A new study in West Africa shows how farm irrigation systems powered by the sun can
produce more food and money for villagers.The study in Benin found that solarpowered pumps
are effective in supplying water,especially during the long dry season.
SubSaharan Africa is the part of the world with the least food security.The United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than one billion of the world"s people
faced hunger last year.Around 265 million of them live south of the Sahara Desert.Lack of
rainfall is one of their main causes of food shortages.
Jennifer Burney from Stanford University in California led the study.The research team
helped build three solarpowered drip irrigation (滴灌) systems in northern Benin.Between
30 and 35 women used each system to pump water from the ground or a stream.Each
woman was responsible for farming her own 120 square meters of land.They also farmed
other land collectively.
The solarpowered irrigation systems produced an average of nearly two tons of vegetables
per month.During the first year,the women kept a monthly average of almost nine kilograms
of vegetables for home use.They sold the surplus produce at local markets.The earnings
greatly increased their ability to buy food during the dry season which can last six to nine
months.People in the two villages with the systems were able to eat three to five more
servings of vegetables per day.But making the surplus available at markets also had a wider
effect.
The study compared the villages with two others where women farmed with traditional
methods like carrying water in buckets.The amount of vegetables eaten in those villages also
increased,though not as much.The researchers note that only four percent of the cropland in
SubSaharan Africa is irrigated.Using solar power to pump water has higher costs at first.But
the study says it can be more economical in the long term than using fuels like gasoline,diesel
or kerosene.And solar power is environmentally friendly.
B.limitation of farmland
C.a small crop variety
D.little sunlight
B.the farmers irrigate the land together
C.all farmers use irrigation systems in northern Benin
D.the solarpowered systems take up more manpower
B.unnecessary
C.extra
D.abandoned
B.solar power helps to protect environment
C.solar power helps farmers increase earnings
D.solar energy can be more economical in the long run
B.Irrigation by carrying water in buckets
C.Solarpowered pumps aid African farmers
D.Vegetable supply increased in African villages
Back to the Future was boffo at the box office."Born in the USA" was climbing the charts.Philanthropy
(慈善业) and pop culture combined with LiveAid and "We Are the World. " And " .com ", which few
people outside of the military or universities knew,came into this world.
Looking back,few could have predicted ".com" would become one of the biggest cultural touchstones
of the century.In March 1985,the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California
assigned the first.com domain address to symbolics.com.That seemingly nominal (象征性的) event set into
motion forces that would change our world forever.
.com wasn"t the birth of the Internet,but it was the budding computer network"s comingout party.It made
it pretty and inviting.It did away with the need to have complex "maps" that were the equivalent of writing a
phone number on your hand,and opened it up for a mainstream audience.
After 1985,all it takes is a simple.com name to get into business.".com" became part of our daily lexicon
and drove its own economic boom and depression. It helped create a whole new family of industries,
facilitated global commerce and connected people around the world in ways never before possible.
It"s now 2010.Barack Obama is president,thanks in part to his smart use of the Internet.There is no
USSR.A computergenerated Avatar has set new box office records."TiK ToK" tops the charts.We"re
sending robots to find water on Mars.And that onceobscure computer communications system is one of
our civilization"s most prominent features.
B.the development of entertainment
C.the 25th anniversary of.com
D.the anniversary of the internet
B.Changeable.
C.Tough.
D.Novel.
B.It combined politics,entertainment and space science.
C.It made the Internet accessible to ordinary people.
D.It helped produce more domain addresses.
B.complex
C.expensive
D.popular
B.provide details
C.list arguments
D.stimulate readers" interest
Northeastern United States.The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as
a group.The term is also connected with academic excellence,selectivity in admissions,and social elitism
(精英主义).
The term became official,especially in sports terminology,after the formation of the NCAA Division I
athletic conference in 1954,when much of the nation polarized around favorite college teams."IV" was used
because originally the league consisted only of four members.The use of the phrase is no longer limited to a
thletics,and now represents an educational philosophy inherent to the nation"s oldest schools.In addition,Ivy
League schools are often viewed by the public as some of the most prestigious universities worldwide and
are often ranked amongst the best universities in the United States and worldwide.The eight institutions are
Brown University,Columbia University,Cornell University,Dartmouth College,Harvard University,Princeton
University,the University of Pennsylvania,and Yale University.
All of the Ivy League"s institutions place near the top in the US News & World Report college and
university rankings and rank within the top one percent of the world"s academic institutions in terms of
financial endowment (捐助).Seven of the eight schools were founded during America"s colonial period;
the exception is Cornell,which was founded in 1865.Ivy League institutions,therefore,account for seven of
the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution.The Ivies are all in the Northeast
geographic region of the United States.All eight schools receive millions of dollars in research grants and
other subsidies from federal and state government.
Undergraduate enrollments among the Ivy League schools range from about 4,000 to 14,000,making
them larger than those of a typical private liberal arts college and smaller than a typical public state
university.Ivy League university financial endowments range from Brown"s $2.01 billion to Harvard"s $26
billion,the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world.
B.a number
C.a sport
D.a spirit
B.It was founded by colonists.
C.It has the smallest endowment.
D.It is the youngest one.
B.The strongest government support.
C.The most expensive schools.
D.Firstclass education.
B.Seven colleges were set up before the USA was founded.
C.Brown University has the smallest number of students.
D.Typical public state universities are larger than the Ivies.
B.Best Universities in the USA
C.The Financial Income of American Universities
D.How to Apply to an Ivy League University
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项中,选出最佳选项。
Born of Jewish parents at Ulm in Germany, he completed his education in Switzerland and got his Ph.D at the University of Zurich. He went to live in the United States in 1933 because of the rise of Nazism(纳粹) in Germany and Hitler"s persecution(迫害) of the Jews.
In 1905, while still at Zurich, he published his Special Theory of Relativity,which was based on things everyone may have noticed. If two trains are standing alongside each other and one train starts to move,a
person sitting in the train may wonder whether his own train is moving or the other is moving, and before
he finds out what is happening,he can see that one train is moving relatively to the other. From this and
also from other more complicated facts, Einstein came to the conclusion that all motion is relative and that
there are really no such things as absolute(绝对) motion. Some of the other conclusions he drew are that
nothing can go faster than light,and that if something such as a ruler was moving faster and faster it would
seem to get shorter and shorter as its speed was near the speed of light. By 1915,Einstein had made
known his General Theory of Relativity. He also improved on Newton"s theory of gravity. Most of his
theories have been tested and found to be true though some may sound strange. For his important work
he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.
1. In 1933,Einstein went to live in the United States because ___.
A. he loved the USA more than his own country
B. he had got some friends there with whom he could work together
C. he wanted to live quietly in the USA
D. he could no longer work in Germany when Hitler came into power
2. Einstein published his Special Theory of Relativity when he was .
A. in the United States
B. in Ulm,Cermany after he got his Ph.D
C. still in Switzerland at the age of twenty-six
D. still at the University of Zurich at the age of thirty-six.
3. One of the conclusions drawn by Einstein is that .
A. places go faster than trains and buses
B. people couldn"t run as fast as vehicles
C. light goes the fastest of all the things
D. two trains can go in different directions
4. Einstein added that if something such as a ruler was moving it would seem to get shorter and
shorter .
A. because the ruler itself was short
B. when it was moving faster and faster
C. because we can"t see it clearly
D. because the ruler was broken into pieces
5. Einstein was world-famous for his ___ .
A. Special Theory of Relativity
B. Ceneral Theory of Relativity
C. improving on Newton"s theory of gravity
D. all of the above
to school from the age of 6 to the ages between 14 and 16, depending on the state they live in.
Subjects
In England and Wales the subjects taught in schools are laid down by the NATIONAL
CURRICULUM, which was introduced in 1988 and sets out in detail the subjects that children should
study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages of 7,11,14,and 16, when they are
tested.
The National Curriculum does not apply in Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it
will teach.
In the US the subjects taught are decided hy national and local governments.
Whereas British schools usually have prayers and religious instructions, American schools are not
allowed to include prayers or to teach particular religious beliefs.
Examinations
At 16, students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations. These examinations are taken by
students of all levels of ability in any of a range of subjects, and may involve a final examination, an
ASSESSMENT of work done during the two-year course, or both of these things. At 18 some students
take A-LEVEL examinations, usually in not more than 3 subjects. It is necessary to have A-Ievels in
order to go to a university of POLY-TECHNIC.
In Scotland students take the SCE examinations. A year later, they can take examinations called
HIGHERS, after. which they can either go straight to a uruversity or spend a further year at school and
take theCertificate of Sixth Year Studies. In Scotland the university system is different from that in
England and Wales. Courses usually last four years rather than three, and students study a large number
of subjects as part of their degree.
1. According to the passage, children have to go to school between the ages of in both Britain and
the US.
A. 5-14
B. 6-14
C. 5-15
D. 6-17
2. In which parts of the world are the subjects taught only decided by the nation?
A. England and Wales.
B. England and Scotland.
C. US and Britain.
D. Wales and Scotland.
3. As for the A-LEVEL examination, it involves .
A. final examination
B. assessment of work
C. not more than 3 subjects
D. Both B and C
4. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. In the US, only local government can decide the subjects.
B. In Scotland, students can take either the SCE examinations or the Certificate of Sixth
Year Studies.
C. In England, Wales and Scotland, students need to study religion.
D. As for a 16-year-old student in England and Wales, he has to take both GCSE examinations
and final examination.
find wood for the fire.People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel.
However,there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun.
Solar cookers,or ovens,have been used for centuries.A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in
1767.Today,people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world.People use solar ovens to
cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms.
There are three kinds of solar ovens.The first is a box cooker.It is designed with a special wall that
shines or reflects sunlight into the box.Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top
of the cooker.A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food.
The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker.It includes several flat walls,or panels,that directly
reflect the sun"s light onto the food.The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat
energy.People can build panel cookers with very few supplies quickly.They do not cost much.In Kenya,for
example,panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars.
The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic(抛物线的) cooker.It has rounded walls that aim sunlight
directly into the bottom of the oven.Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens.However,these cookers are
hard to make.They must be reaimed often to follow the sun.Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and
eye injuries if they are not used correctly.
You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper.They will not catch fire.Paper burns at two
hundred thirtytwo degrees Celsius.A solar cooker never gets that hot.Solar ovens cook food at low
emperatures over long periods of time.This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other
things.
B. How to make solar cookers
C. Introduce a new kind of energy
D. Different kinds of cookers
B. people have been using solar cookers for more than 200 years
C. solar energy is the cleanest energy on the earth
D. more and more people cook food on smoky fires
B. they may explode easily
C. they may cause burns and eye injuries
D. they may cause fires
B. explain which is the best cooker
C. prove that solar cookers need improving
D. tell us the different making ups of the three kinds of solar cookers
- 1选出下列词语中字形完全正确的一项A.褥单 讪笑 泅水B.瞻养 歧义 休憩C.迄今 道谦 纤陌D.祈祷 拆本
- 2Judy, don"t put your keys here. _____, please. [ ]A.Put
- 3阅读下面的文字,完成下题。真正的修养不追求任何具体的目的,一如所有为了自我完善而作出的努力,本身便有意义。对于“教养”也
- 42007年12月3日,全国暨地方政协民族和宗教委员会五年工作经验交流会在安徽省合肥市召开。全国政协主席贾庆林对开好这次会
- 5上海世博会意大利馆的展品中,以最高的保险价值展出了著名画家米开朗琪罗的两幅杰作《水果篮》和《捧果篮的男孩》。这两幅画体现
- 6如图所示,一圆盘可绕通过圆盘中心O且垂直于盘面的竖直轴转动,在圆盘上放置一小木块A,它随圆盘一起做匀速圆周运动。则关于木
- 7若关于的不等式的解集为,则关于的不等式的解集为 .
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- 92006年3月5日至14日,十届全国人大四次会议在北京召开。大会表决通过了关于国民经济和社会发展___________规
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- 1下列句子翻译没有错误的一项是[ ]A、吾长见笑于大方之家。——我还常常讥笑那些明白大道理的人。B、以君之力,曾不
- 2在△ABC中,,若使绕直线旋转一周,则所形成的几何体的体积是( )A.B.C.D.
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- 5下列词语中加粗的字,读音有错误的一组是[ ]A.炽情(chì)B.黜免(chù)C.浸渍(zì)D.歼灭(jiā
- 6测定液体密度时,必备的实验器材除天平、砝码、量筒外,还应有______.用量筒测______,用天平、砝码和______
- 7艾滋病毒侵入到人体内,因破坏人体的______细胞而导致人体的免疫能力下降.
- 8【题文】集合,,若,则实数a的值是 (
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