Can noncombustion (非燃燒) technology create a no-pollution way to drive?Imagine pulling into a service station to fuel up your car. But not at the gas pump or electric battery charger —at the air pump! That’s not hot air, either! The next generation of cars may run on thin air. Wouldn’t that be an incredible way to cut both pollution and dependence on foreign oil?
If you’ve ever inflated a balloon and then let it go, you’ve got the basics to test-drive the amazing MiniCAT, currently being developed by Noteur Development International (MDI), headquartered in Luxembourg. Invented by Formula One racing car designer Guy Negre, this experimental vehicle is unlike any car you’ve ever seen. While your family’s traditional car or SUV draws its horsepower using combustion, the only fuel that MiniCAT needs (CAT stands for Compressed Air Technology) is the air we breathe.
Start with about 25,000 gallons of air. Now, press it all into a space smaller than your school locker—because that’s the size of two super-strong, high-pressure air tanks, made from fiber and fixed beneath the air car. 
Confining that much air inside those small tanks generates an internal pressure of over 4,000 pounds per square inch. That’s over 300 times normal air pressure.
When this cold, high-pressure air enters MiniCAT’s unique engine, it interacts(交互作用) with warmer air to create pressure waves that pump the engine’s engineered pistons (活塞) to move the car. MiniCAT’s projected top speed is 60 miles per hour, with a range of 120 miles on a full air supply.
【小題1】What is the passage mainly about?

A.Ways to cut down air pollution.
B.Cars that run on thin air.
C.Formula One racing car designer.
D.Dependence on foreign oil.
【小題2】What is MiniCAT according to the passage?
A.The name of a car.
B.The name of a balloon.
C.The name of a car company.
D.The name of a car designer.
【小題3】The underlined world “Confining” in Paragraph 4 can be replaced by ___________.
A.Keeping B.Preventing C.Pushing D.Running
【小題4】What does the last paragraph tell us?
A.How much pressure the air creates.
B.How the car works.
C.What the normal air pressure is.
D.How the air gets into the engine.


【小題1】B
【小題2】A
【小題3】A
【小題4】B 

解析試題分析:這篇文章主要講的是靠空氣行駛的汽車,通過介紹這種汽車的工作原理,讀者可以看出這種汽車完全不需要污染嚴重的燃油,不會對環(huán)境造成污染。
【小題1】細節(jié)題:根據(jù)第一段的句子:The next generation of cars may run on thin air. Wouldn’t that be an incredible way to cut both pollution and dependence on foreign oil?可知這篇文章主要講的是靠空氣行駛的汽車,選B。
【小題2】猜詞題:根據(jù)文章第二段的句子:Invented by Formula One racing car designer Guy Negre, this experimental vehicle is unlike any car you’ve ever seen.可知MiniCAT 是汽車的名字,選A
【小題3】猜詞題:根據(jù)文章第四段的句子:Confining that much air inside those small tanks generates an internal pressure of over 4,000 pounds per square inch.將這么多的空氣保持在這些小的箱子里面產(chǎn)生每平方英寸的4000磅的壓力,可知“Confining” 是維持的意思,選A。
【小題4】段落大意題:從最后一段的句子:When this cold, high-pressure air enters MiniCAT’s unique engine, it interacts(交互作用) with warmer air to create pressure waves that pump the engine’s engineered pistons (活塞) to move the car.可知最后一段講的是這種汽車的工作原理,選B。
考點:考查科普類短文

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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

If you could be anybody in the world, who would it be? Your neighbour or a super star? A few people have experienced what it might be like to step into the skin of another person, thanks to an unusual virtual reality(虛擬現(xiàn)實)device. Rikke Wahl, an actress, model and artist, was one of the participants in a body swapping experiment at the Be Another lab, a project developed by a group of artists based in Barcelona. She swapped with her partner, an actor, using a machine called The Machine to Be Another and temporarily became a man. "As I looked down, I saw my whole body as a man, dressed in my partner's pants," she said. "That's the picture I remember best."
The set-up is relatively simple. Both users wear a virtual reality headset with a camera on the top. The video from each camera is sent to the other person, so what you see is the exact view of your partner. If she moves her arm, you see it. If you move your arm, she sees it.
To get used to seeing another person's body without actually having control of it, participants start by raising their arms and legs very slowly, so that the other can follow along. Eventually, this kind of slow synchronised(同步的)movement becomes comfortable, and participants really start to feel as though they are living in another person's body.
Using such technology promises to alter people's behaviour afterwards-potentially for the better. Studies have shown that virtual reality can be effective in fighting racism-the bias(偏見)that humans have against those who don't look or sound like them. Researchers at the University of Barcelona gave people a questionnaire called the Implicit Association Test, which measures the strength of people's associations between, for instance, black people and adjectives such as good, bad, athletic or awkward. Then they asked them to control the body of a dark skinned digital character using virtual reality glasses, before taking the test again. This time, the participants' bias scores were lower. The idea is that once you've "put yourself in another's shoes" you're less likely to think ill of them, because your brain has internalised the feeling of being that person.
The creators of The Machine to Be Another hope to achieve a similar result. "At the end of body swapping, people feel like holding each other in their arms," says Arthur Pointeau, a programmer with the project. "It's a really nice way to have this kind of experience. I would really, really recommend it to everyone."
【小題1】The word "swapping" (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to______.

A.building B.exchanging C.controlling D.transplanting
【小題2】We can infer from the experiment at the Be Another lab that______.
A.our feelings are related to our bodily experience
B.we can learn to take control of other people's bodies
C.participants will live more passionately after the experiment
D.The Machine to Be Another can help people change their sexes
【小題3】In the Implicit Association Test, before the participants used virtual reality glasses to control a dark skinned digital character, ______.
A.they fought strongly against racism
B.they scored lower on the test for racism
C.they changed their behaviour dramatically
D.they were more biased against those unlike them
【小題4】It can be concluded from the passage that______.
A.technology helps people realize their dreams
B.our biases could be eliminated through experiments
C.virtual reality helps promote understanding among people
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

One night in March 1999, a man was driving from California to Oregon, US, to visit some friends. He had stopped his car to have some food when he started to hear strange noises. Turning on the headlights, he saw an 8-foot-tall creature covered in thick, dark hair. The creature stared at him for a minute, turned in the road and walked off slowly into the woods.

In the past 50 years alone, there have been thousands of reported sightings of similar creatures in the US, Canada, the Himalayas(喜馬拉雅山地區(qū))and even Hubei Province in China. The creature is known as bigfoot.
Bigfoot is said to be a very tall(between 2 and 4. 5 metres), ape-like(類人猿似的)creature that is covered in hair and walks upright on two legs. It is very wary(警惕的)of human beings.
Believers think bigfoot is a direct descendent(后代)of ancient gigantopithecus(巨猿). But it remains one of the planet’s undiscovered secrets. There is a little evidence(證據(jù))to support the believers’ theory: traces of hair, footprints and body prints as well as the reported sightings. Some people have even showed what they say with photos or films of bigfoot.
But so far, no one has found bones or any other definite proof that the giant creature exists.
As a result many people believe the evidence is just part of a big trick.
The footprints are easy to make and they say: all you need to do is to make two large feet out of plaster(石膏), attach them to the bottom of your shoes and walk with big steps. As for the photos and films, they are just people dressed in ape suits.
They also say the sightings are not real, just people making mistakes. For example, bigfoot could be a bear living in the wild that sometimes stands up on its back legs.
【小題1】 So far what we can be sure about is that    .

A.there exist savages(野人)in several places in the world
B.there are some traces of hair, footprints and body prints of the “bigfoot”
C.bigfoot is a direct descendent of ancient gigantopithecus
D.a(chǎn)ll the big foot discovered have the same look
【小題2】It was in   that man first found the ape-like creature.
A.1999 B.the 1960’s
C.the 1950’sD.the 1940’s
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A.may fool the world into believing
B.have definite evidences to prove
C.refuse to believe
D.will soon offer proofs of
【小題4】If bigfoot is just a misunderstanding, what they saw might NOT be    .
A.a(chǎn)pes
B.bears
C.gigantopithecus
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

IT’S never a real problem for us when the weather gets cold. We can put on more clothes, stay next to a fireplace, turn on the air conditioner or simply travel to a warmer city to spend the winter – people have many different ways of coping with the cold.
But things are not as easy for plants. Unlike humans, plants can’t move to escape the cold or generate heat to keep themselves warm. So how do they manage to survive the freezing winter?
It turns out that plants have their own strategies too, said a study published on Dec 22 in the journal Nature.
According to researcher Amy Zanne of George Washington University, US, the cold is a big challenge for plants. Their living tissues can be damaged when they freeze. “It’s like a plant’s equivalent to frostbite (凍瘡),” Zanne told Science Daily. Also, the process of freezing and thawing (解凍) can cause air bubbles to form in the plant’s water transport system. “If enough of these air bubbles come together as water thaws they can block the flow of water from the roots to the leaves and kill the plant,” she explained.
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Other plants, pine trees for example, protect themselves by narrowing their water transport cells, which makes it easier for cells to travel among air bubbles.
The third strategy is also the most extreme – some plants die on the ground in winter and start growing as new plants from seeds when conditions get warmer.
However, the study also found that these smart strategies were developed very slowly – over millions of years of evolution. This leads scientists to worry that plants may not be able to deal with human-caused climate change, which has only started occurring over the past few decades.
Scientists are hoping that this study can help people find possible ways to save plants from the threat of climate change.
【小題1】What is the article mainly about?

A.Why plants are not afraid of the winter chill.  
B.The ways that plants survive cold weather. 
C.Changes in plants’ water transport system in winter. 
D.How plants evolve to keep up with climate change. 
【小題2】According to the article, if a plant freezes in the winter, ______.
A.it produces more living tissues to stay alive 
B.its leaves quickly fall out and its roots begin to die 
C.lots of air bubbles form in its water transport system 
D.its water transport system could be blocked in the spring 
【小題3】How do oak trees usually survive the cold winters?
A.By dropping their leaves before winter. 
B.By narrowing their water transport cells. 
C.By widening their water transport cells. 
D.By leaving only the seeds alive and growing from the seeds in the spring. 
【小題4】What are scientists worried about when it comes to plants according to the article?
A.Plants may not be able to adapt to the increasingly cold climate. 
B.Human activities might have a great impact on the pace of plants’ evolution. 
C.Plants may not be able to evolve fast enough to adapt to human-caused climate change.  
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Some examples are more obvious than others. The outside of the airplane designed by the Wright brothers looks like a minimalistic(簡單抽象藝術(shù)) structure. On the other hand, Barney Connett’s fish submarine actually looks like a fish.
Some bio-inspired concepts have yet to be invented. In the 1960s, the US Army commissioned several university professors to conduct research on the motor skills animals in hope of applying those same abilities to tanks. Tanks that run like horses or jump like grasshoppers(螞蚱)-sounds shocking, doesn’t it? But imagine how life would change if we could achieve that.
【小題1】“Cats”, “monkeys” and “giraffes” mentioned in paragraph 1 are examples to show______.

A.they are highly-evolved species as humans  
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D.they are skillful in different ways 
【小題2】What happened after the Wright brothers’ success?
A.People carried out a systematic study on pigeons. 
B.People studied more animals and plants to develop the airplane. 
C.People could fly their airplane for fun. 
D.People kept their airplane at a French gallery. 
【小題3】Which of the following is true about the research carried out by the US Army?
A.It has cost a large sum of money. 
B.It has changed our life. 
C.It has improved the abilities of tanks 
D.It has not succeeded yet. 
【小題4】What does the writer want to tell in the passage?
A.many inventions get ideas from nature. 
B.Some animals possess unique skills. 
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D.Bionics is far from perfect 

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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

Are you interested in country music?I like it very much !It will take me away for a while after I am tired .The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.
Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings.It’s the spirit of America ,easy to understand ,slow and simple.
Country music developed in the Southern United States.It was the folk music of American countryside.Many of songs tell about the lives of farmers .They talk about love,crops or death.
The life of the countryside can be hard,so the words in country music are often sad.At first,people played the music only at family parties.But it became more popular later. In the 1920s,people played country songs on the radio,and they made them into records.
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John Denver was one of America’s most famous country singers in the 1970s.His song “Take Me home,Country Roads”is well-known and people still play it today.
【小題1】Country music is usually about _______.

A.everyday life and feelings B.farmers’s feelings
C.the lives of workers D.the lives of students
【小題2】Country music developed ________.
A.in John Denver’s city
B.in the Southern United States.
C.in the Northern United States
D.in the middle of United States
【小題3】People began to make country song records _______.
A.in the 1920s B.in 1920 C.in the 1970s D.in 1970
【小題4】Why did Country music become popular in America?
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have undergone an “agricultural revolution”. On the farm of today, machines provide almost all the power.
One of the most important benefits will be the farm computer. A few forward-looking farmers are already using computers to help them run their farms more efficiently. The computers help them keep more accurate records so they can make better decisions on what crops to plant, how much livestock to buy, when to sell their products, and how much profit they can expect. Many computer companies have been developing special computer programs just for farmers. Programs are being written for hog producers, grain farmers, potato farmers, and dairy farmers. In the future, farmers will be able to purchase computer programs made to their needs. Because of the growing importance of computers on the farm, students at agricultural colleges are required to take computer classes in addition to their normal agricultural courses. There can be no doubt that farmers will rely on computers even more in the future. While the old-time farm depended on horse power, and modern farms depend on machine power, farms of the future will depend on computer power.
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【小題1】According to the passage, computers can NOT help farmers decide _______.

A.what livestock to raise
B.whether to plant a certain kind of crop
C.how much money they can earn from their products
D.when to sell their products
【小題2】Which of the following statements is true?
A.Farmers in the future will depend totally on computers.
B.Both computers and robots have been in use on today’s farms.
C.Farmers mainly use machines on their farms at present.
D.Students at agricultural colleges must take computer classes because they can do nothing without the help of computers on today’s farms.
【小題3】According to the engineers, _______will be done by robots in the near future.
A.a(chǎn)ll farm work B.milking cows
C.most of the farm work D.some farm work
【小題4】What is the best title for the whole passage?
A.Computer, Farmers’ Best Friend
B.The Agricultural Revolution
C.Farmers in The Future
D.Computers and Robots

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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like “I never do anything right” into positive ones like “I can succeed”. But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引證) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you’re just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays against funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students’ self-esteem (自尊). The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, “I am lovable.”
Those with low self-esteem didn’t feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren’t urged to think of positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治療) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (靜思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking. 
【小題1】The first paragraph is written _________.

A.to raise an argument about positive thinking
B.to introduce the power of positive thinking
C.to encourage people to have positive thoughts
D.to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry
【小題2】According to the study of the Canadian researchers, _________.
A.positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking
B.encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people
C.happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t
D.getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence
【小題3】What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.You are pointing out the mistakes he has made.
B.You are reminding him that he is not intelligent.
C.You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough.
D.You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults.
【小題4】We can learn from the last paragraph that _________.
A.negative feelings must be got rid of
B.there’s no point in thinking positively
C.it doesn’t make sense to think negatively
D.negative thinking is not always negative

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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解

Men have always believed that they are smarter than women. Now, a study has found that while this is certainly true, men also have to deal with the fact that they are also more stupid than the fairer sex.
In the study, scientists measured the IQ of 2500 brothers and sisters and they found an uneven number of men not only in the top two percent, but also in the bottom two percent.
The study's participants were tested on science, maths, English and mechanical abilities.
Though there were twice as many men as women in the smartest group, there were also twice as many men among the dolts.
The aggregate scores of men and women were similar.
One of the study's authors, psychology professor Timothy Bates, said that the phenomenon may be because men have always been expected to be high achievers and women have been restricted to spend more time taking care of their home.
"The female developmental program may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and the safety of the middle ground.," the Daily Mail quoted Professor Bates, of Edinburgh University, as saying.
The research tallies with past results that men were more likely than women to receive first class University degrees or thirds and women secured the seconds.
It has been said that men are more ready to take risk when it comes to academics. Women have always found to be steadier in their learning.
A past study has shown that women are securing more firsts and seconds, while men are continuing to receive more thirds.
The argument for the change is that the increase of coursework at the cost of exams favors women's steady approach.
【小題1】The purpose of the passage is to tell us that ________.

A.man are smarter then women
B.man are more stupid the women
C.a(chǎn) new fact about the IQ of men and women has been found
D.men are more likely to receive first class university degrees
【小題2】According to Timothy Bates, less women are in the smartest group because _________.
A.they are born stupid
B.they have to spend more time to tale care of their home than men
C.they don’t like to take risk
D.they are not expected to be high achievers
【小題3】The underlined wordtallies with in the eighth paragraph means________.
A.a(chǎn)gree withB.deal withC.go againstD.go with
【小題4】 It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A.Women are steadier in their learning.
B.men are more ready to take risk in everything
C.women are securing more firsts and seconds
D.women are doing much better in academy
【小題5】 Which of the following questions has NOT been discussed in the passage?
A.Why are men smarter than women?
B.Why are men more stupid than women?
C.How does the result go along with the past research?
D.How can we help the men in the bottom?

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