woman went to the end of the porch, where an elderly patient was in her wheel chair, alone, head bowed.
The young woman lifted the elderly patient’s head, and smiled.
The next day the man purchased many young lilacs bushes and he planted them around their yard.
The Mozart in the Machine
Sometime in the coming decades, an external system that collects and analyzes biometric data (生物特征数据) will probably be able to understand what’s going on in my body and in my brain much better than me. What will it do to art? Will art remain humanity’s last line of defense against the rise of the all-knowing algorithms (算法)?
In the modem world art is usually associated with human emotions. We tend to think that artists are controlling internal psychological forces, and that the whole purpose of art is to connect us with our emotions or to inspire in us some new feeling. Consequently, when we come to evaluate art, we tend to judge it by its emotional impact and to believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
In 1952, the composer John Cage composed a musical piece 4’33’’ This piece consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds during which no instrument plays anything. The piece encourages the audience to observe their inner experiences in order to examine what music is and what we expect of it. The message is that it is our own expectations and emotions that define music.
If art is defined by human emotions, what might happen once external algorithms are able to understand and manipulate human emotions better than Shakespeare, Picasso or Lennon? After all, emotions are not some mysterious forces — they are a biochemical process. Therefore, given enough biometric data and enough computing power, it might be possible to hack (入侵) love, hate, boredom and joy.
Of all forms of art, music is probably the most sensitive to Big Data analysis, because the inputs are the mathematical patterns of soundwaves, and the outputs are the electrochemical signals. Allow a learning machine to go over millions of musical experiences, and it will learn how particular inputs result in particular outputs.
Therefore, in the long run, algorithms may learn how to compose entire tunes, playing on human emotions as if they were a piano keyboard. Using your personal biometric data, the algorithms could even produce personalized melodies, which you alone in the entire world would appreciate.
Will this result in great art? That depends on the definition of art. If beauty is indeed in the ears of their listener, then biometric algorithms stand a chance of producing the best art in history. If art is about something deeper than human emotions, biometric algorithms might not make very good artists. But nor would most humans. In order to enter the art market, algorithms won’t have to begin by straight away beating Beethoven. It is enough if they outperform Justin Bieber.
1．The author mentions the musical piece 4’33” to ________.| A．discuss the effect of silence in a musical piece |
| B．emphasize its emotional impact on the audience |
| C．show the significance of emotions in defining music |
| D．encourage the audience to observe their inner experiences |
| A．Influence. | B．Cover. | C．Present. | D．Appreciate. |
| A．Computers will take the place of artists one day. |
| B．Human emotions are much more than biochemical signals. |
| C．Art is the final wall of humanity against the all-knowing algorithms. |
| D．Personalized music may be available for people to enjoy in the future. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Pessimistic. | C．Confused. | D．Positive. |
Yours sincerely
Li Hua
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