You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the back of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can resist massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What does the author say about the black box?

He told me about the       news in a       voice.

选编（十六）

Dorothy Brown was very happy as she sat in the theatre listening to the music. Today her little daughter Lauren was giving her ___1___ concert. She had been waiting for this ___2___ for years and years. “Now it is here at last,” she thought. “How beautiful her ___3___ is.”

The song made her ___4___ to the days when she was Lauren’s ___5___. As a young ___6___, Dorothy wanted to be a concert singer. She studied ___7___ in France, Italy and in the United States. “You can become a fine ___8___ in the future,” her teachers told her. “But you must be ___9___ to study hard and work for many years. There will be ___10___ time for anything but music in your life.”

Dorothy was ___11___ at that time and she was ___12___ that music was all she wanted or needed to ___13___ her life. For almost a year Dorothy ___14___ of nothing else. Then she ___15___ David, a young engineer travelling Europe. They soon fell in ___16___. David asked her to be his ___17___. Dorothy also wanted to marry David. But she loved ___18___, too. She didn’t know what to do. David was against her being a singer. He said, “If you want to be a singer, you must forget about getting married. You can’t ___19___ do both.” Thus her days were gone and would never return.

Now Lauren became a singer instead of her, which was her ___20___.

1. A. sorry              B. successful           C. first         D. wonderful

2. A. dance              B. moment             C. show          D. party

3. A. voice              B. face                  C. dress          D. life

4. A. think of                  B. bring back           C. go back         D. come back

5. A. age                    B. friend               C. mother                D. teacher

6. A. musician                 B. pop star               C. lady                  D. girl

7. A. French            B. music                C. piano            D. dance

8. A. actress              B. student               C. singer         D. dancer

9. A. prepared           B. learning             C. driven         D. waiting

10. A. some              B. any                    C. no            D. enough

11. A. eight              B. eighteen              C. eighty         D. eighty-eight

12. A. lucky             B. sure                  C. afraid        D. fond

13. A. fill                     B. live                   C. lead          D. take

14. A. heard               B. knew                C. talked          D. thought

15. A. saw off           B. learned from       C. heard of      D. met with

16. A. love              B. feeling               C. music        D. touch

17. A. assistant         B. teacher               C. wife          D. student

18. A. him              B. engineering         C. herself       D. music

19. A. certainly          B. possibly              C. only          D. mainly

20. A. thought         B. hope                C. purpose      D. will

  On Christmas morning, I went to the Cockhedge Mall. People there were all busy buying their last minute requirements. I needed to buy a birthday card for my son-in-law whose birthday is the 29th of December. Picking up a few more things as well as my cared I went to join the line for the express checkout which was for people who only had a few items in a basket and not a trolley load. This line was next to the Customer Service desk.

Seemingly waiting quite a long time, I was jogged out of my thoughts by a voice behind me making comments on the things I bought.

It was so funny when I realized that she was describing the contents of my basket. The owner of the voice was a very pretty young lady. I said to her that I was going to buy a box of Christmas cookies but the only ones left were not to my liking. The lady told me that just opposite Cockhedge in Superdrug they had lots of cookies. I said, “I’m not going to bother now. I had enough of shops and I’m going home.”

The assistant from the Customer Service came across at this time saying “If there is anyone in the line with a few items in their basket, none of which needed to be weighed, I will check out their groceries at the desk.” Because I had the sprouts which needed to be weighted, the young lady accepted the offer and walked away waving goodbye.

Eventually my turn came at the checkout. I was walking away when I met my new friend once again who handed me a beautiful box of Christmas cookies. With a big hug she said “Hope you have a lovely Christmas.” She had been into Superdrug to buy me the cookies while I was still queuing in Cockhedge.

What a generosity to a stranger! I was so surprised you could have knocked me down with a feather. My Good Samaritan would never know what a joyful Christmas day I had with my family. Telling them this story, as we ate around the table, kept everyone spellbound.

1.The underlined word “spellbound” in the last paragraph probably means          .

    A．interested       B．disappointed     C．astonished       D．frightened

2.Which of the following could be the best title of the story?

    A．A Piece of Lucky Feather             B．A Surprise Christmas Gift

    C．The Boring Shopping Experience       D．The Unforgettable Big Hug

3.How does the writer feel about the pretty young lady?

    A．Worried.         B．Satisfied.       C．Grateful         D．Proud.

4.What can we learn from the story?

    A．Nobody is sure what will happen the next moment.

    B．A simple action can bring other people happiness.

    C．Being patient will decrease the waiting time.

    D．Life without hope and faith is a full thing.