单选题Nearly all "speed reading" courses have a "pacing" element—some timing device which lets the student know how many words a minute he is reading. You can do this simply by looking at your watch every 5 or 10 minutes and noting clown the page number you have reached. Check the average number of words per page for the particular book you are reading. How do you know when 5 minutes has passed on your watch if you are busy reading the book? Well, this is difficult at first. A friend can help by timing you over a set period, or you can read within hearing distance of a public clock which strikes the quarter hours. Pace yourself every three or four days, always with the same kind of easy, general interest books. You should soon notice your accustomed w. p. m. rate creeping up. Obviously there is little point in increasing your w. p. m. rate if you do not understand what you are reading. When you are consciously trying to increase your reading speed, stop after every chapter (if you are reading a novel) or every section or group of ten or twelve pages (if it is a text-book) and ask yourself a few questions about what you have been reading. If you find you have lost the thread of the story, or you cannot remember dearly the details of what was said, reread the section or chapter. You can also try "lightning speed" exercise from time to time. Take four or five pages of the general interest book you happen to be reading and read them as fast as you possibly can. Do not bother about whether you understand or not. Now go back and read them at what you feel to be your "normal" w. p. m. rate, the rate at which you can comfortably understand. After a "lightning speed" reading through (probably 600 w. p. m.) you will usually find that your "normal" speed has increased—perhaps by as much as 50- 100 w. p. m. This is the technique sportsmen use when they usually run further in training than they will have to on the day of the big race.

单选题He had to quit the job ______ his ill health. A. because B. as C. because of D. as for

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} The crucial years of the Depression, as they are brought into historical focus, increasingly emerge as the decisive decade for American art, if not for American culture in general For it was during this decade that many of the conflicts which had blocked the progress of American art in the past came to a head and sometimes boiled over. Janus-faced, the thirties look backward, sometimes as far as the Renaissance; and at the same time forward, as far as the present and beyond. It was the moment when artists, like Thomas Hart Benton, who wished to turn back the clock to regain the virtues of simpler times came into direct conflict with others, like Stuart Davis and Frank Lloyd Wright, who were ready to come to terms with the Machine Age and to deal with its consequences. America in the thirties was changing rapidly. In many areas the past was giving way to the present, although not without a struggle. A predominantly rural and small town society was being replaced by the giant complexes of the big cities; power was becoming increasingly centralized in the federal government and in large corporations. As a result, traditional American types such as the independent farmer and the small businessman were being replaced by the executive and the bureaucrat. Many Americans, deeply attached to the old way of life, felt disinhereited. At the same time, as immigration decreased and the population became more homogeneous, the need arose in art and literature to commemorate the ethnic and regional differences that were fast disappearing. Thus, paradoxically, the conviction that art, at least, should serve some purpose or carry some message of moral uplift grew stronger as the Puritan ethos lost its contemporary reality. Often this elevating message was a sermon in favor of just those traditional American virtues which were now threatened with obsolescence in a changed social and political context. In this new context, the appeal of the paintings by the Regionalists and the American Scene painters often lay in their ability to recreate an atmosphere that glorified the traditional American values-self-reliance tempered with good-neighborliness, independence modified by a sense of community, hard work rewarded by a sense of order and purpose. Given the actual temper of the times, these themes were strangely anachronistic, just as the rhetoric supporting political isolationism was equally inappropriate in an international situation soon to involve America in a second world war Such themes gained popularity because they filled a genuine need for a comfortable collective fantasy of a God-fearing, white-picket-fence America, which in retrospect took on the nostalgic appeal of a lost Golden Age. In this light, an autonomous art-for-art's sake was viewed as a foreign invader liable to subvert the native American desire for a purposeful art. Abstract art was assigned the role of the villainous alieen; realism was to personify the genuine American means of expression. The argument drew favor in many camps: .among the artists, because most were realists; among the politically oriented intellectuals, because abstract art was apolitical; and among museum officials, because they were surfeited with mediocre imitations of European modernism and were convinced that American art must develop its own distinct identity. To help along this road to self-definition, the museums were prepared to set up an artificial double standard, one for American art, and another for European art. In 1934, Ralph Flint wrote in Art News, "We have today in our midst a greater array of what may be called second-, third, and fourth-string artists than any other country. Our big annuals are marvelous outpourings of intelligence and skill; they have all the diversity and animation of a fine-ring circus."

单选题{{B}}C{{/B}} A recent study shows that more and more Americans are choosing to work at home. There are several reasons for the change. One reason is many parents want more time to be with their children at home. Another is that people want the freedom to decide for them- selves how and when to do their job. The chance to work at home lets people live wherever they wish—out in the country, perhaps. It also makes it possible for many others—disabled and other persons, new mothers-to do useful work and earn money. About half the people who work at home operate their own business. They sell products or services. The other half works for companies. They may make things, such as clothes. Or they may do office work, such as copying letters. A smaller number work at highly skilled jobs as designers or engineers. The revolution(革命) in computer technology is one of the main reasons for the change to working at home. Computers are now used in almost every American workplace in offices, in factories, even on farms. Computers make it much easier and quicker to do any task that involves information: writing, counting, designing, planning, keeping records. With computers, there is less need for people to come together to work. Computers can he linked by telephone lines with other computers far away. A worker can write a report oradd information to company records on a computer at home and then send the finished work to a computer in another city. Americans already are using computers to do many different kinds of jobs at home. Many highly skilled workers, for example, ask their companies for the chance to work at least part of the time at home. They say they can think more clearly and be more creative in the quiet, peaceful atmosphere of their home. Many engineers, writers and computer scientists are among those who now do at least part of their work at home, using a computer. Most of such professional workers, however, spend at least a day or two each week in the company office to discuss their work with oth- ers. Working at home is a good idea for some people in some industries. However, it does not work for everyone. Some home workers have said their personal lives and work lives became too close. Some have said they needed to be with other people to develop new ideas. And others have said it is more difficult to get a better job with the company when you are not working in the company's office.

单选题The Royal Museum contains a ______ of the king's famous declaration.

单选题In the scientific station ______ to record earthquakes． A．instruments were B．do instruments C．are instruments D．instruments are

单选题Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recent years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L. A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student' s academic grade. This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children. District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a fiat, across-the-board rule. At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct. The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board ,which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L. A. Unified to do homework right.

单选题Judges-would make the final ______ as to who should be the winner of the competition.

单选题Everything ______ if Albert hadn't called the fire brigade. A. would be destroyed B. would have been destroyed C. will be destroyed D. will have been destroyed

单选题The one pleasure that Einstein ______ his great fame was the ability it gave him to help others.

单选题The children will not be allowed to come with us if they don't______themselves better.

单选题The first few months of the year I had dreaded the ringing of the telephone, because I knew it meant another Ucritical/U decision to be made.

单选题Toward the novel literary idea, the author's attitude seems to be that of

单选题Nobody, it seems, wants to be left out of Argentina's current boom in television reality shows. After the success of local versions of "Big Brother" and "Survivor", a camera is now to be (1) in the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, to film everything (well, almost) (2) President Fernando de la Rua gets (3) to. The results will be edited and (4) several times a day, (5) the state channel, Canal 7: thus dispell, it is (6) , the notion that the president spends his time twiddling his thumbs to his economy minister, Domingo Cavallo, runs the country. This is a dangerous strategy. Mr. de la Rua's predecessor, Carlos Menem, was famous for his love of show business, even closing his 1995 presidential campaign (7) an appearance on the hit show "Videomatch". In deliberate (8) , before his election victory two years (9) . Mr. de la Rua (10) in television commercials that he was a very boring man. Audiences agree: his appearances last year on several leading talk (11) made their ratings fall. Worse, when he decided to make his own appearance on "Videomatch" last December, a member of the audience blamed him and left him (12) embarrassed. With a congressional election (13) in October, opinion (14) suggest that over three-quarters of Argentines (15) dissatisfied with Mr. de la Rua. That, says his circle, is at least partly due to his (16) portrayal by Freddy Villarreal, an impressionist on "Videomatch", and by leading newspaper cartoonists, such as Nik in La Naeion. Mr. de la Rua's team is apparently pressing the (17) to be nicer. But it is unclear whether blanket (18) will help the president win (19) viewers, or whether they will vote that Fernando should (20) the house in 2003

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} There are several different methods that can be used to create a forecast. The method a forecaster chooses depends upon the experience of the forecaster, the amount of information available to the forecaster, the level of difficulty that the forecast situation presents, and the degree of accuracy or confidence needed in the forecast. The first of these methods is the persistence method; the simplest way of producing a forecast. The persistence method assumes that the conditions at the time of the forecast will not Change. For example, if it is sunny and 87 degrees today, the persistence method predicts that it will be sunny and 87 degrees tomorrow. If two inches of rain fell today, the persistence method would predict two inches of rain for tomorrow. However, if weather conditions change significantly from day to day, the persistence method usually breaks down and is not the best forecasting method to use. The trends method involves determining the speed and direction of movement for fronts, high and. low pressure centers, and areas of clouds and precipitation. Using this information, the forecaster can predict where he or she expects those features to be at some future time. For example, if a storm system is 1,000 miles west of your location and moving to the east at 250 miles per day, using the trends method you would predict it to arrive in your area in 4 days. The trends method works well when systems continue to move at the same speed in the same direction for a long period of time. If they slow down, speed up, change intensity, or change direction, the trends forecast will probably not work as well. The climatology method is another simple way of producing a forecast. This method involves averaging weather statistics accumulated over many years to make the forecast. For example, if you were using the climatology method to predict the weather for New York City on July 4th, you would go through all the weather data that has been recorded for every July 4th and take an average. The climatology method only works well when the weather pattern is similar to that expected for the chosen time of year. If the pattern is quite unusual for the given time of year, the climatology method will often fail. The analog method is a slightly more complicated method of producing a forecast. It involves examining today's forecast scenario and remembering a day in the past when the weather scenario looked very similar (an analog). The forecaster would predict that the weather in this forecast will behave the same as it did in the past. The analog method is difficult to use because it is virtually impossible to find a perfect analog. Various weather features rarely align themselves in the same locations they were in the previous time. Even small differences between the current time and the analog can lead to very different results.

单选题Ever hear of the lemming? Lemmings are arctic rat-like animals with very odd habits: periodically, for unknown reasons, they mass together in large herd and commit suicide by rushing into deep water and drowning themselves. They all run in together, blindly, and not one of them ever seems to stop and ask, "Why am I doing this? Is this really what I 'want to do?" and thus save it serf from destruction. Obviously, lemmings are driven to perform their strange suicide rites by common instinct. People choose to "follow the herd" for more complex reasons, yet we are still too often the unwilling victims of the bandwagon appeal. Essentially, the bandwagon urges us to an action or an opinion because it is popular—be- cause "everyone else is doing it." This call to "get on the bandwagon" appeals to the strong de- sire in most of us to be one of the crowd, not to be left out or alone. Advertising makes extensive use of the bandwagon appeal, bat so do politicians. Senator Yakalot uses the bandwagon appeal when he says "more and more citizens are rallying to my cause every day," and asks his audience to "join them—and me—in our fight for America." One of the ways we can see the bandwagon appeal at work is in the overwhelming success of various fashions and trends, which capture the interests of thousands of people for a short time, then disappear suddenly and completely. For a year or two in the 1950S every child in North America wanted a coonskin cap so that they could be like Davy Crockett; no one wanted to be left out. After that there was the hula-hoop craze that helped to dislocate thousands of Americans. The problem here is obvious: just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean that we should too. Group approval does not approve that something is true or is worth doing: Large numbers of people have supported actions we now condemn. Just a generation ago, Hitler and Mussolini rose to absolute and destructive rule in two of the most cultured countries of Europe. When they came into power they won by massive popular support from millions of people who didn't want to be "left out" at a. great historical moment. As we have seen, propaganda can appeal to us by arousing our emotions or distracting our attention from the real issues at hand. But there's third way that propaganda can be put to work against us—by use of faulty logic. This approach is really subtler than the other two because it gives the appearance of reasonable, fair argument. It is only when we look more closely that the holes in logic fiber show up.

单选题The first three days of July 1863 saw the bloodiest hours of the Civil War, in a battle that spilled across the fields and hills surrounding Gettysburg, Pa. The fighting climaxed in the bright, hot afternoon of the third day, when more than 11,000 Confederate soldiers mounted a disastrous assault on the heart of the Union line. That assault marked the farthest the South would penetrate into Union territory. In a much larger sense, it marked the turning point of the war. No surprise, then, that the Battle of Gettysburg would become the subject of songs, poems, funeral monuments and, ultimately, some of the biggest paintings ever displayed on this continent. Paul Philippoteaux, famed for his massive 360-degree cyclorama paintings, painted four versions of the battle in the 1880s. Cycloramas were hugely popular in the United States in the last decades of the 19th century, before movies displaced them in the public's affection. Conceived on a mammoth scale, a cyclorama painting was longer than a football field and almost 50 feet tall. Little thought was given to preserving these enormous works of art. They were commercial ventures, and when they stopped earning they were tossed. Most were ultimately lost—victims of water damage or fire. One of Philippoteaux's Gettysburg renderings was cut up and hung in panels in a Newark, N.J., department store before finding its way back to Gettysburg, where it has been displayed off and on since 1913. Along the way, the painting lost most of its sky and a few feet off the bottom. Sections were cut and moved to patch holes in other sections. And some of the restorative efforts proved almost as crippling to the original as outright neglect. Since 2003, a team of conservators has labored in a $12 million effort to restore Philippoteaux's masterwork. They have cleaned it front and back, patched it, added canvas for a new sky and returned the painting to its original shape—a key part of a cyclorama's optical illusion was its hyperbolic shape, it bellies out at its central point, thrusting the image toward the viewer. When restoration is completed later this year, the painting will be the centerpiece of the new Gettysburg battlefield visitors' center, which opens to the public on April 14. Much work remains to be done. But even partially restored, the painting seethes with life—and death.