28. The author quotes Francis Cole mainly to ________.

A. draw a comparison

B. introduce a topic

C. evaluate a statement

D. highlight a problem

29. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A#FormatImgID_2# Climate change has been forgotten.

B. Lessons of history are highly valued.

C. The human mind is bad at noting slow change.

D. Humans are unwilling to admit their shortcomings.

30. What does the author intend to tell us?

A. Far-sighted thinking matters to humans.

B. Humans tend to make long-term sacrifices.

C. Current policies facilitate future decision-making.

D. Bias towards the present helps reduce near-term desires.

What is life? Like most great questions, this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.

So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life?’ Do yoever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother?’”

As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.

Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.

Undefined and uncontrolled#FormatImgID_3# ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.

31. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is .

A. supportive B. puzzled C. unconcerned D. doubtful

32. What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?

A#FormatImgID_4# Shocked. B. Protected. C. Attracted. D. Challenged.

33. What can we learn from this passage?

A. ALife holds the key to human future. B. ALife and AI share a common feature.

C. AI mirrors the developments of ALife. D. AI speeds up the process of human evolution.

34. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out?

B. Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too?

C. Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day?

D. Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too?

第二节(共10分)根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。选项中有两项为多余选项。

It’s a joyful and stressful time of year in the United States for students and their families as they make decisions about where to attend college. Families often turn to rankings systems to help make a decision. ____35____

When I talk to families as a scholar of higher education, they’re often surprised that teaching excellence is not counted in rankings. ____36____

Emerging research suggests that courses in lower-ranked universities, on average, scored higher on teaching than courses in higher-ranked universities. ____37____ The absence of teaching excellence from the rankings is surprising given the link between high-quality teaching and student success. Quality teaching is one of the most important predictors of a wide range of college outcomes.

Rankings, however, are only one reason why a low value is placed on teaching in higher education. Administrators often don’t view teaching excellence as a way to increase enrolment (注册) or funding. ____38____ Research shows that the more time instructors spend on teaching, the lower their salary. What is the result? Many instructors continue to teach using traditional lectures, which lead to lower success rates.

____39____ Nevertheless, not much will change until schools with high-quality teaching are rewarded with more resources, higher rankings and increased enrolments. In the long term, universities, organisations that rank schools, and others should work to make teaching a valued, core part of the mission.

What should students and their families do? They should give strong consideration to universities where high-quality teaching is valued, even though the schools may be ranked lower.

A. Higher education has achieved its true potential.