1、阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项中,选出最佳选项。 A To American visitors, Iceland is a very interesting country, partly because it is different in so many ways from what he or she is used to seeing at home. There are quite a few things that are not done, or that do not exist on the island quite a few “Nos“. There is no po
2、llution, for instance. No dogs are permitted in Reykjavik, the capital. There is no television on Thursdays or during the entire month of July, and only three hours of black-and-white TV the rest of the time. There is no hard liquor on Wednesdays and no beer at any time. There are no handguns; only
3、one jail of thirty-five cells in the entire land an admirable figure, even for a small country of 313,376 people. There is no army, air force or navy. There is no tipping for anything. There are no large stores open on Saturdays or Sundays. Since Iceland is situated just under the Arctic Circle, the
4、re is no darkness in summer and no daylight in winter. But thanks to Gulf Stream, the climate is rather mild, with temperatures ranging from 34 degrees Fahrenheit to 52 degrees in July. The rules on television, liquor, and guns are the result of governmental decision. But the absence of pollution is
5、 due in great part to the fact that Iceland gets its power from the enormous geyser(间歇泉and the thousands of hot springs that come out of the ground. They provide all the energy needed by the country. In fact, Iceland uses only 3 percent of all its available power. Iceland has been described as a dem
6、ocratic independent country where more fish are caught and more books published per person than anywhere else in the world. The Icelanders have always felt a particular love for literature. They composed their first works in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. These works were poems and tales about th
7、e kings, heroes, and heroines of Iceland and Norway. At first the stories were memorized and passed from generation to generation. They were finally written down between 1140 and 1220. The Icelanders have never stopped writing ever since. “Ra ther shoeless than bookless,“ they proudly say. 1. Americ
8、an visitors enjoy visiting Iceland probably because . A. no dogs are permitted in the capital B. the police do not carry handguns C. the climate is rather mild. D. it is very different from America 2. The following statements are true EXCEPT . A. there are no soldiers in Iceland B. the Icelanders do
9、nt drink beer C. there is no service fee of any kind D. there are no crimes in Iceland 3. There is no pollution in Iceland mainly because . A. Iceland uses only 3 percent of all its available power B. the Icelanders use hot water from the ground below as their energy C. it is located just under the
10、Arctic Circle D. it is a democratic independent country 4. “Rather shoeless than bookless“ means . A. they prefer not to have shoes or books B. they would rather have shoes on than write books C. they prefer traveling to reading D. they regard books more important than shoes B An old problem is gett
11、ing new attention in the United Statesbullying(恃强凌弱. Recent cases included the tragic case of a fifteen-year-old girl whose family moved from Ireland. She hanged herself in Massachusetts in January following months of bullying. Her parents criticized her school for failing to protect her. Officials
12、have brought criminal charges against several teenagers. Judy Kuczynski is president of an anti-bullying group called Bully Police USA. Her daughter Tina was the victim of severe bullying starting in middle school in the state of Minnesota. She said, “Our daughter was a very outgoing child. She had
13、a bubbly personality, very involved in all kinds of things, had lots of friends. And over a period of time her grades fell completely. She started having health issues. She couldnt sleep. She wasnt eating. She had terrible stomach pains. She started clenching her jaw and grinding her teeth at night.
14、 Didnt want to go to school.“ Bullying is defined as negative behavior repeated over time against the same person. It can involve physical violence. Or it can be verbal for example, insults or threats. Spreading lies about someone or excluding a person from a group is known as social or relational b
15、ullying. And now there is cyber bullying, which uses the Internet, e-mail or text messages. It has easy appeal for the bully because it does not involve face-to-face contact and it can be done at any time. The first serious research studies into bullying were done in Norway in the late 1970s. The la
16、test government study in the United States was released last year. It found that about one-third of students age twelve to eighteen were bullied at school. Susan Sweater is a psychologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co- director of the Bullying Research Network. She says schools should
17、 treat bullying as a mental health problem to get bullies and victims the help they need. She says bullying is connected to depression, anxiety and anti-social behavior, and bullies are often victims themselves. 5. From the case of Tina, we can know that . A. bullying is rare in school B. victims su
18、ffered a lot C. schools are to blame for bullying D. personalities are related with bullying 6. Cyber bullying is appealing to the bully because _. A. it can involve more people B. it can create worse effects C. it is more convenient D. it can avoid cheating 7. According to Susan Sweater, . A. bulli
19、es are anti-social B. bullies should give victims help C. victims are not equally treated D. bullies themselves also need help 8. Which of the following can be the best title of the text? A. 15-Year-Old Irish Girl Committed Suicide B. Girls Suicide Brings Fresh Attention to Bullying C. Cyber-Bullyin
20、g Taking Off in Schools D. How to Solve the Problem of Bullying Among Teens C Machines in the home have a short history. Sewing machines, washing machines and tumble dries are common enough today, but a hundred years ago, few people could even imagine such things. However, inventors have designed an
21、d built a wide range of household machines since then. In most cases the inventor tried to patent his machine, to stop anyone copying it. If the machine became popular, the inventor could make a lot of money. In 1790 the first sewing machine was patented. The inventor was an Englishman called Thomas
22、 Saint. There was nothing to match his machine for forty years, and then someone built a similar device. He was a Frenchman, Bartelemy Thimonier. Neither of these early machines worked very well, however. It wasnt until 1846 that an inventor came up with a really efficient sewing machine. He was an
23、American, Elias Howe and his machine was good enough to beat five skilled sewing women. He didnt make much money from it, however. The first commercially successful sewing machine was patented by Isaac Singer five years later. Today, we take washing machines for granted, but there was none before 18
24、69. The revolving drum (旋转桶 of that first machine set a pattern for the future, but it was crude by todays standards. The drum was turned by hand, and needed a lot of effort. Eight years passed before someone produced an electric washing machine. The world had to wait even longer for a machine to dr
25、y clothes. The first spin-drier was another American invention, patented in 1924; but it was 20 years before such machines were widely used. It was yet another American, called Bissell, who introduced the carpet sweeper. He patented the original machine back in 1876. It didnt pick up dirt very well,
26、 but it was quicker than a dustpan and brush. Thirty-six years later, even the carpet sweeper was old- fashioned: modern homes now have a vacuum cleaner with an electric motor to suck the dust. 9. Inventors patent the inventions so as to _. A. produce more new machines B. avoid being copied by other
27、s C. make the inventions more popular D. make more money 10. According to the article, modern inventors _. A. had to wait for the first spin-drier for a long time B. only imitated the first washing machine C. powered the first ever-made washing machine by electricity D. followed the pattern of the f
28、irst revolving drum but improve it much 11. The underlined word “crude” in paragraph 3 means _. A. quite useless B. ugly-looking C. much tougher D. not skillfully made 12. The article mainly tells us about _. A. the great inventors in the world B. the important inventions in the world C. the short h
29、istory of household machines D. the importance of the machines used in the home D People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she starred in National Velvetthe story of Velvet Brown, a young girl who wins first place in a famous horse race. At first, the producers of the movie told Taylo
30、r that she was too small to play the part of Velvet. However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trainedand added three inches to her height in four months! Her acting in National Velvet is still considered the best by a child actress. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 19
31、32. Her parents, both Americans, had moved there for business reasons. When World War II started, the Taylor moved to Beverly Hills, California, and there Elizabeth started acting in movies. After her success as a child star, Taylor had no trouble moving into adult roles and won twice for Best Actre
32、ss: Butterfield 8(1960 and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966 Taylors fame and popularity gave her a lot of power with the movie industry, so she was able to demand very high pay for her movies. In 1963, she received $1 million for her part in Cleopatra the highest pay received by any star up to th
33、at time. Elizabeth Taylor is a legend of our time. Like Velvet Brown in National Velvet, she has been lucky; she has beauty, fame and wealth. But she is also a hard worker. Taylor seldom acts in movies any more. Instead, she puts her time and efforts into her businesses, and into helping others seve
34、ral years ago, she founded an organization that has raised more than $40 million for research and education. 13. The producers didnt let Taylor play the part of Velvet at first because they thought she _. A. was small in size B. was too young C. did not play well enough D. did not show much interest
35、 14. What Elizabeth Taylor and Velvet Brown had in common was that they were both _. A. popular all their lives B. famous actresses C. successful when very young D. rich and kind-hearted 15. Taylor became Best Actress at the age of _. A. 12 B. 28 C. 31 D. 34 16. In her later life, Elizabeth Taylor d
36、evoted herself to _. A. doing business and helping others B. turning herself into a legend C. collecting money for the poor D. going about research and education work E Technology: Taking the good without the bad? Very soon, unimaginably powerful technologies will remake our lives. This could have d
37、angerous consequences, especially because we may not even understand the basic science underlying them. Theres a growing gap between our technological capability and our basic scientific understanding. We can do very clever things with the technology of the future without necessarily understanding s
38、ome of the science underneath, and that is very dangerous. The technologies that are particularly dangerous over the next hundred years are nanotechnology ( 纳 米 技 术 , artificial intelligence and biotechnology. The benefits that they will bring are beyond doubt. But they are going to be very, very da
39、ngerous. Im working in the field of artificial intelligence. I have a model design for something that might be 50,000 million times smarter than the human brain. Target date is 2010. The only thing thats not possible in the film Terminator( 终结者 is that the people win. If youre fighting against techn
40、ology which is 50,000 million times smarter than you, you probably will not win. Nanotechnology. Weve all heard of the grey glue problem, that self-replicating nanotech devices might keep on copying until the world has become sticky glue. And certainly in biotechnology, weve really got a big problem
41、 because its converging with nanotechnology and IT. Once you start mixing nanotech with organisms and you start feeding nanotech-enabled bacteria, we can really go an awful lot further than the Borg in Star Trek(星际迷航. And those superhuman organisms might not like us very much. Eventually these techn
42、ologies will become routine. Thats a threat to humanity. I dont think its possible to slow it down. So what we need to do is accelerate the scientific research and try to get some extra tools. The problems facing us in the future are getting bigger and bigger. I think if we dont get some proper scie
43、nce done, the future is hopeless indeed. 17. From the text, we know that the authors greatest concern is A. our lack of technological understanding of the process involved B. our lack of technological capability C. creating technology without really understanding the basic science D. Our refusal to
44、face the consequences of the technology we create 18. It can be inferred from the text that the author . A. thinks people overestimate (高估 the capabilities of technology . 第 6页 共 8页 B. is not optimistic that artificial intelligence will always be used positively C. thinks that we should take science
45、 fiction movies more seriously D. believes artificial intelligence is the greatest threat we face technologically 19. Why does the author say it is not possible in the film Terminator that the humans win? A. Because the power of the technology is exaggerated(夸大. B. Because the strength of the machin
46、es is much greater. C. Because machines with that much intelligence can easily defeat humans. D. Because human beings are not courageous enough to win the battle. 20. The authors attitude toward the advanced technologies is A. worried B. positive C. interested D. scared . 第 7页 共 8页 1-4 DDBD 5-8 BCDB 9-12 BDDC 13-16 ACBA 17-20 CBCA 第 8页 共 8页
