单选题The Greatest Show on Earth The Olympic Games are the greatest festival of sport in the world. Every four years, a hundred or more countries send their best sportsmen to compete for the highest honors in sport. As many as 6,000 people take part in over twenty sports. For the winners, there are gold medals and glory. But there is honor, too, for all who compete, win or lose. That is the spirit of the Olympics—to take part is what matters. The Olympic Games always start in a bright color and action. The teams of all the nations parade in the opening ceremony and march round the track. The custom is for the Greek team to march in first. For it was in Greece that the Olympics began. The team of the country where the Games are being held—the host country—marches in last. The runner with the Olympic torch then enters the stadium and lights the flame. A sportsman from the host country takes the Olympic oath on behalf of all the competitors. The judges and officials also take an oath. After the sportsmen march out of the stadium, the host country puts on a wonderful display. The competitions begin the next day. There are usually more than twenty sports in the Games. The rule is that there must be at least fifteen. The main events are in track and field, but it is a few days before these sports start. Each day the competitors take part in a different sport—riding, shooting, swimming, and cross-country running. Points are gained for each event. Medals are awarded for the individual winners and for national teams. More and more women are taking part in the Games. They first competed in 1900, in tennis and golf, which are no longer held in the Olympics. Women"s swimming events were introduced in 1912. But it was not until 1928 that there were any track and field events for women. Now, they compete in all but half a dozen of the sports. In horse riding, shooting, and boat racing, they may compete in the same events as the men.

单选题Shark The largest shark known to us, Megalodon, is extinct. Or is it? Carcharodon Megalodon, commonly known as Megalodon, is believed to have lived between 1 million and 5 million years ago and thought to have been 52 feet long. It is (or was) a shark that had a jaw 7 or more feet wide. Fairly recently, there has been some speculation about whether it is extinct or just out of reach. But few people believe that Megalodon has found a home deep in the ocean. There are many known "Living Fossils": Coelacanth, Sea Cucumbers, Sea Urchins, Lobsters, Sea Stars. The common ones like lobsters and sea urchins are not really looked on as anything amazing. They've been around for thousands of years or more, and are easily accessible to us. What if they weren't accessible and yet still existed? We would label them extinct. The discovery of a live Coelacanth, a fish long believed extinct, challenged some scientists' long-held beliefs on extinction. There have been recent discoveries of incredibly large squid, and deep-sea fish never before seen by scientists. In the 1960s the U.S. Navy set up underwater microphones around the world to track Soviet submarines. The network, known as the Sound Surveillance System, still lies deep below the ocean's surface in a layer of water known as the "deep sound channel". The temperature and pressure of the channel allow sound waves to travel undisturbed. NOAA's Acoustic Monitoring Project has been using the Sound Surveillance System to listen for changes in ocean structure like ocean currents or volcanic activity. Most of the sounds recorded are common and of no concern. One sound, identified in 1977 by U.S. Navy "spy" sensors, was odd. It was obviously a marine animal but the call was more powerful than any of the calls made by any other reported sea creature. It was too big for a whale. Could it be a deep-sea monster? One possibility was a giant squid, but no one is sure. It was named "Bloop". Could it be Megalodon? If Megalodon is still alive down in the bottom of the ocean, we may some day soon discover it. Then what? Deep sea diving will never be the same, that's for sure!

单选题 Intellectual Revolution Culture is activity of thought, and receptiveness to beauty and humane feeling. Scraps of information have nothing to do with it. A merely well-informed man is the most useless {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}on God's earth. What we should {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}at producing is men who possess both culture and expert knowledge in some special direction. Their expert knowledge will give them the ground to start {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}, and their culture will lead them as {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}as philosophy and as high as art. We have to remember that the valuable {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}development is self-development, and that it {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}takes place between the ages of sixteen and thirty. As to training, the most important part is given by mothers before the age of twelve. In training a child to activity of thought, above all things we must beware of what I will call "inert ideas"-that is to say, ideas that are merely {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations. In the history of education, the most {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}phenomenon is that schools of learning, which at one epoch are alive with a craze for genius, in a {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}generation exhibit merely pedantry and routine. The reason is that they are overladen with inert ideas. Except at {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}intervals of intellectual motivation, education in the past has been radically {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}with inert ideas. That is the reason why {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}clever women, who have seen much of the world, are in middle life so much the most cultured part of the community. They have been saved from this horrible {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}of inert ideas. Every intellectual revolution which has ever stirred humanity {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}greatness has been a {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}protest against inert ideas.

单选题He is determined to consolidate his power.

单选题A lot of people could fall ill after drinking contaminated water.

单选题He worked so hard that {{U}}eventually{{/U}} he fell ill. A. then B. surely C. finally D. recently

单选题Save Pandas With the Switzerland-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF), China is making a concerted and dedicated effort to save the endangered pandas. The results, officials here in Chengdu indicate, are mixed but encouraging. A clear disappointment is the failure to breed pandas in captivity, necessary if their decreasing numbers are to be replaced. Another failure has been the incapability to find a natural, readily available food to replace the arrow bamboo. Despite these failures, success has come on two fronts. One achievement has been the physical rescue effort. Some pandas have been kept alive by salting (空投) the mountains with tons of cooked meat, which pandas will eat as a substitute for bamboo, and by the planting of new bamboo in isolated areas. Animals in some Sichuan areas have been rescued by local peasants and given emergency treatment by animal doctors. A second achievement is a massive fund-raising effort. Publicity about the pandas plight has resulted in a new $100,000 emergency allocation by the WWF and independent fund drives both in China and abroad. In spite of this support, there have been conflicts in the panda relief program. One important problem is the difficulty Peking is having balancing the recommendations of environmentalists with China"s ambitious goal of agricultural and industrial modernization. Wolong is but one example of this difficulty. This 494,000-acre preserve was declared a protected area in 1975. Yet 1,800 people, mostly Tibetans, still live in the preserve, logging trucks still roll down the narrow mountain roads, and blasting work still goes on at the site of a new 160,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant just six miles away. This all means that the pandas" fight for survival will not be an easy one, even with the concerted effort of man. For in the end, even if they can survive the dangers of the wild, they must still contend with man himself.

单选题“What do you mean by that”Paul asked sharply

单选题You must shine your shoes.

单选题Americans Get Touchy The New York Times recently reported that American teens are hugging practically everyone they see. Say goodbye to the greetings of the past, from the hands-off "What's up!" to the handshake or high-five. For young people across the country, hugging is the new "Hello". Girls are hugging girls. Boys are hugging boys. Girls and boys are hugging each other. And, like every major trend, there are lots of variations on the form. There's the classic, full-body, arms-around-the-person bear hug, the casual one-armed side hug, the group hug and the hug from behind. There's the handshake that turns into a hug and the hug that turns into a pat on the back. As trends go, this one seems pretty innocent. But some parents, teachers and school administrators are worried nonetheless. Will young people who aren't comfortable with physical contact feel peer pressured into hugging? Will kids who don't receive hugs feel left out? Could an extra-long hug slide into the more ominous territory of sexual harassment? In response to some of these concerns, some schools have set up new rules to limit or eliminate hugging. One school head has created a three-second limitation for hugs at her school. A few schools have taken even more drastic measures, placing a ban on all forms of touching between students. A few important points are being left out of the discussion. While the US has traditionally been reserved about touching--saving hugs and kisses for relatives, romantic partners and very close friends--people in many other parts of the world have been greeting each other this way for ages. In Latin America or Western Europe, in countries like Spain, France, and Italy, a kiss on the cheek is common among women, as well as among women and men who are not romantically involved. The cheek-kiss varies by region. Sometimes it is just an air kiss blown past the face. In other places, the proper way of greeting is to deliver a kiss upon both cheeks, or sometimes even a triplet of kisses performed by kissing one cheek, then the other, then back to the first. Latin American men are more likely to shake hands when greeting other men, but in some countries like Turkey, its not unusual for men who know each other well to exchange kisses on the cheek. Meanwhile, for the Maori people of New Zealand, a traditional greeting called the "hongi" involves pressing noses together. So, from a global perspective, the new trend of teen hugging in America is not so "new" after all. People all around the world move in close to say hello, and Americans are just now joining in.

单选题The Street Violinist I got up and dressed, stuck my violin under my jacket, and went out into the streets to try my luck. I wandered about for an hour, looking for a likely spot, feeling as though I were about to commit a crime. Then I stopped at last under a bridge near the station and decided to have a try. I felt tense and nervous. It was the first time, after all. I drew the violin from under my coat like a gun. It was here, in Southampton, with trains rattling overhead, that I was about to declare myself. One morning I was part of the hurrying crowds, the next I stood apart, my back to the wall, my hat on the pavement before me, the violin under my chin. The fist notes I played were loud and raw, like a declaration of protest. Then they settled down and began to run more smoothly and to stay more or less in turn. To my surprise I was neither arrested nor told to shut up. Indeed, nobody took any notice at all. Then an old man, without stopping, surreptitiously tossed a penny into my hat as though getting out of some guilty evidence. I worked the streets of Southampton for several days, gradually acquiring the truths of the trade by trial and error. It was not a good thing, for instance, to let the hat fill up with money—the sight could discourage the patron. Nor was it wise to empty it completely, which could also confuse him, giving him no hint as to where to drop his money. Placing a couple of pennies in the hat to start the thing going soon became a regular ritual, making sure between tunes, to hide most of the earnings, but always leaving two pennies behind. Old ladies were most generous, and so were women with children, shopgirls, typists and barmaids. As for the man, heavy drinkers were always willing listeners and so were big guys with muscles. But never a man with a gentleman's hat, briefcase or dog. Respectable types were the meanest of all. Except for retired army officers, who Would yell "Why aren't you working, young man?" and then toss some money into the hat to hide their confusion.

单选题I"ll draft a letter for you. ______

单选题A notably short man, he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.

单选题The wealth of a country should be measured {{U}}in the light of{{/U}} the health and happiness of its people as well as the material goods it can produce. A. in line with B. in terms of C. in regard to D. in case of

单选题阅读下面这篇短文，短文后列出了7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子作出判断。如果该句提供的是正确信息，请选择A项；如果该句提供的是错误信息，请选择B项；如果该句信息文章中没有提及，请选择C项。 {{B}} A New Start{{/B}} After Christmas comes the anti-Christmas. If the festive season is all about filing up on the things you like that are bad for you, then the new year is the 'detox season' - when people across the western world adopt special diets to lose weight and get fid of the vague feeling that they have spent the last few weeks poisoning themselves. But are detox diets really necessary? After all, the body itself gets fid of unwanted substances. That's what the liver and kidney are for. "The detox fad - or fads, as there are many methods - is an example of the capacity of people to believe in and pay for magic despite the lack of any sound evidence," says Martin Wiseman, professor of human nutrition at the University of Southampton in the UK. Most of the pills, juices, teas and oils that are sold for their detoxifying effects on the body have no scientific foundation for their claims, according to the research. People would be better off having a glass of water and going to bed early. Detox diets may be magic rather science, but they are the kind of magic which many people want to perform. That may have something to do with the western diet in general. Scientists and dieticians argue that the benefits people feel are not due to their body getting fid of excessive toxins but are due to changing from what is likely to have been a 'poor' diet. Having fewer headaches, for example, is probably the result of being fully hydrated due to drinking so much water and better skin may be due to eating more fruit and vegetables. Detox diets may also be dangerous, as they may deprive vulnerable groups - pregnant women, for instance, or growing teenagers - of the kind of nutrients they need. Yet their popularity continues to rise. This may be something to do with the way that food works within many western cultures. Generally, a country's food develops along with its economy and society. Food becomes part of a person's cultural identity. In some countries, this link has been broken. In the UK, for example, rapid industrialization in the 18th and 19th centuries saw millions of people move from the countryside to the towns interrupting the development of a national cuisine. The United States, a country of immigrants from many different places, has found it hard to develop a national cuisine. In both places, comparatively few people cook for themselves and food supply is dominated by big processing and agribusiness companies. Detox diets are more popular in these countries than in places like France and Italy, where strong links between food and national culture remain, and where far more people regularly cook for themselves instead of buying processed foods. Perhaps detox diets are successful because many westerners have lost trust in what they eat. On the other hand, they may help re-introduce people to the kind of food that is necessary for a healthy diet. And after learning that, they won't poison themselves in the first place. This would mean radical changes in the way that people cat across the west. And that would be an unwelcome development for the food industry. From the business point of view, it is much better to sell people the problem and then sell them the solution.

单选题 When We Are Asleep Everyone dreams, but some people never recall their dreams, or do so very rarely. Other people always wake up with vivid recollections (记忆) of their dreams, though they forget them very quickly. In an average night of eight hours' sleep, an average adult will dream for around one hundred minutes, probably having three to five dreams, each lasting from ten to thirty minutes. Scientists can detect when someone is having a dream by using an instrument which measures the electrical waves in the brain. During dreaming, these waves move more quickly. Breathing and pulse rate also increase, and there are rapid eye movements under the lids, just as though the dreamer were really looking at moving objects. These signs of dreaming have been detected in all mammals (哺乳动物) studied, including dogs, monkeys, cats, and elephants, and also some birds and reptiles (爬行动物). This period of sleep is called the "D" state for around 50% of their sleep; the period reduces to around 25% by the age of 10. Dreams take the form of stories, but they may be strange and with incidents not connected, which make little sense. Dreams are seldom without people in them and they are usually about people we know. One estimate says that two-thirds of the "cast" of our dream dramas are friends and relations. Vision seems an essential part of dreams, except for people blind from birth. Sound and touch senses are also often aroused, but smell and taste are not frequently involved. In "normal" dreams, the dreamer may be taking part, or be only an observer. But he or she cannot control what happens in the dream. However, the dreamer does have control over one type of dream. This type of dream is called a "lucid" (清醒的) dream. Not everyone is a lucid dreamer. Some people are occasional lucid dreamers. Others can dream lucidly more or less all the time. In a lucid dream, the dreamer knows that he is dreaming.

单选题 阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。 {{B}}Save Energy at Home{{/B}} On the average, Americans waste as much energy as two-thirds of the world's population consumes. That's{{U}} (1) {{/U}}the result of driving inefficient cars, using inefficient appliances, and living and working in poorly insulated buildings. Then what can you do to improve the{{U}} (2) {{/U}}? Buy energy-efficient products.—Buy new appliances or electronics of the highest energy efficiency rating. New energy efficient models may cost more initially, but have a lower operating{{U}} (3) {{/U}}over their lifetimes. The most energy-efficient models{{U}} (4) {{/U}}the Energy Star label, which identifies products that use 20-40 per cent less energy than standard new products. According to the EPA, the typical American household can save about $-400 per year in{{U}} (5) {{/U}}bills with products that carry the Energy Star. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. —Change the three bulbs you use{{U}} (6) {{/U}}in your house to compact fluorescents. Each compact fluorescent bulb will keep half a ton of carbon dioxide out of the air over its lifetime.{{U}} (7) {{/U}}, compact fluorescent bulbs last ten times as long and can save $-30 per year in electricity costs. Set heating and cooling temperatures correctly.—Check thermostats in your home to make sure they are{{U}} (8) {{/U}}at a level that doesn't waste energy. Get an electronic thermostat that will allow your furnace to heat the house to a lower temperature when you're sleeping and retum it to a more{{U}} (9) {{/U}}temperature before you wake up. Turn off the lights.—{{U}} (10) {{/U}}lights and other electrical appliances such as televisions and radios when you're not using them. Install automatic timers for lights that people in your house frequently forget to turn them off when{{U}} (11) {{/U}}a room. Choose renewable energy.—Many consumers can now choose their energy supplier. If you have a choice, choose an electric utility that uses renewable power{{U}} (12) {{/U}}, such as solar, water or wind. Let the sun shine In.—The cheapest and most energy—efficient light and heat source is often right outside your windows. On{{U}} (13) {{/U}}days, open blinds to let the sun light your home for free. Also remember that{{U}} (14) {{/U}}entering a room equals passive solar heating. Even on cold winter days, sun streaming into a room can raise the temperature by several{{U}} (15) {{/U}}. dioxide n. 二氧化物 insulate adj.隔热 thermostat n.温度自动调节 rating n.等级级别 timer n.定时器 fluorescent adj.荧光的 blind n.百叶

单选题The monopoly-capitalist group {{U}}annexed{{/U}} many smaller enterprises last year. A. integrated B. merged C. combined D. collected

单选题Storms Sink Ships Rescuers have found the bodies of over 130 people killed in two ferry disasters in Bangladesh. The accidents happened during a storm that hit the country on April 21. Hundreds more are missing or feared dead. The two ferries sank in different rivers near the capital city of Dhaka as strong winds and rain hit the South Asian country. The government has since banned all ferries and other boats from travelling at night during the April-May stormy season. One of the ferries, MV Mitali, was carrying far more people than it was supposed to. About 400 passengers fitted into a space made for just 300, police said. The second ferry carried about 100 passengers. "The number of deaths is certain to rise," said an official in charge of the rescue work. "No one really knows how many people were on board the ferry or how many of them survived." Ferries in Bangladesh don"t always keep passenger lists, making it difficult to determine the exact number of people on board. Besides the ferry accidents, at least 40 people were killed and 400 injured by lightning strikes, falling houses and trees and the sinking of small boats. Storms are common this time of year in Bangladesh, as are boating accidents. Ferry disasters take away hundreds of lives every year in a nation of 130 million people. Officials blame these river accidents on a lack of safety measures, too many passengers in boats and not enough checks on weather conditions. Ferries are a common means of transport in Bangladesh. It is a country covered by about 230 rivers. Some 20,000 ferries use the nation"s waterways (水路) every year. And many of them are dangerously overcrowded (过度拥挤). Since 1977, more than 3,000 people have died in some 260 boating accidents.

单选题Fear clutched at her heart.