Half of the world’s population is affected by Asian monsoons (季风), but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions.

Every year, moist (潮湿的) air masses，known as monsoon，produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.

According to Edward Cook, a weather expert at Columbia University in New York, the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings（年轮）, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.

Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.

Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology（大事年表） that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.” With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.

“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science.”

1.What’s the passage mainly about？

A．The effects of Asian monsoons.             B．The necessity of weather forecast.

C．The achievements of Edward cook.          D．A breakthrough in monsoon prediction.

2.It is difficult for experts to predict Asian monsoons because _______.

A．it is hard to keep long-term climate records.

B．they are formed under complex climate systems.

C．they influence many nations.

D．there is heavy rainfall in Asia.

3.What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research.

B．The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years.

C．The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak.

D．The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas.

4.According to Professor Cook, the rings of the trees _______.

A．determine the regional climate.

B．have a great influence on the regional climate.

C．offer people information about the regional climate.

D．reflect all kinds of regional climate information.

5.What do we know about the research according to Eugene Wahl?

A．It is a great achievement in climate science.

B．It should include information about human life in the past.

C．It has analysed moisture models world wide,

D．It will help people prevent droughts and floods.

6.Which of the following best describes the tone of this passage?

A．Matter-of –fact    B．Pessimistic         C．Humorous         D．Friendly.

 

Can hard work be replaced by machines in agriculture? Yes, man is trying out automatic (自动化) farming. It is fun to watch a machine picking tomatoes. The strange machine sails like a ship across a sea of plants. In its front is a hole. As the machine moves forward, tomato plants are pulled into the hole. The tomatoes are gathered while the rest of the plants are thrown back onto the fields.  Twelve workers sit on top of the machine. They rapidly pick out the bad fruit from the tomatoes. A red stream of ripe tomatoes is being sent into a cart that is pulled alongside the machine. One driver and twelve workers can pick in an hour ten tons of a new kind of tomato. Without the invention, it would take 60 men to do the job.

Not all plants cooperate well with the farming machines. Take lettuce(莴苣)for example, seeds plants in the same field in the same time ripe at different times. The only way to tell a ripe head of lettuce is to look at it and feel it. And now there is a machine even to do that!

There is a special machine to test lettuce. When it moves over one that feels right, it sends a signal back to the picking machine which goes behind. The cutting and picking is done satisfactorily by this unit.

This passage mainly tells us something about        .

       A．the machines picking tomatoes      B．automatic farming

       C．the science of farming     D．agriculture machines 

After the bad tomatoes are picked out,        .

       A．the others are sent into a cart nearby

       B．the workers carry them away

       C．the others are put into bags

       D．the others will be thrown into the field

The last paragraph mainly tells us          .

       A．that lettuce is not good to get in

       B．that a special unit of machines has been made to test and pick lettuce

       C．about a wonderful machine that can be used pick all kinds of plants

       D．that lettuce is not a cooperation plant

Cities in Europe and around the world may be growing “bike trees” in the near future. Invented by Japan’s JFE engineering Corp., the invention proved useful in the busiest parts of this nation’s crowded cities.

   Local governments of Japan have struggled for ways to encourage people to park their bikes considerately, particularly close to big stations, but that may block some roads and entrances to home and businesses. “Our cities do not have a lot of space for any kind of parking, including bicycles.” said Mitsuharu Oshima, a spokesman for JFE Engineering. The bike tree comes in two types; one in a tower that is above ground, and on the contrary, the other in a subterranean structure.

  A cyclist registers（登记）with the operator of the equipment, pays a monthly fee and pushes the wheels of his bicycle into restraints at the base of the bike tree. Each bicycle is fitted with an electronic card with the owner’s details. A mechanical arm then pulls the bike into the base of the tower and moves it to a free location inside. To collect the bike later, the cyclist puts his card through a reader and his bike is automatically (自动地)returned to him in seconds. “The science of the equipment has been difficult----even though they may look simple ----because bikes come in many different shapes and sizes.” said Oshima.

   As well as clearing away the road, bicycles cannot be stolen from a bike tree. There are presently versions at seven sites in Japan and two others are under construction, while work is under way on an even larger version----with room for 9,400 bicycles---in Thailand. And Oshima believes that the idea could catch on in Europe, particularly in countries such as France, Holland and Denmark, where cycling is so popular.

1. What is the right order of the following things when you use the bike tree?

  ① the wheels of the bicycle are put into restraints at the base

  ② the card is read and the bike is automatically returned

  ③ an electronic card with the owner’s details is given

  ④ the bike is pulled and moved to a free location inside

A.③②①④      B. ②①④③     C. ③①④②      D. ②④③①

2. What made it difficult to design “bike trees”?

  A. The location of “bike trees”           

B. The differences of the bikes

  C. The method of finding enough bikes       

D. The importance of traffic safety

3. From the passage, we can know that___________.

  A. cyclists can use “bike trees” for free in Japan

  B. there are seven “bike trees” used for holding bikes in Japan

  C. local government of Japan encourage people to ride bikes

  D. countries with many cyclists in Europe will like the idea of “bike trees’

 

 

A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces (熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

The death of a star is not a quiet event. First there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

After the explosion gravity pulls in what’s left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so dense that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billion of pounds.

The more the star shrinks, the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can go out. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

That’s what we know about black holes. What we don’t know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

But if the black hole doesn’t keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words a black hole in our universe could turn into a “white hole” in a different universe. As the black hole swallows light, the white hole shines brightly—somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time — many years in the past or future.

Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed. So far the time being, black hole must remain a mystery.

Black holes are a mystery—but that hasn’t stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make use of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth’s energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could some day be used to swallow earthly waste—a sort of huge waste disposal(处理) in the sky!

When the star begins to die ______.

A. there is no fuel left in it                                B. its outer layer goes into space first

C. a huge explosion will happen                         D. it doesn’t give off light any longer

Which of the following doesn’t help produce a black hole?

A. The gravity inside the star is very strong.        B. The light can’t go out of the star.

C. The star becomes smaller and smaller             D. The dying star shines very brightly.

The black hole ______.

A. continues becoming smaller and smaller all the time

B. goes into another universe and becomes a white hole

C. can pull in everything we know of in the world

D. will appear at another place at a different time

What’s the best title for this passage?

A. A New Scientific Discovery: Black Holes

B. How Do Black Holes Come Into Being?

C. What Are Black Holes?

D. Travel Through A Black Hole

Can hard work be replaced by machines in agriculture? Yes, man is trying out automatic (自动化) farming. It is fun to watch a machine picking tomatoes. The strange machine sails like a ship across a sea of plants. In its front is a hole. As the machine moves forward, tomato plants are pulled into the hole. The tomatoes are gathered while the rest of the plants are thrown back onto the fields.  Twelve workers sit on top of the machine. They rapidly pick out the bad fruit from the tomatoes. A red stream of ripe tomatoes is being sent into a cart that is pulled alongside the machine. One driver and twelve workers can pick in an hour ten tons of a new kind of tomato. Without the invention, it would take 60 men to do the job.

Not all plants cooperate well with the farming machines. Take lettuce(莴苣)for example, seeds plants in the same field in the same time ripe at different times. The only way to tell a ripe head of lettuce is to look at it and feel it. And now there is a machine even to do that!

There is a special machine to test lettuce. When it moves over one that feels right, it sends a signal back to the picking machine which goes behind. The cutting and picking is done satisfactorily by this unit.

64．This passage mainly tells us something about        .

         A．the machines picking tomatoes         B．automatic farming

         C．the science of farming       D．agriculture machines 

65．After the bad tomatoes are picked out,        .

         A．the others are sent into a cart nearby

         B．the workers carry them away

         C．the others are put into bags

         D．the others will be thrown into the field

66．The last paragraph mainly tells us          .

         A．that lettuce is not good to get in

         B．that a special unit of machines has been made to test and pick lettuce

         C．about a wonderful machine that can be used pick all kinds of plants

         D．that lettuce is not a cooperation plant