15. Although originally a German innovation, kindergarten got its real start in the United States as a movement to provide an improved learning environment for children.
Energy beamed down from space is one step closer to reality, now that California has given the green light to an agreement that would see the Pacific Gas and Electric Company buy 200 megawatt(兆瓦)of power beamed down from solar-power satellites beginning in 2016. But some major challenges will have to be overcome if the technology is to be used widely. A start-up company called Solaren is designing the satellites, which it says will use radio waves to beam energy down to a receiving station on Earth. The attraction of collecting solar power in space is the almost uninterrupted sunshine available in eosynchronous(与地球同步的)orbit. Earth-based solar cells, by contrast, can only collect sun light during daytime and when skies are clear. But space-based solar power must grapple(努力克服)with the high cost per kilo-gram of launching things into space, says Richard Schwartz of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "If you're talking about it being economically viable or power of the Earth, it's a tough go." he says. Cal Boer man, Solaren's director of energy services, says the company designed its satellites with a view to keeping launch costs down. "We knew we had to come up with a different, revolutionary design," he says. A patent the company has won describes ways to reduce the system's weight, including using inflatable mirrors to focus sunlight on solar cells, so a smaller number can collect the same amount of energy. But using minors introduces other challenges, including keeping the solar cells from overheating, says Schwartz. "You have to take care of heat dissipation(散发)because you're now concentrating a lot of energy in one place," he says. According to the company's patent, Solaren's solar cells will be connected to radiators to help keep them cool. Though Boer man says the company believes it can make space-based solar power work, it is not expecting to crowd out other forms of renewable energy. Laws in California and other states require increasing use of renewable energy in coming years, he points out. "To meet those needs, we're going to need all types of renewable energy sources," he says.
1. Solar-power satellites will use radio waves to beam energy down from space.
5. Inflatable mirrors are used to reduce the space-based solar power system.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
A
[解析] 题干大意：用可充气的镜子来降低太空的太阳能电力系统。本题给出的信息是正确的。文章第五段提到：A patent the company has won describes ways to reduce the system's weight, including using inflatable mirrors.得知这家公司的一项专利说明了降低此系统重量的多种方法，包括使用可充气的镜子。故答案选A。
6. Space-based solar power will rule out other forms of renewable energy sources.
When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation's vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity(繁荣)has faltered(衰退)over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable(令人羡慕的)record for turning ideas into profit. Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programs for pumping money into start-up companies. Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favoring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of flesh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur(企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programs to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years. While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany's research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer. Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe's largest organization for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12,000 people. It continues to grow. Last year it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the US and Asia.
1. Paragraph 1 ______ A. Further Development of the Fraunhofer Society B. Germany's Success in Translating Technology C. Prosperity of Germany D. Competition Among Fraunhofer Institutes E. Developed and Developing Countries F. Critics of Technology Transfer
B
[解析] 第一段主题句为第一句，其意思是：很少有国家能像德国一样成功地将科技研究应用于企业生产。B选项：Germany's Success in Translating Technology(德国成功应用科学技术)与其意思一致，故B为正确答案。
2. Paragraph 2 ______
D
[解析] 第二段主题句为第二句，其意思是：但今天Fraunhofer研究院内也存在着激烈的竞争。D选项：Competition Among Fraunhofer Institutes (Fraunhofer研究院内的竞争)与其意思一致，故D为正确答案。
3. Paragraph 3 ______
F
[解析] 第三段主题句为第一句，其意思是：这种策略貌似可以取得经济上的成功，但却屡遭批评。这里应该注意该句中but后边的内容。F选项Critics of Technology Transfer(科技应用所受到的批评)与其意思一致，故F为正确答案。
5. Over the past decade, the German prosperity has decreased because of ______. A. stimulate the economy development in Germany B. deal with industrial problems and create new technologies C. the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology D. the unifying of east and west and the economy crisis E. the technology transferring failures F. many such businesses go bankrupt within few years
D
[解析] 根据题干线索词the German prosperity,定位原文至第一段第三句：And though German prosperity(繁荣)has faltered(衰退)over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline.题干对该部分进行了同义改写，由此推断，句中画线部分即为所需添加成分。而D选项the unifying of east and west and the economy crisis属于对该部分的同义改写，故D为正确答案。
6. The Fraunhofer Society is a network of research institutes which aim to ______.
B
[解析] 根据题干线索词a network of research institutes,定位原文至第二段第一句：Much of the reason for that Success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies.显然，画线部分即为所需添加成分。而B选项deal with industrial problems and create new technologies属于对该部分的同义改写，故B为正确答案。
7. Some experts think the promotion of transferring technology wastes money because ______.
F
[解析] 根据题干线索词promotion和wastes money,定位原文至第三段最后一句：Others claim that many of the programs to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years.这里promotion为动词promote的名词形式，由此推断，画线部分即为所需添加成分。F选项many such businesses go bankrupt within few years属于对该部分进行了同义改写，故F为正确答案。
8. Last year, the Fraunhofer Society merged ______ in Berlin.
C
[解析] 根据题干线索词Berlin,定位原文至最后一段倒数第二句：Last year it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin.句中的swallow up与题干中的merge均表示“合并”。由此推断，画线部分即为所需添加成分。C选项the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology属于原文复现，故C为正确答案。
第4部分：阅读理解 下面有3篇文章，每篇文章后面有5道题。请根据文章内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。
第一篇
Go to the Live Concert or CD Shelf?
The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. "Hooray! At last!" wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic. One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert's appointment in the Times, calls him "an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him." As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise. For my part, I have no idea whether Gilbert is a great conductor or even a good one. To be sure, he performs an impressive variety of interesting compositions, but it is not necessary for me to visit Avery Fisher Hall, or anywhere else, to hear interesting orchestral music. All I have to do is to go to my CD shelf, or boot up my computer and download still more recorded music from iTunes. Devoted concertgoers who reply that recordings are no substitute for live performance are missing the point. For the time, attention, and money of the art-loving public, classical instrumentalists must compete not only with opera houses, dance troupes, theater companies, and museums, but also with the recorded performances of the great classical musicians of the 20th century. There recordings are cheap, available everywhere, and very often much higher in artistic quality than today's live performances, moreover, they can be "consumed" at a time and place of the listener's choosing. The widespread availability of such recordings has thus brought about a crisis in the institution of the traditional classical concert. One possible response is for classical performers to program attractive new music that is not yet available on record. Gilbert's own interest in new music has been widely noted: Alex Ross, a classical-music critic, has described him as a man who is capable of turning the Philharmonic into "a markedly different, more vibrant organization." But what will be the nature of that difference? Merely expanding the orchestra's repertoire will not be enough. If Gilbert and the Philharmonic are to succeed, they must first change the relationship between America's oldest orchestra and the new audience it hops to attract.
1. We learn from paragraph 1 that Gilbert's appointment has ______.
Invisibility cloaks would have remained impossible, forever locked in science fiction, had it not been for the development of metamaterials. In Greek, "meta" means beyond, and metamaterials can do things beyond what we see in the natural world—like shuffle light waves around an object, and then bring them back together. If scientists ever man-age to build a full-fledged invisibility cloak, it will probably be made of metamaterials. "We are creating materials that don't exist in nature, and that have a physical phenomenon that doesn't exist in nature," says engineer Dentcho Genov. "That is the most exciting thing." Genov designs and builds metamaterials—such as those used in cloaking, at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. An invisibility cloak will probably not be the first major accomplishment to come from the field of metamaterials. Other applications are just as exciting. In many labs, for example, scientists are working on building a hyperlens. A lens is a device, usually made of glass, that can change the direction of light waves. Lenses are used in microscopes and cameras to focus light, thus allowing a researcher to see small things or a photographer to capture image of things that are far away. A hyperlens, however, would be made of metamaterials. And since metamaterials can do things with light that ordinary materials can't, the hyperlens would be a powerful tool. A hyperlens would allow researchers to see things at the smallest scale imaginable as small as the wavelength of visible light. Genov points out that the science of metamaterials is driven by the imagination. If someone can think of an idea for a new behavior for light, then the engineers can find a way to design a device using metamaterials. "We need people who can imagine," he says. Since 2006, many laboratories have been exploring other kinds of metamaterials that don't involve just visible light. In fact, scientists are finding that almost any kind of wave may respond to metamaterials. At the Polytechnic University of Valencia in Spain, Jose Sanchez-Dehesa is working with acoustics, or the science of sound. Just as an invisibility cloak shuffles waves of light, an "acoustic" cloak would shuffle waves of sound in a way that's not found in nature. In an orchestra hall, for example, an acoustic cloak could redirect the sound waves-so someone sitting behind a column would hear the same concert as the rest of the audience, without distortion. Sanchez-Dehesa, an engineer, recently showed that it's possible to build such an acoustic cloak, though he doubts we'll see one any time soon. "In principle, it is possible," he says, but it might be impossible to make one, he adds. Other scientists are looking into ways to use larger metamaterials as shields around islands or oil rigs as protection from tsunamis. A tsunami is a giant, destructive wave. The metamaterial would redirect the tsunami around the rig or island, and the wave would resume its journey on the other side without causing any harm.
1. What is true for metamaterials?
A.They will always remain in science fiction.
B.They are already a reality.
C.They are nonexistent in nature.
D.Scientists begin to use them to build invisible cloaks.
第三篇 When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuses, he came right out and said he was leaving to pursue my goal of running a company. Broadcasting his ambition was "very much my decision," McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29. McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kind of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn't alone. In recent weeks the No. 2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don't get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations. As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders. The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn Ferry, senior partner Dennis Carey: "I can't think of a single search I've done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first." Those who jumped without a job haven't always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana when the business became part of PepsiCo (PEP) a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny Internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willumstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later. Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. "The traditional rule was it's safer to stay where you are, but that's been fundamentally inverted," says one headhunter. "The people who've been hurt the worst are those who've stayed too long."
1. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being ______.
A.arrogant
B.frank
C.self-centered
D.impulsive
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节考查题。根据题干返回原文第一段定位，即可确定答案为B。
2. According to paragraph 2, senior executives' quitting may be spurred by ______.
A.their expectation of better financial status
B.their need to reflect on their private life
C.their strained relations with the boards
D.their pursuit of new career goals
A B C D
D
[解析] 根据文中第二段“...American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post”，比对选项，答案和原文使用了同义词的替换，new career goals=CEO post,故选D。
3. The word "poached" (line 3, paragraph 4) most probably means ______.
Supermarket is a type of retailing institution that has a moderately broad product assortment spanning groceries and some nonfood lines that ordinarily emphasizes price in either an offensive or defensive way. As a method, supermarket retailing features several related product lines, a high degree of self-service, largely centralized checkout, and competitive prices. The supermarket approach to retailing is used to sell various kinds of merchandise, 1 . The term supermarket usually refers to an institution in the grocery retailing field. Most supermarkets emphasize price. Some use price offensively by featuring low prices in order to attract customers. Other supermarkets use price more defensively by relying on leader pricing to avoid a price disadvantage. Since supermarkets typically have very thin gross margins, they need high levels of inventory turnover to achieve satisfactory returns on invested capital. Supermarkets originate in the early 1930s. They were established by independents 2 Supermarkets were an immediate success, and the innovation was soon adopted by chain stores. In recent decades supermarkets have added various nonfood lines to provide customers with one-stop shopping convenience and to improve overall gross mar-gins. Today stores using the supermarket method of retailing are dominant in grocery retailing. However, different names are used to distinguish these institutions 3 : A superstore is a larger version of the supermarket. It offers more grocery and non-food items 4 . Many supermarket chains are emphasizing superstores in their new construction. Combination stores are usually even larger than superstore. They, 5 , offer more groceries and non foods than a supermarket but also most product lines found in a large drugstore. Some combination stores are joint ventures between supermarkets and drug chains such as Kroger and Save-on. A. by size and assortment B. than a conventional supermarket does C. including building materials, office products, and, of course, groceries D. attracting more customers with their low prices E. primarily in either of two ways F. to compete with grocery chains
1.
C
[解析] 前面说到kinds of,因此此处给出例子，与前文呼应。
2.
F
[解析] 该句句子成分完整，根据句意此处填入动词不定式形式作目的状语。
3.
A
[解析] 与distinguish呼应，表示从某方面进行区分。
4.
B
[解析] 前文出现了more，提示本句为比较句，因此选择B。
5.
E
[解析] 根据句意，表示从两种方法中任选其一，所以选择E。
第6部分：完形填空 下面的文章有15处空白，请根据文章内容为每处空白确定1个最佳选项。
Where Did All the Ships Go?
The Bermuda Triangle(三角区)is one 1 the greatest mysteries of the sea. In this triangular area between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda in Atlantic, ships and airplanes 2 to disappear more often than in 3 parts of the ocean. And they do so 4 leaving any sign of an accident or any dead bodies. It is 5 that Christopher Columbus was the first person to record strange happenings in the area. His compass stopped working, a flame came down from the sky, and a wave 100 to 200-feet-high carried his ship about a mile away. The most famous disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle was the US Naval(海军的) Air Flight 19. 6 December 5, 1945, five bomber planes carrying 14 men 7 on a training mission from the Florida coast. Later that day, all communications with Flight 19 were lost. They just disappeared without a trace. The next morning, 242 planes and 19 ships took part in the largest air-sea search in history. But they found nothing. Some people blame the disappearances 8 supernatural(超自然的)forces. It is suggested the 9 ships and planes were either transposed to other times and places, kidnapped(绑架)by aliens(外星人) 10 attacked by sea creatures. There are 11 natural explanations, though. The US Navy says that the Bermuda Triangle is one of two places on earth 12 a magnetic compass(指南针)points towards true north 13 magnetic north. 14 , planes and ships can lose their way if they don't make adjustments. The area also has changing weather and is known 15 its high waves. Storms can turn up suddenly and destroy a plane or ship. Fast currents could then sweep away any trace of an accident.
深色：已答题 浅色：未答题