Do you know some great inventors and their inventions?What factors are needed for their success? Wel——青夏教育精英家教网—

Do you know some great inventors and their inventions?

What factors (因素) are needed for their success?

Well, good timing for a start. You can have a great idea which the public simply doesn’t want ... yet. The Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first fax(传真)machine in the 1860s. Although the machine was excellent, his invention quickly died a commercial(商业的) death. It was not until the 1980s that the fax became very common in every office... too late for Giovanni Caselli.

Money also helps. The Frenchman Denis Papin (1647-1712) had the idea for a steam engine (蒸汽机)almost a hundred years before the better-remembered Scotsman James Watt was even born... but he never had enough money to build one.

You also need to be patient (it took scientists nearly eighty years to develop a light bulb which actually worked)... but not too patient. In the 1870s, Elisha Gray, a professional inventor from Chicago, developed plans for a telephone. Gray saw it as no more than “a beautiful toy”. However, when he finally sent details of his invention to the Patent Office(专利局) in February， 1876, it was too late. Almost the same invention had arrived two hours earlier... and the young man who sent it, Alexander Graham Bell, will always be remembered as the inventor of the telephone.

Of course what you really need is a great idea—but if you haven’t got one, a walk in the country and careful look at nature can help. The Swiss scientist, George de Mestral, had the idea for Velcro（魔术贴）when he found his clothes covered in sticky seed pods after a walk in the country. During a similar walk in the French countryside some 250 years earlier, Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur had the idea that paper could be made from wood when he found an abandoned wasps’ nest（蜂巢）.

You also need good commercial sense. Willy Higinbotham was a scientist doing nuclear（核能的） research in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, USA. In 1958, the public were invited to an exhibition in the Laboratory to see their work, but both parents and children were more interested in a tennis video game on the screen. Soon hundreds of people were ignoring the other exhibits to play the first ever computer game—made from a simple laboratory instrument called an “oscilloscope”. Higinbotham, however, never made money from his invention: he thought people were only interested in the game because the other exhibits were so boring!

1.How many factors do inventors need according to the passage?

A. 3. B. 4. C. 5. D. 6.

2.The word “ignoring” in the last paragraph probably means “_____”.

A. having no idea of B. doing no good to

C. getting no chance of D. paying no attention to

3.What can you learn from the passage?

A. Giovanni Caselli invented the first fax machine in the 1980s.

B. Denis Papin afforded to build a steam engine a hundred years ago.

C. Elisha Gray missed the chance to be the inventor of the telephone.

D. George de Mestral got an idea from a walk in a French countryside.

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A. How to be a successful inventor

B. How to get a great idea from nature

C. How to have a good commercial sense

D. How to make money from inventions

1.C 2.D 3.C 4.A 【解析】【主旨大意】本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了成功需要的五个因素。 1.细节理解题。句意为：根据文章内容，发明家需要几个因素？根据第一段最后提出的问题“What factors（因素） are needed for their success？”后面紧接着的五段可知一共有五个因素。故选C。 2.词义猜测题。题干意为：在最后一段“...

From 2016, Children in Finland would not be taught cursive handwriting. Instead of learning this skill, schools would be given the choice to teach keyboard typing in its place. The change shows typing skills are now more related than handwriting, but experts say the move could do harm to a child’s brain development.

“Most people would agree that everyone should at least be able to pick up a pen or a pencil and write a message that others can read,”said Misty Adoniou, a lecturer.“But beyond legibility（易读性）, does it matter how you form your letters when you handwrite?”

She continued there was research connecting fluent（流畅的） handwriting with better written articles,“but the key isn’t the quality, form or style of the handwriting, but rather the automaticity（自动性） of the handwriting.”

Reports have also found that by the age of eight, children can already type faster than they can handwrite. But, as Misty Adoniou agreed, handwriting can play an important part in brain development.“Research shows that learning to write in cursive further improves students’ motor and visual（视觉的） skills, eye-to-handco ordination, hand and finger skills, and brain development. The physical act of handwriting also helps the memory of information and the flow（流动）of ideas.”

For example, in a recent study, researchers did brain scans on five-year-olds before and after receiving different letter-learning tasks. In children who practiced writing letters by hand, the neural（神经的） activity was more improved and“aduit-like”than in those who had simply looked at letters. “Technology can encourage and support plenty of child development and educational objectives, such as physical and health、”explained Dr.Leves, “And there is a body of research supporting the idea that children learn best when they’re having fun.”

But as Ms Adoniou concluded:“With so many things to do in a school day, it is hard to see why handwriting lessons continue. No matter how standardized we try to make handwriting, we all end up with our own style. Perhaps we’d do just all well to let children find their own style.”

1.Ms Adoniou probably agrees that you will write articles better when _____.

A. you care less about your handwriting

B. you have a special style of handwriting

C. you improve the quality of handwriting

D. you have different forms of handwriting

2.According to Ms Adoniou, cursive handwriting _____.

A. improves children’s eyesight

B. makes children’s hands strong

C. makes children have fewer ideas

D. helps children’s brains develop better

3.What is the passage mainly about _____?

A. How to teach keyboard typing.

B. The reasons why students drop pens.

C. Some opinions on cursive handwriting.

D. How to improve your own writing style.

1.A 2.D 3.C 【解析】【主旨大意】本文是一篇说明文。芬兰决定将在2016年秋季取消强制的手写课，并开设一些有用的打字课程帮助学生更高效的打字。文学家阿多尼斯女士认为：在写文章时若能较少的关注书法，孩子们可能会写出更好的文章；同时强调手写课可能促进孩子们的大脑发育。 1.细节理解题。题干意为：阿多尼斯女士可能同意当你的时候，你可能会写出更好的文章。根据第三段第一句“...

Are you wearing old clothes?

Don’t worry if you are. Clothes bought at thrift shops are more popular than ever in the West nowadays.

A lot of young people have an interest in secondhand clothing.

Goodwill Industries, one of the most famous secondhand shopping companies in the US, said there had been an increase of 84 percent in money made from the sale of donated goods from 2007 to 2012, from $1.9 billion(about 13 billion yuan) to $3.5 billion.

Fanny Moizant, an online group that sells used clothes from luxury brands(奢侈品牌), agrees that “secondhand” is part of fashion now.

“Fashion has changed,” she told the Financial Times last month.” People need our service ----they need a place to let go and get rid of this excess(过剩).”

It wasn’t always this way. Secondhand clothes used to be much less popular.

Keren Charles, 37, from the US, remembers how embarrassed she was the first time she entered a thrift store more than 20 years ago.

“I didn’t want anyone to see me,” Charles told CNN. “In high school, people thought you were either poor or homeless.”

Now, the fashion fan says about 97 percent of her clothes are secondhand. Her favorite find is a $5 blue evening dress that could be worth hundreds of dollars.

So what is a thrift shop, exactly?

According to the US Association of Resale Professionals, a thrift shop is run by a not-for –profit（非盈利的）organization to get money to charitable causes.

The shops have become popular in recent times due to economic reasons.

More customers began coming to thrift shops in the US at the start of the recession(萧条), according to CNN.

And now secondhand clothing and vintage items are showing up in Western high fashion and street wear.

Fashionable hip-hop artist Macklemore and Ryan Lewis even wore a 2013 Billboard Music Award for their hit song Thrift Shop. The song is about “looking for a come up”(search for cheap things in a thrift store.

However, thrift store culture may be great for new shoppers and for business but it’s not so great for shoppers like Charles who are still “looking for a come up.”

“The competition is tough now,” she told CNN. “You’re in the thrift stores, and you’re seeing so many other people, but it’s still better than shopping at a department store.”

1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

A. Vintage items sell better than other used clothes.

B. Thrift shops are a new form of shops that have appeared in the last 10 years.

C. Thrift shops sell used clothes in order to help people in need.

D. Young people show less interest in secondhand clothing than older people.

2.According to the article, secondhand clothes have become popular in the West because _______.

A. there are more thrift stores to shop in

B. people have to live on less money

C. artists and stars are often seen in secondhand clothes

D. people now care less about others’ opinions

3.The underlined word “Vintage” in paragraph 15 probably means“_________”.

A. old but expensive B. large and very beautiful C. old but high quality D. popular and new