1、课时作业17Working the land.阅读理解AI started teaching freshmen (大一新生) a required humanities (人文学科) course at Stevens Institute of Technology a decade ago. The course included Shakespeare, Descartes, Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, William James, Freud, Meadyou know, Western civilizations greatest minds.I love teach
2、ing the course, but I dont assume students love taking it. So on the first day I asked, “How many of you would skip this course if it werent required？” After I explained to them that they wouldnt hurt my feelings, almost all raised their hands.They said they came to Stevens for engineering computer
3、science, math, physics, finance, digital music production, etc. They didnt see the point of reading all these old impractical things that have nothing to do with their future professions. When I asked them to guess why Stevens arranged these courses, someone said, smirking (假笑), “To make us wellroun
4、ded.”Hearing the response, I really have to do something to make_my_pitch_for_the_course. We live in a world increasingly ruled by science. And thats fine. But it is exactly because science is so powerful that we need the humanities now more than ever. In your science, mathematics and engineering cl
5、asses, youre given facts, answers, knowledge and truth. Your professors say, “This is how things work.” They give you certainty. The humanities, at least the way I teach them, give you uncertainty, doubt and skepticism.The humanities are subversive (颠覆性的). They weaken the statements of all authoriti
6、es, whether political, religious or scientific. This skepticism is especially important when it comes to statements about humanity, about what we are, where we came from, and even what we can be and should be.If I do my job by the end of this course, youll question all authorities, including me. You
7、ll question what youve been told about the nature of reality, about the purpose of life, about what it means to be a good person. That, for me, is the point of the humanities: they keep us from being trapped by our own desire for certainty.本文是一篇夹叙夹议文。作者在文章中论述了为什么学生要学习人文学科。1Why did the author ask stu
8、dents the question in his first class?ATo win students admiration.BTo form a good relationship with students.CTo check students attitude towards his course.DTo encourage students to be active in his class.答案：C解析：细节理解题。根据第二段中的I love teaching the course, but I dont assume students love taking it.可知，作者
9、是为了确定学生们是否喜欢学习人文学科。2What does the underlined part in Paragraph 4 mean?APersuade his students to attach importance to humanities.BReflect on his experience of learning humanities.CAssess his ability of teaching humanities.DDesign his teaching plan carefully.答案：A解析：词义猜测题。根据第四段中的We live in a world incr
10、easingly ruled by science.we need the humanities now more than ever.可猜测，作者认为学习人文学科很重要，故画线部分含义是说服他的学生们重视人文学科。3What may students learn to do after taking the humanities course?AExpress their desires clearly.BGive up their previous ideas.CStick to scientific findings firmly.DGet out of set patterns of
11、thought.答案：D解析：推理判断题。根据最后一段中的.youll question all authorities, including me.they keep us from being trapped by our own desire for certainty.可知，通过作者的人文学科课程，学生们可能会摆脱自己对确定性的渴望，学会质疑，走出自己固定的、习惯性的思维模式。BSoon, Netflix, the worlds largest online streaming service, may be letting viewers choose everything, fro
12、m the best onscreen love stories to the safest path to escape a killer.The company wants to try out more interactive (互动的) entertainment, following great feedback (反馈) from its recent groundbreaking episode (集) of Black Mirror. The episode was called Bandersnatch. It let users make decisions at many
13、 importantand notsoimportantmoments, and those decisions began with choosing a characters morning foods.The company is looking for ways to include choices in different kinds of movies, from comedy, horror to romance. The idea was to give viewers a simple choice at first, so they could become familia
14、r with the technology. A viewer uses a remote control or pushes on the screen to make their choice. If the viewer does not choose, the movie just keeps playing.The breakfast scene became an Internet sensation when Bandersnatch came out last December, causing great surprise and excitement among peopl
15、e. After the food decision, viewers selected choices such as the kind of music a character would play or whether the character would jump off a building. Bandersnatch gave Netflix programmers valuable information. They were able to better understand how long people want to participate in interactive
16、 programming, and how many choices they might want to make.When viewers can change what happens in a story, they feel deeply close to the character. The technology is still in the early part of development. A researcher said he does not predict that interactive entertainment will replace traditional
17、 storytelling. “I dont know if I would do it every day，” he said, “but as part of my view, its pretty exciting.” Netflix has already produced a few interactive shows for children. “Young people have seemed to quickly like the idea. Kids dont have fixed rules，” he said. “They assume thats the way the
18、 world should be and theyll try it.”本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍了一家媒体服务公司将尝试更多的可以让观众参与其中的互动娱乐节目。4With Netflixs technology, viewers can _.Amake their own decisions on some video momentsBinteract with the characters in some famous moviesCoffer important suggestions to improve video makingDenjoy the best onscreen lov
19、e stories in thriller movies答案：A解析：细节理解题。根据第二段的It let users make decisions at many importantand notsoimportantmoments，可知，视频观看者可以对视频中的片段做出自己的选择。5What does the underlined word “sensation” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?ADebate. BBase.CService. DHit.答案：D解析：词义猜测题。根据第四段画线词后面的.causing great surprise and exc
20、itement among people可知，Bandersnatch上映之后，成为了网上的热点。6What can we infer from the researchers words in the last paragraph?AInteractive entertainment will develop very fast.BChildren are more likely to accept the products.CThe traditional storytelling will be replaced soon.DThere should be rules to contro
21、l viewers behavior.答案：B解析：推理判断题。根据最后一段的Kids dont have fixed rules.They assume thats the way the world should be and theyll try it.可知，孩子们会更容易去接受这种互动节目。7What can be a suitable title for the text?APlay a Role in Interactive EntertainmentBCreate a Movie Online in Your Own WayCTell the Actors What to Do
22、in Your Future MoviesDChoose Your Favorite Way to Interact with Movie Stars答案：C解析：主旨大意题。综合全文内容可知，Netflix让观众在视频片段自己决定一些内容，体验更多的互动娱乐节目，所以在将来的电影中，你可以让演员干什么。.七选五Curiosity seems to be within us right from birth. _1_ This is most evident in students who have just graduated from college. Below are four eff
23、ective ways to keep learning after you complete your college education.Learn a foreign language. You have always wished to learn another language, but something was always holding you back. The completion of college studies opens the right doorway for learning the language youve always desired. Lear
24、ning a second language has social, economic, and mental benefits. _2_Build your vocabulary. According to recent research, people who have superior vocabularies have superior IQs. Therefore, why not build up your vocabulary? _3_ The more words you have on your side, the more ideas you can express wit
25、h ease. Vocabulary building is not easy in the beginning, but if you keep practicing, your word bank will certainly become enlarged with time.Take online courses. Therere plenty of wonderful courses online. _4_ Ever wondered whats going on in the mind of the person sitting next to you on the bus? Ta
26、ke a psychology crash course. Always wanted to improve your public speaking? Get a course for yourself online. Online courses provide you with a more comfortable learning environment and flexibility in planning your study time._5_ Entrepreneurship (企业家能力) is a life skill. When college is over, you c
27、an have a lot of time to set up a firm around an idea that youve always thought would work. Being an entrepreneur helps you learn a lot of things, like team management, time management, public speaking, and so on.AStart a business.BTake a continuing education class.CIn fact, words are the representa
28、tion of opinions.DLearning doesnt have to be all about getting a grade.EBesides, it helps to improve memory and make our minds stay quick.FAnd whats even better is that most of them wont charge you anything.GHowever, as we grow older, this natural tendency to learn new things starts to fade away.本文是
29、一篇说明文。文章介绍了大学毕业后继续学习的几种方式。1G解析：该空设于段中，与上文内容构成语义上的转折关系，说明随着我们慢慢长大，我们逐渐失去了学习新鲜事物的欲望。2E解析：该空设于段尾，与上一句内容之间存在递进关系，说明再学习一种语言可以增强记忆并使我们的大脑保持敏锐。3C解析：该空设于段中，承接下文内容，说明词汇是思想的表达方式，有了大的词汇量，我们的思想表达也会更加容易。4F解析：该空设于段中，与上一句内容之间存在指代关系，说明网上的很多课程甚至是免费的。这里的them指代上一句提到的wonderful courses online。5A解析：该空设于段首，是一个主题句。本段主要讲自己创
30、业，并提高企业家能力的原因。.语法填空Astronomers have taken the first ever photograph of a black hole. It lies in a far, distant galaxy called M87, _1_ is 500 million trillion km from the Earth. That big number is a five _2_ (follow) by twenty zeroes. Scientists think the black hole may have a diameter (直径) of 40 bil
31、lion km and be three million times larger _3_ our planet.Lead astronomer Professor Heino Falcke was interviewed by BBC, _4_ (say), “The mass of the black hole is 6.5 billion times _5_ of the Sun. And it is one of the _6_ (heavy) black holes that weve discovered so far. It is _7_ (absolute) a monster
32、the heavyweight champion of black holes in the universe.”The image (图像) of the black hole was taken by a set of eight telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). No single telescope _8_ (exist) that is powerful enough to get its image. A team of 200 scientists pointed the networked telescop
33、es towards the M87 galaxy and scanned it over a period of 10 days. The information they had gathered _9_ (store) on hundreds of hard drives (硬盘). It was then processed to produce the image that is now a landmark in the space _10_ (explore). Professor Sheperd Doeleman called it “an extraordinary scie
34、ntific achievement”本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍天文学家拍到了最大的黑洞照片，成为太空探索领域的里程碑。1which解析：考查定语从句。根据句子结构可知，此处为定语从句，非限制性定语从句中缺少主语，先行词为“a far, distant galaxy”，故填which。2followed解析：考查非谓语动词。根据语境可知，此处过去分词修饰“a five”，表示“数字5后跟着20个0”，故填followed。3than解析：考查介词。根据语境及上文的larger可知，此处为比较级，表示“这个黑洞比我们的地球大三百万倍”，故填than。4saying解析：考查非谓语动词。根据语
35、境可知，此处现在分词作伴随状语，且与句子的主语形成逻辑上的主谓关系，故填saying。5that解析：考查代词。根据语境可知，此句表示“黑洞的质量是太阳的质量的65亿倍”，此处缺少指代the mass的代词，故填that。6heaviest解析：考查形容词最高级。根据语境及上文的the可知，此句表示“这是我们迄今为止发现的最重的黑洞之一”，故填heaviest。7absolutely解析：考查副词。根据句子结构可知，此处副词作状语，故填absolutely。8exists解析：考查动词。根据语境及从句的时态可知，此句表示“单个能够捕获到这个图像的望远镜是不存在的”，主语为单数，故填exists。9was_stored解析：考查动词。根据语境及从句的时态可知，此句表示“科学家们收集到的信息被存在了成百上千个硬盘中”，主语为the information，故填was stored。10exploration解析：考查名词。根据语境及上文的space可知，此处应为名词形式，表示“太空探索”，故填exploration。
