单选题To call someone bird-brained in English means you think that person is silly or stupid. But will this description soon disappear from use in the light of recent research? It seems the English may have been unfair in associating bird's brains with stupidity. In an attempt to find out how different creatures see the world, psychologists at Brown University in the USA have been comparing the behaviour of birds and humans. One experiment has involved teaching pigeons to recognize letters of the English alphabet. The birds study in "classrooms", which are boxes equipped with a computer. After about four days of studying a particular letter, the pigeon has to pick out that letter from several displayed on the computer screen. Three male pigeons have learnt to distinguish all twenty-six letters of the alphabet in this way. A computer record of the birds' four-month study period has shown surprising similarities between the pigeons' and human performance. Pigeons and people find the same letters easy, or hard, to tell apart. For example, 92 per cent of the time the pigeons could tell the letter D from the letter Z. But when faced with U and V(often confused by English children), the pigeons were right only 34 per cent of the time. The results of the experiments so far have led psychologists to conclude that pigeons and humans observe things in similar ways. This suggests that there is something fundamental about the recognition process. If scientists could only discover just what this recognition process is, it could be very useful for computer designers. The disadvantage of a present computer is that it can only do what a human being has programmed it to do and the programmer must give the computer precise, logical instructions. Maybe in the future, though, computers will be able to think like human beings.

单选题The prevailing wind is the wind direction most often observed during a given time period. Wind speed is the rate at which the air moves past a Ustationary/U object.

单选题An ambulance must have priority as it usually has to deal with some kind of______.

单选题Ricardo has shown great ______ in his determination to understand the theory of relativity. A. adherence B. persistence C. intuition D. fantasy

单选题The oldest adult human skull yet found belongs to the lowest grade of Homo erectus, and to the Australoid line. It is known as Pithecanthropus (Ape-Man) Number 4, because it was the fourth of its kind to be found. All four were unearthed in river banks in central Java. Number 4 is about 700,000 years old, and Numbers 1,2, and 3 between 600,000 and 500,000. We know this because tektites--small, glassy nodules from outer space--were found in the same beds as the first three, and the beds containing Number 4 lay underneath the tektite bed, along with the bones of a more ancient group of animals. These tektites have been picked up in large numbers in Java, the Philippines, and Australia, where they all fell in a single celestial shower. Their age--approximately 600,000 years--has been accurately measured in several laboratories by nuclear chemical analysis, through the so-called argon-potassium method. Pithecanthropus Number 4 consists of the back part of a skull and its lower face, palate, and upper teeth. As reconstructed by Weidenreich, it is a brutal-looking skull, with heavy crests behind for powerful neck muscle attachments, a large palate, and large teeth, as in apes. The brain size of this skull was about 900 cubic centimeters; modern human brains range from about 1,000 to 2,000 cc with an average of about 1,450 cc. The brains of apes and Australopithecines are about 350 to 650 cc. So Pithecanthropus Number 4 was intermediate in brain size between apes and living men. His fragmentary skull was not the only find made in the beds it lay in. Nearby were found the cranial vault of a two-year-old baby, already different from those of living infants, and a piece of chinless adult lower jaw. Two other jaws have been discovered in the same deposits which were much larger than any in the world certainly belonged to a Homo erectus. They are called Meganthropus (Big Man) and may have belonged to a local kind of Australopithecine, but this is not certain, If so, Homo erectus coexisted with, or overlapped, the Anstralopithecines in Java as well as in South Africa, which implies that man did not originate in either place, but somewhere in between.

单选题While we need to show young women how to protect themselves, these findings also demonstrate strongly that we need to help young men reject a culture that tells them relationships are based on showing power ______ others and that, as males, they need to prove their masculinity, ______ exercising this type of power. A. against/for B. on/with C. to/in D. over/by

单选题To ______ the beautiful scene in words is impossible.

单选题This diploma is important, which ______ that you have completed high school. (2006年中国矿业大学考博试题)

单选题Even though the investigation has been going on for two months, the police have______no further details about the accident. A. comprised B. formulated C. released D. incorporated

单选题Once the price of the land has been ______, we can go ahead to build the house. A. agreed on B. agreed to C. agreed at D. agreed with

单选题Cities develop as a result of functions that they can perform, some functions result directly from the ingenuity of the citizenry, but most functions result from the needs of the local area and of the surrounding hinterland (the region that supplies goods to the city and to which the city furnishes services and other goods). Geographers often make a distinction between the situation and the site of a city. Situation refers to the general position in relation to the surrounding region, whereas site involves physical characteristics of the specific location. Situation is normally much more important to the continuing prosperity of a city. If a city is well situated in regard to its hinterland, its development is much more likely to continue. Chicago, for example, possesses an almost unparalleled situation, it is located at the southern end of a huge lake that forces east-west transportation lines to be compressed into its vicinity, and at a meeting of significant land and water transport routes. It also overlooks what is one of the world's finest large farming regions. These factors ensured that Chicago would become a great city regardless of the disadvantageous characteristics of the available site, such as being prone to flooding during thunderstorm activity. Similarly, it can be argued that much of New York City's importance stems from its early and continuing advantage of situation. Philadelphia and Boston both originated at about the same time as New York and shared New York's location at the western end of one of the world's most important oceanic trade routes, but only New York possesses an easy-access functional connection (the Hudson-Mohawk lowland) to the vast Midwestern hinterland. This account does not alone explain New York's primacy, but it does include several important factors. Among the many aspects of situation that help to explain why some cities grow and others do not, original location on a navigable waterway seems particularly applicable. Of course, such characteristic as slope, drainage, power resources, river crossings, coastal shapes, and other physical characteristics help to determine city location, but such factors are normally more significant in early stages of city development than later.

单选题How can researchers in "sleep laboratories" tell that the animals they are observing are asleep or not?

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} The practice of capital punishment is as old as government itself. For most of history, it has not been considered controversial. Since ancient times most governments have punished a wide variety of crimes by death and have conducted executions as a routine part of the administration of criminal law. However, in the mid-18th century, social critics in Europe began to emphasize the worth of the individual and to criticize government practices they considered unjust, including capital punishment. The controversy and debate over whether governments should utilize the death penalty continue today. The first significant movement to abolish the death penalty began during the era known as the Age of Enlightenment. In 1764 Italian jurist and philosopher Cesare Becearia published an essay on Crimes and Punishments. Many consider this influential work the leading document in the early campaign against capital punishment. Other individuals who campaigned against executions during this period include French authors Voltaire and Denis Diderot, British philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith, and political theorist Thomas Paine in the United States. Critics of capital punishment argue that it is cruel and inhumane, while supporters consider it a necessary form of revenge for terrible crimes. Those who advocate the death penalty declare that it is a uniquely effective punishment that prevents crime. However, advocates and opponents of the death penalty dispute the proper interpretation of statistical analyses of its preventing effect. Opponents of capital punishment see the death penalty as a human rights issue involving the proper limits of governmental power. In contrast, those who want governments to continue to execute tend to regard capital punishment as an issue of criminal justice policy. Because of these alternative viewpoints, there is a profound difference of opinion not only about what is the fight answer on capital punishment, but also about what type of question is being asked when the death penalty becomes a public issue.

单选题He hastily packed his clothes in his ______ before setting out on the trip.

单选题Mark Evens, who had failed the physics test, was sitting on a bench in the corner ______ over his disappointment.

单选题Furthermore, if I were to leave him, he would ______, for he cannot endure to be separated from me for more than one hour.

单选题Passage 2 Modern lore has it that in England death is imminent, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal. We are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under optimal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved, shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's futile. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. A vast industry pushed for aggressive and expensive therapy for prostate cancer, despite a lack of demonstrable benefit for many patients. Physicians-frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient--too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. Meanwhile, the kind of palliative care provided in hospices is taught derogatorily to medical students as a treatment of last resort. In 1950 the United States spent $12.7 billion, or 4.4 percent of gross domestic product, on health care. In 2002 the cost will be $1.54 trillion--nearly 14 percent of GDP, by far the largest percentage spent by any developed country. Anyone can see that this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some ethicists conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age- say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way" so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I wouldn't go that far. Not long ago similar arguments were used to justify mandatory retirement ages as young as 55 for employees in industry, academia and government. The message was "Step aside--I want your desk and your paycheck." Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the maladies that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I aspire to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit, or should. I've watched as the lives of my family members and friends have been painfully prolonged. It's a stark contrast with the inexpensive and compassionate deaths of my parents a generation ago. As a medical consumer, I may want Medicare to buy me multiple coronary bypass operations or a desperate round of bone-marrow transplantation. As a taxpaying citizen, I know--intellectually, if not emotionally--that the value of such measures must be weighed against other social goods, such as housing, defense and education, And as a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve peoples' lives. For example, the field of alternative and complementary medicine receives just 0.5 percent chunk of the National Institutes of Health budget. To create a humane system of health care, we must acknowledge that death and dying are not themselves the enemies. As the post-World War Ⅱ British epidemiologist Archie Cochrane once observed, cures in medicine are rare, but the need for "care"--attention and reassurance from approachable, sympathetic physicians and caregivers--is widespread. Cochrane worried that by pursuing cures at all cost, we would restrict the supply of care that patients can receive. This is precisely the crisis of contemporary medicine: billions for cures, and pennies for care. Medicine can accomplish great things for the generation now passing 50, but only if we're wise enough not to ask too much of it.

单选题Judgment was suspended till the following Monday because of the lack of evidence. A. changed B. discussed C. postponed D. informed