Modcm inventions have speeded up people's lives amazingly.Motor-cars cover a bundred miles in little more than an hour.Aireraft cross the world a day, while computers operate at lightning speed.Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending.Every ycar motor-cars are produced which go even faster each new computer boasts(吹嘘)of saving preeious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves timc, but at a prick.When we lose or gain half a day in speeding aeross the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so.We get the uncomfoerable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel tlru they have been left bebind in anot ar nine zoors Again pending too long at compulers resul's in painti ninrts and fingers.Mobile phones also to dange according to some seientists; too much uss may thesmit h bul radiation into our brains, a we do not like to think about.
Howave, what do we do with the time we have saved?Certainly not or so it seems.We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time.Pcrhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imavination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people's lives were devotcd simply to the cultivation of the land or the eare of eattle.No multi-tasking there; their lives wenl on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern.There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this.Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faeed;:they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone.Modem machinery has freed peope fre that primitive existcnee.
(1)
The new rooucts opcome more and more time-saving beeause.
[ ]
A.
our lose e u speed uts never-ending
B.
mo is liwhcd
C.
shi pnces are increasingly high
D.
the manufacturers boast a lot
(2)
What does“the days”in Paragraph 3 refer to?
[ ]
A.
I maginary life
B.
Simple life in the past
C.
Times of inventions
D.
Time for constant activity
(3)
What is the author's attitude towards the modem teehnology?
[ ]
A.
Critical
B.
Objective
C.
Optimistic
D.
Negative
(4)
What does the pa mge mainly diseuss?
[ ]
A.
The present and pad times
B.
Machin and human beings
C.
Imaginations and inventions
D.
Modem teehnology and its influenec
阅读理解
We have met the enemy and he i s our s.We bought him at a pet shop.When monkey-pox, a di sea se u sually found in the African rain fore st suddenly turn s up in children in the American Midwe st, it' s hard not to wonder of the di sea se that come s from foreign animal s i s homing in on human being s.“Mo st of the infection s we think of a s human infection s started in other animal s, ” say s Stephen Mor se, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedne s s at Columbia Univer sity.
It' s not ju st that we're going to where the animal s are; we're al so bringing them clo ser to u s.Popular foreign pet s have brought a whole new di sea se to thi s country.A strange illne s s killed I sak sen' s pet s and she now think s that keeping foreign pet s i s a bad idea, “I don't think it' s fair to have them a s pet s when we have such alimited knowledge of them.” say s I sak sen.
“Law s allowing the se animal s to be brought in from deep fore st area s without stricter control need changing.” say s Peter Schantz.Monkey-pox may be the wake-up call.Re searcher s believe infected animal s may infect their owner s.We know very little about the se new di sea se s.A new bug(病毒)may be kind at fir st.But it may develop into something harmful.Monkey-pox doe sn't look a major infectiou s di sea se.But it i s not impo s sible to pa s s the di sea se from per son to per son.
(1)
We learn from Paragraph 1 that the pet sold at the shop may ________.
[ ]
A.
come from Columbia
B.
prevent u s from being infected
C.
enjoy being with children
D.
suffer from monkey-pox
(2)
Why did I sak sen advi se people not to have foreign pet s?
[ ]
A.
Becau se they attack human being s.
B.
Becau se we need to study native animal s.
C.
Becau se they can't live out of the rain fore st.
D.
Becau se we do not know much about them yet.
(3)
What doe s the phra se “the wake-up call” in Paragraph 3 mo st probably mean?