1、星期 3 WednesdayBetter to light one candle than to curse the darkness. 与其诅咒黑暗，不如燃起蜡烛。学习内容 题 材 词 数 建议时间 错误统计 做题备忘Text A 历史事件 383 5 分钟 /4Text B 经济产业 548 7 分钟 /5Text C 科技探索 420 6 分钟 /6Text D 教育培训 538 7 分钟 /5今日练习Text AHalf a dozen radio stations about the face of the globe crackled sparks of electricity f
2、rom capital and into millions of humble homes; peace came through the air and was simultaneous over all the face of the earth. The great ceremony on the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay was anticlimax.The greatest fleet in the world lay amidst the greatest ruins in the world under a dark and cheerle
3、ss covering of clouds. The USS Iowa was on one side of the Missouri, the USS South Dakota on the other. A tattered flag with thirty-one stars was hung on one of the turrets of the battleship the flag of the infant republic, which Commodore Perry brought with him to the same bay almost a hundred year
4、s before. Above the mainmast fluttered the battle flag of the Union of today. The deck was crowded with the American technicians. There were a Russian with a red band about his cap and a Tass newsreel man who insisted on crawling in among the main actors to get his shots; there was a Canadian genera
5、l who spoiled his part and signed on the wrong line; there was a carefully tailored Chinese general from Chungking. Half a dozen Japanese were piped over the side of the Missouri, but for the purpose of history and in every mans memory there were only two the general, Umezu, and the statesman, Shing
6、emitsu. Umezu was dressed in parade uniform, all his ribbons glistening, and his eyes blank, but you could see the brown pockmarks on his cheeks swelling and falling in emotion. Shingemitsu was dressed in a tall silk hat and a formal morning coat as if he were attending a wedding or a funeral. He ha
7、d a wooden leg, and he limped along the deck; when he began to climb to the veranda deck where the peace was to be signed, he clutched the ropes and struggled up with infinite pain and discomfort.Shingemitsu and Umezu were brought forward, and, after a few carefully chosen words beautifully spoken b
8、y General MacArthur, they signed their names to a document marking an end to the Japanese Empire. When they had signed, the generals and admirals of all the other nations put their signatures to the document, and peace, if peace it was, had come.1. The document was signed on A the USS Iowa. B the US
9、S South Dakota.C the battleship Missouri. D didnt mention. 2. In the second paragraph, “A tattered flag with thirty-one stars” is of A USS. B the infant USA.C todays USA. D the greatest fleet.3. When portraying Umezu and Shingemitsu, the author focused on all the following EXCEPT A facial expression
10、. B appearance.C motions. D inner activity.4. By saying “and peace, if peace it was, had come”, the author implied that A he valued the signature ceremony.B he was sure of the peace coming.C he suspected that the signature meant the real end of war.D he believed the signature ceremony would bring pe
11、ace.Text BLeft unfettered(无拘无束的), Anthony Konieczka, 9 years old, would happily thumb away at his Game Boy Advance or PlayStation 2 from the minute he gets up to the moment he crawls into bed, 14 bleary-eyed(睡眼惺忪的)hours later.Anthonys basement is stocked with traditional toys board games, puzzles, a
12、rt supplies and as far as he is concerned, they are relics of Christmases past. His sister Michaely, 6 years old, still likes dressing her Barbies. But once she starts playing Game Boy its hard to get her away.Play patterns like this could grab another Christmas for the toy department. Through Septe
13、mber, toy sales were down 5% compared with the first nine months of last year, according to the NDP Group. Meanwhile, the video-game industry is heading for another record year. Thanks to hot new games like Halo 2 for the Xbox, the industry is light-years ahead of the toy business when it comes to b
14、uzz. With distractions such as instant messaging, cell phone games and iPods angling for kids minds and allowances, the digital revolution is making life miserable for the toy industry.While some hard-to-find toys emerge every holiday season, toymakers are heading into this one without a monster hit
15、. Indeed, there has not been a Furby-style frenzy in years. Of 10 toy segments only two, arts and crafts and dolls, have generated sales growth over a recent 12 month period. Some of the weakest categories like construction sets and action figures are the ones aimed at boys, who suffer the most blis
16、ters from the video games. Analysts expect one of the top stocking stuffers this season to be not a traditional toy but the new generation of Nintendos Game Boy, the DS, which hit stores last week.The deeper issue is that shifts in play patterns are forcing toymakers to fight for shelf space in a ti
17、ghtening market. Boys in particular seem to be abandoning traditional toys at earlier ages in favor of consumer electronics, trendy video games, PC software and the Internet. The notion that kids are growing more sophisticated and tech-savvy (懂技术的 ), a trend called “age compression”, has bedeviled t
18、oy companies for at least a decade. Action figures, for instance, used to be considered healthy for boys up to age 12. Now the items are mainly marketed to boys 4 to 6. A recent study found that nearly half of the U.S children start on video games at 4 to 5 years old and 20% at age 3 or younger.Toy
19、companies, of course, have long seen this coming. Mattel attempted to get into educational software in the late 1990s, spending $3.6 million to buy the Learning Company. But it turned out to be a blunder and led to more than $400 million in losses. Later on Mattel got back to building basic brands l
20、ike Barbie and Hot Wheels. But Barbies sales slump may also be a victim of kids growing older at younger ages. Several of the toys expected to sell well this season are, in fact, those that incorporate video gaming and DVD technologies. Mattels Fisher-Price introduced a game system called InteracTV
21、this year, featuring DVDs with characters like Dora the explorer. Hasbro came out with a portable color video player called VideoNow and has been putting classic games like Battleship and Yahtzee into hand-held electronic format.5. At the beginning of the passage, the author implies thatA video game
22、s are designed only for boys.B girls are usually not interested in video games.C both Anthony and Michaely are good at playing PlayStation 2.D children would not like to stop playing Game Boy once they start.6. We learn from the passage that in this holiday seasonA it is hard to find traditional toy
23、s in the market.B toymakers are planning to design monster toys.C no hit toys will come onto the market.D Furby will become popular among children.7. The sales of construction sets are decreasing because A they are not healthy toys for children.B they are very weak and easily broken.C they are hard
24、to find on shelves of toy stores.D they are aimed at boys who are easily attracted by the video games.8. What has been bothering toymakers for almost ten years?A The Internet addiction.B The trend of age compression.C The sales of action figures.D The new generation of Game Boy.9. It is predicted th
25、at in this season the popular toys would beA hot new game Halo 2 for the Xbox.B arts and crafts and dolls.C action figures designed for boys aged from 4 to 6.D toys that integrate video gaming with DVD technologies.Text CSpace is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors(流星 ) but also because o
26、f rays from the Sun and other stars.Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space. Doses of radiation are measured in units called “rem”. We all receive radiation here on the Earth from the Sun, from cosmic rays and from radioactive minerals. The “normal” dose of radiation that we rec
27、eive each year is about 100 millirem; it varies according to where you live, and this is a very rough estimate. Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than this without being damaged; the figure of 60 rem has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely
28、difficult to be sure about radiation damage a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of children or even grandchildren.Early space probes showed that radiation varies in different parts of space around th
29、e Earth. It also varies in time because, when great spurts of gas shoot out of the Sun, they are accompanied by a lot of extra radiation. Some estimates of the amount of radiation in space, based on various measurements and calculations, are as low as 10 rem per year, while others are as high as 5 r
30、em per hour! Mission to the Moon have had to cross the Van Allen belts of high radiation and, during the outward and return journeys, the Apollo 8 crew accumulated a total dose of about 200 millirem per man. It was hoped that there would not be any large solar flares during the times of Apollo moon
31、walks because the walls of the lunar excursion modules (LEMs) were not thick enough to protect the men inside, though the command modules did give reasonable protection. So far, no dangerous doses of radiation have been reported, but the Gemini(双子座)orbits and the Apollo missions have been quite shor
32、t. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory or in a base on the Moon. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far.
33、At present, radiation seems to be the greatest physical hazard to space travelers, but it is impossible to say just how serious the hazard will turn out to be in the future.10. What make space a dangerous place?A The radioactive meteors.B The Sun and other stars.C Rays from the earth.D Rem.11. Accor
34、ding to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?A The “normal” dose of radiation we receive is generally accepted as safe.B Scientists are certain that 60 rem of radiation wont damage man.C Harm of radiation is not likely to be seen immediately.D We dont know exactly the seriousness of radia
35、tion damage.12. Missions to the moon are dangerous to the explorers becauseA they have to cross the high radioactive area.B solar flares may damage the LEMs.C they have to stay in space for a long time.D they will probably run into meteors.13. How will men effectively protect themselves when they sp
36、end long periods in space?A By taking special drugs.B By wearing special suits.C By using a protective blanket.D No effective solution has been found yet.14. The example of Apollo is to showA the Apollo mission was very successful.B protection from space radiation is no easy job.C astronauts dont ca
37、re about radiation damage.D radiation is not a threat to well-protected space explorers.15. The best title for this passage would be A The Atmosphere and Our EnvironmentB Research on RadiationC Effects of Space RadiationD Important Protection against RadiationText DA simple computer program that tea
38、ches children to distinguish between sounds can dramatically boost their listening skills. It can allow them to progress by the equivalent of two years in just a few weeks, the games creator claims.The game, called Phonomena, was devised by David Moore of the University of Oxford, U.K., as an aid fo
39、r children with language problems, but he says his latest trials also show that it can help any child. Other experts, however, are reserving judgment until independent tests are carried out. Phonomena is designed to improve childrens ability to distinguish between different phonemes(音素), the basic s
40、ounds that form the building blocks of language. Up to a fifth of all children are thought to have problems hearing the differences between some sounds, says Moore, who heads the U.K. Medical Research Councils Institute of Hearing Research.In the game, children have to distinguish between pairs of p
41、honemes such as the “i” sound from the word “bit” and the “e” from “bet”. They are played one phoneme followed by two more examples, and asked which one matches the first sound. As the game progresses, the phonemes are gradually “morphed”(改变) to make them more and more similar, making it increasingl
42、y difficult to distinguish between them. With 44 phonemes in English, there are potentially more than 1,000 different pairs, but the game concentrates on just 22 pairs of the commonest and most similar-sounding phonemes.In the latest trials, 18 children aged between eight and ten played the game thr
43、ee times a week for four weeks. Their language abilities were compared before and after exposure to the game using a standard listening test.The team found a dramatic improvement in their language abilities, with listening ages up by an average 2.4 years compared with 12 children who did not play th
44、e game. In earlier trials on children with learning difficulties, the speech and language therapists who tested the game reported similar improvements.But Ted Wragg, an expert in education at the U.Ks University of Exeter, warns that such trials can produce misleading results. The improvements could
45、 be due to the efforts and attention of teachers and therapists, rather than the game itself. There is a history in education of people and companies making claims about learning products that do not stand up to scrutiny, he says.It is a bit like teaching someone to catch a ball, Moore adds. “Sensor
46、y performance is no different from motor performance. As far as we know, the neural processes driving them both are the same.” And just as playing catch improves hand-eye coordination in other tasks, Moore thinks the phoneme training boosts childrens general language skills.The advantage of using co
47、mputers, he says, is each game can be tailored to a childs abilities. An oxford-based company called MindWeavers has been set up to commercialize the game.Similar computer0based language tools already exist, such as those developed by Scientific Learning of Oakland, California. But these are geared
48、exclusively towards children with speech and language problems and involve intensive training.“We dont believe you need to do this Draconian(严酷的) amount of training for it to do good,” says Moore. He is also exploring the use of phoneme training as an aid to adults learning a foreign language.16. At
49、 first, the Phonomena game is designed forA adults.B disabled children.C children with language problems.D all children.17. We can infer from the passage that in the gameA one fifth of the children have difficult distinguishing between sounds.B children are asked to tell the differences between similar sounds.C the phonemes are becoming increasingly difficult to distin
