Question

You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to endure almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
　When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潛水艇) detected the box's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
　In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架艙). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
　Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔絕的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can stand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered

1. 1.
   What does the author say about the black box?
   1. A.
      It is an indispensable device on an airplane.　
   2. B.
      The idea for its design comes from a comic book
   3. C.
      Its ability to avoid disasters is incredible
   4. D.
      It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane
2. 2.
   What does the underlined word in the 3^rd paragraph mean?　
   1. A.
      witness
   2. B.
      experience
   3. C.
      resist　
   4. D.
      ensure
3. 3.
   Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
   1. A.
      New materials became available by that time
   2. B.
      Too much space was needed for its installation
   3. C.
      The early models didn't provide the needed data
   4. D.
      The early models often got damaged in the crash
4. 4.
   What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
   1. A.
      There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed
   2. B.
      There is still a good chance of their being recovered.　
   3. C.
      They have stopped sending homing signals
   4. D.
      They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil

Answer 1

ACDB
試題分析：本文介紹了飛機上一個非常重要的裝置—黑匣子，黑匣子的作用和它的改進過程。
1.推理題：從文章第一句話：You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. 可知作者認為黑匣子是飛機上不可缺少的部分。選A。
2.猜詞題：所在句子的含義是早期的黑匣子經(jīng)�？共蛔】针y的破壞，withstand是resist的意思。選C
3.細節(jié)題：考點出處倒數(shù)第二段Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned…文中提到，早期的黑匣子經(jīng)常抗不住空難的破壞（failed to withstand crashes），因此在1965年，黑匣子重新設計（redesigned），所以答案為D。
4.推理題：考點出處最后一段Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazilon June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
文中提到，專家相信法航447號的黑匣子是在水下20000英尺的深度，接著指出，但是統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)顯示他們仍然可能出現(xiàn)，即有可能被找到，接下來的具體統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)也進一步說明了這一點，所以答案為B。
B
考點：考查科普類短文
點評：這篇文章有一定的難度，考查推理題和句意理解，題目要我們理解有些重點的句子。集中考查了句意理解題，要求考生有較強的細節(jié)理解能力。考生只要抓住題目的重點，就可以在文章中找到信息句，找出答案并不難。