阅读训练

Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
　　You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going,how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book.They're known as the black box.
　　When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
　　In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
　　Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations,and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
　　注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
57. What does the author say about the black box?
　　A) It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane.
　　B) The idea for its design comes from a comic book.
　　C) Its ability to ward off disasters is incredible.
　　D) It is an indispensable device on an airplane.
58. What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?
　　A) Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.
　　B) The total number of passengers on board.
　　C) The scene of the crash and extent of the damage.
　　D) Homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash.
59. Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
　　A) New materials became available by that time.
　　B) Too much space was needed for its installation.
　　C) The early models often got damaged in the crash.
　　D) The early models didn't provide the needed data.
　60. Why did the Federal Aviation Authority require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow?
　　A) To distinguish them from the colour of the plane.
　　B) To caution people to handle them with care.
　　C) To make them easily identifiable.
　　D) To conform to international standards.
　61. What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
　　A) There is still a good chance of their being recovered.
　　B) There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.
　　C) They have stopped sending homing signals.
　　D) They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.
参考答案

Passage 1
57. D) It is an indispensable device on an airplane.
ward off指“避开，防止”。黑匣子并不能避免灾难发生，因此C选项不正确。indispensable，不能缺少的，文中多次举例黑匣子在事故发生后起到至关重要的作用，因此此选项正确。
58. A) Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.
本文第二段介绍了黑匣子在对于探寻Yemeni airliner坠毁原因上所起到的重大作用。由第二段第二行”the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong”以及后面由于法国一潜艇找到黑匣子这一发现”marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy”可以推断出答案。
59. C) The early models often got damaged in the crash.
文中第三自然段第三行，由”Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned…”可得知，1965年黑匣子重新设计的原因是之前的黑匣子在坠机时容易遭到破坏。withstand意为“承受，经受”。
60. C) To make them easily identifiable.
由文中得知黑匣子被漆成橙色或黄色的原因是” to aid visibility”。Visibility是visible的名词形式，意为“能见度，可见度”，因此，漆成橙色或黄色主要是因为希望黑匣子可见度高，比较明显，容易被发现，故选C。
61. A) There is still a good chance for their being recovered.
作者举出Air France Flight 447的例子主要是用来证明其前面的论点”When submerged, they’re also able to emit signals form depths of 20,000 ft.”意为黑匣子即使被埋于深处仍然能够发射信号以被察觉。Air France Flight 447的黑匣子处于水下深处，但数据显示他们仍能”turn up”（出现），即被探测人员发现。故选A。