试题库在线考试题库-历年真题模拟试题及答案-考博英语在线试题测试中心-希赛网

中国社会科学院

Directions: Please summarize this article in English in about 200 words.In the midst of commencing political and aristocratic turmoil, was born one of the most talented and patriotically concerned artists Spain has ever seen. On March 30, 1746, one of Spain’s most innovative painters and etchers was born. In the rural town of Fuendetodos, Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was born. Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes was the first modern artist and the last old master. He was born poor and at the fall of the Hapsburg Monarchy. Goya’s grandfather was the son of a notary, or a minor lawyer, and his grandmother Dona Gracia Lucientes, was a Hidalgo. Hidalgos were the lowest order in Spanish nobility. His father was a painter and a gilder of altarpieces, and his mother was descended from a family of minor Aragonese nobility. Facts of Goya’s childhood are scarce. Goya was still a boy when he and his family moved to the city of Saragossa.Saragossa contained more life than the rural city of Fuendetodos. Here he began school, where he barely learned to read and write. After attending elementary school, Francisco went to a Jesuit school. It was here where the foundation of his career was laid. It was recommended that he develop his natural skills in drawing. A local master painter, named Jose Luzan y Martinez, took Goya under his wing. Martinez was a typical third rank painter of that time, but was well respected in the city. Goya began learning to paint the human figure by copying sculptures and molds. The drawing of naked models was forbidden at that time. However, by this point Goya showed himself as a fine copyist, and was able to adapt quickly to other peoples’ styles. Goya’s first commission was the painting of the church doors at Fuendentodos. This project confirmed his profession.At age 17 Goya went to test himself in the larger and more demanding area of Madrid. In 1763, the young artist went to Madrid, where he hoped to win a prize at the Academy of San Fernando. Although he did not win the desired award, he did make the acquaintance of Francisco Bayeu. He was an artist, also from Aragon, who was working at the court in the academic manner imported to Spain by the German painter Anton Raphael Mengs. Bayeu was the brother of Goya’s wife. He was influential in forming Goya’s early style and was responsible for his participation in an important commission, the fresco decoration of the Church of the Virgin in El Pilar in Saragossa.Goya’s obvious talent soon became apparent to the royal aristocracy of his time, and he was made Court Painter in 1786. This was the peak of his career, and some of the renowned works he produced during this period include Duke and Duchess of Osuna, Portraits of King Charles IV, and the Count of Floridablanca. The Spanish nobility became fond of the painter and commissioned him to prepare hundreds of portraits, including the Dutchess of Alba, the 9th Duke of Osuna, the 15th Duke of Medina Sidonia, and the Marchioness of Pontejos. However, the artist suddenly developed an illness between 1792 and 1793, which rendered him deaf, and he withdrew from people, becoming somewhat introspective. In the midst of creating his official commissions and religious paintings, the deaf artist undertook a series of experimental dark paintings, which were published in 1799 under the title Caprichos. Goya’s painting career took a nosedive after the French invasion of Spain and ensuing restoration of the new Spanish King Ferdinand VII, who was not particularly fond of the painter. His works after the French left Spain included the Disasters of War, The Charge of the Mamelukes, Santa Justa and Santa Rufina, and the Black Paintings.Possibly, Goya’s “claim to fame” was being part of the triumvirate—including El Greco and Diego Velazquez—two great Spanish masters. Much in the art of Goya is derived from that of Velazquez. Velazquez was a painter of Spain’s pride and power—a superb realist. Although Velazquez had an influence on Goya’s artistic style, his art is distinctly different from that of his predecessor. Velazquez’s paintings depicted absolute and precise figures. Most of Goya’s work, other than portraits, was noticeably distorted. These were times of confusion and despair, which would serve as artistic topics for Goya’s work. The other half of his work is strictly his reaction and response surrounding occurrences. Perhaps nobody depicted mortals’ thoughts and actions better than Goya. He combined his personal thoughts and the thoughts of the character in the painting so they either contrasted or became one. Goya used this devise of altering human characteristics as a way to undermine politicians and aristocrats without confrontation. A prime example of this is in the portrait of the family of Charles the IV. Charles IV was a Bourbon King who was later deposed by Napoleon. This portrait is at the pivotal point of Goya’s career. The public Goya and the private Goya, usually rigidly separated were briefly allowed to merge. As Goya was at the center of the social scene by this point, he was very aware of the history, people and events of his time.Thus, in this portrait, he depicts the characters and family members as he sees them, weak, sheltered, and cocky. The clothing and costumes on the people describe their rank in society; however, their faces portray a lack of power and character. In addition, these depictions went unnoticed, and while Goya never painted for the King and Queen again, it was not because they were dissatisfied. He got away with it and went on to fulfill other artistic desires. What is extraordinary about this portrait is that it borders a thin line between levels of understanding. Goya found a median at which he could satisfy someone’s expectations while fulfilling his own artistic thoughts. At first glance or even scrupulous examination, someone who is ignorant of the techniques being used sees only a picture of a royal portrait.Moreover, Goya’s talent was not confined to one particular style. Thus, a somewhat different style and theme is showed in The Shooting on Principe Pio Mountain. A more free brush technique is used here and the faces and figures in the picture are more abstract, less detailed. The shooters are anonymous and they doggedly obey orders by killing the suspects lined up in front of them. In the center of the painting is a Spanish commoner who has his arms raised and his face is that of despair, horror, and hopelessness. This event (one of many that were similar) was a significant moment in Spanish history. French firing squads patrolled through Spain as guerrillas (little wars) broke out over the land. Goya painted the picture six years later, and had mixed feelings about it. His love for Spain is shown in all of his work; however, he was an admirer of the French Enlightenment. This painting shows a difference and gradual change in Goya’s style. The brush strokes are much scratchier than and not as delicate as previous works. It was possibly painted with more passion and thus the reason for the more symbolic tone and not realistic.Francisco Goya was widely considered one of the most important artists of the Romantic period. Living in exile in Bordeaux, France, the artist died on April 16, 1828. His works went on to have a profound influence on both Édouard Manet and Pablo Picasso. Today, Goya’s works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Prado Museum in Madrid, and the Louvre Museum in Paris, among others.

Directions: In the following article, some words are have been moved. Please fill in each blank with only one word to complete the article according to the context.The current vehicles that are powered _1_ gasoline pollute, but as technologies improve and the human way of life changes alternatively powered vehicles enter the automotive industry. These vehicles were developed to achieve better gas mileage and to help slow the production of the gasses that _2_ Global Warming. The hybrid vehicle is one of the newest and most popular alternatively powered vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicles are energy efficient cars or trucks that run on an internal combustion engine of a gas vehicle with the battery and electric motor of an electric vehicle. This results in twice the fuel economy of gas vehicles. These hybrid electric vehicles consume fewer natural resources _3_ gas vehicles and produce almost no emission fumes compared to the standard gas vehicle. Hybrid cars are one solution to preserving air quality for the future.Hybrid electric cars were created because _4_ the shortfall in battery technology. The batteries that were being made could not produce enough power. These batteries would not sustain long trips with the car. To work _5_ this and onboard generator, powered by an internal combustion engine could be used for long trips. These cars became known _6_ hybrid electric vehicles that are now being mass-produced by companies like Toyota and Honda. When the vehicle starts and travels at city street speeds less than 30 miles per hour the electric motor does the greatest amount of the work. As the cars power sources begins to lose some of its energy the backup gasoline engine starts. This function is similar _7_ how gasoline cars work, with the alternator using the engine’s power to recharge the battery. After the power supply is replenished the gasoline engine shuts down. Also the gasoline engine is used to power the vehicle as it reaches the higher speeds where the added horsepower is needed. Usually the speed _8_ which the gasoline engine starts is in the 30 mile per hour range. Even as the gasoline engine runs the electric motor continues to provide power for the vehicle. This vehicle combination in my opinion is beneficial economically and environmentally. Using the hybrid electric vehicle will reduce smog-forming pollutants and cut emissions of global-warming pollutants by a third to a half. The average gas vehicle will pose substantial economic, environmental and energy security issue for the U.S. and all nations. When the hybrid operation schedule is biased more toward the energy storage system, relying more _9_ the battery than on the genset, emission levels become more like those of a battery electric vehicle which has a zero emission reading level.The hybrid electric cars have several advantages over the gas guzzling cars that are already out there. The hybrid cars greatest advantage is that they almost release zero emissions into the _10_. These cars use their brakes to regenerate power to the batteries. When the car is slowing down it takes the energy being released when slowing the car down. The result is a use of energy that does not require the car to be plugged in. The cars reduce the dependency on fossil fuels because they are run on alternative fuels. By combining gasoline with electric power, hybrids will have the same or greater range than traditional combustion engines.

Generally speaking, the influence of culture (in this broad sense) on health and well-being has been seen as distal and diffuse, pervasive but unspecified. Yet it seems plausible, if not self-evident, that cultural characteristics such as materialism or individualism can have as important an impact on psychosocial factors such as social support and personal control as socioeconomic inequality—perhaps even more important.However, the neglect of culture is surprising in some respects, but not others. It is surprising given that some of the earlier social epidemiological research pointed to its significance. It is unsurprising in that cultures tend to be “transparent” or “invisible” to those living within them because they comprise deeply internalized assumptions and beliefs, making their effects hard to discern. As Corin says, cultural influences are always easier to identify in unfamiliar societies. Our own cultures appear to constitute a natural order that is not itself an object of study. This impression, she says, is an “unsupported ethnocentric illusion”.Another reason for underestimating the role of culture is the extent to which its impacts are “refracted” through a host of other, more specific influences, including a person’s personal circumstances and temperament (this is also true of other distal determinants of health). In other words, changes that affect everyone can, nevertheless, affect people differently and contribute to specific problems that only some experience.A third explanation is that culture is a much debated and contested subject, defined and used in many different ways in different disciplines and even within the same discipline. Culture, as I use the term here, refers to the language and accumulated knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and values that are passed between individuals, groups, and generations; a system of meanings and symbols that shape how people see the world and their place in it and give meaning to personal and collective experience; or, more simply, as the knowledge we must possess to function adequately in society.In discussing the effects of modern Western culture on health, I do not mean to suggest that culture exerts a uniform effect on everyone, regardless of gender, class, and ethnicity; or that individuals passively absorb cultural influences, rather than interacting actively with them. It follows that, just as inequality can be studied at both population and individual levels so too can culture.The psychological and sociological literatures suggest powerful effects of culture on psychological well-being. Take materialism, by which I mean attaching importance or priority to money and possessions (and so broadly equate here with consumerism), and which underpins consumption-based economies. Many psychological studies have shown that materialism is associated, not with happiness, but with dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, anger, isolation, and alienation. Human needs for security and safety, competence and self-worth, connectedness to others, and autonomy and authenticity are relatively unsatisfied when materialistic values predominate.People for whom “extrinsic goals” such as fame, fortune, and glamour are a priority in life experience more anxiety and depression and lower overall well-being than people oriented towards “intrinsic goals” of close relationships, self-knowledge and personal growth, and contributing to the community. People with extrinsic goals tend to have shorter relationships with friends and lovers, and relationships characterized more by jealousy and less by trust and caring.As materialism reaches increasingly beyond the acquisition of things to the enhancement of the person, the goal of marketing becomes not only to make us dissatisfied with what we have, but also with who we are. As it seeks evermore ways to colonize our consciousness, the market both fosters and exploits the restless, insatiable expectation that there must be more to life. In short, the more materialistic we are, the poorer our quality of life.Individualism, by which I mean placing the individual at the center of a framework of values, norms, and beliefs and celebrating personal freedom and choice, is another cultural quality with profound significance for well-being, but here the evidence is contradictory. Well-being is associated with several qualities that individualistic societies should encourage, notably personal control and self-esteem; individualism is, after all, supposed to be about freeing us to live the lives we want. Historically, individualization has been a progressive force, loosening the chains of religious dogma, class oppression, and gender and ethnic discrimination, and so associated with a liberation of human potential.However, just as the reality of commitment differs from the ideal, so the reality of freedom differs from its ideal, especially when it is taken too far or is misinterpreted. Sociologists note that individualization has transformed identity from a “given” into “task”; it has replaced determination of social standing with, in Bauman’s words, “compulsive and obligatory self-determination”. The individualized life is a fate, not a choice; we cannot choose not to play the game.This process has had a range of consequences: a heightened sense of risk, uncertainty, and insecurity; a lack of clear frames of reference; a rise in personal expectations, coupled with a perception that the onus of success lies with the individual, despite the continuing importance of social disadvantage and privilege; and a surfeit or excess of freedom and choice, which is experienced as a threat or tyranny. To cite Bauman again, there is “a nasty fly of impotence in the ointment of freedom”, an impotence that is all the more upsetting in view of the empowerment that freedom was expected to deliver.An important means by which individualism and materialism affect well-being is through their influence on values. Values are a core component of culture, a property of societies and their people and institutions, as well as of individuals. Like culture more broadly, values have been underestimated in health research because their effects are hard to measure: they are abstract, generic, pervasive, flexible, and internalized (just the sort of “rules” complex adaptive systems like human societies need). Values provide the framework for deciding what is important, true, right, and good, and have a central role in defining relationships and meanings, and so in determining well-being.

Fears are a normal part of growing up. They develop from the moment a child first experiences a danger he or she cannot fully understand or control. Fear can be displayed in numerous ways by students in the classroom. One common fear response is that student seems almost paralyzed by fear when talking in class. This response may induce physiological reactions. Additionally, procrastination and repeated absence from class can both originate as fear-based responses.There’s an old joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The joke assumes that seemingly insurmountable problems can be resolved if broken down into parts. To many educators, helping highly fearful students successfully gain the upper hand on their emotions may appear challenging. Yet finding solutions and breaking them down into parts may result in breakthrough for the students who need it most.Educate yourself about fear and its impact on students. Fear is a complex emotion and can take different shapes and forms in a classroom setting. Although it is not possible to recognize each cause, diagnosis, or symptom that correlates to fear-based behaviors, it is possible to understand the significance of these fears in a way that could be beneficial to students. This starts with reframing our interpretations of pertinent student behaviors. Understanding how students experience fear, what this may entail on a cognitive and biological level, and how it may ultimately impact their learning, we can become more sensitized to problematic behaviors and work towards making students feel more comfortable and confident. In so doing, we may actually be empowering ourselves to overcome our own fears of change or of reaching the limit of our gifts and talents as instructors.Recognize that some student fears may be associated with factors outside the classroom. It is important to discriminate between fears that occur inside and outside of the classroom. Students who fail to turn in papers on time, miss classes, avoid discussions, or sleep during lessons may actually be wrestling with a number of challenges that originate outside of the institutions they attend. These individuals may be holding down multiple jobs, facing family challenges, or even spending excessive amounts of time driving to and from school; all of which may exacerbate fear-based responses. With this in mind, it is important not to make hasty assumptions about the roots of these fears. Creating a dialogue with the student who appears distressed or fearful can represent an important first step in addressing problem behaviors.Educate your students about the anxiety they may be experiencing and provide guidance in learning to manage it. In order to manage or reduce their anxiety, students often need to be made aware of their fear responses and be given techniques for managing them. A number of studies have shown that instructional intervention can diminish student fears and improve academic performance. By helping students identify potential fear-based behaviors, we are implementing our own informal early alert system and tapping into an important ingredient for classroom success. Spending a few minutes helping students “see the elephant” of anxiety and offering and even demonstrating a few anxiety-management techniques will be class time well spent in building a stronger sense of self-efficacy in your students. Demonstrating such simple techniques as breathing exercises, guided imagery, expressive writing, or stretching or relaxation methods can help students reduce anxiety and be more cognitively available to learn.Create a nurturing environment for your students. Providing a nurturing environment and positive attitude to all students can promote trust and positively impact students who are prone to fearfulness. A nurturing environment can also promote cultural sensitivity and discourage prejudicial or stereotyping behaviors by students. Because many cultures depend on a variety of visual cues during relational interactions, becoming aware of and responding to the nonverbal communication of students can also be a key factor in engendering a safe environment within the classroom. Being sensitive and respectful to these cues and nonverbal communication demonstrates inclusiveness essential to learner-centered teaching.Be proactive in communicating with your students outside the classroom both as a group and individually. Utilizing email and other forms of communication with your students to clarify assignments or to offer general comments or words of encouragement can help to ease student fears about potential failure. Often if one student takes the time to ask you a question after class, there is a good possibility that at least a few others had the same concern, and without singling out that student, a general email addressing the concern may also reassure others in the class. Correspondences of this nature demonstrate to students that their instructor is caring and willing to go the extra mile for them.Provide icebreakers and other activities to reduce stress and anxiety and repeat as needed in the semester. Do them in a way that takes the emphasis off individual achievement. When the first day of class comes, instructors can also promote positive communication through icebreaker activities—while doing double duty to address stress and anxiety. Initial class meetings also set the tone for constructive and learning-filled semesters. Yet icebreakers often showcase student abilities to be articulate and integrate information, and even with prompts as seemingly harmless as, “Tell me what you did over the summer,” students may become overanxious. As an alternative, provide students with an icebreaker in which they can share as much or little information as they wish.Incorporate active learning strategies into your normal teaching routine in order to promote a stress-free environment. According to Light and Micari, active learning takes place when students feel safe and supported by instructors and fellow classmates. Group activities are emphasized because they provide a collaborative feel that often is missing in a normal classroom environment. Peer facilitators can be trained to offer help and provide a more “democratic” feel in which the instructor is not seen as the sole source of classroom wisdom. For example, students are “assigned a particular problem or question to research in groups, and develop a short presentation and share with the class either live or online through a blog or wiki.”Be aware of campus resources to help students. Many universities and colleges have formalized early alert systems to help identify at-risk students and provide them with academic assistance and support services. Other interventions include “success coaches,” “success workshops,” “success skills programs,” and learning enrichment services providing tutoring and mentoring. Most universities and colleges also have counseling services and support groups for various needs, and some offer discipline-specific academic services, such as for math, statistics, or physics.

Dire warnings abound as experts tell us that Artificial Intelligence is almost a reality, if it isn’t already. Leaders in the technology, such as Elon Musk have even called for a 6 month moratorium on AI research, citing existential threats.But in fact, this consensus is a myth. Not everyone who studies the field is convinced that AI is at hand, or that it is even ever possible. In 2020, Ragnar Fjelland, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for the Study of Sciences and the Humanities at Bergen University wrote an essay for the journal Nature, titled “Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized.” It is long and complex, but very much worth reading as a caution not to accept the reality of AI too easily.Drawing on the work of scientists and philosophers dating back to Plato, the line from Fjelland that stands out is, “to put it simply: The overestimation of technology is closely connected with the underestimation of humans.” This means that in our rush to declare the reality of AI, what we are really doing is dumbing down the very concept of human intelligence.The modern debate over AI began with mid 20th century scientist Alan Turning who devised a set of tests. Most famous was the ability for AI to fool a human being into thinking they were speaking to another human being. This has more or less been achieved, but it is a deeply insufficient test to establish that a computer is engaged in human style intelligence.Can a computer today spontaneously crack a funny joke? Can it accidentally commit a Fruedian slip, recognize and reflect on it? Can it dream? The latter is a telling example of how science has put the AI cart before the horse of human intelligence. There is no consensus on what exactly a human dream is, or why they exist. How then can we possibly establish if a computer is capable of it?Moreover, much of human knowledge and intelligence is tacit, not explained or devised. For example, as Fjelland points out, most humans know how to walk, but very few know how they walk. We do not teach our toddlers perambulation by showing them the math and physics of it.This is knowledge gained by experience with physical phenomena, not through pure mental exercise. In large part the vastness of human intelligence is not so much contained in what we know, but in what we don’t know and yet can do anyway.A significant reason why we do not hear these questions asked is that the experts we most often rely on to tell us if AI is real, or achievable, are themselves experts in AI. Of course they think it’s real. They have dedicated their careers to it, their funding depends on it, which doesn’t mean they are wrong, but it does mean they are an interested party in the debate. And that others, such as philosophers and theologians have a role to play in these definitions.None of this is to suggest that machine learning will not have a major and potentially dangerous impact on society. If hundreds of thousands of truckers lose their jobs to self-driving vehicles it’s a problem. But it’s not a new problem. Technology has been displacing human work since the ancients invented the plough. And anyway, self-driving vehicles do not actually require artificial intelligence.The far more important and complex questions involve creativity and intuition. The comical columns concocted from ChatGPT don’t suggest that an artificial William Faulkner or James Joyce is right around the corner, or achievable at all. Furthermore as we can see from the consistently politically biased responses to prompts that the system gives, there is clearly more than a little human influence on the end product.Might artificial intelligence be real and dangerous? Perhaps. But there is also enormous danger in human beings holding the capacities of their own intelligence too cheap. AI is not a functioning model of the human mind, and dispossessing ourselves of that notion is key to understanding our technological age.Will there, one day, be a computer that can match the marvels of Shakespeare? For his part, the Bard thinks not. “What a piece of work is a man,” he wrote, “How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god.”Try though they may, all the Elon Musks and all of their men, cannot create a computer that can compose or meet the criteria of that description of human intelligence. Human beings are still, first and foremost the greatest storytellers of their own reality, and there is no good reason to believe that can, or will ever change.

2 / 107