Temperature is measured by means of a thermometer (温度计). One general form of thermometer depends upon the fact that most solids and liquids expand as their temperature rises. There are one or two exceptions. There is, for instance, a kind of steel called invar (from “invariable”) which does not change its dimensions as temperature changes; it is valuable for making pendulums (钟摆), since, if the length of a pendulum changes, its time of vibration changes. It is also used for making very accurate measuring scales. In both cases, then, changes of atmospheric temperature have no effect if invar is used.
Another exception is that very odd liquid, water, which has many strange properties (特性). As water gets colder it contracts (收缩), which is ordinary behavior, until it reaches the temperature of 30℃. above freezing point. After that, as it gets colder, it expands. This is fortunate---for considering the freezing of a pond. As the water on top gets colder, it shrinks; and so, volume for volume, it becomes heavier and sinks. This goes on until all the pond is at 30℃, but after that, as the water becomes colder it expands. Therefore the colder water stays on top and freezes, covering the pond with ice. If the water went on contracting down to the freezing point, the pond would become a solid block of ice in the end. This would not worry people who live in hot climates, but it would be very serious for those who live in cold climates, especially for those who want to break the ice and catch fish which live in the cold water beneath. Invar is valuable for making pendulums because _______.
| A．it can hardly change its shape or size as temperature changes. |
| B．it will change its dimensions without the change of temperature. |
| C．its time of vibration doesn’t change if its length changes. |
| D．its time of vibration does not change if its length changes. |
As water gets colder after reaching the temperature of 30℃. it will _______.
| A．contract | B．shrink | C．expand | D．freeze |
Which of the following statements is true, according to this passage?
| A．Only invar can be used to make a thermometer. |
| B．Only water can be used to make a thermometer. |
| C．Both invar and water can be used to make a thermometer. |
| D．Neither invar nor water can be used to make a thermometer. |
The best title of this passage is most likely to be _____.
| A．Temperature Measurement | B．Two Exceptions |
| C．Uses of Invar | D．Properties of Water |
People know the dangers of fires. It’s good for a family to learn how to prepare for a fire. Here are some suggestions.
Put a smoke alarm in the house. Smoke from a fire causes the alarm to go off. The alarm makes a loud sound. The sound tells everyone to leave the house at once.
Make escape (逃脱) plan. They should know all the ways out of the house. If there is a fire, everyone follows the plan to get out. Part of the plan is to check all the windows to make sure they can be opened easily.
Buy fire extinguishers(灭火器) in the house. Everyone in the family should know how to use them.
Practice for a fire. They do fire practice because they teach children about fire safety. Ever yone in the family should know the following fire rules:
＊ Don’t open a hot door! The fire can grow more quickly if you open the door.
＊ Stay close to the floor! Smoke can be more dangerous than the fire. The best air is near the floor because smoke rises.
＊ What will you do if your hair or clothes start to burn? First, Stop! Don’t run! The fire burns faster because of more air. Drop! Fall to the floor. Then roll! Turning over and over will make the fire go out. Put a blanket(毯子) around you to keep air away from the fire that may still be on you..
There are many possible causes for fires. A wise family is ready all the time. If there is a fire, don’t forget to call 119 for help.The writer advises people to do the following to prepare for a fire except that _______.
| A．they prepare for a fire | B．they make escape plans |
| C．they buy fire extinguishers | D．they use electrical cookers |
What are the right steps you should take when your hair or clothes catch fire?
| A．Stop, run, roll . | B．Stop, drop, roll |
| C．Run, drop, roll | D．Roll, drop, stop |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．The Dangers of a Fire | B．The Causes of a Fire |
| C．Learn to Use a Fire Extinguishers | D．Be Ready For a Fire |
Have you ever complained why life is so tiring? Does the sky sometimes seem dark to you? Are your studies sometimes not successful? Well, friends, cheer up and smile all the time. If you see the world with your warm heart, you’ll find that the whole world smiles to you.
While in school, sometimes you are tired of your lessons, but have you ever noticed the happy smile on your teacher’s face when you did a good job?
One day it is fine. Just before you go out, it suddenly starts to rain. Maybe you would feel very sad and start to complain about the weather. But friends, why don’t you sit down and listen to the free concerts that the nature offers you? And with the timely(及时地) rain, crops in the fields will grow better and better and farmers will have a good harvest.
Although everyone wants to succeed in what he tries to do, sometimes failure can’t be avoided. I think failure is not terrible, and the terrible thing is that we are afraid of it and give up hope. When we face failure, we must be confident(信心) in ourselves, draw a useful lesson from it and try our best to finish what we have decided to do. As a popular saying goes, “Failure is the mother of success”.
Attitude(态度) decides everything. With an optimistic(乐观) attitude life is easy and pleasant. Let’s smile to whatever we meet and the whole world will smile to us. People sometimes complain _________.
| A．the sky is always dark | B．their studies are successful |
| C．they see the world with their heart | D．life is tiring |
When we face failure, we ___________.
| A．must be confident in ourselves | B．shouldn’t be afraid of it |
| C．shouldn’t give up hope | D．All of the above |
The best title for the passage is_______.
| A．Smile and the World Smiles to You | B．Complaining about Life |
| C．Failure is the Mother of Success | D．It is Very Hard to Succeed |
Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window .I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn’t wash her window .It really looks terrible.”
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing(批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge(评判) someone, I asked myself first ,“Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?” Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.The writer couldn’t see everything clearly through the window because_____.
| A．the woman’s window was dirty |
| B．the writer’s window was dirty |
| C．the woman lived nearby |
| D．the writer was near-sighted |
The writer was surprised that ________.
| A．the woman was sitting by her window |
| B．the woman’s window was clean. |
| C．the woman did cleaning in the afternoon |
| D．the woman’s window was still terrible |
“ It dawned on me” probably means “______”.
| A．I began to understand it | B．it cheered me up |
| C．I knew it grew light | D．it began to get dark |
It’s clear that________.
| A．the writer had never met the woman before |
| B．the writer often washed the window |
| C．they both worked as cleaners |
| D．they lived in a small town |
From the passage, we can learn_________.
| A．one shouldn’t criticize others very often |
| B．one should often make his windows clean |
| C．one must judge himself before he judges others |
| D．one must look at others through his dirty window |
To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence(智力)? The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet.
If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can recite many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season.
He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US. However, if you ask Smarter Child other questions, you get stranger answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for instance, Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online. For the weather, he visits www. intellicast. com.
Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet, an artificial being with the combined knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A. I., Artificial Intelligence, he must overcome two problems.
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are labeled in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself.
Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process(处理) information more exactly and faster than any human, he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child.From the text we can infer that www. Intellicast. com is a website .
| A．which is specially designed to help Smarter Child |
| B．where we people can find Smarter Child |
| C．where weather forecasts are made |
| D．which is about artificial intelligence |
It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to .
| A．tell us how to spell a difficult word |
| B．tell us how the American government is run |
| C．provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare |
| D．learn how to tell right behaviors from wrong ones. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A. Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information.
B. A. I. Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer.
C. Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own.
D. We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein, Nixon and Spears.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．A New Web Child | B．Smarter Child |
| C．The Future of Internet | D．Intelligence Development |
In the Harry Potter films, Hermione Granger is better than her male friends and is considered the brightest pupil in her grade. Isn’t it often the same in schools of our real world?
“It’s surprising but true that most of the top students have been girls since primary school. Girls are class leaders, club presidents and the top ones in exams,” said Wang Feixuan, 15, who studies at a Chengdu school. By any measure, Wang herself is a high-achiever. She is a top student, a team leader in her school’s sports club and a winner in national English and IT competitions.
But why do so many girls outperform their male peers?
In Sun Yunxiao’s latest book Save Our Boys, he points out that the education system is “more suited to girls, who are good at memorizing and like to sit quietly and read.” Yet he also says that girls have to do so much more when they compete with males for honors, top universities and later good jobs. They can feel great pressure nearly every day.
This seems to be the same in most countries in the world. Young women in the United States are also reported to feel the same pressure to be perfect.
“Let’s look at what we ask of our teenage girls,” says Professor Stephen Hinshaw in an interview. He thinks that it’s no longer enough that a girl does well in school and is a caring friend. On the TV, on the Internet and everywhere, girls see images of impossible perfection.
Today’s young women must be good learners, good athletes, and fill their after-school lives with other activities. But they are also asked to have the styles and looks of popular stars. “Be pretty, sweet and nice. Be athletic, competitive and get straight. Be impossibly perfect.” Stephen Hinshaw sums up.The passage suggests that .
| A．our society asks far too much of teenage girls |
| B．teenage girls shouldn’t be so perfect at school |
| C．boys are always lazy ones rather than girls |
| D．American girls have less pressure than Chinese girls |
According to the passage, it is true that .
| A．boys are less smart than girls throughout school life |
| B．boys usually don’t have so much pressure as girls do |
| C．girls are all fond of the Chinese education system |
| D．girls are better at school because boys don’t work hard |
The underlined word “outperform” means .
| A．hate | B．misunderstand | C．like | D．defeat |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Impossibly Perfect Is Possible． | B．Why Are Girls So Perfect? |
| C．Perfect? Pressure Every Day! | D．Perfect: Boys or Girls? |