Storm chasing(追逐)” is becoming an increasingly popular hobby, especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frequent storms between March and July. A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to 1,000 kilometers to where the storm will be and waits for it to develop.
Although anyone can do it, storm chasing is very dangerous. The power of a big storm can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds. Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain. If you are a beginner, it is much safer to join a group for storm-chasing vacations during the storm season.
Even then, storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement. “Storm chasing is 95% driving,” says Daniel Lynch, who spends most of his summer storm-chasing. “Sometimes you can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen, and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers.”
However, for storm chasers, it is all worth it. “When you get close to a storm, it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life,” says Jasper Morley. “Every storm is an example of the power of nature. It is the greatest show on Earth”.
1. For storm chasing, the first thing storm chasers do is to ______.
A. head straight for the center of the storm
B. get into the car for safety
C. wait patiently for the storm to develop
D. collect information about a coming storm
2. Beginners of storm chasing are advised ______.
A. not to drive in a heavy rain
B. to do it in an organized way
C. not to get too close to a storm
D. to spend more time on it in summer
3. By saying “it is all worth it” in the last paragraph, the author means that ______.
A. storm chasing costs a lot of money
B. storm chasing is worth hours of waiting for everyone.
C. efforts(努力)in storm chasing are well paid
D. storm chasers can do whatever they like.
4. What can we learn from the text?
A. Sometimes storm chasers get nothing but disappointment.
B. Many storm chasers get killed in the storms.
C. Storm chasing is becoming popular around the world.
D. Storm chasing is only fit for young people.
阅读下列应用文及相关信息,并按照要求匹配信息。
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1. John, a fourteen-year-old young boy, is poor at math and physics and has to improve them in order
to pass the final exam at school.
2. Mr. Black Smith, a labor worker on dock who would like to change to some technological job
since he is already 43 and a bit too old for hard labor work. He has to work from Monday to Saturday
but is free after 5:00 in the afternoon.
3. Chen Hua, a Chinese middle school student who has just moved to the USA. She will have to finish
the course all in English at school there but her English is not good enough.
4. Tim, a graduated college student who wanted to quit his job and go on his study for M. A. He
planned to take the MBA courses and would ha"ve to improve his math because he majored in Art at
college.
5. Mrs. Tumer, a working mother with two young kids. She thinks education is a race and it"s better
to prepare kids more and earlier. Her neighbors, several other families share the same opinion and they
are all thinking about sending their young kids to some pre-school education program.
down the chimney!" "Eat your spinach - you"ll get as strong as Popeye.". . . and so on. However, there"s
one fib that"s bigger than all the others. It"s "I don"t have a favorite child."
In his fascinating new book, The Sibling Effect: What Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal
About Us, Jeffrey Kluger, a father of two daughters, aged eight and ten, claims that " 95 percent of
parents in the world have a favorite child - and the other 5 percent are lying."
Kluger may be exaggerating the figures for dramatic effect - but despite every parent"s vehement (激
烈的) denial that they have a favorite child - scientific research shows that he is not far off the truth.
According to one recent study by researchers from the University of California - which followed 384
sibling pairs and their parents for three years - 65 percent of the mothers and 70 percent of fathers
exhibited a preference for one child. As this was among families that knew they were being monitored,
there"s a strong possibility the true figures could be significantly higher.
Favoritism is certainly a controversial topic. When raised as a subject for discussion on parenting
websites, it always arouses a stream of angry denials.
But interestingly, a lot of personal anecdotes appear from parents who say they were overshadowed
by a favored sibling, or were, indeed, their mother or father"s favorite. It seems everyone knows
favoritism exists - but nobody wants to put their hand up and say they"re guilty of it themselves.
Another research, where siblings have been asked to say who their mother and father favor, suggests
that mothers do tend to a show a preference for their first-born son, but fathers often dote on their
youngest daughters.
Parents will often be drawn to the child who is easiest to get along with - or the child that shares
similar traits to them. For example, mum will have a special bond with her sensitive, arty son, while dad
lavishes attention on his sporty daughter.
Professor Scott says being least favored in a family can color our behavior as adults. "Children who
feel they are less loved within their family are more likely to develop low self-esteem, anxiety and
depression."
But some experts believe being less favored can have positive consequences. Professor Scott agrees that
favored children can sometimes find life difficult when they have to rub along in the real world.
B. A good idea, without action, is worth nothing.
C. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.
D. Thank you so much for the gift! I just love it!
B. Every parent denies the fact that he has a favorite child.
C. Every parent does have a favorite child.
D. What Kluger said is quite close to the fact.
B. parent
C. brother
D. sister
B. The first-born son.
C. A sporty daughter.
D. A young daughter.
Professor Scott?
B. He is likely to learn how to turn disadvantages into advantages.
C. He is likely to find life difficult when he has to face the real world.
D. He is likely to develop low self-esteem, anxiety and depression.
B. Most people will admit that they feel guilty of favoring one child over another.
C. Experts have different opinions about the consequences of being less favored.
D. The topic about favoritism on parenting websites always arouses angry denials.
them. Last week, a study was released about a new treatment that combines 5 medicines for heart
disease in one pill. Salim Yusuf of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada was the lead
investigator. He presented the findings at the American College of Cardiology Conference in Orlando,
Florida.
The experimental drug is known as Polycap. It contains aspirin, a drug to lower cholesterol (胆固醇)
and three medicines to lower blood pressure. The study was carried out at 50 health centers across India. More than two thousand people between the ages of 45 and 80 took part in the study. All had at least
one risk factor for heart disease. These include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or being
severely overweight.
The people were divided into 9 groups of about 200 people each. One group took Polycap. The
other groups took either a single drug or different combinations of the medicines in the Polycap pill. The
study showed that Polycap lowered blood pressure and cholesterol without many side effects. Doctor
Yusuf said the single pill, taken once a day, could reduce the average person"s risk of heart disease and
stroke by about half. The maker of Polycap, Cadila Pharmaceuticals of India, paid for the study.
Cardiovascular diseases (心血管疾病) of the heart and blood vessels are the number one cause of
death around the world. These diseases kill more than seventeen million people every year. 80 percent
of them are in low and middle income countries. Doctor Yusuf said the single pill treatment could
revolutionize heart disease prevention. People would be more likely to take one pill a day than many
pills. And one pill would cost less than several pills.
Other heart doctors say heart disease prevention is important but not necessarily with pills. They say
patients might be able to get the same results with changes in diet and exercise.
Doctors say that more research on Polycap is needed. They say the drug should be tested on thousands more people, including those in different risk, age and ethnic groups.
B. tend to take fewer medicines
C. should take medicines if it is necessary
D. tend to fall sick if they take fewer medicines
B. Polycap was proved basically safe and effective.
C. All the participators had at least one symptom of heart disease.
D. Participators were required to come from different ages and ethnic groups,
B. mainly consists of medicines to lower blood pressure
C. is certain to play important role in heart disease prevention
D. will be cheaper than other common medicines to treat heart disease
disease except .
B. low - income people
C. overweight people
D. diabetic people
B. A combination pill may cut heart disease risk in half.
C. A combination pill cures blood pressure and bad cholesterol.
D. Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in the world.
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, it might be leaves -but artificial ones.
Natural leaves are able to change sunlight and water into energy. It is known as photosynthesis (光
合作用). Now researchers have found a way to imitate this seemingly simple process.
The artificial leaf developed by Daniel Nocera and his colleagues at MIT can be seen as a special
silicon chip (硅片) with catalysts (催化剂). Similar to natural leaves, it can split water into hydrogen
and oxygen when put into a bucket of water. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then stored in a
fuel cell (电池), which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of a house
or beside the house.
Though the leaf is only about the shape of a poker card, scientists claimed that it is promising to be an
inexpensive source of electricity in developing countries. "One can imagine villages in India and Africa not
long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology," said Docera at a
conference of the American Chemical Society.
An artificial leaf is not a new idea. The first artificial leaf was invented in 1997 but was too expensive
and unstable for practical use. The new leaf, by contrast, is made of cheap materials, easy to use and
highly stable. In laboratory studies, Nocera showed that an artificial leaf prorotype (原型) could operate
continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.
The wonderful improvements come from Nocera"s recent discovery of several powerful new,
inexpensive catalysts. These catalysts make the energy transformation (转换) inside the leaf more
efficient with water and sunlight. Right now, the new leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out
photosynthesis than a natural one. Besides, the device can run in whatever water is available; that is, it
doesn"t need pure water. This is important for some countries that don"t have access to pure water.
With the goal to "make each home its own power station" and "giving energy to the poor", scientists
believe that the new application could be widely used in developing countries, especially in India and
rural China.
a. artificial leaves split water into hydrogen and oxygen
b. the hydrogen and oxygen gases are stored in a fuel cell
c. the artificial leaves are put in water
d. the fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity
B. cabd
C. bcad
D. cadb
B. They are as efficient at carrying out photosynthesis as natural leaves.
C. They can work only in pure water.
D. They need several catalysts to help them work efficiently.
B. provide cheaper energy for developing countries
C. offer people in developing countries access to pure water
D. gain a deeper understanding of the photosynthesis process
B. An invention copying photosynthesis.
C. Giving energy to the poor.
D. A mixture of water power and solar energy.
in genetics and psychology, human intelligence has remained one of the most controversial areas of
modern science,until now, that is, for the discovery of a gene (基因) linked to intelligence has made the
experts think again.
Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues in the US have been looking
into genetic make-up. From their research, they have discovered that a slightly different gene is more
common in those with a high IQ. Plomin analyzed DNA from two groups of 51 children aged between 6
and 15. What he found was that the first group had an IQ of 136, putting them in the top 5% of the
population, while the other group had an average IQ of 103. An analysis of their genes showed that 32%
of children in the higher group had the gene in question, while only 16% in the second group did.
However, there is a lot more research to be done, and Plomin himself is cautious at this early stage. He
suggests that there are probably many genes that contribute to intelligence, rather than just one.
Several studies have shown a strong link between IQ and career success, although some
psychologists remain unconvinced about this. Professor Michael Rowe, who has written a book called
Genius Explained, is one of these. "The people with the highest IQs are not usually the ones who do
best in their careers."
Many psychologists now believe that when it comes to intelligence, IQ isn"t everything. Many
alternative views have been put forward recently. One example is the idea of multiple intelligences, which
was developed in the 1980s by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. This offers a much broader
view than the IQ theory, including creativity and communication skills as relevant factors(因素) in
intelligence.
Tony Buzan, brain expert and author of Master your Memory, is enthusiastic about this belief, arguing
that true geniuses(天才) do indeed appear to combine high levels of each type of intelligence. He lists
Alexander the Great, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein as examples. At the same time, Buzan believes
that everyone can develop their intelligence, only if they take the trouble to exercise their brain. Perhaps
there"s hope for us all!
B. IQ benefits a lot from high intelligence.
C. How to develop intelligence.
D. What makes intelligence.
B. To draw a conclusion.
C. To prove an idea.
D. To give an example.
B. Howard Gardner thinks intelligence includes various factors.
C. Michael Rowe approves of a strong link between IQ and career.
D. Tony Buzan agrees geniuses exercise brain to improve intelligence.
B. The idea of multiple intelligences.
C. IQ isn"t everything for intelligence.
D. Alternative views have been put forward.
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