Every year mobile phones develop. Imagining what they will look like and be able to do in 2020 is really a challenge. To help, experts have outlined three major mobile trends that they believe will have become reality by then. Our phones will be so smart in 10 years' time that they'll know everything about our situation and warn us when something needs our attention. This is the top prediction of both Nokia and Google. They predict that our cars and home appliances will be able to communicate with our mobile. For example, fridges will tell your mobile to tell you to pick up milk on the way back from work. While driving, your mobile will suggest that you take a different route because there's a road accident up ahead. The second trend is in gesture-based controls. People who know the iPhone's touch-sensitive screen are already familiar with the technology. It translates hand movements into actions on-screen. But gestural communications will make the phone more convenient to use and may completely replace touchpads. According to industry insiders, the most immediate step forward in gestural technology will be in voice recognition. It's believed voice recognition technology will speed up communications. It is quicker to speak than type. Eventually, phone screens will disappear. The third major development will change our understanding of a mobile phone. From a single phone, the mobile will be developed into multi-part devices. It is opposite to the current trend in which mobile phones are combining the functions of cameras, music players and game consoles. The prediction is based on the idea that the world will become more wireless and all these--cameras, music players and game consoles--will be wirelessly connected. Mobile phones won't need to contain these devices because users will be able to control them wirelessly through their phones. From the text, we can learn that the future mobile phones will _ . A) drive cars for us B) be controlled by the users' voices C) be controlled by home appliances D) be very big together with separated multiple parts
B
A research found that people shown silent videos of piano competitions could pick out the winners more often than those who could also hear the music. It underlines the importance of our sense of vision, say scientists. Their study concludes that the best predictor of a winner's musical performance was the visible passion they displayed, followed closely by their uniqueness and creativity. Chia-Jung Tsay, from University College London, UK, is the study's author and herself a concert pianist. She was interested in how music was judged and found that even professional musicians were unaware of how much they were using visual information over sound. "For the last two decades, I've taken part in various competitions. Through this experience, I found that depending on what type of evaluations were used, the results might vary widely. This led me to wonder about how much visual information really affects these important decisions," she explained. More than 1,000 participants in the study were given samples of either audio, silent video or video with sound, and asked to rate the top three finalists from 10 international classical music competitions. The actual competition winners were only correctly identified by those who were randomly assigned the silent videos. Dr Tasy said the findings were quite surprising, especially because both trained musicians and those without training had stated that sound was most important for their evaluation. "Regardless of levels of expertise, we still seem to be led primarily by visual information, even in this field of music," she said. "Classical music training is often focused on improving the quality of the sound, but this research is about getting to the bottom of what is really being evaluated at the highest levels of competitive performance. She added, "We must be more mindful of our inclination to depend on visual information at the expense of the content that we actually value as more relevant to our decisions." Where does this text probably come from? A) A text book. B) A sports magazine. C) A story book. D) A science website.
D
Q: Across the planet there are millions of people who engage in some type of meditation, the practice of concentrating and clearing the mind to bring the body into a state of peace, at least a semi-regular basis. For some, particularly among practitioners of Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, this is _ of their religious practice. For others, particularly in Western cultures, meditation tends to be a response to stress. With the world economy approaching meltdown and people worried about their job or their ability to keep their home, it's a way for people to attain a state of peace of mind and well-being. For those interested in taking up the practice, instruction in meditation for beginners can be found in literally thousands of sources. One of the most popular styles of mediation in the West, with classes offered in most major cities, is called Transcendental Meditation. TM, as it is known among its practitioners, first came to worldwide attention when the Beatles began practicing it in 1967. For direct, guided, personal instruction in meditation for the beginner, TM may be the hallmark. Part of the confusion about how to practice meditation effectively is due to the fact that there are literally hundreds of techniques championed by various groups and individuals. As a general principle, it might be said that all meditation techniques seek to have the practitioner attain a state of consciousness that is different to our ordinary state of awareness. They attempt to train people to clear their minds and achieve a sense of inner peace. It sounds simple enough, but of the huge number of people experiment with meditation, very few are able to maintain its practice over the long haul. In most cases, this is due to frustration over the inability to experience any dramatic, instantly recognizable effects. This is quite a sad state of affairs, that so few these days are willing or equipped to persist in something that doesn't provide immediate life-changing results. It reflects a culture in which demands... The goal of meditation is _ . A) to clear the mind B) to practice a religion C) to develop a technique D) to carry out an experiment
A: A
Back in the days when I wrote my first songs, I hated my voice. I saw myself as a songwriter and guitarist but never a singer! I continued to write songs, and to search for the perfect singer. After a few years I did discover a singer, so we started a project together. We held a few concerts, and put a lot of work into it. She forces me to sing some songs at concerts myself, so I started going to a bar to practice them. This was my first, small breakthrough. One day she came round to my flat and informed me that she could no longer work with me, and also that the bar owner at the open mic venue had replaced us at short notice because some New York jazz star happened to be in town, and was available that evening to perform. The first bit of news made me sad and disappointed, but the second made me angry. However, that same evening, with as much determination as I could muster , I resolved to play three new songs at the bar, just as I had planned before. I was quite nervous, but I dragged myself down to the bar and sang those songs! I never felt so liberated . That night I couldn't get to sleep. I was simply astonished, hardly believing that I was a person who acted so courageously, and that I'd been able to sing my songs myself. Since then I've begun to encourage others to adopt a similar approach when they aren't able to see their own potential. One example is an amateur fiddler who could barely bring herself to lift her instrument to play in front of people. I forced her to ignore her fear, and simply get on with it. Now, a year or two later, she is a passionate, happy performer in front of any crowd! Once you get the ball rolling in yourself, you can start inspiring those around you. What's the passage mainly about? A) How to work with other singers. B) The story of the author and an amateur fiddler. C) How the author became a singer through her fighting spirit. D) How to write beautiful songs.
C