1 . When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?| A．Their target users. | B．Their wide popularity. |
| C．Their major functions. | D．Their complex design. |
| A．Admit. | B．Argue. |
| C．Remember. | D．Remark. |
| A．They like smartphone games. | B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity. |
| C．They keep using landline phones. | D．They are attached to their family. |
| A．It remains a family necessity. |
| B．It will fall out of use some day. |
| C．It may increase daily expenses. |
| D．It is as important as the gas light. |
2 . What will power your house in the future? Nuclear, wind, or solar power? According to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, it might be leaves – but man-made ones.
Natural leaves are able to change sunlight and water into energy. It is known as photosynthesis (光合作用). Now researchers have found a way to copy this seemingly simple process.
The man-made leaf developed by Daniel Nocera and his partners at MIT can be seen as a special chip with catalysts (催化剂). Similar to natural leaves, it can split water into hydrogen and oxygen when put into a bucket of water. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then stored in a fuel cell (电池), which uses those two materials to produce electricity.
A man-made leaf is not a new idea. The first man-made leaf was invented in 1997 but was too expensive and changeable for practical use. The new leaf, on the contrary, is made of cheap materials, easy to use and highly stable. In laboratory studies, Nocera showed that a man-made leaf prototype (原型) could operate continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.
The wonderful improvements come from Nocera’s recent discovery of several powerful, new, inexpensive catalysts. These catalysts make the energy change inside the leaf more efficient with water and sunlight. Right now, the new leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural one. Besides, the machine can run in whatever water is available; that is, it doesn’t need pure water. This is important for some countries that don’t have enough pure water.
With the goal to “make each home its own power station” and “giving energy to the poor”, scientists believe that the new machine could be widely used in developing countries, especially in India and rural China.
1. What will give power to our house in the future, according to MIT?| A．Man-made leaves. | B．Nuclear. |
| C．Solar power. | D．Wind. |
a. man-made leaves split water into hydrogen and oxygen
b. the hydrogen and oxygen gases are stored in a fuel cell
c. the man-made leaves are put in water
d. the fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity
| A．cbad. | B．bcad. |
| C．cabd. | D．cadb. |
| A．Secure. | B．Powerful. |
| C．Unnatural. | D．Unchangeable. |
| A．build up more power stations in the world |
| B．provide cheaper energy for developing countries |
| C．offer people in developing countries access to pure water |
| D．gain a deeper understanding of the photosynthesis process |
