1 . How many coins have you got in your pocket right now?Three?Two?Or one? With a phone card you can make up to 200 calls without any change at all.
What do you do with it?
Go to a telephone box marked “Card Phone”.Put in your card,make your call and when you’ve finished,a screen tells you how much is left on your card.
It costs no extra for the cards,and the calls cost 10p per unit,the same as any other payphone call.
You can buy them in units of 10,20,40,100 or 200.
Now appearing in a shop near you
Near each Card Phone place you’ll find a shop where you can buy one. They’re at bus,train and city tube(地铁) stations.
At many universities,hospitals and clubs,restaurants and gas stations on the highway and shopping centers.
At airports and seaports.
No more broken payphones
Most broken payphones are like that because they’ve been vandalized(破坏了的).There are no coins in Card Phone to excite thieves’interest in it. So you’re not probably to find a vandalized one.
Get a phone card yourself and try it out.Or get a bigger wallet.
1. There are three parts in the passage.Which section do you think is about why card phones are good?| A．Part 1. | B．Part 2. | C．Part 3. | D．None. |
| A．4 pounds. | B．40 pounds. |
| C．400 pounds. | D．100 pounds. |
a.Put in your phone card.
b.Look at the screen to find out how many calls you can still make.
c.Go to the telephone box marked “Card Phone”.
d.Make your call.
| A．a,b,c,d | B．c,a,d,b | C．a,d,c,b | D．c,d,a,b |
| A．Phone cards are cheap | B．You cannot use all payphones |
| C．Thieves will not break card phones | D．Or people have to carry much money |
| A．a warning | B．a note |
| C．an advertisement | D．an announcement |
2 . The story of chocolate begins with the discovery of America in 1492. Columbus was the first European to come into contact with cacao. Columbus was struck by how much value the Indians placed on them as he did not know the beans were used by currency. It is unlikely that Columbus brought any of these beans back to Spain and it was not until about 25 years later that Cortez grasped the commercial possibilities when he found the Aztecs using the beans to make the royal drink “chocolate”.
The Spanish, in general, were not fond of the bitter drink so Cortez and his followers made it more palatable by adding cane sugar and later cinnamon and vanilla were added. Spanish monks let the secret out back home and, although the Spanish hid it from their neighbors for a hundred years, finally chocolate’s popularity grew until it was their fashionable drink at the French court and the wise choice of customers at London meeting houses.
The cacao tree is strictly a tropical plant only in hot, rainy climates. Thus, its cultivation is limited to countries not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator (赤道). The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection from the wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most conditions. This is true especially in its first two or three years of growth. A newly planted young cacao tree is often sheltered by a different type of trees. It is normal to plant food crops for shade such as bananas, plantain, coconuts or cocoyams. Rubber trees and forest trees are also used for shade. Once established, however, cacao trees can grow in full sunlight, provided there are fertile soil conditions and intensive farming. With cutting and careful cultivation, the trees of strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care, some strains can be stimulated to produce good crops in the third and fourth year.
The process of turning cacao into chocolate hasn’t changed much since the Swiss made the major breakthroughs in the process in the late 1800s. First the beans go through a process of fermentation ( 发酵 ) and drying. They are then sorted by hand before cleaning and then roasting. Winnowing ( 风 扬 ) follows which removes the hard outer layers and leaves what is as the “grains”. A crushing and heating process known as Hunte’s Process is then used to remove nearly half of the cocoa butter from the nibs. This makes unsweetened chocolate. Basic eating chocolate is made from a mixture of the unsweetened chocolate with some of the cocoa butter along with other ingredients such as sugar and vanilla. The resulting product is then “purified” and this purifying gives chocolate the silky texture that we know so well. The finished result is then shaped, cooled, packaged by machine, distributed, sold and of course, eaten!
1. Why didn’t Columbus bring beans back to Spain at once when he found cacao?| A．Because he couldn’t afford to buy the cacao bean. |
| B．Because he didn’t know how to turn cacao bean into chocolate. |
| C．Because he was not aware of the monetary value of cacao bean then. |
| D．Because Spaniards then didn’t favour the chocolate that the Aztecs originally drank. |
| A．affordable | B．agreeable | C．patent | D．portable |
| A．Cacao trees need a lot of looking after to be used commercially. |
| B．Cacao trees require hot, rainy climates and adequate sunlight. |
| C．Cacao trees won’t produce fruit until the fifth year. |
| D．Cacao trees can grow well in all continents. |
① The chocolate is reheated to melt it, put into patterns and then cooled to make its final shapes.
② The beans are harvested on the farm.
③ Some cocoa butter is then obtained using Hunte’s Process to make cooking chocolate.
④ The cooking chocolate is then mixed with other ingredients to make the various types of eating chocolate available today.
⑤ The beans are winnowed after fermentation and drying and these two processes produce the grains.
⑥ The finished product is wrapped, sent to shops and then sold.
| A．②①③④⑤⑥ | B．②③①⑤④⑥ | C．②④⑤①③⑥ | D．②⑤③④①⑥ |
3 . By the mid-1920s, Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. had been one of the most celebrated men .In 1957, when Pablo Picasso was in his seventh decade, he joked that x-ray technology might one day reveal a lost work underneath one of his early paintings. Today, that prediction became reality although the technology involved goes far beyond x-rays.
Using hyper-modern tools to peer into one of his Blue Period paintings, researchers have not only shown a hidden piece of art history in astonishing new detail, they have revealed a striking amount of insight into Picasso's creative process and style.
The investigation focused on"La Miséreuse accroupie, "or" Crouching Woman, "painted in 1902 and currently owned by the Art Gallery. The painting, an oil on canvas (画布) piece drawing a crouching (蜷坐的) woman who wears a long coat, shows Picasso’s typical Blue Period colors: grey, green, blue and white. It shows that the innovative modernist was inspired by the lines of an underlying landscape painted by an unknown artist.
The analysis also exposes several changes to the woman described in the painting,many of which Picasso ultimately abandoned. Researchers released their findings on Saturday’s press conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas. “We think now it's a landscape painted by someone enrolled at the fine arts academy in Barcelona, someone in Picasso’s orbit but not in his close circle, ”says Kenneth Brummel, assistant curator of modern art for the Art Gallery of Ontario.
As to why Picasso would have “recycled” another artist’s canvas(油画布), reasons could range from economic necessity, as a young artist still establishing himself, to deep inspiration driven by the lines of the image already laid down there. Picasso often re-used canvases for this reason."
“He didn't shave off the canvas or put a preparatory layer over it,” Brummel says.“ Picasso saw this landscape, found inspiration, and decided he was going to paint it immediately."
1. According to the text ,the most likely process of Picasso's painting?①Picasso reused another artist's canvas.
②Inspired by a landscape painting, Picasso decided to paint one too.
③Picasso painted a woman on the landscape painting.
④Not happy with the landscape, Picasso covered it totally.
⑤Picasso made changes to the woman
| A．②③④ | B．④②③ |
| C．①③⑤ | D．②①④ |
| A．He reused it because he hated wasting anything. |
| B．He hid his own paintings beneath the landscape. |
| C．He took the advantage of it and created a new one. |
| D．He kept it to himself with the permission of its owner. |
| A．People often celebrated Picasso’s success. |
| B．Picasso was not well-off when he started his career. |
| C．Picasso became successful overnight. |
| D．Picasso was good at imitating other artists’ works. |
| A．Picasso's predication turned out to be joke. |
| B．High technology uncovered art mysteries. |
| C．Seeing is not always believing. |
| D．Lost Artwork Found Under Famous Picasso Painting. |
4 . Recently, Whitewater Middle School students in the US looked at 200 pounds (90.7 kg) of food. Their classmates threw it away after a meal in the cafeteria. They found the remains of pizzas. They saw untouched green salads and pieces of bread bitten only once. It was，they said, both disgusting and educational.
"You don't realize how much food waste you're making till you see it," said student Cody Gist.
To deal with this problem, Whitewater added environmental science as a school-wide program this year. Teachers are guiding their students through research on the ways food is linked to environment, poverty, and people's health.
The school changed to compostable (可用作堆肥的)paper trays (托盘)as well. Working with Every Tray Counts, a US nonprofit group, the school hopes for a change from disposable trays to compostable paper trays.
This isn't just an exercise at school. Whitewater is joining a network of schools, businesses and neighborhoods. They try to make composting as mainstream as recycling.
"The larger issue is protection of landfill (垃圾填埋场)space," said Laurette Hall, an environmental management official. The area has enough space to last for maybe 25 more years, she said. That isn't as much as it sounds in such a rapidly growing area.
Principal Beth Thompson said students advise each other on new ways to deal with trash.
"Students understand why it matters so not one student refused to do extra work when throwing away their waste," Thompson said.
Whitewater teachers make sure students know how their own eating habits are part of bigger problems. In environmental literature class, students read books such as Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Mollie Lyman works with several language arts classrooms. Their classes discuss such issues as how poor neighborhoods often have less access (使用权)to healthy food.
Lyman says she wants students to ask some basic questions: "What do we eat? What do we waste?”
1. Why did Whitewater Middle School students look at the food?| A．To prepare students for the environmental science course. |
| B．To find out the calories of different kinds of food. |
| C．To see how food was connected with other problems. |
| D．To check what foods were most popular among students. |
① Introducing a new course about the environment.
② Using compostable paper trays in the cafeteria.
③ Setting up a group called Every Tray Counts.
④ Joining others to make composting common.
| A．①②④ | B．①②③ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．People don't want to protect landfill space. |
| B．Students don't know how to recycle trash. |
| C．There won't be enough landfill space in the future. |
| D．Students don't understand the waste problem. |
| A．To tell readers how important it is to save food. |
| B．To share how a US school is making an effort for the environment. |
| C．To encourage schools to have environmental protection classes. |
| D．To call on students to care about poor people. |
5 . When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks (挫折) to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.
Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.
Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.
She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”
Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.
1. The main idea of the passage is ________.| A．how Liz managed to enter Harvard University |
| B．how Liz struggled to change her life |
| C．why Liz loved her parents so much |
| D．the hard time Liz had in her childhood |
a. Her mother died of AIDS.
b. She worked at a petrol station.
c. She got admitted into Harvard.
d. The movie about her life was put on.
e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.
| A．b, e, a, d, c | B．a, b, c, e, d | C．e, d, b, a, c | D．b, a, e, c, d |
| A．Both Liz’s father and mother are AIDS-infected patients. |
| B．Liz lived a hard time in her childhood. |
| C．Liz’s story is an inspiration to many people. |
| D．Liz hated her father because he got addicted to drugs. |
| A．Envy and encouragement. | B．Willpower and determination. |
| C．Decisions and understanding. | D．Love and respect for her parents. |
6 . Scientists say they have developed a system that uses machine learning to predict when and where lightning will strike. The research was led by engineers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Lightning is a strong burst of electricity in the atmosphere. It can strike between clouds or between a cloud and the ground. Since lightning carries an extremely powerful electrical charge, it can be destructive and deadly. It is difficult to know exactly how many people die of lightning-related causes. European researchers have estimated that between 6,000 and 24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. The strikes can also cause power failure, destroy property, damage electrical equipment and start forest fires.
For this reason, climate scientists have long sought to develop methods to predict and control lightning. The system tested in the experiments uses a combination of data from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model that was trained to recognize weather conditions that were likely to cause lightning. The model was created with data collected over a 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data related to four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity (湿度) and wind speed. The atmospheric data was placed into a machine learning algorithm (计算程序), which compared it to records of lightning strikes. Researchers say the algorithm was then able to learn the conditions under which lightning happens.
“Once trained, the system made predictions that proved correct almost 80 percent of the time,” the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said in a statement. “It can now be used anywhere.”
Amirhossein Mostajabi, a PhD student at the institute, said current systems for gathering such data are slow and complex and require costly collection equipment like radar or satellites. “Our method uses data that can be obtained from any weather station,” he said. “This will improve data collection in very remote areas not covered by radar and satellite or in places where communication systems have been cut,” he added.
The researchers plan to keep developing the technology in partnership with a European effort that aims to create a lightning protection system. Scientists working on the Paris-based project are experimenting with a laser technology that could someday control lightning activity. The idea is that powerful, ground-based lasers can be positioned in the sky to direct energy from lightning.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly focus on?| A．The cause of lightning. | B．The forming process of lighnting. |
| C．The destruction of lightning. | D．The difficulty to count the deaths. |
① develop a prediction model.
② learn to recognize weather conditions.
③ collect related data.
④ input the data onto the computer.
⑤ make predictions.
| A．①→②→③→④→⑤ | B．③→④→①→②→⑤ |
| C．①→②→④→③→⑤ | D．③→①→②→⑤→④ |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Negative. | D．Neutral. |
| A．accuracy | B．efficiency |
| C．wide coverage | D．reliability |
| A．Identify lighting. | B．Predict lighting. |
| C．Stop lighting. | D．Control lighting. |
7 . One day, a man saw an old lady sitting inside her car at the side of the road. Though it was dark, he could see she needed help. So he stopped his car and walked towards her. The old lady was worried, even though she noticed the smile on his face. Was he going to hurt her?“I’11 help you start your car, madam. By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson,”he said.
While Anderson was fitting a spare tire(备胎)to her car, the lady began to talk to him. She thanked him much for coming to help.
Anderson just smiled as he put his tools away. The lady asked how much she should pay him. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give them the help they needed. He waited until she started her car and drove off.
A few miles down the road, the lady saw a small restaurant. She went in and a waitress came over with a sweet smile. The old lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant(怀孕的), but she never let the pains and aches change her smile when she served her
The lady finished her meal and paid with a hundred-dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change, but the old lady was gone when the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she found there was a note on the napkin(餐巾), “You don’t need to give me anything back. Somebody once helped me out the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do—do not let this chain(链子)of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more$ 100 bills．
1. Why did Anderson tell his name to the old lady?| A．Because he wanted to check if the lady knew him． |
| B．Because he hoped that may help relax the lady． |
| C．Because he thought he could be paid back one day． |
| D．Because he wanted to leave his name for doing good things． |
| A．The old lady and Anderson． | B．The people who need help． |
| C．The old lady and the waitress． | D．The people who help others． |
①Thankful②Happy③Worried④Helpless⑤Willing and ready to help
| A．④③①⑤② | B．④①③②⑤ |
| C．③②①⑤④ | D．③①④⑤② |
| A．The meal cost the old lady 400 dollars． |
| B．Anderson must be helped by someone before． |
| C．The old lady was able to fit a spare tire herself． |
| D．The waitress will probably help someone later． |
| A．The Help of Strangers | B．The Power of Smile |
| C．The Chain of Love | D．The Bill of Kindness |
8 . Airborne dust is normally seen as an environmental problem, but the lack of it is making air pollution over China considerably worse.
A new study suggests less dust means more solar radiation hits the land surface,which reduces wind speed. That lack of wind in turn leads to an accumulation of air pollution over heavily populated parts of China. The researchers found that reduced dust levels cause a 13% increase in human-made pollution in the region.
Hundreds of millions of people across China continue to be impacted by air pollution from factories and coal-fl red power plants. Studies suggest that the dirty、air contributes to 1.6 million deaths a year, about 17% of all mortalities. But this new research says that the human-induced pollution is being made worse or better by naturally occurring dust that blows in from the Gobi desert. Using models to simulate 150 years of wind and dust patterns in the region, the researchers found that the dust deflects significant amounts of sunlight. Without it, more heat from the Sun hits the land. Differences in the temperatures between land and sea cause the winds to blow. Without the dust, the land warms up more and that changes the temperature differential with the sea leading to weaker breezes - and more air pollution.
“There are two dust sources. One is the Gobi and the other is the highlands of north-west China, but we found the Gobi had much more influence," said lead author Yang Yang, from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington State, US. “Less dust in the atmosphere causes more solar radiation to reach the surface. It weakens the temperature difference between the land and the sea and impacts the circulation of the winds and causes a stagnation over eastern- China and that causes an accumulation of air pollution.”
Another study has recently shown a link between declining Arctic sea ice and a major air pollution event in China. The authors of the new study believe that both theories could be true.
“Our study has the same mechanism: the weakening of winds causes more pollution, and what is behind this needs to be studied/ said Yang Yang, “We have two views on this kind of weakening of wind. They found the sea ice, we found the dust-wind interaction can also lead to weakening of the wind. I think both of them are important.”
The researchers believe that the study may inform broader questions about how natural human-created aerosols interact.
Many parts of the world, in addition to China, are now suffering from increased levels of air pollution and understanding how dust, winds and emissions work together may help limit some of the worst impacts of dirty air.
One of the key lessons from this study is that the absence of dusty conditions could mean the air you are breathing is worse for you, not better.
1. According to the new study, the formation of air pollution over heavily populated parts of China is due to_________.| A．the accumulation of dust | B．the shortage of wind |
| C．the high level of living standards | D．the rise of temperature |
①the worse circulation of the winds
②more heat from the sun
③lessening temperature between the land and the sea
④less dust
⑤a worse stagnation
| A．④②③①⑤ | B．①④②⑤③ |
| C．④①③②⑤ | D．①⑤②④③ |
| A．Lack of dust from the highlands of north-west China means we can breathe better air. |
| B．There is little connection between declining Arctic sea ice and air pollution in China. |
| C．Declining Arctic sea ice and dust-wind interaction can cause weakening of the wind. |
| D．The interaction between dust, winds and emissions can worse dusty conditions. |
9 . One day in March, seven years ago, during happy hours at a bar in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, I made a surprise announcement to my friends: I was going to shut down my law practice and attempt to travel around the globe in a year. What’s more, I would do it without taking any flights or making a single advance reservation (预定) of any kind. My announcement drew mixed reactions from my friends. Some offered support and encouragement, while others were more doubtful.
Once I had said the words, there was no turning back. I took months to shut down my law practice and get things in order. Once I set off on my adventure in December 2008, I found travelling without using planes was not easy. Trying to circle the globe in 16 months (it took me a bit longer than the initial 12 months I planned) made it even harder. Even so, travelling overland was the most amazing way to truly understand the immensity (浩瀚无际) of our wonderful planet.
I took three consecutive (连续) overnight buses to travel 3,000 km through Argentina, from Ushuaia to the capital Buenos Aires. I would look out of the windows for hours continuously at the completely plains, as if humans had never touched it.
It took seven consecutive days and nights on trains to get from Moscow to Beijing, each day spent staring out of the windows for hours as the Siberian plains swept by. Sometimes, I wouldn’t see a village or a human being for 10 hours. Later in my journey, it took 22 days on a cargo freighter (货船) to get from New Zealand through the Panama Canal and back to Philadelphia, to finish my round-the-world adventure.
It turned out that travelling with no reservations was far less difficult than I had imagined. Pulling into a city on a bus with a backpack, looking in a guidebook for a few suggestions of accommodations (住所), and then finding an empty room was never much of problem anywhere. It also kept me flexible (灵活) and open about all my travel plans, which is advice I give everyone who asks—plan for less than you think you should.
1. The author’s trip was special in that ________.| A．he made it at the expense of giving up his job |
| B．it hardly cost him anything |
| C．he did not make advance booking or travel by air |
| D．It was a global trip |
| A．Jane 2009 | B．December 2009 |
| C．February 2010 | D．April 2010 |
① Moscow
② Philadelphia
③ New Zealand
④ Ushuaia
⑤ Beijing
⑥ Buenos Aires
| A．⑤④①⑥③② | B．④⑥①⑤③② |
| C．④⑤①⑥③② | D．⑤①⑥④③② |
| A．Challenging but pleasant. | B．Dangerous but wonderful. |
| C．Boring and disappointing. | D．Costly and painful. |
10 . GE’s Bill Run nas a message for anyone who’s confused or doubtful about the company’s new focus on the" Industrial Internet’.The long story made short is that the amount of data being produced by industrial machine” is going to be more than anything you’re ever seen” , and analyzing this data is going to make everyone’s life easier.
Take gas turtbine (涡轮机）at power plants for example. “We’re almost putting a data center on a gas turbine,” Ruh said during a session at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Wednesday morning，referring to the hundreds of sensors(传感器）the company is placing on those machines to get data. If those sensors, combined with anyone’s software for managing and analyzing the data, are able to improve efficiency by just one percent, they could save nearly $6 billion a year.
Think about the air travel. Forty-one percent of unplanned downtime for airlines is caused by mechanical errors, Ruh explained, so GE wants to be able to predict when its engines or other airline systems will fail. With this knowledge, carriers can fix problems during scheduled downtime and save everyone's precious time.
Speaking of sensors, Ruh noted just how much potentially predictive data they’re getting. “Using a sensor,” he said,“we could get hundred terabytes(百万兆字节）a day.”
However, he acknowledged that the great effects of the Industrial Internet—cost savings, carbon-footprint reductions and efficiency gains—will come with changes in the employment sector that might not be good for everyone involved. ‘‘Some new kinds of jobs that don’t exist today will get created，”Ruh said. “It takes time and energy for people to get adapted to it.”
1. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?| A．The Industrial Internet—a new kind of machine. |
| B．The Industrial Internet—a large amount of data. |
| C．The Industrial Internet一another name for the Internet. |
| D．The Industrial Internet一a way to get data by sensors. |
| A．the time during which you are upset |
| B．the time during which you have nothing to do |
| C．the time during which a machine is not working |
| D．the time during which the price is very low |
| A．Data—sensors—high efficiency. |
| B．Machines—sensors—high efficiency. |
| C．Sensors一data一high efficiency. |
| D．Sensors一machines一high efficiency. |
| A．More jobs will disappear. |
| B．It brings along some disadvantages. |
| C．Changes will not appear in employment. |
| D．Everyone can adapt to new jobs immediately. |
