Beautiful cars surrounded by even more beautiful models--it’s no secret why the 2012Beijing Auto Show was popular.
The exhibition was held between April 23 and May 2. Although renowned companies showed off their top models, it wasn’t just their expensive sports cars that grabbed people’s attention.
Concept cars are a way for designers to test out their ideas on the public with complete freedom. They can try out cars with special features that could not be massively(批量) produced easily.
Designers don’t have to follow industry rules；they don’t even need to worry about whether their cars would be fllowed on the roads．
At the Beijing Auto Show，the@Ant by Chery was one concept car to draw a lot of attention．China Daily called it‘‘the very definition of a concept car”．
The vehicle is powered by electricity and is capable of driving itself．But the magic doesn’t end there．
The@Ant was inspired by actual ants．According to Car News China，with the help of automated telemetric systems，@Ants are able to“see” other@Ants and compare destination information. If two are heading the same way for a while, the vehicles connect, with one car’s rear (后面的)wheels matching up with the front wheels of another car．Up to 10@Ants can be put together and will automatically connect to form a“train"．This will help save energy while traveling, as well reducing traffic jams.
The car sounds like a great idea．Further research will be needed to turn this concept car into something for the market，but concepts like Chery’s show how carmakers are working for cleaner and greener vehicles．It’s like what the@Ant motto says，“Exploring future human beings’lifestyles”．The concept car is getting popular because .
| A．it looks like an ant |
| B．it is beautifully designed |
| C．it is exhibited as a top model |
| D．it conveys a new idea for the future |
How can the@Ants help save energy while travelling according to the passage?
| A．By connecting each other and running together． |
| B．By driving themselves without man’s control． |
| C．By comparing their destination information． |
| D．By reducing traffic jams on the roads． |
What the designers of the concept car need to do at the Auto Show is .
| A．to test the safety of the concept car |
| B．to follow the rules in the car industry |
| C．to show their unique idea of complete freedom |
| D．to see if concept cars can be massively produced |
The best title of the passage is .
| A．Concept Cars Are Driving to the Future |
| B．The@Ant Draws a Lot of Attention |
| C．The@Ant Is a Top Model of Concept Cars |
| D．Concept Cars Are Cleaner and Greener |
Sports shoes that work out whether their owner has done enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes — named Square Eyes — contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter(传话器) passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （计步器） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.” According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ________.
| A．keep a record of the steps of the wearer |
| B．deal with overweight among teenagers |
| C．enable children to resist the temptation of TV |
| D．prevent children from being tricked by TV programs |
Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
| A．They regulate a child’s evening TV viewing time. |
| B．They determine a child’s daily pocket money. |
| C．They have raised the hot issue of overweight. |
| D．They contain information of the receiver. |
What is stressed（强调）by health experts in their suggestion?
| A．The exact number of steps to be taken. |
| B．The precise number of hours spent on TV. |
| C．The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time. |
| D．The way of changing steps into TV watching time. |
Compared with other similar products, the new design ________.
| A．makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat |
| B．counts the wearer’s steps through shaking |
| C．records the sudden movement of the wearer |
| D．sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time |
| B．Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise |
| C．Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise |
| D．Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight |
Nowadays people are troubled by the violence that spreads throughout the media. Movies, television and video games are full of gunplay and bloodshed, and one might reasonably ask what’s wrong with a society that presents videos of violence as entertainment.
Viewing large amounts of violent television and video games may well contribute to violent behavior in certain individuals. The trouble comes when researchers downplay uncertainties in their studies or overstate the case for causality（因果关系）. Skeptics were dismayed several years ago when a group of societies including the American Medical Association tried to end the debate by issuing a joint statement: “At this time, well over 1,000 studies… point to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children.”
Freedom-of-speech advocates accused the societies of catering to politicians, and even disputed the number of studies (most were review articles and essays, they said). When Jonathan Freedman, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto, reviewed the literature, he found only 200 or so studies of television-watching and aggression. And when he weeded out “the most doubtful measures of aggression”, only 28% supported a connection.
The critical point here is causality. The alarmists say they have proved that violent media cause aggression. But the assumptions behind their observations need to be examined. When labeling games as violent or non-violent, should a hero eating a ghost really be counted as a violent event? And when experimenters record the time it takes game players to read “aggressive” or “non-aggressive” words from a list, can we be sure what they are actually measuring? The intention of the new Harvard Center on Media and Child Health to collect and standardize studies of media violence in order to compare their methodologies, assumptions and conclusions is an important step in the right direction.
Another appropriate step would be to tone down the criticism until we know more. Several researchers write, speak and testify quite a lot on the threat posed by violence in the media. That is, of course, their privilege. But when doing so, they often come out with statements that the matter has now been settled, drawing criticism from colleagues. In response, the alarmists accuse critics and news reporters of being deceived by the entertainment industry. Such clashes help neither science nor society.Why is there so much violence shown in movies, TV and video games?
| A．Showing violence is thought to be entertaining. |
| B．Something has gone wrong with today’s society |
| C．Many people are fond of gunplay and bloodshed. |
| D．There is a lot of violence in the real world today. |
What is the skeptics’ view of media violence?
| A．Violence on television is fairly accurate reflection of real-world life. |
| B．Most studies exaggerate (夸大) the effect of media violence on the viewers. |
| C．A causal relationship exists between media and real-world violence. |
| D．The influence of media violence on children has been underestimated. |
The author uses the term “alarmists” to refer to those who _________.
| A．use standardized measurements in the studies of media violence |
| B．initiated the debate over the influence of violent media on reality |
| C．insist on a direct link between violent media and aggressive behavior |
| D．use appropriate methodology in examining aggressive behavior |
The underlined phrase “weeded out” in Paragraph 3 most probably means _________.
| A．got rid of things that are not good | B．removed unwanted parts from something |
| C．picked out things that are useful | D．took away unnecessary details of a report |
What does the writer think of the debate concerning the relationship between the media and violence?
| A．He more than agrees with the views held by the alarmists. |
| B．It should come to an end since the matter has now been settled. |
| C．The past studies in this field have proved to be misleading. |
| D．More studies should be conducted before conclusions are drawn. |
Individuality is the particular character, or aggregate (total) of qualities that distinguishes one person or thing from others. Many artists late in the last century were in search of a means to express their individuality. Modern dance was one of the ways some of these people sought to free their creative spirit. At the beginning there was no exacting technique, no foundation from which to build. In later years, trial, error and genius founded the techniques and the principles of the movement. Eventually, innovators (改革者) even drew from what they considered the dread ballet, but first they had to get rid of all that was academic so that the new could be discovered. The beginnings of modern dance were happening before Isadora Duncan, but she was the first person to bring the
new dance to general audiences and see it accepted and acclaimed (称赞).
Her search for a natural movement form sent her to nature. She believed movement should be as natural as the swaying of the trees and the rolling waves of the sea, and should be in harmony with the movements of the Earth. Her great contributions are in three areas.
First, she began the expansion of the kinds of movement that could be used in dance. Before Duncan danced, ballet was the only type of dance performed in concert. In the ballet the feet and legs were emphasized, with virtuosity (高超技巧) shown by complex, codified positions and movements. Duncan performed dance by using her body in the freest possible way. Her dance stemmed from her soul and spirit. She was one of the pioneers who broke tradition so others might be able to develop the art.
Her second contribution lies in dance costume. She rejected ballet shoes and stiff costumes. These were replaced with flowing Grecian (希腊式的) tunes, bare feet, and unbound hair. She believed in the natural body being allowed to move freely, and her dress displayed this ideal.
Her third contribution was in the use of music. In her performances she used the symphonies of great masters including Beethoven and Wagner, which was not the usual custom.
She was as exciting and eccentric (怪异) in her personal life as in her dance.According to the passage, what did nature represent to Isadora Duncan?
| A．Something to conquer. | B．A model for movement. |
| C．A place to find peace. | D．A symbol of disorder. |
Compared to those of the ballet, Isadora Duncan’s costumes were less _________.
| A．costly | B．colorful | C．graceful | D．restrictive |
Which of the following is not mentioned as an area of dance that Duncan worked to change?
| A．The stage set. | B．The music. | C．Costumes. | D．Movements. |
We can infer from the passage that the author _________.
| A．appreciates modern dance very much | B．dislikes Isadora Duncan’s dance |
| C．thinks highly of individuality | D．knows a lot about modern arts |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Artists of the Last Century | B．Evolution of Dance in the 20th Century |
| C．Natural Movement in Dance | D．A Pioneer in Modern Dance |
My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company.
I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about f
ifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed (揭示) a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.
| A．he wanted to work in the centre of London |
| B．he could no longer afford to live without one |
| C．he was not interested in any other available job |
| D．he had received some suitable training |
The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.
| A．he often traveled underground | B．he had written many poems |
| C．he could deal with difficult situations | D．he had worked in a company |
The length of his interview meant that _________.
| A．he was not going to be offered the job |
| B．he had not done well in the intelligence test |
| C．he did not like the interviewer at all |
| D．he had little work experience to talk about |
What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?
| A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be. | B．How difficult it is to be a poet. |
| C．How unsuitable he was for the job. | D．How badly he did in the interview. |
What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?
| A．He was very aggressive. | B．He was unhappy with his job. |
| C．He was quite inefficient. | D．He was rather unsympathetic. |
SINCE the 1997 international agreement to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and speeded up – beyond even the worst expectations of the 1997 talks in Kyoto, Japan.
As world leaders have spent a dozen years trying to figure out what to do next, new ship passages have opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.
And it's not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen: The world's oceans have risen by about 4cm. Droughts and wildfires have become more frequent worldwide. Animals and plants are now in trouble because of the changing climate. These include the polar bears, butterflies, frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests. Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 degrees warmer than in the dozen years leading up to 1997.
Even the gloomiest (令人沮丧的) climate models from the 1990s didn't forecast results this bad.
“The latest science is telling us we are in more trouble than we thought,'' said Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
And here's why: Since an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas pollution was signed in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, the level of carbon dioxide in the air has increased by 6.5 percent. From 1997 to 2008, world carbon dioxide emissions (排放) from the burning of fossil (化石) fuels have increased by 31 percent. US emissions of this greenhouse gas have risen by 3.7 percent. Emissions from China have more than doubled.
Some climate change can be caused by natural factors such as variations in solar radiation, volcanoes, land drift (位移) and ocean drift. However, most of scientific and public opinion has come to the conclusion that the climate is changing mainly because of the accumulation of greenhouse gases (especially CO2) in the atmosphere due to human activity.
From December 7 to 18, officials from across the world will meet in Copenhagen to seek a solution for this problem. If successful, the meeting will send a clear signal to business and industry, governments and citizens around the world. New commitments and plans will signal that the future belongs to a low-carbon economy and that tomorrow's winners will be those who invest (投资) in clean energy solutions.
66. We can learn from the passage that
A. The 1997 climate summit was held in Copenhagen
B. Since 1997,the level of carbon dioxide in the air has decreased by 6.5%.
C. The Copenhagen summit is intended to announce new ship passages to the Arctic
D. More than the frozen parts of the world have felt the heat in the dozen years
67. The underlined word “commitments” is closest in meaning to ______.
A. tasks B. taxes C. responsibilities D. regulation
(D)68. We can conclude from the text that ______.
A. governments will do more to fight global warming
B. world leaders have paid enough attention to global warming
C. the climate agreement signed in Kyoto did nothing to stop global warming
D. human activity is the main cause of global warming
(A)69. It can be inferred that .
A. many countries haven’t stuck to the agreement signed in 1997 .
B. China should undertake major responsibilities for greenhouse gases emission as the country with the largest population.
C. The officials from developed countries and climate advisers should be responsible for the worsening climate.
D. Because of greenhouse gases glaciers in Greenland and Antarctic are melting faster than those in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
70. The main purpose of this article is to ______.
A. report on the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen
B. inform about the effects of climate change and analyze its cause
C. tell people not to worry about climate change
D. urge people to do something about worsening global climate
粤公网安备 44130202000953号