Question

    Have you ever heard of “a ball of energy”? People often use it to describe very active children. But today we tell about an invention called the socket, that is a real soccer ball of energy. Julia Silverman explains that in fact the socket is a portable generator.

Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews developed the socket as part of a group project for an engineering class at Harvard University. There are mechanisms in a socket. When you kick, hit or throw it, energy is then kept in it by these mechanisms instead of disappearing into the environment.

Then the user can put something directly into the ball, like a lamp, or a mobile phone charger so that they can get energy from it. For every fifteen minutes of the game play, the socket can provide enough electricity for an LED lamp for three hours, and the ball can store up to 24 hours’ electricity.

The International Energy Association reported last year that nearly one and a half billion people in the world had no electricity to use, and most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and in India and other countries in Asia.

Julia Silverman and Jessica Matthews both had experiences in developing countries before they began the project. They knew that power shortages are a serious problem in really areas. There’s an energy crisis in the world. One out of every five people in the world don't have any electricity, there are a lot of health problems because what people use instead of any electricity are harmful choices like kerosene lamps, which produce a lot of smoke.

Julia Silverman says the socket ball is one small solution to a big problem. Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman hope their socket ball will shine more light on the problem of power shortages. It offers people a chance to put their energy into the world’s most popular sport and get some energy in return.

1.From the passage, we know the socket is__________.

A.an active child B.an invention C.a lamp D.a mobile phone

2.The underlined word “crisis” in the passage means a time of__________.

A.difficulty B.safety C.success D.sadness

3.We can infer from the passage that__________.

A.active children care more about playing socket

B.people are expected to get some energy by playing socket

C.Julia Silverman has never been to developing countries before

D.kicking a socket can let the energy disappear into the environment

4.The best title for the passage should be__________.

A.A soccer ball that gives energy B.The way to help save electricity

C.The best way to solve energy problems D.An invention changing the world

Answer

1.B

2.A

3.B

4.A

【解析】

本文介绍了一种被叫做soccket的用来提供能量的发明，这是一个真正的充满能量的足球，实际上soccket是一个便携式发动机。它是由Julia Silverman和Jessica Matthews两人研制的；在soccket里有一些装置，当你踢，打或扔它，能源就被这些装置保存在里面，然后用户可以把东西直接放在球上，像一盏灯，或手机充电器，使他们可以从中获得能量，每玩15分钟的游戏，soccket可以为LED灯提供三小时的充足电量，这个球可以储存长达24小时的电量。Jessica Matthews和Julia Silverman希望soccket将为解决世界电力短缺这一难题带来希望和光明。

1.细节理解题。根据“But today we tell about an invention called the socket, that is a real soccer ball of energy.”可知今天我们要讲的是一个叫做插座的发明，它是一个真正的能量足球，故选B。

2.词义猜测题。difficulty困难；safety安全；success成功；sadness伤心；根据“One out of every five people in the world don't have any electricity”可知世界上每五个人中就有一个没有电，推出前句应是说不好的事情，即世界存在着能源危机，该单词意思是与选项A相近，故选A。

3.推理判断题。根据“There’s an energy crisis in the world.”及“Julia Silverman says the socket ball is one small solution to a big problem. Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman hope their socket ball will shine more light on the problem of power shortages.”可知Julia Silverman说soccket球是个解决这个大难题的方案，Jessica Matthews和Julia Silverman希望soccket球将为解决电力短缺的问题带来希望和光明，可推出人们期望通过玩soccket获得一些能量，故选B。

4.主旨大意题。根据第一段“But today we tell about an invention called the soccket，that is a real soccer ball of energy”联系全文内容可知本文就是介绍了一种叫做soccket的能够提供能量的足球的情况，故选A。