An annoying problem for humans, who like to boast (夸耀) about all the distant planets and moons we have explored, is that we've never taken a good look right under our noses．The inside of the earth is relatively close but how can we get there?
The deepest oil well enters a mere six miles into the crust (地壳) (the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles deeper)．Russian scientists dug the deepest hole in Siberia," but bottomed out at about 7.5 miles below the surface．The Mohole project, a U.S．plan in the 1950s, called for drilling a hole 25 miles down to the boundary between the hard rocks of the crust and the soft mantle (地幔)．Sadly the project involved government supporting.
It gets harder and harder to drill deep into the earth because rocks get softer and softer． Hard but easily broken at the surface, rocks become plastic at depth, and the pressure caused by the weight of the overlaying crust — about 52,800 pounds per square inch at a depth of ten miles, makes further drilling impossible.
What little we know about the inside of the earth (like the fact that there' s a crust, a mantle, and a core) comes from indirect evidence, such as the analysis of earthquakes.
So maybe it' s time for a thorough new method to explore the earth's inside．Scientist David Stevenson says we should forget about drilling holes．Instead, we should open a crack (裂缝)．
Stevenson suggests digging a crack about a half mile long, a yard wide, and a half mile deep (not with a shovel) but with an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb．Next, he'd pour a few hundred thousand tons of molten (融化的) iron into the crack, along with a robot．The iron, thicker than the surrounding crust, would move downward at about 16 feet per second, carrying the robot with it and opening the crack deeper and deeper．The iron mass would drop for about a week and 2,000 miles to the outer edge of the earth core, the robot sending out data to the surface.
Stevenson compares his idea to space exploration．"We're going somewhere we haven't been before," he says．"In all possibility, there will be surprises."
This idea can probably be put in．the drawer marked with Isn't Going To Happen．The robot would have to survive temperatures that would melt pretty much anything．But Stevenson's idea may inspire a new look at an old problem．Great things can come from what seems like impossible ideas.
Going inside the earth is ________ than going into space.
| A．more interesting | B．more possible | C．easier | D．more challenging |
How deep have we gone into the earth until now?
| A．6 miles． | B．4,000 miles． | C．7.5 miles． | D．25 miles. |
Which of the following is TRUE about David Stevenson's idea?
| A．It is an inspiring but not practical idea now． |
| B．It is a practical proposal that has come into use now. |
| C．It is a good proposal that will soon be put into practice. |
| D．It is a false theory that cannot be carried out at all. |
What might be the most suitable title for the text?
| A．An Annoying Problem for Humans |
| B．To the Center of the Earth |
| C．The Mohole Project |
| D．David Stevenson' s Proposal |
Discover Artistic Talents across the Country
Redtory, Guangzhou
Redtory, established in 2009, is a spacious art district often referred to as Guangzhou’s 798. Made up of more than 30 old halls, mostly buildings of red brick, the place was originally built in 1956 as Chinese largest can factory. Some of the rusty machines from the old factory have been kept as art equipment, giving the zone an old charm.
Where: No. 128 Yuancun Siheng Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou
Opening hours: Mon-Sun 10:30 am-9 pm
Tank Loft, Chongqing
This 12,000-square-meter art center was established on the site of a used military tank warehouse(仓库). It is the largest contemporary art base in western China, featuring modern exhibition, galleries, design studios and art bookstores. The art zone is located on the campus of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and was created by the school in the early 2000s.
Where: No. 108 Huangjueping Center Street, Jiulongpo District, Chongqing
Opening hours: 9 am-5 pm(closed Mondays)
M50, Shanghai
M50, also known as 50 Moganshan Road, is the center of Shanghai’s contemporary art scene, with more than 100 artists whose studios are open to the public. This district, on the bank of Suzhou Creek, was previously a textile factory until it seized production in 1999. Xue Song, a Shanghai artist, was the first to establish a studio there in 2002.
Where: No. 50 Moganshan Road, Pudong District, Shanghai
Opening hours: 10 am-5 pm(closed Mondays)
798 Art Zone, Beijing
Attracted by ordered designing, convenient traffic and unique style of Bauhaus architecture, art organizations and artists have crowded in the vacant plants and transformed them since 2001, gradually forming a district gathered galleries, art studios, cultural companies, fashion shops etc. As the earliest area where the organizations and artists moved in located in the original area of 798 factory, this place was named as Beijing 798 Art Zone.
Where: No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Opening hours: 10 am-6 pmIf you are going to visit an art zone at 7pm, which one can you go to?
| A．Redtory, Guangzhou. | B．Tank Loft, Chongqing. |
| C．M50, Shanghai. | D．798 Art Zone, Beijing. |
Tank Loft, Chongqing is quite different from the others in .
| A．size | B．site | C．feature | D．weather |
Which of the following was built first?
| A．Redtory, Guangzhou. | B．Tank Loft, Chongqing. |
| C．M50, Shanghai. | D．798 Art Zone, Beijing. |
It was a physical class. But it was nothing like previous ones — the class was “attended”
by over 60 million students across China, and the teacher was not even on the planet: she was 340 kilometers above the earth.
“Hello, everyone. I’m Wang Yaping. I’ll host your lecture today.” Smiling to the camera, Wang, China’s second female astronaut, started her video class on June 20 on board the Tiangong-1 space station.
To show how Newton’s Laws work in space, Wang and her fellow astronauts used simple items like balls and spinning tops. The highlight of the lecture was when Wang made a film of water using a metal ring, something that only happens in zero gravity, where the surface tension(张力) of water is much higher than it is on the earth. She then took it a step further by pouring more water onto the film and turning it into a water ball, leaving the audience amazed by what they saw.
The 40-minute lesson seemed to have passed too quickly for students to see enough of those magical experiments. But sending stuff into space is really expensive. According to The Beijing Times, every kilogram launched into space cost 20,000 dollars. The experimental items taken this time were all strictly selected and weighed about 2.9 kilograms in total. This adds up to quite a large price tag.
The organizers of the event also had to consider the time of day: the communication signal between the earth and Tiangong-1 was best during that specific 40 minutes, when the spacecraft was flying within the coverage of all of the ground-based testing stations.Why is the class different from a common one?
| A．Because it took 40 minutes. |
| B．Because over 60 million students across the world attended it. |
| C．Because the teacher was on the planet. |
| D．Because the lecturer was in space. |
One of the experiments shows .
| A．object motion under weight conditions |
| B．laws of physics under weightless conditions |
| C．laws of physics under weight conditions |
| D．how Newton’s Laws work on the earth |
Which phrase can best replace the underlined words in the passage?
| A．took a photo of water. |
| B．recorded moving pictures of water. |
| C．made a thin layer of water. |
| D．all the above. |
Which of the following statements can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Teaching from the Sky. | B．Teaching on Physics. |
| C．Teaching Experiments. | D．Teaching by an Astronaut. |
In China，cultural differences arose from growing rice or wheat．Different thinking styles between northern and southern Chinese people can trace(追溯)their roots to rice fields and wheat fields．
Rice farming promotes a holistic(整体的)focus on distinguishing relationships among people and objects，and valuing others as much as or more than oneself, say psychologist Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues．Holistic thinking among many modem Chinese people partly reflects regional histories of building communal irrigation systems(共有灌溉系统)and cooperatively planting and harvesting rice fields over thousands of years．
They draw that conclusion based on studies of college students from regions with different agricultural practices．Students from southern and central China’s rice．growing provinces think holistically, even though they have probably never farmed rice，Talhelm’s group reports．In contrast，students from northern and central Chinese provinces that have specialized in wheat growing exhibit a preference for abstract analysis and self over others，the scientists find．Wheat is less labor-intensive(劳动密集型)to grow than rice，SO farmers can plant and harvest crops without much help from neighbors．Analytical，individualistic thinking is not more common among students from richer
Provinces, contrary to the argument that this attitude springs from modernization. ”Rice theory might explain why East Asia is so much less individualistic than expected based on its wealth, ” Talhelm says.
Talhelm，s team tested 1,162 Chinese students，who Viewed lists of three items，such as a rabbit，a dog and a carrot. For each list，students chose two items that belonged together. Earlier research found that analytical thinkers often group items according to categories，so rabbits and dogs go together．Holistic thinkers tend to 1ook for relationships，such as rabbits eating carrots. Students from rice-growing areas made an average of around seven to nine holistic matches of 10 possible matches，compared with roughly f1ve to seven holistic matches for those from Wheat-growing areas.
Talhelm’s team also analyzed national statistics in China from 1 996，2000 and 2010 and found a higher divorce rate and a greater number of successful patents for new inventions in wheat-growing provinces than in rice-growing provinces. That trend is in line with the ides that analytical thinking develops both individualism and creativity.People who think holistically probably_____________.
| A．come from wheat—growing areas |
| B．1ive in northern and central China |
| C．rely more on themselves |
| D．think of others before themselves |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．East Asia is poorer than the other areas of Asia. |
| B．Modernization contributes to analytic al thinking. |
| C．Analytical thinkers tend to pick out items by type. |
| D．Richer people show more individualistic thinking. |
The author develops the passage mainly by____________.
| A．making comparisons |
| B．listing examples |
| C．telling his personal experience |
| D．presenting problem and solution |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Cultural differences in China |
| B．1isting examples |
| C．Chinese people tracing their roots |
| D．Farming influences thinking styles |
The passages below discuss the retirement age．
Passage 1：
In the United States，the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now．No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon．So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first：older people，who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people，many just out of school，with fresh skills and ambitions?
The answer is obvious．Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help．The right step is to reduce，not increase，the retirement age．As a rough cut，why not make it a law to set a three—year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62——providing a voluntary ,one—time，grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension(退休金)and medical care，they will be happier．Young people who need work will be happier．And there will also be more jobs．With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives．They will become．each and every one，an employer．
Passage 2：
Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity—and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks．Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around．This misunderstanding，known to economists as the“lump of labour fallacy(劳动总量固定的谬论)”，was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males．Now lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive(剥夺)the young of employment．The idea that society can become
better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle(无所事事的)is clearly ridiculous．On that reasoning，if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates．In Passage 1，one reason for suggesting earlier retirement in the US is the_______
| A．tough policy | B．stable pension |
| C．high unemployment | D．free medical care |
In Passage I，the writer suggests encouraging older people to retire earlier by____________.
| A．cutting their pension if they remain at work |
| B．giving them an extra sum o f money on retiring |
| C．convincing them that young people need work |
| D．offering them a bonus each year for three years |
Lump-of-laborites believe that____________．
| A．young citizens should be better paid |
| B．the old should leave jobs for the young |
| C．males should earn bread for the family |
| D．earlier retirement will lead to a poorer society |
What is the author’s attitude towards earlier retirement in Passage 2?
| A．Negative． | B．Positive． |
| C．Unconcerned． | D．Tolerant． |
Along with global warming and the Ebola virus，this year, something far less life-and society-threatening also spiraled out of control：email．
It was long ago invented as something to make us more productive．But what productivity expert would ever say that it's a good thing that instead of working，we now“answer email? Or that on some days，I am unwilling to leave my desk to head into a meeting because it means taking my finger off the keyboard and knowing 1 will return to a flood of new messages waiting patiently for my total attention?
Some people struggle for“inbox zero”．But like many people，I now get so much junk mail that if I were to adopt such a goal，I would spend every workday doing nothing but deleting emails．To make sure nothing important gets buried，I have developed an embarrassinglv old system of keeping a pen-and-paper list of emails that need responses on a series of Post-It notes．As far back as 2007，Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy”．I'm close to doing the Same．
But I may not need to．I predict that 2015 will mark the beginning of the end of emails．Already, some tools have emerged(出现)over the years，like software Freedom which disables access to the Internet for chosen periods of time．Corporations have gradually been adopting stricter email policies：A few years ago，Volkswagen said it would stop sending emails from its servers to company-owned BlackBerrys after the end of its workday．
But this great hope is largely the optimist in me speaking，and I give this prediction small chances compared to some of our others．As Tony Hsieh once told me，the problem with email is that it is a“good—enough”solution．Some technologies stay around just because there isn’t anything better．It’s probably right．But my wish is that 2015 is the year when truly effective email management solutions go from good to great-and that email volume goes from crazy to reasonable．We’ll a11 be better for it．
The underlined word “spiraled” in Paragraph l probably means “_____________”.
| A．increased rapidly | B．moved in circle |
| C．changed unexpectedly | D．appeared suddenly |
The writer is unwilling to attend a meeting because____________.
| A．he has to return with quantities of emails |
| B．answering emails calls for great attention |
| C．more emails will flood in waiting for him to check |
| D．he doesn’t want to take his fingers off the keyboard |
From Paragraph 3，we may infer that____________.
| A．the goal “inbox zero” is hard to obtain |
| B．the writer is devoted to deleting emails |
| C．pens and paper are highly favored at work |
| D．Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy” |
The writer may agree that____________.
| A．emails will come to an end |
| B．emails will still hold a place |
| C．existing email management is perfect |
| D．emails will never be sent to BlackBerrys |
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