1 

October 31, 2009, California

     Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD'39, one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on October 31, He was 98.

     Tsien, born in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, graduated from the National Qinghua University in 1934 and in August of 1935 he left China to study at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. In 1936 he went to the California Institute of Technology to commence graduate studies .Tsien obtained his doctor degree in 1939 and would remain at Caltech for 20 years, becoming the Goddard Professor and establishing a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States.

   In 1943, Tsien and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the Second World War, he was amongst the other scientists participated the "Manhattan Project" .After World War II he served as a consultant to the  United States Army Air Force. During this time, Conlonel Tsien worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the X--20Dyna-Soar which would later be the inspiration for the Space Shuttle. In1945 Tsien Hsue--shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Jiang Baili--one of the Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai--shen's leading military strategists. But in 1950, the Chinese-born scientist was accused of harboring Communist sympathies and stripped of his security clearance.

   In September 1955 he was permitted to leave for China, where Tsien resumed his research, founded the Institute of Mechanics, and went on to become the father of China's missile program, a trusted member of the government and Party's inner circle, and the nation's most honored scientist, Tsien retired in 1991 and has maintained a low public profile in Beijing, China. The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Tsien's research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October of 2003.The elderly Tsien was able to watch China's first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed.

   In his late years, since the 1980s, Tsien devoted himself to spirituality research, and advocated scientific investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Qigong and "special human body functions".

【小題1】           The underlined word "commence" in this passage probably means ____

A. make up    B. get    C. begin   D. promise

【小題2】           Tsien Hsue--shen got married at the age of ______

A.45          B.28     C. 24      D.34

【小題3】           What is the right order of the events related to Tsien Hsue--shen ?

a. his later life   

b. return to China   

c. career in the U.S.A 

d. his early life and education 

A. a-b-c-d    B. d-c-b-a     C. d-b-c-a     D. c-b-d-a

【小題4】           Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. Tsien Hsue--shen got a doctor's degree in 1939.

B. Tsien Hsue--shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shen.

C. Tsien Hsue-shen has made a contribution to the Space Shuttle.

D. Tsien Hsue-shen was interested in traditional Chinese medicine, qigong and "special human body functions" in his later life.

 

The western world has always been divided into two types of people—the cool and the uncool. It is a    11    that starts in school. The cool kids are good at sports. They are popular with the opposite sex. They are good-looking and people want to    12     their style. They can do their homework but they don’t make a big effort. That would not be cool.

The    13     kids are in the other corner of the playground. They are very bright, but they don’t have great    14    skills, not popular with the opposite sex and they are    15    at sports. When they are not programming computers or doing calculus (微積分) , they are watching shows like the “X Files”. They are known as the geeks.

But the geeks are taking over. Make friends with them now or they will put virus in your computer and    16     your maths homework to ruin. Geeks might not be popular at school, yet they do pass their examinations. They   17    good degrees, though they might not be too popular at university.

    The most important   18    of the 21st century, computers and IT, has been at least partly created by geeks. Geek heroes like Bill Gates    19    others to follow their examples. Being a geek is a way of earning good money. And the creation of the Internet gave them a    20     of their own to work and play in, making them a global force.    21   , the effect of the geeks on popular culture has started a new trend. It is now cool to be    22   . Geek culture is becoming an important part of general popular culture, in which what you    23    is more important than what you look like.

But there are also    24   . Geeks were often bullied (欺侮) or laughed at in school. Now a geek may be your    25   . Perhaps it is time for punishment.

1.A. time      B. division             C. group                  D. part

2.A. show     B. act                    C. copy                   D. represent

3.A. uncool    B. unimportant            C. clever               D. strange

4.A. personal          B. attractive             C. experimental             D. social

5.A. tasteless      B. careless        C. hopeless              D. helpless

6.A. introduce    B. bring           C. prefer       D. add

7.A. score               B. lack                          C. take                     D. save

8.A. discovery        B. industry            C. progress   D. improvement

9.A. excite      B. discourage      C. demand            D. promise

10.A. world            B. challenge               C. chance             D. heaven

11.A. However   B. Therefore       C. Still            D. Besides

12.A. imaginative    B. uncool                    C. attractive               D. cool

13.A. remember      B. understand              C. receive              D. know

14.A. dangers      B. questions         C. possibilities             D. wonders

15.A. secretary               B. trainee     C. friend                D. boss

 

.

Is there anything more important than health? I don’t think so. “Health is the greatest wealth(財(cái)富),” wise people say. You can’t be good at your studies or work well when you are ill.　　     

If you have a headache, toothache, backache, earache or bad pain in the stomach, if you complain of a bad cough, if you run a high temperature and have a bad cold, or if you suffer from high or low blood pressure, I think you should go to the doctor.　　

The doctor will examine your throat, feel your pulse, test your blood pressure, take your temperature, sound your heart and lungs, test your eyes, check your teeth or have your chest X-rayed. After that he will advise some treatment, or some medicine. The only thing you have to do is to follow his advice.　　

Speaking about doctor’s advice, I can’t help telling you a funny story.　　

An old gentleman came to see the doctor. The man was very ill. He told the doctor about his weakness, memory loss and serious problems with his heart and lungs. The doctor examined him and said there was no medicine for his disease.　   

He told his patient to go to a quiet place for a month and have a good rest. He also advised him to eat a lot of meat, drink two glasses of red wine every day and take long walks. In other words, the doctor advised him to follow the rule: “Eat at pleasure, drink with measure and enjoy life as it is.” The doctor also said that if the man wanted to be well again, he shouldn’t smoke more than one cigarette a day.　　

A month later the gentleman came into the doctor’s office. He looked cheerful and happy. He thanked the doctor and said that he had never felt a healthier man.　　

“But you know, doctor,” he said, “it’s not easy to begin smoking at my age.”

45. The writer thinks that_____________

health is more important than wealth    

B. work is as important as studies

C. medicine is more important than pleasure 

D. nothing is more important than money

46. The underlined part means “__________”.

he was feeling better than ever    B. he wasn’t a healthy man

C. he was feeling worse than before   D. he will be well again

47. From the last sentence of the passage, we learn the man__________before the doctor told him not to smoke more than one cigarette a day.

A. was a heavy smoker         B. didn’t smoke so much

C. didn’t smoke               D. began to learn to smoke

48. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. The doctor usually tests his/her blood pressure when a person is ill.

B. The man told the doctor he couldn’t remember things.

C. The man thanked the doctor.

D. The man didn’t follow the doctor’s advice.

 

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的選項(xiàng)中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。

If you like exploring the wilderness, you should read the following suggestions from search-and-rescue rangers(搜救隊(duì)) in the national parks.    1   

Before you head out on a hike, check the weather, take plenty of water, and make sure someone knows where you’ll be and when you’ll be back. Bring clothes to keep you warm when wet, like a waterproof jacket. Avoid cotton, which traps damp.    2    Take basic precaution, such as waterproof matches, a folding saw, a good knife, a first-aid kit, a flash light, and batteries.

The minute you think you might get lost, stop.    3   And you should stay calm and think rationally(理性地). If you are not alone, focusing on the needs of others can help hold your own fears at bay. Keeping a sense of humor helps too.—it reduces stress and promotes creative thinking.

In general, people who try to find their own way out are far worse than those who stay put（呆在原處).    4    In a wide-open area, make a signal with colorful gear, make a big X out of rock, or dig a shallow trench, which are easy to spot from above.

You can go several days without eating, so in most cases, you’d better not search for food, since there are lots of poisonous plants in the wild. But you need to stay hydrated(含水的).    5   If you are lost in your car, stay there: You are more visible to rescuers. And the car provides shelter.

A．Stay visible so anyone searching can see you.

B．First, you’ve got to acknowledge you’re in trouble.

C．And you have no idea where to go.

D．The search-and-rescue people call it death clothes.

E. First of all find a shelter and stay in it in order to keep dry.

F. These suggestions may keep you alive in emergencies.

G. If you run out of water, It’s usually better to drink from a stream with suspect water than to go without.

 

The technology is great. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to put a man on the moon, explore the ocean’s depths or eat microwave sausages. Computers have revolutionized our lives and they have the power to educate and pass on knowledge. But sometimes this power can create more problems than it solves.

Every doctor has had to try their best to calm down patients who’ve come into their surgery waving an Internet print-out, convinced that they have some rare incurable disease, say, throat cancer. The truth is usually far more ordinary, though: they don’t have throat cancer, and it’s just that their throats are swollen. Being a graduate of the Internet “school” of medicine does not guarantee accurate self-health-checks.

One day Mrs. Almond came to my hospital after feeling faint at work. While I took her blood sample and tried to find out what was wrong, she said calmly, “I know what’s wrong；I’ve got throat cancer. I know there’s nothing you doctors can do about it and I’ve just got to wait until the day comes.”

As a matter of routine I ordered a chest X-ray. I looked at it and the blood results an hour later. Something wasn’t right. “Did your local doctor do an X-ray?” I asked. “Oh, I haven’t been to the doctor for years,” she replied. “I read about it on a website and the symptoms fitted, so I knew that’s what I had.”

However, some of her symptoms, like the severe cough and weight loss, didn’t fit with it—but she’d just ignored this.

I looked at the X-ray again, and more tests confirmed it wasn’t the cancer but tuberculosis (肺結(jié)核)—something that most certainly did need treating, and could be deadly. She was lucky we caught it when we did.

Mrs. Almond went pale when I explained she would have to be on treatment for the next six months to ensure that she was fully recovered. It was certainly a lesson for her. “I’m so embarrassed,” she said, shaking her head, as I explained that all the people she had come into close contact with would have to be found out and tested. She listed up to about 20, and then I went to my office to type up my notes. Unexpectedly, the computer was not working, so I had to wait until someone from the IT department came to fix it. Typical. Maybe I should have a microwave sausage while I waited?

1.Mrs. Almond talked about her illness calmly because ______.

A．she thought she knew it well

B．she had purchased medicine online

C．she graduated from a medical school

D．she had been treated by local doctors

2.It was lucky for Mrs. Almond ______.

A．to have contacted many friends

B．to have recovered in a short time

C．to have her assumption confirmed

D．to have her disease identified in time

3.Mrs. Almond said “I’m so embarrassed” (Para. 7) because ______.

A．she had distrusted her close friends

B．she had caused unnecessary trouble

C．she had to refuse the doctor’s advice

D．she had to tell the truth to the doctor

4. By mentioning the breakdown of the computer, the author probably wants to prove ______.

A．it’s a must to take a break at work

B．it’s vital to believe in IT professionals

C．it’s unwise to simply rely on technology

D．it’s a danger to work long hours on computers