题目内容
第三部分 任务型阅读（满分10分）
Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!
WHY BURN WASTE?
Waste-to-energy plants generate (产生) enough electricity to supply 2.4 million households in the US. But, providing electricity is not the major advantage of waste-to-energy plants. In fact, it costs more to generate electricity at a waste-to-energy plant than it does at a coal, nuclear, or hydropower plant.
The major advantage of burning waste is that it considerably reduces the amount of trash going to landfills. The average American produces more than 1,600 pounds of waste a year. If all this waste were landfilled, it would take more than two cubic yards of landfill space. That’s the volume of a box three feet long, three feet wide, and six feet high. If that waste were burned, the ashes would fit into a box three feet long, three feet wide, but only nine inches high!
Some communities in the Northeast may be running out of land for new landfills. And, since most people don’t want landfills in their backyards, it has become more difficult to obtain permits to build new landfills. Taking the country as a whole, the United States has plenty of open space, of course, but it is expensive to transport garbage a long distance to put it into a landfill.
TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN?
Some people are concerned that burning garbage may harm the environment. Like coal plants, waste-to-energy plants produce air pollution when the fuel is burned to produce steam or electricity. Burning garbage releases the chemicals and substances found in the waste. Some chemicals can be a threat to people, the environment, or both, if they are not properly controlled.
Some critics of waste-to-energy plants are afraid that burning waste will hamper (妨碍，阻碍) recycling programs. If everyone sends their trash to a waste-to-energy plant, they say, there will be little motive to recycle. Several states have considered or are considering banning waste-to-energy plants unless recycling programs are in place. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City have delayed new waste-to-energy plants, hoping to increase the level of recycling first.
So, what’s the real story? Can recycling and burning waste coexist? At first glance, recycling and waste-to-energy seem to be at odds (不一致), but they can actually complement (弥补) each other. That’s because it makes good sense to recycle some materials, and better sense to burn others.
Let’s look at aluminum, for example. Aluminum mineral is so expensive to mine that recycling aluminum more than pays for itself. Burning it produces no energy. So clearly, aluminum is valuable to recycle and not useful to burn.
Paper, on the other hand, can either be burned or recycled—it all depends on the price the used paper will bring.
Plastics are another matter. Because plastics are made from petroleum and natural gas, they are excellent sources of energy for waste-to-energy plants. This is especially true since plastics are not as easy to recycle as steel, aluminum, or paper. Plastics almost always have to be hand sorted and making a product from recycled plastics may cost more than making it from new materials.
To burn or not to burn is not really the question. We should use both recycling and waste-to-energy as alternatives to landfilling.
Waste to Energy—JUST BURN IT!
| WHY BURN WASTE? | Advantages of waste to Energy | ◆Though at a high (71) _______, waste-to-energy plants can produce enough electricity for 2.4 million US households. ◆Burning waste can (72) _______ a considerable amount of trash going to landfills. |
| (73)_______ for landfilling | ◆Some communities (74) _______ land for new landfills. ◆Most people refuse to build landfills around. ◆Building landfills in far-away areas will increase the cost of (75) _______ garbage. | |
| TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN? | (76) __________ about burning garbage | ◆Burning garbage releases chemicals, which, if not properly controlled, can be (77) _______ to people and the environment. ◆Burning garbage will hamper recycling programs. |
| Coexistence of recycling and burning waste | Recycling and waste-to-energy can go well with each other in that some materials like aluminum are fit to recycle, while others like plastics are fit to (78) _______. | |
| (79)__________ | Whether to burn or not to burn, we should (80) _______ landfilling with both recycling and waste-to-energy to deal with garbage. | |
71. cost 72. reduce / prevent / stop 73. Difficulties 74. lack 75. transporting
76. Concerns / Worries 77. harmful / dangerous 78. burn 79. Conclusion 80. replace
第三部分任务型阅读（满分10分）
A technical secondary school in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province, planned to order Korean-style school uniforms for students, but parents opposed the move, believing that the new uniforms looked too good and would encourage early romances among the students, the Jinling Evening Paper reported Monday.
Parents
“My daughter was so excited about the Korean-style uniform, saying it’s her dream to wear mini-skirt to school every day,” a mom surnamed Cheng complained. “My daughter also called her classmates to talk about how handsome the boys looked in the uniform!”
Cheng looked on the Internet and found that most Korean schoolboy uniforms are similar to western suits. “They are so handsome! My daughter is a fan of Korean fashion, that’s why she is crazy about the uniform!” Cheng said. “If the students wear such beautiful uniforms, how can they study well? I prefer the sports wear which makes me think of health and positive thinking.”
School
“The plan to change the current school uniform from sports wear has been cancelled,” an employee of the school told the Jinling Evening Paper.
“The students dislike the current uniform, so the school took advice from the students last November, knowing that most of students prefer Korean-or Japanese-style school uniforms. We know cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou have changed their sports wear school uniforms to more fashionable uniforms,” an employee surnamed Lin said.
“However, we had to stop the plan because many parents are strongly against it. Some parents think it’s just a way for the school to make money, and others think the new uniforms will take students’ attention away from their studies,” Lin said.
When asked about the possibility of problems with early romance between students because of the more fashionable uniforms, Lin said he hadn’t considered it. He, however, agreed that the Korean-style uniform makes the students more charming.
Students
The students are very disappointed about the school’s final decision. They think the sports wear uniforms make them look androgynous (难分性别).
They said the Korean-style uniform has many advantages such as raising interest in class; lifting confidence; improving solidarity and creating good temperaments.
As for concerns about romance, the students believe that love is love and bears no relationship to the uniform.
Education department
“We don’t have a unified (统一的) standard for school uniforms. The schools can choose their own styles. Either sports wear or uniforms are ok,” an official from the Nanjing Bureau of Education said.
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Title |
Do pretty school uniforms lead to early romance? |
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Event |
A technical secondary school planned to order Korean-style school uniforms for students. |
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Different (71)_____ to it |
Parents are strongly (72)______ the move. |
◆With such beautiful designs, the new uniforms might (73)__________ early romances between boys and girls. ◆In the new uniforms, students will fail to focus their (74)_________ on their studies. ◆It is just a way for the school to make money. |
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Students are in 75)______ of the move. |
◆The sports wear uniforms make them look androgynous. ◆Korean-style uniform can make them more (76)_________ and more interested in class as well as improving solidarity and creating good temperaments. |
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Two responses |
From the school |
◆The students dislike the current uniform. ◆More (77)__________ school uniforms are allowed in some big cities in China. ◆The school spokesman Lin said they hadn’t taken the possibility of early romance into (78)_________, though he agreed the Korean-style uniform would make the students more charming. |
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From the education department |
There is no unified standard for school uniforms, so the schools can choose their own styles. |
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Result |
The school had to (79)________ the plan and the students felt (80)_________. |
第三部分 任务型阅读（满分10分）
Romantic novelists rarely fail to include in their writings that special moment when two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire. Now these writings have now been validated（证实）by science, for experts have discovered that eye-to-eye contact in fact leads to a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain.
Neuroscientists at University College London asked eight female and eight male volunteers to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side.
While the volunteers looked at the pictures, they were given a scan with functional magnetic resonance imaging（磁性共振成影仪器）, which measures increased blood flows to the various parts of the brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity（大脑活动）.
The volunteers were then asked to rate the attractiveness of each face, and their score was matched against the scan.
The result: when volunteer had direct eye contact with the face, there was an increase of activity in the ventral striatum（腹面纹状体）, a central part of the brain that anticipates reward or pleasure. But if the eyes did not meet, there was no activity in that brain area at all. The activity increase occurred regardless of the gender of the face in direct eye contact.
However, there was a bigger-than-usual increase if the person giving the eye was found to be attractive. Activity in the ventral striatum surged. But if the cute person gazed to one side, the ventral striatum remained dormant, apparently disappointed that the stranger was clearly not interested.
Interestingly, the ventral striatum also perked up if a plug-ugly person gazed to one side, rather than looked at the volunteer right in the eyes.
| Origin of the experiment | Romantic novelists like to describe in their writings that two strangers look into each other's eyes across a crowded room and feel the tingle of desire in a special ____71____. |
| __72__ of the experiment | Investigate whether eye-to-eye contact ____73____ a burst of activity in the reward center of the brain. |
| Procedure of the experiment | ◆Ask ____74____ volunteers（8 female and 8 male）to look at photos of the faces of 40 different people who were either looking at the camera or gazing to one side. ◆____75____ blood flows to the various parts of the volunteers’ brain and thus provides a "map" of cerebral activity. ◆Ask the volunteers to rate the attractiveness of all ____76____, ◆____77____ their score against the scan. |
| ____78____ of the experiment | ◆As long as the eyes meet ____79____, there must be activities in the brain area. On the other hand, there is no activity at all. ◆The activity of the brain is also ___80_____ with the people’s appearance closely. |
