单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} To understand how astrology works, we should first take a quick look at the sky. Although the stars are at enormous distances, they do indeed give the impression of being affixed to the inner surface of a great hollow sphere surrounding the earth. Ancient people, in fact, literally believed in the existence of such a celestial sphere. As the earth, spins on its axis, the celestial sphere appears to turn about us each day, pivoting at points on a line with the earth's axis of rotation. This daily turning of the sphere carries the stars around the sky, causing most of them to rise and set, but they, and constellations they define, maintains fixed patterns on the sphere, just as the continent of Australian maintains its shape on a spinning globe of the earth. Thus the stars were called fixed stars. The motion of the sun along the ecliptic is, of course, merely a reflection of the revolution of the earth around the sun, but the ancients believed the earth was fixed and the sun had an independent motion of its own, eastward among the stars. The glare of sunlight hides the stars in daytime, but the ancients were aware that the stars were up there even at night, and the slow eastward motion of the sun around the sky, at the rate of about thirty degrees each month, caused different stars to be visible at night at different times of the year. The moon, revolving around the earth each month, also has an independent motion in the sky. The moon, however, changes its position relatively rapidly. Although it appears to rise and set each day, as does nearly everything else in the sky, we can see the moon changing position during as short an interval as an hour or so. The moon's path around the earth lies nearly in the same plane as the earth's path around the sun, so the moon is never seen very far from the ecliptic in the sky. There are five other objects visible to the naked eye that also appear to move in respect to the fixed background of stars on the celestial sphere. These are the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Saturn. All of them revolve around the sun in nearly the same plane as the earth does, so they, like the moon, always appear near the ecliptic. Because we see the planets from the moving earth, however, they behave in a complicated way, with their apparent motions' on the celestial sphere reflecting both their own independent motions around the sun and our motion as well.

单选题Social-networking sites offer users easy ways to present idealized images of themselves, even if those ideals don't always square with their real-world personalities. Psychology researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh has discovered a way to poke through the offline-online curtain: she has used Faeebook to predict a person's level of narcissism and self-esteem. Mehdizadeh, who conducted the study as an undergraduate at Toronto's York University, gained access to the Faeebook accounts of 100 college students and measured activities like photo sharing, wall postings and status updates; she also studied how frequently users logged on and how often they remained online during each session. Her findings were published recently in Cyberpsyehology, Behavior and Social Networking. After measuring each subject using the Narcissism Personality Inventory and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Mehdizadeh, who graduated from York this past spring, discovered narcissists and people with lower self-esteem were more likely to spend more than an hour a day on Facebook and were more prone to post self-promo-tional photos ( striking a pose or using Photoshop, for example). Narcissists were also more likely to showcase themselves through status updates (using phrases like "I'm so glamorous I bleed glitter") and wall activity (posting self-serving links like " My Celebrity Look-alikes" ). Self-esteem and narcissism are often interrelated but don't always go hand in hand. Some psychologists believe that narcissists--those who have a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a need for admiration, as well as a lack of sympathy--unconsciously inflate their sense of self-importance as a defense against feeling inadequate. Not enough empirical research has been produced to confirm that link, although Mehdizadeh's study seems to support it. Because narcissists have less capacity to sustain intimate or long-term relationships, Mehdizadeh thinks that they would be more drawn to the online world of virtual friends and emotionally detached communication. Although it seems that Facebook can be used by narcissists to fuel their inflated egos, Mehdizadeh stops short of proclaiming that excessive time spent on Faeebook can turn regular users into narcissists. She also notes that social-networking sites might ultimately be found to have positive effects when used by people with low self-esteem or depression. "If individuals with lower self-esteem are more prone to using Facebook," she says, "the question becomes, ' Can Facebook help raise self- esteem by allowing patients to talk to each other and help each other in a socially interactive environment?' I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that people with low self-esteem use Facebook. /

单选题John Battelle is Silicon Valley's Bob Woodward. One of the founders of Wired magazine, he has hung around Google for so long that he has come to be as close as any outsider can to actually being an insider. Certainly, Google' s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, believe that it is safer to talk to Mr. Battelle than not to do so. The result is a highly readable account of Google's astonishing rise-the steepest in corporate history-from its origins in Stanford University to its controversial stockmarket debut and its current struggle to become a grown-up company while staying true to its youthfully brash motto, "Don't be evil." Mr. Battelle makes the reader warm to Google's ruling triumvirate-their cleverness and their good intentions-and fear for their future as they take on the world. Google is one of the most interesting companies around at the moment. It has a decent shot at displacing Microsoft as the next great near-monopoly of the information age. Its ambition-to organise all the world's information, not just the information on the world wide web-is epic, and its commercial power is frightening, Beyond this, Google is interesting for the same reason that secretive dictatorships and Hollywood celebrities are interesting-for being opaque, colourful and, simply, itself. The book disappoints only when Mr. Battelle begins trying to explain the wider relevance of internet search and its possible future development. There is a lot to say on this subject, but Mr. Battelle is hurried and overly chatty, producing laundry lists of geeky concepts without really having thought any of them through properly. This is not a fatal flaw. Read only the middle chapters, and you have a great book.

单选题Which of the following best describes the function of the concluding sentence of the passage?

单选题The best title which describes the content of the text as a whole Would be

单选题Linguists have understood for decades that language and thought are closely related. Humans construct reality using thought and express these thoughts through the use of language. Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf are credited with developing the most relevant explanation outlining the relationship between thought and language, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The hypothesis consists of two parts, linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism. Supporters of linguistic relativity assume that culture is shaped by language. Terwilliger defines linguistic determinism as the process by which "the functions of one's mind are determined by the nature of the language which one speaks." In simpler terms, the thoughts that we construct are based upon the language that we speak and the words that we use. In its strongest sense, linguistic determinism can be interpreted as meaning that language determines thought. In its weakest sense, language partially influences thought. Whorf was careful to avoid authoritative statements which would permanently commit him to a particular position. Because of the broad nature of his statements, it is difficult to distinguish exactly to what extent Whorl believes that language determines thought. Heated debate among modern linguists demonstrates that disagreement exists about the accuracy and correctness of Whorf's studies and of the actual level of influence of language on thought processes. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis essentially consists of two distinct statements connecting the relation of thought and language. Whorf believes that humans may be able to think only about objects, processes, and conditions that have language associated with them. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis also explains the relationship between different languages (French, English, German, Chinese, and so on) and thought. Whorl demonstrated that culture is largely determined by language. Different cultures perceive the world in different ways. Culturally essential objects, conditions and processes usually are defined by a plethora of words, while things that cultures perceive as unimportant are usually assigned one or two words. Whorl developed this theory while studying the Hopi Indian tribe. Whorf was amazed that the Hopi language has no words for past, present, and future. The Hopi have only one word for flying objects. A dragonfly, an airplane, and a pilot are defined using the same word. Whorf questioned whether or not the Hopi view the world differently from western people. After further interpretation and analysis he concluded that the Hopi have a sense for the continuum of time despite having no words to specifically describe past, present, and future. It is commonly believed that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis possesses some truth, but the extent to which it is applicable to all situations is questioned. Linguists generally support a "strong" or a "weak" interpretation. Linguists who study the hypothesis tend to cite examples that support their beliefs but are unable or unwilling to refute the opposing arguments. Examples exist that strengthen the arguments of everyone who studies the hypothesis. Nobody has gained significant ground in proving or refuting the hypothesis because the definitions of Sapir and Whorl are very vague and incomplete, leaving room for a significant amount of interpretation.

单选题We know less about the astronomical universe than we do about any social system because ______.

单选题The author implies

单选题One of the enduring myths of American folklore is that Jesse James was a home-grown Robin Hood who "stole from the rich and gave to the poor" That legend enjoyed a revived popularity in the 1960s. Supported by movies, pulp fiction, and even serious scholarship, this image has dominated our understanding of the post-Civil War James gang and other western outlaws. Historians have described James as a "primitive rebel" who championed "a special type of peasant protest and rebellion" against modernizing forces by robbing banks and railroads. But James himself would have considered this notion a great joke. In fact, James's robbers went after the express company safes just because that's where the money was. As for the Robin Hood theme, there is no evidence the James gang did anything with the cash they stole except to spend it on fine horseflesh and gambling. The key to understanding the motives of the James gang—besides greed—is the Civil War, especially the vicious guerrilla combat within the larger war that plagued Missouri. Support for the Confederacy was strong in the Little Dixie counties that flanked the Missouri River just east of the Kansas border. In these counties lived most of the men and boys who went into the bush as Confederate guerrillas, including Frank and Jesse James. They learned their trade under the tutelage of such psychopathic killers as " Bloody Bill" Anderson and William Clarke Quantrill, who murdered scores of Missouri Unionists and fought it out with Union soldiers during four years of internecine warfare. These guerrillas were anything but the poor farmers of folklore. Many of them (like James) came from families that were three times more likely to own slaves and possessed twice as much wealth as the average Missouri family. James fought during the war against emancipation and after the war against the Republican Party that freed and enfranchised the slaves. Many of the banks and express companies struck by the James gang were owned by individuals or groups associated with the Republican Party. Like the Ku Klux Klan in former Confederate states, the James gang did its best to undermine the new order ushered in by Northern victory in the Civil War. When Democrats regained control of Missouri in the 1870s, the James gang looked for greener pastures outside the state. In August 1876, they rode all the way to Northfield, Minn. , with the aim of robbing a bank there in which a Union general was reported to have deposited large funds. When the bank cashier—also a Union veteran—refused to open the vault, James shot him in cold blood. The citizens of Northfield fought back, killing two of the bandits before they could flee the town. Jesse and Frank James got away, but this affair was the beginning of the end for Jesse's career as the self-described "Napoleon of crime. /

单选题The author's opinion upon the development of Wal-Mart is

单选题With the Met Office predicting a summer heatwave, Macmillan Cancer Relief this week (1) its customary warning about the sun's ultravioiet rays: (2) , it says, for the huge rise in skin cancers affecting 70,000 people a year. (3) a hat and long-sleeved shirt, it advises, keep in the (4) in the middle of the day, and slap (5) suncream with a protection factor of 15 or above. We all know it (6) ; it's the message that's been drummed into us for the past 20 years. Too much sun (7) . But now there's a fly in the suntan lotion, complicating the message's clarity. It comes (8) a thin, quietly-spoken and officially retired Nasa scientist, Professor William Grant, who says that sun doesn't kill; in act, it does us the world of (9) . What's killing us, he says, is our (10) with protecting ourselves from skin cancer. Grant is trying to turn the scientific world (11) down. Talking to me on a trip to Britain this week, he (12) his startling--and at first appearance off-the-wall new calculation that (13) excessive exposure to the sun is costing 1,600 deaths a year in the UK from melanoma skin cancers, (14) exposure to the sun is the cause of 25,000 deaths a year from cancer generally. In other words, one sixth of all cancer deaths could be prevented (15) we sunned ourselves a little more; in comparison, the melanoma (16) is insignificant. The reason is vitamin D. Grant, the director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Centre (SUNARC) he (17) in California a year ago, says that he and other scientists have (18) vitamin D deficiency as a key cause (19) 17 different types of cancer including melanoma, osteoporosis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other neurological (20) .

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} A very important world problem, if not the most serious of all the great world problems which affect us at the moment, is the increasing number of people who actually inhabit this planet. The limited amount of land and land resources will soon be unable to support the huge population if it continues to grow at its present rate. In an early survey conducted in 1888, a billion and a half people inhabited the earth. Now, the population exceeds five billion and is growing fast—by the staggering figure of 90 million in 1988 alone. This means that the world must accommodate a new population roughly equal to that of the United States and Canada every three years! Even though the rate of growth has begun to slow down, most experts believe the population size will still pass eight billion during the next 50 years. So why is this huge increase in population taking place? It is really due to the spread of the knowledge and practice of what is becoming known as "Death Control". You have no doubt heard of the term "Birth Control"—" Death Control" is something rather different. It recognizes the work of the doctors and scientists who now keep alive people who, not very long ago, would have died of a variety of then incurable diseases. Through a wide variety of technological innovations that include farming methods and sanitation, as well as the control of these deadly diseases, we have found ways to reduce the rate at which we die—creating a population explosion. We used to think that reaching seventy years old was a remarkable achievement, but now eighty or even ninety is becoming recognized as the normal life-span for humans. In a sense, this represents a tremendous achievement for our species. Biologically this is the very definition of success and we have undoubtedly become the dominant animal on the planet. However, this success is the very cause of the greatest threat to mankind. Man is constantly destroying the very resources which keep him alive. He is destroying the balance of nature which regulates climate and the atmosphere, produces and maintains healthy soils, provides food from the seas, etc. In short, by only considering our needs of today we are ensuring there will be no tomorrow. An understanding of man's effect on the balance of nature is crucial to be able to find the appropriate remedial action. It is a very common belief that the problems of the population explosion are caused mainly by poor people living in poor countries who do not know enough to limit their reproduction. This is not true. The actual number of people in an area is not as important as the effect they have on nature. Developing countries do have an effect on their environment, but it is the populations of richer countries that have a far greater impact on the earth as a whole. The birth of a baby in, for example, Japan, imposes more than a hundred times the amount of stress on the world's resources as a baby in India. Most people in India do not grow up to own cars or air-conditioners—nor do they eat the huge amount of meat and fish that the Japanese child does. Their life-styles do not require vast quantities of minerals and energy. Also, they are aware of the requirements of the land around them and try to put something back into nature to replace what they take out. For example, tropical forests are known to be essential to the balance of nature yet we are destroying them at an incredible rate. They are being cleared not to benefit the natives of that country, but to satisfy the needs of richer countries. Central American forests are being destroyed for pastureland to make pet food in the United States cheaper; in Papua New Guinea, forests are destroyed to supply cheaper cardboard packaging for Japanese electronic products; in Burma and Thailand, forests have been destroyed to produce more attractive furniture in Singapore and Japan. Therefore, a rich person living thousands of miles away may cause more tropical forest destruction than a poor person living in the forest itself. In short then, it is everybody's duty to safeguard the future of mankind-not only through population control, but by being more aware of the effect his actions have on nature. Nature is both fragile and powerful. It is very easily destroyed; on the other hand, it can so easily destroy its most aggressive enemy—man.

单选题Cats, according to the author, ______.