单选题The farm crisis was caused by ______

单选题The Japanese are fascinated by automata and new inventions. Japanese children are used to friendly robots in their comics, in toys, and in TV animated cartoons. When as adults they join the workforce, robots mean that there is no need to import cheap foreign labor, as happens in many other parts of the world. There is no need for humans to put up with dirty, mind-deadening mechanical work the robot does it all without complaint, around the clock. Robots don' t go on strike over tea breaks they don' t have tea, or any other kind of breaks: they work, day and night, without having to be paid overtime, without making mistakes. Human tasks are subject to human error: robot error seldom or never occurs except as a result of human error! In Japan, robots are almost respected for their virtues. When a new robot is introduced to a small suburban factory, a Shinto priest is invited to inaugurate it. He inaugurates the robot with words along the lines of "Welcome to our co-worker, we hope you' II help him settle in. " No one laughs. FANUC demonstrates the Japanese tendency to conform particularly strikingly. The founder of FANUC, Dr. Inaba, has created an army that makes no distinction between blue-collar, white-collar and steel-collar worker: everyone, including the warlord himself, is dressed in yellow clothing issued free by the company. Perhaps to make up for the boring nature of the work, there are a number of other company perks. Company benefits, including pay, are much higher than in similar companies in Japan. Travel to and from work is provided free in the company' s yellow buses. However, workers are expected to put in demanding unpaid "overtime. " There is a clock in the product development laboratory set to run at ten times the normal speed, the remind everyone that the company is on a war footing. As we watched Dr. Inaba' s yellow helicopter soar away to Narita airport, we couldn' t help thinking that his dream of world domination in robotics and allied applications might be more elegantly achieved if he had also thought to program his robots to whistle while they work.

单选题According to historical evidence, the Chinese have used chopsticks since the time of the Shang Dynasty (ca I766-1066 BCE). The first sticks used as eating utensils were twigs that the hungriest eaters used to scoop food into their mouths. This invention obviously brought added convenience to eating as the sticks made it easier to handle steaming hot food. The same ingenious idea was undoubtedly conceived in other parts of the world as well, but evidence shows that elsewhere spoon-like utensils eventually achieved greater popularity at the expense of chopsticks. The reason why chopsticks became a fixture of the Chinese table setting may be the fact that local food is often chopped up into small pieces and only rapidly heated, which makes it especially suitable for chopsticks. Another more philosophical explanation for the development is that the revered philosopher and vegetarian Kong Zi, or Confucius, would have had antipathies towards handling knives at the dinner table. He considered using knives to tear at food to be a show of barbarism. According to this theory then, the fact that chopsticks became the main eating utensils is evidence that civilized behavior gradually replaced a culture marked by brutish knife toting. Whatever the truth may be, the use of chopsticks spread from China to Korea and Japan around the year 500. And the populations of these three nations have tightly held on to their chopsticks ever since. Chopsticks are mainly made out of wood or bamboo, but some are also made from jade, ivory, silver, steel and nowadays even plastic. Sticks made from bamboo have the advantage of being cheap and their surface is naturally slightly coarse, which makes it easier to balance food on them. On the other hand, these materials tend to warp and break quite easily in use, which makes a strong case for favoring chopsticks made of metal, except for the fact that they are very slippery and tend to clank against the teeth quite annoyingly. Legend has it that Chinese emperors used to prefer silver chopsticks because the material reacted to poisons that assassins put in food by turning black. Food etiquette in China is significantly more tolerant than in Japan or Korea. The Chinese consider it to be completely polite to raise a bowl to one"s lips, at least in one"s home, and scoop food over the rim into the mouth with the help of chopsticks. The Chinese prefer to cook their rice quite sticky, so it is not as difficult as one might think to eat it with chopsticks. Noodle soup is also another delicacy that is eaten, true to Chinese style, quite flexibly but noisily with chopsticks. The only absolute taboo regarding chopsticks is that they should never be left to stand in the middle of a heap of rice in a bowl as this evokes food offerings and incense sticks. Disposable chopsticks were invented at the end of the 19th century, and they soon became a hit product throughout Asia. Today, the fad for using disposable chopsticks has become a significant environmental problem, as about 45 billion pairs of them are used annually in China alone. Producing such a huge amount of chopsticks requires 1.7 million cubic meters of wood. Last year, the central government added a five percent tax to disposable chopsticks to help curb waste.

单选题The lady in red ______ when the motor rushed away all of a sudden.

单选题It can be inferred from Berger's suggestions that _________.

单选题How many countries has the second speaker hitchhiked through so far?

单选题What is the purpose of the conversation?

单选题Kate is ______ diligent than her brother, but she didn"t pass the exam.

单选题The disappearance of her paper has never been ______.[A] counted for[B] looked upon[C] accounted for[D] checked up

单选题The encouraging factor is that the ______ majority of people find the idea of change acceptable. [A] numerous [B] vast [C] most [D] massive

单选题{{B}}TEXT D{{/B}} One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by selling goods door to door found that he only had one dime left. He was hungry so he decided to beg for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "How much do I owe you?" "You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught me never to accept pay for a kindness. "He said," Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart. "As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but it also increased his faith in the human race. He was about to give up and quit before this point. Years later the young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where specialists can be called in to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly, now famous was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down through the hospital hall into her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room and determined to do his best to save her life. From that day on, he gave special attention to her case. After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to her room. She was afraid to open it because she was positive that it would take the rest of her life to pay it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her attention. She read these words... "Paid in full with a glass of milk." (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly Tears of joy flooded her eyes.

单选题The scholar's interest in the ______ and analytical aspect of music didn't prevent her from enjoying concerts.

单选题In this section, you will hear several passages. Listen to the passages carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following passage. At the end of the passage, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the passage.

单选题—Who won the election for mayor? —A man ______ to represent every minority group in the city.

单选题The difference between "fact' and "theory" ______.

单选题"The woman cleaning the floor is Tom"s mother" has all the following possible meanings EXCEPT ______.