2 . Nook’s arrival, Good or Bad?

Booklovers, most of them, will tell you what a pleasure it is to lend a favorite read to a friend—the novel you stayed up all night to get to the end of; the travel book that made you feel as if you yourself were on a train ride through India. For a while it seemed that e-book users were to be denied this pleasure of lending to friends. You could b    1     a book or magazine for your reading device, but you couldn’t lend it out.

But now, with the Nook, the US book chain Barnes and Noble’s response to Amazon’s Kindle, electronic readers will be able to have their l    2     literary enthusiasm pressed on their friends, just like readers of physical books can. You simply email the book from your Nook and your friend can read it for two weeks, using any device with the Barnes and Noble e-book reader software. It’s a big i    3     from previous e-book readers.

The Nook offers other features too. You read in black and white on the main screen, just like with Kindle. The difference is that on the lower part of the device there’s a c    4       touch screen, which allows you to browse through a book or magazine, but goes black when you’re not using it so that you s    5     power.

Another exciting thing about the Nook is that it offers Wi-Fi, arguably a big advance on previous e-book readers. Customers in the United States can use the Internet connection to read whole e-books at Barnes and Noble’s hundreds of bookstores for free. None of Barnes and Noble’s c    6     can come close to this.

But the Nook, ironically, has t    7     out to be a money-loser for Barnes and Noble, or at least a job-loser for Barnes and Noble’s employees. According to Marian Maneker at The Big Money Website, if the Nook is successful it might take sales from the company’s bookstores, eventually forcing their closure and the loss of thousands of jobs.

3 . For your next out-of-this-world vacation, you now have the option of really going out of this world—but it’ll cost you $ 40 million. According to a new report from Popular Mechanics, Russia is looking to build a luxury hotel in outer space. There you will wake up to a breathtaking blue planet—the Earth! The hotel is expected to be stationed on the International Space Station (ISS).

According to Popular Mechanics, the hotel will include a luxury orbital suite with big windows, personal hygiene (卫生) facilities, exercise equipment, and yes, WiFi. Because if you can’t share your experience on social media, did it really even happen?

Of course, the reasons behind the hotel aren’t just for fun and games. Apparently, space tourism might be able to help the Russians pay for another module (组件) to add to the international Space Station. Russian space contractor RKK Energia is currently building the first such module, which will give scientists a laboratory and power supply station from which to conduct tests.

If any of this is going to happen, however, Russia is going to have to hurry. With the ISS expected to be out of use in 2028, there’s little time to build the hotel and find wealthy tourists to actually buy a trip into outer space.

So if you’ve recently come into a fortune and are interested in investing in what could be the time of your life, ISS is calling your name.

1. What do we know about the hotel from the first paragraph?

A．It is quite affordable.	B．It will be built in Russia.
C．It will offer an amazing view.	D．It costs $ 40 million to build.

2. What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?

A．Hotel guests won’t be able to see into space.

B．Visitors are required to take exercise each day.

C．Space travel is not possible without the Internet.

D．Tourists tend to share traveling experiences online.

3. What does the underlined word “conduct” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．prepare for

B．carry out

C．keep on

D．take place

4. What will the hotel provide Russian scientists with?

A．Fun and games.

B．Financial support.

C．Space contractors.

D．More time in space.

5. According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?

A．The hotel may be built on the International Space Station.

B．Tourists can use personal hygiene facilities and exercise equipment in the hotel.

C．The hotel is not the only module to add to the international Space Station.

D．The International Space Station is expected to run forever.

5 . Fill in the blanks with proper words (在短文的空格内填入适当的词，使其内容通顺。每空格限填一词首字母已给出)

Charles Babbage: Father of the Computer

Charles Babbage hoped to invent a calculator. But the technology of his time was too simple. Babbage could not make his dream come true.

All his life, Baggage was interested in n    1    . For example, he could find out how f    2     a pig’s heart beats or make a table to calculate how much wood a man could saw (锯) in 10 hours.

Baggage was also an inventor. Around 1830, he decided to d    3     and build a machine for doing simple mathematical calculations. He called this machine the Difference Engine.

Making the machine

The Difference Engine was very big and difficult to make. It was made of two tons of steel and gears (齿轮) . While he was building this h    4     machine, he had an idea for a new machine. This one would do all kinds of calculations. He called it the Analytical Engine. It was the start of the modern computer. But Babbage used up all his money b    5     he could complete either machine.

Re-inventing the Engine

In 1854, two Swedish inventors built a working mechanical calculator. It was b    6     on the Difference Engine. This machine was able to print out different kinds of forms and tables. It was very accurate.

Babbage was the first person to come up with the idea of computers. And he is more famous today than he w    7     in his day.

7 . Scientists at Stanford University have developed a new material（材料）these days. It can move heat out of buildings and into space. The scientists say the material can cool buildings even on hot days. The cooling material can be placed on the roof like solar panels（太阳能电池板）. However, instead of turning sunlight into energy as solar panels do, the material turns heat into infrared radiation（红外辐射）.

Shanhui Fan is an electrical engineering professor at Stanford University. He says that the panels have a kind of material that is like sand. The panels act like a mirror. They take heat out of buildings and reflect（反射）the light from the sun. Both the heat and sunlight are sent 100 kilometers into outer space.

The material doesn’t get heated up by the sun because it can cool itself. So the panels are cool to the touch, even in the sun. Researchers say they can reduce the indoor temperature to nearly 5℃ below the temperature outside.

Mr. Fan says it is like having a window into space. The heat is sent into space without warming the air. He also says buildings in developing countries that do not have air conditioning can use the panels.

Scientists say the big problem is developing an actual cooling system by using the high-tech panels. Nowadays, as much as 15% of the energy used in the United States is spent providing power to air conditioning systems. Scientists believe the cooling system can be developed in the next three to five years. It can greatly help save the energy.

1. The new material can cool the buildings by ________.

A．placing it on the ground	B．turning sunlight into energy
C．using solar panels	D．turning heat into infrared radiation

2. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 is about ________.

A．the building

B．the sun

C．the material

D．the space

3. If it’s 35℃ outside, it will be about ________ in the building with the new panels.

A．25℃

B．30℃

C．35℃

D．40℃

4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The new material won’t warm the air when sending heat into space.

B．The panels have sand to help take heat out of buildings.

C．It needs more energy to power the new cooling system than air conditioning.

D．Now people in the US can use the new cooling system to cool their houses.

5. The passage is mainly about ________.

A．a new kind of solar panel	B．a new kind of space material
C．a new kind of cooling material	D．a new kind of energy

8 . ①Since the first man looked up at the flying birds, countless successes have been achieved on the way up to the sky. From the stones thrown into the air to airships of all kinds, pioneers of humans never failed to let their imagination run wild.

②Stories of pioneers go back to centuries ago.

③Kite flying in China dates back to the 5th century BC and is thought to be the earliest example of man-made flight.

④From the 3rd century BC, the sky lantern (灯笼) was known in China. Many people believe that it was invented by Zhuge Liang in the war. Some say he wrote a message on a sky lantern for help, while others believe sky lanterns were used to drive the enemies away.

⑤Whichever is true, humans have never stopped, and they never will. In modern times, new fields are being explored (探索).

⑥In 1993, the world’s largest hot air airship was built. The AS-300 carried an underslung raft (悬挂式木筏). It allowed a team of French scientists to carry out their treetop researches without too much harm to the rain forest.

⑦On May 15, 2022, Chinese scientists sent up the latest model of “Jimu No.1”, China’s self-developed airship, to collect weather information on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

⑧The airship would work at a world-record altitude (海拔) of 9,032 meters. It was the first time an airship of its size had reached this height, even higher than that of the 8,849-meter-tall Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain in the world.

1. According to the passage, we learn ________.

A．Zhuge Liang was believed to invent kites

B．sky lanterns were used just for fun in China

C．kite flying in China dates back to the 5th century BC

D．sky lanterns were known in China before the 3rd century BC

2. Both the AS-300 and the latest model of “Jimu No.1” are airships which ________.

A．were harmful to the forest	B．broke a world record each
C．reached the highest mountain	D．helped with treetop researches

3. The writer’s main purpose in writing the passage is to ________.

A．share humorous stories about the pioneers	B．show how excellent ancient people were
C．encourage us to learn more about imagination	D．praise the never-ending exploration into the sky

4. The structure (结构) of the passage is ________.

A．	B．
C．	D．