An energy watchdog is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the increasing electricity needs of gadgets（小装置）like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs.
In a report today, the Paris-based International Energy Agency says new electronic gadgets will be three times their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours（千瓦时）, which is equal to today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined.
The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030,when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the agency said.
“Consumer electronics is the fastest growing area and the area with the least amount of policies in place to control energy efficiency, ” said Paul Waide, a senior policy analyst at the agency.
Electronic gadgets already account for about 15 percent of household electric consumption, a share that is rising rapidly as the number of these gadgets multiplies. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on electricity to power all these household electronics, the energy agency said.
“ Most of the increase in consumer electronics will be in developing countries, where economic growth is the fastest and ownership rates of gadgets are the lowest , ”Waide said.
“This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.” the agency said. Existing technologies could cut down gadgets’energy consumption by more than 30 percent at no cost or by more than 50 percent at a small cost, the agency estimates, meaning total greenhouse gas emissions（排放） from households’electronic gadgets could be held stable（稳定的） at around 500 million tons of CO2 per year. How many terawatt hours did the energy consumption of new electronic gadgets reach?
| A．Nearly l, 700. | B．Nearly 600. |
| C．About 200. | D．About 60. |
What is the condition in the area of consumer electronics?
| A．There are a lot of rules to control the market. |
| B．There are few policies to control energy efficiency. |
| C．There are few choices for the customers. |
| D．There are lots of regulations to protect consumers' rights. |
The underlined word “jeopardize” in the last paragraph probably means “________ ”.
| A．harm | B．inspire |
| C．strengthen | D．encourage |
We can know from the last paragraph that existing technologies ___________.
| A．are able to control gadgets’energy consumption |
| B．could do nothing about gadgets’ energy consumption |
| C．could only cut down gadgets’ energy consumption by 30 percent |
| D．cut down gadgets’energy consumption at great cost |
A Train Floating On Air
A train that floats on air? It's not magic―it's magnets (磁).And it's close to reality.
In Virginia USA the fall of 2002, a train with no wheels traveled on air and carried college students across their campus.In Japan, a whisper-quiet railway engine hovered and raced at 350 miles per hour using magnets and electricity as the power.And in China, a magnet train line linked Shanghai with nearby Pudong Airport.
These trains use magnetic levitation (悬浮) technology, “maglev” for short. They use the same rules as the magnets you pick up at home or school: opposite poles of magnets attract each other, and like poles repel each other.
How does it work?
Powerful magnets on the bottom of the train repel magnets on the track, which is actually just a magnet-filled guiding way. With a magnetic field of sufficient force, the train will go hovering on air, which seemed impossible to us in the past.
When an electrical current is sent through the track, the train moves. Turn the current backwards and the train slows down.
Maglev doesn't rely on the friction (摩擦力) of wheels on track, so it can climb a much steeper hill than a traditional train. And it can travel easily in snow and ice, something that could bring normal trains to a screaming stop.This passage is about __________.
| A．maglev | B．magnets | C．levitation | D．electricity |
Which of the following is a repelling action?
| A． | B． | C． | D． |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．A magnet-filled guiding way is formed inside a maglev train. |
| B．Instead of electricity, magnets are used as the power of a maglev. |
| C．Maglev trains can climb hills with the help of magnetwheels. |
| D．Electric currents decide the movements of a maglev train. |
What is the difference between a maglev train and an ordinary train?
A．A maglev train can climb mountains without power while an ordinary o ne can’t. |
| B．A maglev train can travel in college campus while an ordinary train is not allowed. |
| C．Travelling without a track, a maglev train is safer and smoother than an ordinary one. |
| D．Floating on a track, a maglev train is faster, quieter than an ordinary railway train. |
Not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep is not a disorder in itself but a sign of some other problems, often a physical one.
If you have trouble sleeping, the American Sleep Disorders Association suggests that, for a week or two, you put down the time you go to bed, get up, exercise, and drink coffee, tea or wine. The purpose is to find the habits that may affect your sleep.
Then:
a.Don’t drink coffee in the six hours before going to bed.
b.Stop smoking and drinking at bedtime.
c.Don’t sleep during the day.
d.Go to bed at the same time every night. Set your alarm clock for the same time every morning and get up at that time, whether or not you sleep well.
e.Use the bedroom only for sleep. Read, watch TV, eat and talk elsewhere.
f.Take sleeping pills according to your doctor’s directions and don’t take them for longer than three weeks at a time.
g.If you haven’t fallen asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed, don’t turn over worrying about it. Get up and read or watch TV until you are sleepy, then return to bed.
If you continue to have trouble sleeping, ask your doctor for help or go to a sleep-disorders center. According to the passage, there is probably if you are not able to fall
asleep or stay asleep.
| A．a bad way of sleeping | B．a disorder in sleep |
| C．a physical reason | D．a problem caused by the brain |
If you have trouble sleeping, you should try to ______.
| A．ask a doctor for help or go to a sleep-disorders center |
B．p ut down the time you do things every day |
| C．do more physical exercise |
| D．find out the cause first |
According to the passage, which of the following would be the best way to help you sleep well?
| A．Taking some sleeping pills every day. |
| B．Reading books before you go to bed. |
| C．Setting your alarm clock at night. |
| D．Forming good living habits. |
The author writes this article in order to ______.
| A．tell us not being able to fall asleep is a serious disease |
| B．provide us with some suggestions on sleep problem |
| C．persuade us not to go to see the doctors when we are ill |
| D．help the American Sleep Disorders Association to find the causes of not being able to fall sleep |
What does fizz (气泡) taste like? In Bubbly (多泡的)drinks such 
as sodas, tiny bubbles give the drink a lift--- and have a distinct taste, In a new study on mice, scientists have connected that fizzy-taste feeling to the ability to taste sourness, such as that of oranges or vinegar.
Scientists first thought the taste of bubbles came from the bubbles bursting on the tongue, but now ate starting to think differently. Charles Zuker, of Columbia University, and his team studied the nervous system of mice to understand how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide, which is the gas that makes up the bubbles.
Animals, including human beings, are able to detect different tastes by using taste buds(味蕾) which pick up tastes in the mouth, and then send them to the brain. In the experiment, different groups of mice were genetically engineered to be missing one of the senses involved in taste. “Genetically engineered” means the researchers were able to turn off the switches for certain senses by changing the genes responsible for taste. The mice in one group could not taste sweet; another, sour; the third, bitter, and the fourth, salt. When the scientists gave carbon dioxide to the mice, the nervous systems of all the mice responded to the gas, except those of the mice that could not taste sour.
This shows that the taste of the bubbles must be sour, and that by turning off the ability of the mice to taste sour, the scientists also turned off their ability to taste carbon dioxide. When they studied the cells that detect sourness, the researchers found a protein attached to the cells that is important to the process of tasting carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide comes into contact with this protein, the protein knocks off particles called protons. These protons(质子), in turn, travel to the brain, which says ,” Hey! That’s a taste!”
It may seem like a lot of work to get from a can of soda to a taste, but the science of the senses is anything but simple, “ Taste is a challenging system to study,” one researcher says. What is the most important function of the bubbles?
| A．To look interesting . | B．To make drinks taste good. |
| C．To make drinks funny. | D．To produce a lot of fizz. |
From the experiment the researchers learned that______.
| A．sourness has nothing to do with the taste of bubbles. |
| B．there is a connection between sourness and bubbles. |
| C．the taste of bubbles is better if it’s less sour. |
| D．most mice cannot taste carbon dioxide. |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．the taste of bubbles is produced by the bubbles bursting on the tongue. |
| B．the nervous systems of mice show how the tongue tastes carbon dioxide. |
| C．taste seems simple but is very complex to research. |
| D．nerve cells sending signals to the brain is the first step in tasting something. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Nervous Systems Understand How the Tongue Tastes. |
| B．The Process of Taste |
C．The taste of Bubbles. |
| D．Different Animals Detect Different Tastes. |
Do you know what it means when somebody tells you that he had “a catch-22 experience”?
The phrase “catch-22” comes from a book of the same title by the American writer Joseph Heller published in 1961．Catch-22 is a book of black humor．The author uses silly and even surreal(超现实的)events．It has a non-linear narrative structure(非线性的叙述结构)in which events follow the theme rather than the timing，to give us a very strange picture full of contradictions(矛盾)．
The story takes places in a bomber base in Italy during World WarⅡ．The main character, Captain Yossarian wants to leave the war．Unfortunately, every time he completes the number of tasks to be sent home，the number is raised 
and he is forced to continue fighting．It seems hopeless for him to go home under the very strange rule in this Air Force-catch-22：only when a soldier goes crazy can he be allowed to go home．But he has to go to the hospital to show the doctors that he is crazy．However, if he tells them he is crazy but is obvious healthy, he cannot go home．In short，catch-22 is“heads 1 win，tails I lose．If you can you can’t；and if you can’t，you can．”Whenever you try to behave correctly in a crazy world．There’s a catch(潜在的困难)．
During the Vietnam War, the phrase“catch-22”became a popular term for being caught in a no．win，circular dilemma and is now commonly used．
The Oxford English Dictionary explains catch．22 as“a set of circumstances in which one requirement，etc，is dependent upon another, which is in turn d
ependent upon the first．” Which of the following statements is right?
| A．Catch-22 is one of Heller’s experiences during World War II． |
| B．Catch-22 is one of Yossarian’s experiences during the Vietnam War． |
| C．The events in catch-22 follow the theme． |
| D．The events in catch-22 follow the timing． |
Why did Captain Yossarian fail to leave the war?
| A．He wasn’t so anxious to leave the war． |
| B．He didn’t finish his tasks． |
| C．He was put into a catch-22 situation． |
| D．He wasn’t mad enough to be sent home． |
What does the underlined sentence most probably mean?
| A．Whenever and however you try, you are unable to reach the goal． |
| B．You can solve every problem you meet as long as you want to． |
C．You can’t solve a ny problem in your life． |
| D．If you can’t solve all the problems．you can solve none． |
The phrase“catch-22”came into being ________ _．
| A．in World War II | B．in the Vietnam War | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1960s |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our 
teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new 
experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to exp
lore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways. The writer takes the African boy as an example to show that _______.
| A．African children are very poor. | B．some children are unlucky. |
| C．there are many kinds of education. | D．schools are of great importance. |
In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．we have to learn from the people around us. | B．the school is not important at all. |
| C．only people who care for us can teach us. | D．education takes place everywhere. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. | B．the teachings of those he / she meets. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. | D．trying and practising things. |
The passage tells us that _.
| A．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| B．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school is not so important as our living places. |
B．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |