2023高考英语阅读理解精选试题
Smartphones could help predict and prevent bridge collapse
Monitoring the structural integrity of heavily used and aging bridges is complex work that often involves many costly sensors, but new research has demonstrated how smartphones might one day do the heavy lifting. Scientists have shown how an app can be used to detect subtle vibrations that indicate the possibility of bridge collapse, planting the seeds for a low-cost, crowdsourced solution to maintaining such all-important structures.
In order to track the health of a bridge, engineers will tune into natural vibrations known as modal frequencies, which can shift over time to reveal changes in the structure’s integrity. This can be achieved through sensors placed on the bridge, though we have seen how wireless sensor systems could offer a cheaper way forward, and also how autonomous drones could improve these types of operations.
The authors of the new study have instead sought to tap into the existing sensor systems in everyday smartphones. The team built an app specifically to gather smartphone data on modal frequencies from vehicles passing over bridges. The idea was to put them to work and see how well the data matched up with that collected by a traditional set of bridge-monitoring sensors.
This was tested out on the Golden Gate Bridge, with the researchers driving over the bridge 102 times with the app running, and also asking Uber drivers to do the same over 72 trips. The data was then compared to modal frequency data from a set of 240 traditional sensors that had been attached to the Golden Gate Bridge for three months. The team found that the phone data closely mirrored the data gathered by the traditional sensors.
“We still have work to do, but we believe that our approach could be expanded easily — all the way to the level of an entire country,” said co-author Carlo Ratti. “It might not reach the perfect accuracy that one can get using fixed sensors placed on a bridge, but it could become a very interesting early-warning system.”
The study suggests that massive and inexpensive datasets collected by smartphones could play an important role in monitoring the health of existing transportation structures.
I. Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of the words given in brackets.
1. Is there any __________ (possible) that you could pick me up from the station
2. While you might be able to get a __________ (wire) mouse, keyboard and even internet, you simply can’t escape power wires.
3. This dictionary is intended __________ (specific) for learners of English.
4. We can predict changes with a surprising degree of __________ (accurate).
plete each sentence with the proper forms of the phrases from the box.
tune into, tap into, match up with, test out
1. It should do great on analyzing data sets to see if the data could ____________ the conclusions.
2. It is hoped the source project will be rolled out nationwide, with EV users able to ____________ a network of charging points across the country.
3. They let me take the computer home to _____ it _____ before I have to pay for it.
4. I haven’t ____________ current events for quite a while. I just find them so depressing most of the time.
plete each sentence with the correct forms of the words given in brackets.
1. Sports tourism as a new kind of tourism projects ________________ (demonstrate) huge market prospects since the World Cup was held there.
2. For some people, a wheelchair is the ideal solution to __________ (maintain) mobility independence.
3. The Environmental Protection Agency keeps an eye on air pollution through dozens of pollution sensors __________ (place) in cities and towns throughout the country.
4. Indirect bridge monitoring methods, using the responses measured from vehicles __________ (pass) over bridges, are under development.
IV. Translate the following sentences according to the words given in brackets.
1. 未来，机器人将取代人类去做繁重的工作。(the heavy lifting)
______________________________________________________________
2. 正是这种外交政策在该国埋下了今天危机的种子。(plant the seeds of)
______________________________________________________________
3. 当时的音乐反映了这个国家的乐观情绪。(mirror)
______________________________________________________________
4. 家庭在塑造孩子的性格方面起着重要作用。(play an important role)
______________________________________________________________
Keys:
I.
1. possibility
2. wireless
3. specifically
4. accuracy
II.
1. match up with
2. tap into
3. test out
4. tuned into
III.
1. has demonstrated
2. maintaining
3. placed
4. passing
IV.
1. In the future, robots will replace human beings for the heavy lifting.
2. It was that foreign policy that planted the seeds of today’s crisis in the country..
3. The music of the time mirrored the feeling of optimism in the country.
4. Families play an important role in building children’s character.
