题目内容
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MADRID, June 25 (Reuters) --Spain's Parliament (国会) voiced its support today for the rights of great apes to life and freedom.
The Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions (决议) urging Spain to obey the Great Ape Project (GAP), designed by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto (迄今) limited to humans.
"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defence of our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of GAP—Spain.
Spain may be better known abroad for bullfighting than animal rights but the new measures are the latest move turning once conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.
The new resolutions have cross-party or majority support. They are expected to become law and the Government is now committed to update the statute book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes in Spain.
"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Mr. Pozas said.
Keeping apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be forbidden. Keeping an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but supporters of the Bill say conditions will need to improve.
Philosophers Peter Singer and Paola Cavalieri founded GAP in 1993, arguing that "non-human hominids" should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be mistreated. In an e-mail to friends following the Spanish parliamentary decision, Singer wrote:" Congratulations everyone in Spain who has worked so hard on this. That's wonderful and very exciting news!"
60. What is Pozas' attitude to the new resolutions?
A. He totally disagree with them. B. He pays little attention to them.
C. He doubts their truth. D. He strongly supports them.
61. Scientists set up the GAP to ______.
A. research the behavior of apes B. study the history of human beings
C. protect great apes' rights D. save the endangered apes
62. According to Spain’s new law, it will be legal to ______.
A. keep apes in the zoo B. conduct experiments on apes
C. keeping apes for commercial purpose D. involve apes in magic shows
63. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. Should apes have human rights?
B. Spanish Parliament Extends Rights to Great Apes.
C. Great Apes Project founded.
D. Keeping ages for filming forbidden.
60---63 DCAB
解析60.D(解析:细节题。根据"which will doubtless go down in the history of humanity"意为“毫无疑问这将记录在人类历史上”,选D。)
61.C(解析:细节题。根据第二、三段可知答案为C。)
62.A(解析:细节题。根据倒数第二段,可知答案为A。)
63.B(解析:主旨大意题。根据文意,整篇文章都在讲述西班牙国会通过决议保护大猩猩,所以选B。)
In a few years,you might be able to speak Chinese,Korean,Japanese,French,and English-and all at the same time. This sounds incredible,but Alex Waibel,a computer science professor at US's Car-negie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe,announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application,called Lecture Translation,can easily translate a speech from one language into an-other. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Us-ers also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another machine can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what languagethey speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,”Waibel said
Prefer to read? So- called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal display(LCD) screen.
Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech.The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face,according to research-ers.
During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus,a Chinese student named Sang Jun had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks,neck and throat. Then he mouthed-without speaking aloud- a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later,the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”
This particular instrument,when fully developed,might allow anyone to speak in any number of lan-guages or,as Waibel put it,“to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the universi-ty's prototypes is to create'good enough' bridges for cross- cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,”Waibel said.
With spontaneous(自发的) translators,foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio; tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people;leaders of different coun-tries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.
【小题1】What can't be learned from the text?
| A.The spontaneous translators will help us a lot. |
| B.There is no Muscle Translator in the world now. |
| C.Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth. |
| D.A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily. |
| A.happening at at the same time. | B.happening by itself. |
| C.similar in size. | D.Similar in quality. |
| A.To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier. |
| B.To help students learn foreign languages more easily. |
| C.To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably. |
| D.To help people learn more foreign languages in the future. |
| A.The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need. |
| B.The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge. |
| C.With the help of the translator,you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all. |
| D.The translator needs to be improved before being put into market. |
| A.A newspaper. | B.A magazine on science. |
| C.A fairy tale. | D.A scientific fantasy book. |
Scientists from South Korea are trying to convert(转化)sound waves into electricity. The research could lead to charging a cell phone from a conversation or providing energy to the nation’s electricity system generated(产生)by the noise during rash-hour traffic.
“Just as speakers transform electrical signals into sound, the opposite process —turning sound into a source of electrical power — is possible,” said Young Jun Park and Sang-Woo Kim, the joint authors of a new article in the journal Advanced Materials.
Harvesting energy from phone calls and passing cars is based on materials known as piezoelectrics. When bent, piezoelectric materials turn that mechanical energy into electricity. Lots of materials are piezoelectric: cane sugar, quartz (石英)and even dried bone which could create an electrical charge when stressed. For decades, scientists have pumped electricity into piezoelectric materials for use in environmental sensors, speakers and other devices.
Over the past few years, however, scientists have made dramatic advances in getting electricity out of piezoelectric devices. In an experiment, by using sound waves, which at 100 decibels(分贝)were not quite as loud as a rock concert (a normal conversation is about 60-70 decibels), the South Korean scientists produced a mild electrical current of about 50 millivolts(毫伏). The average cell phone requires a few volts to function, several times the power this technology can currently produce.
“But the real question is whether there is enough surrounding noise to act as a power source as for a cell phone,” said McAlpine, a leading scientist. A consumer probably wouldn’t want to attend a rock concert or stand next to a passing train to charge his cell phone. The South Korean scientists agree but they expect to get a higher power output as they continue their work.
【小题1】According to the two South Korean scientists, ________.
| A.sound waves can travel faster than electricity |
| B.new materials can send cell phone signals better |
| C.using cell phones adds to heavy traffic in rush hour |
| D.electricity and sound can be transformed into each other |
| A.can produce electricity when stressed |
| B.are good at changing electricity into sound |
| C.can reduce the noise of passing cars |
| D.have been widely used in phones and cars |
| A.it is hard to change sound into electricity under current conditions |
| B.it is impossible to make use of loud sound |
| C.the technology has a long way to go to have a practical use |
| D.the technology can power cell phones easily |
| A.the noise pollution | B.the sound resource |
| C.the cost of piezoelectrics | D.the safety of devices |