Barcodes(条形码) aren’t given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently applied in a working fashion in 1970.
A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory(存货) of his stock and the associated prices were an extremely laborious process, and so, in 1948, he contacted The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a solution. Bernard Sliver rose to the challenge and set out to study the problem and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items that had been sold. Sliver and a group of students from the institute realized their answer in the form of ultraviolet light (紫外线), ink and a scanner.
The system worked initially, but possessed some negatives. It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable. If the invention was to become commonplace（寻常的事）in grocery stores, these two problems had to be solved.
The patent (专利) for the bar code system was filed by Sliver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact, it took three years for the patent agency to grant their invention patent for the barcode, occurring on 7th October, 1952.
Despite the patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It was not until 1966 that the system began moving its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticized, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly（统一地）coded items. In 1970, Logicom developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification code( UGOIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh’s superstore, in Troy, which was the very first store to install this complex barcode reading system, and its popularity has soared(升温) ever since, and is obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide. What is stressed in the second paragraph?
| A．The heavy work of store owners. |
| B．The function of ultraviolet light, ink and a scanner. |
| C．The origination of barcodes. |
| D．Bernard Sliver’s education background. |
Which of the following was NOT a drawback of Sliver’s system?
| A．It was expensive to be applied on a large scale. |
| B．It was a laborious process. |
| C．The system was not stable. |
| D．It lacked a central mechanism. |
The popularity of the barcode rose quickly after .
| A．1948 | B．1952 | C．1966 | D．1970 |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To tell people that failure is the mother of success. |
| B．To praise scientists’ efforts in making people’s lives easier. |
| C．To describe shop owners’ opinions of barcodes. |
| D．To provide information about the development of barcodes. |
Forty years ago, Finland was a small, country with mediocre public schools. Today, Finland is still small but no one calls Finland’s public schools mediocre any more.
In 2000, the Finns surprised the world when their 15-year-olds scored at the top of a closely watched international exam called the PISA. Finland has stayed near the top ever since, while the U.S. scores around the middle.
Pasi Sahlberg, an official with Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, is in Seattle this week to share the story of Finland’s success, and what states like Washington can learn from it.
Sahlberg’s message, although he is too polite to put it so bluntly: Stop testing so much, trust teachers more; give less homework; shorten the school day.
On Tuesday, in a room filled with teachers, principals, professors, school-board members and policy makers, Sahlberg joked about the Finns’ reputation for being a quiet, humble people. “When Finland hit the top of the PISA,” he said, “the biggest disbelievers were Finns.”
More seriously, Finland never set out to create the world’s top school system. Instead, he said, the country decided in the 1970s that it wanted to ensure that a student’s success didn’t depend on family background.
“Finland relied on cooperation among teachers and schools, rather than on competition. Rather than judging teachers and schools based on test scores,” he said, “Finland puts trust in its teachers and principals. Teachers develop the curriculum in Finland, and design their own tests. There are no national tests, except one at the end of high school.”
That’s just the start. Along with a shorter school day, Finnish students don’t even start school until they are 7 years old. Many primary schools have a policy against giving homework.
“But Finland,” he said, “ succeeded in part by adopting ideas from the U.S. and other countries. And those countries, he said, can learn from Finland, too.”What might be the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To introduce a Finnish official. |
| B．To compare the education systems of Finland and the US. |
| C．To share the story of Finland’s success in education. |
| D．To ask the US to improve its education. |
People first learned Finland’s success in education from_____.
| A．its students’ performance in an international exam. |
| B．its international exchange prorrams. |
| C．lectures given by Pasi Sahlberg. |
| D．its small-sized public schools. |
Which of the following can contribute to Finland’s success in education?
a. Giving students fewer tests.
b. Giving teachers more trust.
c. Evaluating students’ family backgrounds.
d. Creating the world’s top school system.
e. Starting school late.
| A．a,b,c | B．c,d,e | C．a,b,e | D．b,c,d |
What Pasi Sahlerg said in Paragraph 7 suggested that ______.
| A．children should start school as early as possible. |
| B．competition among teachers might be harmful to education. |
| C．the US education system is still the most advanced. |
| D．it’s necessary to set up a national curriculum. |
Steve Flaig of Grand Rapids, Michigan, knew he’d been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he’d try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he’d been adopted gave him his mother’s name: Christine Tallady. But online searches didn’t turn up any results, and Flaig let it go.
In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe’s store where Flaig, then 22, worked as a deliveryman.When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “ You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?”
Flaig and Tallady, 45, a cashier, had said hi to each other a few times at thestore, but they’d never really talked. He hadn’t even known her name. Flaig thought, “ There’s no possible way she’s my mother.”
For a few months, Flaig avoided Tallady. “ I wasn’t sure how to approach her,” he told a local reporter. Finally, an adoption agency employee volunteered to call Tallady for him.
When Tallady realized that the nice guy she’d been waving at was her son, she blubbered. “ I wasn’t ready to be a mother at that time.” She’d given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. However, she’d always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearbybar.
Married with two other children, Tallady said, “I have a complete family now.”What did Steve Flaig do in the Lowe’s store in 2007?
| A．He worked as a deliveryman. |
| B．He was as a cashier. |
| C．He was the boss of the shop. |
| D．He was a local reporter. |
The underlined word “blubbered” in Paragraph 5 probably means______.
| A．shouted aloud | B．read aloud |
| C．said while crying | D．sang happily |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Remarkable Reunion. | B．An Adopted Son. |
| C．A Boss Helped Flaig | D．A Cashier’s Experience |
In the summer of 1978 an English farmer was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered that some of his wheat was lying flat on the ground. The flattened wheat formed a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat. The five circles were in a formation（结构） like five dots. During the following years, farmers in England found the strange circles in their fields more and more often.
The circles are called “crop circles” because they appear in the fields of grain ― usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but is never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a hoax. Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmers had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of grain without leaving tracks, and they couldn’t flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circles to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles — the same downward lash of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those.In the summer of 1978, an English farmer discovered in his field that ______.
| A．some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground |
| B．some of his wheat had been damaged |
| C．his grain was growing up in circles |
| D．his grain was moved into several circles |
The underlined word "hoax" in Paragraph 3 is probably ______.
| A．a research on the force of winds |
| B．an attempt made to fool people |
| C．an experiment for the protection of crops |
| D．a special way to plant crops |
Which of the following may prove that the crop circles are not made by man?
| A．The farmers couldn’t step out of the field. |
| B．The farmers couldn’t leave without footprints. |
| C．The farmers couldn’t make the circles round. |
| D．The farmers couldn’t keep the wheat straight up. |
One explanation given by scientists for the crop circles is that they are made by _____.
| A．air movement | B．airplane crashes |
| C．unknown flying objects | D．new farming techniques |
In New York, Ma witnessed the Alibaba Group opening on the New York stock exchange with the largest initial public offering (IPO，新股发行) in American history. “Alibaba, the world’s largest Internet commerce（贸易） company makes China equal to the US in the rapidly increasing global competition for technological innovation (创新) and economic transformation ” commented（评论） the South China Morning Post.
It has also made Ma China’s richest man with a fortune of around $25 billion (153 billion yuan), reported Reuters.
It’s reported that Ma’s rags-to-riches journey is just as spectacular as his Internet empire. Ma failed the national college entrance exams twice before he was finally in Hangzhou Normal University on his third attempt and failed in finding a suitable job several times. Also, Mr. Ma is a big believer in perseverance, which was proved in his English study experience.
However, it was his vision and goals that launched his career.
During a short trip to the US as an interpreter in 1995, Ma first experienced the Internet. He believed in the Internet’s business potential when few other Chinese people did. He started Alibaba in his Hangzhou apartment, with 17 friends and $60,000 of funds. At the time, when e-commerce was unheard of in China, “I called myself a blind man riding on the back of blind tigers,” he once said, according to The Guardian. His unusual ideas earned him the nickname “Crazy Jack Ma”.
Indeed, Ma is different. Although he is very thin and about 160cm tall, “Ma is yet animated and forceful, said The Guardian. “He is funny, creative, and a compelling (引人注目的) speaker.
Ma told Time magazine that he was “old for the Internet”. He started to slow down and looked around. According to The Wall Street Journal, Ma “plans to open a tai chi club with the actor Jet Li, build an entrepreneur (企业家) university in Hangzhou and continue to work on several environmental projects.”What made him into e-commerce industry?
| A．His belief in perseverance. |
| B．His English learning experience. |
| C．His foresight and ambitions. |
| D．His 17 friends and $60,000 funds. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 mean?
| A．Ma knew little about e-commerce. |
| B．Ma had no confidence in his business future. |
| C．Ma is a blind man riding on a blind tiger. |
| D．Ma had not enough money at that time. |
What’s the personality of Ma Yun according to the passage?
| A．Funny and competitive. |
| B．Attractive and believable |
| C．Rich and different. |
| D．Determined and creative. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．The Development of Alibaba Group |
| B．Ma Yun’s Crazy Success. |
| C．Ma Yun’s Personal Life |
| D．E-commerce in China |
(Reuters) --- A stampede（蜂拥） killed at least 36 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, but the police denied reports that it was caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous waterfront.
It was the worst disaster in the modern city since 58 died in an apartment building fire in 2010.
The cause of the crush has still to be confirmed, though state media and some witnesses have said it was at least partly aroused when people rushed to pick up coupons that looked like bank notes.
A man named Wu said the fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the celebrations.
"This incident happened after the stampede," police said in a brief statement, without saying what the real cause was.
Another witness said there had been a problem away from the area where the fake bills were thrown, with people trying to get on to a raised platform overlooking the river.
Xinhua news agency said that people had been trampled on after falling down on the steps up to the platform.
Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year's Eve. They recently canceled an annual 3D laser（激光器） show on the Bund, which last year attracted as many as 300,000 people.
On New Year's Eve, Beijing also canceled a countdown event in the central business district, Chinese media said, due to police fears about overcrowding.
The Shanghai government said on its official microblog that an inquiry had begun, and that all other New Year events had been canceled.
In 2004, 37 people died in a stampede in northern Beijing, on a bridge at a scenic spot, during the Lunar New Year holiday.According to the passage, why did people go to the Bund?
| A．To meet their old friends and relatives. |
| B．To watch an annual 3D laser show. |
| C．To celebrate the New Year’s Eve. |
| D．To pick up bank notes. |
What can be inferred according to the passage?
| A．People like 3D laser show better than any other events. |
| B．Some possible measures had been taken by authorities. |
| C．The local government had shown their worry about overcrowding. |
| D．The celebrations in Beijing were influenced by this stampede. |
What’s the passage about?
| A．A stampede on New Year’s Eve in Shanghai. |
| B．A laser show on the Bund. |
| C．An apartment fire in Shanghai. |
| D．A countdown event in Beijing. |