第六部分完形填空.doc

第六部分完形填空第一篇 Captain Cook Arrow Legend It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has 1 finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook 2 who died in the Sandwich Islands1 in 1179. “There is 3 no Cook2 in the Australian Museum,” museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cooks bone. But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its 4 exhibition , “Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum,3” which 5 does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalaniopuu in 1778. Cook was one of Britains great explorers and is credited with 6 discovering the “Great South Land,” 7 now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii. The legend of Cooks arrow began in 1824 8 when Hawaiian King Kamehamcha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cooks wife, saying it was made of Cooks bone after the fatal 9 fight with islanders. In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued 10 until it came face-to-face with science. DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cooks bone but was more 11 likely made of animal bone, said Philp. However, Cooks fans 12 refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cooks body was 13 buried at sea in 1779. “On this occasion technology has won,4” said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society，in a 14 statement from Britain. “But I am 15 sure that one of these days one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.” 答案与题解： 1. A 2. B 3. D 4. B 5. D 6. A 7. B 8. C 9. B10. B 11. C 12. A 13. D w14. A 15. C 第二篇 Avalanche and Its Safety An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are 1 among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property. All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope 2 that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is 3 likely an avalanche, 4 is a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors. Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low 5 risk of avalanche. Snow does not 6 gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not 7 flow easily on fiat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snows angle of rest1 is 8 between 35 and 45 degrees; the critical angle, the angle at which the human incidence of avalanches is greatest, is 38 degrees. The rule of thumb2 is: A slope that is 9 flat enough to hold snow but steep enough to ski has the potential to generate an avalanche, regardless of the angle. Additionally3, avalanche risk increases with 10 use; that is, the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, the more likely it is that an avalanche will occur. Due to the complexity of the subject, winter travelling in the backcountry4 is never 100% safe. Good avalanche safety is a continuous 11 process, including route selection and examination to the snowpack, weather 12 conditions , and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also 13 reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid 14 attention to. Never follow in the tracks of others without your own evaluations; snow conditions are almost certain to have changed since they were made. Observe the terrain and note obvious avalanche paths where plants are 15 missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche. 答案与题解： 1A 2B 3B 4C5C 6D 7B8B 9C 10A11D 12A 13B 14C 15A第三篇 What Is the Coolest Gas in the Universe? What is the coldest air temperature ever recorded on the Earth? Where was this low temperature recorded? The coldest recorded temperature on Earth was -91 which l occurred in Antarctica in 1983 We encounter an interesting situation when we discuss temperatures in 2 space. Temperatures in Earth orbit actually range from about +120 to -120The temperature depends upon 3 whether you are in direct sunlight or shadeObviously, -l20 is colder than our body can safely endureThank NASA science for well-designed space 4 suits that protect astronauts from these temperature extremes The space temperatures just discussed affect only Our areal of the solar 5 systemObviously，it is hotter closer to the Sun and colder as we travel away from the SunAstronomers estimate temperatures at Pluto are about -210How cold is the lowest estimated temperature in the entire universe? Again，it depends upon your 6 locationWe are taught it is supposedly 7 impossible to have a temperature below absolute zero，which is-273，at which atoms do not moveTwo scientists，whose names are Cornell and Wieman，have successfully cooled down a gas temperature barely 8 above absolute zeroThey won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for their worknot a discovery，in this case2 Why is the two scientists work so important to science? In the l920s，Satyendra Nath Bose was studying an interesting 9 theory about special light particles we now call photonsBose had trouble 10 convincing other scientists to believe11 so he contacted Albert EinsteinEinsteins calculations helped him theorize that atoms 12 would behave as Bose thoughtbut only at very cold temperaturesScientists have also discovered that 13 ultra-cold atoms can help them make the worlds atomic clocks even more accurateThese clocks are so accurate today they would only lose3 0ne second 14 every six million years! Such accuracy will help us travel in space because distance is velocity times time4 (d=vt)With5 the long distances involved in space 15 travel to know time as accurately as possible to get accurate distance答案与题解：1.B 2.B 3.A 4.D 5.C 6.D 7.C8. A9. B 10.A 11.D12. B13. D 14.C15. A 第四篇 Animals “Sixth Sense” A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, 1 however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that1 they possess a “sixth sense” for 2 disasters, experts said. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean islands coast clearly 3 missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found. “No elephants arc dead, not 4 so a dead rabbit. I think animals can 5 sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H. D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lankas Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The 6 waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lankas biggest wildlife 7 reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. “There has been a lot of 8 apparent evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior 9 specialist at Johannesburg Zoo. “There have been no10 specific studies because you cant really test it in a lab or field setting2,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this 11 assessment. “Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain 12 phenomenon, especially birds there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife. Animals 13 certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger slid as predators. The notion of an animal “sixth sense” or 14 some other mythical power is an enduring one3 which the evidence on Sri Lankas ravaged coast is likely to add to. The Romans saw owls 15 as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special power or attributes.答案与题解 : 1. B 2. C 3. A 4. D 5. D 6. A 7. C8. B 9. A 10. B11. C12. D 13. D 14. A 15. B 第五篇 Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind If you cannot see, you may not be able to1 find your way out of a burning building and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that2 1 with directional sound alarms capable of guiding you to the exit. Sound Alert, a company 2 run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for 3 blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. 4 The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the 5 sound is coming from. Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be 6 heard by humans. “It is a burst of white noise 7 that people say sounds like static on the radio,” she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.” She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of3 a large 8 smoke-filled room. It 9 took them nearly four minutes to find the door 10 without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one. Withington studies how the brain 11 processes sounds at the university. She says that the 12 source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms 13 based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles. The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up 14 on down stairs. They were 15 developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.答案与题解： 1. B 2. A3. C 4. D 5. B 6. D 7. C 8. B 9. C 10. C 11. A 12. D 13. D 14. A 15. A第六篇 Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely Speeding off1 in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch2. But he is in a nasty surprise3. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine 1of, he will not be able to start it again. For now, such devices 2 are only available for fleets of trucks4 and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars5, and 3 should be available to ordinary cars in the UK 4 in two months. The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates6 5 a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS7 satellite positioning receiver. 6 If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine 7 being restarted. There are even plans for immobilizers 8 that shut down vehicles on the moves8, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system. In the UK, an array of9 technical fixes10 is already making 9 life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed.” says Martyn Randall of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire11 that is funded in part 10 by the motor insurance industry. He says it would only take him a few minutes to 11 teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools12. But only if the car is more than 10 years old. Modern cars are a far tougher proposition13, as their engine management computer will not 12 allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out14 by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this 13 have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime15 since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owners keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the owners keys, which doubles the previous years figure. Remote-controlled immobilization system would 14 put a major new obstacle in the criminals way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the 15 customer expects. 答案与题解：1. A 2. D 3. D 4. C 5. C 6. B 7. B 8. C 9. A10. C 11. D 12. B 13. A 14. D 15. C 第七篇 An Intelligent Car Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all 1 these and can control a fast-moving car. But how does an intelligent car control itself? There is a virtual driver1 in the smart car. This virtual driver1 has “eyes,” “brains,” “hands” and “feet,” too. The minicameras 2 on each side of the car are his “eyes,” which observe the road conditions ahead of it. They watch the 3 traffic to the cars left and right. There is also a highly 4 automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual drivers “brain.” His “brain” calculates the speeds of 5 other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information2, it chooses the right 6 path for the intelligent car, and gives 7instructions to the “hands” and “feet” to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car. What is the virtual drivers best advantage3? He reacts 8 quickly . The minicameras are 9 sending images continuously to the “brain.” It 10 completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the worlds best driver 11 at least needs one second to react. 12 Besides , when he takes action, he needs one more second. The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident 13 rate considerably on expressways. In this case, can we let him have the wheel4 at any time and in any place? Experts 14 invite that we cannot do that5 just yet6. His ability to recognize things is still 15 limited . He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.答案及题解 : 1. A 2. D3. B 4. C 5. B 6. D 7. C 8. A 9. C10. B 11. A 12. C 13. D 14. C15. D 第八篇 A Biological Clock Every living thing has what scientists call a biological clock that controls behavior. The biological clock tells 1 plantswhen to form flowers and when the flowers should open1. It tells 2 insects when to leave the protective cocoons and fly away, and it tells animals and human beings when to eat, sleep and wake. Events outside the plant and animal 3 affect the actions of some biological clocks. Scientists recently found, for example, that a tiny animal changes the color of its fur 4 because of the number of hours of daylight. In the short 5 days of winter, its fur becomes white. The fur becomes gray brown in color in the longer hours of daylight in summer. Inner signals control other biological clocks. German scientists found that some kind of internal clock seems to order birds to begin their long migration 6 flight twice each year. Birds 7 prevented from flying become restless when it is time for the trip. 8 but they become calm again when the time of the flight has ended. Scientists say they are beginning to learn which 9 part of the brain contain biological clocks. An American researcher, Martin Moorhead, said a small group of cells near the front of the brain 10 seems to control the timing of some of our actions. These 11 cells tell a person when to 12 awaken , when to sleep and when to seek food. Scientists say there probably are other biological clock cells that control other body activities. Dr. Moorhead is studying 13 how our biological clocks affect the way we do our work2. For example, most of us have great difficulty if we must often change to different work hours. 14 It can take3 many days for a human body to accept the major change in work hours. Dr. Moorhead said industrial officials should have a better understanding of biological clocks and how they affect workers. He said 15 such understanding could cut sickness and accidents at work and would help increase a factorys production.答案与题解： 1. C 2. A 3. B 4. C5. B 6. A 7. A 8. B 9. B 10. D 11. C 12. A13. A 14. B 15. C 第九篇 Wonder Webs Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the worlds best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet 1 tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking. The secret of the webs strength? A type of super-resilient 2 silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to 3 weave the webs spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along 4 it to spin the webs trademark spiral. Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver 5 reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years1. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made 6material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original 7 length and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes 8 close. It is no 9 wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run2. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady 10 supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars but