A dam is a man-made structure built across a river. Most dams are built to control a river’s water flow, improve navigation and control flooding. However, some dams are built to produce hydro-electric power.

Hydro-electric power is produced as water passes through a dam, and into a river below. The more water that passes through a dam, the more energy is produced. Once a dam is built, a man-made lake is created behind the dam.

Electricity is produced by a kind of equipment called a turbine(水轮机). Turbines contain metal coils(线圈) surrounded by magnets(磁铁). When the magnets move round rapidly over the metal coils, electricity is produced. Turbines are located inside dams. The falling water makes the magnets go around the coils.

Dams provide clean energy, but they can also harm the environment. Species that use rivers to reproduce are often hurt by dams. In the Northwest of the US, the population of fishes has dropped from 16 million to 2.5 million since hydro-electric plants were built on the Columbia River. Dams all over the world have hurt some species. 

  The highest dam in the Unites States is located near Oroville, California. The Oroville Dam towers 230 meters and is more than a mile wide. This dam was built in 1968, 22 years after the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam, on the Nevada-Arizona border controls the Colorado river. It is 221 meters high and has 2.6 million hectare-meters of water.

The highest dam in the world is the Nurek Dam on the Vakhsh River in Tadzikistan, a country in central Asia. This dam is 300 meters tall. 

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?              

A. Some dams are built for controlling a river’s water flow.

B. Hydro-electric power is usually produced through a dam.

C. Dams can offer energy and they are harmless to the environment.

D. Generally speaking, where there is a dam, there is a man-made lake.

The third paragraph mainly tells us _____.                          

  A. how hydro-electric power is produced

  B. What a turbine is and how it works 

  C. how the magnets and the metal coils work

  D. how the falling water passes through a turbine                     

The dam which controls the Colorado river is ____.                  

A. the Oroville Dam  B. the Hoover Dam  C. the Nurek Dam  D. the Vakhsh Dam

A dam is a man-made structure built across a river. Most dams are built to control a river’s water flow, improve navigation and control flooding. However, some dams are built to produce hydro-electric power.

Hydro-electric power is produced as water passes through a dam, and into a river below. The more water that passes through a dam, the more energy is produced. Once a dam is built, a man-made lake is created behind the dam.

Electricity is produced by a kind of equipment called a turbine(水轮机). Turbines contain metal coils(线圈) surrounded by magnets(磁铁). When the magnets move round rapidly over the metal coils, electricity is produced. Turbines are located inside dams. The falling water makes the magnets go around the coils.

Dams provide clean energy, but they can also harm the environment. Species that use rivers to reproduce are often hurt by dams. In the Northwest of the US, the population of fishes has dropped from 16 million to 2.5 million since hydro-electric plants were built on the Columbia River. Dams all over the world have hurt some species. 

  The highest dam in the Unites States is located near Oroville, California. The Oroville Dam towers 230 meters and is more than a mile wide. This dam was built in 1968, 22 years after the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam, on the Nevada-Arizona border controls the Colorado river. It is 221 meters high and has 2.6 million hectare-meters of water.

The highest dam in the world is the Nurek Dam on the Vakhsh River in Tadzikistan, a country in central Asia. This dam is 300 meters tall. 

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?              

A. Some dams are built for controlling a river’s water flow.

B. Hydro-electric power is usually produced through a dam.

C. Dams can offer energy and they are harmless to the environment.

D. Generally speaking, where there is a dam, there is a man-made lake.

The third paragraph mainly tells us _____.       56-60 ADB                    

  A. how hydro-electric power is produced

  B. What a turbine is and how it works 

  C. how the magnets and the metal coils work

  D. how the falling water passes through a turbine                     

The dam which controls the Colorado river is ____.                  

A. the Oroville Dam  B. the Hoover Dam  C. the Nurek Dam  D. the Vakhsh Dam

Even Intelligent People Can Fail

_________

The unusual things about the innovators (创新者) who succeeded in making our modern world is how often they failed. Turn on a light, take a photograph, watch TV, search the web, jet across the Pacific Ocean, talk on a cell-phone. The innovators who left us these things had to find the way to success through a maze (错综复杂) of wrong turns.

_________

We have just celebrated the 125th anniversary of American innovator Thomas Edison’s success in heating a thin line to white, hot heat for 14 hours in his lab in New Jersey, US. He did that on October 22, 1879, and followed up a month later by keeping a thread of common cardboard alight (点亮着的) in an airless space for 45 hours. Three years later he went on to light up half a square mile of downtown Manhattan, even though only one of the six power plants in his design worked when he turned it on, on September 4, 1882.

________

“Many of life’s failures,” Edison said, “are because that people did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Before that magical moment in October 1879, Edison had worked out no fewer than 3,000 theories about electric light. But in only two cases did his experiments work.

________

No one likes failure, but the smart innovators learn from it. Mark Gumz, the head of a camera maker, attributes some of the company’s successes in technology to understanding failure. His popular phrase is：“You only fail when you quit.”

_________

Over two centuries, the most common quality of the innovators has been persistence (坚忍不拔). That is another way of saying they had the emotional ability to keep on with what they were doing. Walt Disney, the founder of Disneyland, was so penniless after a series of financial failures that he was left shoeless in his office because he could not afford the $1.50 to get his shoes from the repair shop. Pioneering car maker Henry Ford failed with one company and was forced out of another before he developed the Model T Car.

A husband-and-wife team from California reached the Pacific Ocean after a 4,900- mile-cross
-country walk, becoming the first to backpack the American Discovery Trail in one continuous
walk. 
Marcia and Ken powers, of Pleasanton, started the travel across 13 states, through 14 national parks and 16 national forests on Feb. 27 from Cape Henlopen in Delaware. Nearly eight months later, the excited couple walked through water into the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, a day ahead of time. 
“We are a little sad that a great adventure is over. It was a fantastic adventure. And now we go home and just do housework. It's really sad.” Marcia, who said she's in her 50s, and her 60-year-old husband traversed cities, desert, mountains and farmland before reaching the Pacifics alone with arms around each other' s backpacks.
They overcame deep snow in the East, a quicksand in Utah, close lightning strikes in the Mid- west and strong desert sandstorms in the West while averaging 22 miles a day and taking only four days off. But they enjoyed the French history of St. Louis' the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and the kindness of strangers they met along the way. They particularly remember two brothers ---- a
doctor and dentist-------who put them up in their homes, after terrible days, and a motorcyclist who gave them water after they failed to find any on Utah's lonely Wah Wah Desert.
“Americans are truly warm-hearted and wonderful people.” Marcia Powers said. “We got to meet people that we would never meet in our daily living at home. We got to touch it with our feet and hands and smell all its scents and hear its wildlife. It' s an amazing country,” she added.
【小题1】Which of the following about couple's walk is TRUE?

A newly-wed couple on a four-month honeymoon were hit by six natural disasters, including the Australian floods, Christchurch earthquake and Japanese tsunami.
Stefan and Erika Svanstrom left Stockholm, Sweden, on December 6 and were immediately stranded in Munich, Germany, due to one of Europe's worst snowstorms. Travelling with their baby daughter, they flew on to Cairns in Australia which was then struck by one of the most tremendous tonadoes in the nation's history. From there, the couple, in their 20s, were forced to shelter for 24 hours on the cement floor of a shopping centre with 2,500 others. "Trees were being knocked over and big branches were scattered across the streets," Mr Svanstrom told Sweden's Express newspaper. "We escaped by the skin of our teeth," said Svanstrom.
They then headed south to Brisbane but the city was experiencing massive flooding, so they crossed the country to Perth where they narrowly escaped raging bush fires. The couple then flew to Christchurch, New Zealand, arriving just after a massive magnitude 6.3 earthquake destroyed the city on February 22. Mrs. Svanstrom said, "When we got there the whole town was a war zone." "We could not visit the city since it was completely blocked off, so instead we travelled around before going to Japan." But days after the Svanstroms arrived, Tokyo was rocked by Japan's largest earthquake since records began. "The trembling was horrible and we saw roof tiles fly off the buildings," Mr. Svantrom said. "It was like the buildings were swaying back and forth."
The family returned to Stockholm on March 29,2011 after a much calmer visit to their last destination China. But Mr. Svanstrom, who also survived the destructive Boxing Day tsunami that hit southeast Asia in 2004, said the marriage was still going strong. He added, "I know marriages have to endure some trials, but I think we have been through most of them." "We've certainly experienced more than our fair share of catastrophes, but the most important thing is that we're together and happy." Mrs. Svantrom added: “ To say we were unlucky with the weather doesn’t really cover it! It’s so absurd that now we can only laugh.”
【小题1】How many countries did the couple visit during their honeymoon?