What is the nature of the scientific attitude, the attitude of the man or woman who studies and applies physics, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, medicine or any other science?
We all know that science plays an important role in our societies. However, many people believe that our progress depends on two different aspects of science. The first aspect is the application of the machines, products and systems of knowledge that scientists and technologists develop. The second is the application of the special methods of thought and action that scientists use in their work.
What are these special methods of thinking and acting? First of all, it seems that a successful scientist is curious - he wants to find out how and why the universe works. He usually pays attention to problems which he notices have no satisfying explanation, and looks for relationships even if the data available seem to be unconnected. Moreover, he thinks he can improve the existing conditions and enjoys trying to solve the problems which this involves.
He is a good observer, accurate, patient and objective（客观的） and uses the facts he observes to the fullest. For example, trained observers obtain a very large amount of information about a star mainly from the accurate analysis of the simple lines that appear in a spectrum（光谱）.
He does not accept statements which are not based on the most complete evidence available. He rejects authority as the only basis for truth. Scientists always check statements and make experiments carefully and objectively.
Furthermore, he does not readily accept his own idea, since he knows that man is the least reliable of scientific instruments and that a number of factors tend to disturb objective investigation.
Lastly, he is full of imagination since he often has to look for relationships in data which are not only complex but also frequently incomplete. Furthermore, he needs imagination if he wants to guess how processes work and how events take place.
These seem to be some of the ways in which a successful scientist or technologist thinks and acts.Many people believe that science helps society to progress through ________.
| A．knowledge | B．more than one aspect |
| C．technology | D．the use of machines |
Which of the following statements about a curious scientist is TRUE?
| A．He doesn’t find confidence and pleasure in work. |
| B．He makes efforts to investigate potential connections. |
| C．He is interested in problems that are explained. |
| D．He looks for new ways of acting. |
According to the passage, a successful scientist would NOT ________.
| A．easily believe in unchecked statements |
| B．easily criticize others’ research work |
| C．always use his imagination in work |
| D．always use evidence from observation |
Which word can be used to describe the data that a good scientist uses?
| A．complete | B．accurate | C．objective | D．complicated |
What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．Application of technology |
| B．Progress in modem society. |
| C．Scientists’ ways of thinking and acting |
| D．How to become a successful scientist. |
How often one hears children wishing they were grown-ups, and, old people wishing they were young again. Each age has its pleasures and its pains, and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting his time in useless regrets.
Childhood is a time when there are few responsibilities(责任) to make life difficult. If a child has good parents, he is fed, looked after and loved, whatever he may do. It is impossible that he will ever again in his life be given so much without having to do anything in return. What’s more, life is always giving new things to the child——things that have lost their interest for older people because they are too well known. But a child has his pains: he is not so free to do what he wishes to do; he is repeatedly being told not to do something, or being punished for what he has wrongly done.
When a young man starts to earn his own living, he can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room, but has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society as he used to break the laws of his parents, he may go to prison. If, however, he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of building up for himself his own position in society.According to Paragraph 2, the writer thinks that .
| A．life for a child is fairly easy |
| B．a child is always loved whatever he does |
| C．if much is given to a child, he must do something in return |
| D．only children are interested in life |
The main idea of the passage is that .
| A．life is not enjoyable since each age has some pains |
| B．young men can have the greatest happiness if they work hard |
| C．childhood is the most enjoyable time in one’s life |
| D．one is the happiest if he can make good use of each age in his life |
The paragraph following this passage will most probably discuss .
| A．examples of successful young men |
| B．how to build up one’s position in society |
| C．joys and pains of old people |
| D．what to do when one has problems in life |
Carl studied in our middle school three years ago. Last August his father found a job in another city and his family moved there. He began to study in the new school and we often write to each other. He often tells me something about the city where he lives now and his studies in the school. So I can know what happens to him.
Last Friday Carl came to our city again. He hoped to accompany(陪伴) his old grandpa during the summer holiday. He was taller and stronger than before. We swam in the river outside the city together and had a picnic on the island. It surprised me that he had learnt to cook when we were traveling in the wild forest. He told me his parents were both busy and sometimes he stayed at home and he had to look after himself.
“How do you like your school?” I asked.
“Wonderful,” said the young man.” It has a tall building and there ‘re two chemistry labs, two biology labs and three physics ones. And its library is big and there’re plenty of books in it.”
“I can see you are satisfied with it.”
“Yes,” he answered. “But our geography teacher often says it himself in class.”
“So does our new history teacher.” I said. “But he doesn’t notice it. He often talks on and on in a flow of the eloquence（滔滔不绝）, but none of us listens to him.” I can know what happens to Carl because________.
| A．he lives near to me. | B．he often calls me |
| C．I often visit him | D．he often writes to me. |
Carl came back to our city to________.
| A．take his summer holiday. | B．look after his grandpa |
| C．have a picnic on the island. | D．travel in the wild forest. |
________, so he learned to cook.
| A．Carl liked all kinds of delicious foods. |
| B．Carl had to do some cooking when he was alone. |
| C．Carl found a job in a restaurant. |
| D．Carl often had a picnic with his friends |
Carl is satisfied with his school because__________.
| A．his teachers work hard. | B．it has lots of books |
| C．it has several labs. | D．it’s wonderful. |
A small town in Tasmania, an island off the south coast of mainland Australia, is making itself an environmental role model by becoming the country's first plastic bag-free town.
Since April 28, Coles Bay's population of 175 and its tourist shoppers have been using reusable paper or cloth bags to carry their shopping.
Ben Keamey, a local businessman who supports the bag ban, said it would cut the amount of waste and prevent damage to native wildlife that try to eat the plastic.
"Most businesses here come from the tourism and that's all based on the environment, so people were pretty supportive," he said.
Every year Australians use more than six billion plastic bags. More than half of these come from the supermarket. Since it takes years for the bags to biodegrade（生物递减分解）, tens of millions end up polluting the environment. They kill about 100,000 sea-birds and animals, which mistake bags for food, every year.
Only in the past few months have major Australian supermarkets begun cutting on their use of plastic bags. Environmental groups are pushing for a plastic bag fee like that in Ireland. There, since plastic bags cost 10 pence (about 1 yuan) each, their use has been cut by 90 per cent.
Pollution caused by plastic bags is a big headache for countries all over the world. As early as 1999, Beijing said that only plastic bags of certain thickness could be used. This was to encourage them to be used again and again, since an average of six million plastic bags are used there every there every single day.Which might be the best title for this passage?
| A．Deadly Plastic Bags | B．The End of Plastic Bags |
| C．How to Reuse Plastic Bags | D．The Present Situation of Plastic Bags |
Plastic bags will not be used by the native people of Coles Bay because they ______.
| A．cause the environmental pollution | B．are not easy to be reused |
| C．are not as good as cloth bags | D．are not strong enough |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Plastic bags kill many animals in Australia each year. |
| B．Most Australian supermarkets have begun cutting on their use of plastic bags. |
| C．People at Coles Bay think poor environment may affect their tourism. |
| D．You have to pay for the plastic bags if you go shopping in Ireland. |
The example of Coles Bay is to show that ______.
| A．people take serious actions to deal with the plastic bag problem |
| B．people begin to realise the harm of using plastic bags |
| C．Australia is the first country in solving the plastic bag problem |
| D．Australians are aware of the importance of protecting the small town |
Which of the following measures on plastic bags is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．To forbid to use them by law. |
| B．to charge fee for plastic bags. |
| C．To make them thick enough to be reuseable. |
| D．To make them environmentally friendly. |
People often hear each others' voices without ever seeing the faces they belong to. "Nowadays we are talking away on the phone without meeting people," says Seung-Jae Moon. And from business conference calls to chat lines, people often imagine they would recognize the speaker if they saw him or her. Seung-Jae Moon, a linguist of Korea found that, under certain conditions, they're actually right.
Moon decided to see just how close those mental pictures match up with reality and if there was any relation to how people speak rather than what they are saying. He recorded 16 Koreans, half men and half women, reading the same passage, and took a full-body photo and head shot of each speaker. Then he played the tapes for 361 Koreans and 173 Americans who did not speak Korean and asked his subjects to match up voice and picture. The Korean participants viewing full-body photos were quite perceptive. A majority linked 6 of the 8 women to the correct voice and did so for 5 of the 8 men. With the Korean group shown only faces, accuracy plummeted, but more than 20 percent of the subjects selected the same incorrect picture. The Americans showed no accuracy in matching the foreign voices to photos, but they too were consistent in their errors. That disconnection reveals conflicting ideas of physical and vocal beauty. Moon asked people to pick a favorite face and voice. Seventy percent of the Koreans picked one voice, but there was no agreement on a face. Americans didn' t agree on either count. And over 65 percent of both Koreans and Americans did not match their favorite face with their favorite voice.
Moon hopes to use software to break voices into components like pitch and hoarseness to narrow down which elements trigger certain mental pictures. "If we can map which characteristics of the voice triggers what kind of linage, and it doesn't matter whether that image is the right or wrong one of the actual speaker, then we can create an image through voice,' he says. That capacity could help to create computer-synthesized voices tailored to conjure up specific associations — audio books for children that inspire motherly visages, or warning alerts that bring to mind a stern police officer.People often think that they would ______ the speaker when they saw the speaker.
| A．understand | B．recognize | C．like | D．surprise |
Moon decided to do the experiment to ______.
| A．see how close mental pictures match up with reality |
| B．how people speak |
| C．see if there was any relation to how people speak rather than what they are saying |
| D．both A and C |
He asked ______ Korean women to speak and recorded their voices.
| A．12 | B．16 | C．8 | D．10 |
______ were more perceptive in recognizing full-body photos.
| A．The Koreans | B．The American women |
| C．The Korean women | D．The Americans |
______ percent of Koreans and Americans matched their favorite face with their favorite voice.
| A．Less than 65 | B．Less than 35 | C．Over 65 | D．About 20 |
As a teenager in 1972, Bill Gates boasted that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 20. While he did not quite achieve that goal, only 15 years later, he was a millionaire. And by 1992, as head of the Microsoft company, he became the richest man in America with assets（资产）of nearly US $ 6.3 billion.
Born in Seattle, Washington on 28, October, 1956, Gates was named William Henry after his father and grandfather. From the beginning, he was an extremely energetic and intelligent child. He had read the entire world book encyclopedia（百科全书）by the age of nine. His favorite subjects at school were science and math and his favorite pastime was "thinking".
Gates first started to play with computers at the age of 13. Before long he became an expert at working the school's computer. After his graduation from secondary school, Gates was accepted by the three top universities in the USA-Princeton, Harvard and Yale. He chose Harvard and began classes there the next autunm, majoring maths. But he was still obsessed（占据心里）with computers and spent as much time in the computer laboratories as he did in the lecture halls.
By 1975, Gates and a partner, Paul Allen, had developed a software program called BASIC. This was not the first program ever created, but its inventors were the first to decide that people who wanted to use it should pay for it.
BASIC was a success because until it came along, there had been no efficient way of getting computers to carry out instructions. Although he had not completed his degree, Gates left university and went to work full time for the new company he had formed called Microsoft.
His next project was the software program that made him famous and very rich. It was called DOS, short for Disk Operating System, and it was purchased by IBM in 1980. Today it is the operating system used in more than 14 million personal computers around the world.
As chief executive officer（首席行政长官）of Microsoft, Gates is known as a bright man, but one who is not easily satisfied. He is quick to criticize his staff and hates to be questioned about decisions he has made. He was regarded as a loner and unfashionable boring computer nut until his marriage to Microsoft manager Melinda French on New Year's Day 1994. Yet to many people now, Gates, is a person who is, in spite of his great wealth, humble（谦恭）and ordinary. He spends his money carefully. He eats in fast food restaurants and flies economy class. And when praised for Microsoft's great success, he has been heard to say, "All we do is put software in a box and if people see it in the stores and like it, they buy it."When he was a teenager, Bill Gates wanted to be a ______.
| A．teacher | B．doctor | C．businessman | D．professor |
When Gates went to Harvard, he ______.
| A．was only interested in maths |
| B．spent most of his time in computer laboratories |
| C．developed the first computer software program |
| D．divided his time between his maths studies and the computer laboratories |
Before the development of BASIC, ______.
| A．no one was interested in computer software |
| B．software programs were not considered commercial projects |
| C．software programs were very expensive |
| D．no one wanted to pay for computer software |
When the writer says "He was regarded as a loner and unfashionable boring computer nut", he means ______.
| A．Bill was so strong-minded that no one could change his mind |
| B．The only thing that could interest Bill in his life was computer |
| C．Bill was such a boring young man that nobody would like to talk to him |
| D．Bill couldn't work out the boring computer programs |
Most people think that Bill Gates is ______.
| A．a crazy person | B．a person obsessed with making money |
| C．someone who spends money freely | D．a quite common, normal person |
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