A Battery’s Worst Nightmare (噩梦)

 Portable electronics that can be carried about easily are only as good as their batteries and, let’s face it, batteries aren’t very good, especially when compared with, say, petrol, which packs 100 times a battery’s energy into an equal space. That’s why a large group of mechanical engineers (centered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but with partners at other universities and companies) are hard at work in an effort to replace batteries with a tiny engine that runs on fuel. Imagine a battery-free life! When the fuel runs out in your laptop or mobile phone, you just fill up and go.

The engine—about the size of a ten-cent coin—starts with a combustion chamber (燃烧室) that burns hydrogen (氢) . Its tiny parts are etched onto silicon wafers (硅片) in the same manner that computer parts are imprinted onto integrated circuits (集成电路). The first engine is made up of five wafers. And since these wafers could be produced in much the same way as computer chips, they could probably be produced quite cheaply.

But the devil in all this nice detail is efficiency（效率）. Tiny engine parts don’t always behave like their scaled-up parts of the first engine. Something between the parts can slow down the works, according to Columbia University professor Luc Frechette, one of the engine’s designers. Extreme heat from the combustion chamber is also a problem, often leaking to other parts of the engine.

The scientists’ goal is to create an engine that will operate at 10 percent efficiency —that is, 10 times better than batteries operate. Frechette says that a complete system, with all parts of place and working, will be set up in the next couple of years, but commercial models aren’t like until at least the end of the next ten years.

59. According to the passage, the title suggests that ________

A. batteries should be greatly improved

B. petrol will be used instead of batteries

C. the time of batteries will be gone forever

D. pollution caused by batteries must be solved

60. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “devil” in paragraph 3?

A. pioblem　　　　B. advantage　　　　C. invention　　　　Ｄ. technique

61. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The new invention doesn’t need any fuel.

B. The new engine has been produced in quantity.

C. The new invention is much cheaper than the battery.

D. The new engine needs to be improved before it’s on sale

62. What is the main purpose of this passage?

A. To introduce a new invention to readers.

B. To persuade readers not to use batteries.

C. To show us how the new invention works.

D. To declare when the engine will be on sale.

C

In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.

Hung recently has made an agreement with US -based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.

The idol (偶像) is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version (改写本) of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3", on January27. The Fox TV singing contest searches fur pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act

Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s goad, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: The off-key singing. The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high. The terrible dancing. The hips jerking (摇摆) to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad.

But, it was this very bad act that sold well.

Marc Juris, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Everyone of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America.”

Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.

So, what does Hung think of this?

“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean.

Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour (魅力) or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy.

63. What is the main idea of this passage?

A. Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.

B. Hung's performance attracted the public eye.

C. How an unsuccessful person became famous.

D. Success sometimes does not require hard work.

64. Hung was popular in America for all the following reasons EXCEPT ________

A. his shirt and pants　　　　B. his off-key singing

C. his hips jerking　　　　　D. his excellent version

65. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 6 refer to?

A. William Hung.　　　　　B. Hung's bad act.

C. Hung’s website.　　　　D. The public’s opinion.

66. Which of the following slows the correct order of what happened to Hung?

a. The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.

b.The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.

c. Hung became popular among Americans.

d. Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.

e. Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.

A. d, b, e, c, a　　　　　　B. a, c, d. b, e　　　　C. a, d, b, c, e　　　　D. d, b, a, e, c

百灵编辑：宝葵

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