Question

Thirteen vehicles lined up last March to race across the Mojave Desert, seeking a million in prize money. To win, they had to finish the 142-mile race in less than 10 hours. Teams and watchers knew there might be no winner at all, because these vehicles were missing a key part －drivers.

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields. But the Grand Challenge, as it was called, just proved how difficult it is to get a car to speed across an unfamiliar desert without human guidance. One had its brake lock up in the starting area. Another began by throwing itself onto a wall. Another got tied up by bushes near the road after 1.9 miles.

One turned upside down. One took off in entirely the wrong direction and had to be disabled by remote control. One went a little more than a mile and rushed into a fence; another managed to go for six miles but stuck on a rock. The “winner,” if there was any; reached 7.8 miles before it ran into a long, narrow hole, and the front wheels caught on fire.

“You get a lot of respect for natural abilities of the living things,” says Reinhold Behringer, who helped design two of the car-size vehicles for a company called Sci-Autonics. “Even ants can do all these tasks effortlessly . It’s very hard for us to put these abilities into our machines.”

The robotic vehicles, though with necessary modern equipment such as advanced computers and GPS guidance, had trouble figuring out fast enough the blocks ahead that a two-year-old human recognizes immediately, Sure, that very young child, who has just only learned to walk, may not think to wipe apple juice off her face, but she already knows that when there’s a cookie in the kitchen she has to climb up the table, and that when she gets to the cookie it will taste good. She is more advanced, even months old, than any machine humans have designed.

1.Watchers doubted if any of the vehicles could finish the race because .

A．they did not have any human guidance

B．the road was not familiar to the drivers

C．the distance was too long for the vehicles

D．the prize money was unattractive to the drivers

2.DARPA organized the race in order to .

A．raise money for producing more robotic vehicles

B．push the development of vehicle industry

C．train more people to drive in the desert

D．improve the vehicles for future wars

3.From the passage we know “robotic vehicles” are a kind of machines that .

A．can do effortlessly whatever tasks living thing can

B．can take part in a race across 142 miles with a time limit

C．can show off their ability to turn themselves upside down

D．can move from place to place without being driven by human beings

4.In the race, the greatest distance one robotic vehicle covered was .

A．about eight miles B．six miles

C．almost two miles D．about one mile

5.In the last paragraph, the writer implies that there is a long way to go .

A．for a robotic vehicle to finish a 142-mile race without any difficulties

B．for a little child who has just learned to walk to reach the cookie on the table

C．for a robotic vehicle to deal with a simple problem that a little child can solve

D．for a little child to understand the importance of wiping apple juice off its face

Answer 1

1.A

2.D

3.D

4.A

5.C

【解析】

试题分析:这是一篇科普说明文，介绍了无人驾驶车辆的特点。

1.A 细节理解题。根据第一段最后“because these vehicles were missing a key part －drivers.”可知因为这些赛车没人驾驶。故选A。

2.D推理判断题。根据第二段的第一句话“organized the race as part of a push to develop robotic vehicles for future battlefields.”可知DARPA组织这次比赛是为了推动发展遥控车运用于将来的战争中。故选D。

3.D 推理判断题。根据文章第一到三段可知 “robotic vehicles” 是一种无人驾驶的遥控车。故选D。

4.A推理判断题。根据二三两段可知，这些无人驾驶车不太好控制，经常出现问题，其中最好的距离是7.8英里。故选A。

5.C 推理判断推。根据最后一段内容可知，无人驾驶车辆有必备的现代设备，但是也有辨认缺陷，然而就像婴儿学会够到桌上的糖一样，无人驾驶车辆也会处理好一些简单的问题的。

考点：考查科技类短文阅读