Passage Four
In 1902, Georges Méliès made and released a movie called A Trip to the Moon. In this movie, the spaceship was a small capsule, shaped like a bullet, that was loaded into a giant cannon and aimed at the moon.
This movie was based on a book that came out many years earlier by an author named Jules Verne. One of the fans of the book was a Russian man, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The book made him think. Could one really shoot people out of a cannon and have them get safely to the moon? He decided one couldn't., but it got him thinking of other ways one could get people to the moon. He spent his life considering this problem and came uo with many solutions.
Some of Tsiolkovsky's solutions gave scientists in America and Russia ideas when they began to think about space travel. They also thought about airplanes they and other people had made, and even big bombs that could fly themselves very long distances.
Many scientists spent years working together to solve the problem. They drew and discussed different designs until they agreed on the ones that were the best. Then, they built small models of those designs, and tested and tested them until they felt ready to build even bigger models. They made full-scale rockets, which they launched without any people inside, to test for safety. Often the rockets weren't safe, and they exploded right there on the launch pad, or shot off in crazy directions like a balloon that you blow up and release without tying it first. After
many, many tests, they started to send small animals into space. Only after a long time did they ever put a person inside a rocket and shoot him into space.
Even after they began sending people into space, scientists were still trying to improve the shape of the rockets. The design changed many times, and eventually ended up looking like a half-rocket and half-airplane. The machine called space shuttle was used for many years. Now, the government lets private companies try their own designs for spaceships, and they have come up with many different, crazy-looking machines.
36. In the movie A Trip to the Moon, the spaceship was sent to the moon ______.
A.in a capsule B.in a bullet C.by a cannon D.by a gun
37. The movie was based on a book written by ______.
A.Konstantin Tsiolkovsky B.an unknown author
C.Georges Méliès D.Jules Verne
38. Before the invention of a spaceship, possible solutions of space travel included all of the following EXCEPT ______.
A.bombs B.balloons C.airplanes D.rockets
39. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?
A.It took a long time and hard work to send a person into space.
B.American scientists worked better than Russian scientists.
C.Scientists from Russia and America had close cooperation.
D.The design of the rocket was inspired by the movie A Trip to the Moon.
40. The word "shoot" (ParA.4) is closest in meaning to "______".
A.send with great force B.break into many pieces
C.fix a problem D.attack with a weapon
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are required to read one quoted blog and the comments on it. The blog and comments are followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers A, B, C and D.Choose the best answer and mark your answer on the Answer Sheet.
In 2003, I was told by a restaurant owner on a Thai island that local fishermen used to wrap their lunch in banana leaves, which they would then casually toss overboard when done. That was OK, because the leaves decayed and the fish ate them all. But in the past decade, he said, plastic wrap had rapidly replaced banana leaves, so the beach was edged with a crust of plastic.
This is a worldwide problem -- we can't point the finger at Thai fishermen. The UK alone produces more than 170m tons of waste every year, much of it food packaging. Now we live in an absurd age where a packet of cookies can have seven layers of wrapping, While it has revolutionised the way we store and consume food, there is now so touch of it that landfills (垃圾填埋场) can't cope. Some of it is poisonous, and some of it never degrades. It can take 450 years for some types of plastic bottle to break down. Indeed, as Rachelle Strauss of the UK's Zero WasteWeek says, we never actually throw anything "away" -- it's really just put somewhere else.
It's easy to despair at the scale of handling the plastic wrap，but it isn't beyond humanity to solve it -- look at how the world took action on CFCs (含氯氟烃) : there are signs that the hole in the ozone layer is now closing. Food packaging ought to be a doddle.
Comment 1:
While as an individual I can do my best to avoid excessive packaging, it is really only government regulation that can force corporations to change their practices.
Comment 2:
I never understand why supermarket chains insist on covering products such as bananas and cucumbers in plastic wrap. Why? They have their own packaging -- the skin or peel!
Comment 3:
I love packaging -- if it's well designed of course. It helps us be more hygienic and practical. The solution to these packaging necessities is clearly to encourage the use of bio-degradable packaging.
Comment 4:
Before, everything we threw out was bio-degradable and now it's not. Guess it's hard to change that behavior overnight.
41. What is the author's view on the plastic problem in Thailand?
A.The problem is not unique to Thailand.
B.There is no point overreacting to the problem.
C.It is important to raise people's awareness.
D.The government should be held responsible.
42. "A packet of cookies" is mentioned in Paragraph 2 to ______.
A.illustrate the problem of excessive packaging
B.introduce the revolutionary way of packaging
C.review the gradual development of packaging
D.emphasize the necessity of food packaging
43. The word "doddle" (ParA.3) probably means "something ______".
A.no longer useful B.extremely difficult
C.beyond imagination D.easily accomplished
44. Which of the comments is positive about packaging?
A.Comment 1. B.Comment 2. C.Comment 3. D.Comment 4.
45. Which of the following comments point out ways to solve over-packaging?
A.Comments 1 and 2. B.Comments 1 and 3.
C.Comments 2 and 4. D.Comments 3 and 4.
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