题目内容
We’re trying to ring you back, Bryan, but we think we _____ your number incorrectly.
A.looked up |
B.worked out |
C.took down |
D.brought about |
C
【解析】略
At the beginning of the 20th century there were more than a million lions worldwide. Today there are less than 30,000 in the wild. The remaining lions are increasingly threatened by habitat loss, hunting and activities to protect farms and cattle.
For generations, Masai tribesmen on the large African plains in southeastern Kenya have hunted lions — to protect their farms and cattle. Today they celebrate the lions’ life.
Noah is an elder in the Masai community. “We have decided as a community of the Masai to lay down our spears, and there will be no more killing of lions in our community.” He is part of a group of Masai visiting the United States promoting (推广) the Predator Compensation Program.
Conservation International’s Frank Hawkins explains, “The Masai have been living with wildlife for many generations and it has been a conflicting ( 有冲突的) relationship in many ways. They compete with the animals for food as lions eat their cattle. We’re trying to find ways in which the wildlife will become something useful to them.” They had the Predator Compensation Fund founded in 2003. After much discussion, a group of Masai farmers agreed to protect lions. In turn, if lions or other predators kill their cattle, the Masai owner will be paid market value for the dead animals from the fund.
One man said that in the past, when a lion killed cattle, they killed it immediately. And now, after the start of the program, the Masai see the lion population growing. Since 2003, only four lions have been killed here.
【小题1】What is the aim of the Predator Compensation Program?
A.To protect people in the wild. | B.To protect Masai’s farms. |
C.To protect lions only. | D.To protect the wildlife. |
A.Because lions don’t eat their cattle any more. |
B.Because they will be fined if they kill lions there. |
C.Because the fund will pay for dead animals killed by lions |
D.Because there are less than 30,000 lions in the wild now. |
A.Wise. | B.Mean. | C.Generous. | D.Stupid. |
As motorways become more and more blocked up with traffic, a new generation on flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways. That is the conclusion of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters traveling by “skycar”.
These could look much like the concept skycar shown in the picture, designed by Boeing research and development. However, such vehicles could be some 25 years from appearing on the market. Efforts to build flying vehicles in the past have not been very successful. Such vehicles would not only be expensive and require the skills of a trained pilot to fly, but there are significant engineering challenges involved in developing them. “When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that’s hard to use,” said Mark Moore, head of the personal air vehicle(PAV) division of the vehicle systems program at Nasa’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, US. But Boeing is also considering how to police the airways-and prevent total pandemonium(吵杂狂乱的喧闹)-if thousands of flying cars enter the skies.
“The neat, gee-whiz part is thinking about what the vehicle itself would look like,” said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing’s research and development arm. “But we’re trying to think through all the consequences of what it would take to deploy(散开) a fleet of these.”
Past proposals to solve this problem have included artificial intelligence systems to prevent collisions between air traffic. Nasa is working on flying vehicles with the initial goal of transforming small plane travel. Small planes are generally costly, loud, and require months of training and lots of money to operate, making flying to work impractical for most people. But within five years, Nasa researchers hope to develop technology for a small plane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000(£55,725), is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car.
Although it would not have any road-driving capabilities, it would bring this form of travel within the grasp of a wider section of people. The new technology would automate many of the pilot’s functions. This Small Aircraft Transportation System(Sats) would divert pressure away from the “hub-and-spoke(中心辐射型)” model of air travel. Hub-and-spoke refers to the typically US model of passengers being processed through large “hub” airports and then on to secondary flights to “spoke” airports near their final destinations.
1.The best title for this text would be .
A.Developing Skycars |
B.The Traffic Jams in the Sky |
C.How to Guide Flying Cars in the Sky |
D.What Flying Cars Will Look Like |
2. The underlined word “envision” in Paragraph 1 most probably means “ ”.
A.see |
B.expect |
C.think |
D.announce |
3.When engineers develop the skycars, they have to deal with the following difficulties except .
A.how to fly out of regional airports |
B.how to prevent the disorder of the airways |
C.how to reduce expenses and the vehicle’s weight |
D.how to fly the skycars to enter skies |
4. Now Nasa researchers’ aim is to .
A.make big flying cars |
B.work out the plan——how to transform small plane travel |
C.develop a new kind of small plane different from the traditional one |
D.build a new kind of small plane with road-driving abilities |