Passage Eleven (Superconducting Materials)
The stone age, The Iron Age. Entire epochs have been named for materials. So what to call the decades ahead? The choice will be tough. Welcome to the age of superstuff. Material science -- once the least sexy technology – is bursting with new, practical discoveries led by superconducting ceramics that may revolutionize electronics. But superconductors are just part of the picture: from house and cars to cook pots and artificial teeth, the world will someday be made of different stuff. Exotic plastics, glass and ceramics will shape the future just as surely as have genetic engineering and computer science.
The key to the new materials is researchers’ increasing ability to manipulate substances at the molecular level. Ceramics, for example, have long been limited by their brittleness. But by minimizing the microscopic imperfections that cause it, scientists are making far stronger ceramics that still retain such qualities as hardness and heat resistance. Ford Motor Co. now uses ceramic tools to cut steel. A firm called Kyocera has created a line of ceramic scissors and knives that stay sharp for years and never rust or corrode.
A similar transformation has overtaken plastics. High-strength polymers now form bridges, ice-skating rinks and helicopter rotors. And one new plastic that generates electricity when vibrated or pushed is used in electric guitars, touch sensors for robot hands and karate jackets that automatically record each punch and chop. Even plastic litter, which once threatened to permanently blot the landscape, has proved amenable to molecular tinkering. Several manufacturers now make biodegradable forms; some plastic six-pack rings for example, gradually decompose when exposed to sunlight. Researchers are developing ways to make plastics as recyclable as metal or glass. Besides, composites – plastic reinforced with fibers of graphite or other compounds – made the round-the-world flight of the voyager possible and have even been proved in combat: a helmet saved an infantryman’s life by deflecting two bullets in the Grenada invasion.
Some advanced materials are old standard with a new twist. The newest fiberoptic cable that carry telephone calls cross-country are made of glass so transparent that a piece of 100 miles thick is clearer than a standard window pane.
But new materials have no impact until they are made into products. And that transition could prove difficult, for switching requires lengthy research and investment. It can be said a firmer handle on how to move to commercialization will determine the success or failure of a country in the near future.
1.How many new materials are mentioned in this passage?
A.Two B.Three C.Four D.Five
2.Why does the author mention genetic engineering and computer science?
A.To compare them with the new materials.
B.To show the significance of the new materials on the future world.
C.To compare the new materials to them.
D.To explain his view point.
3.Why is transition difficult?
A.Because transition requires money and time.
B.Because many manufacturers are unwilling to change their equipment.
C.Because research on new materials is very difficult.
[D]Because it takes 10 years.
4.Where lies success of a country in the New Age of superstuff?
A.It lies in research.
B.It lies in investment.
C.It lies in innovation.
D.It lies in application.
1--4 BBAD
这是一篇介绍“超导材料”的论说文,采用一般到具体的分类写作手法。先指出未来时代的材料属于超导，然后再提出三种超导材料，再逐一说明。
1.B 三种超导材料。答案再第一段最后一句“神奇的塑料、玻璃和陶瓷”。下面各段具体讲这三种材料。第二段讲陶瓷：“新材料之关键在于研究工作者不断提高在分子水平上处理物质的能力。举陶瓷为例，由于它的脆性，长期来应用范围有限。但是通过改善导致脆性的微小缺陷，科学家制造出一种保持原有硬度和抗热性，但坚实得多的陶瓷”。第三段讲塑料。“类似的转折发生在塑料上，高强度的塑料建成了桥梁、溜冰场、直升机的叶轮。一种震动或推动就能发电的新型塑料用于电子吉他上，触及传感塑料用于机械手和空手道外衣上，它能自动记录每次击打。”后面谈及塑料垃圾可以处理，或者制造可分解还原的塑料制品。塑料内加入其他化合物加强性能。第四段讲有些高级材料由新的改变，最新的光纤电缆由玻璃制成，透明度极高，100英里厚的一块其清晰度比一块普通窗玻璃还高。
2.B 说明这种新材料对未来世界的意义。答案在第一段：“神奇的塑料、玻璃和陶瓷一定会象生物工程和计算机一样将改变世界。”
A. 把它们和新材料相比较，这里不仅仅是比较，而是说明三者都具同样的作用－－改变世界。 C. 把新材料比作它们。也不仅仅是比喻比拟。 与A一样没有说到核心电。D. 说明他的观点。太笼统。
3.A 转折需要钱和时间。见最后一段“可是新材料只有制成产品才有影响，而这个转折可能很困难，因为转折需要长期的研究和投资。可以这么说，在不久的将来，更牢牢地掌握如何把材料转变成商品将决定一个国家之成败。”
B. 因为许多制造商不愿改变他们的设备。C. 因为新材料的研究非常困难。 D. 转折要华上十年时间。这三项文内没有涉及。
4.D 在超级材料时代已过之成功在于应用。
A. 在于研究。B. 在于投资。C. 在于革新。这三项都是应用的部分前提。其中A和B文内提到，C项文内未涉及。
能考试期末冲刺卷系列答案科目：高中英语 来源：湖南师大附中2011－2012学年高二12月阶段检测英语试题 题型：051
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I had always planned to take a tour of Yosemite, and I finally fulfilled my dream last December．I cannot help but express how much I enjoyed my tour of Yosemite．
As the best-known scenic spot, Yosemite National Park is actually a natural wonder．The park is located in the middle of the Nevada mountain range．It has huge rocks, great waterfalls and fantastic valleys．
I really need to thank my tour guide, Tony．He was very helpful and he told me a lot of interesting facts about the scenic spots we saw．As I couldn't drive, the tour guide was also my driver．He picked me up at 8 o'clock in the morning．He was a professional and experienced tour guide, so he tried everything to make sure that I had an interesting and relaxing tour．As he was driving, he kept on telling me about the wildlife and the unique scenery in this surprising land．
Bridalveil Fall was our first stop．The best time to see it is in summer, but I didn't go there in the hot season, so the waterfall was not as good as it could have been．I still took a photo of myself standing in front of this terrific waterfall before leaving for my next stop．When I first saw El Capitan, the largest standing sandstone structure in the world, I knew why it was called “El Capitan”．The huge structure dwarfed(使矮小)everything around it．Though I was used to seeing skyscrapers, nothing had prepared me for this．
I felt so happy and excited after I came back from Yosemite．I haven't had this feeling for a very long time．Happiness usually comes when we do activities that accomplish something, which is a deep feeling of joy that often lasts a long time．So I decided to go out for a trip constantly to make myself happy and relaxed．
1．What is Yosemite National Park famous for?(No more than 7 words)
2．Why did the author think Tony was a professional and experienced guide?(No more than 11 words)
3．Why was the author shocked when he first saw El Capitan?(No more than 7 words)
4．According to the passage, what made the author so excited?(No more than 7 words)
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like ‘Palaeolithic Man’, ‘Neolithic Man’, etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label ‘Legless Man’. Histories of the time will go something like this: ‘in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn’t use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were ruined by the presence of large car parks.’
The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of the world—or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred (=not clear) image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure (引诱；诱惑) of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: ‘I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.’ The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says ‘I’ve been there. ’You mention the remotest, most evocative (引起记忆的) place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say ‘I’ve been there’—meaning, ‘I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else.’
When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.
Anthropologists label nowadays’ men ‘Legless’ because _________.
A. people forget how to use his legs.
B. people prefer cars, buses and trains.
C. lifts and escalators prevent people from walking.
D. there are a lot of transportation devices.
Travelling at high speed means _________.
A. people’s focus on the future B. a pleasure
C. satisfying drivers’ great thrill D. a necessity of life
Why does the author say ‘we are deprived of the use of our eyes’?
A. People won’t use their eyes.
B. In traveling at high speeds, eyes become useless.
C. People can’t see anything on his way of travel.
D. People want to sleep during travelling.
What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
A. Legs become weaker.
B. Modern means of transportation make the world a small place.
C. There is no need to use eyes. D. The best way to travel is on foot.
What does ‘a bird’s-eye view’ mean?
A. See view with bird’s eyes. B. A bird looks at a beautiful view.
C. It is a general view from a high position looking down.
D. A scenic place.
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
ARIEL, West Bank: A suicide bomber blew up near Israeli soldiers outside a Jewish settlement in the West Bank yesterday, killing at least three people and wounding about 30 others, the settlement's mayor and rescue workers said.
"A suicide bomber came and there were many soldiers...and he blew himself up." said Ron Nachman, mayor of the settlement of Ariel. "Soldiers were among the casualties. "People on the spot said the bomber blew up after soldiers eating at a food stand in a petrol station at the entrance of the settlement found him. According to some people on the spot accounts reported by Israeli media, a soldier shot and wounded the bomber, who then exploded.
The Magen David Adorn ambulance service said at least three people were killed and at least 30 wounded in the blast, which set the bomber burning at Ariel, about 25 kilometers east of Tel Avi v.
A fire brigade official said: "The bomber was still burning when we got there and we put out the fire immediatelly."
Meanwhile, a blast shook homes in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp early yesterday, damaging buildings but causing no injuries, Palestinian sources said. They said the bomb was planted outside the home of a member of Palestimian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction in Ain el-Hilwch camp, and exploded while the family was sleeping.
Some of people including ________were killed or wounded in the blast accident.
A. soldiers B. mayor
C. rescue workers D. a fire brigade official
The suicide bomber blew himself up because________.
A. there was something wrong with his brains
B. a soldier shot and wounded him
C. he couldn't see the settlement's mayor
D. he wanted to make himself known
What does the underlined word "casuahies" probably mean in the second paragraph?________
A. sufferers B. killers C. passersby D. losers
It can be concluded that the passage is most probably part of a （n）________.
A. announcement B. advertisement
C. news report D. science research
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科目：高中英语 来源：北京市重点中学2010年高考考前预测卷（英语） 题型：阅读理解
Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.
So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.
Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.
It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.
Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.
One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.
The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.
The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”
1．What is the passage mainly about?
A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.
B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.
C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.
D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.
2．The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.
A．mail was usually carried west on ships
B．it was safer to travel to send mail by land
C．it would take less time to send mail by land
D．stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail
3．As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.
A．could only stop once a day
B．was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment
C．was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.
D．had different horses or mules pulled all the way
4．What can we learn from the passage?
A．John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.
B．John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.
C．Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.
D．Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2014届天津市高三上期第一次月考英语卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
Scientists around the world have been studying the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean known as El Nino （厄尔尼诺）. The appearance of El Nino is known to affect the weather around the world. Scientists still do not completely understand it. Yet they now find they can use it to tell about the future in different areas of the world.
One example is the work of two scientists at Columbia University in New York, Mark Cane and Gordon Eshel. A scientist of Zimbabwe（津巴布韦）, Roger Buckland worked with them. They have found that when El Nino appears, Zimbabwe has little or no rain. This means corn crops in Zimbabwe are poor. The last El Nino was in 1991 to 1993. That was when southeastern Africa suffered a serious lack of rain.
The scientists wrote about their recent work in the publication（出版物）Nature. Their computer program can tell when an El Nino will develop up to a year before it does. They suggest that this could provide an effective early warning system for southern Africa, and could prevent many people from starving.
1.El Nino is known as ___.
A. the changing of the weather in southern Africa
B. the warming of waters in the Pacific Ocean
C. the weather which brings drought（旱灾）to Africa
D. the weather phenomenon（现象）that brings heavy rains to Africa
2.Scientists study El Nino in order that ___.
A. they can provide a kind of early warning to the place that will suffer from drought
B. they can tell why Zimbabwe has little or no rain
C. they can do some research work in this field.
D. they can put all this information into their computers.
3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Scientists come to understand how El Nino appears.
B. Three scientists from the USA work on this subject.
C. Southern Africa suffered a serious drought and many people died from hunger.
D. El Nino has something to do with Zimbabwe’s poor crops.
4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the article?
A. The computer is used in this research work.
B. Scientists know when an El Nino appears by means of the computer program.
C. The scientists published their results of the research work.
D. Nature is the name of the article written recently by the scientists.
5.What’s the best title for this passage?
A. Appearance of El Nino is Predictable（可预测的）
B. Drought in Zimbabwe
C. Early Warning System
D. Weather in Africa
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