A．farther, ask for

B．further, ask

C．more, going to see

D．other, to visit

If you wish any ________ explanation, you’d better ________ the manager.

A．farther, ask for

B．further, ask

C．more, going to see

D．other, to visit

Close your eyes and imagine you are living in the next two centuries or more. You’ll be living in a world filled with smart robots, which will be helping you to take care of your children, or your elderly parents in your home. You’ll live much longer thanks to the medicine made by genetic (基因的) science. And mankind may be going farther in space than ever before ––you will be living on the moon or Mars.
How should we view the changes that wait for us in the future? Should we be optimistic about the years ahead, or worried about what the future holds? Some scientists and experts are having a discussion about how technology, science and society will develop in the future.
“I’m looking forward to the day when more technology will come to my life,” says John Searle, a professor at the University of California Berkeley Philosophy, “because I think further research in such areas as genetics, physics, chemistry and medicine will help us to overcome poverty, improve health, and make life longer.”
Hugh Herr, at MIT’s Biomechatronics Group, considers very powerful weapons as concern over the future. Another is the growing role of technology in our lives.“Machines taking over what humans do is not a good thing,” Herr says.
That is a similar concern shared by Daniela Cerqui, a social and cultural scientist. “I am afraid that the long-term future we are building will have no space left for human beings,” says Cerqui. “The main values of our society are related to information that must progress as quickly as possible, and computers are much better than humans in these tasks .”
【小题1】The first paragraph mainly tells us ________.

Television will turn 86 years old on September 7, 2013, and it has never looked better. In its youth, television was a piece of furniture with a tiny, round screen showing unclear pictures of  low­budget programs. In spite of its shortcomings, it became well-received. Between 1950 and 1963, the number of American families with a television jumped from 9% to 92% of the population.

As the audience got larger, the technology got better. Television sets became more reliable through the 1960s. Both of the reception and the picture improved. The major networks started broadcasting programs in color.

Even greater improvements were coming according to Sanford Brown, who wrote an article for the Post in 1967. Surprisingly, just about every prediction he made in the article became a reality. For example: All sets in the not­distant future will be color instruments. He also predicted that TV sets would become smaller, simpler, more reliable and less expensive and may forever put the TV repairman out of work. Smaller sets do not, of course, mean smaller screens. TV engineers expect screens to get much bigger. However, today's 3­D TV is even farther away, if it's coming at all.  There is some doubt whether the public would be eager to pay for it, in view of people's cold reception given to 3­D movies.

But the technology with the greatest potential, according to Brown, was cable television (有线电视), which was still in its early stages then. As he predicted, the future of cable television was highly interactive. It wasn't cable television that gave Americans their electronic connection to the world, however. It was the Internet.  He even foresaw the future office: using picture phones, big­screen televisions for conferences, and computers providing information, at the touch of a button.

Brown ever said, “The future of television is no longer a question of what we can invent. It's a question of what we want.”

55. What can we infer about television sets in the 1960s?

A. They were very popular with Americans.    B. Their appearance remained unchangeable.

C. They showed black­and­white pictures.     D. Their pictures were of poor quality.

56. Which of the followings did Sanford Brown fail to predict?

A. Television's good quality.        B. The invention of 3­D TV.

C. The more functions of TV.       D. The potential of cable TV.

57. From the passage we know _________.

A. TV will certainly take the place of computers

B. There won’t be further improvement on TV

C. TV repairmen will be out of work in the future

D. 3­D movies don’t appeal to people very much

58. What is the text mainly about?

A. The shortcomings of television.         B. The advantages of television.

C. The development of television.          D. The invention of television.

完形填空

　　Marie was born in 1867. __1__ soon saw that she had a __2__ mind. When she was quite young, she __3__ nothing better than to __4__ hours reading in spite of her __5__ health, and always __6__ top honours at her school.

　　Her mother died when the youngest daughter was __7__ ten. From then on, Marie knew that she would __8__ to work harder than before at her lessons if she wanted to be __9__ in her life. When she was eighteen, she went to work __10__ a governess（家庭女教师）. She __11__ as much as she could __12__ her small salary, and went to Paris for __13__ study.

　　At the University of Paris, she took a single room without __14__ or light. She __15__ on bread and tea most of the time, and __16__ she thought of was her mathematics and __17__. This was her world, and __18__ all she liked her experiments, even the __19__ of the chemicals.

　　Marie always said __20__ it was because of her children that she went on with the work...and in doing so, she discovered a strong power and gave it to the world. It was the same power, however, that killed Marie Curie in 1934.