Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, made his first public appearance since going on medical leave six weeks ago, taking the stage at a San Francisco media event to introduce the iPad 2, the second generation of the company’s tablet computer.
Thin but energetic, Mr. Jobs showed off a thinner iPad. “ We’ve been working on this product for a while and I just didn’t want to miss this day,” he said.
His absence has concerned investors, especially since the group has given no details of his condition. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and had a liver transplant during almost six moths of medical leave in 2009. People close to him said last month his health had been changing.
Apple’s stock rose more than 2 percent in the minutes after Mr. Jobs began speaking, then gave up some of its gain as he detailed the iPad 2.
The iPad 2 will go on sale in black and white versions in the US on March 11 and in 26 other countries, including the UK and Germany, on March 25. The table is Apple’s biggest product launch since the iPhone three years ago, and is comparable to the iPhone as the most expected in Apple’s history.
Most of the improvements in the latest version had been expected, including front and rear-facing video, which allows video conferencing between iPads, Mac computers and the most recent iPhones and iPods, a larger speaker, a faster processor and other upgrades. The iPad 2 is one-third thinner than the original tablet and slightly lighter, with a 9.7-inch touchscreen. It can run movies, books, games and a complete range of applications. In the US it will work with AT&T and Verizon, the top two mobile carriers. The pricing will be the same to the 2010 iPad at its introduction, ranging from $499 to $829 in six models. But Apple dropped prices on the older iPad on Wednesday by $100 across the board.
Apple has made the most of its year-long head start in tablets, selling 15,000,000 units of the older iPad last year and taking about 85 percent of the market. Forrester predicted that the iPad 2 would clain 80 percent of the US market this year, or 20,000,000 out of 24,000,000 total shipped. This prediction was based on both the technical improvements to the iPad 2, and the distribution difficulties and higher prices for Apple’s rivals.
Motorola, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Samsung and others have brought out competing tablets, many based on Google’s Android software.
Mr. Jobs said the rest of the field was still catching up with the first iPad and their markets for applications designed for tablets had, at best, 100 small programs. This compares with 65,000 on Apple’s applications store.Why are the investors of Apple worried according to the text?
| A．Apple’s stock price changes a lot |
| B．Steve Jobs’ health condition is not stable |
| C．The iPad 2 has some technical drawbacks |
| D．Apple faces strong competition from other companies. |
In what respect are the iPad 2 and the 2010 iPad exactly alike?
| A．the weight | B．the speaker |
| C．the thickness | D．the pricing at the introduction |
How many tablet computers were sold in the market last year?
| A．about 15,000,000 | B．about 17,000,000 |
| C．about 20,000,000 | D．about 24,000,000 |
What makes Apple’s tablets superior to the competing tablets of other companies?
| A．the low price |
| B．the Android software |
| C．the full kinds of models |
| D．the tens of thousands of applications |
What is the best title for the text?
| A．Jobs on Stage to Introduce iPad 2 |
| B．iPad 2 Better than the Original |
| C．Best Applications for iPad 2 |
| D．iPad 2 vs. Competitors |
Every night for a year, Neil Simons quietly went out of his house. He wanted to “talk” to an owl (猫头鹰)settling for the night at the end of his garden. He made owl cries like a real wild owl and was happy to hear the bird “hooting (大声叫嚣)” back to him.
Last year Fred Cornes moved in next door. He heard an owl hooting and answered back. For 12 months the neighbors got into the back gardens of their homes, thinking they were talking with nature. Mr. Simmons kept a diary of all his talks with his bird friend. They would both be out again tonight if it wasn’t for a chance talk between their wives.
Mr. Simmons said. “My wife Kim was telling Fred’s wife Wendy about my owl watching and described how I got the birds to boot back. She said, ‘That’s funny — that’s just what Fred has been doing.’ Then the penny dropped, I felt such a fool when I found out. The trouble is that owl calls aren’t exactly the same and it’s easy to make a mistake.”
Mr. Cornes said, “I’m really flattered (过奖). I didn’t know I sounded so real. I love nature and I couldn’t resist hooting at the owls. I was very excited when they hooted back. I’m sorry that I was fooling my neighbor who was fooling me.” w*w^w.k&s#5@u.c~o*m
( )64. After the talk between the wives, the two men would probably _________ .
A. stop observing owls B. not stay up hooting again
C. not enter the back garden again D. make no mistakes about wild owl cries
( )65. “Then the penny dropped.” most probably means “Then __________.”
A. I understood B. everybody knew about it
C. I heard the noise D. no money was paid
( )66. Mr. Simmons felt upset about the whole thing because __________.
A. all his efforts seemed to be meaningless B. his wife let out his secret by chance
C. garden owls hooted so differently D. Fred had been doing the same
( )67. The text suggests that __________.
A. Nail seldom heard natural owl calls B. the owl never hooted back to Neil
C. Fred was always good at pleasing owls D. owl watching is no longer interesting to Fred
Some say everyday miracles(奇迹) are predestined(注定的)----the right time for the appointed
meeting. And it can happen anywhere.
In 2001, 11-year-old Kevin Stephan was a bat boy for his younger brother's Little League team in
Lancaster, New York. It was an early evening in late July. Kevin was standing on the grass away from the plate, where another youngster was warming up for the next game. Swinging his bat back and forth, giving it all the power an elementary school kid could give. The boy brought the bat back hard and hit Kevin in the chest. His heart stopped.
When Kevin fell to the ground, the mother of one of the players rushed out of the stands to his aid.
Penny Brown hadn't planned to be there that day, but at the last minute, her shift(换班)at the hospital had been changed to see her son’s performance. She was given the night off. Penny bent over the senseless boy, his face already starting to turn blue, and giving CPR, breathing into his mouth and giving chest compressions. And he revived in the end.
After his recovery, he became a volunteer junior firefighter, learning some of the emergency first-aid
techniques that had saved his life. He studied hard in school and was saving money for college by working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant in his spare time.
Kevin, now 18, was working in the kitchen when he heard people screaming, customers in confusion,
employees rushing toward a table. He hurried into the main room and saw a woman there, her face turning blue, her hands at her throat. She was choking.
Quickly Kevin stepped behind her, wrapped his arms around her and clasped his hands. Then, using
skills he'd first learned in Scouts. The food that was trapped in the woman's throat was freed. The color began to return to her face.
"The food was stuck. I couldn't breathe," she said. She thought she was dying. "I was very frightened."
Who was the woman?
Penny Brown.
( )59. The author wrote the passage to show us that_______.
A. miracles are predestined and they can happen anywhere
B. whoever helps you in trouble will get a reward one day
C. God will help those who give others a helping hand
D. miracles won’t come without any difficulty sometimes
( )60 Which of the following statements is True of Kevin Stephan?
A. He was hit on the face by a boy and almost lost his life
B. He was a volunteer junior firefighter, teaching the players first-aid skills
C. He worked part-time in a local restaurant to save money for college
D. He saved Penny Brown though he didn’t really know how to deal with food choke
( )61. Why did Penny Brown change her shift and was given the night off that night?
A. She was invited to give the players directions
B. She volunteered to give medical services
C. She was a little worried about his son’s safety
D. She came to watch her son’s game and cheered him
( )62. The underlined word “revived”(paragraph3) most likely means______.
A. came back to life B. became worse C. failed D. moved
()63. When Kevin knew the woman was Penny Brown, probably he first felt _____.
A. happy B. surprised C. sad D. worried
It is a typical case. A young professional has just moved to a new city. She is very active in her new job but wishes to meet people socially outside of work. How does she do this？
Signing up for a night class is always a good starting point. Not only is it an ideal way to meet like-minded people，it can also be a great new learning experience. Pubs and clubs can be a good meeting place but can be a bit hard if you are on your own.
Join a gym
GL-14 health club in Manchester city centre is a gym which also has lots of member activities outside the gym from charity fashion shows to dinner dances giving members a chance to socialize away from the treadmill（繁忙的工作）. Or if you want a gym with a difference，try a“Green Gym”for people who want to exercise but wish to be outdoors and doing something that will benefit the environment at the same time. The“work out”could involve such activities as practical conservation or gardening work. It’s a great way to get people’s heart and muscle working. And many agree that meeting other people and having a matter and a laugh is a big attraction of the scheme.
Reading groups
In the Reading Groups，Jenny Hartley suggested that there may be as many as 50，000 people in reading groups in the UK. They range from informal groups of friends or colleagues who meet in someone’s home or at the local pub，to discuss a book. If you want something a bit more structured，lots of libraries have reading groups and could have a broader group of members.
Statistics
The BBC recently conducted a survey called Going solo：single life in the 21st century. You can look at the overall results or search by area. It found that：
*69％ of people thought that the gym was a good place to meet new
*Pubs or clubs were considered to be good meeting places by 58％ of people in the UK
*68％ thought that work was a good place to meet people
*72％ thought that internet chat was not an ideal way to meet people
（）56．“Green Gym”in Paragraph 3 refers to an activity in which you can________.
A．have night classes with like-minded people
B．do something good for the environment on your own
C．discuss a book with other members at a pub
D．benefit the environment while doing outdoor exercise
（）57．Which of the following is a Green Gym activity？
A．Gardening work. B．Chatting on the Internet.
C．A charity fashion show. D．A dinner dance away from the treadmill.
（）58．What’s the most popular place to meet new people outside of work？
A．Pubs or clubs. B．The Internet. C．The working place. D．The gym.
There is an old saying：No one thinks he’s a bad driver. Here’s an updated 21st century version: No one thinks he sends annoying (令人烦恼的) e-mails.
But, plenty of us do.
A Princeton University research found that 22 per cent of Americans say e-mail has added to their work pressures and caused misunderstandings. Here’s a guide on e-mail etiquette (礼节) to help you avoid being annoying.
Experts say there are three types of e-mails with different rules-close friends, office and public e-mails.
The close friends e-mail
You can send your lover, your closest friends and your siblings (brothers and sisters) anything, from jokes to “you got to see this!”. But bear in mind that not everyone shares your sense of humour and you may expose them to viruses.
The office e-mail
Don’t add to people’s workload. Keep e-mails short and to the point.
◆Make the subject line factual and brief.
◆Write in clear, concise (简练的) sentences.
◆Provide your name and phone number at the end.
The public e-mail
Occasionally we have to send an e-mail to a group of people. If possible, write your public e-mails with a who, what, when, where structure. For example:
Who: All members of the soccer team
What: Team photo
When: Saturday, March 25, at noon
Where: Playing field 2.
Finally, before you hit “Send”, check the following:
◆Is the e-mail a “flame”? Never send an e-mail in anger, It could stay around forever and haunt (萦绕心头) your professional and personal life.
◆Check the “To” field. Is this really who you want to send the message to?
◆Spell-check the message. Does it have an error that can affect you badly?
68. The writer may want to tell the reader that _____.
A. mails online are often sent to wrong places
B. different e-mails should be written in different ways
C. sending office e-mails is sure to add to people’s workload
D. the public e-mail is usually sent to a large number of people
69. According to the writer, _____.
A. e-mails with some misspellings may hurt the receiver
B. before sending an e-mail, the sender should ask someone to check it
C. jokes sent to a close friend online sometimes may be harmful
D. about 80％ of Americans like sending and receiving e-mails
70. If an e-mail is a “flame”, the sender of it must be very _____ at the moment.
A. angry B. excited C. worried D. disappointed
Everywhere you look, large quantities of information in the world are pouring. This data flood is already starting to transform business, government, science and everyday life. It has great potential for good — as long as consumers, companies and governments make the right choices about when to restrict the flow of data, and when to encourage it.
A few industries have led the way in their ability to gather and take advantage of the data. Credit-card companies monitor every purchase and can identify cheats with a high degree of accuracy. Stolen credit cards are more likely to be used to buy hard liquor than wine, for example, because it is easier to overlook. Insurance firms are also good at combining clues to spot doubtful claims: dishonest claims are more likely to be made on a Monday than a Tuesday, since policyholders (保险客户) who stage accidents tend to assemble friends as false witnesses over the weekend. By combining many such rules, it is possible to work out which cards are likeliest to have been stolen, and which claims are untrue. By analyzing “basket data”, supermarkets can make promotions to appeal to particular customers’ preferences. The oil industry uses supercomputers to help them before drilling wells.
But the data flood also poses risks. There are many examples of databases being stolen: disks full of social-security data go missing, laptops loaded with tax records are left in taxis, credit-card numbers are stolen by online purchase. The result can be privacy made public, identity stolen and cheats permitted large space. Rather than owning and controlling their own personal data, they very often find that they have lost control of it.
The best way to deal with the data flood is to make more data available in the right way, by requiring greater transparency in several areas. First, users should be given greater access to and control over the information held about them, including whom it is shared with. Google allows users to see what information it holds about them, and lets them delete their search histories or modify the targeting of advertising, for example. Second, organizations should be required to disclose details of security breaches (安全漏洞), as is already the case in some parts of the world, to encourage bosses to take information security more seriously. Third, organizations should be subject to an annual security check, with the resulting grade made public (though details of any problems exposed would not be). This would encourage companies to keep their security measures up to date.
64. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Information FloodB. Benefits of Data Flood
C. Harms of Data Flood D. How to Use Data in a Right Way
65. From the passage we can infer that _____.
A. lots of data are lost because of hardware problems
B. online purchases are becoming more and more popular
C. credit cards are not so secure to use and will go out of use very soon
D. insurance firms have to investigate before they confirm their policyholders’ claims
66. Which of the following is the writer’s opinion about how to deal with the data flood?
A. Personal information should be used for public benefits.
B. The users should be given the right to access public information.
C. Companies should update their measures to guarantee their data safety.
D. Organizations should keep their resulting grade of security checks unknown to the public.
67. From the passage we can conclude that _____.
A. the data flood makes peoples’ life less convenient and more expensive
B. companies and insurance firms are responsible for the data flood
C. the information flood is more useful to organizations than to individuals
D. the information flood has both positive and negative influence on modern life