Before a new type of airplane goes into service, every part of it is tested again and again. But there are two tests that are more important than all the others.
The first is called the " tank(贮水池) test". A modem airplane must fly very high in the sky. Air must be pumped into the plane so that the passengers can breathe. The metal structure (结构)of the plane has to be very strong for this reason. When the plane is filled with air, the air presses against the skin of the plane inside. The pressure (压力) on a small window is like a huge foot that is trying to get out. If a small part of the plane were to fail, the plane would explode (爆炸)in the sky. To test the structure of the plane, the plane is lowered into a huge tank or container of water. Then it is filled with air. The pressure inside the plane is greater than it ever will be when it is high up in the air. Finally, there is an explosion. This does not cause so much damage inside the water tank as it would anywhere else. Engineers can discover which part of the plane has broken. Then that part is made stronger.
The most dangerous test happens when the new plane is going through test flights in the air. The pilot must find out exactly what happens when the engines (发动机) are all shut off at once. The plane begins to fall like a stone. It is the pilot’s job to find out how he can get control of the plane again. These two tests are examples of how planes are made safe before they ever carry passengers.By doing the "tank test", the engineers can find out _______.
| A．the amount of air in the plane | B．the strength of the plane structure |
| C．the pressure inside and outside the plane | D．the power of the airplane engines |
What will happen to the plane under the "tank test"?
| A．It will be broken. | B．It will be made stronger. |
| C．It will be filled with water. | D．It will be tested by pilots, |
According to the text, why are test flights most dangerous?
| A．The plane may explode in the air. | B．The pilot may lose control of the plane. |
| C．The engines may be damaged. | D．Too much air may get into the plane. |
What might be the most suitable title for the text?
| A．Two Important Tests on Airplanes | B．The Importance of Flying Safely |
| C．The Danger of Testing Airplanes | D．How Airplanes Are Made and Tested |
Women who want to succeed at work should resist the temptation to act like men, scientists have said. Studies show that ambitious women are often less likely to get ahead than those who show more female characteristics. However, if they try to adapt, promotion comes their way. The findings, which will let assertive (过分自信的) women down, suggest that the best way for a woman to succeed in a man’s world is to act like a lady.
Past research has shown that women with self-confidence and other characteristics linked with successful management can be put aside at work in favor of gentle types. It is thought that while such characteristics are highly praised in men, ambitious women are penalized for not being feminine enough. Instead of being seen as strong managers, ambitious women are in an unfavorable situation.
In one US study, researchers explored personal details from university students applying for a summer job at a bank. A women applicant who attempted to apply for special wages to pay her transport or living costs was three and a half times less likely to get a job offer than a similar male. In fact, this kind of woman was the least likely to get taken on.
The latest study set out to explore what women who are naturally assertive could do to get ahead in the workplace. Eighty young men and women completed surveys about their personality while studying in college. Around eight years later, the researchers got back in 
touch with them to find out how their careers were going. Some had been promoted five times, others just once or twice. The results showed that ambitious women who stick to their decisions had been promoted less than more feminine groups. But the ambitious women who made a conscious effort to not appear to be threatening by “self-controlling” their behavior had done better than those who had carried on ignoring others’ views. What does the underlined word “penalized” mean in the second paragraph?
| A．Treated badly | B．Asked to leave |
| C．Looked down upon | D．Made sb. have a disadvantage |
According to the passage, if an ambitious woman and a similar man both ask the company for an extra payment, ______.
| A．the woman is less likely to be accepted |
| B．the woman will work harder if she gets the payment |
| C．the man can make a good impression on the boss |
| D．they can be both accepted if they use proper words |
The ambitious women in the latest study ______.
| A．had been promoted only once or twice |
| B．tried hard to be as successful as gentle types |
| C．were more accepted at work after they controlled their behavior |
| D．filled in the surveys after they graduated from college |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Successful management is highly praised in women. |
| B．Some women will be disappointed by the massage. |
| C．Men acting like a lady are likely to be promoted at work. |
| D．The latest study was aimed at how to become a successful boss. |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．How assertive women can control their behavior. |
| B．Feminists can do better by controlling their behavior. |
| C．Acting like a man won’t get women promoted at work. |
| D．How the ambitious women can avoid acting like men. |
2010 was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards(暴风雪), landslides(滑坡)and droughts
killed at least a quarter million people in 2010---the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.
“It just seemed like it was back-to-back (接二连三) and it came waves,” said C
raig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
“The term ' 100-year event ' really lost its meaning this year.”
And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.
Even though many disasters seem accidental, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.
Poor construction and development practices make earthquake more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable building (危房) in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes the river breaches(攻破), or the tropical cyclone (旋风) hits, more people die.
The January earthquake that killed well more than 220000 people in Haita is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people, many of them living in poverty, and more poorly built shanties (棚户区) than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably been in the 80 000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.
Climate scientists say Earth's climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warning, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.
The excessive (过多的) amount of extreme weather of 2010 is a clear sign of man-made global warning that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave ---setting a national record of 111 degrees --- would happen once every 100000 years without global warning.
Preliminary (之前的) data show that 18 counties broke their records for the hottest day ever.
White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warning. "The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society's emissions of heat-trapping (吸热的)gases and particles are sh
arply reduce." What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?
| A．How the Earth struck back in 2010. | B．Why the Earth struck back. |
| C．How terrorism attacks struck. | D．What natural disaster mean to us. |
What does the underlined word "it" refer to in the third paragraph?
| A．Earthquake. | B．The Earth. | C．2010 | D．Natural disaster. |
What do the fifth, sixth and seventh paragraphs mainly tell us?
| A．The reason why there were so mainly disasters in 2010. |
| B．The way that natural disasters happened. |
| C．The way that man built buildings. |
| D．The way that people lived. |
What is the way to cut back on the number of natural disasters?
| A．To build stronger houses. |
| B．To develop less. |
| C．To reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases and particles greatly. |
| D．To forecast the happening of natural disasters correctly. |
Why did the writer give the example of th
e earthquake that happened in Haiti?
| A．To show more people's living in vulnerable building can cause more people to die in an earthquake. |
B．To sho w Haiti is a poor country. |
| C．To show Port-au-Prince is too crowded. |
| D．To show man's forecast ability of an earthquake reduced. |
“Most experiences of absent-mindedness ,forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room , are caused by a simple lack of attention, ” says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded（编码） it deeply.”
Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impression on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create troublesome situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your cupboard. “
Your memory itself isn’t failing you, ” says Schacter, “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.” http://wx.jtyjy.com/
Lack of interest can also lead to absent -mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago, ” says Zelinski, “ may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.”Women have slightly better m
emories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory depends on just that.
“Visual cues（ 视觉提示 ）can help prevent absent--mindedness, ”says Schacter, “But be sure the cue is clear and available. ”If you want to remember to take a medicine with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine box and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.
Another common experience of absent - mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time, ”says Zelinski. “The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.”The writer of the passage thinks that encoding properly is very important because ________.
| A．it enables us to recall something from our memory |
| B．it slows down the process of losing our memory |
| C．it helps us understand our memory system better |
| D．it helps us to get back to where we were |
One possible reason why women have a little better memories than men is that________.
| A．they rely more on the environment |
| B．they have a wider range of interests |
| C．they have an unusual power of focusing their attention |
| D．they are more interested in what’s happening around them |
Why can a note in the pocket hardly serve as a reminder? ________.
| A．It will easily get lost |
| B．It is out of your sight |
| C．It’s not clear enough for you to read |
| D．It might get mixed up with other things |
From the last paragraph we can learn that________.
| A．repetition might help improve our memory |
| B．memory depends to a certain extent on the environment |
| C．we’d better return to where we were if we forget things |
| D．we should think about something else while doing one thing |
The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．the memory system of persons |
| B．a way of encoding and recalling |
| C．the causes of absent-mindedness |
| D．the impression of the environment on memory |
Energy is very important in modern life. People use energy to run machines, heat and cool their homes, cook, give light, and transport people and products from place to place. Most energy comes from fossil fuels—petroleum, coal, and natural gas. However, burning fuels causes pollution. Also, if we don’t find new kinds of energy, we will use up all the fossil fuels in the twenty-first century. Scientists are working hard to find other kinds of energy for the future. What might these sources of energy be?
Energy from the wind
All over the world, people use the power of the wind. It turns windmills and moves sailboats. It is a clean source of energy, and there is lots of it. Unfortunately, if the wind does not blow, there is no wind energy.
Energy from water
When water moves from a high place to a lower place, it makes energy. This energy is used to create electricity. In Brittany, France, for example, waterpower produces enough energy to light a town of 40,000people. Waterpower gives energy without pollution. However, people have to build dams to use this energy. Dams cost a lot of money, so water energy is expensive.
Energy from the earth
There is heat in rocks under the earth. Scientists use this heat to make geothermal energy. San Francisco gets half of the energy it needs from geothermal power. This kind of energy is cheap, but it is possible only in a few places in the world.
Energy from the sun
Solar panels on the roofs of houses can turn energy from the sun into electricity. These panels can create enough energy to heat an entire house. Solar power is clean and there is a lot of it in sunny places. But when the weather is bad, there is no sunlight for energy.What does this passage mainly talk about?
| A．Advantage of the energy from nature. |
| B．The future of the energy. |
| C．Scientists have been working hard to research other kinds of energy. |
| D．Energy is the most important power in the word. |
From the first paragraph we know ______.
| A．energy can do everything for people |
| B．all the energy causes pollution |
| C．the new kinds of energy are badly needed |
| D．scientists have found other kinds of energy for the future |
What is the writer’s opinion about the energy?
| A．Try to use water energy more though it costs a lot. |
| B．Each natural energy has its own advantages and disadvantages. |
| C．Solar power is environmental. |
| D．Wind power is the cheapest but we can’t get. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．In order to protect our environment, we should try other kinds of energy. |
| B．All scientists in the world will unite to find energy. |
| C．People in modern life use energy every day. |
| D．Energy changes people’s lives. |
In China， most people ride bikes to school，or to work，or to places where they want to go．So China is called “kingdom of bicycles”．
But Americans are a people on the wheel．Wherever you go， you will see cars．There are so many cars that there is a traffic jam here and there．Now， more and more Americans would not consider it a healthy way of life．In fact， many Americans are strongly against the advancement of the wheel．We should
encourage people to use less cars to save our environment and the energy．
Everyone wants to reduce pollution．But the pollution problem is very serious．People drive cars and the waste gas from them causes air pollution．On the other hand， the need for energy increases every day， and some sources of energy are running out． Oil will last for no more than 40 years， while coal could last another 300 years．The way we’re heading is towards a world where people are going to go cold and hungry．Now in China many rich men live away from downtown．On holidays they go to some big cities and places of interest．Most of them use their own cars．But China is a country with a population of over 1．3 billion．So， if you have enough money in the future，what will you do?According to the passage， most Chinese people go to school or work by_________．
| A．bike | B．bus | C．train | D．plane |
In America， you will see _________ everywhere．
| A．bikes | B．cars | C．oil | D．coal |
The waste gas from cars causes_________．
| A．air pollution | B．traffic jams |
| C．waste of money | D．energy problems |
The end of the last paragraph suggests that_________．
| A．Americans should give up their cars |
| B．the energy should be saved around the world |
| C．Chinese shouldn’t become a people on the wheel |
| D．rich Chinese shouldn’t use their own cars in China |
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