After years of research and tests, the hybrid car was developed and put on the market. It's an interesting and exciting new improvement in today's world as we look for better ways to protect the quality of the air we breathe and protect our natural resources.

The quality of our air is affected by many different things. But one of the largest sources of air pollution is the burning of fossil fuel such as coal and gasoline which is used to power a car's engine. The Environmental Protection Agency（EPA）has set national standards to help control the level of harmful pollutants sent off into the air, and the automobile industry has acted by producing the hybrid car that uses less gas and therefore causes less pollution.

A hybrid car is a combination of a regular car that runs on gasoline and an electric car that is battery-powered. Some people tend to think that since the hybrid car is partially electric, you have to plug it in to charge it. But that's not how it works. The 144 volt battery pack（电池组）is actually recharged through the energy that is produced when the car's brakes are used. This is referred to as "regenerative braking", because it generates electricity.

Although the hybrid car still runs on gasoline most of the time, this helps it use less gas than a regular car. When the driver stops at a traffic light, the engine automatically shuts off to save fuel. Then, as soon as the driver puts the car in gear and touches the gas pedal（踏板）, the engine starts backing up.

Have you ever ridden in a car with someone which ran out of gas？That probably wouldn't happen if you were riding in a hybrid car. It flashes a warning on its computer screen that says, "I am low on gas. "When it completely runs out, the warning reads, "YOU ARENOW OUT OF GAS！"Then the electric power supply starts to work to let the driver travel a few more miles to a gas station.

【小题1】Which of the following is true according to the passage？

A．The hybrid car will be put on the market.

B．Hybrid cars run faster than regular cars.

C．When the hybrid car stops at a traffic light, the driver will get a warning.

D．The burning of fossil fuel is one of the largest sources of air pollution.

【小题2】According to the passage, the word "hybrid" refers to_________.

A．a high-tech discovery	B．energy saving
C．a new invention	D．a combination of two things

【小题3】"Regenerative braking" is an important process of the hybrid car because _________.

A．it allows the car to come to a quick stop

B．it gives the driver a smoother ride

C．it produces energy to charge the battery

D．it can control the speed of the car

【小题4】Which of the following is the reason for developing hybrid cars?

A．They use less gas than regular cars.

B．They' re safer to drive than most cars.

C．They' re more modern than other cars.

D．They cost less than regular cars.

   Chinese scientists recently have produced two monkeys with the same gene, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the same technique that gave us Dolly the sheep. These monkeys are not actually the first primates（灵长类）to be cloned. Another one named Tetra was produced in the late 1990s by embryo（胚胎）splitting, the division of an early-stage embryo into two or four separate cells to make clones. By contrast, they were each made by replacing an egg cell nucleus（原子核）with DNA from a differentiated body cell. This Dolly method, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer（SCNT）, can create more clones and allows researchers greater control over the edits they make to the DNA.

Success came from adopting several new techniques. These included a new type of microscopy to better view the cells during handling or using several materials that encourage cell reprogramming, which hadn’t been tried before on primates. Still, the research process proved difficult, and many attempts by the team failed. Just two healthy baby monkeys born from more than 60 tested mothers. This leads to many researchers’ pouring water on the idea that the team’s results bring scientists closer to cloning humans. They thought this work is not a stepping stone to establishing methods for obtaining live born human clones. Instead, this clearly remains a very foolish thing to attempt, it would be far too inefficient, far too unsafe, and it is also pointless.

But the scientists involved emphasize that this is not their goal. There is now no barrier for cloning primate species, thus cloning humans is closer to reality. However, their research purpose is entirely for producing non-human primate models for human diseases; they absolutely have no intention, and society will not permit this work to be extended to humans. Despite limitations, they treat this breakthrough a novel model system for scientists studying human biology and disease.

【小题1】What do we know about the technology called SCNT?
A.It created the first two primates.

A．It may contribute to editing the DNA.

B．It can divide an early-stage embryo into several cells.

C．It produced two cloned monkeys with different genes.

【小题2】What does the author mean by “pouring water on the idea” in paragraph 2?

A．Keeping a hot topic of it.

B．Attaching no importance to it.

C．Having a low opinion of it.

D．Adding supportive evidence to it.

【小题3】What is the scientists’ purpose to clone these monkeys?

A．To prepare for their research on human cloning.

B．To serve as a stepping stone to their reputation.

C．To help with the study of human diseases.

D．To raise money for holding an exhibition of novels.

【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?

A．Cloning humans is already on its way.

B．New techniques seem to be pointless.

C．Society won’t agree to clone another monkey.

D．The success rate of cloning a monkey was not high.

The Square
Jack Dorsey, the co-inventor of Twitter, is promoting his latest invention called the Square. The square is a small plug-in attachment to your mobile phone that allows you to receive credit card payments.
The idea starting from Dorsey's friend Jim McKelvey who was unable to sell some glass work to a customer because he couldn't accept a particular card being used.
Accepting credit card payments for something you're selling isn't always easy, especially if you are mobile like a tradesman, or delivery service at a trade show.
This latest invention uses a small scanner that plugs into the audio input item on a mobile device. It reads information on a credit card when it is swiped(刷卡). The information is not stored on the device but sent over secure channels to banks. It basically makes any mobile phone a cash register for accepting card payments.
As a payer, you receive a receipt via email that can be instantly accessed securely online. You can also use a text message to authorize payment in real time. Retailers can create a payer account for their customers which speeds the payment process. For example, a cardholder can assign a photo to their card so their photo will appear on the phone for visual identity confirmation. Mobile devices with touch screens will also allow you to sign for goods.
There are no contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs to accept card payments using Square and it is expected the plug-in attachment will also be free of charge.
As with Twitter, it's expected that Dorsey will direct the company based upon feedback from users. Square Inc. has offices in San Francisco, Saint Louis and New York and is currently beta testing the invention with retailers in the United States.
【小题1】Why is Jack Dorsey promoting his latest invention?

A．To test a plug-in attachment.

B．To identify a particular credit card.

C．To sell some glass work to a customer.

D．To allow people to receive credit card payments.

【小题2】What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．The service performs only on special mobile phones.

B．The latest invention is just a small scanner.

C．The Square contains information on a credit card.

D．It is safe for your information to be sent to banks.

【小题3】How can a cardholder receive a receipt?

A．By email online.

B．By oral message.

C．By a payer account.

D．Over safe channels to banks.

【小题4】What does the writer imply in the last paragraph?

A．The invention may be used in the future.

B．The Square has already put into use widely.

C．The invention hasn’t been tested these days.

D．The Square is popular among people in the US.

   According to a study published last week in the journal Science，scientists have found a way to change a plant's genes（基因）in order to make it use sunlight more quickly. Someday，the results could increase the amount of food produced around the world.

By changing a plant's genes，the scientists were able to increase leaf growth on plants by 14-20 percent. Specifically，scientists changed the plant's protective（保护的）system. “Normally，this system is activated when a plant gets too much sunlight，”said scientist Krishna Niyogi，co-author of the study. “When the plant senses the light，it gets rid of extra energy and creates more leaves. When the plant is in the shade，the protective system is turned off. But the process is slow.”

Stephen Long is the lead author of the study. He compared a plant's protective system to light-adjusting glasses.“When a person wears the glasses outside during the day，the lenses（镜片）darken and lighten depending on how sunny it is. Plants do the same thing，”he said.“But in plants the adjustment can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. This makes it hard for plants to get the right amount of sunlight needed to create food.”

The new study sped up the process. By changing the plant's genes，it's more quickly than normal to turn on and turn off the protective system. As a result，leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth on two plants increased by 20 percent, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14percent. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they thought the genetic modification would produce the same results in corn or rice.

【小题1】What does the plant's protective system need to keep activated?

A．Mild shade.	B．Leaf growth.
C．Genetic changes.	D．Enough sunlight.

【小题2】What does the underlined word“modification”in Paragraph 4mean?

A．Development.	B．Decoration.
C．Change.	D．Copying.

【小题3】What can we infer from this text?

A．Changing how a plant uses sunlight could mean more food in the future.

B．When the plant is in the shade, its protective system is turned off slowly.

C．Too much sunlight will damage plants' protective system.

D．It is hard for plants to create food without enough sunlight.

   You'll probably never go to Mars or sing on the stage with The Rolling Stones. But if virtual reality （VR）ever lives up to its promise, you might be able to do all these things - and many more - without even leaving your home.Unlike real reality, virtual reality means simulating（模拟）bits of our world. Apart from games and entertainment, it's long been used for training airline pilots and surgeons and for helping scientists to figure out difficult problems such as the structure of protein molecules（蛋白质分子）. Then how does it work?

Close your eyes and think of virtual reality and you probably picture something like this:a man wearing a wrap-around headset and data gloves wired into a powerful workstation or supercomputer. What distinguishes VR from an ordinary computer experiences the nature of the input and output. While an ordinary computer uses things like a keyboard, a mouse, or speech recognition for input, VR uses sensors that detect how your body is moving. A PC displays output on a screen while VR uses two screens （one for each eye） , surround-sound speakers, and maybe some forms of touch and body feedback as well.

VR has been routinely used by scientists,doctors, engineers, architects, archaeologists, and the military for about the last 30 years. Difficult and dangerous jobs are hard to train for. How  can you safely practice taking a trip to space, making a parachute jump, or carrying out brain surgery? All these things are obvious candidates for virtual reality applications.

Like any technology, virtual reality has both good and bad points. Critics always raise the risk that people may be addicted to alternative realities to the point of ignoring their real-world lives, but this criticism has been leveled at everything from radio and TV to computer games and the Internet. Like many technologies, VR takes little or nothing away from the real world: you don't have to use it if you don't want to.

【小题1】According to the passage, virtual reality means ____________ .

A．imagining beautiful things in our mind

B．creating something that doesn't exist

C．creating an environment that seems real

D．cloning something that has died out

【小题2】What equipment do we probably need for virtual reality?

A．A keyboard, a headset and a supercomputer.

B．A headset, data gloves and speech recognition.

C．A headset, data gloves and a supercomputer.

D．A keyboard, a mouse and speech recognition.

【小题3】Paragraph 3 is mainly about ____________ .

A．the principles of virtual reality

B．the applications of virtual reality

C．the history of virtual reality

D．the study team of virtual reality

【小题4】What is the writer's attitude towards VR?

A．Appreciative.	B．Cautious.
C．Skeptical.	D．Indifferent.