In the United States, it is not customary to telephone someone very early in the morning. If you telephone him early in the day, while he is shaving or having breakfast, the time of the call shows that the matter is very important and requires immediate attention. The same meaning is attached to telephone calls made after 11:00 p.m. If someone receive
s a call during sleeping hours, he assumes(想当然地认为)it's a matter of life and death. The time chosen for the call comm.unicates its importance.
In social life, time plays a very important part. In the U.S.A. guests tend to feel they are not highly regarded if the attention to a dinner party is extended only three or four days before the party date. But it is not true in all countries. In other areas of the world, it may be considered foolish to make an appointment too far in advance because plans which are made for a date more than a week away tend to be forgotten. The meaning of time differs in different parts of the world. Thus, misunderstandings arise(产生) between people from cultures that treat time differently. Promptness is valued highly in American life, for example. If people are not prompt, they may be regarded as impolite or not fully responsible. In the U.S. no one would think if keeping a business associate waiting for an hour. It would be too impolite. A person who is 5 minutes late is expected to make a short apology. If he is less than 5 minutes late, he will say a few words of explanation, though perhaps he will not complete the sentence.
60. "The same meaning is attached to telephone calls after 11:00p.m." Here "attached" means _____.
A. taken B. drawn C. given D. shown
61. According to this passage, time plays an importantt role in _____.
A. everyday life B. school life
C. communication D. private life
62. The best title for this passage is _____.
A. The Voice of Time
B. The Importance of Time
C. The Importance of an Announcement
D. Time and Tide Wait for No Man
63. According to the passage, the author of the article may agree to which of the following statements?
A. It is appropriate to send your invitation cards three or four days before a dinner party date in U.S.A..
B. It may be appropriate to send your invitation cards to your guests three or four days before a dinner party date in some countries.
C. It is best for one to make telephone calls at eight because it costs much less.
D. If one is less than 5 minutes late, he has to make a short apology.
A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
(392 words)The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.
A.they had no model in their mind |
B.they did not have sufficient time |
C.they had no ready-made components |
D.they could not assemble the components |
It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.
A.consists of a flight device and a control system |
B.can just fly in limited areas at the present time |
C.can collect information from many sources |
D.has been put into wide application |
Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
A.The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects. |
B.Animals are not allowed in biological experiments. |
C.There used to be few ways to study how insects fly. |
D.Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments. |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.Father of Robotic Fly |
B.Inspiration from Engineering Science |
C.Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect |
D.Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study |
(268 words)According to Warranty Limitations, a product can be under warranty if __________.
A. shipped from a Canadian factory B. rented for home use
C. repaired by the user himself D. used in the U.S.A.According to Owner’s Responsibilities, an owner has to pay for __________.
A.the loss of the sales receipt | B.a servicer’s overtime work |
C.the product installation | D.a mechanic’s transportation |
Which of the following is true according to the warranty?
A.Consequential damages are excluded across America. |
B.A product damaged in a natural disaster is covered by the warranty. |
C.A faulty cabinet due to rust can be replaced free in the second year. |
D.Free repair is available for a product used improperly in the first year. |
For some people, music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes (音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.
As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music set them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.
Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn’t involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can’t see certain colors.
Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed (诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say, ‘No thanks, I’m amusic,’” says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”(335 words)Which of the following is true of amusics?
A.Listening to music is far from enjoyable for them. |
B.They love places where they are likely to hear music. |
C.They can easily tell two different songs apart. |
D.Their situation is well understood by musicians. |
According to paragraph 3, a person with “defective hearing” is probably one who __________.
A.dislikes listening to speeches |
B.can hear anything nonmusical |
C.has a hearing problem |
D.lacks a complex hearing system |
In the last paragraph, Margaret expressed her wish that __________.
A.her problem with music had been diagnosed earlier |
B.she were seventeen years old rather than seventy |
C.her problem could be easily explained |
D.she were able to meet other amusics |
What is the passage mainly concerned with?
A.Amusics’ strange behaviours. |
B.Some people’s inability to enjoy music. |
C.Musical talent and brain structure. |
D.Identification and treatment of amusics. |
"Indeed"George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, "some kind of fly,or bug,had begun to eat the leaves before I left home." But the father of America was not the father of bug.When Washington wrote that, Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightning-bug(萤火虫). But the Enlish were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to be the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity.Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burlar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, "to install(安装) an alarm". Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others' conversations.Since the 1840s,to bug has long meant "to cheat",and since the 1994s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw n a computer program or other design.That meaning dates back to the time of Tomas Edison.In 1878 he explained bugs as "little problems and difficulties" that required months of stdy and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison "had been up the two previous nights discovering′a bug′ in his invented record player."
1. |
We learn from Paragraph 1 that.
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2. |
What does the word "flaw" in the last paragraph mean?
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3. |
The passage is mainly concerned with.
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Here is an astonishing and signficant fact:Mental work alone can’t make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered thett blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day labourer, we could find it full of fatigue toxins(毒素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxing at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours f efforts as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired.
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue come from our mental and emotional(情感的) attitudes. One of England’s most outstanding scientists. J. A. Hadfield,says,“The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact,fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares,“One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired?Joy?Satifaction?No!A feeling of being bored,anger,anxiety,tenseness,worry,a feeling of nt being appreciated---those are emotions that tire sitting workers.Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue.We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.What surprised the scientists a few years ago?
A.Fatigue toxinscould hardly be found in a labour’s blood. |
B.Albert Eistein didn’t feel worn out after a day’s work. |
C.The brain could wrk for many hours without fatigue. |
D.A mental worker’s blood was filled with fatigue toxins. |
According to the authour,which of the following can make sitting worker tired?
A.Challenge mental work. |
B.Unpleasant emotions. |
C.Endless tasks. |
D.Physical labor. |
What’s the authour’s attitude towards the scientists’ ideas?
A.He agrees with them. |
B.He doubts them |
C.He argues against them. |
D.He hesitates to accept them. |
We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energic, sitting workers need to ______.
A.have some good blood |
B.enjoy their work |
C.exercise regularly |
D.discover fatigue toxin |