Have you heard of snake robots? Scientists and doctors are already using tiny snakes that coil through the human body armed with sharp surgical tools to perform operations on hearts, prostate cancer, and other diseased organs. The snake robots that carry tiny cameras, scissors and forceps, and even more advanced sensors are being developed.
The next generation of the robots will be wireless, and will explore inside your body on their own--- not attached to any cables. For now, they are powered by cables that humans control. Experts say the day is coming when some robots will roam around the body on their own. But the experts in robotics say the new creations work best when they are designed for very specific tasks.
Howie Choset has been researching and building robots, particularly snake robots. He believes that his snake robot and others like it can help reduce medical costs by making complex surgery faster and easier. Choset says his new design is smaller and more flexible than earlier models.
The size of surgical robots allows surgeons to operate with far less damage to the body, helping the patient heal faster. Choset has also built larger snake robots designed for search and rescue, or just exploration. They can climb poles and trees and then look around through a camera in the head and slither through places that humans cannot reach.
“ We sent our snake robots into these caves in the Red Sea to look for evidence of ancient Egyptian ships,” he said. “ To me, archeology is like search and rescue, but everyone has been dead for 5,000 years.”
The doctors are very excited about the potential for surgical robots to do things that humans can’t do. The variety of sensors available for surgical robots keeps expanding. As they get smaller, maybe one day they will be able to test chemicals or blood in the body, or even the electrical connections in nerves.
【小题1】What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．The doctors carry out surgery using snake robots mainly for heart disease.

B．The doctors are very satisfied with the new snake robots during surgery.

C．Snake robots are completely free of human control today.

D．Other supplementary appliances will be added to snake robots.

【小题2】Which of the following is true, according to the passage?

A．Snake robots are only used in the medical field.

B．Snake robots can reduce the patients’ medical costs.

C．Scientists are uncertain about the prospects for snake robots.

D．Scientists are forced to spend a lot of time researching snake robots.

【小题3】How can snake robots work best, according to the passage?

A．When they carry tiny cameras, scissors and forceps.

B．When they are operated by experienced doctors.

C．When they are given a wireless function.

D．When they are designed for particular tasks.

【小题4】Why do we know about Howie Choset, according to the passage?

A．He thought snake robots of different sizes can be used for different types of surgery.

B．He thought patients’ pain had been slightly reduced with the help of snake robots.

C．He also made snake robots for search, rescue and exploration.

D．He is very interested in researching ancient Egyptian ships.

【小题5】The writers attitude towards the new technology is ______.

A．optimistic

B．doubtful

C．objective

D．negative

According to sociologists, every modern industrial society has some form of social stratification（阶层）. Class, power and status are important in deciding people’s rank in society.

  Class means a person’s economic position in society. A commonly used classification is lower class, middle class and upper class. While sociologists disagree on how these terms should be exactly defined, they do describe societies like the United States quite well. One study shows that 53% of Americans belong to the lower class, 46% the middle class, and 1% the upper class. Interestingly, a surgeon earning ＄500,000 a year and a bus driver earning ＄50,000 a year both regard themselves as the middle class!

   Power refers to the amount of control a person has over other people. Obviously, people in positions of great power (such as governors) exercise（行使）big power, but people who take orders from others have less power. Power and class do not always go hand in hand, however. For example, the governor of a state has great power, but he or she may not belong to a corresponding （相应的）economic class. Generally, however, there is a relationship between power and class.   

To our knowledge, there aren’t too many people who aren’t millionaires in the U.S. Senate!

Status is the honor or respect attached to a person’s position in society. It can also be affected by power and class, but not necessarily so. For example, a university professor may have a high status but not belong to a high social class or have a lot of power over others.

1.What can we learn about “the middle class” from Paragraph 2?

A. People earning ＄50,000 a year belong to the middle class.

B. Nearly half Americans belong to the middle class.

C. People generally consider bus drivers as the middle class.

D. Sociologists have a clear definition of the middle class.

2.According to the text, we know that _____.

A. power and class do not always correspond with each other

B. status refers to a person’s economic position in society

C. people with high status have a lot of control over others

D. class is less important in deciding a person’s social rank

3.Which of the following shows the structure of the whole text?

 

 

This year Canada’s navy is one hundred years old. To mark the occasion, military ships from six different countries around the Pacific Ocean came to Canada for a four-day celebration. There were parades, parties and demonstrations of navy search and rescue aircraft and a show put on by the Snowbirds.
The Snowbirds, Canada’s aerobatic team, fly Tudor jet aircraft that are not particularly fast or particularly new but with amazing and sometimes hair-raising precision. They put a formation of nine aircraft into a space that would normally hold only one and they change the information in flight, roll it, loop it, break it and reform it in a dizzying ballet in the sky. The Snowbirds are one of the best aerobatic flying teams in the world and they are a readily recognized symbol of Canada just as the Great Wall is a recognized symbol of China. For a Canadian, watching the Snowbirds fly can bring tears. They make us very proud.
The Snowbirds have been flying since 1971. All of the pilots are serving members of the Canadian Air Force. They are all very young, all are highly-skilled and each is attached to the Snowbirds for two or three years. Each winter they practice in the cold, clear skies and each summer they put on more than fifty air-shows across the country and sometimes abroad. What they do is highly specialized. They often fly less than two meters from each other at speeds of about seven hundred and fifty kilometers an hour.
Flying is, by its nature, inherently risky and what the Snowbirds do increases that risk. While the pilots are all highly trained professionals, eight Snowbird pilots have been killed over the years. I have been fortunate enough to watch the Snowbirds fly probably fifteen or twenty times and if I know they are going to be flying I will go to see them again and again. This is not because I want to see someone do something dangerous, it is because I want to see something done so well—it is almost unbelievably precise and beautiful. I want to watch nine aircraft in an incredibly tight formation, each one painted in the red and white of my country’s flag, soaring through the cloudless blue sky. I want to feel that pride and that tear just behind my eyelids that comes from watching something uniquely and wonderfully Canadian.
【小题1】.
Which of the following is TRUE about the Snowbirds?

A．The aircraft they fly are particularly fast and new.

B．They are the best aerobatic flying team in the world.

C．They are regarded as a symbol of Canada.

D．Every year they put on more than fifty air-shows across the country.

【小题2】.
. The underlined word “inherently” in the last paragraph refers to         .

A．naturally

B．truly

C．entirely

D．nearly

【小题3】.
Why does the author like to watch the Snowbirds fly?

A．Because he wants to see someone do something dangerous.

B．Because the flying is unbelievably precise and beautiful.

C．Because his country’s flag is painted on each one.

D．Because watching them fly can make people cry.

【小题4】.
Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Air-shows of the Snowbirds

B．A Four-day Celebration of Canada

C．The Training of Highly-skilled Pilots

D．A National Symbol -- the Snowbirds

“What about ______ school?” “It is as good, as anybody can see, _____ school as No 1 Middle School Attached to Hunan Normal University.”

A. a; the  B. the; a C. a; a      D. the; the

— We shall take the conditions into careful account ____ you have attached to this contract.

— Thanks. Hope for further cooperation.

A．as

B．which

C．where

D．what