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　　Stephen Hawking, the disabled author of A Brief History of Time is launching his second journey to China in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province. His first visit was over 10 years ago.

　　The great theoretical scientist has been invited to attend a state-of-the-art mathematics research institute at Zhejing University, Hangzhou-based Dushi Kuaibao reported.

　　On Sunday evening, he made his début at a press conference held at Shangri-La hotel, Hangzhou. Hawking appeared at about 5:00 p.m. with his wife.

　　The 50-year-old man answered a total of nine questions with the help of his computer.

　　“Experts in theoretical science are dispersed around the world, but we need communication. I am very glad that the world’s first-class conference is being held in China this time,”he said.

　　“I find the real universe much more interesting than the one in the film Star Wars ,” Hawking joked.“I encourage young people to study theoretical physics first if they are interested in it.”

　　Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied (隐含) space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great scientific development of the first half of the 20th century.

　　One consequence(结果) of such a unification theory would be that black holes would not be completely black, but emit (放射) radiation and eventually evaporate (蒸发) and disappear. Another conjecture (推 测) is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.

　　But the talented man who has produced such rich work suffers serious Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) (肌萎缩性脊髓索硬化). He is one of the 350,000 sufferers in the world. The disease kills over 100,000 people every year.

　　“I like life and I love life, my family and music give me the greatest happiness,”smiled Hawking, who can only move three fingers.

　　In the coming year, Hawking said he is scheduled to write a new edition of A Brief History of Time for young children.

　　“A Brief History of Time is my first book for common people. But I later found that I could write it in a more simple way,”he answered,“So I decided to rewrite it so that all people can read it easily.”

1．It is obvious that Hawking ________.

[　　]

A．comes to China for the first time

B．has never been to China before

C．has been to China twice

D．hopes to come to visit China one day

2．What do the underlined words“are dispersed”in the fifth paragraph mean?

[　　]

A．Live together.

B．Live far away from.

C．Know each other better.

D．Have connection with each other.

3．From the passage we know the nature of Hawking’s being ________.

[　　]

A．determined and humorous

B．learned and humorous

C．learned and shy

D．disabled

4．It can be inferred that Hawking ________.

[　　]

A．greatly improved Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

B．knows a lot about Einstein’s theory

C．has A Brief History of Time published recently

D．loves nothing but his study on universe

“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.
But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity from the Eastman Kodak Company.
In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.
And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that familes cherish.  Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny. Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.
The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.
That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company.
Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.
History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.
But history will never forget Kodak.
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?

“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.

But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.

Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity from the Eastman Kodak Company.

In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.

And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that familes cherish.  Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny. Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.

The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.

That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company.

Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.

History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.

But history will never forget Kodak.

1.According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?

2.It can be learnt from the passage that George Eastman         .

3.Before George Eastman brought photography to people,             .

4.The person releasing the shutter (Paragraph 5) was the one        .

5.What is the writer’s attitude towards the Eastman Kodak Company?

6.Which do you think is the best title for the passage?

“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.
But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.
Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity from the Eastman Kodak Company.
In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.
And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that familes cherish.  Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny. Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.
The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.
That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company.
Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.
History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.
But history will never forget Kodak

1. 1.

   According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?

   1. A.
      The invention of easy digital photography
   2. B.
      The poor management of the company
   3. C.
      The early death of George Eastman
   4. D.
      The quick rise of its business competitors
2. 2.

   It can be learnt from the passage that George Eastman         

   1. A.
      died a natural death of old age
   2. B.
      happened to be on the spot when President Kennedy was shot dead
   3. C.
      set up his company in the capital of the US before setting up its branches all over the world
   4. D.
      was not only interested in commercial profits, but also in the improvement of other people’s lives
3. 3.

   Before George Eastman brought photography to people,             

   1. A.
      no photos has ever been taken of people or events
   2. B.
      photos were very expensive and mostly taken indoors
   3. C.
      painting was the only way for people to keep a record of their ancestors
   4. D.
      grandparents never knew what their grandchildren looked like
4. 4.

   The person releasing the shutter (Paragraph 5) was the one        

   1. A.
      who took the photograph
   2. B.
      who wanted to have a photo taken
   3. C.
      whose decisions shaped the Eastman Kodak Company
   4. D.
      whose smiles could long be seen by their children
5. 5.

   What is the writer’s attitude towards the Eastman Kodak Company?

   1. A.
      Disapproving
   2. B.
      Respectful
   3. C.
      Regretful
   4. D.
      Critical
6. 6.

   Which do you think is the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      Great Contributions of Kodak
   2. B.
      Unforgettable moments of Kodak
   3. C.
      Kodak Is Dead
   4. D.
      History of Eastman Kodak Company