Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the followingpassage.
They're still kids, and although there's a lot thatthe experts don't yet know about them, one thingthey do agree on is that what kids use and expectfrom their world has changed rapidly. And it's allbecause of technology.
To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them,their digital gear sets this new group apart, even from their tech-savvy (懂技術(shù)的) Millennialelders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblingsdon't quite get. These differences may appear slight, but they signal an all-encompassingsensibility that some say marks the dawning of a new generation.
The contrast between Millennials and this younger group was so evident to psychologistLarry Rosen of California State University that he has declared the birth of a new generation in anew book, Rewired: Understanding the ingeneration and the Way They Learn, out next month.Rosen says the tech-dominated life experience of those born since the early 1990s is sodifferent from the Millennials he wrote about in his 2007 book, Me, MySpace and I: Parenting theNet Generation, that they warrant the distinction of a new generation, which he has dubbedthe "ingeneration".
"The technology is the easiest way to see it, but it's also a mind-set, and the mind-set goeswith the little ‘i', which I'm talking to stand for 'individualized'," Rosen says. "Everything isdefined and individualized to ‘me'. My music choices are defined to ' me'. What I watch onTV any instant is defined to ‘me'. " He says the iGeneration includes today's teens and middle-school ers, but it's too soon to tell about elementary-school ages and younger.
Rosen says the iGeneration believes anything is possible. "If they can think of it, somebodyprobably has or will invent it," he says. "They expect innovation."
They have high expectations that whatever they want or can use "will be able to be tailoredto their own needs and wishes and desires."
Rosen says portability is key. They are inseparable from their wireless devices, which allowthem to text as well as talk, so they can be constantly connected-even in class, where cellphones are supposedly banned.
Many researchers are trying t6 determine whether technology somehow causes the brainsof young people to be wired differently. "They should be distracted and should perform morepoorly than they do," Rosen says. "But findings show teens survive distractions much betterthan we would predict by their age and their brain development. "
Because these kids are more immersed and at younger ages, Rosen says, the educationalsystem has to change significantly.
"The growth curve on the use of technology with children is exponential(指數(shù)的), and werun the risk of being out of step with this generation as far as how they learn and how theythink," Rosen says.
"We have to give them options because they want their world individualized. "
56. Compared with their Millennial elders, the iGeneration kids
A.communicate with others by high-tech methods continually
B.prefer to live a virtual life than a real one
C.are equipped with more modem digital techniques
D.know more on technology than their elders
57. Why did Larry Rosen name the new generation as iGeneration?
A.Because this generation is featured by the use of personal high-tech devices.
B.Because this generation stresses on an individualized style of life.
C.Because it is the author himself who has discovered the new generation.
D.Because it's a mind-set generation instead of an age-set one.
58. Which of the following is true about the iGeneration according to Rosen?
A.This generation is crazy about inventing and creating new things.
B.Everything must be adapted to the peculiar need of the generation.
C.This generation catches up with the development of technology.
D.High-tech such as wireless devices goes with the generation.
59. Rosen's findings suggest that technology
A.has an obvious effect on the function of iGeneration's brain development
B.has greatly affected the iGeneration's behaviors and academic performance
C.has no significantly negative effect on iGeneration's mental and intellectualdevelopment
D.has caused distraction problems on iGeneration which affect their daily performance
60. According to the passage, education has to __
A.adapt its system to the need of the new generation
B.use more technologies to cater for the iGeneration
C.risk its system to certain extent for the iGeneration
D.be conducted online for iGeneration's individualized need
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Small increases in temperature found to add power to storms in the Atlantic.
Hurricanes that form in the Atlantic Ocean are expected to gain considerable strength asthe global temperature continues to rise, a new study has found.
Using modeling data focused on the conditions in which hurricanes form, a group ofinternational researchers based at Beijing Normal University found that for every 1.8°F ( 1℃ )rise of the Earth's temperature, the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic that are as strong orstronger than Hurricane Katrina will increase twofold to sevenfold.
Hurricane strength is directly related to the heat of the water where the storm forms. Morewater vapor in the air from evaporating ocean water adds fuel to hurricanes that build strengthand head toward land.
Hurricane Katrina is widely considered the measure for a destructive storm, holding themaximum Category 5 designation for a full 24 hours in late August 2005. It lost strength as itpassed over the Florida peninsula, but gained destructive power fight before colliding withNew Orleans, killing more than 200 people and causing $ 80 billion in damage.
The study points to a gradual increase of Katrina-like events. The warming experiencedover the 20th century doubled the number of such debilitating(將人類摧垮的)storms. But theongoing warming of the planet into the 21st century could increase the frequency of theworst kinds of storms by 700 percent, threatening coastlines along the Atlantic Ocean withmuitiple Category 5 storms every year.
"Our results support the idea that changes in regional sea surface temperatures is theprimary cause of hurricane variability," said Aslak Girnstead, a researcher with the Center forIce and Climate at the University of Copenhagen. The large impact of small sea-surfacetemperature increases was more than Girustead and his colleagues had anticipated. Theentire study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Global temperatures have steadily increased, making the past decade the warmest onrecord. Earlier this year, climate researchers reported that the Earth's temperatures have risenfaster in the last century than at any point since the last ice age, 11,300 years ago. Theprimary cause, a couseusus of scientists has said, is the rising emissions of greenhousegases like carbon dioxide and methane.
Past hurricanes have supported the study's finding that global temperature rise is linkedto more destructive storms. According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, whilethe frequency of storms doesn't appear to have increased, the percentage of strong ones hasrisen sharply over the past few decades. The trend may be similar further back in time, butcomprehensive hurricane data doesn't exist.
61. According to the team of international researchers based at Beijing Normal University,the rise of the Earth's temperature is likely to cause
A.the coming of ice age
C.more Katrina-like or worse hurricanes
B.less intense hurricanes
D.more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
62. The ocean water in the region where the storm forms
A.is heating the hurricanes
B.evaporates and becomes fuel
C.heads toward land
D.turns into water vapor that makes hurricanes stronger
63. Which of the following statement is TRUE about Hurricane Katrina?
A.It did not lose its strength as it moved.
B.It claimed over 200 people's lives.
C.It caused 80 billion dollars loss for Florida peninsula.
D.It lasted for full 24 hours.
64. What result can regional sea surface temperature changes produce?
A.Hurricane changes.
C.Global warming.
B.Increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
D.Destructive hurricanes.
65. It can be inferred from the passage that
A.there is no link between greenhouse gas emissions and destructive storms
B.reduction of greenhouse gas emissions may reduce destructive storms
C.the higher percentage of strong ones rose as more hurricanes appeared
D.past records on hurricanes included everything needed