Light for the City

Edison and his assistants came to New York to set up an electric power system. They hoped it would provide enough electricity to light up a part of the great city.

They bought several machines with them. These were called generators, which produced electricity power for lamps in Edison’s building.

Soon there were lights for the building. Edison lived in a room facing the street and he often worked over night. The light burned brightly and steadily and he often worked over night. People often came and stopped their horse-drawn carriage to look. Everyone knew that Thomas Edison was in town.

First, the inventor and his assistants produced several large generators. A great deal of power would be needed to light up even a small part of the city.

Then the workers were busy digging deep trenches(沟) in the hard earth below the city streets, and Edison had fourteen miles of wire laid into the trenches. The wire connected each building to a generator.

Setting up an electric power system was not an easy job. It took a year and a half. In September, 1882, the job was finished.

A small group of men stood around Edison inside the power house. The big moment came at last. The inventor, taking a deep breath, pulled a switch. The electric lights flashed up.

“Very good! Very good!” a man nearby shouted to praise Edison for what he had done.

“Sir,” said Edison, “this is only the beginning!” And Edison was right. Soon Edison’s lamp were lighting up cities all over the world.                

1.The generators they brought with them could produce as much as electricity as ______ needed.

2.At that time carriages ______ by horse could be seen in the street.

3.Trenches were dug to ______.

4.It took a year and a half to ______.

Although Thomas Edison created the technologies behind three major 21st century industries  electrical power，recorded music and movies—his greatest invention may have been the modern method of inventing．He basically came up with the modern system of research and development．Edison was not the only scientist doing research in his garage but someone who gathered around him a team of creative scientific minds．Edison’s 1aboratories were the forerunners（ 先驱）of Apple，Google and Microsoft．

Yet for a11 his scientific gifts，he was no Steve Jobs or Bill Gates．He once said，“Anything that won’ t sell，I don’ t want to invent．” But Edison，unlike Jobs or Gates，had no real sense of what the public wanted or how to change his discoveries into products that might sell．It took him years to understand that the phonograph（ 留声机）was not a business tool but an entertainment invention．He helped create movies but resisted the idea that people might want to go into a theater to watch one．

We chose Edison this year because we need his example now more than ever．Though we live in a time of great reformation，the U．S．is in danger of losing its advantage in science and technology．American investment（ 投资）in research and development has not increased as a percentage of GDP since the mid一1980s，while the government’ s share has been dropping．And this is at a time when China is rapidly increasing its money on research and development．The U．S．was once among the 1eading nations．Now it ranks near the bottom of the 23 nations that collect such data．We hope that Edison’ s story might not only encourage reformation but also inspire more

young Americans to study science and engineering．

1.The first paragraph is mainly about         .

    A．the number of Edison’ s great inventions

    B．Edison’ s special personal characters

    C．Edi son’ s modern system of research

    D．Apple．Google and Microsoft and their forerunners

2.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A．A11 the things Edison invented sold well．

    B．Edison wanted to invent things that sold well．

    C．Edison’ s inventions were not valuable for being unpopular．

    D．Edison had a gift for changing his discoveries into best sellers.

3.The author’ s main purpose is to    ．

      A．inform US of the danger the USA is in

      B．get young Americans to study science

      C．be in honor of Edison for his contributions

      D．tell US how important Edison’ s inventions are

4.We can infer from the text that    ．

    A．the USA is no 10nger advanced in science and technology

    B．the USA falls behind China in research and inventions

    C．more and more young Americans will be interested in science

D．China is spending more and more money on research and development

Light for the City

Edison and his assistants came to New York to set up an electric power system. They hoped it would provide enough electricity to light up a part of the great city.

They bought several machines with them. These were called generators(发电机), which produced electricity power for lamps in Edison’s building.

Soon there were lights for the building. Edison lived in a room facing the street and he often worked over night. The light burned brightly and steadily and he often worked over night. People often came and stopped their horse-drawn carriage to look. Everyone knew that Thomas Edison was in town.

First, the inventor and his assistants produced several large generators. A great deal of power would be needed to light up even a small part of the city. Then the workers were busy digging deep trenches in the hard earth below the city streets, and Edison had fourteen miles of wire laid into the trenches. The wire connected each building to a generator.

Setting up an electric power system was not an easy job. It took a year and a half. In September, 1882, the job was finished.

A small group of men stood around Edison inside the power house. The big moment came at last. The inventor, taking a deep breath, pulled a switch. The electric lights flashed up.

“Very good! Very good!” a man nearby shouted to praise Edison for what he had done.

“Sir,” said Edison, “this is only the beginning!” And Edison was right. Soon Edison’s lamp were lighting up cities all over the world.                

1.The generators they brought with them could produce as much as electricity as ______ needed.

2.Trenches were dug to ______.

3.It took a year and a half to ______.

4.Edison took a deep breath before pulling a switch, which showed that he was ______.

Burn rate is the speed at which a startup business consumes money. My rate was $ 75,000  a month. Four months after my company was set up, I had only a quarter of the starting capital left in the bank.

     Looking for guidance, I went to talk to my friend, Arthur Walworth about my new venture. “Times of great change always bring out the risk-takers,” he said. “And they leave winners and losers. My grandfather invested a lot of money in a project of Thomas Edison’ s that ended up in failure. ”

     I was lost in thought at the notion(an idea or belief about something) of a Thomas Edison project ending in failure. Damn. It could happen to anybody! I must continue.

    At that time CD-ROM sales had bombed, so investors were fleeing from the field. I didn’t turn away from mine entirely, but instead linked it to the internet.

    My plan was to offer consumers descriptions of home-design products by using a special software and let them modify the designs. Then we can enable them to get online professional and constructional help to have their houses built, decorated and furnished according to their own choice.

   To realize my plan I needed investors, so I continued to meet regularly with venture capitalists. One said I had a great idea. But I needed to test it. Get the money somewhere. To get this money from a venture capitalist is going to cost my wife and my children! He turned down my request.

    Wife? Children? I hardly remembered them.

    I was working nonstop---struggling to turn the key in the lock, to find the right way ahead. The pressure was terrible. It was just at this time that my parents and sisters stepped up. Two hundred thousand dollars. A lot of money to them, invested in this crazy son and brother without a moment’s hesitation. Dad and Mom had driven out from Chicago and seen the passion in my little office and the trouble at home.

   With their help my company survived and has been prospering ever since.

1.When the author’s company started operation, he had _______ .

    A. $ 450,000    B.$ 400,000   C.$ 350,000     D. $ 300,000

2.Arthur implies that to start a business in times of change, people have to _______ .

   A. rely on famous people all be time   B. invest as much money as possible

   C. face the risks of possible failure    D. think about nothing but success

3.The author’s company was engaged in _______

    A. furniture design and production      B. online home-design service

    C. traditional home designing          D. home decoration business

4. Faced with a very unfavorable market situation, the author decided  _______  .

    A.  to improve his service       B.  to start a new business

    C. to withdraw his money        D. to reduce his investment

Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age.There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light.But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,”Edison said.He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.

But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker..From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature.Nature, he often said,is full of secrets.He tried to understand them;then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.

Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.

Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “ Work,” he answered. “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

1.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

2.Edison thought __________.

3.Edison was __________.

4.In Edison’s opinion, _________.

5.The last sentence in the passage most probably implies _________.