解析:
Weight on and off the Earth 直譯題目就是:在地球上和不在地球上的重量
首先我們可以大致瀏覽一下每一段話的段首,看看能不能通過找到中心句了解每段的大意,和文章的大致意思。
第一段,這段話第一句很長,其實意思就是我們經常習慣于地球上的生活,所以很難擺脫我們認為理所當然的思想。這句話很抽象,但是后文就就舉例說明了,比如說重量,我們認為一個物體的重量是一定的,但事實是不一定的。后面就舉了更加詳細的例子來證明這個觀點。1磅重的黃油如果原理地球4000英里,重量就僅為原來的1/4.所以第一題如果4磅重的茶葉離開地球表面4000英里遠,重量是多少呢?通過簡單的計算,我們可以得出應該是1磅,所以答案選擇A
我們順便看一下第二題的題目,里面涉及到了break free from
ideas...我們在第一段的第一句話就見到過這個表達方式,因為我們習慣于地球上的生活,所以就難以擺脫我們認為理所應當的思想。換言之,我們就是對周圍的事物太過熟悉,已經習慣了。所以才沒有懷疑,所以這里說法B符合題意。
第二段話第一句就是中心句Why would things weigh only a quarter as much as they do at the surface of the earth if we took them 4,000 miles out into space?很顯然這段話是解釋了上述現象的原因。我們緊接著往下看原因是:All objects have a natural attraction for all other objects; this is called gravitational attraction.所有的物體對其他物體都有一種吸引力,稱為萬有引力。兩個物體離得越遠,這種萬有引力就越小。通過對上訴現象原因的闡明,我們就能理解這里的“weight”一詞,所以第三題的說法我們很容易就能判斷出正誤。A
比較有迷惑性,但是我們要知道任何物體之間都有引力,所以即使原離地球沒有了地球的引力,也可能受到其他物體的引力,所以物體的重量是不定的。
第三題問的是我們為什么感覺不到地球對一籃黃油的地球引力。最后一段解釋了原因,The amount of gravitational pull that
a body produces depends on the amount of material in it. A packet of butter has a gravitational pull of its own; but this is very small in relation to the pull of something as large as the moon, or the earth, or the sun.一個物體萬有引力的大小取決有該物體所含物質的數量。一桶黃油雖然有其自身的萬有引力,但是與月球、地球或者太陽比,自身的引力非常渺小。所以我們是看不到一桶黃油歲地球的引力的。所以答案選擇B
最后一題是主旨大意題,通過對文章的分析以及前幾題的理解,我們已經大致掌握了本文章的大意,其實就是介紹了萬有引力對物體重量的影響。
Almost Human?
Scientists are racing to build the worlds first thinking robot. This is not science fiction: some say they will have made it by the year 2020. Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk, speak and feel are no longer science fiction. Kismet is the name of an android (機器人) which scientists "have built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show human emotions. Its eyes, ears and lips move to show when it feels happy, sad or bored. Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids —— robots that look like human beings —— which can imitate human feelings. Cog, another android invented by the MIT, imitates the action of a mother. However, scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists (樂觀主義者) say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids (機器人) with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public. What kind of jobs will they do? In the future, robots like Robonaut, a humanoid invented by NASA, will be doing dangerous jobs, like repairing space stations. They will also be doing more and more of the household work for us. In Japan, scientists are designing androids that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds: will robots become monsters (怪物)? Will people themselves become increasingly like robots? Experts predict that more and more people will be wearing micro-computers, connected to the Internet, in the future. People will have micro-chips in various parts of their body, which will connect them to a wide variety of gadgets (小裝置). Perhaps we should not exaggerate (夸大) the importance of technology, but one wonders whether, in years to come, we will still be falling in love, and whether we will still feel pain. Who knows?
1 Kismet is different from traditional robots because
A it thinks for itself.
B it is not like science fiction.
C it can look after two-year-olds.
D it seems to have human feelings.
2 What makes Cog special?
A It looks like a mother.
B It behaves like a child.
C It can imitate the behavior of a mother
D It has a huge brain.