Global Positioning Systems are now a part of everyday driving in many countries. These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two.
We spoke to Mr. Brown by Skype. He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. Barry Brown: “And they just plugged in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn’t until they were driving for thirty minutes that they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of 'garbage in garbage out'.”
Mister Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. Barry Brown: “One problem with a lot of the GPS units is they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the overview that you would need to know that it’s going to the wrong place.”
Barry Brown formerly served as a professor with the University of California, San Diego. While there, he worked on a project with Eric Laurier from the University of Edinburgh. The two men studied the effects of GPS devices on driving by placing cameras in people’s cars. They wrote a paper based on their research. It is called “The Normal, Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS.” It lists several areas where GPS systems can cause confusion for drivers. These include maps that are outdated, incorrect or difficult to understand. They also include timing issues related to when GPS commands are given.
Barry Brown says to make GPS systems better we need a better understanding of how drivers, passengers and GPS systems work together.In Paragraph 2, Mr. Brown mentioned his friend in the conversation to _____________.
| A．build up his own reputation |
| B．laugh at his stupid friend |
| C．prove the GPS system is only garbage |
| D．describe an example of human error |
With which of the following statement would Barry Brown most likely agree?
| A．GPS units are to blame for the most GPS service failures. |
| B．We should introduce higher standard for the driving license. |
| C．Cameras are urgently needed to help improve GPS systems. |
| D．Drivers, GPS systems and passengers should unite to improve GPS systems. |
What is Mr. Brown’s attitude towards GPS?
| A．Unconcerned | B．Prejudiced | C．Objective | D．Critical |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．driving with GPS can be difficult |
| B．driving confusions can be caused by small screen |
| C．driving without GPS should be much more convenient |
| D．GPS equipment in driving: to be deserted or improved? |
Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what you usually do in a typical week, how you can get along with your fellow students, and so on. These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.
First, let’s talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. No matter what your major may be, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because some courses such as introduction to sociology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it’s very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn’t enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have a couple of hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting usually with fewer than thirty students where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants, usually direct discussion sections.
If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you’ll also have to spend several hours a week in the lab, or laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or history usually have to read and write more than science majors do.
59. The main purpose of this text is .
A. to help the students to learn about university life
B. to persuade the students to attend lectures
C. to encourage the students to take part in discussions
D. to advise the students to choose proper majors
60. We can learn from the passage that university professors .
A. spend about 5 hours on lectures each week
B. must join the students in the discussion sections
C. prefer to use textbooks in their lectures
D. require the students to read beyond the textbooks
61. A discussion section does NOT include .
A. working under the guidance of university professors
B. talking over what the students have read about the courses
C. discussing the problems related to the students’ homework
D. raising questions about what a professor has said in a lecture
62. According to the author, science majors .
A. have to work harder than non science majors
B. spend less time on their studies than non science majors
C. consider experiments more important than discussions
D. read and write less than non science majors
Thinking is something you choose to do as a fish chooses to live in water. To be human is to think. But thinking may come naturally without your knowing how you do it. Thinking about drinking is the key to critical（判断性的）thinking. When you think critically, you take control of your thinking processes（过程）. Otherwise, you might be controlled by the ideas of others. Indeed, critical thinking is at the heart of education.
The word “critical” here has a special meaning. It does not mean taking one view against another view, as when someone criticizes another person for doing something wrong. The nature of critical thinking is thinking beyond the easily seen-beyond the pictures on TV, the untrue reports in the newspapers, and the faulty reasoning.
Critical thinking is an attitude as much as an activity. If you are curious about life and desire to dig deeper into it, you are a critical thinker. If you find pleasure in deep thinking about different ideas, characters, and facts, you are a critical thinker.
Activities of the mind and higher-order reasoning are processes of deep and careful consideration. They take time, and do not go hand in hand with the fast speed in today’s world: fast foods, instant coffee, and self-developing film. If you are among the people who believe that speed is a measure of intelligence（智力）, you may learn something new from a story about Albert Einstein. The first time Banesh Hoffman, a scientist, was to discuss his work with Albert Einstein. Hoffman was too nervous to speak. But Einstein immediately put Hoffman at ease by saying, “Please go slowly. I don’t understand things quickly.”
72．Critical thinking is important to us because if we do not think critically, _______.
A．it will be hard for us to think naturally and fast
B．we might be controlled by other people’s ideas
C．we will follow the ideas of others naturally
D．we might be footed by other people’s ideas
73．If you are a critical thinker, you will ________.
A．think deeply about different ideas B．trust the reports in the newspapers
C．take one view against another view D．criticize other people for their mistakes
74．In the last paragraph, “something new” suggests that ________.
A．the smarter you are, the faster you do things
B．the faster you do things, the smarter you become
C．speed can improve intelligence
D．intelligence is not decided by speed
75．What would be the best title for the passage?
A．Thinking and Critical Thinking. B．Understanding Critical Thinking.
C．Thinking Is Natural and Human. D．Thinking Fast Means Intelligence.
There are thousands of products of all colors and shapes in a supermarket, making you believe that they are worth a try. How? Packaging （包装）is the silent but persuading salesman.
There on the shelves, each bottle, can, box, and jar has been carefully designed and measured to speak to the inner self of the consumer（消费者）, so that is buying not only a product but also his belief in life. Scientists have studied consumer behavior recently and found that the look of the package has a great effect on the “quality” of the product and on how well it sells, because “Consumers generally cannot tell between a product and its package. Many products are packages and many packages are products,” as Louis Cheskin, the first social scientist studying consumers’ feeling for packaging, noticed.
Colors are one of the best tools in packaging. Studies of eye movement have shown that colors draw human attention quickly. Take V8 for example. For many years, the bright red color of tomatoes and carrots on the thin bottle makes you feel that it is very good for your body. And the word “green” today can keep food prices going up.
Shapes are another attraction. Circles often suggest happiness and peacefulness, because these shapes are pleasing to both the eye and the heart. That’s why the round yellow M signs of McDonald’s are inviting to both young and old.
This new consumer response（反应）to the colors and shapes of packages reminds producers and sellers that people buy to satisfy both body and soul.
60．According to the passage, ______ seems to be able to persuade a consumer to buy the product.
A．the pleasing color of the package B．the special taste of the product
C．the strange shape of the package D．the belief in the product
61．If a package or a product is round in shape, it can ________.
A．bring excitement to the consumers B．attract the consumers’ attention
C．catch the eye movement of the consumers D．produce a happy and peaceful feeling
62． “And the word ‘green’ today can keep food prices going up.” This sentence suggests that consumers today are ________.
A．starting to notice the importance of new food
B．enjoying the beauty of nature more than before
C．beginning to like green vegetables
D．paying more attention to their healthy
63．It can be inferred from the passage that V8 is a kind of ________.
A．vegetable dish B．healthy juice C．iced drink D．red vegetable
The other day, my friend Jane was invited to a 40th birthday party. The time printed on the invitation was 7.30pm. Jane went off with her husband, expecting a merry evening of wine, food, and song.
By 9.45, everybody was having great fun, but no food had appeared. Jane and David were restless. Other guests began whispering that they, too, were starving. But no one wanted to leave, just in case some food was about to appear. By 11.00, there was still no food, and everyone was completely off their heads. Jane and David left hungry and angry.
Their experience suggests that the words an the printed invitations need to be made clearer. Everyone reads and understands the invitations differently. Most of us would agree that 6.30 -8.30pm means drinks only, go out to dinner afterwards; 8.00pm or 8.30pm means possible dinner, but 9.30pm and any time thereafter means no food, oat beforehand, roll up late.
But this is not always the case. If asked to a students’ party at 6.30pm, it is normal for guests not to appear before midnight, if at all, and no one cares. Being the first to arrive - looking eager - is social death. When my mother is asked to a party for 6.30, she likes to be them, if not on lime, then no later than seven. My age group （late thirties） falls somewhere between the two, but because we still think we're young, we're probably closer to student-time than grown-up time.
The accepted custom at present is confusing （混乱的）, sometimes annoying, and it often means you may go home hungry, but it does lend every party that precious element （成分） of surprise.
68. The underlined words "off their heads" probably mean______.
A. tired B. crazy C. curious D. hopeless
69. Jane and David’s story is used to show that______.
A. petty-goer8 usually get hungry at parties
B. party invitations can be confusing
C. people should ask for food at parties
D. birthday parties for middle-aged people are dull
70. For some young people, arriving on time for a students’ party will probably be considered_______.
A. very difficult B. particularly thoughtful
C. friendly and polite D. socially unacceptable
71. According to the writer, people in their late thirties_______.
A. are likely to arrive late for a party
B. care little about the party time
C. haven’t really grown up yet
D. like surprises at parties
72. What is the general idea of the text?
A. It’s safe to arrive late just when food is served.
B. It’s wise to eat something before going to a party.
C. It’s important to follow social rules of party-going.
D. It’s necessary to read invitations carefully.
My first reaction was annoyance. It was Friday afternoon, and I was within an hour of finishing my work for the week. As I was leaving, a nurse brought me one more patient message. The statement read: "Mm. Jones called to say that she has had blurred vision （视觉模糊） ever since her medical test this morning." I smiled. Suddenly our tests were causing eye problems.
This week my patients had questioned everything. My patient with high blood pressure had stopped coming to her treatment on the advice of an Internet chat room. A woman who had a mental problem was substituting （用......代替） St. John’s word for her medication. Now Mrs. Jones was imagining problems. I rolled my eyes.
My second reaction was worry. As I looked through her record, I tried to figure out why she would have blurred vision, but nothing in her record explained the new problem. She’s probably just anxious, I thought. Still, she wouldn't have called if she had been all right. I picked up the phone.
What I next felt can only be described as delight. Before I made the call, the nurse ran in: Mrs. Jones called. Her vision is fine. Turns out she picked up the wrong glasses when she left the office. The X-ray technician has been having the same problem. I let out a laugh. Mrs. Jones had been right. Her vision had been blurred. Now we know why.
Finally I felt shame. I came to realize what Mrs. Jones had taught me. I had first known she was wrong, that her anxiety had clouded hex judgment. Instead, my medical training had clouded mine. Now I feel thankful that Mrs. Jones figured it out before I made a mistake about our relationship. Patients come to me for my help. They pay me to listen, diagnose （诊断）, treat and talk. That suggests trust; I must remember that, and trust them too.
61. The writer smiled while reading the patient message because he knew_____.
A. Mrs. Jones would ask for more tests
B. the patient was being unreasonable
C. the nurse was joking with him
D. Mrs. Jones would call him
62. What has caused Mrs. Jones’ eye problem?
A. Wrong glasses. B. Medical checkup.
C. Her own imagination. D. Chatting on the Internet.
63. The underlined words "clouded her judgment" in the last paragraph probably mean_______.
A. made her less trustful toward the doctor
B. put her in control of her own feelings
C. made her less able to think clearly
D. put her in a dangerous situation