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题型:阅读理解 题类:真题 难易度:普通

Freedom and Responsibility
Freedom's challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.
Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great
civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies, one very
powerful man ruling over helpless masses.
In Greece, in Athens (雅典), a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians
willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free
men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would
be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert.The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he
could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was
freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the
welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his
safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control
themselves and would take responsibility for the state.
But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do
not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place
without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It
had been the Athenian' s pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never
entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer
who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state, the state was to give to them.
What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the
primary object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing.
Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had
a right to share.
Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be
only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the
common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be
had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of
freedom and was never to have it again.
But, “the excellent becomes the permanent”, Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Madison, referred to: “The capacity (能力) of mankind for
self-government.” No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest
background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age
cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man's thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of
action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so
sometime.
(1)、What does the underlined word “tyrannies” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A、Countries where their people need help.  B、Powerful states with higher civilization. C、Splendid empires where people enjoy freedom.  D、Governments ruled with absolute power.
(2)、People believing in freedom are those who________ .

A、regard their life as their own business  B、seek gains as their primary object C、behave within the laws and value systems D、 treat others with kindness and pity
(3)、What change in attitude took place in Athens?

A、The Athenians refused to take their responsibility. B、The Athenians no longer took pride in the city. C、The Athenians benefited spiritually from the government. D、The Athenians looked on the government as a business.
(4)、What does the sentence “There could be only one result.” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A、 Athens would continue to be free. B、Athens would cease to have freedom. C、 Freedom would come from responsibility. D、Freedom would stop Athens from self-dependence.
(5)、Why does the author refer to Aristotle and Madison?

A、 The author is hopeful about freedom. B、The author is cautious about self-government. C、The author is skeptical of Greek civilization. D、The author is proud of man's capacity.
(6)、What is the author's understanding of freedom?

A、 Freedom can be more popular in the digital age. B、Freedom may come to an end in the digital age. C、Freedom should have priority over responsibility. D、Freedom needs to be guaranteed by responsibility.
举一反三
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的 A、B、C 和 D 四个选项中,选出最佳选项。

C

    The main aim is a fully autonomous car that gets rid of the cause of most accidents: the driver, Hodgson points out, "For the sake of safety, the faster you can remove humans, the better, even if there are unfortunately a few accidents from new causes. It's a question of balancing the number injured or killed by autonomous vehicles with the people whose lives are potentially saved."

    It's a theme that Elon Musk, head of electric car company Tesla Motors, has long supported. His company is determined to be the first to deliver a fully autonomous vehicle to consumers. Last year, Musk announced that Tesla's 2017 goal was "to do a demonstration ( 示 范 ) drive of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York...and have the car park itself."

    However, even Tesla admits that there are problems to overcome — the software needs further confirmation and the appropriate regulatory (监管的) approval needs to be in place. Indeed, recent crashes of Tesla vehicles and Google cars confirm that the software isn't ready yet.

    The UK government appears determined to encourage the development of autonomous vehicles. It's supporting four city trials, publishing the Modern Transport Bill to reduce red tape around their introduction and adapting the legal system to take into account issues such as insurance liability when a human isn't in control of a vehicle.

    The insurance industry is similarly keen to promote increasing autonomy in cars. As the Association of British Insurers (ABI) points out: "More than 90 per cent of road accidents are attributed to human errors." This costs motor insurers a surprising £20 per day in claims.

阅读理解

    As the weather costs you a loss on trains and flights, we look at your rights.

• Cancelled trains

    On a single ticket, a passenger will usually receive 25% of the fare if the train is delayed by 15 minutes. If the delay reaches 30 minutes, the compensation(补偿/补偿金) rises to 50%, and if it's over an hour you should be able to reclaim the whole cost. Clear arrangements vary according to train operator (运营商).

    If you were due to travel, to say Aberdeen from London, your train is cancelled and you decide not to travel, you can get a full compensation. If you had a non-cancelable ticket with one operator, and failed to make that train because the connecting train was delayed, you can take the next available train.

• Flights

    If your flight is cancelled because of the snow you have the right to a full compensation of the ticket, or to be rerouted home on a later flight.

    But you will have no right to get a delay or cancellation compensation under EU rules, because the snow is an extraordinary circumstance beyond the airline's control. If you don't take the compensation and choose to be rerouted, and It means you are stuck at the airport overnight, it's the airline's duty to pay for a reasonably priced hotel room and meals.

    The airline has to reroute you at the earliest opportunity, or at the passenger's free time, you are supposed to take the availability of seats.

    If you choose to be rerouted or if your departure is delayed by more than two hours, airlines also have to provide assistance such as food. The airlines keep this quiet and getting the money out of the low-cost operators can be a hard job. Keep evidence of cancellations, all receipts, and use your mobile to video any offer to pay by airline staff.

阅读理解

    The FBI is investigating the disappearance of a visiting Chinese scholar from a central Illinois university town as a kidnapping(绑架) as her whereabouts(下落) have remained unknown since Friday.

    Zhang Yingying, 26, was last seen on June 9 near the north end of the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), wearing a charcoal-colored baseball cap, a pink and white top, jeans and white tennis shoes and carrying a black backpack. She boarded a Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus and exited the West Springfield and North Mathews avenues at 1:52 pm local time (1852 GMT), police said.

    The FBI has labeled the case as a kidnapping but isn't ruling out anything, said Campus police spokesman Patrick Wade. The suspect appears to be a white male who was in a car and stopped to talk to Zhang on Friday afternoon, the FBI said. Almost one month into a year long appointment at the UIUC campus, Zhang's friends told police that she was heading to an apartment complex in Urbana to sign a lease(租约).

    Security camera footage(连续镜头) on Monday released by university police showed that Zhang talked to the driver of a black Saturn Astra, about five blocks from where she got off a bus in Urbana on Friday afternoon. She entered the car shortly thereafter. Zhang has not been seen or heard from since then and attempts to contact her by phone remain unsuccessful. Authorities have asked the public to help identify that vehicle.

    A massive search has been launched in Urbana in the US state of Illinois since Zhang's disappearance. Police are interviewing with her colleagues, checking local hospitals and coordinating with ride hailing(打车) companies as part of their investigative efforts.

    In an interview with Xinhua through Wechat on Thursday, Zhang Ronggao, father of the ,missing visiting scholar from china's Fujian Province, expressed gratitude to all the people involved in the search and asked US police to accelerate the search.

阅读理解

    Ninety years ago a man named Howard Carter made a great find. But he didn't discover an unknown people group or a new plant. He found the resting place of a king.

    People had seen signs of King Tutankhamun's tomb (坟墓) but had never found it. Finally, Carter's team discovered a set of steps that led down to some underground rooms. There Carter found the king's body and many of his treasures.

    Carter recorded his first impression in his popular book, The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen:

At first I could see nothing, the hot air coming from the room causing the candle light to flicker (闪烁), but later, as my eyes grew used to the light, details of the room within appeared slowly and clearly, strange animals and gold—everywhere the light of gold... I was struck speechless with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the silence any longer, asked anxiously,  “Can you see anything?” it was all I could do to get out the words, “Yes, wonderful things.”

    The discovery has made King Tutankhamun, Tut for short, one of the best-remembered kings of Egypt. Tut became king when he was only 9 years old and ruled ancient Egypt from 1332 to 1323 B.C. No one is sure why, but he died suddenly before he turned 20. Because he died so young, there wasn't time to prepare a great tomb for him. So he ended up with a smaller tomb. Its small size was actually the reason why it stayed hidden for so long. And, Tut's tomb was not like other Egyptian kings'—it was not as damaged by time or robbers as other tombs. King Tut's tomb remains the best-kept royal (皇室的) tomb ever discovered. The discovery of this little tomb has helped people learn a great deal about ancient Egypt.

阅读理解

    Machines equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) have performed better than human beings in a high-level test of reading comprehension. Two natural language processing tools received higher test scores than humans in recent exams.

    One of the tools is a product of the American software maker Microsoft. The other was created by the Chinese online seller Alibaba Group. The company said that a deep-learning model developed by its Institute of Data Science of Technologies was the first to beat a human score in the reading comprehension test.

    The test is called the Stanford Question Answering Dataset. It was developed by researchers at Stanford University in California. It has over 100,000 questions and answers. They are based on information found in over 500 stories from the Wikipedia website. The answers to all the questions come from the reading material.

    The AI-powered machines were tested on whether they could provide exact answers to the questions after processing large amounts of information.

    Alibaba said its deep neural (神经的) network model received an “Exact Match” score of 82.44 on the Stanford test. Microsoft reported that a team at Microsoft Research Asia had a score of 82.65. It said the human score on the same questions and answers was 82.304. Many research organizations also appeared on the list—all with scores below 82.

    Alibaba said it has already used its reading comprehension model in different parts of its business. For example, the company is using machines to answer many incoming telephone calls from customers. The company says in the future, the technology could enable machines to guide visitors through museums or provide advice to medical patients.

    Microsoft noted that, overall, people are still much better than machines at understanding the complexity and nuances (细微差别) of language.

阅读理解

    If you wear glasses, chances are you are smarter. Research published in the famous British journal Nature Communications has found that people who displayed higher levels of intelligence were almost 30 percent more likely to wear glasses.

    The scientists studied the genes of thousands of people between the ages of 16 and 102.The study showed intelligence can be connected to physical characteristics. One characteristic was eyesight. In out of 10 people who were more intelligent, there was a higher chance they needed glasses. Scientists also said being smarter has other benefits. It is connected to better health.

    It is important to remember these are connections which are not proven causes. Scientists call this correlation. Just because something is connected to something else does not mean one of those things caused the other. And it's worth noting that what constitutes intelligence is subjective and can be difficult, if not impossible, to measure.

    Forget genes though. Plenty of proof shows wearing glasses makes people think you are more intelligent, even if you do not need glasses. A number of studies have found people who wear glasses are seen as smarter, hard-working and honest. Many lawyers use this idea to help win their cases. Lawyer Harvey Solves explained this. Glasses soften their appearance. He said sometimes there has been a huge amount of proof showing that people he was defending broke the law. He had them wear glasses and they weren't found guilty.

    Glasses are also used to show someone is intelligent in movies and on TV. Ideas about people who wear glasses have begun to shift. People who do not need glasses sometimes wear them for fashion only. They want to look worldly or cool. But not everyone is impressed by this idea, though. GQ magazine said people who wear glasses for fashion are trying too hard to look smart and hip (时髦的). However, that hasn't stopped many celebrities from happily wearing glasses even if they do not need them. Justin Bieber is just one high-profile fan of fashion glasses.

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