【题目】A ground-based system that uses much stronger signals than GPS can find your location in cities and indoors. It is a new positioning system that could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your directions again.

Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to launch a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as outdoors, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cell phone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

This is one of the most important technology developments for the future of the positioning industry, says Nunzio Gambale, CEO and co-founder of the firm Locata, based in Griffith, Australia.

As for the Locatas accuracy, Christopher Morin of the US Air Force tested it recently at White Sands, and it worked to within 18 centimeters along any axis(轴). Morin says it should be possible to get the resolution down to 5 centimeters.

Admittedly, the tests were performed in an open desert where GPS also works beautifully, but its signals are weak like a car headlight from 20,000 kilometers away and easily blocked by solid objects. Locatas signal is far stronger, though not guaranteed to work in a complex urban environment, says David Last, consultant to the UKs General Lighthouse Authorities.

Locatas technology will face competition in the race to transform indoor navigation. But it could shine in specific areas,” Gambale says. Robots with Locata could easily navigate inside buildings without the complex optical systems they need at the moment. And process that handle precise location data could not only guide you around a mall, railway station or airport, but also take you to the exact shelf in a shop for the product you want. The units small and cheap enough for smart phones should be available within five years a similar path to the one GPS took on its way towards world domination.

1The passage is written mainly to .

A. encourage people to buy the Locata

B. tell us the disadvantage of the GPS

C. introduce a new positioning system Locata

D. tell us that Locata will replace GPS one day

2Which of the following is not true about Locata according to Paragraph 2?

A. Without the help of the satellites, Locata can tell you where you are.

B. The US military has to test it before using it.

C. Locata has a better signal than GPS.

D. Locata can be fixed into smart phones only.

3Which of the following words can be used to replace the underlined word in Paragraph 4?

A. accuracy B. speed

C. determination D. length

4According to the passage, what can we know about Gambale?

A. He did the experiment at White Sands.

B. He is confident in Locata and think highly of it.

C. He said that Locata could not work in a complex urban environment.

D. He is worried about the competition that Locata faces.

【题目】Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.

“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely through, though. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?

Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.

The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流)of biofuel(生物燃料)available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.

Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?

Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.

There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices, at the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.

1What does the author think of biofuels?

A. They keep America’s economy running healthily.

B. They prove to be a good alternative to petroleum.

C. They do not provide a sustainable energy supply.

D. They cause serious damage to the environment.

2Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?

A. It wants to expand its storage of crude oil.

B. Its own oil reserves are quickly running out.

C. It wants to keep its own environment intact.

D. Its own oil production falls short of demand.

3What does the author say about oil trade?

A. It proves profitable to both sides.

B. It improves economic efficiency.

C. It makes for economic prosperity.

D. It saves the cost of oil exploration.

【题目】Next year marks the 150th anniversary of when large numbers of Chinese started working on a huge project in the United States. They help to build America’s first transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869, connecting the East Coast with the West.

People know little about the Chinese railroad workers and what happened to them after the project was finished. Stanford University in California wants to learn more about the lives of these men by reaching out to their families.

Bill Yees ancestors came from southern China. He said, My great-great-grandfather came to America during thegold rushdays and he returned to China as a wealthy man. And then my great-grandfather came to work on the railroad and died there.

But that did not stop his grandfather from coming to the US on false papers. He operated a laundry. Bill Yees father continued to run the business and has never returned to China.

Things were pretty bad in some parts of China in the 1860s. They came to America at all costs in order that they no longer had to bear hunger, Bill Yee said.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin is helping to direct the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University. She said, Many of the Chinese workers who came to work on the transcontinental and other railroads returned to China after their work was done and created families there. Some of them settled in America and created new families, but they had families who they left when they came here and they may have descendants in China.

There is a need to create a record of the object and spoken history from the families of the railroad workers.

The US could not have become the modern industrial nation without the railroads. And the railroads would not have come together without the work of these Chinese workers,” said Shelley Fisher Fishkin.

1What do you know about Bill Yee?

A. His family was rich in the 1860s.

B. His father settled in the USA.

C. He knows little about his ancestors and hopes to know more.

D. His grandfather came to America with his great-grandfather.

2According to Bill Yee, many Chinese went to America in the 1860s mainly .

A. to run their own businesses

B. to find their ancestors

C. to make a living

D. to dig gold

3According to Shelley Fisher Fishkin, .

A. the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers all live a good life

B. they expect to find all the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers

C. some Chinese railroad workers hope they can find their descendants in China

D. some Chinese railroad workers have descendants both in China and the US

4Why did Stanford University carry out the project?

A. Because they want to help the Chinese railroad workers descendants to get together.

B. Because they want to show the importance of America’s first transcontinental railroad.

C. Because they want to learn more about how to build a railroad in the past in America.

D. Because they want Americans to remember the Chinese railroad workers role in US history.

 0  144561  144569  144575  144579  144585  144587  144591  144597  144599  144605  144611  144615  144617  144621  144627  144629  144635  144639  144641  144645  144647  144651  144653  144655  144656  144657  144659  144660  144661  144663  144665  144669  144671  144675  144677  144681  144687  144689  144695  144699  144701  144705  144711  144717  144719  144725  144729  144731  144737  144741  144747  144755  151629 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网