2026年真题15

Listen to a talk on a music history podcast (man) The Aeolian harp is a stringed instrument that became popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It’s basically a shallow wooden box with strings stretched across it and, uh, sound holes in the middle, kind of like you’d see on an acoustic guitar or violin. Rather than being plucked or strummed, though, it’s placed near a window or outside and creates otherworldly sounds when the wind blows. It’s named after the Greek God of wind, Aeolus. It was popular for a couple of hundred years, though not so much today. Judging by the sound the Aeolian harp makes, you’d think that all of its strings are tuned to play different notes. In fact, they’re all tuned to the same note. See, each string is a different diameter or width, so when the wind blows, they all vibrate at different frequencies. This might also remind you of, say, wind chimes. You can just hang wind chimes up outside and kind of forget about them. But for Aeolian harps, they needed to be cleaned and oiled. Some parts needed to be replaced every couple of years, so the instrument itself required regular maintenance. Contrary to what might seem logical, the Aeolian harp also wasn’t made to withstand the elements, like changes in temperatures or humidity. And since it was most popular in England, where the seasons change and, well, it’s England, so there’s a lot of damp weather. You’d either have to put it away for months at a time or keep it inside near an open window, especially in winter.

Listen to a talk in a biology class (man) You’ve probably heard that ants can carry fifty times their body weight. Amazing, right? Ants also, out on the front of their heads, they have strong mandibles. Mandibles are like jaws. The ants use them like pincers, grippers, like how humans use our thumbs and index fingers to pick things up. Now, ants’ mandibles, their inner surfaces are covered in tiny hairs. And researchers working on biomimicry, uh, biomimicry means imitating nature in human inventions. A group of researchers studying ant mandibles and their hairs really wondered if they could use biomimicry with a robot gripper. So, a robot gripper is a device with flat plates that come together to pick things up. But it’s difficult to pick up packaging with curved edges. So, manufacturers often use grippers with three plates for stability. But three plates are bulky and harder to operate, you know, awkward. So the researchers built a robot gripper with two plates with tiny artificial hairs, copying ants’ mandibles, and another gripper with just the two smooth plates. They did an experiment with over two-thousand tests, an astonishing number, I think, comparing how well grippers pick up items like a cereal box and a shampoo bottle. Well, the hairy gripper was at least twenty-nine percent better at grabbing and holding onto items. Its grip was more gentle and more secure.

Listen to a talk in a business class (man) Let’s talk about lean manufacturing and its impact on efficiency in production processes. Lean manufacturing is a systematic approach to minimizing waste within a manufacturing system while maximizing productivity. While the methodology has been adopted by many companies worldwide, it was developed by a Japanese car maker in the mid-twentieth century, but its roots can actually be traced to the supermarket. In the 1950s, Japanese engineers observed that supermarkets in the United States only restocked items as customers purchased them, maintaining just enough inventory to meet demand. This idea of just-in-time inventory management became a core principle of lean manufacturing. By identifying and removing excess inventory and eliminating other inefficiencies, companies could reduce costs and increase their overall productivity. Another important aspect of lean manufacturing is continuous improvement, often referred to as Kaizen. This involves constantly seeking ways to enhance processes, products, and services. Employees at all levels are encouraged to contribute ideas for improvement, fostering a culture of innovation and teamwork. Lean manufacturing also emphasizes the importance of value from the customers’ perspective. Companies focus on producing goods that meet customer needs and expectations, ensuring that each step in the production process adds value rather than unnecessary complexity. As you might imagine, implementing lean manufacturing requires a shift in organizational culture. Resistance to change and difficulty in sustaining improvements can get in the way. That said, companies that fully adopt lean practices experience increased efficiency, reduced costs and higher customer satisfaction.

Listen to a talk in a music appreciation class (man) Most wind instruments which are played by blowing in, went through lots of modifications before becoming the standardized instruments we see and hear today. Now, most brass instruments, like the trumpet and trombone, underwent many centuries of refinement before being standardized, but the tuba only took about one-hundred-eighty years to reach its current form. That’s because through centuries, composers and inventors wanted an ideal instrument to play those really low notes. Rather than tinker with an instrument they didn’t love, they discard it and start again. So the tuba doesn’t really have a clear ancestor, more a series of unrelated precursors trying to do what it now does. An early example was the serpent. The serpent was made of a wooden tube bent into the shape of, well, a serpent, the letter s. Problem was it didn’t sound great. The wooden tube was too wide, which caused problems with intonation, meaning it was hard to hit the right notes. Imagine a choir of voices accompanied by a serpent booming along out of tune. Ouch! Well, so goodbye serpent and hello ophicleide. The ophicleide’s main advantage was that it was made of brass. The brass construction made its intonation much better. The ophicleide became much more popular than the serpent. The composer Berlioz, uh, Berlioz used it in some famous pieces, but still, the ophicleide wasn’t the answer. Its range was pretty narrow and composers wanted something that could play lower notes.