A ground-based system that uses much stronger signals than GPS can find your location in cities and indoors. It is a new positioning system that could compete with GPS to make sure you never lose your directions again.

Instead of satellites, Locata uses ground-based equipment to launch a radio signal over a localized area that is a million times stronger on arrival than GPS. It can work indoors as well as outdoors, and the makers claim the receivers can be shrunk to fit inside a regular cell phone. Even the US military, which invented GPS technology, signed a contract last month agreeing to a large-scale test of Locata at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

“This is one of the most important technology developments for the future of the positioning industry,” says Nunzio Gambale, CEO and co-founder of the firm Locata, based in Griffith, Australia.

As for the Locata’s accuracy, Christopher Morin of the US Air Force tested it recently at White Sands, and it worked to within 18 centimeters along any axis(軸). Morin says it should be possible to get the resolution down to 5 centimeters.

Admittedly, the tests were performed in an open desert where GPS also works beautifully, but its signals are weak— like a car headlight from 20,000 kilometers away— and easily blocked by solid objects. “Locata’s signal is far stronger, though not guaranteed to work in a complex urban environment,” says David Last, consultant to the UK’s General Lighthouse Authorities.

“Locata’s technology will face competition in the race to transform indoor navigation. But it could shine in specific areas,” Gambale says. “Robots with Locata could easily navigate inside buildings without the complex optical systems they need at the moment. And process that handle precise location data could not only guide you around a mall, railway station or airport, but also take you to the exact shelf in a shop for the product you want. The units small and cheap enough for smart phones should be available within five years— a similar path to the one GPS took on its way towards world domination.”

1.The passage is written mainly to .

A. encourage people to buy the Locata

B. tell us the disadvantage of the GPS

C. introduce a new positioning system Locata

D. tell us that Locata will replace GPS one day

2.Which of the following is not true about Locata according to Paragraph 2?

A. Without the help of the satellites, Locata can tell you where you are.

B. The US military has to test it before using it.

C. Locata has a better signal than GPS.

D. Locata can be fixed into smart phones only.

3.Which of the following words can be used to replace the underlined word in Paragraph 4?

A. accuracy B. speed

C. determination D. length

4.According to the passage, what can we know about Gambale?

A. He did the experiment at White Sands.

B. He is confident in Locata and think highly of it.

C. He said that Locata could not work in a complex urban environment.

D. He is worried about the competition that Locata faces.

Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.

“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辭的) companion “energy security” are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely through, though. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?

Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.

The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle（涓涓細(xì)流）of biofuel（生物燃料）available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.

Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?

Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.

There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices, at the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.

1.What does the author think of biofuels?

A. They keep America’s economy running healthily.

B. They prove to be a good alternative to petroleum.

C. They do not provide a sustainable energy supply.

D. They cause serious damage to the environment.

2.Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?

A. It wants to expand its storage of crude oil.

B. Its own oil reserves are quickly running out.

C. It wants to keep its own environment intact.

D. Its own oil production falls short of demand.

3.What does the author say about oil trade?

A. It proves profitable to both sides.

B. It improves economic efficiency.

C. It makes for economic prosperity.

D. It saves the cost of oil exploration.

Housework not good exercise, says study

1. It even said that people who did the most housework were usually the most overweight. 2. The contribution of domestic physical activity to meeting current recommendations for health. It questions whether activities like do-it-yourself, gardening and housework are good exercise. 3. but there is a danger that people incorrectly think housework is proper exercise.

A total of 4,563 adults took a survey about their weekly physical activity. 4. Researcher Professor Murphy said any physical activity should increase the amount of calories burnt. 5. She said housework was “inversely related to leanness”. She said this suggested that either people overestimate how hard housework was an exercise, or they eat too much because they think they have lost lots of calories doing household chores.

However, her study found the opposite.

People who do housework usually eat more.

A new study says housework is not the quality exercise many people think it is.

The research showed that people who included housework as exercise tended to be heavier.

The study is called Does “doing housework keep you healthy” ?

They think doing exercise is of great benefit to healthy.

It says any activity is better than none.

I think I’m one of the luckiest people in the world because of the time I’m able to spend with young people who are not afraid to show their excitement and zest for life. , I would prefer a person with passion and enthusiasm to a person with and talent any day of the week. You can teach and develop skills, you cannot develop a love of life and an optimistic attitude. These are of a person and appear at all times during work or play. Furthermore, they are traits that one is born with and they will never them.

As a and an Independent Education and Career Planning Advisor, I too many children and young adults who are on a road to despair unless someone can find a way to change their attitude towards and indeed life itself!

, society has turned out too many children and young that are unwilling to put much or thought into their work. Whenever I come across such people— or old, I’m reminded of a boy who went with his mother on a blueberry picking hike into the . The boy filled his mostly with moss(苔蘚) and then covered the moss with a thin layer of blueberries so that it looked . But the next morning, he found the blueberry pie which his mother for him was moss.

So , whether you are in school or , if you have enthusiasm and if you are to put in consistent effort along with passion, you will receive the . If, on the other hand, you are and prefer to take short-cuts, you should not expect to achieve the same results.

1.A. ObviouslyB. PersonallyC. LuckilyD. Quickly

2.A. skillsB. ideasC. kindnessD. courage

3.A. orB. forC. butD. if

4.A. choicesB. requestsC. appearancesD. characters

5.A. useB. deserveC. loseD. cherish

6.A. journalistB. doctorC. colleagueD. teacher

7.A. search forB. come acrossC. care aboutD. depend on

8.A. learningB. donatingC. speakingD. greeting

9.A. EventuallyB. UnfortunatelyC. HopefullyD. Perfectly

10.A. equipmentB. informationC. effortD. possession

11.A. innocentB. youngC. poorD. stupid

12.A. woodsB. cornerC. parkD. market

13.A. mouthB. panC. basketD. hand

14.A. deliciousB. beautifulC. cleanD. full

15.A. collectedB. bakedC. keptD. bought

16.A. promiseB. guessC. rememberD. look

17.A. in dangerB. in distanceC. in hospitalD. at work

18.A. willingB. confidentC. proudD. careful

19.A. cropB. trustC. votesD. rewards

20.A. lazyB. busyC. curiousD. stubborn

The truth 1. trees are vital to our life is not a secret. They provide us with food, wood and most 2. (important), oxygen. Now there is one more thing we can add to this list—blocking out harmful bacteria from water.

The discovery 3. (make) by a team 4. (consist) of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and high school students 5. were seeking a natural water filter—one that would help communities in developing countries that do not have 6. (accessible) to modern water filter systems.

The 7. (research), led by Professor Rohit Karnik, decided to turn to trees for help because they could allow liquid to flow through, while blocking out air bubbles.

They began by cutting 1.5-inch-wide sections of tree bark from the branches of a white pine tree. The people related then tested the wood’s filtering ability by pouring water containing red dye particles of different sizes through. 8. their amazement, they found that it was effective in trapping all the articles. 9. (encourage), the team conducted 10. experiment, this time with water that contained bacteria. Sure enough, the sapwood held back 99% of the bacteria, allowing only 1% to flow through.

請修改下面的短文。短文中共有10處語言錯誤，每處錯誤僅涉及一個單詞的增加、刪除或修改。

增加：在缺詞處加一個漏子符號（∧），并在此符號下面寫出該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用（＼）劃掉。

修改：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，并在該詞下面寫出修改后的詞。

注意：1. 每處錯誤及其修改均僅限一詞；

2 只允許修改10處，多著（從第11處起）不計分。

In China, people and giant pandas had been living together for thousands of years. But China’s human population has been great growing. More population means more land is needed for farming. It also mean more forests are cut for wood to build and heat houses. Loss of habitat in lowland areas has forced pandas live only in the mountains. The most damaged result of development has been that it has divided the panda’s habitat into little islands of forest. Today, many panda are isolated in these small sections of forest, because of they will cross into areas which people live. The result is that the giant pandas can connect with one another to mate and have babies.

Besides, to our relief, there is still some good news that people are trying to help the giant pandas by creating protected areas.

面對繁重的學(xué)業(yè)負(fù)擔(dān)，很多學(xué)生出現(xiàn)了不同程度的心理和身體方面的不適。鑒于此種情況，中學(xué)生應(yīng)該學(xué)會放松。假入你是中學(xué)生李華，請以How to Relax Ourselves為題寫一篇文章給《21世紀(jì)英語報》投稿

內(nèi)容包括：

為什么要學(xué)會自我放松；

自我放松的途徑（如看電視﹑上網(wǎng)﹑體育鍛煉﹑旅游等）

你更喜歡哪種自我放松方式及原因

注意：1. 詞數(shù)120左右；

2. 文章開頭已為你寫好，不計入總詞數(shù)。

How to Relax Ourselves

Faced with heavy learning burdens, many of us students__________________________________

I used to drink a lot of coffee, but these days I _____ tea.

A．prefer B．a(chǎn)m preferring

C．have preferred D．preferred

— Have you seen my glasses?

— Yes, I _____ them on your desk a minute ago.

A．see B．saw C．have seen D．had seen

— Would you care for a cup of coffee?

— I _____ one. Thank you just the same.

A．have had B．had C．would have D．will have