(Question)
Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away--straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest problems. Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a colourcoded map showing where plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spotspray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would. The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and longterm backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. "This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, " says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago. Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by  _  . A) resorting to spotspraying B) transforming poisoned rain C) consulting infrared scanning experts D) detecting crop problems at an early stage
(Answer)
A


(Question)
Scientists say they now have proof to support the old-fashioned advice that it's best to sleep on a problem. They say sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain organize the masses of information we receive each day. Lead researcher Bob Stickgold at the Harvard Medical School said, "Sleep helps us draw rules from our experiences. It's like knowing the difference between dogs and cats even if it's hard to explain." The US research team studied how well students remembered connections between words and symbols   , reports New Scientist. They compared how the students performed if they had had a sleep between seeing the words and having the test, and if they had not slept. They found that people were better able to remember lists of related words after a night's sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day. They also found it easier to remember themes   that the words had in common. But they forgot around one in four more themes if they had been awake. Prof. John Groeger, of Surrey University's Sleep Research Centre, said, "People have been trying for years to find out what the purpose of sleep is, as we know that only certain parts of it have a restorative   value. " "We form and store huge numbers of experiences in the head every day, and sleep seems to be the way the brain deals with it all." In the study by the US research team, students were asked to  _  . A) put together words of similar meanings B) remember words and their meanings C) show their knowledge of words D) make up lists of related words
(Answer)
B


(Question)
The twentieth century saw greater changes than any century before changes for the better, changes for the worse, changes that brought a lot of benefits to human beings ,changes that put man in danger .Many things caused the changes ,but ,in my opinion ,the most important was the progress in science.        Scientific research in physics and biology has vastly broadened our views. It has given us a deeper knowledge of the structure of matter and of the universe ,it has brought us a better understanding of the nature of life and of its continuous development .Technology in the application of science has made big advances that have benefited us in nearly every part of life.        The continuation of such activities in the twenty-first century will result in even greater advantages to human beings : in pure science--a wider and deeper knowledge in all fields of learning ;in applied science--a more reasonable sharing of material benefits ,and better protection of the environment.        Sadly ,however ,there is another side to the picture .The creativity of science has been employed in doing damage to mankind .The application of science and technology to the development and production of weapons of mass destruction has created a real danger to the continued existence of the human race on this planet .We have seen this happen in the case of nuclear weapons ,Although their actual use has so far occurred only in the Second World War ,the number of nuclear weapons that were produced and made ready for use was so large that if the weapons had actually been used ,the result could have been the ruin of the human race ,as well as of many kinds of animals.        William Shakespeare said. "The web of our life is of a _ yarn ,good and ill together. "The above brief review of the application of only one part of human activities--science seems to prove what Shakespeare said. But does it have to be so ?Must the ill always go together with the good ?Are we biologically programmed for war? What do you think the author is most likely to suggest if he continues to write? A) Further application of science to war. B) More reading of William Shakespeare. C) Proper use of science in the new century. D) Effective ways to separate the good from the ill.
(Answer)

D