閱讀理解

A

Tony Wheeler was born to travel. His father worked for an airline. For the first 16 years of his life， Tony and his family lived in many different countries.

In the early 1970s， Tony met a young woman named Maureen. They soon married. Before getting jobs， Tony and Maureen wanted to travel. They took a year-long trip from London， through Asia， to Australia. On the trip， they visited places like India， Iran， and Afghanistan.

When Tony and Maureen arrived in Australia， people asked many questions about their trip. To answer these questions， Tony wrote a guidebook called Across Asia on the Cheap. The book told people about different countries weather， customs， and places to see. But unlike travel guides in the 1970s， Tonys book also talked about places most tourists did not go to. He also wrote about unusual things to see and do. The book was very popular.

Tony and Maureen started a company called Lonely Planet. They continued travelling. They wrote guidebooks for each place they visited. Today， 400 people work for Lonely Planet. The company has over 650 guidebooks. Tony still writes about travel “hot spots” （for example， Cambodia in Asia and Croatia in Europe）. For more information， read the books！

1. Tony Wheelers first guidebook was about a trip from ___ .

A. Australia to the United Kingdom

B. Australia to Afghanistan

C. England to Australia

D. Asia to England

2. Why did Tony Wheeler write his first guidebook？

A. He needed the money.

B. He liked writing books.

C. His wife asked him to do it.

D. Many people asked questions about his travels.

3. How was Across Asia on the Cheap different from other travel guides？

A. It was longer and more expensive.

B. It was the first guidebook about Asia.

C. It told people about a countrys places to see.

D. It talked about places most tourists did not go to.

4. What is true about Tony according to the text？

A. He has left Lonely Planet.

B. His first guidebook was not popular.

C. He still travels and writes guidebooks.

D. He didnt travel with Maureen after the first trip.

B

It is a great， big， wide-open sky over our heads， but when you are flying in a jet airliner at 600 miles an hour， the sky is not so big. Thats part of the reason why， in the first four months of this year， the government said only 72 percent of all flights arrived on time， the lowest number since the recent system of reporting began in 1995.

The runways are full， the planes are jammed， and air traffic controllers complain theyre stressed out. And the radar systems that keep things going are， in large part， technology of the 1960s. “Its like driving down the road with a paper bag over your head， and youre trying to stay out of the way of other cars，” says Captain Karen Lee， a 747 pilot who heads operations for UPS， the delivery service.

At its center in Louisville， UPS is experimenting with the next generation in air traffic control： planes guided by the satellites of the Global Positioning System， instead of radar.

Though it has advanced greatly over the years， radar is a technology that dates back to World War II. It scans the sky， looking for signals from planes in the air. Typically， air traffic radar only updates a planes position once every 12 seconds or so—and in 12 seconds， a jet can move two miles or make a turn. Whats more， radar signals can be blocked by storms or mountains. But with GPS signals， pilots can see in real time exactly where they are， and where other planes are， too. A readout screen in the cockpit （駕駛艙） tells the pilots whats around them.

“What we end up with is a very exact location for each aircraft in the system，” said Basil Barimo of the Air Transport Association， which represents airlines.

5. Whats the main cause of the jamming of planes？

A. Planes fly very fast.

B. The control system has fallen behind.

C. The number of planes is increasing too fast.

D. The weather has become worse these years.

6. What will be used to solve the jamming of planes？

A. A readout screen in the cockpit.

B. A more advanced radar system.

C. A Global Positioning System.

D. A new satellite.

7. What is the disadvantage of the present radar system according to the text？

A. It sometimes loses objects.

B. It often provides unclear pictures.

C. It cannot help pilots know where they are.

D. Its signals may be limited for certain reasons.

8. It can be inferred that what matters most in the air is for the pilots .

A. to see the planes around

B. to communicate with the ground

C. to control the speed of the planes

D. to know exactly the position of each other