2016年职称英语理工B小抄WORD版可打印

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2016年职称英语理工B小抄WORD版可打印百度云网盘下载地址在贴子第２楼！

1.Inventor of LED        
2.El Nino        
3.Smoking        
4.Engineering Ethics        
5.Rescue Platform        
6.Microchip Research Center Created        
7.Moderate Earthquake Strikes England        
8.WhatIs a Dream?        
9.Dangers Await Babies with Altitude        
10.The Biology of Music        
1.More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing        
2.Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination        
3.Icy Microbes        
5.LED Lighting        
6.How We Form First Impression        
7.Screen Test        
9.More Rural Research Is Needed        
10.Washoe Learned American Sign Language        
1.Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles 福特放弃电动汽车        
2.World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值        
3.Citizen Scientists 公民科学家        
4.Motoring Technology 汽车技术        
5.Late-Night Drinking -----在深夜饮咖啡… ……………
6.Making Light of Sleep不要太在意睡眠        
7Sugar Power for Cell Phones 用糖为手机发电        
8Eiffel Is an Eyeful引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔        
9. An Essential Scientific Process一个重要的科学过程        
10.Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers年轻雌猩猩学习优于它们的弟兄        
11.When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口        
12.Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击        
13.Invisibility Ring隐形环        
14.Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车        
15.Winged Robot Learns to Fly 肋生双翅机器人学飞行        
16.Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth日本人的地心旅行        
17.A Sunshade for the Planet地球防晒霜        
18.Thirst for Oil石油匮乏        
19.Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience        
20.Explorer of the Extreme Deep深海探索器        
21.Plant Gas植物，沼气的又一来源        
22.Real World Robots现实生活中的机器人 …….. ………..
23.Powering a City? It's a Breeze风力发电？轻而易举        
24.Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe        
25.Eat to Live为生存而食        
26.Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently        
27.Driven to Distraction分散注意力驾驶        
28.Sleep Lets Brain File Memories睡眠促使记忆归档存储        
29. I’ll Be Bach        
30.Digital Realm数码王国        
31.Hurricane Katrina卡特里娜飓风        
32.Mind-reading1 Machine读心机        
33Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for RadioactiveWaste- …………………………………………
一、Mobile Phones-移动电话……………………………………
二、The World's Longest Bridge        
三、Reinventing the Table        
四、The Bilingual Brain        
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C）        
六、Dung to Death        
七、Time in the Animal World        
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow        
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B）        
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear        
1.Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)        
2.Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)        
3.增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑)        
4.Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)        
5.Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人)        
6.Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)        
7.An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)        560
8.增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰)        560
9.Wonder Webs(奇妙的网)        561
10.Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感）        561

Inventor of LED---- LED的发明者
【近义词】 When Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes or LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.
【反义词】On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors.
【词源解析】"Anytime you get an award, big or little, it's always a surprise," Holonyak said.
Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After graduate school, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric, where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches.
【相关短语】Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking at how to generate invisible light, be wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
【派生词】Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today. But didn't realize how many uses they would have.
【近义词】"You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important, you think it's worth doing, but you really can't tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don't know," he said.
【词源解析】The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson- MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on a new generation of "molecular sieves" that can separate molecules by size.
【近义词】1．Holonyak's colleagues thought he would fail in his research on LEDs at the time when he started it.
A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned
2．Holonyak believed that his students that were working with him on the project would get the Lemelson-MIT Prize sooner or later.
A　Right B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Holonyak was the inventor of the transistor in the early 1950s.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Holonyak believed that LEDs would become very popular in the future.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Holonyak said that you should not do anything you are not interested in.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Edith Flanigen is the only co-inventor of LEDs.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．The Lemelson-MIT Prize has a history of over 100 years.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
El Nino----------厄尔尼诺
【近义词】While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world.
【反义词】Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
【派生词】The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C　Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it “suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable.”
【相关短语】“This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods,” said Weare. He added that the new method “makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3.” Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said.
【词源解析】The ability to predict the wanning and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said.
When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002 United Nations report.
【反义词】While predicting smaller El Nino events remains tricky, the ability to predict larger ones should be increased to at least a year if the new method is confirmed.
【词源解析】 El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.
【相关短语】The new forecasting method does not predict any major El Nino events in the next two years, although a weak warming toward the end of this year is possible.
【派生词】1．The method used by the Columbia University researchers can predict El Nino a few months in advance.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．The Columbia University researchers studied the relationship between the past El Nino occurrences and sea-surface temperatures.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．The Columbia University researchers are the first to use sea-surface temperatures to match the past El Nino occurrences.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Weare’s contribution in predicting El Nino was highly praised by other meteorologists.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．According to a Chinese report, the flooding in China caused by El Nino in 1991 and 1997 affected 200 million Chinese people.
A　Right   B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
6．It takes about eight months for El Nino to reach its peak.
A　Right  B Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．A special institute has been set up in America to study El Nino.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
Smoking----------抽学派烟
【近义词】Since 1939, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether smoking is a health hazard. The trend of the evidence has been consistent and indicates that there is a serious health risk. Research teams have conducted studies that show beyond all reasonable doubt that tobacco smoking is associated with a shortened life expectancy1.
【反义词】 Cigarette smoking is believed by most research workers in this field to be an important factor in the development of cancer of the lungs and cancer of the throat and is believed to be related to cancer of some other organs of the body. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smoking males. Female smokers are thought to be less affected because they do not breathe in the smoke so deeply.
【相关短语】 Apart from statistics, it might be helpful to look at what smoking tobacco does to the human body. Smoke is a mixture of gases, vaporized chemicals, minute particles of ash and other solids. There is also nicotine, which is powerful poison, and black tar. As smoke is breathed in, all those components form deposits on the membranes of the lungs. One point of concentration is where the air tube and bronchus divides. Most lung cancer begins at this point.
【派生词】 Filters and low tar tobacco2 are claimed to make smoking to some extent safer, but they can only slightly reduce, not eliminate the hazards.
【词源解析】1．It is easy to determine whether smoking is hazardous.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．Smoking reduces one’s life expectancy.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Smoking may induce lung cancer.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．There is evidence that smoking is responsible for breast cancer.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Male smokers have a lower death rate from heart disease than female smokers.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Nicotine is poisonous.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Filters and low tar tobacco make smoking safe.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Engineering Ethics--------工程道德
【近义词】Engineering ethics is attracting increasing interest in engineering universities throughout the nation. At Texas A&M University, evidence of this interest in professional ethics culminated in the creation of a new course in engineering ethics, as well as a project funded by1 the National Science Foundation to develop material for introducing ethical issues into required undergraduate engineering courses. A small group of faculty and administrators actively supported the growing effort at Texas ASM, yet this group must now expand to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students wishing to learn2 more about the value implications of their actions as professional engineers.
【派生词】The increasing concern for the value dimension3 of engineering is, at least in part, a result of the attention that the media has given to cases such as the Challenger disaster, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkways collapse, and the Exxon oil spill. As a response to this concern, a new discipline, engineering ethics, is emerging. This discipline will doubtless4 take its place5 alongside such well-established fields as medical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics.【相关短语】The problem presented by this development is that most engineering professors are not prepared to introduce literature in engineering ethics into their classrooms. They are most comfortable with quantitative concepts6 and often do not believe they are qualified to lead class discussions on ethics. Many engineering faculty members do not think that they have the time in an already overcrowded syllabus to introduce discussions on professional ethics, or the time in their own schedules to prepare the necessary material. Hopefully, the resources presented herein will be of assistance.
【反义词】1．Engineering ethics is a compulsory subject in every institute of science and technology in the Uniled States.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．The number of students wishing to take the course of engineering ethics is declining at Texas A&SM University.
A　Right    B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．The National Science Foundation involves itself directly in writing up material about ethical issues.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．It seems that medical ethics and business ethics are more mature than engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Several engineering professors have quit from teaching to protest against the creation of a new course in engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Many engineering professors may not have time to prepare material for class discussion on professional ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．It is likely that following this introductory passage, the author will provide the necessary material related to the topic of engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Rescue Platform-------救生平台
【近义词】In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, security experts are trying to develop new ways of rescuing people from burning skyscrapers. One idea is a platform capable of flying vertically and hovering in the air like a helicopter.1 The platform would rise up and down alongside a skyscraper and pick up people trapped in high stories.
【反义词】The idea for the vertical takeoff platform was hatched more than ten years ago by a Russian aerospace engineer, David Metreveli, who has since2 moved to Israel. Metreveli’s design, called the Eagle, calls for two jet engines that turn four large horizontal propellers. The spinning of the propellers generates the necessary lift, or upward force, to raise the platform. The more power is supplied to the propellers, the higher the platform rises. Moving the platform sideways involves applying differing amounts of power to each propeller.
【近义词】Helicopters are now used in some cases to get people out of burning buildings. Escape baskets3 slung from them dangle beside the building for people to climb into. Unfortunately, the baskets cannot reach every floor of a building because the ropes from which they hang become unstable beyond a certain length.
【派生词】So far, Metreveli has built a small-scale model of the Eagle to test his idea. In the wake of4 September 11, he has been able to secure enough funding to start building a larger, 4-meter by 4- meter5 prototype, which he calls the Eaglet.
【相关短语】1．A rescue platform called the Eagle is capable of moving vertically but not sideways.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．The four propellers are fitted horizontally to the Eagle.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．With the help of jet engines, the Eagle can fly at a speed of 100 miles an hour.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned  4．In the third paragraph, the word helicopter refers to the Eagle.
A　Right    B　Wrong   C  Not mentioned
5．The more jet engines are fitted to the propellers, the more people the platform can carry.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．In the wake of September 11, Mr. Metreveli has secured enough funding to build up a small- scale model of the Eagle to test his idea.
A　Right    B Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Mr. Metreveli is designing for Israel a more advanced form of rescue platform than the Eagle or the Eaglet.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Microchip Research Center Created-----微芯片研究中心成立
【相关短语】A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced micro-chip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology.
【近义词】The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance2.
【反义词】As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years,plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.
【派生词】More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars. The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners — mainly from Japan and Singapore. Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry, the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property owners.
【相关短语】1．The country says that the investment of US $14 million is big enough for developing that country’s chip industry.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．That country gives top priorities to developing chips for military purposes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
3．Although the licensing fees are not very high, that Far Eastern country cannot afford to pay.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
4．Many western countries ban the exporting of the most advanced chip-making technologies to that country to prevent them from being used for military purposes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．Currently, almost all the flagship chipmakers in that country are owned by American investors.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
6．Mainstream chip production technology develop rapidly.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
7．More than 10 chip plants being built in that country are an example of self-reliance.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
Moderate Earthquake Strikes England----中度地震袭击英国
【相关短语】A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeast England on 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power1 in Kent County. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.
【派生词】“It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fim-fair ride, 3” said the woman. The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake4 struck at 8:19 a.m. and was centered under the English Channel5, about 8.5 miles south of Dover6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel7.
【近义词】 Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.
【反义词】“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,” said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down. ”
【相关短语】There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare in Britain. The April 28 quake was the strongest in Britain since 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the central England city of Birmingham10.   
【近义词】The country’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale11. British Geologicisd Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France.12 Musson predicted that it was only a matter of time13 before another earthquake struck this part of England. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction, Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system of Britain should be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum.
【词源解析】1．During the April 28 earthquake, the whole England was left without power.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．The Channel Tunnel was closed for 10 hours after the earthquake occurred.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
3．It was reported that one lady had got her head and neck injured, but not seriously.
A　Right   B  Wrong   C  Not mentioned
4．France and several other European countries sent their medical teams to work side by side with the British doctors.
A　Right   B  Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．The country’s strongest earthquake took place in London in 1580.
A　Right  B  Wrong   C  Not mentioned
6．Musson predicted that another earthquake would occur in southeast England sooner or later.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
7．It can be inferred from the passage that England is rarely hit by high magnitude earthquakes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
WhatIs a Dream?-------- 梦是什么？
【相关短语】For centuries, people have wondered about thestrange things that they dream about. Some psychologists say that thisnighttime activity of the mind has no special meaning. Others，however， think that dreams are an importantpart of our lives. In fact, many experts believe that dreams can tell us abouta person’s mind and emotions.
【近义词】Before modern times, many people thought thatdreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century thatpeople started to study dreams in a scientific way.
【反义词】The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud1，was probably the first person tostudy dreams scientifically. In his famous book,The interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud wrote that dreams are anexpression of a person’s wishes. He believed that dreams allow people toexpress the feelings, thoughts, and fears that they are afraid to express inreal life.
【派生词】The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung2 wasonce a student of Freud’s. Jung，however，had a different idea about dreams. Jung believed that the purpose ofa dream was to communicate a message to the dreamer. He thought people couldlearn more about themselves by thinking about their dreams. For example, peoplewho dream about falling may learn that they have too high an opinion ofthemselves. On the other hand, people who dream about being heroes may learnthat they think too little of themselves.
【词源解析】Modern-day psychologists continue to developtheories about dreams. For example, psychologist William Domhoff from theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz，believes that dreams are tightly linked to a person’s daily life,thoughts, and behavior. A criminal, for example, might dream about crime.
【近义词】Domhoff believes that there is a connectionbetween dreams and age. His research shows that children do not dream as muchas adults. According to Domhoff, dreaming is a mental skill that needs time todevelop.
【反义词】He has also found a link between dreams andgender. His studies show that the dreams of men and women are different. Forexample, the people in men’s dreams are often other men, and the dreams ofteninvolve fighting. This is not true of women’s dreams.3 Domhoff found thisgender difference in the dreams of people from 11 cultures around the world,including both modern and traditional ones.
【派生词】Can dreams help us understand ourselves?Psychologists continue to try to answer this question in different ways.However, one thing they agree on this: If you dream that something terrible isgoing to occur, you shouldn’t panic. The dream may have meaning, but it doesnot mean that some terrible event will actually take place. It’s important toremember that the world of dreams is not the real world.
【词源解析】1．Not everyone agrees that dreams are meaningful.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
2．According to Freud, people dream about things that they cannot talkabout.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
3．Jung believed that dreams did not help one to understand oneself.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
4．In the past, people believed that dreams involved emotions.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
5．According to Domhoff, babies do not have the same ability to dreamas adults do.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
6．Men and women dream about different things.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
7．Scientists agree that dreams predict the future.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned

Dangers Await Babies with Altitude-----高海拔地区的婴儿有危险
【相关短语】Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.
【派生词】Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.
【近义词】 To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were bom in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.
【反义词】 Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies bom to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.
【派生词】 The results suggest that babies bom at high altitudes are deprived of oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child, ”says Giussani.
【词源解析】His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.
【近义词】Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birthweight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.
【反义词】1．According to the passage, one of the reasons why newborns in mountain communities are underweight is that their mothers are under-nourished.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．Giussani’s team members are all British researchers and professors from Cambridge University.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Giussani did not expect to find that the weight of a baby had little to do with the financial conditions of the family he was bom into.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mother’s womb.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．High-altitude babies have heads that are larger than their bodies.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．High-altitude babies have longer but thinner limbs than average.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Giussani has arrived at the conclusion that babies in high-altitude regions are more likely to have heart trouble when they grow up.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
The Biology of Music-------音乐生物学
【相关短语】Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate.It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does itwork its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers.
【词源解析】What are two things that make humans differentfrom animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that someanimals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However,the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is alsotrue that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments.
【近义词】Music is strange stuff. It is clearly differentfrom language. However, people can use music to communicate things — especiallytheir emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a verypowerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music?
【反义词】If music is truly different from speech, then weshould process music and language in different parts of the brain. Thescientific evidence suggests that this is true.
【词源解析】Sometimes people who suffer brain damage losetheir ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose theirmusical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injuredthe left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. Hecould, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On theother hand，sometimesstrokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speakand understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and languageseparately.
【词源解析】By studying the physical effects of music on thebody，scientistshave also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why doesmusic have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer.Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London, thinks that musicand love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, andphysical ability. That’s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to besomeone’s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requiresfine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. Andplaying or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is inexcellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or viceversa)， it may be away of showing off.
【近义词】However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain whycertain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needsfurther research.
【近义词】1．Humans, but not animals, can sing.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．People can use music to communicate their emotions.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．We use the same part of the brain for music and language.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Geoffery Miler has done research on music and emotions.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．It’s hard for humans to compose music.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Memory is not an important part in singing in tune.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Scientistsdoes not know all the answers about the effects of music on humans.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
一、More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing------每晚只需8小时，睡眠过多非益事
【词源解析】1　Although the dangers of too little sleep are widely known, new research suggests that people who sleep too much may also suffer the consequences.
【近义词】2　Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up1 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a number of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night　People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night’s sleep than 8-hour sleepers.2
【反义词】3　These findings, which Dr　Daniel Kripke reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine3, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night’s rest may not need to set aside4 more than 8 hours a night　He added that “it might be a good idea” for people who sleep more than 8 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.
【词源解析】4　Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep — for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more.
【相关短语】5　For the current report, Kripke reviewed the responses of 1,004 adults to sleep questionnaires, in which participants indicated how much they slept during the week and whether they experienced any sleep problems　Sleep problems included waking in the middle of the night, arising early in the morning and being unable to fall back to sleep, and having fatigue interfere with day-to- day functioning5.
【近义词】6　Kripke found that people who slept between 9 and 10 hours each night were more likely to report experiencing each sleep problem than people who slept 8 hours　In an interview, Kripke noted that long sleepers may struggle to get rest at night simply because they spend too much time in bed　As evidence, he added that one way to help insomnia is to spend less time in bed　“It stands to reason6 that if a person spends too long a time in bed, then they’ll spend a higher percentage of time awake,” he said.
【词源解析】
1.Paragraph 2 _E、 Sleep Problem of Long and Short Sleepers
2.Paragraph 4 __B_、Dangers of Habitual Shortages of Sleep __
3.Paragraph 5 __A_、Kripke’s Research Tool
4.Paragraph 6 __D__、_ A Way of Overcoming Insomnia
【构词联想】
5.To get a good night’s rest, people may not need to _F_、sleep more than 8 hours
6.Long sleepers are reported to be more likely to __E、　suffer sleep problems __.
7.One of the sleep problems is waking in the middle of the night, unable to __A、fall asleep again __.
8.One survey showed that people who habitually __C、sleep less than 7 hours __ each night have a higher risk of dying.
二、Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination------煤灰与白雪：“火热"的组合
【相关短语】1　New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.
【反义词】2　Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun’s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.
【近义词】3　Soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface. “This provides a positive feedback, as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they tend to get even dirtier, said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.
【相关短语】4　Hansen found soot’s effect on snow albedo(solar energy reflected back to space)，which1 may be contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.
【构词联想】5　“Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon2，” Hansen said. Soot’s increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world’s climate. “This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global wanning as a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude, Hansen noted.
【派生词】6、Hansen cautioned, although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact that greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.3 Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest4 of this century.
【反义词】7、The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations were consistent with the researchers’ climate model simulations, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover5 and sufficient sunlight.
【相关短语】　　
1.Paragraph 3 __C、Explanation of Increased Warming Effect Caused by Soot
2.Paragraph 4 __A_、Soot’s Role in Changes in the Climate and the Atmosphere
3.Paragraph 6 __F_、Greenhouse Gases as the Main Factor of Global Warming
4.Paragraph 7 __B_、Observations of Warming in the Northern Hemisphere
F　【构词联想】
5.In the twentieth century, soot ___B_、continued to 25 percent of observed global warming
6.Hansen cautioned that greenhouse gases_ E、still surpass soot in warming the world’s climate during the last centry
7.Black soot covered snow and ice D_、absorb more of sun’s energy and warmth than white background
8.A soot forcing is unusually effective, which A_、produces much more global wanning than a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude _.
三、Icy Microbes-------冰冻微生物
【构词联想】1　In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.
【派生词】2　A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran’s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.
【相关短语】3　Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.
【反义词】4　Called Lake Vida, the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2 ,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.
【近义词】5　That prompted the researchers to return in 1996 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.
【词源解析】6　The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering.
【派生词】
1.Paragraph 2 E、Antarctic Frozen Life Sampled and Revived
2.Paragraph 3 _A、Significance of Testing Techniques for Sampling Microbes in the Deep Ice Sheet _
3.Paragraph 4_F、Accidental Disovery of Ice-sealed Lake Water in Antarctica __
4.Paragraph 6_D_、2004 Revisit Planned for Collecting Lake Water Specimens
【派生词】
5.Scientists ignored Lake Vida because they thought that a lake of ice _B、was of little scientific value
6.Scientists expect that the life, if found in deeper water below the ice sheet, _C_、may be older than that collected below 39 feet of ice
7.What the scientists will do in 20Q4 _E_、is to collect some briny lake water for analysisy
8.The salt concentration in the liquid water of Lake Vida _A_、is found to be a great deal higher than that of seawater _
五、LED Lighting------发光二极管
【近义词】1　An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention1 obsolete.LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
【反义词】2　Michael Bowers, a graduate student2 at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons3. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bowers' particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
【派生词】3　When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. He was surprised when a white glow covered the table. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light4, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow.
【词源解析】4　Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light singular to a regular light bulb.
【构词联想】5　LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and bum for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U. S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.
【派生词】6　Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything5 and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white. The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
【相关短语】】
1.Paragraph l _B、LED Lighting Will Replace Traditional Lighting _
2.Paragraph 3 _E、Bowers Made an Unexpected Discovery __
3.Paragraph 5 _D、LED Lighting Has Many Advantages
4.Paragraph 6 _C_、 Almost Everything Could Be the Main Light Source in the Future
【词源解析】
5.Unlike traditional lighting, LEDs do not give out heat so _F_、_ it is more efficient _.
6.Edison's bright invention is likely to be outdated because A_、traditional lighting is less durable and dearer _.
7.Something unexpected happened during Bower's experiment when _B_、a laser excited the quantum dots __.
8.Over one quarter of energy consumption for lighting could be saved by 2025 if C、America adopted LEDs
六、How We Form First Impression-----对别人的第一印象是怎样形成的
【相关短语】1　We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her — aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits.
【词源解析】2　The answer is related to how your brain, allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits, even very minor difference in how a person’s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different1. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information — the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming “signals” are compared against2 a host of “memories” stored in the brain areas called the cortex system to determine what these new signals “mean.”
【近义词】3　If you see someone you know and like at school3, your brain says “familiar and safe. ‘‘If you see someone new, it says, “new — potentially threatening.” Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other “known” memories;The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics, the more your brain may say, “This is new. I don’t like this person.” Or else, “I’m intrigued. “Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures — like your other friends;so your brain says: “I like this person.” But these preliminary “impressions” can be dead wrong4.
【派生词】4　When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking(not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child)that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than leam about the depth and breadth of people — their history, interest, values, strengths, and true character — we categorize them as jocks, geeks, or freaks.
【反义词】5　However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking — and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.
【相关短语】
1.Paragraph 2  D、Comparing Incoming Sensory Information against Memories
2.Paragraph 3 C_、Illustration of First Impression
3.Paragraph 4 B_、Comment on First Impression
4.Paragraph 5_A_、Ways of Departure from Immature and Simplistic Impressions
【词源解析】
5.Sensory information is one that is perceived through E、the sights and sounds of the world _
6.You interpret D、　the meaning of incoming sensory information by comparing it against the memories already stored in your brain
7.The way we stereotype people is a less mature form of thinking, which is similar to C、the immature form of thinking of a very young child
8.We can use our more mature style of thinking thanks to B_、the most complex areas of our cortex _.
七、Screen Test-------透视检查
【词源解析】1. Every year millions of women are screened with X-rays to pick up signs of breast cancer. If this happens early enough, the disease can often be treated successfully. According to a, survey published last year, 21 countries have screening programmes. Nine of them, including Australia, Canada, the US and Spain, screen women under 50.
【相关短语】2. But the medical benefits of screening these younger women are controversial, partly because the radiation brings a small risk of inducing cancer. Also, younger women must be given higher doses of X-rays because their breast tissue is denser.
【反义词】3. Researchers at the Polytechnic University1 of Valencia analysed the effect of screening more than 160, 000 women at 11 local clinics. After estimating the women’s cumulative dose of radiation, they used two models to calculate the number of extra cancers this would cause.
【派生词】4. The mathematical model recommended by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB)predicted that the screening programme would cause 36 cancers per 100,000 women, 18 of them fatal. The model preferred by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation led to a lower figure of 20 cancers.
【近义词】5. The researchers argue that the level of radiation-induced cancers is “not very significant” compared to the far larger number of cancers that are discovered and treated. The Valencia programme, they say, detects between 300 and 450 cases of breast cancer in every 100,000 women screened.
【相关短语】6. But they point out that the risk of women contracting cancer from radiation could be reduced by between 40 and 80 percent if screening began at 50 instead of 45, because they would be exposed to less radiation. The results of their study, they suggest, could help “optimise the technique” for breast cancer screening.
【派生词】7. “There is a trade-off between the diagnostic benefits of breast screening and its risks,” admits Michael Clark of the NRPB. But he warns that the study should be interpreted with caution. “On the basis of the current data, for every 10 cancers successfully detected and prevented there is a risk of causing one later in life. That’s why radiation exposure should be minimised in any screening programme.”
【词源解析】1.Paragraph 2_A_、Harm Screening May Do to a Younger Woman
2.Paragraph 3 B_、Investigating the Effect of Screening
3.Paragraph 4 C_、Effects Predicted by Two Different Models
4.Paragraph 5 D_、_ Small Risk of Inducing Cancers from Radiation
【相关短语】
5.Early discovery of breast cancer may__C_、save a life _.
6.Advantages of screening women under 50 are_D、_ still open to debate
7.Delaying the age at which screening starts mayE_、_ reduce the risk of radiation triggering a cancer .
8.Radiation exposure should be _F、_ reduced to the minimum .
九、More Rural Research Is Needed-------需要进行更多的农业研究
【相关短语】1　Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year, but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead1。
【近义词】2　“The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,” he said.
【反义词】3　Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation2 and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies3 led to economic growth which, in turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve4 but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Afiica and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the current pattern. If there is any change, a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Afiica. The major inqjrovement will be in East Asia, South America and South-East Asia.
【词源解析】4　The developing world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product（GDP）on5 research, and the developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries.
【相关短语】5　He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs for Mexico, China or India6.
【近义词】6　“Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently,” Dr. Fischer said.
【反义词】7　Yields of rice, wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth, such as high-yield varieties, fertilisers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. “If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield,” Dr. Fischer said.
【相关短语】
1．Paragraph 1 _E、Increase in Investment on Agricultural Research
2．Paragraph 3 _A_、The Same or Improved Food Supply Situation in 2020
3．Paragraph 4 _C、More Research Funding Needed
4．Paragraph 7 _B、Research Focus on Increased Yield _
【词源解析】
5．Dr. Fischer claims that agriculture will continue to develop D、when we use modern technologies and develop new ones .
6．Land can be saved for other purposes A、if we can drive yield up .
7．The investment can be regarded as efficient F、when strategic research can be utilized worldwide _.
8．The global decrease in investment should be changed _C、if we want to fight against malnutrition and poverty _.
十、Washoe Learned American Sign Language------ Washoe学会了美国手语
【相关短语】1 An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe and born in Africa died of natural causes late last month at the age of 42 at a research center in the American state of Washington. Wash0e had become known in the scientific community1 and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language2. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Her skills also led to debate3 about primates and their ability to understand language.
【词源解析】2 Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching Washoe sign language in 1966. In 1969, the Gardners7 described Washoe's progress in a scientific report. The people who experimented with Washoe said she grew to understand4 about 250 words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, "Who is coming to play?" Once5 the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own6 into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.
【近义词】3 However, critics argued Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They said she had never developed true language skills. Even now, there are some researchers who suggest that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes. Yet Washoe's keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners7. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.
【反义词】4 Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believes Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees8. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is that this kind of research takes a very long time.
【派生词】5 Debate continues about chimps' understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure -- Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.
【词源解析】
1. Paragraph 1▁C、General Information about Washoe▁
2. Paragraph 2▁B、Report about Washoe's Progress in Learning Sign Language▁
3. Paragraph 3▁E、Debate on Chimps' Intelligence
4. Paragraph 4▁A、Reason Why Not Many Scientists Carry out This　Research Nowadays
【相关短语】
5. Washoe could make signs to communicate C、when she wanted to eat
6. Some scientists doubted A、if the Gardeners' argument was sound
7. Washoe taught three younger chimps sign language D、while she was at a research center in Ellensburg
8. The experimenters thought Washoe was intelligent E、because she could use sign language to ask for fruits
★第1篇-Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles ---福特放弃电动汽车
The Ford motor company’s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology，analysts say．
General Motors。and Honda’ceased production of battery．powered cars in 1 999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer．Ford has now announced it will do the same．
Three years ago．the company introduced the Think City two—seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think Neighbor．It hoped to sell 5，000 cars each year and 10，000 carts．But a lack of demand means only about l，000 of the cars have been produced，and less than 1。700 carts have been sold so far in 2002．
“The bottom line is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market．”Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday．“We feel we have given electric our best shot”
The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time．General Motors’EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range。of about 100 miles．
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives．An electric Toyot~RAV4 EV vehicle costs over$42，000 in the US, compared with just $17，000 for the petrol version．Toyota and Nissan…are now the only major automanufacturers to produce electric vehicles．
“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance．Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program“，and that is what we will be judging them on，”Roger Higman，a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth，told the Environment News Service．
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well．Hybrid engines Offer Greater mileage than petrol—only engines , and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines “on vehicle emissions” in the U.S.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit．In June，General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction，delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car—makers to offer 100，000 zero-emission and other low—emission vehicles in the state by 2003．Car manufacturers hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low--emission，rather than zero—emission，vehicles．
1．What have the Ford motor company．General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
C) They have given up producing electric cars．
2．According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe，battery-powered cars
B) will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future．
3. Which auto manufacturers are still producing electric vehicles?
A)Toyota and Nissan   
4．According to the eighth paragraph，hybrid cars
C)run more miles than petrol driven cars
5．Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
D)The legislation will allow more 10w．emission to be produced
★第2篇-World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict----世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值
In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions．Their study is in ACS’ Energy＆Fuels1．
    Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil"．&quoteak oil "is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of &quoteak Oil." The term &quoteal Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production Will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline．
The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide．
However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more complex oil production cycles of some countries．Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.
The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast．Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil6．They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves7 are
being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.
1．Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word "sparked" appearing in paragraph 2?   
B．stimulated   
2．The term "a bell shaped curve" appearing in paragraph 2 indicates that global oil production will
D．start to decline after global oil production peaks．
3．Which of the following is NOT true of the Hubbert model?
D．It provides a very realistic and accurate oil production．
4．What is the major achievement of the new study mentioned in the last paragraph?
A．It predicts global oil production will peak in 2014．
5．Who develop the new version of the Hubbert model?
B．Kuwaiti scientists．
★第3篇-Citizen Scientists -------公民科学家
Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle1  events-flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring - all around the world. But ecologists can't be everywhere so they're turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.
【相关短语】Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they're asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest - birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. - and send their observations to a  giant database to  be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat2, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that's needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it3 in.
A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Pheonology4  Network. &quothenology" is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.
One of the group's first efforts relies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project - which is open to everyone - record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.
&quoteople don't have to be plant experts -they just have to look around and see what's in their neighborhood," says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. "As we collect this data, we'll be able to make an estimate of how plants and eommunities5 of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes."
1. Ecologists turn to non-scientist citizens for help because they need them
C)  to collect data of the life cycle of living things.
2. What are citizen scientists asked to do?
B)  To send their research observations to a professional database.
3. In "All that's needed to become one... (paragraph 2) ", what does the word "one" stands for?
B)  a citizen scientist.
4. What is NOT true of Project BudBurst?
A)  Only experts can participate in it.      
5. What is the final purpose of Project BudBurst?
D)  To investigate how plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.
★第4篇-Motoring Technology -------汽车技术
1.2 million road deaths worldwide occur each year,plus a further 50 million injuries.To reduce car crash rate,much research now is focused on safety and new fuels-though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aims at going faster.
Travelling at speed has always been dangerous.One advanced area of research in motoring safety is the use of digital in-car assistants.They can ensure you don’t miss important road signs or fall asleep.Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults. Some safety developments aim to improve your vision.Radar can spot obstacles in fog,while other technology“sees through”big vehicles blocking your view.
And improvements to seat belts,pedal(脚踏)controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer.The colour of a car has been found to be linked with safety,as have,less surprisingly,size and shape.
But whatever is in the fuel tank,you don’t want a thief in the driving seat and there have been many innovations(创新).Satellite tracking and remote communications can also come into play if you crash,automatically calling for help.
Accidents cause many traffic jams,but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles that can cause jams even on a clear but busy road.Such jams can be analyzed using statistical tools.Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flow smoothly and will perhaps one day be everyons’s personal chauffeur(司机),but their latest efforts suggest that won’t be soon.
1、To reduce car crash rate，many scientists are working hard to
D) improve the safety of cars and develop new fuels.
2、According to the second paragraph，most road accidents happen due to
B) human mistakes.  
3、Which of the following safety developments is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A) Windscreens that can help drivers to improve their vision.
4、Satellite tracking and remote communication systems can be used to
C) call for help when one’s car crashes.
5、Which of the following statements is true of robotic drivers?
A) It will take some time before robotic drivers are available.
★第5篇-Late-Night Drinking -----在深夜饮咖啡
Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee1 late in the day will play havoc with2 your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.
Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again3. “It’s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake,” says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffcinated coffee halves the body’s levels of this sleep hormone.
Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decal. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decal. They also took half an hour to drop off4 - twice as long as usual - and jigged around5 in bed twice as much. In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample, Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest6 that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.
Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.
1. The author mentions “pick-me-up” to indicate that     
C coffee is a stimulant.           
2. Which of the following tells us how caffeine affects sleep?
C Caffeine halves the body’s levels of sleep hormone.
3. What does paragraph 3 mainly discuss?
A Different effects of caffeinated coffee and decaf on sleep.
4. What does the experiment mentioned in paragraph 4 prove?
D Caffeine drinkers produce less sleep hormone.
5. The author of this passage probably agrees that
B we should not drink coffee after supper.
★第6篇-Making Light of Sleep-----不要太在意睡眠
All we have a clock located inside our brains. Similar to your bedside alarm clock， your internal clock2 runs on a 24-hour cycle. This cycle，called a circadian rhythm，helps control whenyou wake，when you eat and when you sleep.
Somewhere around puberty，something happens in the timing of the biological clock. The clock pushes forward，so adolescents and teenagers are unable to fall asleep as early as they used to. When your mother tells you it's time for bed，your body may be pushing you to stay up3 for several hours more. And the light coming from your computer screen or TV could be pushing you to stay up even later.
This shift is natural for teenagers. But staying up very late and sleeping late can get your body's clock out of sync with the cycle of light and dark5. It can also make it hard to get out of bed in the morning and may bring other problems，too. Teenagers are put in a kind of a gray cloud6 when they don't get enough sleep，says Mary Carskadon，a sleep researcher at Brown University in Providence，RI7 .It affects their mood and their ability to think and learn.
But  just like your alarm clock，your internal clock can be reset. In fact，it automatically resets itself every day. How? By using the light it gets through your eyes.
Scientists have known for a long time that the light of day and the dark of night play important roles in setting our internal clocks. For years，researchers thought that the signals that synchronize the body's clock8 were handled through the same pathways that we use to see.
But recent discoveries show that the human eye has two separate light-sensing systems. One system allows us to see. The second system tells our body whether it's day or night.
1 .The clock located inside our brains is similar to our bedside alarm clock ecause
B it has a cycle of 24 hours.
2. What is implied in the second paragraph?
C Children before puberty tend to fall asleep earlier at night than adolescents.
3. In the third paragraph the author wants to tell the reader that
B staying up late has a bad effect on teenagers' ability to think and learn.
4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the fourth and fifth paragraphs?
C Our internal clock as well as the alarm clock can be reset automatically.
5. According to the last two paragraphs， what did the previous researchers think about the human eye's light-sensing system?
B The human eye had one light-sensing system.
★第7篇-Sugar Power for Cell Phones -----用糖为手机发电
Using enzymes commonly found in living cells，a new type of fuel cell produces small amounts of electricity from sugar.If the technology is able to succeed in mass production，you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.
In fuel cells，chemical reactions generate electrical currents.The process usually relies on precious metals，such as platinum.In living cells，enzymes perform a similar job，breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.
When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel cells，they had trouble keeping them active，says Shelley D.Minteer of St Louis University1.Whereas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes，there’s no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.
Minteer and Tamara Klotzbach，also of St Louis University，have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket.“We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment” for the enzyme，Minteer says.The polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.
In the new fuel Cell，tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the electrodes.When glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket，the enzyme oxidizes it，releasing electrons and protons.The electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode，where they react with.oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water.The flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.
So far，the new fuel cells don’t produce much power，but the fact that they work at all is exciting，says Paul Kenis，a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urhana-Champaign3.“Just getting it to work.” Kenis says，“is a major accomplishment.”
　　Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make electricity.Sugar is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on it are biodegradable，so the technology wouldn’t hurt the environment.The scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from sugar.They predict that popular products may be using the new technology in as little as 3 years.
1. According to the first paragraph，when can we share our sweet drinks with our cell phones?
C When the technology of a new type of fuel cell is suitable for mass production.
2. What trouble did Minter and Klotzhach have in their research?
A They had trouble keeping enzymes in fuel cells active.
3. According to Paragraph 5，electrons are released
C when the enzyme oxidizes the glucose from a sugary liquid that goes through a pocket.
4. What is exciting about the new fuel cells?
B Their limited power generation capacity is a good beginning.
5. According to the last paragraph，what is NOT true of the new fuel cells?
D It will take some time before the new fuel cells can be used in popular products.
★第8篇-Eiffel Is an Eyeful-------引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔
Some 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower's wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble. Japanese,Brazilians, Americans — they graffiti  their names,loves and politics on the cold iron — transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move.
With Paris laid out in miniature below，it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admiring the view. But the graffiti also raises a question ： Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed,and decades after it ceased to be the world, s tallest structure,is la Tour Eiffel still so popular?
The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness. Regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over,but the tower lives on.
"Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic”，says Hugues Richard10,a 31- year-old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower's second floor 一 747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. "It's iron lady，It inspires us11 ”， he says.
But to what12? After all,the tower doesn' t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world’ s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building13 went up in New York. Yes，television and radio signals are beamed from the top,and Gustave Eiffel,a frenetic builder who died on December 27，aged 91 ,used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.
But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there _ a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will14. To the technically minded, it's an engineering triumph. For lovers, it's romantic.
"The tower will outlast all of us,and by a long way”，says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower
1. Why does the author think the Eiffel Tower is transformed into symbol of a world on the move?
B ) Tourists of all nationalities come to scribble on the cold iron of the tower.
2. What seems strange to the author?
A) Visitors prefer wasting time scribbling to enjoying the view.
3. Which statement is NOT true of Hugues Richard?
C ) He climbed 747 steps up the tower in 19 minutes and 4 seconds.
4. What did the builder use the Eiffel Tower for?
B ) Conducting research in various fields.
5. Which of the following is nearest in meaning to “（The Eiffel Tower is like)a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will ______？
C ) Visitors can imagine freely what the tower represents.
★第9篇（增） An Essential Scientific Process----------一个重要的科学过程
All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.
The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.
Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.
If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food or other organic matter on the earth. Most organisms would disappear. The earth’s atmosphere would no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential for life on our planet.
1．In the first paragraph，the word “excess” means
B　extra..
2．Which of the following does not move through a plant’s stomata?
D　Food.
3．In the title, the term Essential Scientific Process refers to
A　photosynthesis.
4．This passage is primarily developed by
A　explaining a process.
5．Another good title for this passage would be
C　How Photosynthesis Works.
★第10篇-Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers--------年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄
Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.
While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.
Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.
The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to  skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.
Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.
Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.
Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.
Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”
1. Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites?
B Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.
2. What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites?
B Vegetation.
3. Which of the Following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?
C Females could get out more termites with every dip.
4. How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?
D It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.
5. According to the last paragrnph, which of the following is NOT true?
A Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.
第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach-------我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口
【反义词】Our senses aren’t just delivering strict view of what’s going on in the world； they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten.
【近义词】Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on,inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis，France，wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved.
Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word，each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen — a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception ,not in thinking processes, Radel says.
“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs,” Radel says.
1.What does the new study mentioned in Paragraph 1 find?
C Hungry people are more sensitive to food-related words than stomach-full people.
2.Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?
B Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testees, hungry and non-hungry.
3.What does the writer want to tell us?
C Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs.
4.What did the results of the experiment indicate?
A 80 words flashed on the screen too fast for the participant to intentionally perceive.
5.What can we infer from the passage?
D Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes
★第12篇-Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass------纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击
In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida’s citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow.
The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees.
“We couldn’t believe how cold it was,” said Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. “we brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat. ”
The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida’s US$9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold.
“Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant,” said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time.
     In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible.
Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus trees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or more. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.
1. Which of the following statements is not meant in the first two paragraphs?
  A. The cold air mass was a threat to Florida’s citrus crop.
2. According to the second paragraph, in which area (s) did the temperature fall below zero?
   B. Parts of interior South Florida.
3. King’s statement that “We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat,” shows that
  A. he was caught by the sudden cold.   
4. Governor Jeb issue the emergency order because he
  C. wanted to encourage trucks to transport as much fruit to market as possible.
5. Which statement is NOT true according to the last paragraph?
  D. Florida Citrus Mutual sprayed trees with sprinklers for citrus growers.
★第13篇-Invisibility Ring--------隐形环
Scientists can’t yet make an invisibility cloak  like the one that Harry Potter  uses.But，for the first time，they’ve constructed a simple cloaking device that makes itself and somethingplaced inside it invisible to microwaves. When a person “sees” an object，his or her eye senses many different waves of visiblelight as they bounce off the object.The eye and brain then work together to organize thesesensations and reconstruct the object’s original shape. So，to make an object invisible，scientists have to keep waves from bouncing off it.And they have to make sure the objectcasts no shadow.Otherwise，the absence of reflected light on one side would give the obiectaway.
Invisibility isn’t possible yet with waves of light that the human eye can see.But it is nowpossible with microwaves.Like visible light，microwaves are a form of radiant energy.Theyare part of the electromagnetic spectrum，which also includes radio waves，infrared light，ultraviolet rays，X rays，and gamma rays.The wavelengths of microwaves are shorter thanthose of radio waves but longer than those of visible light.
The scientists’ new “invisibility device” is the size of a drink coaster and shaped like aring.The ring is made of a special material with unusual ability.When microwaves strike thering，very few bounce off it.Instead，they pass through the ring，which bends the waves allthe way around until they reach the opposite side.The waves then return to their originalpaths.
To a detector set up to receive microwaves on the other side of the ring，it looks as if thewaves never changed their paths as if there were no object in the way! So，the ring is effectively invisible.
When the researchers put a small cdpper loop inside the ring，it，too，is nearly invisible. However，the cloaking device and anything inside it do cast a pale shadow.And the deviceworks only for microwaves，not for visible light or any kind of electromagnetic radiation.So，Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet.
1.Harry Potter is mentioned in the passage，because scientists
C try to invent a device Similar in idea to the invisible cloak he uses.
2.What is true of microwaves?
B Their wavelengths are longer than those of visible light.
3.What is NOT true of the invisibility device?
B Microwaves bounce off it when they strike it.
4.What does the word “coaster” mean in the passage?
A  A disk or plate placed under a drinking glass to protect a table top.
5.Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet，because
C the cloaking device works only for microwaves.
★第14篇-Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers--------日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车
A concept car developed by Japanese company Nissan has a breathalyzer-like detection system and other instruments that could help keep drunk or over tired drivers off the road.
The car’s sensors check odors inside the car and monitor a driver’s sweat for traces of alcohol.An in-car computer system can issue an alert or even lock up the ignition system if the driver seems over-the-limit.The air odor sensors are fixed firmly and deeply in the driver
and passenger seats,while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures perspiration from the driver’s palm.
Other carmakers have developed similar detection systems. For example,Sweden’s Volvo has developed a breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt that drivers must blow into before the engine will start.
　　Nissan’s new concept vehicle also includes a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a drivers alertness by monitoring their eyes.It will sound an alarm and issue a spoken warning in Japanese or English if it judges that the driver needs to pull over and rest.
The car technology is still in development,but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of different detection systems should improve the overall effectiveness of the technology. "For example,if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver,the facial recognition system would still be used," Doi says.Nissan has no specific timetable for marketing the system,but aims to use technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.
The car’s seat belt can also tighten if drowsiness is detected,while an external camera checks that the car is keeping to its lane properly. However,Doi admits that some of the technology,such as the alcohol odor sensor,should be improved."If you drink one beer,it’s going to register,so we need to study what’s the appropriate level for the system to activate," he says.
　　In the UK,some research groups are using similar advanced techniques to understand driver behavior and the effectiveness of different road designs.
1. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Japanese concept care
C It has sensors locked up in the ignition system.
2. What has Volvo developed?
B A breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt.
3. What is the function of the camera mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A It monitors the driver’s eyes to see if he needs a rest.
4. According to Doi,
D Nissan aims to improve the detection technology to reduce the fatality rate.
5. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in Paragraph 6?
B The car will automatically keep to its lane.
★第15篇-Winged Robot Learns to Fly------ 肋生双翅机器人学飞行
Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error1 -but a winged robot has cracked it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles.
Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg , Sweden, built a winged robot and set about3 testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.
To begin with, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first, it cheated-simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of a more effective flapping technique where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.
“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of coming up with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while the robot had worked out how best to produce lift, it was not about to take off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do,” Bentley says. “This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.
The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards. up or down or twist them in either direction.
The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any, the robot produced for any given movement. A computer program fed the robot random instructions, at the rate of 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.
Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up and “offspring” sets of instructions were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.

1. Which of the following is NOT true of what is mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph?
C The two professors of CUT programmed the data on how the robot flapped its wings.
2. How did the robot behave at the beginning of the test?
B It twitched but gradually gained height.
3. Which of the following is nearest to Peter Bentley’s view on the winged robot?
A The winged robot could never really fly.
4. What measured how much lift the robot produced?
B A movement detector.
5. What does “the process” appearing in the last paragraph refer to?
D All the above.
★第16篇-Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth--------日本人的地心旅行
In what resembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists have launched the world’s first attempt to bore a hole into the red-hot core of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruption.
A 50-meter-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Japan’s Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano’s crust next week in a bid1 to sample the magma bubbling below.
The aim is to study how the liquefied rock causes menacing gas buildup, said team leader Setsuya Nakata, of the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.
　　“Gassing is important because it controls the explosivity of eruptions,” Nakata said. “The results can be expanded to anti-disaster research.” Mount Unzen , a wind-swept 1.486-meter dome on the southern island of Kyushu, is a perfect model. It erupted in 1991, showering avalanches of hot rocks over a nearby town, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless. Another 11.000 people were evacuated from the area until 1995, when the volcano had stabilized.
　　The results are particularly important to a nation like Japan, where the meteorological agency monitors 20 dangerous peaks. Perhaps Japan’s most famous volcano is snowcapped Mount Fuji, which last erupted in 1707 and sprinkled Tokyo with ash.
The drilling on Mount Unzen will begin very soon from an altitude of 850 meters on its northwest slope. Scientists hope to tap a magma vent around sea level by August and extract a 200-meter-long core sample by summer 2004
Boring into the glowing magma at that level would normally be impossible, because of its fiery 700 degree Celsius heat. Thus, a slurry of water will be pumped into the drill shaft to cool the magma and allow the drill head to cut through.
Nakata said there is no danger of triggering another eruption.
1. According to the passage, Mount Unzen
B erupted in 1991.
2. According to the passage, the study of the Mount Unzen volcano may benefit Japan in all the following aspects EXCEPT
D predicting volcano eruptions.
3.Why is this research project so important to Japan?
A. Because Japan has many living volcanos.
4. The drilling site on Mount Unzen is
C about half way up the mountain.
5. The title of this passage Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth actually means that they
A drill a hole into the core of a volcano.
★第17篇-A Sunshade for the Planet--------地球防晒霜
Even with the best will1 in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going prevent global warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.
Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale “geoengineering” projects that might be used to counteract global warming. “I use the analogy of methadone,” says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. “If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalization, and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin.
Basically the idea is to apply “sunscreen” to the whole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radical plan to cool Earth: launch trillions of feather-light discs into space, where they would form a vast cloud that would block the sun’s rays. It’s controversial, but recent studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1. 8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun’s rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most severe emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
1. According to the first two paragraphs，the author thinks that
C despite the difficulty, scientists have some options to prevent global warming.
2. Scientists resist talking about their options because they don’t want people to
C think the problem has been solved.
3. What does Stephen Schneider say about a heroin addict and methadone?
A Methadone is an effective way to treat a hard heroin addict.
4. What is Stephen Schneider’s idea of preventing global warming?
C To apply sunscreen to the Earth.
5. What is NOT true of the effectiveness of “sunscreen”, according to the last paragraph?
D It decreases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
★第18篇-Thirst for Oil---------石油匮乏
Worldwide every day, we devour the energy equivalent of about 200 million barrels of oil. Most of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun. In fact enough energy from the Sun hits the planet’s surface each minute to cover our needs for an entire year, we just need to find an efficient way to use it. So far the energy in oil has been cheaper and easier to get at. But as supplies dwindle, this will change, and we will need to cure our addiction to oil.
Burning wood satisfied most energy needs until the steam-driven industrial revolution, when energy-dense coal became the fuel of choice. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one quarter of our energy needs, but its use has been declining since we started pumping up oil. Coal is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel, but could make a comeback, as supplies are still plentiful: its reserves are five times larger than oil’s.
Today petroleum, a mineral oil obtained from below the surface of the Earth and used to produce petrol, diesel oil and various other chemical substances, provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. The US consumes n quarter of all oil, and generates a similar proportion of greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of oil comes from the Middle East, which has half of known reserves. But other significant sources include Russia, North America, Norway, Venezuela and the North Sea. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge1 could be a major new US source, to reduce reliance on foreign imports.
Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years, though opinions and estimates vary. We could fast reach an energy crisis in the next few decades, when demand exceeds supply. As conventional reserves become more difficult to access, others such as oil shales and tar sands may be used instead. Petrol could also be obtained from coal.
Since we started using fossil fuels, we have released 400 billion tonnes2 of carbon, and burning the entire reserves could eventually raise world temperatures by 130 C. Among other horrors, this would result in the destruction of all rainforests and the melting of all Arctic ice.
1. “… we will need to cure our addiction to oil.”Why does the author say so?  
D Oil supply is decreasing.
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the author, according to the second paragraph?
C Coal is the most environmentally unfriendly fuel next to oil.
3. Which country is the biggest consumer of petroleum?
A The United States.  
4. What do experts say about the earth’s fuel reserves?
B There will soon be an energy crisis.
5. What is NOT the result of consuming fossil fuels according to the last paragraph?
D The sea level will go up.
★第19篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience--------音乐机器人伴侣提升音乐欣赏体验
Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend”.
“Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music，” said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements.
Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain” powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device. In other words, if there’s an “app” for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’s camera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances to the rhythm.
“Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots can be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list.
Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said.
Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines一 small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.”
1. Which of the following is NOT true according to the first three paragraphs?
B Shimi is the creator of the musical companion.
2. What does Shimi do if the user taps a beat?
D It selects a perfectly-matched song and plays it in sync with that beat.
3. Which of the following about Shimi is true?
D Shimi can be creative and interactive.
4. What does the author want to tell us?
A The research center is developing a stronger and more versatile Shimi.
5. Which of the following is Weinberg’s assertion?
B human lives will be filled with more fun if Shimi is going to arrive in homes.
★第20篇-Explorer of the Extreme Deep------深海探索器
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet． Yet，just a small fraction of the undcrwaler world has been uxplored． Now，Scientists at the Woods Hole1 Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle hat will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet)．The new machine，known as a manned submersible or human-operated vehicle (HOV)，will replace another one named Alvin2 which bas an amazing record of discovery，playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions．Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet)．It’s about time for an upgrade，WHOI researchers say．
Alvin was launched in 1964．Since then，Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year，says Daniel Fornari，a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI．During its lifetime，Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives． A newer，better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises ahout a world that is still full of mysteries，Fornari says．It might also make the job of exploration a little easier．“We take so much for granted on land,” Fornari says．“We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are． We can see colors，special arrangements．”
Size-wise，the new HOV will be similar to Alvin．It’ll be about 37 feet long．The setting area inside will be a small sphere，about 8 feet wide，like Alvin，it’ll carry a pilot and two passengers．It will be just as maneuverable．In most other ways，it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view，for one thing．Alvin has only three windows，the new vehicle will have five，with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing．
Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second，and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2．3 miles per hour)，while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second．It’ll reach speeds of 3 knots，or 3．5 miles per hour．
1． What is Alvin?
C A submersible．  
2． Which of the following statements is NOT a fact about Alvin?
A h can carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters．
3． “．．．a world that is still full of mysteries” refers to
C the ocean．
4． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin similar?
D Shape．
5． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin different?
D Both A and B．
★第21篇-Plant Gas----植物，沼气的又一来源
Scientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades but hadn't regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heldelberg, Germany. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees, may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane production requires an oxygen-free environment.
Previously, researchers had thought that it was impossible for plants to make significant amounts of the gas. They had assumed that microbes need to be in environments without oxygen to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth's atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
In its experiments, Keppler's team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth's atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves.
With the dried plants, the researchers took measurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found, a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms of methane per hour. （One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.） With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled. Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight.
Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it's unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions. That's another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes.
The new finding is an "interesting observation," says Jennifer Y. King, a biogeochemist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul3. Because some types of soil microbes consume methane, they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant's influence, she notes. （367 words）
1 that was scientists' understanding of methane?
C） It was produced in oxygen-free environments.
2 To test whether plants are a source of methane, the scientists created
B） an environment with the same concentration of oxygen as the Earth has.
3 hich statement is true of the methane emissions of plants in the experiment?
D） The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of methane emissions.
4 What of the following about methane is Not mentioned in the passage ?
D） Microbes in plants produce methane.
5 What is the beneficial point of some microbes consuming plant-produced methane?
C） Less methane reaches the atmosphere.
★新增第22篇Real World Robots-----现实生活中的机器人
When you think of a robot, do you envision a shiny, metallic device having the same general shape as a human being, performing humanlike functions, and responding to your questions in a monotone voice accentuated by high-pitched tones and beeps? This is the way many of us imagine a robot, but in the real world, a robot is not humanoid at all. Instead a robot often is a voiceless, box-shaped machine that efficiently carries out repetitive or dangerous functions usually performed by humans. Today’s robot is more than an automatic machine that performs one task again and again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees of artificial intelligence—that is, a robot contains a computer program that tells it how to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, and learning from past experience.
A robot does not possess a human shape for the simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remaining balanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels and axles that roll and rotate. A robot even has limbs that swivel and move in combination with joints and motors. To find its way in its surroundings1, a robot utilizes various built-in sensors. Antennae attached to the robot’s base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to teeter as it moves on an incline, a gyroscope or a pendulum inside it senses the vertical differential. To determine its distance from an object and how quickly it will reach the object，the robot bounces beams of laser light and ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path2. These and other sensors constantly feed information to the computer, which then analyzes the information and corrects or adjusts the robot’s actions. As science and technology advance, the robot too will progress in its functions and use of artificial-intelligence programs.
1．Another good title for this passage would be
C　Today’s Robots and How They Function.
2．Artificial intelligence is
D　a computer program that imitates human intellectual processes.
3．The last paragraph suggests that future robots will be
A　more humanlike in behavior and actions.
4．The writer begins the passage by comparing
B　a modem robot with a fictional robot.
5．The word humanoid means
D　having a human form or characteristics.
★第23篇-Powering a City? It's a Breeze-----风力发电？轻而易举
The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries—a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips—yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole turbines.
Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine” is a high-tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftops of busy citles. Lighter, quieter, and often more efficient than rural counterparts, they take advantage of the extreme turbulence and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns.
Prototypes have been successfully tested in several Dutch cities, and the city government in the Hague has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. a typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours.
But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercial buildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane.
Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. The Netherlands, with 16 million people crowded into a country twice the size of Slovenia, is the most densely populated in Europe.
Problems remain, however, for example, public safety concerns, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturers. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. People don't know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to one of the big turbines. It might be too hectic.
Meanwhile, projects are under way to use minimills to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think the thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It's a very local technology, and you can use it right in you backyard. I don't think anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard.”
1. What are the symbols of Netherlands according to the first paragraph?
B. Wooden shoes and wooden windmills.
2. Which statement is best describes the urban turbine mentioned in the second paragraph?
B. It is a high-tech machine designed to generate energy for urban people.
3. The smallest models of an urban turbine
C. can be carried up to the rooftop without a crane.
4. The Netherlands leads in the urban turbine technology because
A. the Dutch are natural pioneers.
5. According to the last paragraph, what are the advantages of wind power technology?
A. It can be used for different purposes.
★第24篇-Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe------地下煤着火——即将来临的灾难
Coal burning deep underground in China, India and Indonesia is threatening the environment and human life, scientists have warned, these large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even ignite forest first, a panel of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association For the Advancement of Science in Denver. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned.
“Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro, USA, But surprisingly few people know about them.
Coal can heat up on its own, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not cause to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China consume up to 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U.S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Coal Ecology. Once underway, coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.
The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, cand agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to protect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country.
Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a heat-resistant grout (a thin mortar used to fill cracks and crevices), which is designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off the oxygen supply.
1. According to the first paragraph, one of the warnings given by the scientists is that
C. poisonous elements released by the underground fires can pollute water sources.
2. According to the third paragraph, what will happen when the underground heat does not disappear?
A. Coal heats up on its own and catches fire and burns.
3. What did Stracher analyze in his article published in the International Journal of Coal Ecology?
D. Coal fires can have an impact on the environment.
4. Which of the following statements about Paul Van Dijk is Not true?
B. He has detected and monitored underground fires in Netherlands.
5. According to the fifth paragraph, what is the suggested method to control under ground fires?
D. Cutting off the oxygen supply.
★第25篇-Eat to Live---------为生存而食
A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it's not much fun—and it might not even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to1 most of that youthful vigor even if we don't start to diet until old age.
Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins.
Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years.
The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production4—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.
“This is the first indication that thee effects kick in5 pretty quickly,” says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D. C.
No one yet knows if calorie works in people as it does in mice, bus Spindler is hopeful. “There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says.
If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, out bodies are les efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it6. “The mice get less disease, they live longer but they're hungry,” he says. “Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'.”
Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
D. We have to begin dieting from childhood.
2. Why does the author mention an elderly mouse in paragraph 2?
B. To illustrate the effect of meager food on mice.
3. What can be inferred about completely normally fed mice mentioned in the passage?
D. They are more likely to suffer from inflammation.
4. According to the author, which of the following most interested the researchers?
A. The mice that started dieting in old age.
5. According to the last two paragraphs, Spindler believes that
C. dieting is not a good method to give us health and a long life.
★第26篇-Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently---------男女飞行员引起飞行事故的差异
Male pilots flying general aviation。(private)aircraft in the United States are more likely to crash due to inattention or flawed decision.making.while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft.These are the results of a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study identifies the differences between male and female pilots in terms of circumstances of the crash and the type of pilots error involved.“Crashes of general aviation aircraft account for 85 percent of all aviation deaths’in the United States.The crash rate for male pilots.as for motor vehicle drivers，exceeds that of crashes of female pilots，”explains Susan P.Baker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.“Because pilot youth and inexperience are established。contributors to aviation crashes, we focused on only mature pilots，to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.
The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety.The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997，involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40--63.Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a l：2 ratio，by age，classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash，and year of crash.Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.
The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common circumstance for both sexes，leading to 59 percent of female pilots’crashes and 36 percent of males’.Experiencing mechanical failure，running out of fuel，and landing the plane with the landing gear up were among the factors more likely with males，while stalling was more likely with females.
The majority of the crashes—95 percent for females and 88 percent for males—involved at least one type of pilot error.Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females(accounting for 81 percent of the crashes)than males (accounting for 48 percent).Males，however，appeared more likely to be guilty of poor decision-making，risk-taking，and inattentiveness, examples of which include misjudging weather and visibility or flying an aircraft with a known defect.Females，though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft，were generally more careful than their male counterparts.
1. What is the research at Johns Hopkins University about?
B) Gender difference in relation to types of aircraft crashes.
2. Which of the statements is NOT true according to the second paragraph?
D) Only mature pilots are studied to determine the gender differences in the reasons for aircraft crash.
3. How did the researchers carry out their study?
A) They studied the findings of several previous research projects.
4. What is the most common circumstance of crash with female pilots?
B) Loss of control on landing or takeoff and stalling.
5. In the comparison of female and male pilots,
D) male pilots are found to make more errors in decision-making.
★第27篇Driven to Distraction------分散注意力驾驶
Joe Coyne slides into the driver’s eat, starts up the car and heads to town. The empty stretch of interstate gives way to urban congestion, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.
But even if he hadn’t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn’t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn’t really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University (ODU) examine how in-vehicle guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel.
The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are too distracting—or whether any distractions are offset by the benefits drivers get from having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations.
“We’re looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor leading the research, which involves measuring drivers’ reaction time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues.
The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs. light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people “get into more challenging driving situations, they don’t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment,” Baldwin said.
But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. This next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers’ mental workload.
“Is it best if they see a picture…that shows their position, a map kind of display?” Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?”
Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They’re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.”
That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions, Baldwin said.
Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify systems to present some information in a way that makes sense for people who prefer the survey style, she said.
Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don’t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.
1. Which statement is true of the description in the first two paragraphs?
C. Coyne is not really driving so it is impossible for him to have hit the woman.
2. What do researchers want to find out, according to the third and fourth paragraphs?
D. All of the above.
3. What are the preliminary results given in the fifth paragraph?
C. In challenging driving situations, drivers do not have any additional mental energy to deal with something else.
4. The sixth paragraph mainly state that the researchers.
D. want to determine the best ways of giving navigational information system.
5. What kind of directions do men and women prefer?
B. Men prefer more general directions and women prefer route direction.
★第28篇-Sleep Lets Brain File Memories-----睡眠促使记忆归档存储
To sleep. Perchance to file? Findings published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brain organizes and stows memories formed during the day while the rest of the body is catching zzz's.
Gyorgy Buzsaki of Rutgers University5 and his colleagues analyzed the brain waves of sleeping rats and mice. Specifically, they examined the electrical activity emanating from6 the somatosensory neocortex (an area that processes sensory information) and the hippocampus, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillations in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles (bursts of activity from the neocortex) were followed tens of milliseconds later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation. A second study, also published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, links age-associated memory decline to high glucose levels.
Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied 30 people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend to increase with age, affect memory in healthy people as well. The scientists administered11 recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body's tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects better able to absorb blood sugar.
"Our study suggests that this impairment12 may contribute to the memory deficits13 that occur as people age." Convit says. "And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucose tolerance could reverse some age-associated problems in cognition.14" Exercise and weight control can help keep glucose levels in check15, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.
1.Which of the following statements is nearest in meaning to the sentence”To sleep. Perchance to file?”
A Does brain arrange memories in useful order during sleep?
2.What is the resule of the experiment with rats and mice carried out at Rutgers University?
C Somatosensory neocortex and hippocampus work together in memory consolidation.
3.What is the relation of memory to glucose tolerance, as os omdocated by a research mentioned in paragraph 4?
D The poorer the memory , the poorer glucose tolerance.
4.In what way is memory related to hippocampus shrinkage.
B The more hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory.
5.According to the last paragraph, what is the ultimate reason for going to the gym?
D To control glucose levels
★第29篇- I’ll Be Bach--------我也能成为巴赫
Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computerprogram that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years todevelop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between musicby the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-likecompositions from Cope’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, whenCope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of newmelodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first thismusic was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink howhuman beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases.First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take outthe music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left.According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the databaseaccurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He beganwith hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smallerpieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns.Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good,but it was a start.
Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a wholeopera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work,to the database.
A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’smusical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took onlytwo weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success!Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactlyhow he had composed the work.
Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousandsof compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing thesedays!
1. The music composed by David cope is about                             
A classical music.   
2. By developing a computer software,David Cope  aimed
C to write an opera.                    
3. What did Cope realize about a great composer's  brain?
D It creates an accurate database.
4.WhoisEmmy?                                           B a computer software
5. We can infer from the passage that                                          
D Emmy did much more work than a composer.
★第30篇-Digital Realm----------数码王国
In the digital realm, the next big advance will be voice recognition. The rudiments are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,” and it is likely to think you want it to “wreck a nice beach.” But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away and machines will soak it all in. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to our computers; we’ll also able to chat our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles, browsers, thermostats, VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around.
That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age: artificial intelligence. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents. Scary, huh? But potentially quite useful. At least until they don’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around.
The law powering the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore’s: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power—the capacity of microprocessors and memory chips—would become nearly free; his company kept churning out more and more lines of complex software to make use of the cheap bounty. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free.
Along with the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this means a future in which all forms of content—movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt’s recipes and home videos—will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you’ll be able to create a movie or magazine, make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner!
The result will be a transition from a mass-market world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to each user. You can subscribe to news sources that serve up only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes.
1. The techniques of voice recognition
B are in its initial stage of development.
2. According to the second paragraph, when we reach the stage of artificial intelligence,
A machines can be our agents as they understand our thoughts.
3. What’s the best description of Grodon Moore’s law as mentioned in the third paragraph?
A It motivates the development of the digital world.
4. What can people do in a future scene as described in the fourth paragraph?
D All of the above.
5. Which of the following statements is true of a personalized market?
C In a personalized market, products are tailored to each consumer.
★第31篇-Hurricane Katrina----卡特里娜飓风
A hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1,240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation5 is a cluster of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern hemisphere.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate and condense into clouds and rain - releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moisture-laden air from the sea surface in a process that swells the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake - almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have been displaced in a humanitarian crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the great depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
1. What is the eye of a hurricane?
C) A calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter.
2. Which of the following is NOT the "requirements" mentioned in the second paragraph?
A) The tropical waters are warm and calm.
3. Which of the following is the best explanation of the word "drive" in the third paragraph?
C) To supply the motive force or power and cause to function.
4. What does the warm air mentioned in the fourth paragraph produce when it is rising from thesea surface?
B) Low pressure.  
5. What is NOT true of Hurricane Katrina according to the last paragraph?
D) The humanitarian crisis is as serious as that of the great depression
★第32篇-Mind-reading1 Machine------读心机
A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what's happening in their brains.
　When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons are responsible for this processing.
The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen-rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
1. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
C）Neurons in the brain.      
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
D）fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
3. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
A）"marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
4. What did the researchers experiment on?
B）Two volunteers.
5. Which of the following can be the best replacement of the tide?
B）Your Thoughts Can Be Scanned.
★第33篇-Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste---------专家呼吁局部和区域控制放射性废物地点
The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. In an article in the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan2 geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton University3 nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
"The main goal…, should be to provide the Unied States with multiple process that requires acceptance by host communities and states," the authors write.
Ewing and von Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by Congress4 in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved after more than three decades of often controversial debate. The reasons include the site's geological problems, management problems,important changes in the Environmental Protection Agency's standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process.
Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nation's northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located closer to reactors.
"This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe, where spent nuclear fuel6 and high-level nuclear waste7 from about 150 reactors and reprocessing plants is to be moved to a number of geological repositories in a variety of rock types8," said Rodney Ewing, who has written extensively about the impact of nuclear waste management on the environment and who has analyzed safety assessment criteria for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
1. Which of the following words can best substitute the word "withdrawal" in the first paragraph?
B Canceling.
2. According to Rodney Ewing and Frand von Hippel, where to locate nuclear facilities
B should be approved by local people and states.
3. What is NOT true about the 1987 decision by Congress concerning siting of nuclear waste disposal?
D The decision by Congress was accepted by local communities.
4. What does the author of the essay in the fourth paragraph want to say?
C Efforts should be made to develop nuclear disposal sites to suit the circumstances of the region.
5. What is meant by "regional approach" as mentioned in the last paragraph?
C Spent nuclear fuel and high –level nuclear waste is moved to developing countries.

一、Mobile Phones------移动电话
Mobile phones should carry a label if they proved1 to be a dangerous source of radiation, according to Robert Bell, a scientist. And no more mobile phone transmitter towers should be built until the long-term health effects of the electromagnetic radiation they emit are scientifically evaluated, he said. “Nobody’s going to drop dead overnight but we should be asking for more scientific information，” Robert Bell said at a conference on the health effects of low-level radiation. “1、If mobile phones are found to be dangerous, they should carry a warning label until proper shields can be devised,” he said.
A report widely circulated among the public says that up to now scientists do not really know enough to guarantee there are no ill-effects on humans from electromagnetic radiation. According to Robert Bell, there are 3. 3 million mobile phones in Australia alone and they are increasing by 2,000 a day. 2、By the year 2000 it is estimated that Australia will have 8 million mobile phones ：nearly one for every two people.
As well, there are 2,000 transmitter towers around Australia, many in high density residential areas5. 3、 For example, Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone build their towers where it is geographically suitable to them and disregard the need of the community.The electromagnetic radiation emitted from these towers may have already produced some harmful effects on the health of the residents nearby.
Robert Bell suggests that until more research is completed the Government should ban construction of phone towers from within a 500 metre radius of school grounds, child care centres, hospitals, sports playing fields and residential areas with a high percentage of children. 4、He says there is emerging evidence that children absorb low-level radiation at a rate more than three times that of adults. He adds that there is also evidence that if cancer sufferers are subjected to electromagnetic waves the growth rate of the disease accelerates.
5、Then who finances the research? According to Robert Bell, it is reasonable for the major telephone companies to fund it. Besides, he also urges the Government to set up a wide-ranging inquiry into possible health effects.
二、The World's Longest Bridge-------世界上最长的桥
Rumor has it that1 a legendary six-headed monster lurks in the deep waters of the Tyrrhenian
Sea between Italy and the island of Sicily.(1、 If true, one day you might spy the beast while zipping (呼晡而过)across the Messina Strait Bridge.) When completed in 2010, theworld's longest bridge will weigh nearly 300,000 tons 一 equivalent to the iceberg that sank the Titanic — and stretch 5 kilometers long. “ That's nearly 50 percent longer than any other bridge ever built. ’，says structural engineer Shane Rixon.
(2、What do the world's longest bridges have in common?) They're suspension bridges, massive structures built to span vast water channels or gorges. A suspension bridge needs just two towers to shoulder the structure's mammoth weight, thanks to hefty supporting cables slung between the towers and anchored firmly in deep pools of cement at each end of the bridge. The Messina Strait Bridge will have two 54，100-ton towers, which will support most of the bridge's load. The beefy cables of the bridge, each 1. 2 meter in diameter, will hold up the longest and widest bridge deck ever built.
When construction begins on the Messina Strait Bridge in 2005, the first job will be to erect two 370 meter-tall steel towers. (3、The second job will be to pull two sets of steel cables across the strait, each set being a bundle of 44,352 individual steel wires. ) Getting these cables up will be something. It's not just their length — totally 5. 3 kilometers — but their weight. ' (4、They will tip up the scales at 166,500 tons — more than half the bridge's total mass.)
After lowering vertical “suspender’，cables from the main cables, builders will erect a 60 meter-wide 54,630-ton steel roadway, or deck— wide enough to accommodate 12 lanes of traffic. The deck's weight will pull down on the cables with a force of 70,500 tons. In return, the cables yank up against their firmly rooted anchors with a force of 139，000 tons — equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 cars. Those anchors are essential. (5、They're what will keep the bridge from going anywhere.)
三、Reinventing the Table-------重新发现元素周期表
An earth scientist has rejigged the periodic table1 to make chemistry simpler to teach to students.
1、There have been many attempts to redesign the periodic table since DmM Mendeleev2 drew it up in 1871.But Bruce Railsback from the University of Georgia says he is the first to create a table that breaks with tradition and shows the ions of each element rather than just the elements themselves.
“I got tired of breaking my arms trying to explain the periodic table to earth students,”he says, criss-crossing his hands in the air and pointing to different bits of a traditional table._2、Railsback has still ordered the elements according to the number of protons they have. But he has added contour lines to charge density, helping to explain which ions react with which.
"Geohemists just want an intuitive sense of what's going on with the elements," says Albert Galy from the University of Cambridge,_3、“I imagine this would be good for undergraduates.”
_4_、 Railsback has listed some elements more than once._He explains that sulphur, for example , shows up in three different spots — one for sulphide, which is found in minerals, one for su1phite, and one for su1phate, which is found in sea sa1t, for instance.
He has also inc1uded symbols to show which ions are nutrients，and which are common in soi1 or water._5、 And the size of element’s symbol reflects how much of it is found in the Earth’s crust.
四、The Bilingual Brain-----双语大脑
When Karl Kim immigrated to the United States from Korea s a teenager, he had a hard time learning English. Now he speaks it fluently, and he had a unique opportunity to see how our brains adapt to a second language. As a graduate student, Kim worked in the lab of Joy Hirsch, a neuroscientist in New York. 1、Their work led to an important discovery.They found evidence that children and adults don't use the same parts of the brain when they learn a second language.
The researchers used an instrument called an MRI( magnetic resonance imaging) scanner to study the brains of two groups of bilingual people. 2、 One group consisted of those who had learned a second language as children.The other consisted of people who, like Kim, learned their second language later in life. People from both groups were placed inside the MRI scanner. This allowed Kim and Hirsch to see which parts of the brain were getting more blood and were more active. They asked people from both groups to think about what they had done the day before, first in one language and then the other. They couldn't speak out loud because any movement would disrupt the scanning.
Kim and Hirsch looked specifically at two language centers in the brain - Broca's area~ , which is believed to control speech production, and Wernicke's area, which is thought to process meaning. Kim and Hirsch found that both groups of people used the same part of Wernicke's area no matter what language they were speaking. 3、But their use of Broca's area was different.
People who learned a second language as children used the same region in Broca's area for both their first and second languages. People who learned a second language later in life used a different part of Broca's area for their second language. 4、How does Hirsch explain this difference? Hirsch believes that when language is first being programmed in young children, their brains may mix the sounds and structures of all languages in the same area. Once that programming is complete, the processing of a new language must be taken over by a different part of the brain.
A second possibility is simply that we may acquire languages differently as children than we do as adults. Hirsch thinks that mothers teach a baby to speak by using different methods involving touch, sound, and sight. 5、 And that is very different from learning a language in a high school or college class.
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C）-------破纪录的漫游车
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has boldly gone where no rover has gone before—at least in terms of distance. _1、Since arriving on the Red Planet in 2004, Opportunity has traveled 25.01 miles, more than any other wheeled vehicle has on another world.
On July 27, after years of moving about on Martian ground, the golf-cart-sized Opportunity had driven more than 24 miles, beating the previous record holder—a Soviet rover sent to the moon in 1973.
“This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about 1 kilometer and was never designed for distance,” says John Callas, the Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager._2、He works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “But what is really importantly is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance.”
OPPORTUNITY
The solar-powered Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, landed on Mars 10 years ago on a mission expected to last 3 months. 3 、The objective of the rovers was to help scientists learn more about the planet and to search for signs of life，such as the possible presence of water.
Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, a few months after it got stuck in a sand pit. But Opportunity has continued to collect and analyze Martian soil and rocks.
During its mission, Opportunity has captured, and sent back to Earth, some 187,000 panoramic and microscopic images of Mars with its cameras. 4、 It has also provided scientists with data on the planet’s atmosphere, soil, rocks, and terrain.
MARATHON ROVER
The rover doesn’t seem to be ready to stop just yet. If Opportunity can continue on, it will reach another major investigation site when its odometer hits 26.2 miles. 5、Scientists call this site Marathon Valley, because when the rover reaches the area, it will have traveled the same distance as the length of a marathon since its arrival on Mars.
Researchers believe that clay minerals exposed near Marathon Valley could hold clues to Mars’s ancient environment1. Opportunity’s continuing travels will also help researchers as they plan for an eventual human mission to the Red Planet.
六、Dung to Death-------施肥致死
Fields across Europe are contaminated with dangerous levels of the antibiotics given to farm animals. The drugs, which are in manure sprayed onto fields as fertilizers, could be getting into our food and water, helping to create a new generation of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”.
The warning comes from a researcher in Switzerland who looked at levels of the drugs in farm slurry. _1 His findings are particularly shocking because Switzerland is one of the few countries to have banned antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed.
Some 20,000 tons of antibiotics are used in the European Union and the US each year. More than half are given to farm-animals to prevent disease and promote growth. 2 、But recent research has found a direct link between the increased use of these farmyard drugs and the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bugs that infect people.
Most researchers assumed that humans become infected with the resistant strains by eating contaminated meat. But far more of the drugs end up in manure than in meat products, says Stephen Mueller of the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology m Dubendorf. 3、And manure contains especially high levels of bugs that are resistar.t to antibiotics, he says.
With millions of tons of animals manure spread onto fields of crops such as wheat and barley each year, this pathway seems an equally likely route for spreading resistance,4 he said. The drugs contaminate the crops, which are then eaten. _4、They could also be leaching into tap water pumped from rocks beneath fertilized fields.
Mueller is particularly concerned about a group of antibiotics called sulphonamides. 5　、They do not easily degrade or dissolve in water. His analysis found that Swiss farm manure contains a high percentage of sulphonamides; each hectare of field could be contaminated with up to 1 kilogram of the drugs. This concentration is high enough to trigger the development of resistance among bacteria. But vets are not treating the issue seriously.
There is growing concern at the extent to which drugs, including antibiotics, are polluting the environment. Many drugs given to humans are also excreted unchanged and are not broken down by conventional sewage treatment.
七、Time in the Animal World-------动物界中的时间
Rhythm controls everything in Nature. _1、It controls, for example, the flapping of birds, wings, the beating of the heart and the rising and setting of the sun.
The sun provides a basic time rhythm for all living creatures including humans. Nearly all animals are influenced by sun cycles and have developed a biological clock in their bodies following these cycles. The moon also exerts its force and influence on the sea. Its gravitational attxacSon causes the rising of the tide. 2、The tide goes out when the moon moves away and its attraction is weaker.When the moon is behind the Earth, centrifugal force causes the second tide of the day.
Animals living in tidal areas must have the instinct of predicting these changes, to avoid being stranded and dying of dehydration. Since the time of the dinosaurs, the king crab has been laying eggs1 at the seaside in a set way2. To avoid predator fish3，the eggs are always far from seawater and protected by sand. In the following two months, the eggs undergo dramatic changes related to the cycles of the moon4. When the second spring tide comes, the young king crabs have matured. 3、The second spring tide takes them back to the sea.
Most of the mammals, either the giant elephant or the small shrew, have the same average total number of heartbeats in their lifetime. Shrews live only for two and a half years, and spend their life at a high speed and high tempo. Animals like shrews with a pulse rate of 600 per minute have an average total of eight hundred million heartbeats5 throughout their life. The African elephant has a pulse rate of 25 beats per minute, and a life span6 of 60 years. The size of the body determines the speed of life. 4_、The larger the animal is, the longer its life span is and the slower its life tempo is.
As we get older, our sense of time is being influenced by the physiological changes of our body. The elderly spend more time resting, and do few sports. 5 、For an adult, time goes fast year by year. For a child, a week is seen as a long time.
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow--------观察微电流流程
We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed 1、 to picture the progress of the currents. The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes.
Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and 2 、converting the information into a color picture showing the density
Their sensor is adapted1 from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2”We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao.
　The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes, even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across.
At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles _3、to making chips any smaller. But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits , nicks in the wires or electro migration — where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and moves them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.
As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure of any object capable of conducting electricity Fpr example, it could look directly at microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, 4 、faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water sample. The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it out in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.
　　Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public, it is already on sale, from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minutes to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag are working _5、to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B）------雷击
Three years ago a bolt of lightning all but destroyed Lyn Miller’s house in Aberdeen—with her two children inside. “There was a huge rainstorm,” she says, recalling the terrifying experience. “My brother and I were outside desperately working to stop floodwater from coming in the house. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground by an enormous bang._1、When I picked myself up, the roof and the entire upper storey of the house had been demolished.The door was blocked by rubble, but we forced our way in and found the children, thankfully unharmed. Later I was told to be struck by lightning is a chance in a million.” In fact, it’s calculated at one chance in 600,000. Even so, Dr Mark Keys of AER Technology, an organisation that monitors the effects of lightning, thinks you should be sensible. “I wouldn’t go out in a storm—but then I’m quite a careful person.” He advises anyone who is unlucky enough to be caught in a storm to get down on the ground and curl up into a ball, making yourself as small as possible.
Lightning is one of nature’s most awesome displays of sheer power. _2 、No wonder the ancient Greeks thought it was Zeus, father of the gods, throwing thunderbolts around in anger. 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman，proved that lightning is a form of electricity, but scientists still lack a complete understanding of how it works.
_3、 Occasionally there are warning signs. Positive electrical charges streaming upwards from trees or church spires may glow and make a buzzing noise, and people’s hair can stand on end. And if you fear lightning, you’ll be glad to know that a company in America has manufactured a hand-held lightning detector which can detect it up to 70 kms away, sound a warning tone and monitor the storm’s approach.
Nancy Wilder was playing golf at a club in Surrey when she was hit by a bolt of lightning. Mrs Wilder’s heart stopped beating, but she was resuscitated and, after a few days in hospital, where she was treated for bums to her head, hands and feet, she was pronounced fit again. Since that time，she has been a strictly fair weather golfer1. _4、In fact, a golf course is one of the most dangerous places to be during a thunderstorm.The best place to be is inside a car!
The largest number of people to be struck by lightning at one time was in September 1995 when 17 players on a football pitch were hit simultaneously. The most extraordinary aspect of the strike was the fact that 11 of the victims—seven adults and four children—had burn patterns of tiny holes at 3 centimetre intervals on each toe and around the soles of their feet.
Harold Deal, a retired electrician from South Carolina, USA, was struck by lightning 26 years ago. He was apparently unhurt, but it later emerged that the strike had damaged the part of the brain which controls the sensation of temperature. _5 、Since then the freezing South Carolina winters haven’t bothered Harold, since he is completely unable to feel the cold.
Animals are victims of lightning too2．Hundreds of cows and sheep are killed every year, largely because they go under trees. In East Anglia in 1918, 504 sheep were killed instantaneously by the same bolt of lightning that hit the ground and travelled through the entire flock. Lightning is also responsible for starting more than 10,000 forest fires each year world-wide.
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear------如何让失聪的人更容易听见
Most people think of Beethoven's hearing loss as an obstacle to composing music. However, he produced his most powerful works in the last decade of his life when he was completely deaf.
　This is one of the most glorious cases of the triumph of will over adversity, but his biographer, Maynard Solomon, takes a different view. 1、Solomon argues that Beethoven's deafness "heightened" his achievement as a composer.
In his deaf world Beethoven could experiment, free from the sounds of the outside world, free to create new forms and harmonies.
Hearing loss does not seem to affect the musical ability of musicians who become deaf. They continue to"hear" music with as much, or greater, accuracy than if they were actually hearing it being played.
2、Michael Eagar, who died in 2003, became deaf at the age of 21. He described a fascinating phenomenon that happened within three months:" my former musical experiences began to play back to me. I couldn't differentiate between what I heard and real hearing. 2 After many years, it is still rewarding to listen to these playbacks, to ' hear' music which is new to me and to find many quiet accompaniments for all of my moods. "
How is it that the world we see, touch, hear, and smell is both"out there" and at the same time within us? There is no better example of this connection between external stimulus and internal perception than the cochlear implant. 3、No man-made device could replace the ability to hear. However, it might be possible to use the brain's remarkable power to make sense of the electrical signals the implant produces.
When Michael Edgar first" switched on" his cochlear implant,the sound's he heard were not at all clear. Gradually, with much hard work, he began to identify everyday sounds. For example," The insistent ringing of the telephone became clear almost at once. "
The primary purpose of the implant is to allow communication with others. When people spoke to Eagar, he heard their voices "coming through like a long-distance telephone call on a poor connection. " But when it came to his beloved music, the implant was of no help. 4、When he war, ted to appreciate music, Eagar played the piano. He said," I play the piano as I used to and hear it in my head at the same time. The movement of my fingers and the feel of the keys give added ' clarity' to hearing in my head. ''
Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear again in a way that is not perfect, but which can change their lives. 5、Still, as Michael Eagar discovered, when it comes to musical harmonies,heating is irrelevant.Even the most amazing cochlear implants would have been useless to Beethoven as he composed his Ninth Symphony at the end of his life.
【1】Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)
It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook  who  died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779.
“There is  no  Cook in the Australian Museum,” museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone. But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition, “Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalani’opu’u in 1778.
Cook was one of Britain’s great explorers and is credited with discovering the “Great South Land,” now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii.
The legend of Cook’s arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cook’s wife, saying it was made of Cook’s bone after the fatal fight with islanders.
In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until  it came face-to-face with science.
DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone but was more  likely made of animal bone, said Philp.
However, Cook’s fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cook’s body was buried at sea in 1779. “On this occasion technology has won,” said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. “But I am sure that one of these days …one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.”
【2】Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)
An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property.
All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is likely to cause an avalanche, is  a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors.
Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low risk of avalanche. Snow does not gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not flow easily on flat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snow’s angle of rest is between 35 and 45 degrees; the critical angle, the angle at which the human incidence of avalanches is greatest, is 38 degrees. The rule of thumb is :A slope that is flat enough to hold snow but steep enough to ski has the potential to generate an avalanche, regardless of the angle. Additionally, avalanche risk increases with use; that is ,the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, thd more likely it is that an avalanche will occur.
Due to the complexity of the subject, winter travelling in the backcountry is never 100% safe. Good avalanche safety is a continuous process, including route selection and examination of the snowpack, weather conditions, and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid attention to. Never follow in the tracks of others without your own evaluations; snow conditions are almost certain to have changed since they were made. Observe the terrain and note obvious avalanche paths where plants are missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche.
【3】增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑)
It is an impossible task to select the most amazing wonders of the modern world since every year more wonderful constructions appear. Here are three giant structures which are worthy of our admiration although they may have been surpassed by some more recent wonders.
The Petronas Twin Tower
The petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world when they were completed in 1999.With a height of 452 metres，the tall twin owers, like two thin pencils, dominate the city of Kuala Lumpur. At the 41 floor, the towers are linked by a bridge, symbolizing a gateway to the city. The American architect Cesar Pelli designed the skyscrapers.
Constructed of high-strength concrete, the building provides around 1800 square metres of office space on every floor. And it has a shopping centre and a concert hall at the base. Other features of this impressive building include double-decker lifts, and glass and steel sunshades.
The Millau Bridge
The Millau Bridge was opened in 2004 in the Tarn Valley, in southern France. At the time it was built, it was the world’s highest bridge, reaching over 340m at the highest point. The bridge is described as one of the most amazingly beautiful bridge in the world. It was built to relieve Millau’s congestion problems. The congestion was then caused by traffic passing from Paris to Barcelona in Spain. The bridge was built to withstand the most extreme seismic and climatic conditions. Besides, it is guaranteed for 120 years!
The Itaipu Dam
The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant is one of the largest constructions of its kind in the world. It consists of a series of dams across the River Parana, which forms a natural border between Brazil and Paraguay. Started in 1975 and taking 16 years to complete, the construction was carried out as a joint project between the two countries. The dam is well-known for both its electricity output and its size. In 1995 it produced 78% of Paraguay’s and 25% of Brazil’s energy needs. In its construction, the amount of iron and steel used was equivalent to over 300 Eiffel Towers. It is a truly amazing wonder of engineering.
【4】Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)
A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
“No elephants are dead, not even a dead rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.
“There has been a lot of apparent evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.
“There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this assessment.
“Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds… there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal “sixth sense” – or some other mythical power – is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s ravaged coast is likely to add to.
The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.
【5】Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人)
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building – and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capalbe of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. “It is a burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio,” she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.”
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
【6】Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)
Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
For now, such devices are only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars, and should be available to ordinary cars in the UK in two months.
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
There are even plans for immobilizers that shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system.
In the UK, an array of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed,” says Martyn Rand all of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part by the motor insurance industry.
He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
Modern cars are a far tougher proposition, as their engine management computer will not allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owner’s keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the owner’s keys, which doubles the previous year’s figure.
Remote-controlled immobilization system would put a major new obstacle in the criminal’s way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the customer expects.
【7】An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)
Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all these and can control a fast-moving car. But how does an intelligent car control itself?
There is a virtual driver in the smart car. This virtual driver has “eyes”, “brains”, “hands” and “feet”, too. The minicameras on each side of the car are his “eyes”, which observe the road conditions ahead of it. They watch the traffic to the car’s left and right. There is also a highly automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual driver’s “brain”. His “brain” calculates the speeds of other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information, it chooses the right path for the intelligent car, and gives instructions to the “hands” and “feet” to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car.
What is the virtual driver’s best advantage? He reacts quickly. The minicameras are sending images continuously to the “brain.” It completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the world’s best driver at least needs one second to react. Besides, when he takes action, he needs one more second.
The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident rate considerably on expressways. In this case, can we let him have the wheel at any time and in any place? Experts warn that we cannot do that just yet. His ability to recognize things is still limited . He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.

【8】增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰)
The vultures in question may look ugly and threatening, but the sudden sharp decline in three species of India’s vultures is producing alarm rather than celebration. and it presents the world with a new kind of environmental problem. The dramatic decline in vulture numbers is causing widespread disruption to people living in the same areas as the birds. It is also causing serious public health problems across the Indian sub-continent．
While their reputation and appearance may be unpleasant to many Indians, vultures have long played a very important role in keeping towns and villages all over India clean. It is because they feed on dead cows. In India, cows are sacred animals and are traditionally left in the open when they die in their thousands upon thousands every year.
The disappearance of the vultures has led to an explosion in the numbers of wild dogs feeding on the remains of these dead animals. There are fears that rabies may increase as a result．And this terrifying disease may ultimately affect humans in the region, since wild dogs are its main carriers．Rabies could also spread to other animal species, causing an even greater problem in the future．
The need for action is urgent, so an emergency project has been launched to find a solution to this serious vulture problem. Scientists are trying to identify the disease causing the birds deaths and, if possible, develop a cure.
Large-scale vulture deaths were first noticed at the end of the 1980s in India. A population survey at that time showed that the three species of vultures had. Declined  by over 90 percent. All three species are now listed as “critically endangered”. As most vulture lay only single eggs and take about five years to reach maturity, reversing their population decline will be a long and difficult exercise.
【9】Wonder Webs(奇妙的网)
Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the world’s best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.
The secret of the web’s strength? A type of super-resilient silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to weave the web’s spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along it to spin the web’s trademark spiral.
Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original length and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes close.
It is no wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars – but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not work because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors.
Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Golden Orb dragline. The first step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grow from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their milk. “The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without any help from us,” says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers as fast as the real thing snags bugs.
【10】Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感）
Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, may be bad for your arteries， but according to a study in Psychological Science, they’re good for your heart and emotions ．The study focuses on “comfort food” and how it makes people feel．
"For me personally ,food has always played a big role in my family,” says Jordan Troisi, a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, and lead author on the study．The study came out of the research program of his co—author Shira Gabriel．It has looked at non-human things that may affect human emotions．Some people reduce loneliness by bonding with their favorite TV show, building virtual relationships with a pop song singer or looking at pictures of loved ones．Troisi and Gabriel wondered if comfort food could have the same effect by making people think of their nearest and dearest.
In one experiment, in order to make  participants feel lonely, the researchers had them write for six minutes about a fight with someone close to them．Others were given an emotionally neutral writing assignment. Then, some people in each  group  wrote about the experience of eating a comfort food and others wrote about eating a new food．Finally ,the researchers had participants  complete questions about their levels of loneliness．
Writing about a fight with a close person made people feel lonely．But people who were generally secure in their relationships would feel less lonely by writing about a comfort food．"We have found that comfort foods are consistently associated with those close to us．"says Troisi．"Thinking about or consuming these foods later then serves as a reminder of those close others．"In their essays on comfort food, many people wrote about the  experience  of eating food with family and friends.
In another experiment,  eating  chicken soup in the lab made people think more about relationships, but only if they considered chicken soup to be a comfort food．This was a question they had been asked long before the experiment, along with many other questions, so they wouldn’t remember it.
Throughout everyone’s daily lives they experience stress, often associated with our connections with others," Troisi says．"Comfort food Can be an easy remedy for loneliness．
【11】Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities （气候变化给不备城市带来重大风险）

潘统衡有多少钱

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感谢楼主无私奉献

秀文笔文q学

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2016年职称英语理工B小抄WORD版可打印百度云网盘下载地址在贴子第２楼！

1.Inventor of LED        
2.El Nino        
3.Smoking        
4.Engineering Ethics        
5.Rescue Platform        
6.Microchip Research Center Created        
7.Moderate Earthquake Strikes England        
8.WhatIs a Dream?        
9.Dangers Await Babies with Altitude        
10.The Biology of Music        
1.More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing        
2.Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination        
3.Icy Microbes        
5.LED Lighting        
6.How We Form First Impression        
7.Screen Test        
9.More Rural Research Is Needed        
10.Washoe Learned American Sign Language        
1.Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles 福特放弃电动汽车        
2.World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值        
3.Citizen Scientists 公民科学家        
4.Motoring Technology 汽车技术        
5.Late-Night Drinking -----在深夜饮咖啡… ……………
6.Making Light of Sleep不要太在意睡眠        
7Sugar Power for Cell Phones 用糖为手机发电        
8Eiffel Is an Eyeful引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔        
9. An Essential Scientific Process一个重要的科学过程        
10.Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers年轻雌猩猩学习优于它们的弟兄        
11.When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口        
12.Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击        
13.Invisibility Ring隐形环        
14.Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车        
15.Winged Robot Learns to Fly 肋生双翅机器人学飞行        
16.Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth日本人的地心旅行        
17.A Sunshade for the Planet地球防晒霜        
18.Thirst for Oil石油匮乏        
19.Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience        
20.Explorer of the Extreme Deep深海探索器        
21.Plant Gas植物，沼气的又一来源        
22.Real World Robots现实生活中的机器人 …….. ………..
23.Powering a City? It's a Breeze风力发电？轻而易举        
24.Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe        
25.Eat to Live为生存而食        
26.Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently        
27.Driven to Distraction分散注意力驾驶        
28.Sleep Lets Brain File Memories睡眠促使记忆归档存储        
29. I’ll Be Bach        
30.Digital Realm数码王国        
31.Hurricane Katrina卡特里娜飓风        
32.Mind-reading1 Machine读心机        
33Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for RadioactiveWaste- …………………………………………
一、Mobile Phones-移动电话……………………………………
二、The World's Longest Bridge        
三、Reinventing the Table        
四、The Bilingual Brain        
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C）        
六、Dung to Death        
七、Time in the Animal World        
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow        
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B）        
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear        
1.Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)        
2.Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)        
3.增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑)        
4.Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)        
5.Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人)        
6.Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)        
7.An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)        560
8.增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰)        560
9.Wonder Webs(奇妙的网)        561
10.Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感）        561

Inventor of LED---- LED的发明者
【近义词】 When Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes or LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.
【反义词】On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors.
【词源解析】"Anytime you get an award, big or little, it's always a surprise," Holonyak said.
Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After graduate school, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric, where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches.
【相关短语】Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking at how to generate invisible light, be wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
【派生词】Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today. But didn't realize how many uses they would have.
【近义词】"You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important, you think it's worth doing, but you really can't tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don't know," he said.
【词源解析】The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson- MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on a new generation of "molecular sieves" that can separate molecules by size.
【近义词】1．Holonyak's colleagues thought he would fail in his research on LEDs at the time when he started it.
A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned
2．Holonyak believed that his students that were working with him on the project would get the Lemelson-MIT Prize sooner or later.
A　Right B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Holonyak was the inventor of the transistor in the early 1950s.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Holonyak believed that LEDs would become very popular in the future.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Holonyak said that you should not do anything you are not interested in.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Edith Flanigen is the only co-inventor of LEDs.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．The Lemelson-MIT Prize has a history of over 100 years.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
El Nino----------厄尔尼诺
【近义词】While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world.
【反义词】Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
【派生词】The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C　Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it “suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable.”
【相关短语】“This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods,” said Weare. He added that the new method “makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3.” Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said.
【词源解析】The ability to predict the wanning and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said.
When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002 United Nations report.
【反义词】While predicting smaller El Nino events remains tricky, the ability to predict larger ones should be increased to at least a year if the new method is confirmed.
【词源解析】 El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.
【相关短语】The new forecasting method does not predict any major El Nino events in the next two years, although a weak warming toward the end of this year is possible.
【派生词】1．The method used by the Columbia University researchers can predict El Nino a few months in advance.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．The Columbia University researchers studied the relationship between the past El Nino occurrences and sea-surface temperatures.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．The Columbia University researchers are the first to use sea-surface temperatures to match the past El Nino occurrences.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Weare’s contribution in predicting El Nino was highly praised by other meteorologists.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．According to a Chinese report, the flooding in China caused by El Nino in 1991 and 1997 affected 200 million Chinese people.
A　Right   B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
6．It takes about eight months for El Nino to reach its peak.
A　Right  B Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．A special institute has been set up in America to study El Nino.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
Smoking----------抽学派烟
【近义词】Since 1939, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether smoking is a health hazard. The trend of the evidence has been consistent and indicates that there is a serious health risk. Research teams have conducted studies that show beyond all reasonable doubt that tobacco smoking is associated with a shortened life expectancy1.
【反义词】 Cigarette smoking is believed by most research workers in this field to be an important factor in the development of cancer of the lungs and cancer of the throat and is believed to be related to cancer of some other organs of the body. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smoking males. Female smokers are thought to be less affected because they do not breathe in the smoke so deeply.
【相关短语】 Apart from statistics, it might be helpful to look at what smoking tobacco does to the human body. Smoke is a mixture of gases, vaporized chemicals, minute particles of ash and other solids. There is also nicotine, which is powerful poison, and black tar. As smoke is breathed in, all those components form deposits on the membranes of the lungs. One point of concentration is where the air tube and bronchus divides. Most lung cancer begins at this point.
【派生词】 Filters and low tar tobacco2 are claimed to make smoking to some extent safer, but they can only slightly reduce, not eliminate the hazards.
【词源解析】1．It is easy to determine whether smoking is hazardous.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．Smoking reduces one’s life expectancy.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Smoking may induce lung cancer.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．There is evidence that smoking is responsible for breast cancer.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Male smokers have a lower death rate from heart disease than female smokers.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Nicotine is poisonous.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Filters and low tar tobacco make smoking safe.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Engineering Ethics--------工程道德
【近义词】Engineering ethics is attracting increasing interest in engineering universities throughout the nation. At Texas A&M University, evidence of this interest in professional ethics culminated in the creation of a new course in engineering ethics, as well as a project funded by1 the National Science Foundation to develop material for introducing ethical issues into required undergraduate engineering courses. A small group of faculty and administrators actively supported the growing effort at Texas ASM, yet this group must now expand to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students wishing to learn2 more about the value implications of their actions as professional engineers.
【派生词】The increasing concern for the value dimension3 of engineering is, at least in part, a result of the attention that the media has given to cases such as the Challenger disaster, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkways collapse, and the Exxon oil spill. As a response to this concern, a new discipline, engineering ethics, is emerging. This discipline will doubtless4 take its place5 alongside such well-established fields as medical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics.【相关短语】The problem presented by this development is that most engineering professors are not prepared to introduce literature in engineering ethics into their classrooms. They are most comfortable with quantitative concepts6 and often do not believe they are qualified to lead class discussions on ethics. Many engineering faculty members do not think that they have the time in an already overcrowded syllabus to introduce discussions on professional ethics, or the time in their own schedules to prepare the necessary material. Hopefully, the resources presented herein will be of assistance.
【反义词】1．Engineering ethics is a compulsory subject in every institute of science and technology in the Uniled States.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．The number of students wishing to take the course of engineering ethics is declining at Texas A&SM University.
A　Right    B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．The National Science Foundation involves itself directly in writing up material about ethical issues.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．It seems that medical ethics and business ethics are more mature than engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．Several engineering professors have quit from teaching to protest against the creation of a new course in engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Many engineering professors may not have time to prepare material for class discussion on professional ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．It is likely that following this introductory passage, the author will provide the necessary material related to the topic of engineering ethics.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Rescue Platform-------救生平台
【近义词】In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, security experts are trying to develop new ways of rescuing people from burning skyscrapers. One idea is a platform capable of flying vertically and hovering in the air like a helicopter.1 The platform would rise up and down alongside a skyscraper and pick up people trapped in high stories.
【反义词】The idea for the vertical takeoff platform was hatched more than ten years ago by a Russian aerospace engineer, David Metreveli, who has since2 moved to Israel. Metreveli’s design, called the Eagle, calls for two jet engines that turn four large horizontal propellers. The spinning of the propellers generates the necessary lift, or upward force, to raise the platform. The more power is supplied to the propellers, the higher the platform rises. Moving the platform sideways involves applying differing amounts of power to each propeller.
【近义词】Helicopters are now used in some cases to get people out of burning buildings. Escape baskets3 slung from them dangle beside the building for people to climb into. Unfortunately, the baskets cannot reach every floor of a building because the ropes from which they hang become unstable beyond a certain length.
【派生词】So far, Metreveli has built a small-scale model of the Eagle to test his idea. In the wake of4 September 11, he has been able to secure enough funding to start building a larger, 4-meter by 4- meter5 prototype, which he calls the Eaglet.
【相关短语】1．A rescue platform called the Eagle is capable of moving vertically but not sideways.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．The four propellers are fitted horizontally to the Eagle.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．With the help of jet engines, the Eagle can fly at a speed of 100 miles an hour.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned  4．In the third paragraph, the word helicopter refers to the Eagle.
A　Right    B　Wrong   C  Not mentioned
5．The more jet engines are fitted to the propellers, the more people the platform can carry.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．In the wake of September 11, Mr. Metreveli has secured enough funding to build up a small- scale model of the Eagle to test his idea.
A　Right    B Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Mr. Metreveli is designing for Israel a more advanced form of rescue platform than the Eagle or the Eaglet.
A　Right   B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
Microchip Research Center Created-----微芯片研究中心成立
【相关短语】A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced micro-chip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology.
【近义词】The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance2.
【反义词】As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years,plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.
【派生词】More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars. The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners — mainly from Japan and Singapore. Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry, the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property owners.
【相关短语】1．The country says that the investment of US $14 million is big enough for developing that country’s chip industry.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．That country gives top priorities to developing chips for military purposes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
3．Although the licensing fees are not very high, that Far Eastern country cannot afford to pay.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
4．Many western countries ban the exporting of the most advanced chip-making technologies to that country to prevent them from being used for military purposes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．Currently, almost all the flagship chipmakers in that country are owned by American investors.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
6．Mainstream chip production technology develop rapidly.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
7．More than 10 chip plants being built in that country are an example of self-reliance.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
Moderate Earthquake Strikes England----中度地震袭击英国
【相关短语】A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeast England on 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power1 in Kent County. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.
【派生词】“It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fim-fair ride, 3” said the woman. The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake4 struck at 8:19 a.m. and was centered under the English Channel5, about 8.5 miles south of Dover6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel7.
【近义词】 Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.
【反义词】“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,” said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down. ”
【相关短语】There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare in Britain. The April 28 quake was the strongest in Britain since 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the central England city of Birmingham10.   
【近义词】The country’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale11. British Geologicisd Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France.12 Musson predicted that it was only a matter of time13 before another earthquake struck this part of England. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction, Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system of Britain should be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum.
【词源解析】1．During the April 28 earthquake, the whole England was left without power.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
2．The Channel Tunnel was closed for 10 hours after the earthquake occurred.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
3．It was reported that one lady had got her head and neck injured, but not seriously.
A　Right   B  Wrong   C  Not mentioned
4．France and several other European countries sent their medical teams to work side by side with the British doctors.
A　Right   B  Wrong   C　Not mentioned
5．The country’s strongest earthquake took place in London in 1580.
A　Right  B  Wrong   C  Not mentioned
6．Musson predicted that another earthquake would occur in southeast England sooner or later.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
7．It can be inferred from the passage that England is rarely hit by high magnitude earthquakes.
A　Right  B　Wrong   C　Not mentioned
WhatIs a Dream?-------- 梦是什么？
【相关短语】For centuries, people have wondered about thestrange things that they dream about. Some psychologists say that thisnighttime activity of the mind has no special meaning. Others，however， think that dreams are an importantpart of our lives. In fact, many experts believe that dreams can tell us abouta person’s mind and emotions.
【近义词】Before modern times, many people thought thatdreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century thatpeople started to study dreams in a scientific way.
【反义词】The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud1，was probably the first person tostudy dreams scientifically. In his famous book,The interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud wrote that dreams are anexpression of a person’s wishes. He believed that dreams allow people toexpress the feelings, thoughts, and fears that they are afraid to express inreal life.
【派生词】The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung2 wasonce a student of Freud’s. Jung，however，had a different idea about dreams. Jung believed that the purpose ofa dream was to communicate a message to the dreamer. He thought people couldlearn more about themselves by thinking about their dreams. For example, peoplewho dream about falling may learn that they have too high an opinion ofthemselves. On the other hand, people who dream about being heroes may learnthat they think too little of themselves.
【词源解析】Modern-day psychologists continue to developtheories about dreams. For example, psychologist William Domhoff from theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz，believes that dreams are tightly linked to a person’s daily life,thoughts, and behavior. A criminal, for example, might dream about crime.
【近义词】Domhoff believes that there is a connectionbetween dreams and age. His research shows that children do not dream as muchas adults. According to Domhoff, dreaming is a mental skill that needs time todevelop.
【反义词】He has also found a link between dreams andgender. His studies show that the dreams of men and women are different. Forexample, the people in men’s dreams are often other men, and the dreams ofteninvolve fighting. This is not true of women’s dreams.3 Domhoff found thisgender difference in the dreams of people from 11 cultures around the world,including both modern and traditional ones.
【派生词】Can dreams help us understand ourselves?Psychologists continue to try to answer this question in different ways.However, one thing they agree on this: If you dream that something terrible isgoing to occur, you shouldn’t panic. The dream may have meaning, but it doesnot mean that some terrible event will actually take place. It’s important toremember that the world of dreams is not the real world.
【词源解析】1．Not everyone agrees that dreams are meaningful.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
2．According to Freud, people dream about things that they cannot talkabout.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
3．Jung believed that dreams did not help one to understand oneself.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
4．In the past, people believed that dreams involved emotions.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
5．According to Domhoff, babies do not have the same ability to dreamas adults do.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
6．Men and women dream about different things.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned
7．Scientists agree that dreams predict the future.
A  Right   B　Wrong    C　Not mentioned

Dangers Await Babies with Altitude-----高海拔地区的婴儿有危险
【相关短语】Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.
【派生词】Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.
【近义词】 To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were bom in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.
【反义词】 Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies bom to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.
【派生词】 The results suggest that babies bom at high altitudes are deprived of oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child, ”says Giussani.
【词源解析】His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.
【近义词】Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birthweight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.
【反义词】1．According to the passage, one of the reasons why newborns in mountain communities are underweight is that their mothers are under-nourished.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．Giussani’s team members are all British researchers and professors from Cambridge University.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．Giussani did not expect to find that the weight of a baby had little to do with the financial conditions of the family he was bom into.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mother’s womb.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．High-altitude babies have heads that are larger than their bodies.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．High-altitude babies have longer but thinner limbs than average.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Giussani has arrived at the conclusion that babies in high-altitude regions are more likely to have heart trouble when they grow up.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
The Biology of Music-------音乐生物学
【相关短语】Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate.It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does itwork its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers.
【词源解析】What are two things that make humans differentfrom animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that someanimals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However,the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is alsotrue that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments.
【近义词】Music is strange stuff. It is clearly differentfrom language. However, people can use music to communicate things — especiallytheir emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a verypowerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music?
【反义词】If music is truly different from speech, then weshould process music and language in different parts of the brain. Thescientific evidence suggests that this is true.
【词源解析】Sometimes people who suffer brain damage losetheir ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose theirmusical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injuredthe left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. Hecould, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On theother hand，sometimesstrokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speakand understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and languageseparately.
【词源解析】By studying the physical effects of music on thebody，scientistshave also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why doesmusic have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer.Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London, thinks that musicand love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, andphysical ability. That’s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to besomeone’s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requiresfine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. Andplaying or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is inexcellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or viceversa)， it may be away of showing off.
【近义词】However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain whycertain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needsfurther research.
【近义词】1．Humans, but not animals, can sing.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
2．People can use music to communicate their emotions.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
3．We use the same part of the brain for music and language.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
4．Geoffery Miler has done research on music and emotions.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
5．It’s hard for humans to compose music.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
6．Memory is not an important part in singing in tune.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
7．Scientistsdoes not know all the answers about the effects of music on humans.
A　Right  B　Wrong  C　Not mentioned
一、More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing------每晚只需8小时，睡眠过多非益事
【词源解析】1　Although the dangers of too little sleep are widely known, new research suggests that people who sleep too much may also suffer the consequences.
【近义词】2　Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up1 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a number of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night　People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night’s sleep than 8-hour sleepers.2
【反义词】3　These findings, which Dr　Daniel Kripke reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine3, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night’s rest may not need to set aside4 more than 8 hours a night　He added that “it might be a good idea” for people who sleep more than 8 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.
【词源解析】4　Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep — for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more.
【相关短语】5　For the current report, Kripke reviewed the responses of 1,004 adults to sleep questionnaires, in which participants indicated how much they slept during the week and whether they experienced any sleep problems　Sleep problems included waking in the middle of the night, arising early in the morning and being unable to fall back to sleep, and having fatigue interfere with day-to- day functioning5.
【近义词】6　Kripke found that people who slept between 9 and 10 hours each night were more likely to report experiencing each sleep problem than people who slept 8 hours　In an interview, Kripke noted that long sleepers may struggle to get rest at night simply because they spend too much time in bed　As evidence, he added that one way to help insomnia is to spend less time in bed　“It stands to reason6 that if a person spends too long a time in bed, then they’ll spend a higher percentage of time awake,” he said.
【词源解析】
1.Paragraph 2 _E、 Sleep Problem of Long and Short Sleepers
2.Paragraph 4 __B_、Dangers of Habitual Shortages of Sleep __
3.Paragraph 5 __A_、Kripke’s Research Tool
4.Paragraph 6 __D__、_ A Way of Overcoming Insomnia
【构词联想】
5.To get a good night’s rest, people may not need to _F_、sleep more than 8 hours
6.Long sleepers are reported to be more likely to __E、　suffer sleep problems __.
7.One of the sleep problems is waking in the middle of the night, unable to __A、fall asleep again __.
8.One survey showed that people who habitually __C、sleep less than 7 hours __ each night have a higher risk of dying.
二、Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination------煤灰与白雪：“火热"的组合
【相关短语】1　New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.
【反义词】2　Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun’s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.
【近义词】3　Soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface. “This provides a positive feedback, as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they tend to get even dirtier, said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.
【相关短语】4　Hansen found soot’s effect on snow albedo(solar energy reflected back to space)，which1 may be contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.
【构词联想】5　“Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon2，” Hansen said. Soot’s increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world’s climate. “This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global wanning as a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude, Hansen noted.
【派生词】6、Hansen cautioned, although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact that greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.3 Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest4 of this century.
【反义词】7、The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations were consistent with the researchers’ climate model simulations, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover5 and sufficient sunlight.
【相关短语】　　
1.Paragraph 3 __C、Explanation of Increased Warming Effect Caused by Soot
2.Paragraph 4 __A_、Soot’s Role in Changes in the Climate and the Atmosphere
3.Paragraph 6 __F_、Greenhouse Gases as the Main Factor of Global Warming
4.Paragraph 7 __B_、Observations of Warming in the Northern Hemisphere
F　【构词联想】
5.In the twentieth century, soot ___B_、continued to 25 percent of observed global warming
6.Hansen cautioned that greenhouse gases_ E、still surpass soot in warming the world’s climate during the last centry
7.Black soot covered snow and ice D_、absorb more of sun’s energy and warmth than white background
8.A soot forcing is unusually effective, which A_、produces much more global wanning than a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude _.
三、Icy Microbes-------冰冻微生物
【构词联想】1　In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.
【派生词】2　A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran’s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.
【相关短语】3　Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.
【反义词】4　Called Lake Vida, the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2 ,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.
【近义词】5　That prompted the researchers to return in 1996 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.
【词源解析】6　The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering.
【派生词】
1.Paragraph 2 E、Antarctic Frozen Life Sampled and Revived
2.Paragraph 3 _A、Significance of Testing Techniques for Sampling Microbes in the Deep Ice Sheet _
3.Paragraph 4_F、Accidental Disovery of Ice-sealed Lake Water in Antarctica __
4.Paragraph 6_D_、2004 Revisit Planned for Collecting Lake Water Specimens
【派生词】
5.Scientists ignored Lake Vida because they thought that a lake of ice _B、was of little scientific value
6.Scientists expect that the life, if found in deeper water below the ice sheet, _C_、may be older than that collected below 39 feet of ice
7.What the scientists will do in 20Q4 _E_、is to collect some briny lake water for analysisy
8.The salt concentration in the liquid water of Lake Vida _A_、is found to be a great deal higher than that of seawater _
五、LED Lighting------发光二极管
【近义词】1　An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention1 obsolete.LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
【反义词】2　Michael Bowers, a graduate student2 at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons3. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bowers' particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
【派生词】3　When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. He was surprised when a white glow covered the table. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light4, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow.
【词源解析】4　Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light singular to a regular light bulb.
【构词联想】5　LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and bum for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U. S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.
【派生词】6　Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything5 and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white. The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
【相关短语】】
1.Paragraph l _B、LED Lighting Will Replace Traditional Lighting _
2.Paragraph 3 _E、Bowers Made an Unexpected Discovery __
3.Paragraph 5 _D、LED Lighting Has Many Advantages
4.Paragraph 6 _C_、 Almost Everything Could Be the Main Light Source in the Future
【词源解析】
5.Unlike traditional lighting, LEDs do not give out heat so _F_、_ it is more efficient _.
6.Edison's bright invention is likely to be outdated because A_、traditional lighting is less durable and dearer _.
7.Something unexpected happened during Bower's experiment when _B_、a laser excited the quantum dots __.
8.Over one quarter of energy consumption for lighting could be saved by 2025 if C、America adopted LEDs
六、How We Form First Impression-----对别人的第一印象是怎样形成的
【相关短语】1　We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her — aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits.
【词源解析】2　The answer is related to how your brain, allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits, even very minor difference in how a person’s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different1. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information — the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming “signals” are compared against2 a host of “memories” stored in the brain areas called the cortex system to determine what these new signals “mean.”
【近义词】3　If you see someone you know and like at school3, your brain says “familiar and safe. ‘‘If you see someone new, it says, “new — potentially threatening.” Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other “known” memories;The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics, the more your brain may say, “This is new. I don’t like this person.” Or else, “I’m intrigued. “Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures — like your other friends;so your brain says: “I like this person.” But these preliminary “impressions” can be dead wrong4.
【派生词】4　When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking(not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child)that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than leam about the depth and breadth of people — their history, interest, values, strengths, and true character — we categorize them as jocks, geeks, or freaks.
【反义词】5　However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking — and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.
【相关短语】
1.Paragraph 2  D、Comparing Incoming Sensory Information against Memories
2.Paragraph 3 C_、Illustration of First Impression
3.Paragraph 4 B_、Comment on First Impression
4.Paragraph 5_A_、Ways of Departure from Immature and Simplistic Impressions
【词源解析】
5.Sensory information is one that is perceived through E、the sights and sounds of the world _
6.You interpret D、　the meaning of incoming sensory information by comparing it against the memories already stored in your brain
7.The way we stereotype people is a less mature form of thinking, which is similar to C、the immature form of thinking of a very young child
8.We can use our more mature style of thinking thanks to B_、the most complex areas of our cortex _.
七、Screen Test-------透视检查
【词源解析】1. Every year millions of women are screened with X-rays to pick up signs of breast cancer. If this happens early enough, the disease can often be treated successfully. According to a, survey published last year, 21 countries have screening programmes. Nine of them, including Australia, Canada, the US and Spain, screen women under 50.
【相关短语】2. But the medical benefits of screening these younger women are controversial, partly because the radiation brings a small risk of inducing cancer. Also, younger women must be given higher doses of X-rays because their breast tissue is denser.
【反义词】3. Researchers at the Polytechnic University1 of Valencia analysed the effect of screening more than 160, 000 women at 11 local clinics. After estimating the women’s cumulative dose of radiation, they used two models to calculate the number of extra cancers this would cause.
【派生词】4. The mathematical model recommended by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB)predicted that the screening programme would cause 36 cancers per 100,000 women, 18 of them fatal. The model preferred by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation led to a lower figure of 20 cancers.
【近义词】5. The researchers argue that the level of radiation-induced cancers is “not very significant” compared to the far larger number of cancers that are discovered and treated. The Valencia programme, they say, detects between 300 and 450 cases of breast cancer in every 100,000 women screened.
【相关短语】6. But they point out that the risk of women contracting cancer from radiation could be reduced by between 40 and 80 percent if screening began at 50 instead of 45, because they would be exposed to less radiation. The results of their study, they suggest, could help “optimise the technique” for breast cancer screening.
【派生词】7. “There is a trade-off between the diagnostic benefits of breast screening and its risks,” admits Michael Clark of the NRPB. But he warns that the study should be interpreted with caution. “On the basis of the current data, for every 10 cancers successfully detected and prevented there is a risk of causing one later in life. That’s why radiation exposure should be minimised in any screening programme.”
【词源解析】1.Paragraph 2_A_、Harm Screening May Do to a Younger Woman
2.Paragraph 3 B_、Investigating the Effect of Screening
3.Paragraph 4 C_、Effects Predicted by Two Different Models
4.Paragraph 5 D_、_ Small Risk of Inducing Cancers from Radiation
【相关短语】
5.Early discovery of breast cancer may__C_、save a life _.
6.Advantages of screening women under 50 are_D、_ still open to debate
7.Delaying the age at which screening starts mayE_、_ reduce the risk of radiation triggering a cancer .
8.Radiation exposure should be _F、_ reduced to the minimum .
九、More Rural Research Is Needed-------需要进行更多的农业研究
【相关短语】1　Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year, but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead1。
【近义词】2　“The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,” he said.
【反义词】3　Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation2 and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies3 led to economic growth which, in turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve4 but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Afiica and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the current pattern. If there is any change, a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Afiica. The major inqjrovement will be in East Asia, South America and South-East Asia.
【词源解析】4　The developing world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product（GDP）on5 research, and the developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries.
【相关短语】5　He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs for Mexico, China or India6.
【近义词】6　“Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently,” Dr. Fischer said.
【反义词】7　Yields of rice, wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth, such as high-yield varieties, fertilisers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. “If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield,” Dr. Fischer said.
【相关短语】
1．Paragraph 1 _E、Increase in Investment on Agricultural Research
2．Paragraph 3 _A_、The Same or Improved Food Supply Situation in 2020
3．Paragraph 4 _C、More Research Funding Needed
4．Paragraph 7 _B、Research Focus on Increased Yield _
【词源解析】
5．Dr. Fischer claims that agriculture will continue to develop D、when we use modern technologies and develop new ones .
6．Land can be saved for other purposes A、if we can drive yield up .
7．The investment can be regarded as efficient F、when strategic research can be utilized worldwide _.
8．The global decrease in investment should be changed _C、if we want to fight against malnutrition and poverty _.
十、Washoe Learned American Sign Language------ Washoe学会了美国手语
【相关短语】1 An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe and born in Africa died of natural causes late last month at the age of 42 at a research center in the American state of Washington. Wash0e had become known in the scientific community1 and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language2. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Her skills also led to debate3 about primates and their ability to understand language.
【词源解析】2 Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching Washoe sign language in 1966. In 1969, the Gardners7 described Washoe's progress in a scientific report. The people who experimented with Washoe said she grew to understand4 about 250 words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, "Who is coming to play?" Once5 the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own6 into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.
【近义词】3 However, critics argued Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They said she had never developed true language skills. Even now, there are some researchers who suggest that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes. Yet Washoe's keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners7. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.
【反义词】4 Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believes Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees8. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is that this kind of research takes a very long time.
【派生词】5 Debate continues about chimps' understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure -- Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.
【词源解析】
1. Paragraph 1▁C、General Information about Washoe▁
2. Paragraph 2▁B、Report about Washoe's Progress in Learning Sign Language▁
3. Paragraph 3▁E、Debate on Chimps' Intelligence
4. Paragraph 4▁A、Reason Why Not Many Scientists Carry out This　Research Nowadays
【相关短语】
5. Washoe could make signs to communicate C、when she wanted to eat
6. Some scientists doubted A、if the Gardeners' argument was sound
7. Washoe taught three younger chimps sign language D、while she was at a research center in Ellensburg
8. The experimenters thought Washoe was intelligent E、because she could use sign language to ask for fruits
★第1篇-Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles ---福特放弃电动汽车
The Ford motor company’s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology，analysts say．
General Motors。and Honda’ceased production of battery．powered cars in 1 999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer．Ford has now announced it will do the same．
Three years ago．the company introduced the Think City two—seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think Neighbor．It hoped to sell 5，000 cars each year and 10，000 carts．But a lack of demand means only about l，000 of the cars have been produced，and less than 1。700 carts have been sold so far in 2002．
“The bottom line is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market．”Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday．“We feel we have given electric our best shot”
The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time．General Motors’EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range。of about 100 miles．
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives．An electric Toyot~RAV4 EV vehicle costs over$42，000 in the US, compared with just $17，000 for the petrol version．Toyota and Nissan…are now the only major automanufacturers to produce electric vehicles．
“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance．Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program“，and that is what we will be judging them on，”Roger Higman，a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth，told the Environment News Service．
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well．Hybrid engines Offer Greater mileage than petrol—only engines , and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines “on vehicle emissions” in the U.S.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit．In June，General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction，delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car—makers to offer 100，000 zero-emission and other low—emission vehicles in the state by 2003．Car manufacturers hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low--emission，rather than zero—emission，vehicles．
1．What have the Ford motor company．General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
C) They have given up producing electric cars．
2．According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe，battery-powered cars
B) will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future．
3. Which auto manufacturers are still producing electric vehicles?
A)Toyota and Nissan   
4．According to the eighth paragraph，hybrid cars
C)run more miles than petrol driven cars
5．Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
D)The legislation will allow more 10w．emission to be produced
★第2篇-World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict----世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值
In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions．Their study is in ACS’ Energy＆Fuels1．
    Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil"．&quoteak oil "is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of &quoteak Oil." The term &quoteal Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production Will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline．
The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide．
However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more complex oil production cycles of some countries．Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.
The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast．Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil6．They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves7 are
being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.
1．Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word "sparked" appearing in paragraph 2?   
B．stimulated   
2．The term "a bell shaped curve" appearing in paragraph 2 indicates that global oil production will
D．start to decline after global oil production peaks．
3．Which of the following is NOT true of the Hubbert model?
D．It provides a very realistic and accurate oil production．
4．What is the major achievement of the new study mentioned in the last paragraph?
A．It predicts global oil production will peak in 2014．
5．Who develop the new version of the Hubbert model?
B．Kuwaiti scientists．
★第3篇-Citizen Scientists -------公民科学家
Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle1  events-flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring - all around the world. But ecologists can't be everywhere so they're turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.
【相关短语】Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they're asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest - birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. - and send their observations to a  giant database to  be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat2, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that's needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it3 in.
A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Pheonology4  Network. &quothenology" is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.
One of the group's first efforts relies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project - which is open to everyone - record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.
&quoteople don't have to be plant experts -they just have to look around and see what's in their neighborhood," says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. "As we collect this data, we'll be able to make an estimate of how plants and eommunities5 of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes."
1. Ecologists turn to non-scientist citizens for help because they need them
C)  to collect data of the life cycle of living things.
2. What are citizen scientists asked to do?
B)  To send their research observations to a professional database.
3. In "All that's needed to become one... (paragraph 2) ", what does the word "one" stands for?
B)  a citizen scientist.
4. What is NOT true of Project BudBurst?
A)  Only experts can participate in it.      
5. What is the final purpose of Project BudBurst?
D)  To investigate how plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.
★第4篇-Motoring Technology -------汽车技术
1.2 million road deaths worldwide occur each year,plus a further 50 million injuries.To reduce car crash rate,much research now is focused on safety and new fuels-though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aims at going faster.
Travelling at speed has always been dangerous.One advanced area of research in motoring safety is the use of digital in-car assistants.They can ensure you don’t miss important road signs or fall asleep.Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults. Some safety developments aim to improve your vision.Radar can spot obstacles in fog,while other technology“sees through”big vehicles blocking your view.
And improvements to seat belts,pedal(脚踏)controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer.The colour of a car has been found to be linked with safety,as have,less surprisingly,size and shape.
But whatever is in the fuel tank,you don’t want a thief in the driving seat and there have been many innovations(创新).Satellite tracking and remote communications can also come into play if you crash,automatically calling for help.
Accidents cause many traffic jams,but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles that can cause jams even on a clear but busy road.Such jams can be analyzed using statistical tools.Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flow smoothly and will perhaps one day be everyons’s personal chauffeur(司机),but their latest efforts suggest that won’t be soon.
1、To reduce car crash rate，many scientists are working hard to
D) improve the safety of cars and develop new fuels.
2、According to the second paragraph，most road accidents happen due to
B) human mistakes.  
3、Which of the following safety developments is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A) Windscreens that can help drivers to improve their vision.
4、Satellite tracking and remote communication systems can be used to
C) call for help when one’s car crashes.
5、Which of the following statements is true of robotic drivers?
A) It will take some time before robotic drivers are available.
★第5篇-Late-Night Drinking -----在深夜饮咖啡
Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee1 late in the day will play havoc with2 your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.
Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again3. “It’s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake,” says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffcinated coffee halves the body’s levels of this sleep hormone.
Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decal. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decal. They also took half an hour to drop off4 - twice as long as usual - and jigged around5 in bed twice as much. In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample, Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest6 that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.
Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.
1. The author mentions “pick-me-up” to indicate that     
C coffee is a stimulant.           
2. Which of the following tells us how caffeine affects sleep?
C Caffeine halves the body’s levels of sleep hormone.
3. What does paragraph 3 mainly discuss?
A Different effects of caffeinated coffee and decaf on sleep.
4. What does the experiment mentioned in paragraph 4 prove?
D Caffeine drinkers produce less sleep hormone.
5. The author of this passage probably agrees that
B we should not drink coffee after supper.
★第6篇-Making Light of Sleep-----不要太在意睡眠
All we have a clock located inside our brains. Similar to your bedside alarm clock， your internal clock2 runs on a 24-hour cycle. This cycle，called a circadian rhythm，helps control whenyou wake，when you eat and when you sleep.
Somewhere around puberty，something happens in the timing of the biological clock. The clock pushes forward，so adolescents and teenagers are unable to fall asleep as early as they used to. When your mother tells you it's time for bed，your body may be pushing you to stay up3 for several hours more. And the light coming from your computer screen or TV could be pushing you to stay up even later.
This shift is natural for teenagers. But staying up very late and sleeping late can get your body's clock out of sync with the cycle of light and dark5. It can also make it hard to get out of bed in the morning and may bring other problems，too. Teenagers are put in a kind of a gray cloud6 when they don't get enough sleep，says Mary Carskadon，a sleep researcher at Brown University in Providence，RI7 .It affects their mood and their ability to think and learn.
But  just like your alarm clock，your internal clock can be reset. In fact，it automatically resets itself every day. How? By using the light it gets through your eyes.
Scientists have known for a long time that the light of day and the dark of night play important roles in setting our internal clocks. For years，researchers thought that the signals that synchronize the body's clock8 were handled through the same pathways that we use to see.
But recent discoveries show that the human eye has two separate light-sensing systems. One system allows us to see. The second system tells our body whether it's day or night.
1 .The clock located inside our brains is similar to our bedside alarm clock ecause
B it has a cycle of 24 hours.
2. What is implied in the second paragraph?
C Children before puberty tend to fall asleep earlier at night than adolescents.
3. In the third paragraph the author wants to tell the reader that
B staying up late has a bad effect on teenagers' ability to think and learn.
4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the fourth and fifth paragraphs?
C Our internal clock as well as the alarm clock can be reset automatically.
5. According to the last two paragraphs， what did the previous researchers think about the human eye's light-sensing system?
B The human eye had one light-sensing system.
★第7篇-Sugar Power for Cell Phones -----用糖为手机发电
Using enzymes commonly found in living cells，a new type of fuel cell produces small amounts of electricity from sugar.If the technology is able to succeed in mass production，you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.
In fuel cells，chemical reactions generate electrical currents.The process usually relies on precious metals，such as platinum.In living cells，enzymes perform a similar job，breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.
When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel cells，they had trouble keeping them active，says Shelley D.Minteer of St Louis University1.Whereas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes，there’s no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.
Minteer and Tamara Klotzbach，also of St Louis University，have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket.“We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment” for the enzyme，Minteer says.The polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.
In the new fuel Cell，tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the electrodes.When glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket，the enzyme oxidizes it，releasing electrons and protons.The electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode，where they react with.oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water.The flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.
So far，the new fuel cells don’t produce much power，but the fact that they work at all is exciting，says Paul Kenis，a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urhana-Champaign3.“Just getting it to work.” Kenis says，“is a major accomplishment.”
　　Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make electricity.Sugar is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on it are biodegradable，so the technology wouldn’t hurt the environment.The scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from sugar.They predict that popular products may be using the new technology in as little as 3 years.
1. According to the first paragraph，when can we share our sweet drinks with our cell phones?
C When the technology of a new type of fuel cell is suitable for mass production.
2. What trouble did Minter and Klotzhach have in their research?
A They had trouble keeping enzymes in fuel cells active.
3. According to Paragraph 5，electrons are released
C when the enzyme oxidizes the glucose from a sugary liquid that goes through a pocket.
4. What is exciting about the new fuel cells?
B Their limited power generation capacity is a good beginning.
5. According to the last paragraph，what is NOT true of the new fuel cells?
D It will take some time before the new fuel cells can be used in popular products.
★第8篇-Eiffel Is an Eyeful-------引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔
Some 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower's wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble. Japanese,Brazilians, Americans — they graffiti  their names,loves and politics on the cold iron — transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move.
With Paris laid out in miniature below，it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admiring the view. But the graffiti also raises a question ： Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed,and decades after it ceased to be the world, s tallest structure,is la Tour Eiffel still so popular?
The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness. Regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over,but the tower lives on.
"Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic”，says Hugues Richard10,a 31- year-old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower's second floor 一 747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. "It's iron lady，It inspires us11 ”， he says.
But to what12? After all,the tower doesn' t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world’ s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building13 went up in New York. Yes，television and radio signals are beamed from the top,and Gustave Eiffel,a frenetic builder who died on December 27，aged 91 ,used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.
But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there _ a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will14. To the technically minded, it's an engineering triumph. For lovers, it's romantic.
"The tower will outlast all of us,and by a long way”，says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower
1. Why does the author think the Eiffel Tower is transformed into symbol of a world on the move?
B ) Tourists of all nationalities come to scribble on the cold iron of the tower.
2. What seems strange to the author?
A) Visitors prefer wasting time scribbling to enjoying the view.
3. Which statement is NOT true of Hugues Richard?
C ) He climbed 747 steps up the tower in 19 minutes and 4 seconds.
4. What did the builder use the Eiffel Tower for?
B ) Conducting research in various fields.
5. Which of the following is nearest in meaning to “（The Eiffel Tower is like)a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will ______？
C ) Visitors can imagine freely what the tower represents.
★第9篇（增） An Essential Scientific Process----------一个重要的科学过程
All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.
The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.
Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.
If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food or other organic matter on the earth. Most organisms would disappear. The earth’s atmosphere would no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential for life on our planet.
1．In the first paragraph，the word “excess” means
B　extra..
2．Which of the following does not move through a plant’s stomata?
D　Food.
3．In the title, the term Essential Scientific Process refers to
A　photosynthesis.
4．This passage is primarily developed by
A　explaining a process.
5．Another good title for this passage would be
C　How Photosynthesis Works.
★第10篇-Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers--------年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄
Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.
While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.
Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.
The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to  skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.
Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.
Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.
Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.
Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”
1. Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites?
B Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.
2. What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites?
B Vegetation.
3. Which of the Following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?
C Females could get out more termites with every dip.
4. How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?
D It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.
5. According to the last paragrnph, which of the following is NOT true?
A Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.
第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach-------我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口
【反义词】Our senses aren’t just delivering strict view of what’s going on in the world； they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten.
【近义词】Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on,inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis，France，wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved.
Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word，each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen — a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception ,not in thinking processes, Radel says.
“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs,” Radel says.
1.What does the new study mentioned in Paragraph 1 find?
C Hungry people are more sensitive to food-related words than stomach-full people.
2.Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?
B Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testees, hungry and non-hungry.
3.What does the writer want to tell us?
C Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs.
4.What did the results of the experiment indicate?
A 80 words flashed on the screen too fast for the participant to intentionally perceive.
5.What can we infer from the passage?
D Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes
★第12篇-Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass------纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击
In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida’s citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow.
The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees.
“We couldn’t believe how cold it was,” said Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. “we brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat. ”
The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida’s US$9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold.
“Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant,” said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time.
     In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible.
Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus trees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or more. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.
1. Which of the following statements is not meant in the first two paragraphs?
  A. The cold air mass was a threat to Florida’s citrus crop.
2. According to the second paragraph, in which area (s) did the temperature fall below zero?
   B. Parts of interior South Florida.
3. King’s statement that “We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat,” shows that
  A. he was caught by the sudden cold.   
4. Governor Jeb issue the emergency order because he
  C. wanted to encourage trucks to transport as much fruit to market as possible.
5. Which statement is NOT true according to the last paragraph?
  D. Florida Citrus Mutual sprayed trees with sprinklers for citrus growers.
★第13篇-Invisibility Ring--------隐形环
Scientists can’t yet make an invisibility cloak  like the one that Harry Potter  uses.But，for the first time，they’ve constructed a simple cloaking device that makes itself and somethingplaced inside it invisible to microwaves. When a person “sees” an object，his or her eye senses many different waves of visiblelight as they bounce off the object.The eye and brain then work together to organize thesesensations and reconstruct the object’s original shape. So，to make an object invisible，scientists have to keep waves from bouncing off it.And they have to make sure the objectcasts no shadow.Otherwise，the absence of reflected light on one side would give the obiectaway.
Invisibility isn’t possible yet with waves of light that the human eye can see.But it is nowpossible with microwaves.Like visible light，microwaves are a form of radiant energy.Theyare part of the electromagnetic spectrum，which also includes radio waves，infrared light，ultraviolet rays，X rays，and gamma rays.The wavelengths of microwaves are shorter thanthose of radio waves but longer than those of visible light.
The scientists’ new “invisibility device” is the size of a drink coaster and shaped like aring.The ring is made of a special material with unusual ability.When microwaves strike thering，very few bounce off it.Instead，they pass through the ring，which bends the waves allthe way around until they reach the opposite side.The waves then return to their originalpaths.
To a detector set up to receive microwaves on the other side of the ring，it looks as if thewaves never changed their paths as if there were no object in the way! So，the ring is effectively invisible.
When the researchers put a small cdpper loop inside the ring，it，too，is nearly invisible. However，the cloaking device and anything inside it do cast a pale shadow.And the deviceworks only for microwaves，not for visible light or any kind of electromagnetic radiation.So，Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet.
1.Harry Potter is mentioned in the passage，because scientists
C try to invent a device Similar in idea to the invisible cloak he uses.
2.What is true of microwaves?
B Their wavelengths are longer than those of visible light.
3.What is NOT true of the invisibility device?
B Microwaves bounce off it when they strike it.
4.What does the word “coaster” mean in the passage?
A  A disk or plate placed under a drinking glass to protect a table top.
5.Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet，because
C the cloaking device works only for microwaves.
★第14篇-Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers--------日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车
A concept car developed by Japanese company Nissan has a breathalyzer-like detection system and other instruments that could help keep drunk or over tired drivers off the road.
The car’s sensors check odors inside the car and monitor a driver’s sweat for traces of alcohol.An in-car computer system can issue an alert or even lock up the ignition system if the driver seems over-the-limit.The air odor sensors are fixed firmly and deeply in the driver
and passenger seats,while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures perspiration from the driver’s palm.
Other carmakers have developed similar detection systems. For example,Sweden’s Volvo has developed a breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt that drivers must blow into before the engine will start.
　　Nissan’s new concept vehicle also includes a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a drivers alertness by monitoring their eyes.It will sound an alarm and issue a spoken warning in Japanese or English if it judges that the driver needs to pull over and rest.
The car technology is still in development,but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of different detection systems should improve the overall effectiveness of the technology. "For example,if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver,the facial recognition system would still be used," Doi says.Nissan has no specific timetable for marketing the system,but aims to use technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.
The car’s seat belt can also tighten if drowsiness is detected,while an external camera checks that the car is keeping to its lane properly. However,Doi admits that some of the technology,such as the alcohol odor sensor,should be improved."If you drink one beer,it’s going to register,so we need to study what’s the appropriate level for the system to activate," he says.
　　In the UK,some research groups are using similar advanced techniques to understand driver behavior and the effectiveness of different road designs.
1. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Japanese concept care
C It has sensors locked up in the ignition system.
2. What has Volvo developed?
B A breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt.
3. What is the function of the camera mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A It monitors the driver’s eyes to see if he needs a rest.
4. According to Doi,
D Nissan aims to improve the detection technology to reduce the fatality rate.
5. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in Paragraph 6?
B The car will automatically keep to its lane.
★第15篇-Winged Robot Learns to Fly------ 肋生双翅机器人学飞行
Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error1 -but a winged robot has cracked it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles.
Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg , Sweden, built a winged robot and set about3 testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.
To begin with, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first, it cheated-simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of a more effective flapping technique where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.
“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of coming up with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while the robot had worked out how best to produce lift, it was not about to take off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do,” Bentley says. “This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.
The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards. up or down or twist them in either direction.
The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any, the robot produced for any given movement. A computer program fed the robot random instructions, at the rate of 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.
Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up and “offspring” sets of instructions were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.

1. Which of the following is NOT true of what is mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph?
C The two professors of CUT programmed the data on how the robot flapped its wings.
2. How did the robot behave at the beginning of the test?
B It twitched but gradually gained height.
3. Which of the following is nearest to Peter Bentley’s view on the winged robot?
A The winged robot could never really fly.
4. What measured how much lift the robot produced?
B A movement detector.
5. What does “the process” appearing in the last paragraph refer to?
D All the above.
★第16篇-Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth--------日本人的地心旅行
In what resembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists have launched the world’s first attempt to bore a hole into the red-hot core of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruption.
A 50-meter-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Japan’s Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano’s crust next week in a bid1 to sample the magma bubbling below.
The aim is to study how the liquefied rock causes menacing gas buildup, said team leader Setsuya Nakata, of the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.
　　“Gassing is important because it controls the explosivity of eruptions,” Nakata said. “The results can be expanded to anti-disaster research.” Mount Unzen , a wind-swept 1.486-meter dome on the southern island of Kyushu, is a perfect model. It erupted in 1991, showering avalanches of hot rocks over a nearby town, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless. Another 11.000 people were evacuated from the area until 1995, when the volcano had stabilized.
　　The results are particularly important to a nation like Japan, where the meteorological agency monitors 20 dangerous peaks. Perhaps Japan’s most famous volcano is snowcapped Mount Fuji, which last erupted in 1707 and sprinkled Tokyo with ash.
The drilling on Mount Unzen will begin very soon from an altitude of 850 meters on its northwest slope. Scientists hope to tap a magma vent around sea level by August and extract a 200-meter-long core sample by summer 2004
Boring into the glowing magma at that level would normally be impossible, because of its fiery 700 degree Celsius heat. Thus, a slurry of water will be pumped into the drill shaft to cool the magma and allow the drill head to cut through.
Nakata said there is no danger of triggering another eruption.
1. According to the passage, Mount Unzen
B erupted in 1991.
2. According to the passage, the study of the Mount Unzen volcano may benefit Japan in all the following aspects EXCEPT
D predicting volcano eruptions.
3.Why is this research project so important to Japan?
A. Because Japan has many living volcanos.
4. The drilling site on Mount Unzen is
C about half way up the mountain.
5. The title of this passage Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth actually means that they
A drill a hole into the core of a volcano.
★第17篇-A Sunshade for the Planet--------地球防晒霜
Even with the best will1 in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going prevent global warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.
Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale “geoengineering” projects that might be used to counteract global warming. “I use the analogy of methadone,” says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. “If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalization, and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin.
Basically the idea is to apply “sunscreen” to the whole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radical plan to cool Earth: launch trillions of feather-light discs into space, where they would form a vast cloud that would block the sun’s rays. It’s controversial, but recent studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1. 8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun’s rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most severe emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
1. According to the first two paragraphs，the author thinks that
C despite the difficulty, scientists have some options to prevent global warming.
2. Scientists resist talking about their options because they don’t want people to
C think the problem has been solved.
3. What does Stephen Schneider say about a heroin addict and methadone?
A Methadone is an effective way to treat a hard heroin addict.
4. What is Stephen Schneider’s idea of preventing global warming?
C To apply sunscreen to the Earth.
5. What is NOT true of the effectiveness of “sunscreen”, according to the last paragraph?
D It decreases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
★第18篇-Thirst for Oil---------石油匮乏
Worldwide every day, we devour the energy equivalent of about 200 million barrels of oil. Most of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun. In fact enough energy from the Sun hits the planet’s surface each minute to cover our needs for an entire year, we just need to find an efficient way to use it. So far the energy in oil has been cheaper and easier to get at. But as supplies dwindle, this will change, and we will need to cure our addiction to oil.
Burning wood satisfied most energy needs until the steam-driven industrial revolution, when energy-dense coal became the fuel of choice. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one quarter of our energy needs, but its use has been declining since we started pumping up oil. Coal is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel, but could make a comeback, as supplies are still plentiful: its reserves are five times larger than oil’s.
Today petroleum, a mineral oil obtained from below the surface of the Earth and used to produce petrol, diesel oil and various other chemical substances, provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. The US consumes n quarter of all oil, and generates a similar proportion of greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of oil comes from the Middle East, which has half of known reserves. But other significant sources include Russia, North America, Norway, Venezuela and the North Sea. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge1 could be a major new US source, to reduce reliance on foreign imports.
Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years, though opinions and estimates vary. We could fast reach an energy crisis in the next few decades, when demand exceeds supply. As conventional reserves become more difficult to access, others such as oil shales and tar sands may be used instead. Petrol could also be obtained from coal.
Since we started using fossil fuels, we have released 400 billion tonnes2 of carbon, and burning the entire reserves could eventually raise world temperatures by 130 C. Among other horrors, this would result in the destruction of all rainforests and the melting of all Arctic ice.
1. “… we will need to cure our addiction to oil.”Why does the author say so?  
D Oil supply is decreasing.
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the author, according to the second paragraph?
C Coal is the most environmentally unfriendly fuel next to oil.
3. Which country is the biggest consumer of petroleum?
A The United States.  
4. What do experts say about the earth’s fuel reserves?
B There will soon be an energy crisis.
5. What is NOT the result of consuming fossil fuels according to the last paragraph?
D The sea level will go up.
★第19篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience--------音乐机器人伴侣提升音乐欣赏体验
Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend”.
“Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music，” said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements.
Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain” powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device. In other words, if there’s an “app” for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’s camera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances to the rhythm.
“Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots can be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list.
Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said.
Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines一 small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.”
1. Which of the following is NOT true according to the first three paragraphs?
B Shimi is the creator of the musical companion.
2. What does Shimi do if the user taps a beat?
D It selects a perfectly-matched song and plays it in sync with that beat.
3. Which of the following about Shimi is true?
D Shimi can be creative and interactive.
4. What does the author want to tell us?
A The research center is developing a stronger and more versatile Shimi.
5. Which of the following is Weinberg’s assertion?
B human lives will be filled with more fun if Shimi is going to arrive in homes.
★第20篇-Explorer of the Extreme Deep------深海探索器
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet． Yet，just a small fraction of the undcrwaler world has been uxplored． Now，Scientists at the Woods Hole1 Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle hat will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet)．The new machine，known as a manned submersible or human-operated vehicle (HOV)，will replace another one named Alvin2 which bas an amazing record of discovery，playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions．Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet)．It’s about time for an upgrade，WHOI researchers say．
Alvin was launched in 1964．Since then，Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year，says Daniel Fornari，a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI．During its lifetime，Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives． A newer，better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises ahout a world that is still full of mysteries，Fornari says．It might also make the job of exploration a little easier．“We take so much for granted on land,” Fornari says．“We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are． We can see colors，special arrangements．”
Size-wise，the new HOV will be similar to Alvin．It’ll be about 37 feet long．The setting area inside will be a small sphere，about 8 feet wide，like Alvin，it’ll carry a pilot and two passengers．It will be just as maneuverable．In most other ways，it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view，for one thing．Alvin has only three windows，the new vehicle will have five，with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing．
Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second，and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2．3 miles per hour)，while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second．It’ll reach speeds of 3 knots，or 3．5 miles per hour．
1． What is Alvin?
C A submersible．  
2． Which of the following statements is NOT a fact about Alvin?
A h can carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters．
3． “．．．a world that is still full of mysteries” refers to
C the ocean．
4． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin similar?
D Shape．
5． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin different?
D Both A and B．
★第21篇-Plant Gas----植物，沼气的又一来源
Scientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades but hadn't regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heldelberg, Germany. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees, may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane production requires an oxygen-free environment.
Previously, researchers had thought that it was impossible for plants to make significant amounts of the gas. They had assumed that microbes need to be in environments without oxygen to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth's atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
In its experiments, Keppler's team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth's atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves.
With the dried plants, the researchers took measurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found, a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms of methane per hour. （One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.） With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled. Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight.
Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it's unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions. That's another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes.
The new finding is an "interesting observation," says Jennifer Y. King, a biogeochemist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul3. Because some types of soil microbes consume methane, they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant's influence, she notes. （367 words）
1 that was scientists' understanding of methane?
C） It was produced in oxygen-free environments.
2 To test whether plants are a source of methane, the scientists created
B） an environment with the same concentration of oxygen as the Earth has.
3 hich statement is true of the methane emissions of plants in the experiment?
D） The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of methane emissions.
4 What of the following about methane is Not mentioned in the passage ?
D） Microbes in plants produce methane.
5 What is the beneficial point of some microbes consuming plant-produced methane?
C） Less methane reaches the atmosphere.
★新增第22篇Real World Robots-----现实生活中的机器人
When you think of a robot, do you envision a shiny, metallic device having the same general shape as a human being, performing humanlike functions, and responding to your questions in a monotone voice accentuated by high-pitched tones and beeps? This is the way many of us imagine a robot, but in the real world, a robot is not humanoid at all. Instead a robot often is a voiceless, box-shaped machine that efficiently carries out repetitive or dangerous functions usually performed by humans. Today’s robot is more than an automatic machine that performs one task again and again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees of artificial intelligence—that is, a robot contains a computer program that tells it how to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, and learning from past experience.
A robot does not possess a human shape for the simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remaining balanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels and axles that roll and rotate. A robot even has limbs that swivel and move in combination with joints and motors. To find its way in its surroundings1, a robot utilizes various built-in sensors. Antennae attached to the robot’s base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to teeter as it moves on an incline, a gyroscope or a pendulum inside it senses the vertical differential. To determine its distance from an object and how quickly it will reach the object，the robot bounces beams of laser light and ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path2. These and other sensors constantly feed information to the computer, which then analyzes the information and corrects or adjusts the robot’s actions. As science and technology advance, the robot too will progress in its functions and use of artificial-intelligence programs.
1．Another good title for this passage would be
C　Today’s Robots and How They Function.
2．Artificial intelligence is
D　a computer program that imitates human intellectual processes.
3．The last paragraph suggests that future robots will be
A　more humanlike in behavior and actions.
4．The writer begins the passage by comparing
B　a modem robot with a fictional robot.
5．The word humanoid means
D　having a human form or characteristics.
★第23篇-Powering a City? It's a Breeze-----风力发电？轻而易举
The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries—a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips—yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole turbines.
Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine” is a high-tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftops of busy citles. Lighter, quieter, and often more efficient than rural counterparts, they take advantage of the extreme turbulence and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns.
Prototypes have been successfully tested in several Dutch cities, and the city government in the Hague has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. a typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours.
But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercial buildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane.
Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. The Netherlands, with 16 million people crowded into a country twice the size of Slovenia, is the most densely populated in Europe.
Problems remain, however, for example, public safety concerns, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturers. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. People don't know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to one of the big turbines. It might be too hectic.
Meanwhile, projects are under way to use minimills to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think the thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It's a very local technology, and you can use it right in you backyard. I don't think anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard.”
1. What are the symbols of Netherlands according to the first paragraph?
B. Wooden shoes and wooden windmills.
2. Which statement is best describes the urban turbine mentioned in the second paragraph?
B. It is a high-tech machine designed to generate energy for urban people.
3. The smallest models of an urban turbine
C. can be carried up to the rooftop without a crane.
4. The Netherlands leads in the urban turbine technology because
A. the Dutch are natural pioneers.
5. According to the last paragraph, what are the advantages of wind power technology?
A. It can be used for different purposes.
★第24篇-Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe------地下煤着火——即将来临的灾难
Coal burning deep underground in China, India and Indonesia is threatening the environment and human life, scientists have warned, these large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even ignite forest first, a panel of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association For the Advancement of Science in Denver. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned.
“Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro, USA, But surprisingly few people know about them.
Coal can heat up on its own, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not cause to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China consume up to 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U.S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Coal Ecology. Once underway, coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.
The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, cand agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to protect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country.
Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a heat-resistant grout (a thin mortar used to fill cracks and crevices), which is designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off the oxygen supply.
1. According to the first paragraph, one of the warnings given by the scientists is that
C. poisonous elements released by the underground fires can pollute water sources.
2. According to the third paragraph, what will happen when the underground heat does not disappear?
A. Coal heats up on its own and catches fire and burns.
3. What did Stracher analyze in his article published in the International Journal of Coal Ecology?
D. Coal fires can have an impact on the environment.
4. Which of the following statements about Paul Van Dijk is Not true?
B. He has detected and monitored underground fires in Netherlands.
5. According to the fifth paragraph, what is the suggested method to control under ground fires?
D. Cutting off the oxygen supply.
★第25篇-Eat to Live---------为生存而食
A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it's not much fun—and it might not even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to1 most of that youthful vigor even if we don't start to diet until old age.
Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins.
Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years.
The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production4—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.
“This is the first indication that thee effects kick in5 pretty quickly,” says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D. C.
No one yet knows if calorie works in people as it does in mice, bus Spindler is hopeful. “There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says.
If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, out bodies are les efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it6. “The mice get less disease, they live longer but they're hungry,” he says. “Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'.”
Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
D. We have to begin dieting from childhood.
2. Why does the author mention an elderly mouse in paragraph 2?
B. To illustrate the effect of meager food on mice.
3. What can be inferred about completely normally fed mice mentioned in the passage?
D. They are more likely to suffer from inflammation.
4. According to the author, which of the following most interested the researchers?
A. The mice that started dieting in old age.
5. According to the last two paragraphs, Spindler believes that
C. dieting is not a good method to give us health and a long life.
★第26篇-Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently---------男女飞行员引起飞行事故的差异
Male pilots flying general aviation。(private)aircraft in the United States are more likely to crash due to inattention or flawed decision.making.while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft.These are the results of a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study identifies the differences between male and female pilots in terms of circumstances of the crash and the type of pilots error involved.“Crashes of general aviation aircraft account for 85 percent of all aviation deaths’in the United States.The crash rate for male pilots.as for motor vehicle drivers，exceeds that of crashes of female pilots，”explains Susan P.Baker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.“Because pilot youth and inexperience are established。contributors to aviation crashes, we focused on only mature pilots，to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.
The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety.The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997，involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40--63.Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a l：2 ratio，by age，classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash，and year of crash.Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.
The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common circumstance for both sexes，leading to 59 percent of female pilots’crashes and 36 percent of males’.Experiencing mechanical failure，running out of fuel，and landing the plane with the landing gear up were among the factors more likely with males，while stalling was more likely with females.
The majority of the crashes—95 percent for females and 88 percent for males—involved at least one type of pilot error.Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females(accounting for 81 percent of the crashes)than males (accounting for 48 percent).Males，however，appeared more likely to be guilty of poor decision-making，risk-taking，and inattentiveness, examples of which include misjudging weather and visibility or flying an aircraft with a known defect.Females，though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft，were generally more careful than their male counterparts.
1. What is the research at Johns Hopkins University about?
B) Gender difference in relation to types of aircraft crashes.
2. Which of the statements is NOT true according to the second paragraph?
D) Only mature pilots are studied to determine the gender differences in the reasons for aircraft crash.
3. How did the researchers carry out their study?
A) They studied the findings of several previous research projects.
4. What is the most common circumstance of crash with female pilots?
B) Loss of control on landing or takeoff and stalling.
5. In the comparison of female and male pilots,
D) male pilots are found to make more errors in decision-making.
★第27篇Driven to Distraction------分散注意力驾驶
Joe Coyne slides into the driver’s eat, starts up the car and heads to town. The empty stretch of interstate gives way to urban congestion, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.
But even if he hadn’t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn’t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn’t really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University (ODU) examine how in-vehicle guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel.
The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are too distracting—or whether any distractions are offset by the benefits drivers get from having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations.
“We’re looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor leading the research, which involves measuring drivers’ reaction time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues.
The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs. light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people “get into more challenging driving situations, they don’t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment,” Baldwin said.
But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. This next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers’ mental workload.
“Is it best if they see a picture…that shows their position, a map kind of display?” Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?”
Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They’re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.”
That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions, Baldwin said.
Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify systems to present some information in a way that makes sense for people who prefer the survey style, she said.
Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don’t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.
1. Which statement is true of the description in the first two paragraphs?
C. Coyne is not really driving so it is impossible for him to have hit the woman.
2. What do researchers want to find out, according to the third and fourth paragraphs?
D. All of the above.
3. What are the preliminary results given in the fifth paragraph?
C. In challenging driving situations, drivers do not have any additional mental energy to deal with something else.
4. The sixth paragraph mainly state that the researchers.
D. want to determine the best ways of giving navigational information system.
5. What kind of directions do men and women prefer?
B. Men prefer more general directions and women prefer route direction.
★第28篇-Sleep Lets Brain File Memories-----睡眠促使记忆归档存储
To sleep. Perchance to file? Findings published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brain organizes and stows memories formed during the day while the rest of the body is catching zzz's.
Gyorgy Buzsaki of Rutgers University5 and his colleagues analyzed the brain waves of sleeping rats and mice. Specifically, they examined the electrical activity emanating from6 the somatosensory neocortex (an area that processes sensory information) and the hippocampus, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillations in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles (bursts of activity from the neocortex) were followed tens of milliseconds later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation. A second study, also published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, links age-associated memory decline to high glucose levels.
Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied 30 people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend to increase with age, affect memory in healthy people as well. The scientists administered11 recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body's tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects better able to absorb blood sugar.
"Our study suggests that this impairment12 may contribute to the memory deficits13 that occur as people age." Convit says. "And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucose tolerance could reverse some age-associated problems in cognition.14" Exercise and weight control can help keep glucose levels in check15, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.
1.Which of the following statements is nearest in meaning to the sentence”To sleep. Perchance to file?”
A Does brain arrange memories in useful order during sleep?
2.What is the resule of the experiment with rats and mice carried out at Rutgers University?
C Somatosensory neocortex and hippocampus work together in memory consolidation.
3.What is the relation of memory to glucose tolerance, as os omdocated by a research mentioned in paragraph 4?
D The poorer the memory , the poorer glucose tolerance.
4.In what way is memory related to hippocampus shrinkage.
B The more hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory.
5.According to the last paragraph, what is the ultimate reason for going to the gym?
D To control glucose levels
★第29篇- I’ll Be Bach--------我也能成为巴赫
Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computerprogram that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years todevelop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between musicby the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-likecompositions from Cope’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, whenCope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of newmelodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first thismusic was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink howhuman beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases.First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take outthe music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left.According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the databaseaccurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He beganwith hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smallerpieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns.Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good,but it was a start.
Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a wholeopera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work,to the database.
A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’smusical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took onlytwo weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success!Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactlyhow he had composed the work.
Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousandsof compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing thesedays!
1. The music composed by David cope is about                             
A classical music.   
2. By developing a computer software,David Cope  aimed
C to write an opera.                    
3. What did Cope realize about a great composer's  brain?
D It creates an accurate database.
4.WhoisEmmy?                                           B a computer software
5. We can infer from the passage that                                          
D Emmy did much more work than a composer.
★第30篇-Digital Realm----------数码王国
In the digital realm, the next big advance will be voice recognition. The rudiments are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,” and it is likely to think you want it to “wreck a nice beach.” But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away and machines will soak it all in. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to our computers; we’ll also able to chat our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles, browsers, thermostats, VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around.
That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age: artificial intelligence. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents. Scary, huh? But potentially quite useful. At least until they don’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around.
The law powering the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore’s: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power—the capacity of microprocessors and memory chips—would become nearly free; his company kept churning out more and more lines of complex software to make use of the cheap bounty. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free.
Along with the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this means a future in which all forms of content—movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt’s recipes and home videos—will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you’ll be able to create a movie or magazine, make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner!
The result will be a transition from a mass-market world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to each user. You can subscribe to news sources that serve up only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes.
1. The techniques of voice recognition
B are in its initial stage of development.
2. According to the second paragraph, when we reach the stage of artificial intelligence,
A machines can be our agents as they understand our thoughts.
3. What’s the best description of Grodon Moore’s law as mentioned in the third paragraph?
A It motivates the development of the digital world.
4. What can people do in a future scene as described in the fourth paragraph?
D All of the above.
5. Which of the following statements is true of a personalized market?
C In a personalized market, products are tailored to each consumer.
★第31篇-Hurricane Katrina----卡特里娜飓风
A hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1,240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation5 is a cluster of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern hemisphere.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate and condense into clouds and rain - releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moisture-laden air from the sea surface in a process that swells the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake - almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have been displaced in a humanitarian crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the great depression. The cost of the damage may top $100 billion.
1. What is the eye of a hurricane?
C) A calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter.
2. Which of the following is NOT the "requirements" mentioned in the second paragraph?
A) The tropical waters are warm and calm.
3. Which of the following is the best explanation of the word "drive" in the third paragraph?
C) To supply the motive force or power and cause to function.
4. What does the warm air mentioned in the fourth paragraph produce when it is rising from thesea surface?
B) Low pressure.  
5. What is NOT true of Hurricane Katrina according to the last paragraph?
D) The humanitarian crisis is as serious as that of the great depression
★第32篇-Mind-reading1 Machine------读心机
A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what's happening in their brains.
　When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons are responsible for this processing.
The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen-rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
1. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
C）Neurons in the brain.      
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
D）fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
3. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
A）"marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
4. What did the researchers experiment on?
B）Two volunteers.
5. Which of the following can be the best replacement of the tide?
B）Your Thoughts Can Be Scanned.
★第33篇-Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste---------专家呼吁局部和区域控制放射性废物地点
The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. In an article in the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan2 geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton University3 nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
"The main goal…, should be to provide the Unied States with multiple process that requires acceptance by host communities and states," the authors write.
Ewing and von Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by Congress4 in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved after more than three decades of often controversial debate. The reasons include the site's geological problems, management problems,important changes in the Environmental Protection Agency's standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process.
Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nation's northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located closer to reactors.
"This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe, where spent nuclear fuel6 and high-level nuclear waste7 from about 150 reactors and reprocessing plants is to be moved to a number of geological repositories in a variety of rock types8," said Rodney Ewing, who has written extensively about the impact of nuclear waste management on the environment and who has analyzed safety assessment criteria for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
1. Which of the following words can best substitute the word "withdrawal" in the first paragraph?
B Canceling.
2. According to Rodney Ewing and Frand von Hippel, where to locate nuclear facilities
B should be approved by local people and states.
3. What is NOT true about the 1987 decision by Congress concerning siting of nuclear waste disposal?
D The decision by Congress was accepted by local communities.
4. What does the author of the essay in the fourth paragraph want to say?
C Efforts should be made to develop nuclear disposal sites to suit the circumstances of the region.
5. What is meant by "regional approach" as mentioned in the last paragraph?
C Spent nuclear fuel and high –level nuclear waste is moved to developing countries.

一、Mobile Phones------移动电话
Mobile phones should carry a label if they proved1 to be a dangerous source of radiation, according to Robert Bell, a scientist. And no more mobile phone transmitter towers should be built until the long-term health effects of the electromagnetic radiation they emit are scientifically evaluated, he said. “Nobody’s going to drop dead overnight but we should be asking for more scientific information，” Robert Bell said at a conference on the health effects of low-level radiation. “1、If mobile phones are found to be dangerous, they should carry a warning label until proper shields can be devised,” he said.
A report widely circulated among the public says that up to now scientists do not really know enough to guarantee there are no ill-effects on humans from electromagnetic radiation. According to Robert Bell, there are 3. 3 million mobile phones in Australia alone and they are increasing by 2,000 a day. 2、By the year 2000 it is estimated that Australia will have 8 million mobile phones ：nearly one for every two people.
As well, there are 2,000 transmitter towers around Australia, many in high density residential areas5. 3、 For example, Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone build their towers where it is geographically suitable to them and disregard the need of the community.The electromagnetic radiation emitted from these towers may have already produced some harmful effects on the health of the residents nearby.
Robert Bell suggests that until more research is completed the Government should ban construction of phone towers from within a 500 metre radius of school grounds, child care centres, hospitals, sports playing fields and residential areas with a high percentage of children. 4、He says there is emerging evidence that children absorb low-level radiation at a rate more than three times that of adults. He adds that there is also evidence that if cancer sufferers are subjected to electromagnetic waves the growth rate of the disease accelerates.
5、Then who finances the research? According to Robert Bell, it is reasonable for the major telephone companies to fund it. Besides, he also urges the Government to set up a wide-ranging inquiry into possible health effects.
二、The World's Longest Bridge-------世界上最长的桥
Rumor has it that1 a legendary six-headed monster lurks in the deep waters of the Tyrrhenian
Sea between Italy and the island of Sicily.(1、 If true, one day you might spy the beast while zipping (呼晡而过)across the Messina Strait Bridge.) When completed in 2010, theworld's longest bridge will weigh nearly 300,000 tons 一 equivalent to the iceberg that sank the Titanic — and stretch 5 kilometers long. “ That's nearly 50 percent longer than any other bridge ever built. ’，says structural engineer Shane Rixon.
(2、What do the world's longest bridges have in common?) They're suspension bridges, massive structures built to span vast water channels or gorges. A suspension bridge needs just two towers to shoulder the structure's mammoth weight, thanks to hefty supporting cables slung between the towers and anchored firmly in deep pools of cement at each end of the bridge. The Messina Strait Bridge will have two 54，100-ton towers, which will support most of the bridge's load. The beefy cables of the bridge, each 1. 2 meter in diameter, will hold up the longest and widest bridge deck ever built.
When construction begins on the Messina Strait Bridge in 2005, the first job will be to erect two 370 meter-tall steel towers. (3、The second job will be to pull two sets of steel cables across the strait, each set being a bundle of 44,352 individual steel wires. ) Getting these cables up will be something. It's not just their length — totally 5. 3 kilometers — but their weight. ' (4、They will tip up the scales at 166,500 tons — more than half the bridge's total mass.)
After lowering vertical “suspender’，cables from the main cables, builders will erect a 60 meter-wide 54,630-ton steel roadway, or deck— wide enough to accommodate 12 lanes of traffic. The deck's weight will pull down on the cables with a force of 70,500 tons. In return, the cables yank up against their firmly rooted anchors with a force of 139，000 tons — equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 cars. Those anchors are essential. (5、They're what will keep the bridge from going anywhere.)
三、Reinventing the Table-------重新发现元素周期表
An earth scientist has rejigged the periodic table1 to make chemistry simpler to teach to students.
1、There have been many attempts to redesign the periodic table since DmM Mendeleev2 drew it up in 1871.But Bruce Railsback from the University of Georgia says he is the first to create a table that breaks with tradition and shows the ions of each element rather than just the elements themselves.
“I got tired of breaking my arms trying to explain the periodic table to earth students,”he says, criss-crossing his hands in the air and pointing to different bits of a traditional table._2、Railsback has still ordered the elements according to the number of protons they have. But he has added contour lines to charge density, helping to explain which ions react with which.
"Geohemists just want an intuitive sense of what's going on with the elements," says Albert Galy from the University of Cambridge,_3、“I imagine this would be good for undergraduates.”
_4_、 Railsback has listed some elements more than once._He explains that sulphur, for example , shows up in three different spots — one for sulphide, which is found in minerals, one for su1phite, and one for su1phate, which is found in sea sa1t, for instance.
He has also inc1uded symbols to show which ions are nutrients，and which are common in soi1 or water._5、 And the size of element’s symbol reflects how much of it is found in the Earth’s crust.
四、The Bilingual Brain-----双语大脑
When Karl Kim immigrated to the United States from Korea s a teenager, he had a hard time learning English. Now he speaks it fluently, and he had a unique opportunity to see how our brains adapt to a second language. As a graduate student, Kim worked in the lab of Joy Hirsch, a neuroscientist in New York. 1、Their work led to an important discovery.They found evidence that children and adults don't use the same parts of the brain when they learn a second language.
The researchers used an instrument called an MRI( magnetic resonance imaging) scanner to study the brains of two groups of bilingual people. 2、 One group consisted of those who had learned a second language as children.The other consisted of people who, like Kim, learned their second language later in life. People from both groups were placed inside the MRI scanner. This allowed Kim and Hirsch to see which parts of the brain were getting more blood and were more active. They asked people from both groups to think about what they had done the day before, first in one language and then the other. They couldn't speak out loud because any movement would disrupt the scanning.
Kim and Hirsch looked specifically at two language centers in the brain - Broca's area~ , which is believed to control speech production, and Wernicke's area, which is thought to process meaning. Kim and Hirsch found that both groups of people used the same part of Wernicke's area no matter what language they were speaking. 3、But their use of Broca's area was different.
People who learned a second language as children used the same region in Broca's area for both their first and second languages. People who learned a second language later in life used a different part of Broca's area for their second language. 4、How does Hirsch explain this difference? Hirsch believes that when language is first being programmed in young children, their brains may mix the sounds and structures of all languages in the same area. Once that programming is complete, the processing of a new language must be taken over by a different part of the brain.
A second possibility is simply that we may acquire languages differently as children than we do as adults. Hirsch thinks that mothers teach a baby to speak by using different methods involving touch, sound, and sight. 5、 And that is very different from learning a language in a high school or college class.
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C）-------破纪录的漫游车
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has boldly gone where no rover has gone before—at least in terms of distance. _1、Since arriving on the Red Planet in 2004, Opportunity has traveled 25.01 miles, more than any other wheeled vehicle has on another world.
On July 27, after years of moving about on Martian ground, the golf-cart-sized Opportunity had driven more than 24 miles, beating the previous record holder—a Soviet rover sent to the moon in 1973.
“This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about 1 kilometer and was never designed for distance,” says John Callas, the Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager._2、He works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “But what is really importantly is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance.”
OPPORTUNITY
The solar-powered Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, landed on Mars 10 years ago on a mission expected to last 3 months. 3 、The objective of the rovers was to help scientists learn more about the planet and to search for signs of life，such as the possible presence of water.
Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, a few months after it got stuck in a sand pit. But Opportunity has continued to collect and analyze Martian soil and rocks.
During its mission, Opportunity has captured, and sent back to Earth, some 187,000 panoramic and microscopic images of Mars with its cameras. 4、 It has also provided scientists with data on the planet’s atmosphere, soil, rocks, and terrain.
MARATHON ROVER
The rover doesn’t seem to be ready to stop just yet. If Opportunity can continue on, it will reach another major investigation site when its odometer hits 26.2 miles. 5、Scientists call this site Marathon Valley, because when the rover reaches the area, it will have traveled the same distance as the length of a marathon since its arrival on Mars.
Researchers believe that clay minerals exposed near Marathon Valley could hold clues to Mars’s ancient environment1. Opportunity’s continuing travels will also help researchers as they plan for an eventual human mission to the Red Planet.
六、Dung to Death-------施肥致死
Fields across Europe are contaminated with dangerous levels of the antibiotics given to farm animals. The drugs, which are in manure sprayed onto fields as fertilizers, could be getting into our food and water, helping to create a new generation of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”.
The warning comes from a researcher in Switzerland who looked at levels of the drugs in farm slurry. _1 His findings are particularly shocking because Switzerland is one of the few countries to have banned antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed.
Some 20,000 tons of antibiotics are used in the European Union and the US each year. More than half are given to farm-animals to prevent disease and promote growth. 2 、But recent research has found a direct link between the increased use of these farmyard drugs and the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bugs that infect people.
Most researchers assumed that humans become infected with the resistant strains by eating contaminated meat. But far more of the drugs end up in manure than in meat products, says Stephen Mueller of the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology m Dubendorf. 3、And manure contains especially high levels of bugs that are resistar.t to antibiotics, he says.
With millions of tons of animals manure spread onto fields of crops such as wheat and barley each year, this pathway seems an equally likely route for spreading resistance,4 he said. The drugs contaminate the crops, which are then eaten. _4、They could also be leaching into tap water pumped from rocks beneath fertilized fields.
Mueller is particularly concerned about a group of antibiotics called sulphonamides. 5　、They do not easily degrade or dissolve in water. His analysis found that Swiss farm manure contains a high percentage of sulphonamides; each hectare of field could be contaminated with up to 1 kilogram of the drugs. This concentration is high enough to trigger the development of resistance among bacteria. But vets are not treating the issue seriously.
There is growing concern at the extent to which drugs, including antibiotics, are polluting the environment. Many drugs given to humans are also excreted unchanged and are not broken down by conventional sewage treatment.
七、Time in the Animal World-------动物界中的时间
Rhythm controls everything in Nature. _1、It controls, for example, the flapping of birds, wings, the beating of the heart and the rising and setting of the sun.
The sun provides a basic time rhythm for all living creatures including humans. Nearly all animals are influenced by sun cycles and have developed a biological clock in their bodies following these cycles. The moon also exerts its force and influence on the sea. Its gravitational attxacSon causes the rising of the tide. 2、The tide goes out when the moon moves away and its attraction is weaker.When the moon is behind the Earth, centrifugal force causes the second tide of the day.
Animals living in tidal areas must have the instinct of predicting these changes, to avoid being stranded and dying of dehydration. Since the time of the dinosaurs, the king crab has been laying eggs1 at the seaside in a set way2. To avoid predator fish3，the eggs are always far from seawater and protected by sand. In the following two months, the eggs undergo dramatic changes related to the cycles of the moon4. When the second spring tide comes, the young king crabs have matured. 3、The second spring tide takes them back to the sea.
Most of the mammals, either the giant elephant or the small shrew, have the same average total number of heartbeats in their lifetime. Shrews live only for two and a half years, and spend their life at a high speed and high tempo. Animals like shrews with a pulse rate of 600 per minute have an average total of eight hundred million heartbeats5 throughout their life. The African elephant has a pulse rate of 25 beats per minute, and a life span6 of 60 years. The size of the body determines the speed of life. 4_、The larger the animal is, the longer its life span is and the slower its life tempo is.
As we get older, our sense of time is being influenced by the physiological changes of our body. The elderly spend more time resting, and do few sports. 5 、For an adult, time goes fast year by year. For a child, a week is seen as a long time.
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow--------观察微电流流程
We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed 1、 to picture the progress of the currents. The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes.
Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and 2 、converting the information into a color picture showing the density
Their sensor is adapted1 from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2”We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao.
　The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes, even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across.
At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles _3、to making chips any smaller. But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits , nicks in the wires or electro migration — where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and moves them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.
As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure of any object capable of conducting electricity Fpr example, it could look directly at microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, 4 、faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water sample. The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it out in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.
　　Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public, it is already on sale, from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minutes to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag are working _5、to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B）------雷击
Three years ago a bolt of lightning all but destroyed Lyn Miller’s house in Aberdeen—with her two children inside. “There was a huge rainstorm,” she says, recalling the terrifying experience. “My brother and I were outside desperately working to stop floodwater from coming in the house. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground by an enormous bang._1、When I picked myself up, the roof and the entire upper storey of the house had been demolished.The door was blocked by rubble, but we forced our way in and found the children, thankfully unharmed. Later I was told to be struck by lightning is a chance in a million.” In fact, it’s calculated at one chance in 600,000. Even so, Dr Mark Keys of AER Technology, an organisation that monitors the effects of lightning, thinks you should be sensible. “I wouldn’t go out in a storm—but then I’m quite a careful person.” He advises anyone who is unlucky enough to be caught in a storm to get down on the ground and curl up into a ball, making yourself as small as possible.
Lightning is one of nature’s most awesome displays of sheer power. _2 、No wonder the ancient Greeks thought it was Zeus, father of the gods, throwing thunderbolts around in anger. 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman，proved that lightning is a form of electricity, but scientists still lack a complete understanding of how it works.
_3、 Occasionally there are warning signs. Positive electrical charges streaming upwards from trees or church spires may glow and make a buzzing noise, and people’s hair can stand on end. And if you fear lightning, you’ll be glad to know that a company in America has manufactured a hand-held lightning detector which can detect it up to 70 kms away, sound a warning tone and monitor the storm’s approach.
Nancy Wilder was playing golf at a club in Surrey when she was hit by a bolt of lightning. Mrs Wilder’s heart stopped beating, but she was resuscitated and, after a few days in hospital, where she was treated for bums to her head, hands and feet, she was pronounced fit again. Since that time，she has been a strictly fair weather golfer1. _4、In fact, a golf course is one of the most dangerous places to be during a thunderstorm.The best place to be is inside a car!
The largest number of people to be struck by lightning at one time was in September 1995 when 17 players on a football pitch were hit simultaneously. The most extraordinary aspect of the strike was the fact that 11 of the victims—seven adults and four children—had burn patterns of tiny holes at 3 centimetre intervals on each toe and around the soles of their feet.
Harold Deal, a retired electrician from South Carolina, USA, was struck by lightning 26 years ago. He was apparently unhurt, but it later emerged that the strike had damaged the part of the brain which controls the sensation of temperature. _5 、Since then the freezing South Carolina winters haven’t bothered Harold, since he is completely unable to feel the cold.
Animals are victims of lightning too2．Hundreds of cows and sheep are killed every year, largely because they go under trees. In East Anglia in 1918, 504 sheep were killed instantaneously by the same bolt of lightning that hit the ground and travelled through the entire flock. Lightning is also responsible for starting more than 10,000 forest fires each year world-wide.
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear------如何让失聪的人更容易听见
Most people think of Beethoven's hearing loss as an obstacle to composing music. However, he produced his most powerful works in the last decade of his life when he was completely deaf.
　This is one of the most glorious cases of the triumph of will over adversity, but his biographer, Maynard Solomon, takes a different view. 1、Solomon argues that Beethoven's deafness "heightened" his achievement as a composer.
In his deaf world Beethoven could experiment, free from the sounds of the outside world, free to create new forms and harmonies.
Hearing loss does not seem to affect the musical ability of musicians who become deaf. They continue to"hear" music with as much, or greater, accuracy than if they were actually hearing it being played.
2、Michael Eagar, who died in 2003, became deaf at the age of 21. He described a fascinating phenomenon that happened within three months:" my former musical experiences began to play back to me. I couldn't differentiate between what I heard and real hearing. 2 After many years, it is still rewarding to listen to these playbacks, to ' hear' music which is new to me and to find many quiet accompaniments for all of my moods. "
How is it that the world we see, touch, hear, and smell is both"out there" and at the same time within us? There is no better example of this connection between external stimulus and internal perception than the cochlear implant. 3、No man-made device could replace the ability to hear. However, it might be possible to use the brain's remarkable power to make sense of the electrical signals the implant produces.
When Michael Edgar first" switched on" his cochlear implant,the sound's he heard were not at all clear. Gradually, with much hard work, he began to identify everyday sounds. For example," The insistent ringing of the telephone became clear almost at once. "
The primary purpose of the implant is to allow communication with others. When people spoke to Eagar, he heard their voices "coming through like a long-distance telephone call on a poor connection. " But when it came to his beloved music, the implant was of no help. 4、When he war, ted to appreciate music, Eagar played the piano. He said," I play the piano as I used to and hear it in my head at the same time. The movement of my fingers and the feel of the keys give added ' clarity' to hearing in my head. ''
Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear again in a way that is not perfect, but which can change their lives. 5、Still, as Michael Eagar discovered, when it comes to musical harmonies,heating is irrelevant.Even the most amazing cochlear implants would have been useless to Beethoven as he composed his Ninth Symphony at the end of his life.
【1】Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)
It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook  who  died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779.
“There is  no  Cook in the Australian Museum,” museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone. But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition, “Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalani’opu’u in 1778.
Cook was one of Britain’s great explorers and is credited with discovering the “Great South Land,” now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii.
The legend of Cook’s arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cook’s wife, saying it was made of Cook’s bone after the fatal fight with islanders.
In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until  it came face-to-face with science.
DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone but was more  likely made of animal bone, said Philp.
However, Cook’s fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cook’s body was buried at sea in 1779. “On this occasion technology has won,” said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. “But I am sure that one of these days …one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.”
【2】Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)
An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property.
All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is likely to cause an avalanche, is  a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors.
Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low risk of avalanche. Snow does not gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not flow easily on flat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snow’s angle of rest is between 35 and 45 degrees; the critical angle, the angle at which the human incidence of avalanches is greatest, is 38 degrees. The rule of thumb is :A slope that is flat enough to hold snow but steep enough to ski has the potential to generate an avalanche, regardless of the angle. Additionally, avalanche risk increases with use; that is ,the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, thd more likely it is that an avalanche will occur.
Due to the complexity of the subject, winter travelling in the backcountry is never 100% safe. Good avalanche safety is a continuous process, including route selection and examination of the snowpack, weather conditions, and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid attention to. Never follow in the tracks of others without your own evaluations; snow conditions are almost certain to have changed since they were made. Observe the terrain and note obvious avalanche paths where plants are missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche.
【3】增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑)
It is an impossible task to select the most amazing wonders of the modern world since every year more wonderful constructions appear. Here are three giant structures which are worthy of our admiration although they may have been surpassed by some more recent wonders.
The Petronas Twin Tower
The petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world when they were completed in 1999.With a height of 452 metres，the tall twin owers, like two thin pencils, dominate the city of Kuala Lumpur. At the 41 floor, the towers are linked by a bridge, symbolizing a gateway to the city. The American architect Cesar Pelli designed the skyscrapers.
Constructed of high-strength concrete, the building provides around 1800 square metres of office space on every floor. And it has a shopping centre and a concert hall at the base. Other features of this impressive building include double-decker lifts, and glass and steel sunshades.
The Millau Bridge
The Millau Bridge was opened in 2004 in the Tarn Valley, in southern France. At the time it was built, it was the world’s highest bridge, reaching over 340m at the highest point. The bridge is described as one of the most amazingly beautiful bridge in the world. It was built to relieve Millau’s congestion problems. The congestion was then caused by traffic passing from Paris to Barcelona in Spain. The bridge was built to withstand the most extreme seismic and climatic conditions. Besides, it is guaranteed for 120 years!
The Itaipu Dam
The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant is one of the largest constructions of its kind in the world. It consists of a series of dams across the River Parana, which forms a natural border between Brazil and Paraguay. Started in 1975 and taking 16 years to complete, the construction was carried out as a joint project between the two countries. The dam is well-known for both its electricity output and its size. In 1995 it produced 78% of Paraguay’s and 25% of Brazil’s energy needs. In its construction, the amount of iron and steel used was equivalent to over 300 Eiffel Towers. It is a truly amazing wonder of engineering.
【4】Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)
A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
“No elephants are dead, not even a dead rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.
“There has been a lot of apparent evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.
“There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this assessment.
“Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds… there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal “sixth sense” – or some other mythical power – is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s ravaged coast is likely to add to.
The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.
【5】Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人)
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building – and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capalbe of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. “It is a burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio,” she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.”
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
【6】Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)
Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
For now, such devices are only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars, and should be available to ordinary cars in the UK in two months.
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
There are even plans for immobilizers that shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system.
In the UK, an array of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed,” says Martyn Rand all of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part by the motor insurance industry.
He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
Modern cars are a far tougher proposition, as their engine management computer will not allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owner’s keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the owner’s keys, which doubles the previous year’s figure.
Remote-controlled immobilization system would put a major new obstacle in the criminal’s way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the customer expects.
【7】An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)
Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all these and can control a fast-moving car. But how does an intelligent car control itself?
There is a virtual driver in the smart car. This virtual driver has “eyes”, “brains”, “hands” and “feet”, too. The minicameras on each side of the car are his “eyes”, which observe the road conditions ahead of it. They watch the traffic to the car’s left and right. There is also a highly automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual driver’s “brain”. His “brain” calculates the speeds of other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information, it chooses the right path for the intelligent car, and gives instructions to the “hands” and “feet” to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car.
What is the virtual driver’s best advantage? He reacts quickly. The minicameras are sending images continuously to the “brain.” It completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the world’s best driver at least needs one second to react. Besides, when he takes action, he needs one more second.
The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident rate considerably on expressways. In this case, can we let him have the wheel at any time and in any place? Experts warn that we cannot do that just yet. His ability to recognize things is still limited . He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.

【8】增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰)
The vultures in question may look ugly and threatening, but the sudden sharp decline in three species of India’s vultures is producing alarm rather than celebration. and it presents the world with a new kind of environmental problem. The dramatic decline in vulture numbers is causing widespread disruption to people living in the same areas as the birds. It is also causing serious public health problems across the Indian sub-continent．
While their reputation and appearance may be unpleasant to many Indians, vultures have long played a very important role in keeping towns and villages all over India clean. It is because they feed on dead cows. In India, cows are sacred animals and are traditionally left in the open when they die in their thousands upon thousands every year.
The disappearance of the vultures has led to an explosion in the numbers of wild dogs feeding on the remains of these dead animals. There are fears that rabies may increase as a result．And this terrifying disease may ultimately affect humans in the region, since wild dogs are its main carriers．Rabies could also spread to other animal species, causing an even greater problem in the future．
The need for action is urgent, so an emergency project has been launched to find a solution to this serious vulture problem. Scientists are trying to identify the disease causing the birds deaths and, if possible, develop a cure.
Large-scale vulture deaths were first noticed at the end of the 1980s in India. A population survey at that time showed that the three species of vultures had. Declined  by over 90 percent. All three species are now listed as “critically endangered”. As most vulture lay only single eggs and take about five years to reach maturity, reversing their population decline will be a long and difficult exercise.
【9】Wonder Webs(奇妙的网)
Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the world’s best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.
The secret of the web’s strength? A type of super-resilient silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to weave the web’s spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along it to spin the web’s trademark spiral.
Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original length and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes close.
It is no wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars – but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not work because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors.
Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Golden Orb dragline. The first step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grow from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their milk. “The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without any help from us,” says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers as fast as the real thing snags bugs.
【10】Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感）
Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, may be bad for your arteries， but according to a study in Psychological Science, they’re good for your heart and emotions ．The study focuses on “comfort food” and how it makes people feel．
"For me personally ,food has always played a big role in my family,” says Jordan Troisi, a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, and lead author on the study．The study came out of the research program of his co—author Shira Gabriel．It has looked at non-human things that may affect human emotions．Some people reduce loneliness by bonding with their favorite TV show, building virtual relationships with a pop song singer or looking at pictures of loved ones．Troisi and Gabriel wondered if comfort food could have the same effect by making people think of their nearest and dearest.
In one experiment, in order to make  participants feel lonely, the researchers had them write for six minutes about a fight with someone close to them．Others were given an emotionally neutral writing assignment. Then, some people in each  group  wrote about the experience of eating a comfort food and others wrote about eating a new food．Finally ,the researchers had participants  complete questions about their levels of loneliness．
Writing about a fight with a close person made people feel lonely．But people who were generally secure in their relationships would feel less lonely by writing about a comfort food．"We have found that comfort foods are consistently associated with those close to us．"says Troisi．"Thinking about or consuming these foods later then serves as a reminder of those close others．"In their essays on comfort food, many people wrote about the  experience  of eating food with family and friends.
In another experiment,  eating  chicken soup in the lab made people think more about relationships, but only if they considered chicken soup to be a comfort food．This was a question they had been asked long before the experiment, along with many other questions, so they wouldn’t remember it.
Throughout everyone’s daily lives they experience stress, often associated with our connections with others," Troisi says．"Comfort food Can be an easy remedy for loneliness．
【11】Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities （气候变化给不备城市带来重大风险）

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