题目内容
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Grown-ups know that people and objects are solid. At the movies, we know that if we reach out to touch Tom Cruise, all we will feel is air. But does a baby have this understanding?
To see whether babies know objects are solid, T. Bower designed a method for projecting an optical illusion(视觉影像) of a hanging ball. His plan was to first give babies a real ball, one they could reach out and touch, and then to show them the illusion. If they knew that objects are solid and they reached out for the illusion and found empty air, they could be expected to show surprise in their faces and movements. All the 16-to 24- week -old babies tested were surprised when they reached for the illusion and found that the ball was not there.
Grown-ups also have a sense of object permanence. We know that if we put a box in a room and lock the door, the box will still be there when we come back. But does a baby realize that a ball that rolls under a chair does not disappear and go to never-never land?
Experiments done by Bower suggest that babies develop a sense of object permanence when they are about 18 weeks old. In his experiments, Bower used a toy train that went behind a screen. When 16-week-old and 22-week-old babies watched the toy train disappear behind the left side of the screen, they looked to the right, expecting it to reappear. If the experimenter took the train off the table and lifted the screen, all the babies seemed surprised not to see the train. This seems to show that all the babies had a sense of object permanence. But the second part of the experiment showed that this was not really the case. The researcher substituted a ball for the train when it went behind the screen. The 22-week-old babies seemed surprised and looked back to the left side for the train. But the 16-week -old babies did not seem to notice the switch. Thus, the 16-week-old babies seemed to have a sense of “something permanence,” while the 22-week-old babies had a sense of object permanence related to a particular object.
【小题1】The passage is mainly about _____.
| A.babies' sense of sight | B.effects of experiments on babies |
| C.babies' understanding of objects | D.different tests on babies' feelings |
| A.still exists | B.keeps its shape | C.still stays solid | D.is beyond reach |
| A.A chair. | B.A screen. | C.A film. | D.A box. |
| A.The babies didn't have a sense of direction. |
| B.The older babies preferred toy trains to balls. |
| C.The younger babies liked looking for missing objects. |
| D.The babies couldn't tell a ball from its optical illusion. |
In a natural disaster—a hurricane, flood, volcanic eruption, or other catastrophes—minutes and even seconds of warning can make the difference between life and death.Because of this, scientists are working to use the latest technological advances to predict when and where disasters will happen.They are also studying how best to analyze and communicate this information once it is obtained.
On September 29, 1998, Hurricane Georges made landfall in Biloxi, Mississippi, after damaging Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and several islands of the Caribbean badly with torrential rains and winds up to 160 km per hour.Few people lost their lives along the Gulf Coast of the United States, although hundreds died in the Caribbean.
This was a very different outcome from 1900, when a powerful Gulf Coast hurricane made an unexpected direct hit on Galveston, Texas, killing at least 6,000 people.
Vastly improved hurricane warnings explain the different circumstances at either end of the 20th century——residents of Galveston had no advance warning that a storm was approaching, while residents of Biloxi had been warned days in advance, allowing for extensive safety precautions(预防).
At the same time that people in Biloxi were thankful for the advance warning, some residents of New Orleans, Louisiana were less satisfied.A day before Georges made landfall, forecasters were predicting that the hurricane had a good chance of striking New Orleans.Because much of New Orleans lies below sea level, the city is at risk for flooding.Emergency management officials must begin evacuations(疏散)well before a storm strikes.But evacuation costs money: businesses close, tourists leave, and citizens take precautionary measures.The mayor of New Orleans estimated that his city' s preparations for Georges cost more than 50 million.After Georges missed New Orleans, some residents questioned the value of the hurricane forecasts in the face of such high costs.
The different views on the early warnings for Hurricane Georges show some of the complexities related to predicting disasters.Disaster prediction is a process of providing scientific information to the government officials and other decision makers who must respond to those predictions.
【小题1】What is the purpose of disaster prediction according to the passage?
| A.To identify the cause of disasters. |
| B.To save people' s lives and property. |
| C.To prevent natural disasters from happening, |
| D.To apply advanced technology to disaster prediction. |
| A.Puerto Rico. | B.New Orleans. |
| C.Biloxi, Mississippi. | D.Galveston, Texas. |
| A.the forecast hurricane did not hit the city |
| B.the hurricane warning arrived rather late |
| C.their preparations were made in vain |
| D.they suffered from a heavy hurricane attack |
| A.The different ways of disaster prediction. |
| B.Technological advances in disaster prediction. |
| C.The importance and uncertainty of disaster prediction. |
| D.The benefits and preparations of disaster prediction. |
An astronomer is making a case for launching pop singer Justin Bieber into suborbital(亚轨道的)space aboard a private rocket ship. The idea is not to rid the world of the Canadian teenager — he would come back down to Earth eventually, after all — but rather to help jump-start the emerging suborbital spaceflight industry.
It would generate a lot of public interest, which would help commercial spaceflight pick up some much-needed momentum, said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, California. “If there’s more interest, there are more customers. If there are more customers, there's more technical development. It's a positive feedback loop, and obviously that's good.”
Such missions would return to Earth without completing a full lap around the planet. Instead, the flights would hit the edge of space about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, experience a few minutes of weightlessness, then re-enter the atmosphere and land back at a spaceport.
None of these firms are ready to fly customers yet, but some are getting close. For instance, Virgin Galactic hopes to begin powered test flights of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle later this year, with commercial operations perhaps beginning in 2013 or 2014. It is SpaceShipTwo that reportedly grabbed the attention of Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Virgin Galactic has collected deposits from nearly 500 customers willing to pay $200,000 for a ride aboard SpaceShipTwo, and both Virgin and XCOR have inked deals to fly scientists and their experiments on research flights. So a suborbital market already exists — but Shostak is thinking about ways to make it grow.
A celebrity launch isn't Shostak’s only idea. Suborbital firms should also promote their activities aggressively via social media, Shostak said, and they should make sure their spaceships are bristling(充满)with cameras both inside and out, to give the public dramatic views of every mission.
Some observers view commercial suborbital spaceflight as a potentially transformative industry, saying it could serve as a stepping stone to the exploration and exploitation of space on an unprecedented scale. While the industry’s success is far from assured, Shostak offered some reason for optimism: The American public remains keen on space.
【小题1】Why may Justin Bieber be sent into suborbital space?
| A.To show his bravery and make him a role model for teenagers. |
| B.To arouse the American public’s interest. |
| C.To help reform the spaceflight industry. |
| D.To film an advertisement about space. |
| A.A trip will return to Earth before finishing a lap. |
| B.The whole trip will leave passengers weightless. |
| C.Each trip can take 500 passengers. |
| D.The trip will be too expensive even for celebrities. |
| A.SpaceShipTwo will be the first to fly. |
| B.Famous people will be the main passengers in the future. |
| C.The space trip is still in preparation. |
| D.Every space trip will be made into a film. |
| A.space is too mysterious to explore |
| B.the suborbital market is promising |
| C.the spaceflight industry is more successful than people think |
| D.developing the industry is risky |
| A.To predict a change in the space market. |
| B.To discuss a recent launch. |
| C.To introduce the status of the spaceflight industry. |
| D.To remove public doubt about the spaceflight industry. |