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2008年职称英语理工类教材新增部分内容(五)
发布时间：2008-1-15 14:58:00 浏览次数: 650
第四部分 阅读理解
（八篇）
1. Electric Backpack (C级)
（替换2007年用书理工类阅读理解第二篇：Will Quality Eat up the US Lead in Software? ）
Backpacks are convenient. They can hold your books, your lunch, and a change of clothes, leaving your hands free to do other things. Someday, if you don’t mind carrying a heavy load, your backpacks might also power your MP31 player, keep your cell phone running, and maybe even light your way home.
Lawrence C. Rome and his colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia2 and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole3, Mass. 4, have invented a backpack that makes electricity from energy produced while its wearer walks. In military actions, search-and-rescue operations, and scientific field studies, people rely increasingly on cell phones, global positioning system (GPS)5 receivers, night-vision goggles, and other battery-powered devices to get around and do their work.. The backpack’s electricity-generating feature could dramatically reduce the amount of a wearer’s load now devoted to spare batteries, report Rome and his colleagues in the Sept. 9 Science6.
The backpack’s electricity-creating powers depend on springs used to hang a cloth pack from its metal frame. The frame sits against the wearer’s back, and the whole pack moves up and down as the person walks. A gear mechanism converts vertical movements of the pack to rotary motions of an electrical generator, producing up to 7.4 watts.
Unexpectedly, tests showed that wearers of the new backpack alter their gaits in response to the pack’s oscillations, so that they carry loads more comfortably and with less effort than they do ordinary backpacks. Because of that surprising advantage, Rome plans to commercialize both electric and non-electric versions of the backpack.
The backpack could be especially useful for soldiers, scientists, mountaineers, and emergency workers who typically carry heavy backpacks. For the rest of us, power-generating backpacks could make it possible to walk, play video games, watch TV, and listen to music, all at the same time. Electricity-generating packs aren’t on the market yet, but if you do get one eventually, just make sure to look both ways before crossing the street!
词汇：
backpack n.背包
watt n. 瓦（特）
receiver n. 接收机
gait n. 步态，步法
night-vision goggle 夜视镜
oscillation n. 摆动
spring n. 弹簧
commercialize v. 商业化
vertical adj. 垂直的
mountaineer n. 登山运动员
rotary adj. 旋转的
注释：
1. MP3 ：Internet上最流行的音乐格式，最早起源于1987年德国一家公司的EU147数字传输计划，它利用MPEGAudioLayer3的技术，将声音文件用1∶12左右的压缩率压缩，变成容量较小的音乐文件，使传输和储存更为便捷，更利于互联网用户在网上试听或下载到个人计算机。
2. Philadelphia：费城[美国宾夕法尼亚州东南部港市]
3. Woods Hole：美国马萨诸塞州的一个渔村，也是许多重要研究机构所在地，如： the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Sea Education Association 以及 the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
4. Mass.：Massachusetts 的缩写：马萨诸塞州，美国东北部的一个州。
5. global positioning system (GPS)： 全球定位系统
6. Science：美国的 Science 杂志为国际上著名的自然科学综合类学术期刊，在世界学术界享有盛誉。 Science 杂志创刊于1880年，该杂志具有新闻杂志和学术期刊的双重特点，每周除向世界各地发布有关科学技术和科技政策的重要新闻外，还发表全球科技研究最显著突破的研究论文和报告。
练习：
1. Backpacks are convenient because
A) they can be very large
B) they can hold as many things as you want to carry.
C) your hands are freed to do other things.
D) you do not have to carry things with you.
2. What is the most important feature of the backpack invented by Lawrence C. Rome and his colleagues?
A) It produces electricity for electronic devices while the wearer walks.
B) It can be used as cell phones, GPS in the military actions or field studies.
C) It is small and convenient.
D) It is light and easy to carry.
3. The word “springs” in Paragraph 3 means
A) a small stream of water flowing naturally from the earth.
B) the season of the year, occurring between winter and summer.
C) the act or an instance of jumping or leaping.
D) a length of metal wound around, which returns to its original shape after being pushed.
4. According to Paragraph 4, what does Rome plan to do?
A) To make the backpack more comfortable for the wearer.
B) To put the backpack on the market.
C) To test the advantage of the backpack.
D) To promote the backpack in a newspaper or on television.
5. What is implied in “if you do get one eventually, just make sure to look both ways before crossing the street!”
A) You will be too excited to watch the traffic.
B) Enjoying electronic devices while walking may invite traffic accidents.
C) It is not possible for you to get such a backpack.
D) It is wise of you to have such a backpack.
答案与题解：
1. C 第一段告诉我们，因为背包可以装许多东西，所以可以将双手解放出来做其它事情：to free your hands to do other things.
2. A 第二段的第一句说，Lawrence C. Rome 及其同事们发明的这种背包，当背着背包走路时，会有电能产生；该段最后一句告诉我们，背包的这种性能可减少背包的重量，因为不必携带备用电池。
3． D “springs”在此是弹簧的意思。spring是一个多义词：泉水（A）、春天（B）、弹跳（C）。
4． B 第四段最后一句的意思是：Rome计划将这种背包商业化，即，推向市场。A、C、D在文中均未提到。D的意思是为背包做广告。
5． B 这个句子的字面意思是：如果你终于得到这样的背包，过马路时一定要两面都看看。也就是说，不要因为同时玩着游戏、听着音乐、看着电视，太专注以致不注意来往车辆了。
2. Flying the Hyper1 Skies (C级)
（替换2007年用书理工类阅读理解第六篇：Live with Computer）
A little airplane has given new meaning to the term “going hyper.”
The Hyper-X2 recently broke the record for air-breathing jet planes when it traveled at a hypersonic speed of seven times the speed of sound. That’s about 5,000 miles per hour. At this speed, you’d get around the world – flying along the equator – in less than 5 hours.
The hyper-X is an unmanned, experimental aircraft just 12 feet long. It achieves hypersonic speed using a special sort of engine known as a scramjet3. It may sound like something from a comic book, but engineers have been experimenting with scramjets since the 1960s.
For an engine to burn fuel and produce energy, it needs oxygen. A jet engine, like those on passenger airplanes, gets oxygen from the air. A rocket engine typically goes faster but has to carry its own supply of oxygen. A scramjet engine goes as fast as a rocket, but it doesn’t have to carry its own oxygen supply.
A scramjet’s special design allows it to obtain oxygen from the air that flows through the engine. And it does so without letting the fast-moving air put out the combustion flames. However, a scramjet engine works properly only at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound.
A booster rocket carried the Hyper-X to an altitude of about 100,000 feet for its test flight. The aircraft’s record-beating flight lasted just 11 seconds. Although the little plane’s self-powered flight lasted only 11 seconds, that brief journey on March 27 makes a major milestone on the way to a new breed of very fast airplanes, comments Werner J. A. Dahm of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor4. In the future, engineers predict, airplanes equipped with scramjet engines could transport cargo quickly and cheaply to the brink of space. Such hypersonic jets could potentially carry passengers anywhere in the world in just a few hours.
Out of the three experimental Hyper-X aircrafts built for NASA5, only one is now left. The agency has plans for another 11-second hypersonic flight, this time at 10 times the speed of the sound.
词汇：
hypersonic adj. 超音速的
booster n. 助推器
equator n. 赤道
milestone n. 里程碑
unmanned adj. 无人的
booster rocket助推火箭
scramjet n. 超音速燃烧冲压式, 喷气发动机
cargo n. 货物
combustion n. 燃烧 brink n. 边缘
注释：
1. Hyper: 构词词素，意思是：超，极度的；例如：hypersonic (超音速)，hyper text （超文本），hyperactive（极度活跃）。
2. Hyper-X：美国国家航空和宇宙航行局进行了多年的超音速飞机研究项目（Hyper X Program）中的一架实验飞机。
3. scramjet：该词由三个词素缩略而成：s(upersonic超音速)，c(ombustion：燃烧) 和 ramjet (喷气引擎)，即，一种喷气式飞机发动机，设计用于极超音速飞行，燃料在飞机产生的极超音速气流中燃烧。
4. Ann Arbor：美国密歇根州（Michigan）的一个城市，华盛顿郡郡政府所在地，因密歇根大学而闻名。
5. NASA：是National Aeronautics and Space Administration的缩写, 中文译名是：(美国) 国家航空和宇宙航行局。
练习：
1. The Hyper X broke the record because
A) It was the first air-breathing jet plane.
B) It flew along the equator.
C) It flew at speeds smaller than five times the speed of sound.
D) It traveled at a supersonic speed.
2. What kind of an engine did the Hyper X use?
A) A jet engine that gets oxygen from the air.
B) A scramjet engine that doesn’t carry its own oxygen supply.
C) A rocket engine that carries its own supply of oxygen.
D) A jet engine that uses no oxygen.
3. What is NOT true about the scramjet engine?
A) It goes slower than a rocket.
B) It extracts oxygen from the air that flows through the engine.
C) It works only at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound.
D) It doesn’t carry its own oxygen supply.
4. What did Werner J. A. Dahm of the University of Michigan say about the Hyper X test flight?
A) It indicated the birth of a very fast airplane.
B) It was self-powered, so it lasted only 11 seconds.
C) It can transport cargo quickly and cheaply to the brink of space
D) It is a major milestone in the journey of making a new type of very fast airplanes
5. What has NASA planned to do?
A) To make another 11-second hypersonic flight at 10 times the speed of the sound.
B) To make three more Hyper X experiments.
C) To retest the aircraft that is left.
D) To make the aircraft fly higher and longer.
答案与题解：
1. C Hyper X之所以打破记录是因为它的飞行速度是音速的7倍。它不是第一架空气喷气式飞机，也不是第一架超音速飞机，所以A和D都不对。Hyper X的试飞并未绕赤道飞行，所以B也是错误的选择。
2. B 第四段讲了三种发动机的氧气来源：喷气式发动机是从空气中汲取氧气，火箭发动机必须自携氧气，而超音速冲压喷气发动机则不必自携氧气，而这正是Hyper X使用的发动机装置。
3. A 根据第五段内容，B、C、D都是正确的说法。第四段最后一句告诉我们，A的说法是不正确的。
4. D 文章的第六段中，密歇根大学的研究人员Werner J. A. Dahm 说，Hyper X的试飞成功只是研制一种新式快速飞机过程中的一个里程碑 （a major milestone on the way to a new breed of very fast airplanes），而不是新型飞机的诞生。所以，D是正确选择，A是错误选择。B也不是Werner J. A. Dahm想要表达的意思，C是其它工程师而不是Werner J. A. Dahm说的话。
5. A 答案可在最后一段找到。
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