How would you like to study at an American university in China?

36  the news that New York University (NYU) is opening a campus on Chinese mainland, the possibility of getting an American education is coming closer to a 37    .

But how will Chinese students deal with a very different style of teaching? 38    that encourages debate, discussion and critical thinking?

You know how kids constantly ask questions? They have so much to learn and simply 39  

information. Asking questions 40____ they are curious.

   So 41____ does that natural 42    become weaker? Not at kindergarten, nor at primary school. But perhaps with puberty(青春期) 43    self-consciousness and a reluctance to draw attention to yourself by asking the teacher questions.

  44   , that’s a pity, because asking your teachers questions should be encouraged. After all, they’ve been educated, 45    a lot more experience than you and perhaps possess a little wisdom.

  When I taught journalism at college in Scotland I 46    answering students’ questions. Some of them asked difficult ones. I didn’t always know the answers. If I didn’t, I’d admit47   and try to find out later.

  At university we were encouraged to challenge our peers and tutors. A student would prepare a paper on a subject and other students would 48       it. It was a way of 49____  critical and logical thinking.

  You can learn to think logically, 50   some of the more difficult problems would probably require advanced math. Having a logical mind    can help develop critical thinking.

  My wife doesn’t have a logical mind, but she does have emotional intelligence. An ability to empathize(有同感) with people, relate to them and 51    their personalities is also important to critical thinking.

   I can’t claim to have 52    like her emotional intelligence, but I’d like to think some of it has influenced me. If you can’t 53     try to put yourself in someone else’s 54    , how can you understand their situation and their problems?

   So try to develop your powers of critical thinking. 55    books, films, music and newspapers. And don’t believe everything you read or see. Think for yourself.

36. A. With 37. A. goal 38. A. Which 39. A. ask 40. A. shows 41. A. when 42.A. character 43.A. gets 44. A. Even so 45. A. having 46. A. enjoyed 47. A. it 48. A. refuse 49. A. promoting 50. A. although 51. A. get 52. A. everything 53. A. at least 54. A .problems 55. A. Choose from

B. As B. reality B. One B. find B. explains B. where B. ability B. exists B. If not B. have B. hated B. them B. follow B. worsening B. as if B. view B. nothing B. at most B. status B. Start with

C.    From C. dream C. It C. look C. predicts C. what C. intelligence C. comes C. Even if C. having had C. met C. what C. criticize C. discussing C. so C. read C. something C. in the least C. shoes C. Have a look at

D. In D. challenge D. Anything D. want D. requires D. why D. curiosity D. runs D. If so   D. to have D. avoided D. one D. ignore D. increasing D. however D. have D. anything D. first of all D. attitude D. Depend on

 

 

A year ago Michelle was looking forward to all the joys—and challenges—that being a young mother can bring. Instead the 26-year-old victim of a stroke (中风), was left trapped in her own body—able to see, think and hear perfectly but unable to speak or move a muscle. She was a victim of the devastating “locked-in syndrome”, －sometimes described as “like being buried alive”－a type of brain damage usually caused by a stroke, a bleed or a tumour. This means the only way she could communicate with her husband Rick and their two young children was through moving and blinking (眨眼) her eyes.

Before the tragedy, Michelle was an active mother. She suffered the stroke while bathing her baby daughter, Holly. The only warning Michelle had of the stroke was a series of splitting headache in the months before.

Following the attack, the only part of her body she could move was her eyes, meaning all she could do was look up to say ‘yes’ or close an eyelid for ‘no’. Her family have a board with the alphabet (字母表) arranged on different colored backgrounds. They painstakingly work out which letter she wants by indicating each letter on the board. It allows Michelle to explain how she is feeling and whether she is cold or warm. She sends messages to her family and even tells if her son Ryan has been naughty, giving instructions about which toys he can play with.

Rick, 24, has given up his job as a mechanic to look after their children Ryan, three, and Holly, one, and is now training to be Michelle’s full-time carer. Ryan was old enough to know his mummy was unwell but Holly was too young to understand. But she responds really well to Michelle.

To keep her involved in family life, when one of the children needs new clothes Rick will ask for her opinion using the alphabet board. Although it can take minutes to spell out each word the family and nurses wait patiently as it is her only means of communication.

Last month her best friends organized a sponsored running, which raised almost £17,000.

She has been in hospital for almost a year and has left twice, once for her brother’s wedding and once for a fund-raising event. 

Doctors say it is hard to predict her future but she is showing slight signs of improvement. She has started to gain control of her mouth and tongue and can now move her head slightly.

 

1.The devastating “locked-in syndrome” must be a disease caused by _________.

   A. being buried alive           B. a kind of cancer

   C. sudden brain damage        D. the problem of blood

2.It is true that Michelle ________.

   A. can no longer express herself     B. used to be a woman in poor health

   C. can manage her own message    D. is good at talking with her eyes

3.Arrange the time order of the following events.

   a. Rick gave up his job as a mechanic.

   b. Michelle suffered a series of splitting headache.

   c. Michelle’s best friends organized a running.

   d. The tragedy happened while bathing Holly.

   e. Michelle showed her yes and no by blinking

   A. a-b-c-d-e       B. b-e-c-a-d     C. d-b-e-a-c    D. b-d-e-a-c

4.The author tells the story of Michelle in order to ______.

   A. inform of a rare disease and draw attention to its victim

B. describe the terrible life condition of a patient’s family

C. show the wonderful results of family love to a patient

D. tell about the ever-lasting truth: health is above wealth 

 

Even though she’s just 5 years old, Cindy Smart speaks five languages. She’s a good reader. She can tell time and do simple math, including multiplication (乘法) and division. Cindy looks like an average doll, with long, blond hair, baby – blue eyes, and a button nose.

But loaded with some devices, Cindy is the first doll that can see, think, and do as she’s told. The eagle – eyed Cindy follows in the path of other breakthrough toys like Sony’s barking Robot Aibo, which was the first to popularize voice command in the late 1990s. Cindy takes Aibo’s innovations (创新) one step beyond: she not only follows instructions but also recognizes shapes, colors and words, and remembers. The effect is a doll that appears to be learning.

The toy company which produced Cindy Smart spent a decade trying to see how much human nature it could breathe into an inanimate (无生命的) object. Its engineers began creating minibots that sense light, sounds, and pressure. However, without the sense of sight, their toys seemed to be lacking in one of the abilities that life – forms use to react to their environments.

So how do the engineers make a doll actually see? In Cindy’s case, it’s a multistep process. When presented a text like “I love you” and asked “Can you read this?” Cindy identifies it as one of 70 preprogrammed commands. Then the inbuilt digital camera scans a 15 – degree radius (半径) in search of number – or letter – shaped objects. Buried in her stomach, Cindy’s 16 – bit microprocessor compares the text with her database of 700 words. If it’s a match, “I love you,” she says.

1．This passage most likely appears in a         .

      A．medical report      B．classified ad         C．science journal        D．music magazine

2．According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE about Robot Aibo?

       A．It could recognize shapes and colors.

       B．It could respond to spoken commands.

       C．It came onto the market no later than 1990.

       D．It was created much later that Cindy Smart.

3．The underlined “it” in the third paragraph most likely refers to          .

       A．the process          B．the object            C．the doll                D．the company

4．According to the passage, how can Cindy “see”?

      A．She recognizes any text as “I love you”.

       B．She is equipped with a camera to search for text.

       C．She is instructed by an engineer standing next to her.

       D．She makes contact with the shapes of the text with her stomach.

5．What can we infer from this passage?

       A．Cindy can learn exactly like a human.

       B．Cindy has much more human nature than Aibo.

       C．Cindy is the first doll that can see, think, and do as she’s told.

       D．Cindy has no ability to react to her environment.