2016年职称英语等级考试用书（理工类）阅读理解、完形填空
Microchip Research Center Created
A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced microchip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology. The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance2. As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years3, plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while4 plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.
More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars.5 The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners — mainly from Japan and Singapore.
Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry,6 the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property7 owners. 词汇: microchip / 5maIkrEJtFIp / n.微芯片marginalize /`mB:dVInLlaIz/ v.忽视，边缘化 flagship /5flA^FIp/ n. (用作定语 )首位，最好 vendor /5vendC:/ n.卖主mainstream /5meInstri:m/ n.主流注释:
第七篇Moderate Earthquake Strikes England
A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeast England on 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power1 in Kent County2. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.
“It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fun-fair ride,3” said the woman. The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake4 struck at 8:19 a. m. and was centered under the English Channel5, about 8.5 miles south of Dover6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel7.
Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.
“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,” said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury8 about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down.”
There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare in Britain. The April 28 quake was the strongest in Britain since 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the central England city of Birmingham10.
The country’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale11. British Geological Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France.12 Musson predicted
that it was only a matter of time13 before another earthquake struck this part of England. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction. Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system of Britain should be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum.词汇： moderate /5mCdErit/ adj.中等的 magnitude /5mA^nitju:d/ n. 值，强度量topple /5tCpl/ v.倾倒，震倒 rouse /rauz/ v. 唤醒 tremor /5tremE/ n.震动 hop /hRp/ v. 齐足跳起 fun-fair n.公共露天游乐场 scale /skeil/ n. 震级 forthcoming /fC:W5kQmiN/ adj.即将来临的evacuate /i5vAkjueit/ v. 疏散geological /dViE5lCdVikEl/ adj.地质的
注释:
第八篇What Is a Dream?
For centuries, people have wondered about the strange things that they dream about. Some psychologists say that this nighttime activity of the mind has no special meaning. Others，however， think that dreams are an important part of our lives. In fact, many experts believe that dreams can tell us about a person’s mind and emotions.
Before modern times, many people thought that dreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century that people started to study dreams in a scientific way.
The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud1，was probably the first person to study dreams scientifically. In his famous book, The interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud wrote that dreams are an expression of a person’s wishes. He believed that dreams allow people to express the feelings, thoughts, and fears that they are afraid to express in real life.
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung2 was once a student of Freud’s. Jung，however，had a different idea about dreams. Jung believed that the purpose of a dream was to communicate a message to the dreamer. He thought people could learn more about themselves by thinking about their dreams. For example, people who dream about falling may learn that they have too high an opinion of themselves. On the other hand, people who dream about being heroes may learn that they think too little of themselves.
Modern-day psychologists continue to develop theories about dreams. For example, psychologist William Domhoff from the University of California, Santa Cruz，believes that dreams are tightly linked to a person’s daily life, thoughts, and behavior. A criminal, for example, might dream about crime.
Domhoff believes that there is a connection between dreams and age. His research shows that children do not dream as much as adults. According to Domhoff, dreaming is a mental skill that needs time to develop.
He has also found a link between dreams and gender. His studies show that the dreams of men and women are different. For example, the people in men’s dreams are often other men, and the dreams often involve fighting. This is not true of women’s dreams.3 Domhoff found this gender difference in the dreams of people from 11 cultures around the world, including both modern and traditional ones.
Can dreams help us understand ourselves? Psychologists continue to try to answer this question in different ways. However, one thing they agree on this: If you dream that something terrible is going to occur, you shouldn’t panic. The dream may have meaning, but it does not mean that some terrible event will actually take place. It’s important to remember that the world of dreams is not the real world.
词汇：
psychologist / sa??k?l?d??st / n．心理学家
psychiatrist /sai' kai?tr?st/ n．精神病学家(医生)
Austrian / ??str??n / adj．奥地利的
gender / ?d?end? / n．性别
第九篇Dangers Await Babies with Altitude
Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.1
Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.
To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were born in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.
Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies born to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.
The results suggest that babies born at high altitudes are deprived of2 oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child,3” says Giussani.
His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.5
Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birth weight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.
*第十篇The Biology of Music
Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate. It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does it work its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers. What are two things that make humans different from animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that some animals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However, the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is also true that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments. 1
Music is strange stuff. It is clearly different from language. However, people can use music to communicate things — especially their emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a very powerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music? If music is truly different from speech, then we should process music and language in different parts of the brain. The scientific evidence suggests that this is true.
Sometimes people who suffer brain damage lose their ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose their musical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injured the left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. He could, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On the other hand，sometimes strokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speak and understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and language separately.
By studying the physical effects of music on the body，scientists have also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why does music have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer. Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London,
thinks that music and love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, and physical ability. That’s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to be someone’s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requires fine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. And playing or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is in excellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or vice versa)， it may be a way of showing off.
However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain why certain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needs further research.
第三部分、概括大意与完成句子
How We Form First Impression
1 We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her — aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits.
2 The answer is related to how your brain allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits, even very minor difference in how a person’s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different1. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information — the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming “signals” are compared against2 a host of “memories”stored in the brain areas called the cortex system to determine what these new signals “mean.”
3 If you see someone you know and like at school3, your brain says “familiar and safe.” If you see someone new, it says, “new — potentially threatening.” Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other “known” memories. The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics, the more your brain may say. “This is new. I don’t like this person.” Or else, “I’m intrigued.” Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures — like your other friends; so your brain says: “I like this person.” But these preliminary “impressions” can be dead wrong4.
4 When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking (not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child) that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than learn about the depth and breadth of people — their history, interest, values, strengths, and true character — we categorize them as jocks , geeks , or freaks.
5 However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what
a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking — and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.
第七篇 Screen Test
1 Every year millions of women are screened with X-rays to pick up signs of breast cancer. If this happens early eough, the disease can often be treated successfully. According to a survey published last year, 21 countries have screening programmes. Nine of them, including Australia, Canada, the US and Spain, screen women under 50.
2 But the medical benefit of screening these younger women are controversial, partly because the radiation brings a small risk of inducing cancer. Also, younger women must be given higher doses of X-rays because their breast tissue is denser.
3 Researchers at the Polytechnic University1 of Valencia analysed the effect of screening more
than 160,000 women at 11 local clinics. After estimating the women’s cumulative dose of radiation, they used two models to calculate the number of extra cancers this would cause.
4 The mathematical model recommended by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) predicted that the screening programme would cause 36 cancers per 100,000 women, 18 of them fatal. The model preferred by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation led, to a lower figure of 20 cancers.
5 The researchers argue that the level of radiation-induced cancers is “not very significant”compared to the far larger number of cancers that are discovered and treated. The Valencia programme, they say, detects between 300 and 450 cases of breast cancer in every 100,000 women screened.
6 But they point out that the risk of women contracting cancer from radiation could be reduced by between 40 and 80 percent if screening began at 50 instead of 45, because they would be exposed to less radiation. The results of their study, they suggest, could help “optimise the technique”for breast cancer screening.
7 “There is a trade-off between the diagnostic benefits of breast screening and its risks.”admits Michael Clark of the NRPB. But he warns that the study should be interpreted with caution. “On the basis of the current data, for every 10 cancers successfully detected and prevented there is a risk of causing one later in life. That’s why radiation exposure should be minimised in any screening programme.”词汇：polytechnic /7pCli5teknik/adj.多工艺的contract /5kCntrAkt/v.感染 cumulative /5kju:mjulEtiv/adj.递增的 optimise /5Cptimaiz/v.昀大程度地完善radiological /9reIdIEJ`lCdVIkEl/adj.放射性的 trade-off n.平衡注释：
1. Polytechnic University:理工大学
第八篇 The Mir Space Station
1 The Russian Mir Space Station, which came down in 2001 at last after 15 years of pioneering the concept of long-term human space flight, is remembered for its accomplishments in the human space flight history. It can be credited with many firsts in space.
2 During Mir’s lifetime, Russia spent about US $4.2 billion to build and maintain the station.
3 The Soviet Union launched Mir, which was designed to last from three to five years, on February 20, 1986, and housed 10
4 astronauts over 12 years and seven months, most of whom were not Russian. In fact, it became the first international space station by playing host to1 62 people from 11 countries. From 199
5 through 1998, seven astronauts from the United States took turns living on Mir for up to six months each2. They were among the 37 Americans who visited the station during nine stopovers by space shuttles.
4 The more than 400 million the United States provided Russian for the visits not only kept Mir operating, but also gave the Americans and their partners in the international station project valuable experience in long-term flight and multinational operations.
5 A debate continues over Mir’s contributions to science. During its existence, Mir was the laboratory for 23,000 experiments and earned scientific equipment, estimated to be worth $80 million, from many nations.3 Experiments on Mir arc credited with a range of findings, from the first solid measurement of the ration of heavy helium atoms in space to how to grow wheat in space. But for those favouring human space exploration, Mir showed that people could live and work in space long enough for a trip to Mars. The longest single stay in space is the 437.7 days that Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov spent on Mir from 1994 to 1995. And Sergie Avdeyev accumulated
747.6 days in space in three trips to the space station. The longest American stay was that of Shannon Lucid4, who spent 188 days aboard Mir in 1996.
6 Despite the many firsts Mir accomplished, 199
7 was a bad year out of 15 for Mir, In 1997, an oxygen generator caught fire. Later, the main computer system broke down, causing the station to drift several times and there were power failures.
7 Most of these problems were repaired, with American help and suppliers, but Mir’s reputation as a space station was ruined.
8 Mir’s setbacks arc nothing, though5, when we compare them with its accomplishments. Mir was
a tremendous success, which will be remembered as a milestone in space exploration and the space station that showed long-term human habitation in space was possible. But it’s time to move on to the next generation. The International Space Station being built will be better, but it owes a great debt to Mir.词汇: pioneer /7paiE5niE/n.开拓 helium /5hi:ljEm/n.氦 accomplishment /E5kCmpliFmEnt/n.成就 aboard /E5bC:d/prep.在(船、飞机、车 )上 credit /5kredit/v.归功于setback /5setbAk/n. 挫折host /hEust/n.主人milestone /5mailstEun/n.里程碑stopover /5stRpEJvE(r) /n.中途短暂停留habitation /7hAbi5teiFEn/n.居住multinational /mQltI5nAFEn(E)l/adj.多国的 debt /det/n.债ration /5rAFEn/n.含量
14
第九篇 More Rural Research Is Needed
1 Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year, but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead1.
2 “The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,” he said.
3 Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation2 and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies3 led to economic growth which, in turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve
4 but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the current pattern. If there is any change, a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Africa. The major improvement will be in east Asia, South America and South-East Asia.
4 The developing world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) on
5 research, and the developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries.
5 He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs for Mexico, China or India6.
6 “Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently,” Dr. Fischer said.
7 Yields of rice, wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth, such as high-yield varieties, fertilizers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. “If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield,” Dr. Fischer said.
差翻译
第十篇 Washoe Learned American Sign Language
1 An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe and born in Africa died
of natural causes late last month at the age of 42 at a research center in the American state of Washington. Washoe had become known in the scientific community１ and around the world for her ability to use American Sign
Language2. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Her skills also led to debate3 about primates and their ability to understand language.
2 Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching Washoe sign language in 1966. In 1969, the Gardners7 described Washoe’s progress in a scientific report. The people who experimented with Washoe said she grew to understand4 about 250 words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, “Who is coming to play?” Once5 the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own6 into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.
3 However, critics argued Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They said she had never developed true language skills. Even now, there are some researchers who suggest that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes. Yet Washoe’s keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners7. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.
4 Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believes Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees8. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is that this kind of research takes a very long time.
5 Debate continues about chimps’ understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure — Washoe
changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.
词汇：
chimpanzee /5tFimpEn5zi:/ n．黑猩猩 workings /5wE:kiN/ n．活动，运行
critic /5kritik/ n．评论家，批评家 primate /5praimit/ n．灵长类动物
community /kE5mju:niti/ n．社区，圈子 chimp n．= chimpanzee
第四部分、阅读理解
第十七篇 A Sunshade for the Planet
Even with the best will 1
in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going prevent global
warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.
Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse 2
, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves
3
.
For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale “geoengineering”
projects that might be used to counteract global warming. “I use the analogy of methadone 4 ,”
says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. “If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalization, and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin.
Basically the idea is to apply “sunscreen” to the whole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radical plan to cool Earth: launch trillions of feather-light discs into space, where they would form a vast cloud that would block the sun’s rays. It’s controversial, but recent
studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1. 8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun’s rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most severe emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
词汇: emission /i5miFEn/v.发射，发射物heroin / 5herEuin /n.海洛因complacency /kEm5pleIsEnsI/n.满足 hospitalization/7hCspitElai5zeiFEn /n.住院治疗 thwart /WwC:t/v.反对，阻绕 rehab /`ri:hAb /n.接受康复治病 geoengineering /7endVi5niEriN/n.地质工程 astronomer / E5strRnEmE/n.天文学家 trillion /5triljEn/n. (英、德)百万兆 (1018); (美、法)万亿，counteract / 7kauntE5rAkt/v.抵消；抵制兆( 1012 ) analogy / E5nAlEdVi/n.类似；模拟 controversial /7kCntrE5vE:FEl /adj.有争议的 methadone /meWB:daun/n.美沙酮，美散痛deflect /deflect /v. (使)偏转注释:
第十八篇 Thirst for Oil
Worldwide every day, we devour the energy equivalent of about 200 million barrels of oil. Most of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun. In fact enough energy from the Sun hits the planet’s surface each minute to cover our needs for an entire year, we just need to find an efficient way to use it. So far the energy in oil has been cheaper and easier to get at. But as supplies dwindle, this will change, and we will need to cure our addiction to oil.
Burning wood satisfied most energy needs until the steam-driven industrial revolution, when energy-dense coal became the fuel of choice. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one quarter of our energy needs, but its use has been declining since we started pumping up oil. Coal is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel, but could make a comeback, as supplies are still plentiful: its reserves are five times larger than oil’s.
Today petroleum, a mineral oil obtained from below the surface of the Earth and used to produce petrol, diesel oil and various other chemical substances, provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. The US consumes n quarter of all oil, and generates a similar proportion of greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of oil comes from the Middle East, which has half of known reserves. But other significant sources include Russia, North America, Norway, Venezuela and the North Sea. Alaska’
s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 1
could be a major new US source, to reduce reliance on foreign
imports.
Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years, though opinions and estimates vary. We could fast reach an energy crisis in the next few decades, when demand exceeds supply. As conventional reserves become more difficult to access, others such as oil shales and tar sands may be used instead. Petrol could also be obtained from coal.
Since we started using fossil fuels, we have released 400 billion tonnes 2
of carbon, and burning
the entire reserves could eventually raise world temperatures by 130 C. Among other horrors, this would result in the destruction of all rainforests and the melting of all Arctic ice. 词汇: devour /di5vauE/v.吞没，耗尽 accessible /Ek5sesEbl/adj.可使用的，可得到的 dense /dens/adj.密集的 rainforest /5rein5fCrist/n. (热带)雨林 pump /pQmp/v.用泵抽吸 reliance /ri5laiEns/n.依赖，依靠 petroleum /pi5trEuliEm/n.石油，原油 oil shale油页岩 dwindle /5dwindl/v.减少 tar sand沥青砂 diesel oil柴油 destruction /dis5trQkFEn/n.破坏.毁灭注释:
尽管意见和评价各有不同，但大多数专家预测人类将在 50年之内轻而易举地耗尽现有的所有储备石油。未来的几十年，当供不应求时我们会很快陷入能源危机。当常规能源不容易获得时，代之使用的可能是诸如油页岩和沥青砂等能源。石油也可从煤中提炼获得。
自从我们开始使用化石燃料，我们已经释放出 4000亿吨碳。当化石燃料全部用完时，世界温度将上升 13摄氏度。更恐怖的是，这将会导致所有热带雨林的破坏和北极冰的溶解。
第十九篇 Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience
Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech ’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener
feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend ”.
“Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music ，” said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot ’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements.
Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain ” powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user ’s mobile device. In other words, if there ’s an “app ” for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone ’s camera and face-detecting software ，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears ”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is
based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone ’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts ，Shimi dances to the rhythm.
“Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots can be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or
increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user ’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list. Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi ’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that
will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said.
Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing
agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines 一 small, entertaining and fun ，，， Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.”
第二十篇 Explorer of the Extreme Deep
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet. Yet, just a small fraction of the underwater
world has been explored. Now, Scientists at the Woods Hole 1
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle that will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet). The new machine, known as a manned submersible or human-operated vehicle
(HOV), will replace another one named Alvin 2
, which has an amazing record of discovery, playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions. Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet). It ’s about time for an upgrade, WHOI researchers say.
Alvin was launched in 1964. Since then, Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year, says
Daniel Fornari, a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI. During its lifetime, Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives.
A newer, better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises about a world that is still full of mysteries, Fornari says. It might also make the job of exploration a little easier. “We take so much for granted on land,” Fornari says. “We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are. We can see colors, special arrangements.”
Size-wise, the new HOV will be similar to Alvin. It’ll be about 37 feet long. The setting area inside will be a small sphere, about 8 feet wide, like Alvin, it’ll carry a pilot and two passengers. It will be just as maneuverable. In most other ways, it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view, for one thing. Alvi has only three windows, the new vehicle will have five, with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing. Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second, and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2.3 miles per hour), while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second. It’ll reach speeds of 3 knots, or 3.5 miles per hour.
第二十一篇 Plant Gas
Scientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades hut hadn’t regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
in Heldelberg, Germany 1
. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees,
may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane production requires an oxygen-free environment.
Previously, researchers had thought that it was impossible for plants to make significant
amounts of the gas. They had assumed that microbes 2
need to be in environments without oxygen
to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
In its experiments, Keppler’s team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth’s atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves.
With the dried plants, the researchers took measurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found, a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms of methane per hour. (One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.) With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled. Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight.
Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it’s unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions. That’s another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes.
The new finding is an “interesting observation,” says Jennifer Y. King, a biogeochemist at
the University of Minnesota in St. Paul 3
. Because some types of soil microbes consume methane,
they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant’s influence, she notes.
第二十二篇 Snowflakes
You’ve probably heard that no two snowflakes are alike. Of course, nobody has ever confirmed that statement by examining every one of the estimated one septillion snowflakes that drift to Earth each year. Still, Kenneth Libbrecht, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, is confident that the statement is true.
Snowflakes aren ’t flaky, says Libbrecht. At their basic level, they ’re crystalline. The lattice of every snowflake is six-sided in shape. The simplest snow crystals are six-sided flat plates and six-sided columns. Such crystals are common in places where the air is extremely cold and dry. Snow crystals acquire their special beauty when their simple six-sided symmetry blossoms.
Under the right conditions, each of the six corners of a crystal sprouts 1
what is called an
arm. In a matter of 2
minutes, the arms can become highly ornate and give the crystal a star like appearance.
Several factors in the environment affect the shape and growth rate of a snow crystal. One factor is humidity. Crystals grow faster and in more intricate shape as humidity increases. A second factor is air temperature. A snowflake is born when several molecules of water vapor in a cloud
land on a speck of dust and freeze to form a simple crystal. As the young crystal bops 3
around in the cloud, it passes through air pockets of varying temperatures. If the crystal passes through a pocket of air that is, say, -15 degrees Celsius, it will grow quickly and sprout six
arms says Libbrecht. If the crystal is then tossed into a warmer pocket, one about -100
C, the arms tips will stop growing quickly and form six-sided plates. If the crystal then drifts into
an even warmer pocket of about -50
C, its top and bottom will grow more quickly than its sides and become more column like in shape.
In the course of 4
its life span, a snow-crystal might flutter through many warmer and colder
pockets, acquiring a complicated and unique growth history. Such a history will give rise to 5
a snowflake that is unlike any other. Each arm on the snowflake will look exactly like every other one, but the crystal itself will be one of a kind.
Using his cooling tanks, Libbrecht has learned how to create snow crystals of different shapes - plates, columns, needles, etc. Libbrecht has even refined his techniques so that he can make crystals that look highly similar to one another. Still, he lacks the control to manufacture identical twin snowflakes. A slight difference in humidity and temperature can upset the growth
profile 6
of a crystal.
第二十三篇 Powering a City? It ’s a Breeze.1
The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries — a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips — yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole
turbines.2
Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine ” is a high-tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftops
of busy cities. Lighter, quieter, and often more efficient than rural counterparts 3
, they take
advantage of the extreme turbulence 4
and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns. Prototypes have been successfully tested in several Dutch cities, and the city
government in the Hague 5
has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$ 8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. A typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours. But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercial buildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane. Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. The Netherlands, with 16 million people crowded into a country twice the size
of Slovenia 6
, is the most densely populated in Europe. Problems remain, however, for example,
public safety concerns 7
, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturer. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. People don ’t know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to one of the big turbines. It might be too hectic.
Meanwhile, projects are under way 8 to use minimills 9
to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think the thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It ’s a very local technology, and you can use it right in your backyard, I don ’t think anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard.”
第二十四篇 Underground Coal Fires — a Looming Catastrophe
1
Coal burning deep underground in China ， India and Indonesia is threatening the environment
and human life, scientists have warned.2
These large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even
ignite forest fires, a panel 3
of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in Denver 4
. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned. “Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College
in Swainsboro , USA. But surprisingly few people know about them. Coal can heat up on its own 5
, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not caused to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger
spontaneous 6 catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles 7
,
abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China consume 8 up to 9
200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U. S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International journal of Coal Ecology . Once
underway,10
coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases, poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere. The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, and agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to detect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country. Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how
much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing 11
the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a
beat-resistant grout (a thin mortar 12
used to fill cracks and crevices) , which is designed to
be pumped into the coal fire to cut off 13
the oxygen supply.
第二十五篇 Eat to Live
A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it ’s not much fun — and it might not
even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to 1
most of that youthful vigor even if we don ’t start to diet until old age.
Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse ’s liver genes can he made to behave as they did when the mouse
was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won’t reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get
rid of toxins.
2
Spindlers team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on
half-rations 3
. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed
3
for a month when
they were 34 months old — equivalent to about 70 human years.
The researchers checked the activity of 11, 000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like
inflammation and free radical production 4
— probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice
that had dieted nil their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.
“This is the first indication that these effects kick in 5
pretty quickly.” say Huber Warner
from the National Institute on Aging near Washington D. C.
No one yet knows if calorie restriction works in people as it does in mice, but Spindler is hopeful. “There’s attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says. If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, our bodies are less efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
But Spindler isn’t sure the trade-off is worth it 6
. “The mice get less disease, they live
longer, but they’re hungry,” he says, “Even seeing what a diet does , it’s still hard to go to a restaurant and say: ‘I can only cat half of that’.” Spindler hopes we soon won’t need to diet at all. His company, Lifespan Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of caloric restriction.
第二十六篇 Male and Female Pilots Cause Accidents Differently
Male pilots flying general aviation 1
(private) aircraft in the United States are more likely
to crash due to inattention or flawed decision-making, while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft. These are results of a study fly researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study identifies difference between male and female pilot in terms of circumstances or the
crash and the type or pilots error involved 2
. “Crashes of general aviation aircraft account
for 85 percent of all aviation deaths 3
in the United States. The crash rate for male pilots,
as for motor vehicle drivers, exceeds that 4
of crashes of female pilots.” explains Susan P.
Baker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Because pilot youth and inexperience are established 5
contributors to aviation crashes
6
, we
focused on only mature pilots, to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.”The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety. The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997, involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40-63. Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a 1:2 ratio, by age, classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash, and year of crash. Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.
The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common circumstance for both sexes, leading to 59 percent of female pilots’ crashes and 36 percent of males’. Experiencing mechanical failure, running out of fuel, and landing the plane with the landing
gear up 7
were among the factors more likely with males, while stalling was more likely with females.
The majority of the crashes — 95 percent for females and 88 percent for males — involved at least one type of pilot error. Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females (accounting for 81 percent of the crashes) than males
(accounting for 48 percent ). Males, however, appeared more likely to be guilty of 8
poor decision-making, risk-taking, and inattentiveness, examples of which
include misjudging weather and visibility 9
or flying an aircraft with a known defect. Females, though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft, were generally more careful
than their male counterparts 10
.
第二十七篇 Driven to Distraction
Joe Coyne slides into the driver ’s seat, starts up the car and heads 1
to town. The empty stretch
of interstate gives way to urban congestion 2
, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.
But even if he hadn ’t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn ’t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn ’t really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving
simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University 3
(ODU) examine how in-vehicle
guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel.4
The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are
too distracting — or whether any distractions are offset 5
by the benefits drivers get from
having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations.6
“We are looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor lending the research, which involves measuring drivers reaction
time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues 7
.
The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload 8
involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs, light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people “get into more challenging driving situations, they don ’t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment.” Baldwin said.
But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. The next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers ’ mental workload.
“Is it best if they see a picture … that shows their position, a map kind of display?9
”Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?”
Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They ’re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.”
That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions. Baldwin said. Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify
systems to present some information in a way that makes sense 10
for people who prefer the survey style, she said.
Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little
thing of why men don ’t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.
第二十八篇 Sleep Lets Brain File Memories
1
To sleep. Perchance to file?2 Findings published online this week by the Proceedings 3
of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brain organizes and stows memories formed during the day while the
rest of the body is catching zzz ’s 4
.
Gyorgy Buzsaki of Rutgers University 5
and his colleagues analyzed the brain waves of sleeping
rats and mice. Specifically, they examined the electrical activity emanating from 6
the
somatosensory neocortex 7 (an area that processes sensory information) and the hippocampus 8
, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillations in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles (bursts of activity
from the neocortex) were followed tens of milliseconds 9
later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation. A second study, also published online this week by the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, links age-associated memory decline 10
to high glucose levels.
Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied 30 people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend to
increase with age, affect memory in healthy people as well. The scientists administered 11
recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body ’s tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects better able to absorb blood sugar.
“Our study suggests that this impairment 12 may contribute to the memory deficits 13
that occur as people age.” Convit says. “And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucose
tolerance could reverse some age-associated problems in cognition.14
” Exercise and weight
control can help keep glucose levels in check 15
, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.
第二十九篇 I ’ll Be Bach
Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can ’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope ’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers ，brains work like big databases. First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data ：it broke it down into smaller pieces and looked for patterns. It
then combined the pieces into new patterns. Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren ’t good, but it was a start.
Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyze more complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work, to the database.
A few years later ，Cope ’s computer program, called “Emmy ”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot of collaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer ’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work. Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn ’t like of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!
第三十篇 Digital Realm
In the digital realm, the next big advance will be voice recognition 1. The rudiments 2
are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,” and it is likely to think
you want it to “wreck a nice beach.”3
But in a decade or so we ’ll be able to chat away 4 and machines will soak it all in 5
. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to our computers, we ’
ll also be able to chat with our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles 6
, browsers,
thermostats. VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around 7
.
That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age : artificial intelligence 8
. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they ’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they ’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents.
Scary, huh 9
? But potentially quite useful. At least until they decide they don ’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around.
The law powering 10 the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore ’s 11
: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power — the capacity of microprocessors and memory
chips — would become nearly free; his company kept churning 12 out more and more lines 13
of complex
software to make use of the cheap bounty 14
. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free.
Along with 15 the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this 16
means a future in which all forms of content — movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt ’s recipes and home videos — will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you ’ll be able to create a movie or magazine,
make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner 17
!
The result will be a transition from a mass-market 18
world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to, each user. You can subscribe to news
sources that serve up 19
only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes.
第三十一篇 Hurricane Katrina
A hurricane is n fiercely powerful , rotating form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1,240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of 8 native American
storm god 1. Hurricanes are typical of 2
a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60
miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime 3
, one
of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs 4
.
The seed for hurricane formation 5
is a cluster of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters.
Hurricanes can only form and be fed 6 when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 270
C and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern hemisphere.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate and condense into clouds and rain — releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air 7
from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags
up more moisture-laden air from the sea surface in a process that swells the storm 8
. Cold air
falls back to the ocean surface through the eye 9
and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems
are known as depressions 10
. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the southeastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving
a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake 11
— almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have been displaced in a
humanitarian crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the great depression.12
The cost of the
damage may top 13
$ 100 billion.
三十二篇Mind-r eading 1
Machine （B 级）
A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what ’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons are responsible for this processing.
The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)2
brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to
that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize 3
which parts of the brain receive more oxygen-rich blood — and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain.
The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers’ brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers’ brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
第三十三篇 Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste (B级)
The withdrawal of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository 1
has reopened
the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste.
In an article in the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan 2
geologist Rodney Ewing
and Princeton University 3
nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal
agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
“The main goal…, should be to provide the United States with multiple alternatives and substantial public involvement in an open siting and design process that requires acceptance by host communities and states,”the authors write.
Ewing and von Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by Congress 4
in 1987
as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved
5 after more than three decades of often controversial debate. The reasons include the site’s geological problems, management problems, important changes in the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process.
Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nation’s northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located closer to reactors.
“This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe, where spent nuclear
fuel 6
and high-level nuclear waste
7
from about 150 reactors and reprocessing plants is to be
moved to a number of geological repositories in a variety of rock types 8
,”said Rodney Ewing,
who has written extensively about the impact of nuclear waste management on the environment and who has analyzed safety assessment criteria for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear
waste repository.
第五部分、补全短文（完形填空和阅读理解）
第八篇 Watching Microcurrents Flow
We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed ＿1＿. The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes.
Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and 2 .
Their sensor is adapted 1
from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large
magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2
“We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable
of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao.
The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes , even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across. At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles 3 . But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits, nicks in the wires or electro migration — where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and move them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.
As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure
of any object capable of conducting electricity.3
For example, it could look directly at
microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, 4＿ . The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it
out 4
in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.
Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public,
it is already on sale,5
from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts.
It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minute to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag arc working 5 . 词汇： circuit /5sE:kit/ n.电路 subtle /5sQtl/ adj.精巧的；细微的 scan /skAn/ v.扫描；细看 dense /dens/ adj.密集的；稠密的 magnetic /mA^5netik/ adj.磁铁的；磁石的 sensor /5sensE/ n.感应器visualize /5vIzjJElaIz/ v.使……形象化；使……具体化注释：1. is adapted：(使)适应。作不及物动词时的用法是：“ adapt to +名词性成分”，如 : The young man from the countryside adapted well to life in the big city.这个农村青年很能适应大城市的生活。易混的词： (1) adopt采取；采纳（及物动词 )。 adopt a positive attitude采取积极的态度。 (2) adept熟练的；擅长的（形容词 )。be adept in (或 at)，如：This boy is adept in/at figures.这个男孩擅长计算。
2. computer hard drives：计算机硬盘
3. conducting electricity：导电
4. rule … out：排除……的可能性。又如： The police have ruled out murder in the case of the girl’s death.警方在姑娘死亡案中已排除他杀的可能性。
5. on sale：出售；上市。如： Will the new product be on sale next month?这种新产品下月会上市吗 ? 练习：
A. to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning time to 30 seconds
B. to making chips any smaller
C. to take tiny chips we require
D. to picture the progress of the currents
E. converting the information into a color picture showing the density of current at each point
F. faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water sample
答案与题解：
1. D manage to +v.是“设法做成”的意思。 picture在此是动词，“ to picture the progress of the currents”意为“绘出电流运行图”。
2. E by在句中引导两个在句法结构上并列的分词短语：一个是 measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object，另一个是 converting the information into a color picture showing the density of current at each point。
convert … into …的意思是“把……转变为”。
3. B “obstacle to +名词性成分”的意思是“……的障碍”。
4. F faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote和 bacteria in a water sample与前文中的microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage在意思上是并列的关系。
5. A 这部分所说的体积的减小和所需时间的缩短恰好与前半句中提到的冰箱大小的体积和所需数分钟的时间形成了对比。
第九篇 Heat Is Killer
Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people feel hot, it can cause serious medical problems — even death. Floods, storms, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters kill thousands of people every year. １ Experts say heat may be nature’s deadliest killer. Recently, extreme heat was blamed for killing more than one hundred people in India. It is reported that the total heat of a hot day or several days can affect health. ２ Experts say heat waves often become dangerous when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes great stress on the human body.
３ out of the sun, if possible. Drink lots of cool water. Wear light colored clothing made of natural materials; avoid wearing synthetic clothing. Make sure the clothing is loose, permitting
freedom of movement 1
. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems, such as headache and
vomiting that are linked to heat. Most people suffer only muscle pain as a result of heat stress.
４ pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot 2
. Doctors say those suffering headache
or muscle pain should stop all activity 3
and rest in a cool place and drink cool liquids. Do
not return to physical activity for a few hours because more serious conditions could develop: Doctors say some people face an increased danger from heat stress. ５
Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure 4 ,
poor blood flow, nervousness or depression.词汇： eruption / i5rQpFEn / n．爆发，喷发 muscle / 5mQsl / n.肌肉 vomit / 5mQsl / v. 呕吐 synthetic / sin5Wetic / adj. 合成的deadly / 5dedli / adj. 致命的注释：
1．Make sure the clothing is loose．permitting freedom of movement：衣服一定要宽松，以便活动自如。 make sure意为“确信，保证”，其后面从句的谓语要用一般现在时。如： Make sure the door is locked before you leave。 permitting freedom of movement是分词短语，用作目的状语。2．The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot：疼痛是一个警告，说明你的身体过热。 that the body is becoming too hot是同位语从句，与 warnin9同位，说明 warning的内容。3．physical activity：体力活动
4．Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure…：炎热天气对于那些必须服药以控制血压的人……也增加了危险性。
电大英语统考完形填空
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一、完型填空 “Mom, can I have some money?” Those are the words my mother used to hear all th e time. In return, I heard, “ Why don't you get a job? Not to make me happy, but so that you have your own money and gain a bit more responsibility.” So last year I got a job working about 25 hours a week. For $5 an hour, working as a salesman in a photo studio. After I got this job, I had to do football, homework and job ___21___. It was really hard for me. I was burning out, falling asleep at school and failing in many courses. My teachers were mad ___22___ me and yelled at me: why have a job? I missed a lot practice in football team and could only ___23___ back down at the match. My coach was cold at me with an unasked question: why have a job? I told them it was for the things I need, when actually it was for the things I wanted. Needing and wanting are different. Needing something is like your only shoes have holes in them. But wanting is to have every new brand sneaker just because you like it. I start to think about if I did a wrong thing. Slowly, I learnt to ___24___ my money better so that I could have more time for school and football. I learnt to make a wise decision ___25___ what I need and what I want. 1、 A、on B、manage C、sit D、at E、at the same time 参考答案:E 解析: 【答案】E【解析】考查介词词组。at the same time“同时”。 2、 A、on
2016年职称英语考试理工类A级真题 第1部分:词汇选项(第1——15题,每题1分,共15分下面每个句子中均有1个词或者短语划有底横线,请为每处划线部分确定1个意义最为接近的选项。 1.The revelation of his past led to his resignation. A.imagination B.confirmation C.recall D.disclosure 2.Jensen is a dangerous man,and can be very brutal. A.careless B.Cruel C.strong D.hard 3.You’ll have to sprint if you want to catch the train. A.jump B.escape C.run D.prepare 4.We are worried about this fluid situation full with uncertainty.
A.Changeable B.Stable C.suitable D.adaptable 5.The new garment fits her perfectly. A.haircut B.purse C.Clothes D.necklace 6.The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma. A.fear B.joy C.hurt D.memory 7.They have to build canals to irrigate the desert. A.decorate B.water C.change D.visit
2016年. 【农民】__theirland. 丧失 ,__provedthathewasn'tworkinghardenough.非限制性定语 倒装句 Athens同位语 翻译：奥林匹克马拉松赛跑为26英里，385码.大约为马拉松到雅典的距离 ,wedecided totakethetrain.完成被动的非谓语动词形式 与…打成一片 【记录】theplain【平常的，简单的】facts【事实，真相】ofsmalltownlife. 非谓语动词 抚养 ：为了 ''tknowmorethanyoudo. ''llmoveinsoonandweneedtobuy__furniture. 【药方】 【生物学家】doesnotmerely【仅仅】describe【描述】organisms【有机物】,buttriestolearn__actastheydo. "Hashecomeback....Yes,he__back forthreedays. 【32课】同位语 翻译：生态学，即研究生物与其环境之间关系的科学，在石油地质中也很重要。 ,theearth__coveredbywater.【55课】虚拟语气
翻译：如果所有的大陆和山脉被推平，那么地球表面将被一层超过12000英尺深的水所覆盖。 "veryhappy".【5课】 翻译：拥有五个或更多亲密朋友的人自认“非常快乐”的机会高出他人50%。【不协调的，不相配的】withgoodhealth. ' ' 2017年 .【31课】 翻译：老人把手浸在盐水里，努力保持头脑清醒。 虚拟语气（过去相反） 翻译：Smith上周非常忙，否则他就去看你了。 . 非谓语动词 翻译：她需要买所有的东西，她将要离开市场，在小镇的街上再花费一个小时。 翻译：我很感激三年前给我的出国工作的机会。 ,__isclearfromtheexpressionsonhisface.【模拟三】as引导的非限制性定语从句翻译：他得了第一名，他脸上的表情清楚地表明了这一切。 . 【大纲原句】 翻译:直到后来他们才意识到发生了多么可怕的事情。 ,airtrafficcontrollersrelyonradar. 翻译：为了追踪机场航行中的飞机，空中交通控制台要用雷达。 ……to：太……而不能
1.Nasreddin was a poor man, so he tried to grow __1__ he could in his own garden, so that he would not have to buy so many in the market。 One evening he heard a noise in his garden and looked out of the window. A white ox had got into the garden and __2__ his vegetables. Nasreddin at once took his stick, ran out and chased the ox, but he was too old to catch it. When he got back to his garden, he found that the ox had ruined most of his precious vegetables。 __3__, while he __4__ in the street near his house, he saw a cart with two white oxen which looked very much like the one that __5__ his vegetables. He was carrying his stick with him, __6__ he at once began to beat the two oxen with it. As neither of them looked more like the ox that had eaten his vegetables than the other, he beat both of them equally hard。 The owner of the ox and cart was drinking coffee in a __7__ coffee-house. When he saw __8__ Nasreddin was doing __9__ his animals, he ran out and shouted, “What are you doing? What have those poor animals done to you for you to beat them like that?”
2016年职称英语综合B真题 第一部分：词汇选项（第1~15题，每题1分，共15分） 下面每个句子中均有1个词或短语画有底横线，请为每处画线部分确定1个意义最为接近的选项。 1. All houses within 100 meters of the seas are (at risk) of flooding. A. out of control B. between equals C. in particular D. in danger 2. The idea was quite (brillian)t. A. positive B. clever C. key D. original 3. Stock market price (tumbled) after rumor of a rise in interest rate. A. regulated B. fell C. increased D. maintained 4. We are worried about this (fluid) situation full with uncertainty. A. stable B. suitable C. adaptable D. changeable 5. The (revelation) of his past led to his resignation. A. imagination B. confirmation C. disclosure
D. recall 6. Jensen is a dangerous man, and can be very (brutal). A. careless B. strong C. cruel D. hard 7. The coastal has area has very (mild) winter, but the central plains remain extremely cold. A. warm B. severe C. hard D.dry 8.You'll have to (sprint) if you want to catch the train. A. jump B. escape C. prepare D. run 9. The course gives you basic (instruction) in car maintenance. A. idea B. term C. coaching D. aspect 10. The new (garment) fits her perfectly. A. haircut B. purse C. necklace D. clothes 11. The phobia may have its root in a childhood (trauma). A. fear
2015年职称英语理工类C级考试真题及答案第一部分：词汇选项 1. The weather last summer was awful. A. bad B. fair C. dry D. hot 参考答案：A 2. The law carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. A. message B. guilt C. obligation D. punishment 参考答案：D 3. My piano playing has improved significantly since I had a new teacher. A. definitely B. generally C. certainly D. greatly 参考答案：D 4. There is a need for radical changes in education.
A. revolutionary B. long-term C. short-term D. systematic 参考答案：A 5. It frustrates me that I‘m not able to put any of my ideas into practice. A. discourages B. shows C. surprises D. frightens 参考答案：A 6. I realized to my horror that I had forgotten the present. A. limit B. fear C. power D. fool 参考答案：B 7. He tried to assemble his thoughts. A. gather B. clear C. share D. spare
（英语）英语完形填空模拟试题及解析 一、完形填空 1．完形填空 Mr. Ma, a famous mental （心理的） doctor from Beijing said at a meeting, "Now many young students have mental problems. Some students become 1 because they have to study very hard. Others have 2 getting on well with people around them like their parents and classmates." Then Mr. Ma gave some 3 . A middle school student from Xi'an was doing badly in his lessons. He thought his teachers and friends often 4 him, and he became so nervous and worried that one night he 5 his home without telling his parents. Another student, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Shanghai, was very afraid of exams. While she was reading the exam paper, she 6 think of anything to write. A recent report from Jiefang Daily says about 18% of the young 7 in Shanghai have mental problems. 8 many of them won't go and ask for help. Some think they will look silly 9 they go to see a doctor. Others won't talk about their secrets. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ma 10 some good ideas to young people: Talk to your parents or teachers often. Take part in group activities. Try to get on well with the people around you. Go to see a doctor if you often feel unhappy. 1. A. worried B. excited C. happy D. confident 2. A. rules B. trouble C. ways D. excuse 3. A. experiences B. questions C. examples D. decisions 4. A. laughed at B. aimed at C. looked up D. picked up 5. A. passed B. left C. helped D. lost 6. A. mustn't B. couldn't C. needn't D. shouldn't 7. A. teachers B. parents C. students D. doctors 8. A. Fortunately B. Naturally C. Hardly D. Unluckily 9. A. whether B. where C. how D. if 10. A. booked B. replied C. offered D. stopped 【答案】（1）A；（2）B；（3）C；（4）A；（5）B；（6）B；（7）C；（8）D；（9）D；（10）C； 【解析】【分析】文章大意：一位来自北京著名的心理医生通过具体事例介绍了学生存在的心理问题，以及对此应采取的建议及措施。 （1）句意：一些学生变得担心的主要原因是因为必须努力学习。A 担心；B 兴奋；C 开心；D 自信。根据后文中的语句because they have to study very hard.提示可知，孩子们很紧张，很担心，故选A。 （2）句意：还有些人很难与周围的人相处融洽，比如父母和同学。A 规则；B 困难；C 方式；D 借口。固定短语have trouble doing sth做某事有困难。根据上文语句Now many
2016年职称英语考试理工类模拟试题第十套 1.The policeman asked him to point out the criminal. https://www.doczj.com/doc/4a8187947.html, B.identify C.capture D.separate 正确答案:B 2.It will be rather difficult to complete the task on time. A.do B.contribute C.renew D.finish 正确答案:B 3.Breaking Mary’s doll was purely accidental. A.abstractive B.unintentional C.acid D.intentional 正确答案:B 4.The theater is large enough to seat200people. A.abuse
B.confuse C.contain D.include 正确答案:C 5.Fruit prices fluctuate according to the need of the market. A.change B.fall C.descend D.elevate 正确答案:A Heartbeat of America 1.New York-the Statue of Liberty,the skyscrapers,the beautiful shops on Fifth Avenue and the many theaters on Broadway.This is America’s cultural capital. It is also her biggest city,with a population of nearly8million.In the summer it is hot,hot,hot and in the winter it can be very cold.Still there are hundreds of things to do and see all the year round. 2.Manhattan is the real center of the city.When people say“New York City,”they usually mean Manhattan.Most of the interesting shops,buildings and museums are here.In addition,Manhattan is the scene of New York’s busy night life.In 1605the first Europeans came to Manhattan from Holland.They bought the island from the Native Americans for a few glass necklaces worth about$26today. 3.Wall street in Manhattan is the financial heart of the USA.It is also the most important banking center in the world.It is a street of“skyscrapers.”These are those incredible,high buildings,which Americans invented,and built faster and higher than anyone else.Perhaps the two most spectacular skyscrapers in New York are the two towers of the New York World Trade Center.When the sun sets,their 110floors shine like pure gold.
2015职称英语理工类A真题及答案(完整版) 第1部分：词汇选项(第1～15题，每题1分，共15分) 下面每个句子中均有1个词或短语划有底横线，请为每处划线部分确定1个意义最为接近的选项。 1. I will not tolerate that sort of behavior in my class. A. control B. observe C. regulate D. accept 2. She showed a natural aptitude for the work. A. sense B. talent C. flavor D. taste 3. Most people find rejection hard to accept. A. excuse B. client C. refusal D. destiny 4. The organization was bold enough to face the press. A. pleased B. powerful C. brave D. sensible 5. They were locked in mortal combat. A. deadly B. open C. actual D. active 6. We were attracted by the lure of quick money. A. amount B. supply C. tempt D. sum 7. The procedures were perceived as complex and less transparent. A. clear B. necessary C. special D. correct 8. The Stock Exchange is in turmoil following a huge wave of selling. A. Service B. danger C. disorder D. threat 9. He believes that Europe must change or it will perish. A. survive B. last C. die D. move
2016新版中石油职称英语水平考试 课后练习及答案 目录 1.SIX GOLDEN RULES FOR MEETING MANAGEMENT主持会议六大准则（2016新增） (2) 2. NETWORK SECURITY 网络安全(2013版) (2) 3 .ALL I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN 幼儿园所学的... . (4) 4. HOW TO NEGOTIATE WITH AMERICANS 如何与美国人谈判(2013版) (5) 5.CARBON-BASED ALTERNATIVE 碳基替代燃料（2010版） (7) 6. AUTOMATIC AUTO: A CAR THAT DRIVES ITSELF 无人驾驶汽车(2013版) (9) 7 OUR FAMILY CREED 家族的信条（2007版） (11) 8 THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING 公共演讲的艺术(2007版) (13) 9. OIL AND GAS GENERATION油气生成（2016版新增） (16) 10.THE DRESS CODE FOR OFFICE LIFE办公室的着装礼仪（2016版新增） (16)
1.Six Golden Rules for Meeting Management主持会议六大准则（2016新增） 课后练习： 1.If you are asked to chair【主持，椅子】a meeting, remember the following six golden rules for meeting ____. A. treatment B.requirement C.management D.improvement 2.If you begin on time, group members who ____ late will realize the value of time. A.bring up https://www.doczj.com/doc/4a8187947.html,e up C.dress up D.show up 3. You may need to refer back to【查阅，重新提及】an issue ____ was discussed during the meeting at a later date. A.that B.what C.who D.where 4. ____, we often hear only what we want to hear, rather than【而不是】really listening to other people. A.Traditionally B.Additionally C.Conditionally D.Exceptionlly 5.Many times important issues can get sidetracked【转变话题的】in a meeting, _____ when everyone has a different opinion about the topic. A.essentially B.entirelly C.extremely D.especially 6. If you ____ a conflict【冲突】prior to【在……之前】the meeting, discuss the issue with participants【参与者】in advance【提前】. A.anticipate B.participate C.preserve D.announce 7. If an unanticipated【不曾预料到的】conflict develops once the meeting is in progress 【进行中】, either appoint a subcommittee【小组委员会】to ____ the problem A.look into B.look on C. look over D.look through 答案：1C 2D 3A 4B 5D 6A 7A 2. Network Security 网络安全(2013版) 课后练习： 1.Internet ____ theft 【失窃】is a growing—and very costly【昂贵的，expensive】—problem A.identify B.identity C. identical D.identification
A college education is completely necessary for each of us, but we have to ask what it 41 to get into college? High school grades and standardized tests are still the most common measurements.42 this information is often considered alongside other sources of information, other indicators of college potential are typically not considered if high school grades and standardized test scores don't reach a certain 43. Even though standardized test scores do predict 44 performance and job performance, relying so heavily on these scores is problematic 45 a number of reasons. For one, studies have found that the SAT is a better predictor of college performance for white students.46 reason is that other key skills are neglected that contribute to life success, defined more 47 than merely the capacity for academic learning, including active learning 48, natural motivation, social-emotional intelligence, imagination, and creativity. Creativity and imagination are particularly important skills in this century, 49 how quickly this world is changing. This world needs people who are not only quick learners, but also reflective learners as well as 50 of new knowledge. 41. A. means B.takes C. seems D. likes 42. A. But B. However C. While D. Yet 43. A. standard B. destination C. aspect D. perspective 44. A. physical B. artistic C. mechanical D. academic 45. A. because of B. due to C. for D. owing to 46. A. The second B. A second C. Second D. The other 47. A. broadly B. narrowly C. usually D. strictly 48. A. outcomes B. advantages C. qualifications D. strategies 49. A. concerning B. regarding C. considering D. involving 50. A. applicants B. creators C. witnesses D. successors
2016年职称英语教材综合类新增文章 第二篇Common Questions about Dreams Does everyone dream? Yes. Research shows that we all dream. We have our most vivid dreams during a type of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. During REM sleep, the brain is very active. The eyes move quickly back and forth1 under the lids, and the large muscles of the body are relaxed. REM sleep occurs every 90-100 minutes, three to four times a night, and it lasts longer as the night goes on. ___1___ We dream at other times during the night, too, but those dreams are less vivid. Do people remember their dreams? A few people remember their dreams. However, most people forget nearly everything that happened during the night — dreams, thoughts, and the short periods of time when they were awake. ___2___ It seems that the memory of the dream is not totally lost, but for some reason it is very hard to bring it back2. If you want to remember your dream，the best thing to do is to write it down as soon as you wake up. Are dreams in color? Most dreams are in color. However, people may not be aware of it for two reasons ：They don’t usually remember the details of their dreams, or they don’t notice the color because it is such a natural part of our lives. ___3___ Do dreams have meaning? Scientists continue to debate this issue.3 ___4___ Some people use dreams to help them learn more about their feelings, thoughts, behavior, motives, and values. Others find that dreams can help them solve problems. It’s also true that artists, writers, and scientists often ge t creative ideas from dreams. How can I learn to understand my dreams? The most important thing to remember is that your dreams are personal. The people, actions, and situations in your dreams reflect your experience, your thoughts, and your feelings. Some dream experts believe that there are certain types of dreams that many people have，even if they come from different cultures or time periods. Usually, however, the same dream will have different meanings for different people. For example, an elephant in a dream may mean one thing to a zookeeper and something very different to a child whose favorite toy is a stuffed elephant. ___5___ Then look for links between your dreams and what is happening in your daily life. If you think hard and you are patient, perhaps the meaning of your dreams will become clearer to you. 词汇： vivid /'vivid/ adj. 清晰的，生动的，逼真的 lid /lid/ n. 眼睑（=eyelid) motive /m?utiv/ n. 动机 stuffed /st?ft/ adj. 填充的，塞满了的 注释： 1. back and forth：来回地，反复地。
理工B阅读理解新增文章 第十九篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend”. “Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music，” said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements. Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain” powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device. In other words, if there’s an “app” for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’s camera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances to the rhythm. “Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots ca n be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list. Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said. Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines一 small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.” 词汇： pump v.用抽水机抽;不断播放(音乐) scan v.扫描;浏览 skip v.轻跳，跳跃 sync n.同步，同时;v.使同步 tempo n.速度;节奏 注释：