单选题The little girl
grasped
her mother"s arm as she crossed the street.
单选题I don't know the origin of this custom.A. natureB. reasonC. beginningD. result
单选题A Sunshade for the Planet Even with the best will in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going to prevent global warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties (不确定) in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented (执行) soon enough. Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worst, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale "geoengineering" projects that might be used to counteract (抵消) global warming. "I use the analogy of methadone," says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. "If you have a heroin addict,the correct treatment is hospitalization,and a long reha B. But if they absolutely refuse,methadone is better than heroin. " Basically the idea is to apply "sunscreen" to the whole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radical plan to cool Earth; launch trillions of feather-light discs into space,where they would form a vast cloud that would block the sun's rays. It's controversial,but recent studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth's surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1.8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun's rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most severe emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
单选题Doubts and Debates over the Worth of MBA Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft chairman without a single earned university degree, is by his success raising new doubts about the worth of the business world's favorite academic title: the MBA ( Master of Business Administration). The MBA, a 20th-century product always has borne the mark of lowly commerce and greed (贪婪) on the tree-lined campuses ruled by purer disciplines such as philosophy and literature. But even with the recession apparently cutting into the hiring of business school graduates, about 79,000 people are expected to receive MBAs in 1993. This is nearly 16 times the number of business graduates in 1960, a testimony to the widespread assumption that the MBA is vital for young men and women who want to run companies some day. "If you are going into the corporate world it is still a disadvantage not to have one," said Donald Morrison, professor of marketing and management science. "But in the last five years or so, when someone says, ' Should I attempt to get an MBA,' the answer a lot more is: It depends. " The success of Bill Gates and other non-MBAs, such as the late Sam Walton of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has helped inspire self-conscious debates on business school campuses over the worth of a business degree and whether management skills can be taught. The Harvard Business Review printed a lively, fictional exchange of letters to dramatize complaints about business degree holders. The article called MBA hires "extremely disappointing" and said "MBAs wants to move up too fast, they don't understand politics and people, and they aren't able to function as part of a team until their third year. But by then, they're out looking for other jobs. " The problem, most participants in the debate acknowledge, is that the MBA has acquired an aura (光环) of future riches and power for beyond its actual importance and usefulness. Enrollment in business schools exploded in the 1970s and 1980s and created the assumption that no one who pursued a business career could do with out one. The growth was fueled by a backlash (反冲) against the anti-business values of the 1960s and by the women's movement. Business people who have hired or worked with MBAs say those with the degrees often know how to analyze systems but are not so skillful at motivating people. "They don't get a lot of grounding in the people side of the business," said James Shaffer, vice president and principal of the Towers Perrin management consulting firm.
单选题The dentist had to remove two teeth because they were Udecaying/U.
单选题I've always been cautious about giving people my phone number.A. afraidB. frightenedC. carefulD. rational
单选题A. a nearly 40-degree angle
B. get on bikes
C. a feather pillow
D. fix more problems
E. a super-strong battery
F. benefit their community
A Pulse PEVO is powered with
单选题Mad Scientist Stereotype Outdated
Do people still imagine a physicist as a bearded man in glasses or has the image of the mad scientist changed? The Institute of Physics set out to find out whether the stereotype of a physics "boffin" (科学家) still exists by conducting a survey on shoppers in London. The people were asked to identify the physicist from a photograph of a line-up of possible suspects. 98 percent of those asked got it wrong. The majority of people picked a white male of around 60, wearing glasses and with a white beard.
While this stereotype may have been the image of all average physicist fifty years ago, the reality is now very different since 1960 the number of young women entering physics has doubled and the average age of a physicist is now 31.
The stereotype of the absent-minded scientist has lasted a long time because the media and Hollywood help promote the image of men in white lab coats with glasses sitting by blackboards full of equations (等式) or working with fizzing (嘶嘶响) test tubes. These stereotypes are really damaging to society. Very good school children are put off studying science because they don"t see people like themselves on television or in magazines doing science. They simply don"t relate to the media"s image of the mad scientist.
This is one reason why fewer young people are choosing to do science at university. If we want to encourage more young people to study science subjects, we need to change this image of the scientist and make science careers more attractive. But we must also develop children"s interest in science.
In an attempt to change this negative image, an increasing number of science festivals are being organized. Thousands of people from secondary schools are also encouraged to take part in the international wide science competitions of which the most popular are the national Science Olympiads. Winning national teams then get the opportunity to take part in the International Science Olympiads which are held in a different country every year. These events are all interesting for the young people who take part but they only involve a small proportion of students who are already interested in science. It seems that there is a long way to go before science becomes attractive as subjects like computer studies or fashion and design.
单选题阅读下面这篇短文,短文后列出7个句子,请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断。
On British Newspapers
Besides the daily newspapers, there are a number of Sunday newspapers in
Britain. Manyof them are connected with the "dailies", though not run by the
same editor and his members.The Sunday papers are larger than the daily papers
and usually contain more articles concernedwith comment (评论) and general
information rather than news. The national daily and Sunday papers have the
largest circulation(发行) in the world. Of the Sunday papers, the Observer and the
Sunday Times are the best known. It is a regrettable fact that
the number of magazines of a literary or political nature hasdropped down since
the war. This has probably been caused by the everwider use of radio
andtelevision. The most successful magazines are those published for women.
Their covers aredesigned to catch the eye, and they certainly succeed in doing
so! They offer their readers articles on cookery (烹饪法), fashion, needlework, and
many other matters of women interest.They also provide advice to those in love,
and adventures with handsome heroes. Somewomen's magazines also include
serious articles of more general interest. The visitor who
looks at the magazines displayed in a large bookstall (书摊) which may befound in
an important railway station wiIl notice that there is a wide variety of
technical or semitechnical(半专业的) books and magazines. There are magazines for
the motorist, the farmer, the gardener, the nurse, and many others.
There are many local and regional newspapers. It is common in Britain for
a news agent(报刊经售人) to deliver (投递) the morning papers to his customers for a
small extra payment, this service is usually performed by boys and girls who
want to earn some pocketmoney.
单选题Arctic Melt Earth's North and South Poles are famous for being cold and icy. Last year, however, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean fell to a record low. Normally, ice builds in Arctic waters around the North Pole each winter and shrinks during the summer. But for many years, the amount of ice left by the end of summer has been declining. Since 1979, each decade has seen an 11.4 percent drop in end of summer ice cover. Between 1981 and 2000, ice in the Arctic lost 22 percent of its thickness, becoming 1.13 meters thinner. Last summer, Arctic sea ice reached its skimpiest levels yet. By the end of summer 2007, the ice had shrunk to cover just 4.2 million square kilometers. That's 38 percent less area than the average cover at that time of year. And it's a very large 23 percent below the previous record low, which was set just 2 years ago. This continuing trend has scientists concerned. There may be several reasons for the ice melt, says Jinlun Zhang, an oceanographer at the University of Washington at Seattle. Unusually strong winds blew through the Arctic last summer. The winds pushed much of the ice out of the central Arctic, leaving a large area of thin ice and open water. Scientists also suspect that fewer clouds cover the Arctic now than in the past. Clearer skies allow more sunlight to reach the ocean. The extra heat warms both the water and the atmosphere. In parts of the Arctic Ocean last year, surface temperatures were 3.5℃ warmer than average and 1.5℃ warmer than the previous record high. With both air and water getting warmer, the ice is melting from both above and below. In some parts of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and western Canada, ice that measured 3.3 meters thick at the beginning of the summer measured just 50 centimeters by season's end. The new measurements suggest that melting is far more severe than scientists have seen by just looking at ice cover from above, says Donald K. Perovich, a geophysicist at the U. S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N. H. Some scientists fear that the Arctic is stuck in a warming trend from which it may never recover.
单选题She shows little regard for the feelings of others and does exactly what she wants to. A. feeling B. love C. consideration D. sense
单选题We've seen a {{U}}marked{{/U}} shift in our approach to the social issues.
A. clear
B. regular
C. quick
D. great
单选题UApart from/U their differences, the couple were developing an obvious and genuine affection for each other.
单选题These animals {{U}}migrate{{/U}} south annually in search of food.
A. explore
B. inhabit
C. prefer
D. travel
单选题Smart Window Windows not only let light in to cut down an electricity use for lighting, but the light coming through the window also provides heat. However, windows are not something people typically associate with being a cutting edge technology. Researchers are now working on new technologies that enable a window to quickly change from clear to dark and anywhere in between with a flip of a switch. "It took us a long time to figure out what a window really is," says Claes Granqvist. He's a professor of solid-state physics at Uppsala University in Sweden. "It's contact with the outside world. You have to have visual contact with the surrounding world to feel well. " So, windows and natural light are important for improving the way people feel when they're stuck indoors. Yet, windows are the weak link in a building when it comes to energy and temperature control. In the winter, cold air leaks in. When it's hot and sunny, sunlight streams in. All of this sunlight carries lots of heat and energy. And all of this extra heat forces people to turn on their air conditioners. Producing blasts of cold air, which can feel so refreshing, actually suck up enormous amounts of electricity in buildings around the world. Windows have been a major focus of energy research for a long time. Over the years, scientists have come up with a variety of strategies for coating, glazing, and layering windows to make them more energy efficient. Smart windows go a step further. They use chromogenic technologies which involve changes of color. Electrochromic windows use electricity to change color. For example, a sheet of glass coated with thin layers of chemical compound such as tungsten oxide works a bit like a battery. Tungsten oxide is clear when an electric charge is applied and dark when the charge is removed, that is, when the amount of voltage is decreased, the window darkens until it's completely dark after all electricity is taken away. So applying a voltage determines whether the window looks clear or dark. One important feature that makes a smart window so smart is that it has a sort of "memory. " All it takes is a small jolt of voltage to turn the window from one state to the other. Then, it stays that way. Transitions take anywhere from 10 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the size of the window. The development of smart windows could mean that massive air conditioning systems may no longer need. "In the future," Granqvist says, "our buildings may look different. /
单选题In fine days, you"d better open windows to
ventilate
the room.
单选题There is certainly some truth to that charge, and our recent Ufinancial/U policies haven' t helped.
单选题The cause of the fire is being investigated.A. looked afterB. looked throughC. looked forward toD. looked into
单选题We were attracted by the {{U}}lure{{/U}} of quick money.
单选题The Appearance of Woman
All research to date on body image shows that women are much more critical of their appearance than men—much less likely to admire what they see in the mirror. Up to 8 out of 10 women are dissatisfied with their reflection, and more than half may see a distorted image.
Men looking in the mirror are more likely to be either pleased with what they see or indifferent. Research shows that men generally have a much more positive body image than women—if anything, they may tend to over-estimate their attractiveness. Some men looking in the mirror may literally not see the flaws in their appearance.
Why are women so much more self-critical than men? Because women are judged on their appearance more than men, and standards of female beauty are considerably higher and more inflexible. Women are continually bombarded with images of the "ideal" face. And constant exposure to idealized images of female beauty on TV, magazines and billboards makes exceptional good looks seem normal and anything short of perfection seem abnormal and ugly. It has been estimated that young women now see more images of outstandingly beautiful women in one day than our mothers saw throughout their entire adolescence.
Also, most women are trying to achieve the impossible: standards of female beauty have in fact become progressively more unrealistic during the last century. In 1917, the physically perfect woman was about 5ft 4in tall and weighed nearly 10 stone. Even 25 years ago, top models and beauty queens weighed only 8% less than the average woman, now they weigh 23% less. The current media ideal for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population—and that"s just in terms of weight and size. If you want the ideal shape, face etc., its probably more like 1%.
