[单选题]
Attempts to regulate the digital world are like a game of whack-a-mole： no sooner have regulators caught up with one social media novelty than they are off chasing after the next one.Credit to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)， then， for setting off in pursuit of celebrity “influencers”， some of whom are allegedly blurring the boundary between enthusiastic endorsement and paid marketing of products and brands.
Keeping pace with the use of artificial intelligence and big data， as a new CMA unit intends to do， is hard.By insisting on clear labelling of online endorsements - for example， through the use of tags such as # sponsored - regulators are doing their bit to maintain trust between companies and customers bombarded with fake news， fake reviews and product placement.
In the days of memorable television ads and eye-catching glossy magazines， the space assigned for marketing was at least relatively clearly delineated.Even then， peer-to-peer advertising was always effective.Surveys have long suggested that “people like me” are among the most trusted sources of information.Once upon a time， the message was passed by unregulated word of mouth.But social media allow millions to feel they have a direct relationship with a tweeting celebrity or well-viewed vlogger.In turn， unscrupulous companies and influencers can use that power to push brands and products at scale without declaring their commercial relationship.
The regulators' job is complicated by many factors.One is the global nature of the internet.In the absence of a global standard on social media advertising， it will take clever co-ordination by regulators to enforce discipline.A second is the sheer volume of content.It would take eight years to watch the content uploaded in 24 hours on YouTube alone.You do not have to scroll far on Instagram to realise that there simply are not enough regulators in the world to scrutinise every celebrity holiday picture for hidden adverts.
Making it mandatory for influencers to declare their sponsors， and clearly identify them， is a start.An investigation of the kind the CMA has begun is overdue.It might seem overly harsh to impose jail sentences on transgressors - in the UK a maximum two-year sentence is allowed.But if the regulators are to have any hope of imposing order， the occasional stiff penalty， or public shaming of both advertising company and influencer， could act as a deterrent.
History suggests that a public backlash against over-intrusive advertising can force change.There seems little likelihood， though， that individuals will censor their own access to the online celebrities they love.That is reason enough for regulators to continue their endless， thankless quest to identify and if necessary punish technology-fuelled abuses of our own eagerness to be entertained.
Through the use of tags，CMA asks celebrity influencers to______.
Adisclose their endorsement earnings
Bhelp companies earn customer trust
Cstop spreading false information online
Dmark their paid marketing of products
参考答案：D
[单选题]
Who saw the global financial crisis coining， who didn't and who deserved blame for the forecasting failure? After a decade of debating these questions， I wonder whether we shouldn't be asking a different one： even if we had clearly seen the crisis coming， would it have made a difference?
Perhaps -but perhaps not.Robert Meyer and Howard Kunreuther in The Ostrich Paradox argue that it is common for institutions and ordinary citizens to make poor decisions in the face of foreseeable natural disasters.There are many reasons for this?but the authors focus on psychological explanations.They identify cognitive rules of thumb that normally work well but serve us poorly in preparing for extreme events.
One such mental shortcut is what the authors term the “amnesia bias”， a tendency to focus on recent experience.We remember more distant catastrophes but we do not feel them strongly.For example， many people bought flood insurance after watching the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina unfold， but within three years demand for flood insurance had fallen back to pre-Katrina levels.We cut the same cognitive corners in finance.The dotcom bubble of 1999-2001， which should at least have reminded everyone that financial markets do not always give sensible price signals， failed to make much impact on how regulators and market participants behaved.Six years was long enough for the lesson to lose its sting.
Another rule of thumb is “optimism bias”.We are often too optimistic， at least about our personal situation， even in the midst of a more generalised pessimism.This tendency was on display as Hurricane Sandy closed in on New Jersey.Meyer found that residents of Atlantic City thought that the chance of being hit was more than 80 per cent.That was too gloomy： the National Hurricane Center put it at 32 per cent.Yet few people had plans to evacuate， and even those who had storm shutters often had no intention of installing them.Why buy storm shutters if you do not erect them when a storm is coming? Meyer points to “single action bias”： confronted with a worrying situation， taking one or two positive steps often feels enough， If you have already bought extra groceries and refuelled the family car， surely putting up heavy storm shutters is unnecessary.
Reading the psychological literature on bias sometimes makes one feel too pessimistic.We do not always blunder.Individuals can make smart decisions， whether confronted with a hurricane or a retirement savings account.Financial markets do not often lose their minds.
Still， because things often do work well， we forget.The old hands retire; bad memories lose their shock; we grow cynical about false alarms.Yesterday's prudence is today's health-and-safety-gone-mad.Small wonder that， 10 years on， Stanley Fischer is having to warn against “extremely dangerous and extremely short-sighted” efforts to dismantle financial regulations.All of us， from time to time， prefer to stick our heads in the sand.
The Ostrich Paradox seems to provide an answer to______.
Awho should be blamed for the global financial crisis
Bwhy some can see a crisis coming while others can't
Cwhether disasters are foreseeable or not
Dwhat leaves us unprepared for disaster
参考答案：D
[单选题]
Artificial intelligence， or AI， is called artificial for a good reason.Facebook made that point last week by ending its attempt to rely heavily on software algorithms to select news items for its 2 billion users.It announced Jan.19 that the Facebook “community” will be asked to rank news outlets by their trustworthiness.
This reader feedback will promote “high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground”in a world with“so much division，” said chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.The first surveys have started in the United States and will soon expand to other countries.The company plans to include the local news outlets of users in its surveys.
Like many digital platforms that act as news providers， Facebook had great faith in a belief that programmed electrons in computer servers can discern qualities of thought such as trust， fairness， and honesty.Even in respected newsrooms， however， these traits of character require constant upkeep among journalists and feedback from paying customers.Good judgment on news relies on orders of consciousness beyond what a machine can do.
Rather than move toward becoming a hands-on gatekeeper of news， Facebook now hopes its “diverse and representative” sampling of users can lead to a ranking of news outlets - and that would bring a measure of objectivity in its news feed.The company may be in the news business but it has chosen to outsource news credibility to the collective wisdom of individuals and their ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.
By placing its trust in people as seekers of truth， Facebook could earn greater trust from its users.This is also a lesson for many companies， especially digital platforms or those in the media business.According to the latest survey of trust in institutions worldwide by Edelman communications firm，“media has become the least- trusted institution for the first time，” more so than other businesses or government， In particular， the US is “enduring an unprecedented crisis of trust” among many of its institutions， says Richard Edelman， president and CEO of Edelman.“The root cause of this fall is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse，” he adds.
Facebook's shift away from computer-driven news selection is a welcome step toward restoring trust in the overall business of news.This is not a new problem.“ Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper，”wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1807.Yet the Digital Age has forced the issue of trust for news providers.By inviting readers to participate in solving this problem， Facebook has itself set a new bar for earning trust.
The author holds that Facebook's shift is______.
Aa lesson for news providers on filtering news
Bthe cause of the trust crisis across business of news
Ca step toward restoring users' trust in news business
Dthe result of lacking objective facts and rational discourse
参考答案：C
[单选题]The private car is assumed to have widened our horizons and increased our mobility. When we consider our children's mobility, they can be driven to more places (and more distant places) than they could visit without access to a motor vehicle. However, allowing our cities to be dominated by cars has progressively eroded children's independent mobility. Children have lost much of their freedom to explore their own neighborhood or city without adult supervision. In recent surveys, when parents in some cities were asked about their own childhood experiences, the majority remembered having more, or far more, opportunities for going out on their own, compared with their own children today. They had more freedom to explore their own environment.
41.______
Children's independent access to their local streets may be important for their own personal, mental and psychological development. Allowing them to get to know their own neighborhood and community gives them a “sense of place”，This depends on active exploration, which is not provided for when children are passengers in cars. (Such children may see more, but they learn less.) Not only is it important that children be able to get to local play areas by themselves, but walking and cycling journeys to school and to other destinations provide genuine play activities in themselves.
42.______
There are very significant time and money costs for parents associated with transporting their children to school, sport and to other locations. Research in the United Kingdom estimated that this cost, in 1990, was between 10 billion and 20 billion pounds.
43.______
The reduction in children's freedom may also contribute to a weakening of the sense of local community. As fewer children and adults use the streets as pedestrians, these streets become less sociable places. There is less opportunity for children and adults to have the spontaneous exchanges that help to engender a feeling of community. This in itself may exacerbate fear associated with assault and molestation of children, because there are fewer adults available who know their neighbors' children, and who can look out for their safety.
44.______
The extra traffic involved in transporting children results in increased traffic congestion, pollution and accident risk. As our roads become more dangerous, more parents drive their children to more places, thus contributing to increased levels of danger for the remaining pedestrians. Anyone who has experienced either the reduced volume of traffic jams near schools at the end of a school day will not need convincing about these points. Thus, there are also important environmental implications of children's loss of freedom.
45.______
As individuals, parents strive to provide the best upbringing they can for their children. However, in doing so, (e.g. by driving their children to sport, school or recreation) parents may be contributing to a more dangerous environment for children generally. The idea that “streets are for cars and backyards and playgrounds are for children” is a strongly held belief, and parents have little choice as individuals but to keep their children off the streets if they want to protect their safety.
请写出41题正确答案。
ATime and money costs in transporting children
BThe sense of local community being weakening
CBenefits of children's independent access to destinations
DMore mobility of people given by cars
EMeasures taken by the government
FA more dangerous environment for children
GTraffic jams and pollution problems
参考答案：C
[单选题]Don"t Rely on Plankton to Save the Planet
Besides acting as the first link in the food chain, plankton is a very important part of ocean life. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is in balance with carbon dioxide in the ocean. During photosynthesis, plankton removes carbon dioxide from sea water and release oxygen as a by-product. This allows the oceans to absorb additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If less plankton existed, atmospheric carbon dioxide would increase.
Encouraging plankton growth in the ocean has been touted by some as a promising way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (41)______
Adding iron to patches of ocean can make plankton bloom temporarily. The microscopic organisms suck up dissolved carbon dioxide from the water, which in turn is replaced by carbon dioxide from the air. (42)______
Numerous iron dumping trials have been conducted since oceanographer John Martin suggested the idea more than 15 years ago. One trial conducted in 2004 indicated that each atom of iron added to the water could draw between 10,000 and 100,000 atoms of carbon out of the atmosphere by encouraging plankton growth. Some scientists theorize that adding iron to the Southern Ocean alone could reduce carbon dioxide levels by 15 percent. Jorge Sarmiento from Princeton and his colleagues developed a complex computer model to analyse how factors such as ocean chemistry and water circulation would affect the process if 160,000 square kilometers of ocean were seeded with iron for a month. (43)______
In their scenario, which covers an area 10 times as big as the largest experiment of this kind ever proposed, fertilizing the ocean removes 1 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere—just 0.2 percent of the carbon dioxide humankind spews out each month.
Rough estimates in the past have predicted similarly disappointing results. (44)______says Sallie Chisholm, an environmental engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “But the take-home message is the same. (45)______”
Many think that larger and longer experiments should be performed to help us to decide which of the many options at hand should be deployed.
To attack global warming, we need prolonged and sustained effort. There is growing recognition within the scientific and policy communities that efforts to address climate change should focus not only on substantially reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but also on near-term actions to reduce climate-warming substances.
请写出42题正确答案。
AIts opponents argue, however, that it will stop global warming. Since the early 20th century, the Earth"s mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8℃, with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Scientists are more than 90% certain that it is primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities.
BIts opponents fear that it will damage the marine ecosystem, and now a computer model shows that the trick would also be remarkably inefficient.
CAs plankton die and settle on the ocean floor, their carbon is supposedly locked up in the seabed. The carbon in the plankton is soon covered by other material sinking to the ocean bottom. In this way, the oceans act as a sink, a place to dispose of global carbon, which otherwise would accumulate in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
DThey found that 100 years later only between 2 and 11 percent of the extra carbon that was originally taken up by plankton had actually been removed from the atmosphere.
E“These are newer and better models and they can measure the role of added fertilizers in the ocean in addressing globe warming,”
FOcean fertilization is not the answer to global warming. Ocean fertilization is a controversial idea, prompting protest from those who fear the unpredictable environmental impacts it may have.
GMarine biologists use plankton nets to sample phytoplankton directly from the ocean. Phytoplankton is responsible for much of the oxygen present in the Earth"s atmosphere—half of the total amount produced by all plant life.
参考答案：C
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