单选题In such a changing, complex society formerly simple solutions to informational needs become complicated. Many of life"s problems which were solved by asking family members, friends or colleagues are beyond the capability of the extended family to resolve. Where to turn for expert information and how to determine which expert advice to accept are questions facing many people today. In addition to this, there is the growing mobility of people since World War Ⅱ. As families move away from their stable community, their friends of many years, their extended family relationships, the informal flow of information is cut off, and with it the confidence that information will be available when needed and will be trustworthy and reliable. The almost unconscious flow of information about the simplest aspects of living can be cut off. Thus, things once learned subconsciously through the casual communications of the extended family must be consciously learned. Adding to societal changes today is an enormous stockpile of information. The individual now has more information available than any generation, and the task of finding that one piece of information relevant to his or her specific problem is complicated, time-consuming and sometimes even overwhelming. Coupled with the growing quantity of information is the development of technologies which enable the storage and delivery of more information with greater speed to more locations than has ever been possible before. Computer technology makes it possible to store vast amounts of data in machine-readable files, and to program computers to locate specific information. Telecommunication developments enable the sending of messages via television, radio, and very shortly, electronic mail to bombard people with multitudes of messages. Satellites have extended the power of communications to report events at the instant of occurrence. Expertise can be shared world wide through teleconferencing, and problems in dispute can be settled without the participants leaving their homes and/or jobs to travel to a distant conference site. Technology has facilitated the sharing of information and the storage and delivery of information, thus making more information available to more people. In this world of change and complexity, the need for information is of greatest importance. Those people who have accurate, reliable up-to-date information to solve the day-to-day problems, the critical problems of their business, social and family life, will survive and succeed. "Knowledge is power" may well be the truest saying and access to information may be the most critical requirement of all people.

单选题Only an artist could ______ the fine shades of color in the painting

单选题 According to a survey, which was based on the responses of over 188, 000 students, today's traditional- age college freshmen are "more materialistic and less altruistic (利他主义的) "than at any time in the 17 years of the poll. Not surprising in these hard times, the student's major objective "is to be financially well off. Less important than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life. It follows then that today the most popular course is not literature or history but accounting". Interest in teaching, social service and the "altruistic" fields is at a low. on the other hand, enrollment in business programs, engineering and computer science is way up. That's no surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical company) was making twice the salary of her college instructors her first year on the job--even before she completed her two-year associate degree. While it's true that we all need a career, it is equally tame that our civilization has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far removed flora our own and that we are better for ear understanding of these other contributions--be they scientific or artistic. It is equally true that, in studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. More important, perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections between things, as well as to see beyond our immediate needs. Weekly we mad of unions who went on strike for higher wages, only to drive their employer out of business. No company; no job. How shortsighted in the long run ! But the most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon recently which shows a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom (对讲机): "Miss Baxter," he says, "could you please send in someone who can distinguish fight from wrong?" From the long-term point of view, that's what education really ought to be about.

单选题We are surprised to find that he has a(n) ______ streak, with the tendency of remembering the wrongs done to him. A. vengeful B. invincible C. vulnerable D. violent

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} Many people seem to think that science fiction is typified by the covers of some of the old pulp magazines: the Bug-Eyed Monster, embodying every trait and feature that most people find repulsive, is about to grab, and presumably ravish, a sweet, blonde, curvaceous, scantily-clad Earth girl. This is unfortunate because it demeans and degrades a worthwhile and even important literary endeavor. In contrast to this unwarranted stereotype, science fiction rarely emphasizes sex, and when it does, it is more discreet than other contemporary fiction. Instead, the basic interest of science fiction lies in the relation between man and his technology and between man and the universe. Science fiction is a literature of change and a literature of the future, and while it would be foolish to claim that science fiction is a major literary genre at this time, the aspects of human life that it considers make it well worth reading and studying ——for no other literary form does quite the same things. The question is: what is science fiction? And the answer must be, unfortunately, that there have been few attempts to consider this question at any length or with much seriousness; it may well be that science fiction will resist any comprehensive definition of its characteristics. To say this, however, does not mean that there are no ways of defining it nor that various facets of its totality cannot be clarified. To Begin, the following definition should be helpful: science fiction is a literary sub-genre which postulates a change (for human beings) from conditions as we know them and follows the implications of these changes to a conclusion. Although this definition will necessarily be modified and expanded, and probably changed, in the course of this exploration, it covers much of the basic groundwork and provides a point of departure. The first point ——that science fiction is a literary sub-genre ——is a very important one, but one which is often overlooked or ignored in most discussions of science fiction. Specifically, science fiction is either a short story or a novel. There are only a few dramas which could be called science fiction, with Karel Capek's RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots) being the only one that is well known; the body of poetry that might be labeled science fiction is only slightly larger. To say that science fiction is a sub-genre of prose fiction is to say that it has all the basic characteristics and serves the same basic functions in much the same way as prose fiction in general ——that is, it shares a great deal with all other novels and short stories. Everything that can be said about prose fiction, in general applies to science fiction. Every piece of science fiction, whether short story or novel, must have a narrator, a story, a plot, a setting, character, language, and theme. And like any prose, the themes of science fiction are concerned with interpreting man's nature and experience in relation to the world around him. Themes in science fiction are constructed and presented in exactly the same ways that themes are dealt with in any other kind of fiction. They are the result of a particular combination of narrator, story, plot, character, setting, and language. In short, the reasons for reading and enjoying science fiction, and the ways of studying and analyzing it, are basically the same as they would be for any other story or novel.

单选题Most middle-aged people get fatter, mainly because ______.

单选题The contribution of genes make intelligence increase as children grow older. This goes against the notion that most people hold that as we age, environmental influences gradually overpower the genetic legacy we are born with and may have implications for education. "People assume the genetic influence goes down with age because the environmental differences between people pile up in life," says Robert Plomin. "What we found was quite amazing, and goes in the other direction. " Previous studies have shown variations in intelligence are at least partly due to genetics. To find out whether this genetic contribution varies with age, Plomin's team pooled data from six separate studies carried out in the US, the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, involving a total of 11,000 pairs of twins. In these studies, the researchers tested twins on reasoning, logic and arithmetics to measure a quantity called general cognitive ability, or "G" . Each study also included both identical twins, with the same genes, and fraternal twins, sharing about half their genes, making it possible to distinguish the contributions of genes and environment to their G scores. Plomin's team calculated that in childhood, genes account for about 41 percent of the variation in intelligence. In adolescence, this rose to 55 percent; by young adolescence, it was 66 percent. No one knows why the influence from genes should increase with age, but Plomin suggests that as children get older, they become better at exploiting and manipulating their environment to suit their genetic needs, and says "Kids with high G will use their environment to foster their cognitive ability and choose friends who are like-minded. " Children with medium to low G may choose less challenging pastimes and activities, further emphasizing their genetic legacy. Is there any way to interfere with the pattern? Perhaps. "The evidence of strong heritability doesn't mean at all that there is nothing you can do about it, " says Susanne Jaeggi, "From our own work, the ones that started off with lower IQ scores had higher gains after training. " Plomin suggests that genetic differences may be more emphasized if all children share an identical curriculum instead of it being tailored to children's natural abilities. "My inclination would be to give everyone a good education, but put more effort into the lower end," he says. Intelligence researchers Paul Thompson agrees: "It shows that educators need to steer kids towards things drawing out their natural talents. /

单选题What does the phrase "get around to" in the 3rd paragraph mean?

单选题We had no way to measure the exact distance we had traveled, but we thought it was ______ ten miles.

单选题There are quite a few people who are willing to prostitute their intelligence for Ua mess of pottage/U.

单选题The car one drives may show his/her ______ or social position. A. curiosity B. status C. importance D. reputation

单选题In deciding to undertake dangerous pursuits, people A usually strive for their maximum personal ability rating, B when they C are challenged but can be victorious, rather than merely D surmounting the mediocre .

单选题In their world of darkness, it would seem likely that some of the animals might have become blind, as has happened to some cave fauna. So, indeed, many of them have, compensating for the lack of eyes with marvelously developed feelers and long, slender fins and processes with which they grope their way, like so many blind men with canes, their whole knowledge of friends, enemies, or food coming to them through the sense of touch. The last traces of plant life are left behind in the thin upper layer of water for no plant can live below about 600 feet even in very clear water, and few find enough sunlight for their food-manufacturing activities below 200 feet. Since no animal can make its own food, the creatures of the deeper waters live a strange, almost parasitic existence of utter dependence on the upper layers. These hungry carnivores prey fiercely and relentlessly upon each other, yet the whole community is ultimately dependent upon the slow rain of descending food particles from above. The components of this never-ending rain are the dead and dying plants and animals from the surface, or from one of the intermediate layers. For each of the horizontal zones or communities of the sea that lie between the surface and the sea bottom, the food supply is different and in general poorer than for the layer above. Pressure, darkness, and silence are the conditions of life in the deep sea. But we know now that the conception of the sea as a silent place is wholly false. Wide experience with hydrophones and other listening devices for the detection of submarines has proved that, around the shore lines of much of the world, there is the extraordinary uproar produced by fishes, shrimps, porpoises and probably other forms not yet identified. There has been little investigation as yet of sound in the deep, offshore areas, but when the crew of the Atlantis lowered a hydrophone into deep water off Bermuda, they recorded strange mewing sounds, shrieks, and ghostly moans, the sources of which have not been traced. But fish of shallower zones have been captured and confined in aquaria, where their voices have been recorded for comparison with sounds heard at sea, and in many cases satisfactory identification can be made. During the Second World War the hydrophone network set up by the United States Navy to protect the entrance to Chesapeake Bay was temporarily made useless when, in the spring of 1942, the speakers at the surface began to give forth, every evening, a sound described as being like "a pneumatic drill tearing up pavement". The extraneous noises that came over the hydrophones completely masked the sounds of the passage of ships. Eventually it was discovered that the sounds were the voices of fish known as croakers, which in the spring move into Chesapeake Bay from the offshore wintering grounds. As soon as the noise had been identified and analyzed, it was possible to screen it out with an electric filter, so that once more only the sounds of ships came thorugh the speakers.

单选题I don't understand why people______such a beautiful garden with cans and bot- tles. A. located B. provided C. protected D. littered

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} More than a year has passed since the space shuttle Columbia broke into pieces over central Texas. This past January President Bush announced a long-term program of space exploration that would return human beings to the Moon, and thereafter send them to Mars and beyond. As this magazine (Natural History) goes to press, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are wowing the scientists and engineers at the rovers' birthplace--NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)--with their skills as robotic field geologists. JPL's official rover Web site is being stampeded by visitors. The confluence of these and other events resurrects a perennial debate: with two shuttle failures out of 112 missions, and the astronomical expense of the manned space program, can sending people into space be justified, or should robots do the job alone? Modern societies have been sending robots into space since 1957, and people since 1961. Fact is, it's vastly cheaper to send robots: in most cases, a fiftieth the cost of sending people. Robots don't much care how hot or cold space gets; give them the fight lubricants, and they'll operate in a vast range of temperatures. They don't need elaborate life-support systems, either. Robots can spend long periods of time moving around and among the planets, more or less unfazed by ionizing radiation. They do not lose bone mass from prolonged exposure to weightlessness, because, of course, they are boneless. You don't even have to feed them. Best of all, once they've finished their jobs, they won't complain if you don't bring them home. But there's a flip side to this argument. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the days of NASA's manned Apollo flights to the Moon, no robot could decide which pebbles to pick up and bring home. But when the Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the only geologist to have walked on the Moon, noticed some odd, orange and black soil on the lunar surface, he immediately collected a sample. It turned out to be minute beads of volcanic glass. Today a robot can perform staggering chemical analyses and transmit amazingly detailed images, but it still can't react, as Schmitt did, to a surprise. By contrast, packed inside the 150-pound mechanism of a field geologist are the capacities to walk, run, dig, hammer, see, communicate, interpret, and invent. And of course when something goes wrong, an on-the-spot human being becomes a robot's best friend. After landing on Mars this past January 3, did the Spirit rover just roll right off its lander platform and start checking out the neighborhood? No, its air-bags were blocking the path. Not until January 15 did Spirit's remote controllers man-age to get all six of its wheels rolling on Martian soil. Anyone on the scene on January 3 could have just lifted the airbags out of the way and given Spirit a little shove.

单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} With increasing prosperity, West European youth is having a fling that is creating distinctive consumer and cultural patterns. The result has been the increasing emergence in Europe of that phenomenon well known in America as the "youth market." This is a market in which enterprising businesses cater to the demands of teenagers and older youths in all their beatlemania and pop-art forms. In the United States, the market is wide-ranging and well established, almost an industry, which with this country's emphasis on "youthfulness," even extends beyond teenager groups. As in the United States, youthful tastes in Europe extend over a similar range of products-records and record players, leather jackets and "wayout," extravagantly styled clothing, cosmetics and soft drinks. Generally it now is difficult to tell in which direction trans-Atlantic teenage influences are flowing. Also, a pattern of conformity dominates European youth as in this country, though in Britain the object is to wear clothes that "make the wearer stand out," but also make him "in," such as tight trousers and precisely tailored jackets. Worship and emulation of "idols" in the entertainment field, especially the "pop" singers and other performers, can be viewed as another similarity. There is also the same exuberance and unpredictability in sudden fad switches. In Paris, buyers of stores catering to the youth market carefully watch what dress is being worn by a popular television teenager singer to be ready for a sudden demand for copies. In Stockholm other followers of teenage fads call the youth market "attractive bat irrational." Actually, the scope and nature of the youth market varies considerably from country to country, being large and lively in some and only beginning to show itself in others. But there are also these important dissimilarities generally with the American youth-market: In the European youth-market, unlike that of the United States, it is the working youth who provides the bulk of purchasing power. On the average, the school-finishing age still tends to be 14 years. This is the maximum age to which compulsory education extend, and with Europe's industrial manpower shortage, thousands of teenage youths may soon attain incomes equal in many cases to that of their fathers. Although, because of general prosperity, European youths are beginning to continue school studies beyond the compulsory maximum age, they do not receive anything like the pocket-money or "allowances" of American teenagers. Working youth, consequently, are the big spenders in the European youth market, but they also have less leisure than those staying on at school, but these in turn have less buying power.

单选题The bus moved slowly in the thick fog. We arrived al our______ almost two hours later.(2003年上海交通大学考博试题)

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} There were two widely divergent influences on the early development of statistical methods. Statistics had a mother who was dedicated to keeping orderly records of governmental units (state and statistics come from the same Latin root, status) and a gentlemanly gambling father who relied on mathematics to increase his skill at playing the odds in games of chance. The influence of the mother on the offspring, statistics, is represented by counting, measuring, describing, tabulating, .ordering, and the taking of censuses - all of which led to modern descriptive statistics. From the influence of the father came modern inferential statistics, which is based squarely on theories of probability. Descriptive statistics involves tabulating, depicting, and describing collections of data. These data may be either quantitative, such as measures of height, intelligence, or grade level variables, that are characterized by an underlying continuum or the data may represent qualitative variable, such as sex, college major, or personality type. Large masses of data must generally undergo a process of summarization or reduction before they are comprehensible. Descriptive statistics is tool for describing or summarizing or reducing to comprehensible form the properties of an otherwise unwieldy mass of data. Inferential statistics is a formalized body of methods for solving another class of problems that present great difficulties for the unaided human mind. This general class of problems characteristically involves attempts to make predictions using a sample of observations. For example, a school superintendent wishes to determine the proportion of children in a large school system who come to school without breakfast, have been vaccinated for flu, or whatever. Having a little knowledge of statistics, the superintendent would know that it is unnecessary and inefficient to question each child; the proportion for the entire district could be estimated fairly accurately from a sample of as few as 100 children. Thus, the purpose of inferential statistics is to predict or estimate characteristics of a population from knowledge of the characteristics of only a sample of the population.