Question

You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.

When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潛水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.

In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to（易遭受）impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架艙). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.

Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔絕的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft.

Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1, 2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.

1.What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?

A．Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.

B．The total number of passengers on board.

C．The scene of the crash and extent of the damage.

D．Homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash.

2.Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?

A．New materials became available by that time.

B．Too much space was needed for its installation.

C．The early models often got damaged in the crash.

D．The early models didn't provide the needed data.

3.Why did the Federal Aviation Authority require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow?

A．To distinguish them from the colour of the plane.

B．To caution people to handle them with care.

C．To make them easily identifiable.

D．To obey international standards

4.What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?

A．There is still a good chance of their being recovered.

B．There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.

C．They have stopped sending homing signals.

D．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.C

3.C

4.A

【解析】

試題分析：本文介紹了記錄飛機(jī)飛行數(shù)據(jù)的黑匣子的發(fā)展歷程和具體信息。

1.A 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)第二段1,2行When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong.說明這個(gè)黑匣子里是一些數(shù)據(jù)，這些數(shù)據(jù)可以分析飛機(jī)墜毀的原因，故A正確。

2.C 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)第三段3,4,5行Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to（易遭受）impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架艙).說明之前的黑匣子經(jīng)常會(huì)在飛機(jī)墜毀中壞掉，現(xiàn)在重新進(jìn)行設(shè)計(jì)。故C正確。

3.C 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)第三段最后兩行The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.說明人們把黑匣子粉刷成黃色或者橙色是為了容易尋找，故C正確。

4.A 推理題。根據(jù)文章最后一句n the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.說明這架飛機(jī)的黑匣子哈沒有找到，不過還是有可能性被找到的，故A正確。

考點(diǎn)：考查科普類短文閱讀

點(diǎn)評(píng)：本文屬于科普類短文，關(guān)于飛機(jī)的黑匣子，此類文章的最大的障礙是詞匯以及考生對(duì)閱讀內(nèi)容的不熟悉，需要考生在閱讀的時(shí)候有足夠的耐心。要養(yǎng)成在上下文串聯(lián)中猜測(cè)詞義的能力，根據(jù)上下文中出現(xiàn)的同義詞，近義詞，反義詞，以及詞義的解釋來理解生詞。同時(shí)要抓住文章的中心，不要受其他信息的影響。要根據(jù)題目及選項(xiàng)以及文章的上下文串聯(lián)合理的判斷推理。