Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of sound. In one second, light travels about 300,000km, but sound travels only 344m. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke come from his gun before the sound reaches your ears. This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light rays（光线）left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km per minute. In some cases the light from one of tonight’s stars started on its journey to you before you were born.
Thus, if we want to be honest, we cannot say “ The stars are shining tonight.” We have to say, “ The stars look pretty. They were shining four years ago but their light has only just reached Earth.” Light speed is ________ than sound speed.
| A．millions times faster | B．a million times slower |
| C．about millions of times faster | D．about a million times faster |
If you stand 200 meters away from a man who is firing a gun to start a race, you will find out that _____.
| A．you can hear the gun before you see the smoke. |
| B．sound does not travel as fast as light. |
| C．the sound of the gun will reach you before the man fires his gun. |
| D．sound travels about a million times faster than light. |
What does “ it” refer to?
| A．moon light | B．light rays | C．the nearest star | D．the moon |
The scientific way of saying “ The stars are shining tonight” should be________.
| A．the stars have been shining all the time. |
| B．the stars seen tonight will be shining four years later. |
| C．the stars were shining long ago but are seen tonight. |
| D．the starlight seen today could be seen four years ago. |
The private automobile(私家车)has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobiles is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has been affected(影响)in various ways. The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenager children have the use of the car, their parents can't keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs—or is “showing off” by speeding or breaking other traffic laws. Mothers of victims(受害者)of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD(Mothers Against Drunk Driving). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age. Students have formed a similar organization SADD(Student Against Drunk Driving)and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities. |
| B．Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics. |
| C．Cars have enabled people to live far from their place for work. |
| D．Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools. |
What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?
| A．Parents have paid more attention to their children. |
| B．Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving. |
| C．Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol. |
| D．University students have asked the government to solve the problem. |
We can infer from the text that________in American.
| A．it will be more difficult for people to get new cars |
| B．parents will not allow their children to have their own cars |
| C．the government will encourage people to use public transportation |
| D．cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems |
The private automobile(私家车)has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobiles is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has been affected(影响)in various ways. The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenager children have the use of the car, their parents can't keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs—or is “showing off” by speeding or breaking other traffic laws. Mothers of victims(受害者)of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD(Mothers Against Drunk Driving). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age. Students have formed a similar organization SADD(Student Against Drunk Driving)and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities. |
| B．Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics. |
| C．Cars have enabled people to live far from their place for work. |
| D．Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools. |
What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?
| A．Parents have paid more attention to their children. |
| B．Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving. |
| C．Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol. |
| D．University students have asked the government to solve the problem. |
We can infer from the text that________in American.
| A．it will be more difficult for people to get new cars |
| B．parents will not allow their children to have their own cars |
| C．the government will encourage people to use public transportation |
| D．cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems |
It's 2035. You have a job, a family and you're about 40 years old! Welcome to your future life.
Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror. “Turn red，” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics(智能电子元件)are rearranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe you're 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You're not even middle-aged!
As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn't eat that，”from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code(电子源码)on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast？”A list of possible foods appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space？”you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space—and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.”Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots(防疫针)are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It's time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot！” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your enewspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video film rather than read it.What changes the color of your shirt?
| A．The mirror. |
| B．The shirt itself. |
| C．The counter. |
| D．The medicine. |
How do the shoes know that you shouldn't eat the breakfast cereal?
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. |
| B．By listening to the doctor's advice. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. |
| D．By checking the nutrition details of the food. |
The strawberries the children eat serve as________.
| A．breakfast |
| B．lunch |
| C．vaccines |
| D．nutrition |
How is the text organized?
| A．In order of time. |
| B．In order of frequency. |
| C．In order of preference. |
| D．In order of importance. |
What will our future look like? As for the future home, cookers will be set so that you can cook a complete meal at_the_touch_of_a_switch. Television will give the information on prices at the nearby shops as well as news and enjoyment. Visionphones will bring pictures as well as sound to telephone conversation. Machines will control temperature, lighting, enjoyment and gardening, etc. At work, robots will take over most jobs and working hours will fall to under 30 hours a week. Holidays will get longer. Six weeks will be the holidays every year.
What most shocks us is that in the future it will be possible to use virtual reality(虚拟现实)to bring the dead back to life. People will drag out their old and boring home movies and choose a relative to bring back to life. The visual will be combined with records about that person to create a virtual relative. Then the family can have a chat with that relative, keep it running, and live with it. The experience will be like living with a ghost.This passage is mainly about________.
| A．what our future life will be like |
| B．how machines help us with our life |
| C．what the use of robots will be |
| D．how to live with a ghost |
The underlined words “at the touch of a switch” in the first paragraph mean________.
| A．when you are beside the switches of the cookers |
| B．on touching the cookers |
| C．the moment you turn the cookers on |
| D．as soon as you touch the cookers |
It's true that in the future________.
| A．people will enjoy their holidays for 42 days a year |
| B．robots will do everything for man |
| C．people will see instead of hearing each other when they are talking on the visionphone |
| D．none of the above |
In the future, machines can do the following except that________.
| A．machines can control people's body temperature |
| B．machines can control lighting |
| C．machines can do gardening |
| D．machines can give people enjoyment |
As for the dead in the future, ________.
| A．they can come back to life and become real persons |
| B．people can use virtual reality to bring them back to life |
| C．they will become ghosts and come back |
| D．the family can't chat with them |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in biotechnology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today's leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells(细胞)are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.)
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by________.
| A．diseases and aging |
| B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging |
| D．heart disease and war |
In the author's opinion, today's most important advance in technology lies in________.
| A．medicine |
| B．the Internet |
| C．brain cells |
| D．human organ |
Humans may live longer in the future because________.
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
We can learn from the passage that________.
| A．human life will not last more than 120 years in the future |
| B．humans have to make medicine to build new skin cells now |
| C．much needs to be done before humans can have a longer life |
| D．we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells |