SAN FRANCISCO—A phone app (应用程序) in San Francisco gives information about open parking spots. City officials in San Francisco introduced the app to try to reduce traffic jams in the city, but some say it raises safety concerns.

In this city, drivers searching for parking spots lead to 30 percent of all downtown jams, city officials think. Now San Francisco has found a solution—a phone app for spot-seekers that displays information about areas with available spaces. The system, introduced last month, relies on wireless sensors (感应器) fixed in streets and city garages that can tell within seconds if a spot has opened up.

Monique Soltani, a TV reporter, said she and her sister spent 25 minutes on Friday trying to park. “We were praying to the parking god that we’d find a spot,” she said. “If we had the app, we would not have to pray to the parking god.” But the system could come with serious consequences.

Some people say that drivers searching for parking could end up focusing on their phones, not the road. “It could be really distracting (使分心的),” said Daniel Simons, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.

City officials acknowledge the potential problem. They are urging drivers to pull over before they use the city’s iPhone app, or to do so before they leave home. Nathaniel Ford, executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said safety could actually improve if drivers quickly found a spot instead of circling and getting frustrated.

San Francisco has put sensors into 7,000 parking spots and 12,250 spots in city garages. If spaces in an area open up, the sensors communicate wirelessly with computers that in turn make the information available to app users within a minute, said Mr. Ford, of the transportation agency. On the app, a map shows which blocks have lots of places (blue) and which are full (red).

More than 12,000 people have downloaded San Francisco’s app, which is available now only for the iPhone but which city officials say they hope to bring to all similar devices.

When it is started up, the city’s parking app warns drivers not to use the system while in motion. But safety advocates said that might not be sufficient. After all, they say, texting while driving is illegal in California and in many states, but a number of surveys, including one by the Pew Research Center, show that many Americans do it anyway.

Elizabeth Stampe, executive director of Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group, said she hoped the new parking app would lead to fewer accidents.

“It’s an innovative idea,” she said. “The safe way for people to use the device is for them to pull over, which they know they should do. The question is whether they will.”

But Ms. Soltani, the TV reporter, said using the app would probably join the group of activities already performed by drivers.

“We’re already looking at Google Maps and Facebook on the phone while we drive,” she said. “Aren’t we always looking at something on our phone, or changing the radio, or drinking coffee? You’re always slightly distracted when you’re driving.”

1.What is the phone app mentioned in the text mainly aimed at?

A. Making full use of the parking spots.     

B. Making the traffic flow smoothly.

C. Preventing traffic accidents.

D. Benefiting iPhone users.

2.According to the text, San Francisco city officials ______.

A. don’t consider the app distracting

B. advise drivers to park cars slowly

C. are aware of the app’s disadvantages    

D. believe more parking spots are needed

3.How do drivers locate the parking spots?

A. Sensors"computers"app.                              B. App"computers"sensors.

C. Sensors"app"computers.                               D. Computers"app"sensors.

4.The phone app mentioned in the text ______.

A. is a bit slow in reacting

B. hasn’t been put into service

C. was introduced several years ago

D. can’t be downloaded to all phones

5.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A. Daniel Simons thinks the app convenient.

B. San Francisco will put more sensors into use.

C. Most drivers open the app once they start their cars.

D. Nathaniel Ford doesn’t doubt the practical use of the app.

Angry Birds is a video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mohile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple’s mobile operating system in December 2009.Since then, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple’s App Store.
With its fast-growing popularity worldwide, the game and its characters---angry birds and their enemy pigs---have appeared in television programs throughout the world. The Israeli comedy A Wonderful Country ,one of the nation’s most popular TV programs, satirized(讽刺) recent failed Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts by featuring the Angry Birds in peace negotiations with the pigs. Clips of the segment (片段)went viral, getting viewers from all around the world. American television hosts Conan O’Brien ,Jon Steward ,and Daniel Tosh have referenced the game in comedy sketches for their programs, Conan, The Daily Show, and Dash. O. Some of the game’s more famous fans include Prime Minister David Cameron of UK, who plays the iPad version of the game, and author Salman Rushdie, who is believed to be “something of a master at Angry Birds.”
Angry Birds and its characters have also been featured in advertisements in different forms. In March 2011,the characters began appearing in a series of advertisements for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. In the same year, Nokin produced an advertisement in Austin, Texas that included the game’s characters on a downtown building for its new mobile phone. Later, a T-Mobile advertisement filmed in Spain included a real-life mock-up(实物模拟)of the game in a city center .Nokin also used the game in Malaysia to promote an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of people playing a single mobile game.
Angry Birds has even inspired works of philosophical analogy（哲学类比）.A five-part essay with the title“ Angry Birds Yoga（瑜伽）---How to Eliminate the Green  Pigs in Your Life” was written by Giridhari Dasar in Brazil ,utilizing the characters and game play mechanics to interpret various concepts of yoga philosophy. The piece attracted much media attention for its unique method of philosophical presentation.
【小题1】What is the purpose of the passage?

Angry Birds is a video game developed by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Mohile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple’s mobile operating system in December 2009.Since then, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple’s App Store.

With its fast-growing popularity worldwide, the game and its characters---angry birds and their enemy pigs---have appeared in television programs throughout the world. The Israeli comedy A Wonderful Country ,one of the nation’s most popular TV programs, satirized(讽刺) recent failed Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts by featuring the Angry Birds in peace negotiations with the pigs. Clips of the segment (片段)went viral, getting viewers from all around the world. American television hosts Conan O’Brien ,Jon Steward ,and Daniel Tosh have referenced the game in comedy sketches for their programs, Conan, The Daily Show, and Dash. O. Some of the game’s more famous fans include Prime Minister David Cameron of UK, who plays the iPad version of the game, and author Salman Rushdie, who is believed to be “something of a master at Angry Birds.”

Angry Birds and its characters have also been featured in advertisements in different forms. In March 2011,the characters began appearing in a series of advertisements for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. In the same year, Nokin produced an advertisement in Austin, Texas that included the game’s characters on a downtown building for its new mobile phone. Later, a T-Mobile advertisement filmed in Spain included a real-life mock-up(实物模拟)of the game in a city center .Nokin also used the game in Malaysia to promote an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of people playing a single mobile game.

Angry Birds has even inspired works of philosophical analogy（哲学类比）.A five-part essay with the title“ Angry Birds Yoga（瑜伽）---How to Eliminate the Green  Pigs in Your Life” was written by Giridhari Dasar in Brazil ,utilizing the characters and game play mechanics to interpret various concepts of yoga philosophy. The piece attracted much media attention for its unique method of philosophical presentation.

1.What is the purpose of the passage?

2.Which of the following is closed in meaning to the word “viral “in Paragraph 2?   

3.According to the text, Which of the following persons is good at playing Angry Birds?

4.Which of the following is TRUE about the use of Angry Birds according to the text?

On the other hand, Dolly’s    46  （appear）raised a storm of objections and had a great impact    47    the media and public imagination. It became controversial.

48    at present human egg cells and embryos    49  （need）for cloning research are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders    50  （hope）to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Governments became nervous and more    51  （conserve）. Some began to reform their legal systems    52    forbade research into human cloning, but other countries    53    China and the UK continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid    54    cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and    55    it is leading us.

“It is hard to say whether Dolly died at a relatively young age or died from defects (缺陷) in reproduction,” Du Miao, a researcher with the Biology and Growth Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily in Beijing yesterday. “But Dolly's case reminds us that both Chinese and foreign scientists should put more efforts into improving clone technology as well as disease treatment techniques in the field of cloning animals.” He said his institute, in co-operation (合作) with Yangzhou University in Eastern China's Jiangsu Province, had cloned more than 10 sheep since 1999 and the oldest is nearly five. They are all still alive.

Li Ning, deputy director of the National Key Laboratory of Agricultural and Biological Technology, who is also a professor with the Beijing-based China Agriculture University, said, “Clone technology is actually progressing well. Dolly is the first cloned sheep after all. Like driving cars, new drivers meet with accidents more easily, but the more you drive, the easier and safer you feel. In the future, the death rate of cloned animals will be reduced with technological developments.”

“Official reports show seven locally cloned sheep are still alive. Clone technology in China is gradually approaching (接近)a level of commercialization (商业化),” Li added. But Wang Yu, deputy director of the Biological Technology Centre under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the commercialization of clone technology depends on market demand.

1. From Dolly's death, some of the Chinese scientists________.

    A. think it has dampened their enthusiasm

    B. believe it died from defects in reproduction

    C. think they should improve not only disease treatment techniques but also clone technology

    D. are satisfied with their successes in clone

2. Li Ning took driving cars for example to show________.

  A. the difficulty with clone technology

    B. anything is difficult in the beginning

    C. clone technology is difficult in the beginning and has a bright future

    D. clone technology will be more difficult in the future

3. According to Li Ning, the Chinese clone technology is________.

    A. behind some other countries

    B. progressing badly

    C. among the developed countries

    D. actually developing well

4. What is the best title for the passage?

    A. Learning Lessons from Dolly

    B. Chinese Scientists’ Clone Enthusiasm

    C. Clone Technology like Driving Cars

D. Chinese Clone Technology Well Developed