题目内容
—I__________some photos to be developed (冲洗). Are they ready yet?
—Yes. Here you are.
A. left B. will leave C. have left D. had left
A
While reading a story on 20-somethings complaining about how the economy was ruiningg their life plans, I couldn’t help but think the 20-somethings sounded like a bunch of spoiled who grew up expecting everything to be easy for them. As a 20-something myself, certainly share their disappointment : my husband and I probably won’t be able to buy a house until we’re in our 40s, and we two are burdened by student loans(贷款). But why should it be any different? Being young persons in America, shouldn’t they take up all of the challenges and opportunities that this country offers?
Consider some of these views shared in the story: Jennifer, 29, owner of a two-bedroom apartment with her husband, worries that she won’t be able to have children for at least a decade because they can’t afford to buy a house yet.
I read that, and I thought what planet she is living on where you need to own a house in order to have kids? Has she ever visited a developing country, or even downtown areas in this one? Home ownership is a luxury(奢华), not a fertility requirement.
A 26-year-old in the story is disappointed that he can’t afford to get a Ph. D in literature. Well, that sounds a bit like expressing disappointment that no one will pay you to write poetry on the beach in Thailand for five years.
Yes, it’s sad that these young people feel so lost. But I think the problem is their extremely high expectations, not economic reality. Beth Kobliner, author of Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, says that she thinks people’s expectations grew up at a time when everyone’s wealth appeared to be increasing, Their parents probably saw their home values rise along with their investments. “So you have people who have grown up in an environment where people had great expectations of what living well means,” says Kobliner.
This recession(经济衰退) will certainly play a role in forcing those expectations into more realistic group. In the meantime, it seems a lot better for our mental health to focus on being grateful---for our one-bedroom apartments, for living in modern cities, or perhaps just for being able to eat three meals a day---than on longing for some kind of luxury life.
【小题1】. What makes the author think the 20-somethings sound like a bunch of spoiled children?
A.They expect everything to be easy for them. |
B.They complain that the economy is spoiling their life plans. |
C.They are unwilling to face all of the challenges. |
D.They are burdened by student loans. |
A.baby production | B.pleasant | C.baby comfort | D.comfortable |
A.They can’t have children for at least a decade a decade to buy a house. |
B.They have only a one-bedroom apartment to live in. |
C.They can’t buy a house until 40 and are burdened by student loans. |
D.They despair at not being able to afford a PH. D in literature. |
A.Unbearable | B.Opposite | C.Doubtful | D.Understanding |
A.Young people afford to continue their study |
B.Young people can’t afford to buy a house |
C.Young people’s high hopes create despair |
D.The 20-somethings’ high expectations |
Many people consider their pets members of the family and are very sad when they die, but what if you could clone your dog, cat or bird?
A scientist in New Orleans, who has proved his ability to clone other animals, is now offering the possibility to pet owners here in Wisconsin.
Scientists have not been able to clone dogs, cats or other pets, but if and when the time comes, several companies will be ready and able to do the job.
The question is: Are you ready to clone your pet? Brett Reggio is betting on it.He is working on his Ph. D at Louisian State University. He's successfully cloned a goat five times and wants to try the process on family pets. So he started a business called Lazaron. “What Lazaron provides is the first step in the cloning process. ”He said.“It’s for curing and storing the fiberglass cells that will be used for cloning.”
“Your first reaction is yeah! I think I’d like that.” said Donna Schacht, a pet owner.
“I don’t believe you can ever replace a special love,” pet owner Paulette Callattion said.
Most pet owners will tell you freezing your pet’s DNA in hopes of one day cloning it is a personal decision.
Scientists say that cloning your own pet doesn’t mean that the offspring(后代) will have the same intelligence, temperament(性情) or other qualities that your pet has.
【小题1】From the passage we know that scientists have ______.
A.tried to clone animals |
B.cloned many kinds of animals |
C.been able to clone pets for people |
D.once cloned goats successfully |
A.clone pets for people |
B.store the DAN of people’s pets for cloning one day |
C.make pets members of a family |
D.collect different ideas on cloning from people |
A.they think it would be too expensive |
B.they don’t think scientists will one day be able to clone their pets |
C.they think the cloned pet would not be the one they once had |
D.they don’t want to give any love to the cloned pet |
A.looked different from the pet you once had |
B.turned out to be another kind of animal |
C.had a different character |
D.were just the same pet your once had |
Deception (骗术)is something that people do all the time ,and it plays an important role in military (军事的)strategy. Now some researchers are trying to figure out how to get robots to do it, by looking at the behavior of squirrels and birds.
At Georgia Tech, a team led by Ronald Arkin , a professor at the School of interactive Computing, studied the literature on squirrels hiding their acorns (橡果).Squirrels will hide their food m a certain place, but when they see other squirrels trying to steal from them, they attempt to fool the thieves by running to a fake location.
Ronald Arkin and his Ph. D. student Jaeeun Shim used that as a model for robot behavior. They programmed the robot into tricking a “predator (捕食者)” machine by doing what εi squirrel does: showing the enemy a false location for an important resource.
The team also looked at how other animals in this case,a species of bird called Arabian babbler~ drive off predators. A babbler will make an alarm call when they see a predator and other babblers will join the bird and make more calls. They then surround the predator, all the while flapping (拍打)wings and making noises. The babblers don’t ever actually fight the animal they want to drive off; they just make enough noises and flaps around enough so that it seems that attacking a babbler isn’t worth it
They found that the deception works when the group reaches a certain size—essentially, when enough birds arrive to convince the enemy that it’s best to back off . Davis modeled that behavior in software using a military scene and found that it worked even if the group didn’t have the firepower to confront the enemy directly.
The military is interested in this because a robot that can fool an opponent is a valuable tool. It could lead an enemy down a fake trail or make itself look more dangerous than it actually is.
【小题1】Why does the military want to take advantage of squirrels’trick?
A.It can reduce the use of firepower to confront the enemy. |
B.It can fool the enemy into believing it is more dangerous. |
C.It can lead the enemy in a wrong direction to avoid losing resources. |
D.It can scare the enemy away who wants to destroy the acorns. |
A.One bird makes an alarm call and other birds will join it |
B.They fight the enemy bravely face to face. |
C.They make noises and flaps around the predator. |
D.They force the predator aware that it isn't worthwhile to attack. |
A.Animals' behaviors are researched to be applied to the study of military robots. |
B.Robots, fooling tricks are applied to the study of animals’behaviors. |
C.Birds and squirrels are the animals that are good at deception. |
D.Researchers are interested m animals’military-related behaviors. |