单选题A fossil is a {{U}}remnant{{/U}} of a once-living organism.

单选题Making Light of Sleep All we have a clock located inside our brains. Similar to your bedside alarm clock, your internal clock runs on a 24-hour cycle. This cycle, called a circadian rhythm, helps control when you wake, when you eat and when you sleep. Somewhere around puberty, something happens in the timing of the biological clock. The clock pushes forward, so adolescents and teenagers are unable to fall asleep as early as they used to. When your mother tells you it's time for bed, your body may be pushing you to stay up for several hours more. And the light coming from your computer screen or TV could be pushing you to stay up even later. This shift is natural for teenagers. But staying up very late and sleeping late can get your body's clock out of sync with the cycle of light and dark. It can also make it hard to get out of bed in the morning and may bring other problems, too. Teenagers are put in a kind of a gray cloud when they don't get enough sleep, says Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University in Providence, RI. It affects their mood and their ability to think and learn. But just like your alarm clock, your internal clock can be reset. In fact, it automatically resets itself every day. How? By using the light it gets through your eyes. Scientists have known for a long time that the light of day and the dark of night play important roles in setting our internal clocks. For years, researchers thought that the signals that synchronize the body's clock were handled through the same pathways that we use to see. But recent discoveries show that the human eye has two separate light-sensing systems. One system allows us to see. The second system tells our body whether it's day or night.

单选题 Language Language is and should be a living thing, constantly enriched with new words and forms of expression. But there is a vital distinction between good developments, which add to the language, enabling us to say things we could not say before, and bad developments, which subtract from the language by rendering it less precise. A vivacious, colorful use of words is not to be confused with mere slovenliness (不修边幅). The kind of slovenliness in which some professionals deliberately indulge is perhaps akin (相似的) to the cult of the unfinished work, which has eroded most of the arts in our time. And the true answer to it is the same that art is enhanced, not hindered, by discipline. You cannot carve satisfactorily in butter. The corruption of written English has been accompanied by an even sharper decline in the standard of spoken English. We speak very much less well than was common among educated Englishmen generation or two ago. The modern theatre has played a baneful part in dimming our appreciation of language. Instead of the immensely articulate dialogue of, for example, Shaw (who was also very insistent off good pronunciation), audiences are now subjected to streams of barely literate trivia, often designed, only too well, to exhibit "lack of communication", and larded with the obscenities and grammatical errors of the intellectually impoverished. Emily Post once advised her readers: "The theatre is the best possible place to hear correctly-enunciated speech." Alas, no more. One young actress was recently reported to be taking lessons in how to speak badly, so that she should fit in better. But the BBC is the worst traitor. After years of very successfully helping to raise the general standard of spoken English, it suddenly went into reverse. As the head of the pronunciation unit coyly put it: "In the 1960s the BBC opened the field to a much wider range of speakers." To hear a BBC disc jockey talking to the latest ape-like pop idol is a truly shocking experience of verbal squalor. And the prospect seems to be of even worse to come. School teachers are actively encouraged to ignore little Johnnys incoherent grammar, atrocious spelling and haphazard punctuation, because worrying about such things might inhibit his creative genius.

单选题下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。{{B}}第一篇{{/B}} {{B}}Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth{{/B}} In what resembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists have launched the world's first attempt to bore a hole into the red-hot core of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruption. A 50-meter-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Japan's Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano's crust next week in a bid to sample the magma bubbling below. The aim is to study how the liquefied rock causes menacing gas buildup, said team leader Setsuya Nakata, of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute. "Gassing is important because it controls the explosivity of eruptions," Nakata said. "The results can be expanded to anti-disaster research." Mount Unzen, a wind-swept 1,486-meter dome on the southern island of Kyushu, is a perfect model. It erupted in 1991, showering avalanches of hot rocks over a nearby town, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless. Another 11,000 people were evacuated from the area until 1995, when the volcano had stabilized. The results are particularly important to a nation like Japan, where the meteorological agency monitors 20 dangerous peaks. Perhaps Japan's most famous volcano is snowcapped Mount Fuji, which last erupted in 1707 and sprinkled Tokyo with ash. The drilling on Mount Unzen will begin very soon from an altitude of 850 meters on its northwest slope. Scientists hope to tap a magma vent around sea level by August and extract a 200- meter-long core sample by summer 2004. Boring into the glowing magma at that level would normally be impossible, because of its fiery 700 degree Celsius heat. Thus, a slurry of water will be pumped into the drill shaft to cool the magma and allow the drill head to cut through. Nakata said there is no danger of triggering another eruption.

单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}} {{B}}Common-cold Sense{{/B}} You can't beat it, but you don't have to join it. Maybe it got the name "common cold" because it's more common in winter. The fact is, though, being cold doesn't have anything to do with getting one. Colds are caused by the spread of rhinoviruses, and, at least so far, medical science is better at telling you how to avoid getting one than how to get rid of one. Children are the most common way cold viruses are spread to adults, because they have more colds than adults — an average of about eight per year. Why do kids seem so much more easily to get colds than their parents? Simple. They haven't had the oppommity to become immune to many cold viruses. There are more than 150 different cold viruses, and you never have the same One twice. Being infected by one makes you immune to it — but only it. Colds are usually spread by direct contact, not sneezing or coughing. From another person' s hand to your hand and then to your nose or eyes is the most common route. The highest concentration of cold viruses anywhere is found under the thumbnails of a boy, although the viruses can survive for hours on skin or other sm6oth surfaces. Hygiene is your best defense. Wash your hands frequently, preferably with a disinfectant soap, especially when children in your household have colds. But even careful hygiene won't ward off every cold. So, what works when a coughing,sneezing,runny nose strikes? The old prescription of two aspirins, lots of water, and bed rest is a good place to start. But you'll also find some of the folk remedies.., worth Wing. Hot mixtures of sugar (or honey), lemon, and water have real benefits. rhinovirus n. 鼻病毒 immune adj. 免疫的，有免疫力的 disinfectant n.消毒剂，杀菌剂 prescription n. (1)诀窍 (2)处方，药方 sneeze vi.打喷嚏 thumbnail n.拇指甲

单选题What contributes to random failures in automatic control systems?

单选题The American Industry A history of long and effortless success can be a dreadful handicap (阻碍), but, if properly handled, it may become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowing period after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight times larger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies of scale. Its scientists were the world"s best, its workers the most skilled. America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans and Asians whose economies the war had destroyed. It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as other countries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance proved painful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over their fading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such as consumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreign competition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith. (Now there is none: Zenith was bought by South Korea"s LG Electronics in July.) Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market. America"s machine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though the making of semiconductors, which America had sat at the heart of the new computer age, was going to be the next casualty. All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped taking prosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing business was failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall as well. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes of America"s industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filled with warnings about the growing competition from overseas. How things have changed! In 1995 the United States can look back on five years of solid growth while Japan has been struggling. Few Americans attribute this solely to such obvious causes as a devalued dollar or the turning of the business cycle. Self-doubt has yielded to blind pride. "American industry has changed its structure, has gone on a diet, and has learnt to be more quick-witted," according to Richard Cavanagh, executive dean of Harvard"s Kennedy School of Government. "It makes me proud to be an American just to see how our businesses are improving their productivity," says Stephen Moore of the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. And William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School believes that people will look back on this period as "a golden age of business management in the United States".

单选题The word "malady" in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to

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 as 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, it's 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I'd very much like to know what your Uaim/U in life is；

单选题Renewable Energy Sources Today petroleum provides around 40% of the world"s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one-quarter of our energy needs, but it is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel. Natural gas reserves could plug (填补) some of the gap from oil, but reserves of that will not last into the 22nd century either. Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years. We could fast reach an energy crisis. We need to rapidly develop sustainable solutions to fuel our future. Less-polluting renewable energy sources offer a more practical long-term energy solution. They may benefit the world"s poor too. "Renewable" refers to the fact that these resources are not used faster than they can be replaced. The Chinese and Romans used watermills over 2,000 years ago. But the first hydroelectric dam was built in England in 1870. Hydroelectric power is now the most common form of renewable energy, supplying around 20% of world electricity. China"s Three Gorges Dam, which has just been completed, is the largest ever. At five times the size of the US"s Hoover Dam, its 26 turbines (涡轮机) will generate the equivalent energy of 18 coal-fired power stations. It will satisfy 3% of China"s entire electricity demand. In 2003, the first commercial power station to harness tidal currents in the open sea opened in Norway. It is designed like windmill, but others take the form of turbines. As prices fall, wind power has become the fastest growing type of electricity generation—quadrupling worldwide between 1999 and 2005. Modem wind farms consist of turbines that generate electricity. Though it will be more expensive, there is more than enough wind to provide the world"s entire energy needs. Wind farms come in onshore and offshore forms. They can often end up at spots of natural beauty, and are often unpopular with residents. And turbines are not totally benign—they can interfere with radar and leave a significant ecological footprint, altering climate and killing sea birds. Migrating birds may have more luck avoiding them. Scotland is building Europe"s largest wind farm, which will power 200,000 homes. The UK"s goal is to generate one-fifth of power from renewable sources, mainly wind, by 2020. But this may cause problems, because wind is unreliable.

单选题The ship left New York on her {{U}}maiden{{/U}} voyage.

单选题Eta Carinae As possibly the galaxy's (银河) most massive star, Eta Carinae is now engaging in some very unusual behaviour. Australian astronomers, being in the Southern Hemisphere (半球), are able to observe it clearly. In the 19th century, Eta Carinae was for a time the third brightest star in the sky. It has now become less bright so that binoculars (双筒望远镜) are needed to see it. "It seems to be brightening and becoming less bright over a period of many years", said Dr Bob Duncan from the Australia Telescope National Facility. While it is not unusual for stars to vary in brightness, the period is usually much shorter. "Since 1992 it has become four times brighter, and then last year it began to drop dramatically," he said. The problem in observing Eta Carinae is that it has been surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust, making it hard to see the star directly. However, radio waves and infrared light (红外线) can pass through this cloud, so telescopes that receive these wavelengths can observe what is occurring. Eta Carinae is of particular interest to astronomers because it seems to be in its death throes (剧痛). Being so large it will end up as a supernova (超新星). There has not been a supernova in our galaxy since the invention of the telescope. While a 1987 explosion in a nearby galaxy gave astronomers plenty of valuable data, they are hungry for an even closer look. Eta Carinae has other unique features, and is the only star known to produce an ultraviolet (紫外线) laser that is brighter than that produced by the Sun. Lasers have been observed in other frequencies from a few stars.

单选题The Vatican is famous for its magnificent church towers.

单选题During their winter hibernation period, bears doze .

单选题3. Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles General Motors and Honda ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell (燃料电池) and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same. Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart(高尔夫车) called the THINK, or Think neighbor. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002. "The bottom line is we don't believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market, "Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday." We feel we have given electric our best shot. " The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time General Motor's EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles. The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota RAV4 EV vehicle costs over $ 42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles. There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program. Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in theUS. However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction(禁令), delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low—emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufactures hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for morelow-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.

单选题Italian ice cream is imitated all over the world. A. copied B. ignored C. organized D. provided

单选题There are only five minutes left，but the outcome of the match is still in doubt．

单选题 Laughter There is an old saying in English: "Laughter is the best medicine." Until recently, few people took the saying very seriously. Now, however, doctors have begun to investigate laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found evidence that laughter really can improve people's health. Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films, while doctors checked their heart rate blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, the heart rate and the rate of breathing; it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial. Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be capable of reducing the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group which tolerated the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce endorphins(内啡肽) in the brain. These are natural chemicals which diminish both stress and pain. There is also some evidence to suggest that laughter helps the body's immune system, that is the system which fights infection. In an experiment, one group of students watched a funny video while another group served as the control group—in other words, a group with which to compare the first group. Doctors checked the blood of the students in both groups and found that the people in the group that watched the video had an increase in the activity of their white blood cells, that is the cells which fight infection. As a result of these discoveries, some doctors and psychiatrists(精神病学) in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they try to improve their patients' condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

单选题As a matter of fact, I love soft music more than popular music. A. Basically B. Probably C. Actually D. Accurately