单选题The single greatest shift in the history of mass-communication technology occurred in the 15th century and was well described by Victor Hugo in a famous chapter of Notre-Dame de Paris. It was a Cathedral. On all parts of the giant building, statuary and stone representations of every kind, combined with huge widows of stained glass, told the stories of the Bible and the saints, displayed the intricacies of Christian theology, adverted to the existence of highly unpleasant demonic winged creatures, referred diplomatically to the majesties of political power, and in addition, by means of bells in bell towers, told time for the benefit of all of Pairs and much of France. It was an awesome engine of communication. Then came the transition to something still more awesome. The new technology of mass communication was portable, could sit on your table, and was easily replicable, and yet, paradoxically, contained more information, more systematically presented, than even the largest of cathedrals. It was the printed book. Though it provided no bells and could not tell time, the over-all superiority of the new invention was unmistakable. In the last ten or twenty years, we have been undergoing a more or less equivalent shift—this time to a new life as a computer-using population. The gain in portability, capability, ease, orderliness, accuracy, reliability, and information-storage over anything achievable by pen scribbling, typewriting, and cabinet filing is recognized by all. The progress for civilization is undeniable and, plainly, irreversible. Yet, just as the book's triumph over the cathedral divided people into two groups, one of which prospered, while the other lapsed into gloom, the computer's triumph has also divided the human race. You have only to bring a computer into a room to see that some people begin at once to buzz with curiosity and excitement, sit down to conduct experiments, ooh and ah at the boxes and beeps, and master the use of the computer or a new program as quickly as athletes playing a delightful new game. But how difficult it is—how grim and frightful!—for the other people, the defeated class, whose temperament does not naturally respond to computers. The machine whirrs and glows before them and their faces twitch. They may be splendidly educated, as measured by book-reading, yet their instincts are all wrong, and no amount of manual-studying and mouse-clicking will make them right. Computers require a sharply different set of aptitudes, and, if the aptitudes are missing, little can be done, and misery is guaranteed. Is the computer industry aware that computers have divided mankind into two new, previously unknown classes, the computer personalities and the non-computer personalities? Yes, the industry knows this. Vast stuns have been expended in order to adapt the computer to the limitations of non-computer personalities. Apple's Macintosh, with its zooming animations and pull-down menus and little pictures of life folders and watch faces and trash cans, pointed the way. Such seductions have soothed the apprehensions of a certain number of the computer-averse. This spring, the computer industry's efforts are reaching a culmination of sorts. Microsoft, Bill Gates' giant corporation, is to bring out a program package called Microsoft Bob, designed by Mr. Gates' wife, Melinda French, and intended to render computer technology available even to people who are openly terrified of computers. Bob's principle is to take the several tasks of operating a computer, rename them in a folksy style, and assign to them the images of an ideal room in ideal home, with furniture and bookshelves, and with chummy cartoon helpers("Friends of Bob")to guide the computer user over the rough spots, and, in that way, simulate an atmosphere that feels nothing like computers.

单选题We are living in the midst of a great chemical experiment and some______consequences are becoming apparent to scientists.

单选题San Francisco was ______ by a terrible earthquake and fire in 1906. A. deprived B. detained C. devastated D. deported

单选题In the movie, he plays a loving and ______ father trying to bring up two teenage children on his own. A. sensitive B. senseless C. sensual D. sensuous

单选题How can personal income tax be levied to______ as many as possible while at the same time ensuring State finances do not suffer too much?

单选题We have had to raise our prices because of the increase in the cost of materials.

单选题The dean can"t see you at the moment. He is addressing the first-year students in the lecture hall.

单选题It is true that Matviyenko's heading of the campaign would ______ certain staffing shuffles in the leadership, and now only a few members of the company were in the know.

单选题Crew chiefs Usupervised/U engines, switches and lights that told them how each item of equipment was functioning.

单选题Around the world more and more people are taking part in dangerous sports and activities. Of course, there have always been people who have looked for adventure—those who have climbed the highest mountains, explored unknown parts of the world or sailed in small boats across the greatest oceans. Now, however, there are people who seek an immediate excitement from a risky activity which may only last a few minutes or even seconds. I would consider bungee jumping to be a good example of such an activity. You jump from a high place (perhaps a bridge or a hot-air balloon) 200 meters above the ground with an elastic rope tied to your ankles. You fall at up to 150 kilometers an hour until the rope stops you from hitting the ground. It is estimated that two million people around the world have now tried bungee jumping. Other activities which most people would say are as risky as bungee jumping involve jumping from tall buildings and diving into the sea from the top of high cliffs. Why do people take part in such activities as these? Some psychologists suggest that it is because life in modem societies has become safe and boring. Not very long ago, people"s lives were constantly under threat. They had to go out and hunt for food, diseases could not easily be cured, and life was a continuous battle for survival. Nowadays, according to many people, life offers little excitement. They live and work in comparatively safe environment; they buy food in shops; and there are doctors and hospitals to look after them if they become ill. The answer for some of these people is to seek danger in activities such as bungee jumping.

单选题During the famine many people ______eating grass and leaves.

单选题Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly weary and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful then idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from toil. At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past. Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of those earth-shaking importance they arc firmly persuaded. Work therefore is desirable, first and foremost, as a preventive of boredom, for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. With this advantage of work another is associated, namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor, he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find. The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while our capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can acquire. However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or o01y in one's own circle.

单选题One in three Americans said that money was a crucial factor in their decision to work for pay (or have a spouse work) rather than stay home to raise the children, with Baby Boomer women most likely to have made that choice. Forty-five percent of Baby Boomer women—compared with just 32 percent of those 55 and over—said they went to work. "Baby Boomer women, especially the older ones, grew up expecting to replicate the pattern of their mothers' lives," suggests Hochschild. "But then the bills started coming in and more job opportunities opened up, and these women moved into a life they hadn't anticipated." Money played a great role in marriage—even an unhappy one. Approximately 18 percent of all those interviewed said they stayed married because they lacked money to get a divorce, while less than 8 percent said that financial strain in their marriage has caused them to divorce. Lack of money also influenced education choices. Nearly one in four Americans has postponed or decided not to attend college because of financial pressures. Even with the sustained prosperity of the past eight years, Gen-Xers were most likely to have altered their college plans. A 39-year-old Hispanic billing clerk in New York spoke about how the need for money limited her teenager son's ability to take part in extracurricular activities that could increase his chances of getting into college. "Since age 14, my son's been working, and I think he is a superb person. Not having a lot of money has made him realize what work is all about. On the other hand, he was elected to go to a youth leadership conference in Washington, and I can't send him because I don't have the money. Lack of money takes away opportunities he otherwise could have had." On the question of what money can and can't buy, a large majority of Americans said that money could buy "freedom to live as you choose", "excitement in life", and "less stress". In a number of follow-up interviews, many people commented that having extra money would immediately alleviate one source of profound stress——the need to work overtime. Those with college and graduate degrees were far more likely to believe that money can buy freedom, perhaps because better-educated people already have a wider array of choices. College-educated professionals, for instance, were much more likely to consider wealth a way of financing travel, starting a business of their own, or funding charitable works in their communities. A 55-year-old Hispanic woman in Los Angeles with a graduate degree and an income of more than＄90,000 described a midlife career switch. After resigning from a high-level, high paying——but extremely stressful—civil service job, she became a florist. "After I Started tearing my hair out," she said, "I decided to go into business for myself—flowers don't talk back." Can money buy peace of mind? Fifty-two percent of Americans said no. "It all depends on what 'peace' means to you," observed a businesswoman in California who is nearing 60 and would like to retire at 62 and go back to college. "For my husband, peace of mind means working as long as he can and collecting the biggest possible pension. For me, it means knowing I've worked long enough so that I can afford to go after an old dream, I guess you should say that my peace of mind is his worry./

单选题Competitors from more than a hundred countries have ______ in Los Angeles for the Olympic Games. A. denounced B. converged C. detached D. sprawled

单选题He had a (n) ______ habit of emptying ash trays out of his upstairs window on to our doorsteps.

单选题You don't have to ______ yourself. I think you did the right thing putting your mother in a nursing home. A. justify B. hinder C. indulge D. appoint

单选题Our interests seem to ______ at this point.

单选题He was on a diet, though the food ______ him enormously.