There is a technology that may someday be widely used as way to identify people.An American doctor can plant a computer chip under his skin which can send personal information to a scanner.The chip gives off information which will be scanned by a hand-held reader.
The chip is similar to that planted in more than 1 million dogs,cats and other pets in recent years to track and identify them. The doctor decided to test the chip himself after the World Trade Center disaster.He though the dead in the disaster could have been identified if their names and other important information had been chipped .
Officials of the company said they hope to sell the chips to patients with man-made arms or legs. The idea is that the chip will provide immediate and correct medical information when it is needed.
The information can contain name,telephone number and other information.Or it can send out a message that ,when connected to a computer can call up records.The scanner can read it through clothes from over a meter away .The new product also could be used to control prisoners .Workplaces of great importance may want to use the chips for employees,too.Some parents may consider planting chips in young children or elderly relatives who may be unable to say their names,addresses or telephone numbers.
Some medical and technology specialists said the product raises new questions about the relationship between humans and computer technology and could cause problems if it is used against someone's wishes,or if your personal information is read by those who should not see it.
In the text,computer chips have already been used to
| A．catch escaped prisoners | B．find missing children |
| C．treat sick people | D．follow lost animals |
The doctor decided to test the chips himself because
| A．nobody would dare to try it |
| B．the chip could be used for identification purposes |
| C．the chip had been proved successful on animals |
| D．his patients expected him to experience it first |
We can learn from the passage that
| A．the chip has been proven to be very successful. |
| B．The use of this chip will be favored by everybody |
| C．doctors will make a lot of money by using chips. |
| D．There will be a great market for chip planting in humans. |
What problem may be caused by planting chips in the human bodies?
| A．Personal information may be used improperly |
| B．Chips can be the cause of diseases |
| C．Computers could send out wrong information |
| D．Sick people will be controlled by computers. |
Every day it seems that people are coming up with new and innovative ways to use mobile devices like cellphones and smart phones. Researchers at Princeton University are looking for new ways to measure a person’s sense of wellbeing with mobile devices.
To gain a better understanding of how cellphones and other mobile devices can measure our sense of happiness, the research team conducted a study that was published recently in the journal Demography. To gather data for their study, the team created an application for mobile devices using the Android operating system.
Once the app was developed, the researchers invited people to download it and take part in their study. Over a three-week period, the research team was able to collect data from some 270 participants living in 13 countries.
Participants came not only from the United States, but also from other nations like Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Over the course of the study, participants received occasional text questions from the researchers that asked “How happy are you?”. Along with recording their response, the app used the mobile device’s built-in GPS to keep track of the participant’s location.
The study participants were asked to rate their current state of happiness on a scale of zero to five. As they gathered data from the information collected through the application, the researchers then were able to create new methods that could help provide a better understanding of how our surroundings can influence our emotional well-being.
The researchers learned that mobile devices can provide an effective way to quickly grab information that, because of today’s active lifestyle, can be difficult to record. Being able to quickly grab this information was something the researchers felt was important. They said feelings and emotions that were recorded as they were happening were most likely to be more honest and precise than using other methods like writing down how they felt on a piece of paper after the fact.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．The study the team conducted has not been published yet. |
| B．About 270 people from 13 countries participated in the study. |
| C．The participants didn’t need to download the app to participate. |
| D．None of the participants came from the United Kingdom. |
What did the researchers find vital as to rate people’s sense of happiness from the passage?
| A．Recording people’s feelings and emotions quickly. |
| B．Writing down how they felt on a piece of paper. |
| C．Answering the text question “How happy are you?” |
| D．Knowing how the surroundings affect people’s happiness. |
The underlined word in the first paragraph probably refers to ______.
| A．emotion | B．wealth |
| C．happiness | D．technology |
The best title of the passage is most likely to be “_______”.
| A．People’s Sense of Happiness Related to Mobile Phones |
| B．Scientists Track Happiness with Cellphones |
| C．Methods to Rate People’s Happiness |
| D．A Better Understanding of People’s Sense of Happiness |
A mother’s ad calling for her son to come home for Chinese New Year ran on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily newspaper on January 14.
It placed a full page ad, saying “Dear Peng, I’ve called you many times but you don’t pick up, maybe you will see this. Dad and mom won’t ever force you to get married anymore, come home for Chinese New Year! From your mom who loves you.”
The ad, which appeared on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily on Tuesday, would cost $2,796.80 Australian dollars ($2465). The newspaper serves the city’s Chinese community. The mother, who lives in Guangzhou had placed the ad after losing contact with her son.
Every year around this time, many Chinese prepare to head home for China’s most important festival. But many of the younger generation are afraid of facing family confrontations about their love life.
On the online Chinese forum Tianya. cn, a single man asked for advice on facing his family. “It’s almost that time of the year. How should I explain to my family and relatives that I am single?” a user in Guangzhou “1979xiaozhu” posted. Many of the replies were telling him not to go home instead.
User “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” wrote: “Going home means they will either arrange blind dates for you or you get scolded.”
“This year my mom gave me an ultimatum. One, bring 50,000 yuan; second, bring a wife home. If I don’t have both then she said I don’t need to come home. What a tragedy!” said user “fghjkh84”.
Those girls who can’t handle the pressure of parents can rent a boyfriend for the day through China’s online shopping giant, Taobao.com. Rental boyfriends come with services such as meeting the parents, shopping and watching movies.The mother placed a full page ad in order to _______.
| A．ask her son to come back to China for the festival |
| B．beg her son to answer her telephone more times |
| C．force her son to come home and get married |
| D．make her son become famous in Melbourne |
Why did the mother place the ad in the Chinese Melbourne Daily?
| A．Because her son didn’t want to get married in China. |
| B．Because she couldn’t get in touch with her son any more. |
| C．Because her son wanted to live alone in Australia. |
| D．Because she wanted her son to come back to work. |
What leads many Chinese young people not to go home for New Year?
| A．Their busy work. | B．The long distance. |
| C．Their low pay. | D．Their love life. |
From the passage we can infer ______.
| A．the user “1979xiaozhu” is a married young man |
| B．the user “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” will go home |
| C．the user “fghjkh84” will bring a wife home |
| D．some single girls have to bring an untrue boyfriend home |
“When an American asks me this question, it’s like a wall of ice crashing down between us.” my Moscow-born friend Galina said. The question is “How are you?”.
The answer Americans give, of course is, “Fine.” But when Russians hear this they think one of two things: you are experiencing a rare moment of fineness or you are lying.
Ask a Russian, “How are you?” and you will hear, for better or worse, the truth. I have experienced many painful minutes of silence after my grandmother made her stock response: “Terrible,” to which she might add, “Why? Because being old is terrible and I am very old.”
“‘Fine’ makes Russians think that Americans have no soul,” I explained recently to an American-born friend. “That they just want to go home, eat a frozen dinner in front of the TV, and wait out the hours before going to work to make money again.” He laughed, “You know, there’s something to that.”
The thing most Russians don’t realize is that, in English, “How are you?” isn’t a question at all, but a form of “hi”, like the Russian “privyet!”
Psychologists at the University of Michigan have shown that, while Russians are, indeed, easier to be depressed than Americans, their open acceptance of bad experiences might be healthier.
Recently, when I looked through a few American guides on traveling to Russia, I was disappointed to find that they all suggested that tourists adopt the American approach to “How are you”.When you ask a Russian “how are you” the Russian will ________.
| A．answer “fine” |
| B．tell you the truth |
| C．make no answer |
| D．get angry and walk away |
If an American answers “fine” to the question “how are you”, the Russian will think ______.
| A．he is not honest | B．he will go home |
| C．he likes watching TV | D．he is living a bad life |
We can infer Russians’ answer to “how are you” can make Americans feel ________.
| A．happy | B．angry |
| C．puzzled | D．touched |
About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier; only about one in two hundred is affected (影响) in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman!
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shadows(阴影) of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In few cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green--a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called “cones”. These help us to see in a bright light and to tell difference between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is near dark. They show us shape but no color.
Some insects (昆虫) have favorite colors. Mosquitoes (蚊子) prefer blue to yellow. A red light will not attract (吸引) insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the help of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the help of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the hidden colors around us.The passage is mainly about .
| A．color blindness |
| B．color and its surprising effects. |
| C．women being luckier than men |
| D．danger caused by color blindness |
According to the passage, with the help of the “cones”, we can .
| A．tell different shapes |
| B．see in a weak light |
| C．kill mosquitoes |
| D．tell orange from yellow |
Which of the statements (陈述) about the color-blind is TRUE?
| A．None of them can see deep red |
| B．All of them see everything in shades of green. |
| C．None of them can tell the difference between blue and green. |
| D．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing color. |
We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a .
| A．red light | B．yellow light |
| C．blue light | D．green light |
I receive many letters from children and can’t answer them all--there wouldn't be enough time in a day. I’ll try to answer some of the questions that are mostly asked. Where did I get the idea for Stuart Little and for Charlotte's Web? Well, many years ago, I went to bed one night in a railway sleeping car, and during the night I dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a mouse. That's how the story of Stuart Little got started.
As for Charlotte's Web, I like animals and my farm is a very pleasant place to be--at all hours. One day, when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most pigs, he was going to die. This made me sad. So I started thinking of ways to save his life. Three years after I started writing it; it was published(出版). ( I am not a fast writer, as you can see.)
Sometimes I'm asked when I started to write, and what made me want to write. I started early -as soon as I could spell. Children often find pleasure through trying to set their thoughts down on paper, either in words or in pictures. I was not good at drawing, so I used words instead. As I grew older, I found that writing could be a way of making a living.
Well, here is the answer to the last question. No, they are imaginary (虚构的) stories. In real life, a family doesn't have a child who looks like a mouse and a spider doesn't write words in her web. Although my stories are imaginary, I like to think that there is some truth in them, too--truth about the way people and animals feel, think and act.The writer wrote this passage to.
| A．introduce his new books. |
| B．introduce two funny stories |
| C．explain why he enjoys writing |
| D．answer some readers’ questions |
We can know from the passage that the writer is a person who.
| A．writes imaginary stories for children |
| B．writes very fast. |
| C．mainly writes stories for adults |
| D．works on a friend’s farm |
The writer started to write because he wanted to.
| A．improve his spelling |
| B．express his thoughts |
| C．show his sadness |
| D．make a good living |
What is probably the last question?
| A．Are your stories true? |
| B．What is the truth in your stories? |
| C．Will you write more imaginary stories? |
| D．Do you know a child looking like a mouse? |