每题3分,共45分 1、 Motoring Technology1.2 million roaddeaths worldwide occur each year, plus a further 50 million injuries. To reducecar crash rate, much research now is focused on safety and new fuels – though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aimsat going faster.Traveling at speedhas always been risky. One cutting edge area of research in motoring safety isthe use of digital in-car assistants. They can ensure you don’t miss crucial road signs or fall asleep. The use ofartificial intelligence software allows these assistants to monitor yourdriving and makes sure your phone or radio doesn’t distract you at a vitalmoment. Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults.Some safetydevelopments aim to improve your vision. Radar can spot obstacles in fog, whileother technology “sees through” high-sidedvehicles blocking your view.And improvements toseat belts, pedal controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer. Thecolor of a car has been found to be linked with safety, as have, lesssurprisingly, size and shape.And alternatives tofossil-fuel based petrol, such as plant oils, are a hot area of research. Fuelcells based on hydrogen burn cleanly, and are the subject of a serious researcheffort.But whatever is inthe fuel tank, you don’t want a thief in the driving seat and therehave been many innovations, some using satellite tracking and remotecommunications, to fight against car theft. These communication systems canalso come into play if you crash, automatically calling for help.Accidents causemany traffic jams, but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles thatcan cause jams even on a clear but busy road, such jams can be analyzed usingstatistical tools. Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flowsmoothly and will perhaps one day be everyone’s personal chauffeur, but theirlatest efforts suggest that won’t be soon. (311 words)
1What are researchers interested in doing asthe road accidents worldwide increase to a shocking rate?
2According to the second paragraph, most roadaccidents happen
3Which of the safety developments is NOTmentioned in the passage?
4What is NOT the purpose of innovations thatuse satellite tracking and remote communications?
5 What is true of robotic drivers?
2、 His own way to express loveYesterday was ourthree-year anniversary. We didn’t do anything romantic: we just walked handin hand and talked about our past and future. This was pretty much what I hadexpected. Andy is unromantic guy: no sweet words or roses. Smart as he is, heis a little bit shy expressing his love. In contrast, I am an outspoken girlwho likes to show her feelings directly. So needless to say, I often feel thatis insensitive. I envy other girls who are surrounded by sweet words.I was in thissullen mood until I heard a beautiful sentence one day: “someone does not love you in the way you like, it doesnot mean that he does not love you.” Thissimple but sensible sentence made me think about our happy days and recall hisdeep concern for me.One cold winternight, I got a high fever. He hurried to my dorm and took me to the hospital.He was in such a hurry that he even forgot to wear socks. After arrival, he ranthrough the hospital handling all the formalities. When I was put on a drip, hetold me interesting stories to make me happy. Being held in his warm arms andlistening to his tender voice, I never felt so safe and comfortable. Gradually,I felt asleep. When I woke up 15 minutes later, he was still mumbling to me. Heexplained that if he had stopped talking I would have woke up. At that moment,I found love in his sparkling eyes. Another time, I had a bad quarrel with mybest friend. Although I knew it was my fault, I refused to admit it. I wasangry when he insisted I apologize to her. He said that it was difficult toadmit a mistake, but this was what everyone should do. The next morning, Iapologized to my friend and asked for her forgiveness.My unromanticboyfriend cares about my health like my father, understand me like my motherand helps me like my elder brother.(344 words)
1Who is Andy?
2When did the writer and Andy fall in love?
3Which statement is true of the writer?
4The writer tells the reader two stories toshow that
5The word sullen in paragraph 3 could be bestreplaced by
3、 Winged robot learns to flyLearning how to flytook nature millions of years of trial and error – but awinged robot has cracked it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionaryprinciples.Krister Wolff andPeter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg, Sweden,built a winged robot and set about testing whether it could fly by itself,without any pre-programmed(预先设定好的) data on what flapping is or how to do it.To begin with, therobot just twitched and jerked(猛抽) erratically(不稳定地). Butgradually, it made movements that gain height. After it cheated – simply standing on its wing tips was one early shortcut. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of amore effective flapping technique, where it rotated its wings through 90degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushingdown.“This tells us that this kind of evolution iscapable of coming up with flying motion,” says PeterBentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. Butwhile the robot had worked out how best to produce lift, it was not about totake off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do, ” Bentley says. “Thisthing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength todo it, ”he says.The robots hadmetre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film.Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards, up ordown or twist them in either direction.The team attachedthe robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start ofa test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detectormeasured how much lift, if any, the robot produced for any given movement. Acomputer program fed the robot random instructions, at the race of 20 persecond, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot eitherto do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.Feedback from themovement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were bestat producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up and “offspring” sets ofinstructions were generated by swapping (交换)instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generationinstructions were then sent to the robot and eva luated before breeding a newgeneration, and the process was repeated
1Which of the following is NOT true of whatis mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph?
2How did the robot behave at the beginning ofthe test?
3Which of the following is nearest to PeterBentley’s view on the winged robot?
4What measured how much lift the robotproduced?
5What does “the process”appearing in the last paragraph refer to?
