Next year marks the 150th anniversary of when large numbers of Chinese started working on a huge project in the United States. They help to build America’s first transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869, connecting the East Coast with the West.
People know little about the Chinese railroad workers and what happened to them after the project was finished. Stanford University in California wants to learn more about the lives of these men by reaching out to their families.
Bill Yee’s ancestors came from southern China. He said, “My great-great-grandfather came to America during the‘gold rush’days and he returned to China as a wealthy man. And then my great-grandfather came to work on the railroad and died there.”
But that did not stop his grandfather from coming to the US on false papers. He operated a laundry. Bill Yee’s father continued to run the business and has never returned to China.
“Things were pretty bad in some parts of China in the 1860’s. They came to America at all costs in order that they no longer had to bear hunger,” Bill Yee said.
Shelley Fisher Fishkin is helping to direct the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University. She said, “Many of the Chinese workers who came to work on the transcontinental and other railroads returned to China after their work was done and created families there. Some of them settled in America and created new families, but they had families who they left when they came here and they may have descendants in China.”
There is a need to create a record of the object and spoken history from the families of the railroad workers.
“The US could not have become the modern industrial nation without the railroads. And the railroads would not have come together without the work of these Chinese workers,” said Shelley Fisher Fishkin.
1.What do you know about Bill Yee?
A. His family was rich in the 1860’s.
B. His father settled in the USA.
C. He knows little about his ancestors and hopes to know more.
D. His grandfather came to America with his great-grandfather.
2.According to Bill Yee, many Chinese went to America in the 1860’s mainly .
A. to run their own businesses
B. to find their ancestors
C. to make a living
D. to dig gold
3.According to Shelley Fisher Fishkin, .
A. the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers all live a good life
B. they expect to find all the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers
C. some Chinese railroad workers hope they can find their descendants in China
D. some Chinese railroad workers have descendants both in China and the US
4.Why did Stanford University carry out the project?
A. Because they want to help the Chinese railroad workers’ descendants to get together.
B. Because they want to show the importance of America’s first transcontinental railroad.
C. Because they want to learn more about how to build a railroad in the past in America.
D. Because they want Americans to remember the Chinese railroad workers’ role in US history.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The World Bank has looked at the distinguishing features of successful school system.
According to the World Bank’s education specialist, Harry Patrinos, this include: improving the quality of teachers and making sure that teachers are highly regarded; providing information to make schools accountable and giving autonomy to schools and head teachers.
This matters not only for individual pupils but also for the well-being of countries, he says, because improving educational performance has a direct impact on improving economic performance.
China’s education performance— at least in cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong— seems to be as spectacular as the country’s fast growing economy.
Certainly both these open and outward-looking cities consider education to be important and are willing to adopt the best educational practices from around the world to ensure success. In Hong Kong, education accounts for more than one-fifth of entire government spending every year.
“Shanghai and Hong Kong are small education systems, with a concentration of ideas, manpower and resources for education,” says Prof Cheng.
Under the banner “First class city, first class education”, Shanghai set about systematically re-equipping classroom, upgrading schools and improving the curriculum in the last decade.
It got rid of the “key schools” system which concentrated resources only on top students and top schools. Instead staff were trained in more interactive teaching methods and computers were brought in.
About 80% of Shanghai school leavers go to university compared to an overall average of 24% in China.
Meanwhile, dynamic Hong Kong was forced into educational improvements as its industries moved to cheaper mainland Chinese areas in the 1990s.Its survival as a service and management hub depends on upgrading knowledge and skills.
In the last decade Hong Kong has concentrated on closing the gap for all students, says a report by McKinsey management consultants.
The report, How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, rated Hong Kong’s education system among the best in the world.
1.The World Bank’s survey about education mainly concentrates on .
A. what has made some education systems successful
B. China’s education system and competitive exams
C. how to relieve Chinese students of their heavy schoolwork
D. the relationship between education and economic development
2.According to Harry Patrinos, the key to successful school systems is .
A. to give autonomy to all teachers to educate students freely in class
B. to let students attend after-school tutoring and do more exercises
C. to improve teachers’ abilities and give schools free performance right
D. to make school education directly serve the economy of the country
3.We can learn from the text that .
A. the “key school” system is the key to many schools’ failure
B. students in Shanghai and Hong Kong work the hardest
C. Hong Kong’s educational performance isn’t as good as Shanghai’s
D. Shanghai and Hong Kong’s economic performance will improve
4.What is the author’s attitude towards the school systems of Shanghai and Hong Kong?
A. Negative. B. Positive.
C. Neutral. D. Critical.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
A ground-based system that uses much stronger signals than GPS can find your location in cities and indoors. It is a new positioning system that could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your directions again.
Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to launch a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as outdoors, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cell phone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
“This is one of the most important technology developments for the future of the positioning industry,” says Nunzio Gambale, CEO and co-founder of the firm Locata, based in Griffith, Australia.
As for the Locata’s accuracy, Christopher Morin of the US Air Force tested it recently at White Sands, and it worked to within 18 centimeters along any axis(轴). Morin says it should be possible to get the resolution down to 5 centimeters.
Admittedly, the tests were performed in an open desert where GPS also works beautifully, but its signals are weak— like a car headlight from 20,000 kilometers away— and easily blocked by solid objects. “Locata’s signal is far stronger, though not guaranteed to work in a complex urban environment,” says David Last, consultant to the UK’s General Lighthouse Authorities.
“Locata’s technology will face competition in the race to transform indoor navigation. But it could shine in specific areas,” Gambale says. “Robots with Locata could easily navigate inside buildings without the complex optical systems they need at the moment. And process that handle precise location data could not only guide you around a mall, railway station or airport, but also take you to the exact shelf in a shop for the product you want. The units small and cheap enough for smart phones should be available within five years— a similar path to the one GPS took on its way towards world domination.”
1.The passage is written mainly to .
A. encourage people to buy the Locata
B. tell us the disadvantage of the GPS
C. introduce a new positioning system Locata
D. tell us that Locata will replace GPS one day
2.Which of the following is not true about Locata according to Paragraph 2?
A. Without the help of the satellites, Locata can tell you where you are.
B. The US military has to test it before using it.
C. Locata has a better signal than GPS.
D. Locata can be fixed into smart phones only.
3.Which of the following words can be used to replace the underlined word in Paragraph 4?
A. accuracy B. speed
C. determination D. length
4.According to the passage, what can we know about Gambale?
A. He did the experiment at White Sands.
B. He is confident in Locata and think highly of it.
C. He said that Locata could not work in a complex urban environment.
D. He is worried about the competition that Locata faces.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely through, though. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle（涓涓细流）of biofuel（生物燃料）available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices, at the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.
1.What does the author think of biofuels?
A. They keep America’s economy running healthily.
B. They prove to be a good alternative to petroleum.
C. They do not provide a sustainable energy supply.
D. They cause serious damage to the environment.
2.Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
A. It wants to expand its storage of crude oil.
B. Its own oil reserves are quickly running out.
C. It wants to keep its own environment intact.
D. Its own oil production falls short of demand.
3.What does the author say about oil trade?
A. It proves profitable to both sides.
B. It improves economic efficiency.
C. It makes for economic prosperity.
D. It saves the cost of oil exploration.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Housework not good exercise, says study
1. It even said that people who did the most housework were usually the most overweight. 2. The contribution of domestic physical activity to meeting current recommendations for health. It questions whether activities like do-it-yourself, gardening and housework are good exercise. 3. but there is a danger that people incorrectly think housework is proper exercise.
A total of 4,563 adults took a survey about their weekly physical activity. 4. Researcher Professor Murphy said any physical activity should increase the amount of calories burnt. 5. She said housework was “inversely related to leanness”. She said this suggested that either people overestimate how hard housework was an exercise, or they eat too much because they think they have lost lots of calories doing household chores.
However, her study found the opposite.
People who do housework usually eat more.
A new study says housework is not the quality exercise many people think it is.
The research showed that people who included housework as exercise tended to be heavier.
The study is called Does “doing housework keep you healthy” ?
They think doing exercise is of great benefit to healthy.
It says any activity is better than none.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world because of the time I’m able to spend with young people who are not afraid to show their excitement and zest for life. , I would prefer a person with passion and enthusiasm to a person with and talent any day of the week. You can teach and develop skills, you cannot develop a love of life and an optimistic attitude. These are of a person and appear at all times during work or play. Furthermore, they are traits that one is born with and they will never them.
As a and an Independent Education and Career Planning Advisor, I too many children and young adults who are on a road to despair unless someone can find a way to change their attitude towards and indeed life itself!
, society has turned out too many children and young that are unwilling to put much or thought into their work. Whenever I come across such people— or old, I’m reminded of a boy who went with his mother on a blueberry picking hike into the . The boy filled his mostly with moss(苔藓) and then covered the moss with a thin layer of blueberries so that it looked . But the next morning, he found the blueberry pie which his mother for him was moss.
So , whether you are in school or , if you have enthusiasm and if you are to put in consistent effort along with passion, you will receive the . If, on the other hand, you are and prefer to take short-cuts, you should not expect to achieve the same results.
1.A. ObviouslyB. Personally C. Luckily D. Quickly
2.A. skillsB. ideas C. kindness D. courage
3.A. orB. for C. but D. if
4.A. choicesB. requests C. appearances D. characters
5.A. useB. deserve C. lose D. cherish
6.A. journalistB. doctor C. colleague D. teacher
7.A. search forB. come across C. care about D. depend on
8.A. learningB. donating C. speaking D. greeting
9.A. EventuallyB. Unfortunately C. Hopefully D. Perfectly
10.A. equipmentB. information C. effort D. possession
11.A. innocentB. young C. poor D. stupid
12.A. woodsB. corner C. park D. market
13.A. mouthB. pan C. basket D. hand
14.A. deliciousB. beautiful C. clean D. full
15.A. collectedB. baked C. kept D. bought
16.A. promiseB. guess C. remember D. look
17.A. in dangerB. in distance C. in hospital D. at work
18.A. willingB. confident C. proud D. careful
19.A. cropB. trust C. votes D. rewards
20.A. lazyB. busy C. curious D. stubborn
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The truth 1. trees are vital to our life is not a secret. They provide us with food, wood and most 2. (important), oxygen. Now there is one more thing we can add to this list—blocking out harmful bacteria from water.
The discovery 3. (make) by a team 4. (consist) of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and high school students 5. were seeking a natural water filter—one that would help communities in developing countries that do not have 6. (accessible) to modern water filter systems.
The 7. (research), led by Professor Rohit Karnik, decided to turn to trees for help because they could allow liquid to flow through, while blocking out air bubbles.
They began by cutting 1.5-inch-wide sections of tree bark from the branches of a white pine tree. The people related then tested the wood’s filtering ability by pouring water containing red dye particles of different sizes through. 8. their amazement, they found that it was effective in trapping all the articles. 9. (encourage), the team conducted 10. experiment, this time with water that contained bacteria. Sure enough, the sapwood held back 99% of the bacteria, allowing only 1% to flow through.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
请修改下面的短文。短文中共有10处语言错误，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏子符号（∧），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2 只允许修改10处，多着（从第11处起）不计分。
In China, people and giant pandas had been living together for thousands of years. But China’s human population has been great growing. More population means more land is needed for farming. It also mean more forests are cut for wood to build and heat houses. Loss of habitat in lowland areas has forced pandas live only in the mountains. The most damaged result of development has been that it has divided the panda’s habitat into little islands of forest. Today, many panda are isolated in these small sections of forest, because of they will cross into areas which people live. The result is that the giant pandas can connect with one another to mate and have babies.
Besides, to our relief, there is still some good news that people are trying to help the giant pandas by creating protected areas.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
面对繁重的学业负担，很多学生出现了不同程度的心理和身体方面的不适。鉴于此种情况，中学生应该学会放松。假入你是中学生李华，请以How to Relax Ourselves为题写一篇文章给《21世纪英语报》投稿
内容包括：
为什么要学会自我放松；
自我放松的途径（如看电视﹑上网﹑体育锻炼﹑旅游等）
你更喜欢哪种自我放松方式及原因
注意：1. 词数120左右；
2. 文章开头已为你写好，不计入总词数。
How to Relax Ourselves
Faced with heavy learning burdens, many of us students__________________________________
难度: 中等查看答案及解析