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The Biology of Music
Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate.It may also play an important role in love.But what is music,and how does it work its magic?Science does not yet have all the answers.
What are two things that make humans different from animals?One is language,and the other is music. It is true that some animals.can sing(and many birds sing better than a lot of people).However,the songs of animals,such as birds and whales,are very limited.It is also true that humans,not animals,have developed musical instruments.
Music is strange stuff.It is clearly different from language.However,people can use.music to communicate things-especially their emotions.When music is combined with speech in a song,it is a very powerfnl form of communication.But,biologically speaking,what is music?
If music is truly different from speech,then we should process music and language in different parts of the brain.The scientific evidence suggests that this is true.
Sometimes people who suffer brain damage lose their ability to process language.However,they don't automatically（自动地）lose their musical abilities.For example , Vissarion Shebalin , a Russian composer , had a stroke（中风）in 1953.It injured the left side of his brain.He could no longer speak or understand speech.He could,however,still compose music until his death ten years later.On the other hand,sometimes strokes cause people to lose their musical ability,but they can still speak and understand speech.This shows that the brain processes music and language separately.
By studying the physical effects of music on the body，scientists have also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions.But why does music have such a strong effect on us?That is a harder question to answer.Geoffrey Miller,a researcher at University College,London,thinks that music and love have a strong connection.Music requires -special talent,practice,and physical ability.That's why it may be a way of showing your fitness to be someone's mate.For example,singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requires fine muscular control.You also need a good memory to remmher the notes（音符）.And playing or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is in excellent condition.Finally,when a man sings to the woman he loves(or vice versa),it may be a way of showing off.
However,Miller's theory still doesn't explain why certain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply.For scientists,this is clearly an area that needs fuither research.
The author doesn't suggest that______.
A:music requires special talent
B:music requires practice
C:music requires psychological ability
D:music requires physical ability
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Water一the Issue of This Century
The world is running short of freshwater. Populations are growing bigger and thirstier （渴的）,with the result that freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce（缺乏）.Half the world's wetlands have disappeared during the last century,while estimates suggest that wa- ter use will rise by 50% in the next 30 years.
The World Bank report estimates that as much as half of the world's population,concentrated in Africa,the Middle East and south Asia,will face“severe water shortages”by 2025.Local water conflicts and the loss of freshwater ecosystems appear large in some re- gions.
A similar picture emerges from the globe's salt water regions. Three-quarters of the world's people may live within 100km of the sea in 2025,putting even more pressure on stretched coastal ecosystems. Two thirds of fisheries（渔业）are exploited at or beyond their sustainable limits, and half the world's coral reefs（珊瑚礁）may perish in 100 years. Almost 60% of coral reefs and 34% of fish species are at risk from human activities,the Bank says.
The report concludes that there is ample evidence to justify immediate and coordinated action to safeguard supplies and use water more efficiently.
Fresh water consumption is rising quickly,and the availability of water in some regions is likely to become one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century.
A third of the world's popu1ation一around two billion people一live in countries that are experiencing moderate to high water shortages.That proportion could rise to half or more in the next 30 years unless institutions（制度）change to ensure better conservation and alloca- tion of water.
China is one country where the portents（征兆）are gloomy. The most waterstressed country in East Asia,China is exploiting 44%of its usable water,a figure projected to rise to6O%by 2020.Primary withdrawal of water of more than 60%is widely considered by water experts to exceed the environmental carrying capacity of a river basin system. Although
China's total use appears still to be reasonable,it has several basins that are severely stressed environmentally.
Withdrawals exceed environmental limits in Afghanistan and Pakistan,and will exceed them in India by 2020.In the Middle East and North Africa,only Morocco has unexploited water resources.The rest have exceeded environmental limits and many are mining aquifers （蓄水层）一bodies of water-bearing rock一the report says.
It is estimated that water use will rise by 50% in the next 30 years.
A: Right
B: Wrong
C: Not mentioned
Water一the Issue of This Century
The world is running short of freshwater. Populations are growing bigger and thirstier （渴的）,with the result that freshwater is becoming increasingly scarce（缺乏）.Half the world's wetlands have disappeared during the last century,while estimates suggest that wa- ter use will rise by 50% in the next 30 years.
The World Bank report estimates that as much as half of the world's population,concentrated in Africa,the Middle East and south Asia,will face“severe water shortages”by 2025.Local water conflicts and the loss of freshwater ecosystems appear large in some re- gions.
A similar picture emerges from the globe's salt water regions. Three-quarters of the world's people may live within 100km of the sea in 2025,putting even more pressure on stretched coastal ecosystems. Two thirds of fisheries（渔业）are exploited at or beyond their sustainable limits, and half the world's coral reefs（珊瑚礁）may perish in 100 years. Almost 60% of coral reefs and 34% of fish species are at risk from human activities,the Bank says.
The report concludes that there is ample evidence to justify immediate and coordinated action to safeguard supplies and use water more efficiently.
Fresh water consumption is rising quickly,and the availability of water in some regions is likely to become one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century.
A third of the world's popu1ation一around two billion people一live in countries that are experiencing moderate to high water shortages.That proportion could rise to half or more in the next 30 years unless institutions（制度）change to ensure better conservation and alloca- tion of water.
China is one country where the portents（征兆）are gloomy. The most waterstressed country in East Asia,China is exploiting 44%of its usable water,a figure projected to rise to6O%by 2020.Primary withdrawal of water of more than 60%is widely considered by water experts to exceed the environmental carrying capacity of a river basin system. Although
China's total use appears still to be reasonable,it has several basins that are severely stressed environmentally.
Withdrawals exceed environmental limits in Afghanistan and Pakistan,and will exceed them in India by 2020.In the Middle East and North Africa,only Morocco has unexploited water resources.The rest have exceeded environmental limits and many are mining aquifers （蓄水层）一bodies of water-bearing rock一the report says.
It is estimated that water use will rise by 50% in the next 30 years.
A: Right
B: Wrong
C: Not mentioned
共用题干
第一篇
Almost Human?
Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?
In the future robots will also
A:explore space.
B:entertain people.
C:move much faster.
D:do all of the housework.
第一篇
Almost Human?
Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,Will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They will also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows?
In the future robots will also
A:explore space.
B:entertain people.
C:move much faster.
D:do all of the housework.
共用题干
Batteries Built by Viruses
What do chicken pox,the common cold,the flu,and AIDS have in common?They're all diseases caused by viruses,tiny microorganisms that can pass from person to person. It's no wonder that when most people think about viruses,finding ways to steer clear of viruses is what's on people's minds.
Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carriers,though. In Cambridge,Massachu- setts,scientists have discovered that some viruses can be helpful in an unusual way. They are putting viruses to work,teaching them to build some of the world's smallest rechargeable batteries.
Viruses and batteries may seem like an unusual pair,but they're not so strange for engi-neer Angela Beicher,who first came up with the idea. At the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT)in Cambridge,she and her collaborators bring together different areas of science in new ways.In the case of the virus-built batteries,the scientists combine what they know about biology,technology and production techniques.
Beicher's team includes Paula Hammond,who helps put together the tiny batteries,and
Yet-Ming Chiang,an expert on how to store energy in the form of a battery.“We're working on things we traditionally don't associate with nature，”says Hammond.
Many batteries are already pretty small. You can hold A,C and D batteries in your hand. The coin-like batteries that power watches are often smaller than a penny. However, every year,new electronic devices like personal music players or cell phones get smaller than the year before. As these devices shrink,ordinary batteries won't be small enough to fit in-side.
The ideal battery will store a lot of energy in a small package. Right now,Belcher's model battery,a metallic disk completely built by viruses,looks like a regular watch battery. But inside,its components are very small一so tiny you can only see them with a powerful microscope.
How small are these battery parts?To get some idea of the size,pluck one hair from your head. Place your hair on a piece of white paper and try to see how wide your hair is一 pretty thin,right?Although the width of each person's hair is a bit different,you could probably fit about 10 of these virus-built battery parts,side to side,across one hair. These micro-batteries may change the way we look at viruses.
Which of the following is true of Belcher's battery mentioned in paragraph 6?
A: It is made of metal.
B: It is a kind of watch battery.
C: It can only be seen with a microscope.
D: It is a metallic disk with viruses inside it.
Batteries Built by Viruses
What do chicken pox,the common cold,the flu,and AIDS have in common?They're all diseases caused by viruses,tiny microorganisms that can pass from person to person. It's no wonder that when most people think about viruses,finding ways to steer clear of viruses is what's on people's minds.
Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carriers,though. In Cambridge,Massachu- setts,scientists have discovered that some viruses can be helpful in an unusual way. They are putting viruses to work,teaching them to build some of the world's smallest rechargeable batteries.
Viruses and batteries may seem like an unusual pair,but they're not so strange for engi-neer Angela Beicher,who first came up with the idea. At the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT)in Cambridge,she and her collaborators bring together different areas of science in new ways.In the case of the virus-built batteries,the scientists combine what they know about biology,technology and production techniques.
Beicher's team includes Paula Hammond,who helps put together the tiny batteries,and
Yet-Ming Chiang,an expert on how to store energy in the form of a battery.“We're working on things we traditionally don't associate with nature，”says Hammond.
Many batteries are already pretty small. You can hold A,C and D batteries in your hand. The coin-like batteries that power watches are often smaller than a penny. However, every year,new electronic devices like personal music players or cell phones get smaller than the year before. As these devices shrink,ordinary batteries won't be small enough to fit in-side.
The ideal battery will store a lot of energy in a small package. Right now,Belcher's model battery,a metallic disk completely built by viruses,looks like a regular watch battery. But inside,its components are very small一so tiny you can only see them with a powerful microscope.
How small are these battery parts?To get some idea of the size,pluck one hair from your head. Place your hair on a piece of white paper and try to see how wide your hair is一 pretty thin,right?Although the width of each person's hair is a bit different,you could probably fit about 10 of these virus-built battery parts,side to side,across one hair. These micro-batteries may change the way we look at viruses.
Which of the following is true of Belcher's battery mentioned in paragraph 6?
A: It is made of metal.
B: It is a kind of watch battery.
C: It can only be seen with a microscope.
D: It is a metallic disk with viruses inside it.
共用题干
Wide World of Robots
Engineers who build and program robots have fascinating jobs. These researchers tinker（修补）with ma-
chines in the lab and write computer software to control these devices."They're the best toys out there,"
says Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.Choset is a roboticist,a person who designs,
builds or programs robots.
When Choset was a kid,he was interested in anything that moved-cars,trains,animals.He put motors
on Tinkertoy cars to make them move.Later,in high school,he built mobile robots similar to small cars.
Hoping to continue working on robots,he studied computer science in college.But when he got to
graduate school at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,Choset's labmates were working on
something even cooler than remotely controlled cars:robotic snakes.Some robots can move only forward,
backward , left and right. But snakes can twist（扭曲）in many directions and travel over a lot of different
types of terrain（地形）."Snakes are far more interesting than the cars,"Choset concluded.
After he started working at Carnegie Mellon,Choset and his colleagues there began developing their own
snake robots.Choset'5 team programnied robots to perform the same movements as real snakes,such as
sliding and inching forward.The robots also moved in ways that snakes usually don't,such as rolling.
Choset's snake robots could crawl（爬行）through the grass ,swim in a pond and even climb a flagpole.
But Choset wondered if his snakes might be useful for medicine as well. For some heart surgeries,the
doctor has to open a patient' s chest ,cutting through the breastbone. Recovering from these surgeries can be
very painful. What if the doctor could perform the operation by instead making a small hole in the body and
sending in a thin robotic snake?
Choset teamed up with Marco Zenati,a heart surgeon now at Harvard Medical School ,to investigate the
idea. Zenati practiced using the robot on a plastic model of the chest and they tested the robot in pigs.
A company called Medrobotics in Boston is now adapting the technology for surgeries on people.
Even after 15 years of working with his team's creations,"I still don't get bored of watching the motion
of my robots,"Choset says.
Snake robots could move in only four directions.
A: Right
B: Wrong
C: Not mentioned
Wide World of Robots
Engineers who build and program robots have fascinating jobs. These researchers tinker（修补）with ma-
chines in the lab and write computer software to control these devices."They're the best toys out there,"
says Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.Choset is a roboticist,a person who designs,
builds or programs robots.
When Choset was a kid,he was interested in anything that moved-cars,trains,animals.He put motors
on Tinkertoy cars to make them move.Later,in high school,he built mobile robots similar to small cars.
Hoping to continue working on robots,he studied computer science in college.But when he got to
graduate school at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,Choset's labmates were working on
something even cooler than remotely controlled cars:robotic snakes.Some robots can move only forward,
backward , left and right. But snakes can twist（扭曲）in many directions and travel over a lot of different
types of terrain（地形）."Snakes are far more interesting than the cars,"Choset concluded.
After he started working at Carnegie Mellon,Choset and his colleagues there began developing their own
snake robots.Choset'5 team programnied robots to perform the same movements as real snakes,such as
sliding and inching forward.The robots also moved in ways that snakes usually don't,such as rolling.
Choset's snake robots could crawl（爬行）through the grass ,swim in a pond and even climb a flagpole.
But Choset wondered if his snakes might be useful for medicine as well. For some heart surgeries,the
doctor has to open a patient' s chest ,cutting through the breastbone. Recovering from these surgeries can be
very painful. What if the doctor could perform the operation by instead making a small hole in the body and
sending in a thin robotic snake?
Choset teamed up with Marco Zenati,a heart surgeon now at Harvard Medical School ,to investigate the
idea. Zenati practiced using the robot on a plastic model of the chest and they tested the robot in pigs.
A company called Medrobotics in Boston is now adapting the technology for surgeries on people.
Even after 15 years of working with his team's creations,"I still don't get bored of watching the motion
of my robots,"Choset says.
Snake robots could move in only four directions.
A: Right
B: Wrong
C: Not mentioned
共用题干
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.
The author's main purpose is to______.
A: describe the life of Hans Moravec
B: support the view that robots will play a major role in our life
C: make fun of the views of Hans Moravec
D: get people prepared for the threat of future robots
The Robot Man
According to Hans Moravec,universal robots will take over all the physical activities that we engage in,leaving us with little to do.Moravec sees four generations on the road to true universal robots. The first generation will be here by 2010 and will consist of free-ranging robots that can navigate by building an internal mental map of their surroundings.In new situations they'll be able to adapt,unlike today's mobile industrial robots.These robots will have the computing power to cope with simple speech and text recognition,and will be used for tasks such as domestic clean-ing.
The second generation will arrive around 2020 and will be distinguished by the ability to learn .Second generation robots are programmed with sets of primitive tasks and with feedback that provide"pleasure"and"pain"stimuli .For example,a collision provokes a negative response,a completed task would be positive.
Move forward another ten years to 2030 and you get to generation three.This robot can build internal simulations of the world around it. Before beginning a task,it can imagine what will happen in order to predict problems.If it has a free moment,it can replay past experiences and try variations in order to find a better way of如ing things next time .It could even observe a person or another robot performing a task and learn by imitation.For the first time,we have here a robot that can think.
By the time we get to generation four in 2040,Moravec predicts that robots will be able to: match human reasoning and behaviour;generalise abstract ideas from specific experience;and, conversely,compile detailed plans of action from general commands such as"earn a living"or "make more robots".
The Moravec manifesto（宣告）runs something like this. As robots start to become useful in generation one,they'll begin to take on many tasks in industry.Driven by the availability of this cheap and tireless labour force,the economy will boom and the demand for robots will grow so rapidly that they will soon become lowcost commodity items.So much so that they'll move into the home,where the domestic robot will relieve us of many chores.
With increasing automation in generations two and three,the length of the average working day will plummet,eventually to near zero. Most people will be unemployed as robots take over not just primary industry,but the service economy too.Moravec sees the fourth generation as an opportunity to surpass our human limitations.
These future machines will be our"mind children".Like biological children of previous generations,they will embody humanity's best hope for a long-term future.
The author's main purpose is to______.
A: describe the life of Hans Moravec
B: support the view that robots will play a major role in our life
C: make fun of the views of Hans Moravec
D: get people prepared for the threat of future robots