Lots of people buy books and products from Amazon, an online seller. They offer and pay over the Internet and the books are shipped through the mail or a delivery service like FedEx.
One day, people could get their Amazon deliveries from an “unmanned aerial vehicle”—a timely vehicle that looks like a toy helicopter. And instead of waiting days to get the parcel, it could be at the buyer’s home in half an hour or less. The company is working on a fleet of tiny vehicles they call “Prime Air”. The vehicles are also known as “octocopters”. On their website, Amazon says, “One day, Prime Air Vehicles will be as normal as seeing a mail trucks on the road today.”
The U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working on safety regulations for unmanned flying vehicles like the Prime Air copters. Those regulations will make sure the copters are able to fly safely where they need to go. Once the FAA has put its rules in place, which could be as early as 2016, Amazon will be ready with its fleet of tiny flyers. The process could take as many as five years.
The new delivery service would likely be available only in the United States, at first. The copters the company is testing now can handle packages up to five pounds (2.3kg) and they have a range of 10 miles (16 kilometers).
Other companies are also looking at using unmanned flying vehicles to deliver their products. For instance, Domino’s Pizza in the U.K. released a video showing a “DomiCopter”, delivering a pizza. That video may have been a publicity stunt(噱头). In any case, just like Prime Air’s octocopters, the DomiCopters don’t have clearance(许可)to take off just yet.For what purpose does Amazon want to use the Prime Air?
A.To predict the sales volume. |
B.To check the delivery service. |
C.To shorten the delivery period. |
D.To remind people to order online. |
What do we know from Amazon’s words in paragraph 2?
A.The Prime Air Vehicles will still travel on the road. |
B.The Amazon’s delivery system needs to be improved. |
C.The Prime Air Vehicles will be widely put into use soon. |
D.The creation of the Prime Air Vehicles was inspired by the mail trucks. |
The Prime Air Vehicles will be regulated by the U.S.’s FAA for __________.
A.the design plans |
B.the delivery price |
C.the driver’s training |
D.the safety assessment |
What does Paragraph 4 mainly tell us about the new delivery method?
A.Its safety | B.Its delivery ability |
C.Its appearance | D.Its moving speed |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A.The new delivery service has attracted more customers. |
B.The designer of Amazon has promoted “Prime Air” to other company. |
C.Another unmanned vehicle has been put into use by a British pizza company. |
D.Unmanned vehicles could possibly be developed and employed by more companies. |
Imagine being given the opportunity to wake up to lions, eat your meals with monkeys, and even share your bath with bears, all from the comfort of a unique new lodging experience.
The Jamala Wildlife Lodge opened its doors in January 2015, which was set up in an effort to educate visitors about aiding the survival of many of the world's endangered species.
“It’s great for the animals; they're going to get more space. It's great for the viewing public; they're going to get more things to see. It will be great for tourism and just for the local community," Said Richard Tindale, the owner and operator.
Spreading across three locations in the National Zoo, the 18 rooms, which range from giraffe tree houses to jungle bungalows, offer a fantastic experience with wildlife
The Giraffe Treehouse
The Giraffe Treehouse is set among the giraffe enclosures (围场), and the Jungle Bungalows are luxurious individual suites which are next to either lion, cheetah(猎豹), brown bear, or Malaysian sun bear enclosures.
The Ushaka House
Housing up to 26 people, the Ushaka House is built around the monkey enclosure and has a built-in aquarium which offers private views of some of the zoo’s sharks.
The Burley Griffin House
Only meters from the edge of Lake Burley Griffin, the indoor and outdoor entertaining areas have splendid views across the lake to Black Mountain.
The Shark House
The Shark House has its own little jetty(码头) and it comes out over the shark tank here and so the people who stay in the room will be able to go to their bedroom and pat the shark.
Location
Located in the heart of Australia’s political capital, the Jamala Wildlife Lodge at the National Zoo and Aquarium is just ten minutes from Canberra’s central Business District. Which of the following is TRUE about the Iamala Wildlife Lodge?
A.The Jamala Wildlife Lodge lies in the heart of Canberra. |
B.The Jamala Wildlife Lodge has a very long history. |
C.The Jamala Wildlife Lodge is outside the National Zoo. |
D.The Jamala Wildlife Lodge has altogether 26 houses. |
If a tourist wants to visit Lake Burley Griffin, he'd better choose ________.
A.The Giraffe Treehouse | B.The Ushaka House |
C.The Burley Griffin House | D.The Shark House |
The purpose of writing the passage is to ________.
A.attract more tourists to visit the National Zoo |
B.introduce the Jamala Wildlife Lodge in Australia |
C.raise people's awareness of protecting animals |
D.offer visitors an opportunity to play with sharks |
La Gomera is the only place in the world that has a whistle language. We do not know how and why it began because we do not know the complete history of the island. But we can certainly imagine the reasons for the beginning of the whistle language. There are many deep valleys on the island. A person on one side of a valley can not easily shout to a person on the other side. But he can whistle and be heard. Some of the best whistlers can be heard from four miles away and the record is seven miles.
The people who live on the island usually have good teeth, and this helps them to whistle well. They must also have good ears so that they can hear other whistlers.
We can understand why the whistle language continues. It is very useful on the island, and quite easy to learn. When somebody is hurt or ill, the whistle language takes the place of telephone. If the sick person is quite far away from the town, people pass the message from one to another. A boy guarding cattle on a hillside whistles to a man fishing from his boat. The last one is able to describe the trouble fully and exactly to the doctor in town. People help one another in the same way when a car breaks down or a cow is lost.
The whistle language is hundreds of years old, and probably it will continue to live on for hundreds of years more. Radio and TV often kill the special ways of speaking in different parts of a country. But on La Gomera you are nobody if you cannot whistle. Perhaps soon after TV arrives on the island, people there will be whistling the news and other facts and opinions. If a person on La Gomera is ill, ______.
A.the whistle language will help pass the message to the doctor |
B.people will take him to town by carriage |
C.his family will take him to the hospital |
D.others will phone the doctor in town |
La Gomera is special because ______.
A.we don’t know its complete history |
B.people have to shout if they want to communicate |
C.people there have good teeth and ears |
D.people there use the whistle language to communicate with each other |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.The whistle language has been used for hundreds of years on the island, but will not be used any longer. |
B.The whistle language can only be found on La Gomera. |
C.It is not easy for a person to live on La Gomera if he cannot whistle. |
D.The record shows that one best whistler can be heard by others from seven miles away. |
Which of the following will be the best title of this passage?
A.The Secret Language |
B.Do You Know the Whistle Language? |
C.The Life of Islanders |
D.La Gomera-a Mystery |
Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the cold months. Squirrels, for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.
They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.
Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow in the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.
Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.
The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.
A.find out the living conditions for squirrels |
B.do something to get rid of squirrels |
C.learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees |
D.save the forests in the American state of Indiana |
The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels mainly lies in ________.
A.the way they gather the walnut |
B.the place they store the walnuts |
C.the number of the nuts they can collect |
D.the fact that the gray squirrels have a bad memory |
When Professor Swihart says “death traps for seeds”, he actually means that ________.
A.nuts above the ground will not develop into plants |
B.red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels |
C.gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights |
D.seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest |
According to the passage, which of the following is true?
A.Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels. |
B.Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees. |
C.The cleaning of forest land benefits gray squirrels directly. |
D.Human beings should bear some responsibility for the decreasing number of gray squirrels. |
I went to the Tsavo National Park in northern Kenya for a film. We set off early for a distant water hole. A huge elephant covered with dry mud, drank calmly and deeply. He might have traveled 50 km to reach the water. He wasn’t going to hurry now. He’d drink a while and rest in the shade, and then drink again or so we thought. What actually happened was that he drank deeply and stepped away. Then he suddenly fell down. Within minutes he was dead.
We called animal doctor Jeremiah Poghon immediately. He removed the head of a poisoned arrow from the elephant’s body, and let out over 100 liters of pus (胺)-the result of the elephant’s meeting with a poacher(偷猎者)months before.
Today's poacher shoots from a blind. He fires an arrow, covered with poison, into the body of an elephant. If the poacher is lucky, the elephant might die in an hour or two; if not, he might have to follow the elephant for days before it dies. Often the arrow head fails to kill the elephant at once-it doesn't mean the poison won't finally kill the elephant, but it will be a slow death.
Living in Tsavo through these times, I could see the results of poaching from time to time. When I think about the death of that elephant, what stays with me is the extraordinary silence after the shocking sound of his body hitting the ground. I took some comfort from the knowledge that as the dead body returned to the soil, some animals would benefit-but I couldn't escape the feeling that with the death of such a large animal, the world seemed to be a poorer and emptier place. While filming near the water hole, the author and his team ________.
A.knew the elephant was injured |
B.found the elephant acted violently |
C.tried their best to save the elephant |
D.thought the elephant was in good condition |
Further examination showed that the dead elephant________.
A.had suffered an hour or two |
B.was killed by a poisonous needle |
C.had suffered a lot |
D.had had a good fight with a poacher |
How does the author feel when thinking about the elephant s death?
A.empty. | B.comfortable. |
C.upset. | D.relieved. |
Why did the author write the text?
A.To introduce African elephant. |
B.To show the cruelty of poaching. |
C.To describe his filming experience. |
D.To ask readers to protect wild animals. |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit(追求)of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.
Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.What is the best title of this passage?
A.Competition! Why Friends Turn into Enemies |
B.Competition! What Self-respect Depends on |
C.New Meaning Found in Competition |
D.Two Mistaken Beliefs about Competition |
Why do some young people suffering from competitive pressures seek failure?
A.Because they are aware that they will not succeed in competition. |
B.Because they don’t think it worthwhile to compete with others. |
C.Because they are afraid that they would not be valued if they lost. |
D.Because they are fed up with the great efforts needed to compete with others. |
Which of the following will the author probably agree with?
A.One should treat competition as a life-and-death affair. |
B.One should make every effort to avoid competition. |
C.One should get rid of the fear of failure in competition. |
D.One should be given rewards after competing with others. |
The true competitors and those with a desire to fail both believe ________.
A.one’s self-worth comes from how well he performs in comparison with others |
B.one’s dream can be achieved if he has mastered good communication skills |
C.one’s failure happens when he is suffering from emotional problems |
D.one’s success is based on how hard he has tried |