单选题The Only Way Is Up Think of a modem city and the first image that come to mind is the skyline. It is full of great buildings, pointing like fingers to heaven. It is true that some cities don't permit buildings to go above a certain height. But these are cities concerned with the past. The first thing any city does when it wants to tell the world that it has arrived is to build skyscrapers. When people gather together in cities, they create a demand for land since cities are places where money is made, that demand can be met. And the best way to make money out of city land is to put as many people as possible in a space that covers the smallest amount of ground that means building upwards. The technology existed to do this as early as the 19th century. But the height of buildings was limited by one important factor. They had to be small enough for people on the top floors to climb stairs. People could not be expected to climb a mountain at the end of their journey to work, or home. Elisha Otis, a US inventor, was the man who brought us the lift or elevator, as he preferred to call it. However, most of the technology is very old lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptians used to create the Pyramids. What Otis did was attach the system to a steam engine and develop the elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it up are broken. It was this that did the most to gain public confidence in the new invention. In fact, he spent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds, giving people the chance to try them out before selling the idea to architects and builders. A lift would not be a very good theme park attraction now. Going in a lift is such an everyday thing that it would just be boring. Yet psychologists and others who study human behavior find lifts fascinating. The reason is simple. Scientists have always studied animals in zoos. The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them in lifts. "It breaks all the usual conventions about the bubble of personal space we carry around with us and you just can't choose to move away," says workplace psychologist, Gary Fitzgibbon. Being trapped in this setting can create different types of tensions, he says. Some people are scared of them. Others use them as an opportunity to get close to the boss. Some stand close to the door. Others hide in the comers. Most people try and shrink into the background but some behave in a way that makes others notice them. There are a few people who just stand in a comer taking notes. Don't worry about them. They are probably from a university.

单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}} Call American Their names A great difference between American social customs and those of other countries is the way in which names are used. Americans have little concern for "rank", especially socially. Most Americans do not want to be treated in any especially respectful way because of their age or social rank ; it makes them feel uncomfortable. Many Americans even find the terms "Mr. ", "Mrs. " or "Miss" too formal. People of all ages may prefer to be called by their first names. "Don't call me Mrs. Smith. Just call me Sally. " Using only first names usually indicates friendliness and acceptance. However, if you do not feel comfortable using only first names, it is quite acceptable to be more for mal. Just smile and say that after a while you will use first names but you are accustomed to being more when you first meet someone. Very often, introductions are made using both first and last names: "Mary Smith, this is John Jones. " In this situation you are free to decide whether to call the lady "Mary" or "Miss Smith".Sometimes both of you will begin a conversation using last names, and after a while one or both of you may begin using first names instead. You have a choice : if you don't want to use first names so quickly, no one will think it impolite if you continue according to you own custom.

单选题The representative was asked to verify his earlier statement.

单选题Reading for Pleasure The first thing I want to insist on is that reading should be enjoyable. Of course, there are many books that we all have to read, either to pass examinations or to acquire information, from which it is impossible to extract enjoyment. We are reading them for instruction, and the best we can hope is that our need for it will enable us to get through them without tedium. Such books we read unwillingly rather than willingly. But that is not the sort of reading I have in mind. The books I shall mention in due course will help you neither to get a degree nor to earn your living, they will not teach you to sail a boat or run a stopped motor, but they will help you to live more fully. However, they cannot do unless you enjoy reading them. Every man is his own best critic. Whatever the learned say about a book, however unanimous they are in their praise of it, unless it interests you, it is no business of yours. Don't forget that critics often make mistakes; the history of criticism is full of the serious mistakes some of them have made, and you are the final judge of the value to you of the book you are reading. This, of course, applies to the books I am going to recommend to your attention. We are none of us exactly like everyone else, only rather like, and it would be unreasonable to suppose that the books that have meant a great deal to me should be precisely those that will mean a great deal to you. If any of you who are not interested in the books I introduce to you, just put them down; they will be of no service to you if you do not enjoy them. No one is under an obligation to read poetry, fiction or literature. He must read them for pleasure, and who can claim that what pleases one man must necessarily please another?

单选题The governor gave a rather Uvague/U outline of his tax plan.

单选题A young man is being hailed a hero tonight after rescuing two children. A. reported B. proved C. caught D. praised

单选题Hundreds of buildings were Uwrecked/U by the earthquake.

单选题Cell Phone Lets Your Secret Out Your cell phone holds secrets about you. Besides the names and (51) that you've programmed into it, traces of your DNA linger (逗留) on the device, according to a new study. DNA is genetic material that (52) in every cell. Like your fingerprint, your DNA is unique to you (53) you have an identical twin. Scientists today routinely analyze DNA in blood, saliva (唾液), or hair left (54) at the scene of a crime. The results often help detectives identify (55) and their victims. Your cell phone can reveal more about you (56) you might think. Meghan J. McFadden, a scientist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, heard about a crime in which the suspect bled onto a cell phone and later dropped the (57) . This made her wonder whether traces of DNA lingered on cell phones even when no blood was involved. (58) , she and colleague Margaret Wallace of the City University of New York analyzed the flip-open phones of 10 volunteers. They used swabs (药签) to collect (59) traces of the users from two parts of the phone: the outside, where the user holds it, and the (60) , which is placed at the user's ear. The scientists scrubbed the phones using a solution made mostly (61) alcohol. The aim of washing was to remove all detectable traces of DNA. The owners got their phones (62) for another week. Then the researchers collected the phones and repeated the swabbing of each phone once more. The scientists discovered DNA that (63) to the phone's speaker on each of the phones. Better samples were collected from the outside of each phone, but those swabs also picked up DNA that belonged to other people who had apparently also handled the phone. (64) , DNA showed up even in swabs that were taken immediately after the phones were scrubbed (擦洗). That suggests that washing won't remove all traces of evidence from a criminal's device. So cell phones can now be added to the (65) of clues that can decide a crime-scene investigation.

单选题The advertising company was surprised by the Uadverse/U public reaction to the poster.

单选题Many cities have restricted smoking in public places.

单选题Helen Keller's achievements as an author and lecturer were an inspiration to millions.A. editorB. directorC. correspondentD. speaker

单选题Winston Churchill gave a moving speech.

单选题Living Standards The differences in living standards around the world are vast. In 1993, the average American had an income of about $25,000. In the same year, the average Mexican earned $7,000, and the average Nigerian earned $1,500. Not surprisingly, this large variation in average income is reflected in various measures of the quality of life. Changes in living standards over time are also large. In the United States, incomes have historically grown about 2 percent per year (after adjusting for changes in the cost of living). At this rate, average income doubles every 35 years. In some countries, economic growth has been even more rapid. In Japan, for instance, average income has doubled in the past 20 years, and in South Korea it has doubled in the past 10 years. What explains these large differences in living standards among countries and over time? The answer is surprisingly simple. Almost all variation in living standards is attributable to differences in countries' productivity--that is, the amount of goods and services produced from each hour of a worker's time. In nations where workers can produce a large quantity of goods and services per unit of time, most people enjoy a high standard of living; in nations where workers are less productive, most people must endure a more meager existence. Similarly, the growth rate of a nation's productivity determines the growth rate of its average income. The fundamental relationship between productivity and living standards is simple, but its implications are far-reaching. If productivity is the primary determinant of living standards, other explanations must be of secondary importance. For example, people might think that labor unions or minimum-wage laws contributed to the rise in living standards of American workers over the past century. Yet the real hero of American workers is their rising productivity. The relationship between productivity and living standards also has great implications for public policy. When thinking about how any policy will affect living standards, the key question is how it will affect our ability to produce goods and services. To improve living standards, policymakers need to raise productivity by ensuring that workers are well educated, have the tools needed to produce goods and services, and have access to the best available technology.

单选题Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired; without others we would soon die. Tiny amounts of some hormones can modify our moods and our action, our inclination to eat or drink, our aggressiveness or submissiveness, and our reproductive and parental behavior. And hormones do more than influence adult behavior; early in life they help to determine the development of bodily form and may even determine an individual's behavioral capacities. Later in life the changing outputs of some endocrine glands and the body's changing sensitivity to some hormones are essential aspects of the phenomena of aging. Communication within the body and the consequent integration of behavior were considered the exclusive province of the nervous system up to the beginning of the present century. The emergence of endocrinology as a separate discipline can probable be traced to the experiments of Bayliss and Starling on the hormone secretion. This substance is secreted from cells in the intestinal walls when food enters the stomach; it travels through the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas to liberate pancreatic juice, which aids in digestion. By showing that special cells secrete chemical agents that are conveyed by the bloodstream and regulate distant target organs or tissues, Bayliss and Starling demonstrated that chemical integration can occur without participation of the nervous system. The term "hormone" was first used with reference to secretion. Starling derived the term from the Greek hormone, meaning "to excited or set in motion." The term "endocrine" was introduced shortly thereafter, "Endocrine" is used to refer to glands that secrete products into the bloodstream. The term "endocrine" contrasts with "exocrine" which is applied to glands that secrete their products through ducts to the site of action. Examples of exocrine glands are the tear glands, the sweat glands, and the pancreas, which secretes pancreatic juice through a duct into intestine. Exocrine glands are also called duct glands, while endocrine glands are called ductless.

单选题There was a profound silence after his remark.

单选题Diseases of Agricultural Plants Plants, like animals, are subject to diseases of various kinds. It has been estimated that some 30,000 different diseases attack our economic plants; forty are known to attack corn, and about as many attack wheat. The results of unchecked plant disease are all too obvious m countries which have marginal food supplies. The problem will soon be more widespread as the population of the world increases at its frightening rate. Even in countries which are now amply fed by their agricultural products there could soon be critical food shortages. It is easy to imagine the consequences of some disastrous attack on one of the major crops; the resulting famines could kill millions of people, and the resulting hardship on other millions could cause political upheavals disastrous to the order of the world. Some plants have relative immunity to a great many diseases, while others have a susceptibility to them. The tolerance of a particular plant changes as the growing conditions change. A blight may be but a local infection easily controlled; on the other hand it can attack particular plants in a whole region or nation. An example is the blight which killed virtually every chestnut tree in North America. Another is the famous potato blight in Ireland in the last century. As a result of that, it was estimated that one million people died of starvation and related ailments. Plant pathologists have made remarkable strides in identifying the pathogens of the various diseases. Bacteria may invade a plant through an infestation of insect parasites carrying the pathogen. A plant can also be inoculated by man. Other diseases might be caused by fungus which attacks the plant in the form of a mold or smut or rust. Frequently such a primary infection will weaken the plant so that a secondary infection may result from its lack of tolerance. The symptoms shown may cause an error in diagnosis, so that treatment may be directed toward bacteria which could be the result of a susceptibility caused by a primary virus infection.

单选题Colds are very common. The symptoms of the common cold include a sore throat, runny nose, stuffed-up nose, and tiredness. Colds are caused by viruses, but scientists cannot explain the exact cause. There is no cure. Many people, however, believe that they know the causes of and cures for the common cold. For example, they believe that it is possible to get a cold if we get chilled, if we get extra tired, or if we are too close to a person with a cold. In other words, if we want to prevent catching cold, we should stay warm and dry; we should avoid getting too tired, and we should not be in close contact with people who have colds. Meanwhile, there are probably hundreds of " cures" throughout the world for the common cold. For example, the following suggestions are popular in quite a number of societies : (1) drink plenty of water; (2) get extra rest; (3) take a lot of vitamin C; (4) take aspirin; (5) keep warm. Each year people spend a lot of money on cold medicines-pills, liquids, lozenges (含片). But these medicines do not cure colds; they can only relieve cold symptoms. In other words, they make us feel better.

单选题The Moon and most artificial satellites travel around the Earth in elliptical paths.A. wavesB. orbitsC. voyagesD. flights

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。{{B}}第一篇{{/B}} {{B}} The English Weather{{/B}} "Other countries have a climate; in England we have weather". This statement, often made by Englishmen to describe the strange weather conditions of their country, is both revealing and true. It is revealing because in it we see the Englishman insisting once again that what happens in England is not the same as what happens elsewhere. Its truth can be proved by any foreigner who stays in the country for longer than a few days. In no country other than England, it has been said, can one experience four seasons in the course of a single day! Day may break as a warm spring morning; an hour or so later black clouds may have appeared from nowhere and the rain may be pouring down. At midday it may be really winter with the temperature down by about eight degrees or more centigrade(摄氏度 ). And then, in the late afternoon the sky will clear, the sun will begin to shine, and for an hour or two before darkness fails, it will be summer. In England one can experience almost every kind of weather except the most extreme. (Some foreigners seem to be under the impression that for ten months of the year the country is covered by a dense blanket of fog; this is not true.)The problem is that we never can be sure when the different types of weather will occur. Not only do we get several different sorts of weather in one day, but we may very well get a spell(持续的一段时间) of winter in summer and a spell of summer in winter. The uncertainty about the weather has had a definite effect upon the Englishman's character. It tends to make him cautious(小心谨慎的),for example. The foreigner may laugh when he sees the Englishman setting forth on a brilliantly sunny morning wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella, but he may well regret his laughter later in the day! And, of course, the weather's variety provides a constant topic of conversation. Even the most taciturn (沉默寡言的) of Englishmen is always prepared to discuss the weather. And, though he sometimes complains bitterly of it, he would not, even if he could, exchange it for the more predictable climate of other lands.

单选题A small number of firms have stopped trading.