单选题{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}} Experienced baseball fielders can tell how far a ball is going to travel just by listening to the crack of the bat. If they didn't, they wouldn't stand a chance of catching it, claims a physicist in New York. "When a baseball is hit straight at an outfielder, he cannot quickly judge the angle of the scent and the distance the ball will travel," says Robert Adair, a physicist at Yale University. If he relied purely upon visual information, the fielder would have to wait for about one-and-a-half seconds before he could tell accurately if the pitcher hit the ball long or short. By this time the ball may have travelled too far for him to reach it in time. To stand a fighting chance of catching it, according to Adair, fielders must listen to the sound the ball hitting the bat to judge how far it will travel. There is anecdotal evidence to support this, he says. A former centre fielder told Adair: "If I heard a crack I ran out, if I heard a clunk, I ran in." To test his hypothesis, Adair calculated how quickly a fielder could change direction if he had misjudged whether the ball was going long or short. The difference between the "crack" and "clunk” can he explained by how well the batter has hit the ball, and could mean a difference in running distance of as much as 30 metres, he told delegates at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Chicago last week. Scientists already knew that to hit a ball long the batter must strike it somewhere near the vibrational node of the bat, known as the sweet spot. Balls hit on the sweet spot generate fewer energy-sapping vibrations in the bat, allowing greater energy transfer to the ball. Conversely, mishit balls make the bat vibrate strongly and so do not travel as far. Adair is quick to point out that this only applies to wooden bats, which are used in major league baseball. Aluminum bats, on the other hand, tend to produce a fairly uniform "ping” sound regardless of where you hit them.

单选题They make better use of the time they have, and they are less likely to succumb to fatigue in stressful jobs.

单选题The rapid expansion of cities during the Industrial Revolution {{U}}created{{/U}} a housing crisis.

单选题Numerous experiments have demonstrated that mass is ______ to energy.

单选题Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one's side, or that in Italy and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell. Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying Germany after World War Ⅱ and marked the items GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that "gift" means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at least 3 feet or an arm's length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable. Our linguistic (语言上的) and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world. Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or monuments; we do not have multilingual (多语的) guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them. When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives-usually the richer --who speak English. Our business deals, as well as the nation's diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters. For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods. But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs , we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.

单选题Recent studies have {{U}}posed{{/U}} the question as to whether there is a link between film violence and real violence.

单选题We can't rule out the possibility that he was murdered by his wife.

单选题There isn't sound proof to support his biological theory.

单选题The human brain contains 10 thousand million cells and each of these may have a thousand connections. Such enormous numbers used to discourage us and cause us to dismiss the possibility of making a machine with humanlike ability, but now that we have grown used to moving forward at such a pace we can be less sure. Quite soon, in only 10 or 20 years perhaps, we will be able to assemble a machine as complex as the human brain, and if we can we will. It may then take us a long time to render it intelligent by loading in the right software (软件) or by altering the architecture but that too will happen. I think it certain that in decades, not centuries, machines of silicon (硅) will arise first to rival and then exceed their human ancestors. Once they exceed us they will be capable of their own design. In a real sense they will be able to reproduce themselves. Silicon will have ended carbon's long control. And we will no longer be able to claim ourselves to be the finest intelligence in the known universe. As the intelligence of robots increases to match that of humans and as their cost declines through economies of scale we may use them to expand our frontiers, first on earth through their ability to withstand environments, harmful to ourselves. Thus, deserts may bloom and the ocean beds be mined. Further ahead, by a combination of the great wealth this new age will bring and the technology it will provide, the construction of a vast, mancreated world in space, home to thousands or millions of people, will be within our power.

单选题"Employees have the responsibility to say here's what I want, here's what I need, here's what would make me stay." Says author and consultant Beverly Kaye.

单选题Woman: It seems that you have a good mind to learn another foreign language. Man: That did occur to me, but I'm still in two minds as whether I should learn French or Japanese. Question: What can we learn about the man?

单选题Many different parts Umake up/U an airplane: the engine(s), the wings, the tail, and so on.

单选题{{B}}Part Ⅳ Cloze{{/B}}Directions: In this part, there is a passage with 15 blanks. For each blank there are four choices mrarked A, B, C and D. According to the U. S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , car crashes are the leading cause of death among children between 5 and 14 years of age. Says NHTSA: "{{U}} (61) {{/U}} 50% of children who die in crashes are unrestrained. In addition, 4 out of 5 children are {{U}}(62) {{/U}} restrained. " The NHTSA offers a number of safety {{U}}(63) {{/U}} and cautions for those who are accompanied by children while driving. {{U}}(64) {{/U}} laws vary from country to country and even from state to state, these guidelines may serve as food for {{U}}(65) {{/U}} to many parents and guardians of children. The safest place for all children is in the back seat. Infants should be placed in a rear-facing child safety seat in the baekseat of the car. A child {{U}}(66) {{/U}} a year old and weighing at least 20 pounds may be placed in a forward-facing seat. At 40 pounds, the child can use a "booster seat(儿童案例椅) ", {{U}}(67) {{/U}} is secured by one of the car's lap and shoulder belts. At approximately 80 pounds and a {{U}}(68) {{/U}} of about four feet nine inches, the child may begin using an adult safety strap. Children should not sit in the front passenger seat {{U}}(69) {{/U}} they are at least 13 years of age. Front- passenger air bags can cause serious {{U}}(70) {{/U}} to younger children and babies. When a booster seat is used, a lap belt alone will not provide {{U}}(71) {{/U}} protection if the booster seat does not have a {{U}}(72) {{/U}}. Do not think that a shoulder belt alone will protect a small child; in the {{U}}(73) {{/U}} of a crash, the belt may {{U}}(74) {{/U}} the neck of the child, causing serious injury or even death. Follow instructions closely when {{U}}(75) {{/U}} and using child seats. According to NHTSA, "even the 'safest' seat may not protect your child if it isn't used correctly. "

单选题Unless the population growth stabilizes, environmentalists predict a worldwide Ustarvation/U by the next decade.

单选题He was charged with being an ______ to the crime.

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} The world is full of new horrors and there's no place to hide. Who says so? Disaster psychologists, for a start. They are the people who take in the big picture of our collective reactions to human-created disaster, the ways these reactions are caused, and our coping mechanisms. And research into disaster psychology is growing fast. Among the big issues being addressed by these researchers are understanding the terrorists' weapons, assessing the full impact of terrorism—and, crucially, working out which psychological approaches actually work. It's a deeply controversial area. Take the work of Dennis Embry as an example. He argues that we have overlooked the obvious. the purpose of terrorism is to create terror. This works best "if the very symbols of everyday life become conditioned fear and anxiety stimulant". The top targets will be the most symbolic of a nation's daily life, preferably served up for prime-time television. Crashing planes from United and American Airlines into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon from 8.46 am on met those objectives all too perfectly. After the attacks, people stopped flying. Why? Not because they had made a rational risk assessment but because the mere thought of flying made their palms sweat. From terrorism to rail crashes, counseling and "debriefing” are the standard response to help those caught up in disasters. But there are growing doubts about their effectiveness. What might be going wrong? Debriefing focuses on getting people to talk through the trauma(创伤)and its emotional consequences soon after the incident. Could it be that some people are better by distancing themselves from what happened, rather than retelling it?

单选题Both Tom and his brother Utake after/U their father not only in appearance but also in character.

单选题Man: I missed the bus again today because I turned my alarm clock off in my sleep. I don't know what to do. Woman: Try putting it far away from your bed so that you have to get up to turn it off. Question: What does the woman suggest the man do?

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} When I was home in Britain on holiday last summer, I spent an evening looking at photos my father had taken when he stayed with us in Beijing in the spring of 1966. Of all these interesting scenes of the past, the one I exclaimed at was a photo of Chang An Jie at Tiananmen. The photo showed one car and two bicycles! This made me reflect on the changes that have transformed Beijing since I came to the city 37 years ago. In those days, the bicycle was king. What sheer joy it was to cycle along with the hundreds (not thousands) of fellow pedallers (骑车人), never in fear of life and limb as one is now. I bought my first bike in 1963. It cost me 150 yuan-in those days three or four months' salary for the average city dweller. Such changes! Good or bad? Today, cycling is hazardous but bikes are easily affordable. Gone are the old wooden houses I remember in south Beijing and fast disappearing are the small, overcrowded courtyard houses lacking running water, central heating and bathroom. Very many Beijingers now live in more convenient, better-equipped flats in high-rises. But these very high-rises are swallowing up the unique character of the old city of narrow hutongs, age-old siheyuan and close-knit communities. I loved years ago to cycle to Beihai to visit my friends (I then taught at China Foreign Affairs University). In spring I rode through the blue-green wheat fields, in summer through fields of tall maize (玉米). Further west; beyond Beijing Foreign Studies University there were the vegetable fields of the Evergreen Commune (四季青公社) and the rice paddies glistening in the summer sun. But now, as Beijing stretches out further and further, west, east, north, south, there's decent housing for families, busy offices for employment and large department stores and supermarkets where, if you have the money, there's little you cannot buy.

单选题Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away—straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infrared scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide (杀虫剂]) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest (害虫) problems. Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spotspray, using 40 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would. The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. "This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States," says George Other of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.