单选题They were all tired, but ______ of them would stop to take a rest A.any B.some C.none D.neither
单选题Surprisingly enough, modern historians have rarely interested themselves in the history of the American South in the period before the South began to become self-consciously and distinctively " Southern"—the decades after 1815. Consequently, the cultural history of Britain"s North American empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been written almost as if the Southern colonies had never existed. The American culture that emerged during the Colonial and Revolutionary eras has been depicted as having been simply an extension of New England Puritan culture.
However, Professor Davis has recently argued that the South stood apart from the rest of American society during this early period, following its own unique pattern of cultural development. The case for Southern distinctiveness rests_ upon two related
premises:
first, that the cultural similarities among the five Southern colonies were far more impressive than the differences, and second, that what made those colonies alike also made them different from the other colonies. The first, for which Davis offers an enormous amount of evidence, can be accepted without major recitations, the second is far more problematic.
What makes the second premise problematic is the use of the Puritan colonies as a basis for comparison. Quite properly,Davis decries the excessive influence ascribed by historians to the Puritans in the formation of American culture. Yet Davis inadvertently adds weight to such ascriptions by using the Puritans as the standard against which to assess the achievements and contributions of Southern colonials. Throughout, Davis focuses on the important and undeniable differences between the Southern and Puritan colonies in motives for and patterns of early settlement, in attitudes toward nature and Native Americans, and in the degree of receptivity to metropolitan cultural influences.
However, recent scholarship has strongly suggested that those aspects of early New England culture that seem to have been most distinctly Puritan, such as the strong religious orientation and the communal impulse, were not even typical of New England as a whole, but were largely confined to the two colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Thus, what in contrast to the Puritan colonies appears to Davis to be peculiarly Southern-acquisitiveness. A strong interest in polities and the law, and a tendency to cultivate metropolitan cultural models were not only more typically English than the cultural patterns exhibited by Puritan Massachusetts and Connecticut, but also almost certainly characteristic of most other early modern British colonies from Barbados north to Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Within the larger framework of American colonial life, then, not the Southern but the Puritan colonies appear to have been distinctive, and even they seem to have been rapidly assimilating to the dominant cultural patterns by the last Colonial period.
单选题There was ice on the road, and the doctor's car hit a tree and turned over three times. To his surprise, he was not hurt. He got off the car and walked to the nearest house. He wanted to telephone the garage for help. The door was opened by one of his patients. "Oh, Doctor," she said, "l have only just telephoned you. You must have a very fast car. You have got here very quickly in deed. There has been a very bad accident on the road outside. I saw it through the window. I am sure the driver will need your help./
单选题David Landes, author of The
Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
, credits the world"s economic and social progress over the last thousand years to "Western civilization and its dissemination". The reason, he believes, is that Europeans invented systematic economic development. Landes adds that three unique aspects of culture were crucial ingredients in Europe"s economic growth.
First, science developed as an autonomous method of intellectual inquiry that successfully disengaged itself from the social constraints of organized religion and from the political constraints of centralized authority. Though Europe lacked a political center, its scholars benefited from the use of a single vehicle of communication: Latin. This common tongue facilitated an adversarial discourse in which new ideas about the physical world could be tested, demonstrated, and then accepted across the continent and eventually across the world.
Second, Landes espouses a generalized form of Max Weber"s thesis that the values of work, initiative, and investment made the difference for Europe. Despite his emphasis on science, Landes does not stress the notion of rationality as such. In his view, "what counts is work, thrift, honesty, patience, and tenacity." The only route to economic success for individuals or states is working hard, spending less than you earn, and investing the rest in productive capacity. This is his fundamental explanation of the problem posed by his book"s subtitle: "Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor". For historical reasons—an emphasis on private property, an experience of political pluralism, a temperate climate, an urban style—Europeans have, on balance, followed those practices and therefore have prospered.
Third, and perhaps most important, Europeans were learners. They "learned rather greedily", as Joel Mokyr put it in a review of Landes"s book. Even if Europeans possessed indigenous technologies that gave them an advantage (spectacles, for example), as Landes believes they did, their most vital asset was the ability to assimilate knowledge from around the world and put it to use—as in borrowing the concept of zero and rediscovering Aristotle"s Logic from the Arabs and taking paper and gunpowder from the Chinese via the Muslim world. Landes argues that a systematic resistance to learning from other cultures had become the greatest handicap of the Chinese by the eighteenth century and remains the greatest handicap of Arab countries today.
Although his analysis of European expansion is almost nonexistent, Landes does not argue that Europeans were beneficent bearers of civilization to a benighted world. Rather he relies on his own commonsense law: "When one group is strong enough to push another around and stands to gain by it, it will do so." In contrast to the new school of world historians, Landes believes that specific cultural values enabled technological advances that in turn made some Europeans strong enough to dominate people in other parts of the world. Europeans therefore proceeded to do so with great viciousness and cruelty. By focusing on their victimization in this process, Landes holds, some postcolonial states have wasted energy that could have been put into productive work and investment, if one could sum up Landes"s advice to these states in one sentence, it might be "Stop whining and get to work." This is particularly important, indeed hopeful, advice, he would agree, because success is not permanent. Advantages are not fixed, gains from trade are equal, and different societies react differently to market signals. Therefore, not only is there hope for undeveloped countries, but developed countries have little cause to be complacent, because the current situation "will press hard" on them.
The thrust of studies like Landes"s is to identify those distinctive features of European civilization that lie behind Europe"s rise to power and the creation of modernity more generally. Other historians have placed a greater emphasis on such features as liberty, individualism, and Christianity. In a review essay, the art historian Craig Clunas listed some of the less well known linkages that have been proposed between Western culture and modernity, including the propensities to think quantitatively, enjoy pornography, and consume sugar. All such proposals assume the fundamental aptness of the question: What elements of European civilization led to European success? It is a short leap from this assumption to outfight triumphalism. The paradigmatic book of this school is, of course,
The End of History and the Last Man
, in which Francis Fukuyarna argues that after the collapse of Nazism in the twentieth century, the only remaining model for human organization in the industrial and communications ages is a combination of market economics and limited, pluralist, democratic government.
单选题The boy spent as much time watching TV as he ______ studying. A) does B) had C) was D) did
单选题In Redwood City, police can hear gunfire within ______.
单选题{{B}}D{{/B}}
Do you want to live another 100 years
or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to
last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human
life span. "I think we are knocking at the door of immortality (永生), "said
Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two
books on the future. "I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative
estimate (保守的估计)." At the conference in San Francisco, Donald
Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in
using genes as well as nanotechnology (纳米技术) make it likely that humans will bye
in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. "There is a great push
so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested
that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years."
However, many scientists who specialize in ageing are doubtful about it and say
the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with
healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs
will finally lead all humans to death. Scientists also differ on
what kind of life the super aged might live. "It remains to be seen if you pass
120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?" said
Leonard Pooh, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology. Centre. "At
present people who could get to that point are not in good health at
all."
单选题This is one of those cars that ______ in the accident. A.is damaged B.are damaged C.was damaged D.were damaged
单选题On the one hand, he was highly praised by his teachers, but blamed by some of his classmates______.
单选题It is requested that the rent for the house______in advance.
单选题The traffic lights were red when the driver reached them. To the surprise of his passenger, the car did not slow down. Unexpectedly the passenger was thrown forward in the vehicle as the driver put on his brakes at the last moment. The car stopped just in time. "Sorry, I didn’t notice the light. I thought it was green until I saw that it was the top light which was shining." This strange story is quite tree. About ten men in every hundred are color blind in some way, women are luckier — only about one in two hundred suffers from color blindness. In some cases, a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all the same as green. People often like one color more than others. Blue is the color of the sky and sea. Careen makes us think of fields and trees. Red is the color of blood and makes some people think of danger. Black is the color of night. In the dark we cannot see what is around us so we are sometimes afraid of the unknown and do not like black as a color.
单选题______ she is living now is not known to anybody.A. WhetherB. WhenC. WhereD. Why
单选题One difficulty has been solved. But another one will ______. A. arise B. rise C. arouse D. arose
单选题"Wanted by the FBI." To the murderer, or the bank robber, these are the most frightening words in the world. When the criminal (罪犯) hears them, he knows that six thousand trained persons are after him. Why should he be so afraid? There are hundreds of cities and thousands of villages where he can hide. There are large forests and deserts where he can lose himself. Besides, he's usually rich with stolen money. Money can make it easier to hide. With money, the criminal can pay a dishonest doctor to operate on his face and make him hard to recognize. Money can pay for a hideout in some far-off place. But the criminal knows what happened to public enemies such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly. They had plenty of money and good hideouts. Yet one by one they were found by the men of the FBI. They know every trick the criminal knows and many more. If he makes just one mistake, they'll get him. That's why the man who is hunted can't sleep. That's why he becomes nervous, why he jumps at every sound. When he makes a mistake, he'll no longer be "wanted by the FBI". He'll have been caught. The FBI began on May 10, 1924. Attorney General Harlan F. Stone chose J. Edgar Hoover, a young lawyer in the Department of Justice, to head the new agency (机构). "What we need is a wholly new kind of police force," he said. "Criminals today are smart. They use stolen cars and even planes to make their gateways. They have learned to open any lock. The criminal would have discovered science. We can't beat them with old methods. We have to train officers to work scientifically." J. Edgar Hoover quietly went ahead with his plans. He picked his men carefully. They had to be between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. He wanted only men with good manners and good character. When working as his officers they would have to meet all kinds of people. Hoover wanted men who could handle a teacup as well as a gun. He chose men so carefully that he made the FBI the hardest service in the world to get into. The FBI cannot help in every police problem. It can look into only certain crimes against the government. Solving all other crimes is the duty of local police forces.
单选题He is quite sure that its ______ impossible for him to fulfill the task within two days. A. roughly B. exclusively C. fully D. absolutely
单选题He has such a fierce dog______no one dares to go near his house. A. as B. which C. that D. while
单选题The drugstore was originally A
what
the name implies, a store B
which
drugs and medicines C
prescribed by
your doctor were dispensed by D
the neighborhood
druggist.
单选题A lot of people are their own enemies. They regard themselves as unlikely to succeed in college and often feel that there have been no accomplishments in their lives. In my first year of college especially, I saw people
get themselves down
all too quickly. There were two students in my class who failed the first test and seemed to give up immediately. From that day on, they walked into the classroom carrying defeat on their shoulders the way other students carried textbooks under their arms.
Both students hang on until about mid-term.
When they disappeared for good, no one took much notice, for they had already disappeared in spirit after that first test.
They are not the only people in whom I have seen the self-doubt do its work. I have really wanted to shake them by the shoulders and say, "You are not dead. Be proud and pleased that you have brought yourself here to college. Be someone. Breathe. Hope. Act. "Such people should not use self-doubts as an excuse for not trying. They should pull themselves together and get to work.
They should start taking notes in class and trying to learn. Above all, they should not give up without even trying.
单选题You ______ engage in serious debate or discussion unless you are
willing to endure attacks.
A. have better not
B. had better not
C. have better not to
D. had better not to
单选题
