高中英语会考阅读理解北京

Ⅰ 一道11年的北京高考英语阅读理解题，求解

64. The underlined word “engage” in Para.4 probably means ______.
答案A. explore 探讨
The real reason why I ask students to leave technology at the door is that I think there are very few places in which we can have deep conversions and truly engage complex ideas.
66. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the author ______.
答案是D. values technology-free dialogues in his class
I’m not saying that I won’t ever change my mind about technology use in my history class, but until I hear a really good reason for the change ,I’m sticking to my plan. A few hours of technology-free dialogue is just too sweet to give up.
本文 谈的是 不用 电脑等设备 所以是作者 把 在课堂上 不用电脑等设备 的 会话讨论 看的很重要 too sweet to give up.太好了以至于 不能放弃

Ⅱ 2017年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解C

Measles, which once killed 450 children each year and disabled even more,was nearly wiped out in the United States 14 years ago by the universal use ofthe MMR vaccine. But thedisease is making a comeback, caused by a growing anti-vaccine movement andmisinformation that is spreading quickly. Already this year, 115 measles caseshave been reported in the USA, compared with 189 for all of last year.
麻疹, 曾一度每年导致450名儿童死亡，甚至更多的儿童致残，14年前由于MMR疫苗的普遍使用，在美国几乎被消灭。不过这种疾病正在卷土重来，这是因为不断增长的反疫苗运动和迅速传播的错误信息造成的。今年美国已经报告了115例麻疹病例，而去年全年为189例。

The numbers might sound small, but they are the leading edge of a dangerous trend. When vaccination rates are very high, as they still are in the nation as a whole, everyone is protected. This is called “herd immunity”, which protects the people who get hurt easily, including those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons, babies too young to get vaccinated and people on whom the vaccine doesn’t work.
数字听起来可能很小，但它们代表一种危险趋势。当全国范围内作为一个整体疫苗接种率很高时，每个人才会受到保护。这就是所谓的“群体免疫”，保护那些易受感染的人，包括那些因医疗原因不能接种疫苗的人，年龄太橘州小不能接种疫苗的婴儿，以及那些疫苗不起作用的人。

But herd immunity works only when nearly the whole herd joins in. When some refuse vaccination and seek a free ride, immunity breaks down and everyone is in even bigger danger.
但群体免疫只有在几乎整个群体都加入时才起作用。当一些人拒绝接种疫苗并寻求自由乘车时，群体免疫就会崩溃，每个人都会圆告蔽面临更大的风险。

That’s exactly what is happening in small neighborhoods around the country from Orange County, California, where 22 measles cases were reported this month, to Brooklyn, N.Y., where a 17-year-old caused an outbreak last year.
从本月报告了22例麻疹病例的加利福尼亚州奥兰治县到去年一名17岁青年引发了一场麻疹友宏疫情的纽约州布鲁克林，全国各地的小社区都是如此。

The resistance to vaccine has continued for decades, and it is driven by a real but very small risk. Those who refuse to take that risk selfishly make others suffer.
对疫苗的反对已经持续了几十年，因为存在真实但非常小的风险。那些拒绝冒险的人让别人承受痛苦，非常自私。

Making things worse are state laws that make it too easy to opt out of what are supposed to be required vaccines for all children entering kindergarten. Seventeen states allow parents to get an exemption, sometimes just by signing apaper saying they personally object to a vaccine.
更糟糕的是，州法律使得所有进入幼儿园的儿童放弃接种疫苗很容易。17个州允许父母选择放弃, 有时候，只需要签署一份声明，说他们个人反对疫苗。

Now, several states are moving to tighten laws by adding new regulations for opting out. But no one does enough to limit exemptions.
现在，有几个州正在加强法律，为退出接种增加新的规定。但没有人采取措施来限制放弃接种。

Parents ought to be able to opt out only for limited medical or religious reasons. But personal opinions? Not good enough. Everyone enjoys the life-saving benefits vaccines provide, but they’ll exist only as long as everyone shares in the risks.
父母应该只能因为有限的医疗或宗教原因选择放弃。但是个人意见呢？还不够充分。每个人都享受疫苗提供的拯救生命的好处，但只要每个人都分担风险，疫苗才会存在。

Ⅲ 2017年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解D

Hollywood’s theory that machines with evil 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 NorbertWiener, who founded the field of cybernetics, put it this way: “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we can not effectively interfere, we had better be quite sure that the purpose which we really desire.”
好莱坞的理论认为有着邪恶头脑的机器会成为杀手机器人大军，这太愚蠢了。这一可能性的真正问题在于，AI（人工智能）可能会变得非常擅长于实现某些东西，不仅是我们真正想要的。1960年，著名数学家诺伯特维纳创立了控制论领域, 提到：“如果我们为了达到我们的目的而使用一种我们无法有效干预其运作的机械装置，我们最好确定我们真正想要的目的。”

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 introced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine can not 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 chess board.
有特定目的的机器还有另一种特性，我们通常把它与生物联系在一起：希望保留自己的存在。对于机器来说，这种特性不是天生的，也不是由人类引入的；如果机器死了，就无法达到其原始目的，这就是这一简单事实的逻辑化结果。因此，如果我们给机器人发送一条取咖啡的简单指令，它就会有强烈的愿望，禁止关闭自己的开关，甚至杀死任何可能干扰其任务的人，来确保成功。如果我们不小心，那么，我们可能会面临一场全球象棋比赛，棋盘就是现实世界，对手是异常坚定，其目标与我们的目标冲突的超级智能机器。

The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrating 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.
参加并输掉这样一场比赛的可能性应该会引起计算机科学家的注意。一些研究人员认为，我们可以将这些机器密封在一种防火墙内，用它们解决困难的问题，但决不允许它们影响现实世界。不幸的是，这一计划似乎不太可能实现：我们还没有发明一种防火墙来保护普通人，更不用说超级智能机器了。

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 September11, 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-inced nuclear chain reaction.
很好地解决安全问题以推动AI的发展似乎是可能的，但并不容易。几十年内为超级智能机器的到来做好计划是可能的，但这个问题不应该像一些AI研究人员所做的那样，随意被忽视。有些人认为，人和机器可以共存，只要他们在团队中工作，但这是不可能的，除非机器与人类的目标相同。也有人说我们可以“关掉它们”，好像超级智能机器很蠢，不会想到这种可能性。还有人认为超级智能AI永远不会发生。1933年9月11日，著名物理学家欧内斯特·卢瑟福满怀信心地说，“任何期望这些原子转化过程成为能量来源的人都在胡说八道。”然而，1933年9月12日，物理学家利奥·西拉德发明了中子诱导链式核反应。

Ⅳ 2020年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解D

Certain forms of AI are indeed becoming ubiquitous. For example, algorithms carry out huge volumes of trading on our financial markets, self-driving cars are appearing on city streets, and our smartphones are translating from one language into another. These systems are sometimes faster and more perceptive than we humans are. But so far that is only true for the specific tasks for which the systems have been designed. That is something that some AI developers are now eager to change.
某些形式的AI （人工智能）确实正变得无处不在。例如，金融市场上进行大量交易的算法，出现在城市街道上的自动驾驶汽车，智能手机将一种语言翻译成另一种语言。这些系统有时比我们人类更快、更敏锐。但到目前为止，这些只适用于系统所设计的特定任务，一些AI开发者正在期待改变。

Some of today's AI pioneers want to move on from today's world of “weak” or “narrow” AI, to create “strong” or “full” AI, or what is often called artificial general intelligence (A GI). In some respects, today's powerful computing machines already make our brains look weak. A GI could, its advocates say, work for us around the clock, and drawing on all available data, could suggest solutions to many problems. DM, a company focused on the development of A GI, has an ambition to “solve intelligence”. “If we're successful,” their mission statement reads, “we believe this will be one of the most important and widely beneficial scientific advances ever made.”
当代一些AI先驱希望从今天的“弱”或“窄”的AI世界中走出来，创造“强”或“全”的AI，也就是通常所说的A GI（人工通用智能）。在某些方面，今天强大的计算机已经让我们的大脑看起来很弱。A GI的支持者认为A GI可以24小时为我们工作，利用所有可用的数据，可以为许多问题提供解决方案。DM是一家专注于A GI开发的公司，有着“解决智能问题”的雄心。“如果我们成功了，”他们的任务声明写道，“我们相信这将是有史以来最重要、最广泛有益的科学进步之一。”

Since the early days of AI, imagination has outpaced what is possible or even probable. In 1965, an imaginative mathematician called Irving Good predicted the eventual creation of an "ultra-intelligent machine…that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man, however clever." Good went on to suggest that “the first ultra-intelligent machine" could be “the last invention that man need ever make."
自AI诞生之初，想象力的发展速度已经超过了你的想象。1965年，一位富有想象力的数学家欧文·古德预言，最终将创造出一台“超智能机器……它将远远超过人类的所有智能活动，无论多么聪明。”古德接着表示，“第一台超智能机器”可能是“人类需要创造的最后一项发明”。

Fears about the appearance of bad, powerful, man-made intelligent machines have been reinforced by many works of fiction—Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Terminator film series, for example. But if AI does eventually prove to be our downfall, it is unlikely to be at the hands of human-shaped forms like these, with recognisably human motivations such as aggression. Instead, I agree with Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom, who believes that the heaviest risks from A GI do not come from a decision to turn against mankind but rather from a dogged pursuit of set objectives at the expense of everything else.
人们对于出现强大而又邪恶的人造智能机器的担忧已经加剧，例如，玛丽·雪莱的《弗兰肯斯坦》科幻小说和《终结者》系列电影。但如果最终证明AI 是我们的垮台，它就不太可能掌握在这样的人形形态手中，而这些形态具有明显的人类动机，比如敌对行为。相反，我同意牛津大学哲学家尼克·博斯特罗姆的观点，他认为，A GI带来的最大风险不是来自于反对人类的决定，而是来自于不惜牺牲一切代价执着地追求既定目标。

The promise and danger of true A GI are great. But all of today's excited discussion about these possibilities presupposes the fact that we will be able to build these systems. And, having spoken to many of the world's foremost AI researchers, I believe there is good reason to doubt that we will see A GI any time soon, if ever.
真正的A GI的前景和危险都是巨大的，但是今天所有关于这些可能性的激动人心的讨论都是以我们能够建立这些系统为前提。而且，在与许多世界上最重要的AI研究人员交谈后，我相信有充分的理由怀疑我们是否会很快看到A GI，如果有的话。

Ⅳ 2019年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解D

By the end of the century，if not sooner，the world's oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate，according to a new study.
根据一项新的研究，到本世纪末，如果没有更早的话，由于气候变暖，世界海洋将变得更蓝更绿。

At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms，these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue，depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas，while recing it in other spots，leading to changes in the ocean's appearance.
这种现象的核心是被称为浮游植物的海洋微生物。由于光从生物体反射的方式，这些浮游植物在海洋表面形成了五颜六色的图案。海洋的颜色从绿色到蓝色不等，这取决于浮游植物的种类和浓度。气候变化将在某些地区助长浮游植物的生长，而在其他地区则会相反，这导致了海洋外观的变化。

Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface，where they pull carbon dioxide into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die，they bury carbon in the deep ocean，an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean's warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth，since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow，but also nutrients.
浮游植物生活在海洋表面，在那里它们将二氧化碳吸入海洋，同时释放氧气。当这些生物死亡时，碳就会埋在深海中，这是一个有助于调节全球气候的重要过程。但浮游植物很容易受到海洋变暖趋势的影响。变暖改变了海洋的主要特征，并可能影响浮游植物的生长，因为它们的生长不仅需要阳光和二氧化碳，还需要营养物质。

Stephanie Dutkiewicz，a scientist in MIT's Center for Global Change Science，built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃，it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters，such as those of the Arctic，a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton，and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ”she said，“but the type of phytoplankton is changing. ”
麻省理工学院全球变化科学中心的科学家斯蒂芬妮·杜特凯维奇建立了一个气候模型，预测整个世纪海洋的变化。在一个温度升高3℃的世界里，会发现海洋的颜色发生多重变化。该模型预测，目前几乎没有浮游植物的蓝色区域可能会变得更蓝。但在一些水域，如北极水域，变暖将使浮游植物生长条件更加成熟，这些地区将变得更加绿色。”不只是海洋中浮游植物的数量在变化，”她说，“浮游植物的种类也正在改变。”

Ⅵ 2018年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解C

Plastic-Eating Worms
吃塑料的蠕虫

Humans proce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills， and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
人类每年生产超过3亿吨塑料，其中几乎一半被作为垃圾填埋， 多达1200万吨污染海洋。目前还没有有效的方法来消除它，但一项新的研究表明，答案可能在于一些饥饿蠕虫的胃。

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass--apparently broken down by enzymes from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
西班牙和英国的研究人员最近发现，大蜡螟的蠕虫可以分解聚乙烯，聚乙烯占塑料的40%。研究小组将100只蜡虫蠕虫放在一个商用聚乙烯购物袋中12小时，这些蠕虫消耗并分解了约92毫克，约占总量的3%。为了证实蠕虫的咀嚼并不是聚乙烯分解的原因，研究人员将一些蠕虫制成糊状物并将其放置于塑料薄膜。14小时后，这些胶片失去了13%的质量——显然被蠕虫胃里的酶分解了。他们的发现发表在2017年的《当代生物学》上。

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food-beeswax--also allows them to break down plastic. "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains. "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "
这项研究的合著者费德丽卡·贝尔托基尼说，蠕虫分解日常食物——蜂蜡的能力，也可以让它们分解塑料。“蜡是一种复杂的混合物，但聚乙烯中的基本键——碳碳键——也存在，”她解释道，“蜡虫进化出一种方法或系统来破坏这种键。”

Jennifer Debruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme proced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes?
田纳西大学的微生物学家詹妮弗·德布鲁恩没有参与这项研究，她说，这种蠕虫可以破坏聚乙烯，这并不奇怪。但与之前的研究相比，她发现这次研究的分解速度令人兴奋。德布鲁恩说，下一步将是确定分解原因。这种酶是由蠕虫自身产生还是肠道微生物产生？

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of instrial process-not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”
贝尔托基尼对此表示同意，并希望她的研究小组的发现有朝一日能利用这种酶在垃圾填埋场分解塑料。但她希望在某种工业过程中使用这种化学物质，而不仅仅是将“数百万只蠕虫扔在塑料上”。

Ⅶ 2018年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解B

Find Your Adventure at the Space and Aviation Center
来航空航天中心探险

If you’re looking for a unique adventure, the Space and Aviation Center (SAC) is the place to be. The Center offers programs designed to challenge and inspire with hands-on tasks and lots of fun.
如果你正在寻找一次独特的冒险，航空航天中心（Space and Aviation Center，SAC）就是橘茄你的理想之地。该中心提供的课程旨在通过动手任务和丰富的乐趣来挑战和激发灵感。

More than 750,000 have graated from SAC, with many seeking employment in engineering, aviation, ecation, medicine and a wide variety of other professions. They come to camp, wanting to know what it is like to be an astronaut or a pilot, and they leave with real-world applications for what they’re studying in the classroom.
超过75万人从SAC毕业，其中许多人正在寻求工程、航空、教育、医学和其他各种职业的就业机会。他们来到夏令营，想知道当宇航员或飞行员的感觉，然后带着教室里要学习的真实世界的应用离开。

For the trainees, the programs also offer a great way to earn merit badges. At Space Camp, trainees can earn their Space Exploration badge as they build and fire model rockets, learn about space tasks and try simulated flying to space with the crew from all over the world. The Aviation Challenge program gives trainees the chance to earn their Aviation badge. They learn the principles of flight and test their operating skills in the cockpit of a variety of flight simulators. Trainees also get a good start on their Wilderness Survival badge as they learn about water- and land-survival through designed tasks and their search and rescue of ＂downed＂ pilot.
对于学员来说，这些课程还提供了一种获得荣誉徽章的好方法。 在太空营，学员可以通过建造和发射火箭模型，学习太空任务，尝试模拟和来自全世界的机组人员一起太空飞行来获得太空探索徽章。航空挑战课程为学员提供了获圆灶察得航空徽章的机会。他们学习飞行辩歼原理，并在驾驶舱内通过各种飞行模拟器测试操作技能。学员还可以通过设计任务以及对“坠落”飞行员的搜索营救来学习水陆生存技能，这为获得野外生存徽章开了个好头。

With all the programs, teamwork is key as trainees learn the importance of leadership and being part of a bigger task.
在所有的课程中，团队合作是关键，学员会了解到领导的重要性，并成为更大任务的组成部分。

All this fun is available for ages 9 to 18. Families can enjoy the experience together, too, with Family Camp programs for families with children as young as 7.
所有这些乐趣适用于9至18岁的青少年。家庭也可以一起享受这种体验，为有7岁孩子的家庭提供家庭营课程。

Stay an hour or stay a week — there is something here for everyone!
逗留一小时或逗留一周——这里适合每个人！

For more details, please visit us online at www.oursac.com .
更多详细信息，请访问我们的网站 www.oursac.com 。

Ⅷ 2020年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解B

Baggy has become the first dog in the UK—and potentially the world—to join the fight against air pollution by recording pollutant levels near the ground.
Baggy已经成为英国乃至全世界第一只通过记录地面附近污染物水平来参与对抗空气污染的狗。

Baggy wears a pollution monitor on her collar so she can take data measurements close to the ground. Her monitor has shown that air pollution levels are higher closer to ground level, which has helped highlight concerns that babies and young kids may be at higher risk of developing lung problems.
Baggy在衣领上戴着一个污染监测器，这样她就可以在地面附近进行数据测量。监测器显示越接近地面，空气污染水平越高，这有助于突显人们的担忧，即婴幼儿患肺部疾病的风险可能更高。

Conventional air pollution monitors are normally fixed on lampposts at about nine feet in the air. However, since Baggy stands at about the same height as a child in a pushchair, she frequently records pollution levels which are much higher than the data gathered by the Environment A gency.
传统的空气污染监测器通常安装在九英尺高的灯柱上。不过，由于Baggy的身高与婴儿车里的婴儿身高差不多, 她记录的污染水平通常远高于环境部门所收集的数据。

The doggy data research was the idea of Baggy's 13-year-old owner Tom Hunt and his dad Matt. The English youngster noticed that pollution levels are around two-thirds higher close to the ground than they are in the air at the height where they are recorded by the agency. Tom has since reported the shocking findings to the government in an attempt to emphasise that babies are at higher risk of developing asthma.
用狗做数据研究是Baggy13岁的主人汤姆·亨特和他的父亲马特的想法。这位英国男孩注意到，接近地面的污染水平比机构记录高度的空气污染水平高出约三分之二。汤姆后来向政府报告了这一令人震惊的发现，用来强调婴儿患哮喘的风险更高。

Matt Hunt said he was "very proud" of his son because “when the boy gets an idea, he keeps his head down and gets on with it, and he really does want to do some good and stop young kids from getting asthma."
马特·亨特说，他为自己的儿子“感到非常自豪”，因为“当这个男孩有了一个想法时，他会低下头继续往下做，他真的想做点好事，阻止小孩子患哮喘。”

“Tom built up a passion for environmental protection at a very early age," Matt added. “He became very interested in gadgets. A bout one year ago, he got this new piece of tech which is like a test tube. One Sunday afternoon, we went out to do some monitoring, and he said, why don't we put it on Baggy's collar and let her monitor the pollution？'So we did it."
“汤姆在很小的时候就对环保产生了热情，”马特补充道，“他对小装置非常感兴趣。”大约一年前，他得到了这项新技术产品，看起来像一只试管。一个星期天下午，我们出去做了一些监测，他说，我们为什么不把它戴在Baggy的衣领上，让她来监测污染呢？于是我们就这样做了。"

Tom said, "Most of the time, Baggy is just like any other dog. But for the rest of the time she is a super dog, and we are all really proud of her."
汤姆说：“大多数时候，Baggy 和其他狗一样。但在余下的时间里，她就是一只超级狗，我们都为她感到骄傲。”

Ⅸ 2018年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解D

Preparing Cities for Robot Cars
为自动驾驶汽车做准备的城市

The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist's dream, years away from materializing in the read world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn't leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It's hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.
自动驾驶汽车的可能性通常看起来是未来主义者的梦想，距离真实世界里的实现还要好几年。然而，未来显然就是现在。今年四月，加州机动车管理局开始发放许可证，允许各公司在公共道路上测试真正的自动驾驶汽车。州政府还为企业出售或出租自动驾驶汽车以及运营无人驾驶出租车服务扫清了障碍。值得注意的是，加州在这方面并没有走在最前沿。各公司一直在全国各大城市测试他们的汽车。很难预测公路上何时能遍布无人驾驶汽车。但是无论需要多长时间，这项技术都有可能改变我们的交通系统和城市，至于是好还是坏，就取决于如何管理这种转变。

While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars(and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help rece traffic jams, cut emissions and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.
虽然到目前为止大部分的讨论都集中在无人驾驶汽车的安全性上（确有道理），决策制定者也应该讨论自动驾驶汽车如何帮助减少交通阻塞、减少排放，提供更便捷、更实惠的灵活性选择。无人驾驶汽车的到来是一个机会，可以确保那些汽车对环境友好，有更多的共享机会。

Do we want to -or even worsen-the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most alts own indivial self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport—an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing services.
我们想通过无人驾驶汽车复制甚至恶化现在的交通状况吗？想象一下，未来大多数成年人都拥有自己的自动驾驶汽车。这样他们就能够忍受在拥挤的高速公路上上下班的漫长而缓慢的旅程了，因为他们可以在路上工作、娱乐或睡觉，这也会鼓励城市的扩张。他们把无人驾驶汽车带到约会的地点之后，就让空车绕着大楼行驶，以此避免付停车费。他们不再步行几个街区去接孩子或者去干洗店，只要让无人驾驶的迷你巴士去就可以了。这种便利甚至会让越来越少的人乘坐公共交通工具——研究人员已经在叫车服务中发现了这种糟糕的负面效果。

A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could rece carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues. But driveless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.
加州大学戴维斯分校的一项研究表明，在全球范围内，用电动、自动驾驶和共享系统取代了汽油动力的私家车，至2050年，可以减少交通运输中80%的碳排放，并降低40%的交通基础设施和运营成本。更少的排放和更便宜的驾驶听起来很有吸引力。几乎可以肯定的是，考虑到无人驾驶技术的成本以及责任和维护问题，第一批商业化的无人驾驶汽车将在叫车服务行业诞生。不过随着价格的下降以及越来越多的人熟练掌握这项技术，无人驾驶汽车的拥有率可能会提高。

Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless
vehicles doesn't extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement present a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
决策制定者应当开始考虑，如何确保无人驾驶汽车的出现不会加剧我们现今这个被汽车主导的交通系统的弊端。即将到来的技术进步为城市和各州提供了发展交通系统的机会，这些交通系统旨在承载更多的人、更加便宜。未来汽车就要来了，我们只需要做好准备。

Ⅹ 2020年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解C

For the past five years, Paula Smith, a historian of science, has devoted herself to re-creating long-forgotten techniques. While doing research for her new book, she came across a 16th-century French manuscript consisting of nearly 1,000 sets of instructions, covering subjects from tool making to finding the best sand.
在过去五年里，科学历史学家保拉·史密斯一直致力于重现人们早已遗忘的技术。在为她的新书做研究时，她偶然发现了一本16世纪的法国手稿，包括近1000份说明书，涵盖范围从工具制作到如何寻找最佳沙子。

The author's intention remains as mysterious as his name; he may have been simply taking notes for his own records. But Smith was struck mainly by the fact that she didn't truly grasp any of the skills the author described. "You simply can't get an understanding of that handwork by reading about it," she says.
作者的意图如同他的名字一样神秘；他可能只是在为自己的记录做笔记。但让史密斯备受打击的是，她并没有真正掌握作者描述的任何技能。“你根本无法通过阅读来理解手工作品”，她说。

Though Smith did get her hands on the best sand, doing things the old-fashioned way isn't just about playing around with French mud. Reconstructing the work of the craftsmen who lived centuries ago can reveal how they viewed the world, what objects filled their homes, and what went on in the workshops that proced them. It can even help solve present-day problems: In 2015, scientists discovered that a 10th-century English medicine for eve problems could kill a drug-resistant virus.
尽管史密斯确实得到了最好的沙子，但用传统的方法做事情并不只是玩法国泥。重建生活在几个世纪前的工匠作品可以揭示他们是如何看待世界，他们的家中装满的物品，以及这些物品在作坊里如何进行生产。它甚至可以帮助解决当代问题：2015年，科学家发现，一种用于解决女性问题的10世纪英国药物可以杀死耐药病毒。

The work has also brought insights for museums, Smith says. One must know how on object was made in order to preserve it. What's more, reconstructions might be the only way to know what treasures looked like before time wore them down. Scholars have seen this idea in practice with ancient Greek and Roman statues. These sculptures were painted a rainbow of striking colours. We can't appreciate these kinds of details without seeing works of art as they originally appeared-something Smith believes you can do only when you have a road map.
史密斯说，这项工作也为博物馆带来了启发。为了保存文物，人们必须知道这个物体是如何制作的。更重要的是，重建可能是了解宝藏在时间磨损之前是什么样子的唯一途径。学者们在古希腊和古罗马雕像的实践中看到了这种想法，这些雕塑被漆成了鲜艳的彩虹色。如果不看艺术作品最初出现的样子，我们无法欣赏这些细节——史密斯认为，只有当你有路线图时，你才能做到这一点。

Smith has put the manuscript's ideas into practice. Her final goal is to link the worlds of art and science back together: She believes that bringing the old recipes to life can help develop a kind of learning that highlights experimentation, teamwork, and problem solving.
史密斯把手稿的想法付诸实践。她最终的目标是将艺术和科学的世界重新联系起来：她相信，将古老的食谱带到生活中有助于发展一种强调实验、团队合作和解决问题的学习方式。

Back when science—then called “the new philosophy”—took shape, academics looked to craftsmen for help in understanding the natural world. Microscopes and telescopes were invented by way of artistic tinkering, as craftsmen experimented with glass to better bend light.
当科学——也就是所谓的“新哲学”——初具雏形时，学术界寻求工匠帮助理解自然世界。正如工匠尝试用玻璃更好地弯曲光线，显微镜和望远镜因为艺术修补而发明。

If we can rediscover the values of hands-on experience and craftwork, Smith says, we can marry the best of our modern insights with the handiness of our ancestors.
史密斯说，如果我们能重新发现动手经验和工艺的价值，我们就能把我们最好的现代洞察力与我们祖先的灵巧结合起来。