China is going green.In order to reduce air pollution and oil shortages, automobile manufacturers have announced their plans to develop hybrid vehicles (混合燃料汽车) for the Chinese market. Toyota's hybrid car Prius will be ready to drive in China this week. Let's have a look at the new car.
Any vehicle is a hybrid when it combines two or more sources of power. Hybrid cars run off a rechargeable battery and gasoline. Hybrid cars have special engines, which are smaller than traditionalgasoline engines. They run at 99 percent of their power when the car is cruising (匀速行驶). A speciallydesigned battery motor provides extra power for running up hills or when extra acceleration is needed.
Step into a Prius, and turn on the engine. The first thing you notice is how much quieter it is than atraditional car. At this point, the car's gasoline engine is dormant (休眠). The electric motor will providepower until the car reaches about 24 km/h. If you stay at a low speed, you are effectively driving an electric car, with no gasoline being used, and no waste gas gives off.
The onboard(车载的) computer makes the decision about when to use a gas engine, when to goelectric, and when to use a combination of the two. If you go over 24 km/h, when you step on the gas pedal (油门), you are actually telling the computer how fast you want to go.
The electronic motor recharges automatically using a set of batteries. When driving at high speed, the gasoline engine not only powers the car, but also charges the batteries. Any time you use the brake, the electric motor in the wheels will work like a generator and produce electricity to recharge the batteries.As a consequence, the car's batteries will last for around 200,000 miles.The author writes this passage mainly to________.
| A．teach people how to drive a hybrid car |
| B．show how to save their gasoline when driving a car |
| C．introduce a new kind of "green" car |
| D．announce plans to develop hybrid vehicles for China |
The first sentence probably refers to ________.
| A．there will be more and more green land in China |
| B．China has started producing environmentally friendly cars |
| C．China's new cars are combinations of different green models |
| D．China is still young and lacking experience |
What is the most important feature of hybrid cars?
| A．They have smaller engines than traditional gasoline ones. |
| B．They are much quieter than traditional cars. |
| C．They only use 99 percent of their power to run up hills. |
| D．They are powered by both a rechargeable battery and gasoline. |
Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn’t matter where you live－ in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village the chances that you will be disturbed by jet planes , transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc, are almost everywhere. We seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they are working.
Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be very frightening experience for human beings. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓). The noise level in some disco is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.
One recent report about noise and concentration(专心) suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration , what really affects their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise, which doesn’t change too much (music, for example ) may even help people to concentrate.The best title for this passage is________.
| A．Noisy Life |
| B．Background Noise |
| C．Disturbed Concentration |
| D．Changeable Noise |
From this passage, the pollution of noise __________.
| A．doesn’t matter much |
| B．has become better in big cities |
| C．has become better in villages |
| D．has become worse everywhere |
Scientists have discovered that what prevents people from concentrating is _________.
| A．any kind of noise |
| B．great changes in level of noise |
| C．background noise |
| D．various background music |
An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is that?”
The son replied, “That is a crow.”
After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this?”
The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is this?”
This time, the son said to his father in a low and cold tone, “It’s a crow, a crow.”
After a moment, the father yet again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?”
This time his son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you already, ‘IT IS A CROW’. Are you not able to understand this?”
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page.
Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window edge. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied him 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t at all feel angry, but instead felt affection for my son.
If your parents reach old age, do not look at them as a burden, but speak to them gently, and be kind to them. From today say this aloud, “I want to see my parents happy forever. They have cared for me ever since I was a little child. They have always showered me with love. I will take care of my old parents in the best way no matter how they behave.”The old man brought out the diary, which he had kept since his son was born, because ______.
| A．he forgot what had happened |
| B．he would like his son to read it |
| C．it could remind himself of the past |
| D．he wanted to find what a crow was |
The underlined word “affection” (last but one Para.) probably means______.
| A．puzzle | B．hatred(恨) | C．worry | D．love |
The writer mainly intends to ______ .
| A．tell us the function (作用) of a diary |
| B．call on us to love our parents |
| C．teach us what a crow is |
| D．introduce a pair of son and father |
There once was a very honest shopkeeper whose business was to provide goods to the local people. He would open his shop at 8:00 a.m. after having his breakfast and at 1:00 p.m. he would go for lunch. In the evening at 8:30 p.m. he closed his shop to complete his daily routine.
However, to get time for lunch was really difficult be-cause he didn’t have anybody to help him at that time. Therefore, it was his daily practice that whichever customer was shopping at 1:00 p.m. would be asked to oversee (看管) the shop until the shopkeeper returned from lunch.
One day, a group of four thieves planned to steal from his shop while he was gone for lunch. One of the thieves went at 1:00 p.m. to be the customer that would be asked to oversee the shop.
The thief, pretending to be a customer, went in at 1:00 p.m. and started buying several items. As planned, the shop-keeper asked the thief to sit on his chair for thirty minutes until he returned from lunch.
Then, the other three thieves quickly came and told the pretend customer to help, but something had changed within him and he knew deeply in his heart that if he was given responsibility for the shop, he should not perform any dishonest acts during that time. His friends did not agree. As the now honest man tried to stop them, they resisted (抵抗) and a fight started. And at the same time the shopkeeper returned and asked why there was a fighting. The now honest man explained the entire plan.
The shopkeeper had been searching for an honest man who could take ownership of the shop and run it. The shop-keeper felt that he had found the right man.What is the problem for the shopkeeper?
| A．Nobody could prepare lunch for him every day. |
| B．He had nobody to keep the shop when he went for lunch. |
| C．He was too busy to have lunch every day. |
| D．He couldn’t find a person to work at the shop. |
Why did the thief go to the shop at 1:00 p.m.?
| A．Because he thought he would be asked to keep the shop. |
| B．Because the shopkeeper invited him to lunch then. |
| C．Because the shop was closed at that time. |
| D．Because he thought he could buy cheap things then. |
When the shopkeeper returned from lunch, he found _______.
| A．everything in his shop was stolen |
| B．the thief became the new owner of the shop |
| C．there was a fighting in his shop |
| D．the thief helped his fellows steal things from his shop |
From the passage, we can infer that _______.
| A．once a thief, he will always be a thief |
| B．an honest man will be responsible for his action |
| C．you can’t believe in a dishonest man forever |
| D．trust can change a thief into an honest man |
For the most part, you are probably only exposed to the music that is played on your favorite radio stations and TV shows, music Web sites, or the music that your friends and family members enjoy. While you probably know a lot about your favorite type of music, it can be a rewarding experience to enlarge your horizons (眼界), discovering artists and types of music that you’re not familiar with. Who knows, you might discover you like certain types of music you never even considered.
Have you ever wondered about the history and influences of your favorite types of music? For example, did you know that rock ’n’ roll originated (起源) from the blues, and that the blues began as a form of musical expression for African Americans during slavery(奴隶制度)? Did you know that most hip-hop is heavily influenced by early rhythm blues and jazz?
There are many fun ways to learn about different musical styles and their historical roots. For example, if you like hip-hop, listen to some of your favorite CDs and take note of the samples the performers used to create the songs. There is a possibility that the artist used parts of older songs to create the music. You can go to the library or online to learn more about the artists and listen to more of their music by checking out CDs from the library or downloading songs online for a small fee.
You can learn so much about culture and history just by paying attention to different types of music and what is being expressed in the songs. There are so many different styles of music to learn about, and you owe (欠) it to your-self to make an effort to listen to and learn about them.The main topic of this passage is _______.
| A．creating music |
| B．performing music |
| C．enjoying your favorite music |
| D．learning about music |
What music did African Americans use to express their feelings of being slaves?
| A．Rock ’n’ roll. | B．The blues. | C．Hip-hop. | D．Jazz. |
How can you learn about culture and history through music?
| A．By writing down the names of the music |
| B．By creating music from older songs yourself. |
| C．By caring about what is being expressed in music. |
| D．By keeping a record of fees after downloading songs online. |
By saying the underlined sentence in the last paragraph, the author probably means that _______.
| A．you should try harder to learn about music |
| B．you should return something to music |
| C．you should borrow music CDs from others |
| D．you should buy music CDs yourself |
Increasingly, over the past ten years, people--- especially young people –have become aware of the need to change their eating habits, because much of the food they eat, especially processed food(加工过的食品), is not good for the health. As a result, there has been a growing interest in natural foods: foods which do not contain chemical additives(添加剂) and which have not been affected by chemical fertilizers(化肥), widely used in farming today.
Natural foods, for example, are vegetables, fruit and grain which have been grown in soil that is rich in organic matter. In simple words, this means that the soil has been nourished(给…营养) by unused vegetable matter, which provides it with vitamins and minerals. This in itself is a natural process compared with the use of chemicals and fertilizers, the main purpose of which is to increase the amount—but not the quality—of foods grown in commercial farming area.
Natural foods also include animals which have been allowed to feed move freely in healthy pastures(牧场). Compare this with what happens in the mass production of poultry(家禽)：there are battery farms, for example, where thousands of chickens live crowded together in one building and are fed on food which is little better than rubbish. Chickens kept in this way are not only tasteless as food; they also produce eggs which lack important vitamins.
There are other sides of healthy eating which are now receiving increasing attention from experts on diet. Take, for example, the question of sugar. This is actually unnecessary food. It is not that sugar is harmful in itself. But it does seem to be addictive: the quantity we use has grown steadily over the last two centuries and in Britain today each person consumes an average of 200 pounds a year! Yet all it does is provide us with energy, in the form of calories. There are no vitamins in it, no minerals, and no fibre.People have become more interested in natural foods because______.
| A．they want to keep healthy |
| B．they want to taste all kinds of foods |
| C．natural foods are more delicious than processed foods |
| D．they want to return to nature |
Chickens raised in poultry farms are all of the following EXCEPT that _____.
| A．they are fed on food which is little better than garbage |
| B．they live in very crowded condition |
| C．the eggs they produce lack vitamins |
| D．they are allowed to move about and eat freely |
According to the passage, ______.
| A．people can only find sugar to give them energy |
| B．sugar is bad for the health |
| C．the use of sugar is habit forming |
| D．sugar only sweetens food, but provides us with nothing useful |