11．New archaeological discoveries suggest that trade between Europe and Asia along the Silk Road pro——青夏教育精英家教网——

11．New archaeological discoveries suggest that trade between Europe and Asia along the Silk Road probably began in some form many countries earlier than once thought．The findings，coupled with a widening range of scientific and historical research could add a fascinating new page to the epic of the Silk Road．
The latest and most surprising discovery is pieces of silk found in the hair of and Egyptian mummy from about 1000 BC，long before regular traffic on the Silk Road and at least one thousand years before silk was previously thought to be used in Egypt．Other research may extend human activity along this route back even further，perhaps a million years to the migration of human ancestors into eastern Asia．
The official origin of East-West commerce along the road is usually placed in the late 2nd century BC when an agent of the Chinese Emperor Wu-di returned from a dangerous secret mission across the desert into the remote high country of Central Asia．The agent，Zhang Qian，travelled as far as Afghanistan and brought back knowledge of even more distant lands such as Persia，Syria and a place known as Lijion．Historians have called this one of the most important journeys in ancient times．His journey opened the way for what have been thought to be the first indirect contacts between the ancient world's two superpowers，China and Rome．Chinese silk，first traded to central Asian tribes for war horses and to the Parthians of old Persia in exchange for acrobats and ostrich eggs，was soon finding its way through a network of merchants to the luxury markets in Rome．
But the new discoveries show that Chinese silk was apparently present in the West long before the Han emperor started organized trade over the Silk Road．The research could change thinking about the early history of world trade and provide insights into the mystery of just how and when Europe and the Mediterranean lands first became aware of the glorious culture at the other end of Eurasia．

74．The word"coupled"in the first paragraph could best be replaced byC．
A．produced B．doubled C．combined D．contributed
75．What does the silk thread found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy suggest？A
A．That trade along the Silk Road began earlier than once thought
B．Historical research often achieves fascinating results
C．Egyptians had probably travelled to China to buy silk
D．The new light can now be thrown on ancient trading practices
76．Until recently most historians believed that trade along the Silk RoadD．
A．extended human migration into eastern Asia
B．primarily benefited the Egyptians
C．began a million years ago
D．originated in the 2nd century BC
77．Why have Historians always considered Zhang Qian's mission important？B
A．Because it discovered the Silk Road
B．Because he helped establish East-West trade
C．Because he brought back knowledge of Rome to the emperor
D．Because he travelled as far as Afghanistan．

10．Freya Stark，explorer and writer
Freya Stark was an explorer who lived during a time when explorers were regarded as heroes．She travelled to distant areas of the Middle East，where few Europeans-especially women-（25）had travelled （travel） before．She also travelled extensively in Turkey，Greece，Italy，Nepal and Afghanistan．
Stark was born in Paris in 1893．（26）Although she had no formal education as a child，she moved about with her artist parents and learned French，German and Italian．She entered London University in 1912，but at the start of World War I，she joined the nurse team and （27）was sent （send） to Italy．After the war，she returned to London and attended the School of Oriental Studies．Her studies there led to extensive travel in the Middle East，（28）enabling （enable） her to eventually become fluent in Persian，Russian and Turkish．
Stark became well known as a traveler and explorer in the Middle East．She travelled to the Lebanon in 1927at the age of 33 （29）when she had saved enough money，and while there，she studied Arabic．In 1928，she travelled （30）by donkey to the Jebel Druze，a mountainous area in Syria．During her （31）another trip，she went to a distant region of the Elburz，a mountain range in Iran，where she made a map．She was searching for information about an ancient Muslim sect Known as the Assassins，which she wrote about in Valley of the Assassins （1934），a classic （32）for which she was awarded a God Medal by the Royal Geographic Society．For the 12years，she continued her career as a traveler and writer，establishing a style which combined an account of her journey with personal commentary on the people，places，customs，history and politics of the Middle East．

9．Mrs．Jones was very fond of singing．She had a very good voice，（33）but some of her high notes tended to sound like a gate which someone had forgotten to oil．Mrs．Jones was very conscious of this weakness，and took every opportunity she could find（34）to practise （practise） these high notes．As she lived in a small house，（35）where she could not practice without disturbing the rest of the family，she usually went for long walks along the country roads （36）whenever/if/when she had time，and practised her high notes there．Each time she heard a car or a person coming along the road，she stopped and waited （37）until/till she could no longer be heard before she started practising again，because she was a shy person，and because she was sensitive about those high notes．
One afternoon，however，a fast open car came behind her so silently that she did not hear it until （38）it was only a few yards away from her．She was singing some of her highest and most difficult notes at the time．As the car passed her，she saw an anxious expression suddenly come over the driver's face．He put his brakes on violently，and as soon as the car stopped，（39）jumped （jump） out and began to examine all his tires carefully．
Mrs．Jones dared not tell him （40）what the noise heard had really been，so he went back into his car，and drove off，as puzzled as he had been when he stopped．

Let us all raise a glass to AlphaGo and the advance of artificial intelligence．AlphaGo，DeepMind's Go-playing AI，just defeated the best Go-playing human，Lee Sedol．But as we drink to its success，we should also begin trying to understand what it means for the future．
The number of possible moves in a game of Go is so huge that，in order to win against a player like Lee，AlphaGo was designed to adopt a human-like style of gameplay by using a relatively recent development-deep learning．Deep learning uses large data sets，"machine learning"algorithms （计算程序） and deep neural （神经的） networks to teach the AI how to perform a particular set of tasks．Rather than programming complex Go rules and strategies into AlphaGo，DeepMind designers taught AlphaGo to play the game by feeding it data based on typical Go moves．Then，AlphaGo played against itself，tirelessly learning from its own mistakes and improving its gameplay over time．The results speak for themselves．
Deep learning represents a shift in the relationship humans have with their technological creations．It results in AI that displays surprising and unpredictable behaviour．Commenting after his first loss，Lee described being shocked by an unconventional move he claimed no human would ever have made．Demis Hassabis，one of DeepMind's founders，echoed this comment："We're very pleased that AlphaGo played some quite surprising and beautiful moves．"
Unpredictability and surprises are-or can be-a good thing．They can indicate that a system is working well，perhaps better than the humans that came before it．Such is the case with AlphaGo．However，unpredictability also indicates a loss of human control．That Hassabis is surprised at his creation's behaviour suggests a lack of control in the design．And though some loss of control might be fine in the context of a game such as Go，it raises urgent questions elsewhere．
How much and what kind of control should we give up to AI machines？How should we design appropriate human control into AI that requires us to give up some of that very control？Is there some AI that we should just not develop if it means any loss of human control？How much of a say should corporations，governments，experts or citizens have in these matters？These important questions，and many others like them，have emerged in response，but remain unanswered．They require human，not human-like，solutions．
So as we drink to the milestone in AI，let's also drink to the understanding that the time to answer deeply human questions about deep learning and AI is now．
67．What contributes most to the unconventional move of AlphaGo in the game？A
A．The capability of self-improvement．
B．The constant input of large data sets．
C．The installation of deep neutral networks．
D．The knowledge of Go rules and strategies．
68．A potential danger of AI isA．
A．the loss of human control
B．the friendly relationship
C．the fierce competition
D．the lack of challenge
69．How should we deal with the unpredictability of AI？C
A．We should stop AI machines from developing even further．
B．We should call on the government to solve these problems for us．
C．We should rely on ourselves and come up with effective solutions．
D．We should invent even more intelligent machines to solve everything．
70．What's the author's attitude towards this remarkable advance in AI？D
A．Supportive．B．Optimistic．C．Doubtful．D．Cautious．

7．It took 100years，but finally，scientists proved Albert Einstein's theory that gravitational waves exist．
The waves were predicted as part of Einstein's general theory of relativity nearly 100years ago．It was the theory of the physics behind the workings of our world and the universe．
The idea was that the waves are like ripples in space，caused by some of the violent and energetic processes in the universe．For example，two black holes crashing into each other．
Now a group of scientists，including ones from Caltech，MIT and the LIGO Scientific，Collaboration finally found the gravitational waves．
David Reitze is the executive director of the LIGO observatory at Caltech．
"We have detected gravitational waves．We did it!"
What are these gravitational waves？
Well，imagine throwing a rock into a pond．When the rock hits the flat surface of the water，it creates ripples or waves．Space-time is like the surface of the water．So that means gravitational waves are like the ripples moving out from where the rock hits the water．
It might be hard to understand，but those gravitational waves expand and contract space and time as they move through space．And when they get to the Earth，the waves pass through，and they contract and expand the planet as the waves go by．
It was Einstein who said these gravitational waves should be observable．
But these are not huge waves．They are very，very small，which is why it took so long to find them．You cannot see them with your eyes．They are smaller than the size of an atom．
How did the scientists find them？
They used a giant scientific tool called LIGO，which stands for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory．The billion-dollar LIGO project is two L-shaped observatories．One is in Louisiana and the other in Washington state．
For years，scientists have been watching two black holes in another faraway galaxy．The two were spinning around each other，moving closer and closer together．When they finally crashed into each other，it was with such power and force that gravitational waves rang throughout the universe，like a giant bell．
Those waves，traveling at the speed of light，finally reached the Earth，some l.3billion years later．They are the same waves that the scientists announced this past week．
So，what does this discovery mean？
Our understanding of the heavens changed dramatically．

32．What are gravitational waves about？A
A．About the workings of the universe．
B．About how black holes form．
C．About how the universe began．
D．About how the ripples form on the surface of water．
33．The underlined sentence"two black holes crashing into each other"is intended to expressB．
A．how the universe begins to exist
B．how gravitational waves form
C．how new black holes appear
D．how the earth is affected
34．Why are gravitational waves difficult to detect？A
A．Because they are too small．
B．Because they are far away．
C．Because they seldom occur．
D．Because they have disappeared．
35．With the discovery of gravitational waves，we'llC．
A．create a new world
B．make full use of gravitational waves
C．view the universe in a new way
D．avoid being hit by black holes．

6．To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely strory the Christians（基督教徒）have ever cooked up．For them，the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil（邪恶的）．So when Columbus brought the tomato back from South America，a land mistakenly considered to be Eden，everyone jumped to the obvious conclusion．Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden，the tomato was shut out of the door of Europeans．
What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake，a plant that was thought to have come from Hell（地狱）．What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots which looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits．Tough the tomato and the mandrake were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit，the general population considered them one and the same，too terrible to touch．
Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato，and until the early 1700s most of the Westernpeople continued to drag their feet．In the 1880s，the daughter of a well-known plant expert wrote that the most interesting part of an afternoon tea at her father's house had been the"introduction of this wonderful new fruit--or is it a vegetable？"As late as the twentieth century some writers still classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an"evil fruit"．
But in the end tomatoes carried the day．The hero of the tomato was an American named Robert Johnson，and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820，people journeyed for hundreds of miles to watch him drop dead．"What are you afraid of？"he shouted．"I'll show you fools that these things are good to eat!"Then he bit into the tomato．Some people fainted．But he survived and，according to a local story，set up a tomato-canning factory．

68．The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly becauseD．
A．it made Christians evil
B．it was the apple of Eden
C．it came from a forbidden land
D．it was religiously unacceptable
69．What can we infer the underlined part in Paragraph 3？C
A．The process of ignoring the tomato slowed down
B．There was little progress in the study of the tomato
C．The tomato was still refused in most western countries
D．Most western people continued to get rid of the tomato
70．What is the main reason for Robert Johnson to eat the tomato publicly？B
A．To make himself a hero
B．To remove people's fear of the tomato
C．To speed up the popularity of the tomato
D．To persuade people to buy products from his factory
71．What is the main purpose of the passage？C
A．To challenge people's fixed concept of the tomato
B．To give an explanation to people's dislike of the tomato
C．To present the change of people's attitudes to the tomato
D．To show the process of freeing the tomato from religious influence．

5．weakness（　　）

4．Taking in less fat and doing more exercise will keep you in good ．（　　）

3．-I don't want to repair your car for nothing．
-You get well paid，as long as you do a good job，I promise you．（　　）

2．We don't know the precise use Google makes of Chinese famous works，but its scanning of them without permission is illegal．（　　）

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