A

    “Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

      This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.

      We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

      But have all these developments really improve the quality of our lives?

      Picture this: You are rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

      Inventions have speed up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have not telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.

      One family in the UK went “back in time”to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

      The grandmother, Lyn, said,“It was hard physically, but not mentally.”She believed life was less materialistic.“The more things you have, the more difficult the life becomes.”She said. The boys said they fought less to fight over, such as their computer. They noticed that their grandmother had changed from being a “trendy (时髦的)，beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”

      Here some simple ways to beat the stress caused by our inventions!

      Don't be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.

      Don't reply to somebody as soon as they leave message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but soon it gets annoying.

1. The passage is mainly about ____.

    A. problem with technology 

    B. improvements of  our life with technology

    C. the impotant roles technology plays in our everyday life

    D. major changes which will be likely to happen to technology

2. The writer quoted what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to____.

    A. share a truth about life

    B. tell us what life was like long time ago

    C. make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen

    D. point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same

3. Why did the family chose to spend some time in a 1940s house? Because____

    A. they liked to live simple lives

    B. they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions

    C. they were troubled by modern inventions

    D. living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them

4. What do you think the underline word “available”means?

    A. busy on line  B. free  C. be able to  D. be found by others

 

                                    B

      Large company needs a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale, faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little hope of raising the money needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide money for short term finance, they are unwilling to provide money for long term projects. So company turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share in the business in the exchange for a share in future interests. This they do by issuing stocks（股票）and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation（流通）the savings of single persons and institution, both at home and abroad.

      When the saver needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead, he sells his shares through a stockbroker to some other saver who is seeking to invest his money.

      Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided the Government or by local organizations. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, railways, this country could not work. All these require continuous spending on new equipment if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than it is raised through taxes alone. The government, local organizations, and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance major capital spending, and they too, come to the Stock Exchange.

      There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another this new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exits to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance.

5. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is____

    A. borrowed only from banks

    B. raised by the selling of shares in the companies

    C. repaired to its original owners as soon as possible

    D. provided by the employees and their friends

6. Why are people willing to buy stocks and shares?

    A. They want to help the companies to develop new projects

    B. They want to save their money

    C. They want to make more money

    D. They are required to do so by the government

7. The Stock Exchange makes it possible for the government, local organizations and nationalized industries____

    A. to make sure that everybody saves money

    B. to collect as much money as they wish

    C. to make certain everybody lends money to them

    D. to raise money to finance new developments

8. This passage is mainly about ____

    A. how to invest money in a wise way

    B. how the governments control the Stock Exchange

    C. why companies can not get money from bank

    D. how the Stock works

9. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

    A. Almost everyone in this country benefits from the money raised through the Stock Exchange.

    B. If you want to buy and sell stocks, you must go to the company you are interested in.

    C. Money that hospitals, roads, telephones, and railways require is raised only through taxes.

    D. The Stock Exchange is the only channel to reach the savings of the public.

 

                                  C

       Moon landing. The computer chip .Genetic engineering. The artificial heart.The achievements of U.S. scientists are known and admired through out the world. But whether American highest position in research and technology will continue into the 21st century is untercertain.32 years after the Russians sent up Sputnik setting off a hot race to produce more and better U.S. physicists, the scientific pipeline is drying up. The reason for this crisis: American education is in disorder. In an Education Testing Service study of five countries and four Canadian provinces, American 13 year children graded last in math and nearly last in science.

       How did America, birthplace of Thomas Edison and Wrihgt brothers come to such a dangerous situation? One reason is lack of enough financial support for science education. After Sputnik, funding for the National Science Foundation, the leading US founder of scientific research, shot up from $ 18 million to $ 130 million. By 1982 financing for NSF education had fallen rapidly to zero. To be sure, changeable funding is only one reason why U.S. scientists are becoming a scarce commodity（稀有商品）.The image of scientists is lesslustrous than it was in the 1950s and 1960s,when man and women in lab costs were seen as national heroes helping the U.S. beat the Russians to the moon. Today, the country's brightest desire is to be bankers and lawyers, not chemists or rocket designers.

10. From the passage, we can know that the computer chip, genetic engineering are____

    A. examples of American scientific achievements

    B. names of modern technology

    C. seen everywhere through the world 

    D. obtained by Russia

11. America is losing its highest position in research and technology because____

    A. America students are flowing to Canada

    B. men and women in lab are seen as national heroes

    C. Thomas Edition and Wright brothers died

    D. financial support for science education is not enough and scientists are less respected

12. According to the passage,“Sputnik”is____

    A. a research project of National Science Foundation

    B. the name of an education department

    C. a scientific achievement of Russia

    D. a scarce commodity

13. The word “lustrous”in the last paragraph can be replaced by____

   A. difficult    B. shining   C. smart   D. shocking

14.The main idea of the passage is that____

   A. America leading position in scientific research is in danger

   B. America needs more funding in scientific research

   C. the National Science Foundation needs financial support

   D. American students are not good in science

                                D

       Ten years ago I used to be very fit. I cycled to work during the weekdays and I got a lot of exercise at weekends. I used to play tennis a lot and go for long walks. In those days I had a job in the office, but I did not have many things to do, so I did not earn much. I knew it was a very good job but I had a lot of time to do the things I enjoyed doing.

       Then, about eight years ago, I got a much better job. The pay was better. But the hours were a lot longer, too. I bought a car and drove to work every day. I began to take people out to lunch.“Expense account lunches”.And I began to put on weight, too. I stopped playing tennis and going for long walks at weekends because I just did not have any time for things like that any more. There is a lot of stress in a job like mine. Perhaps that is why I started drinking more than I used to. For example, I used to have only half a glass of whisky when I got home, but then I started filling the glass to the top. Then I had another glass, and then another. I started smoking a lot too. I never used to smoke at all.

15. Which of the following is TRUE about the writer ten years ago?

    A. He cycled to work every day.

    B. He got a lot of exercise every day.

    C. He was very fit.           

    D. He did not play basketball.

16. His first job was not very good because ___

    A. he had too much time to keep fit 

    B. he did not eat much

    C. he had much time to go for long walks 

    D. he did not like to work in an office.

17. He started drinking more than he used to because ___

    A. he used to have only half a glass of whisky when he got home

    B. he just did not have any time for things he liked

    C. he started smoking a lot

    D. there is a lot of stress in a job like his

18. What can we learn from the passage?

    A. A job with lower pay is good.

    B. A job with a higher pay is good.

    C. A person is usually tired from a job with a good pay.

    D. A person should earn much money in his job.

 

                                E

       New research from NASA scientists suggest black soot(煤烟) change the way sunlight reflects off snow. Black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.

       Soot in the higher latitudes（纬度） of the earth where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun's energy and warmth than an icy, while background. Dark—colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.

       Soot in areas with snow and ice may play all important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot become s more centralized on the snow surface.“this provides a positive result, as glaciers（冰川） and ice sheet melt, they tend to get dirtier.”said Dr Hansen, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.

     Hansen found soot's effect on snow albedo（反照率）, which were more easily-seen in early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.

   “Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon,”Hansen said. Soot’s increased absorption of sunlight is especially effective in warming the world's climate.“This greenhouse effect causes twice as much global warming as a carbon dioxide（二氧化碳）greenhouse effect of the same quantity,”Hansen noted.

       The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations are in agreement with the researchers'climate study, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover and enough sunlight.

19. What is the main idea for the third paragraph?

    A. The melting of glacier and ice sheet.

    B. Dr James Hansen's space studies.

    C. Explanation of increased warming effect caused by Soot.

    D. Effort to Reduce Snow Albedo.

20. What are the two key words which best explain the reasons of the effect of soot to the earth?

    A. color and sunlight      B. energy and warmth

    C. ice and latitude        D. greenhouse and carbon dioxide.

答案: 1—5  AABDB    6—10  CDDAA   11—15 DCBCB    16—20 DCCAD