GRANTS PASS, Oregon: An American couple letting their SUV’s navigation system guide them through the high desert of the state of Oregon got stuck in snow for three days when the GPS unit sent them down a remote forest road.

On Sunday, their GPS-enabled cell phone got a weak signal and relay coordinates（坐标） to a dispatcher（调度员）, Klamath County Sheriff（警长） Tim Evinger said.

“GPS almost did them in and GPS saved them," Evinger said. “It will give you options to pick the shortest route. You certainly get the shortest route. But it may not be a safe route.”

Evinger said the couple got stranded Christmas Day and a sheriff's deputy found them on Sunday afternoon and pulled their four-wheel-drive Toyota Sequoia out of the snow.

John Rhoads, 65, and his wife, Starry Bush-Rhoads, 67, made it home safely to Reno, Nevada. “It will be （a Christmas） we remember the rest of our lives,” Starry said in a telephone interview from her home. The couple was well-equipped for winter travel, carrying food, water and warm clothes, the sheriff said. “Being prepared saved their life”.

The couple had followed their GPS as it directed them south on US Highway 97 to Oregon Highway 31, which goes through Silver Lake and Lakeview before connecting with US Highway 395 to Reno. In the town of Silver Lake, the unit told them to turn right on Forest Service Road 28, and they followed that before getting stuck in about 1 feet of snow. They finally got a weak signal after 2 days.

A GPS-enabled phone is able to send its coordinates to emergency dispatchers, and eventually one of the couple’s phones sent its location to the dispatcher's console, the sheriff said.

1. What does the underlined word “stranded” most probably mean?

   A．To leave helpless.                       B．To pull out.

   B．To leave behind.                                   D．To celebrate.

2. The couple chose this route probably because _______.

   A．it was the most exciting                   B．it was the least dangerous

   C．it was the shortest                       D．it was the only one available

3. What can we know about GPS from the passage?

  A．It did more harm than good to the couple.

  B．It was to blame for the incident.

   C．It couldn’t tell which route is safe.

   D．It was designed to safe people’s life.

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

   A．The couple had plenty of supplies in their car.

   B．The couple live in Reno, Nevada.

   C．The couple were excited about this experience.

   D．The couple were over dependent on GPS.

5. Which of the following can be the best title of the news report?

   A．GPS--- Unreliable Equipment

B．GPS Helped a Couple first Stuck and then Out

   C．Toyota SUVs --- Trash

D．A Christmas Never to Be Forgotten

Have you ever wondered what you’d do in a moment of danger and how you’d  36  to a terrorist on the plane or a guy wearing a mask and waving a gun while you’re standing  37  at the bank?
Stephanie Davies  38 .
The 21-year-old girl  39  such a moment last week in a  40  in Aurora, Colo., where she went to a late night showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” with her  41  , Allie. All of a sudden, a gas can flew by close to the two girls.  42  , Allie stood up and was shot in the  43  by a gunman. Stephanie saw Allie fell down in the aisle(过道), blood pouring out of her neck.  44  she moved on her knees to her friend, pulled her out of the aisle and pressed the wound with her fingers  45  the gunman moved around, firing into the  46  crowd. When the gunman again walked past the aisle, they played dead until he  47  .
Heroic? Well, clearly heroic.
“  48  Stephanie’s timely actions, I just talked with Allie, who is going to be fine,” said President Barack Obama after meeting the two girls in the hospital.
And Stephanie wasn’t the  49  hero in the theater that dark night in Aurora. Three young men---Jon,26, Matt,27 and Alex, 24---used their own  50  to protect their respective(各自的) girlfriends from the gunman’s bullets. Jon took a bullet for his girlfriend. The stories were  51  for Matt and Alex. The three men were among the 12 who didn’t come out of the theater alive.
“The  52  actions of these young Americans,” President Obama said, “represent what’s best in us, and they  53  us that out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come. I have the greatest  54  for people like Stephanie, Jon, Matt and Alex who don’t  55  to do what the situation demands, bringing heroic light to the darkest of dark nights.”

John Davis doesn’t use his GPS system in his car. Instead of guiding the direction, the Delaware farmer uses it to determine where and how much fertilizer to use on the crops on his 4,000-acre family-owned farm. Technological advances like that last year helped Davis and other Ohio farmers set a record for corn product. Ohio's corn crop in 2009 totaled 546 million bushels(蒲式耳), despite a cooler and wetter than normal spring, a dry summer and a delayed, wet harvest. Davis said. “I knew it would be a good crop, but it was much better than we expected.”

A farmer can map his fields on GPS, spotting where soil turned out to be least fertile（肥沃的） and using more fertilizer the next year in those areas where corn didn’t grow as well.

Although Ohio farmers produced more corn, it was grown on less land than in the past years. Total area used for corn in Ohio was 3.35 million acres, about the same as in 2008 but down from 3.85 million acres in 2007, said Dwayne Siekman, director of the Ohio Corn Growers Association. “When you look at the total number of acres in Ohio used for corn, it’s clear that farmers are able to do more with less,” he said. “American farmers can grow five times more corn on 20 percent less land than they did in the 1930s, saying that modern farming techniques are necessary for a growing demand in the world today.” That technology includes using improved seeds that can withstand(忍受) greater temperature extremes and pests, Siekman said.

Farmers aren't the only ones who benefit. Consumers(消费者) do, too, as food costs reduce in the face of “enough supplies of corn,” said Fred Yoder, who runs a 1,500-acre corn, soybean and wheat farm in Plain City. “This is the best, highest-producing corn crop that I've raised in 30 years,” he said.

1.Most people usually use the GPS system for ______.

A. driving their cars

B. telling the position

C. mending the car

D. supplying the sunshine

2.The farmers in Ohio use GPS to ______.

A. check if the soil is fertile in some areas

B. control the rain of the place

C. water the crops if the weather is dry

D. draw the map of all the crops

3.Why did Ohio farmers produce more corn?

A. Because they expanded more land to grow corn

B. Because they turned to technological advances

C. Because they used more and more fertilizer.

D. Because they supplies themselves with more money.

4. From the passage, we can know _____.[

A. John Davis hadn’t expected a good harvest.

B. farmers grew less land than in the 1930s

C. improved seeds cost much more money

D. the output of corn in the same field is increased.

Have you ever wondered what you’d do in a moment of danger and how you’d  36  to a terrorist on the plane or a guy wearing a mask and waving a gun while you’re standing  37  at the bank?

Stephanie Davies  38 .

The 21-year-old girl  39  such a moment last week in a  40  in Aurora, Colo., where she went to a late night showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” with her  41  , Allie. All of a sudden, a gas can flew by close to the two girls.  42  , Allie stood up and was shot in the  43  by a gunman. Stephanie saw Allie fell down in the aisle(过道), blood pouring out of her neck.  44  she moved on her knees to her friend, pulled her out of the aisle and pressed the wound with her fingers  45  the gunman moved around, firing into the  46  crowd. When the gunman again walked past the aisle, they played dead until he  47  .

Heroic? Well, clearly heroic.

“  48  Stephanie’s timely actions, I just talked with Allie, who is going to be fine,” said President Barack Obama after meeting the two girls in the hospital.

And Stephanie wasn’t the  49  hero in the theater that dark night in Aurora. Three young men---Jon,26, Matt,27 and Alex, 24---used their own  50  to protect their respective(各自的) girlfriends from the gunman’s bullets. Jon took a bullet for his girlfriend. The stories were  51  for Matt and Alex. The three men were among the 12 who didn’t come out of the theater alive.

“The  52  actions of these young Americans,” President Obama said, “represent what’s best in us, and they  53  us that out of this darkness a brighter day is going to come. I have the greatest  54  for people like Stephanie, Jon, Matt and Alex who don’t  55  to do what the situation demands, bringing heroic light to the darkest of dark nights.”

1.                A．refer          B．respond        C．adapt D．talk

2.                A．in turn         B．in silence        C．in time   D．in line

3.                A．knows          B．appears         C．wonders  D．imagines

4.                A．missed         B．faced          C．expected D．enjoyed

5.                A．street          B．restaurant       C．theater   D．stadium

6.                A．friend          B．sister           C．aunt D．cousin

7.                A．Tired           B．Annoyed        C．Frightened    D．Puzzled

8.                A．leg            B．wrist           C．arm  D．neck

9.                A．Madly          B．Suddenly        C．Secretly D．Hurriedly

10.               A．since          B．as             C．until  D．because

11.               A．waiting         B．chatting        C．staring    D．screaming

12.               A．passed         B．stopped        C．hid   D．escaped

13.               A．In spite of       B．Regardless of    C．Because of     D．In terms of

14.               A．typical         B．unique         C．usual D．only

15.               A．methods        B．bodies         C．tools  D．hands

16.               A．common        B．strange         C．similar D．different

17.               A．brave          B．immediate      C．generous  D．active

18.               A．warn          B．show          C．promise   D．inform

19.               A．hope          B．concern        C．pity  D．respect

20.               A．hesitate        B．regret          C．pretend   D．refuse

If cars had wings，they could fly and that just might happen, beginning in 2011.The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, says it plans to deliver its car-plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2011.

“It’s the next ‘wow’ vehicle，”said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh .“Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don’t fly.”

The car plane has wings that unfold for flying—a process the company says takes one minute—and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to take off and land.

The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies, although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations, and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations.

The company is aiming to sell the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient and cheaper way to fly. They say it saves you the trouble from trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports: You drive the car to the airport and then you’re good to go. When you land, you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive parking fees because you don’t have to store it at an airport—you park it in the garage at home.

The car-plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of flying into marginal(临界)conditions.

The Transition’s price tag: $194,000, But there may be additional charges for options like a radio, transponder or GPS. Another option is a full-plane parachute.

“If you get into a very awful situation, it is the necessary safety option,” Gersh said.

So far, the company has more than 70 orders with deposits.“We’re working very closely with them, but there are still some remaining steps,” Brown said.

1.

We can learn from the first paragraph that     .

2.

lt takes the car-plane one minute to     .

3.

According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A. The car-plane needs a runway to take off and land.

B. To meet aircraft regulations, the company has been working with FAA.

C. The car-plane may fly as high as normal planes.

D. People can park the car-plane in the garage at their home.

4.

The underlined word “it” in the last but one paragraph refers to     .

5.

What’s the best title for the passage?