阅读理解。 Andrew Ritchie, inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle, once said th
题型：河北省期中题难度：来源：
be "like a magic carpet…You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag". Then he paused:"But
you"ll always be limited by the size of the wheels. And so far no one has invented a folding wheel."
It was a rare-indeed unique-occasion when I was able to put Ritchie right. A 19th-century inventor,
William Henry James Grout, did in fact design a folding wheel. His bike, predictably named the Grout Portable,
had a frame that split into two and a larger wheel that could be separated into four pieces. All the bits fitted
into Grout"s Wonderful Bag, a leather case.
Grout"s aim: to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train. Now doesn"t that sound familiar? Grout
intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel: his bike was a huge beast. And importantly,
the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage: in Grout"s day, tyres were solid, which made the business
of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple. You couldn"t do the same with a wheel fitted with
a one-piece inflated (充气的) tyre.
So, in a 21st-century context, is the idea of the folding wheel dead? It is not. A British design engineer,
Duncan Fitzsimons, has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse (椭圆).
Throughout, the tyre remains inflated.
Will the young Fitzsimons"s folding wheel make it into production? I haven"t the foggiest idea. But his
inventiveness shows two things. First, people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has
reached its limit, except for gradual advances. It"s as silly a concept now as it was 100 years ago: there"s plenty
still to go for. Second, it is in the field of folding bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions. You
can buy a folding bike for less than ￡1,000 that can be knocked down so small that it can be carried on a
plane-minus wheels, of course-as hand baggage.
Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible. Have we yet got the magic carpet of Andrew
Ritchie"s imagination? No. But it"s progress.
B. had a folding wheel
C. could be put in a pocket
D. looked like a magic carpet
B. could be split into 6 pieces
C. were fitted with solid tyres
D. were hard to carry on a train
B. was made into production soon
C. left little room for improvement
D. changed our views on bag design
B. The making of a folding bike
C. Progress in folding bike design
D. Ways of separating a bike wheel
答案
举一反三
(保证) that we will receive some money from the government for our school trip to Indonesia. We will
receive about $ 1,300 per child , which will reduce the whole cost to you .
Now that we are sure to get the money , it is time to do some serious planning . We are sure that
the trip will be very exciting for the children, especially if they have not traveled overseas before . There
are many benefits (利益好处) to having a trip to different places and cultures. Your children will be able
to learn a lot about other people and cultures on this trip .
Leanne is with us tonight . Leanne, where are you ? Put up your hand , Leanne , so that the people
can see who you are . Thank you . Leanne went on the trip last year and will be happy to tell you of her
experiences and answer any questions you might have . We will hear from her a bit later in the meeting .
We only have five months to organize the trip . From past experience I can tell you that this time will
go very quickly . So we need to start organizing the trip .
This is the agenda (议程) for tonight’s meeting.
Passports: when and how to apply for one
Schedule :what places we will visit
Health matters: what precautions you need to take , plus any special needs that your child may have .
Studying :description of the school and type of lessons your child will attend
Money: paying for the trip ,plus how much money your child should take
Hotel : where we will be staying
Clothing and personal items: what your children should take with them .
Are there any other items that you would like to place on the agenda?
B. getting a job to another country
C. people studying in another country
D. schools in another country
B. hotels
C. group leaders
D. places to see
B. The students’ parents
C. The organizer of the trip
D. The government
B. the students are able to attend some lessons during their trip
C. the students going on the trip will cost nothing
D. the speaker is likely to come from the government .
Mayer, but it became widely popular after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s best seller " Emotional
Intelligence” in 1995. The meaning of emotional intelligence is " Knowing how you and others feel and
what to do about it."
The control center of our emotions is a small part of our brain called the amygdala（类扁桃体）,
which scans incoming signals from our sensory organs（eyes, ears…）and acts as the emotional alarm
center of our body. When it detects a condition that we hate, that we fear, or that could hurt us, it sends
an immediate signal to the other parts of our brain that controls our actions.
The amygdala’s widespread web of neural（神经系统的）connections allows it, during an
emotional emergency, to take control of much of the rest of the brain including the mind. This explains
why we sometimes do things “without thinking” like closing our eyes just before a flying insect hits our
face or losing control during the course of a heated argument.
Emotions are important for good decision-making and to keep friendly relationships with others
around us. We admire people with determination who have the ability to control their emotions when they
face pressure, arguments or aggression（attack）. We also enjoy being with people who can express
co-operation and forgiveness. We need these emotions to be happy in our professional life as much as
we need them in our private life.
The majority of problems at work are caused by unmet emotional needs. The emotional-intelligent
manager knows how to make out and manage the emotional needs of both the customers and his team.
He or she, wants to help others feel respected, supported, helped, trusted, important, special, useful,
needed and valued.
When our emotional needs are satisfied, we feel better, and when we feel better, we are more
productive, patient, creative, open-minded, and caring.
Emotional intelligence requires that we develop our abilities in four main areas:
1）self-awareness being aware of our emotions as they happen;
2）managing emotions keeping a healthy balance of emotion and thinking;
3）recognizing emotions in others it’s a great communicating skill;
4）handling relationships managing emotions in others increases our popularity, our leadership
ability and our communication effectiveness.
A. After Peter Salovey and John Mayer defined the term.
B. After computers became widely spread in our life.
C. After Daniel Goleman published his book on EQ.
D. After an expert said it was quite important.
A. Amygdala in our brains.
B. Our sensory organs.
C. Our mind.
D. Our head.
B. We cannot get along well with others.
C. We do not have the nerves of steel.
D. We are extremely tired.
B. we should not always control our emotions
C. we should not care so much about our emotions
D. we should neither control nor free our emotions too much
阅读下面短文, 然后按括号中的要求简要回答下面5个问题。要求答语: 结构正确、书
写工整、字迹清楚。
percent of the homes in the United States have containers full of a drug-television. The average
American home has a TV on for more than 6 hours every day. Kids who are growing up these days
watch an average of 20,000 hours of TV - the electronic babysitter, by the time they’re 15.
Researchers say that a TV-viewer’s brain waves enter a pre-sleep period within 30 seconds of
turning on the set and that this pattern can be addicting. Other experts point out that TV is the easiest
way to escape concerned with our great addictions to alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and food. There is,
however, no treatment available for television addiction.
Stories of TV addiction are incredible. One man said, "Last December, I concluded that TV was
controlling our lives. It kept my wife and me from talking with each other. I knew I had to do something.
Our efforts to control the habit had failed. Finally, I decided to kill the TV. I picked it up and threw it as
far as I could into the yard. Since then, our lives have been much better. We read, talk, and even have
friends. My advice to TV addicts is: Kill the TV!"
________________________________________________________________
2. According to the first paragraph, how many hours do kids spend in watching TV every day?
（不超过3个词。）
________________________________________________________________
3. What’s the man and his wife’s first effort to treat their addiction to TV? （不超过7个词。）
________________________________________________________________
4. What happened after the man killed the TV? （不超过5个词。）
________________________________________________________________
5. Why does the author compare televisions to drugs? （不超过8个词。）
________________________________________________________________
More than 300 universities from 27 countries and regions were represented at last weekend"s international education exposition (展览).
| Canada Canada"s multicultural environment is good for students" studies and careers. Good news: Students are allowed to take off- campus part-time jobs during their studies from last year. It"ll help pay living expenses. Students can get two-year work permits after graduation. Concerns: Only a limited number of scholar- ships are available. They rarely cover the full cost of a study programme. Useful link: www. studycanada. cn  |
| 阅读理解。 |
| Suppose we built a robot to explore the planet, Mars.We provide the robot with seeing detector (探 测器) to keep it away from danger. It is powered entirely by the sun. Should we program the robot to be equally active at all time? No.The robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any. So we would probably program it to stop its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning. According to the evolutionary (进化的) theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason.The theory doesn"t deny that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it doesn"t protect us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well when we are in a familiar and safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all,when we fear that bears will nose into the tent. The evolutionary theory explains the differences in sleep among creatures.Why do cats,for instance, sleep so much,while horses sleep so little? Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do.But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and unlikely to be attacked while they sleep. Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value. Moreover,they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival depends on their ability to run away from attackers. |
| 1.The author used the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us _____. |
| A. the differences between robots and men B.the reason why men need to sleep C.about the need for robots to save energy D.about the danger of men working at night |
| 2. Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night mainly to help him _____. |
| A. avoid danger and ineffective labor B. restore his bodily functions C. prevent trouble that comes looking for him D. keep up a regular pattern of life |
| 3. Cats sleep much more than horses do partly because they _____. |
| A. are more active than horses when they"re awake B. need more time for restoration C. spend less time eating to get enough energy D. are unlikely to be attackers |
| 4.Which of the following is the main idea of the passage? |
| A. The study of sleep is an important part of the evolutionary theory. B. The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats. C. Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots. D. Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping against waking. |