第4部分：阅读理解

　　下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。

　　第一篇

More Than a Ride to School

　　The National Education Association claims, "The school bus is a mirror of the community." They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right —— sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl.

　　Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse Bus Company has been Liesrs bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesrs family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus wemt by her new residence, she requested to ride the same bus.

　　This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It's been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you're a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important." Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree.

　　Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company. Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy's outstanding record: "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy's reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus."

　　Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come."

　　Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations. Liesl's mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy's bus to the Octorara School District.

　　1 The word "mirror" in the first line could be best replaced by

　　A "vehicle".

　　B "device"……

　　C "need".

　　D "reflection".

　　2 Bruce Hardy has been working with Althouse Bus Company

　　A for 30 years.

　　B for 70 years.

　　C since last year.

　　D since 2000.

　　3 Which of the following statements is NOT true of Bruce Hardy?

　　A He is popular with his passengers.

　　B He has never missed a day of work.

　　C He is an impatient person.

　　D He has driven 350,000 accident free miles.

　　4 Althouse Bus Company was founded by

　　A Larry Althouse.

　　B Althouse's grandfather.

　　C Liesl's mother.

　　D Ashley Batista.

　　5 Althouse Bus Company pays much attention to

　　A employing young drivers.

　　B running quality schools.

　　C providing free driving lessons.

　　D building sound relationships.

　　第二篇

A Phone That Knows You're Busy

　　It's a modem problem: you're too busy to be disturbed by incessant （连续不断的） phone calls so you turn your cellphone off. But if you don't remember to turn it back on when you're less busy, you could miss some important calls. If only the phone knew when it was wise to interrupt you, you wouldn't have to turn it off at all. Instead, it could let calls through when you are not too busy.

　　A bunch of behavior sensors （传感器） and a clever piece of software could do just that, by analyzing your behavior to determine if it's a good time to interrupt you. If built into a phone, the system may decide you're too busy and ask the caller to leave a message or ring back later.

　　James Fogarty and Scott Hudson at Camegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania based their system on tiny microphones, cameras and touch sensors that reveal body language and activity. First they had to study different behaviors to find out which ones strongly predict whether your mind is interrupted.

　　The potential "busyness" signals they focused on included whether the office doors were left open or closed, the time of day, if other people were with the person in question, how close they were to each other, and whether or not the computer was in use.

　　The sensors monitored these and many other factors while four subjects were at work. At random intervals, the subjects rated how interruptible they were on a scale ranging from "highly interTuptible" to "highly not-interruptible". Their ratings were then correlated with the various behaviors. "It is a shotgun （随意的） approach: we used all the indicators we could think of and then let statistics find out which were important," says Hudson.

　　The model showed that using the keyboard, and talking on a landline or to someone else in the office correlated most strongly with how interruptible the subjects judged themselves to be.

　　Interestingly, the computer was actually better than people at predicting when someone was too busy to be interrupted. The computer got it right 82 per cent of the time humans 77 per cent. Fogarty speculates that this might be because people doing the interrupting are inevitably biased towards delivering their message, whereas computers don't care.

　　The first application for Hudson and Fogarty's system is likely to be in an instant messaging system, followed by office phones and cellphones. "There is no technological roadblock （障碍）to it being deployed in a couple of years," says Hudson.

　　6 A big problem facing people today is that

　　A they must tolerate phone disturbances or miss important calls

　　B they must turn off their phones to keep their homes quiet.

　　C they have to switch from a desktop phone to a Cellphone.

　　D they are too busy to make phone calls.

　　7 The behavior sensor and software system built in a phone

　　A could help store messages.

　　B could send messages instantly.

　　C could tell when it is wise to interrupt you.

　　D could identify important phone calls.

　　8 Scientists at Camegie Mellon University tried to find out

　　A why office doors were often left open.

　　B when it was a good time to turn off the computer.

　　C what questions office workers were bothered with.

　　D which behaviors could tell whether a person was busy

　　9 During the experiment, the subjects were asked

　　A to control the sensors and the camera.

　　B to rate the degrees to which they could be interrupted.

　　C to compare their behaviors with others'.

　　D to analyze all the indicators of interruption.

　　10 The computer performed better than people in the study because

　　A the computer worked harder.

　　B the computer was not busy.

　　C people tended to be biased.

　　D people were not good at statistics.

　　第三篇

The Exploding Lakes of Cameroon

　　What comes to mind when you think of a lake? You probably imagine a pretty scene with blue water, birds, and fish. For the people in the northwestern Cameroon, however, the image is very different. For them, lakes may mean terrible disasters. In 1984, poisonous gases exploded out of Lake Monoun and came down into the nearby villages, killing thirty-seven people. Two years later, Lake Nyos erupted. A cloud of gases rolled down the hills and into the valleys and killed 1,700 people.

　　Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are crater （火山口） lakes. They were formed when water collected in the craters of old volcanoes. The volcanoes under Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are not active anymore. However, poisonous gases from the center of the earth continue to flow up through cracks in the bottom of the lake. This is normal in a crater lake In most crater lakes, these gases are released often because the water 'turns over' regularly. That is, the water from the bottom of the lake rises and mixes with the water at the top, allowing the gases to escape slowly.

　　However, in Lakes Nyos and Monoun, there is no regular turning over. No one knows the reason for this fact, but as a result, these lakes have more gases trapped at the bottom than other crater lakes. In fact, scientists who have studied Lakes Nyos and Monoun have found 16,000 times more gases. When a strong wind, cool weather, a storm, or a landslide （滑坡） causes the water to turn over suddenly, the gases escape in a violent explosion.

　　In the past, no one knew when the gases might explode, so there was no way for the villagers to escape disaster. Now scientists from the United States, France, and Cameroon have found a way to reduce the gas pressure at the bottom of Lake Nyos. They stood a 672-foot plastic pipe in the middle of the lake, with one end of the pipe near the bottom and the other end in the air. Near the top of the pipe, the team put several holes that could be opened or closed by a computer. Now, when the gas pressure gets too high, the holes are opened and some of the gas-filled water shoots up through the pipe into the air like a fountain. With less pressure, a disastrous explosion is much less likely. However, the scientists are not sure that one pipe will be enough to prevent explosions. They hope to put in others soon and they plan to install a similar pipe and a computer system at Lake Monoun as well.

　　To protect people nearby until all of the pipes are in place, the scientists have installed early warning systems at both lakes. If the gas pressure rises to a dangerous level, computers will set off loud sirens （警报） and bright lights to warn the people in the villages." That way, they will have time to escape from the dangerous gases.

　　11 What will happen when Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun explode?

　　A Water will flow down the hills.

　　B Poisonous gases will be released suddenly.

　　C A strong wind will rise from the lakes.

　　D The volcanoes will come to life.

　　12 Which of the following statements about Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun is true?

　　A They were formed in 1984.

　　B They are at the top of two active volcanoes.

　　C They are not like most other crater lakes.

　　D Water in them turns over regularly.

　　13 Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun explode because

　　A the gases rise to the top and mix with air.

　　B people from the villages turn over the water.

　　C scientists have put in a computer system.

　　D they have more gases trapped at the bottom than other crater lakes

　　14 Ateam of scientists has

　　A erected a pressure-releasing pipe in the lake.

　　B identified the gases at the bottom of the lake.

　　C built a beautiful fountain near the lakes.

　　D removed all dangerous gases from the lakes.

　　15 What do we learn from the last paragraph?

　　A Scientists are planning to install pipes in all crater lakes.

　　B Scientists still do not know how to prevent gas explosions

　　C Explosion disasters could be avoided in the future.

　　D Warning systems have been set up in the villages nearby.

　　【参考答案】

　　1. D 2. A 3. C 4. B 5. C

　　6. A 7. C 8. D 9. B 10. C

　　11. B 12. C 13. D 14. A 15. C