XinhuaNewsAgency－TheInternatio-优题课

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will e from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The project is meant to ______.

A．increase the world’s food output in the future

B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.

C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.

D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

We can infer from the text that _______.

A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．The Best Place to Store Seeds

B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

C．Concerns of World Food Supply

D．A New Way to Feed the World

Among various programmes, TV talk shows have covered every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one is different in style. But no two shows are more opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “rubbish talk”. The contents on his show are as surprising as they can be. For example, the show takes the ever-mon talk show titles of love, sex, cheating, and hate, to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is about the dark side of society, yet people are willing to eat up the troubles of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its top. But Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show is mainly about the improvement of society and different quality of life. Contents are from teaching your children lessons, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
pared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being poured into society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech about the entire idea of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show’s main viewers are middleclass Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and ability to deal with life’s tough problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a connection with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life include love, relationship, sex, money and drug. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned through the show’s exploitation.
pared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ____.

A．more interesting	B．more formal
C．more detailed	D．unusually popular

Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?

A．Family ine planning.	B．Nation hatred.
C．A new type of robot.	D．Street accident.

We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows_____.

A．have bee the only ones of its kind

B．attract different people

C．appear at different times of the day

D．exploit the weaknesses in human nature

Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have experienced an “agricultural revolution”. On the farm of today, machines provide almost all the power.
One of the most important benefits will be the farm puter. A few forward-looking farmers are already using puters to help them run their farms more efficiently. The puters help them keep more accurate records so they can make better decisions on what crops to plant, how much livestock(家畜) to buy, when to sell their products, and how much profit they can expect. Many puter panies have been developing special puter programs just for farmers. Programs are being written for pig producers, grain farmers, potato farmers, and dairy farmers. In the future, farmers will be able to purchase puter programs made to their needs. Because of the growing importance of puters on the farm, students at agricultural colleges are required to take puter classes in addition to their normal agricultural courses. There can be no doubt that farmers will rely on puters even more in the future. While the old-time farm depended on horse power, and modern farms depend on machine power, farms of the future will depend on puter power.
Another technological advance which is still in the experimental stage is the robot, a real “mechanized hired hand” that will be able to move and, in some ways, think like a human being. Agricultural engineers believe that puter-aided robots will make shocking changes in farming before the end of the century. Unlike farmers of the present, farmers of the future will find that many day-to-day tasks will be done for them. Scientists are now developing robots that will be able to shear（修剪） sheep, drive tractors, and harvest fruit. Even plex jobs will be done by robots. For example, in order to milk their cows, farmers must first drive them into the barn, then connect them to the milking machines, watch the machines, and disconnect them when they are finished. In the future, this will all be done by robots. In addition, when the milking is pleted, the robots will automatically check to make sure that the milk is pure. The plete change of the farm is far in the future, but engineers expect that some robots will be used before long.
Which sentence carried the main idea of the whole passage?

A．The first sentence of the third paragraph.

B．The first sentence of the second paragraph.

C．The first sentence of the first paragraph.

D．The last sentence of the second paragraph.

According to the passage, puters can not help farmers decide _______.

A．how much money they can earn from their products

B．whether to plant a certain kind of crop

C．what livestock to raise

D．when to sell their products

Which of the following statements is true?

A．Farmers in the future will depend totally on puters.

B．Farmers mainly use machines on their farms at present.

C．Both puters and robots have been in use on today’s farms.

D．Students at agricultural colleges must take puter classes because they can do

Nothing without the help of puters on today’s farms.
What is the best title for the whole passage?

A．puter, Farmers’ Best Friend	B．Farmers in The Future
C．The Agricultural Revolution	D．puters and Robots

“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school football coach Bob Peters, 39. Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” --a document stating that for 70 days this summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores. Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.)
After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, pletely humbled（挫败的）,” admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press, stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.”
Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids. Then two years ago Pat went back to work as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs, “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however----until Bob signed the contract, therefore, she decided to relax and enjoy it.
Although Peters had consulted(咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria, his meals were sometimes a disaster. “I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner.
As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “I found an easier way-I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”
Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely sharing the child-raising and household tasks with Pat. The tentative（暂时的） title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day.
The couple signed the contract because _______.

A．Pat plained a lot about her doing the housework all by herself

B．Bob loved taking care of children and wanted his wife to have a good rest

C．they agreed that husband and wife should share household tasks

D．Bob thought it easy to take care of the family and wanted the experience for a book

It was agreed that if Bob failed to keep to the contract, he would have to _______.

A．pay a certain amount of money

B．admit publicly he was wrong about motherhood

C．say sorry to his wife

D．do all the housework for years

What can we learn about Pat Peters?

A．She was hard-working and selfless.

B．She was pretty and kind-hearted.

C．She was tired of the child-raising and household tasks.

D．She did not love Bob any longer.

Which of the following can best end the news story?

A．“Wait till your mother gets home!”

B．“My experience of being a mother.”

C．“I’m proud of you all, my dear!”

D．“Motherhood: an impossible job for anyone.”

According to some talk, the younger generation in Smithville is the most antisocial in history. This seems far from the truth. Young people today as a whole are better, more informed, more ambitious, healthier, and more smart than ever before. Why then, it may be asked, do we see such restlessness and such antisocial behavior among our young people?
For the answer the citizens of this community must look at themselves. What have they done to the grounds that have been built in the last fifteen years? How many swimming pools are there? How many vocational training projects have been started? How many community – organized youth parties and picnics have been held?
The average citizen will answer that the responsibility for these activities belongs to the schools. But the schools cannot be held responsible for all the free – time activities of all the young people of this community. The job of the schools is formal education, not free – time recreation（娱乐）.
This community needs a youth center suitable for such activities as picnics, camping, sports, music, art and so on. There should be social and recreational activities to meet the needs and interests of every member of our school age youth.
Mayor Elmo D. Greely has proposed the formation of a Youth Club as the first step in the direction of a Youth Center. Mayor Greely has called a meeting at the City Hall on Friday, August 15, at noon.
Giving up a lunch hour is a very little sacrifice for a project that can be of great importance to this community.
This newspaper urges every adult and young person of Smithville to attend this important meeting. We believe our industrial, business, and professional leaders have an especially strong duty to be present.
This newspaper will be present and intends to support this project with vigor.
The underlined word “antisocial” probably means “ ”.

A．opposed to an orderly society or way of life	B．promising
C．suitable to present society	D．having a lot of social experience

What does the writer think of the sentence “The younger generation in Smithville is the most
antisocial in history.”?

A．He thinks it is true.	B．He thinks it is not true.
C．He thinks it is partially true.	D．He thinks it is nonsense.

The main idea of Paragraphs 2 and 3 is .

A．to give us lots of questions to show that problem is serious.

B．that school should hold the responsibility for education rather than free – time recr

eation.

C．to analyze the reasons why the youth are antisocial.

D．that we should take more activities or start many vocational projects.

A．Students from high schools.	B．Scholars from Canada.
C．Officials from governments.	D．Experts from companies.

A．Reducing cost.	B．Using wind energy.
C．Saving energy.	D．Developing new fuels.