Family Vs Technology
Modern technology certainly changes family behavior, but does it really damage family life as many people fear? Not necessarily, says Dr. Silva, a professor in Sociology(社会学) at the Open University, she also argues it is wrong to assume technology erodes(腐蚀，侵蚀) the quality of family life.
“There is the idea that technology has an influence on the family and the family suffers. My take is quite different,” she explains. “Technological change happens because people’s lives change. And it is people’s choices of how to live that creates processes of innovation(革新) as well. The family has a role like the economy or like technology itself in changing the world. The imagination is important in driving the things technologists want to find for our daily lives. People desire to see nature as it is, so color television comes about,” she says.
In another case, the increase in working mothers helped create a market for labor-saving kitchen equipment. “The time that women have to shop every day for food is no longer available so there is a need to have a refrigerator for food storage,” says Dr. Silva. “The need to cook that food more easily and quickly, means you have developments in cooking technology like the microwave oven(微波炉). The microwave oven already existed because it was developed for the navy during World War Two but it wasn’t used in ordinary families until the early 1980s.
“Technologies for housework were as important as those for work itself,” she says, “So washing machines, refrigerators and microwave ovens are terribly important. We couldn’t imagine what life would be like if we didn’t have them.” Technological changes in the kitchen have played an important role in the changes of family behavior, creating a new social focus in the home.
“With advanced technology, you can feed the family in an easier manner. People can do housework with less difficulty. But that doesn’t mean that family practices are not important — it’s just a different way of doing things.”
【小题1】What is Dr. Silva’s attitude towards the effect that technology has on family life?

A．Worried.	B．Optimistic(乐观的).
C．Puzzled.	D．Uncertain.

【小题2】What causes advances in technology according to Dr. Silva?

A．People’s love for nature.

B．Great changes in people’s way of life.

C．People’s desire to change the world.

D．The wonderful imagination in inventing things.

【小题3】What can we learn from the passage?

A．The microwave oven was first used by working mothers.

B．People cook less because of modern kitchen equipment.

C．Technology has little effect on the changes of family behavior.

D．People need less skill to do housework due to advanced technology.

It is easy for us to tell our friends from our enemies. But can other animals do the same? Elephants can! They can use their sense of vision and smell to tell the difference between people who pose a threat and those who do not.
In Kenya, researchers found that elephants react differently to clothing worn by men of the Maasai and Kamba ethnic groups. Young Maasai men spear animals and thus pose a threat to elephants; Kamba men are mainly farmers and are not a danger to elephants.
In an experiment conducted by animal scientists, elephants were first presented with clean clothing or clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man. When the elephants detected(察觉)the smell of clothing worn by a Maasai man, they moved away from the smell faster and took longer to relax than when they detected the smells of either clothing worn by Kamba men or clothing that had not been worn at all.
Clothing color also plays a role, though in a different way. In the same study, when the elephants saw red clothing not worn before, they reacted angrily, as red is typically worn by Maasai men. Rather than running away as they did with the smell, the elephants acted aggressively toward the red clothing.
The researchers believe that the elephants’ emotional reactions are due to their different interpretations of the smells and the sights. Smelling a potential danger means that a threat is nearby and the best thing to do is run away and hide. Seeing a potential threat without its smell means that risk is low. Therefore, instead of showing fear and running away, the elephants express their anger and become aggressive.
【小题1】According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE about Kamba and Maasai people?

A．Maasai people are a threat to elephants.

B．Kamba people raise elephants for farming.

C．Both Kamba and Maasai people are elephant hunters.

D．Both Kamba and Maasai people traditionally wear red clothing.

【小题2】 How did the elephants react to smell in the study?

A．They attacked a man with the smell of new clothing.

B．They needed time to relax when smelling something unfamiliar.

C．They became anxious when they smelled Kamba-scented(有…气味的) clothing.

D．They were frightened and ran away when they smelled their enemies.

【小题3】 What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Elephants use sight and smell to detect danger.

B．Elephants attack people who wear red clothing.

C．Scientists are now able to control elephants’ emotions.

D．Some Kenyan tribes understand elephants’ emotions very well.

【小题4】What can be inferred about the elephants’ behavior from this passage?

A．Elephants learn from their experience.

B．Elephants have sharper sense of smell than sight.

C．Elephants are more intelligent than other animals.

D．Elephants tend to attack rather than escape when in danger.

Honey from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious.
Most people, and many animals, like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees' nest and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper - a little bird called a honey guide.
The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax in the beehives (蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees' nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or person as it leads them to the nest. When they finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey, and the wax, always fall to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.
Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very determined in its efforts to get it. The birds seem to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.
【小题1】Why is it difficult to find a wild bees' nest?

A．It's small in size.	B．It's hard to recognize.
C．It's covered with wax.	D．It's hidden in trees.

【小题2】What do the words "the follower" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．A bee.

B．A honey seeker.

C．A bird.

D．A beekeeper.

【小题3】The honey guide is special in the way ________.

A．it goes to church	B．it gets its food
C．it sings in the forest	D．it reaches into bees' nests

【小题4】What can be the best title for the text?

A．Wild Bees	B．Wax and Honey
C．Beekeeping in Africa	D．Honey-Lover's Helper

I will tell you the truth about plastic bags－the positive and the negative sides and provide a solution to this problem. Whether it is a shopping bag, a food bag or a trash bag, they are all made of plastic bags. Grocery store owners are very generous in using plastic bags. They place the fruit in one bag and drop the box of milk in another. Ever wonder why?
The positive side of plastic bags
Grocery stores, shopping centres, and restaurants are not thrifty in using and giving out plastic bags because they cost no more than a cent each, while a paper bag costs four cents. Plastic bags are produced so cheaply and massively（大量地）that they are used by 80% of store owners. In addition, they are light and very easy to carry and store.
The production of plastic bags has increased greatly over the last 20 years and producers of plastic bags are making large profits. However, the negative side of plastic bags is becoming well-known. More people are now getting worried that the earth is becoming a victim of the plastic bag success story.
The negative side of plastic bags
While production and consumption（消费）of plastic bags is good for business, it is not so for our Mother Earth. They have resulted in an increase in the amount of litter found floating in water or in the streets where we live.
Plastic storage bags, after usage, usually go to landfills（垃圾填埋地）as trash bags. They make the oceans poison sea animals. They give off toxins（毒素）when burned. They simply pollute the ground, air and water.
That is the true cost of plastic bags, and it looks like it is more than a cent. These are very alarming concerns and proper action needs to be taken.
【小题1】According to Paragraph 3, plastic bag producers ________.

A．are now worried that the earth will become a victim of plastic bags

B．don’t think they have done enough to popularize plastic bags

C．have not realized the harm of plastic bags

D．have succeeded in popularizing the use of plastic bags

【小题2】From the last three paragraphs, we learn that         .

A．plastic bags harm the earth severely

B．most plastic bags are not made use of

C．the prices of plastic bags are reasonable

D．plastic bags are the leading polluter on the earth

【小题3】What will the writer most probably talk about in the following paragraph?

A．How plastic bags are produced.

B．How plastic bags are used.

C．How to popularize the use of paper bags.

D．How to solve the problems caused by plastic bags.

The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.
Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true.
Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.
Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.
Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO2 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.
【小题1】_______, our world is becoming much smaller.

A．Because of the rise in pollution

B．Thanks to science development

C．Because the earth is being polluted day and night

D．Because the earth is blown away by the wind every year

【小题2】Hundreds of years ago, life was __________ it is today.

A．much easier than

B．as easy as

C．much harder than

D．as hard as

【小题3】Pollution comes in many ways. We can even hear it. Here “it” means _______.

A．rubbish（垃圾）

B．noise pollution

C．air pollution

D．water pollution

【小题4】Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Many countries are making rules to fight pollution.

B．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world population does.

C．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth.

D．If people could go to work by bus or bike instead of car or motorbike, it would be helpful in fighting against the problem of SO2.

How could we have thought so wrongly of as banana peel that it always hits the garbage? Utility of anything seems to be in the eyes of the beholder. The banana peel hasn't been an exception.
What most of us looked at as waste was converted to a thing of utility by Prithwis Mukhopadlyay, a 14-year-old prodigy. This Bengali boy, nourished in the US, Lake Junior High in Woodbury, Minnesota, has come up with an idea to convert banana peels to biogas.(生物气).
It's well known that almost any organic waste can be converted to biogas. But why biogas from banana peel has hit the news is because it produced five times as much biogas as manure(粪), a commonly used source for producing biogas, in the experiments Prithwis conducted.  
He filled two airtight containers, one with manure and the other with banana peels. Then he mixed each content with water and connected them to empty jars via pipes to collect the gas produced. He placed a heater next to each jar and measured the gas collected for 60 days. His studies proved that banana peels produced five times more biogas than manure.
This project titled 'Comparison analysis: Eco-friendly source of energy for the future,' earned him a spot in Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge. This weekend, the young whiz is to showcase his research work along with 40 other finalists at Washington. "Initially, I thought of doing a project that would reduce global warming. Things changed after I visited a biogas plant in a village in India during my summer vacations. It was an amazing experience," Prithwis says.
【小题1】Why could Prithwis's finding receive the attention of the media?

A．Because he is a prodigy.

B．Because he is of Bengali descent.

C．Because he used an extremely rare organic waste to produce biogas.

D．Because his research proved that banana peels can produce more biogas.

【小题2】Where did Prithwis derive his inspiration  from?
A.Lake Junior High.   B Discovery Channel.
C.  India.            D.His laboratory at home.
【小题3】This article probably appeared in a _________ magazine.

A．gourmet

B．science

C．computer

D．fashion

Baby girls make their way directly for dolls as soon as they can crawl, while boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown. The findings, the first to show differences in very young babies, suggest there is a biological（生物学的） basis to their preferences（偏爱）.
Psychologists Dr. Brenda Todd from City University London carried out an experiment involving 90 infants(婴儿) aged nine months to 36 months. The babies were allowed to choose from seven toys. Some were stereotypically boys' toys - a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy.  The rest were girls’ toys: a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and the amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.
Of the youngest children (nine to 14 months), girls spent significantly longer playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and ball than the girls did. Among the two-and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents’ view on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children’s choice.
Dr Brenda Todd said: “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization(社会化). Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preference. But these findings agree with the former idea that children show natural interests in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to prefer moving objects, probably through hunting instincts（本能）, while girls prefer warmer colours such as pink, the colour of a newborn baby.”
【小题1】Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because__________.    

A．baby boys are much more active

B．baby girls like bright colours more

C．there is a natural difference between them

D．their parents treat them differently

【小题2】What can we infer from Paragraph 3?

A．Nine-month-old baby boys don’t play with dolls at all.

B．Two-year-old baby girls sometimes play with cars and balls.

C．Parents should teach their babies to share each other’s toys.

D．The older the babies are, the more obvious their preference is.

【小题3】What conclusion did Dr. Brenda Todd draw from the results of the study?

A．Babies’ preference isn’t affected by social surroundings.

B．Adults purposely（故意地） influence their babies preference.

C．Baby boys preferring to moving toys will be good at hunting.

D．Baby girls preferring warmer colors will be warm-hearted.

【小题4】We may read this article in a_________ section of a newspaper.

A．health

B．science

C．education

D．entertainment

Imagine when you are sailing an ocean for the first time, you see a big fish swimming near your ship. You might be scared, and worried about whether it will turn over your ship for a meal. In fact, it is not a fish at all, but a gentle giant whale.
Whales are not fishes but mammals (哺乳动物). Their body temperature stays the same, and does not change with the temperature of their environment. They breathe air, so they have to come out of the water to get oxygen. Thus, they cannot afford to fall into a sleeping state for too long, since they need to be awake in order to breathe. It is thought that only half of their brains sleep at a time, so that whales are never completely asleep. Females give birth to the young. They have hair. Although they are not covered in hair or fur like many mammals, whales have some bristles (胡子), usually on their heads.
Whales are highly social animals with complex languages and intelligence. They communicate with each other using romantic sounds, called “whale songs”. Being so large and powerful, these sounds are also loud.
Whales are endangered as a result of whaling (捕鲸) from the eleventh century to the twentieth. It has attracted the attention of environmentalists and some measures (措施) have been taken to protect whales.
【小题1】How many aspects show that whales are mammals?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.

【小题2】We can infer from the second paragraph that ____.

A．whales can breathe in the water

B．if a whale sleeps too long, it will get drowned

C．in order to breathe, whales never sleep

D．whales give birth to the young on the land

【小题3】 How do whales communicate with each other?

A．By body language.	B．By speaking languages.
C．By making song-like sounds.	D．By giving off a smell.

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Whales are cold-blooded mammals like fishes.

B．Whales are hunted for food by people.

C．Whales are very harmful to human beings.

D．Whales are in danger because of being killed by people.

Barcodes(条形码) aren’t given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently applied in a working fashion in 1970.
A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory(存货) of his stock and the associated prices were an extremely laborious process, and so, in 1948, he contacted The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a solution. Bernard Sliver rose to the challenge and set out to study the problem and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items that had been sold. Sliver and a group of students from the institute realized their answer in the form of ultraviolet light (紫外线), ink and a scanner.
The system worked initially, but possessed some negatives. It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable. If the invention was to become commonplace（寻常的事）in grocery stores, these two problems had to be solved.
The patent (专利) for the bar code system was filed by Sliver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact, it took three years for the patent agency to grant their invention patent for the barcode, occurring on 7^th October, 1952.
Despite the patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It was not until 1966 that the system began moving its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticized, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly（统一地）coded items. In 1970, Logicom developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification code( UGOIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh’s superstore, in Troy, which was the very first store to install this complex barcode reading system, and its popularity has soared(升温) ever since, and is obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide.
【小题1】What is stressed in the second paragraph?

A．The heavy work of store owners.

B．The function of ultraviolet light, ink and a scanner.

C．The origination of barcodes.

D．Bernard Sliver’s education background.

【小题2】Which of the following was NOT a drawback of Sliver’s system?

A．It was expensive to be applied on a large scale.

B．It was a laborious process.

C．The system was not stable.

D．It lacked a central mechanism.

【小题3】The popularity of the barcode rose quickly after         .

A．1948

B．1952

C．1966

D．1970

【小题4】What is the purpose of the text?

A．To tell people that failure is the mother of success.

B．To praise scientists’ efforts in making people’s lives easier.

C．To describe shop owners’ opinions of barcodes.

D．To provide information about the development of barcodes.

Most people think their time problems are outer, and that they are caused by the telephone, meetings, visitors, and delayed information or decisions. Although these problems often have a bad effect on us, as when people call or drop in, we usually contribute to them. We fail to have calls screened(审查)by a skillful secretary or assistant, or we leave our door open, actually assuring constant interruptions.
In almost all cases, it is possible to influence our time. If not controlled, it usually can cause problems, such as, slowness and indecision, lack of self-discipline, the inability to delegate(委托), or the tendency to act without thinking and to jump from task to task without finishing any of them.
Time is constant that cannot be changed. The clock cannot be slowed down or sped up. Thus we cannot manage time itself. We can only manage our activities with respect to time.
The same skills are needed as those used in managing others－the abilities to plan, organize, delegate, direct, and control. Time management is simply self-management. It is impossible to be effective in any position without controlling one’s time effectively.
Successful time management does not mean working harder, but working smarter. All kinds of management skills must be used in the home and office to get most value from time. You must think ahead about what to do, and more timely than others, making it get maximum results in the shortest possible period.
【小题1】What does “outer” in the first sentence mean?

A．being away from a center

B．situated outside

C．objective

D．relating to a person’s body or physical appearance rather than to a person’s mind or spirit

【小题2】Which of the following is NOT mentioned as internally generated time wasters?

A．Slowness and indecision.

B．Lack of self-discipline.

C．Jumping from task to task without finishing any of them.

D．Working hard.

【小题3】It can be concluded from the passage that the abilities to plan, organize, delegate, direct and control should         .

A．be used in managing others’ activities

B．be used in managing one’s own activities

C．not be used in time management

D．be used in managing both other’s and one’ activities

【小题4】We can also draw a conclusion that the key to successful time management is       .

A．working harder and harder

B．clever self-management

C．thinking of what to do, and how and when to do it

D．employing a skillful secretary