A town in Oxfordshire has become the first in the UK to have biomethane（生物甲烷）gas from human waste piped to their homes for gas central heating and cooking.

Up to 200 families in Didcot now receive the gas via the national gas power system. Head of energy and technology at British Gas, Martin Orrill, said customers wouldn’t notice any difference as the gas is purified（提炼）to the highest standard and has no smell. The gas is produced at a sewage（污物）treatment works plant in Didcot.

The entire process takes only less than three weeks, with the sewage being collected and sent first to settlement tanks. The solid waste material is then fed into digesters, where anaerobic bacteria（厌氧菌）digest the sewage, with the aid of enzymes（酶）to speed up the process. The digestion process produces methane, which can be burned to drive machines to produce electricity, or can be purified and fed into the gas network and piped to homes and businesses. British Gas says supplying the gas rather than electricity is far more efficient since around two-thirds of the energy is lost in producing electricity.

Partners in the Didcot project, British Gas, Scotia Gas Networks, and Thames Water, all hope to expand the process to other towns, and other companies such as Ecotricity and United Utilities have also announced biomethane projects being planned. One of these projects, in Manchester, could be supplying 500 homes with biomethane by mid next year. Another British Gas project in Suffolk will provide gas from digestion of brewery wastes to around 235 families.

The Didcot project cost ￡2.5m and was influenced by promises of government aids aimed at encouraging companies to develop renewable technologies. An EU directive means the UK must ensure at least 15 percent of its energy is from renewable sources by 2020.

    The UK produces about 1.73 million tons of sewage annually. If all sewage treatment works in the UK were fitted with the technology, they could supply gas for up to 350,000 families.

1.Which of the following is true of the biomethane gas?

   A. It’s mainly made from rotting plants.

   B. It’s an environmentally friendly gas.

   C. Its production process is too long.

   D. It’s easily recognized by the customers.

2.What is the function of the enzymes?

   A. To digest the solid waste material.

   B. To help get rid of anaerobic bacteria.

   C. To help purify the biomethane.

   D. To speed up the digestion process.

3.According to British Gas, the biomethane gas had better be used _____.

   A. as the power for the vehicles                                   

   B. for the heating and cooking

   C. to produce the electricity                                          

   D. to drive a variety of machines

4.The last three paragraphs mainly show that _____.

   A. UK government supports the biome thane projects

   B. the biome thane projects are very costly

   C. the biome thane projects still face many barriers

   D. the biome thane projects are promising

5.What should the text belong to?

   A. Computer science.                  B. Engineering.         C. Energy.                  D. Business.

 

We’ve used the wind as an energy source for a long time. The Babylonians and Chinese were using wind power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that. Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind(磨碎) corn, which is where the term “windmill” comes from.

We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propellor（螺旋桨） on the top. The wind blows the propellor round, which turns a generator to produce electricity. We tend to build many of these towers together, to make a “wind farm” and produce more electricity. The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the propellors, the more electricity we can make. It’s only worth building wind farms in places that have strong, steady winds, although boats and caravans（大篷车）increasingly have small wind generators to help keep their batteries charged.

The best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in mountains — places where the wind is strong and reliable. Some are offshore. To be worthwhile, you need an average wind speed of around 25 km/h. Most wind farms in the UK are in Cornwall or Wales. Isolated places such as farms may have their own wind generators. In California, several “wind farms” supply electricity to homes around Los Angeles.

The propellors are large, to obtain energy from the largest possible volume of air. The blades can be angled to cope with varying wind speeds. Some designs use vertical turbines (垂直涡轮机), which don’t need to be turned to face the wind. The towers are tall, to get the propellors as high as possible, up to where the wind is stronger. This means that the land beneath can still be used for farming. 

1.The first paragraph aims to introduce to us _______.

A. the function of wind power                  B. the source of wind power

C. the nations using wind power                            D. the history of using wind power

2.The best places for building the wind farm are places where _______.

A. boats and caravans can often be seen       B. isolated farms don’t have enough electricity

C. there are less human activities                     D. the wind is strong and reliable

3.We can infer from the passage that _______.

A. wind farms will not take up too much farming land

B. wind farms need no fuel because wind is free

C. the blades can be angled to turn to face the wind wherever it comes from

D. the higher and larger the towers are, the stronger the wind is

4.What can be a suitable title for the passage?

A. Where to build a wind farm.                        B. ABC of the using of wind energy.

C. How to make best use of wind.                    D. Wind energy is the best energy.

5.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means______________________.

A. The blades can increase wind speeds   

B. The blades can decrease the wind speeds

C. The speed of blades can be changed.

D. The blades can be adjusted to face different wind speeds

 

Read the following passage and find out the 10 mistakes.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），在其下面写上该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词的下面写上修改后的词。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。

 2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从11处）不记分。

May I have you attention please? I have a little things to tell you. When you have a class here in the language lab, please be here a little early. Change your shoes before enter the lab. Don't bring anything here except your text books. When you are into, please don't touch these machine without permission. Always do as the teacher tell you to. In class you should only speak the English, not Chinese. Recorders can be used to making a copy of the listening materials. When class over, turn off your machines and leave the lab one by one.

 

This is a story from 28 years ago. My dad was a used car salesman. Every Thursday night, he would head off to Shreveport, LA for an auction. Most of the time, I drove a car over there for him so he could sell it at the auction.

One day, I was riding with my dad when he noticed a hitch-hiker with a backpack. Without hesitation, he pulled the car over and offered him a ride. Dad asked him his name, and proceeded to talk to him about all sorts of things. Dad asked him where he was going. The hitch-hiker told him he was heading for the west. I can’t recall why but he told Dad a lot of things that had occurred to him and that persuaded him to make that decision. He talked about the tragic events that occurred to him several years before. He was low in spirits, but I could see that the hitch-hiker’s attitude was changing as someone was really listening to him.

We drove 45 minutes before the hitch-hiker got off. We pulled over and Dad told him to keep his head up and things would start looking up for him soon. He reached into his pocket and handed the hitch-hiker a twenty-dollar bill. The guy smiled. He nearly lit up right there on the cold, dark highway.

We drove on and my dad did not say a single thing. I was still completely amazed by what I had just witnessed. I was always told by everyone never to pick up a hitch-hiker and yet my dad did it every single time he saw one. While reflecting upon that story I came to understand that just one single kind act could change someone’s life, and I am sure that my father’s deed made that poor man’s day.

1.The underlined words “that decision” in Para. 2 refer to ___________.

A．catching the car	B．heading for the west
C．talking about his experiences	D．driving 45 minutes

2.What made the hitch-hiker become less upset?

A．The writer’s father offering him a free ride

B．The writer’s father really listening to him

C．The writer’s father agreeing to driving him to his destination

D．The writer’s father talking to him about all sorts of things

3.When his father helped the hitch-hiker, the writer ___________.

A．was deeply moved	B．strongly disagreed
C．admired his father	D．couldn’t understand

4.Which of the following words cannot be used to describe the father?

A．willing to help

B．easy-going

C．far-sighted

D．full of sympathy

5.The author wrote the text mainly to _________.

A．show his respect for his father

B．tell a story about his kind father

C．prove his father is the best teacher

D．advise people to learn from their fathers

 

When you’re surfing the Internet on your laptop from your dorm or home, do you know your personal details are being gathered secretly? And would you be surprised to know the information may be sold cheaply to advertisers and marketers?

According to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, all it takes is a tiny file in a computer-a single code consisting of a long series of numbers and letters- to record the computer user’s age, gender, location, favorite movies and hobbies.

The newspaper reports that Lotame Solutions Inc., a New York company, uses sophisticated(高科技) software called a "beacon" to capture what people are typing on a website.

Lotame packages that data into profiles（个人资料）about individuals, only without their names, and sells the profiles to companies seeking customers．Batches of such data may be sold for a few dollars.

The Wall Street Journal survey discovered that spying on Internet users is one of the fastest-growing businesses on the World Wide Web.

The "cookie"- a tiny text file put on your PC by websites or marketing firms which might be used to remember your preferences for one site, or to track you across many sites is already old news．There are new and more complex tools such as "beacons" which scan in real time what people are doing on a webpage．These beacons instantly assess the Internet user’s location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions.

Millions of Internet users around the world also face unprecedented（空前的）threats．Private, sensitive, personal and business information is being gathered and sold without their knowledge.

Companies insist the information they gather is anonymous and the data is used harmlessly. But the technology has grown so powerful that even some of the biggest websites in the US don’t know that they were installing intrusive files on visitors’ computers．These include MSN.com and Yahoo.com.

Next time you visit a webpage and find an ad banner advertising something you’ve been planning to buy, don’t be amazed that your computer can read your mind.

1.The purpose of the passage is to          .

A．introduce a tiny file in a computer-a single code

B．show how your individual information was let out when you surf the Internet

C．show how to protect your privacy

D．introduce a sophisticated software called a "beacon"

2.．All of the following statements are Wrong except          .

A．Lotame sells the profiles about individuals to companies seeking customers with their age, gender, location, hobbies and names

B．spying on Internet users is the fastest-growing businesses on the World Wide Web

C．some of the biggest websites in the US know they were installing intrusive files on visitors’ computers

D．a tiny file in a computer-a single code consisting of a long series of numbers and letters can record users’ information

3.It can be inferred that          .

A．because the data is used harmlessly．Internet users around the world will not face threats

B．when a person surf the Internet, his personal details may be let out without his knowledge

C．your computer can really read your mind

D．MSN.com and Yahoo.com．use software to capture what people are typing on a website

4.According to the passage, “beacon”          .

A．is a tiny text file put on your PC by websites

B．is a soft ware that can package that data into profiles about individuals

C．can assess the Internet user’s location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions

D．is not more complex than the "cookie"

5.What’s the writer’s attitude to this problem?

A．Neutral

B．Worried

C．Optimistic

D．Indifferent