Big Ben, the landmark of London, a clock famous for its accuracy and chimes(和谐的钟声), stopped working for 90 minutes, an engineer said Saturday.
People do not know why the 147-year-old clock on the banks of the River Thames stopped at 10:07 p.m. Friday. It continued keeping time, but stopped again at 10:20 p.m. and remained silent for about 90 minutes before starting up again, a spokeswoman for the House of Commons said.
There has been speculation(推测) that a recent period of hot weather may have been to blame(责备). Temperatures in London reached 90 ℉on Saturday, and forecasters called it England’s hottest day in May since 1953.
The clock has experienced occasional problems. In 1962, snow caused the clock to stop before the New Year. In 1976, the clock stopped when a piece of its machinery broke. Big Ben also stopped on April 30, 1997, and once more three weeks later.
【小题1】How many times has Big Ben stopped up to now?

Researchers at the University of Bedforshire have developed a new technique for powering electronic device（装置）. The system, developed by Professor Ben Allen at the Centre for Wireless Research, uses radio waves as power.
Believed to be a world first, the team claims it could eventually eliminate (or get rid of) the need for conventional batteries. The university has now filed a patent application to secure the only rights to the technique.
Professor Allen and his team have created a system to use medium wave frequencies to replace batteries in small everyday devices like clocks and remote controls.
The new technique uses the “waste” energy of radio waves and has been developed as part of the university’s research into “power harvesting”. Professor Allen said that as radio waves have energy---like light waves, sound waves or wind waves---in theory, these waves could be used to create power.
“The emerging（新兴的）area of power harvesting technology promises to reduce our reliance on conventional batteries,” he said. “It’s really exciting way of taking power from sources other than what we would normally think of.”
The team is now waiting for the results of the patent application to secure recognition of the technique. Professor Allen said that the team’s achievements had all been done in their “spare time”. “Our next stage is to try and raise some real funds so that we can take this work forward and make a working prototype（模型）and maybe partner up with the right people and take this to a full product in due course,” he said.
“Power harvesting has a really important part in our future, because, just in this country, we dispose of somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 tones of batteries in landfill（垃圾填理）sites every single year－that is toxic chemicals going into the ground.”
He added that development of the product could also be “commercially beneficial”. “The market for this is several billion pounds. We’ve seen market predictions for 2020 which have these kinds of figures, so there’s a lot of commercial potential in this area,” he said.
Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Bedfordshire, Professor Carsten Maple, said, “This type of work is a reflection of the university’s growing reputation and experience in conducting innovative（创新的）research.”
【小题1】From the text we know the new technique for powering electronic devices_____.

The United States will introduce a new exam system for students who want to study in the USA and other English-speaking countries, Xinhua News Agency reported from New York.
The exam, which means a great change from the current English level test, was introduced by Theresa Jen, associate director of the International Service of the USA College Board, America's leading educational organization.
"The Advanced Placement International English Language （APIEL） will be offered for the first time all over the world on May 10, 2012," said Jen.
However, the APIEL is a strange title to most Chinese students, and it is unlikely to soon gain the similarity(相似点) of other already existing exams, such as the TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language）, the GRE （Graduate Record Examination）, or the IELTS （International English Language Testing System）.
"I have never heard of such a test and I would prefer the IELTS if I need another exam," said Xu Jingyan, a graduating student from Beijing University, who wants to study in England and has already taken the TOEFL.
Most of Xu's classmates have never heard of the APIEL. "The APIEL is made for international students who wish to get university studies in English-speaking countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia. " Jen said.
"The APIEL will be used," said Jen, "because the TOEFL can no longer perfectly show the students' abilities of using English. " Xinhua reported that a large number of foreign students who had high scores in TOEFL exam turned out to be very ordinary educational performers after being admitted.
"Compared with the TOEFL, the APIEL measures a student's ability to read, write, speak and understand 'English through testing his or her skills in listening comprehension, speaking with fluency, and writing in an organized way. " Jen said.
【小题1】The underlined word "current" in the second paragraph means               .

Did you see American figure skater, Jeremy Abbott, crash to the ice during the short program at the Sochi Olympics, rolling into the wall, clutching his side in pain. Ten seconds later, he got up and continued his skate—despite the pain, embarrassment and fear. All I could think was: this kid’s got courage. In business we have a word for it—resilience, the ability to gain strengths and confidence from overcoming unpleasant events.

However, opposite examples appeared in Sochi Olympics as well. For them, failure is someone else’s fault, because they do not accept personal responsibility. Therefore, they have to pay a high price for this attitude. After years of studying failure, I have learned one thing: modesty and open-mindedness in the face of mistakes is the single best thing you can do to improve results. Everyone fails, but not everyone recovers from failure. The key is to learn from it rather than get beaten by it.
The good news is that each of us has the potential to live a resilient life on and off the job. It may be difficult, but that just makes it all the more powerful and important. If you believe the above paragraph to be true, then you’re probably more resilient than you think you are. It takes confidence to be resilient but that too much confidence is a killer is so true of leadership. For example, Ron Johnson, the ill-fated CEO of JC Penney, was so stubborn that he completely missed all sorts of signals from employees and customers and instead listened to all those who agreed with him, which failed his strategy. Bouncing back from failure requires that you recognize something has gone wrong, and you were the one who made it happen.
The challenge of resilience is not just about our work. When parents help their kids deal with every challenging situation, they are doing an unhelpful action to their children. Parents want to protect their kids from failure, but doing so takes away the opportunity from them to practice not just a life skill but an essential work skill. When self-esteem becomes more important than results, we are accidently training young people to become less adaptable, not more.
Resilience is not just about getting up off the floor, but also being ready for whatever comes next, even when you don’t know what it is. Failures and setbacks are no longer unusual events, but regular features of a dynamic, competitive and highly demanding work environment. Getting up to finish your skate is no longer optional.
【小题1】The example of Jeremy Abbott shows that one should ______.

What seemed like an unplanned comment about Syria's chemical weapons (武器) had a major effect on world events this week. American Secretary of State John Kerry spoke last Monday at a press conference in London. He was reacting to questions about possible American action to answer a chemical weapons attack believed to be likely in Syria. One reporter asked the secretary whether there is anything Syria's president can do to avoid an American military (军事的) strike.
"Sure, he can turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international society in the next week."www.zxxk.com
Mr. Kerry made it clear that he was speaking theoretically, and did not expect anything like that to happen.
But Russia seized on the idea and persuaded Syria to do the same. That brought plans for American congressional (议会) votes on military action to a halt. President Obama has said he would accept a diplomatic settlement if it can be carried out. But that would likely take weeks, at least.
Mr. Obama has said the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must be punished for breaking the nearly century old ban on the use of chemical weapons. He called for American action to prevent future use of chemical weapons in Syria. He suggested limited airstrikes on government targets. The airstrikes could happen quickly if Congress approves.
Joanna Kidd is a security expert with London's King's College. She says any move to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control would take a long time, if it could be done at all.
【小题1】What does the author think of John Kerry’s statement at a press conference in London last Monday?

The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.
These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city’s population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, and official with the water authority, said Shanghai’s water consumption will not increase from its present amount.
Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, “Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve.”
He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China’s economy.
Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city’s infrastructure（基础设施）costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.
“The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages,” Chen said. “The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water.”
Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city’s drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion.
The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.
Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.
At present, the city has 600，000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated（整修）to use only 9 liters of water per flush.
The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households – at a cost of 40 Yuan each.
In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation.
Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage（污水）to improve the water environment.
At present the city can only treat 44 percent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion Yuan.
【小题1】People in Shanghai get their daily water mainly from         now.

A Swedish man was dug out alive after being snowed in his car on a forest track for two months with no food, police and local media reported on Saturday.
The 45-year-old from southern Sweden was found on Friday, February17, too weak to say more than a few words.
He was found not far from the city of Umea in the north of Sweden by snowmobilers who thought they had come across a ruined car until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside.
The man, who was lying in the back seat in a sleeping bag, said he had been in the car since December 19.
“Just incredible that he’s alive considering that he had no food, but also since it’s been really cold for some time after Christmas.” a rescue team member told regional daily Vasterbottens- Kuriren, which broke the news.
Ebbe Nyberg, duty officer at the Umea police, said police saw no reason to doubt that the man had been stuck in the car for a very long time.
“We would not make up something like this. The rescue services were on site too and saw the same as us.” he told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
Umea University Hospital, where the man is recovering after being rescued by police and a rescue team, said in a statement he was doing well considering the circumstances.
Doctors at the hospital said humans would normally be able to survive for about four weeks without food. Besides eating snow, the man probably survived by going into a dormant-like(休眠似的) state, physician Stefan Branth told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
“A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that.” he said. “He probably had a body temperature of around 31 degrees which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up.”
“Why the man ended up under the snow in the forest remains unknown,” police said.
【小题1】“Police saw no reason to doubt that the man had been stuck in the car for a very long time.”implies that 　　　　.

WASHINGTON—Laura Straub is a very worried woman. Her job is to find families for foreign teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.
It is not easy, even desperate.
“We have many children left to place—40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a foreign exchange programme called LEC.
When foreign exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were accommodating. For one thing, more mothers stayed at home. But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange-student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30, 000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to spend an academic year in the United States, as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.
School systems in many parts of the U.S., unhappy about accepting non-taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic(有异国情调的).
In search for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.
“We are open to many different types of families,” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers on academic-year exchange programmes worldwide.
For elderly people, exchange students “keep us young—they really do”, said Jen Foster, who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Post from Denmark.
【小题1】According to the text, why was it easier for Laura Straub to find American families for foreign students?

There are many people who are interested in knowing how to become a better person in life. Though there’re many people who can guide you to becoming a better person, you can become one only if you’re eager enough to bring about a change in yourself.
If you wish to learn to become a better person, then you should first of all learn to recognize your mistakes. Think of what are those things which you do in your day-to-day life and aren’t liked by other people around you. Then analyze(分析)them and try to avoid them as far as possible. However, you should be very patient and brave to change yourself.
Then you should also apologize for your past mistakes. If you don’t apologize, then you’ll always be ridiculed(奚落) in the society for being a person who is badly-behaved. By apologizing to those whom you’ve hurt, you can hope to get a second chance from them to prove that you’re as good as the others.
Forgetting the past misbehavior and thinking about the present and the future is one of the best ways to become a better person. This is because it’s impossible for you to change the past. Start your life again and make sure to go on the path of honesty. You can keep a personal diary in which you can write the dos and don’ts for yourself.
Having a role model is also very important. A role model is someone you respect. You should study the thoughts and sayings of these great people and try to understand what they actually mean. Read informative books on these people and this will definitely change the way you think and look at the things. However, just reading about the great people won’t help you. You’ll have to practically carry out their thoughts to earn respect for yourself in the society.
So actually becoming a better person isn’t difficult.  

Michelle Obama made a daring decision to return to the same designer who created her Inaugural（就职）Ball dress four years ago --- and the risk paid off.
The First Lady looked extremely attractive in a red dress by designer Jason Wu. She teamed the dramatic dress with heels by Jimmy Choo and a diamond ring by Kimberly McDonald.
She surprised the fashion world by returning to a Wu design which had been made for her.
Four years ago at her first Inauguration Ball, Michelle shone in a white, one-shouldered floor-length dress by the designer.
Wu, who was 26 at the time and had only been working in fashion for three years, saw his career take off after the First Lady’s surprise decision to wear one of his dresses.
He said at the time that he was unaware she had chosen the dress and had been watching at home on his couch and eating pizza when she appeared.
After her 2013 decision, Wu told Women’s Wear Daily: “Mrs. Obama likes to keep her secrets. She fooled me again.”
Wu released a women’s clothing and accessories（配饰）collection at Target last year and continues to be popular with the First Lady for official appointments.
The sleeveless dress with low-cut back flattered （突出）49-year-old Michelle’s arms and neat waist.
It had been created especially for her by Wu and was a departure from the dark and plain color tone she stuck to at earlier inauguration events.
Vice-President Joe Biden’s wife Jill also looked attractive in a blue silk dress by Vera Wang at the Inauguration Ball.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly talk about?