题目内容
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Twist in the Tale
Fears that television and computers would kill children's desire to read couldn't have been more wrong. With sales roaring, a new generation of authors are publishing's newest and unlikeliest literary stars
A
Less than three years ago, doom merchants were predicting that the growth in video games and the rise of the Internet would sound the death knell for children's literature. But contrary to popular myth, children are reading more books than ever. A recent survey by Books Marketing found that children up to the age of 11 read on average for four hours a week, particularly girls.
B
Moreover, the children's book market, which traditionally was seen as a poor cousin to the more lucrative and successful adult market, has come into its own. Publishing houses are now making considerable profits on the back of new children's books and children's authors can now command significant advances. 'Children's books are going through an incredibly fertile period,' says Wendy Cooling, a children's literature consultant. 'There's a real buzz around them. Book clubs are happening, sales are good, and people are much more willing to listen to children's authors.'
C
The main growth area has been the market for eight to fourteen-year-olds, and there is little doubt that the boom has been fuelled by the bespectacled apprentice, Harry Potter. So influential has J. K. Rowling's series of books been that they have helped to make reading fashionable for pre-teens. 'Harry made it OK to be seen on a bus reading a book,' says Cooling. 'To a child, that is important.' The current buzz around the publication of the fourth Harry Potter beats anything in the world of adult literature.
D
'People still tell me, "Children don't read nowadays",' says David Almond, the award-winning author of children's books such as Skellig.'The truth is that they are skilled, creative readers. When I do classroom visits, they ask me very sophisticated questions about use of language, story structure, chapters and dialogue.' No one is denying that books are competing with other forms of entertainment for children's attention but it seems as though hildren find a special kind of mental nourishment within the printed page.
E
'A few years ago, publishers lost confidence and wanted to make books more like television, the medium that frightened them most,' says children's book critic Julia Eccleshare. 'But books aren't TV, and you will find that children always say that the good thing about books is that you can see them in your head. Children are demanding readers,' she says. 'If they don't get it in two pages, they'll drop it.'
F
No more are children's authors considered mere sentimentalists or failed adult writers. 'Some feted adult writers would kill for the sales,' says Almond, who sold 42,392 copies of Skellig in 1999 alone. And advances seem to be growing too: UK publishing outfit Orion recently negotiat
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在冷藏库中，冷却间、冻结间和冷却物冷藏间的冷却设备应该采用()。
Superconducting Ceramic (陶瓷)
An underground revolution begins this winter. With the flip (轻击) of a switch, 30,000 homes in one part of Detroit will soon become the first in the country to receive electricity transmitted by ice-cold high-performance cables. Other American cities are expected to follow Detroit's example in the years ahead, which could conserve enormous amounts of power.
The new electrical cables at the Frisbie power station in Detroit are revolutionary because they are made of superconductors. A superconductor is a material that transmits electricity with little or no resistance. Resistance is the degree to which a substance resists electric current. All common electrical conductors have a certain amount of electrical resistance. They convert at least some of the electrical energy passing through them into waste heat. Superconductors don't. No one understands how superconductivity works. It just does.
Making superconductors isn't easy. A superconducting material has to be cooled to an extremely low temperature to lose its resistance. The first superconductors, made more than 50 years ago, had to be cooled to -263 degrees Celsius before they lost their resistance. Newer superconducting materials lose their resistance at -143 degrees Celsius.
The superconductors cable installed at the Frisbie station is made of a ceramic material that contains copper, oxygen, bismuth (铋), strontium (锶), and calcium (钙). A ceramic is a hard, strong compound made from clay or minerals. The superconducting ceramic has been fashioned into a tape that is wrapped lengthwise around a long tube filled with liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is supercold and lowers the temperature of the ceramic tape to the point where it conveys electricity with zero resistance.
The United States loses an enormous amount of electricity each year to resistance. Because cooled superconductors have no resistance, they waste much less power. Other cities are watching the Frisbie experiment in the hope that they might switch to superconducting cable and conserve power, too.
What is the benefit of the revolution mentioned in the first paragraph？
Science and Truth
"FINAGLE" (欺骗) is not a word that most people associate with science. One reason is that the image of the scientist is of one who always(51) data in an impartial (不偏不倚的) search for truth~ In any debate --(52) intelligence, schooling, energy -- the phrase "science says" usually disarms opposition.
But scientists have long acknowledged the existence of a "finagle factor" -- a tendency by many scientists to give a helpful change to the data to(53)desired results. The latest of the finagle factor in action comes from Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard biologist, who has(54) the important 19th century work of Dr. Samuel George Morton. Morton was famous in his time for analysing the brain(55) of the skulls as a measure of intelligence. He concluded that whites had the largest brains, that the brains of Indians and blacks were smaller, and(56) , that whites constitute a superior race.
Gould went back to Morton's original data and concluded that the(57)were an example of the finagle at work. He found that Morton's "discovery" was made by leaving out embarrassing data,(58) incorrect procedures, and changing his criteria -- again, always in favour of his argument. Morton has been thoroughly discredited by now and scientists do not believe that brain size reflects(59) .
But Gould went on to say Morton's story is only an example of a common problem in(60) work. Some of the leading figures in science are(61) to have used the finagle factor. Gould says that Isaac Newton fudged out (捏造) to support at least three central statements that he could not prove. And so(62)Laudius Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, whose master work, Almagest, summed up the case for a solar system that had the earth as its centre. Recent(63)indicate that Ptolemy either faked some key data or resorted heavily to the finagle factor.
All this is important because the finagle factor is still at work. For example, in the artificial sweetener controversy, for example, it is(64) that all the studies sponsored by the sugar industry find that the artificial sweetener is unsafe,(65) all the studies sponsored by the diet food industry find nothing wrong with it.
Plants in Desert
Only special plants can survive the terrible climate of a desert, for these are regions where the annual range of the soil temperature can be over 75℃. Furthermore, during the summer there are few clouds in the sky to protect plants from the sun's ray. Another problem is the fact that there are frequently strong winds which drive small, sharp particles of sand into the plants, tearing and damaging them. The most difficult problem for all forms of plant life, however, is the fact that the entire annual rainfall occurs during a few days or weeks in spring.
Grasses and flowers in desert survive from one year to the next by existing through the long, hot, dry season in the form. of seeds. These seeds remain inactive unless the right amount of rain falls. If no rain falls, or if insufficient rain falls, they wait until the next year, or even still the next. Another factor that helps these plants to survive is the fact that their life cycles are short. By the time that the water from the spring rains disappears—just a few weeks after it falls—such plants no longer need any.
The perennials have special features which enable them to survive as plants for several years. Thus, nearly all desert perennials have extensive root systems below ground and a small shoot system above ground. The large root network enables the plant to absorb as much water as possible in a short time. The small shoot system, on the other hand, considerably limits water loss by evaporation.
Another feature of many desert perennials is that after the rainy season they lose their leaves in preparation for the long, dry season, just as trees in wetter climates lose theirs in preparation for the winter. This reduces their water loss by evaporation during the dry season. Then, in next rainy season, they come fully alive once more, and grow new branches, leaves and flowers, just as the grasses and flowers in desert do.
Ordinary plants are unable to survive in the desert mainly because of the changeable weather.
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