Nuclearpowered aircraft carriers are considered one of the most important marine weapons in the 20th century. So far, only two countries in the world, the USA and France, have ever produced them. But these fearful fighting machines are about to enter Asia.
The US Navy said last month that one of its nine nuclearpowered aircraft carriers will be sent to Japan to replace the diesel(柴油)powered carrier Kitty Hawk in 2008. In an agreement on October 30, the two countries also planned to level up their military (军事的) cooperation and the USA called for Japan to take a larger role in alliance (联盟)military moves.
It will be the first time that a nuclearpowered carrier is based in Japan. Bombed by US forces in World War Ⅱ at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is the only world country to have been attacked by a nuclear weapon. Therefore, the citizens are highly sensitive to where nuclearpowered weapons are based.
“A radiation leak at Yokosuka would kill 100,000 people as far away as Tokyo, and could cause billions of dollars in damage，” said Masahiko Goto, leader of a protest group in Yokosuka. His group has collected more than 300,000 signatures of people across Japan opposed to the nuclear carrier.
The 44yearold Kitty Hawk, the US Navy's oldest active ship, has been based in Yokosuka since 1998. It had returned to the US to be decommissioned(废弃核武器) in 2008. The new carrier will travel faster, be capable of supporting longer operations and carry with it the Navy's most modern technology.
Experts pointed that this change is not only to strengthen the USJapan military alliance but also to keep the military power of China and North Korea within limits. However, even Japanese experts don't believe that the two countries are threats to the region.
“There is no need for Japan to have a nuclear carrier as defense，” said Tetsuo Maeda, an international relations professor at Tokyo International University. He said that the change of ship indicates an increased military capability in the region, much more than what is needed.With such a powerful weapon to enter its country, Japanese citizens ________.
| A．are aware of its benefits to the country |
| B．are anxious about its potential danger |
| C．are curious about the advanced technology |
| D．are against where the carrier will be based |
The replacement of the aircraft carrier is intended to________.
| A．set up a kind of base in Japan |
| B．strengthen the USJapan military alliance |
| C．show Japan's greater military capability |
| D．get rid of the dated marine weapon |
From the story, we learn that________.
| A．no other countries except the USA and France possess aircraft carriers |
| B．Japan has long planned to increase its military capability with new weapons |
| C．Japan will be the first country in Asia to have a nuclear aircraft carrier |
| D．Japan will be the third country to produce a nuclearpowered aircraft carrier |
By his remark in the last paragraph, the professor means that________.
| A．he is quite confident of their military defense |
| B．he is completely opposed to a new nuclear carrier |
| C．what is needed is far more than a nuclear carrier |
| D．it is unnecessary to guard against the two countries |
A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how risky it is to get a lift from a teenage driver. Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers is three times as likely to have a fatal accident as a teenager driving alone. By contrast, the risk of death for drivers between 30 and 59 decreases with each additional passenger.
The author also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight, with passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a late-night accident.
Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience. “The basic issue.” he says, “is that adults who are responsible for issuing licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled a task driving is.”
Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate (使……缓解)the problem is to have states institute so-called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a multistage process. A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself capable of driving in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with night of passenger restrictions, before graduating to full driving privileges.
Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies, About half of the states now have some sort of graduated licensing system in place, but only 10 of those states have restrictions on passengers, California is the strictest, with a novice(新手)driver prohibited from carrying any passenger under 20(without the presence of an adult over 25)for the first six months. Which of the following situations is most dangerous according to the passage?
| A．Adults giving a lift to teenagers on the highway after 10 p.m. |
| B．A teenager driving after midnight with passengers in the car. |
| C．Adults driving with three or more teenage passengers late at night. |
| D．A teenager getting a lift from a stranger on the highway at midnight. |
According to Robert Foss, the high death rate of teenage drivers is mainly due to ________
| A．their frequent driving at night |
| B．their improper way of driving |
| C．their lack of driving experience |
| D．their driving with passengers |
According to Paragraph 3. which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Teenagers should spend more time learning to drive. |
| B．Driving is a skill too complicated for teenagers to learn. |
| C．Restrictions should be imposed on teenagers applying to take driving lessons. |
| D．The licensing authorities are partly responsible for teenagers' driving accidents. |
A suggested measure to be taken to reduce teenagers' driving accidents is that ________ .
| A．driving in the presence of an adult should be made a rule |
| B．they should be prohibited from taking on passengers |
| C．they should not be allowed to drive after 10 p.m. |
| D．the licensing system should be improved |
Dear Editor,
Brockingham is run by people who are more interested in tourists than its residents. The problem is that the people running the government refuse to accept new ideas. By banning(禁止) all fast-food restaurants and discount stores, they take away all the places kids can afford to shop.
These people forget that when they were young, they could go to the South Street Soda Fountain and get an ice-cream soda for 25 cents. Today you can’t find an ice-cream soda anywhere in Brockingham for less than $2! Where can kids go for a snack?
There is not a single restaurant in Brockingham where a family of four can eat dinner for less than $100. Add a 15% tip and sales tax and you have spent nearly $125 to eat a meal you could prepare at home for about $12. Have you noticed that Brockingham families never dine in Brockingham?
Fast-food restaurants are also a good place for school kids to get an after-school job. Fast-food restaurants are busiest during the early supper hours when students are able to work, whereas the fancy food restaurants cater to late-night diners. Working in one of these establishments requires working shifts that are too late for most students.
The City Council claims that local merchants, rather than national chains, should benefit from the tourist business. I agree that it is important to support local businesses, but I think the fast-food restaurants would encourage more people to shop in Brockingham.
Another thing that disturbs me is that we must travel 25 miles to the nearest discount store. If I need a tire for my bike, I have a choice of buying one at Surf and Peddle Sport Shop for $15 or driving to Parkersburg Discount Center where I can buy the same kind of tire for $9. Again, I think the ban on all food chains and discount houses is counterproductive for our city.
Wes Woodrow
9th-Grade Student at Brockingham High SchoolWhy does Wes Woodrow write this letter to the editor?
Because the government bans all fast-food restaurants and discount stores in Brockingham.
Because the writer can’t find an ice-cream soda anywhere in Brockingham for less than $2.
Because a family of four can’t find a restaurant in Brockingham to eat dinner for less than $100.
Because the writer has to travel 25 miles to the nearest discount store. From the letter we can infer that _____.
the writer used to buy a lot of ice-cream soda
the students refuse to work in fancy food restaurants
the government’s ban benefits local merchants much
discount stores usually offer a discount of 40% The underlined word “counterproductive” in paragraph 6 of the letter probably means _____.
| A．cheap, not expensive | B．surprising, not expected |
| C．harmful, not helpful | D．doubtful, not sure |
One way the writer of this letter tries to convince the reader is by _____.
complaining that someone has to drive him to Parkersburg
getting an after-school job in fast-food restaurant himself
suggesting that many businessmen have the same opinion
giving specific examples of the high costs in Brockingham
Amazed zoo visitors watch as an orangutan(猩猩) named Bonnie swings along cables way above their heads. She’s not making a great ape escape; she’s taking a “highway” to higher learning.
Bonnie is traveling on the Orangutan Transit System, called the O-Line, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The O-Line stretches from the Great Ape House, where Bonnie lives, to an exhibit called Think Tank. There she and other orangutans participate in a study trying to answer the questions: Do animals think? If so, how?
Think Tank scientists look for clues that an animal is thinking. A baby orangutan following its mother is probably not thinking. But an orangutan using a stick to reach honey in a beehive probably is thinking. It’s figuring out how to obtain a sweet treat.
To learn more about what the orangutans are thinking, Think Tank scientists are teaching orangutans a language of symbols. The apes don’t actually speak. They point to the symbols to show their thoughts.
Each symbol stands for a word. Different categories of the symbols have their own shapes. Food symbols, for example, are rectangles(矩形); object symbols are circles; and verbs are diamonds.
Computers help the orangutans learn the symbolic language. After the apes are shown an apple, for example, their task is to touch the apple symbol on a computer screen. They can do so. All six orangutans have learned a few symbols, but only Azy and Indah have learned eight symbols and can use the computer.
Azy and Indah choose to live at Think Tank. The others commute(往返) from the Great Ape House on the O-Line. All attend Think Tank sessions, though none are made to do so. “They’re eager to learn”, one of the scientists says. “They never turn me down!”What is the main idea of the passage?
Scientists are doing research on whether animals can think and how they think.
Biologists have found that orangutans are more intelligent than other animals.
Orangutans at the National Zoo can be taught to communicate with humans easily.
Animals are being taught by scientists to speak to one another at the National Zoo. The Orangutan Transit System refers to _____.
a way that can teach animals to learn things and communicate quickly
a place for various animals in the National Zoo to participate in the study
a walkway for the orangutans to travel to different sections of the zoo
a line for the orangutans to travel between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank According to the passage, scientists use a system of symbols to help _____.
find out which orangutan can learn the symbolic language fast
attract all the orangutans to live together at Think Tank
communicate with the orangutans and understand them better
understand whether animals can learn a language and express themselves by using it It can be inferred from the passage that _____.
a baby orangutan has his own intention though following his mother
many animals in the wild can learn symbolic languages to express their thoughts
the cleverer the animals are, the more knowledge they would like to learn
orangutans can form mental images in their minds when they see objects
M When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter(炼铜厂), and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.
Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back.. The answer from that big industry was “No.”
Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that, he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn’t get his idea accepted.
Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote, “It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges.” Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.
And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.
Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.When Paul was a boy, _____.
he had decided never to leave his hometown
the economy of Utah depended wholly on the copper smelter
no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution
he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the areaWhy did Paul go to college to study the science of plants?
He wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself.
He was interested in planting trees since he was young.
He wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him.
He thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive.What does the underlined phrase “the plain common sense” probably refer to?
That it was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland.
That his normal work and life would be greatly affected.
That no one would like to join him in the efforts.
That he had to keep everything he did secret.The message of the passage is that _____.
action speaks louder than words
perseverance(持之以恒) will work wonders
God helps those who help themselves
many hands make light work
Most people want to know how things are made. They honestly admit, however, that they hardly know a thing when it comes to understanding how a piece of music is made. Where a composer （作曲家） begins, how he manages to keep going - in fact, how and where he leams his trade -all are covered in complete darkness. The composer, in short, is a man of mystery. （神秘）.
One of the first things the common man wants to know about is the part inspiration （灵感） plays in a composer' s work. He finds it difficult to believe that composers are not much interested in that question. Writing music is as natural for the composer as eating or sleeping for all. Music is something that the composer happens to have been born for.
The composer, therefore, does not say to himself: "Do I feel inspired?" He says to himself:
"Do I feel like working today?" And if he feels like working, he does. It is more or less like saying to himself: "Do I feel sleepy?" If you feel sleepy, you go to sleep. If you don't feel sleepy, you stay up. If the composer doesn' t feel like working, he doesn' t work. It' s as simple as that. What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Composer: a man of mystery |
| B．Practice makes good music |
| C．Relation between sleeping and music |
| D．Music: product of nature |
The words "covered in complete darkness" underlined in Paragraph I most probably mean
| A．difficult to be made |
| B．without any light |
| C．black in color |
| D．not known |
Most people seem to think that a composer _______ .
| A．finds it difficult to write music |
| B．considers it important to have a good rest |
| C．should like to talk about inspiration |
| D．never asks himself very simple questions |
The author will most probably agree that composers _______
| A．are born with a gift for music |
| B．are people full of mystery |
| C．work late at night for their music |
| D．know a lot about eating and sleeping |