单选题John is reluctant to take the final step to solve this problem, because he knows clearly that it means the irrevocable breaking with best friend.

单选题what lies in pieces around them represents, in effect, a unique private exhibition open to a lucky few. A. in short B. in particular C. in fact D. in turn

单选题I regret to have not paid more attention to our English lessons at school.

单选题The accuracy of scientific observation and calculations is always {{U}}at the mercy of{{/U}} the scientist's timekeeping methods.

单选题Construction is expanding all over China, no doubt many materials will be needed at a very big amount in future.

单选题The self-important cant of musicologist on record jackets often suggests that true appreciation of the music is an ______ process closed to the uninitiated listener, however enthusiastic.

单选题Even by the standard of genius, Vladimir Nabokov"s work habits were odd. He wrote much of Lolita in the backseat of the family car, a black 1946 Oldsmobile. (He said it was the only spot in America where he wasn"t plagued by noise and drafts.) He didn"t use regular paper. Instead he wrote in pencil on index cards, which his wife Vera later typed up for him. Nabokov spent his last years in a grand hotel in Montreux, Switzerland—after Lolita he could afford it—working on a novel called The Original of Laura . But he died before he could finish it, leaving behind a box of 138 index cards that he instructed Vera to destroy. This she did not do. Neither did his son Dmitri. Now Dmitri Nabokov has published The Original of Laura —what there is of it—in an elegant edition, priced at $ 35, that reproduces each index card on a single page. "Nobokov intended to win his 100-card dash against death but, given the course of events, could not foresee the exact form in which the book would ultimately appear," Dmitri explains in a written interview with TIME. "He was sure, however, that it would appear. He had been working on the novel since 1974 and, when asked in 1976 what three favorite books he was reading and would want to keep, he listed a new translation of Dante"s Inferno, a volume on North American butterflies and The Original of Laura . Those are not the words of an author who intends to have that novel burned." The Original of Laura is a fragment, or a collection of fragments—"the novel was probably half or one-third "written" in the strictly technical sense," Dmitri says. It is not a series of consecutive chapters. Nobokov liked to attack his subjects on multiple fronts, from all directions, an approach facilitated by his use of index cards. The book begins at a party attended by a woman named Flora. Her husband is not present, and she slips away to an absent-minded tryst with a lover, which Nobokov renders delicately but unsentimentally. "That first surrender of hers was a little sudden, if not downright unnerving. A pause for some light caresses, concealed embarrassment, feigned amusement, prefactory contemplation." We meet, in due course, the deceived husband as well: "A brilliant neurologist, a renowned lecturer [and] a gentleman of independent means, Dr. Phillip Wild had everything save an attractive exterior." Phillip is older, eccentric and miserly, and he"s less interested in Flora than in a bizarre experiment he"s conducting on himself. As he feels his aging flesh deteriorating, he develops the habit of entering a trance wherein he pictures his body and then mentally erases portions of it; he begins with his toes, which instantly become numb. By this means, he imagines that he is bringing about his own death, piecemeal—seizing control of it and turning it into a volitional act, even an enjoyable one. "The process of dying by auto-dissolution affords the greatest ecstasy known to man," he tells us. The subtitle of The Original of Laura is Dying Is Fun. For readers who are devoted to Nabokov (I"m one), The Original of Laura affords its own ecstasies. It comes at you as a reprieve, a final appearance from an old friend you thought was already gone for good. It"s a shambles, a heap of shards, but they"re Nabokov"s shards and no one else"s: the "nasty compassion" the partygoers direct at a drunken Flora; the "alien creams" Flora spots in someone else"s bathroom (recalling the "solemn pool of alien urine" deposited by Mr. Taxovich in another bathroom in Lolita ); the playful half-rhyme of belie and belly ; the perhaps overly wink-winky inclusion of a pedophile named Mr. Hubert H. Hubert; and one lost, evocative phrase off by itself in the upper margin of a card, without a context—"the orange awnings of southern summers." Flora"s surrender to lazy, loveless sexual pleasure and Phillip"s intensely strange abdication of bodily life together make, or would have made, The Original of Laura a melancholy meditation on our fleshly predicament. And what else? The novel"s title refers to a novel-within-a-novel called My Laura , about a character based on Flora. This in turn rhymes with Aurora, the name of an early love of Phillip"s who Flora physically resembles, creating a chain of resemblances and echoes that leads us... where? We"ll never know. The Original of Laura is a beautiful ruin, like the Venus de Milo , not a novel. To pretend otherwise is wishful thinking, no different from Phillip"s belief that he can master death. At some moments the book seems to anticipate its shattered future—Nabokov compares Flora to "an unwritten, half-written, rewritten difficult book." That"s part of her appeal and, oddly, part of Laura"s too. You admire what you can see, and you dream about what you might have seen. ( Time , December 28, 2009-January 4, 2010)

单选题Although his family is poverty-stricken, he finished his 4-year university study by his {{U}}perseverance{{/U}} and self-reliance. A. persistence B. prudence C. patience D. perfection

单选题After long time of hesitation, the woman gave free vent to her pent-up emotion. A．intense B．written C．strong D．confined

单选题Since the shipment consists of seasonable goods, it is important that it is ______ as soon as possible.

单选题After the conference, the participants were scattered into smaller groups to have a free session of talks. A. bee B. donkey C. cow D. bull

单选题I always think of books with unutterable feelings, being deeply indebted to them, as I am, for the warmth they have brought me. A. preferred B. mixed C. profound D. dissatisfied

单选题That seemingly cheerful celebrity had a shy, retiring side to her personality that was completely at odds with her public ______.

单选题Hitler is a monster of wickedness, greedy in his lust for blood and plunder.

单选题The senior senator has in the past three terms both experienced the sweet taste of success and the bitterness of defeat in his legislation fights with his opponents.

单选题For some people, the light of human attention has an unbearable brilliance. Like ivy along the dim edge of a garden, they prefer the social shadows, shunning parties, publicity and fame of any sort. Then there are the flowers of the human arboretum . For them, being in the view of others seems necessary for life itself. From Hollywood to fabricated prime-time reality, this spotlight-de-pendent species is thriving. But what about the individuals who crave attention for more desperate reasons? Those who resort to unusual ways to get it? Lately, it seems, a dark bloom of these characters has emerged. For motives known only to themselves, they have won notoriety by drawing on an almost sacred well of social status: victim hood. In early April, US national news outlets tracked the disappearance of Audrey Seiler, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Police and hundreds of concerned citizens searched for four days before Seiler was discovered. Seiler said she was kidnapped. Within hours, however, her story fell apart. Police announced that her abduction had been a hoax. Why would a popular student make herself disappear? Her motive remains a mystery, but perhaps it had something to do with the search parties and the news bulletins that surrounded her. Sympathy is a powerful sentiment that can connect complete strangers. But if it"s used to manipulate, the backlash can be much more intense. In February, a Waterbury, Connecticut, man was arrested as a result of exploiting sympathy. Edward Valentin told reporters that he had received word that his wife, serving in Iraq, had been killed in an explosion. Police said Valentin admitted the fabrication, reasoning that if people felt sorry for him maybe the military would send his wife home. Evidence, however, points elsewhere. In its extreme form, such a craving shows up in mental disorders, where sufferers may seek attention by causing themselves harm. But even when it comes with no diagnosis, a deep craving to be noticed can have a wide impact. For these individuals, victim hood represents a "pure state of guilt-free entitlement," said psychologist Richard Levak, of Del Mar, California. "They go from being utterly deprived to being utterly indulged. In today"s world... people have become more depressed and disconnected from each other. So you get people who crave affection and attention and approval. They don"t know how to ask for it and they don"t know how to get it. That leaves them vulnerable," Levak said.

单选题Although most people return from package holidays reasonably satisfied, this is not always the 21 Take, for instance, the nightmare experience of a Frenchman who went on 22 to Colombia. The hotel in the small Caribbean port was over-booked. The holidaymaker was 23 round the streets, looking for a 24 and breakfast place, when he was arrested for vagrancy. He was 25 , where he told the magistrate that it was the hotel"s 26 The magistrate was the hotelowner"s brother, and he charged the tourist 27 making false accusations and sent him to prison for 28 had left. He had insufficient funds to buy a return ticket, 29 he went to the Post Office to send a telegram to his home in Montpellier, asking for money. He was 30 before he could send it. This time he was charged with legal 31 . It was explained that, having missed his return 32 , he could no longer be classified as a tourist. He now needed a work 33 , he didn"t have one. He was fined $500 for this 34 , and a further $500 when he again blamed the hotel for overbooking. His 35 was confiscated because he couldn"t pay the fines. He hitch-hiked to Bogota 36 the consulate finally arranged to send him home. All things 37 , I would prefer to plan my holiday independently. 38 my view, it"s safer to "do it yourself". And the advantages of planning your holiday yourself are 39 . If it is well-planned, an independent holiday can usually be good 40 for money.

单选题 Questions 56-60 are based on the following passage. The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups—those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English? Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country.

单选题The countries that are being blamed for the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the rich and developed countries. On a different________, the developing countries feel they will suffer the most of it.

单选题The advocates—mainly family therapy doctors—are applying a new approach to everything from marriage conflict to psychosis.