Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have experienced an

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Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have

experienced an “agricultural revolution”. On the farm of today, machines provide almost all the power.
One of the most important benefits will be the farm puter. A few forward-looking farmers are already using puters to help them run their farms more efficiently. The puters help them keep more accurate records so they can make better decisions on what crops to plant, how much livestock(家畜) to buy, when to sell their products, and how much profit they can expect. Many puter panies have been developing special puter programs just for farmers. Programs are being written for pig producers, grain farmers, potato farmers, and dairy farmers. In the future, farmers will be able to purchase puter programs made to their needs. Because of the growing importance of puters on the farm, students at agricultural colleges are required to take puter classes in addition to their normal agricultural courses. There can be no doubt that farmers will rely on puters even more in the future. While the old-time farm depended on horse power, and modern farms depend on machine power, farms of the future will depend on puter power.
Another technological advance which is still in the experimental stage is the robot, a real “mechanized hired hand” that will be able to move and, in some ways, think like a human being. Agricultural engineers believe that puter-aided robots will make shocking changes in farming before the end of the century. Unlike farmers of the present, farmers of the future will

find that many day-to-day t

asks will be done for them. Scientists are now developing robots that will be able to shear（修剪） sheep, drive tractors, and harvest fruit. Even plex jobs will be done by robots. For example, in order to milk their cows, farmers must first drive them into the barn, then connect them to the milking machines, watch the machines, and disconnect them when they are finished. In the future, this will all be done by robots. In addition, when the milking is pleted, the robots will automatically check to make sure that the milk is pure. The plete change of the farm is far in the future, but engineers expect that some robots will be used before long.
小题1:Which sentence carried the main idea of the whole passage?

A．The first sentence of the third paragraph.

B．The first sentence of the second paragraph.

C．The first sentence of the first paragraph.

D．The last sentence of the second paragraph.

小题2: According to the passage, puters can not help farmers decide _______.

A．how much money they can earn from their products

B．whether to plant a certain kind of crop

C．what livestock to raise

D．when to sell their products

小题3:Which of the following statements is true?

A．Farmers in the future will depend totally on puters.

B．Farmers mainly use machines on their farms at present.

C．Both puters and robots have been in use on today’s farms.

D．Students at agricultural colleges must take puter classes because they can do

Nothing without the help of puters on today’s farms.
小题4:What is the best title for the whole passage?

A．puter, Farmers’ Best Friend	B．Farmers in The Future
C．The Agricultural Revolution	D．puters and Robots

答案

小题1:C
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:C

解析

略

举一反三

Scientists are building the world’s first thinking robot. It’s true. Some say machines that walk, speak and feel will have been made by 2020.Kismet is the name of a robot which scientists have built this year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Kismet is different from traditional robots because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first robots of a new generation that look like human beings and can imitate human feelings.
Some people say that by 2020 we will have created robots with brains similar to those of adult human beings. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell. What kind of jobs will they do? In the future, robots like Robonaut, a robot invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing robots that will entertain people by danc

ing and playing the piano.
Meanwhile, people who worry about the future are wondering whether robots will become monsters? Will people themselves become increasingly like robots? Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers connected to the Internet in the future. People will have microchips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of small machines. Perhaps we should not exaggerate(夸大) the importance of technology, but one may wonder whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will feel pain.
Who knows?
小题1:Kismet is different from traditional robots because______.

A．it is made in the MIT, USA	B．it is able to express its own feelings
C．it is the first modern robot	D．it is able to show human feelings

小题2:Possibly, robots will be able to ______in about ten years from now.

A．think like human beings	B．do all kinds of jobs for us
C．imitate human feelings	D．become dangerous monsters

小题3:The underlined word “one” can be best replaced by_____.

A．some experts

B．the writer himself

C．some scientists

D．people in general

小题4:It can be inferred from this passage that_______.

A．robots will take the place of human beings in the future

B．the importance of technology has been exaggerated

C．scientist have designed different kinds of robots

D．robots might be a helper or a danger.

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Australia －a huge island continent that lies to the south of Asia. Australia－more than two hundred years old, a nation that is still growing.
Its big cities lie on the southeast coast, this is where most Australians live. Australians prefer to own their own houses, though some live in apartments. Australians are a suburban（郊区的） people. The suburbs surround the cities for many miles, and so efficient transport is of great importance. As the economy grows, so do its industries- a higher level of production, a wider range of products.
The Australian works hard, but he likes his leisure. The climate makes outdoor activities the most popular.
Canberra, the capital of Australia, is a planned modern city located inland. Australia is governed by a parliamentary democracy(议会民主). The representatives of other countries have their embassies here. Australia wants to strengthen relations with her neighbors.
Australia is a strange land

, a land of vast expanses- fertile valleys, snow fields and deserts- also a land with unique animal, many that can not be found on any other continent in the world today.
Much of the continent is dry, but man has utilized the land, made it productive, with its tools, with its technology. This is the driest continent of all, and water is a precious possession, more precious than all other natural resources. Large dams are built to collect the water, there to irrigate the fields of pastures（牧场） and crops.
But Australia is changing. The land of wool and wheat is now

a land of large-scale industry and mining. The costs of developing the new mineral discoveries are enormous, but the rewards are great too.
Australia — a young and developing nation. Australia — a nation that wants to communicate with its neighbors.
小题1:Australia is an island located ______ of Asia and its big cities lie ____ of the coast.

A．to the south; on the southeast	B．to the north; on the southwest
C．to the east; on the northeast	D．to the east; on the southwest

小题2:We can infer from the passage that the Australian likes outdoor activities for the _____ climate.

A．dull and wet

B．fine and shiny

C．gloomy and rainy

D．wet and cold

小题3:____ is the most precious source in Australia.

A．Mineral resource

B．Animal

C．Desert

D．Water

小题4:Which of the following statements about Australia is wrong?

A．Australians are a suburban people

B．Australia is governed by a parliamentary democracy.

C．Australia prefers to live in the downtown of big cities.

D．Wool and wheat used to be the main products of Australia.

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“Mobile phone killed my man,” screamed one headline last year. Also came claims that an unpublished study had found that mobile phones could cause memory loss. And a British newspaper devoted its front page to a picture supposedly showing how mobile phones could heat the brain.
F

or anyone who uses a mobile phone, these are worrying times. But speak to the scientists whose work is the focus of these scares and you hear a different story.
One of the oddest effects comes from the now famous “memory loss” s

tudy. Alan Preece and his colleagues at the University of Bristol placed a device that imitated the microwave radiation of mobile phones to the left ear of volunteers. The volunteers were good at recalling words and pictures they had been shown on a computer screen. Preece says he still can’t comment on the effects of using a mobile phone for years on end. But he rules out the suggestion that mobile phones have an immediate effect on our cognitive（认识的）abilities. “I’m pretty sure there is no effect on short-term memory,” he says.
Another expert, Tattersall, remarked that his latest findings have removed fears about memory loss. One result, for instance, suggests that nerve cell synapses（神经元突触） exposed to microwaves become more — rather than less — receptive to undergoing changes linked to memory formation.
An even happier outcome would be that microwaves turned out to be good for you. It sounds crazy, but a couple of years ago a

team led by William Adey at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in California found that mice exposed to microwaves for two hours a day were less likely to develop brain tumours when given a cancer-causing chemical.
“If it doesn’t certainly cause cancer in animals and cells, then it probably isn’t going to cause cancer in humans,” says William. And while there’s still no absolute evidence that mobile phone use does damage your memories or give you cancer, the conclusion is: don’t be afraid.
小题1: Mobile phone users are worried because ______.

A．they are not sure whether mobile phones can cause memory loss

B．it’s said that mobile phones have a lot of side effects

C．one headline reported “Mobile phone killed my man”

D．a British newspaper s

howed mobile phones could heat the brain

小题2: According to this passage, we can know that _____.

A．the mobile phone is a most wonderful invention

B．there’s no need to worry about the radiation from mobile phones

C．something must be done to stop people using mobile phones

D．mobile phone companies shouldn’t cheat customers

小题3: What would be the best title for this passage? ______.

A．New Mobile Phones.	B．Special Mobile Phones.
C．New Special Investigation: Mobile Phones.	D．New Investigation.

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Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services. People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things we need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.
Lots of the money today is made of paper. But people used to use all kinds of things as money. One of the first kinds of money was shells. Shells were not the only things used as money.
In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for a long time. Some Africans once used elephant tusks, monkey tails, and salt as money.
The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the center. Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money. Later, countries began to make coins of gold and silver.
But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money. They began to use paper money. The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.
Money has had an interesting history, from the days of shell money until today.
小题1: In the Philippines Islands ______ was once used as money.

A．rice

B．knife

C．cloth

D．wheat

小题2:What was first used as money? ______.

A．Elephants tusks

B．Cloth

C．Salt

D．Shells

小题3:The first metal coins looked like ______.

A．square-shaped with some designs on them

B．square-shaped with a round hole in the center

C．round-shaped with a square hole in the middle

D．round-shaped with a round hole in the middle

小题4:The first paper money ______.

A．was passed from west Asia to China	B．looked like a note used today
C．was first used in Europe	D．looked like a piece of fur

小题5:We can infer from the passage that ______.

A．paper money isn’t difficult to make

B．money must be suited to carry

C．people need money to exchange goods with each other

D．people prefer metal coins to paper notes

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For years, business people in Western Europe were worried. They knew they could not compete against business from the U.S. The United States is much larger and had many more resources than any Western European countries
Some European people realized that the European nations need to join together to help each other. If they could forget their language differences and the differences in customs, they might become strong competition against other countries.
In 1958, six of the European countries --- Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Italy got together and decided to cooperate. They called their group the European Economic Community, or the Common Market. These countries agreed to join their resources together.
Within a few years, the European Economic Community had worked so well that its members were more prosperous than many other European nations. Soon, other nations began to realize the advantage of the Common Market. Today the Common Market includes most of the important countries in Western Europe. It is helping Western Europe to again take its place as a leader among the industrial nations of the world.
小题1:From the passage we know the U.S. is much richer than ________ in resources.

A．any other Western European countries	B．any other country in Western Europe
C．any country in Western Europe	D．every country in Europe

小题2: The members of the European Economic Community have developed fast because they ___.

A．share their resources and become more prosperous

B．can again take the place as a leader in the world

C．forget the differences in their languages and customs

D．have become strong competition against the U.S.

小题3:Which statement is true?

A．The Common Market is only a political association.

B．The Common Market is an economic and political association

C．The Common Market is only an economic association

D．The Common Market is neither an economic association nor a political one.

小题4:In order to ______ the Western European countries decided to cooperate.

A．join together to found a united country

B．help each other to smooth away the differences in customs

C．work and act together for common purpose

D．work together and fight against the U.S.

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