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.

What does the author say about the black box?

A. It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane.

B. The idea for its design comes from a comic book.

C. Its ability to resist disasters is incredible.

D. It is an indispensable device on an airplane.

What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?

A. Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.

B. The total number of passengers on board.

C. The scene of the crash and extent of the damage.

D. Homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash.

Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?

A. New materials became available by that time.

B. Too much space was needed for its installation.

C. The early models often got damaged in the crash.

D. The early models didn't provide the needed data.

Why did the Federal Aviation Authority require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow?

A. To distinguish them from the colour of the plane.

B. To caution people to handle them with care.

C. To make them easily identifiable.

D. To conform to international standards.

What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?

A. There is still a good chance of their being recovered.

B. There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.

C. They have stopped sending homing signals.

D. They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.

It was Sunday. I had one last patient to see. I approached her room in a hurry and stood at the doorway. She was an old woman, sitting at the edge of the bed, struggling to put socks on her swollen(肿胀的)feet. I entered, spoke quickly to the nurse and examined her chart. She was getting better.

    I looked down at her. She asked if I could help put on her socks. Instead, I said something like this:“ How are you feeling? Your sugars and blood pressure were high but they’re better today. The nurse mentioned you were anxious to see your son who’s visiting you today. I bet you really look forward to seeing him.”

    She stopped me with a serious voice, as if she was giving an order. “ Sit down，Doctor．This is my story，not your story. ”

    I was surprised and embarrassed. I sat down. I helped her with the socks. She began to tell me that her only son lived around the corner from her, but she had not seen him in five years. She believed that her health problems really had something to do with it. After hearing her story and putting on her socks, I asked if there was anything else I could do for her. She shook her head and smiled. All she wanted me to do was to listen．

    Later on, I often thought of what that woman taught me. Everyone has a story and each story is different. Some have a beginning, middle and end. Others wander without a clear conclusion. Yet all those things do not really matter. What matters to the storyteller is that the story is heard—without interruption or judgment．

1. The writer went to visit the older woman to     .

 A. 1isten to her story        B．tell her good news

    C. help her put on her socks   D．see if she was getting better

2.What problem did the old woman have?

A. She ate too much sugar．

B. She had high blood pressure．

C. She had too many visits. 

D. She liked telling others stories．

3.The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refers to the older woman’s     .

A. not having seen her son for long       B. having no one to look after her

C. serious voice when giving orders       D. struggling to put socks on her feet

4.What does the story mainly tell us?

    A. Everyone should learn to listen to others.

    B. Children had better stay with their parents．

    C. We all have a story and each one is different.

    D. Older women are good at telling their stories.

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 endure 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 on 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 box'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 box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear 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 stand 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?

It was Sunday. I had one last patient to see. I approached her room in a hurry and stood at the doorway. She was an old woman, sitting at the edge of the bed, struggling to put socks on her swollen(肿胀的)feet. I entered, spoke quickly to the nurse and examined her chart. She was getting better.
I looked down at her. She asked if I could help put on her socks. Instead, I said something like this:“ How are you feeling? Your sugars and blood pressure were high but they’re better today. The nurse mentioned you were anxious to see your son who’s visiting you today. I bet you really look forward to seeing him.”
She stopped me with a serious voice, as if she was giving an order. “ Sit down，Doctor．This is my story，not your story. ”
I was surprised and embarrassed. I sat down. I helped her with the socks. She began to tell me that her only son lived around the corner from her, but she had not seen him in five years. She believed that her health problems really had something to do with it. After hearing her story and putting on her socks, I asked if there was anything else I could do for her. She shook her head and smiled. All she wanted me to do was to listen．
Later on, I often thought of what that woman taught me. Everyone has a story and each story is different. Some have a beginning, middle and end. Others wander without a clear conclusion. Yet all those things do not really matter. What matters to the storyteller is that the story is heard—without interruption or judgment．
【小题1】 The writer went to visit the older woman to    .

Bacteria(细菌) are extremely small living things. While we measure our own sizes in inches or centimeters, bacterial size is measured in micron. One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter; a pinhead is about a millimeter across, Rod-shaped bacteria are usually from two to four microns long, while rounded ones are generally one micron across. Thus, if you magnified a rounded bacterium a thousand times, it would be just the size of a pinhead, while a grown-up human enlarged by the same amount would be over a mile tall.

Even with an ordinary microscope(显微镜), you must look closely to see bacteria. Using a magnification of 100 times, one can hardly find bacteria. Nor can one make out anything of their structure(结构), of course. Only by using special colors, can one see that some bacteria have wavy-looking “hairs” called flagella. Others have only one flagellum. The flagella move round a central point, pushing the bacteria through the water. Many bacteria lack flagella and cannot move about by their own power, while others can move along over surface by some little-understood “machinery”.

From the bacterial point of view, the world is a very different place from what it is to humans. To a bacterium, water is as thick as molasses(糖浆) is to us. Bacteria are so small that they are affected by the movements of the chemical molecules(分子) around them. Bacteria under microscopes, even those with no flagella, often jump up and down in the water. This is because they knock with the water molecules and are pushed this way and that.

36. The underlined word magnified means _______________.

A. enlarged                                                      B. widened                  

C. killed                                                          D. caught

37. We know from the passage that _______________ is the smallest.

A. a pinhead                                            B. a rounded bacterium 

C. a microscope                                        D. a rod-shaped bacterium

38. The relationship between a bacterium and its flagella is most nearly like which of the following?

A. A rider jumping on a horse back 

B. A ball being hit by a bet

C. A boat powered by a motor    

D. A door closed by wind

39. Why does the writer compares water to molasses in the third paragraph?

A. To tell us how difficult it is for bacteria to move through water.

B. To suggest that bacteria are fond of different liquids.

C. To show different chemicals are of different structures.

D. To show that bacteria are the best swimmers.

40. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?

A. The characteristic (特点) of bacteria.      

B. How bacteria reproduce.

C. The various parts of a bacterium’s body    

D. How bacteria cause diseases.