()is based on logistics network but more computerized and systemized than logistics operation.
() is based on logistics network, but more computerized and systematized than logistics operation
Passage 1
New Rules for the Paper Game A Computerized data storage and electronic mail were to have heralded the paperless office. But, contrary to expectations, paper consumption throughout the world shows no sign of abating. In fact, consumption, especially of printing and writing papers, continues to increase. World demand for paper and board is now expected to grow faster than the general economic growth in the next 15 years. Strong demand will be underpinned by the growing industrialization of South-East Asia, the reemergence of paper packaging, greater use of facsimile machines and photocopiers, and the popularity of direct-mail advertising. In 2007, world paper and board demand reached 455 million tonnes, compared with 241 million tonnes in 1991.
B The pulp and paper industry has not been badly affected by the electronic technologies that promised a paperless society. But what has radically altered the industry’s structure is pressure from another front—a more environmentally conscious society driving an irreversible move towards cleaner industrial production. The environmental consequences of antiquated pulp mill practices and technologies had marked this industry as one in need of reform. Graphic descriptions of deformed fish and thinning populations, particularly in the Baltic Sea where old pulp mills had discharged untreated effluents for 100 years, have disturbed the international community.
C Until the 1950s, it was common for pulp mills and other industries to discharge untreated effluent into rivers and seas. The environmental effects were at the time either not understood, or regarded as an acceptable cost of economic prosperity in an increasingly import-oriented world economy. But greater environmental awareness has spurred a fundamental change in attitude in the community, in government and in industry itself.
D Since the early 1980s, most of the world-scale pulp mills in Scandinavia and North America have modernized their operations, outlaying substantial amounts to improve production methods. Changes in mill design and processes have been aimed at minimizing the environmental effects of effluent discharge while at the same time producing pulp with the whiteness and strength demanded by the international market. The environmental impetus is taking this industry even further, with the focus now on developing processes that may even eliminate waste-water discharges. But the ghost of the old mills continues to haunt the industry today. In Europe companies face a flood of environment-related legislation. In Germany companies are now being held responsible for the waste they create.
E Pulp is the porridge-like mass of plant fibres from which paper is made. Paper makers choose the type of plant fibre and the processing methods, depending on what the end product will be used for: whether it is a sturdy packing box, a smooth sheet of writing paper or a fragile tissue. In wood, which is the source of about 90% of the world’s paper production, fibres are bound together by lignin, which gives the unbleached pulp a brown color. The pulping stage separates the wood into fibres so they are suitable for paper making. Pulping can be done by mechanical grinding, or by chemical treatment in which woodchips are “cooked” with chemicals, or by a combination of both methods.
F Kraft pulping is the most widely used chemical process for producing pulp with the strength required by the high-quality paper market. It is now usually carried out in a continuous process in a large vessel called a digester. Woodchips are fed from a pile into the top of the digester. In the digester, the chips are cooked in a solution called white liquor, composed of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) and sodium sulphide. The chips are cooked at high temperatures of up to 170℃ for up to three hours. The pulp is then washed and separated from the spent cooking liquor which has turned dark and is now appropriately called black liquor. An important feature of kraft pulping is a chemical recovery system which recycles about 95% of the cooking chemicals and produces more than enough energy to run the mill. In a series of steps involving a furnace and tanks, some of the black liquor is transformed into energy, while some is regenerated into the original white cooking liquor. The recovery system is an integral part of production in the pulp and paper industry. The pulp that comes out has little lignin left in the fibres. Bleaching removes the last remaining lignin and brightens the pulp. Most modern mills have modified their pulping processes to remove as much of the lignin as possible before the pulp moves to the bleaching stage.
Below is a list of possible factors, A-G, which will influence the amount of paper being used in the future. From the list, choose FOUR factors which are mentioned in the passage.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
This vast stock of computerized images has()the possibilities open to the artist
The computerized doll()the quality test.
()is based on logistics network, but more computerized and systematized than logistics operation .
Passage 2
New-age Transport Computerized design, advanced materials and new technologies are being used to produce machines of a type never seen before.
It looks as if it came straight from the set of Star Wars. It has four-wheel drive and rises above rocky surfaces. It lowers and raises its nose when going up and down hills. And when it comes to a river, it turns amphibious: two hydrojets power it along by blasting water under its body. There is room for two passengers and a driver, who sit inside a glass bubble operating electronic, aircraft-type controls. A vehicle so daring on land and water needs windscreen wipers-but it doesn’t have any. Water molecules are disintegrated on the screen’s surface by ultrasonic sensors.
This unusual vehicle is the Racoon. It is an invention not of Hollywood but of Renault, a rather conservative French state-owned carmaker, better known for its family hatchbacks. Renault built the Racoon to explore new freedoms for designers and engineers created by advances in materials and manufacturing processes. Renault is thinking about startlingly different cars; other producers have radical new ideas for trains, boats and aeroplanes.
The first of the new freedoms is in design. Powerful computer-aided design (CAD) systems can replace with a click of a computer mouse hours of laborious work done on thousands of drawing boards. So new products, no matter how complicated, can be developed much faster. For the first time, Boeing will not have to build a giant replica of its new airliner, the 777, to make sure all the bits fit together. Its CAD system will take care of that.
But Renault is taking CAD further. It claims the Racoon is the world’s first vehicle to be designed within the digitized world of virtual reality. Complex programmes were used to simulate the vehicle and the terrain that it was expected to cross. This allowed a team led by Patrick Le Quement, Renault’s industrial-design director, to “drive” it long before a prototype existed.
Renault is not alone in thinking that virtual reality will transform automotive design. In Detroit, Ford is also investigating its potential. Jack Telnac, the firm’s head of design, would like designers in different parts of the world to work more closely together, linked by computers. They would do more than style cars. Virtual reality will allow engineers to peer inside the working parts of a vehicle. Designers will watch bearings move, oil flow, gears mesh and hydraulics pump. As these techniques catch on, even stranger vehicles are likely to come along.
Transforming these creations from virtual reality to actual reality will also become easier, especially with advances in materials. Firms that once bashed everything out of steel now find that new alloys or composite materials (which can be made from mixtures of plastic, resin, ceramics and metals, reinforced with fibres such as glass or carbon) are changing the rules of manufacturing. At the same time, old materials keep getting better, as their producers try to secure their place in the factory of the future. This competition is increasing the pace of development of all materials.
One company in this field is Scaled Composites. It was started in 1982 by Burt Rutan, an aviator who has devised many unusual aircraft. His company develops and tests prototypes that have ranged from business aircraft to air racers. It has also worked on composite sails for the America’s Cup yacht race and on General Motors’ Ultralite, a 100-miles-per-gallon experimental family car built from carbon fibre.
Again, the Racoon reflects this race between the old and the new. It uses conventional steel and what Renault describes as a new “high-limit elastic steel” in its chassis. This steel is 30% lighter than the usual kind. The Racoon also has parts made from composites. Renault plans to replace the petrol engine with a small gas turbine, which could be made from heat-resisting ceramics, and use it to run a generator that would provide power for electric motors at each wheel.
With composites it is possible to build many different parts into a single component. Fiat, Italy’s biggest car maker, has worked out that it could reduce the number of components needed in one of its car bodies from 150 to 16 by using a composite shell rather than one made of steel. Aircraft and cars may increasingly be assembled as if they were plastic kits.
Advances in engine technology also make cars lighter. The Ultralite, which Scaled Composites helped to design for General Motors, uses a two-stroke engine in a “power pod” at the rear of the vehicle. The engine has been developed from an East German design and weighs 40% less than a conventional engine but produces as much power. It is expected to run cleanly enough to qualify as an ultra-low emissions vehicle under California’s tough new rules.
Look at the following design features and list of companies.
Match each design feature with the correct company, A-E.
Write the correct letter A-E in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
1. a power pod
2. electronic controls
3. a composite body
4. elastic steel
5. aircraft prototypes
6. ultrasonic sensors
指出下列外来词的类型。
T恤衫(T-shirt) CT(Computerized Tomography)
巴黎(Paris) 新西兰(New Zealand)
穆斯林(muslim) 法老(Pharaoh)
克隆(colon) 绷带(bandage)
坦克车(tank) 霓虹灯(neon lamp)
MTV(Music Television) 芭蕾舞(ballet)
酷(cool) 味美思(vermouth)
指出下列外来词的类型。
T恤衫(T-shirt)
CT(Computerized Tomography)
巴黎(Paris)
新西兰(New Zealand)
穆斯林(muslim)
法老(Pharaoh)
克隆(colon)
绷带(bandage)
坦克车(tank)
霓虹灯(neon lamp)
MTV(Music Television)
芭蕾舞(ballet)
酷(cool)
味美思(vermouth)
在搜索引擎中常用的截词符是星号“*”,通常使用右截断。如输入comput*,将检索出computer、computing、computerized等词汇。