I love science and science fiction. Like many science fiction fans, I am fascinated by the possibility of time travel. However, one must combine romance with reasoning and look into the chances of time travel critically.

First of all, we must remember the whole universe is in motion. If we want to go back to yesterday, our "time machine" has to move back in time and space. If someone claimed he was at home when he suddenly travelled 200 years back in time, he either had an illusion or made the story up. Two hundred years ago, Earth was in a different place in space, so how can you travel back 200 years without moving in space? Don't get me wrong. I am not knocking the genius of science fiction writers. H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine" is a great work of fiction, but that’s all. I have read many other time travelling science fiction stories since reading H.G. Wells, but none address this problem of displacement.

My own argument for the impossibility of time travel is that physical states of the past no longer exist and those of the future are not here yet. To be able to move back and forth in time requires everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen everywhere in the whole universe at every single moment in time-past, present, and future-to be stored as a "reality" somewhere-like the save game file of a computer game that contains every single byte of information of the game at the point it was saved, but you would need an almost extremely large file and almost extremely many of them-so it can be re-entered and communicated with, and not just light signals for viewing. To me, I don’t buy it.

1.Which of the following can be the best title?

    A. How to make time travel possible?

    B. Why am I fascinated by time travel?

    C. Why do I think time travel is not possible?

    D. How to explain the possibility of time travel?

2.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “illusion”?

    A. success          B. dream                C. switch               D. support

3. According to the author, which of the following is RIGHT?

    A. We can go back to the past by time travel.

    B. People can travel to the future by moving in space.

C. “The Time Machine” is nothing more than a science fiction.

    D. Everything that happened, is happening and will happen can be stored somewhere.

4.In the author’s opinion, time travel might be possible if                            .

    A. people could combine romance with reasoning

    B. people could stop the movement of the whole universe

C. people could use time machine under the instruction of H.G. Wells

    D. people could “save” everything in the past, present and future in a certain space

 

Despite rising education levels, Americans of every age are reading less and less for pleasure these days, according to an analysis by the National Endowment for the Arts. The decline(下降) could have bad effects as people tune out books, tune in popular culture and become less socially engaged.

"We've got a public culture which is almost entirely commercial(商业化)and novelty - driven (追新)," says NEA chairman Dana Gioia. "I think it's letting the nation down."

The study gathers years of data on Americans' reading habits and finds that, at every age group, we're reading less.

Most of the data have appeared in private, government and university surveys, but today's report is the first to combine them into a single portrait. It suggests that the demands of school, work and family and the decisive advantage of other forms of entertainment have caused the decline in reading for millions of Americans.

·Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure.

·65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.

·30% of 13 - year - olds in 2004 said they read for fun "almost every day," down from 35% in 1984.

According to Gioia, a poet, they decline is probably the single most important social issue in the United States today. The findings should be a wake - up call to educators to change the way they teach literature at every level. It was once believed that if someone went to college, they would become a lifelong reader. What we're seeing right now is that we're no longer producing readers. We're producing B. A. s and M. A. s and Ph. D. s.

Cioia also wants main media to wake up to how they can promote good books in many ways. He notes that when a character in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral recited a few lines of W. H. Auden's poem Funeral Blues, the poet briefly became a best seller.

65.The underlined phrase "tune out" in the first paragraph probably means________.

A.close    B.publish C.prove   D.read

66.According to Dana Gioia, the change of Americans' reading habit________.

A.is positive and valuable      B.does harm to the nation

C.is caused only by popular culture      D.can make poets best sellers

67.Which of the following is NOT the cause for the change in reading habit?

A.Demands of getting a B. A., M. A. or Ph. D.

B.Demands of family, school and work.

C.The change in the way the literature is taught.

D.Advantages of the entertainment.

68.We can infer that the number of teenagers reading for pleasure reduced by________in 20 years.

A.30%    B.38%    C.65%    D.5%

 

 

China is going green.In order to reduce air pollution and oil shortages, carmakers have announced their plans to develop hybrid vehicles (混合燃料汽车) for the Chinese market.Toyota’s hybrid car Prius will be ready to drive in China this week.Let’s have a look at the new car.

Any vehicle is a hybrid run on a rechargeable battery and gas.Hybrid cars have special engines, which are smaller than traditional gas engines.The gasoline engine provides 99 percent of the power when the car is going at a steady speed. A specially designed battery motor provides extra power for running up hills or when it needs to speed up.

Step into a Prius, and turn on the engine.The first thing you notice is that it is quieter than a traditional car.At this point, the car’s gas engine is at rest.The electric motor will provide power until the car reaches about 24km/h.If you stay at a low speed, you are effectively driving an electric car, with no gas being used, and no waste gas given off.

The computer decides when to use the gas engine, when to go electric, and when to use a combination of the two.If you go over 24km/h, when you step on the gas pedal (油门), you are telling the computer how fast you want to go.

The electric motor recharges automatically using a set of batteries.And when driving at a high speed, the gas engine not only powers the car but also recharges the batteries.When you use the brake, the electric motor in the wheels will work like a generator (发电机) to produce electricity to recharge the batteries.As a result, the car’s batteries will last for around 200,000 miles.

66.The underlined sentence probably means ________.

A.there will be more and more green land in China  

B.China’s new cars are combinations of different green models

C.China is still young and lacking in experience

D.the environment is getting better in China

67. What is the most important feature of hybrid cars?

A. They are powered by both a rechargeable battery and gas.

B. They have smaller engines than traditional gas ones.

C. They only use 99 percent of their power to run up hill.

D. They are much quieter than traditional cars.

68. We can know from the story that ________.

A. the gas engine recharges the batteries as well as powering the car

B. using the brake suggests that the gas engine should work

C. the car’s batteries will last for around 200,000 miles without being recharged

D. the batteries can be recharged at any time you want

69. The author writes the passage mainly to________.

A. announce plans to develop hybrid vehicles for the Chinese market

B. let people know how to save their gas when driving a car

C. teach people how to drive a hybrid car

D. introduce a new kind of “green” car

70.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?

A.The hybrid car is environmentally friendly.

B.The hybrid car is unable to get itself recharged.

C.The hybrid car has been made in mass.

D.The hybrid car can decide what power to use

 

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