The dream of flying like Buzz Lightyear never dies. For years, space-age inventors have tested one wearable jet pack after another. And time after time, the designs have been grounded by dangerous fuels, excessive weight, or very loud noise levels. Now a Canadian inventor has sidestepped those weaknesses with an aquatic jet pack. Designed for travel over lakes or oceans, it’s driven by pressurized water, not burning rocket fuel.
When Raymond Li first told the idea for the aquatic jet pack to his friends, they said he must be nuts. How could a jet pack carry that much water? Its thrust-to-weight rate would be so low and it would never become airborne. Thrust-to-weight rate is a measure of the forward force produced compared with the weight of the vehicle. A vehicle with a low thrust-to-weight rate is relatively heavy for the amount of force it generates.
Li's genius idea was to place the jet pack’s engine and its water pump in a separate boat. The pump would draw water from the lake the boat was floating on. It would then force the water under pressure through a hose connected to the jet pack. The hose would be long enough to let the pack go up as high as 8.5 meters (28 feet) in the air.
Today, Li's invention, the Jetlev-Flyer, is ready to go into production. The pack itself, complete with jet nozzles （管嘴） and handlebars, weighs just 14 kilograms. The boat is a floating pod. To take off, the operator hits a trigger on a handlebar, which starts the pump, and then turns the throttle. Two streams of high-velocity water shoot through the hose and out the nozzles, lifting the operator into the air. The operator hovers there or pushes down on the handlebars, zooming forward at speeds of up to 64 kilometers per hour, pulling the pod behind.
61. All the following factors contribute to the failure of inventing a wearable jet pack EXCEPT ______.
A. excessive water B. unbearable noise C. unsafe fuels D. too much weight
62. The underlined word “sidestepped” in Para. 1 most probably means ________.
A. improved B. reduced C. avoided D. solved
63. Raymond Li’s friends found his idea for the aquatic jet pack was ________.
A. exciting B. crazy C. realistic D. creative
64. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. His friends encouraged him to do the invention.
B. He put the engine and its water pump in the same boat.
C. The success of his invention lies in his bravery.
D. His invention finally succeeded and will go into production.
65. Which is the right order to make the Jetlev-Flyer take off?
a. The throttle is turned. b. The operator is lifted into the air.
c. A trigger is hit. d. Two streams of water shoot out.
e. The pump is started.
A. c, e, a, d, b B. c, e, a, b, d C. e, c, d, b, a D. e, a, c, d, b
International Weather Forecast(January 18 th，2008)
Paris Weather
·Today：Plentiful sunshine High 59F．Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph．
·Tonight：Generally clear．Low near 35F．Winds light and variable．
·Tomorrow：A mainly sunny sky．High 59F．Winds ENE at 5 to l0mph．
·Tomorrow night：A mostly clear sky．Low 36F，Winds light and variable．
New York Weather
·Today：Cloudy with rain and snow showers Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s．Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph．Chance of precip 40％．
·Tonight：Rain and snow showers this evening changing to rain showers overnight Low 34F．Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph Chance of precip 60％．
·Tomorrow：Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day．High around 45F．Winds WNW at l0 to 20mph．
·Tomorrow night：Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight Low 29F．Winds W at 5 to10 mph．
London Weather
·Today：Cloudy and windy．High 56F． Winds WSW at 20 to 30 mph．
·Tonight：Partly cloudy and windy．Low 43F．Winds W at 20 to 30 mph．
·Tomorrow：Windy with occasional light rain．High 58F．Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph．Chance of rain 70％．
·Tomorrow night：Cloudy and windy．Periods of light rain early．Low 54F．Winds WSW
at 20 to 30 mph，Chance of rain 60％．
Sydney Weather
·Today：Cloudy with periods of rain．High 73F．Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph．Chance of rain 70％．Rainfall around a quarter of an inch．
·Tonight：Rain．Low near 70F．Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph．Chance of rain 70％．Rainfall near a quarter of an inch．
·Tomorrow：Showers in the morning with isolated thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon．High 78FWindsNNE at 5 to10 mph．Chance of rain 40％．
·Tomorrow night：An isolated thunderstorm possible during the evening．then occasional showers overnight．Low near 70F．Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph．．Chance of rain 40％．
65．Which city has the strongest wind on January 19th?
A．Paris． B．New York． C．London． D．Sydney．
66．There will be thunderstorms in Sydney oil ．
A．the evening of January 18th B．the afternoon of January 18th
C．the morning of January 19th D．the afternoon of January 19th
67．If you go on a tour on January l8th，which of the following places of interest is the most favorable according to the weather report?
A．The Eiffel Tower． B．Statue of Liberty． C．Big Ben．D．The Sydney Opera House．
You hear this，“No wonder you are fat．All you ever d0 is eat．”You feel sad．“I skip my breakfast and supper．I run every morning and evening．What else can I do?”
Basically you can do nothing．Your genes，not your life habits，determine your weight and your body constantly tries to maintain it．
Albert Stunkard of the University of Pennsylvania found from experiments that“80 percent of the children of two fat parents become fat，as compared with no more than 14．percent of the children of two parents of normal weight．”
How can obese people become thinner through dieting? Well，dieting can be effective．but the health costs are great．
Jules Hirsch，a research physician at Rockefeller University，did a study of eight fat people．They were．given a liquid formula(配方)providing 600 calories a day．After more than 10 weeks，the subjects lost on average 45 kg．But after leaving the hospital，they all regained the weight．
The results were surprising：by metabolic(新陈代谢的)measurement，fat people who lost large amounts of weight seemed like they were starving．They had psychiatric problems．They dreamed of food or of breaking their diet They were anxious and depressed．Some wanted to kill themselves．They hid food in their rooms．
Researchers warn that it is possible that weight reduction doesn’t result in normal weight，but in an abnormal state lust like that of starved non．obese people．
Thin people, however，suffer from the opposite．They have to make a great effort to gain weight Ethan Sims of the University of Vermont got prisoners to volunteer to gain weight．In four to six months—they ate as much as they could．They succeeded in increasing their weight by 20 to 25 percent. But months after the study ended，they were back to normal weight and stayed there．
This did not mean that people are completely without hope in controlling their weight．It means that those who tend to be fat will have to constantly battle their genetic inheritance(遗传)if they want to significantly 1ower their weight．
The findings also provide evidence for something scientists thought was true—each person has a comfortable weight range．The range might be as much as 9kg．Someone might weigh 60--69kg without too much effort．But，going above or below the natural weight range is difficult.The body resists by feeling hungry or full and changing．the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks．
56．The story is mainly written to 。
A．point out the relations between our body and mind
B．warn us it’s extremely harmful to reduce or gain our weight
C．tell us that it’s difficult to make a significant change in our weight
D．stress that dieting 1s a recommended way to help you reach your desired weight
57．Jules Hirsch’s study’found that ．
A．big weight loss could lead to mental problems
B．a person’s weight can be decided by their parents’ weight
C．only dieting cannot produce a desired result in weight reduction
D．big efforts to lose weight may result in a weight much heavier than one’s normal weight
58．From the text，we know that the body can still feel comfortable
A．when the weight goes up or down by 6 kg
B．when the weight goes up or down by l0 kg
C．when the weight is increased by 20 to 25 percent
D．when the weight is decreased by 20 to 25 percent
59．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．When it comes to weight，naturalness is the healthiest
B．Weight reduction could be both risky and painful．
C．Seek professional advice when reducing your weight．
D．There’s no hope and no point in controlling your weight．
If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Patten J.K Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books , which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children .According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all . In 2003, 35% did . And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile . Either way , Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report , he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds ,who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher . An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well ,but read less often for fun than those elsewhere .Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success . According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage. Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?
| A．Many children’s books have been adapted from films. |
| B．Many high-quality children’s books have been published . |
| C．The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films. |
| D．The sales of presents for children have increased. |
Statistics suggested that _______.
| A．the number of top students increased with the use of computers |
| B．a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading |
| C．a minority of primacy school children read properly |
| D．a large percentage of children read regularly |
What do we know about Reading Recovery?
| A．An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year. |
| B．Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking. |
| C．It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading. |
| D．Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading. |
Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.
| A．take greater advantage of the project | B．show the potential to enjoy a long life |
| C．are likely to succeed in their education. | D．would make excellent future researchers |
The aim of this text would probably be _________.
| A．to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty. |
| B．to encourage the publication of more children’s books |
| C．to remind children of the importance of reading for fun |
| D．to introduce a way to improve early childhood reading |
阅读短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项。
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image （形象）of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious（叛逆的）and selfish .but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation（商议）and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”What is the popular image of teenagers today?
| A．They worry about school. |
| B．They dislike living with their parents. |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. |
| D．They quarrel a lot with other family members. |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to__________ .
| A．share family responsibility | B．cause trouble in their families |
| C．go boating with their family | D．make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents__________ .
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．care less about their children’s life |
| D．give their children more freedom |
According to the author, teenage rebellion__________ .
| A．may be a false belief | B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s | D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Negotiation in family. | B．Education in family. |
| C．Harmony in family. | D．Teenage trouble in family. |
Sports shoes that work out whether their owner has done enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes — named Square Eyes — contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter(传话器) passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （计步器） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.” According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ________.
| A．keep a record of the steps of the wearer |
| B．deal with overweight among teenagers |
| C．enable children to resist the temptation of TV |
| D．prevent children from being tricked by TV programs |
Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
| A．They regulate a child’s evening TV viewing time. |
| B．They determine a child’s daily pocket money. |
| C．They have raised the hot issue of overweight. |
| D．They contain information of the receiver. |
What is stressed（强调）by health experts in their suggestion?
| A．The exact number of steps to be taken. |
| B．The precise number of hours spent on TV. |
| C．The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time. |
| D．The way of changing steps into TV watching time. |
Compared with other similar products, the new design ________.
| A．makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat |
| B．counts the wearer’s steps through shaking |
| C．records the sudden movement of the wearer |
| D．sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time |
| B．Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise |
| C．Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise |
| D．Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight |