Every child has written their names on the beach at some point.
But whereas most people’s “handwriting” is washed away, one super-rich Arab sheikh(酋长) has ensure that his graffiti(胡写乱画) will last a little longer.
Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, 63, has scrawled his name in sand on an island he owns with letters so big that they be seen from space.
The word “HAMAD” measures 1,000 meters high and is a staggering two miles long from the “H” to the “D” on the Al Futaisi Island.
And rather than allow the writing to be washed away by the ocean, the letters actually form waterways that absorb the encroaching(渗入) tide. The ruler’s name is even visible on Google’s map service.
Hamad dreamed up the idea and had his workmen work hard for weeks to craft the enormous piece of sand graffiti. It is not known how much it cost to make.
However, the sheikh boasts a personal fortune second to the Saudi king’s.
Hamad, also known as the “Rainbow Sheikh”, is a member of the Abu Dhabi Ruling Family.
He is understood to have some 200 cars including seven Mercedes 500 SELs painted in different colors of the rainbow which he stores in a giant pyramid.
The Arab sheikh had a taste for doing things on a large scale. He built the world’s largest truck—eight times the size of the Dodge Power Wagon, with four bedrooms inside the cabin.
Hamad constructed a motor home in the shape of a giant globe which is exactly 1 millionth the size of the actual earth.
Alongside his displays of wealth he has become a well-known philanthropist(慈善家) in medicine and supplied a complete Kinney stone operating theatre to a public hospital in Morocco where he continues to fund its stuff.Which of the following in NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Hamad is a man who wants himself to be well-known from apace. |
| B．Hamad is a super-rich person who always does something unusual. |
| C．Hamad is a man who is always so mean in his family |
| D．Hamad is a man who boasts his fortune is second to the Saudi king’s |
In what way could Hamad make his handwriting last longer?
A. The word “HAMAD” measures 1,000 meters wide and high.
B The word “HAMAD” is a staggering two miles long from the “H” to the “D”.
C. The word “HAMAD” actually forms huge waterways that absorb the encroaching tide.
D. The word “HAMAD” cost his workmen a lot of hard work for several weeks.Why does Hamad have his seven Mercedes-Benz500 SELs painted in different colors?
| A．Perhaps he hoped his cars were stored in a giant pyramid safely. |
| B．In some ways he could make a very strange rainbow. |
| C．Maybe he just wanted to show off his wealth. |
| D．He is always interested in making his cars like these. |
Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Rainbow Sheikh’s name can be seen from space |
| B．The richest Arab sheikh’s name has made many funny things |
| C．A great person likes doing things on a large scale |
| D．A well-known philanthropist displays his wealth |
“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”
That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat.
They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon — or perhaps not for another five years.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate（代孕的）mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(流产，发育不全) fetuses（胎）may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. “A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right,” says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype（原型；雏形）is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and super-smart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament（气质、性情）. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems~ “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”By “stupid endeavor”, Westhusin means to say that ________.
| A．human cloning is a foolish undertaking |
| B．animal cloning is absolutely impractical |
| C．human cloning should be done selectively |
| D．animal cloning is not worth the effort at all |
What does the second paragraph tell us about Westhusin's dog cloning project?
| A．Its success is already in sight. |
| B．It is progressing smoothly. |
| C．It is doomed to utter failure. |
| D．Its outcome remains uncertain. |
By cloning Missy, Mark Westhusin hopes to ________.
| A．study the possibility of cloning humans |
| B．search for ways to modify its temperament |
| C．find out the differences between Missy and its clones |
| D．examine the reproductive system of the dog species |
We learn from the passage that animal clones are likely to have ________.
| A．a bad temper |
| B．defective（有缺陷的、有毛病的）organs |
| C．immune deficiency |
| D．an abnormal shape |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Cloning of Missy |
| B．Scientist Says ‘No’ to Human Cloning |
| C．Human Cloning Is Dangerous . |
| D．Westhusin Is Cautious about Cloning |
Researchers at the University of Bedforshire have developed a new technique for powering electronic device（装置）. The system, developed by Professor Ben Allen at the Centre for Wireless Research, uses radio waves as power.
Believed to be a world first, the team claims it could eventually eliminate (or get rid of) the need for conventional batteries. The university has now filed a patent application to secure the only rights to the technique.
Professor Allen and his team have created a system to use medium wave frequencies to replace batteries in small everyday devices like clocks and remote controls.
The new technique uses the “waste” energy of radio waves and has been developed as part of the university’s research into “power harvesting”. Professor Allen said that as radio waves have energy---like light waves, sound waves or wind waves---in theory, these waves could be used to create power.
“The emerging（新兴的）area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries,” he said. “It’s really exciting way of taking power from sources other than what we would normally think of.”
The team is now waiting for the results of the patent application to secure recognition of the technique. Professor Allen said that the team’s achievements had all been done in their “spare time”. “Our next stage is to try and raise some real funds so that we can take this work forward and make a working prototype（模型）and maybe partner up with the right people and take this to a full product in due course,” he said.
“Power harvesting has a really important part in our future, because, just in this country, we dispose of somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 tones of batteries in landfill（垃圾填理）sites every single year－that is toxic chemicals going into the ground.”
He added that development of the product could also be “commercially beneficial”. “The market for this is several billion pounds. We’ve seen market predictions for 2020 which have these kinds of figures, so there’s a lot of commercial potential in this area,” he said.
Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Bedfordshire, Professor Carsten Maple, said, “This type of work is a reflection of the university’s growing reputation and experience in conducting innovative（创新的）research.”From the text we know the new technique for powering electronic devices_____.
| A．can be applied to all electronic devices. |
| B．uses radio waves to create power. |
| C．has replaced conventional batteries. |
| D．produces many toxic chemicals. |
According to Professor Allen, power harvesting technology______.
| A．makes every use of radio waves. |
| B．takes power from usual sources. |
| C．reduces our dependency on conventional batteries. |
| D．aims at huge commercial benefits. |
What can we learn about Professor Allen and his team from the text?
| A．They have made use of radio waves in their daily life. |
| B．They have raised a big fund to support their research. |
| C．They have gained a patent for their new technology. |
| D．They mainly did their research in their spare time. |
What is Professor Carsten Maple’s attitude toward the new technique?
| A．Critical. | B．Favorable. |
| C．Conservative. | D．Negative. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．A new technique to create power. |
| B．A crisis concerning conventional batteries. |
| C．Some special sources of power. |
| D．The development of power harvesting. |
An experiment was carried out at British school into the performance of new pupils. At the start of the year, the pupils were each given a rating, ranging from “excellent prospect” to “unlikely to do well”. These were totally untrue ratings and did not reflect how well the pupils had previously performed. However, these ratings were given to the teachers. At the end of the year, the experimenters compared the pupils’ performance with the ratings. Despite their real abilities, there was an astonishingly high connection between performance and ratings. It seems that people perform as well as we expect them to.
The Self-fulfilling Effect is also known as the Pygmalion Effect. This comes from an old Greek story. The story was also the basis of George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”, later turned into the musical “My Fair Lady”. In Shaw’s play, Professor Henry Higgins claims he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle into a duchess. But, as Eliza herself points out to Higgins’ friend Pickering, it isn’t what she learns or does that determines whether she will become a duchess, but how she’s treated.
The implication (含义) of the Pygmalion Effect for leaders and managers is massive. It means that the performance of your team depends less on them than it does on you. The performance you get from people is no more or less than what you expect, which means you must always expect the best. As Goethe said, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”The underlined word “rating” in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by “_________”.
| A．program | B．regulation |
| C．correction | D．classification |
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．A new scientific experiment. |
| B．The Self-fulfilling Effect. |
| C．Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”. |
| D．An improved teaching method. |
The experiment was made in order to _________.
| A．try out a new teaching method |
| B．pick out the most excellent pupils |
| C．learn if expectations affect performance |
| D．give each pupil a proper rating |
What made Eliza change into a duchess according to Eliza herself?
| A．Strict training from Higgins. |
| B．Her own strong will and hard work. |
| C．The proper way she was regarded |
| D．Warm encouragement from Pickering. |
According to the Pygmalion Effect, if you want a man to finish a hard task in a short time, you should say, “_________”.
| A．I’m sure you can make it |
| B．I will help you any time |
| C．It is as easy as pie |
| D．It doesn’t matter if you fail |
Children have their own rules in playing games. They seldom need a referee(裁判) and rarely trouble to keep scores. They don’t care much about who wins or loses, and it doesn’t seem to worry them if the game is not finished. Yet, they like games that depend a lot on luck, so that their personal abilities cannot be directly compared. They also enjoy games that move in stages, in which each stage, the choosing of leaders, the picking-up of sides, or the determining of which side shall start, is almost a game in itself.
Grown-ups can hardly find children’s games exciting, and they often feel puzzled at why their kids play such simple games again and again. However, it is found that a child plays games for very important reasons. He can be a good player without having to think whether he is a popular person, and he can find himself being a useful partner to someone of whom he is ordinarily afraid. He becomes a leader when it comes to his turn. He can be confident, too, in particular games, that it is his place to give orders, to pretend to be dead, to throw a ball actually at someone, or to kiss someone he has caught.
It appears to us that when children play a game they imagine a situation under their control. Everyone knows the rules, and more importantly, everyone plays according to the rules. Those rules may be childish, but they make sure that every child has a chance to win.. What is true about children when they play games?
| A．They can stop playing any time they like. |
| B．They can test their personal abilities. |
| C．They want to pick a better team. |
| D．They don’t need rules. |
. To become a leader in a game the child has to .
| A．play well |
| B．wait for his turn |
| C．be confident in himself |
| D．be popular among his playmates |
. What do we know about grown-ups?
| A．They are not interested in games. |
| B．They find children’s games too easy. |
| C．They don’t need a reason to play games. |
| D．They don’t understand children’s games. |
Why does a child like playing games?
| A．Because he can be someone other than himself. |
| B．Because he can become popular among friends. |
| C．Because he finds he is always lucky in games. |
| D．Because he likes the place where he plays a game. |
. The writer believes that .
| A．children should make better rules for their games |
| B．children should invite grown-ups to play with them |
| C．children’s games can do them a lot of good |
| D．children play games without reasons |
Few Americans remain in one position or one place for a lifetime. They move from town to city to suburb, from high school to college in a different state, from a job in one region to a better job elsewhere, from the home where they raise their children to the home where they plan to live in retirement (退休). With each move they are forever making new friends, who become part of their new life at that time.
For many of them summer is a special time for forming new friendships. Today millions of Americans vacation abroad, and they go not only to see new sights but also with the hope of meeting new people. No one really expects a vacation trip to produce a close friend, but the beginning of a friendship is possible.
The word “friend ” can be applied to a wide range of relationships ---- to someone one has known for a few weeks in a new place, to a fellow worker, to a childhood playmate, to a man or woman, to a trusted confidant (知己).. Many Americans move from place to place for the following reasons except.
| A．going to college |
| B．getting a better job |
| C．finding a place to live in retirement |
| D．saving money |
. Summer is a special time when many Americans.
| A．enjoy the sunlight | B．feel strange |
| C．travel to other countries | D．get a new job |
When summer comes, many Americans .
| A．hope to meet new people |
| B．expect to find some close friends |
| C．want to begin lasting friendships with new people |
| D．Both A and B |
From the passage it can be seen that a “friend” can be .
| A．a fellow worker | B．a football teammate |
| C．a boy or a girl | D．all of the above |
. Which of the following is the topic sentence of Paragraph 2?
| A．For many of us summer is a special time for forming new friendships. |
| B．Today millions of Americans vacation abroad. |
| C．No one really expects a vacation trip to produce a close friendship. |
| D．But surely the beginning of friendship is possible. |