2024 年 北京卷

1The Language Exchange Programme allows students in pairs to communicate in two different languages they wish to share and learn each week. Students record short entries after each partner meeting noting the language skills practised and the topics discussed. Each pair of students meets three times throughout the term with a teacher who decides if the exchange is effective. Students who successfully complete the programme will receive one credit each.

2Requirements for completion:

3•One welcoming session on the second Friday of the term

4•18 weekly one-hour pair meetings

5•Weekly progress reports for all pair meetings

6•At least three pair-teacher meetings

7•One five-minute final video

8Sign up!

9The sign-up and registration process is as follows:

10•Students sign up and indicate the languages they can share and languages they are interested in learning.

11•Based on the information entered by each student, potential pairs are identified.

12•Proficiency (熟练) levels are confirmed through coursework or placement tests.

13•Once a pair has been determined to be suitable, the students will be contacted individually with a special permission number to register for the programme.

14Reminders:

15Signing up for the programme does not automatically mean that you will be able to register and participate. Pairs are matched by languages of interest and proficiency levels. Since there are many factors involved in the pairing process, not all students who sign up will be matched with a partner and be able to register for the programme.

1When I was a little girl, I liked drawing, freely and joyously making marks on the walls at home. In primary school, I learned to write using chalks. Writing seemed to be another form of drawing. I shaped individual letters into repeating lines, which were abstract forms, delightful but meaningless patterns.

2In secondary school, art was my favourite subject. Since I loved it so much I thought I was good at it. For the art O-level exam I had to present an oil painting. I found it difficult, but still hoped to pass. I failed, with a low grade. I’d been over-confident. Now I’d been declared talentless.

3But other channels of creativity stayed open: I went on writing poems and stories. Still, I went to exhibitions often. I continued my habitual drawing, which I now characterised as childish doodling (乱画). In my 30s, I made painter friends and learned new ways of looking at art. However, I couldn’t let myself have a go at actually doing it. Though these new friends were abstract painters using oil paints, or were printmakers or sculptors, I took oil painting as the taboo (禁忌) high form I wasn’t allowed to practice.

4One night, in my early 40s, I dreamed that a big woman in red approached me, handed me a bag of paints, and told me to start painting. The dream felt so authoritative that it shook me. It was a form of energy, giving me back something I’d lost. Accordingly, I started by experimenting with water colours. Finally, I bought some oil paints.

5Although I have enjoyed breaking my decades-long taboo about working with oil paints, I have discovered I now prefer chalks and ink. I let my line drawings turn into cartoons I send to friends. It all feels free and easy. Un-anxious. This time around, I can accept my limitations but keep going.

6Becoming a successful painter calls for being resolute. I realised I was always afraid of wanting too much. That dream reminded me that those fears and desires could encourage me to take risks and make experiments.

1The notion that we live in someone else’s video game is irresistible to many. Searching the term “simulation hypothesis” (模拟假说) returns numerous results that debate whether the universe is a computer simulation — a concept that some scientists actually take seriously. Unfortunately, this is not a scientific question. We will probably never know whether it’s true. We can, instead, use this idea to advance scientific knowledge.

2The 18th-century philosopher Kant argued that the universe ultimately consists of things-in-themselves that are unknowable. While he held the notion that objective reality exists, he said our mind plays a necessary role in structuring and shaping our perceptions. Modern sciences have revealed that our perceptual experience of the world is the result of many stages of processing by sensory systems and cognitive (认知的) functions in the brain. No one knows exactly what happens within this black box. If empirical (实证的) experience fails to reveal reality, reasoning won’t reveal reality either since it relies on concepts and words that are contingent on our social, cultural and psychological histories. Again, a black box.

3So, if we accept that the universe is unknowable, we also accept we will never know if we live in a computer simulation. And then, we can shift our inquiry from “Is the universe a computer simulation?” to “Can we model the universe as a computer simulation? ” Modelling reality is what we do. To facilitate our comprehension of the world, we build models based on conceptual metaphors (隐喻) that are familiar to us. In Newton’s era, we imagined the universe as a clock. In Einstein’s, we uncovered the standard model of particle (粒子) physics.

4Now that we are in the information age, we have new concepts such as the computer, information processing, virtual reality, and simulation. Unsurprisingly, these new concepts inspire us to build new models of the universe. Models are not the reality, however. There is no point in arguing if the universe is a clock, a set of particles or an output of computation. All these models are tools to deal with the unknown and to make discoveries. And the more tools we have, the more effective and insightful we can become.

5It can be imagined that comparable to the process of building previous scientific models, developing the “computer simulation” metaphor-based model will also be a hugely rewarding exercise.

1Franz Boas’s description of Inuit (因纽特人) life in the 19th century illustrates the probable moral code of early humans. Here, norms (规范) were unwritten and rarely expressed clearly, but were well understood and taken to heart. Dishonest and violent behaviours were disapproved of; leadership, marriage and interactions with other groups were loosely governed by traditions. Conflict was often resolved in musical battles. Because arguing angrily leads to chaos, it was strongly discouraged. With life in the unforgiving Northern Canada being so demanding, the Inuit’s practical approach to morality made good sense.

2The similarity of moral virtues across cultures is striking, even though the relative ranking of the virtues may vary with a social group’s history and environment. Typically, cruelty and cheating are discouraged, while cooperation, humbleness and courage are praised. These universal norms far pre-date the concept of any moralising religion or written law. Instead, they are rooted in the similarity of basic human needs and our shared mechanisms for learning and problem solving. Our social instincts (本能) include the intense desire to belong. The approval of others is rewarding, while their disapproval is strongly disliked. These social emotions prepare our brains to shape our behaviour according to the norms and values of our family and our community. More generally, social instincts motivate us to learn how to behave in a socially complex world.

3The mechanism involves a repurposed reward system originally used to develop habits important for self-care. Our brains use the system to acquire behavioural patterns regarding safe routes home, efficient food gathering and dangers to avoid. Good habits save time, energy and sometimes your life. Good social habits do something similar in a social context. We learn to tell the truth, even when lying is self-serving; we help a grandparent even when it is inconvenient. We acquire what we call a sense of right and wrong.

4Social benefits are accompanied by social demands: we must get along, but not put up with too much. Hence self-discipline is advantageous. In humans, a greatly enlarged brain boosts self-control, just as it boosts problem-solving skills in the social as well as the physical world. These abilities are strengthened by our capacity for language, which allows social practices to develop in extremely unobvious ways.