Let’s say a person gets up at 7:00 in the morning and goes to bed at 11:00 at night. He comes home from work about 6:30, and by the time he has finished with dinner it is after 8:00. He steps outside in the summer to relax — but it’s already getting dark! Not much time to enjoy the summer day.
Now suppose you set the clock ahead one hour. This person still does everything at the same time — but this time, when he steps out at 8:00 there’s still plenty of light to enjoy. An hour of daylight has been “saved” for him!
Daylight saving time doesn’t, of course, add any hours to a day. This is impossible. All it does is to increase the number of useful hours of daylight during the seasons when the sun rises early.
Daylight saving is most popular in cities. It allows the closing of offices, shops, and factories at the end of the working day while the sun is still high. Farmers, who do their work by sun time, usually do not observe daylight saving time. They cannot work in the field before the morning dew(露水) has dried or after it appears in the evening.
Did you know who first thought of daylight saving time? It was Benjamin Franklin! When he was living in France in the 18th century, he suggested the idea to the people in Paris. But it was not adopted then.
Daylight saving laws were first passed during World WarⅠ, when materials for making electricity was hard to find, and when it was necessary to save on artificial light. With daylight saving, the bedtime of many people comes soon after it gets dark, while without it, if people stay up until the same hour they may have to use artificial light.
Germany was the first country to adopt daylight saving time in 1915. Then England used it in 1916, and the United States adopted it in 1918.What does the underlined word “artificial” mean?
| A．natural | B．man-made |
| C．bright | D．sun |
What’s the purpose of adopting daylight saving time?
| A．To have more artificial light. |
| B．To have one more hour to work. |
| C．To make better use of daylight in certain seasons. |
| D．To have one more hour to rest. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Once the idea of daylight saving time is proposed, it was adopted. |
| B．The idea of daylight saving time went through a long process of being adopted. |
| C．It was a French scientist that put forward the idea of daylight saving time. |
| D．The idea of daylight saving time didn’t make any difference at all. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Winter is a good season for daylight saving time. |
| B．Daylight saving time is especially good for wars. |
| C．Daylight saving time is good for anyone in any places. |
| D．Not all seasons are good for daylight saving time. |
I made a pledge (誓言) to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts.
The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical（圣经的）passage about husbands being thoughtful of their wives. Then he went on to say, “Love is an act of will. A perso
n can choose to love.” To myself, I had to admit that I had been
a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change.
And it did. Right from the moment I kissed Evelyn at the door and said, “That new yellow sweater looks great on you.”
“Oh, Tom, you noticed,” she said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled.
After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, “Evelyn’s been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me.” We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.
So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that's how the whole vacation passed. I made a new pledge to keep on remembering to choose love.
There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“Tom,” she said in a voice filled with distress (悲痛), “do you know something I don’t?”
“What do you
mean?”
“Well…that checkup（体检）I had several weeks ago…our doctor…did he tell you something about me？Tom, you’ve been so good to me…am I dying?”
It took a moment for it all to sink in. Then I burst out laughing.
“No, honey,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “You’re not dying; I’m just starting to live.”
From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage __________.
| A．with his family | B．with Evelyn | C．alone | D．with his children |
During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because __________.
| A．she looked lovely in her new clothes |
| B．he had made a lot of money in his Wall Street firm |
| C．he was determined to be a good husband |
| D．she was seriously ill |
The author says, “There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment.” What was the
one thing that went wrong?
| A．He praised her sweater, which puzzled her. |
B．She insi sted on visiting a museum, which he hated. |
| C．He knew something about her illness but didn’t tell her. |
| D．He was so good to her that she thought she must be dying. |
By saying “I’m just starting to live,” Tom means that __________.
| A．he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life |
| B．he is just beginning to enjoy life as a loving husband |
| C．he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change |
| D．he is beginning to feel regret for what he did to his wife before |
In the past industries had more freedom than they have now, and they did not need to be as careful as they must today. They did not need to worry a lot about the safety of the new products that they developed. They did not have to pay much attention to the health and safety of the 
people who worked for them. Often new products were dangerous for the people who used them; often conditions in the work place had very bad effects on the health of the workers.
Of course sometimes there were real disasters which attracted the attention of governments and which showed need for changes. Also scientists who were doing research into the health of workers sometimes produced information which governments could not ignore. At such times, there were inquiries into the causes of the disaster or the problems. New safety rules were often intr
oduced as a result of these inquiries; however，the new rules 
came too late to protect the people who had died or become seriously ill.
Today many governments have special departments which protect customers and workers. In the U.S., for example, there is a department which tests new airplanes and gives warnings about possible problems. It also makes the rules that aircraft producers must follow. Another department controls the foods and drugs that companies sell. A third department looks at the places where people work, and then reports any companies that are breaking laws which protect the health and safety of workers.
According to Paragraph 1, compared with today, industries in the past __________.
| A．were controlled less strictly |
| B．were worse off |
| C．affected more peoples health |
| D．put out more unhealthy products. |
It is implied in Paragraph 2 that years ago governments __________.
| A．paid much attention to the results of scientific discoveries |
| B．seldom introduced safety laws before disasters occurred |
| C．hardly ever looked into the causes of tragedies |
| D．imposed safety rules as soon as disasters occurred |
The main topic of the passage is __________.
| A．industries in the past and at present |
| B．changes in the development of industries |
| C．the protection of industrial workers and customers |
| D．the freedom of industries |
The purpose o
f this passage is to __________.
| A．inform | B．criticize | C．entertain | D．persuade |
The desire to make explorations is born with man. Wherever his imagination goes, man also has a strong wish to go. A large part human history is connected with the exploration of the world in which we live. Again and again people have set out with surprising courage and patience to look into unknown regions and lands to see what had not yet been seen, to make known the unknown. With kites, balloons and aircraft they left the ground to pass through the lower atmosphere. Now the outer space receives their attention.
Why should man take the trouble of conquering space? It is hard to list the specific practical benefits that will result in. But one knows, from past experience in other areas, that man will surely see and discover new things in space that will increase our scientific knowledge, and this new knowledge will find its way into valuable practical uses. What we learn abou
t man himself, from his experience in space, and from the effects of space and the space flight environment on him, will be extremely valuable. The new techniques developed to carry out the exploration of space, and to keep man alive in space, will certainly find practical uses in everyday life 
in some way. The areas that will benefit are manifold. They include communication, generation of power, transportation and travel, food production, materials, fuels and many others. But to say definitely just what the practical results will be is almost impossible.
The main idea of the first paragraph is that __________.
| A．man desires to explore what is unknown |
| B．man often goes wherever his dreams go |
| C．man is no longer interested in the study of the land and sea now |
| D．man’s history is the exploration of the world |
The word “manifold” in the second paragraph probably means __________.
| A．vast | B．various | C．valuable | D．practical |
The author seems to be in favor of__________.
| A．doubting the necessity of the space exploration |
| B．the exploration of space |
| C．exploring more in space than in the sea |
| D．his experience in space |
I travel a lot in my work, and what I dislike about
my job is eating alone. It always makes me feel lonely to see others laughing and talking. So, room service for several nights was a better choice for me.
After having room service three nights at a hotel in Houston, however, I needed to get out of my room. Although the restaurant opened at 6:30, I arrived at 6:25. The waiter at the front desk made a comment(评论) about my “being there really early”. I explained my dislike of eating alone in restaurants. He then seated me at a lovely table and asked me whether I would mind if he sat down with me for a while.
I was glad! He sat and talked with me about his career goals and the difficulty of being at work on nights, weekends and holidays. He said he hadn’t enough time to be with his family. After 15 minutes, he saw some customers at the front desk and excused himself. I noticed that before he went to the fron
t desk, he stopped in the kitchen for a moment.
Then another waiter came out of the kitchen and had a wonderful chat with me. Before I left that night, some other waiters, even the cook, had come out of the kitchen and sat with me! When I asked for my bill about one hour later, all the people who had sat down with me came over in a big group to my table, and presented me with a red rose. And I cried! What had begun as a lonely night ended as a beautif
ul experience.
The author asked for room service because _______.
| A．a lot of money would be saved in this way |
| B．he didn’t like to eat with other people around |
| C．he didn’t wanted to be recognized by the waiters |
| D．seeing people laughing and talking made him feel bad |
How did the waiter feel when he saw the author come in at 6:25?
| A．Dissatisfied. | B．Pleased. | C．Surprised. | D．Angry. |
From the third paragraph, we can learn that the waiter at the front desk ______.
| A．knew how to attract more customers to his restaurant |
| B．found it hard to balance his work and his family |
| C．was getting tired of his present job |
| D．had never had such a chance to talk about his worries |
The author wants to tell us that ______.
| A．people are actually all lonely in their own way |
| B．restaurants should put the need of customers first |
| C．the kindness of strangers can make you less lonely |
| D．restaurants are full of surprises for lonely people |
Ears are for hearing — everyone knows that. But for a creature called the Cuvier’s beaked whale, hearing starts in the throat (喉咙), a new study found.
The observation might help explain how all whales hear. The work might also help scientists understand how animals ar
e affected by underwater sonar (声呐). This sonar, used by some ships, sends out sound waves to locate underwater objects.
The Cuvier’s beaked whale is a so-called toothed whale. Toothed whales dive deep into the ocean in search of food. As the whales hunt, they produce sounds that reach objects and then return to the whales. This allows the animals to “see” the shape, size, and location of objects, even when they’re 1,000 meters under the sea, where it is totally dark.
To better understand how the whale hears, researchers from San Diego State University in California took X rays of two Cuvier’s beaked whales. The whales had died and washed up on the beach.
Ted Cranford and his colleagues used the images to make a computer model of a Cuvier’s beaked whale’s head. Then, they modeled the process of sound traveling through the head.
The researchers knew that some sounds get to the ears of a toothed whale through a structure (构造) called “the window for sound”. Found on the lower jaw, this structure is very thin on the outside and has a large pad (垫) of fat on the inside.
When the researchers used their computer model to work out how sound waves travel in the whale’s head, they were surprised to find that sounds coming from right in front of the whale actually travel under the animal’s jaw. From there, sound waves move through the throat, into a hole in the back of the jaw, and finally to the pad of fat near the animal’s ears.
Toothed whales look for food under the sea by ______.
| A．watching the shape and size of their objects | B．diving deep into the sea |
| C．sending and receiving sounds | D．making lots of noises |
Researchers took X rays of two Cuvier’s beaked whales in order to ______.
| A．find out why they had died and washed up on the beach |
| B．make a computer model of a Cuvier’s beaked whale’s head |
| C．make sure that sound travels through the head |
| D．know more about the way the whale hears |
Which of the following describes the way taken by sound waves through a Cuvier’s beaked whale?
| A．A hole in the back of the jaw → the ears → the jaw → the throat. |
| B． The jaw → the throat → a hole in the back of the jaw → the ears. |
| C． The throat → the jaw → the ears → a hole in the back of the jaw. |
| D．The ears → the throat → a hole in the back of the jaw → the jaw. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?
| A．The throat is important to the Cuvier’s beaked whale’s hearing. |
| B．Ships send out sound waves like a Cuvier’s beaked whale. |
| C．The ears are actually useless to the Cuvier’s beaked whale. |
| D．The researchers haven’t found how the whales hear. |
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