B
When you pull the headset over your eyes and the game begins, you are transported to a tiny room with white walls. Your task is to break out of the room, but you cannot use your hands, joystick or game pad. You must use your thoughts.
You turn toward a ball on the floor, and your brain sends a command to pick it up. With another thought, you send the ball crashing into a mirror, breaking the glass and revealing a few numbers scribbled on a wall. You mentally type those numbers into a large keypad by the door. And you are out.
Designed by Neurable, a small startup founded by Ramses Alcaide, an electrical engineer and neuroscientist (神经科学家), the game offers a way of selecting items in a virtual world with your thoughts.
Having a headset with virtual reality goggles (眼镜) and sensors (传感器) that can read your brain waves, it will be a few years before this device comes into the market. And it is limited in what it can do. But it works. I recently played the game, titled Awakening, when Alcaide and two Neurable employees passed through San Francisco, so did a few hundred others this month at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Los Angeles.
Driven by recent investments from the US government, many startups and bigger companies are working on ways to mentally control machines, looking for smoother ways to use virtual reality technology.
“Neurotechnology has become cool,” said Ed Boyden, a professor at the MIT Media Lab who advises one of those startups.
At Neurable, Alcaide and his team are pushing the limits of EEG (脑电图) headsets. Although sensors can read electrical brain activity from outside the skull, it is very difficult to separate the signal from the noise. Using computer algorithms (算法) based on Alcaide’s research, Neurable works to read activity with a speed and accuracy that’s not usually possible.
The algorithms learn from your behavior. Before playing the game, you train them to recognize when you are focusing your attention on an object. A pulse of light bounces around the virtual room, and each time it hits a small colored ball in front of you, you think about the ball. At that moment, when you focus on the light and it stimulates your brain, the system reads the specific signals of your brain activity.
59. How can you break out of the room in the game?
A. Open the door with the joystick.    
B. Type the numbers you have got into the keypad in mind.
C. Send a ball crashing into the door.
D. Use your hands to open the door.
60. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4 and Paragraph 5?
A. Many people in San Francisco have played this game except the author.
B. The US government didn’t invest money in the virtual reality technology.
C. The device having a headset with virtual reality goggle has come into market.
D. A lot of startups and companies are doing research into mentally control machines.
61. Which is the best title of the passage?
A. A game you can control with your mind    B. The limits of EEG headsets
C. Sensors that read brain signals      D. Recent investments on virtual reality technology
C
Chance at new start
Mike Miles hadn’t had a stable job in years. He bounced around from agency to agency, never sure when his last day would be. Sometimes, he lost a job with less than a day’s notice. This was not due to a poor work ethic (职业道德)-from arriving early to staying late, Miles says he did everything he could to leave good impressions on employers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in the US. But because Miles had a criminal record, he was always cut loose when it came time to let staff go.
“It was like walking on eggshells. You just never knew when you’d be gone,” he said.
After his release from prison in 2007, Miles struggled to find stability (稳定)-both mentally and financially. During this time, he lived in his mother’s house and she helped him raise his daughter. When his mom passed away two years later, Miles says he became more determined than ever to create a healthy environment for his family.
“I’m all she has, and she’s all I have,” he said. “I had to build a whole new relationship with my daughter, while building a whole new life for myself.”
It wasn’t until October 2015, nearly a decade after he got out of prison, that a cousin told Miles about a food company that hires people who have difficulty finding jobs.
Hoping this would clear up what felt like a thick cloud of uncertainty over his future, Miles submitted an application. He got an interview and soon after that, began his new job. His work involves everything from food production to maintenance (保存), not to mention it pays a livable wage of $15 an hour. He says it’s the best job he’s ever had.
Miles’ story is rare in Lancaster, where the poverty rate is around 30 percent—about double the national average. This figure annoyed Charlie Crystle, the co-founder and CEO of the company that gave Miles his job.
Crystle says he wants to inspire other companies and entrepreneurs (企业家) to rethink their current practices and ignite (引发) conversations about minimum wage and employment opportunities for everyone, including ex-offenders (前罪犯).
Beyond providing employment and livable wages, the company also helps employees deal with the many challenges of reentry into society. This means anything from helping them find housing and health benefits to changing their schedules so they can make court dates.
Miles is now saving for a house. “It doesn’t have to be a big house,” he said. “I just want to be stable.”
62. Why did Miles change his occupation frequently?
A. He liked to try new things.
B. He could not find a job he likes all the time.
C. He was an unstable person who didn’t have persistence.
D. He was never asked to stay at jobs long as he had been in jail.
63. What encouraged Miles to find a stable job?
A. He wanted to move into a better house.
B. He faced heavy social pressure from other people.
C. He wanted to make living conditions better for his family.
D. He couldn’t stand living with his mother at such an old age.
64. From the article, we can learn that Crystal       .
A. criticizes other companies for their low wages
B. longs to be famous and gain more respect
C. encourage other companies to think their current practices again
D. pushes other companies to help ex-offenders with reentry into society
65. What can we infer from the last three paragraphs?
A. Miles is content with his current situation.
B. Miles is going to buy a big house in the future.
C. The local government will help everyone find jobs.
D. The minimum wage level will surely increase in Lancaster.
D
There has long been a notion (观念) that money buys happiness. However, although “we really, really tried that for a couple of generations, it didn’t work,” said Francine Jay, author of The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life.
Thanks to a travel-inspired revelation (启发), Jay has been happily living a simpler life for 12 years. “I always packed as lightly as possible, and found it exciting to get by with just a small carry-on bag,” she told CNN. “I thought if it feels this great to travel lightly, how amazing would it be to live this way? I wanted to have that same feeling of freedom in my everyday life.”
Jay decided to get rid of all her excess (额外的) possessions and live with just the essentials (必需品). “I wanted to spend my time and energy on experiences, rather than things.”
Jay is a follower of a movement called “minimalism (极简主义)”. Growing numbers of people have been attracted to this lifestyle all over the world. They share the same feeling of disappointment with modem life and a desire to live more simply. Minimalists are typically progressive and concerned about the environment, Leah Watkins, a lead researcher at Otago University in New Zealand, told Stuff magazine in March.
But many simply experienced unhappiness caused by owning too many possessions. Depression with the materialism of our world isn’t new. English romantic poet William Wordsworth summed up how dispiriting (令人 消沉的) this was back in 1802, at the beginning of the industrial age, when he wrote: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. His preference was to go back to nature. Closer to our own times, the hippies (嬉皮士) of the 1960s also sought to ‘‘drop out” of modem life.
And for many minimalists, their key is to unload. Without objects, they “believe people are forced more and more into the present moment and that’s where life happens,” wrote Stuff.
But does simplicity ever feel like a sacrifice (牺牲)?
“It’s eliminating the excess—unused items, unnecessary purchases—from your life. Well, I may have fewer possessions, but I have more space … Minimalism is making room for what matters most,” said Jay.
And “the real questions”, according to Duane Elgin, US social scientist, are “what do you care about?” and “What do you value?”
He told CNN: “It’s important for people to realize minimalism isn’t simply the amount of stuff we consume. It’s about our families, our work, our connection with the larger world, our spiritual dimension. It’s about how we touch the whole world. It’s a way of life.”
66. What was the author’s main purpose in writing the text?
A. To explore the trend of minimalism.     B. To give tips on how to lead a happy life.
C. To argue whether money buys happiness.    D. To recommend one of Francine Jay’s books.
67. What inspired Francine Jay to live a simple life?
A. A book she came across.       B. Her desire to keep up with modem life.
C. The pleasure she enjoyed from traveling lightly.  D. A follower of minimalism she met on a trip.
68. According to Leah Watkins, a typical minimalist tends to       .
a. be fed up with materialism
b. like saving and visiting nature often
c. be angry about his or her current life
d. be environmentally friendly and live with fewer things
A. a, b     B. a, d     C. a, b, c     D. b, c, d
69. The underlined word “eliminating” in Paragraph 8 probably means       .
A. removing    B. distinguishing   C. accepting    D. improving
70. Which of the following would Duane Elgin probably agree with?
A. Minimalism is a healthy lifestyle that is in conflict with modem life.
B. Minimalism limits people’s freedom to enjoy their lives to the fullest.
C. Minimalism enables people to reflect on what truly counts in their lives.
D. Minimalism means people have to sacrifice some pleasure to live simply.

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