3101期高中基础音频 Where the Streets Have No Names If spring is the bloom and beginning of life, and summer its prime (盛年), autumn is undoubtedly its middle age. It is a period of contemplation (沉思). As the weather gets cooler and the darkness of night comes earlier by the day, autumn can fill us with self-doubt and uncertainties about the future. But it is when we are doubtful about ourselves that we can experience the greatest growth. For all of these reasons, autumn may be my favorite time of year. The other day, I walked along the tree-lined streets of Huashan Road. I like to take time out of my week on occasion to venture out (外出探险) alone, exploring the hidden nooks (角落) and recesses (幽深处) of the city’s side streets. Since students were busily studying in their classrooms and traffic was at a lull, the street was calmingly quiet. I’ve been on these solo adventures many times before, with only my camera to keep me company. With autumn just settling in, the London planes (英国梧桐) looked like they were ready to start letting loose their leaves. The first fallen leaves of the season could already be heard scraping across the street to join their fellows in corner piles. Streets are like life in many ways. In the best of times, they can take us to the places we wish to go. However, even if we know where they can lead us, we don’t know what we may encounter along the road. We may meet bumps, obstacles and blind curves (视线受限的弯道). We may even find ourselves forced to take a side street we’ve never been down before. Nervous though we may be, we must make sure that we don’t make a terrible mess of our lives by letting our fears get the best of us. Sometimes the roads we never expected to travel down can lead us to the greatest discoveries. The streets of Shanghai tell the story of its people and history. The streets of your life are no different. Winding and uncertain though your life may at times be, trust in yourself and you’ll arrive at your destination. Whatever that destination ends up being, remember this: It was never the destination, but the journey, that made it all worthwhile. If you have the time, get out there and explore the city. The streets of life await your discovery. AI’s Huge Energy Needs Drive Changes in Nuclear Technology Last month, technology giants Google and Amazon both announced deals supporting “advanced” nuclear energy as part of their efforts to become carbon-neutral. Their moves are part of a larger green trend that has developed as tech companies deal with the growing energy requirements of the data centers and server farms that support AI. In September, Microsoft also made a similar deal. The partnerships agreed by Google and Amazon involve start-ups that are pioneering the design of “small modular reactors.” These reactors are intended to be assembled (组装) from ready-made pieces. The idea is to make nuclear reactors that are smaller, cheaper, safer and faster to deploy (部署) than those used in traditional plants (发电厂). But the designs still have a way to go before they become a reality. Building nuclear power stations is expensive, and betting on unproven technologies means that the money might not come back. The deals with Google and Amazon could provide a big push for the start-ups, helping them to raise extra funding. However, the level of support provided by the tech giants is likely to be a drop in the bucket compared with the billions those start-ups will need in the end. That said, the ability to make components on an assembly line could greatly cut reactor building costs. Once the technology has been fully developed, small individual reactors should be cheaper and faster to build than large, traditional ones. This could make them an attractive idea to investors, speeding up their adoption. Meanwhile, some worry that the overly optimistic publicity (报道) surrounding small modular reactor technology and the push to cut costs could lower safety standards. In theory, the smaller the reactor is, the higher the degree of passive nuclear safety it has. When shut down, the core of a small reactor would contain less residual heat (余热) and radioactivity than a traditional one. But as reactors get smaller, they become less efficient. And the need to make the economics work makes passive safety less credible (可靠的). Moreover, smaller reactors are also likely to produce more nuclear waste and to use fuel less efficiently. All in all, nuclear energy is here to stay as fossil fuels have to go. But whether building new reactors is the best way to rapidly cut emissions is arguable. And then there is the ironic question: With the current speed of progress in computer science, will AI need that much power in fifteen years from now? Ancient “Skywells” Are Keeping Chinese Homes Cool Ru Ling loves spending time in skywells. To her, they are the perfect place to be on a hot and humid (潮湿的) day. “They are airy and cool,” says the 40-year-old.From 2014 to 2021, Ru lived in a century-old timber-framed home in the village of Guanlu in Anhui Province. She says that the house’s skywell created a cooling effect. Ru is not the only one praising skywells in hot weather. Studies have found that the temperatures inside some of the skywells are significantly lower than the outside — by up to 4.3℃. A skywell, or tianjing, is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. Different from a northern Chinese courtyard, or yuanzi, a skywell is smaller and less exposed to the outdoor environment. They are commonly seen in homes dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which were designed to house different generations of relatives. Although a skywell’s size and design vary from region to region, it’s almost always rectangular (长方形的) and located in the core of the house. It is either enclosed (围住) by rooms on four sides or three sides plus a wall. Some large houses have more than one skywell. They are relatively common in historic residences in Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi Provinces. Some of the best-preserved can be found in Huizhou, a historical region spanning what is now Anhui and Jiangxi. Skywells were designed to cool buildings in an era well before air-conditioning existed. Yu Youhong, 55, has spent more than 30 years restoring skywell homes. The main purpose of a skywell, he says, is to allow in light, improve ventilation (通风) and harvest rainwater. In Huizhou, a skywell is small but tall. The rooms around it can block out sunlight on hot days, enabling the bottom of the skywell to stay cool, he adds. Meanwhile, hot air inside the house can rise and escape through the opening above the skywell, which “works just like a chimney.” As a transition space between indoor life and the outdoor environment, a skywell acts as an effective heat buffer (缓冲器) to protect residents from the hot air outside. But most of a skywell’s cooling effect happens when there’s water in the enclosure. Evaporated (蒸发的) water cools hot air. This process, known as evaporative cooling, works well in Huizhou skywells. In the past, local families collected rainwater in their skywells, believing this would safeguard their wealth. This is why skywells here have channels around them to drain (排出) rainwater coming from the roofs. According to Yu, some wealthy families had a drainage system dug under the skywell to ensure that rainwater only left the house after circumnavigating (绕过) the front hall under the ground.
