题目
题型：不详难度：来源：
After many tiring……from city to city, Atwood thought there must be a better way to do them . She hired some technical experts and started her own company in 2004. Together they designed the LongPen. Here’s how it works: The author writes a personal message and signature on a computer tablet(手写板) using a special pen. On the receiving end, in another city, a robotic arm fitted with a regular pen signs the book. The author and fan can talk with each other via webcams(网络摄像机) and computer screens。
Work on the LongPen began in Atwood’s basement(地下室). At first, they had no idea it would be as hard as it turned out to be. The device went through several versions, including one that actually had smoke coming out of it. The investing finally completed, teat runs w ere made in Ottawa, and the LongPen was officially launched at the 2006 London Book Fair. From here , Atwood conducted two transatlantic book signings of her latest book for fans in Toronto and New York City.
The LongPen produces a unique signature each time because it copies the movement of the author in real time. It has several other potential applications. It could increase credit card security and allow people to sign contracts from another province. The video exchange between signer and receiver can be recorded on DVD for proof when legal documents are used.
“It’s really fun”, said the owner of a bookstore, who was present for one of the test runs. “Obviously you can’t shake hands with the author but there are chances for a connection that you don’t get from a regular book signing..
The response to the invention has not been all favorable. Atwood has received criticism from authors who think she is trying to end book tours. But she said, “It will be possible to go to places that you never got sent to before because the publishers couldn’t afford it.”
小题1:Why did Atwood decide to invent the LongPen?
A. To set up her own company
B. To win herself greater popularity
C. To write her books in a new way
C. To make book signings less tiring
小题2:How does the LongPen work?
| A．I copies the author’s signature and prints it on a book. |
| B．It signs a book while receiving the author’s signature. |
| C．The webcam sends the author’s signature to another city. |
| D．The fan uses it to copy the author’s signature himself. |
| A．It has been completed but not put into use. |
| B．The basement caught fire by accident. |
| C．Some versions failed before its test run. |
| D．The designers were well-prepared for the difficulty. |
| A．To draft legal documents. |
| B．To improve credit card security |
| C．To keep a record of the author’s ideas. |
| D．To allow author and fan to exchange videos |
| A．Atwood doesn’t mean to end book tours. |
| B．Critics think the LongPen is of little use |
| C．Bookstore owners do not support the LongPen |
| D．Publishers dislike the LongPen for its high cost |
答案
小题1:D
小题2:B
小题3:C
小题4:B
小题5:A
解析
【文章大意】这是一篇记叙文。短文叙述了Atwood的发明远距离的签名装置—Longpen的原因，是为了避免签名带来的烦恼，他的发明经过几次失败后，终于成功了，得到了社会的认可。
小题1:D. 考查细节理解。为什么Atwood决定发明Longpen?根据After many tiring book-signing tours from city to city,Atwood thought there must be a better way to do them.可知Atwood为了使签名不再是令人烦恼的事，而发明了这种远距离的签名装置—Longpen，故选D。
小题2:B. 考查细节理解。Longpen是怎样工作的？根据The author writes a personal message and signature on a computer tablet using a special pen.On the receiving end,in another city,a robotic arm fitted with a regular pen signs the book.可知作者现在电脑上有一支特殊的笔签名，之后用这种机器笔写在要签名的书上。故选B。
小题3:C. 考查细节理解。我们了解Longpen的哪些内容？根据The device went several versions,including one that actually had smoke coming out of it.The inventing finally completed.可知经过几次试验后，终于试验成功。故选C。
小题4:B. 考查细节理解。Longpen怎样在未来能够被使用？根据It has several other potential applications.It could credit card security .可知必须保证信用卡的安全，故选B。
小题5:A. 考查判断推理。从5、6段能够推理出什么？根据It will be possible to go to places that you never got sent to before because the published couldn’t afford it.可以推知Atwood的发明并不意味着阻止作者的签名旅行。故选A。这题干扰最大的是选项D，考生会认为是出版商不喜欢这种产品的高额的费用。
核心考点
试题【A world-famous Canadian author, Margaret Atwood, has created the world’s first l】；主要考察你对题材分类等知识点的理解。[详细]
举一反三
It was calculated that when its population reach its highest point, there were more than 3 billion passenger pigeons – a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant birds in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be 1 mile wide and 320 miles (about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.
Sadly, the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. Where the birds were abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands. Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, taking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.
By the closing decades of the 19th century, the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had been damaged by Americans’ need for wood, which scattered（驱散）the flocks and forced the birds to go farther north, where cold temperatures and spring storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks were gone, never to be seen again.
In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons, but by then, no sizable flocks had been seen in the state for 10 years. The last confirmed wild pigeon in the United States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time, a few birds survived under human care. The last of them, known affectionately as Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in September 1, 1914.
小题1:In the 18th and early 19th centuries, passenger pigeons _______.
| A．were the biggest bird in the world |
| B．lived mainly in the south of America |
| C．did great harm to the natural environment |
| D．Were the largest population in the US |
| A．escape | B．ruin | C．liberation | D．evolution |
| A．To seek pleasure. | B．To save other birds. |
| C．To make money. | D．To protect crops. |
| A．It was ignored by the public. | B．It was declared too late. |
| C．It was unfair. | D．It was strict. |
The cottages could be an example of the industry’ s odd love affair with “low technology,” a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship (手艺) that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的) —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by hand in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example, but Twitter’s designs lie on the extreme end. Other companies are using a broader interpretation (阐释) of low technology that focuses on nature.
Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire floor is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking trail.
Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “We have lost the connection to the maker in our lives, and our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished (贫乏的) , because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “They’re looking for a way to regain their individual identity, and we’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to do that.”
This craft based theory is rooted in history, William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after the Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life,” Morris said.
Research has shown that natural environments can restore(恢复) our mental capacities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe,” taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.
These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office—even simple views of trees and flowers—felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially nourish the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.
小题1:The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that ________.
| A．Twitter is having a hard time |
| B．old cottages are in need of protection |
| C．early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana |
| D．Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology |
| A．is related to nature | B．is out of date today |
| C．consumes too much energy | D．exists in the virtual world |
| A．have destroyed many pre-industrial arts |
| B．have a tradition of valuing arts and crafts |
| C．can become intelligent by learning history |
| D．can regain their individual identity by using machines |
| A．positive | B．defensive | C．cautious | D．doubtful |
| A．Past Glories, Future Dreams |
| B．The Virtual World, the Real Challenge |
| C．High-tech Companies, Low-tech Offices |
| D．The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity |
However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard（蜥蜴）native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water’s surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we’ll need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate “hitting.”
But fortunately there is an alternative: cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a “non-Newtonian” liquid that doesn’t behave like normal water. Now if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles（粒子）in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick liquid of cornflour.
Fun though all this may sound, it’s still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink --- and take a shower afterward!
小题1:Walking on water hasn’t become a reality mainly because humans _______.
| A．are not interested in it |
| B．have biological limitations |
| C．have not invented proper tools |
| D．are afraid to make an attempt |
| A．It is light enough to walk on water. |
| B．Its huge feet enable it to stay above water. |
| C．It can run across water at a certain speed |
| D．Its unique skin keeps it from getting wet in water |
| A．To create a thick liquid. |
| B．To turn the water into solid. |
| C．To help the liquid behave normally. |
| D．To enable the water to move rapidly. |
| A．It is risky but beneficial. |
| B．It is interesting and worth trying |
| C．It is crazy and cannot become a reality |
| D．It is impractical; though theoretically possible |
It’s undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions（性情）, but in many instances we also draw inferences about who we are, as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bern, by observing our own behavior. We can be strangers to ourselves. If we knew our own minds, why should we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior? If our minds were an open book, we would know exactly how much we care about the environment or like lattes. Actually, we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.
Moreover, we don’t just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character --- we infer characters that weren’t there before. Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us, which we fail to recognize. Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn’t. Maybe we buy lattes in order to impress the people around us. We should not mistakenly believe that we always behave as a result of some inner disposition.
Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make, people become what they do, though it may not be in compliance（符合）with their true desires. Therefore, we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut’s advice: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
小题1:According to the passage, personalities and attitudes are commonly believed to _______.
| A．determine one’s behavior | B．reflect one’s taste |
| C．influence one’s surroundings | D．result from one’s habits |
| A．The return of a wallet can indicate one’s honesty. |
| B．A kind person will offer his seat to the old. |
| C．One recycles plastics to protect the environment. |
| D．One buys latte out of love of coffee. |
| A．We fail to realize our inner dispositions. |
| B．We can be influenced by outside pressures. |
| C．Our behavior is the result of our true desires. |
| D．Our characters can shape our social relationships. |
| A．Personalities and attitudes. | B．Preferences and habits. |
| C．Behavior and personalities. | D．Attitudes and preferences. |
The Segway is perfect for short journeys. It’s an electric vehicle that consists of a platform between two wheels, with a pole that connects the platform to the handlebars. To ride it , you step up onto the platform, and control the Segway by moving your body. Lean forwards to go faster, and back-wards to slow down.
On older models, direction was controlled by a twist grip（扭转把手）on the left handlebar. This varies the speeds between the two motors, and a decrease in the speed of the left wheel would turn the Segway to the left . With newer models you simply lean to the left or right. Meanwhile, a gyroscope （陀螺仪）detects your movements and prevents the machine from falling over. The Segway has a maximum speed of 19 km per hour and a range of about 38 km. after that, you need to plug it and recharge the battery.
Segways are used for a variety of purposes. People with mobility problems can now enjoy walks in the country with their friends and family. Some golfers see them as an alternative to the golf cart . And dog owners now have an easier way to take the dog to the park. A few police forces use Segways, too. They allow officers to move quickly while maintaining contact with the public. They’re also becoming a common sight on airport . However, the most popular use is in tourism , particularly for city tours . Visit any major tourist city in summer, sit outside a cafe for a while and there’s a good chance you’ll see a group of tourists passing on Segways.
小题1:How do you turn to the left on a Segway of the new model?
| A．Lean to the left | B．Adjust the twist grip |
| C．Press the left bar | D．Control the gyroscope |
| A．Less than 19 km | B．About 19 km |
| C．About 38 km | D．Over 45 km |
| A．families | B．golfers |
| C．police | D．tourists |
| A．Introduction→Ways of application→ structure→Principle of operation |
| B．Introduction→ Principle of operation→Structure →Ways of application |
| C．Introduction → Structure → Principle of operation →ways of application |
| D．Structure→ Introduction→Principle of operation→Ways of application |
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