单选题 As people continue to grow and age, our body systems continue to change. At a certain pointin your life your body systems will begin to weaken. Your joints may become stiff. It may becomemore difficult for you to see and hear. The slow change of aging causes our bodies to lose some oftheir ability to bounce back from disease and injury. In order to live longer, we have always triedto slow or stop this process that leads us toward the end of our lives. Many factors contribute to your health. A well-balanced diet plays an important role. Theamount and type of exercise you get is another factor. Your living environment and the amount ofstress you are under is yet another. But scientists studying senescence (~)want to know : whydo people grow old? They hope that by examining the aging process on a cellular level medicalscience may be able to extend the length of life.

单选题The same factors push wages and prices up together, the one ______ the other.

单选题______ that they are fresh from university, the young people have done a good job. A. Giving B. Because C. Given D. As

单选题The same factors push wages and prices up together, the one ______ the other. A. emphasizing B. reinforcing C. multiplying D. increasing

单选题Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because they"re been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe. Now lions hold only a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that split from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former territory. India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live primarily in a 560-square-mile sanctuary (保护区). It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forest—and no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and greatness. A tiger will hide in the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground, curious and unafraid—lionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Gir"s lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. It"s odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Gir has as many lions as it can hold—too many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions move about near the boundary of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. That"s one reason India is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of disease or natural disasters. In 1994 a serious disease killed more than a third of Africa"s Serengeti lions—a thousand animals—a fate that could easily happen to Gir"s cats. These lions are especially vulnerable to disease because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals. "If you do a DNA test, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins," says Stephen O"Brien, a geneticist (基因学家) who has studied them. Yet the dangers are hidden, and you wouldn"t suspect them by watching these lords of the forest. The lions display vitality, and no small measure of charm. Though the gentle intimacy of play vanishes when it"s time to eat, meals in Gir are not necessarily frantic affairs. For a mother and her baby lion sharing a deer, or a young male eating an antelope (羚羊), there"s no need to fight for a cut of the kill. The animals they hunt for food are generally smaller in Gir than those in Africa, and hunting groups tend to be smaller as well.

单选题About one million tourists go to Barcelona every year, just to visit the Gaudi's Church. This unusual church has a strange history. Gandi was born in Spain in 1852. He had to work and study at the same time. He often missed classes because he bad to work, but one day he designed a very unusual show-case for an exhibition in Paris. People began to give him work. He designed houses, offices and gardens. They were all very uhusual. He was soon rich and famous. Then a rich bookseller said, "Will you build a church for the poor people of Barcelona? I will pay. I will build schools and workshops, too. They will help the people." "I will do it," said Guadi. He worked for forty years, but he could not finish the church. It was ton big. He needed ＄10, 000, 000. He gave all his money to the church. He was poor again when he died in 1926, and only the front part of the church was finished. Now, architects, engineers and tourists from all over the world like to come and see the church, which is very strange, very modern and very revolutionary.

单选题 Change, or the ability to {{U}}(31) {{/U}} oneself to a changing environment is essential {{U}}(32) {{/U}} evolution. The farmer whose land is required for housing or industry must adapt himself: he can transfer to another place and master the problems {{U}}(33) {{/U}} to it; he can change his occupation, perhaps {{U}}(34) {{/U}} a period of training; or he can starve to death. A nation which can't adapt its trade or defense requirements to {{U}}(35) {{/U}} world conditions faces an economic and military disaster. Nothing is fixed and permanently stable. {{U}}(36) {{/U}} must be movement forward, which is progress of a sort, and movement backward, which is decay and deterioration. In a changing world, tradition can be a force for good or for evil. {{U}}(37) {{/U}} long as it offers a guide, it helps the ignorant and the uninformed to take a step {{U}}(38) {{/U}} and, thereby adapt themselves to {{U}}(39) {{/U}} circumstances. But if we make an idol of tradition, it ceases to be a guide. It becomes an obstacle {{U}}(40) {{/U}} on the path of course. Man is to accept the help which tradition can give but to be well aware of its limitations in a changing world.

单选题 Do people stop once they have achieved something? No! In life, we are always trying to do things better or having more of the same success. Jane Fonda moved from being an Academy Award actress to a successful businesswoman. Her aerobics (有氧体操) workout videos have been sold around the world. Athletes are constantly making greater and greater efforts to lower time for races; increase heights or distances. The world of medicine has had its series of successes too. Christian Barnard performed several successful heart transplants. Other medical experts have achieved organ transplants. Throughout the ages, mankind has found treatment and cures for tuberculosis (肺结核), cancer, and other diseases. A cure of AIDS might soon be discovered. Age does not seem to slow down achievers. Tina Turner at 54 is still singing with great energy and attracting sell-out crowds wherever she goes. At work, we go all out for achievements too. Success may mean organizing a conference more effectively and efficiently each year. Sometimes, it is not a pat on the back or the promotion that makes it worthwhile. Often it is the inner thrill and satisfaction of achievement, no matter how small it may be. Aiming for success doesn't mean you are greedy or dissatisfied. It is all part of gaining new experiences and dimensions in life. It finally makes you a more interesting and useful person in society.

单选题This material ______ well. A. wears B. is worn C. worn D. is wearing

单选题 The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidize the exploitation and {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}of natural resources. A whole {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and (often) {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}: a cleane r environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}the vested interest that subsidies create. No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the planet's land area, not {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 per cent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases in {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}from land already in {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 1970s and 1980s. All these activities may have {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}of deforestation; chemical fertilizers and pesticides may {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}of old varieties of food plants which {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}much faster than in America.

单选题Betsy: Do you like these apricots? Randolph: ______ A. Not at all. B. Very little. C. They taste terrible. D. I've tasted better.

单选题Tests administered to most elementary and high-school students in the United States exert an unfavourable influence on science and math teaching, according to a new $1 million study performed for the National Science Foundation. And because schools with high minority enrollments (入学) generally place a greater reliance on scores from these tests, the study finds, there tends to be "a gap in instructional emphases between high- and low-minority classrooms that differ from our national concern for the quality of education". George F. Madaus and his colleagues at Boston College analyzed not only the six most widely used national standardized tests, but also the tests designed to accompany the four most commonly used science and math texts in fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and high-school classrooms. Though curriculum (teaching program) experts argue that schools should place greater emphasis on problem solving and reasoning, the new study indicates that the tests focus on lower-level skills -- primarily mechanical memorization of routine formulas. Researchers surveyed more than 2 200 math and science instructors, interviewing in depth some 300 teachers and administrators. Especially in schools with high minority enrollments; teachers reported feeling pressured to help students perform well. on these tests. Some states judge schools and some schools determine teacher assignments based on students' test scores. With so much worry, Madaus says, teachers feel compelled to focus their instruction on drilling what the tests will measure -- at the expense of the more valuable, higher-level skills.

单选题______, the house was a good buy. A. Considering everything B. All things considered C. Everything being considered D. All things being considered

单选题Divorces in Japan have more than doubled, from just over 95 000 in 1970 to 206 955 in 1996, according to health ministry statistics. One in three Japanese marriages now ends in divorce. Atsuko Okano was in one of those failed marriages. Three years ago, she found herself alone in her 30s, with children to raise and a future full of question marks and social shame. But she al so saw an opening — and became a consultant helping people like herself. "My husband was cheating on me," she recalls. "I did everything to bring him back to me but it didn't work, so I dumped him." Such frankness is a major characteristic of Japan's recently divorced — and a striking break with the past. Divorced people — particularly women—have long been looked down upon in Japan, where self-sacrifice and family stability are regarded ms ideals. In the past, bored housewives remained bored. Philandering(逢场作戏) husbands philandered without being blamed. The security of the family unit was the most important thing. Now, young Japanese are increasingly choosing satisfaction in life over the demands of tradition, and more women are financially independent. As a result, Japanese divorce rates' are flying. Experts attribute this to the erosion of a long-standing double standard that granted divorced men respectability, but branded(打……标记) divorced women as damaged goods. Over the past decade, growing numbers of highly educated and successful professional women have challenged that assumption by turning their backs on unhappy marriages and disregarding the taboo(禁忌) of divorce. The majority of divorce proceedings now are initiated by women.

单选题Your sister has made an ______ for you to see the dentist at 3 this afternoon.

单选题The biggest safety threat facing airlines today may not be a terrorist with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class. In the last 15 years, pilots have reported well over 100 incidents that could have been caused by electromagnetic interference. The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, experts are pointing the blame at portable electronic devices such as portable computers, radio and cassette players and mobile telephones. RTCA, an organization which advises the aviation (航空) industry, has recommended that all airlines ban (禁止) such devices from being used during "critical" stages of flight, particularly take-off and landing. Some experts have gone further, calling for a total ban during all flights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although some airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment during take-off and landing, most are reluctant to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during flights. The difficulty is predicting how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft's computers. Experts know that portable devices emit radiation which affects those wavelengths which aircraft use for navigation and communication. But, because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory, they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not. The fact that aircraft may be vulnerable (易受损的) to interference raises the risk that terrorists may use radio system in order to damage navigation equipment. As worrying, though, is the passenger who can't hear the instructions to mm off his radio because the music's too loud.

单选题It is said that one hundred dollars can hardly ______ one night at a top hotel in Shanghai. A. pay B. cover C. spend D. cost

单选题Passage Four Now medical researchers are discovering a truism: "alcohol and tobacco do not mix." These two substances, both dangerous to health, act synergistically, each making the other more powerful and thereby causing worse damage than either would do alone. Because of this interaction, the person who both smokes and drinks heavily may be at a greater risk of becoming ill than one who drinks like a fish, but never smokes or who smokes like a chimney, but never drinks. To get an idea of how this synergism may work, consider what happens when a smoker lights up a cigarette. With each puff he inhales at least 4,000 different chemicals. These include toxic hydrogen-cyanide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen-dioxide gases, and four dozen compounds such as benzo pyrene and radioactive polonium 210. All are known as carcinogens. Most chemical vapors in tobacco smoke get deposited in the mouth, nose, throat and lungs in a coating called tar. It is in this tar that most of the cancer— inducing potential of tobacco smoke lies. Then in a scenario typical of chronic heavy drinkers — most of whom also smoke — our smoker feels thirsty and washes down that smoke coating in his mouth and throat with whisky. The alcohol in his drink is not in itself a carcinogen, but it may act as a solvent, dissolving the tar-taped tobacco poisons, and easing the transport of carcinogens across membranes. Our smoker continues to drink. Soon he lights another cigarette and inhales deeply. Behind his embattled lungs, meanwhile, his liver has gone on full alert to save his life. The three-pound chemical factory, which cleans most toxins from the bloodstream, reacts to alcohol as a foreign substance and metabolizes 95 percent of it into other chemicals. But in turning its energy to clearing just one-half ounce of pure alcohol — the amount in a standard drink — per hour from our drinking smoker's blood, the liver's other metabolic functions suffer a sharp decrease. Poisons from tobacco smoke that otherwise would be removed from his blood within minutes are now allowed to flood his body for hours or days, depending on how much alcohol the liver must dispose of. The person who smokes one or two packs of cigarettes a day loses on average six to eight percent of his blood's oxygen carrying capacity. If our heavy smoker's use of alcohol has led to alcoholism, he is probably malnourished. This malnourishment compounds problems he is having with insufficient oxygen. His brain cells are dying from it. The synergistic effect of alcohol and tobacco may deliver a powerful blow to the cardiovascular system as well as the upper respiratory tract. For those prone to hypertension who drink more than two ounces of alcohol a day, high blood pressure is common and with it the increased risk of stroke and heart attack. For hypertensives who combine smoking and drinking, the risks are even greater.