Being Left-handed in a Right-handed World

The world is designed for right-handed people, but why does a tenth of the population prefer the left? 1.

The answer to it remains a bit of a mystery. Since scientists have noticed that left-handedness tends to run in families, it’s assumed that left-handedness has a genetic(基因的) component to it. 2. In fact, identical twins, who share the same genes, can sometimes prefer to use different hands. There are also plenty of theories on what else might determine which hand you write with, but many experts believe that it’s kind of random.

Historically, the left side and left-handedness have been considered a negative thing by many cultures. 3. In some areas, the left hand became known as the “unclean” hand. In many religions, the right hand of God is the favored hand. For example, Jesus sits at God’s right side. God’s left hand, however, is the hand of judgement. Various activities and experiences become rude or even signs of bad luck when the left hand becomes involved. In some parts of Scotland, it is considered bad luck to meet a left-handed person at the start of a journey. 4.A person giving directions will put their left hand behind them and even physically try to point with their right hand if necessary. In some Asian countries, eating with the left hand is considered impolite.

5.People come to realize that left-handedness is natural. People even noticed that many famous people are left-handed, including Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Charlie Chaplin. Some researchers find out that lefties are more creative and can deal with abstract thinking better. The left-handedness is more easily adaptable to the right-handed world as well. Being left-handed is no longer a sad story now; instead, it is a wonderful gift or maybe it is something you should take pride in.

A.In other words, left-handers are born that way.

B.Left-handedness used to be regarded as a disability.

C.The unfavorable associations of the use of the left hand among cultures are varied.

D.Why do they prefer to use their left hand rather than their right hand for ro-utine activities?

E. Why do some parents force their left-handed children to become right-handed when writing?

F. In Ghana, pointing, gesturing, giving or receiving items with the left hand is considered rude.

G. Fortunately, nowadays most societies and cultures no longer reject left-handedness like before.

Terrafugia Inc. said Monday that its new flying car has completed its first flight, bringing the company closer to its goal of selling the flying car within the next year. The vehicle-named the Transition – has two seats, four wheels and wings that fold up so it can be driven like a car. The Transition, which flew at 1,400 feet for eight minutes last month, can reach around 70 miles per hour on the road and 115 in the air. It flies using a 23-gallon tank of gas and bums 5 gallons per hour in the air. On the ground, it gets 35 miles per gallon.

Around 100 people have already put down a $10,000 deposit to get a Transition when they go on sale, and those numbers will likely rise after Terrafugia introduces the Transition to the public later this week at the New York Auto Show. But don’t expect it to show up in too many driveways. It’s expected to cost $279,000.And it won’t help if you’re stuck in traffic. The car needs a runway.

Inventors have been trying to make flying cars since the 1930s, according to Robert Mann, an airline industry expert. But Mann thinks Terrafugia has come closer than anyone to making the flying car a reality. The govemment has already permitted the company to use special materials to make it easier for the vehicle to fly. The Transition is now going through crash tests to make sure it meets federal safety standards.

Mann said Terrafugia was helped by the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision five years ago to create a separate set of standards for light sport aircraft, which are lower than those pilots of larger planes Terrafugia says an owner would need to pass a test and complete 20 hours of flying time to be able to fly the Transition, a requirement pilots would find redatively easy to meet.

1.What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A. The basic data of the Transition. B. The advantages of flying cars.

C. The potential market for flying cars. C. The designers of the Transition.

2.Why is the Transition unlikely to show up in too many driveways?

A. It causes traffic jams. B. It is difficult to operate.

C. It is very expensive. D. It bums too much fuel.

3.What is the government’s attitude to the development of the flying car?

A. Cautious B. Favorable.

C. Ambiguous. D. Disapproving.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A. Flying Car at Auto Show B. The Transition’s Fist Flight

C.Pilots’Dream Coming True D. Flying Car Closer to Reality

The percentage of women working in technology has decreased since the 1990s.Women make up only a quarter of all jobs in computer and math professions.I think all girls should learn how to code(编码).Here is why.

If we want to be part of one of the fastest growing job markets out there,we need to jump on board!Over the last ten years the growth in STEM jobs has been three times faster than that in non-STEM fields.Women will never be able to keep up with men in the professional workplace if we don't join the fastest growing fields.

Just like hundreds of years ago,people who could read and write controlled the future,and now those who are at home with technology will shape the world we live in.You can use coding in every aspect of your life,even if you don't enter a field that involves coding.You cant use coding to create your own website or to program games.You can animate your YouTube videos,or make graphic designs.Programming is now being used in every profession, including medicine and airplane design.

You can have fun creating your own website,programming a robot to get the remote for you when you're lying on the couch,photoshop pictures to change the color scheme to something better than the Instagram filters,and so much more.Coding allows you to realize your wildest dream,and create anything you can imagine.Coding allows you to rule the world.

It's not very hard to learn to code.You could learn to code on YouTube,in the Girls Who Code club;you could take a free course online on Code Academy;you could even just Google how to code.

You learned to read,you learned to drive-now learn to code.

1.It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that .

A. technology isn't suitable for women

B. it's harder for women to find work now

C. more women should work in technology

D. there are no math professions for women

2.In the author's opinion,nowadays coding .

A. is mainly used for work

B. is widely used in our life

C. is an ability of just some people

D. means better reading and writing ability

3.Coding can help you achieve many EXCEPT .

A. getting a promotion

B. creating anything you imagine

C. making program games

D. setting up your own website

Hollywood’s theory that machines with evil(邪恶) minds will drive armies of killer robots is just silly. The real problem relates to the possibility that artificial intelligence(AI) may become extremely good at achieving something other than what we really want. In 1960 a well-known mathematician Norbert Wiener, who founded the field of cybernetics(控制论), put it this way: “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot effectively interfere(干预), we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire.”

A machine with a specific purpose has another quality, one that we usually associate with living things: a wish to preserve its own existence. For the machine, this quality is not in-born, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine cannot achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the single instruction of fetching coffee, it will have a strong desire to secure success by disabling its own off switch or even killing anyone who might interfere with its task. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, super intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chessboard.

The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrate the minds of computer scientists. Some researchers argue that we can seal the machines inside a kind of firewall, using them to answer difficult questions but never allowing them to affect the real world. Unfortunately, that plan seems unlikely to work: we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone super intelligent machines.

Solving the safety problem well enough to move forward in AI seems to be possible but not easy. There are probably decades in which to plan for the arrival of super intelligent machines. But the problem should not be dismissed out of hand, as it has been by some AI researchers. Some argue that humans and machines can coexist as long as they work in teams—yet that is not possible unless machines share the goals of humans. Others say we can just “switch them off” as if super intelligent machines are too stupid to think of that possibility. Still others think that super intelligent AI will never happen. On September 11, 1933, famous physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, with confidence, “Anyone who expects a source of power in the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” However, on September 12, 1933, physicist Leo Szilard invented the neutron-induced(中子诱导) nuclear chain reaction.

1.Paragraph 1 mainly tells us that artificial intelligence may ________.

A. run out of human control

B. satisfy human’s real desires

C. command armies of killer robots

D. work faster than a mathematician

2.Machines with specific purposes are associated with living things partly because they might be able to ________.

A. prevent themselves from being destroyed

B achieve their original goals independently

C. do anything successfully with given orders

D. beat humans in international chess matches

3.According to some researchers, we can use firewalls to ________.

A. help super intelligent machines work better

B. be secure against evil human beings

C. keep machines from being harmed

D. avoid robots’ affecting the world

4.What does the author think of the safety problem of super intelligent machines?

A. It will disappear with the development of AI.

B. It will get worse with human interference.

C. It will be solved but with difficulty.

D. It will stay for a decade.

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网