单选题In the______of their investigation they made a discovery that helped to solve a six-year-old mystery.

单选题Up until that time, his interest had focused almost______on fully mastering the skills and techniques of his craft.(2015年北京航空航天大学考博试题)

单选题The outcry against the corporation's policies will ______ only if a compromise is reached in the assembly.

单选题The greatest devastation of old age is the loss of mental faculties, and with the near doubling of life expectancy in the past century has come the mixed blessing of living longer and losing more. A few great thinkers and artists remained productive in their later years — Galileo, Monet, Shaw, Stravinsky, Tolstoy — but even they were not what they had been in their primes. In science, the boom falls sooner still: " A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so," said Einstein. Imagine if we could transplant old brains into younger bodies: would our minds stay young, or would we be senile teenagers, scaling mountains and skateboarding at 120, but forgetting where we put the car keys? Is the brain uniquely vulnerable to the ravages of time? Can anything be done? Incontrovertible evidence from many studies shows that a higher level of education and greater mental activity throughout life correlate with lower cognitive losses in old age. These benefits apply to all sorts of cognitive losses, including those associated with Alzheimer's. Some researchers believe that mental application in early life produces complex neural connections that provide a reserve later on; others argue that education merely gives people the means to cope with and compensate for their losses. K. Warner Schaie, a professor of human development and psychology at Pennsylvania State University, has studied age-related change in more than 5,000 people, some for more than 40 years. Comparing earlier with later recruits, Mr. Schaie concludes that the rate of mental decline is slowing, a change he attributes to better education, healthier diet, lessened exposure to serious disease, and more mental activity. "You've got to practice," Mr. Schaie says, "If you don't solve problems, you no longer can solve problems. " Retirement can be particularly hard, he adds, because for many people, work is their most challenging activity. "Retirement is good for people who've had routine jobs — they may find something more stimulating. But it's disadvantageous for people in high-level jobs, who are less likely to find something as stimulating as the job they had. " K. Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University, confirms Mr. Schaie's emphasis on the virtue of practice. Initially interested in expert performers like musicians, he found that many ostensible geniuses aren't really so different from everyone else — they just practice harder and longer, benefiting from sheer labor, rather than from some special gift. Professional musicians who continue to practice assiduously as they age continue to play well, while amateurs who just play for pleasure show age-related declines. Mr. Ericsson's studies failed to show significant generalized benefits from mental exercise. "If you play tennis, you improve your general fitness, but the greatest improvement is specific to tennis, not to other sports. It's the same with cognitive exercise. You have to look at your life and pick what you want to improve. "

单选题Satellite communication are so up-to-date that even when ______ in the middle of the Pacific, businessmen can contact their offices as if they were next door.

单选题There was to be more use, where necessary and if carefully monitored, of ______ capital re- sources drawn from international institutions such as the World Bank.

单选题It is known from the passage that ______.

单选题"You must always obey your parents." "Oh, I must, ______?"

单选题The author implies which of the following conclusions?

单选题In as much as a year does not elapse without a certain number of villagers falling victim to the ferocity of a tiger, its roar is ______ heard by the natives ______ feelings of terror.

单选题The recent news of the successful cloning of an adult sheep — in which the sheep's DNA was inserted into an unfertilized sheep egg to produce a lamb with identical DNA — has generated an outpouring of ethical concerns. These concerns are not about Dolly, the now famous sheep, nor even about the considerable impact cloning may have on the animal breeding industry, but rather about the possibility of cloning humans. For the most part, however, the ethical concerns being raised are exaggerated and misplaced, because they are based on erroneous views about what genes are and what they can do. The danger, therefore, lies not in the power of the technology, but in the misunderstanding of its significance. Producing a clone of a human being would not amount to creating a " carbon copy" — an automaton of the sort familiar from science fiction. It would be more like producing a delayed identical twin. And just as identical twins are two separate people — biologically, psychologically, morally and legally, though not genetically — so to embrace a belief in genetic determinism — the view that genes determine everything about us, and that environmental factors or the random events in human development are utterly insignificant. The overwhelming consensus among geneticists is that genetic determinism is false. As geneticists have come to understand the ways in which genes operate, they have also become aware of the myriad ways in which the environment affects their "expression". The genetic contribution to the simplest physical traits, such as height and hair color, is significantly mediated by environmental factors. And the genetic contribution to the traits we value most deeply, from intelligence to compassion, is conceded by even the most enthusiastic genetic researchers to be limited and indirect. Indeed, we need only appeal to our ordinary experience with identical twins — that they are different people despite their similarities — to appreciate that genetic determinism is false. Furthermore, because of the extra steps involved, cloning will probably always be riskier — that is, less likely to result in a live birth — that in vitro fertilization(IVF)and embryo transfer. For example, it took more than 275 attempts before the researchers were able to obtain a successful sheep clone. While cloning methods may improve, we should note tat even standard IVF techniques typically have success rate of less than 20 percent. So why would anyone go to the trouble of cloning?

单选题These people actively try to what they believe to be bad English and assiduously cultivate what they hope to be good English.

单选题In ancient Egyptian paintings, royal figures were differentiated by making them several times larger than others.(2003年电子科技大学考博试题)

单选题He is a very ______ character; he is never relaxed with strangers. A) self-confident B) self-conscious C) self-evident D) self-serving

单选题{{B}}Passage 5{{/B}} The older I grow the more impressed I am with the role of luck or chance in life. To be born when and where one finds himself is, of course, from the point of view of the individual pews the sheerest luck of all--good or bad. There are millions now living in America who would long since have been dead, had they been born or had remained in countries of their parents' origins. Luck does not determine or explain achievement--merit often plays a preponderant role. This is obvious when we observe the differences in performances among those who have a roughly common environment and are judged by a single, relevant standard. But even to be in a position to be evaluated on one's merits is a matter of luck or good fortune. Sometimes those who are qualified, and more often, those who are potentially qualified never get the chance. Sometimes the qualified have the good luck of competing against the poorer qualified or the bad luck of competing against the better qualified-circumstances usually beyond the control of the persons affected. Yet, in every competition this is an important factor. The distribution of wealth in this world depends almost as much on luck as on energy, foresight and skill. These latter virtues are decisive as a rule when the luck of opportunity is common. But often it is not, as the varying portions of individuals' inheritance testify. Even when the opportunity is common, results may not reflect merit or demerit. When we read of the actions for which individuals have run afoul of the law, it is only the weakness and poverty of our imagination that prevent us from grasping the series of events--all caused to be sure--whose conjunction could have landed us in the same predicament. If our temper had flared up when a deadly weapon was available, might we not be in the dock? Regardless of legal guilt or innocence, being charged with, or involved in, a crime is often a matter of luck. We never know when we may be falsely accused. Does belief in luck tend to an acceptance of the status quo? Not necessarily--although there is nothing wrong in accepting the status quo, if any feasible alternative to it is likely to be worse. When we realize what we owe to luck, it tends to cure us of overweening pride, of smugness and self-righteousness. For whatever our achievements we will note that they are not a consequence only of our worth, or of our efforts and virtues alone. Success always depends upon the cooperation of other persons and things, on the happy concert of time, place and opportunity--the absence of any one of which might have spelled failure.

单选题The word "modicum" in the last paragraph can be replaced by ______.

单选题Because of a recent obstacle in production, sales have dropped and accordingly profits have______.(2002年春季上海交通大学考博试题)

单选题Despite the fact that they were ______ when they married, after 30 years they live together harmoniously. A. contradictory B. incompatible C. contrary D. compatible

单选题To us it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But actually the umbrella was not invented as protection against rain. Its first use was as a shade against the sun. Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese, way back in the eleventh century B.C. We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade. And there was a strange thing connected with its use: it became a symbol of honor and authority. In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by royalty or by those in high offices. In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. And the umbrella was in common use in ancient Greece. But it is believed that the first persons in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against rain were the ancient Romans. During the Middle Ages, the use of the umbrella practically disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it was considered a symbol of power and authority. By 1680, the umbrella appeared in France and later on in England. By the eighteenth century, the umbrella was used against rain throughout most of Europe. Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weight. It wasn't until the twentieth century that women's umbrellas began to be made in a whole variety of colors.