Sometime in the next century, the familiar early-newspaper on the front porch (门廊) will disappear. And instead of reading your newspaper, it will read to you. You’ll get up and turn on the computer newspaper just like switching on the TV. An electronic voice will distribute stories about the latest events, guided by a program that selects the type of news you want. You’ll even get to choose the kind of voice you want to hear. Want more information on this brief story? A simple touch makes the entire text appear. Save it in your own personal computer if you like. These are among the predictions from communication experts working on the newspapers of the future. Pictured as part of broader home-based media and entertainment systems, computer newspapers will unite print and broadcast reporting, and offer news and analysis with video images of news events.
Most of the technology is available now, but convincing more people that they don’t need to read a newspaper is the next step. But resistance to computer newspapers may be stronger from within journalism. Since it is such a cultural change, it may be that the present generation of journalists and publishers will have to die off before the next generation realizes that the newspaper industry is no longer a newspaper industry. Technology is making the end of traditional newspapers unavoidable.
Despite technological advances, it could take decades to replace newsprint with computer screens. It might take 30 to 40 years to complete the changeover because people need to buy computers and because newspapers have established financial interests in the paper industry.
1. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer newspapers?
A. They are cheaper than traditional newspapers.
B. They are more convenient to read.
C. You can choose the kind of voice you want to hear.
D. You can easily save information for future use.
2. Which of the following is a reason why it will take a long time to complete the changeover?
A. The technology is impossible now.
B. Computer newspapers are too expensive.
C. The popularization of computers needs a long time.
D. Traditional newspapers are easier to read.
3. It can be inferred that journali
s
ts are against computer newspapers because _______.
A. they don’t know how to use computers
B. they think computer newspapers take too much time to read
C. they think the new technology is bad
D. they have been trained to write for traditional newspapers
4. We can infer from the passage that _______.
A. all technological changes are good
B. new technologies don’t always replace old ones
C. new technologies will eventually replace old ones
D. traditional newspapers are here to stay for another century
5. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Computer newspapers are well liked.
B. Newspapers of the future will be on the computer.
C. Newspapers are out of fashion.
D. New communications technology.
Are the lives of city kids the same as those in villages? In lots of ways, they are very different. But what are those differences?
Hu Peng from Wuhan and four of his friends decided to find out. Earlier this month, they went to live for a week in Caidian, a village near Wuhan. Hu and his Junior l classmates went door to door in Caidian and asked kids lots of questions. They want to learn more about village kids' everyday lives, so they asked questions like this: Do your parents teach you how to do the housework? How much money do you usually spend on dinner? What would you do if a thief came into your house? They also asked 150 city kids the same questions.
On April 12, the team gave a report to their class. They told about many differences between children's lives in cities and those of children in villages. The biggest difference is about independence. Hu's team found that 60 percent of city kids can't do much housework, but 90 percent of village kids can care for themselves.
City kids told Hu they care about schoolwork a lot, and they have no time for washing clothes or making their beds. Village kids said they help their parents a lot : cooking, cleaning the houses and feeding pigs. Hu's team also found that village kids have less pocket money. Many have never used computers. They like playing in rivers or on mountains. Some don't even like to make new friends.
Hu and his friends said their trip gave them more self- confidence (自信) because they have done something by themselves. But it also worried them a bit because they found they still have a lot to learn. "When we grow up, our parents can't take care of us," Hu said. "We have to learn to take care of ourselves. " Shen Guanquan, one of Hu's friends said, "When people learn to care for themselves, they learn to do lots of difficult things. "How many city kids went to learn about village kids' everyday lives?
A.Three. | B.Four. | C.Five. | D.Six. |
Their report showed that most city kids __.
A.help their parents a lot | B.have less pocket money ![]() |
C.can take care of themselves | D.still have a lot to learn |
The underlined word "it" in the last paragraph means __.
A.their trip | B.their report | C.a village kid | D.a city kid |
Hu Peng and his friends finished their report by __.
A.visiting schools in the village |
B.questioning village and city kids from door to door |
C.watching village ![]() |
D.questioning village and city kids' parents |
Although the US is so big and its people have so many different racial backgrounds, it is in some ways less varied than Europe.The English language is used almost everywhere in its American form.The American way of speaking has developed independently of English and is on the whole closer to what can be heard in Ireland.
Another example of uniformity(一致)is in habits and ways of living.From Boston to Los Angeles it is as far as from France to Central Asia, and from east to west there are five time zones; but everywhere people get up and go to bed at about the same time, eat the same kind of food, buy in the same kind of shops, work and rest at the same time of the day and have the same pattern of holidays.In most of the things that matter there is less difference between rich people and ordinary people or between town and country, than in any single European nation.
Although far more food is produced than the present population needs, America is actually an urban society.Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in (从事) agriculture and most of the rest live in or around towns large and small.Here the traditional picture is changing; most Americans do not live in small towns any more.Half the population now live in some thirty metropolitan (大城市的) areas.
The fact that the United States has always been a single economic unit has contributed to uniformity.Modern industry favors large organization, and it is no accident that the world’s biggest commercial firms are American.The people can choose between the products of competing manufacturers (制造商) but the products are all much alike.In describing the uniformity in the U.S.the author does not mention that the American people .
A.get up and go to work at the same time |
B.spend their holidays in the same pattern |
C.buy and eat the same kind of food |
D.have more or less the same income |
What can we learn from the passage about the U.S.agriculture?
A.The American farmers need more land. |
B.Americans are interested in farming. |
C.It is now going backward. |
D.It is quite developed. |
The last paragraph suggests that ___.
A.the production size in the United States is very big |
B.a single economic unit produces the same kind of products |
C.there are more and more competing manufactures |
D.people can choose from all kinds of products that are similar. |
The underlined part “In most of the things that matter” probably refers to.
A.in most basic things such as food, clothing and houses |
B.in the more expensive things such as cars, TV sets, etc |
C.in their land, housing and bank savings |
D.in their wealth and income |
Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or only there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find a shelter from a sudden shower. Whatever the reason, you can soon totally unaware of your surroundings. You soon become interested in some books or others, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent too much time there and have to rush off to keep some forgotten appointment.
This chance to escape the realities of everyday life is the main attraction of a bookshop. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can walk around such a place to your heart's content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will come up to you with the greeting "Can I help you?" You needn't buy anything you don't want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished reading. Then, and only then, are his services necessary.
Once a medical student had to read a textbook which was far too expensive for him to buy. He couldn't borrow it from the library and the only copy he could find was in a certain bookshop. Every afternoon, therefore, he would go along to the shop and read a little of the book at a time. One day, however, he was disappointed to find the book missing from his usual place. He was about to leave, when he noticed the owner of the shop beckoning to him. Expecting to be told off, he went towards him. To his surprise, the owner pointed to the book which was tucked away in a corner. "I put it there in case anyone tries to buy it !"He said, and left the delighted student continuing his reading.
According to the passage the main attraction of a bookshop is that ________.
A.people can learn something from books |
B.it can be a shelter from a sudden rain |
C.it is the surrounding of new knowledge |
D.it offers a chance to get free from realities |
The writer thinks that the assistant in a good bookshop should ________.
A.always greet customers pleasantly and warmly |
B.help the readers to find what they want to read |
C.not say a word to the customers while they read |
D.not stand behind the bookshelf all the time |
The underlined word "beckoning" in the last paragraph means ________.
A.waving somebody to come up | B.laughing at a person openly |
C.shouting at somebody angrily | D.shaking one's head to show disagreement |
The purpose of the writer in writing the third paragraph is to ________.
A.tell us a story that happened in a bookshop |
B.support his idea of what a good bookshop is like |
C.teach us how to read in a shop without buying books |
D.advise us to help other people whenever we can |
Leaves are nature’s food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and CO2 into glucose(葡萄糖).Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy to grow. The way plants turn water and CO2 into glucose is called photosynthesis (光合作用).That means “putting together with light .” A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is green. It gives plants their green colour. As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees “know” to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis .The trees will rest, and live on the food they have stored during the summer. They begin to close their food-making factories. The green Chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. Then, we begin to see yellow and orange colours. A few of these colors stay in the leaves all the time. We just can’t see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green Chlorophyll.
Red and purple colors we see in leaves are made mostly in the autumn. In some trees, like maples, glucose is stored in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn turn this glucose into red. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.The underlined word “chlorophyll” in the first Para meansin Chinese.
A叶绿素 B 氧气 C 胡萝卜素 D 蛋白质The wayis called photosynthesis.
A.plants get CO2 from the air |
B.plants take water from the ground |
C.plants turn water and CO2 into glucose. |
D.Plants use glucose as food for energy to grow. |
The gas called carbon dioxide is from the
A ground B roots C air D sunlight Which of the following is not true?
A.when autumn and winter come, the days get shorter and shorter. |
B.During winter trees rest and live on the food they store during the summer. |
C.During winter small amounts of yellow and orange colors are kept in the leaves all the time. |
D.Trees begin to stop making food in summer. |
In the past, when people had problems, they went to their families or friends to get advice.
Today it is possible to get advice from radio shows, TV programmes and telephone hot lines, too. A hot line is a telephone line that offers a direct way of getting in touch with advisers .Most hot lines are completely anonymous ,that is to say , callers do not have to say their names or telephone numbers. Most hot lines are usually free. Callers do not have to pay for the advice or the phone calls, even if the calls are long distance ones. At some hot lines, the advisers are volunteers. Other hot lines pay their advisers for their work. Usually the advisers are full-time people with years of education and experience, but sometimes, the advisers have only taken a short training before starting to work on the hot lines. All the advisers listen to people and help them solve their problems.The underlined word “anonymous” in the passage meansin Chinese.
A.secret | B.well-known | C.exact | D.wonderful |
When people call the hot line advisers, they .
A.often give their names and telephone numbers |
B.generally have to pay for the long distance calls |
C.usually pay nothing for most of the calls and advice |
D.always try to get in touch with the volunteer advisers |
The advisers working at hot lines .
A.have all been trained for a short time |
B.are all volunteers |
C.have all received years of education |
D.are not all paid |
The writer of the passage seems to think that .
A.hot lines help the callers a lot |
B.advisers will solve all of the callers’ problems |
C.people had better pay for the advice |
D.people will not get advice from their families or friends |