单选题"It was the beginning of a revolution in America and the world, a revolution that some have yet to acknowledge and many have yet to appreciate," says Harold Skramstad, president of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. 1776? No indeed. 1896, when Frank Duryea finally perfected the Duryea Motor Wagon. At its first airing, the contraption rolled less than 100 metres before the transmission froze up. But by the end of 1896 Duryea had sold 13 of them, thus giving birth to the American motor industry. That industry (whose roots, outside America, are usually attributed to tinkerings by Messrs Daimler and Benz in Germany) is being celebrated hugely over the coming months, culminating with a Great American Cruise in Detroit in June. "Our goal is to attract the greatest collection of antique and classic cars this nation has ever seen in one place at one time," says Mr. Skramstad modestly. Americans may indeed blame the car for almost everything that has happened to their country, and themselves, since 1896. The car has determined. The way they live. From cradle to grave, the car marks every rite of American passage. Home by car from the maternity ward; first driving licence (usually at the age of 16); first (backseat) sexual experience; first car of one's own (and the make of car is a prime determinant of social status, symbolic of everything a person is or does). In Las Vegas, and elsewhere, Americans can get married at drive-in chapels. They then buy, or lust after, a house with garages big enough for not one but two or three cars. This allocates more space to cars than to children. And when the time comes, they may lie in state at a drive-through funeral home, where you can pay your respects without pulling over. The way they shop. Main Street has been replaced by the strip mall and the shopping mall, concentrating consumer goods in an auto-friendly space. A large part of each shopping trip must now be spent, bags under chin, searching for the place where the car was left. (And another point: bags have annoyingly lost their carrying handles since shoppers ceased to be pedestrian) Since car-friendly living and shopping became the role, most built-up parts of America now look like every other part. There is simply no difference between a Burger Inn in California and one on the outskirts of Boston. The way they eat. A significant proportion of Americans' weekly meals are now consumed inside cars, sometimes while parked outside the (drive-by) eatery concerned, sometimes en route, which leads to painful spillages in laps, leading to overburdening of the legal system. Dozens of laws have been written to deal with car cases, ranging from traffic disputes to product liability. Drive-by shootings require a car, as do most getaways. The car is a great crime accessory; and it als0 causes the deaths of nearly 40,000 Americans every year. Personal finances. Before the age of the car, few people went into debt; no need to borrow money to buy a home. Now Americans tie themselves up with extended installment loans, and this in turn has spawned a whole financial industry. The wealth of the nation. By 1908, an estimated 485 different manufacturers were building cars in the United States. Employment grew nearly 100-fold in the industry during the first decade of the 20th century. When Henry Ford, in a stroke of genius, automated his production line he required a rush of new, unskilled labour, which he enticed by offering an unheard-of $ 5 a day in wages. Henceforth, workers could actually afford to buy what they built. And Americans never looked back. Today, the Big Three car manufacturers (Food, GM and Chrysler) generate more than $200 billion a year in business inside the United States. Directly and indirectly, the industry employs roughly one in seven workers. Every car job is reckoned to add $100,000 in goods and services to the economy, twice the national average. People occasionally suppose that the car is under attack as it enters its second century. Environmental regulators and transport planners (with their talk of car pools and subways) tend to give this impression. There are signs that personal computers may be replacing the sports car as the chief passion, and expense, of young men. But, in the end, nothing beats the idea of individual mobility. In a society that values freedom above all, the obvious way to celebrate a centenary is just to keep driving.

单选题Questions 11-15 are based on the following passage: All the people who went to the new supermarket had one great hope: to be the lucky customer who did not have to pay for his shopping. For this was what the notice just inside the entrance promised. It said, "Remember, once a week, one of our customers gets free goods. This may be your lucky day!" For several weeks Mrs. White hoped, like many of her friends, to be the lucky customer. Unlike her friends, however, she never lost heart. Her kitchen was full of things which she did not really need. Her husband tried again and again to persuade her to give it up, but she just wouldn't listen. She dreamed of the day when the manager of the supermarket would come up to say, "Madam, this is your lucky day. Everything in your basket today is free." One Friday morning, after she had finished her shopping and had taken it to her car, she found that she had forgotten to buy some tea. She rushed back to the supermarket, got the tea and went to the desk to pay for it. As she was walking, she saw the manager of the supermarket coming up. "Madam," he said warmly, holding out his hand, "I want to congratulate you! You are our lucky customer today. Everything you've got in your basket is free./

单选题As there is a power cut in the university, the president has to ______ the meeting

单选题A middle-aged woman of tremendous ______ sat down beside the other patients in the waiting room.

单选题Police don"t yet know why Hawkins chose the Westroads Mall or the Von Maur department store in particular, Warren said, adding only that the teen may have frequented the mall.

单选题He is a rare celebrity scientist. He's even had a TV cameo role (小角色) in Star Trek in which he plays poker with scientific icons (偶像)Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Yet when asked about comparisons between himself and the two scientists, he calls it all "media hype (炒作)." Once asked how he felt about being labeled the world's smartest person, he responded: "It is very embarrassing. It is rubbish, just media hype. They just want a hero, and I fill the role model of a disabled genius. At least I am disabled, but I am no genius. " Hawking has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, a neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens muscle control. He gets around in a wheelchair, and after completely losing the use of his vocal chords in an operation to assist his breathing in 1985, he communicates through a computer. A speech synthesizer "speaks" for him after he punches in what he wants to say, selecting words in the computer software by pressing a switch with his hand. Unfortunately, it makes him sound like he has an American accent, he says. Despite his humorous, self-effacing manner, Hawking is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Many consider him to be the most brilliant since Einstein. Since 1979, he's held the post of Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University—which was once held by Isaac Newton no less—and has twelve honorary degrees. He's also a best-selling author. His book, A Brief History of Time ,has been translated into 33 languages and has sold nine million copies. For much of his academic life, Hawking has been among a group of theoretical physicists searching for a "theory of everything'—one unified scientific theory that explains the big cosmological questions like How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? and How will it end ? You are probably familiar with the existing theories, such as the Big Bang theory. However, these theories are inconsistent with each other. So Hawking—among a group of theoretical physicists—has been on a quest to come. up with a theory of quantum (量子)gravity that would incorporate these theories—the theory of everything (TOE)—which would solve the problem of what caused the universe to start expanding. How successful have the world's leading cosmologists been? Hawking predicts we'll have the TOE in the next 20 years.

单选题I'm sorry to have taken up too much of your ______ time. A. worthy B. valueless C. valuable D. priceless

单选题The word "bug" used in Paragraph 5 means ______.

单选题John’s application for Uadmission/U to graduate studies in the school of Education has been approved.

单选题One of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia is hearing imaginary voices.

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} Complaining about faulty goods or bad service is never easy. Most people dislike making a fuss. But if something you have bought is faulty or does not do what was claimed for it, you are not asking for a favour to get it put right. It is the shopkeeper's responsibility to take the complaint seriously and to replace or repair a faulty article or put right poor service, because he is the person with whom you have entered into an agreement. The manufacturer may have a part to play but that comes later. Complaints should be made to a responsible person. Go back to the shop where you bought the goods, taking with you any receipt you may have. Ask to see the owner in a large store. In a small store the assistant may also be the owner so you can complain directly. In a chain store ask to see the manager. If you telephone, ask the name of the person who handles your enquiry, otherwise you may never find out who dealt with the complaint later. Even the bravest person finds it difficult to stand up in a group of people to complain, so if you do not want to do it in person, write a letter. Stick to the facts and keep a copy of what you write. At this stage you should give any receipt numbers, but you should not need to give receipts or other papers to prove you bought the article. If you are not satisfied with the answer you get, or if you do not get a reply, write to the managing director of the firm, shop, or organization. Be sure to keep copies of your own letters and any you receive. If your complaint is a just one, the shopkeeper may offer to replace or repair the faulty article. You may find this an attractive solution. In certain cases you may have the right to refuse the goods and ask for your money back, but this is only where you have hardly used the goods and have acted at once. Even when you cannot refuse the goods you may be able to get some money back as well. And if you have suffered some special loss, if for example a new washing machine tears your clothes, you might receive money to replace them. If the shopkeeper offers you a credit note to be used to buy goods in the same shops but you would rather have money say so. If you accept a credit note remember that later you will not be able to ask for your money. If the shopkeeper refuses to give you money, ask for advice from your Citizens' Advice Bureau before you accept a credit note. In some cases the shopkeeper does not have to give you your money back -- if, for example, he changes an article simply because you don't like it or it does not fit. He does not have to take back the goods in these circumstances.

单选题{{B}}Part B{{/B}}Directions: The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For questions 41--45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A--G to fill in each numbered box. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you in boxes. [A] In our time women have an average lifespan of almost 80 years; double of what it was in the last century. Motherhood can be postponed and in theory marriage can be postponed. Women in the US are studying more than men and they may become main breadwinner in the near future. [B] Many women go through life thinking, consciously or unconsciously, that a man will solve all their problems, "Once we are married, everything will be OK. " This attitude only set us up for failure. Men are not princes ready to take any challenge to rescue the princesses; they are human beings with their own needs and fears. [C] Carrie was wondering in her bedroom about the comment that her friend, New York socialite Charlotte York, made "Women want to be rescued. " Carrie wonders, "Is that true? Is that the only thing women want? Rescued by whom? If the prince did not kiss Snow White, would she have been frozen forever or would she have woken up anyway and moved on?" Snow White probably had no other chance, but we do. [D] No wonder our society has changed. On the other hand, our values have not fast enough and many women, more so Hispanic women, are just waiting to be rescued by the prince. These women have not realized they no longer need to be rescued; they need a man for other reasons, not to take care of them. [E] Women in our society have so many options that we do not need anybody else to rescue us; we are the only ones that can rescue ourselves. If you have areas of your life that you want to improve, go ahead; do it for you and for you only, or accept yourself as you are. Do not be so naive that you think someone else can take care of all your problems. Life does not work like that. Live life to the fullest, be happy with who you are and you will see that if you are happy with yourself, you will make others happy, including your man. [F] Our society has changed in a remarkable way in the last 50 years or so. And there are many reasons for it. At the beginning of the 20th century women's lifespan was about 40 years. Therefore, life needed to start earlier if a woman were going to live for only 40 years; motherhood was a priority. Men used to work and women stayed at home and took care of them and their kids. Women could not survive without a man; women needed to be rescued. [G] Women are caregivers. We are strong and smart and we have the ability to take care of ourselves; we do not need to be rescued by anyone. When we are giving our power to others in exchange for security, we are also giving up our freedom. Are you waiting to be rescued? Do you ever think like that? Order:

单选题It"s generally been said that history is written by the winners. This was never more true than on March 12, when the Texas board of education voted 10-5 in favour of curriculum standards that would promote conservative takes on controversial issues in the pages of the state"s textbooks. The changes, expected to win final approval in May, include an increased emphasis on and sympathetic treatment of such Republican standards as the National Rifle Association and the Moral Majority. They also boast the advantage of capitalism and the role of Christianity in the nation"s founding. Even Thomas Jefferson"s profile will be reduced; some board members were less than fond of his ideas about the division of church and state. This is not Texas" first such skirmish. Since the 1970s, the state has tried to drop books that were seen as too liberal or anti-Christian, to omit passages on the gay-rights movement and to tone down global-warming arguments. But the nation"s battle over textbooks stretches back almost half a century earlier. In 1925, Tennessee"s Butler Act (which was abolished in 1967) made it illegal to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible ." The Scopes "monkey trial" famously followed. In 1974, a clash erupted in Kanawha County, West Virginia, over the controversial writings of such authors as George Orwell, Arthur Miller and Allen Ginsberg. Opposition was so heated that some schools were firebombed. As one of America"s largest textbook buyers, the Longhorn State has a good deal of sway over what is sold to schools nationwide. And while Napoleon may have maintained that "history is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon," getting Texans to come together on the past may prove to be their Waterloo.

单选题What does the man do when he finds five pounds too much?

单选题All things (had) been canceled (because) of the snowstorm, many passengers could do (nothing) but (take) the train.