单选题Man: Not every woman could do the thing like her. She is extraordinary.Woman: Yeah, she is. But I'll have my moments.Question: What does the woman mean?
单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
For over 30 years, Donald Kroodsma has
worked to disclose such mysteries of bird communication. Through field studies
and laboratory experiments, he's studied the ecological and social forces that
may have contributed to the evolution of vocal learning. Kroodsma
has paid particular attention to local variation in song types, known as
dialects. The Black-capped Chickadees (Parus atricapillus)on Martha's Vineyard,
for example, have an entirely different song than their counterparts on the
Massachusetts mainland, he says. Birds that live on the boundary between two
dialects or that spend time in different areas can become "bilingual," learning
the; songs of more than one group of neighbors. Recently, Kroodsma discovered
that the Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata) is constantly changing
its song, creating what he calls a "rapid cultural evolution within each
generation. "This kind of song evolution is found in whales but, up until now,
rarely in birds.A professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, Kroodsma is also co-editor of the book Ecology and Evolution of
Acoustic Communication in Birds (Cornell University Press, 1996). Though he
plans to continue his field studies, he says that one of his most important
goals now is to help people understand how to listen to birdsong. "Many people
can identify a Wood Thrush(Hylocichla mustelina)when they hear it. It's one of
the most beautiful songs in the world, "he says. "Little do they realize they
could hear the things that Wood Thrush is communicating if they just knew how to
listen." Next is an interview made between an amateur of bird songs(SA)and
Donald Kroodsma.SA: Can you make any comparison between how a baby bird
learns to sing and how a young human learns to speak?DK: On the surface,
it's remarkably similar. I often play a tape of my daughter, recorded when she
was about a year and a half old. She is taking all the sounds she knows,
"bow-wow, kitty, no, down” and randomly piecing them together in a nonsensical
babbling sequence. Then I play a tape of a young bird and dissect what it's
doing in what we call its "subsong," and it's exactly the same thing.It's
taking all the sounds it has memorized, all the sounds it has been exposed to,
and singing them in a random sequence. It looks like what the baby human and the
baby bird are doing is identical. Some might say that's a crass comparison, but
it's very intriguing. SA: Why do the song repertoires(全部技能)and dialects of
some birds vary from place to place?DK: For the species of birds that do not
learn their songs, I like to think of it simplistically as the song being
encoded right in their DNA. With these birds, if we find differences in their
songs from place to place, it means that the DNA has changed too, that the
populations are genetically different.But there are species in which the
songs are not encoded in the DNA. Then we have something very similar to humans,
in which speech is learned and varies from place to place. If you were raised in
Germany, for example, you'd be speaking German rather than English with no
change in your genes. So with the birds that learn their songs, you get these
striking differences from place to place because the birds have learned the
local dialect.SA: How is this affected by whether a bird is nomadic? DK:
If you know the rest of your life you're going to be speaking English, you work
hard at learning English. But what if you know that you'll be repeatedly thrown
in with people speaking different languages from all over the world? You start
to see the enormous challenge it would be to learn the language or dialect of
all these different locations. So I think for nomadic birds like Sedge Wrens
[Cistothorus platensis], because they are thrown together with different birds
every few months from all over the geographic range, they don't bother to
imitate the songs of their immediate neighbors. They make up some kind of
generalized song, or rather the instructions in their DNA allow them to
improvise this very Sedge Wren-y song. Why should they imitate each other and
all have the same songs? I wish I knew the answer to
that.
单选题
With 950 million people, India ranks
second to China among the most populous countries. But since China {{U}}(71)
{{/U}} a family planning program in 1971, India has been closing the
{{U}}(72) {{/U}}. Indians have reduced their birth rate but not
nearly {{U}}(73) {{/U}} the Chinese have. If current growth rates
continue, India's population will {{U}}(74) {{/U}} China's around the
year 2028 {{U}}(75) {{/U}} about 1.7 billion. Should that happen, it
won't be the {{U}}(76) {{/U}} of the enlightened women of Kerala, a
state in southern India. {{U}}(77) {{/U}} India as a whole adds almost
20 million people a year, Kerala's population is virtually {{U}}(78)
{{/U}}. The reason is no mystery: nearly two-thirds of Kerala women practice
birth control, {{U}}(79) {{/U}} about 40% in the entire
nation. The difference {{U}}(80) {{/U}} the emphasis put
on health programs, {{U}}(81) {{/U}} birth control, by the state
authorities, {{U}}(82) {{/U}} in 1957 became India's first elected
Communist {{U}}(83) {{/U}}. And an educational tradition and matrilineal
(母系的) customs in parts of Kerala help girls and boys get {{U}}(84)
{{/U}} good schooling. While one in three Indian women is {{U}}(85)
{{/U}}, 90%of those in Kerala can read and write. Higher
literacy rates {{U}}(86) {{/U}} Family planning. "Unlike our Parents, we
know that we can do more for our children if we have {{U}}(87) {{/U}} of
them," says Laila Cherian, 33, who lives in the Village of Kudamaloor. She has
limited herself {{U}}(88) {{/U}} three children--one below the national
{{U}}(89) {{/U}} of four. That kind of restraint (抑制, 克制) will keep
Kerala from putting added {{U}}(90) {{/U}} on world food
supplies.
单选题This incident ______ me in my belief that loving-mother force alone is incomplete, with out father's discipline.
单选题The decline in moral standards—which has long concerned social analysts—has at last captured the attention of average Americans. And Jean Bethke Elshtain, for one, is glad. The fact that ordinary citizens are now starting to think seriously about the nation's moral climate, says this ethics (伦理学) professor at the University of Chicago, is reason to hope that new ideas wilt come forward to improve it. But the challenge is not to be underestimated. Materialism and individualism in American society are the biggest obstacles. "The thought that I'm in it for me has become deeply rooted in the national consciousness," Ms. Elshtain says. Some of this can be attributed to the disintegration of traditional communities, in which neighbors looked out for one another, she says. With today's greater mobility and with so many couples working, those bonds have been weakened, replaced by a greater emphasis on self. In a 1996 poll of Americans, loss of morality topped the list of the biggest problems facing the U. S. And Elshtain says the public is correct to sense that: Data show that Americans are struggling with problems unheard of in the 1940s, such as classroom violence and a high rate of births to unmarried mothers. The desire for a higher moral standard is not a lament (挽歌) for some nonexistent "golden age", Elshtain says, nor is it a wishful (一厢情愿的) longing for a time that denied opportunities to women and minorities. Most people, in fact, favor the lessening of prejudice. Moral decline will not be reversed until people find ways to counter the materialism in society, she says. "Slowly, you recognize that the things that matter are those that can't be bought. /
单选题A: Could you spare a few hours to help me clean the house? B: ______.
单选题I will try to confirm whether your reservations have been processed.
单选题In the latter case the outcome can be serious indeed.
单选题The ability to (talk) is one of the (skill) that makes (humans different) from the rest of the (animal world).
单选题The firefighter was commended for his bravery in the big fire.
单选题Woman: I wonder if you could sell me the Psychology textbooks. You took the course last semester, didn't you? Man: As a matter of fact, I already sold them back to the school bookstore. Question: What do we learn from the conversation?
单选题(In) warm-blooded animals, their body temperature, regardless of the temperature of the animals' (surroundings), (are) maintained within narrow (limits).
单选题If we'd fought (that) election (on) the' trade union agenda, we (would win) a lot more votes than the Campaign issues (chosen) by the professionals.
单选题Man: I didn't know you got a promotion. Why didn't you tell me earlier so that we could have celebrated it?Woman: I guess it slipped my mind. My mind was lost to other things because of work. Question: What does the woman mean?
单选题That nation's relationship with its neighbors was reflected in the mistrust, misunderstanding, and ______.
单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}}
A few years ago, in their search for
ways to sell more goods, advertising men hit on a new and controversial gimmick.
It is a silent, invisible commercial that, the ad men claim, can be rushed past
the consumer's conscious mind and planted in his subconscious—and without the
consumer's knowledge. Developed by James Vicary, a research man
who studies what makes people buy, this technique relies on the psychological
principle of subliminal perception. Scientists tell us that many of the sights
coming to our eyes are not consciously "seen". We select only a few for
conscious "seeing" and ignore the rest. Actually, the discarded impressions are
recorded in the brain though they are below the threshold of
consciousness. There's little doubt in Vicary's mind as to the
subliminal ad's effectiveness. His proof can be summed up in just two words:
sales increase. In an unidentified movie house not so long ago,
unknown audiences saw a curious film program. At the same time, on the same
screen on which the film hero was courting the heroine a subliminal projector
was flashing its visible commercials. "Get popcorn," ordered the
commercial for a reported one three-thousands of a second every five seconds. It
announced "Coca-Cola" at the same speed and frequency to other audiences. At the
end of a six weeks trial, popcorn sales had gone up 57 percent, Coke sales 18
percent. Experimental Films. Inc, says the technique is not new.
It began research on subliminal perception in 1954. Experimental Films stresses
that its equipment was designed for helping problematic students and treating
the mentally ill. At NYU two doctors showed twenty women the projected image of
an expressionless face. They told the subjects to watch the face for some change
of expression. Then they flashed the word angry on the screen at subliminal
speeds. Now the women thought the face looked unpleasant. When the word happy
was flashed on the screen instead, the subjects thought the woman's facial
expression looked much more pleasant. Subliminal techniques, its
promoters believe, are good for more than selling popcorn. Perhaps the process
can even be used to sell political candidates, by leaving a favorable impression
of the candidate in the minds of the electorates subliminally.
How convincing are these invisible commercials? Skeptical psychologists
answer that they aren't anywhere near as effective as the ad men would like to
think they are. Nothing has been proven yet scientifically, says a prominent
research man.
单选题(No matter) poor one (may be), (one) can always find something to be (thankful for).
单选题This grave event did not ______ the personal crisis between them.
单选题A: Haven't we met somewhere? B: No, I don't think so. A: Aren't you Kevin Grant? B: No, no, my name's Greg. Greg Brown. A: ______
单选题According to Paragraph 2, senior executives' quitting may be spurred by ______