techniques, says MrGoldbloom. He adds that even some big companies of this type are often reluctant to expand their pay scales to hire the top talent in this field.

A third barrier to adapting to the coming era of ―smart‖ applications, however, is likely to be cultural. Some

companies, such as General Electric, have been building their own Silicon Valley presence to attract and develop the digital skills they will need.

Despite the obstacles, some may master this difficult transition. But companies that were built, from the

beginning, with data science at their center, are likely to represent serious competition. 1. What cannot be inferred from the passage about the machine learning? A. Machine learning operations are costly in Netflix.

B. Machine learning plays an important role in existent applications.

C. Machine learning experts are not highly paid in some non-technology companies. D. Machine learning models are not sufficient to solve business problems in Pinterest. 2. The underlined word in the 3rd paragraph ―fields‖ most probably means ____. A. avoids

B. creates

C. solves

D. classifies.

3. Which one is the biggest obstacle for many traditional companies to begin a machine-learning operation? A. High cost

B. Expert crisis.

C. Technological problems

【答案】D CA 【分析】

D. Customer interactions.

(1). 推断题。根据文中的Pinterest, for intense, maintains more than 100 machine learning models that could be applied to different classed of problems, and it constantly fields requests from managers eager to use this resource to deal with their business problem，不能判断出选项D是正确的，故选D.

(2). 词汇题。根据第三段maintains more than 100 machine learning models that could be applied to different classed of problems，答案为C，解决。

(3). 细节题。根据文章第四段中的The most important factor weighing on many traditional companies will be the high cost of launching a serious machine-learning operation.故答案为A。

(C)

9/ 14

Dr. Donald Sadoway at MIT started his own battery company with the hope of changing the world’s energy future. It’s a dramatic endorsement for a technology most people think about only when their smartphone goes dark. But Sadoway isn’t alone in boasting energy storage as a missing link to a cleaner, more efficient, and more equitable energy future.

Scientists and engineers have long believed in the promise of batteries to change the world. Advanced batteries are moving out of specialized markets and creeping into the mainstream, signaling a tipping point for forward-looking technologies such as electric cars and rooftop solar panels.

The ubiquitous （无所不在的）battery has already come a long way, of course. For better or worse, batteries make possible our mobile-first lifestyles, our screen culture, our increasingly globalized world. Still, as impressive as all this is, it may be trivial compared with what comes next. Having already enabled a communications revolution, the battery is now poised to transform just about everything else.

The wireless age is expanding to include not just our phones, tablets, and laptops, but also our cars, homes, and even whole communities. In emerging economies, rural communities are bypassing the wires and wooden poles that spread power. Instead, some in Africa and Asia are seeing their first lightbulbs illuminated by the power of sunlight stored in batteries.

Today, energy storage is a $33 billion global industry that generates nearly 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. By the end of the decade, it’s expected to be worth over $50 billion and generate 160 gigawatt-hours, enough to attract the attention of major companies that might not otherwise be interested in a decidedly pedestrian technology. Even utility companies, which have long viewed batteries and alternative forms of energy as a threat, are learning to embrace the technologies as enabling rather than disrupting.

Today’s battery breakthroughs come as the world looks to expand modern energy access to the billion or so people without it, while also cutting back on fuels that warm the planet. Those simultaneous challenges appear less overwhelming with increasingly better answers to a centuries-old question: how to make power portable.

To be sure, the battery still has a long way to go before the nightly recharge completely replaces the weekly trip to the gas station. A battery-powered world comes with its own risks, too. What happens to the centralized electric grid, which took decades and billions of dollars to build, as more and more people become ―prosumers,‖ who produce and consume their own energy on site?

No one knows which—if any—battery technology will ultimately dominate, but one thing remains clear. The future of energy is in how we store it.

1. What does Dr. Sadoway think of energy storage?

10/ 14

A. It involves the application of sophisticated technology. B. It is the direction energy development should follow. C. It will prove to be a profitable business. D. It is a technology benefiting everyone.

2. What is most likely to happen when advanced batteries become widely used? A. Mobile-first lifestyles will become popular. B. The globalization process will be accelerated. C. Communications will take more diverse forms. D. The world will undergo revolutionary changes.

3. In some rural communities of emerging economies, people have begun to______. A. find digital devices simply indispensable B. communicate primarily by mobile phone C. light their homes with stored solar energy

D. distribute power with wires and wooden poles

4. What does the author imply about the centralized electric grid? A. It might become a thing of the past. B. It might turn out to be a ―prosumer‖。 C. It will be easier to operate and maintain. D. It will have to be completely transformed. 【答案】B D C A 【解析】

（1）：从第一段最后Sadoway isn’t alone in boasting energy storage as a missing link to a cleaner, more

efficient, and more equitable energy future.说明他认为储存能量是引导未来更清洁更有效能源的方向， （2）第三段结尾Having already enabled a communications revolution, the battery is now poised to transform just about everything else.电池已经使得很多科技在运转，现在趋向于改变其他所有事情。AC已经存在 B未提到 D经历革命性变革

（3）第四段结尾Instead, some in Africa and Asia are seeing their first lightbulbs illuminated by the power of sunlight stored in batteries.可知这些地区用了从太阳储存的能量来照明

（4）文章中提出一个问题 how to make power portable所以输电网络可能会成为历史

11/ 14

Section B (8’)

Direction: In the following article, 4 sentences have been removed. Choose the most suitable ones from the list A-F to fit into each of the numbered gaps. There are TWO which do not fit in any of the gaps.

A. However, Uber deny this was the intention. B. Uber was criticized of deliberately ordering rides of rival companies. C. Silicon Valley's culture seems hostile to humane and democratic values. D. Uber wants to know as much as possible about the people Who use its service , and those who don't. E. Uber is a transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, operating in 570 cities worldwide. F.In fact, it makes people wonder what would happen to someone carrying a knife who promised never to stab a policeman with it.

Time to Tame Silicon Valley

The company Uber brings into very sharp focus the question Of whether corporations can be said to have a moral character. If any human being were to behave with the single-minded and greed of the company, we would consider them anti-social,

1 Therefore, it has an arrangement with Unroll.me, a company which offered a free service for unsubscribing from junk mail, to buy the contacts Unroll.me customers had had with rival taxi companies. Beyond that, it keeps track of the phones that have been used to book its services even after the original owner has sold them, but attempts this with Apple's phones is forbidden by the company.

Uber has also adjusted its software so that regulatory agencies that the company regarded as hostile (敌意的)would, when they tried to hire a driver, be given false reports about the location of its cars, Uber management booked and then cancelled rides with a rival company which took their vehicles out of circulation 2The punishment for this behaviour was so small that it was not worth worrying about.

Uber promised not to use this software against law enforcement. 3 Travis Kalanick of Uber got a personal criticism from Tim Cook, who runs apple, but the company did not prohibit the use of the app. Too much money was invested in that.

The \of a tiny group of billionaires. 4 outgoing CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer; who is widely judged to have been a failure, is likely to get a $186m payout. This may not be a cause for panic. Yet there's an urgent political task to

12/ 14