The card using a built-in voice-recognition chip requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes. The idea is to prevent thieves from using a stolen card to buy goods online.  A model built by engineers in California packs a microphone, a loudspeaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard-sized credit card. The card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card but about three times as thick. The company now plans to make it thinner.  The voice card is based on an earlier Beep card technology designed to prevent fraud in online deals. The Beep card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker to utter an audible   ID signal by a computer's microphone to an online server . By confirming that signal matches the information in the card, the server can make sure that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card in his hand. The ID code, which only the server knows, changes each time the card is used.  This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier Beep card technology cannot prevent illegal use of stolen cards. The new voice card can. The new voice card doesn't identify itself by its ID until it has confirmed the real user's spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner's voice with a high degree of accuracy. The challenge for Beep card has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry .  The voice-recognition credit is powered by a mini battery. To extend batter life, the electronics have only to be switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card's surface allows one to hear a female voice saying, "Say your password." If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is real, it sends its ID, which the server then identifies, allowing the deal to continue. Which of the following about the earlier card is TRUE? A) Its owner can change the ID code at will. B) Its user needn't key in the credit card number. C) It can record its user's spoken password. D) It can be used by someone who has stolen it.
D

"I drink caffeine  to stay awake. It has positive effects on me. I'm healthy, and there's nothing wrong with me," said Sarah Green, a freshman, who consumes many caffeine drinks to stay awake in completing the many tasks in her busy schedule. Caffeine is known to have many positive and negative consequences, and now that there might be an additional positive effect may have been discovered. A study suggests that a skin lotion   containing caffeine, which is also found in green tea, may reduce the risk of skin cancer. Two lotion tests were conducted on hairless mice that were exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation  . As a result, the lotion reduced the number of tumors   each mouse developed. Unlike sunscreen  , the new lotion is applied after exposure to the ultraviolet rays. Rays from the sun can cause genetic changes in the skin that can lead to skin cancer. Caffeine obstructs this action and causes the diseased cells to kill themselves. "I know that caffeine has been found in certain drinks and it causes increased activity of the nervous system, and increased blood pressure on blood vessels  . I don't know of any positive effects of caffeine," health teacher Montego Estes said. Caffeine, found commonly in tea, coffee and soft drinks, provides people with an increase in energy. Half of all American adults consume more than 300 milligrams of caffeine per day. Caffeine is addictive  because it uses the same mechanisms as amphetamines , and cocaine  and heroin  to excite the brain. "This new cream doesn't sound to me as though it would work," junior David Bobbit said, "Caffeine seems to have more negative effects than positive ones." Skin cancer is the most common of all cancers in the US. About one million cases will be diagnosed in the country this year. There will be more than 88,000 new cases of melanoma , the disease's deadliest form of skin cancer. What is the main idea of this passage? A) Many Americans like Sarah Green enjoy drinking caffeine. B) Hairless mice are not easily harmed by ultraviolet radiation. C) Research shows caffeine may reduce the risk of skin cancer. D) Americans suffer most from skin cancer among all cancers.
C

For many of us, printed books are satisfying in ways beyond the words they contain. Billions of printed books have been published, read and saved in the 600 years since movable type was invented, so why mess with a good things?        Sony Electronics is doing just that, betting that readers will be won over by the convenience of readability of its new electronic book devices. Sony's reader, the PRS-505, can hold 160 books in its fixed memory, enough to line the shelves on a good-sized wall in the average American home. The $299 device is about the size of a paperback book, but a half-inch thick and weighs less than a pound.  The Sony book reader is revolutionary not only in its storage capacity. The font  is highly readable and adjustable by size. Unlike laptop computers, you can put the Sony in your purse, read it in direct sunlight and even bookmark the pages. And you can connect it to your PC to download books. Surprisingly, though the reader has liberated the book from paper, electronic books aren't always a bargain. For example, David Baldacci's "Stone Cold" download retails  for $15.19 at the Sony site, while Amazon  will deliver a hard copy to your mailbox for $16.19.  The Sony reader also lets you store and play or display music. So what's not to like about the Sony? Well, for many  _ , a lot. Book lovers like to have, hold and keep their volumes, which don't need charging. You can write notes in the margin1s, and enjoy the ambience they provide on your book shelves. The need for electronic reading devices is likely to grow as more people worried about the billions of tons of paper used for printed material. Many believe the time will come when devices like the Sony reader are as common as printed newspapers and magazines today. According to the passage, the Sony book reader   _  . A) is as light as a laptop computer B) can hold more than 200 books C) is convenient to carry around D) cannot be connected to a PC
C

On Nov.18th,1908,three men went up in a balloon .They started early in London. The headman was Auguste Gaudron,and the other two men were Tannar and Maitland. They had a big balloon and they were ready for a long way. Soon they heard the sea. They were carrying the usual rope ,and it was hanging down from the basket of the balloon. At the end of the rope they had tied a metal box. This could hold water, or it could be empty. So they were able to change its weight .It was for use over the sea. They were also carrying some bags of sand. After the sun rose, the balloon went higher. It went up to 3,000 metres, and the air was very cold. The water in the balloon became ice. Snow fell past the men's basket, and they could see more snow on the ground. The men tried to throw out some more sand; but it was hard. They tried to break the icy sand with their knives, but it was not easy. The work was slow and they were still falling, so they had to drop some whole bags of sand. One of them fell on an icy lake and made a black hole in the ice. At last they pulled the box into the basket. It was still snowing; so they climbed to get away from the snow. They rose to 5,100 metres! Everything became icy. They were so cold that they decided to land. They came down in Poland heavily but safely. They had traveled 1,797 kilometers from London! The balloon landed   _  . A) in London B) on the sea C) on a lake D) in a foreign country

D