Every year landslides {滑坡} cause 25 to 50 deaths and $1.5 billion in damage in the United States．They account for 15 percent of the deaths from natural disasters in Europe．And in Decem??ber, a single event killed more than 200 people in the Philippines．Sending workers to stabilize (加固) mountainsides using steel bars and cement (水泥) can help prevent disaster, but it introduces new difficulties．Shaking drills produce harmful dust and loosen heavy, dangerous debris (米屑)．"It's quite a risky job," says Giorgio Pezzuto of D'Appolonia, an engineering company in Italy.

D'Appolonia, working with eight other companies, may have an answer:  a three-ton robot called Roboclimber．"The idea is to operate a machine far away that can drill without a hu??man being on board,'" says Pezzuto, manager for the project, which is supported by the European Commission．Engineers claim that the machine will be faster and cheaper than manual labor．The robot, a large radio-controlled four-legged me??chanical spider (蜘蛛), has cost at least $2 mil??lion so far．The final product should be able to climb unstable mountainsides, drill holes, insert bars and cement, and collect data on the slope' s stability．Testing should begin in May.

The underlined word "event" (in Paragraph l) refers to ___.

A．landslide         B．machine C．earthquake       D．flood

The purpose in writing this text is ___..

A．to tell people how serious the damage caused by landslides is

B．to tell people that sending workers to sta??bilize mountainsides is a risky job

C．to introduce a product that can be used to stabilize mountainsides

D．to show people how to use a new product

What does the robot look like?

A．A human being． B．A spider．C．A truck．       D．A drill．

The biggest advantage of this product is that_________.

A．it will be faster and cheaper than manual labor

B．it can climb mountainsides, drill holes, insert bars and cement

C．it can collect data on the slope’s stability

D．it can drill without a human being on board

When Suzanne Kail, an English teacher at a public high school in Magnolia, Ohio, was told that she would be required to teach her students Latin and Greek word roots, she rolled her eyes. Kail believed in a progressive approach to education, in which active participation in meaningful learning was the most important. In an account of her experience in the English Journal, she wrote, “asking students to do rote memorization (機械記憶) was the opposite of what I believed in most.” Still, her department head insisted on it. She was sure her students wouldn’t like it, either.

Kail was surprised — as was anyone who took a look at the recent studies supporting the effectiveness of “old school” methods like memorizing math facts, reading aloud, practicing handwriting and so on. While the education world is all excited about so-called 21st-century skills like cooperation, problem solving and critical thinking, this research suggests that we might do well to add a strong dose (一劑) of the 19th century to our children’s schooling.

As soon as Kail began teaching her students the Greek and Latin origins of many English terms — that the root “sta” means “put in place or stand”, for example, and that “cess” means “to move or withdraw”— they eagerly began recognizing familiar words including the roots, like “statue” and “recess”. Kail’s students started using these terms in their writing, and many of them told her that their study of word roots helped them answer questions on the SAT and on Ohio’s state graduation exam. For her part, Kail reported that she no longer saw rote memorization as “evil”.

That’s also true of another old-fashioned method drilling math facts, like the multiplication table (乘法表). Although many progressive educators speak ill of what they call “drill and kill” (kill students’ love for learning, that is), rapid mental retrieval (檢索) of basic facts is required for doing more complex and more interesting kinds of math. The only way to achieve this, so far as anyone has been able to determine, is to practice and practice. Indeed, many experts have observed the wide gap between the math scores of American and Chinese students on international tests. Asian schools focus heavily on math facts. Failure to do so can effectively close off the higher realms (范圍) of mathematics — a study found that most errors made by students working on complex math problems were due to a lack of automaticity (自動性) in basic math facts.

60. What did Suzanne Kail think was the most important in learning at first?

      A. Memorizing math facts.                                B. Problem solving ability.

       C. Students’ active participation                        D Studying word roots...

61. How does the study of word roots benefit students?

       A. It helps students build a large vocabulary more easily.

       B. It provides students with motivation for rote memorization.

       C. It helps students break up their conventional thinking.

       D. It gives students more knowledge about Greek and Latin.

62. Why is there a gap between the math scores of American and Chinese students?

       A. Because American students’ love for learning has been killed.

       B. Because American students are not very familiar with basic math facts.

       C. Because Chinese students have a higher math level than American students.

       D. Because Chinese students are becoming more creative than American students.

63. The author might NOT approve of             .

       A. using rote memorization                B. abandoning 21st-century methods

       C. practicing handwriting                     D. remembering basic math facts repeatedly

Every year landslides {滑坡} cause 25 to 50 deaths and $1.5 billion in damage in the United States.They account for 15 percent of the deaths from natural disasters in Europe.And in Decem­ber, a single event killed more than 200 people in the Philippines.Sending workers to stabilize (加固) mountainsides using steel bars and cement (水泥) can help prevent disaster, but it introduces new difficulties.Shaking drills produce harmful dust and loosen heavy, dangerous debris (米屑)."It's quite a risky job," says Giorgio Pezzuto of D'Appolonia, an engineering company in Italy.
D'Appolonia, working with eight other companies, may have an answer:  a three-ton robot called Roboclimber."The idea is to operate a machine far away that can drill without a hu­man being on board,'" says Pezzuto, manager for the project, which is supported by the European Commission.Engineers claim that the machine will be faster and cheaper than manual labor.The robot, a large radio-controlled four-legged me­chanical spider (蜘蛛), has cost at least $2 mil­lion so far.The final product should be able to climb unstable mountainsides, drill holes, insert bars and cement, and collect data on the slope' s stability.Testing should begin in May.

1. 1.

   The underlined word "event" (in Paragraph l) refers to ___.

   1. A.
      landslide
   2. B.
      machine
   3. C.
      earthquake
   4. D.
      flood
2. 2.

   The purpose in writing this text is ___..

   1. A.
      to tell people how serious the damage caused by landslides is
   2. B.
      to tell people that sending workers to sta­bilize mountainsides is a risky job
   3. C.
      to introduce a product that can be used to stabilize mountainsides
   4. D.
      to show people how to use a new product
3. 3.

   What does the robot look like?

   1. A.
      A human being.
   2. B.
      A spider.
   3. C.
      A truck.
   4. D.
      A drill.
4. 4.

   The biggest advantage of this product is that_________.

   1. A.
      it will be faster and cheaper than manual labor
   2. B.
      it can climb mountainsides, drill holes, insert bars and cement
   3. C.
      it can collect data on the slope’s stability
   4. D.
      it can drill without a human being on board

The theory he's stuck ________ us that earthquakes can be forecast．

1. A.
   to prove to
2. B.
   to proves to
3. C.
   proves to
4. D.
   which proved

The shop assistant asked the man,“Sir, ________ size of shoes do you wear? I can recommend you ________．”

1. A.
   which … one
2. B.
   what … one
3. C.
   what … one pair
4. D.
   which … one pair