Airplane crashes are rare. When they do happen, however, they are often deadly and people want answers as to why their loved ones lost their lives, and that is where black boxes come into play.
A black box is a device placed in an aircraft to make the investigation of aviation accidents easy.
There are two different flight recorder devices. The flight data recorder (FDR) preserves things like air speed, altitude, and fuel flow and has about 25 hours of recording storage. The cockpit (驾驶舱) voice recorder (CVR) preserves the recent history of the sounds in the cockpit, including the conversation of the pilots. However, a cockpit video recorder can store only two hours of voice recording. Both of them are mandatory on every commercial flight and are usually kept in the back end of an aircraft, where they are more likely to survive a crash.
Equipped with an underwater locator beacon (水下定位信标), if an aircraft crashes into water, the beacon sends out an ultrasonic pulse (超声波脉冲). Incredibly, the beacon is powered by a battery that has a shelf life of six years; once the beacon begins pinging (发出信号), it pings once per second for 30 days until its battery runs out. If a plane crash takes place on land and not on water, the locator beacons of the black box will not send out the ultrasonic pings, signaling the investigators to look for the unit around the crash site.
The term “black box” was a World War II British phrase, originating with the development of radio, radar, and electronic navigational aids in British and Allied combat aircraft (盟军战斗机). These often-secret electronic devices were literally encased in non-reflective black boxes or housings, hence resulting in the birth of “black box”.
These black boxes are of fluorescent (发荧光的) flame-orange in color. The recorders are bright orange so to make them more visually obvious after an accident. These are able to stand extreme heat, crashes and massive pressure. Before being put into use, they are examined repetitively in extreme situations to see if they can conduct the functions well.
1. If you want to know how high the plane was flying, you should check the ______.| A．the flight data recorder. | B．the cockpit voice recorder. |
| C．an underwater locator beacon. | D．the data of the analysis of the examination. |
| A．The recorders are bright orange in that the color is obviously the most beautiful. |
| B．The black boxes will be put into use after being examined by experts. |
| C．The beacon sends out an ultrasonic pulse when the plane crashes in the mountains. |
| D．The back end of the plane is least likely to be damaged in a crash. |
| A．How the black box got its name. |
| B．Some latest advances in military. |
| C．The black box will be taught in this new term. |
| D．The cruelty of the world war II. |
| A．To present the latest improvement in the black box. |
| B．To make a brief introduction to the black box. |
| C．To explain how the black box works. |
| D．To advertise an advanced black box. |
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【推荐1】What makes a person become an Olympic champion? In reality, a combination of biological environmental, and psychological factors as well as training and practice, all go into making a super athlete.
Perhaps the most important factor involved in becoming a super athlete is genetics. Most Olympic competitors are equipped with certain unique physical characteristics. Take a super athlete's muscles, for example. In most human skeletal muscles, there are fast-twitch fibers and slow-twitch fibers. Fast-twitch fibers help us move quickly. They allow weightlifters to lift hundreds of kilos from the ground and over their heads in seconds. The legs of a super marathon runner, on the other hand, might contain up to 90 percent slow-twitch muscle fibers, which generate energy efficiently and enable people to control tiredness and keep moving for a longer period of time when they exercise long or hard.
Some athletes' abilities are naturally enhanced by their environment. Those raised at high altitudes have blood that is rich in hemoglobin, which enables these athletes to run better, Cultural factors also help Tegla Loroupe, a young woman from northern Kenya, won several marathons. She attributes some of her success to her country's high altitude and her cultural background. As a child, she had to run ten kilometers to school every day.
Although genetics, environment, and even culture play a part in becoming a super athlete, training and practice are needed to succeed. Weightlifters and gymnasts perfect their skills by repeating the same motions again and again until they are automatic. Training this way requires an athlete to be not only physically fit but psychologically healthy as well.
How do athletes adjust to such intense pressure? Louganis explains how he learned to control his anxiety during a competition: "Most divers think too much…," he says. "They're too much in their heads. What worked for me was humor. I remember thinking about what my mother would say if she saw me do a bad dive. She'd probably just compliment me on the beautiful splash."
1. Having a lot of slow-twitch muscle fibers is particularly important for .| A．Weightlifters. | B．Divers. | C．Cyclists. | D．Table tennis players. |
| A．Devotes. | B．Compares. | C．Exposes. | D．Owes. |
| A．By thinking too much. | B．By training hard. |
| C．By laughing at the amusing things | D．By speaking out. |
| A．Healthy Olympic Champions. |
| B．Olympic Champions in the Making. |
| C．Factors in Becoming Physically and Psychologically Healthy. |
| D．Difference between an Athlete and an Average Person. |
【推荐2】Innovation is key to business survival, and companies put substantial resources into inspiring employees to develop new ideas but not necessarily succeed. And there are those who don’t have a budget, or much space, but who innovate successfully.
For Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, one reason that companies don’t succeed as often as they should is that innovation starts with recruitment. Research shows that the fit between an employee’s values and a company’s values makes a difference to what contribution they make and whether, two years after they join, they’re still at the company.
One of the most famous photographs in the story of rock’n’roll emphasizes Cialdini’s views.The 1956 picture of singers Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis jamming at a piano in Sun Studios in Memphis tells a hidden story. Sun’s million-dollar quartet (四重唱) could have been a quintet (五重唱). Missing from the picture is Roy Orbison, a greater natural singer. Sam Phillips, who owned Sun, wanted to revolutionize popular music. All of them except Orbison believed in it. Orbison wasn’t inspired by the goal, and only ever achieved one hit with the Sun label.
Cialdini also believes that the “follow-the-leader syndrome” is dangerous, not least because it encourages bosses to go it alone. “It’s been scientifically proven that three people will be better than one at solving problems, even if that one person is the smartest person in the field. To prove his point, Cialdini cites an interview with molecular biologist James Watson. Watson, together with Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA. “When asked how they had cracked the code ahead of other highly rival investigators, he said something that surprised me. He said he and Crick had succeeded because they were aware that they weren’t the most intelligent of the scientists pursuing the answer. The smartest scientist was called Rosalind Franklin who, Watson said, was so intelligent that she rarely sought advice.
Authority doesn’t have to inhibit (抑制) innovation but it often does. Many theorist believe the ideal boss should lead from behind, taking pride in collective accomplishment and giving credit where it is due. Cialdini says,” Leaders should encourage everyone to contribute and assure all concerned that every recommendation is important to making the right decision and will be given full attention, A manager who wants to create a truly innovative culture can make their job a lot easier by recognizing these psychological realities.
1. The example of the “million-dollar quartet” underlines the writer’s point about______________.| A．recognizing talent | B．working as a team |
| C．having a shared objective | D．being an effective leader |
| A．were conscious of their own limitations |
| B．brought complementary skills to their partnership |
| C．were determined to outperform their brighter rivals |
| D．encouraged each other to realize their joint ambition |
| A．be aware of their company’s goals |
| B．have respect for their co-workers’ achievements |
| C．understand why certain management decisions are made |
| D．feel that their contributions are valued |
| A．The key to becoming an innovative company. |
| B．The psychology of innovation. |
| C．The environment giving rise to Innovation. |
| D．How to be an innovative company leader. |
【推荐3】The curb cut (路缘坡) is a convenience that most of us rarely, if ever, notice. Yet, without it, daily life might be a lot harder—in more ways than one.
Pushing a baby stroller onto the curb, skateboarding onto a sidewalk or taking a full grocery cart from the sidewalk to your car—all these tasks are easier because of the curb cut.
But it was created with a different purpose in mind.
It’s hard to imagine today, but back in the 1970s, most sidewalks in the United States ended with a sharp drop-off. That was a big deal for people in wheelchairs because there were no ramps (斜坡) to help them move along city blocks without assistance. According to one disability rights leader, a six-inch curb “might as well have been Mount Everest” for wheelchair-bound people. So, activists from Berkeley, California, who also needed wheelchairs, organized a campaign to create tiny ramps at intersections to help disadvantaged people dependent on wheels move up and down curbs independently.
I think about the “curb cut effect” a lot when working on issues around health equality. The first time I even heard about the curb cut was in a 2017 Stanford Social Innovation Review piece by PolicyLink CEO Angela Blackwell. Blackwell rightly noted that many people see equality as “a zero-sum game (零和游戏)”. Basically, there is a deeply rooted social belief among them that intentionally supporting one group hurts another. What the curb cut effect reveals though, Blackwell said is that “when society-creates the circumstances that allow those who have been left behind to participate and contribute fully, everyone wins.”
One such example is closed captioning (字幕), originally intended to help deaf people understand movies and TV shows without needing to hear dialogue or sounds. But it’s easy to think of other applications for closed captioning: it’s convenient for customers watching TV in a noisy bar or gym, second-language learners who want to read as well as listen, or students who use it as a study aid.
So, next time you cross the street, or roll your suitcase through a crosswalk or ride your bike directly onto a sidewalk—think about how much the curb cut, that change in design that broke down walls of exclusion for one group of people at a disadvantage, has helped not just that group, but all of us.
1. What does the underlined quote imply concerning a six-inch curb?| A．It is an unforgettable symbol. | B．It is an impassable barrier. |
| C．It is an important sign. | D．It is an impressive landmark. |
| A．It’s not worthwhile to promote health equality. |
| B．It’s necessary to go all out to help the disabled. |
| C．It’s impossible to have everyone treated equally. |
| D．It’s fair to give the disadvantaged more help than others. |
| A．The four great inventions of ancient China spread to other countries in the world. |
| B．Reading machines for blind people help build the digital maps drivers use to navigate. |
| C．Your reaching out to the disadvantaged contributes to more people doing it. |
| D．A butterfly flapping its wings in one country leads to a Tornado in another country. |
| A．The curb cut is a convenient ramp designed to benefit the disabled. |
| B．Everyone in a society should be treated equally. |
| C．Supporting disadvantaged groups often ends up benefiting much larger ranges of society. |
| D．How disability rights activists fought for equality that changed the life of his followers. |
【推荐1】The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage is considered an important part of sustainable development. Among the 629 UNESCO-listed traditions are five entries in Estonia, the most recent of which is the building and use of dugout canoes (独木舟) in the Soomaa region.
Every year, before spring, Soomaa National Park transforms into an almost drowned world, when water from melting snow in the eastern uplands floods the low-lying forests, wetlands, roads and yads of the residents who still live here. The water level rose so high that villagers could roll a dugout canoe right through their windows and into their living rooms. Everyone has had to learn to adapt to the natural annual phenomenon.
Building a dugout canoe requires a good trunk of an aspen (山杨), which grows throughout the forests of Estonia.
Once cut down, the trees are peeled and shaped like a cigar using an axe. From here, the inside of the boat is carved out to give it shape. Builders cut the frame down to a few centimetres in thickness. A long log fire is then built alongside the canoe, which is filled with several bucketfuls of water and left to warm up. Once the water has evaporated, sticks are squeezed into the frame lengthways to open it up. Aspen is a soft wood and a trunk half a metre across can be expanded into a metre-wide boat. The bot is than left to cool in the shade and is traditionally finished the following spring. Once the wood has fully dried, it’s given its final design and covered with tar (焦油；柏油).
Aivar Ruukel, one of the only five Estonians who still preserve the skill, chooses to build them as a way to connect with the history. As a young man, Ruukel attended workshops led by two master boat builders, both in their 70s at the time. He hopes that by the time he’s 70 there will be more young people doing the same. Enthusiasts hope that its joining the heritage list will safeguard the ancient practice and attract the next generation of boat masters to keep it alive.
1. Why do villagers have to preserve dugout canoes?| A．To survive floods. |
| B．To go canoeing in the park. |
| C．To learn about a natural phenomenon. |
| D．To apply for intangible cultural heritage. |
①The boat is left in the shade to dry.
②The inside of the boat is carved out to give it shape.
③Builders warm up the canoe and open the frame up.
④The boat is given the design and covered with the tar.
⑤Builders remove the barks and make the trees into cigar shapes.
| A．⑤③②④① | B．②⑤④①③ | C．⑤②③①④ | D．②③⑤④① |
| A．All the young people shall become boat masters. |
| B．The practice will die out in the next generation. |
| C．More people are needed to pass on the tradition. |
| D．One cannot master the skill without learning history. |
| A．Dugout canoes come to life |
| B．Boat building industry in Estonia |
| C．Cultural heritage protection in Estonia |
| D．Dugout canoes in Estonia boat to future |
【推荐2】Are you a good judge of character? Can you make an accurate judgement of someone’s personality based only on your first impression of them? Interestingly, the answer lies as much in them as it does in you.
One of the first people to try to identify good judges of character was US psychologist Henry F Adams in 1927. His research led him to conclude that people fell into two groups — good judges of themselves and good judges of others. Adams’s research has been widely criticized since then, but he wasn’t entirely wrong about there being two clearly different types.
More on that in a moment, but first we need to define what a good judge of character is. Is it someone who ean read personality or someone who can read emotion? Those are two different skills. Emotions such as anger or joy or sadness can generate easily identifiable physical signs. Most of us would probably be able to accurately identify these signs, even in a stranger. As such, most of us are probably good judges of emotion.
In order to be a good judge of personality, however, there needs to be an interaction with the other person, and that person needs to be a “good target”. “Good targets” are people who reveal relevant and useful signals to their personality. So this means “the good judge” will only manifest when reading “good targets”. This is according to Rogers and Biesanz in their 2019 journal entitled “Reassessing the good judge of personality” “We found consistent, clear and strong evidence that the good judge does exist”, Rogers and Biesanz concluded. But their key finding is that the good judge does not have magical gifts of perception — they are simply able to “detect and use the information provided by the good target”.
So, are first impressions really accurate? Well, if you’re a good judge talking to a “good target”, then it seems the answer is “yes”. And now we know that good judges probably do exist, more research can be done into how they read personality, what kind of people they are — and whether their skills can be taught.
1. What can we learn about Adams from Paragraph 2?| A．He is a good judge of character. |
| B．He divided psychologists into two groups. |
| C．His research result has been widely accepted. |
| D．His research on good judges was partially right. |
| A．Annoying. | B．Joyful. |
| C．Simple. | D．Strange. |
| A．A good target is necessary for personality judgement. |
| B．A good target needs to get his personality reassessed. |
| C．A good judge can provide useful signals to our personality. |
| D．A good judge uses the information given by a good target simply. |
| A．The skills of good judges. |
| B．The features of good judges. |
| C．The ways to read personality. |
| D．The accuracy of first impressions. |
【推荐3】Women experience a “gender tenure gap”, lasting in CEO roles at publicly listed companies for shorter periods than men, according to new research which may support the idea that female leaders are subject to a “ glass cliff ” where they are set up to fail.
The concept of the glass cliff is that women are more likely to be appointed as leaders when an organization is in a time of crisis, so that their position is seen as more precarious than male counterparts.
Researchers at the University of Exeter found in 2005 that women were more likely to be appointed as board members after a company’s share price had performed badly. Professor Ryan told the Observer that the Russell Reynolds analysis was “ robust and added to the body of work in this area”.
“If women are more likely to take on leadership roles in times of crisis, then it follows that their time in office is likely to be stressful, more heavily scrutinised and shorter in tenure. This reduced tenure could be for a number of reasons—because there is often higher turnover in times of crisis, because they are judged as not performing well, even though poor performance was in train before their appointment, or because when things start to turn around, men come back into leadership roles.” she said.
Chief executive roles have a very low turnover, she said, which makes progress harder. “I think men can enjoy a greater followership—support within the organization. They can suffer big setbacks and rise again. Women who have been CEOs tend to go off to an alternative career.
However, she said that there was cause for optimism. The number of women on FTSE 350 boards is now 41%, up from 9.5% in 2011, and appointing women is “now the norm”. Russell Reynolds also found in a survey of 1,500 leaders worldwide that there were no significant differences in how women and men were perceived by the people who worked for them, showing that they were equally effective as leaders, although women were seen as being better at coaching and development.
1. What does the underlined word “precarious” probably mean?| A．Dangerous. |
| B．Profitable. |
| C．Essential. |
| D．Available. |
| A．“gender tenure gap” can be found in the majority of companies. |
| B．Male leaders are less likely to be appointed as board members. |
| C．Woman leaders in times of crisis tend to be shorter in tenure. |
| D．Female leaders are generally not performing well during their appointment. |
| A．Women leaders are destined to eliminate glass cliff in the future. |
| B．Nowadays woman leaders differ hugely from man leaders in followership. |
| C．Man leaders are superior to woman leaders in every aspect. |
| D．Woman leaders are no less competent than man counterparts. |
