专限时训练(二十三) [资讯报道型阅读理解]
(限时：每篇7分钟)
(一)
MIT researchers and their colleagues are working to find out whether energy from trees can power a network of sensors (传感器) to prevent spreading forest fires.
What they learn could also raise the possibility of using trees as silent guards along the nation’s borders to discover potential threats such as smuggled (走私的) radioactive materials.
The U．S. Forest Service currently predicts and tracks fires with a variety of tools, including remote automatic weather stations. But these stations are expensive and sparsely (稀疏地) distributed. Additional sensors could save trees by providing better local climate data to be used in fire prediction models and earlier warnings. However, recharging or replacing batteries by hand at very hardtoreach locations makes it impractical and costly.
The new sensor system seeks to avoid this problem by developing trees into a selfsustaining power supply. Each sensor is equipped with a battery that can be
slowly recharged using electricity produced by the tree. “A single tree doesn’t generate a lot of power, but over time the trickle (细流) charge adds up, just like ________” said Shuguang Zhang, one of the researchers on the project and the associate director of the MIT’s Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBE)．
The system produces enough electricity to allow the temperature and humidity sensors to wirelessly send out signals four times a day, or immediately if there’s a fire. Each signal spreads from one sensor to another, until it reaches an existing weather station that sends the data by satellite to a forestry command center in Boise, Idaho.
Scientists have long known that trees can produce extremely small amounts of electricity. But no one knew exactly how the energy was produced or how to take advantage of the power.
()1.What are the disadvantages of the remote automatic weather stations?
a. They cost too much.
b. They are of poor quality.
c. They are not enough.
d. They can’t reach remote places.
A．a, bB．b, d
C．a, c
D．b, c
()2.Which of the following is the best sentence to fill in the blank?
A．Far water does not put out near fire.
B．All rivers run into sea.
C．Many a little makes a mickle.
D．It never rains but it pours.
C．Tree power in daily life
D．Developing new energy
(二)
The crisis at Japan’s Fukushima DaiIchi nuclear energy center has raised questions about the future of the nuclear energy industry. Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in the United States. He says the disaster in Japan is historic.
This week, the chairman of America’s nuclear agency said there is little chance that harmful radiation from Japan could reach the United States. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko also said America has a strong program in place to deal with earthquake threats. No new nuclear power centers have been built in the United States since 1979.That was when America’s worst nuclear accident happened at the Three Mile Island center in Pennsylvania. The accident began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy.
To support more clean energy production, the Obama government has been seeking billions of dollars in government loan guarantees to build new centers. Presently, about twenty percent of electricity in the United States comes from nuclear energy. But critics say nuclear power is too costly and dangerous to be worth further expansion.
German prime minister Angela Merkel said Germany would close all seven nuclear power centers for a moment while energy policy is reconsidered. The European Union is planning to test all centers in its twentyseven member nations.
Developing nations are less willing to slow nuclear expansion. China said it would continue with plans to build about twentyfive new nuclear plants. And India, under a cooperation agreement with the United States, plans to spend billions on new centers in the coming years.
Japan has made nuclear energy a national priority since the 1970s. Unlike many major economies, Japan imports eighty percent of its energy. The Nuclear Energy Institute said twentynine percent of Japan’s electricity came from nuclear sources in 2011.The government planned to increase that to forty percent by 2017.
Nuclear plants supply fourteen percent of global electricity. Nuclear energy is a clean resource, producing no carbon gases. But radioactive waste is a serious unresolved(未解决的) issue. So_is_the_presence_of_nuclear_power_centers_in_earthquake_areas_like_the_one_near_Bushehr,_Iran.
()6.Which of the following countries is the least likely to expand its use of nuclear energy?
A．China.
B．India.
C．Iran.
D．Germany.
()7.The government of Japan intended to increase its nuclear energy in 2017 by ________ compared with 2011.
A．29%
B．40%
C．69%
D．11%
()8.Which of the following statements about the use of nuclear power in the U．S. is TRUE?
A．Most of the electricity comes from nuclear energy in the U．S.
B．The Obama government is against building nuclear power plants.
C．A small number of nuclear power plants have been built since 1979.
D．A serious nuclear accident happened in America at the end of the 1970s.
()9.What’s the main idea of this passage?
A．The nuclear crisis in Japan has spread to other parts of the world.
B．The situation of the world’s nuclear power development after the crisis in Japan.
C．Japan’s nuclear disaster will slow the expansion of nuclear plants all over the world.
D．Japan’s nuclear disaster won’t affect the nuclear energy production in other countries.
()10.From the last sentence of the passage, we can see the writer’s attitude towards building a nuclear power plant near Bushehr, Iran is________.
A．supportive
B．optimistic
C．negative
D．uncertain
(三)
Four out of ten women who diet end up heavier than when they started watching their waistline(腰围), a study revealed today. The research also showed that a large percentage of women started noticing the pounds creeping back on just 21 days after reaching their ideal weight.
Yesterday, Dr Ian Campbell of the Jenny Craig Weight Management Program said: “In the UK 61.4 per cent of adults are overweight or obese. Successful weight management requires a longterm commitment in order to lose weight successfully and for good. Dieting can be a real challenge so setting realistic goals and remaining focused on them is important. Otherwise as this research shows, women could end up heavier than when they started.”
The “Food, Body, Mind” report was publicized by Jenny Craig who quizzed 2,000 women aged between 18 and 65 who diet regularly on their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors around weight loss. Six in ten said they were on a diet then and one in five women said they were on a “continuous diet”．
It found the most common triggers to start dieting was seeing their “reflection in the mirror”， preparing for a summer holiday or unflattering photos posted on social networking sites. Other popular reasons include comments by friends or relatives or their other half.
However, the study showed that one in ten give up within one day, while almost a fifth manage to make it to a week or more. The average is ten days. Many blamed pressure they put on themselves to lose weight too quickly for the weight gain, which leaves them with a bigger appetite than normal. Others blamed colleagues, who tuck into fatty lunches and snacks unaware of the effect it has on the dieter, while mothers’ polishing off their children’s leftovers(剩饭)was another common cause of weight gain.
()11.Which of the following might be the best title for this article?
A．Three reasons to fail in dieting
B．Important things for successful diet
C．Obesity—a problem for 61.4% adults in the UK
D．Four in ten women gain weight on diets
()12.Women who go on a diet ________.
A．are all overweight or obese
B．are likely to gain weight again after reaching their ideal weight
C．all fail because they are not persistent enough
D．all end up heavier than when they start to diet
()13.The underlined word “triggers” in Paragraph 4 probably means ________.
A．effectsB．examples
C．causes
D．imagination
()14.Which of the following is NOT the reason that many people quit dieting very soon?
A．The pressure they put on themselves to lose weight quickly.
B．Colleagues who give them fatty lunches and snacks.
C．Reflections they see in the mirror.
D．Leftovers of children’s taken by their mothers.
()15.In which column of the newspaper do you probably find the passage?
A．Health.
B．Economy.
C．Sports.
D．Education.专限时训练(二十三)
(一)