-
I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.
I have mixed feelings about keeping the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.
You see, it chimes (打钟报时). It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.
When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged (拔去插头等). Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.
Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.
I took it to a local clock shop the other day.
“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.
I went on to describe the problem.
“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery -operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.
“You can’t fix this?” “No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”
I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.
“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.
We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明). How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship (手艺) with convenience and easy fixes.
Sadly, this is also our attitude toward life itself.
Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another’s style than to develop our own.
We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than “hey-world-look-at-me”s.
We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.
1.The author decided to get the clock fixed because it ______.
A. was a really old and valuable clock
B. left the author with mixed feelings
C. was the only thing that his mother had left him
D. brought him memories of being with his mother
2.What did the clock shop owners tell the author?
A. It would cost a lot to repair the clock.
B. They could only make the clock electronic.
C. The parts that the clock needed were electronic.
D. They had never repaired a clock like this before.
3.The purpose of the article is to criticize ______.
A. the irresponsible clock shop owners
B. people who do not value things with a history
C. people who do not have a creative attitude toward life
D. people’s ignorance (无知) of traditional craftsmanship
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
-
Unlike chemists and physicists, who usually do their experiments using machines, biologists and medical researchers have to use living things like rats. But there are three Nobel prize-winning scientists who actually chose to experiment on themselves – all in the name of science, reported The Telegraph.
● Werner Forssmann (Nobel prize winner in 1956)
Forssmann was a German scientist. He studied how to put a pipe inside the heart to measure the pressure inside and decide whether a patient needs surgery (手术).
Experiments had been done on horses before, so he wanted to try with human patients. But it was not permitted because the experiment was considered too dangerous.
Not giving up, Forssmann decided to experiment on himself. He anaesthetized (麻醉) his own arm and made a cut, putting the pipe 30 centimeters into his vein (血管). He then climbed two floors to the X-ray room before pushing the pipe all the way into his heart.
● Barry Marshall (Nobel prize winner in 2005)
Most doctors in the mid-20th century believed that gastritis was down to stress, spicy food or an unusually large amount of stomach acid (胃酸). But in 1979 an Australian scientist named Robin Warren found that the disease might be related to a bacteria (细菌) called Helicobacter pylori. So he teamed up with his colleague, Barry Marshall, to continue the study. When their request to experiment on patients was denied, Marshall bravely drank some of the bacteria. Five days later, he lost his appetite and soon was vomiting (呕吐) each morning – he indeed had gastritis.
● Ralph Steinman (Nobel prize winner in 2011)
This Canadian scientist discovered a new type of immune system cell (免疫细胞) called the dendritic cell. He believed that it had the ability to fight against cancer.
Steinman knew he couldn’t yet use his method to treat patients. So in 2007, when doctors told him that he had cancer and that it was unlikely for him to live longer than a year, he saw an opportunity.
With the help of his colleagues, he gave himself three different vaccines (疫苗) based on his research and a total of eight experimental therapies (疗法). Even though Steinman eventually died from his cancer, he lived four and a half years, much longer than doctors had said he would.
1. The main purpose of the article is to ______.
A. list some famous Nobel prize winners.
B. introduce a few Nobel prize winners who did experiments on themselves.
C. describe some dangerous experiments that Nobel prize-winners did on themselves.
D. list some difficulties that scientists go through to make important discoveries in biology .
2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?
A. Forssmann’s experiment ended in failure.
B. Forssmann had the pipe pushed all the way into his heart.
C. Barry Marshall succeeded by drinking some Helicobacter pylori.
D. Barry Marshall was given full responsibility for the study on gastritis at first.
3. The underlined word “gastritis” in Paragraph 5 probably means ______.
A. a kind of stomach disease
B. a kind of immune cell
C. a new type of therapy
D. a type of leg cancer
4.From the text, we can conclude that Ralph Steinman ______.
A. had his request to experiment on patients denied
B. believed that cancer comes from stress and spicy food
C. discovered a new type of cancer cell called the dendritic cell
D. tried different therapies containing the dendritic cell on himself
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
-
How do people traditionally manufacture (制造) things? They usually start with a sheet of metal, wood or other material and cut, drill (钻) and shave it to create a desired shape. Sometimes, they use a mold (模具) made of metal or sand, pour liquid plastic or metal into it and let it cool to create a solid part.
Now, a completely different method is gaining popularity.
On Oct. 9, 2013, London Science Museum kicked off its new exhibition, 3-D: Printing the Future, with over 600 3-D printed objects on display, including space probes (探测器), toy dolls and even human organs – basically any product you can think of, reported Live Science.
You might find it hard to believe that an object can actually be “printed out” like a picture. But it is not that hard to understand how it works. Just as a traditional printer sprays (喷洒) ink onto paper line by line, modern 3-D printers spread material onto a surface layer by layer, from the bottom to the top, gradually building up a shape.
Instead of ink, the materials the 3-D printer uses are mainly plastic, resin (树脂) and certain metals. The thinner each layer is – from a millimeter to less than the width of a hair – the smoother and finer the object will be. And objects always come out in one piece, sparing you the trouble of putting different parts together afterward.
For example, 10 years ago a desktop 3-D printer might have cost ￡20,000 (200,000 yuan), while now it costs only about ￡1,000, according to the BBC. In fact, 3-D printers have been around for some time, but until recently they hadn’t been very popular since few people could afford them. Last year, though, saw a big decrease in the price of 3-D printers.
However, as 3-D printing technology becomes more commonplace, it may trigger certain problems. One of them is piracy (盗版). “Once you can download a coffee maker, or print out a new set of kitchen utensils (餐具) on your personal 3-D printer, who will visit a retail (零售的) store again?” an expert on 3-D printing told Forbes News.
Even more frightening, the world’s first 3-D printed gun was successfully fired in the US in May of this year, which means that 3-D printing could potentially give more people access to weapons.
1.According to the article, in the future, 3-D printing technology will probably ______.
A. change the way people make products
B. be applied as widely in our daily lives as computers
C. forbid many countries to make purchases of weapons
D. take the place of normal printers and save lots of energy
2.What was the big event that happened in the 3-D printing industry last year?
A. Over 600 3-D printed objects were on display in an exhibition.
B. 3-D printing technology came to be used in various fields.
C. The world’s first 3-D printed gun was successfully made.
D. The 3-D printer became more affordable for consumers.
3. What is the author’s attitude toward 3-D printing technology?
A. Amused. B. Objective.
C. Supportive. D. Negative.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析