It is amazing how many of the things in science fiction and movies have become reality. For instance, in the movie Star Trek, the workers could go to a replicator and order food, drinks or anything they could program into the computer. Before long, the item would appear. This is possible today, in a way, with technology we have had for years. Several manufacturers have created 3D printers. One company, MakerBot, has created a printer that the average person can afford. It is called The Replicator. You can download a lot of design software from the Internet for use with The Replicator. In the near future, rather than going to a store to buy what you need, you may be able to download what you want from the Internet and print it out at home. The process was first used with music. At the very beginning, music was recorded onto plastic disks with etching . Music can now be copied without a physical product. _ Rather than having to buy a physical book or magazine, you can now download them from the Internet in digital form. This technology is already used in engineering and architecture. Melissa Shoes, a Brazilian footwear company, is using this technology to create shoes. Rather than having to go through the current process of product design and development, the company is able to design and print shoes for display to see how well they will sell before having lots of them made. What do we know about The Replicator created by MakerBot? A) It is not too expensive. B) We can download software from it. C) It can print whatever we want. D) It'll replace shopping in the future.
A
(Question)
A green house is a building made of glass which is used for keeping warm when the outside temperature is low. In a similar way there are several gases in the atmosphere (mixture of gases that surround the earth) which trap the heat produced by the sun and prevent it from escaping. These gases are known as "greenhouse gases". And the way in which they trap heat in the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse effect". This is not simply air pollution. Most of the main greenhouse gases exist naturally in small amounts in our atmosphere, and without them the earth would be 30 degrees colder and human life would not exist. In other words, the greenhouse effect is a natural course which is to some degree helpful to us. The problem is that in the last century and a half, we have been putting too many of these gases into the earth's atmosphere by burning large quantities of coal and oil and by cutting down forest. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases is making the world warmer. The world's temperature has already gone up by half a degree this century, and the sea level has risen by 10 centimetres. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles, there will probably be a rise in the earth's temperature of between I and 4degC;. This may seem a small increase, but it would be enough to cause major changes in geography and agriculture. Large areas of the world would be flooded, and some areas would become dry and unable to produce crops. It is important, too, to consider that there may be a delay of about 30 years in the greenhouse effect. This means that we are probably experiencing only now the effect of the gases put into the atmosphere before the 1960s. Since then, our use of these gases has greatly increased. According to the passage, we can know "greenhouse effect" means _ . A) the way in which gases are used for keeping plants warm B) a natural course that is to a certain degree useful to us C) the way "greenhouse gases" trap heat on the earth D) the whole course in which greenhouse gases prevent heat
(Answer)
B
Ques: I met the old man at a cafe. "Did you hear the radio news yesterday?" he asked me. "No," I replied. "Anything exciting?""Exciting? NO! Something very sad. A group of hungry dogs killed and ate my best friend." "Oh, dear!" I cried. "How did it happen?""He was working on the hillside when the dogs attacked him. When he didn't return, I went to the hillside and found...""His body?" I asked. The old fellow drank half of his coffee. "No. I told you they were hungry dogs, didn't I? The big bones were lying every where. But they found this." He pushed open a match box he was holding in his hand. In it was a man's thumb, lying on some white bloody material. "This is my friend's right thumb. The dogs ate the rest of him". The old man began to cry. He finished his coffee quickly and left the cafe. I drank mine and called the waiter. "I'll pay the gentleman's bill. His poor friend--how terrible!""You've heard the news?" The waiter laughed. "Sure. There's a hole in the bottom of the match box. He put his own thumb through the hole. The blood is red ink, I believe. Is the story worth a cup of coffee, sir?""But he held the box in his right hand.""Yes, but listeners look into the box. They just can't take their sight off that terrible thing.""And when he tells the story, he gets free cup of coffee!" I said, laughing. "Yes, sir, but only from strangers who come to this town, and, of course, he does us no harm!" As suggested by the passage, what might happen in the end? A) The writer refused to pay the old man's bill. B) The writer decided to make the trick known to the public. C) More strangers would hear the old man's story. D) The old man wouldn't visit the cafe any more.
Ans: C
How we look and how we appear to others probably worries us more when we are in our teens or early twenties than at any other time in our life. Few of us are content to accept ourselves as we are, and few are brave enough to ignore the trends of fashion. Most fashion magazines or TV advertisements try to persuade us that we should dress in a certain way or behave in a certain manner. If we do, they tell us, we will be able to meet new people with confidence and deal with every situation confidently and without embarrassment. Changing fashion, of course, does not apply just to dress. A barber today does not cut a boy's hair in the same way as he used to, and girls do not make up in the same way as their mothers and grandmothers did. The advertisers show us the latest fashionable styles and we are constantly under pressure to follow the fashion in case our friends think we are odd or dull. What causes fashions to change? Sometimes convenience or practical necessity or just the fancy of an influential person can establish a fashion. Take hats for example. In cold climates, early buildings were cold inside, so people wore hats indoors as well as outside. In recent times, the late President Kennedy caused a depression in the American hat industry by not wearing hats, and more American men followed his example. There is also a cyclical pattern in fashion. In the 1920s in Europe and America, short skirts became fashionable. After World War II, they dropped to ankle length. Then they got shorter and shorter until the miniskirt was in fashion. After a few more years, skirts became longer again. Today, society is much freer and easier than it used to be. It is no longer necessary to dress like everyone else. Within reason, you can dress as you like or do your hair the way you like instead of the way you should because it is the fashion. The popularity of jeans and the "untidy" look seems to be a reaction against the increasingly expensive fashion of the top fashion houses. At the same time, appearance is still... The reason why we are constantly under pressure to follow the fashion is mainly that _ . A) Fashion magazines or TV advertisements show us the latest fashionable styles. B) We can't meet new people and deal with every situation confidently. C) Our friends may think we are strange or out of date. D) We are not content to accept ourselves as we are.
C