Is the art of conversation dying? The other day, my wife   1  two teenage children did something we haven’t    2  for ages. It didn’t require the Internet, a TV screen, batteries… or anything else for that matter. But we all   3  it so much we’re thinking of doing it again sometime.
We had a conversation. The kind of real, live conversation that was   4  when I was growing up, but which seems all too rare these days. Today we have chat rooms, text messages, e-mails but we seem to be losing the   5  of communicating face-to-face. We all know  6  young people are out on a date(约会）these days, they spend most of that time   7  their mobile phones. And teenagers nowadays seem to   8  communicating with their friends by sending text messages rather than actually   9  to them.
If we carry on like this，in the future, we’ll lose the use of our   10 . What do you think? E-mail me, and who knows? Maybe we could even have a real conversation about it!

Is the art of conversation dying? The other day, my wife   16  two teenage children did something we haven’t    17  for ages. It didn’t require the Internet, a TV screen, batteries… or anything else for that matter. But we all   18  it so much we’re thinking of doing it again sometime.

We had a conversation. The kind of real, live conversation that was   19  when I was growing up, but which seems all too rare these days. Today we have chat rooms, text messages, e-mails but we seem to be losing the   20  of communicating face-to-face. We all know   21  young people are out on a date(约会）these days, they spend most of that time   22  their mobile phones. And teenagers nowadays seem to   23  communicating with their friends by sending text messages rather than actually   24  to them.

If we carry on like this，in the future, we’ll lose the use of our   25 . What do you think? E-mail me, and who knows? Maybe we could even have a real conversation about it!

A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you combine (联合) the two to do something for your local environment? As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone, you will be able to bury（埋） it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.

A biodegradable (生物可降解的) mobile phone was, this month, introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage people to recycle. Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic, but overtime it can break down into the soil without giving out any poisonous chemicals. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover with a sunflower seed. When this cover turns into waste, it forms nitrates (硝酸盐). These feed the seed and help the flower grow. “We’ve only put sunflower seeds into the cover so far. But we are trying to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time.” said one scientist.

As phone technology is developing so quickly, people are always throwing their mobiles away. This means producers are under pressure to find ways of recycling them. Some 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be thrown away within two years, adding plastic, heavy metal and chemical waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can reduce the harm to nature, according to the scientists. “The seed is released and the flower grows in the pot so you don’t have to worry about the phone when you have finished using it,” said Kerry Kirwan, the leader of the research team, which is based at the University of Warwick in Britain.

71. How do people deal with the used mobile phone at present?

A. They throw it away.                         B. They bury it in the garden.

C. They recycle it.                               D. They turn it into nitrates.

72. Scientists do this type of research in order to ________.

A. make the mobile phones more beautiful            B. to deal with environmental problems

C. to find a new way to grow flowers                  D. to produce more mobile phones

73. What does the underline phrase “break down” mean?

A. 抛锚                        B. 崩溃                       C. 撞毁                       D. 分解

74. We can infer (推断) from the passage that ________.

A. the new type of mobile phones is already on the market

B. some 650 million mobile phones will be thrown away

C. a group of British researchers are doing the research

D. other flowers may be used in this type of mobile phones

75. The main idea of the passage is ________ .

A. the relationship between high tech and environment               B. the phone technology is developing

C. phone can be turned into flowers                                  D. mobile phone and environment