Do you know electricity can change the way we taste food? Proving this fact is a revolutionary electric fork designed by Japanese researchers that can make any dish taste salty.
According to Hiromi Nakamura, a Post Doc Research Fellow at Tokyo’s Meiji University, the technology can be very useful for people on special diets. Patients with high blood pressure, for instance, can
easily go on a low-salt diet and still enjoy delicious food. And with the fork, there’s absolutely no risk of over-salting their food. Luckily, the voltage(电压) is so small that there is no risk of electrocution(触电) either.
The idea of adding electricity to food was first exposed as an experiment at the Computer Human Interaction Conference in Austin, Texas, in 2012. Nakamura and her team connected a wire to a 9-volt battery and passedit through a straw placed in a cup of sweet lemonade. Volunteers reported that the charged lemonade tasted ‘blander’, because the electricity createdthe taste of salt.
Nakamura has improved the technology to be able to transfer an electric charge to food through forks and chopsticks. “The metallic part of the fork is one electrode（电极）, and the handle is theother,” Nakamura explained. “When you take a piece of food with the fork and put it in your mouth, you connect the circuit. When you remove the fork from your mouth, you disconnect the circuit. So it actually works as a switch.”
Simon Klose, host of food program Munchies, who recently visited Nakamura to try out the fork himself, called this form of ‘food hacking’ one of the greatest eating experiences he’d ever had. “When I first heard of electric food, it sounded scary,” he said. He later continued to use a charged fork to eat pieces of fried chicken, and found that the saltiness considerably increased as the electricity was connected.
Nakamura has been eating ‘electric’ food for the past three to four years in an attempt to understand it better. “For me, ‘food hacking’ is about strengthening or weakening real food,” she said. “It may seem like we’re cooking but we’re actually working on the human senses.”
5. The electric fork may benefit people who__________.
A. need to go on a diet B. have high blood pressure C. prefer food free of salt D. show interest in tasty food 6. Paragraph 4 mainly tells us _________.
A. how the electric fork works B. what makes the circuit connected C. how the technology was improved D. why the electric fork was invented 7. From the passage, we learn that the electric fork______.
A. creates virtual taste B. changes people’s diets C. helps cure diseases D. replaces salt in cooking
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C
Many people think that communication is the source of most of their work-related conflicts, but they’d be wrong. In a work context, more conflicts come from structural relationships and personal differences than communication itself.
Organizations create job descriptions, specialized work groups, and authority relationships, all with the intent to improve coordination(协调). But in doing so, they separate people and create the potential for conflicts. For instance, departments within organizations have diverse goals. Purchasing is concerned with the timely acquisition of materials and supplies at low prices; quality control’s attention is focused on improving quality and ensuring that the organization’s products meet standard…When groups within an organization seek diverse ends, there is increased potential for conflicts.
Have you ever met people to whom you took an immediate disliking? Most of the opinions they expressed, you disagreed with. Even insignificant characteristics---the way they cocked their head when they talked or smirked when they smiled---annoyed you. We’ve all met people like that, and many of us have to work with people like this.
Today’s organizations are increasingly diverse in terms of age, gender and race. So, not surprisingly, employees differ on the importance they place on general values such as responsibility, equality and ambition. They also differ on job-related values such as the importance of family over work or freedom against authority. These differences often surface in work-related interactions and create significant interpersonal conflicts.
The above doesn’t mean that communication can’t be a source of conflicts. It can. Differing word connotations, insufficient exchange of information, poor listening skills, and the like, create conflicts. But the belief that “we can deal with our differences if we just communicate more” is not necessarily true. The evidence actually shows that the potential for conflicts increases when there is too much communication as well as when there’s too little.
So when you’re trying to manage conflicts, take a thoughtful look at their source. It’s more likely that the conflict is coming from work-related requirements, personality differences, or dissimilar values, it is from poor communication. And that might influence the actions you take to resolve the conflict.
8. From Para.2, we know that in anorganization, .
A. job descriptions can effectively improve cooperation B. different goals of branches may cause disagreements C. division of labor usually results in harmonious relationship D. the setting of different departments is to encourage competition 9. The author holds that .
A. fewer conflicts will appear if we communicate more B. most people share similar values in the same organization C.communication is just one of the reasons for most conflicts D. we’d better calm down before taking action when in conflict
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10. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
A. B.
C. D.
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp:Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion
D
No one knows what the future will look like. New technology and climate change might make the world more different than we can possibly imagine. So we had better keep an open mind and hope for the best.
We have no idea what the job market will look like in 2050. It is generally agreed that machine learning and robotics will change almost every line of work—from producing yoghurt to teaching yoga. However, there are conflicting views about the nature of the change and its urgency. Some believe that within a mere decade or two, billions of people will become economically redundant（多余的）. Others maintain that even in the long run automation will keep creating new jobs and greater prosperity for all.
So are we on an edge of a terrifying sudden change, or are such forecasts yet another example of ill-founded Luddite hysteria（勒德分子的歇斯底里）? It is hard to say. Fears that automation will create massive unemployment go back to the nineteenth century, and so far they have never materialized. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, for every job lost to a machine at least one new job was created, and the average standard of living has increased dramatically.
Yet there are good reasons to think that this time it is different, and that machine learning will be a real game changer. Humans have two types of abilities—physical and cognitive（认知的）. In the past, machines competed with humans mainly in raw physical abilities, while humans still had a great advantage over machines in cognition.
Hence as manual jobs in agriculture and industry were automated, new service jobs emerged that required the kind of cognitive skills only humans possessed: learning, analysing, communicating and above all understanding human emotions. However, AI is now beginning to
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outperform humans in more and more of these skills, including in the understanding of human emotions.
We don’t know of any third field of activity—beyond the physical and the cognitive—where humans will always maintain a secure advantage. It is crucial to realize that the AI revolution is not just about computers getting faster and smarter. It is fueled by breakthroughs in the life sciences and the social sciences as well. The better we understand the biochemical mechanisms that support human emotions, desires and choices, the better computers can become in analyzing human behavior, predicting human decisions, and replacing human drivers, bankers and lawyers.
In the last few decades, research in neuroscience and behavioural economics allowed scientists to gain a much better understanding of how humans make decisions. It turned out that our choices of everything from food to mates result not from some mysterious free will, but rather from billions of neurons calculating probabilities within a split second. Boasting‘human intuition’（直觉）is actually pattern recognition.
11. The second paragraph tells us about ____.
A. predictions about the role of machine learning in future job market B. the speed at which robotics will take the place of human beings C. the urgency of creating new jobs with the help of automation D. the nature of applying new technology to every line of work
12. The underlined expression “ill-founded” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ___.
A. unidentified B. badly-managed C. unproven D. ill-intended 13. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Lack of job security might force people to pick up machine learning.
B. There is possibility that AI can perform a consulting role as a psychologist. C. The use of automation will make humans more needed than ever before. D. A real game changer likes in making computers become faster and smarter. 14. What can be concluded from the passage?
A. AI revolution is similar to the industrial revolution in causing unemployment. B. It’s crucial that humans maintain an advantage in the third field of activity. C. The process of human decision is controlled by free will rather than neurons. D. The nature of preference at first sight is the result of recognizing patterns.
E
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项 为多余选项。
Apathy
Apathy is a state of lacking interest, enthusiasm or concern. __15__ They may also exhibit unfeelingness. Christians have condemned apathy as a lack of love and devotion to God and His works.
__16__ Also meaning “absence of passion” in Greek, the term “apatheia” was used by the Stoics(禁欲主义者) to show a desirable state of indifference towards events and things which lie outside one’s control.
The modern concept of apathy became well known after World War I, when it was called
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