ChineseAncientScience&Inventio-优题课

People aren’t walking any more---if they can figure out a way to avoid it.
I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn’t in any hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.
It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune(免疫的), for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day’s walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced –and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.
Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercises. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise--- the most familiar and natural of all.
It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world, He cannot learn in a car.
The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don’t dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.
I say that the green of forests is the mind’s best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.
What is the national sickness?

A．Walking too much	B．Traveling too much
C．Driving cars too much	D．Climbing stairs too much.

What was life like when the author was young?

A．People usually went around on foot.

B．people often walked 25 miles a day

C．People used to climb the Statue of Liberty.

D．people considered a ten-hour walk as a hardship.

The author mentions Henry Thoreau to prove that

A．middle-aged people like getting back to nature

B．walking in nature helps enrich one’s mind

C．people need regular exercise to keep fit

D．going on foot prevents heart disease

What is compared to “a steel river” in Paragraph6?

A．A queue of cars	B．A ray of traffic light
C．A flash of lightning	D．A stream of people

What is the author’s intention of writing this passage?

A．To tell people to reflect more on life.

B．To recommend people to give up driving

C．To advise people to do outdoor activities

D．To encourage people to return to walking

Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents (洋流) . Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way --- by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years’ experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.
Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes — about 60,000 in total — fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn't. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.
The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing(海滩搜寻) because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1, 600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.
As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.
The underlined phrase swap meets in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ___________.

A．fitting rooms	B．trading fairs
C．business talks	D．group meetings

Ebbesmeyer phoned the shoe company to find out ___________.

A．what caused the shipping accident

B．when and where the shoes went missing

C．whether it was all right to use their shoes

D．how much they lost in the shipping accident

How did Ebbesmeyer prove his assumption?

A．By collecting information from beachcombers.

B．By studying the shoes found by beachcomber.

C．By searching the web for ocean currents models.

D．By researching ocean currents data in the library.

Ebbesmeyer is most famous for _________________.

A．traveling widely the coastal cities of the world

B．making records for any lost objects on the sea

C．running a global currents research association

D．phoning about any doubtful objects on the sea

What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?

A．To call people's attention to ocean pollution.

B．To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean.

C．To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents.

D．To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach.

Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Light house Project.
I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly. Neither did my family.
Eventually, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for the application. After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I finally received a call asking me to report for the duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea. But I was about to find out.
After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes, hearts, and food as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in that same schoolhouse. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.
Sometime during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and returned to the United States a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever.
What do we know about the author?

A．His university education focused on the theoretical knowledge.

B．His dream at university was to become a volunteer.

C．He took pride in having contributed to the world.

D．He felt honored to study English literature.

According to the Paragraph 2, it is most likely that the author

A．discussed his decision with his family.

B．asked previous volunteers about voluntary work

C．attended special training to perform difficult tasks

D．felt sad about having to leave his family and friends

In his application for the volunteer job, the author

A．participated in many discussions

B．went through challenging survival tests

C．wrote quite a few papers on voluntary work

D．faced strong competition from other candidates

On arrival at the village, the author was

A．asked to lead a farming team

B．sent to teach in a schoolhouse

C．received warmly by local villagers

D．arranged to live in a separate house.

What can we infer from the author’s experiences in Nigeria?

A．He found some difficulty adapting to the local culture

B．He had learned to communicate in the local language.

C．He had overcome all his weaknesses before he left for home.

D．He was chosen as the most respectable teacher by his students.

Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what life would be like if you had a hundred dollars less. Also imagine what it would be like spending the rest of your life with you eyes closed. Imagine having to read this page, not with your eyes but with your finger-tips.
With existing medical knowledge and skills, two-thirds of the world’s 42 million blind should not have to suffer. Unfortunately, rich countries posses most of this knowledge, while developing countries do not.
ORBIS is an international non-profit organization which operates the world’s only flying teaching eye hospital. ORBIS intends to help fight blindness worldwide. Inside a DC-8 aircraft, there is a fully-equipped teaching hospital with television studio and classroom. Doctors are taught the latest techniques of bringing sight back to people there. Project ORBIS also aims at promoting peaceful cooperation(合作) among countries.
ORBIS tries to help developing countries by providing training during three-week medical programs. ORBIS has taught sight-saving techniques to over 35,000 doctors and nurses, who continue to cure tens of thousands of blind people every year. ORBIS has conducted 17 plane programs is China so far. For the seven to ten million blind in China ORBIS is planning to do more for them. At the moment an ORBIS is working on a long-term plan to develop a training center and to provide eye care service to Shanxi Province. ORBIS needs your help to continue their work and free people from blindness.
For just US$38,you can help one person see; for $380 you can bring sight to 10 people; $1,300 helps teach a doctor new skills; and for $13,000 you can provide a training program for a group of doctors who can make thousands of blind people see again. Your money can open their eyes to the world. Please help ORBIS improve the quality of life for so many people less fortunate than ourselves.
The first paragraph is intended to ______.

A．introduce a new way of reading

B．advise the public to lead a simple life

C．direct the public’s attention to the blind

D．encourage the public to use imagination

What do we learn about existing medical knowledge and skills in the world?

A．They are adequate

B．They have not been updated.

C．They are not equally distributed

D．They have benefited most of the blind

ORBIS aims to help the blind by ______.

A．teaching medical students

B．training doctors and nurses

C．running flying hospitals globally

D．setting up non-profit organization

What does the author try to do in the last paragraph?

A．Appeal for donations

B．Make an advertisement

C．Promote training programs

D．Show sympathy for the blind

What can be the best title for the passage?

A．ORBIS in China

B．Fighting Blindness

C．ORBIS Flying Hospital

D．Sight-saving Techniques

If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.
Some doctors now think that the internal(内部的) fat surrounding important organs like the heart or liver could be as dangerous as the external fat which can be noticed more easily.
“Being thin doesn’t surely mean you are not fat,” said Dr Jimmy Bell at Imperial College. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
According to the result, people who keep their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are slim.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside. Of the women, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had too high levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are actually on the edge of being fat. They eat too many fatty and sugary foods, but they are not eating enough to be fat. Scientists believe we naturally store fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some think it has something to do with heart disease and diabetes(糖尿病). They want to prove that internal fat damages the body’s communication systems.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. “If you want to be healthy, there is no shortcut. Exercise has to be an important part of your lifestyle.” Bell said.
What is the passage mainly about?

A．Internal fat is of no importance.

B．Thin people may be fat inside.

C．Internal fat leads to many diseases.

D．Thin people don’t have diabetes.

According to the passage, which of the following is WRONG?

A．Exercise can help to reduce the internal fat.

B．People can get rid of internal fat by improving diet.

C．People with heart disease all have internal fat.

D．Men are more likely to have too much internal fat.

From the last paragraph, we can find that ______.

A．exercise plays an important role in people’s life for keeping healthy

B．thin people usually have internal fat even if they are slim

C．it is easier to burn off internal fat than external fat

D．internal fat leading to disease has been proved