The TapeStore system is popular among ...

Renewable Energy Sources

Today petroleum (石油) provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel (矿物燃料). Natural gas reserves could fill some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22^nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced.
Hydroelectric (水力发电的) power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US’s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China’s entire electricity demand.
In 2003, the first commercial power station to use tidal (潮汐的) currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill (风车), but others take the form of turbines.
As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling (翻两番) worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modern wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world’s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally harmless—they can interfere with radar, alter climate and kill sea birds. Scotland is building Europe’s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK’s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.
According to the passage, which of the following is the most polluting energy resource

A．Petroleum.
B．Coal.
C．Natural gas.
D．Water.

Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
What does the recent poll show

A．It is getting more difficult for a woman to find her husband.
B．It is getting increasingly difficult to start a family.
C．It is getting more difficult for a man to find his wife.
D．It is getting increasingly difficult to develop an intimate relationship with your spouse.

单项选择题

Hurricane (飓风) Katrina

A．hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating (旋转的) form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1, 240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation is a cluster (聚焦) of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern part of the world.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate (蒸发) and condense (冷凝) into clouds and rain-releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moist air from the sea surface in a process that strengthens the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions, or low air pressure. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake (尾迹)—almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have become homeless in a humanitarian (人道主义的) crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the Great Depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
The eye of a hurricane refers to its

A．lower part.
B．rotating part.
C．calm central part.
D．most violent part.

单项选择题

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing were to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible—there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi RiverThe army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint (在枪口的威胁下) into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.
The Cherokees used to live（）

A．by the roadside
B．in the southeastern part of the U.S
C．beyond the Mississippi River
D．in the western territory

单项选择题

Almost Human

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (机器人) which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids—robots that look like human beings—which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (乐观主义者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (机器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物) Will people themselves become increasingly like robots Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小装置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows
Kismet is different from traditional robots because

A．it thinks for itself.
B．it is not like science fiction.
C．it can look after two-year-olds.
D．it seems to have human feelings.

单项选择题

Renewable Energy Sources

Today petroleum (石油) provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel (矿物燃料). Natural gas reserves could fill some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22^nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced.
Hydroelectric (水力发电的) power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US’s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China’s entire electricity demand.
In 2003, the first commercial power station to use tidal (潮汐的) currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill (风车), but others take the form of turbines.
As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling (翻两番) worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modern wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world’s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally harmless—they can interfere with radar, alter climate and kill sea birds. Scotland is building Europe’s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK’s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.
China’s Three Gorges Dam

A．is the first hydroelectric dam in the world.
B．is of the same size as the US’s Hoover Dam.
C．can generate around 3% of world electricity.
D．is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

单项选择题

TapeStore: A．New Tape Storage System

TapeStore is a new kind of tape storage system which can store up to 6,000 computer tapes. No other tape storage system can hold as many computer tapes as TapeStore. The tapes look exactly like video cassettes. Many hundreds of data files can be stored on each tape, up to a maximum of 500 million bytes (字节) of data. If you stored the same amount of information on paper, you would need nearly 4.5 billion printed pages.
The machine is a tall black box with a mechanical arm. The machine is 2.5 metres high and 3.0 metres wide. This is how it works. Each tape has a code printed on it. You feed the code number into TapeStore, which then looks for the code. As soon as TapeStore locates the code, the arm reaches in and pulls out the tape.
The system is very fast. It takes the mechanical arm about 10 seconds to find the tape it is looking for. The machine then searches the tape to extract (提取) the required file, and this takes less than a minute. A．human technician would have to locate and remove the tape by hand, and could take at least an hour to find the right file on the tape.
Some of the world’s biggest companies, including banks, insurance companies, airlines, telephone companies, utilities and computer centres, have bought the system. They like it particularly because the system guarantees the security of their data.
TapeStore was originally developed in Canada and is now being marketed worldwide. In Europe alone, 750 have already been installed at a cost of 480,000 dollars each.
TapeStore is better than any other storage system because

A．it can store more video cassettes.
B．it is extremely small.
C．it stores more tapes.
D．it stores data files on the same tape.

单项选择题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.
A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.
The voice credit card is an important invention because

A．it can be made cost-effectively.
B．it can leave voice messages.
C．it makes online shopping easy.
D．it makes fraud difficult.

单项选择题

More Than a Ride to School

The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community. " They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It’s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl’s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District.
The word "mirror" in the first line could be best replaced by（）

A．"vehicle"
B．"device"
C．"need"
D．"reflection"

单项选择题

Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
Which of the following is NOT true about a contemporary married couple

A．The wife doesn’t have to raise the children all by herself.
B．The husband doesn’t have to support the family all by himself.
C．The wife is no longer the only person to manage the household.
D．They will receive a large sum of money from the government.

单项选择题

Almost Human

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (机器人) which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids—robots that look like human beings—which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (乐观主义者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (机器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物) Will people themselves become increasingly like robots Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小装置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows
What makes Cog special

A．It looks like a mother.
B．It behaves like a child.
C．It can imitate the behavior of a mother.
D．It has a huge brain.

单项选择题

Pool Watch

Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. A report says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.
When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager (呼机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.
Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories (轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.
It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.
To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" (预先警戒) list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures (使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.
The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork (时钟装置) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools-and he was once an underwater escapologist (脱身杂技演员) with a circus (马戏团)."I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says.
Al means the same as

A．an image.
B．an idea.
C．anything immobile.
D．artificial intelligence.

单项选择题

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing were to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible—there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi RiverThe army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint (在枪口的威胁下) into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.
Which of the following statements about Sequoyah is NOT true（）

A．He was imaginative
B．He was an Indian
C．He was a white man
D．He wrote down the spoken Cherokee language

单项选择题

Hurricane (飓风) Katrina

A．hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating (旋转的) form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1, 240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation is a cluster (聚焦) of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern part of the world.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate (蒸发) and condense (冷凝) into clouds and rain-releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moist air from the sea surface in a process that strengthens the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions, or low air pressure. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake (尾迹)—almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have become homeless in a humanitarian (人道主义的) crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the Great Depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
Which of the following is NOT a "requirement" for the formation of a hurricane

A．Calm surrounding atmosphere.
B．High air pressure.
C．Warm sea-surface temperature.
D．A group of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters.

单项选择题

TapeStore: A．New Tape Storage System

TapeStore is a new kind of tape storage system which can store up to 6,000 computer tapes. No other tape storage system can hold as many computer tapes as TapeStore. The tapes look exactly like video cassettes. Many hundreds of data files can be stored on each tape, up to a maximum of 500 million bytes (字节) of data. If you stored the same amount of information on paper, you would need nearly 4.5 billion printed pages.
The machine is a tall black box with a mechanical arm. The machine is 2.5 metres high and 3.0 metres wide. This is how it works. Each tape has a code printed on it. You feed the code number into TapeStore, which then looks for the code. As soon as TapeStore locates the code, the arm reaches in and pulls out the tape.
The system is very fast. It takes the mechanical arm about 10 seconds to find the tape it is looking for. The machine then searches the tape to extract (提取) the required file, and this takes less than a minute. A．human technician would have to locate and remove the tape by hand, and could take at least an hour to find the right file on the tape.
Some of the world’s biggest companies, including banks, insurance companies, airlines, telephone companies, utilities and computer centres, have bought the system. They like it particularly because the system guarantees the security of their data.
TapeStore was originally developed in Canada and is now being marketed worldwide. In Europe alone, 750 have already been installed at a cost of 480,000 dollars each.
The mechanical arm finds a tape by

A．recording the file name on the tape.
B．identifying the printed code on the tape.
C．looking for its file name.
D．searching for the tape number.

单项选择题

Renewable Energy Sources

Today petroleum (石油) provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel (矿物燃料). Natural gas reserves could fill some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22^nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced.
Hydroelectric (水力发电的) power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US’s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China’s entire electricity demand.
In 2003, the first commercial power station to use tidal (潮汐的) currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill (风车), but others take the form of turbines.
As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling (翻两番) worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modern wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world’s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally harmless—they can interfere with radar, alter climate and kill sea birds. Scotland is building Europe’s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK’s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.
Which country took the lead in making use of tidal currents to produce power in 2003

A．The UK.
B．China.
C．Norway.
D．The us.

单项选择题

Almost Human

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (机器人) which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids—robots that look like human beings—which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (乐观主义者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (机器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物) Will people themselves become increasingly like robots Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小装置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows
In about 15 years’ time from now, robots

A．will become space designers.
B．will look like monsters.
C．will behave like animals.
D．will think like humans.

单项选择题

Pool Watch

Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. A report says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.
When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager (呼机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.
Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories (轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.
It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.
To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" (预先警戒) list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures (使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.
The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork (时钟装置) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools-and he was once an underwater escapologist (脱身杂技演员) with a circus (马戏团)."I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says.
To save a life, AI software must be able to

A．descend in the water.
B．videotape every movement.
C．distinguish between a swimmer and a shadow.
D．save a life within a few months.

单项选择题

Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
Which of the following was NOT a constraint on one’s choice of soulmate in the old days

A．The health condition of his or her grandmother.
B．The geographical environment.
C．The social convention.
D．The family tradition.

单项选择题

More Than a Ride to School

The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community. " They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It’s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl’s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District.
Bruce Hardy has been working with Althouse Bus Company（）

A．for 30 years
B．for 70 years
C．since last year
D．since 2000

单项选择题

TapeStore: A．New Tape Storage System

TapeStore is a new kind of tape storage system which can store up to 6,000 computer tapes. No other tape storage system can hold as many computer tapes as TapeStore. The tapes look exactly like video cassettes. Many hundreds of data files can be stored on each tape, up to a maximum of 500 million bytes (字节) of data. If you stored the same amount of information on paper, you would need nearly 4.5 billion printed pages.
The machine is a tall black box with a mechanical arm. The machine is 2.5 metres high and 3.0 metres wide. This is how it works. Each tape has a code printed on it. You feed the code number into TapeStore, which then looks for the code. As soon as TapeStore locates the code, the arm reaches in and pulls out the tape.
The system is very fast. It takes the mechanical arm about 10 seconds to find the tape it is looking for. The machine then searches the tape to extract (提取) the required file, and this takes less than a minute. A．human technician would have to locate and remove the tape by hand, and could take at least an hour to find the right file on the tape.
Some of the world’s biggest companies, including banks, insurance companies, airlines, telephone companies, utilities and computer centres, have bought the system. They like it particularly because the system guarantees the security of their data.
TapeStore was originally developed in Canada and is now being marketed worldwide. In Europe alone, 750 have already been installed at a cost of 480,000 dollars each.
The TapeStore system is popular among big companies mainly because

A．it costs less than a skilled worker.
B．it looks impressive.
C．the information it stores is valuable.
D．it ensures the safety of their data.

单项选择题

Renewable Energy Sources

Today petroleum (石油) provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel (矿物燃料). Natural gas reserves could fill some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22^nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced.
Hydroelectric (水力发电的) power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US’s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China’s entire electricity demand.
In 2003, the first commercial power station to use tidal (潮汐的) currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill (风车), but others take the form of turbines.
As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling (翻两番) worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modern wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world’s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally harmless—they can interfere with radar, alter climate and kill sea birds. Scotland is building Europe’s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK’s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.
One of the problems with wind farms is that

A．there is not enough wind.
B．wind is not reliable.
C．they can only be built on the sea.
D．they might influence the world economy.

单项选择题

Pool Watch

Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. A report says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.
When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager (呼机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.
Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories (轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.
It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.
To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" (预先警戒) list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures (使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.
The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork (时钟装置) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools-and he was once an underwater escapologist (脱身杂技演员) with a circus (马戏团)."I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says.
How does Poseidon save a life

A．It orders an underwater robot to rescue the drowning swimmer.
B．It alerts the lifeguard.
C．It displays the swimmer’s shadow on the screen.
D．It watches the pool through dozens of overhead cameras.

单项选择题

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing were to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible—there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi RiverThe army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint (在枪口的威胁下) into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.
A．law was passed in 1830 to（）

A．allow the Cherokees to stay where they were
B．stop the Cherokees using their own language
C．force the Cherokees to move westward
D．forbid the Cherokees to print their own newspaper

单项选择题

Almost Human

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (机器人) which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids—robots that look like human beings—which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (乐观主义者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (机器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物) Will people themselves become increasingly like robots Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小装置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows
In the future robots will also

A．explore space.
B．entertain people.
C．move much faster.
D．do all of the housework.

单项选择题

Hurricane (飓风) Katrina

A．hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating (旋转的) form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1, 240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation is a cluster (聚焦) of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern part of the world.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate (蒸发) and condense (冷凝) into clouds and rain-releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moist air from the sea surface in a process that strengthens the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions, or low air pressure. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake (尾迹)—almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have become homeless in a humanitarian (人道主义的) crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the Great Depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
When the warm air from the sea surface begins to rise, it

A．creates an area of low pressure.
B．supplies cold air to the eye of a hurricane.
C．increases the sea-surface temperature.
D．strengthens the rotation of the earth.

单项选择题

More Than a Ride to School

The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community. " They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It’s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl’s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District.
Which of the following statements is NOT true of Bruce Hardy（）

A．He is popular with his passengers
B．He has never missed a day of work
C．He is an impatient person
D．He has driven 350,000 accident free miles

单项选择题

TapeStore: A．New Tape Storage System

TapeStore is a new kind of tape storage system which can store up to 6,000 computer tapes. No other tape storage system can hold as many computer tapes as TapeStore. The tapes look exactly like video cassettes. Many hundreds of data files can be stored on each tape, up to a maximum of 500 million bytes (字节) of data. If you stored the same amount of information on paper, you would need nearly 4.5 billion printed pages.
The machine is a tall black box with a mechanical arm. The machine is 2.5 metres high and 3.0 metres wide. This is how it works. Each tape has a code printed on it. You feed the code number into TapeStore, which then looks for the code. As soon as TapeStore locates the code, the arm reaches in and pulls out the tape.
The system is very fast. It takes the mechanical arm about 10 seconds to find the tape it is looking for. The machine then searches the tape to extract (提取) the required file, and this takes less than a minute. A．human technician would have to locate and remove the tape by hand, and could take at least an hour to find the right file on the tape.
Some of the world’s biggest companies, including banks, insurance companies, airlines, telephone companies, utilities and computer centres, have bought the system. They like it particularly because the system guarantees the security of their data.
TapeStore was originally developed in Canada and is now being marketed worldwide. In Europe alone, 750 have already been installed at a cost of 480,000 dollars each.
Which of the following statements about TapeStore is NOT true

A．It can store a large amount of information.
B．It is very cheap.
C．It is very fast.
D．It is secure.

单项选择题

Renewable Energy Sources

Today petroleum (石油) provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel (矿物燃料). Natural gas reserves could fill some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22^nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced.
Hydroelectric (水力发电的) power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China’s Three Gorges Dam is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US’s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China’s entire electricity demand.
In 2003, the first commercial power station to use tidal (潮汐的) currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill (风车), but others take the form of turbines.
As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling (翻两番) worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modern wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world’s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally harmless—they can interfere with radar, alter climate and kill sea birds. Scotland is building Europe’s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK’s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.
According to the passage, resources like wind are

A．renewable.
B．recyclable.
C．damaging.
D．scarce.

单项选择题

Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
Which of the following is NOT expected of a partner according to this passage

A．Good looks.
B．An impressive career.
C．A high salary.
D．A fine sense of humor.

单项选择题

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing were to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible—there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi RiverThe army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint (在枪口的威胁下) into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.
The Cherokees went to their new lands（）

A．in carts
B．on horseback
C．on foot
D．all of the above

单项选择题

Pool Watch

Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. A report says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.
When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager (呼机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.
Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories (轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.
It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.
To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" (预先警戒) list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures (使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.
The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork (时钟装置) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools-and he was once an underwater escapologist (脱身杂技演员) with a circus (马戏团)."I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says.
Which of the following statements about Travor Baylis is NOT true

A．He owns a swimming pool.
B．He invented the clockwork radio.
C．He was once an entertainer.
D．He runs a company.

单项选择题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What is the problem with the model card
A．It is too large.
B．It is too thick.
C．It can’t be used in online transactions.
D．It doesn’t have a loudspeaker.

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.

单项选择题

Almost Human

Scientists are racing to build the world’s first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (机器人) which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids—robots that look like human beings—which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (乐观主义者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (机器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物) Will people themselves become increasingly like robots Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小装置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows
What is the writer’s attitude to robots in the future

A．Critical.

B．Hostile.
C．Objective.

D．Enthusiastic.

单项选择题

Hurricane (飓风) Katrina

A．hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating (旋转的) form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1, 240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation is a cluster (聚焦) of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern part of the world.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate (蒸发) and condense (冷凝) into clouds and rain-releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moist air from the sea surface in a process that strengthens the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions, or low air pressure. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake (尾迹)—almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have become homeless in a humanitarian (人道主义的) crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the Great Depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
The word "impact" (paragraph 5) could be best replaced by

A．"function".
B．"pressure".
C．"disaster".
D．"effect".

单项选择题

TapeStore: A．New Tape Storage System

TapeStore is a new kind of tape storage system which can store up to 6,000 computer tapes. No other tape storage system can hold as many computer tapes as TapeStore. The tapes look exactly like video cassettes. Many hundreds of data files can be stored on each tape, up to a maximum of 500 million bytes (字节) of data. If you stored the same amount of information on paper, you would need nearly 4.5 billion printed pages.
The machine is a tall black box with a mechanical arm. The machine is 2.5 metres high and 3.0 metres wide. This is how it works. Each tape has a code printed on it. You feed the code number into TapeStore, which then looks for the code. As soon as TapeStore locates the code, the arm reaches in and pulls out the tape.
The system is very fast. It takes the mechanical arm about 10 seconds to find the tape it is looking for. The machine then searches the tape to extract (提取) the required file, and this takes less than a minute. A．human technician would have to locate and remove the tape by hand, and could take at least an hour to find the right file on the tape.
Some of the world’s biggest companies, including banks, insurance companies, airlines, telephone companies, utilities and computer centres, have bought the system. They like it particularly because the system guarantees the security of their data.
TapeStore was originally developed in Canada and is now being marketed worldwide. In Europe alone, 750 have already been installed at a cost of 480,000 dollars each.
The word "marketed" in the last paragraph can be replaced by

A．installed.

B．used.
C．promoted.

D．designed.

单项选择题

More Than a Ride to School

The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community. " They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It’s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl’s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District.
Althouse Bus Company was founded by（）

A．Larry Althouse
B．Althouse’s grandfather
C．Liesl’s mother
D．Ashley Batista

单项选择题

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing were to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible—there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi RiverThe army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint (在枪口的威胁下) into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000 had died. It was indeed a march of death.
The word "exhausted" in the last paragraph could be best replaced by（）

A．"worn out"
B．"ended up"
C．"run out"
D．"finished up"

单项选择题

Pool Watch

Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards fail to notice that they are in trouble. A report says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but many more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning.
When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager (呼机). In trials at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies.
Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overhead video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers’ trajectories (轨迹). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool.
It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory.
To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" (预先警戒) list, says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-checks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures (使模糊) the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead. If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen.
The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork (时钟装置) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools-and he was once an underwater escapologist (脱身杂技演员) with a circus (马戏团)."I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives," he says.
How does Baylis look at the Poseidon system

A．He thinks it is too expensive.
B．He thinks it is a good system.
C．He thinks it is not efficient enough.
D．He thinks it is as good as the British pool watch system.

单项选择题

U.S. Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer

Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal (不平等的) access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology (生物学) of the cancer itself, the report added.
"In general, black Americans have less hope of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis," the report said.
"In describing cancer statistics for black Americans, this report recognizes that many of the differences associated with race may be caused by unfair social and economic differences and unequal access to medical care. "
The cancer society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups (体格检查) earlier, when cancer is more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.
"The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of wiping out these unfair social differences through public policy and education efforts," the organization said in a statement.
But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
"Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have dropped greatly among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates (发生率)," said the report.
Black Americans are more likely to die of cancer than

A．people in other countries.
B．white Americans.
C．all other Americans.
D．their ancestors.

单项选择题

Hurricane (飓风) Katrina

A．hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating (旋转的) form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1, 240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation is a cluster (聚焦) of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern part of the world.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate (蒸发) and condense (冷凝) into clouds and rain-releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moist air from the sea surface in a process that strengthens the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions, or low air pressure. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake (尾迹)—almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have become homeless in a humanitarian (人道主义的) crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the Great Depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
Which of the following is NOT true of Hurricane Katrina according to the last paragraph

A．The area affected is almost as big as the UK.
B．It has left a disaster zone of 90, 000 square miles.
C．Over half a million people have beenforced to leave their homes.
D．This crisis is more serious than that of the Great Depression.

单项选择题

More Than a Ride to School

The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community. " They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.
Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It’s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important. " Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record. "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus. "
Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come. "Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl’s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District.
Althouse Bus Company pays much attention to（）

A．employing young drivers
B．running quality schools
C．providing free driving lessons
D．building sound relationships

单项选择题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
Which of the following statements about the earlier card is true
A．Its owner can change the ID code freely.
B．Its user does not need to key in the ID number.
C．It can record its user’s spoken password.
D．It still can be used by someone else after being stolen.

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.

单项选择题

Trying to Find a Partner

One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love Or are we making it harder for ourselves
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint, the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree, good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
The word "sustain" (paragraph 2) could be best replaced by

A．"reduce".
B．"shake".
C．"maintain".
D．"weaken".

单项选择题

Technology Transfer in Germany

When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation’s vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany’s research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe’s largest organisation. for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U.S. and Asia.
What factor can be attributed to German prosperity

A．Technology transfer.
B．Good management.
C．Hard work.
D．Fierce competition.

单项选择题

Crystal Ear

One day a friend asked my wife Jill if I wanted a hearing aid. "He certainly does," replied Jill. After hearing about a remarkable new product, Jill finally got up the nerve to ask me if I’d ever thought about getting a hearing aid. "No way," I said. "It would make me look 20 years older. " "No, no, " she replied. "This is entirely different. It’s Crystal Ear! "
Jill was right. Crystal Ear is different—not the old-styled body worn or over-the-ear aid, but an advanced personal sound system so small that it’s like contacts (隐形眼镜) for your ears. And Crystal Ear is super-sensitive and powerful, too. You will hear sounds your ears have been missing for years. Crystal Ear will make speech louder, and the sound is pure and natural.
I couldn’t believe how tiny it is. It is smaller than the tip of my little finger and it’s almost invisible when worn. There are no wires, no behind-the-ear device. Put it in your ear and its ready-to-wear mold (形状) fits comfortably. Since it’s not too loud or too tight, you may even forget that you’re wearing it! Use it at work or at play. And if your hearing problem is worse in certain situations, use Crystal Ear only when you need it.
Hearing loss, which occurs typically prior to teenage years, progresses throughout one’s lifetime. Although hearing loss is now the world’s number one health problem, nearly 90 percent of people suffering hearing loss choose to leave the problem untreated. For many millions, treating hearing loss in a conventional way can involve numerous office visits, expensive testing and adjustments to fit your ear. Thanks to Crystal Ear, the "sound solution" is now convenient. Almost 90 percent of people with mild hearing loss, and millions more with just a little hearing drop-off (下降), can be dramatically helped with Crystal Ear. Moreover, its superior design is energy-efficient, so batteries can last months. Crystal Ear is now available to help these people treat their hearing loss with a small hearing amplifier (放大器).
Initially the writer did not want to buy a hearing aid because

A．it would make him look old.
B．it would make him nervous.
C．it was too expensive.
D．it was old-styled.

单项选择题

U.S. Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer

Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal (不平等的) access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology (生物学) of the cancer itself, the report added.
"In general, black Americans have less hope of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis," the report said.
"In describing cancer statistics for black Americans, this report recognizes that many of the differences associated with race may be caused by unfair social and economic differences and unequal access to medical care. "
The cancer society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups (体格检查) earlier, when cancer is more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.
"The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of wiping out these unfair social differences through public policy and education efforts," the organization said in a statement.
But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
"Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have dropped greatly among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates (发生率)," said the report.
Which may NOT be a reason for higher cancer death rates among U.S. blacks

A．Unequal access to medical care.
B．Greater probability of having other diseases.
C．Differences in the biology of the cancer.
D．Early diagnosis.

单项选择题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What is the advantage of the new voice card
A．It recognizes only its owner’s spoken password.
B．It doesn’t need to work with an online server.
C．It requires less ID information.
D．It has a playback function.

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.

单项选择题

Crystal Ear

One day a friend asked my wife Jill if I wanted a hearing aid. "He certainly does," replied Jill. After hearing about a remarkable new product, Jill finally got up the nerve to ask me if I’d ever thought about getting a hearing aid. "No way," I said. "It would make me look 20 years older. " "No, no, " she replied. "This is entirely different. It’s Crystal Ear! "
Jill was right. Crystal Ear is different—not the old-styled body worn or over-the-ear aid, but an advanced personal sound system so small that it’s like contacts (隐形眼镜) for your ears. And Crystal Ear is super-sensitive and powerful, too. You will hear sounds your ears have been missing for years. Crystal Ear will make speech louder, and the sound is pure and natural.
I couldn’t believe how tiny it is. It is smaller than the tip of my little finger and it’s almost invisible when worn. There are no wires, no behind-the-ear device. Put it in your ear and its ready-to-wear mold (形状) fits comfortably. Since it’s not too loud or too tight, you may even forget that you’re wearing it! Use it at work or at play. And if your hearing problem is worse in certain situations, use Crystal Ear only when you need it.
Hearing loss, which occurs typically prior to teenage years, progresses throughout one’s lifetime. Although hearing loss is now the world’s number one health problem, nearly 90 percent of people suffering hearing loss choose to leave the problem untreated. For many millions, treating hearing loss in a conventional way can involve numerous office visits, expensive testing and adjustments to fit your ear. Thanks to Crystal Ear, the "sound solution" is now convenient. Almost 90 percent of people with mild hearing loss, and millions more with just a little hearing drop-off (下降), can be dramatically helped with Crystal Ear. Moreover, its superior design is energy-efficient, so batteries can last months. Crystal Ear is now available to help these people treat their hearing loss with a small hearing amplifier (放大器).
Which of the following is NOT true of Crystal Ear

A．It is highly sensitive.
B．It is powerful.
C．It is invisible.
D．It is wireless.

单项选择题

Technology Transfer in Germany

When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation’s vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany’s research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe’s largest organisation. for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U.S. and Asia.
Which of the following is NOT true of traditional university research

A．It is free.
B．It is profit-driven.
C．It is widely available.
D．It is curiosity-driven.

单项选择题

U.S. Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer

Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal (不平等的) access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology (生物学) of the cancer itself, the report added.
"In general, black Americans have less hope of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis," the report said.
"In describing cancer statistics for black Americans, this report recognizes that many of the differences associated with race may be caused by unfair social and economic differences and unequal access to medical care. "
The cancer society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups (体格检查) earlier, when cancer is more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.
"The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of wiping out these unfair social differences through public policy and education efforts," the organization said in a statement.
But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
"Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have dropped greatly among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates (发生率)," said the report.
Cancer is more treatable if it is detected

A．in an early stage.
B．in a late stage.
C．all of a sudden.
D．together with other diseases.

单项选择题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What can we learn from the last paragraph about the voice card
A．Only female voice passwords could be recognized.
B．Further improvement should be made to extend battery life.
C．There is no limit to its application.
D．Female customers like to use it.

A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner’s voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud (欺骗).
The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else’s credit card details to buy goods online.A model built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card.
They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.
The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" (发出叫声) a voice ID signal via a computer’s microphone to an online server.
By verifying (证实) that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows.
This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can.
The new voice card also identifies itself by its ID squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate (合法的) user’s spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner’s voice with a high degree of accuracy.
The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded (潜入的) in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card’s surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic (真实的), it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed.

单项选择题

Crystal Ear

One day a friend asked my wife Jill if I wanted a hearing aid. "He certainly does," replied Jill. After hearing about a remarkable new product, Jill finally got up the nerve to ask me if I’d ever thought about getting a hearing aid. "No way," I said. "It would make me look 20 years older. " "No, no, " she replied. "This is entirely different. It’s Crystal Ear! "
Jill was right. Crystal Ear is different—not the old-styled body worn or over-the-ear aid, but an advanced personal sound system so small that it’s like contacts (隐形眼镜) for your ears. And Crystal Ear is super-sensitive and powerful, too. You will hear sounds your ears have been missing for years. Crystal Ear will make speech louder, and the sound is pure and natural.
I couldn’t believe how tiny it is. It is smaller than the tip of my little finger and it’s almost invisible when worn. There are no wires, no behind-the-ear device. Put it in your ear and its ready-to-wear mold (形状) fits comfortably. Since it’s not too loud or too tight, you may even forget that you’re wearing it! Use it at work or at play. And if your hearing problem is worse in certain situations, use Crystal Ear only when you need it.
Hearing loss, which occurs typically prior to teenage years, progresses throughout one’s lifetime. Although hearing loss is now the world’s number one health problem, nearly 90 percent of people suffering hearing loss choose to leave the problem untreated. For many millions, treating hearing loss in a conventional way can involve numerous office visits, expensive testing and adjustments to fit your ear. Thanks to Crystal Ear, the "sound solution" is now convenient. Almost 90 percent of people with mild hearing loss, and millions more with just a little hearing drop-off (下降), can be dramatically helped with Crystal Ear. Moreover, its superior design is energy-efficient, so batteries can last months. Crystal Ear is now available to help these people treat their hearing loss with a small hearing amplifier (放大器).
One special feature of Crystal Ear is that

A．you can control its volume.
B．you needn’t take it off every day.
C．it is solar-powered.
D．it saves power.

单项选择题

Technology Transfer in Germany

When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation’s vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany’s research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe’s largest organisation. for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U.S. and Asia.
The Fraunhofer Society is the largest organisation for applied technology in

A．Asia.
B．USA.
C．Europe.
D．Africa.

单项选择题

U.S. Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer

Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal (不平等的) access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology (生物学) of the cancer itself, the report added.
"In general, black Americans have less hope of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis," the report said.
"In describing cancer statistics for black Americans, this report recognizes that many of the differences associated with race may be caused by unfair social and economic differences and unequal access to medical care. "
The cancer society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups (体格检查) earlier, when cancer is more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.
"The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of wiping out these unfair social differences through public policy and education efforts," the organization said in a statement.
But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
"Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have dropped greatly among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates (发生率)," said the report.
Public policy and education efforts may help to do away with

A．death rates.
B．various cancers.
C．unfair social differences.
D．biological differences.

单项选择题

Technology Transfer in Germany

When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation’s vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany’s research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe’s largest organisation. for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U.S. and Asia.
When was the Fraunhofer Society founded

A．In 1940.
B．Last year.
C．After the unification.
D．In 1949.

单项选择题

Crystal Ear

One day a friend asked my wife Jill if I wanted a hearing aid. "He certainly does," replied Jill. After hearing about a remarkable new product, Jill finally got up the nerve to ask me if I’d ever thought about getting a hearing aid. "No way," I said. "It would make me look 20 years older. " "No, no, " she replied. "This is entirely different. It’s Crystal Ear! "
Jill was right. Crystal Ear is different—not the old-styled body worn or over-the-ear aid, but an advanced personal sound system so small that it’s like contacts (隐形眼镜) for your ears. And Crystal Ear is super-sensitive and powerful, too. You will hear sounds your ears have been missing for years. Crystal Ear will make speech louder, and the sound is pure and natural.
I couldn’t believe how tiny it is. It is smaller than the tip of my little finger and it’s almost invisible when worn. There are no wires, no behind-the-ear device. Put it in your ear and its ready-to-wear mold (形状) fits comfortably. Since it’s not too loud or too tight, you may even forget that you’re wearing it! Use it at work or at play. And if your hearing problem is worse in certain situations, use Crystal Ear only when you need it.
Hearing loss, which occurs typically prior to teenage years, progresses throughout one’s lifetime. Although hearing loss is now the world’s number one health problem, nearly 90 percent of people suffering hearing loss choose to leave the problem untreated. For many millions, treating hearing loss in a conventional way can involve numerous office visits, expensive testing and adjustments to fit your ear. Thanks to Crystal Ear, the "sound solution" is now convenient. Almost 90 percent of people with mild hearing loss, and millions more with just a little hearing drop-off (下降), can be dramatically helped with Crystal Ear. Moreover, its superior design is energy-efficient, so batteries can last months. Crystal Ear is now available to help these people treat their hearing loss with a small hearing amplifier (放大器).
According to the passage, hearing loss is

A．only a minor health problem.
B．the world’s most common health problem.
C．merely a teenage disease.
D．an incurable disease.

单项选择题

U.S. Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer

Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal (不平等的) access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology (生物学) of the cancer itself, the report added.
"In general, black Americans have less hope of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis," the report said.
"In describing cancer statistics for black Americans, this report recognizes that many of the differences associated with race may be caused by unfair social and economic differences and unequal access to medical care. "
The cancer society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups (体格检查) earlier, when cancer is more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.
"The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of wiping out these unfair social differences through public policy and education efforts," the organization said in a statement.
But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
"Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have dropped greatly among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates (发生率)," said the report.
Since 1992, cancer death rates among black Americans

A．have been going up and down. B．have remained stable.
C．have increased.
D．have fallen.

单项选择题

Technology Transfer in Germany

When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation’s vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit.
Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies.
Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.
While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany’s research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer.
Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe’s largest organisation. for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the U.S. and Asia.
The word "expertise" in line 3 could be best replaced by

A．"experts".
B．"scientists".
C．"scholars".
D．"special knowledge".

单项选择题

Crystal Ear

One day a friend asked my wife Jill if I wanted a hearing aid. "He certainly does," replied Jill. After hearing about a remarkable new product, Jill finally got up the nerve to ask me if I’d ever thought about getting a hearing aid. "No way," I said. "It would make me look 20 years older. " "No, no, " she replied. "This is entirely different. It’s Crystal Ear! "
Jill was right. Crystal Ear is different—not the old-styled body worn or over-the-ear aid, but an advanced personal sound system so small that it’s like contacts (隐形眼镜) for your ears. And Crystal Ear is super-sensitive and powerful, too. You will hear sounds your ears have been missing for years. Crystal Ear will make speech louder, and the sound is pure and natural.
I couldn’t believe how tiny it is. It is smaller than the tip of my little finger and it’s almost invisible when worn. There are no wires, no behind-the-ear device. Put it in your ear and its ready-to-wear mold (形状) fits comfortably. Since it’s not too loud or too tight, you may even forget that you’re wearing it! Use it at work or at play. And if your hearing problem is worse in certain situations, use Crystal Ear only when you need it.
Hearing loss, which occurs typically prior to teenage years, progresses throughout one’s lifetime. Although hearing loss is now the world’s number one health problem, nearly 90 percent of people suffering hearing loss choose to leave the problem untreated. For many millions, treating hearing loss in a conventional way can involve numerous office visits, expensive testing and adjustments to fit your ear. Thanks to Crystal Ear, the "sound solution" is now convenient. Almost 90 percent of people with mild hearing loss, and millions more with just a little hearing drop-off (下降), can be dramatically helped with Crystal Ear. Moreover, its superior design is energy-efficient, so batteries can last months. Crystal Ear is now available to help these people treat their hearing loss with a small hearing amplifier (放大器).
Many people leave their hearing problem untreated because

A．it is not serious.
B．Crystal Ear is not yet available.
C．it is not easy to have it treated.
D．they don’t want to look old.

你可能感兴趣的试题

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken ToWhat is the problem with the model card A．It is too large. B．It is too thick. C．It can’t be used in online transactions. D．It doesn’t have a loudspeaker.

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken ToWhat is the advantage of the new voice card A．It recognizes only its owner’s spoken password. B．It doesn’t need to work with an online server. C．It requires less ID information. D．It has a playback function.

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken ToWhat can we learn from the last paragraph about the voice card A．Only female voice passwords could be recognized. B．Further improvement should be made to extend battery life. C．There is no limit to its application. D．Female customers like to use it.

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What is the problem with the model card
A．It is too large.
B．It is too thick.
C．It can’t be used in online transactions.
D．It doesn’t have a loudspeaker.

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What is the advantage of the new voice card
A．It recognizes only its owner’s spoken password.
B．It doesn’t need to work with an online server.
C．It requires less ID information.
D．It has a playback function.

Credit Card Only Works When Spoken To
What can we learn from the last paragraph about the voice card
A．Only female voice passwords could be recognized.
B．Further improvement should be made to extend battery life.
C．There is no limit to its application.
D．Female customers like to use it.