The world’s top automakers are increasingly offering more electric vehicle models. This growth is expected to continue， with more people choosing to hit the road with clean-running electric- powered cars.
Environmentalists have praised the automakers for taking major steps to limit harmful pollutants linked to worldwide climate change. But electric vehicles are also known for not producing another kind of pollution—noise. They run on batteries instead of fuel， and can operate in silence.
While many people might consider this a good thing， quiet cars can also cause problems. The main danger is that people walking in areas around electric vehicles face a greater risk of being hit if they cannot hear the cars coming.
Governments in the United States and Europe have recognized this problem. So， they have set requirements for manufacturers to add warning sounds to vehicles operating on electricity.
The U.S.Department of Transportation finalized its rules a year ago. The rules require electric and hybrid (混合能源) vehicles to be equipped with some kind of warning sound when moving at speeds up to 30 kilometers per hour. The rules are aimed at preventing injuries among people walking or riding bicycles and to protect the blind.
So what kinds of sounds can we expect to hear from the next generation of electric vehicles? One of the easiest solutions would be for carmakers to simply reproduce the sound a car would make if it actually did run on fuel. But many industry officials believe this would be a mistake.They say this would not support the electric vehicle’s true identity. It would also limit great possibilities to link the car’s sound to a whole new image, which could help increase sales.
Frank Welsch is head of technical development at Germany’s Volkswagen. He said that finding the perfect sound mix is not an easy process. “The electric vehicle sound is its identity,” he said. “It cannot be too annoying. It cannot sound like anything we had in the past.”
An official from Mercedes-Benz said the sound was designed to provide a safe warning without annoying passengers inside the vehicle. He said the goal was to create a car that remains completely quiet on the inside, but fills the sound requirements and supports the model’s image on the outside.
It might seem strange to think that part of our automotive future is currently being developed in the same kinds of recording studios used by musicians. But that is exactly what is happening.
1.The underlined words “hit the road” in Paragraph 1 probably mean_________.
A.clean a road B.start a trip
C.avoid an accident D.reduce noise pollution
2.The first two paragraphs are mainly intended to_________.
A.introduce the topic of the passage
B.list the advantages of automobiles
C.provide some facts about electric cars
D.stress the importance of saving energy
3.Sounds are added to electric cars to_________.
A.limit pollutants B.increase sales
C.prevent injuries D.make cars smarter
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A.Electric Car Sounds Promote Sales to a Large Degree
B.Recording Studios Will Create Sounds for All Electric Cars
C.Governments Call on People to Design Electric Car Sounds
D.Electric Cars Need Creative Sounds to Replace Engine Noise
Traveling with kids is 90 percent reminding yourself to live in the moment and 10 percent making up your mind to never again leave your house.
I have an uncanny ability to forget this as soon as we return home from a trip and I've finished washing piles of dirty clothes in our luggage and cleaning all the messy caused by the kids. Extremely tired and annoyed, I would actually begin to miss the place we just left!
Family travel is like childbirth, I suppose. Painful, loud, messy, sort of awful, actually, but also wonderful. And you remember only the wonderful—until you’re back on a plane and your kids are fighting over who gets the aisle seat. Then you remember the bad stuff.
Last weekend, my kids and I flew to Texas for a trip we would have nothing to complain(抱怨) about—big hotel, wonderful view.
And yet—we found things to complain about. The pool was bigger in that other hotel! Why do you get to shower first? They call this coffee?! Luckily, I’ve learned to put my metaphorical coat of armor (盔甲) on as soon as we land somewhere, and it forces complaints to bounce off me and land in a pile at my feet.
For three days, genuine fun was had and annoying complaints were heard and ignored. Until it was time to catch a plane and fly home.
Unfortunately, our flight was canceled. We spent hours finding a hotel room. We hit the hotel pool before bed and swam well into the night, my kids making up songs and laughing so hard at their silly lyrics (歌词) and their crazy good fortune to be swimming at 10: 30 on a school night.
And that was when it hit me that family travel is all those things I said before but it’s also a lot more. It’s taking your kids to parts of the world that will open their eyes and finding that actually, yours need opening too. It’s remembering that joy and memories are where you make them, not where you find them.
1.The underlined word “uncanny” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .
A.unknown. B.uncertain.
C.unexpected. D.unusual.
2.According to the passage, family travel is like childbirth in that .
A.they both cause financial trouble and pain.
B.they are both hard as well as rewarding.
C.childhood memories come flooding back when they travel.
D.both of them need many preparations.
3.By saying “I’ve learned to put my metaphorical coat of armor on” in Paragraph 5, the author means that_ .
A.she tries to deal with the complaints more wisely and properly.
B.she turns those annoying complaints into a means to educate kids.
C.she has improved her language skills when handling the complaints.
D.she has succeeded in escaping kids’ fighting thanks to the armor.
4.From the author’s experience in the passage, we can NOT learn that .
A.family vacation benefits her kids as well as her.
B.joy and memories should be created rather than discovered.
C.the most unforgettable memory for her is about the complaints.
D.she has to spend some time on housework after the family vacation.
All over the world people enjoy sports. Sports help to keep people healthy, happy and help them to live longer.
Sports change with the season. People play different games in winter and summer. Games and sports often grow out of people's work and everyday activities. The Arabs use horses or camels in much of their everyday life; they use them in their sports, too.
Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for them. Football, for example, has spread around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers.
Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese boxing, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time.
People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game they often become good friends. Sports help to train a person's character (性格). One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace (优雅).
1.According to this passage, which of the following isn't true?
A.Sports help to train a person's character.
B.People swim only because there are a lot of rivers in their country.
C.People from different countries may not be able to understand each other before a game.
D.Sports and games can develop the friendship between peoples all over the world.
2.The writer didn't tell us in this passage that ________.
A.basketball was invented in America
B.sports change with the seasons
C.games and sports often grow out of people's work and everyday activities
D.football is played all over the world
3.From this passage we can see that _______.
A.sports and games are unimportant things that people do
B.sports and games should be treated (对待) only as amusement (娱乐活动)
C.sports and games are only useful to the old
D.none of the above is true
阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。 续写的词数应为150左右。
A couple of years ago, a day before Christmas, it was so cold in Nebraska. The high temperature for the day had been below zero. Even though it was so cold that it hurt to be outside, I tried to complete some Christmas shopping during my lunch hour. I thought many people would choose to stay inside until it got warmer and that there would be fewer people at the store.
The moment I got out of my house, I realized it was much colder than I had expected. On the way to the store, I could only see a few people on the street. To comfort myself, I kept telling myself that it was my responsibility to offer my family good Christmas gifts.
As I approached a store, hurrying in an effort to keep warm, I saw a young woman standing outside, seeming to wait for somebody, as I saw she kept looking in all directions. She was completely bundled up (裹得严严实实) from head to toe. But it was clear that she still felt cold. She kept stamping her feet because the motion (动作) could help her to warm up a little.
I greeted her and said, ''My Lady, you must feel very cold to stand here in such bad weather. '' She laughed and said, ''I'm so cold that I can't feel the cold anymore! '' She told me that she had been there since 8: 00 that morning. And it was noon when I saw her. And she also said that she might still have several hours to go. However, she didn't tell me why she was standing there and I didn't ask her why she did so, considering for politeness.
I went inside the store, and I was surprised to see so many people there. At last, I did not find anything to buy and I left. As I arrived at the front of the store, I saw the snack bar (小吃店).
Paragraph 1:
Suddenly, an idea came to me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2
As I went out of the store, I presented her with the warm drink.
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假定你是李华, 正在伦敦读书。请你给你们学校的校长史密斯先生写一封信, 建议学校开设天文学兴趣小组 (an astronomy interest group)。内容包括：
1、写信目的；
2、分析原因；
3、表达期待。
注意:1、词数80左右；
2、书信格式已给出（不计入总词数）；
3、可根据内容要点适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mr Smith,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
One day Katy Qualls saw a post on her neighborhood’s Facebook page, 1. (say) an old man with dementia (痴呆) had got lost. She knew the man’s family and she wanted to help find him. Especially with the cold temperature, she was very 2. (worry) about the old man’s condition.
With her parents’ 3. (agree), she got dressed and set out to find the man along with other warmhearted neighbors 4. were looking for the elderly man. Almost all of the search teams went into the woods to find the elderly man, 5. Katy took a different route. “I walked around and I felt like that was good,” she 6. (explain). “ I heard something, and I turned to my left, finding he was lying on the floor on his side, backed up into the bushes (灌木丛).”
Katy was very gentle with the man and made him believe that she wouldn’t hurt him. She then picked the man up into 7. (she) arms and carried him to the police car. And she waited 8. (patient) with the old man inside the warm police car for his family 9. (show) up and his wife was very grateful 10. what Katy had done for them.
