第十九講　細節理解題

　　(1)(8 min.)

　　(原創)There are hundreds of travel writers. It will not be easy for you to make a mark, unless you are different. Reading the works of great travel writers and getting inspired by them are not a bad thing, but you should not copy their style and their approach. The world needs something new. Greatness is not achieved through following, it is achieved through leading, and to lead you need to choose your own approach!

　　Being a travel writer can be _exacting. You must realize that you will not be the first one in a long line. Flights will not arrive on time for you, every hotel will not have a room for you, and you may not be able to make a living out of your work. So, you should be prepared mentally and physically before you begin your quest to explore the world.

　　When you write a travel guide, you should remember that you are not the subject in your guide! You should always focus on the place that you are exploring. What is the difference between visiting a place and exploring it? The answer is very simple, when you visit a place you ask the question ‘where to go？’ and when you explore, you ask ‘why to go there？’ Your work should not turn out to be just a map which shows directions. It should explain why you chose a specific direction. If you are not curious while traveling, you will never have something new for your readers.

　　I believe that every individual has a unique style of writing. You should dare to have a different approach. Avoid long personal stories and do not neglect grammar and punctuations.

　　You should also take efforts to promote your work. You should make use of blogs, and popular social networking sites to promote your work. Try to establish contact with major publications. Once your work gets published in a big magazine, there is no stopping.

　　There are many travel writers who say that this is the best job in the world. If you love traveling, you will love this job!

　　1. According to the first paragraph, what do you need to do if you want to be a good travel writer?

　　A. Develop your own style.

　　B. Try to imitate others' approach.

　　C. Read a lot of others' works.

　　D. Get instructed by other writers.

　　2. The underlined word “exacting” can be best replaced by “______”．

　　A. interesting

　　B. exciting

　　C. rewarding

　　D. challenging

　　3. When you travel everywhere, what should you keep in mind according to Para.3?

　　A. Patience.

　　B. Curiosity.

　　C. Judgment.

　　D. Excitement.

　　4. We can infer from the fourth paragraph that ______.

　　A. places visited by thousands of writers have no untold stories

　　B. no one really has the time to read books with hundreds of pages

　　C. your reputation will be the same even with grammatical mistakes

　　D. you can expect any miracles right after your first work is published

　　5. What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

　　A. Making a good preparation.

　　B. Visiting and exploring.

　　C. Marketing yourself.

　　D. Remembering some writing tips.

　　(2)(8 min.)

　　(2024·長郡中學月考五)Increasingly over the last few years, we have become familiar with the range of small electronic devices or “smart” accessories (附件， 飾品). Pocket heart-rate monitors for joggers and electronic maps are just the first examples of many new products that promise to change our lives in all sorts of surprising ways.

　　As a scientist at New York University, Rosalind Picard tries out different smart accessories before they go on the market. One of these was the so-called “frown (皺眉) headband”. Rosalind was shocked to realize just how often she frowned. Stuck in a traffic jam recently, Rosalind kept hearing the sounds of the tiny sensor inside the band worn around her forehead — each time she frowned in annoyance, the sensor gave out a signal.

　　Another computer scientist, Steven Feiner, is working on a pair of glasses that will do more than help you to see. Imagine you want to try a restaurant in a foreign city but you're not familiar with the dishes on the menu. If you are wearing a pair of Steven's glasses, all you have to do is glance above the restaurant's doorway and your glasses will immediately become windows to the Internet, offering you full details of the meals served inside. The glasses could also be used to help people make speeches, give chefs access to the latest recipes and even provide doctors with patient information while they carry out operations.

　　At the moment, Steven's invention looks more like a large ski mask than a pair of glasses.

　　It's a headset connected to a hand-held computer and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, which tracks the wearer's position. But he says that these head-worn displays will eventually get smaller and lighter as technology improves.

　　And, of course, this new technology has a fashionable as well as a useful application. A chemical engineer named Robert Langer has invented a new microchip that, if put inside a ring, can give off different smells according to a person's mood. That, of course, may or may not appeal to you. And, in the end, it is shoppers, not scientists, who will determine which of these smart accessories will succeed as fashionable items and which are sure to join history's long list of crazy inventions.

　　It is clear, however, that as computers get smaller and cheaper, they will pop up in all sorts of easily-wearable accessories, even in the buttons on your coat. What's more, this is something that's going to happen a lot sooner than we all expect.

　　1. When Rosalind wore the headband, she was surprised at ______.

　　A. how well the sensor worked

　　B. how she was affected by traffic

　　C. how strong the signal was

　　D. how comfortable it was

　　2. For people eating out, Steven's glasses can ______.

　　A. give them a restaurant's location

　　B. let them see a restaurant's environment

　　C. inform them about a restaurant's menu

　　D. tell them about a restaurant's quality

　　3. What is the current problem with Steven's glasses?

　　A. Limited function.

　　B. Inconvenience.

　　C. High cost.

　　D. Poor Internet access.

　　4. In general, what does the writer think about smart accessories?

　　A. They will soon be widely available.

　　B. Much more research is needed into them.

　　C. Only a few of them will appeal to shoppers.

　　D. Most of them are considered to be crazy inventions.

　　5. What's the writer's purpose in writing this passage?

　　A. To advertise some smart accessories.

　　B. To tell interesting stories about smart accessories.

　　C. To argue that smart accessories are fashionable.

　　D. To introduce the ideas of smart accessories.

　　(3)(8 min.)

　　(原創)From the car park at the foot of the Range of the Awful Hand, it is a short walk to what may be the darkest place in Scotland. The site is famous among a small group of enthusiasts who come here in black nights to stand, watch and wonder.

　　The patch of ground is surrounded by 300 square miles of moorland(沼澤地), woods and lakes that form the rough wilderness of Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland, and in a few weeks, officials at the park will take steps towards making it Europe's first dark sky park.

　　Only two other parks in the world, one in Pennsylvania, the other in Utah, have been recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association, a US-based organization that seeks to preserve the darkest corners of the Earth. To earn dark sky park status, officials will submit digital photographs of the night sky taken through a fisheye lens(超廣角鏡頭). Their application must also be supported by readings from light meters at different points in the park.

　　In 1989, the British Astronomical Society set up a group called the Campaign for Dark Skies to highlight the growing issue of light pollution. With increasing urbanization come better-lit streets, roads and buildings, which send light needlessly up into the sky, hiding all but the brightest stars. According to some estimates, the amount of light sent into space costs around $110 million a year.

　　“If you go out in an urban street and look up at night, you might see 50, maybe 100 stars at best. But come to our park and when you look up, there are so many stars you can't count them. You can see shooting stars, satellites and the Milky Way, with its billions of stars. You don't even need a high-powered telescope: a pair of binoculars is brilliant，” said Keith Muir, an official at Galloway Forest Park.

　　Steven Owens, a British astronomer, also said, “We've become a very urban population, and in doing so we've cut ourselves off from experiences people have had for hundreds and thousands of years.”

　　“People have been looking up at the night sky, telling stories and passing on myths and legends for the whole recorded human history. But when we moved into cities, we lost that deep connection with the universe. In setting up dark sky parks, we're trying to reconnect people with nature.”

　　1. What attracts people most in Galloway Forest Park?

　　A. The dark nights.

　　B. The wonderful scenery.

　　C. 300 square miles of moorland.

　　D. The rough wilderness.

　　2. What must be included for Galloway Forest Park to gain dark sky status?

　　A. Some myths and legends.

　　B. Some pictures of the Milky Way.

　　C. Digital photographs of the night sky.

　　D. Light meters used at different points in the park.

　　3. Why was the Campaign for Dark Skies set up?

　　A. To highlight the growing issue of light pollution.

　　B. To preserve the wildlife in Scotland.

　　C. To attract world's attention to the dark corners on earth.

　　D. To prevent urbanization.

　　4. In comparison with urban nights, people can ______ at Galloway nights.

　　A. enjoy all the rough wilderness

　　B. breathe fresh air

　　C. enjoy countless stars

　　D. count all the stars 5. What can be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Observing Stars

　　B. Europe's First Dark Sky Park

　　C. The International Dark-Sky Association

　　D. Three Dark Sky Parks in the World

　　(4)(8 min.)

　　Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

　　People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles”， but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something — usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal(地熱的) plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

　　In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It's as if the California Greens are covering their eyes — “If I can't see it, it's not happening.” Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat — at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

　　A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far — so electric cars burn more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes(核能發電廠), or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don't use much of those energy sources.

　　In addition, electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

　　1. What does “clueless” mean in paragraph 2?

　　A. People are seeing the California Greens everywhere.

　　B. People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles”．

　　C. People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells.

　　D. People there have no idea that so far electricity mainly comes from burning coal, oil, etc.

　　2. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　A. Electric cars are not clean at all.

　　B. Electric cars are better than gasoline-powered ones.

　　C. People cast doubts on electric cars' batteries.

　　D. Gasoline is an efficient way to power a vehicle.

　　3. The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run ______.

　　A. not less than 25 miles

　　B. more than 25 miles

　　C. no more than 25 miles

　　D. not more than 25 miles

　　4. According to the passage, electric cars ______.

　　A. do not burn fuel and more environmentally-friendly

　　B. are toxic because it is difficult for nature to clean it up when their batteries are buried in one spot

　　C. are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated

　　D. are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill

　　5. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

　　A. being green is good and should be encouraged in communication

　　B. electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning something

　　C. zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment

　　D. electric cars are now the dominant vehicle compared with gasoline-powered cousins

　　第十九講　細節理解題

　　(1)(8 min.)

　　(原創)There are hundreds of travel writers. It will not be easy for you to make a mark, unless you are different. Reading the works of great travel writers and getting inspired by them are not a bad thing, but you should not copy their style and their approach. The world needs something new. Greatness is not achieved through following, it is achieved through leading, and to lead you need to choose your own approach!

　　Being a travel writer can be _exacting. You must realize that you will not be the first one in a long line. Flights will not arrive on time for you, every hotel will not have a room for you, and you may not be able to make a living out of your work. So, you should be prepared mentally and physically before you begin your quest to explore the world.

　　When you write a travel guide, you should remember that you are not the subject in your guide! You should always focus on the place that you are exploring. What is the difference between visiting a place and exploring it? The answer is very simple, when you visit a place you ask the question ‘where to go？’ and when you explore, you ask ‘why to go there？’ Your work should not turn out to be just a map which shows directions. It should explain why you chose a specific direction. If you are not curious while traveling, you will never have something new for your readers.

　　I believe that every individual has a unique style of writing. You should dare to have a different approach. Avoid long personal stories and do not neglect grammar and punctuations.

　　You should also take efforts to promote your work. You should make use of blogs, and popular social networking sites to promote your work. Try to establish contact with major publications. Once your work gets published in a big magazine, there is no stopping.

　　There are many travel writers who say that this is the best job in the world. If you love traveling, you will love this job!

　　1. According to the first paragraph, what do you need to do if you want to be a good travel writer?

　　A. Develop your own style.

　　B. Try to imitate others' approach.

　　C. Read a lot of others' works.

　　D. Get instructed by other writers.

　　2. The underlined word “exacting” can be best replaced by “______”．

　　A. interesting

　　B. exciting

　　C. rewarding

　　D. challenging

　　3. When you travel everywhere, what should you keep in mind according to Para.3?

　　A. Patience.

　　B. Curiosity.

　　C. Judgment.

　　D. Excitement.

　　4. We can infer from the fourth paragraph that ______.

　　A. places visited by thousands of writers have no untold stories

　　B. no one really has the time to read books with hundreds of pages

　　C. your reputation will be the same even with grammatical mistakes

　　D. you can expect any miracles right after your first work is published

　　5. What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

　　A. Making a good preparation.

　　B. Visiting and exploring.

　　C. Marketing yourself.

　　D. Remembering some writing tips.

　　(2)(8 min.)

　　(2024·長郡中學月考五)Increasingly over the last few years, we have become familiar with the range of small electronic devices or “smart” accessories (附件， 飾品). Pocket heart-rate monitors for joggers and electronic maps are just the first examples of many new products that promise to change our lives in all sorts of surprising ways.

　　As a scientist at New York University, Rosalind Picard tries out different smart accessories before they go on the market. One of these was the so-called “frown (皺眉) headband”. Rosalind was shocked to realize just how often she frowned. Stuck in a traffic jam recently, Rosalind kept hearing the sounds of the tiny sensor inside the band worn around her forehead — each time she frowned in annoyance, the sensor gave out a signal.

　　Another computer scientist, Steven Feiner, is working on a pair of glasses that will do more than help you to see. Imagine you want to try a restaurant in a foreign city but you're not familiar with the dishes on the menu. If you are wearing a pair of Steven's glasses, all you have to do is glance above the restaurant's doorway and your glasses will immediately become windows to the Internet, offering you full details of the meals served inside. The glasses could also be used to help people make speeches, give chefs access to the latest recipes and even provide doctors with patient information while they carry out operations.

　　At the moment, Steven's invention looks more like a large ski mask than a pair of glasses.

　　It's a headset connected to a hand-held computer and a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, which tracks the wearer's position. But he says that these head-worn displays will eventually get smaller and lighter as technology improves.

　　And, of course, this new technology has a fashionable as well as a useful application. A chemical engineer named Robert Langer has invented a new microchip that, if put inside a ring, can give off different smells according to a person's mood. That, of course, may or may not appeal to you. And, in the end, it is shoppers, not scientists, who will determine which of these smart accessories will succeed as fashionable items and which are sure to join history's long list of crazy inventions.

　　It is clear, however, that as computers get smaller and cheaper, they will pop up in all sorts of easily-wearable accessories, even in the buttons on your coat. What's more, this is something that's going to happen a lot sooner than we all expect.

　　1. When Rosalind wore the headband, she was surprised at ______.

　　A. how well the sensor worked

　　B. how she was affected by traffic

　　C. how strong the signal was

　　D. how comfortable it was

　　2. For people eating out, Steven's glasses can ______.

　　A. give them a restaurant's location

　　B. let them see a restaurant's environment

　　C. inform them about a restaurant's menu

　　D. tell them about a restaurant's quality

　　3. What is the current problem with Steven's glasses?

　　A. Limited function.

　　B. Inconvenience.

　　C. High cost.

　　D. Poor Internet access.

　　4. In general, what does the writer think about smart accessories?

　　A. They will soon be widely available.

　　B. Much more research is needed into them.

　　C. Only a few of them will appeal to shoppers.

　　D. Most of them are considered to be crazy inventions.

　　5. What's the writer's purpose in writing this passage?

　　A. To advertise some smart accessories.

　　B. To tell interesting stories about smart accessories.

　　C. To argue that smart accessories are fashionable.

　　D. To introduce the ideas of smart accessories.

　　(3)(8 min.)

　　(原創)From the car park at the foot of the Range of the Awful Hand, it is a short walk to what may be the darkest place in Scotland. The site is famous among a small group of enthusiasts who come here in black nights to stand, watch and wonder.

　　The patch of ground is surrounded by 300 square miles of moorland(沼澤地), woods and lakes that form the rough wilderness of Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland, and in a few weeks, officials at the park will take steps towards making it Europe's first dark sky park.

　　Only two other parks in the world, one in Pennsylvania, the other in Utah, have been recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association, a US-based organization that seeks to preserve the darkest corners of the Earth. To earn dark sky park status, officials will submit digital photographs of the night sky taken through a fisheye lens(超廣角鏡頭). Their application must also be supported by readings from light meters at different points in the park.

　　In 1989, the British Astronomical Society set up a group called the Campaign for Dark Skies to highlight the growing issue of light pollution. With increasing urbanization come better-lit streets, roads and buildings, which send light needlessly up into the sky, hiding all but the brightest stars. According to some estimates, the amount of light sent into space costs around $110 million a year.

　　“If you go out in an urban street and look up at night, you might see 50, maybe 100 stars at best. But come to our park and when you look up, there are so many stars you can't count them. You can see shooting stars, satellites and the Milky Way, with its billions of stars. You don't even need a high-powered telescope: a pair of binoculars is brilliant，” said Keith Muir, an official at Galloway Forest Park.

　　Steven Owens, a British astronomer, also said, “We've become a very urban population, and in doing so we've cut ourselves off from experiences people have had for hundreds and thousands of years.”

　　“People have been looking up at the night sky, telling stories and passing on myths and legends for the whole recorded human history. But when we moved into cities, we lost that deep connection with the universe. In setting up dark sky parks, we're trying to reconnect people with nature.”

　　1. What attracts people most in Galloway Forest Park?

　　A. The dark nights.

　　B. The wonderful scenery.

　　C. 300 square miles of moorland.

　　D. The rough wilderness.

　　2. What must be included for Galloway Forest Park to gain dark sky status?

　　A. Some myths and legends.

　　B. Some pictures of the Milky Way.

　　C. Digital photographs of the night sky.

　　D. Light meters used at different points in the park.

　　3. Why was the Campaign for Dark Skies set up?

　　A. To highlight the growing issue of light pollution.

　　B. To preserve the wildlife in Scotland.

　　C. To attract world's attention to the dark corners on earth.

　　D. To prevent urbanization.

　　4. In comparison with urban nights, people can ______ at Galloway nights.

　　A. enjoy all the rough wilderness

　　B. breathe fresh air

　　C. enjoy countless stars

　　D. count all the stars 5. What can be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Observing Stars

　　B. Europe's First Dark Sky Park

　　C. The International Dark-Sky Association

　　D. Three Dark Sky Parks in the World

　　(4)(8 min.)

　　Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

　　People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles”， but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something — usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal(地熱的) plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

　　In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It's as if the California Greens are covering their eyes — “If I can't see it, it's not happening.” Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat — at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

　　A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far — so electric cars burn more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes(核能發電廠), or geothermal, or hydro, or solar, or wind, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don't use much of those energy sources.

　　In addition, electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

　　1. What does “clueless” mean in paragraph 2?

　　A. People are seeing the California Greens everywhere.

　　B. People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions vehicles”．

　　C. People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells.

　　D. People there have no idea that so far electricity mainly comes from burning coal, oil, etc.

　　2. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　A. Electric cars are not clean at all.

　　B. Electric cars are better than gasoline-powered ones.

　　C. People cast doubts on electric cars' batteries.

　　D. Gasoline is an efficient way to power a vehicle.

　　3. The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run ______.

　　A. not less than 25 miles

　　B. more than 25 miles

　　C. no more than 25 miles

　　D. not more than 25 miles

　　4. According to the passage, electric cars ______.

　　A. do not burn fuel and more environmentally-friendly

　　B. are toxic because it is difficult for nature to clean it up when their batteries are buried in one spot

　　C. are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated

　　D. are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill

　　5. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

　　A. being green is good and should be encouraged in communication

　　B. electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning something

　　C. zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment

　　D. electric cars are now the dominant vehicle compared with gasoline-powered cousins