After almost 30 years of arguing that a black hole swallows up everything that falls into it, British astrophysicist (天体物理学家) Stephen Hawking moved backward last week.

The world-famous writer of "Brief History of Time" said he and other scientists had got it wrong. "I've been thinking about this problem for the last 30 years, and I think I now have the answer to it," said Hawking. "A black hole only appears to form but later opens up and set free information about what fell inside. So we can be sure of the past and can predict the future." The findings could help solve the "black hole information paradox(似是而非的观点)", an important puzzle in modern physics.

A black hole is an area in space where matter is under such pressure that even light can not escape from its gravitational pull(引力). But, exactly what happens there has long puzzled scientists.

Black holes occur when a powerful star burns up its nuclear fuel and gravity forces it to break down in on itself. The great weight of the star's outer layers moves in towards its center. The force of gravity keeps nearly all light from escaping and nothing inside can be seen from the outside. The star actually disappears from the universe into a point of infinite density(高密度). That is a place where the laws of general relativity that govern space and time break down.

Hawking has devoted most of his life to studying these questions.

At the beginning, cosmologists believed the holes were like a "universal vacuum (真空) cleaner", sucking up everything in their path.

Hawking revolutionized the study of black holes when he proved, in 1976 that, under the strange rules of quantum physics(量子物理), when black holes form they send out energy and lose mass in the process.

In thinking up this so-called "Hawking radiation", the Cambridge mathematician also created one of the biggest puzzles in physics.

These particles (粒子), he said, contained no information about what has been occurring inside the black hole, or how it formed. Under his theory, once the black hole disappears, all the information within it is lost.

 

72. What's the importance of Hawking's new findings?

A. They could help solve the puzzle about black holes.

B. They has solved the mystery of "black holes".

C. We can now know what is going on inside "black holes".

D. Scientists have already predicted the future of "black holes" now.

73. What's the meaning of the underlined word "cosmologist" (in Paragraph 9)?

A. A person who studies the universe and its origin and development.

B. A person who studies the stars and their development.

C. A person who travels in a spacecraft.]

D. A person who studies the position of the stars and the movements of the planets.

74. Which of the following is TRUE?

A. Hawking has now studied black holes for more than 40 years.

B. During the course of the black hole's forming the enormous weight of the star's center moves into the outer layers.

C. Almost nothing can escape from the gravitational pull of the black hole.

D. Scientists have been thinking the black hole contains no information.

75. What would be the best title for the passage?

A. The Formation of the Black Hole              B. Black Hole Information Paradox

C. Black Hole Mystery                                 D. The Cause of the Black Hole

 

People who offer love, listening and help to others may be rewarded with better mental health themselves, according to a new study of churchgoers in the September/October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

The study is one of the first to track the positive health benefits of altruistic(利他的) behavior, says Carolyn Schwartz, Sc.D. of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

"The findings really point up how helping others can help oneself," Schwartz says.

Schwartz and his workmates analyzed (分析) the information collected by the Presbyterian Church for 2,016 church members. The members were asked about how often they "made others feel loved and cared for" and "listened to others", and how often they received this attention in return.

The members also answered the questions about their mental and physical health. Most of the church members were in good physical and mental health to begin with, experiencing only normal levels of anxiety and depression. While the researchers did not find any significant differences in physical health clearly related to giving and receiving help, they concluded that giving help was a better predictor of good mental health than receiving help. But feeling crushed (压倒) by others' demands can have negative psychological(心理的) effects, according to the researchers.

"Although our findings suggest that people who help others experience better mental health, our findings also suggest that giving beyond one's own resources is related with worse reported mental health," Schwartz says. Church leaders, older people, women and those who took satisfaction from prayer (祷告) were more likely to be helpers rather than receivers, according to the study. People who give help to others may be less likely to focus inward on their own anxieties and depression or more likely to see their own troubles in mind, leading to better mental health, say the researchers.

Alternatively, it may be that "people who are functioning well psychologically are better able and hence more likely to give help," Schwartz says.

 

69. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. Older people are more likely to help others.

B. The researchers got the result from those who were given help.

C. Altruistic actions may result in better mental health.

D. Feeling crushed by others' demands can be negative.

70. One reason why helping others results in better mental health is that _____.

A. the helper may pay less attention to his own anxieties

B. helpers may be rewarded by other church members

C. the receiver will share the sorrow with the helper

D helping others itself is a kind of physical exercise

71. What conclusion can we draw from the passage?

A. It's more blessed to give than to receive.   B. Well begun, half done.

C. Where there is a will, there is a way.         D. Every advantage has its disadvantage.

Puerto Rico may be part of the USA but its music and dance is a mixture of both Spanish and American rhythms(节奏). The country, as a result, is a mixture of the new and the old. It exhibits the open American way of life yet remains the more formal Spanish influences(影响). This is showed in the buildings, not just the difference between the old and the modern in urban areas but also in the countryside, where older buildings sit side by side with schools and houses. It is found in the cooking, too many fast food restaurants together with local cooking which has its roots in the mixture of culture of all the Caribbean and in the music --- rock music is played in beach holiday centers but in the hilly center, Puerto Rican music can be heard. Old volcanic mountains, long motionless, take up a large part of the center, with the highest peak, Cerro de Punta, at 1,338 metre in the Cordillera Central. The mountains are surrounded by a coastal plain with the Atlantic shore beaches cooled all the year round by trade winds.

The population is 3.8 million, of which about 1.5 million live in San Juan, although about another two million Puerto Ricans live in the USA. The average life is 73.8 years and GDP per person is US$12, 212, the highest in Latin America, although not up to the level of mainland USA. The people are largely a mixture of Amerindian, Taino-Arawak, Spanish and African. Most Puerto Ricans do not speak English and less than 30% speak it well. The people are very friendly and hospitable but there is law-breaking action, linked to drugs and unemployment.

 

65. It can be learned from the passage that _____.

A. Puerto Rico belongs to the USA                     

B. Puerto Rico is part of Spain

C. Puerto Rico is an independent country            

D. Puerto Rico has the highest peak in Latin America

66. The underlined word “hospitable” in the last sentence means “_____”.

A. impolite to visitors                                  B. friendly and welcoming to visitors

C. tired of visitors                                      D. impatient to a patient

67. What's the character of Puerto Rico?

A. Either new or old.                                  B. A mixture of different peoples.

C. Too many fast food restaurants.              D. Either Spanish or American.

68. According to the passage, old volcanic mountains lie _____.

A. in the center of the country                      B. on a coastal plain

C. near the Cordillera Central                        D. in the north of the country

Solar energy for your home is coming. It can help you as a single home owner. It can help the whole country as well. Whether or not solar energy can save your money depends on many things. Where you live is one factor and the type of home you have is another. Things like insulation (绝缘材料), present energy costs, and the type of system you buy are added factors.

Using solar energy can help save our precious fuel. As you know, our supplies of oil and gas are very limited. There is just not enough on hand to meet all our future energy needs. Sooner or later Mother Nature will say that's all. The only way we can delay hearing those words is by starting to save energy now and by using other sources, like the sun.

We won't have to worry about the sun's running out of energy for another several billion years or so. Besides, the sun doesn't offer as many problems as other energy sources. For example, fossil fuel(矿物燃料) adds to already high pollution levels. With solar energy, we will still need sources of energy, but we won't need as much. That means we can cut down on our pollution problems.

With all these good points, why don't we use more solar power? There are many reasons for this. The biggest reason is money. Until now, it was just not practical for a home owner to put in a solar unit. There were cheaper sources of energy.

All that is changing now. Solar costs are starting to equal the costs of oil and electricity. Experts say that gas, oil and electricity prices will continue to rise. The demand for electricity is increasing rapidly. But new power plants will use more gas, oil or coal. Already in some places the supply of electricity is being rationed (限量供应). Solar energy is now in its infancy (初期). It could soon grow to become a major part of our nation's energy supply.

 

60. What's this passage mainly about?

A. Something about solar energy and pollution.  

B. Solar energy.

C. Energy and pollution.                                  

D. Energy and money.

61. Solar energy can help us _____.

A. escape punishment from nature                     B. become home owners

C. get rid of present energy                              D. save our precious fuel

62. The sun is an endless source of energy, and it will not run out of energy for _____.

A. several million years                       B. several hundred years

C. several billion years                        D. several thousand years

63. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Energy from coal would not pollute our living environment.

B. Energy from natural gas would not pollute our living environment.

C. Energy from the sun would not pollute our living environment.

D. Energy from oil would not pollute our living environment.

64. Solar energy is now in its infancy, _____.

A. but in the future it will become an important part of our nation's energy supply

B. so we will build more power plants

C. and the supply of electricity will be rationed throughout the country

D. so we don't need it

No one can believe that the over 6,300-kilometer Great Wall might disappear some day. Believe it or not, the Great Wall is being destroyed by people. Less than 20 percent of the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty, is still perfect, but about 80 percent is in danger. The Great Wall can be called "great" mostly because of its amazing length. But we should realize that the length was made up of one brick at a time. If we do nothing to save the Great Wall, it will become a series of separate wasteland rather than a historic site.

The Great Wall is actually a series of walls built and rebuilt by different dynasties over the past 2,000 years. It began in the rule of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang of the Qin Dynasty(221 BC-206 BC), and lasted into the Ming Dynasty. The parts built before the Ming Dynasty have nearly disappeared. People are familiar with sections such as Badaling in Beijing and Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu, because they have been open to tourists for many years. But those sections far away from the public eyes have been almost forgotten.

Few local people knew the 3-metre-high walls made of earth and stones beside them are part of the Great Wall. The lack of knowledge is considered as one of the main reasons behind human.

The bricks on the Great Wall are carried off by countryside people to build their houses, sheep corrals and pigsties. Some were taken away to build roads. Bricks carved with people's names are put away as remembrances. Rubbish is spread over the battlements. The bricks can be sold for 15 yuan per tractor load. Those who destroyed and are destroying the Wall know its name, but are not clear about its cultural meaning. It will take a long time to let them know this. The local farmers not only carried off the body of the Wall but also dug out the entire base.

It is necessary to protect the Great Wall. First of all, the officials should be aware of the importance of the Great Wall. Young Chinese should know more about the nation's great civilization and learn to love it.

 

56. Why does the writer say the Great Wall might disappear?

A. It is useless from now on.                                B. It will be replaced by a new one.

C. Some parts of it are being destroyed.                 D. It is too old to be used again.

57. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. The Great Wall was completed in the Ming Dynasty.

B. Not all the foreign tourists like the Great Wall.

C. The first part of the Great Wall was built in 221 BC.

D. The Qin Great Wall was protected well.

58. The underlined part "those sections far away from the public eyes" (in Paragraph 2) refers to the parts of the Great Wall _____.

A. that are too difficult to find                        B. nobody can watch

C. that are too far to be seen                          D. that are not well-known to the public

59. What's the main reason of the Great Wall's being destroyed?

A. The local people are short of culture knowledge.

B. The local people need bricks and stones to build houses.

C. The local people think that the Great Wall is not important.

D. The local people sell the bricks for a living.

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