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Unit One
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
Not long after the telephone was invented, I assume, a call was placed. The caller was a parent saying, ¡°your child is bullying my child, and I want it stopped!¡± The  bully's parent replied, ¡°you must have the wrong number. My child is a little angel.¡±
A trillion phone calls later, the conversation is the same. When children are teased or tyrannized, the parental impulse is to grab the phone and rant. But these days, as studies in the U.S. show bullying on the rise and parental supervision on the decline, researchers who study bullying say that calling moms and dads is more futile than ever. Such calls often lead to playground recriminations and don't  really teach our kids any lessons about how to navigate the world and resolve conflicts.
When you call parents, you want them to ¡°extract the cruelty¡± from their bullying children, says Laura Kavesh, a child psychologist in Evanston, Illinois. ¡°But many parents are blown away by the idea of their child being cruel. They won¬ðt believe it.¡± In a recent policeª²department survey in Oak Harbor, Washington, 89% of local high school students said they had engaged in bullying behavior. Yet only 18% of parents thought their children would act as bullies.
In a new U.S.PTA survey, 5% of parents support contacting other parents to deal with bullying. But many educators warn that those conversations can be misinterpreted, causing tempers to flare. Instead, they say, parents should get objective outsiders, like principals, to mediate.
Meanwhile, if you get a call from a parent who is angry about your child's bullying, listen without getting defensive. That's what Laura McHugh of Castro Valley, California, did when a caller told her that her then 13-year-old son had spit in another boy's food.Her son had confessed, but the victim's mom ¡°wanted to make sure my son hadn't given her son a nasty disease,¡± says McHugh, who apologized and promised to get her son tested for AIDS and other diseases. She knew the chance of contracting any disease this way was remote, but her promise calmed the mother and showed McHugh's son that his bad behaviour was being taken seriously. McHugh, founder of  Parents Coach Kids, a group that teaches parenting skills, sent the mom the test results. All were negative.
Remember: once you make a call, you might not like what you hear. If you have an itchy dialing finger, resist temptation. Put it in your pocket. £Û419 words£Ý
1.The word ¡°bullying¡± probably means______.
£ÛA£Ý frightening and hurting      £ÛB£Ý teasing
£ÛC£Ý behaving like a tyrant         £ÛD£Ý laughing at
2. Calling to a bully's parent.______.
£ÛA£Ýhas long existed but changed its content            £ÛB£Ýis often done with careful thinking
£ÛC£Ýoften leads to blaming and misunderstanding £ÛD£Ýis used to warn the child not to do it again
3. According to the surveys in the U.S., _______.
£ÛA£Ý bullying among adults is also rising
£ÛB£Ý parents are not supervising their children well
£ÛC£Ý parents seldom believe bullies
£ÛD£Ý most parents resort to calling to deal with bullying
4. When bullying occurs, parents should_______.
£ÛA£Ý help the bulling child get rid of cruelty           £ÛB£Ý resort to the mediator
£ÛC£Ý avoid getting too protective                     £ÛD£Ý resist the temptation of calling
5.Laura McHugh promised to get the bullied boy tested for diseases because________.
£ÛA£Ý her son confessed to being wrong                    £ÛB£Ý she was afraid to annoy the boy's parent
£ÛC£Ýhe was likely to be affected by these diseases£ÛD£Ýshe wanted to teach her own son a lesson

Text 2
¡°I've never met a human worth cloning,¡± says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from the cramped confines of his lab at Texas A&M University. ¡°It's a stupid endeavor.¡± That's an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two calves and expect to clone a cat soon. They just might succeed in cloning Missy later this year¡ªor perhaps not for another five years. It seems the reproductive system of man's best friend is one of the mysteries of modern science.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him vexed by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missyplicity project, using hundreds upon hundreds of canine eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted fetuses may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. ¡°Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,¡± he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone at A&M College of Veterinary Medicine  has been ringing busily. Cost is no obstacle for customers like Missy's mysterious owner, who wishes to remain unknown to protect his privacy. He's plopped down $3.7 million so far to fund  the research because he wants a twin to carry on Missy¬ðs fine qualities after she dies. But he knows her clone may not have her temperament. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are ¡°both looking forward to studying the ways that her clone differs from Missy.¡±
The fate of the dog samples will depend on Westhusin's work. He knows that even if he gets a dog viably pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at  birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems. ¡°Why would you ever want to clone humans,¡± Westhusin asks, ¡°when we¬ðre not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?¡± £Û397 words£Ý
6. Mr. Westhusin thinks cloning is dangerous because_____ .
£ÛA£Ý animals are tortured to death in the experiments
£ÛB£Ýthe public has expressed strong disapproval
£ÛC£Ý too many lives are wasted for laboratory use
£ÛD£Ý cloning becomes a quest only for profit
7. What is the problem confronting the Missyplicity project?
£ÛA£Ý The client holds a suspicious view toward it.
£ÛB£Ý There is a lack of funds to support the research.
£ÛC£Ý The owner is unwilling to disclose the information.
£ÛD£Ý Cloning dogs is a difficult biological problem.
8. Which of the following is true about animal cloning?
£ÛA£ÝFew private cloning companies could afford it
£ÛB£ÝFew people have realized its significance.
£ÛC£Ý An exact copy of a cat or bull can be made.
£ÛD£Ý It is becoming a prosperous industry.
9. From the passage we can infer that _____.
£ÛA£Ý Mr. Westhusin is going to clone a dog soon
£ÛB£Ý scientists are pessimistic about human cloning
£ÛC£Ý human reproductive system has not been understood
£ÛD£Ý rich people are only interested in cloning animals
10. Mr. Westhusin seems to believe that cloning______.
£ÛA£Ý is stupid and should be abandoned     £ÛB£Ý has been close to success
£ÛC£Ý should be taken cautiously                  £ÛD£Ý is now in a dilemma
Text 3
The marvelous telephone and television network that has now enmeshed the whole world, making all men neighbours, cannot be extended into space. It will never be possible to converse with anyone on another planet. Even with today's radio equipment, the messages will take minutes¡ªsometimes hours¡ªon their journey, because radio and light waves travel at the same limited speed of 186, 000 miles a second.
Twenty years from now you will be able to listen to a friend on Mars, but the words you hear will have left his mouth at least three minutes earlier, and your reply will take a corresponding time to reach him. In such circumstances, an exchange of verbal messages is possible¡ªbut not a conversation.
To a culture which has come to take instantaneous communication for granted, as part of the very structure of civilized life, this ¡°time barrier¡± may have a profound psychological impact. It will be a perpetual reminder of universal laws and limitations against which not all our technology can ever prevail. For it seems as certain as anything can be that no signal¡ªstill less any material object¡ªcan ever travel faster than light.
The velocity of light is the ultimate speed limit, being part of the very structure of space and time. Within the narrow confines of the solar system, it will not handicap us too severely. At the worst, these will amount to twenty hours¡ªthe time it takes a radio signal to span the orbit of Pluto, the outer-most planet.
It is when we move out beyond the confines of the solar system that we come face to face with an altogether new order of cosmic reality. Even today, many otherwise educated men¡ªlike those savages who can count to three but lump together all numbers beyond four¡ªcannot grasp the profound distinction between solar and stellar space. The first is the space enclosing our neighbouring worlds, the planets; the second is that which embraces those distant suns, the stars, and it is literally millions of times greater. There is no such abrupt change of scale in the terrestrial affairs.
Many conservative scientists, appalled by these cosmic gulfs, have denied that they can ever be crossed. Some people never learn; those who sixty years ago scoffed at the possibility of flight, and ten years ago laughed at the idea of travel to the planets, are now quite sure that the stars will always be beyond our reach. And again they are wrong, for they have failed to grasp the great lesson of our age¡ªthat if something is possible in theory, and no fundamental scientific laws oppose its realization, then sooner or later it will be achieved.
One day we shall discover a really efficient means of propelling our space vehicles. Every technical device is always developed to its limit and the ultimate speed for spaceships is the velocity of light. They will never reach that goal, but they will get very near it. And then the nearest star will be less than five years voyaging from the earth.£Û514 words£Ý
11.For light to travel across the solar system, it will take_______.
£ÛA£Ý a year   £ÛB£Ý nearly a day   £ÛC£Ý two months    £ÛD£Ý thirty minutes
12.The fact that it will never be possible to converse with someone on another planet shows that________
£ÛA£Ý radio messages do not travel fast enough
£ÛB£Ý no object can ever travel faster than light
£ÛC£Ý western culture has a special idea of communication
£ÛD£Ý certain universal laws cannot be prevailed against
13.Confronted with the new order of cosmic reality, many educated men________.
£ÛA£Ý become ignorant savage again             £ÛB£Ý find the ¡°time barrier¡± unbearable
£ÛC£Ý will not combine solar and stellar space£ÛD£Ý cannot adapt to the abrupt change of scale
14.Conservative scientists who deny that cosmic gulfs can ever be crossed will________
£ÛA£Ý laugh at the very idea of flight        £ÛB£Ý learn a lesson as they did ten years ago
£ÛC£Ý find space travel beyond their reach£ÛD£Ý oppose the fundamental scientific laws
15.The author of the passage intends to show__________.
£ÛA£Ý the limitations of our technology    £ÛB£Ý the vastness of the cosmic reality
£ÛC£Ý the prospect of planetary travel      £ÛD£Ý the psychological impact of time and space
Text 4
One great benefit of the Web is that it allows us to move information online that now resides in paper form. Several states in America are using the Web in a profound way. You can apply for various permits or submit applications for business licences. Some states are putting up listings of jobs¡ªnot just state government jobs, but all the jobs available in the state. I believe, over time, that all the information that governments print, and all those paper forms they now have, will be moved on to the Internet.
Electronic commerce notches up month-by-month too. It is difficult to measure, because a lot of electronic commerce involves existing buyers and sellers who are simply moving paperbased transactions to the Web. That is not new business. Microsoft, for example, purchases millions of dollars of PCs online instead of by paper. However, that is not a fundamental change; it has just improved the efficiency of an existing process. The biggest impact has occurred where electronic commerce matches buyers and sellers who would not previously have found each other. When you go to a book site and find an obscure book that you never would have found in a physical bookstore, that is a new type of commerce.
Today, about half of all PCs are still not connected to the Web. Getting communications costs down and making all the software simpler will bring in those people. And that, in turn, will move us closer to the critical mass that will make the Web lifestyle everyone's lifestyle. One element that people underestimate is the degree to which the hardware and software will improve. Just take one aspect: screen technology. I do my e-mail on a 20-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor. It is not available at a reasonable price yet, but in two years it will be. In ten years, a 20-inch LCD with much higher resolution will be commonplace. The boundary between a television set and a PC will be blurred because even the set-top box that you connect up to your cable or satellite will have a processor more powerful than what we have today in the most expensive PC. This will, in effect, make your television a computer.
Interaction with the Web also will improve, making it much easier for people to be involved. Today the keywords we use to search the Web often return to too many articles to sort through, many of them out of context. If you want to learn about the fastest computer chip available, you might end up getting responses instead about potato chips being delivered in fast trucks. In the future, we shall be either speaking or typing sentences into the computer. If you ask about the speed of chips, the result will be about computers, not potatoes. Speech recognition also means that you will be able to call in on a phone and ask if you have any new messages, or check on a flight, or check on the weather.
To predict that it will take over ten years for these changes to happen is probably pessimistic. We usually overestimate what we can do in two years and underestimate what we can do in ten. It will not be too long before the Web becomes as much a way of life as the car.£Û558 words£Ý
16. Electronic commerce becomes a new type of commerce when______.
£ÛA£Ý paperbased transactions are moved on to the Web
£ÛB£Ý the efficiency of the existing process is improved by Internet
£ÛC£Ý new buyers and sellers find each other on the Internet
£ÛD£Ý a book site offers the books several bookstores have altogether
17. The use of computer will be as common as the use of cars when_______.
£ÛA£Ý governments begin to move administration on-line
£ÛB£Ý electronic commerce causes a fundamental change
£ÛC£Ý computer and communication become simpler and cheaper
£ÛD£Ý the boundary between the computer and the TV disappears
18. What is the current problem with the Web according to the passage?
£ÛA£Ý Too much information.   £ÛB£Ý Lack of response.
£ÛC£Ý Ineffective interaction.       £ÛD£Ý Slowness of speed.
19. The example of potato chips is used to illustrate_____.
£ÛA£Ý the defect of computers at the present stage of development
£ÛB£Ý the similarity between a computer chip and a potato chip
£ÛC£Ý the richness of information available on the web
£ÛD£Ý the irrelevant responses the web sometimes offers
20. The passage is mainly trying to show that______.
£ÛA£Ý the web is becoming a way of conveying information
£ÛB£Ý the web will bring about a new way of life
£ÛC£Ý electronic commerce develops with the internet
£ÛD£Ý interaction with the Web will become easier