Astronauts aboard the space station celebrated a space first on Wednesday by drinking water that had been recycled from their urine(尿), sweat and water got from air. They said "cheers," clicked drinking bags and toasted NASA workers on the ground.
The urine recycling system is needed for astronaut stations on the moon and Mars. It also will have NASA money because it won’t have to ship up as much water to the station by space shuttles or cargo rockets. Besides, it’s important as the space station is about to expand from three people living on board to six.
The recycling system had been brought up to the space station last November by space shuttles Endeavour, but it couldn’t be used until samples(样品) were tested back on earth. So when it came time to actually drink up, NASA made a big deal of it. The three-man crew stood holding their drinks and congratulated engineers in two NASA centres that worked on the system.
“This is something that had been the stuff of science fiction,” American astronaut Michael Barratt said before taking a small mouthful. “The taste is worth trying.”
The new system takes the combined urine of the crew from the toilet, moves it to a big tank, where the water is boiled off, and the vapor(水蒸气) is collected. The rest of the urine is thrown away. Then the water vapor is mixed with water from air, and then it goes through filters (过滤器). When six crew members are aboard it can make about six gallons from urine in about six hours.
“Some people may find the idea of drinking recycled urine distasteful, but it is also done on earth, but with a lot longer time between urine and the tap,” said Marybeth Edeen, the space station’s national lab manager.
The technology NASA developed for this system has already been used for quick water purification after the 2004 Asian tsunami. According to the text, the recycling system is important because ___________.
| A．it makes traveling to the moon for the average person possible |
| B．with it NASA won’t need to ship any water up the space station |
| C．it can help meet the need for more water after the crew is expanded |
| D．it protects the environment in space by reducing the amount of waste |
What’s the RIGHT time order of the following events?
a. The samples of the recycled water were tested on earth.
b. Astronauts celebrated the space first of making water from urine
c. The recycling system was brought up to the space station.
d. The technology for the system was used to quickly purify water.
| A．a, d, c, b | B．a, c, b, d | C．d, a, c, b | D．d, c, a, b |
From Para. 5 we can know ____________.
| A．the theory behind the recycling system | B．the effect of the recycling system |
| C．the process of recycling urine | D．an opinion on recycling urine |
What did Edeen say about recycled urine and the recycling system?
| A．The taste of recycled urine is not as good as that of common water. |
| B．The recycling system has made a science fiction story come true. |
| C．The idea of drinking recycled urine makes astronauts feel unpleasant. |
| D．It takes a longer time on earth to make water from urine than in space. |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．The Research of NASA Has Made Great Progress. |
| B．New Technology Is Used in the Space Station. |
| C．Drink up: Space Station Recycles Urine to Water. |
| D．Good News: Water Recycled from Urine Tastes Good |
The United States has about 475,000 school buses -- all painted yellow. Each day they carry more than 25,000,000 children, half of all schoolchildren in the country. But these buses, on average, use four liters of diesel (柴油) fuel to travel less than sixteen kilometers. When the school year began last fall, diesel averaged 55 cents a liter nationally. The price nearly doubled, to a dollar and 8 cents, by the end of school in June.
Bob Riley speaks for the American School Bus Council. He says fuel prices for schools arc not much lower than others have to pay. As a result, schools are looking for ways to reduce transportation costs. Bus routes are being redrawn or, in some cases, canceled. Some areas are buying buses that use natural gas or other alternative fuels. Other steps include fewer field trips and less travel by sports teams. And some school districts may end any bus service not required by law.
Studies show that school buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school. The American School Bus Council says cuts in bus service are bad for children and possibly the environment. It says removing buses from the road will mean an increase in other vehicles transporting students. Spokesman Bob Riley says another concern is that reducing bus services might reduce attendance.
But it could also get more children to walk or bicycle to school. And that would surely make people happy at the National Center for Safe Routes to School. More kids walking or biking safely to school is the aim of a three-year-old federal program, part of an international movement. The goal is to increase physical activity and reduce air pollution. The United States will celebrate Walk to School Day on October eighth this year. But for some students, high fuel prices could make every day a walk-to-school day.
68. What does this passage mainly tell us?
A. High fuel prices' influences on school buses. B. New measures to transport school students.
C. The safest form of student transportation. D. The origin of Walk to School Day.
69. Which of the following information is implied in the first paragraph?
A. There are too many school buses in the United States.
B. There are too many students in the US.
C. Diesel prices are going up too rapidly in the US.
D. School buses consume too much diesel in the US.
70. In order to cut down transportation cost, many schools take the following measures EXCEI _____.
A. changing some bus routes B. stopping some bus routes
C. asking parents to drive children to school D. using other types of fuels
71. The National Center for Safe Routes to School encourages more children to walk or bike to school in order to ________.
A. save more fuels and diesel for the country.
B. keep the children safe on their way to school
C. make the children live a simple life
D. keep the children healthy and the environment clean
If eighteen-year-old Karki doesn't turn out to be the next Edison, I'll chop off my locks This kid invented a solar pane (嵌板) which uses human hair as a conductor and could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, solving the energy crisis.
Karki, a Nepal teenager, who lives in a village in Rural Nepal, used human hair to replace silicon, which is a common but expensive component of solar panels.
By using hair as a replacement, Karki says solar panels can be produced for around 23 pounds. But if they were mass-produced, Karki says they could be sold for less than half that price, which could make them a quarter of the price of those already on the market.
The solar panel works because melanin, the substance giving hair its color, is light sensitive and can act as an electrical conductor. Karki was inspired to follow this route by a Stephen Hawking book, which explained how to create energy from hair.
The device (设备) Karki has shown is able to produce 9V or 18W of energy -- plenty to charge a mobile phone. Half a kilo of hair can be bought for only 16p in Nepal and lasts a few months, where as a pack of batteries would cost 50p and last a few nights," according to Karki.
Karki has now sent out several devices to other districts near his village for testing. "First I wanted to provide electricity for my home, then my village. Now I am thinking for the world," he said.
Karki says the idea is more important than ever because of the urgent need for renewable energies in the face of limited power sources and global warming. Slowly, natural resources are decreasing. One day we will be in a great crisis. This is an easy solution for the crisis we are having today.
64. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Introduction of Solar Panels B. Functions of a New Solar Panel
C. Special Solar panel Materials D. Karki Invented a New Solar Panel
65. Why did Karki want to invent a solar panel with hair?
A. Because hair is not very expensive.
B. Because silicon is hard to find.
C. Because he wanted to provide electricity for his home.
D. Because the energy crisis is very serious in his home town.
66. From the last paragraph we can know ________.
A, Karki s invention is of great importance
B. Karki can predict what will happen in the future
C. the energy crisis will disappear in the future
D. Karki's invention will make him wealthy
67. The purpose of this passage is to ________.
A. Karki for his great invention B. introduce a new solar panel
C. promote the sales of solar panels D. warn people of the energy crisis
Jim Lehrer hosts The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS ( Public Broadcasting Service) and has written 18 novels, two memoirs (回忆录), and three plays. And in his spare time…
What He's Working On
Oh, Johnny (Random House, $ 25), his hovel about a young Marine in 1944. "On his way to war, Johnny met the most beautiful and wonderful girl he'd ever seen. It changed his life. "
Where He's Surfing
"I'm on the computer all day long for nay job, checking the telegraphs, reading the news, send the news eBay because I collect bus memorabilia (值得纪念的东西): toy buses, bus stop signs, and bus driver caps. I've bought quite a bit."
What He's Watching
"I love all the Mystery Series on PBS, including Poirot. My wife and I just love those people. I’m a huge fan of The Sopranos. These are serious stories about high school football in small-town Texas and the challenges these kids have. It's very exciting. "
What He t s Listening To
"I'm always amazed when people say they have 3,000 songs on their iPod, 1 like music, but it’s not a part of my life. 1 am always listening to books on tape, I'm about to begin American Lion, Jon Meacham’s biography (传记) of Andrew Jackson. "
What He's Reading
"At present, I am reading Home, which is set in small-town Iowa. Marilynn Robinson writes about the simple things that are the most complicated of all within the human spirit. Her characters are so alive and real. Not long ago, 1 just finished The Spies of Warsaw, Alan Furst's terrific novel set in pre-World WarⅡ."
60. What job does Jim Lehrer do?
A. A TV host. B. A novelist. C. A reporter. D. A play - writer.
61. Why does Jim Lehrer spend much time on Google?
A. To collect information for his novel. B. To collect bus memorabilia.
C. To better carry out his job. D. To read his favorite novels.
62. In his spare time, Jim Lehrer does all the following things EXCEPT ________.
A. surf eBay for his hobby B. watch exciting TV series
C. listen to music on his iPod D. work on his own novel
63. Which of the following books is based on a real person?
A. Oh, Johnny. B. American Lion. C. Home. D. The Spies of Warsaw.
第三部分：阅读理解 (共20小题；每小题2分, 满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。
Greg Woodburn, a student at the University of Southern California, spends a lot of time cleaning once belonging to others. Soon the shoes will have new owners: underprivileged children in the United States and 20 other countries, thanks to Woodburn's Share Our Soles (SOS) charity.
A high school track star in the beach town of Ventura Woodburn was once sidelined for months with food injuries.
"I started thinking about all the things I got from running -- the health benefits, the friendships, the confidence," he says. "And I realized there are children who don't even have shoes."
Woodburn gathered up his own slightly worn sneakers, and then put out a call to teammates. His goal was to have 100 pairs by Christmas 2006. When the count climbed to more than 500 pairs, ("everything snowballed" he says) he decided to turn the shoe drive into a year- round effort.
Back then, the sneakers came from donation boxes mad the local sporting goods store and from door-to-door pickups. Woodburn has now set up collection boxes at two high schools and area races. To date, SOS has collected and donated more than 3000 pairs.
In just under three years, Woodburn has started three chapters of Share Our Soles: the original in Ventura, another at USC, and one at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts last January, when a student there wrote asking to get involved. The organization's website, shareoursoles.org, keeps and distributes sneakers and sells wrist bands and socks (the money earned from that goes toward new shoes and socks for children).
56. The text is mainly about ________.
A. Woodburn and his Share Our Soles B. the school track star, Woodburn
C. the attempts to collect sneakers D. the recycling of the worn sneaker
57. Why does Woodburn collect so many worn shoes?
A. To prepare for his shoe exhibition. B. To remember his teammates.
C. To help the unlucky poor children. D. To sell on shareoursoles.org.
58. Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. Woodburn didn't reach his goal at first. B. Woodburn also buys sneakers to donate.
C. Woodburn collected shoes only at schools. D. Woodburn has collected enough sneakers.
59. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Woodburn succeeded in this charity. B. Woodburn has changed his business.
C. Few people supported Woodburn's career.D. Few students are interested in his proposal.
The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England. Most people consider it a special day, the beginning of summer, a day when the light lasts long into the evening, and when we can look for warm weather. We don't always get it. We feel disappointed, but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May. Winter should be over. Most people know that in the past, when farming occupied almost everyone, the changing seasons were of great importance. In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day. Customs of those celebrations remain.
Of these customs, the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole. Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns, and even in schools and colleges, for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May. It was a great honour to be chosen. For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）, and was ceremonially crowned with flowers. She presided over a procession, as a rule with a number of attendants, and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment. The Maypole was slender（苗条的） tree trunk, cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top. The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine, required skill from the dancer, and was not achieved without practice.
It's the Celtic people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival. Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early, beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel. They lit fires, in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified and protected from disease. A tree, which must have been blackened with smoke, stood in the middle of the fires, and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole. Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly, but it was noisy and cheerful, since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons, but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.
57. The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.
A. the reason why they celebrate May Day
B. the start and customs of May Day
C. the way they celebrate May Day
D. the choosing of a May Queen during May Day
58. According to the passage, which sentence is NOT true?
A. In the old days they celebrated May Day for the changing of the seasons.
B. In England summer begins at the first of May.
C. The custom of the choosing of a May Queen still exists in the present May Day celebration.D. The Celtic people celebrated the first of May as a spring festival.
59. From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the word “presided” means ____.
A. 管理 B. 越过 C. 指挥 D. 主持
60. The best title for this passage is ________.
A. The First of May B. The Beginning of Summer
C. May Queen D. The Holiday of the Year