During the years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structura

During the years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structura

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During the years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers have been trying hard to solve a question that would otherwise have been completely unthinkable: Can building be designed to stand catastrophic blasts (攻击;爆破) by terrorists?
Soon after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) traveled to ground zero as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. They spent two days beginning the task of formulating (构思) ideas about how to design such structures and to search for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged, but still are standing.
“Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage,” said Mr. Bruneau, Ph.D. “Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks,” he added.
Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate the monumental damage to the World Trade Center towers and buildings nearby. One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. “This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column (柱子) there that used to be part of that building,” explained A. Whittaker, Ph.D. “The column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor.”
The visit to the area also brought some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing (框架) system in one of the buildings was quite strong , allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris (残砾) to survive. “Good framing systems may provide a simple, but reliable strategy for blast resistance,” he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. “We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse,” said A. Whittaker. “We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it.”
A. Reinhorn, Ph.D. noted that “earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of buildings in the past. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present.”
小题1:The question raised in the first paragraph is one _____ .
A.that was asked by structural engineers a month ago
B.that is too difficult for structural engineers a month ago
C.that was never thought of before the terrorist attack
D.that terrorists are eager to find a solution to
小题2:The column mentioned by Dr. Whittaker _____ .
A.was part of the building close to the World Trade Center
B.was part of the World Trade Center
C.was shot through the window and the floor of the World Trade Center
D.damaged many buildings near the World Trade Center
小题3:A surprising discovery made by the investigators during their visit to ground zero is that _____.
A.floors in the faraway buildings remained undamaged
B.some floor framing systems demonstrate resistance to explosion
C.complex floor framing systems are more blast resistant
D.floors in one of the buildings were pierced by tons of debris
小题4: What Dr. Reinhorn said in the last paragraph may imply all the following EXCEPT that _____.
A.blast engineers should develop new solutions for terror-resistant design
B.blast engineering can borrow technologies developed for terror-resistant design
C.solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may apply to terrorist-resistant design
D.blast engineering emerges as a totally new branch of science

答案

小题1:C
小题1:A
小题1:B
小题1:D
解析

举一反三
“It hurts me more than you,” and “This is for your own good.” There are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive(自由的) period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school.The schools and the educators made it easy on us.They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy.We stopped making our children do homework.We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake.One such teacher is Sharon Clomps who says of her students—“so passive”—and wonders what has happened.Nothing is demanded of them, she believes.Television, says Clomps, contributes to children’s passivity.“We’re talking about a generation of kids who’ vet never been hurt or hungry.They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying ‘go and look it up’, you tell them the answer.It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.
Yes, it does.It takes energy and it takes work.It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work.It’ s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it’ s for their own good.It’s time to start telling them no again.
小题1:We learn from the passage that the author’s mother used to lay emphasis on(强调:重视)_______.
A.natural developmentB.education at school
C.disciplineD.learning Latin
小题2:Children are becoming more inactive in study because _______.
A.they watch TV too muchB.they have to fulfill too many duties
C.they have done too much homeworkD.teachers are too strict with them
小题3:By “permissive period in education” the author means a time _______.
A.when everything can be taught at school
B.when children are permitted to receive education
C.when children are allowed to do what they wish to
D.when every child can be educated
小题4:The main idea of the passage is that _______.
A.It’s time to be more strict with our kids
B.parents should always set a good example to their kids
C.parents should leave their children alone
D.kids should have more activities at school

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LONDON----Here’s a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly.
Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for prolonged periods — even if you also exercise regularly — could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place — at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV — just the overall number of hours it occurs. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.
  In an editorial published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin EkblomBak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.
  While health officials have issued guidelines recommending minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven’t suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position.
  "After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals," Ekblom-Bak said. She explained that genes regulating(调节) the amount of glucose(葡萄糖) and fat in the body start to shut down.
  Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day — but still spend a lot of time sitting — might get more benefit if that exercise were spread across the day, rather than in a single bout.(一回)
  Still, in a study published last year that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, independently of whether or not they exercised.
  "We don’t have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad," said Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, who led the Canadian study. "But it seems the more you can get up and interrupt this sedentary behavior, the better."
  Figures from a U.S. survey in 2003-2004 found Americans spend more than half their time sitting, from working at their desks to sitting in cars.
  Experts said more research is needed to figure out just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible tooffset those effects.
  "People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits," Ekblom-Bak said. "But when they’re in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible," she said.
小题1:What is the best title for the text?
A.Not Sitting Too Much While WorkingB.How To Avoid Sitting Too Much
C.Sitting Too Much Could Be DeadlyD.More And More People Sit Too Much
小题2:According to the research,______________.
A.the more time you spend in exercising in a single bout, the healthier you will be.
B.those who often sit too much are sure to grow fat or suffer from a heart attack.
C.regular exercise is effective to get rid of the side effect of sitting too much.
D.you had better not sit for more than four hours in a single bout.
小题3:How does the danger of sitting too much affect the human body?
A.It results in a higher death risk.
B.It increases glucose and fat in the body.
C.It makes a person unable to exercise long enough in a day.
D.It causes the gene to fail to balance the glucose and fat in the body.
小题4:In the opinion of Ekblom-Bak, you’d better have a rest in the office by________.
A.sending your friends e-mails
B.having a walk around your office
C.chatting online or playing computer games
D.listening to music with your head on the desk.

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One genetic mutation(基因突变)occurs on average for every 15 cigarettes that a typical lung-cancer patient smokes, according to a study that has found for the first time all of the mutations happen during the lifetime of a cancer patient.
Scientists have completed a full genetic examinations of the genomes(基因组) of cancer patients, and hope the information will lead to a basic understanding of the causes of cancer—and possibly drugs and treatments—by making out the mutations that turn a healthy cell into a cancerous tumor cell.
They studied a lung-cancer patient who had about 23,000 DNA mutations in his lung cells that were connected with exposure(暴露) to the toxins found in cigarette smoke and had built up over his lifetime.
They also looked at a patient with malignant melanoma(恶性黑色肿瘤), the most dangerous form of skin cancer, who had got 30,000 special mutations known to be connected with exposure to sunlight.
Scientists believe this new finding into the genetics of cancer will finally lead to new drugs and perfect treatments that aim at the specific changes to the gene that cause the disease, as well as new techniques for discovering following cancers that have escaped from treatment in other parts of the body.
“For the first time, we have a complete map of all mutations in a cancer cell,” said Dr. Peter Campbell, who led the Cancer Genome project to work out the whole DNA system of tumor cells in order find the mutations.
A similar method was performed on the cells of a patient with skin cancer, which is how the researchers were able to show that the malignant skin cells contained changes that resulted from exposure to light.
“These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the chief exposure. For lung cancer it is cigarette smoke, and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight,” Professor Campbell said.
小题1:What can the genetic examination of the genomes of cancer patients be used for?
A.To help the professors to win the Nobel Prizes.
B.To advance the study of reason and cure of cancer.
C.To make the medicine industries earn more money.
D.To help the cancer patients reduce their pain.
小题2:The underlined word in the third paragraph can be placed by_____.
A.smokeB.sunlightC.cellD.poison
小题3:Which of the following statements is right according to the passage?
A.The lung-cancer patient had 30,000 mutations in his lung cells.
B.The genetics of cancer will finally lead to new drugs soon.
C.It’s the first time that people mapped mutations in a cancer cell.
D.Dr. Peter tries to invent a new drug with the DNA system.
小题4:What’s the similarity between malignant melanoma and skin cancer of patients?
A.Their smoking too much in daily life.
B.Their receiving too much sunshine.
C.Their refusing to accept treatment.
D.Their interest in travelling abroad.

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Sitting across from his teacher, Edgar Martinez repeated the word he couldn"t quite pronounce: "situation".The teacher, LisaMojsin, hired to help Martinez reduce his accent, said the word slowly; "Sit-chew-a-shun." "I wish he had taught me this 20 years ago." said Martinez, 37, who comes from Mexico and lives in Los Angeles.In private tutoring classes throughout the nation, immigrants are focused on sounding more American.
Accent reduction classes have been around for years, but experts say."As our workforce becomes more and more global, these classes are becoming more and more popular." Private tutors said they answer calls almost daily from students, when just a few years ago the phones rang only occasionally.Author Amy Gillett said that sales of her book and CD set, "Speak English Like an American", have increased three times in the last few years.Judy Ravin, President of the Accent Reduction Institute, said she has hundreds of students who follow her program, "Lose Your Accent in 28 Days".
Though there is a general tolerance for diversity, experts said, reality has made some immigrants who sound different feel unwelcome.If someone speaks with an accent associated with an Asian language, they may work as engineers or computer scientists.If someone speaks with certain Spanish accents, people may think they are recent immigrants working in landscaping or the hospitality industry (招待性行业).A French accent gives images of romance.An Australian accent brings to mind adventure and fun.
Accent reduction students said they are aware of how they sound and whether their accents limit their job opportunities or spoil their social lives.Jennie Lo, aged 43, said her accent has been an embarrassment.Sometimes people couldn"t even understand her when she said her name.While in college in Oklahoma, Lo said she didn"t make many friends, tearing that no one could make out her words.Lo is now taking accent reduction classes and hopes to apply for a manager position at work."I just want to feel good about myself," she said."If I really work hard, if I practice every day, I can"t be perfect.But I can be better."
小题1:In the whole passage, the first paragraph serves as a(n) _____.
A.introductionB.comment
C.explanationD.background
小题2:What does the author want to express in the second paragraph?
A.The effect that popular accent reduction classes have.
B.The fact that accent reduction classes become popular.
C.The steps how accent reduction classes become popular.
D.The reasons why accent reduction classes become popular.
小题3:If someone speaks with certain Asian accents, people may think _____.
A.they are romanticB.they are hospitality workers
C.they are computer scientistsD.they love adventure and fun
小题4:What is Jennie Lo"s attitude towards her taking accent reduction classes?
A.Confident.B.Helpless.
C.Proud.D.Anxious.

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People say teenagers are no good.They make too much noise in shopping malls; they drive recklessly up and down America’s main streets; they carry chips on their shoulders as big as the Sears Tower.And at least some of the time those things are true.But we shouldn’t forget that there are hard moments in the life of a teenager too.
I watched such a moment not long ago at a woman’s funeral(葬礼).I didn’t expect the event to affect me.Through much of the ceremony, in fact, I remained unmoved.
Then her teenage grandson stepped forward.With his very first deep breath, every heart in that church was achingly reminded of something we had all forgotten.Softly he began: “I want to share a few values that Nana taught me.She never failed to see light in any situation.When our family dog would literally attact her, what would Nana say? ‘Oh, what beautiful markings that dog has.’ That was Nana.
“She was a strong woman who often lived in the shadow of my grandpa, who was a successful businessman in this city.But she was the one behind the scenes who provided the strength and support for Grandpa’s career,” he said, with a voice now trembling.“That was Nana’s way.”
Through a muffled sob, he continued.“Whenever she did anything worth recognition, you’d have to hear about it from a different source, because she was never one to brag.”
Finally, in a voice breaking free of sorrow, he looked up and said, “Nana taught me courage.She put up an incredible fight to the end, when she died peacefully, which is how she lived her life.That was Nana’s way, and I hope I can carry on in the same manner.”
There are no hearts as sensitive as those of teenagers, because everything is happening to them for the first time.The trouble with teenagers is that they haven’t learned to be controlled.
When that boy rose to speak about the woman who surely had been his truest ally and est friend, his honest voice dragged each of us out into the open where we could no longer hide in the calm ritual.He exposed us to the truth about this very real woman who believed in a boy who probably tried the patience of many adults.He reminded us that his grandmother was more than another dot on the chart of life and death.
All over again we felt those powerful losses crisscrossing our own hearts, and we knew that when you say good-bye to a beloved grandparent, you say good-bye to something happy, something young in yourself.And that something never really returns, and the pain never really goes away.
小题1:From the boy’s speech, we know his grandmother ____________.
A.was a weak woman living in the shadow of his grandpa
B.liked dogs very much even if they often attacked her
C.could see everything around her though she was old
D.had great influence over the boy when she was alive
小题2:According to the first paragraph, _____________.
A.young people should keep quiet before the public
B.people don’t think highly of the teenagers
C.people shouldn’t forget the young people
D.young people are living a hard life
小题3:The writer wanted to tell the readers ____________.
A.the young people were too weak to face the fact
B.the young people had to learn to control themselves
C.the adults could learn something valuable from the young
D.the adults should teach the young how to deal with the death
小题4:We can infer from the passage that the boy ___________.
A.was filled with sadness and gave up finishing his talk
B.was always very good at expressing himself
C.practiced a lot in order to give a moving speech
D.had great difficulty in accepting the loss of Nana

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