A mobile phone is no longer just a phone -- it is also a music player, video camera and personal organizer. And mobile phones with television programming are just around the corner. But the more functions cell phone manufacturers add, the greater the amount of power the phones use and the less practical running them on lithium (锂) batteries becomes -- so the race to find a viable alternative is on.

    Two of the world's biggest electronics makers, Hitachi and Toshiba, are currently competing against each other to come up with an alternative, most likely to be micro fuel cells. The task has been set by Japan's second largest mobile phone provider, KDDI, which wants its customers to soon be able to use special television programming on their handsets, and has asked the two electronics companies to come up with a better power source. Hitomi Murakami, of KDDI, says battery-operated mobile phones cannot keep up with the new applications. "We're looking at various ways to expand content and services that we can provide to the people. And we don't want to have battery issues delaying us from doing that," he says.

    Hitachi's Atsushi Morihara says it is a critical race for both of the companies as the resulting product will have a major impact on the mobile market in the future. "We are in competition and it's up to both of us to come up with a good product. A product that will satisfy KDDI's needs. I think I can go as far to say that the winner will take all."

    Miniaturized direct methanol (甲醇) fuel cells are different batteries in that they create power instead of simply storing it. That power is made by new technology utilizing cheap methanol. If all gees to plan, come 2007, Japanese phone users will not use an electric charger to power their mobiles, they will instead carry a small bottle of methanol and with just a few squirts, they will have power for their phones. But the method has its downsides, including how passengers will be able to take small mounts of flammable methanol on airliners. Fumio Ueno of Toshiba says that once developed, the uses of miniaturized direct methanol fuel cells have endless possibilities.

The lithium batteries are becoming improper for the cell phone because ______.

     A) there is a television in the phone         C) it is inconvenient to use

     B) it can't provide enough power              D) people have found substitutes

According to the passage, Toshiba ______.

     A) is in critical competition with KDDI

     B) will probably beat its rival

     C) attaches great importance to methanol fuel

     D) is one of the largest battery provider

Which of the following is NOT the characteristic of methanol fuel?

     A) Easy to catch fire.                         C) Portable.

     B) Inexpensive.                              D) Available everywhere.

The best title for the passage is ______.

     A) Search for better phone power.

     B) Development of cell phone battery.

     C) Competition between two electronic firms.

     D) Advantage and disadvantage of methanol fuel.

As you move around your home, take a good look at the things you have. It is likely that your living room will have a television set and a video, and your kitchen a washing machine and a microwave oven. Your bedroom drawers will be filled with almost three times as many clothes as you need. You almost certainly own a car and possibly a home computer, holiday abroad at least once a year and eat out at least once a week.

Now, perhaps, more than ever before, people are wondering what life is all about, and what it is for. Seeking material success is beginning to trouble large numbers of people around the world. They feel that the long?hours work culture to make more money to buy more things is eating up their lives, leaving them very little time or energy for family or pastimes. Many are turning to other ways of l

iving and downshifting is one of them.

Six percent of workers in Britain took the decision to downshift last year. One couple who downshifted is Daniel and Liz. They used to work in central London. He was a newspaper reporter and she used to work for an international bank. They would go to work by train every day from their large house in the suburbs(郊区), leaving their two children with a nanny(保姆). Most evenings Daniel wouldn't get home until eight or nine o'clock, and nearly twice a month he would have to fly to New York for meetings. They both earned a large amount of money but began to feel that life was passing them by.

Nowadays, they run a farm in the mountains of Wales. “I always wanted to have a farm here,” says Daniel, “and we took almost a year to make the decision to downshift. It's taken some getting used to, but it's been worth it. We have to think twice now about spending money on car repairs and we no longer have any holidays. However, I think it's made us stronger as a family, and the children are a lot happier.”

Liz, however, is not quite sure. “I used to enjoy my job, even though it was hard work and long hours. I'm not really a country girl, but I suppose I'm gradually getting used to looking after the animals. One thing I do like, though, is being able to see more of my children. My advice for other people wanting to do the same is not to think about it too much or you might not do it at all.”

1.What do the first two paragraphs tell us?

A.People seldom work long hours to make money.

B.People hardly buy more things than necessary.

C.People are sure everything they own is in the right place.

D.People realise there is more to life than just making money. 

2.When Daniel was a reporter he  ________ .

A.lived in central London      B.disliked his job        

C.missed his children         D.was well paid 

3.Daniel and Liz both agree that the move to the farm  ________.

A.was easy to organize         B.has improved family life        

C.was extremely expensive      D.has been a total success 

4.What does the underlined “it” in the last paragraph refer to?

A.Child?caring.    B.Liz's advice.       C.Downshifting.     D.Liz's job.

5.The underlined word “_________downshifting” in the second paragraph means  ________ .

A.repairing your car by yourself        

B.spending money carefully        

C.moving out to the countryside to live a simpler and better life        

D.living in a big house in the suburbs and dining out once a week 

One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the “best seller” lists with a sale of up to 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70

million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight.

  This is the principle behind “quiz” or “game” shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show’s producers, who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand. Why? Because if the audience didn’t like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. The result of this cheating was a huge scandal(丑闻). Based on the show off, a movie titled “Quiz Show” is on 40 years later.

  Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren’t taken seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliating(羞辱) them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.

What is the most important thing as to television?

 A. How many viewers they can attract       B. Becoming the best seller on the list

 C. How much money can be given away    D. The number of people attending shows

What does the underlined part “pulling the strings” probably mean?

 A. Planning the shows with effort          B. Drawing the curtain on the stage

C. Controlling the result secretly          D. Playing “quiz” or “game” openly

Charles Van Doren stopped his career as a television personality because ________.

 A. he had earned enough wealth and fame.

 B. one of the participants had told the truth

 C. the film “Quiz Show” was being shown

 D. his frequent appearance had bored the audience

It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

 A. TV Game Shows are more popular than before.

 B. the scandal was not made known until 40 years later

 C. getting money is the only purpose of people taking part in shows

 D. people can make themselves famous by taking part in shows

"Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often we hear statements like this! Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admitted the "one-eyed monster" into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilised pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, entertain our friends and be entertained by them, go outside for our amusements. We even used to read books and listen to music occasionally. Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle box". We rush home for our meals to be in time for this or that programme. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do—anything, providing it doesn't interfere with the programme. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a programme, he is quickly silenced.
Whole generations are growing up addicted to the television. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The television is a universal thing that makes people calm. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn't matter what the children will watch—so long as they are quiet.
Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness. Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains. In quiet, natural surrounding, we quickly discover how little we miss the King television.
【小题1】.
. Through the passage, the writer aims to tell us ________.

A.how television is damaging our health
B.how to keep away from watching television
C.that television is doing harm to our life
D.all of us find it difficult to live without television
【小题2】.
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A.Second-hand experiences provided by television are harmful.
B.We can enjoy our life without television.
C.Television is a necessary way of communication.
D.Television is becoming irreplaceable in our daily life.
【小题3】.
. What's the main reason for parents to put the children before a television set?
A.To save more time for housework.
B.To help them sleep earlier.
C.To keep them quiet.
D.To help them learn more knowledge from television.
【小题4】.
By saying "we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time," the writer means ________.
A.television occupies too much of our spare time
B.it's easy for us to find some spare time to enjoy the television
C.we have less spare time after we have television
D.it's difficult to spend our spare time without a television


Sports shoes that find out whether their owner has enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes — named Square Eyes — contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended(推荐) daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers (计步器) normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.”
66.According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ____.
A.keep a record of the steps of the wearer
B.deal with overweight among teenagers
C.prevent children from being attracted by the TV programs.
D.prevent children from being tricked by TV programs
67.Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
A.They control a child’s evening TV viewing time.
B.They determine a child’s daily pocket money.
C.They have raised the hot issue of overweight.
D.They contain information of the receiver.
68.What is emphasized by health experts in their suggestion?
A.The exact number of steps to be taken.
B.The exact  number of hours spent on TV.
C.The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time.
D.The way of changing steps into TV watching time.
69.Compared with other similar products, the new design ____.
A.makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat
B.counts the wearer’s steps through shaking
C.records the sudden movement of the wearer
D.sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver
70.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time
B.Smart Shoes Guarantee(保证) More Exercise
C.Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise
D.Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight

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