单选题The fire was finally brought under control, but not ______ extensive damage had been caused. A. after B. before C. since D. as

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} The Internet can make the news more democratic, giving the public a chance to ask questions and seek out facts behind stories and candidates, according to the head of the largest US on-line service. "But the greatest potential for public participation is still in the future," Steven Case, chairman of America On-line, told a recent meeting on Journalism and the Internet sponsored by The Freedom Forum(讨论会), though some other speakers say the new technology of computers is changing the face of journalism, giving reporters access to more information and their readers a chance to ask questions and turn to different sources. "You don't have to buy a newspaper and be confined to the four comers of that paper anymore," Sam Meddis, on-line technology editor at USA Today, observed about the variety of information available to computer users. But the speakers noted the easy access to the Internet also means anyone can post information for others to see. "Anyone can say anything they want, whether it's right or wrong," said Case. Readers have to determine for themselves who to trust. "In a world of almost infinite voices, respected journalists and respected brand names will probably become more important, not less," Case said. The Internet today is about where radio was 80 years ago, or television 50 years ago or cable 25 years ago, he said. But it is growing rapidly because it provides people fast access to news and a chance to comment on it.

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} 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A: You have no difficulty finding the answer to the question? B: ______.

单选题After his uncle died, the young man ______ the beautiful estate with which he changed from a poor man to a wealthy noble.

单选题If she doesn't tell him the truth now, he'll simply keep on asking until she ______. A. does B. has done C. will do D. would

单选题Analysts have had their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative literature, but without being greatly instructed. Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards (内在部分) are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind. In a newsreel theatre the other day I saw a picture of a man who had developed the soap bubble to a higher point than it had ever before reached. He had become the ace soap bubble blower of America, had perfected the business of blowing bubbles, refined it, doubled it, squared it, and had even worked himself up into a convenient lather. The effect was not pretty. Some of the bubbles were too big to be beautiful, and the blower was always jumping into them or out of them, or playing some sort of unattractive trick with them. It was, if anything, a rather repulsive sight. Humor is a little like that: it won't stand much blowing up, and it won't stand much poking. It has a certain fragility, an evasiveness, which one had best respect. Essentially, it is a complete mystery. A human frame convulsed with laughter, and the laughter becoming mysterious and uncontrollable, is as far out of balance as one shaken with the hiccoughs or in the throes of a sneezing fit. One of the things commonly said about humorists is that they are really very sad people—clowns with a breaking heart. There is some truth in it, but it is badly stated. It would be more accurate, I think, to say that there is a deep vein of melancholy running through everyone's life and that the humorist, perhaps more sensible of it than some others, compensates for it actively and positively. Humorists fatten on trouble. They have always made trouble pay. They struggle along with a good will and endure pain cheerfully, knowing how well it will serve them in the sweet by and by. You find them wrestling with foreign languages, fighting folding ironing boards and swollen drainpipes, suffering the terrible discomfort of tight boot (or as Josh Billings wittily called them, "tire boots"). They pour out their sorrows profitably, in a form that is not quite a fiction nor quite a fact either. Beneath the sparking surface of these dilemmas flows the strong tide of human woe. Practically everyone is a manic-depressive of sorts, with his up moments and his down moments, and you certainly don't have to be a humorist to taste the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying, and if a humorous piece of writing brings a person to the point where his emotional responses are untrustworthy and seem likely to break over into the opposite realm, it is because humor, like poetry, has an extra content. It plays close to the bit hot fire, which is truth, and sometimes the reader feels the heat.

单选题Ted Robinson ______ these days. A. was worried B. is worried C. had been worried D. has been worried

单选题电视的声音主要包括( )、音响、音乐三大类别。

单选题{{B}}Questions 26-30 are based on the following advertisements:{{/B}} {{B}}Bookkeeper Wanted{{/B}} Job type Temp Full time/Part time Full-Time Diploma/Degree required Associates Job description/qualifications Adecco islookingfor Bookkeeperstowork for top companies. These are long-term temporary positions with the possibility of temp to hire.Job responsibilities include processing accounts payable and accounts receivable. Prepare and post monthly and yearly journal entries. Process payroll, and some light administrative work. {{B}}Qualifications:{{/B}} Three years experience Excellent communication skills Solid organizational skills Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Microsoft Excel Quickbooks Adecco is a global leader in employment and HR service, connecting people to jobs and jobs to people through its network of more than 6,000 offices in 71 countries/territories around the world. Our temporary and full-time assignments offer competitive pay and excellent benefits. Adecco is an equal oppommity employer. Salary/Pay rate Please contact us for more information. Contact Information Adecco San Mateo Branch 1065 E. Hillsdale Blvd. Foster City, CA 94404 Phone: 650-350-1308 E-mail: sanmateo @ adeccona.com

单选题Wilson:Hello,may I speak to Peter? Peter:______

单选题Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives. To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so. Medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients(营养成分) captured in the product it was relatively inefficient. Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safer and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat (栖息地) loss and to diminishing biodiversity. What's more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050. Yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions. All this means that agriculture in the 21st century will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th. This will require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be "zero impact". The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage. Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons(正反两方面) of all the various ways land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity. What is crucial is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.

单选题Passage 7 Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses(差错)in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random. One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People program themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the program." About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these"program assembly failures". Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing--an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的) . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain 'programs' occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses--12.5 compared with 10.9 for men--probably because they were more reliable reporters. A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse--even dangerous.

单选题______ the whole story, Jane decided not to see the film.

单选题She ______ some important details in her account, which aroused the police's suspicion. A. left off B. left out C. left for D. left over

单选题A major reason for conflict in the animal world is territory. The male animal (21) an area. The size of the area is sufficient to provide food for him, his (22) and their offspring. Migrating birds, for example, (23) up the best territory in the order of "first come, first (24) ." The late arrivals may acquire (25) territories, but less food is available, or they are too close to the (26) of the enemies of the species. (27) there is really insufficient food or the danger is very great, the animal will not (28) . In this way, the members of the species which are less fit will not have offspring. When there is conflict (29) . territory, animals will commonly use force, or a (30) of force, to decide which will stay and which will go. It is interesting to note, however, that animals seem to use (31) the minimum amount of force (32) to drive away the intruder. There is usually no killing. In the (33) of those animals which are capable of doing each other great harm, (34) is a system for the losing animal to show the winning animals that he (35) to submit. When he shows this, the (36) normally stops fighting. Animals (especially birds), which can easily escape from conflict seem to have (37) obstacle against killing, and equally no mechanism (38) submission. The losing bird simply flies away. However, if two doves are (39) in a cage, and they start fighting, they will continue to fight until one kills the other. We all think of the dove as a symbol of peace and, in its natural habitat, it is peaceful. But the "peace" mechanism does not (40) in a cage.

单选题The Chinese community there, consisting of 67,000 ______,is the largest concentration of Chinese outside Asia. A. visitors B. workers C. adults D. inhabitants