Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents (洋流) . Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way -- by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years’ experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.
Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes — about 60,000 in total — fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn't. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.
The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing(海滩搜寻) because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1, 600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.
As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.The underlined phrase swap meets in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______________.
| A．fitting rooms |
| B．trading fairs |
| C．business talks |
| D．group meetings |
Ebbesmeyer phoned the shoe company to find out _____________.
| A．what caused the shipping accident |
| B．when and where the shoes went missing |
| C．whether it was all right to use their shoes |
| D．how much they lost in the shipping accident |
How did Ebbesmeyer prove his assumption?
| A．By collecting information from beachcombers. |
| B．By studying the shoes found by beachcomber. |
| C．By searching the web for ocean currents models. |
| D．By researching ocean currents data in the library. |
Ebbesmeyer is most famous for ___________________.
| A．traveling widely the coastal cities of the world |
| B．making records for any lost objects on the sea |
| C．running a global currents research association |
| D．phoning about any doubtful objects on the sea |
What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
| A．To call people's attention to ocean pollution. |
| B．To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean. |
| C．To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents. |
| D．To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach. |
Opening week specials at Munchies Food Hall.
At the corner of Green and Brown Streets in the city
Monday 7th of January until Sunday.13rd of January 2008
Feast until you’re full! Come down to Monetizes time week to enjoy the special dishes on offer it all of our food outlets. Order from the following:
|
●Succulent chicken rice ●spicy stays beef
●Delicious noodle dishes ●plump porky chips
m our lucky draw box.
January
In the future your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a s
upercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!
For each prediction that has come true today, several others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn’t consider how people would want to use the technology, or if people really needed it in their lives or not. Let’s look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.
Robot Helpers
Where’s the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he’s probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other manufacturing environments.
Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people’s homes.
So why hasn’t it happened? Probably because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And maybe the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.
Telephones of Tomorrow
In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn’t caught on yet.
Why? The technology worked fine, but it over—looked something obvious: people’s desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just step out of the shower? Probably not---it could be embarrassing! Just because a technology available doesn’t always mean people will want to use it.
And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It’s not so crazy anymore! But a flying car remains one of the most fascinating technology ideas to capture our imagination. Keep watching the news, or perhaps the sky outside your window, to see what the future will bring.
64. The whole passage is mainly about ________________.
A. predictions that have come true.B. predictions that haven’t come true.
C. why predictions don’t come true easily. D. what technology will bring about.
65. The author of this passage won’t believe that _________________.
A. predictions needn’t consider people’s practical use of technology.
B. the future isn’t always easy to guess.
C. not all past predictions have come true.
D. many of the high—tech things our parents thought we’d be using by now simply never appeared.
66. The underlined word “weird” probably means __________.
A. wonderful B. stupid C. practical D. strange
67. What does the author think of the flying car?
A. It is too difficult to imagine. B. It is too crazy an idea.
C. It is likely to be made.D. It is often reported in the news.
The sea has always interested man. From it he can get food, minerals, and treasure. For thousands of years, he could sail on it. But he could not go far beneath its surface.
Man wants to explore deep into the sea. However, he is not a fish. He must breathe air, so he can’t stay under the water’s surface for any length of time. To explore deep water, man faces even more dangers and problems.
A diver who wants to stay under water for more t
han a few minutes must breathe air or a special mixture of gases. He can wear a diving suit and have air pumped to him from above. He can carry a tank of air on his back and breathe through a hose(软管) and a mouthpiece. Water weighs 800 times as much as air. Tons of water pushes against a diver deep in the sea. His body is under great pressure.
When a diver is under great pressure, his blood takes in some of the gases he breathes. As he rise
s to surface, the water pressure becomes less. If the diver rises too quickly, the gases in his blood form bubbles(气泡). The diver is then suffering from the bends(潜函病). The bends can cause a diver to double up in pain. They can even kill him.
60. On the whole, this text is about _________.
A. special mixtures of gases in deep sea.B. the problems a diver faces in deep sea.
C. air pressure under the surface of sea water. D. a kind of illness that man suffers in the sea.
61. The text does not say so, but it makes you think that ____________.
A. deep-sea divers should be in good health.
B. divers explore the deep sea only for treasure.
C. there is a special mixture of gases under the sea.
D. diving under the water too quickly causes a kind of illness.
62. Why does a diver get the bends?
A. The air in his blood is used up.B. His diving suit weighs too much.
C. He comes to the surface too quickly. D. He tries to do exercise under the sea.
63. From the text we can learn that _____________.
A. man cannot stay under water for more than a few minutes.
B. the sea began to interest man in the last few years.
C. all divers will get the bends sooner or later.
D. the bends may kill a diver.
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑
Many people cannot forget the beautiful thousand hand dance performed by disabled people during the 2005 CCTV Spring Gala(晚会). Many of these dancers cannot hear or speak, but their performances are wonderful.
The leading dancer is a beautiful young woman, Tai Lihua, who was born healthy but lose her hearing when she was two years old because of a fever. Not long after that, she also became mute and, from then on, her world was silent. She did not realize this at first, but when she was five, she played a game about sounds with her school friends and discovered she was different. She felt very sad. Her father went to many places looking for treatments for her disabilities, but nothing worked.
When she was seven years old, Tai Lihua went to a school for deaf and mute children, where
she did very well in her studies. Her teacher said she used her brain more than other children and was very good at expressing her feelings through movements.
Then when she was fifteen, she started learning to dance. At first, she found it difficult but she didn’t give up. She spent a lot of time practicing and became a brilliant dancer. In the last few years, she has performed in many countries and is much admired by foreign audience. Dancing has changed her life and brought her world wide success and fame.
56. Which of the following is expressed in the passage?
A. Where there is life, there is hope.
B. No one is too old to learn.
C. Where there is a will, there is a way.
D. The early bird catches the worm.
57. Tai Lihua discovered that she was different from other children when she was _____.
A .two B. five C. seven D. fifteen
58. We can learn from the passage that ______.
A. Tai Lihua was born healthy.
B. Tai Lihua isn’t successful now.
C. Tai Lihua’s parents didn’t take good care of her.
D. Tai Lihua had a natural ability to dance very well.
59. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. A disabled girl.
B. A dancer in a silent world.
C. A beautiful dancer.
D .Dance performance in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence (智力)? The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet．
If you ran into Smarter Child online , you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory．It can recite many facts． For example , Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season．
He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US．However , if you ask Smarter Child other questions , you get stranger answers．A question about Smarter Child’s age returns． “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets , “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California．”
Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank．To answer questions about spelling , for instance , Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online．For the weather , he visits www．intellicast．com．
Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet , an artificial being with the combined knowledge of , say , Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born．However if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A．I．, Artificial Intelligence , he must overcome two problems．
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are labeled in different ways．That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather．It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself．
Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process (处理) information more exactly and faster than any human , he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child．
67．From the text we can infer that www．intellicast．com is a website___________．
A．which is specially designed to help Smarter Child
B．where we people can find Smarter Child
C．where weather forecasts are made
D．which is about artificial intelligence
68．It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to_______．
A．tell us how to spell a difficult word
B．tell us how the American government is run
C．provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare
D．learn how to tell right behaviors from wrong ones。
69．Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A．Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information．
B．A．I．Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer．
C．Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own．
D．We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein , Nixon and Spears．
70．Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A．A New Web Child B．Smarter Child
C．The Future of Internet D．Intelligence Development