任务型阅读专项练习.doc

高一英语任务型阅读专项练习
A
Time, a faithful company of our life, is a universal topic. People are always curious about what it is, how it travels and who it meets.
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s smartest physicists, once said, “I’m fascinated by time.”
Many of us are, and the popularity of time travel novels, movies and TV series has proved that. After Palace and Startling by Each Step achieved astonishing ratings in 2011, Palace 2 aired on January 20, 2012, attracting time travel fans back to TV.
Woody Allen’s movie Midnight in Paris achieved great success. It was nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards.
Dream of heroism
Time travel TV series and movies connect both today and the past, thus offering room for imagination. Imagination creates a chance for the young to fulfill a dream that is hard to achieve in reality.
Chinese writer Xi Juan is a pioneer of time travel stories in China. In 1993, she published a love story about a young woman traveling back to ancient times. The leading role’s modern personality and perception of love help her win the heart of a cool, handsome martial art master. Such a plot satisfies female fans’ love fantasy.
Starting from the late 1990s, novels about men traveling back to the past prevailed (盛行), with A Step into the Past as the most popular example. In these stories, the male leading roles accomplish great things with their modern skills and wisdom.
It is usually “a dream of heroism comes true”, along with enviable romances.
Eye candy
“I’m hooked by the shows because they are characterized by dramatic and poetic love and have eye-pleasing actors,” Xia Xiaoyan, who works for a foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai, explained her love for time travel TV series.
Her comment echoes a 2011 survey by Create Marketing Research Co., Ltd. in China. When asked about what is so appealing about time travel TV series, 21 percent of respondents answered, “These attractive characters.”
A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, however, is the relaxation they offer, according to the survey.
Cai Yinong agrees. “Many people are facing tremendous pressure in their fast-paced lives, so this genre is more relaxing than other shows as it provides people with a terrific outlet to escape reality,” Cai told China Daily.
Cultural homesickness
“Which dynasty would you like to live in if you could travel to the past?” asked a survey launched by Shanghai University and Shanghai Social Sciences Association last December.
About 60 percent of the 2,543 respondents chose the Tang Dynasty, while the Qing Dynasty, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were the other top two destinations.
The survey results reflect people’s definition of the good days: prosperous economy and culture, steady society, fair and uncorrupted politics, and opening up to the outside world.
As for the movie Midnight in Paris, it features modernity versus cultural homesickness. The New York Times commented, “The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present. The good old days are so attractive because we were not around, however much we wish we were.”
Time Travel Wins Fans
Phenomenon
● Stephen Hawking shows great interest in (1)　　　.
● People are (2)　　　 of time travel movies and TV series.
● Woody Allen was (3)　　　 in his time travel movie.
(4)　　　
for its
popularity
Dream of
heroism

● Chances are offered for the young to fulfill (5)　　　 hard to achieve in reality.
● Xi Juan’s 1993 love story (6)　　　 a young woman traveling back to ancient times, which satisfies female fans.
● From the late 1990s, novels about (7)　　　 traveling back to the past became increasingly popular.
● The male leading role in A Step into the Past travels back to the past to fulfill great things by using his (8)　　　 skills and wisdom.
Eye candy
Attractive actors and time travel stories make viewers under pressure (9)　　　.
Cultural
homesickness
Most respondents chose to live in a certain dynasty for:
● Prosperous economy and (10)　　　;
● Steady society;
● Fair and uncorrupted politics;
● Opening up to the outside world

B
Waste to Energy — JUST BURN IT!
Why burn waste?
Waste-to-energy plants generate (生产) enough electricity to supply 2.4 million households in the US. But providing electricity is not the major advantage of waste-to-energy plants. In fact, it costs more to generate electricity at a waste-to-energy plant than it does at a coal, nuclear, or hydropower plant.
The major advantage of burning waste is that it considerably reduces the amount of trash going to landfills. The average American produces more than 1,600 pounds of waste a year. If all this waste were landfilled, it would take more than two cubic yards of landfill space. That’s the volume of a box three feet long, three feet wide, and six feet high. If that waste were burned, the ashes would fit into a box three feet long, three feet wide, but only nine inches high!
Some communities in the Northeast may be running out of land for new landfills. And, since most people don’t want landfills in their backyards, it has become more difficult to obtain permits to build new landfills. Taking the country as a whole, the United States has plenty of open space of course, but it is expensive to transport garbage a long distance to put it into a landfill.
To burn or not to burn?
Some people are concerned that burning garbage may harm the environment. Like coal plants, waste-to-energy plants produce air pollution when the fuel is burned to produce steam or electricity. Burning garbage releases chemicals and substances. Some chemicals can be a threat to people, the environment, or both, if they are not properly controlled.
Some critics of waste-to-energy plants are afraid that burning waste will hamper (妨碍) recycling programs. If everyone sends their trash to a waste-to-energy plant, they say, there will be little motive to recycle. Several states have considered or are considering banning waste-to-energy plants unless recycling programs are in place. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York City have delayed new waste-to-energy plants, hoping to increase the level of recycling first.
So, what’s the real story? Can recycling and burning waste coexist? At first glance, recycling and waste-to-energy seem to be at odds (不一致), but they can actually complement (相辅相成) each other. That’s because it makes good sense to recycle some materials, and better sense to burn others.
Let’s look at aluminum (铝), for example. Aluminum mineral is expensive to mine. And burning it produces no energy. So clearly, aluminum is valuable to recycle and not useful to burn.
Paper, on the other hand, can either be burned or recycled — it all depends on the price the used paper will bring.
Plastics are another matter. Because plastics are made from petroleum and natural gas, they are excellent sources of energy for waste-to-energy plants. This is especially true since plastics are not as easy to recycle as steel, aluminum or paper. Making a product from recycled plastics may cost more than making it from new materials.
To burn or not to burn is not really the question. We should use both recycling and waste-to-energy as alternatives to landfilling.

Why burn waste?
Advantages of
waste-to-energy
◆ Though at a high (1)　　　, waste-to-energy plants can produce enough electricity for 2.4 million US households.
◆ Burning waste can (2)　　　 a considerable amount of trash going to landfills.
(3)　　　 in
landfilling
◆ Some communities (4)　　　 land for new landfills.
◆ Most people don’t want landfills to be built around.
◆ Building landfills in far-away areas will increase the cost of (5)　　　 garbage.
To burn or not to burn?
(6)　　　 about burning garbage
◆ Burning garbage releases chemicals, which, if not properly controlled, can be (7)　　　 to people and the environment.
◆ Burning garbage will hamper recycling programs.
Coexistence of
recycling and
burning waste
Recycling and waste-to-energy can go well with each other in that some materials like aluminum are fit to recycle, while others like plastics are fit to (8)　　　.
(9)　　　
We could (10)　　　 landfilling with both recycling and waste-to-energy to deal with garbage.

C
When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it’s far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to come up with some better ideas to help them.
I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer, which can run without electricity. He decided to invent this computer after he visited a school in Cambodia.
The laptop which Mr. Negroponte has designed is a little different from the normal laptop computers you can buy in the shops. One difference is that it is covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won’t be damaged easily. As the electricity supply can be a problem in developing countries, the computer also has a special handle so that children can wind the computer up to give it extra power when needed.
These special laptop computers will cost less than 100 dollars and Mr. Negroponte wants to build as many as 15 million machines in the first year of production. The idea is that these computers will help the children’s education as they will have access to the Internet. These computers might not help the people in developing countries immediately, but by improving children’s education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.
Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. Waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to “kill two birds with one stone”, and that is always a good thing.
Traditional
way
Giving money to (1)　　　 their basic needs such as food and medicine.
New ideas

Making
cheap laptop
computers
for children
in developing
countries
(2)　　　
Nicholas Negroponte
Reason
His (3)　　　 to a school in Cambodia
Features
◆ Being covered in rubber
◆ Running without electricity
◆ Having (4)　　　 to the Internet
(5)　　　
Less than $100
Purposes
◆ To help (6)　　　 children in developing countries
◆ To help people there solve problems in the long term
(7)　　　
old mobile
phones
Reason
Throwing away old mobile phones easily creates waste, which does (8)　　　 to the environment.
(9)　　　
We’ll reduce the waste; (10)　　　, we will help others.

参考答案：
A1. time 2. fond 3. successful 4. Reasons 5. dreams 6. introduces/describes 7. men 8. modern 9. relaxed
10. culture
B
1. cost 2. reduce/prevent/stop 3. Difficulty/Trouble 4. lack 5. transporting 6. Concerns/Worries
7. harmful/dangerous 8. burn 9. Conclusion 10. replace
C
1. meet/satisfy 2. Inventor 3. visit 4. access 5. Cost/Price 6. educate 7. Recycling 8. harm/damage 9. Goals
10. meanwhile

5