ItwasacomfortablesunnySunday.I-优题课

The desire to make explorations is born with man. Wherever his imagination goes, man also has a strong wish to go. A large part human history is connected with the exploration of the world in which we live. Again and again people have set out with surprising courage and patience to look into unknown regions and lands to see what had not yet been seen, to make known the unknown. With kites, balloons and aircraft they left the ground to pass through the lower atmosphere. Now the outer space receives their attention.
Why should man take the trouble of conquering space? It is hard to list the specific practical benefits that will result in. But one knows, from past experience in other areas, that man will surely see and discover new things in space that will increase our scientific knowledge, and this new knowledge will find its way into valuable practical uses. What we learn about man himself, from his experience in space, and from the effects of space and the space flight environment on him, will be extremely valuable. The new techniques developed to carry out the exploration of space, and to keep man alive in space, will certainly find practical uses in everyday life in some way. The areas that will benefit are manifold. They include communication, generation of power, transportation and travel, food production, materials, fuels and many others. But to say definitely just what the practical results will be is almost impossible.

The main idea of the first paragraph is that __________.

A．man desires to explore what is unknown

B．man often goes wherever his dreams go

C．man is no longer interested in the study of the land and sea now

D．man’s history is the exploration of the world

The word “manifold” in the second paragraph probably means __________.

A．vast

B．various

C．valuable

D．practical

The author seems to be in favor of__________.

A．doubting the necessity of the space exploration

B．the exploration of space

C．exploring more in space than in the sea

D．his experience in space

I travel a lot in my work, and what I dislike about my job is eating alone. It always makes me feel lonely to see others laughing and talking. So, room service for several nights was a better choice for me.
After having room service three nights at a hotel in Houston, however, I needed to get out of my room. Although the restaurant opened at 6:30, I arrived at 6:25. The waiter at the front desk made a comment(评论) about my “being there really early”. I explained my dislike of eating alone in restaurants. He then seated me at a lovely table and asked me whether I would mind if he sat down with me for a while.
I was glad! He sat and talked with me about his career goals and the difficulty of being at work on nights, weekends and holidays. He said he hadn’t enough time to be with his family. After 15 minutes, he saw some customers at the front desk and excused himself. I noticed that before he went to the front desk, he stopped in the kitchen for a moment.
Then another waiter came out of the kitchen and had a wonderful chat with me. Before I left that night, some other waiters, even the cook, had come out of the kitchen and sat with me! When I asked for my bill about one hour later, all the people who had sat down with me came over in a big group to my table, and presented me with a red rose. And I cried! What had begun as a lonely night ended as a beautiful experience.

The author asked for room service because _______.

A．a lot of money would be saved in this way

B．he didn’t like to eat with other people around

C．he didn’t wanted to be recognized by the waiters

D．seeing people laughing and talking made him feel bad

How did the waiter feel when he saw the author come in at 6:25?

A．Dissatisfied.

B．Pleased.

C．Surprised.

D．Angry.

From the third paragraph, we can learn that the waiter at the front desk ______.

A．knew how to attract more customers to his restaurant

B．found it hard to balance his work and his family

C．was getting tired of his present job

D．had never had such a chance to talk about his worries

The author wants to tell us that ______.

A．people are actually all lonely in their own way

B．restaurants should put the need of customers first

C．the kindness of strangers can make you less lonely

D．restaurants are full of surprises for lonely people

Ears are for hearing — everyone knows that. But for a creature called the Cuvier’s beaked whale, hearing starts in the throat (喉咙), a new study found.
The observation might help explain how all whales hear. The work might also help scientists understand how animals are affected by underwater sonar (声呐). This sonar, used by some ships, sends out sound waves to locate underwater objects.
The Cuvier’s beaked whale is a so-called toothed whale. Toothed whales dive deep into the ocean in search of food. As the whales hunt, they produce sounds that reach objects and then return to the whales. This allows the animals to “see” the shape, size, and location of objects, even when they’re 1,000 meters under the sea, where it is totally dark.
To better understand how the whale hears, researchers from San Diego State University in California took X rays of two Cuvier’s beaked whales. The whales had died and washed up on the beach.
Ted Cranford and his colleagues used the images to make a computer model of a Cuvier’s beaked whale’s head. Then, they modeled the process of sound traveling through the head.
The researchers knew that some sounds get to the ears of a toothed whale through a structure (构造) called “the window for sound”. Found on the lower jaw, this structure is very thin on the outside and has a large pad (垫) of fat on the inside.
When the researchers used their computer model to work out how sound waves travel in the whale’s head, they were surprised to find that sounds coming from right in front of the whale actually travel under the animal’s jaw. From there, sound waves move through the throat, into a hole in the back of the jaw, and finally to the pad of fat near the animal’s ears.

Toothed whales look for food under the sea by ______.

A．watching the shape and size of their objects	B．diving deep into the sea
C．sending and receiving sounds	D．making lots of noises

Researchers took X rays of two Cuvier’s beaked whales in order to ______.

A．find out why they had died and washed up on the beach

B．make a computer model of a Cuvier’s beaked whale’s head

C．make sure that sound travels through the head

D．know more about the way the whale hears

Which of the following describes the way taken by sound waves through a Cuvier’s beaked whale?

A．A hole in the back of the jaw → the ears → the jaw → the throat.

B． The jaw → the throat → a hole in the back of the jaw → the ears.

C． The throat → the jaw → the ears → a hole in the back of the jaw.

D．The ears → the throat → a hole in the back of the jaw → the jaw.

Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?

A．The throat is important to the Cuvier’s beaked whale’s hearing.

B．Ships send out sound waves like a Cuvier’s beaked whale.

C．The ears are actually useless to the Cuvier’s beaked whale.

D．The researchers haven’t found how the whales hear.

A young British sailor was missing at sea yesterday in similar circumstances(情况) to the way his father died five years ago．
The dinghy(救生橡皮船), used to take Richard Smith, 21, to his yacht(快艇), was discovered empty, floating in seas off the Caribbean island. An air and sea search was carried out but he has still not been discovered.
Richard’s mother, Bicknell, said from her home in Hampshire, “It’s so much coincidence(意外). Richard always carried a photograph of his father attached to a poem, which included the date of his disappearance.”
“Now, it’s very strange because all they have found is Richard’s dinghy. We need to know this time what has happened one way or another. If you know at least you can go through the grieving process(悲痛的过程).”
In November 1996, Mr. Smith’s father, Charlie, was sailing in the Tasmen sea between the Australian mainland and the island of Tasmen with his new wife. They lost radio contact with the shore and they, together with their yacht were never seen again, and their disappearance remains a mystery.
Richard is described as a talented and experienced sailor. He had sailed to the Caribbean in November to help a yacht race for entertainment. He ended the evening drinking in the Abracbabra bar but left after local police closed it for being too noisy.
About 2 am the following day Richard headed back for his dinghy. He started its motor before giving an elderly woman a lift to her yacht after her dinghy had gone missing. It was the last time he was seen.

Richard Smith was ____ in 2000.
A. ten B. fifteen C. twenty D. eighteen

People searched for Richard using ____ .

A．ship only

B．ship and radio

C．ship and plane

D．yacht and car

. According to the passage，we know Richard died because ____ .

A．he was a green hand in sailing

B．some unknown animal attacked him

C．there was a fog in the area he was sailing

D．of something we don’t know

Which statement is NOT true according to this passage?

A．Old Mr. Smith had lost radio contact with the shore before he died.

B．Richard’s father had married two women at least.

C．Richard didn’t drink on the evening before he was lost because the policeman closed the bar.

D．Richard was seen at about 2 am the day he disappeared.

I am trying to muster (鼓起) the courage to toss away my mobile phone to enjoy a more peaceful and ringfree life.
Can you imagine not having your mobile phone? In our hightech, inahurry age, a cellfree life is a hard concept to swallow. Our mobile phones can now access the Internet, and many people feel the need to express their every thought on their blog pages. If I gave up my cellphone, people would think I was mad.
I wish I had the strength to toss away my technology. I have an office phone, a home phone，an email and if people want to contact me, they can. If I’m out，people can leave a message. Do they really need to find me 24/7？However, I’m a bit like Frodo in the movie Lord of the Rings. The power of the ring is too strong and I can’t let it go.
Mobile phones have become necessary tools in our busy life. For most people, they hold all contacts and many of us don’t write up address books any more. The latest phones carry our music, pictures, movies and everything else. We feel lost without this device and when we do misplace it, we feel cut off from our fellow.
“Where have you been？” said a friend, who saw me a week after I lost my cellphone, “I tried calling you, but you disappeared. You disappeared off the face of the Earth.” See, when you don’t have a mobile phone, you don’t exist.
I’m not really going to toss my mobile phone away, in fact. We humans are such social animals and mobile phones serve us well. So in 2009, I’ve decided not to serve my mobile phone. Like all machines, I can always turn it off.

. What does the underlined phrase “toss away” mean?