the culture of the museum. It ___38___ swept the Internet by its humorous style and interesting content. At the same time, the Palace Museum has published several mobile apps, one of which saw over 200,000 downloads just two weeks after its ___39___ in 2013. Its self-promotion has achieved great results. In 2012, the museum saw 15 million visitors. And it received 16 million visitors last year.
The museum is also a popular ___40___ among foreign leaders. For example, US President Donald Trump and his wife visited the Palace Museum on Nov 8. III. Reading Comprehension Section A
Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
AlphaGo has struck again, defeating Ke Jie, the world’s number one Go player, 3-0. After his defeat, the young Chinese prodigy said AlphaGo sees the ___41___ of Go while he could only see a small area around him. This win, coupled with last year’s victory over Lee Se-dol, shines a light on the awe-inspiring ___42___ of technology and places AlphaGo among the greatest Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems created to date.
The AI industry is certainly making great advancements, constantly surprising the public with new and interesting tools and making life ___43___. Twenty years ago, just connecting to the Internet was a ___44___. Now, we can do just about anything on our phones, from online banking to ___45___ shows. The shifting sands of technology have placed so many paths in front of humanity that it is hard to ___46___ even the immediate future.
We may talk about how AI can make our lives better, but we also consider the risks. Many stories and films ___47___ around the theme of AI vs. human. One that comes to my mind now is The Terminator. The film is about an AI system called Skynet, which was ___48___ to protect humans. What the programmers did not expect was that Skynet began to think. It came to the conclusion that humans were a danger to its existence,
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so it started a global nuclear war and tried to “___49___” humanity.
AlphaGo’s recent achievements highlight the ___50___ that technology and AI can bring about. They also serve to remind us of the ___51___ and risks we may not have had time to think about. Some of us used to ___52___ the possibility of creating an actual “thinking” AI system, or believe that humans will always be able to ___53___ an AI system, but certain facts have now been placed in front of us. All that’s left to be done is to ___54___ the actual “thinking” part of advanced AI systems like AlphaGo to more fields. Once that happens, human beings will be pretty much ___55___. If we do not fully understand the risks of AI systems, we might be flying too close to the “sun”, and like Icarus in Greek mythology, we will fall.
41. A. fun
B. secret
C. universe C. risks
D. potential
D. threats
D. faster
42. A. intelligence 43. A. easier 44. A. mess 45. A. live 46. A. tell encounter 47. A. reveal 48. A. processed 49. A. help investigate 50. A. benefits incident 51. A. questions disasters 52. A. analyze 53. A. outsmart 54. A. adopt control
B. advancements B. slower
C. harder
B. headache B. instant
B. frame
C. loss
D. leisure
D. direct
D.
C. immediate
C. predict
B. reverse B. modified
C. resolve D. revolve
D. developed D.
C. introduced C. terminate
B. isolate
B. possibilities C. signals D.
B. tragedies C. treasures D.
B. develop
C. doubt
D. preview
B. overhead
C. outnumber
D. overtake
D.
B. shrink C. adapt
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55. A. intelligent
Section B
B. powerful C. patriotic D. outdated
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read. (A)
In many countries of the world, people can confidently tell you the meaning of their town or city, but most people who live in Manchester, Oxford or Birmingham would not be able to explain what the name of their city means. The name of every British town and city, however, has a long history.
Two thousand years ago, most people living in Britain were Celts. Even the word “Britain” is Celtic. Then the Romans arrived and built camps which became cities called “castra”. This is why there are so many place names in England which end in “-chester” or “-caster” –Manchester, for example.
The Romans never reached Wales or Scotland, and many place names there are Celtic. For example, Welsh place names that begin with “Llan” come from the Celtic word for church.
After the Romans left Britain, it was attacked by tribes called the Anglo-Saxons who were from the area of Europe that is now Germany and Holland. Without the Roman army, it was impossible to protect the country from these people. The names of their villages often ended in “-ham” or “-ton”. Some got their name from the leader of the village, so Birmingham, for example, means “Beormund’s village”.
The Anglo-Saxons were farmers and the landscape was very important to them, so we have villages called Upton (“village on a hill” –a good place to build a village) and Moreton (“village by lake”, where floods could make life tough). Place names that end in “-ford” (a place where you could cross a river) also describe the location of Anglo-Saxon villages.
Twelve hundred years ago, the Vikings came to England from Scandinavia. They
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traded with the Anglo-Saxons but lived in their own villages. These often ended in “-by” or “-thorpe”. The name “Kirkby” means “a village with a church” and Scunthorpe was the village of a man called Skuma.
Finally, in 1066, England became Norman –the Normans gave us the place name “grange”, which means farm.
And how about London? Experts cannot agree. The Romans called the city Londinium, but they were not the first inhabitants. People once believed that the United Kingdom’s capital city got its name from the castle of a King called Lud, but this is very unlikely. Our best guess today is that the name comes from a Celtic word meaning a fastflowing river. Like a number of British place names, its history is lost in time.
56. The origin of British place names are unfamiliar to many local people because of _______.
A. the death of the country’s ancient languages. B. the long lost history of the names. C. their lack of interest in the names. D. the frequent changes to the names.
57. According to the article, Stratford-upon-Avon is most likely a town _______. A. on a hill B. near a castle C. built beside a river D. with a church
58. Which of the following shows the correct order of the arrival of inhabitants in Britain?
A. The Celts –The Romans – The Vikings –The Normans –The Anglo Saxons B. The Romans –The Celts –The Vikings –The Anglo Saxons–The Normans C. The Celts –The Romans –The Anglo Saxons–The Vikings –The Normans
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D. The Romans –The Anglo Saxons–The Celts –The Normans –The Vikings
59. According to the text, where did the name for London come from? A. It is puzzling and hard to confirm for sure. B. It comes from the term for a fast-flowing river. C. The name is short for Londinium. D. The name is from the castle of a King.
(B)
Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
2016 High School Video Contest Here’s the Scoop on Pet Waste! Submission Deadline July 27, 2016.
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