International teams have spent nearly half a year looking for evidence of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, a search that includes the hunt for the aircraft’s so-called black box, which holds flight data that would likely explain what caused MH370 to move away from its course. But many aviation experts wonder why, in our increasingly networked world, divers are searching the Indian Ocean for a metal box when technology already exists that would enable planes to stream black box data to the ground in the event of an emergency.

Black boxes have been on planes since the late 1950s, and now every commercial aircraft has two: a flight data recorder and a voice recorder. (Although they are referred to as black boxes, they are typically orange in color, making them easier to spot in waters.) Black box recorders are mainly used to investigate the cause of in-flight accidents.

While black boxes are built to survive a crash and long-term submersion(浸没)in water, it can be a real challenge to find the device if a plane has gone down in the ocean. While each box contains a beacon(无线电信标台), the unit only has enough battery power to transmit a signal for 30 days. After the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, it took divers two years to find the black box.

Pierre Jeanniot, a Canadian engineer who helped perfect black box technology about 40 years ago, feels that the device, in its current form, is “obsolete”. He started to question its effectiveness more than a decade ago, after seeing the broken pieces of the black boxes in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade towers in New York. Jeanniot is now on the advisory board of a Toronto-based firm that has built a live-streamed black box system. When a plane experiences an irregular event, the system can send streaming data off the aircraft to one of the satellites and then down to ground-based servers, where the message is interpreted and sent to the airline. It seems necessary that the loss of MH370 and other similar cases wake more people up to the fact that the tools being used at this stage are inadequate for dealing with emergency situations, Jeanniot says. He also estimates that if this technology had been on board the missing Malaysian Airlines flight and live-streaming for the estimated seven hours after the flight first experienced a problem, it would have cost about $3,000.

While there is widespread approval of a live-streamed black box system, most airlines see its cost prohibitive. The airline industry is an industry with small profits, and is reluctant to add costs that will further cut the bottom line.

However, given how much time, money and effort has been spent on the luckless search for MH370, s black box, the cost of operating a live-streaming version seems like a trifle(区区小数)

1.In this passage, the underlined word “obsolete” probably means .

A. out of date B. out of use

C. on the move D. on the increase

2.Which fact is mentioned to support aviation experts’ doubt about the effectiveness of the black box?

A. MH370’s black box holds flight data that might explain what happened to the aircraft.

B. The recorders are actually orange in color though referred to as black boxes.

C. The beacon in the black box has limited battery power to send out a signal for 30 days.

D. It’s necessary for people to wake up to the weaknesses of the black box

3.What’s airlines’ attitude towards the live-streamed black box system?

A. They approve of the system since it may save time, money and effort.

B. They consider using the system as the bottom line of costs.

C. They are reluctant to start the system because it still needs improving.

D. They are unwilling to equip planes with the system as it cuts their profits.

4.From the passage, we can learn that__________.

A. it takes divers one or two years to find the black box after a crash

B. the new system does not live stream black box data for the whole flight

C. Jeanniot changed his view on black box technology when working for a Canadian firm

D. operating a live-streamed black box system costs only three thousand dollars

When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation(基金会),nobody understood what she was talking about .But Sophia knew just how important Make – A –Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends .We were interested in finding out more, so we went to meet Sophia and listened to what she had to say .

Sophia told us that Make – A –Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980.It’s a charity(慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. Make – A –Wish help children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true,” Sophia explained .

We asked Sophia how Make – A –Wish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris ,who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman .Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris’s dream come true ----so, with everybody’s help , Chris, only seven years old at the time ,had been a “policeman” for a day .“ when people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too ,and that was the beginning of Make–A –Wish,” explained Sophia.

Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything

in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the

wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.

1.Sophia found out about Make-A-Wish because her best friend had .

A. benefited from it B. volunteered to help it

C. dreamed about it D. told the author about it

2.According to Sophia, Make-A-Wish .

A. is an international charity

B. was understood by nobody at first

C. raises money for very poor families

D. started by drawing the interest of the public

3.What is said about Chris in Paragraph3?

A. He has been a policeman since he was seven.

B. He gave people the idea of starting Make-A-Wish

C. He wanted people to help make his dream come true.

D. He was the first child Make-A-Wish helped after it had been set up.

4.Which of the following is true about Make-A-Wish volunteers?

A. They are important for making wishes come true.

B. They try to help children get over their illnesses.

C. They visit sick children to make them feel special.

D. They provide what is necessary to make Make-A-Wish popular.

Many of us have heard stories about teachers who can “see” into a student’s future. Even if a student is not performing well, they can predict success. We are convinced that this ability, this gift, is evidence that they were “called to teach” . If the gift of sight is evidence, how greater must be the gift of touch. I have a story.

I grew up in the fifties in a poor African American neighborhood in Stockton, California, that had neither sidewalks nor an elementary school. Each day, always in groups at our parents’ insistence, my friends and I would leave home early enough to walk eight blocks to school and be in our seats when the bell rang. For four blocks, we walked on dusty roads. By the fifth block, we walked on sidewalks that led to lovely homes and to Fair Oaks Elementary School. It was at Fair Oaks, in a sixth grade English class, that I met Ms. Victoria Hunter, a teacher who had a huge influence on my life.

During reading periods, she would walk around the room, stop at our desks, stand over us for a second or two, and then touch us. Without saying anything to us (nothing could break the silence of reading periods), she would place two fingers lightly on our throats and hold them there for seconds. I learned many years later when I was a student at Stanford University that teachers touch the throat of students to check for sub-vocalization (默读), which slows down the reading speed. I did not know at the time why Ms. Hunter was touching our throats, but I was a serious and respectful student and so, during silent reading period, I did what Ms. Hunter told us to do. I kept my eyes on the material I was reading and waited for her to place her fingers lightly on my throat.

One day, out of curiosity, I raised my head from my book — though not high — so that I could see Ms. Hunter, a white woman from Canada, moving up and down the rows, stopping at the desks of my classmates. I wanted to see how they reacted when she touched their throats. She walked past them. I was confused. Did she pass them by because they were model students? What did we, the students who were touched, not do right? I sat up straighter in my chair, thinking that my way of sitting might be the problem. I was confused. Several days later, I watched again, this time raising my head a little higher. Nothing changed. Ms. Hunter touched the same students. Always, she touched me.

She touched me with her hands. She also touched me with her belief in my ability to achieve. She motivated me by demanding the best from me and by letting teachers I would meet in junior high school know that I should be challenged, that I would be serious about my work. I am convinced that she touched me because she could “see” me in the future. That was true of all of us at Fair Oaks who sat still and silent as Ms. Hunter placed her fingers lightly on our throats. We left Fair Oaks as “best students,” entered John Marshall Junior High School, finished at the top of our high school class, and went on to earn graduate degrees in various subjects. Ms. Hunter saw us achieving and she touched us to make certain that we would.

I was not surprised that she came to my graduation ceremony at Edison High School in Stockton or that she talked to me about finishing college and earning a Ph. D. She expected that of me. She gave me a beautifully wrapped box. Inside was a gift, the beauty of which multiplies even as it touches me: a necklace to which I can add charms for each stage of my life.

1.According to the writer, what is a special ability many good teachers possess?

A. The ability to make all students behave well.

B. The ability to treat different students in the same way.

C. The ability to discover a student’s potential to succeed.

D. The ability to predict the near future of a poor student.

2.According to the passage, how did Ms. Hunter motivate the writer?

A. By correcting the way she sat.

B. By having high expectations of her.

C. By sending her a valuable necklace.

D. By communicating with her parents often.

3.What does the writer mean by “a necklace to which I can add charms for each stage of my life” (paragraph 6)?

A. A gift which encourages me to do well on the journey of my life.

B. A gift which becomes more and more valuable as time goes by.

C. A necklace which I wear on all important occasions in my life.

D. A necklace which suits me and adds to my charm.

4.Which of the following serves as the best title for the story?

A. Ms. Hunter’s Surprise B. Ms. Hunter’s Challenge

C. A Teacher’s Touch D. A Teacher’s Memory

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