Electric Cars
Where do cars get their energy from? For most cars, the answer is petrol. But some cars use electricity. These cars have special motors that get their power from large batteries.
Most people tend to think of electric cars as a new invention, but they have been around for a long time. They were popular when the technology for petrol engines was not very advanced. Recently, electric cars have again become popular because people want cars that pollute less.
Electric cars are better than petrol cars in several ways. The biggest benefit is reduced pollution. In areas where there is a high percentage of electric cars, there is less pollution. But it is important to understand that electric cars still cause pollution. Remember that the electricity to power electric cars has to come from somewhere, which is most likely a power station. Unless these power stations run on solar or wind energy, they are most likely burning coal and oil to make electricity. The second benefit of electric cars is a reduction in the dependence on foreign oil.
There are several countries, including the United States, which don't want to rely on oil coming from other countries to power their transportation systems. They want the power to come from within their country, and since electric cars can run on electricity from coal or nuclear power stations, there is less of a need to import oil.
Despite the benefits of electric cars, there are some problems with them as well. One disadvantage is that electric cars are more expensive than petrol cars. This is mostly due to the high cost of the batteries these cars need. Electric cars run on batteries, just like a mobile phone does. But unlike a mobile phone, you cannot charge your electric car's battery by plugging it into a wall. They need to be charged in special places. Now, there is a lack of places where people can charge the batteries. Another problem is that electric cars cannot travel as far as petrol cars. Some people are afraid that the battery will run out of electricity (and the car will stop) before they reach their destination.
Despite these problems, many people, including automobile industry experts, believe that the percentage of electric cars will increase in the future.
1. What's the main idea of Paragraph 3?| A．Electric cars make some countries independent. |
| B．Electric cars cause no pollution to the environment. |
| C．Electric cars have some advantages over petrol cars. |
| D．Electric cars need electricity from solar or wind energy. |
| A．Electric cars need special motors to get power. |
| B．Petrol cars are cheaper than electric cars. |
| C．Petrol cars can travel farther than electric cars. |
| D．Electric cars need special places to get charged. |
| A．electric cars will take the place of petrol cars |
| B．no one holds hope for electric cars at present |
| C．electric cars waste more energy than before |
| D．more and more people will use electric cars |
| A．argue and prove | B．inform and explain |
| C．attract and discuss | D．advertise and conclude |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Train Information
All customers travelling on TransLink services must be in possession of a valid ticket before boarding. For ticket information, please ask at your local station or call 13-12-30.
Public holidays
On public holidays, generally a Sunday timetable operates. On certain major event days, i.e. Australia Day, Anzac Day, sporting and cultural days, special additional services may operate.
Christmas Day services operate to a Christmas Day timetable, Before travel please visit translink.com.au or call TransLink on 13-12-30 anytime.
Customers using mobility devices
Many stations have wheelchair access from the car park or entrance to the station platforms.
For assistance, please Queensland Rail on 13-16-17.
Guardian trains (outbound)
| Depart | Origin | Destination | Arrive |
| 6:42 p.m. | Altandi | Varsity Lakes | 7:37 p.m. |
| 7:29 p.m. | Central | Varsity Lakes | 8:52 p.m. |
| 8:57 p.m. | Fortitude Valley | Varsity Lakes | 9:52 p.m. |
| 11:02 p.m. | Roma Street | Varsity Lakes | 12:22 a.m. |
| A．Call 13-16-17. | B．Visit translink. com. au. |
| C．Ask at the local station. | D．Check the train schedule. |
| A．6:42 p.m. | B．7:29 p.m. | C．8:57 p.m. | D．11:02 p.m. |
【推荐2】When you travel on a London bus, we want you to have the best experience possible. If you haven’t used our services before, here are some tips for your reference.
Face coverings. You must wear a face covering, over your nose and mouth, for the full duration of journeys on the public transport network. If you do not, you could be denied travel, or receive a minimum £200 fine which will double each time you are caught not wearing a face covering, up to £6,400.
Quieter times and places. The quieter times to travel on public transport are 08: 15-16:00 and after 17:30 on weekdays, and before noon and after 18: 00 on weekends. These times may change as schools and offices start to reopen.
Cash-free travel. All buses in London are cash-free. This means you will need to have an Oyster card, contactless payment, or a valid ticket to travel on a London bus.
Getting off a bus. Next stop information is displayed on the information screens and announced on all of our buses. When your stop is displayed and announced, please press the bell once and in good time. This lets the driver know you intend to get off.
Bus Station Controller Offices. Get help with travel advice, route and bus stop information and departure times, report any safety concerns or hand in lost property.
| Vauxhall Bus Station Monday to Friday. 06:30-22:00 Saturday/Sunday. 10:00-18:00 33 Bondway, Lambeth SW8 2LN | Walthamstow Bus Station Monday to Sunday, 06:30-22:00 Selborne Road. Waltham Forest E17 7JP |
| Stratford Regional Bus Station 24 hours 7 days Great Bastern Road, Newham E15 1XD | West Croydon Bus Station Monday to Saturday. 06:30-22:00 Sunday, 10:00-18:00 Station Road, Croydon CR0 2RD |
| A．Paying in cash. |
| B．Wearing a mask. |
| C．Listening for the bell. |
| D．Travelling at quieter hours. |
| A．Recover lost items. |
| B．Provide some services. |
| C．Read safety instructions. |
| D．Apply for an Oyster card. |
| A．Vauxhall. |
| B．Walthamstow. |
| C．Stratford Regional. |
| D．West Croydon. |
【推荐3】Welcome to the Public Transport Guide for Parents where you will find all the information and decisions you need to make to prepare your child for travelling on Trans Link's public transport network in South East Queensland.
We have three planning tools to help you find the most suitable public transport mode and school route for your child: School service finder. Journey planner, and Qconnect journey planner.
My TransLink is the official Queensland Government app for public transport in South East Queensland, Mackay, Cairns. Toowoomba and Townsville.
When using journey planner, make sure you select a date that falls on a school day and choose between 'Depart’ or 'Arrive before’ to tailor your search.
You can contact your local school bus operator for more information about the school service and student assistance options.
If you live outside South East Queensland, please contact your local Passenger and School Transport Office.
To find the best travel product for your child, visit student ticketing options. The most common concession (特许) is the child and student go cards:
·All primary and secondary school students are qualified for a concession go card.
· Concession fares are 50 percent of an adult fare.
· A further 50 percent is deducted(扣除）after the 8th paid journey within a week (Monday to Sunday).
School students 15 years and older must hold a valid student ID (issued by school) to buy a green go card.
1. What is the passage aimed at?| A．Encouraging people to use APP. |
| B．Attracting people to Queensland. |
| C．Preparing children for education. |
| D．Offering parents transport guide. |
| A．Select a proper date. | B．Arrive before a school day. |
| C．Live outside Queensland. | D．Contact the local operator. |
| A．It's as cheap as the card for adults. |
| B．All students can apply for the card. |
| C．More discounts are offered on Monday. |
| D．The green card is for primary students. |
【推荐1】A heavy feeling on the chest. A throat that’s leaden. An overwhelming feeling of isolation. Loneliness hurts—and, over time, it can put the body into a state that increases our risk of everything from heart attack and stroke to diabetes and cancer. So, evolutionarily speaking, why do we experience it?
Stephanie Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, says that countless studies have helped researchers formulate a holistic(全面的)purpose for loneliness. “Our social structures evolved hand in hand with neural, hormonal and genetic mechanisms to support these social structures—like couples, tribes and communities—that help us survive and reproduce,” says Cacioppo. Because while loneliness may be painful to experience today, for our prehistoric ancestors that pain would have been a far better alternative to being caught alone with a predator on the prowl(潜行).
Being social had its downsides even back then—competition for food, for example, or contribution to the spread of pathogens(病原体). But scientists think we evolved to feel loneliness because it was more important to work with one another to accomplish tasks and to protect everyone. “The pain of loneliness prompted us to renew the social structure so we could survive and promote key features like trust, cooperation and collective action, explains Cacioppo.
For years, researchers thought of loneliness as a disease. But now, they’re realizing that it’s more of a biological hunger signal that reminds us when it’s time to reconnect with those around us to promote our short-term survival. If the outcomes of loneliness were entirely negative, it would no longer be a part of our DNA. “Hunger and thirst protect our physical body while loneliness protects our social body,” says Cacioppo.
Loneliness impacts us all differently. Some of us may find certain situations lonely even while others don’t. There’s also a genetic component: Some of us are born to feel lonelier than others. Other factors play a role, too. The way we were treated as children can also inform how lonely we feel as adults. Lonely people spend most of their time deep within their own imaginations; they may conceptualize social encounters so much, in fact, that this part of their brain is in overdrive. That means even though they may be desperate to form connections, when they’re around other people, they’re actually less likely to be present.
1. As for loneliness, which would the author agree with?| A．It can lead to serious mental problems in adulthood. |
| B．It holds potential risks and disadvantages to individuals. |
| C．It may reflect a person’s strong desire to have social bonds. |
| D．It is perceived in the same way as it is demonstrated by our DNA. |
| A．beneficial but risky | B．painful but necessary |
| C．natural and powerful | D．personal and harmful |
| A．Humans evolved to be lonely. | B．Loneliness is a curable disease. |
| C．Loneliness is a personal feeling. | D．Humans need to address loneliness. |
【推荐2】When you can’t fit your entire workout into a busy day, do you think there’s no point in doing anything at all? You should rethink that mindset. Just 11 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic activity per day could lower your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease(心血管疾病) or premature death, a large new study has found.
Aerobic activities include walking, dancing, running, jogging, cycling and swimming. You can estimate the intensity level of an activity by your heart rate and how hard you’re breathing as you move. Higher levels of physical activity have been associated with lower rates of premature death and chronic disease, according to past research. But how the risk levels for these outcomes are affected by the amount of exercise someone gets has been more difficult to determine. To explore this impact, scientists largely from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom looked at data from 196 studies, amounting to more than 30 million adult participants who were followed for 10 years on average.
The study mainly focused on participants who had done the minimum recommended amount of 150 minutes of exercise per week, or 22 minutes per day. Compared with inactive participants, adults who had done 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity per week had a 31% lower risk of dying from any cause, a 29% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 15% lower risk of dying from cancer. The same amount of exercise was linked with a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and 12% lower risk when it came to cancer.
“This is a convincing systematic review of existing research,” said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, who wasn’t involved in the research. “We already knew that there was a strong correlation between increased physical activity and reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death. This research confirms it, and furthermore states that a smaller amount than the 150 minutes of recommended exercise a week can help.”
1. Why did the scientists from the University of Cambridge do this research?| A．To confirm the past research. |
| B．To encourage people to do more exercise. |
| C．To find out how the amount of exercise impact the risk levels. |
| D．To explore the relationship between daily exercise and risk levels. |
| A．By conducting genetic research. |
| B．By analyzing data from past research. |
| C．By comparing different groups of participants. |
| D．By collecting a mass of data from science website. |
| A．Inactive participants had higher risk of dying from cancer. |
| B．People should take exercise for about 22 minutes every day. |
| C．The scientists suggested people exercise at most 150 minutes per week. |
| D．Moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity was the best exercise for adults. |
| A．Critical. | B．Indifferent. |
| C．Sceptical. | D．Positive. |
【推荐3】Too much TV - watching can harm children's ability to learn and even reduce their chances of getting a college degree, new studies suggest in the latest effort to examine the effects of television on children.
One of the studies looked at nearly 400 northern California third-graders. Those with TVs in their bedrooms scored about eight points lower on math and language arts tests than children without bedroom TVs.
A second study ,looking at nearly 1000 grown - ups in New Zealand, found lower education levels among 26 - year - olds who had watched lots of TV during childhood. But the results don’t prove that TV is the cause and don't ride out (排除) that already poorly motivated youngsters may watch lots of TV.
Their study measured the TV habits of 26 - year - olds between ages 5 and 15. These with college degrees had watched an average of less than two hours of TV per week night during childhood, compared with an average of more than 2 hours for those who had no education beyond high school.
In the California study, children with TVs in their rooms but no computer at home scored the lowest while those with no bedroom TV but who had home computers scored the highest.
While this study does not prove that bedroom TV sets caused the lower scores, it adds to accumulating (积累) findings that children shouldn't have TVs in their bedrooms.
1. According to the California study, the low - scoring group might ________ .| A．have watched a lot of TV | B．not be interested in math |
| C．be unable to go to college | D．have had computers in their bedrooms |
| A．Poorly motivated 26 - year - olds watch more TV |
| B．Habits of TV watching reduce learning interest |
| C．TV watching leads to lower education levels of the 15 - year olds |
| D．The connection between TV and education levels is difficult to explain |
| A．More time should be spent on computers |
| B．Children should be forbidden from watching TV |
| C．TV sets shouldn't be allowed in children's bedrooms |
| D．Further studies on high - achieving students should be done |
| A．teachers | B．parents |
| C．TV sellers | D．education experts |
【推荐1】Imagine that you could go into outer space, take your helmet off, and take a breath—without dying instantly, that is. Would the surrounding universe have a smell?
We think of space as a huge empty, pitch-dark and dead silent place without air. A place like that couldn’t possibly have a smell, right? As it turns out, space actually does have a clear smell. While we can’t smell anything in outer space because, as we mentioned, anyone attempting to do so would almost instantly die, what we can smell are the things that have come back from space.
Space suits, for instance, smell differently after they’ve returned from space than they did before launch. Astronauts returning from space say that their suits smell, in a word, burnt. The remaining scent of space reminds the astronauts of unpleasant burnt meat or metallic smoke.
What causes this rather unpleasant smell? Scientists believe that it could come from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a chemical compound (化合物). These things are basically high-powered materials released into space during the nuclear reactions that power stars and supernovae.
However, this smell is one of many scents that space could have. The universe is massive, after all, filled with many different elements and compounds. Scientists do have a pretty good idea of what a lot of “space stuff” is made of, giving them better ideas about what it might smell like. Most memorably, the dust cloud at the center of the Milky Way contains large amounts of ethyl formate (甲酸乙酯). This is the compound that, on Earth, gives raspberries (覆盆子) their scent. Yes, raspberries. What’s more, ethyl formate itself is created from a reaction between acid and a type of alcohol, which gives it a smell similar to a strong alcohol. (Ironically, alcohol is one of the foods that are banned from space.) The smell of space—or at least that part of space—doesn’t seem so bad anymore.
1. How can we know space has a smell?| A．By burning meat and metal. |
| B．By smelling the things returning from space. |
| C．By smelling astronauts’ clothes before launch. |
| D．By taking off helmets and taking a breath in space. |
| A．Alcohol. | B．Raspberries. |
| C．Unpleasant burnt space suits. | D．Smelly burnt meat and metallic smoke. |
| A．Stars and supernovae. | B．Chemical compounds. |
| C．High-powered materials. | D．Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. |
| A．It is believed there is only one smell in space. |
| B．The dust cloud in space smells like raspberries. |
| C．The smell of space may be known based on the “stuff” there. |
| D．Ethyl formate creates a reaction between acid and a type of alcohol. |
【推荐2】I am standing next to a five-year old girl in Pormpuraaw, a small native community in northern Australia. When I ask her to point north, she points exactly and without hesitation. My compass (指南针) says she is right. Later, back in a lecture hall at Stanford University, I make the same request of an audience of excellent professors. Many refuse; they do not know the answer.
A five-year-old in one culture can do something with ease that great scientists in other cultures struggle with. This is a big difference in cognitive (认知的) ability. What could explain it? The surprising answer, it turns out, may be language.
Around the world people communicate with one another using a variety of languages—7,000 or so all told—and each language requires very different things from its speakers. For example, suppose I want to tell you that I saw Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street. In Mian, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, the verb I used would reveal (显示) whether the event happened just now, yesterday or in the distant past, while in Indonesia, the verb wouldn’t even give away whether it had already happened or was still coming up. In Russian, the verb would reveal my gender (性别).
Research in my lab and in many others has been uncovering how language shapes even the most basic concept (概念) of human experience: space, time, and relationships to others. Unlike English, the language spoken in Pormpuraaw does not use relative spatial (空间感的) terms such as left and right. Rather speakers talk in terms of absolute directions. Of course, in English we also use direction terms but only for large spatial scales (标度). We would not say, for example, “They set the salad forks southeast of the dinner forks!” But in Pormpuraaw, absolute directions are used at all scales. This means one ends up saying things like “the cup is southeast of the plate” or “the boy standing to the south of Mary is my brother.”
1. How does the author mainly explain the role language plays in the different cognition?| A．By giving numbers. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By describing personal experiences. | D．By presenting different viewpoints. |
| A．Her training in Stanford University. | B．The challenge from professors. |
| C．The language she speaks. | D．The English culture she absorbs. |
| A．The time. | B．The gender. | C．The space. | D．The event. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Positive. | C．Negative. | D．Objective(客观的) |
【推荐3】When your alarm clock rings and you drag yourself out of bed, you probably wonder: Why on earth does school have to start so early?
Fortunately, there is a new law to back you up — or better still, science.
A law in California, passed on Oct 13, requires that public middle schools begin classes no earlier than 8:00 am and that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 am. The law will go into effect by November 1, 2022.
Starting school at 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning may not sound like too big of a change, but it could mean one more hour of sleep for students who used to start school at 7:30 or even earlier.
“The effect of that one hour is something they will be feeling as 40-year-old adults,” Sumit Bhargava, a sleep expert at Stanford University, told The New York Times. He said that not having enough sleep can affect students’ mental health and increase the risk of being overweight and diabetes (糖尿病).
In the short run, students’ school performances should improve almost immediately. Kyla Wahlstrom, a researcher at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education, found that students who have enough sleep are alert in class and get much more satisfying grades.
Some might say that asking students to go to bed earlier could have been a much easier solution than changing the school timetable across an entire state. But according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, teenagers go through biological changes when they enter puberty (青春期), which makes it difficult for them to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. So when school starts at 8:00 or earlier, they can hardly get the ideal 8.5 - 9.5 hours of sleep that experts suggest they need to do their best in the daytime.
This is why when the new law came out, its author, Anthony Portantino, said, “Generations of children will come to appreciate this historic day and our governor for taking action.”
1. Which of the following is TRUE about the law?| A．The law has not been put into practice yet. |
| B．The law will be passed by November 1, 2022. |
| C．The law is made by a university in California. |
| D．The law requires schools to start later than 8:30 am. |
| A．The new law is of lasting benefit to students. |
| B．Lack of sleep affects adults more than children. |
| C．The amount of sleep people need changes with age. |
| D．Enough sleep makes sure that students are mentally healthy. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Honest. | C．Calm. | D．Sharp. |
| A．Lack of sleep could lead to health problems. |
| B．California is pushing back school start times. |
| C．A law to start the school day later takes effect. |
| D．Teenagers’ biological changes affect their sleep patterns. |
