单选题

单选题When, in the age of automation, man searches for a worker to do the tedious, unpleasant jobs that are impossible to mechanize, he may very profitably consider the ape. If we tackled the problem of breeding for brains with as much as enthusiasm as we devote to breeding dogs of surrealistic shapes, we could eventually produce assorted models of useful primates, ranging in size from the gorilla down to the baboon, each adapted to a special kind of work. It is not putting too much strain on the imagination to assume that geneticists could produce a super-ape, able to understand some scores of words, and capable of being trained for such jobs as picking fruit, cleaning up the litter in parks, shining shoes, collecting garbage, doing household chores, and even baby-sitting (though I have known some babies I would not care to trust with a valuable ape). Apes could do many jobs, such as cleaning streets and the more repetitive types of agricultural work, without supervision, though they might need protection from those exceptional specimens of Homo sapiens who think it amusing to tease or bully anything they consider lower on the evolutionary ladder. For other tasks, such as delivering papers and laboring on the docks, our man-ape would have to work under human overseers; and, incidentally, I would love to see the finale of the twenty-first century version of On the Waterfront in which the honest but hairy hero will drum on his chest after literally taking the wicked labor leader apart. Once a supply of nonhuman workers becomes available, a whole range of low IQ jobs could be thankfully relinquished by mankind, to its great mental and physical advantage. What is more, one of the problems which has plagued so many fictional Utopias would be avoided. There would be none of the degradingly subhuman Epsilons of Huxley's Brave New World to act as a permanent reproach to society, for there is a profound moral difference between breeding sub-men and super-apes, though the end products are much the same. The first would introduce a form of slavery, the second would be a biological triumph which could benefit both men and animals.

单选题Archaeology as a profession faces two major problems. First, it is the poorest of the poor. Only paltry sums are available for excavating and even less is available for publishing the results and preserving the sites once excavated. Yet archaeologists deal with priceless objects every day. Second, there is the problem of illegal excavation, resulting in museum-quality pieces being sold to the highest bidder. I would like to make an outrageous suggestion that would at one stroke provide funds for archaeology and reduce the amount of illegal digging. I would propose that scientific archaeological expeditions and governmental authorities sell excavated artifacts on the open market. Such sales would provide substantial funds for the excavation and preservation of archaeological sites and the publication of results. At the same time, they would break the illegal excavator's grip on the market, thereby decreasing the inducement to engage in illegal activities. You might object that professionals excavate to acquire knowledge, not money. Moreover, ancient artifacts are part of our global cultural heritage, which should be available for all to appreciate, not sold to the highest bidder. I agree. Sell nothing that has unique artistic merit or scientific value. But, you might reply, everything that comes out of the ground has scientific value. Here we part company. Theoretically, you may be correct in claming that every artifact has potential scientific value. Practically, you are wrong. I refer to the thousand pottery vessels and ancient lamps that are essentially duplicates of one another. In one small excavation in Cyprus, archaeologists recently uncovered 2,000 virtually indistinguishable small jugs in a single courtyard. Even precious royal seal impressions known as melekh handles have been found in abundance—more than 4,000 examples so far. The basements of museums are simply not large enough to store the artifacts that are likely to be discovered in the future. There is not enough money even to catalogue the finds; as a result, they cannot be found again and become as inaccessible as if they had never been discovered. Indeed, with the help of a computer, sold artifacts could be more accessible than are the pieces stored in bulging museum basements. Prior to sale, each could be photographed and the list of the purchasers could be maintained on the computer. A purchaser could even be required to agree to return the piece if it should become needed for scientific purposes.

单选题Paradise Lost is Milton's masterpiece. Its story is taken from the Bible, about "the fall of man", that is, how Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and how they are punished by God and driven out of Paradise. In Milton's words, the purpose of writing the epic is to "justify the ways of God to men", but apparently, Milton is uttering his intense hatred of cruelness of the ruler in the poem. By depicting Satan and his followers as well as their fiery utterance and brave actions, Milton is showing a Puritan's revolt against the dictator and against the established Catholics and the Anglican Church. In the poem God is no better than a cruel and selfish ruler, seated on a throne with a group of angels about him singing songs to praise him. His long speeches are not pleasing at all. He is cruel and unjust in punishing Satan. His angels are stupid. But Satan is by far the most striking character in the poem, who rises against God and, though defeated, still persists in his fighting. The story of Adam and Eve shows Milton's belief in the power of man. God denies them a chance to pursue for knowledge. It is this longing for knowledge that opens before mankind a wide road to intelligent and active life. It has been noted by many critics that Milton's revolutionary feeling makes him forget religious doctrines. The angels who surround God never think of expressing any opinions of their own, and they never seem to have any opinions of their own. The image of God surrounded by such angels resembles the court of an absolute monarch. But Satan and his followers, who freely discuss all issues in council, remind us of a Republic Parliament.

单选题Frederica Von Stade has sung in opera houses throughout the United States and abroad.

单选题Racket, din, clamor, noise, whatever you want to call it, unwanted sound is America's most widespread nuisance. But noise is more than just a nuisance. It constitutes a real and present danger to people's health. Day and night, at home, at work, and at play, noise can produce serious physical and psychological stress. No one is immune to this stress. Though we seem to adjust to noise by ignoring it, the ear, in fact, never closes and the body still responds—sometimes with extreme tension, as to a strange sound in the night The annoyance we feel when faced with noise is the most common outward symptom of the stress building up inside us. Indeed, because irritability is so apparent, legislators have made public annoyance the basis of many noise abatement programs. The more subtle and more serious health hazards associated with stress caused by noise traditionally have been given much less attention. Nevertheless, when we are annoyed or made irritable by noise, we should consider these symptoms fair warning that other thing may be happening to us, some of which may be damaging to our health. Of many health hazards to noise, hearing loss is the most clearly observable and measurable by health professionals. The other hazards are harder to pin down. For many of us, there may be a risk that exposure to the stress of noise increases susceptibility to disease and infection. The more susceptible among us may experience noise as a complicating factor in heart problems and other diseases. Noise that causes annoyance and irritability in health persons may have serious consequences for these already ill in mind or body. Noise affects us throughout our lives. For example, there are indications of effects on the unborn child when mothers are exposed to industrial and environmental noise. During infancy and childhood, youngsters exposed to high noise levels may have trouble falling asleep and obtaining necessary amounts of rest. Why, then, is there not greater alarm about these dangers? Perhaps it is because the link between noise and many disabilities or diseases has not yet been conclusively demonstrated. Perhaps it is because we tend to dismiss annoyance as a price to pay for living in the modern world. It may also be because we still think of hearing loss as only an occupational hazard.

单选题Which of the following best describes the author's attitude toward the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its consequences?

单选题Most of the young people hold the mistaken belief that goods produced in our own country are ______ to imported ones. A. inadequate B. inappropriate C. inferior D. interior

单选题The Second World War, ______ the earlier one of 1914, prompted public concern about the physical and intellectual well-being of the country"s human resources.

单选题Directions: In this part, you will hear 10 short conversations between two people. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the question will be spoken ONLY ONCE. After each question there will be a pause.During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer. Then blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.

单选题It can not be denied that the existing resources on earth will be depleted, but scientists are ______ to concede the inevitability of that day, realizing that new energies can be found in the near future.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the bird world. Mother zebra finches have to work harder and raise fewer chicks on their own, but they also produce more attractive sons who are more likely to get a mate. The finding shows that family conflict is as important an evolutionary driving force as ecological factors such as hunting and food supply. With two parents around, there's always a conflict of interests, which can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the offspring. In evolutionary terms, the best strategy for any parent in the animal world is to find someone else to care for their offspring, so they can concentrate on breeding again. So it's normal for parents to try to pass the buck to each other. But Ian Hartley from the University of Lancaster and his team wondered how families solve this conflict, and how the conflict itself affects the offspring. To find out, they measured how much effort zebra finch parents put into raising their babies. They compared single females with pairs, by monitoring the amount of food each parent collected, and removing or adding chicks so that each pair of birds was raising four chicks, and each single mum had two—supposedly the same amount of work. But single mums, they found, put in about 25 per cent more effort than females rearing with their mate. To avoid being exploited, mothers with a partner hold back from working too hard if the rather is being lazy, and it's the chicks that pay the price. "The offspring suffer some of the cost of this conflict," says Hartley. The cost does not show in any obvious decrease in size or weight, but in how attractive they arc to the opposite sex. When the chicks were mature, the researchers tested the "fitness" of the male offspring by offering females their choice of partner. Those males reared by single mums were chosen more often than those from two-parent families. Sexual conflict has long been thought to affect the quality of care given to offspring, says zoologist Rebecca Kilner at Cambridge University, who works on conflict of parents in birds. "But the experimental evidence is not great. The breakthrough here is showing it empirically." More surprising, says Kilner, is Hartley's statement that conflict may be a strong influence on the evolution of behaviour, clutch size and even appearance. "People have not really made that link," says Hartley. A female's reproductive strategy is usually thought to be affected by hunting and food supply. Kilner says conflict of parents should now be taken into account as well.

单选题The government would not dare to{{U}} impose {{/U}}taxes on such necessities as-bread or milk.

单选题As the story proceeds, March begins to feel under the spell of______.

单选题The emperor turned to alchemy to ensure immortally, but contrary to his wishes, the wrong chemistry shortened his life. A. good fortune B. quick recovery from his illness C. never-ending life D. everlasting peace

单选题A little more than a century ago, Michael Faraday,the noted British physicist, managed to gain audience with a group of high government officials, to demonstrate an electro-chemical principle, in the hope of gaining support for his work． After observing the demonstrations closely,one of the officials remarked bluntly,"It's a fascinating demonstration, young man, but just what practical application will come of this?" "I don't know,"replied Faraday, "but I do know that 100 years from now you'll be taxing．them．" From the demonstration of a principle to the marketing of products derived from that principle is often a long, involved series of steps．The speed and effectiveness with which these steps are taken are closely related to the history of management, the art of getting things done．Just as management applies to the wonders that have evolved from Faraday and other inventors, so it applied some 4,000 years ago to the working of the great Egyptian and Mesopotamian import and export firms…to Hannibal's remarkable feat of crossing the Alps in 218 B.C.with 90,000 foot soldiers, 12,000 horsemen and a"conveyor belt"of 40 elephants…or to the early Christian Church, with its world—shaking concepts of individual freedom and equality． These ancient innovators were deeply involved in the problems of authority,divisions of labor, discipline, unity of command, clarity of direction and the other basic factors that are so meaningful to management today．But the real impetus to management as an emerging profession W3S the Industrial Revolution．Originating in 18-century England, it was triggered by a series of classic inventions and new processes；among them John Kay's flying Shuttle in 1733, James Hargrove's Spinning Jenny in 1770, Samuel Compton's Mule Spinner in 1779 and Edmund Cartwright's Power Loom in 1785．

单选题(While) smoking was associated with an attention of weight gain among black adults, (no such effect) occurred among white men or women, the latter (was) the group (most likely) to smoke for weight control.A. WhileB. no such effectC. wasD. most likely

单选题When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible 61 of action open to him; he can give the invention to the world by publishing it, keep the idea 62 , or patent it. A 63 patent is the result of a bargain 64 between an inventor and the state, but the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly and publishes full details of his invention to the public after that period 65 . Only the most exceptional circumstances 66 the lifespan of a patent 67 to alter this normal process of events. The longest extension ever 68 was to Georges Valensi; his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuit was extended until 1971 because for most of the patent's normal life there was no color TV to 69 and thus no hope for reward for the invention. Because a patent remains permanently 70 after it has terminated, the shelves of the library attached to the 71 office contain details of literally millions of ideas that are free for anyone to use and, if 72 than half a century, sometimes even re-patent. Indeed, patent experts often advise anyone 73 to avoid the high cost of conducting a search through 74 patents that the one sure way of violation of any other inventor's fight is to plagiarize a dead patent. Likewise, because publication of an idea in any other form 75 invalidates further patents on that idea. It is traditionally 76 to take ideas from other areas of print. Much modem technological advance is 77 on these presumptions of legal security. Anyone closely 78 in patents and inventions soon learns that most "new" ideas are, in fact, as old as the hills. It is their reduction to commercial practice, either through necessity or dedication, or through the availability of new technology, 79 makes news and money. The basic patent for the theory for magnetic recording dates back to 1886. Many of the original ideas behind television originate 80 the late 19th and early 20th century. Even the Volkswagen rear engine car was anticipated by a 1904 patent for a cart with the horse at the rear.