A ground-based system that uses much stronger signals than GPS can find your location in cities and indoors. It is a new positioning system that could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your directions again. Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to send a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as outdoors, and the makers claim that the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cell phone. Even the US armies, which invented GPS technology, signed a file last month agreeing to a test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. "This is one of the most important technology developments for the future of the positioning industry," says Nunzio Gambale, CEO and co-founder of the firm Locata, based in Griffith, Australia. As for the Locata's correctness, Christopher Morin of the US Air Force tested it recently at White Sands, and it worked to within 18cm along any axis . Morin said it should be possible to get the _ down to 5cm. The tests were performed in an open desert where GPS also worked beautifully, but its signal was weak--like a car headlight from 20,000 kilometers away--and easily cut off by solid objects . Locata's signal was far stronger, though not guaranteed to work in a complex urban environment, said David, speaker of the UK' s General Lighthouse Authorities. Locata's technology will face competition in the race to transform indoor navigation. But it could shine in specific areas, Gambale said. Robots with Locata could easily navigate inside buildings without the complex optical systems they need at the moment. And the process that handles correct location data could not only guide you around a mall, railway station or airport, but also take you to the exact shelf in a shop for the product you want. It would be small and cheap enough for smart phones and it should be available within five years--a similar path to the one GPS took on its way towards the world, he said. What can we know from the passage? A) Locata is as small as a cell phone. B) GPS is the most practical position system at present. C) Locata will tell you how to get what you want in the future. D) Locata will enter our lives through the cell phone, just like GPS.
D
Surfing for hours on the Internet consumes a lot of electricity and is harmful to the environment. However, a new ecological PC saves energy as it operates:it produces about 70 percent less CO2than conventional computers. As a work tool, a leisure activity resource, and a personal assistant, computers seem to be everywhere. Yet the environmental performance for today's computers leaves a lot to be improved: they rapidly become out of date, and typically contain poisonous materials and individual parts that are difficult to recycle. Moreover, they consume plenty of power whose production, in return, causes the release of CO2into the atmosphere. Employees at the MicroPro Company in Ireland, teaming with colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin, have engineered a wooden--frame computer with reduced environment impact. As the first computer for its class, the"iameco"(pronounced I-am-eco) was awarded the "EU Ecolabel", the European Union's environmental label. "This touch-screen PC has very low energy consumption over the entire lifecycle" explains Alexander Schlosser, scientist at IZM. Over the full product life cycle, it releases 70 percent less CO2than a typical desktop PC with monitor. In addition, it can be easily recycled. Of the materials used, 98 percent can be recycled. Indeed, 20 percent of the computer can be reused immediately--in other words, many parts can be reused for repairing other computers--such as parts of the wooden frame. The wooden frame is used because _ . A) it has better appearance B) it can reduce weight C) it doesn't break easily D) it can be recycled directly
D
Q: Hello! My name is Lisa, and I am a lioness. I live on the open grasslands of Africa with my family. Lions living in a group are called a pride. My father is strong and powerful. He and his cousin are the leaders of our pride. The other members are my mother, her sisters, and their children. The area where a pride lives is big! We roar to tell each other where we are and to warn strangers to stay away. Meet my new baby brother. His name is Leon. See the spots on his fur? We lions are born spotted or striped . As we grow older, the spots gradually disappear. Lionesses usually spend their entire lives with their birth pride, but Leon will leave when he is about three years old. He'll run around with a male friend or relative for a few years until they take over a pride of their own. But for now, we have lots of fun together. We often play and fight for hours, which can help us practice skills that we will need for hunting. ) We lions keep ourselves very clean. Just like a house cat, I clean my fur (with my tongue. We clean for each other, too, to show we're friends. Lions like to sleep for most of the day. We hunt in the cool evening. Female lions hunt more often than male lions. We work together as a team. At the right moment, we attack and kill our prey. Then we share it. Male lions usually eat first. Females eat next. Baby lions are the last to eat. The smallest one gets the least food. Since we are full, it's time to go to find a nice place for a sleep. Bye! According to the passage, Leon _ . A) hunts more often than his sisters B) will have spots on his fur for the whole of his life C) will leave his birth pride when he is about three D) will take over his birth pride when his father dies
A: C
Q: Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson River must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a branch of the great Appalachian family, and can be seen to the west rising up to a noble height and towering over the surrounding country. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their beautiful shapes on the clear evening sky, but sometimes when it is cloudless, gray steam gathers around the top of the mountains which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will shine and light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these mountains, a traveler may see light smoke going up from a village, In that village, and in one of the houses (which, to tell the exact truth, was sadly timeworn and weather-beaten), there lived many years ago, a simple, good-natured fellow by the name of Rip Van Winkle. Rip's great weakness was a natural dislike of all kinds of money-making labor. It could not be from lack of diligence ,for he could sit all day on a wet rock and fish without saying a word, even though he was not encouraged by a single bite. He would carry a gun on his shoulder for hours, walking through woods and fields to shoot a few birds or squirrels. He would never refuse to help a neighbor, even in the roughest work. The women of the village, too, used to employ him to do such little jobs as their less helpful husbands would not do for them. In a word. Rip was ready to attend to everybody's business but his own. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect satisfaction but his wife was always mad at him for his idleness . Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was endlessly going, so that he was forced to escape to the outside of the house , the only side which, in truth, belongs to a _ The hero of the story is probably _ . A) hard-working and likes all kinds of work B) idle and hates all kinds of jobs C) simple, idle but very dutiful D) gentle, helpful but a little idle
A: D