题型：任务型阅读 题类：常考题 难易度：普通
北京市丰台区2019届高三上学期英语期末考试试卷
Perhaps you've heard the old saying “curiosity killed the cat.” It's a phrase that's often used to warn people—especially children—not to ask too many questions. In fact, research has shown that curiosity is just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school.
Curiosity can also lead us to make unexpected discoveries, bring excitement into our lives, and open up new possibilities. For example, one day in 1831, Michael Faraday was playing around with a coil(线圈) and a magnet(磁铁) when he suddenly saw how he could produce an electrical current. At first, it wasn't clear what use this would have, but it actually made electricity available for use in technology, and so changed the world.
On one level, this is because technology has become so advanced that many of us are unable to think too deeply about how exactly things work anymore. While it may be possible for a curious teenager to take a toaster apart and get some sense of how it works, how much do you understand about what happens when you type a website address into a browser? Where does your grasp of technology end and the magic begin for you?
In addition to this, there's the fact that we all now connect so deeply with technology, particularly with our phones. The more we stare at our screens, the less we talk to other people directly. Then we feel we know enough about a person not to need to engage further with them.
The final—and perhaps most worrying—way in which technology stops us from asking more has to do with algorithms, the processes followed by computers. As we increasingly get our news via social media, algorithms find out what we like and push more of the same back to us. Perhaps the real key to developing curiosity in the 21st century, then, is to rely less on the tech tools of our age.
A. It is still not known why learning gives us such pleasure.
B. We are always encouraged to challenge our pre-existing beliefs.
C. Yet it's widely agreed that curiosity actually makes learning more effective.
D. All too often we accept the images of people that social media provides us with.
E. However, curiosity is currently under the biggest threat, coming from technology.
F. In science, basic curiosity-driven research can have unexpected important benefits.
G. That means we end up inside our own little bubbles, no longer coming across new ideas.
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A. Robots will have replaced people in factories. B. Scientists have already produced clones of animals. C. Medical technology will have controlled many diseases. D. Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. E. No one can predict what our world will look like in the near future. F. So many changes have taken place in this planet that there will be no life existing on it. G. Instead, people will choose a program from a "menu" and a computer will send the program directly to the television. |
Futurologists (未来学家) predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.
TV channels will have disappeared. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers and books will come to us by computer.
{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won't be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination.
{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots—they don't ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere—in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Today, there are devices (设备) that connect directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again with the help of new technology.
Scientists will have discovered how to control genes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?
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