单选题The Nile made Egypt"s civilization possible. The river is more than 400 miles long. In its fertile valley crops are grown for food and cotton for clothing. Mud from the river bottom makes good bricks for houses. Thus ways of getting food, clothing and shelter were close for the Egyptians. The Nile is a highway for the people of Egypt. Flat bottomed boats and large narrow barges carry products from one city to another. There are also passenger boats on the Nile, carrying people up and down the river. In ancient times huge blocks of stones were floated down the river on barges. These stones are used in making buildings and monuments. For thousands of years the Egyptians have depended on the Nile for their crops. The land on both sides of the Nile is desert, where crops cannot be raised. But crops grow well in the Nile Valley. In fact, several different crops are often grown on the same land during the same year. Once the Nile flooded each year, overflowed its banks, and carried rich soil in land every summer. These floods were caused by early summer rains. At present there is a series of dams on the Nile. Water raised high in the river each summer as usual. The people do not let the Nile flood, however. They store the water behind dams. It is now possible to use the water as needed, not just at flood time.

单选题Do you______newspapers after supper? [A] watch [B] look at [C] read

单选题In the author's opinions, which one would be the most insolvable problem caused by population growth?

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单选题What instruction does the author have in his mind by asking you to imagine you have a magic wand?

单选题The art of tattooing is an old custom practiced around the world. "Tattoo", a word coming from polynesian "tatu", was a symbol of high social status in the Marquesas islands. Among New Zealand Maori warriors it distinguished one man from another. Tattoos also identified the marital status of Eskimo women. Tattoos were supposed to give magical properties to Burmese males and to some South American tribes. English aristocrats were tattooed with their family coats of arms, and the names and emblems of their private clubs. Rich men in America also had tattoos of their emblems: reproductions of paper money! Today tattoos are popular among criminals, merchant seamen, and members of armies, navies and air forces. But more tattoo clients are women who get a tattoo to make themselves look more beautiful. Getting a tattoo is quick and easy. Lyle Tuttle is a well-known tattoo artist who owns three tattoo studios in California. Tuttle has tattooed many rock musicians and Hollywood stars including Peter Fonda and the late Janis Joplin. The average tattoo costs between twenty five and fifty dollars, depending on how big it is, how many colors it has, and where you want it tattooed. After a customer chooses his or her tattoo design, the tattoo artist washes the area to be tattooed with surgical soap. Then he draws the design with a ball point pen, inserts a needle in the desired colored ink, turns on the electricity, and starts to work. The machine makes a buzzing sound as it punctures the skin to a depth of between one-thirty-second and one-sixteenth of an inch 21,600 times a minute. After the tattoo artist outlines the design, he shades it using different color inks. Within a day, a crust will form over the tattoo; this crust falls off five to seven days later. Once applied, the tattoo becomes permanent, and mistakes cannot be corrected. The design can only be covered up with an equally dark or darker tattoo. "The only way to get rid of a tattoo," says Lyle Tuttle, "is to cut it off./

单选题Questions 14～16 are based on the following story about a doctor and his neighbor. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14～16.

单选题The writer feels that the answer to the mystery, of humour given by the great minds of history is ______.

单选题It was a very good year for the Global 500, new-comers and old-comers alike. But can it last? Think of FORTUNE's Global 500 as a candid family portrait, a statistical snapshot of the world's largest corporations assembled shoulder to shoulder, frozen in time. So it is that this year, in the waning light of the 20th century, our reunion photo captures an optimistic scene: a rosy business landscape populated by jolly corporate giants--healthy, happy, and fat. After stumbling amidst the economic turmoil of 1998, the companies of the Global 500 recovered gracefully in 1999. Their total revenues increased 10.6% the best top-line growth in four years, and profits surged 26%. Many of last year's leaders are once again ahead of the pack. General Motors (No. 1) held tight to its position atop the revenue rankings. (2) But Wal-Mart Stores, fourth last year, rose to No. 2, aided by its $10.7 billion purchase of Britain's Asda Group (formerly No. 354). Meanwhile, General Electric (No. 9) can still claim the most profits on the planet--S10.7 billion, a 15% increase. Even GE, however, may need to start looking over its shoulder. In 1999,14 corporations earned more than $6 billion, up from seven a year before. The rankings make clear that the gulf between denizens of the new economy and those of the old continues to widen. Companies in cutting-edge industries such as telecommunications, computer technology, and pharmaceuticals again trumped those in mature sectors such as steel, chemicals, and autos. "The rapid pace of technological change is forcing a continuous level investment in emerging sectors," says Bruce Steinberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch. This creates a dilemma for older industries, Steinberg says, because "they don't have a lot of top--line growth potential." In a dramatic illustration of this gap, the two software companies on the list, Microsoft (No. 235), made a combined $8.2 billion last year. During the same period, the ten metal firms in the Global 500 lost a total of $245 million, one of the worst performances of any industry.

单选题Which of the following is closest in meaning to the phrase the only game in town"(Line 3, Para. 4) ?

单选题According to the anthor, people living in industrial societies______.

单选题 Good news is bad news and bad news is good news, newsmen often say to one another. And when you look at the media it's only too easy to see what they mean. A dictionary definition of the media is mass communication, e.g. the press, television, radio. The media sees its main purpose as giving the public news. Naturally to provide the public with news, the media has first to gather it. The whole function and purpose of the media, then, seems to depend on the word "news", but more important, on how the word is interpreted. The media like any big business venture today is an extremely competitive world of its own. In providing material for its public it has constantly to make sure it serves the right diet. No public will waste time on your paper or your TV channel otherwise. The sad truth is that there seems only one way to catch an audience—hit them right between the eyes. What started as a mild tap has now become a sledgehammer blow that goes by the name of sensationalism. A reporter chooses—has to choose—a news story because of its sensation value. The young inexperienced cub reporter rings his editor about a car crash. He starts to explain the details to him but the experienced editor asks the cub one question: "Anyone killed?" and to himself he thinks, why do we offer jobs to children? One may accuse newsman of cynicism but they will quickly remind you of the hard facts of survival in the world of the media. The favorite words the newspaper placards in the streets bombard the public with are, "Surprise, Sensation, Drama, Shock". You wonder, when the papers batter the public with dramas and sensations day after day, that they haven't put an end to sensation long ago. As a regular newspaper reader you also thank Heavens for the light relief of the strips. Turn finally from them to what is referred to laughingly as "steam radio", in order to show its relative antiquity. This for many millions of people is the only live contact they have with the outside world that tightly or wrongly they have been led to believe they should have contact with. It's extremely hard of course to see why, when for the most part its news services bring them tragedy, disaster, heartbreak, other people's misfortunes—in a word, trouble. What again becomes quickly apparent is that a man's job depends on sensationalism, and we are asked to excuse him for this. Perhaps the media hasn't quite grown up and we should congratulate it on getting this far. The year 2000 may see great changes in the way news is presented to us. Again, who knows, it might even get worse—if such a thing is possible. Perish the thought!