While other countries debate whether to fix wind turbines(涡轮机) offshore or in distant areas, Denmark is building them right in its capital. Three windmills(风车) were recently introduced in a Copenhagen neighbourhood, and the city plans to add another 97.
“We’ve made a very ambitious commitment to make Copenhagen CO2-neutral by 2025,” Frank Jensen, the mayor, says. “But going green isn’t only a good thing. It’s a must.” The city’s carbon-neutral plan, passed two years ago, will make Copenhagen the world’s first zero-carbon capital.
With wind power making up 33% of Denmark’s energy supply, the country already features plenty of wind turbines. Indeed, among the first sights greeting airborne visitors during the landing at Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport is a chain of sea-based wind towers. By 2020, the windswept country plans to get 50% of its energy from wind power.
Now turbines are moving into the city and these ones will cost less than half the price of those sea-based. Having the energy production closer makes it cheaper, and land-based turbines are the cheapest possible source of energy available today. Fixing them also makes the locals more aware of their energy consumption.
Though considerably less attractive than it was in ancient times, the windmill is enjoying popularity in the 21st century. “Windmills are a symbol of the new and clean Copenhagen,” says resident Susanne Sayers. Meanwhile, fellow Copenhagen citizen Maria Andersen worries about the noise, explaining that she wouldn’t want a wind turbine in her neighbourhood. While Copenhagen citizens approve of the windmills, they’re less willing to live close to one. The answer, the city has decided, is to sell turbine shares.
Each share represents 1,000 kW hours/year, with the profit tax-free. With a typical Copenhagen household consuming 3,500 kW hours/year, a family buying four shares effectively owns its own renewable energy supply. To date, 500 residents have bought 2,500 shares. Involving the local population was a smart move. “There are a lot of things you can do close to people if it’s not too big and if there’s a model where locals feel involved and get to share in the profit. Knowing that you, or your neighbours, own a technology creates a very different atmosphere than if a multinational owned it,” says Vad Mathiesen.
Going green? Yes. Accepted by the population? Yes. Going with centuries-old city architecture? Hardly.
Certainly, the three turbines don’t exactly blight the 18th-century city centre, as they are in a neighbourhood 3 km away. According to the mayor’s office, none of the remaining 97 turbines will rise in architecturally sensitive areas. But Sascha Haselmayer, CEO of city creation group Citymart, warns, “With Denmark being a world-leading producer of windmills, there is a risk that the answer to every energy question is windmills.”
“We’ve destroyed mountains and lakes in order to support our lifestyle,” notes Irena Bauman, an architect and professor at Sheffield University. “Wind turbines are a sign that we’re learning to live with nature. I hope we’ll have them all over the world,” she says. “They may be unpleasant to some, but better-looking ones will come. It’s just that we don’t have time to wait for them!”Denmark has decided to build windmills in its capital mainly to ______.
| A．make windmills its cultural symbol |
| B．advocate an environmentally-friendly lifestyle |
| C．take advantage of its limited wind power |
| D．greet tourists coming to Copenhagen by plane |
How has the city of Copenhagen persuaded its people to accept the windmills around their homes?
| A．By promising them that all their income is free of tax. |
| B．By designing less noisy windmills to ease their worries. |
| C．By convincing them that land-based turbines are much cheaper. |
| D．By offering them the chance to get the profit the windmills bring. |
The underlined word “blight” (Paragraph 8) is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．spoil | B．improve | C．pollute | D．occupy |
Sascha Haselmayer’s attitude to building windmills can best be described as ______.
| A．disapproving | B．unconcerned | C．cautious | D．enthusiastic |
Which of the following words would Irena Bauman most probably agree with?
| A．“It benefits us more to fit wind turbines in cities than in mountain areas or by lakes.” |
| B．“We should sell more wind turbines to other countries to make us one of the richest.” |
| C．“We should devote more time to developing the wind turbines that go with the city.” |
| D．“It’s not what wind turbines look like but how we live that really matters at present.” |
Before he sailed round the world alone, Francis Chichester had already surprised his friends several times. He had tried to fly round the world but failed. That was in 1931.
The years passed. He gave up flying and began sailing. He enjoyed it greatly. Chichester was already 58 years old when he won the first solo transatlantic sailing race. His old dream of going round the world came back, but this time he would sail.His friends and doctors did not think he could do it, as he had lung cancer. But Chichester was determined to carry out his plan. In August 1966, at the age of nearly 65, an age when many men retire, he began the greatest voyage of his life.
Chichester covered 14100 miles before stopping in Sydney, Australia. This was more than twice the distance anyone had previously sailed alone. He arrived in Australia on 12 December, just 107 days out from England. He received a warm welcome from the Australians and from his family who had flown there to meet him. On shore, Chichester could not walk without help. Everybody said the same thing: he had done enough; he must not go any further. But he did not listen.
After resting in Sydney for a few weeks, Chichester set off once more in spite of his friends' attempts to dissuade him. The second half of his voyage was by far the more dangerous part, during which he sailed round the treacherous Cape Horn.After succeeding in sailing round Cape Horn, Chichester sent the following radio message to London: "I feel as if I had wakened from a nightmare. Wild horses could not drag me down to Cape Horn and that sinister Southern Ocean again."
Just before 9 o'clock on Sunday evening 28 May 1967, he arrived back in England, where a quarter of a million people were waiting to welcome him.Queen Elizabeth II knighted(授以爵位) him with the very sword that Queen Elizabeth I had used almost 400 years earlier to knight Sir Francis Drake after he had sailed round the world for the first time.The whole voyage from England and back had covered 28,500 miles. It had taken him nine months, of which the sailing time was 226 days. He had done what he wanted to accomplish.
What can we learn about Chichester?
| A．He failed the solo transatlantic sailing race in 1959. |
| B．He was a brave and determined man. |
| C．The second half of his voyage was not as dangerous as the first half. |
| D．The radio message expressed his concern about the sailing. |
【改编】What happened to Queen Elizabeth II after Chichester arrived back in England?
| A．She called on the English to learn form him. |
| B．She was waiting to congratulate on his success in sailing. |
| C．She thought little of his achievements. |
| D．She knighted him for praising him. |
【改编】What can we infer from the text ? ____
| A．Anyone who had sailed alone traveled less than 7050miles before 1966 |
| B．Chichester sailed round the Atlantic in 1931 |
| C．Most of the English leave their jobs at the age of 65 |
| D．Chichester died of lung cancer in 1967 after he went back to England |
D
A new satellite is travelling 1.5 million kilometers over a 110-day period to enter an orbit of the sun. It is called DSCOVR--the Deep Space Climate Observatory. It will replace a satellite that has been observing space weather.
DSCOVR will begin its work during the worst of the 11-year-long solar cycle. This is a time when extreme weather on the sun can have the greatest effect on planet Earth.
DSCOVR will gather information about a continuing flow of particles from the sun. We are protected from these particles by the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. But we are not fully protected from what scientists call Coronal Mass Ejections. These are strong storms that can happen on the sun's surface.
Thomas Berger is the director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. He says these ejections are much more dangerous than solar particles. He says the Coronal Mass Ejections are extremely large magnetic clouds that are expelled from the sun at extremely high speeds. He says when they impact Earth, it is like a hurricane impacting Earth in terms of space weather.
Violent space weather can make electric systems stop working. It can block satellite signals to Earth. It can interfere with radio signals and air travel.
Mr. Berger says we cannot stop the ejections from affecting us, but we can prepare for them if we know when they will happen. When the DSCOVR satellite records an ejection, it will release a warning. Mr. Berger says the warning will provide NOAA about 15 to 60 minutes to let people know that a very strong storm is coming in to the Earth. He says that is enough time for power grid operators to take protective action. He says it is also enough time for workers to place satellites on a safe operating method if necessary.
Mr. Berger says scientists would like even more time, of course. He says researchers are developing instruments that will give an earlier warning.
The warnings from DSCOVR will be for the whole planet. But Mr. Berger says a new system may be able to give more-targeted warnings. He says future models will be able to tell exactly what part of the world will be more at risk from a solar storm.
That means that, for the first time, humans will get both a warning that a magnetic storm is heading towards Earth and information about where it is likely to hit.The new satellite is used to ________?
| A．replace the satellite in use |
| B．observe space weather |
| C．study the sun |
| D．take pictures of space |
When will DSCOVR begin its work___________?
| A．before the worst of the 11-year-long solar cycle |
| B．during the worst of the 11-year-long solar cycle |
| C．after the worst of the 11-year-long solar cycle |
| D．as soon as it enter the robit of the sun |
According to Thomas Berger, __________?
| A．the Coronal Mass Ejections are expelled from the sun at extremely low speeds |
| B．the ejections can be stopped from affecting us |
| C．ejections are far more dangerous than solar particles |
| D．15 to 60 minutes is not enough for power grid operators |
How much time do people have to make preparations for the ejections__________?
| A．more than 60 minutes |
| B．less than 60 minutes |
| C．about half an hour |
| D．between 15 and 60 minutes |
What do know from the passage__________?
| A．The warnings from DSCOVR will be for just some part of Earth |
| B．future models will be able to tell what part will be more likely to be hit |
| C．there is nothing we can do in the face of the solar storm |
| D．humans have received the warning sent from the satellite |
C
Robots are common in today's world. They manufacture cars, work in space, explore oceans, clean up oil spills and investigate dangerous environments. And now, scientists at the University of Manchester are using a robot as a laboratory partner.
The researchers at the university created the robot in 2009 and named it Adam. Despite the name, Adam is not a humanoid robot. It is about the size of a car.
Adam was built to do science and make discoveries. Ross King is the leader of the University of Manchester research team. He says the robot made a discovery about yeast(酵母), a kind of fungus(真菌) used in science as a model for human cells.
"Adam hypothesized certain functions of genes within yeast and experimentally tested these hypothesizes and confirmed them. So it both hypothesized and confirmed new scientific knowledge."
Adam's success as a scientist led to the creation of another robot scientist named Eve. Researchers developed Eve to design and test drugs for tropical and neglected diseases. These diseases kill and infect millions of people each year.
Drug development is slow and costly. Experts say it can take more than 10 years and about $1 billion to discover and develop new medicines. Drug manufacturers are unlikely to get their investment money back.
So the University of Manchester developed a low-cost test that shows whether or not a chemical is likely to be made into an effective medicine. Mr. King says that other drug testing methods were not very effective.
"How it works conventionally is you use robotics as well and you have a large collection of possible drugs. You test every single compound. And you start at the beginning of your library and continue until the end, and stop. So it's not a very intelligent process. The robotics doesn't learn anything as it goes along, even if it's tested a million compounds, it still doesn't have any expectation of what will happen next when it tests a new compound."
Mr. King says that Eve is different because the robot learns as it tests different compounds. He says the robot is designed to ignore compounds that it thinks unlikely to be good. It will only test the compounds which have a good chance of working.
Eve has discovered that a compound known to be effective against cancer might also be used to fight against malaria and other tropical diseases.
Mr. King says he hopes to completely automate the drug testing process with robots like Eve to create and test new chemicals. But he says humans remain in control of the manufacturing process.Scientists now are using a robot to__________.
| A．manufacture cars |
| B．work in the laboratory |
| C．work in space |
| D．explore oceans |
Thepurposeofbuilding Adam is to________.
| A．do science and make discoveries |
| B．help people in poor health |
| C．dooperationsonpatients |
| D．bringhappinesstoscientists |
WhichisNOTtrueaccordingtothepassage__________?
| A．Adam looks like a car |
| B．Adam's success led to the creation of Eve |
| C．tropical and neglected diseases diseases kill and infect millions of people |
| D．Drug manufacturers can get their investment money back |
Whywas a low-cost test developed__________?
| A．Because scientists want to know whether a chemical is likely to be made into an effective medicine |
| B．Because other drug testing methods were not very effective |
| C．Because drug development is slow and costly. |
| D．Because drug manufacturers ask scientists to do so. |
What'sthemainideaofthepassage_________?
| A．theusesofrobots |
| B．robotisusedinscienceresearches |
| C．scientistsarereplacedbyrobots |
| D．howtomakearobot |
B
Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability. People with autism have trouble communicating and with social skills. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the person also might repeat some behaviors and not want change in their daily activities. Some people with the condition need a lot of help. Others need less.
CDC officials say autism affects one in every 68 children in the United States. More boys than girls are believed to have the condition. But the number of cases appears to be growing. It is unclear whether the growing number shows a real increase or comes from more knowledge about this disorder.
Symptoms of autism
Common signs of autism include trouble making eye contact and a delay in learning how to speak. Some people with severe autism never learn how to talk. Many people with autism also have difficulty understanding facial expressions and the feelings of others. They also have trouble making friends of the same age.
Doctors have learned how to recognize autism, but much is still unknown about its causes.
Researchers at Harvard University have come closer to finding answers. They found that women exposed to the highest levels of fine particulate air pollution late in their pregnancies are two times more likely to give birth to a child with autism. The findings appeared in Environmental Health Perspectives -- a publication of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The study found that the women who were around high levels of fine particulate matter air pollution were at highest risk of having an autistic child. The increased risk of these women was two times that of women who lived in areas with low levels of fine particulate pollution.
The researchers found that the timing of exposure to pollution was important. They found no increased risk of autism in children whose mothers were around high levels of pollution before becoming pregnant. And the study found air pollution does not seem to increase the risk of children developing autism after they are born.
What can pregnant women do?
Mr. Weisskopf says pregnant women should avoid air pollution as much as possible. But he warns that other things may increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder.
"You can avoid being in extremely polluted cities during pregnancy if possible. You can also choose to go running in a park rather than next to a street. But that said, I think also it's very important to recognize that autism spectrum disorders is a very multi-factorial disorder. And there are lots of reasons why risk could be increased."
Autism is believed to result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors.
For now, Marc Weisskopf says researchers are trying to identify the exact substances in air pollution that increase the risk of autism.What can we learn from Paragraph 1________?
| A．people with autism don’t need help |
| B．people with autism have no trouble communicating |
| C．autism is a developmental disability |
| D．people with autism want change in their daily activities |
Which is NOT the Common signs of autism_______?
| A．low level of intelligence |
| B．a delay in learning how to speak |
| C．understanding facial expressions |
| D．making eye contact |
Which is TRUE according to the passage________?
| A．the growing number of cases shows a real increase |
| B．women exposed to high levels of fine particulate air pollution during their pregnancies are more likely to have a child with autism |
| C．high levels of fine particulate air pollution have no effect on autism |
| D．doctors have learned the causes of autism |
What can pregnant women do_______?
| A．they should go running in a street |
| B．they should stop smoking |
| C．they should be in extremely polluted cities during pregnancy |
| D．they should avoid air pollution as much as possible |
What’s the main idea of the passage__________?
| A．what is autism spectrum disorder |
| B．the reasons of autism |
| C．autism and air pollution |
| D．how to treat autism |
A
Most children have heard their parents at one time or another yell "sit up straight!" or "don't slouch!"
In the past, this was usually heard at the dinner table as children ate dinner. But these days, it is also heard around another activity-video games.
Ten-year old Owaish Batliwala, from Mumbai, India, admits he spends three to four hours each day playing games on his tablet computer. His mother Mehzabin became concerned when her son started saying that his neck hurt.
She said, "My son started having neck problems around June or July. The pain slowly spread to his hand and his back. He plays for hours on the iPad and mobile phone. This is what has caused the problem."
Sadia Vanjara is a physical therapist. She says the number of young children with chronic pain in their necks, arms and shoulders is on the rise. Dr. Vanjara says the pain is not from aging, accidents or disease. It is from poor posture, or body position, while playing video games.
"They are not aging, they haven't had an accident, their age is like, under 10, they are not complaining, the blood reports are fine, their x-rays are fine, their MRI's are fine, then where is the culprit(罪魁祸首)? And that is the very common thing that is happening amongst all children and that is smart phones and the gadgets(小电器)."
This is a problem in many parts of the world. But there are more smartphone users in India than anywhere else in the world, except China. Networking equipment company Cisco estimates that the number of smartphone users in India will increase from 140 million today to 651 million by 2020.
19-year old student Nida Jameel says she feels pain in the finger which holds the weight of her smartphone most of the day.
She says she uses her smartphone 24/7. This means 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or all the time.
"As I use phone 24/7 (all day) like, so probably yeah, it was because of the phone, continuous usage and Snapchat, Whatsapp, more and more you know social media coming, so like phone is the center of everything."
Dr. Vanjara says the best treatments for the pain are daily exercises.
"And start stretching it in all the possible directions that you can."
Correct posture can help prevent pain. Dr. Vanjara teaches children how to hold their gadgets correctly. She tells a patient to hold the gadget in front of the face. She says that bending the head down to look at the device, strains the neck and creates an unhealthy bend to the back.
Sadia Vanjara predicts we will see not only physical but psychological and emotional problems resulting from overuse of gadgets.
Experts advise taking breaks from using a computer or other device often. Stand up. Stretch your legs, back, shoulders and arms. And when your work or school work is done, unplug and exercise.AccordingtoParagraph2,when will one hear yells like “sit up straight!”_________?
| A．Whenplayingvideogames | B．Whensleeping |
| C．Whenwalking | D．Whendriving |
Whatcaused Owaish Batliwala’s neck to hurt___________?
| A．Studyingtoohard |
| B．Thebadbodyposition |
| C．Playingthe iPad and mobile phone for hours |
| D．Hismother’sconcern |
Accordingto Sadia Vanjara, the pain is from__________?
| A．poor posture |
| B．aging |
| C．accidents |
| D．disease |
What can we learn from the passage_________?
| A．the number of young children with chronic pain in their necks, arms and shoulders is decreasing |
| B．the culprit is smart phones and the gadgets |
| C．there are more smartphone users in India than anywhere else in the world |
| D．the number of smartphone users in India is 651 million |
This passage most probably comes from__________.
| A．an amusement magazine |
| B．a news report |
| C．a travelling booklet |
| D．a health magazine |
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