填空题That the woman was saying was so important that I asked everyone to stop talking and listen.A. ThatB. was sayingC. to stopD. listen

填空题No single element has tantalized and tormented the human imagination more than the shimmering metal known by the chemical symbol Au. For thousands of years the desire to possess gold has driven people to extremes, fueling wars and conquests, girding empires and currencies, leveling mountains and forests. 1 Yet its chief virtues—its unusual density and malleability along with its imperishable shine—have made it one of the world"s most coveted commodities, a transcendent symbol of beauty, wealth, and immortality. From pharaohs (who insisted on being buried in what they called the "flesh of the golds") to the forty-niners (whose mad rush for the mother lode built the American West) to the financiers (who, following Sir Isaac Newton"s advice, made it the bedrock of the global economy); 2 Humankind"s feverish attachment to gold shouldn"t have survived the modern world. Few cultures still believe that gold can give eternal life, and every country in the world—the United States was last, in 1971—has done away with the gold standard. 3 The price of gold, which stood at $ 271 an ounce on September 10, 2001, hit $1,023in March 2008, and it may surpass that threshold again. Aside from extravagance, gold is still continuing to play its role as a safe haven in perilous times. 4 In 2007 demand outstripped mine production by 59 percent. "Gold has always had this kind of magic," says Peter L. Bernstein, author of The Power of Gold. "But it"s never been clear if we have gold or gold has us. " While investors flock to new gold-backed funds, jewelry still accounts for two-thirds of the demand, generating a record $53.5 billion in worldwide sales in 2007. 5 However, such concerns don"t ruffle the biggest consumer nations, namely India, where a gold obsession is woven into the culture, and China, which leaped past the U.S. in 2007 to become the world"s second largest buyer of gold jewelry. A. But gold"s luster (光泽) not only endures; fueled by global uncertainty, it grows stronger. B. Gold is not vital to human existence; it has, in fact, relatively few practical uses. C. In the U. S. an activist-driven "No Dirty Gold" campaign has persuaded many top jewelry retailers to stop selling gold from mines that cause severe social or environmental damage. D. Nearly every society through the ages has invested gold with an almost mythological power. E. For all of its allure, gold"s human and environmental toll has never been so steep. Part of the challenge, as well as the fascination, is that there is so little of it. F. Gold"s recent surge, sparked in part by the terrorist attack on 9/11, has been amplified by the slide of the U. S. dollar and jitters over a looming global recession.

填空题Usually you will be {{U}}more likely{{/U}} to find insects {{U}}if{{/U}} you examine finer twigs {{U}}rather than{{/U}} the {{U}}coarse{{/U}} parts of trees. A. more likely B. if C. rather than D. coarse

填空题To avoid the various foolish opinions to which mankind is prone, no superhuman genius is required. A few simple rules will keep you, not from all error, but from silly error. (66) Aristotle could have avoided the mistake of thinking that women have fewer teeth than men, by the simple device of asking Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open while he counted. He did not do so because he thought he knew. Many matters, however, are less easily brought to the test of experience. If, like most of mankind, you have passionate convictions on many such matters, there are ways in which you can make yourself aware of your own bias. (67) If someone maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmeticthere is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. (68) A good way of ridding yourself of certain kinds of dogmatism is to become aware of opinions held in social circles different from your own. When I was young, I lived much outside my own country. I found this very profitable in diminishing the intensity of insular prejudice. (69) If the people and the newspaper seem mad, perverse, and wicked, remind yourself that you seem so to them. For those who have enough psychological imagination, it is a good plan to imagine an argument with a person having a different bias. (70) I have sometimes been led actually to change my mind as a result of this kind of imaginary dialogue, and, short of this, I have frequently found myself growing less dogmatic through realizing the possible reasonableness of a hypothetical opponent. A. This has one advantage, and only one, as compared with actual conversation with opponents; this one advantage is that the method is not subject to the same limitations of time and space. B. If you cannot travel, seek out people with whom you disagree, and read a newspaper belonging to a party that is not yours. C. If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. D. In this opinion both parties may be right, but they cannot both be wrong. E. If the matter is one that can be settled by observation, make the observation yourself. F. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.