The winds had finally died down,and the rains stopped.Paige and her parents were inside their house,sitting in the living room,which was dark except for a single candlelight.
“Let’s find out what’s going on outside,”Paige’s mom suggested as she turned on the small radio.
“…has moved out of the area,”an announcer’s voice boomed. “Winds reaching nearly 100 miles an hour passed through our town this morning. But,the worst is over,and it is safe to go outside.In fact,the sun is now peeking out from behind the…”
Suddenly,the radio went dead.The house was quiet again.
“Well,”Paige’s dad said, “at least we heard some good news,even if it was cut short.Let’s look out of the window and survey the damage.”
Paige ran to the window and looked outside.She saw tree branches lie on the lawn.The mailbox was broken,and some of the address letters and numbers on the mailbox were missing.
“The wind must have ripped(擦)them off,” Paige’s father noted.As he read the remaining letters he began to laugh.
The mailbox dispalyed “_ _RAIN.”
“It says “rain”,”Paige said. “That’s appropriate for a day like today!”
【小题1】The weather event that took place that day in the story was        .

A.an earthquakeB.a hurricaneC.a floodD.a fire
【小题2】The living room was dark because           .
A.there were no lampsB.someone forgot to pay the electric bill
C.the electricity had been cut offD.the wind blew out the candle
【小题3】After the storm had passed,Paige’s family felt           .
A.worriedB.disappointedC.relievedD.scared
【小题4】The family’s last name could have been          .
A.GermainB.CrainC.SyrainD.Rain

任务型阅读 (共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分)
请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意:每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
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.

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Why do some people have many friends while others do not?   【小题1】  However, it is not so. Let’s look at two psychological experiments which will give you the key to happy interpersonal relations.
The first experiment is called the “Hawthorne effect” after Hawthorne, Illinois, where the experiment took place. A group of psychologists examined the work patterns of two groups of workers in the Western Electric Company.   【小题2】  The psychologists changed the working conditions for one group twice but left the other group alone. They were surprised to find that productivity increased on both occasions and in both groups. They concluded that the increase in productivity came from the attention given to the workers by the management. It had increased their motivation and so they had worked harder. In other words, if you take an interest in others, they will want to please you and you will have good relations with them.
 【小题3】  After Martin Luther King, Jr was killed in 1960s, a teacher, Jane Elliott, living in an all-white town decided to help her class of young children understand why the Civil Rights Movement had been necessary in America.
She divided the class into two groups: one with blue eyes and other with brown eyes. Other eye colors such as hazel or green were excluded from his exercise. Then she told the class that brown-eyed people were cleverer than blue-eyed ones because of an agent for brown color found in their blood. Blue-eyed people were stupid, lazy and not to be trusted. Jane Elliott did not need to say any more. The brown-eyed students quickly got used to their new role as the leaders of the class. The blue-eyed students became quiet and withdrawn. Then she discovered something very interesting. Four poor brown-eyed readers began to read fluently in a way they had never done before.  【小题4】  So if you want to be successful and happy, take an interest in others whether they are your classmates or workmates. Congratulate them on their success and sympathize with them in their troubles. 【小题5】 

A.Before the experiment the management talked to both groups of workers and explained that they wanted to find the best working environment for them.
B.Remember that the way you treat others will decide their attitude and behavior to you.
C.The second experiment shows what happens to personal relations if you are rude to or ignore others.
D.The ones who have more friends usually are those who care about others.
E. Jane Elliott had shown that the way people are treated affects not only their behavior but also their confidence and their performance.
F. You may even imagine that this ability was something they were born with because it seems so effortless to them.
G. The second experiment tells us what teachers said had a great effect on the students.

What do butterfly wings have to do with computer screens? What do birds have to do with high speed trains?

These may sound like strange things to put together. But scientists, inventors, and designers are doing just that. They are learning from nature to create new technology.

The word biomimicry (仿生学) combines two words: biology and mimicry. So people using biomimicry try to use examples in nature to design new technology.

Biomimicry is not a new idea. People have been studying nature for hundreds of years. Leonardo DaVinci used birds as models to invent his flying machine. And when the Wright Brothers made the first successful airplane, they also studied birds. In 998, Janine Benyus, a natural science writer and teacher, wrote a book about biomimicry. To develop her interest in the subject, Janine Benyus started the Biomimicry Institute.

The Biomimicry Institute is a non-profit organization. It brings together scientists, designers, inventors and many other people. It offers classes to teach people biomimicry. It provides money for people to research and test new technologies. And it wants all people, from children to adults, to think about new ways to learn from nature.

People involved with the Biomimicry Institute believe that biomimicry can help solve many of the world’s problems. Often, new technologies can harm nature, but this is not true for biomimicry. Let’s look at some examples.

Butterflies have colorful wings because light shines off them in a special way. Scientists want to copy these same ways to make light shine off computers. They hope this will make for more colorful screens.

Another example of biomimicry is the bullet train. It travels at speeds of over 250 kilometers per hour! But it had a problem: it made too much noise!

Through the observation of birds, scientists thought about a kind of bird, the kingfisher(翠鸟). The kingfisher can dive into water without making any noise because of the shape of its beak(喙). Researchers thought that if they could design the front of the train like this beak, the train would be quieter. Well, it worked!

1.The first paragraph is written to_____.

A.start a discussion                        B.make a brief summary

C.introduce the topic of the text              D.test readers' knowledge on science

2.Why did Janine Benyus set up the Biomimicry Institute?

A.To honor the Wright Brothers.

B.To show her recent inventions.

C.To gather talented people for her research.

D.To explore the link between nature and technologies.

3.We know from the text that the Biomimicry Institute _____.

A.earns a lot by giving classes on biomimicry    B.tells people about their technologies

C.gives free support to scientists             D.teaches children about birds

4.The author gives the two examples at the end of the text to show _______.

A.biomimcry works harmoniously with nature   B.the fast development of modern technology

C.how biomimcry changes our life            D.how nature inspires scientists

5.What’s the main idea of the text?

A.Biomimicry is widely used in the world.

B.People copy nature to create new technologies.

C.The Biomimicry Institute was set up for science.

D.Birds play an important part in new technologies.

 

In the future your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!

   For each prediction that has come true today, several others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn’t consider how people would want to use the technology, or if people really needed it in their lives or not. Let’s look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.

    Robot Helpers

   Where’s the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he’s probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other manufacturing environments.

   Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people’s homes.

   So why hasn’t it happened?  Probably because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And maybe the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.

    Telephones of Tomorrow

   In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn’t caught on yet.

   Why? The technology worked fine, but it over—looked something obvious: people’s desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just step out of the shower?  Probably not---it could be embarrassing! Just because a technology available doesn’t always mean people will want to use it.

   And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It’s not so crazy anymore! But a flying car remains one of the most fascinating technology ideas to capture our imagination. Keep watching the news, or perhaps the sky outside your window, to see what the future will bring.

1. The whole passage is mainly about ________________.

   A. predictions that have come true.      B. predictions that haven’t come true.

   C. why predictions don’t come true easily. D. what technology will bring about.

2.The author of this passage won’t believe that _________________.

   A. predictions needn’t consider people’s practical use of technology.

   B. the future isn’t always easy to guess.  

   C. not all past predictions have come true.

   D. many of the high—tech things our parents thought we’d be using by now

   simply never appeared.

3.The underlined word “weird” probably means __________.

   A. wonderful   B. stupid    C. practical    D. strange

4. What does the author think of the flying car?

   A. It is too difficult to imagine.   B. It is too crazy an idea.

   C. It is likely to be made.        D. It is often reported in the news.

 

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