Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview with a chief-editor. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following questions.Now listen to the interview. From the conversation we get the impression that______.
A. some official agencies in London are efficient
B. taxi drivers abroad always overcharge strangers
C. customs formalities in Britain are flexible
D. travel agents tend to misinform people
How to Read Effectively Many students tend to read books without any purpose. They often read a book slowly and in great detail with the result that they frequently have no (1)______ (1)______view of what they are reading. Ⅰ. To read effectively, students are suggested to do the following: 1) To decide precisely on the (2) ______ for reading a book. (2)______ 2) To decide what they are going to read: a. The (3) ______ page should be read first. (3)______ b. The chapter headings are useful in indicating what should be read. c. The Index can help to (4) ______ the pages related to some information. (4)______ 3) To read the opening and final paragraphs so that they could know what a book is mainly about. 4) To ask themselves what is the main part of their reading and then try to answer the question by making notes, which can help them to concentrate on the reading and provide a(n) (5) ______ which can be re-read later. (5)______ 5) To increase reading speed without loss of (6) ______. (6)______ Ⅱ. Three main kinds of silent reading speed: 1) the slowest: study speed for a higher level of understanding; 2) the average speed for easier textbooks, novels, etc.; 3) the fastest: (7) ______ used to get a general idea of a book or an article. (7)______ Ⅲ. The results of a survey of students’ reading speed conducted by Edward Fry: A good reader achieves (8) ______ comprehension when he skims at over 800 words (8)______ a minute, 70% comprehension at 250-500 words a minute, and 80%-90% comprehension at 200~300 words a minute. The average speed of a poor reader is (9) ______ words a minute with a (9)______ comprehension (10) ______ of 70%. (10)______
TEXT C Since ancient times, people have dreamed of leaving their home planet and exploring other worlds. In the later half of the 20th century, that dream became reality. The space age began with the launch of the first artificial satellites in 1963. A human first went into space in 1963. Since then, astronauts and cosmonauts have ventured into space for ever greater lengths of time, even living aboard orbiting space stations for months on end. Two dozen people have circled the moon or walked on its surface. At the same time, robotic explorers have journeyed where humans could not go, visiting all but one of the solar system’s major worlds. Unpiloted spacecraft have also visited a host of minor bodies such as moons, comets, and asteroids. These explorations have sparked the advance of new technologies, from rockets to communications equipment to computers. Spacecraft studies have yielded a bounty of scientific discoveries about the solar system, the Milky Way Galaxy, and the universe. And they have given humanity a new perspective on the earth and its neighbors in space. The first challenge of space exploration was developing rockets powerful enough and reliable enough to boost a satellite into orbit. These boosters needed more than brute force, however; they also needed guidance systems to steer them on the proper flight paths to reach their desired orbits. The next challenge was building the satellites themselves. The satellites needed electronic components that were lightweight, yet durable enough to withstand the acceleration and vibration of launch. Creating these components required the world’s aerospace engineering facilities to adopt new standards of reliability in manufacturing and testing. On Earth, engineers also had to build tracking stations to maintain radio communications with these artificial "moons" as they circled the planet. Beginning in the early 1920s, humans launched probes to explore other planets. The distances traveled by these robotic space travelers required travel times measured in months or years. These spacecraft had to be especially reliable to continue functioning for a decade or more. They also had to withstand such hazards as the radiation belts surrounding Jupiter, particles orbiting in the rings of Saturn, and greater extremes in temperature than are faced by spacecraft in the closeness of Earth. Despite their great scientific returns, these missions often came with high price tags. Today the world’ s space agencies, such as the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA. and the European Space Agency (ESA), strive to conduct robotic missions more cheaply and efficiently. It was inevitable that humans would follow their unpiloted creations into space. Piloted space flight introduced a whole new set of difficulties, many of them concerned with keeping people alive in the hostile environment of space. In addition to the vacuum of space, which requires any piloted spacecraft to carry its own atmosphere, there are other deadly hazards: solar and cosmic radiation, micrometorites (small bits of rock and dust) that might puncture a spacecraft hull or an astronaut’s pressure suit, and extremes of temperature ranging from frigid darkness to broiling sunlight. It was not enough simply to keep people alive in space -- astronauts needed to have a means of accomplishing useful work while they were there. It was necessary to develop tools and techniques for space navigation, and for conducting scientific observations and experiments. Astronauts would have to be protected when they ventured outside the safety of their pressurized spacecraft to work in the vacuum. Missions and hardware would have to be carefully designed to help insure the safety of space crews in any foreseeable emergency, from liftoff to landing. The challenges of conducting piloted space flights were great enough for missions that orbited Earth. They became even more daunting for the Apollo missions, which sent astronauts to the moon. The achievement of sending astronauts to the lunar surface and back represents a summit of human space flight. After the Apollo program, the emphasis in piloted missions shifted to long-duration spaceflight, as pioneered aboard Soviet and U.S. space stations. The development of reusable spacecraft became another goal, giving rise to the U.S. space shuttle fleet. Today efforts focus on keeping people healthy during space missions lasting a year or more w the duration needed to reach nearby planets -- and in lowering the cost of sending satellites into orbit. In the passage, the author wants to tell us ______.
A. that people dreamed of leaving their home planet and exploring other worlds became reality
B. after the Apollo program, the emphasis in piloted missions shifted to short-duration spaceflight
C. space exploration is a great challenge to human beings and will be achieved through generation’s work
D. today efforts focus on keeping people healthy during space missions and in increasing the cost of sending satellites into orbit
TEXT E People do not analyze every problem they meet. Sometimes they try to remember a solution from the last time they had a similar problem. They often accept the opinions or ideas of other people. Other times they begin to act without thinking; they try to find a solution by trial and error. However, when all these methods fall, the person with a problem has to start analyzing. There are six stages in analyzing a problem. First the person must recognize that there is a problem. For example, Sam’s bicycle is broken, and he cannot read it to class as he usually does. Sam must see that there is a problem with his bicycle. Next the thinker must define the problem. Before Sam can repair his bicycle, he must find the reason why it does not work. For instance, he must determine if the problem is with the gears, the brakes, or the frame. He must make his problem more specific. Now the person .must look for information that will make the problem clearer and lead to possible solutions. For instance, suppose Sam decided that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the gear wheels. At this time. he can look in his bicycle repair book and read about gears. He can talk to his friends at the bike shop. He can look at his gears carefully. After studying the problem, the person should have several suggestions for a possible solution. Take Sam as an illustration. His suggestions might be: put oil on the gear wheels; buy new gear wheels and replace the old ones; tighten or loosen the gear wheels. Eventually one suggestion seems to be the solution to the problem. Sometimes the final idea comes very suddenly because the thinker suddenly sees something new or sees something in a new way. Sam, for example, suddenly sees that there is a piece of chewing gum (口香糖) between the gear wheels. He immediately realizes the solution to his problem: he must clean the gear wheels. Finally the solution is tested. Sam cleans the gear wheels and finds that afterwards his bicycle works perfectly. In short, he has solved the problem. As used in the last sentence, the phrase "in short" means ______.
A. in the long run
B. in detail
C. in a word
D. in the end