2014.12英语四级长篇阅读模拟题练习

2014-12-01 15:06:37 字体放大:  

I、To understand this question,you need to know about Plantastic,the brainchild of Bill Tomlinson and his colleagues at the University of California at Irvine.

J、In their abstract,they reason that to make our food supply more sustainable,it may make sense to grow more fruits and vegetables close to home.But certain crops thrive when they’re grown in large quantities or alongside certain other plants--too tall all order for the average farmer.

K、Enter Plantastic,which would advise what plants would work best for your area and tell you what people in the neighbourhood are growin9.Nanochips on plants would feed data back to the site.That information in turn could be used to 1earn more about what grows best in which environment.

L、Assuming people will want to know whether this adds anythin9,Tomlinson’s team created a fictional(虚构的)study that looks at l o backyard gardens over two growing seasons.It suggests that using Plantastic will increase yields by 4 to 12 percent.

M、Tomlinson’s graduate student Juliet Norton is working on an early version of what the online system might look like.

Autonomous cars have made driving so boring--what shall I do instead?

N、Andreas Riener at the Institute for Pervasive Computing in Linz.Austria,has written an abstract that starts with a bold view of the future:“The first self-driving car cruised on our roads in 2019.Now,20 years after,it is time to review how this innovation has changed our mobility behaviour.”

O、This vision is rooted in a real trend.Self-driving cars have been making headlines for several years now.They are legal to drive in the state of Nevada.and Google’s driverless car has already racked up hundreds of thousands of practice miles.

P、Reiner’s contribution is to explore how this will change us.He predicts that once the robots take the wheel everywhere.many of us will lose interest in driving altogether.Fewer of us will own our own cars.Those who do won’t waste as much time pimping them out or driving around iust for fun.People who still love cars might have to seek their thrills in special“recreation parks”.where they can drive manually in an artificial environment.“If the vehicles of the future are only a means to get from A to B,this car culture would get lost.”he says.

Did I just think up that idea or did an advertiser implant it?

Q、Multiple contributors to CHl 2039 ponder the future of brain implants.Whether it involves capturing input from each of our senses or recording neurons(神经元)directly in the brain,they assume that this one is a question not of if but when.And that could bring opportunities--and challenges.

R、Shachar Maidenbaum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel,envisions devices that could record our day-to-day experiences and then allow US to share our memories with one another,revolutionising courts,classrooms,and our social interactions.

S、Daniel Gruen of IBM Research,meanwhile,envisions devices that could prompt your memory when you forget something.一with some darker consequences.“Imagine in the future that you have systems that help you with memory,”he says.“At what point do you start wondering.‘Wait.I’ve had an idea.Is that really mine or is that idea coming from somewhere else?”’

So,what is the ideal number of fingers?