Part B: Reading Comprehension 20%
A
Backpacks are convenient. They can hold your books, your lunch, and a change of clothes, leaving your hands free to do other things. Someday, if you don’t mind carrying a heavy load, your backpack might also power your MP3 player, keep your cell phone running, and maybe even light your way home.
Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., have invented a backpack that makes electricity from energy produced while its wearer walks.
The backpack’s electricity-creating powers depend on springs used to hang a cloth pack from its metal frame. The frame sits against the wearer’s back, and the whole pack moves up and down as the person walks. A mechanism with gears(传动装置) collects energy from this motion and transfers it to an electrical generator.
Surprisingly, the researchers found, people walk differently when they wear the springy packs. As a result, wearers use less energy than when carrying regular backpacks. Also, the way the new packs ride on wearers’ backs makes them more comfortable than standard packs.
The backpack could be especially useful for soldiers, scientists, mountaineers, and emergency workers who typically carry heavy backpacks. These people often rely on global positioning system(GPS) receivers, night-vision goggles(夜视镜), and other battery-powered devices to get around and do their work. Because the pack can make its own electricity, users don’t need to give up space in their packs to lots of extra batteries.
For the rest of us, power-generating backpacks could make it possible to walk, play video games, watch TV, and listen to music, all at the same time. Electricity-generating packs aren’t on the market yet, but if you do get one eventually, just make sure to look both ways before crossing the street!
65. The passage introduces a new kind of ______ backpack.
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A．electronic |
B．electricity-producing |
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C．electron-generating |
D．electricity-controlling |
66. The new backpack makes use of ______ to produce power.
batteries placed at the bottom of the frame
the motion of the pack while the wearer walks
energy the wearer consumes for carrying the pack
the collective motion of a mechanism and some gears
67. From the passage, we can infer that ______.
the backpacks of mountaineers may become smaller in the future
the new backpack can hardly be produced due to its potential danger
the new backpack will someday replace MP3 players and cell phones
the backpack will also provide electricity for lighting our houses
68. An enormous disadvantage of power-generating backpacks might be that ______.
they may stop working at any time
it takes quite a while to have the energy transferred
they may distract the wearer’s attention from road safety
they will be extremely heavy with the mechanism
Ⅲ. Reading Comprehension: 35%
Part A: Cloze Test 15%
Competition for admission to the country’s top private schools has always been tough. This is spreading from Manhattan to the rest of the country. Precise 50 data on private schools are unavailable, but interviews with representatives of independent and religious schools all told the same 51: too many applicants, higher rejection rates. Surveys indicate that Americans’ No. 1 52 is education. 53 the long economic boom(繁荣) has given parents more income, many are turning to private schools, even at price tags of well over $10,000 a year. “We’re getting applicants from a broader area, 54, than we ever have in the past,” said Besty Haugh of the Latin School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent increase in 55 this year.
The problem is that while demand has increased, supply has not. “Every year, there are a few children who do not find places, but this year, for the first time that I know of, there are a(n) 56 number of children who don’t have places,” said Krents, who also heads a private-school admissions group in New York.
So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old a(n) 57? Schools know there is no simple way to pick a class when children are so young. Many schools give preference to boys or girls or alumni(校友) children. Some use lotteries. But most rely on a 58 of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best 59 developmental maturity and learning potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings. They also want a diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list simply because their birthdays 60 at the wrong time year, or because too many applicants were boys.
The worst thing a parent can do is to pressure preschoolers to perform --- 61, by pushing them to read or do math exercises 62 they’re ready. Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for 63. Another year in preschool may be all that’s needed. Parents, meanwhile, may need a more 64 mind about relatively unknown private schools --- or about magnet（具有吸引力的）schools in the public system. There’s no sign of the private-school boom letting up.
50. A. traditional B. current C. processed D. average
51. A. story B. advice C. context D. promise
52. A. venture B. concern C. occupation D. interest
53. A. For that B. So that C. Now that D. After that
54. A. intellectually B. psychologically C. commercially D. geographically
55. A. applications B. locations C. schools D. admissions
56. A. considerate B. inadequate C. significant D. moderate
57. A. advantage B. skill C. place D. school
58. A. choice B. mix C. preference D. base
59. A. identify B. exploit C. employ D. confirm
60. A. set B. fix C. date D. fall
61. A. in a word B. to a great extent C. in any case D. for example
62. A. when B. since C. before D. until
63. A. occasions B. competitions C. alternatives D. pressures
64. A. open B. closed C. active D. secret
Part B: Vocabulary 9%
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A．claim |
B．second |
C．opposite |
D．count E. best |
F. negative G. failures H. defined I. mark J. reliable
We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It is really extraordinary that after all years, educationists have still failed to devise something more 41 than examinations. For all the 42 that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact 43. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability.
As anxiety-makers, examinations are 44 to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the 45 of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t 46: the exam goes on. No one can bring out the 47 in him when he is in terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of fierce competition where success and failure are clearly 48 and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of “dropouts”: young people who are written off as 49 before they have started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?
40. When I was very young, I thought that inside the radio ______ who liked talking very much.
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A．a group of people lived |
B．a group of people did live |
|
C．did a group of people live |
D．lived a group of people |
39. ______ has forced people, especially women, to endure a lot of pain and suffering to make themselves more beautiful?
|
A．It is what |
B．It is what that |
|
C．What is it that |
D．What it is that |
38. Mr. Black ______ home because his briefcase is still on the desk.
|
A．mustn’t have gone |
B．can’t have gone |
|
C．shouldn’t have gone |
D．needn’t have gone |
