TOKYO—A child-like robot that combines the roles of nurse, companion and security guard is to go on the market to help the growing ranks of elderly Japanese with no one to look after them.
The “Wakamaru” robot can walk around a house 24 hours a day, warning family, hospitals and security firms if it perceives (notices) a problem. It will, for example, call relatives if the owner fails to get out of the bath.
Cameras implanted in the “eye-brows” of the robot enable it to “see” as it walks around an apartment. The images can be sent to the latest cellphones, which display the pictures.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which developed Wakamaru, plans to start selling the metre-high robots by April, 2005, for about ＄15,000 Cdn.
Wakamaru, which speaks with either the voice of a boy or girl, is also designed to provide companionship, greeting its “papa” when he comes home.
It is the first household robot able to hold simple conversations, based on a vocabulary of around 10,000 words. It cannot only speak but can understand answers and react accordingly.
It will ask “Are you all right ?” if its owner does not move for some time. If the answer is no, or there is no answer, it will telephone preset numbers, transmitting images and functioning as a speakerphone.
Wakamaru will inform a security firm if there is a loud bang or if an unknown person enters the house while the owner is out or asleep. It can recognize up to 10 faces.
But like most robots it cannot climb stairs.
It can be set to remind forgetful people when it is time to take medicine, eat and sleep.
Mitsubishi adapted Wakamaru from robots it already makes to go around nuclear power facilities. The idea to use the technology in the home came from a company employee.
The project chief said :“Looking at the ageing of society and the falling birth rate we decide that this could work as a business. We want to offer Wakamaru as a product that helps society.”
The technology has gained nation-wide publicity in Japan among increasing concern over how to look after the ever-growing number of old people. The life expectancy of Japanese women has shot up to almost 85, the highest in the world.
At the same time, extended families are being replaced by nuclear families. This has left many Japanese anxious about their elderly parents, whom they rarely see because of their long hours at the office.
1．Which of the following is true about the Robot?
A. It is used in some nuclear power facilities.
B. It cannot speak but can understand answers.
C. It can go up and down the stairs easily. D. It can recognize as many as 10 faces.
2．The purpose of this passage is ________.
A. to introduce a new product B. to solve the aging problems
C. to tell people how to use the robot D. to show the rapid development of technology
3．What can we infer from the passage ?
A. The robot can dial proper numbers for help.
B. The robot is likely to have a promising market.
C. The robot has given the Japanese a chance to live longer.
D. The nuclear families have left many elderly Japanese anxious.
4．What is the best title of this passage ?
A. The Latest Development of Robot Technology B. Japanese Robot and the Aging Society
C. Vast Market of the New Robot D. Japanese-built Robot to Help the Old
5. Wakamaru _____________________.
A. is a child who is always taking good care of his grandparents 24 hours a day.
B. has a vocabulary of around 1,000 words
C. is the first household robot that has ever been produced.
D. has ameras implanted in the “eye-brows” which enable it to “see” when walking.
The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said on Thursday it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.
An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives -- a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean -- virtually uninhabitable by 2100, the UN’s climate change panel has warned.
President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and last month he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention centre, homes and an 18-hole golf course. “It is still early stages and we are awaiting a report on the possibility,” a government official said.
The company, Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai. There was no immediate comment from the firm but its website said it undertook projects that make “land from water by providing large-scale floating constructions to create similar conditions as on land”.
The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion. The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat climate change.
Nasheed, who staged the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in October to highlight his people’s dilemma , has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are flooded. He has also pledged the Hulhumale to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral” by 2020. His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from “green” sources.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. The Maldives plans to build floating homes for the rising sea level.
B. The Maldives’s president signed a deal with a Dutch company.
C. The Maldives staged the first underwater cabinet meeting.
D. The Maldives is considering ways to fight against the global warming.
2. Which statement is true about the Hulhumale?
A. The Hulhumale is a natural island near the capital of Male.
B. The Hulhumale is an artificial island to be built near the capital.
C. The Hulhumale was built in 1997 and has settled over 30,000 people.
D. The Hulhumale is protected by a 30-million-dollar sea wall.
3. According to the passage, the underlined word congestion means _______.
A. being endangered B. being crowded
C. being flooded D. being disappearing
4. Which of the following is NOT Nasheed’s idea?_______
A. To purchase land elsewhere in the world to help Maldivians to relocate if their homes are flooded.
B. To make his nation a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral” by 2020
C. To stop using fossil fuel and power all vehicles and buildings from “green” sources.
D. To build more artificial islands for people to settle there.
5. We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. By 2100, all the the Maldives will live on artificial islands.
B. The plans to build homes and a golf course that float have been carried out
C. Maldive has been greatly affected by the global warming.
D. . Dutch Docklands is the president of Maldive.
Ⅲ 阅读(共两节，满分40分)
第一节 阅读理解(共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Is a mouse that can speak acceptable? How about a dog with human hands or feet? Scientists, the people with the know-how to make such things happen, are now thinking about whether such experiments are morally right or not.
On Nov. 10, Britain’s Academy of Medical Sciences launched a study on the use of animals with human materials in scientific research. The work is expected to take at least a year, but its leaders hope it will lead to guidelines for scientists in Britain and around the world on how far they can go mixing human genes into animals in search of ways to fight human diseases.
“Do these constructs (构想) challenge our idea of what it is to be human?” asked Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University and chair of a 14-member group looking into the issue. “It is important that we consider these questions now so that appropriate boundaries are recognized.”
Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon’s gene so they can study how the disease develops; and mice with livers (肝) made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.
However, scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world --- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to go further than is morally acceptable.
Last year in Britain there was a lively debate over new laws allowing the creation of human-animal embryos (胚胎) for experiments. On one side of the debate were religious groups, who claimed that such science interferes with nature. Opposing them were scientists who pointed out that such experiments were vital to research cures for diseases.
The experts will publish reports after the end of the study, in which they will give definitions (定义) for animal embryos with human genes or cells, look at safety and animal welfare issues, and consider the right legal framework to work within.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Scientists in Britain and around the world. B. Leaders of the research.
C. Guidelines for scientists. D. Scientific experiments.
2. Scientists do research of mixing human genes into animals in order to ____.
A. test new drugs on animals B. to find ways to fight human diseases
C. prove the research is morally acceptable
D. create monkeys and mice with livers made from human cells
3. We can infer from the passage that ____.
A. the experts will release reports after the study
B. scientists have never doubted the use of animals with human materials
C. the creation of human-animal embryos for experiments is legal in Britain
D. religious groups hold that cures for diseases have to be done through experiments
4. What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Morally right or not? B. A debate about new laws
C. Cures for diseases D. Animal embryos with human genes
5. Where is the passage from?
A. A science textbook B. A science booklet
C. the science column of a newspaper D. A science magazine for teenagers
第二节：语法填空（共10小题，每小题1.5分，满分15分）
阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡标号为31—40的相应位置上。
For many environmentalists, the world seems to be getting worse. They have developed a list of our main fears: natural resources are running out; the population 31 (grow), leaving less and less to eat; species are becoming 32 (extinction) in vast numbers, and the planet’s air and water are becoming dirty, 33 are ever more polluted.
34 a quick look at the facts shows a different picture. First, energy and other natural resources have become more abundant not less so. Second, 35 food is now at any time in history. Third, although species are indeed becoming extinct, only about 0.7% of them are expected 36 (disappear) in the next 50 years, not 25~50%, as has so often been predicted. And finally, most forms of environmental pollution 37 appear to have been predicted, or are too short– associated 38 the early stages of industrialization. 39 bigger problem may well turn out to be an inappropriate response to it. yet opinion polls suggest that many people develop the 40 (believer) that environmental standards are declining and some factors seem to cause this disjunction.
II 语言知识及应用(共两节，满分35分)
第一节 完形填空(共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分)
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从21—30各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Flying like a bird has been the dream of humans since ancient times. Last week a group of modern birdmen put their courage on their wings and __21__ gravity in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
“Yes, you can buy a ticket and fly to another city. But running with your own wings and feeling your feet ready to __22__ is totally different,” Dong Fang, a middle school student in Hangzhou who __23__ a home-made aircraft competition, said in an excited voice. __24__ by the International Bognor Birdman Competition in the UK, the competition in Hangzhou was a similar event. The Bognor Birdman competition started in 1971 in the England coastal city Bognor. People ran off the end of a pier (码头) with their own aircraft in a(n) __25__ to “fly” the farthest distance.
In the competition, a teacher called Ni was amazed to see how imaginative the students were. He was surprised to see his students create 10 different aircrafts with all kinds of material __ 26__ in the past month. “We’d rather call ourselves dreamers __27__ pilots because whether our wings really leave the ground, our dream really flies,” said Dong Fang.
Jing Yuchen and his team named their plane “Weiming E”, which __28__ an unknown goose. The 17-year-old boy deeply believes their goose of steel pipe and sailcloth will honour its name by successfully making it fly.
“Our work is much more imaginative than others. With several colourful balloons on its back and a pair of light plastic wings, it is __29__ the most eye-catching work, if not the best,” said Yu Liang, another student.
“Although most of those home-made aircrafts cannot really take the boys flying, the boys’ braveness and __30__ in this project will encourage every one of them to fly high in the future,” Ni said.
21. A. challenged B. struggled C. abandoned D. observed
22. A. take on B. take up C. take off D. take in
23. A. joined B. participated C. took part in D. attended
24. A. Promoted B. Inspired C. Advocated D. Blamed
25. A. range B. group C. attempt D. way
26. A. available B. unique C. visible D. responsible
27. A. as well as B. other than C. but for D. instead of
28. A. declares B. means C. reflects D. causes
29. A. accidentally B. surely C. barely D. simply
30. A. exploration B. perseverance C. creativity D. determination
第二节：读写任务（共1小题，满分25分）
阅读下面的短文，然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。
An Internet war of words is violent between China’s younger generations---the 1980s and the 1990s---commonly known as the “Strawberries” and the “Jellies”. It’s about values and identity, who’s patriotic and responsible, who’s spoiled.
The Strawberries see the Jellies as “self-centered and irresponsible, materialistic, spoiled kids.” while the Jellies see the Strawberries as “out-of-date.”
Retired English teacher Paul Wang has taught both the 1980s and 1990s students and worries more about kids the latter. “I worry more about the 1990s, because kids from the 1980s, although naughty and rebellious, would still listen to teachers, if not fear teachers. They have different opinions and would argue with me, but there was still respect.” Kids today are different, says Wang. “They know your salary, they know that you won’t criticize them and many of them don’t respect us any more.”
Since the earthquake on May 12th, media have shown a greater appreciation of the 1980s generation. “ We used to feel disappointed about the 1980s, but they showed unbelievable courage and energy after the earthquake and proved they are patriotic and responsible enough to support this nation. However, the 1990s generation is listless. They don’t know what they want because they have everything. They don’t care about anything else except themselves.”
【写作内容】
1. 请用约30个词概括文中对90后的观点.
2. 然后以 “我眼中的90后” 为题写120词左右的短文,内容如下:
1) 对上文中提到的关于对90后的观点,你有何看法?
2) 你认为90后的主要特点是什么?
3) 用自己经历的事情或他人的事迹来进行说明90后的特点.
【写作要求】
1. 可以使用实例或其他论述方法支持你的论点,也可以参照阅读材料的内容, 但不得直接引用原文中的句子.
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称.
【评分标准】
概括准确,语言规范,内容合适,篇章连贯.
