About a half-mile behind our Minnesota farm lay a pond. In summer, my brother Harry and I would run through a stand of oak trees to skip stones there. The pond wore a collar of black mud. It was not a place for swimming.
In late summer, the pond would be covered by a green and bubbly scum(起泡的浮渣). Sometimes a strong, unpleasant smell rose from it. We stayed away.
When winter came, the pond was once again an inviting place. One day when ice covered it, Harry said to me, “Try walking across.”
The ice looked solid. No water showed through it, but I hesitated. “Go ahead.” Harry urged. “Try it. You’re lighter than I am. If the ice holds, we can run and slide carefully on it. It’ll be fun.” I wanted to please Harry, and I thought about the fun of a long slide on the ice. I began to slide across the pond.
In the middle of the pond, the ice gave way with a sudden crack(裂缝)! I stretched out(伸展) my arms. The next thing I knew I was hanging on to the edge of a hole in the ice by arms outstretched on the ice. From my shoulders down I hung in icy water. I thought of the bottom of the pond. I knew it would be black and awful down there, full of mud and maybe rotting creatures.
I tried to climb out of the hole, but when I got a knee on the ice, it broke like window glass. Again and again I tried to get out. Again and again the ice broke into pieces. The hole widened. I was wearing a coat of heavy material. As it became completely wet, it dragged me down. I was tired of the struggle and rested with my arms stretched out on the ice.
I looked at Harry on shore. He seemed rooted to the spot. “I can’t get out!” I screamed when I caught some breath.
Harry turned and ran from the pond.
The moment I crashed through the kitchen door, sobbing, mum rushed over.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has amazing potential to change the world, and we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. As AI matures and people move further away from distinct programming and monitoring of systems, unidentified bias (偏见) might make decisions continue for a long time that cause
All too often, data sets are incomplete and the sample represented in the data set does not
Bias resulting from AI algorithms themselves, or algorithmic bias, is equally
To create ethical AI, companies need to put the
Having
None of this will be easy, but true innovation never is. By coming together and working on the problem of bias now, before it becomes a(n)
| A．theoretical | B．psychological | C．disproportionate | D．unintended |
| A．arise from | B．contribute to | C．take over | D．make up |
| A．inspire | B．match | C．protect | D．restrict |
| A．quit | B．administer | C．compare | D．analyze |
| A．distinct | B．predictable | C．original | D．widespread |
| A．restore | B．imply | C．miss | D．favor |
| A．embarrassing | B．dangerous | C．relevant | D．ridiculous |
| A．intentionally | B．temporarily | C．automatically | D．appropriately |
| A．influence | B．help | C．attract | D．predict |
| A．admit | B．define | C．address | D．publicize |
| A．belongings | B．expressions | C．characteristics | D．needs |
| A．civil | B．digital | C．legal | D．natural |
| A．frequent | B．responsible | C．peculiar | D．graceful |
| A．fair | B．quick | C．appealing | D．adequate |
| A．leading | B．innovative | C．cultural | D．destructive |
Every minute, every single day, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic enters our oceans. In the name of profit and convenience, corporations are literally choking (塞满) our planet with a substance that does not just “
Just over a decade ago, I launched the Story of Stuff to help shine a light on the ways we
The cycle is endless, and it happens countless times every single day. But here’s the
For years, we’ve been
Recycling alone will never stop the flow of plastics into our oceans; we have to get to the
Bag, cup and straw bans like those in Morocco, Iceland, Vancouver and some US cities are a great start, but also not enough. And while clean-up efforts are
Not long ago, we existed in a world without throwaway plastic, and we can thrive that way again. The world’s largest corporations—with all their profits and innovation labs—are well
| A．pass by | B．go away | C．give in | D．turn around |
| A．produce | B．pursue | C．consume | D．clear |
| A．desires | B．purchases | C．profits | D．varieties |
| A．needless | B．attractive | C．complete | D．permanent |
| A．significance | B．relief | C．instance | D．challenge |
| A．originates from | B．ends up | C．relates to | D．goes beyond |
| A．thrilled | B．frustrated | C．convinced | D．concerned |
| A．skillfully | B．randomly | C．simply | D．precisely |
| A．difference | B．proposal | C．discovery | D．choice |
| A．complexity | B．analysis | C．presence | D．source |
| A．mopping | B．screaming | C．complaining | D．regretting |
| A．Otherwise | B．Besides | C．However | D．Therefore |
| A．enthusiasm | B．responsibility | C．preference | D．demand |
| A．inadequate | B．helpful | C．voluntary | D．fruitless |
| A．educated | B．acknowledged | C．established | D．positioned |
It was a Friday afternoon in November. After school, while all other students left the classroom and headed towards home, Mike stayed to go over what he had learned that day. About twenty minutes later, he took out his schoolbag, and decided to return home.
He looked out of the window and found it was going to rain soon. The wind was blowing violently, and the dark clouds were gathering. Luckily, Mike brought an umbrella to school that morning. Carrying his schoolbag and the umbrella, Mike walked out of the classroom in a hurry. His home was more than three kilometers away. Being afraid of the heavy rain, Mike quickened his steps. After Mike had just walked for dozens of meters, it began to thunder and rain lightly. Mike put up his umbrella to prevent himself from getting wet. He didn't want to get sick because of the cold rain. All of the passers-by alongside the road quickened their steps, and the air was filled with people's anxiety. When Mike walked for about eight minutes, he saw a black car that was not far away slowly pulling up beside the road. A middle-aged driver stepped out of the car and appeared anxious. He checked one of the car's tyres (轮胎），finding his car couldn't move on unless the tyre was repaired. He then brought out some tools from the back of his car and bent down to fix the tyre. It began to rain heavily. But the man didn't return to his car. Instead, he continued to fix his car. He was alone, without an umbrella over his head. The drops of the rain coldly hit the trees' leaves, the ground, and also the man. The raindrops soon left big marks on his gray coat. Seeing that, Mike somehow felt quite sorry for the man. He couldn't help thinking, “If my father is trapped in such a situation, how upset he'll be! And how strongly he may wish that some kind person could help him!”
Thinking of that, Mike ran to the man, without hesitation.
Before long, Mike's shoulder got wet due to the rain.
The environmental practices of big businesses are shaped by a fundamental fact that offends our sense of justice. A business may maximize the amount of money it makes by damaging the environment and hurting people. When government regulation is effective, and the public is environmentally aware, environmentally clean big businesses may out-compete dirty ones, but the reverse is likely to be true if government regulation is ineffective and the public doesn’t care.
It is easy to blame a business for helping itself by hurting other people. But blaming alone is unlikely to produce change. It ignores the fact that businesses are not charities but profit-making companies, and they are under obligation to maximize profits for shareholders by legal means.
Our blaming of businesses also ignores the ultimate responsibility of the public for creating the conditions that let a business profit through destructive environmental policies. In the long run, it is the public, either directly or through its politicians, that has the power to make such destructive policies unprofitable and illegal, and to make sustainable environmental policies profitable.
The public can do that by accusing businesses of harming them. The public may also make their opinion felt by choosing to buy sustainably harvested products; by preferring their governments to award valuable contracts to businesses with a good environmental track record; and by pressing their governments to pass and enforce laws and regulations requiring good environmental practices.
In turn, big businesses can exert powerful pressure on any suppliers that might ignore public or government pressure. For instance, after the US public became concerned about the spread of a disease, transmitted to humans through infected meat, the US government introduced rules demanding that the meat industry abandon practices associated with the risk of the disease spreading. But the meat packers refused to follow these, claiming that they would be too expensive to obey. However, when a fast-food company made the same demands after customer purchases of its hamburgers dropped, the meat industry followed immediately. The public’s task is therefore to identify which links in the supply chain are sensitive to public pressure.
Some readers may be disappointed or outraged that I place the ultimate responsibility for business practices harming the public on the public itself. I also believe that the public must accept the necessity for higher prices for products to cover the added costs of sound environmental practices. My views may seem to ignore the belief that businesses should act in accordance with moral principles even if this leads to a reduction in their profits. But I think we have to recognize that, throughout human history, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found that not only did moral principles need to be made explicit, they also needed to be enforced.
My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish. I believe that changes in public attitudes are essential for changes in businesses’ environmental practices.
1．The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that environmental damage__________.| A．is the result of ignorance of the public |
| B．requires political action if it is to be stopped |
| C．can be prevented by the action of ordinary people |
| D．can only be stopped by educating business leaders |
| A．reduce their own individual impact on the environment |
| B．learn more about the impact of business on the environment |
| C．raise awareness of the effects of specific environmental disasters |
| D．influence the environmental policies of businesses and governments |
| A．Meat packers stopped supplying hamburgers to fast-food chains. |
| B．Meat packers persuaded the government to reduce their expenses. |
| C．A fast-food company forced their meat suppliers to follow the law. |
| D．A fast-food company encouraged the government to introduce regulations. |
| A．Will the world survive the threat caused by big businesses? |
| B．How can big businesses be encouraged to be less driven by profit? |
| C．What environmental dangers are caused by the greed of businesses? |
| D．Are big businesses to blame for the damage they cause to the environment? |
As we get older there are certain gifts standing out in our memories for a variety of reasons.
One gift I was given and treasured most was a doll named Patsy. She wasn’t originally mine but was my younger sister’s Christmas gift, but on holding Patsy I immediately fell in love with her and couldn’t bear to part with het. Luckily, my sister was quite happy to exchange dolls. From then on Patsy was my baby and I continued to love her dearly and would have died for her.
Another gift I offered my Mom has been shining in my mind. On a Saturday, I was on my way to the local cinema when I happened to glimpse(一瞥) at the window of the gift shop at the corner of our street. There were lovely gloves, pretty flowered handkerchiefs, and rose patterned teacups and saucers, all in pretty boxes. Seeing all these lovely gifts reminded me that it would soon be Mother’s Day and my mother’s birthday. Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if I could give my mother something really special, something I’d bought myself? So I stepped inside the shop and admired a dressing table set, which was a green cut glass with ornamental tray(装饰托盘) and several matching pieces. I was sure my mother would love it.
The lady must have seen my disappointment when she told me the price. But she had a suggestion which immediately lifted my spirits. She pulled out a large notebook and wrote my name in it and the gift I wanted to buy, and in return I paid her a penny from my pocket money. It meant no sweets that day but I didn’t care. At the age of nine, I’d made my very first lay-by(分期付款)…and felt like a grown up. From then on, every Saturday I dropped in at the shop on schedule and paid a penny, which the lady dutifully recorded in her notebook.
The day before Mother’s Day I paid the last two pence.
Too excited to wait till Sunday, I excitedly presented the gift to my mother.
The vaccine (疫苗) news continues to seem very encouraging. Britain started its mass vaccination effort and the U.S. isn’t far behind.
But there is still one dark cloud hanging over the vaccines that many people don’t yet understand.
The vaccines will be much less effective at preventing death and illness in 2021 if they are introduced into a population where the coronavirus is still severe—as is now the case in the U.S.
A vaccine is like a fire hose (消防龙头). A vaccine that’s 95 percent effective, as Moderna’s and Pfizer’s versions appear to be, is a powerful fire hose. But the size of a fire is still a bigger determinant of how much destruction occurs.
At the current level of infection in the U.S. (about 200,000 confirmed new infections per day), a vaccine that is 95 percent effective—distributed at the expected pace—would still leave a terrible toll (伤亡人数) in the six months after it was introduced. Almost 10 million or so Americans would catch the virus, and more than 160,000 would die.
This is far worse than the toll in a different situation where the vaccine was only 50 percent effective but the U.S. had reduced the infection rate to its level in early September (about 35,000 new daily cases). In that case, the death toll in the next six months would be kept to about 60,000.
It’s worth pausing for a moment on this comparison. If the U.S. had maintained its infection rate from September and Moderna and Pfizer had announced this fall that their vaccines were only 50 percent effective, a lot of people would have panicked.
But the reality we have is actually worse.
How could this be? No vaccine can get rid of a pandemic immediately, just as .no fire hose can put out a forest fire. While the vaccine is being distributed, the virus continues to do damage.
There is one positive way to look at this: Measures that reduce the virus’s spread—like mask-wearing, social distancing and rapid-result testing—can still have great consequences. They can save more than 100,000 lives in coming months.
1．How does the author mainly present his argument?| A．By giving definitions. | B．By categorizing facts. |
| C．By drawing comparisons. | D．By appealing to emotions. |
| A．Improving the effectiveness of the vaccines. |
| B．Producing a greater variety of vaccines. |
| C．Looking at the situation in a positive way. |
| D．Wearing masks and practicing social distancing. |
| A．The vaccines are less effective than expected. |
| B．The US have controlled the spread of the coronavirus. |
| C．The death toll in the next six months will be about 60,000. |
| D．Fewer people will die if the infection rate is lower. |
| A．The vaccine is the hope of wiping out the pandemic. |
| B．The public are optimistic about the effects of the vaccine. |
| C．The public are concerned about the high infection rate. |
| D．The distribution of vaccine will end the pandemic quickly. |
A shop owner placed a sign above his door that read:”Puppies for Sale”. Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children,and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner.
“How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked in a low voice.
The store owner replied, Anywhere from $ 30 to $ 50.
The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “But I only have $ 2.37,” he said. “Can I please look at them?”
The shop owner smiled and in no second whistled. Out of the kennel came a lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping（跛行）puppy and said, “What's wrong with that little dog?”
The shop owner sighed and explained that the vet had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn't have a hip socket（髋臼）. It would always limp.It would always be lame.
Hearing these words, the little boy became excited, “That is the very puppy that I want to buy.”
“No, you don't want to buy that little dog. If you really want him,I'll just give him to you,” the shop owner said, a little bit confused. The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner's eyes, pointing his finger, and said, “I don't want you to give him to me.”
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