单选题The National Trust in Britain plays an increasingly important part in the preservation for public enjoyment of the best that is left unspoiled of the British countryside. Although the Trust has received practical and moral support from the Government, it is not a rich Government department. It is a voluntary association of people who care for the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings of Britain. It is a charity which depends for its existence on voluntary support from members of the public. Its primary duty is to protect places of great natural beauty and places of historical interest. Members of the National Trust are peopleA. who are government employees and get their pay from the government.B. who are interested in dealing with social problems.C. who are rich enough to work for the organization without pay.D. who care for the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings in Britain.

单选题All instructors will allow somewhat changed focus in the original topic.

单选题The company recommended that a new petrol station be built here.

单选题Cement was seldom Used in buildings in the Middle Ages.A. crudelyB. rarelyC. originallyD. occasionally

单选题Many fine cooks insist on ingredients of the highest quality.

单选题We also want to use the water to irrigate Ubarren/U desert land.

单选题Did anyone call when I was out?

单选题Star Quality A new anti-cheating system for counting the judges' scores in ice skating is flawed, according to leading sports specialists. Ice skating's governing body announced the new rules last week after concerns that a judge at the Winter Olympics may have been unfairly influenced. Initially the judges in the pairs figure-skating event at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City voted 5 to 4 to give the gold medal to a Russian pair, even though they had a fall during their routine. But the International Skating Union suspended the French judge for failing to reveal that she had been put under pressure to vote for the Russians. The International Olympics Committee then decided to give a second gold to the Canadian runners-up (亚军). The ISU, skating's governing body, now says it intends to change the rules. In future 14 judges will judge each event, but only 7 of their scores-selected at random-will count. The ISU won't finally approve the new system until it meets in June but already U. K. Sport, the British Government's sports body, has expressed reservations. "I remain to be convinced that the random selection system would offer the guarantees that everyone concerned with ethical sport is looking for", says Jerry Bingham, U. K. Sport's heact of ethics (伦理). A random system can still be manipulated, says Mark Dixon, a specialist on sports statistics from the Royal Statistical Society in London. "The score of one or two judges who have been nobbled (受到贿赂) may still be in the seven selected. " Many other sports that have judges, including diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming, have a system that discards the highest and lowest scores. If a judge was under pressure to favour a particular team, they would tend to give it very high scores and mark down the opposition team, so their scores wouldn't count. It works for diving, says Jeff Cook, a member of the international government body's technical committee. "If you remove those at the top and bottom you're left with those in the middle, so you're getting a reasonable average. " Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, diving has tightened up in its system still further. Two separate panels of judges score different rounds of diving during top competitions. Neither panel knows the scores given by the other. "We have done this to head off any suggestion of bias," says Cook. Bingham urged the ISU to consider other options. "This should involve examining the way in which other sports deal with the problem of adjudicating (裁定) on matter of style and presentation," he says.

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 tell " why aren't you working, young man?" and then toss some money into the hat to hide their confusion.

单选题Cement was {{U}}seldom{{/U}} Used in buildings in the Middle Ages.

单选题The steadily rising cost of labor on the waterfront has greatly increased the cost of shipping cargo by water.

单选题Internet-based Instruction By almost any measure, there is a boom in Internet-based instruction. In just a few years, 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools, it"s closer to 90 percent. If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven"t heard of the University of Phoenix. It grants degrees entirely on the basis of online instruction. It enrolls 90,000 students, a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country. While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs will differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructors post syllabi (课程大纲), reading assignments, and schedules on Websites, and students send in their assignments by e-mail. Generally speaking, face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether. The attraction for students might at first seem obvious. Primarily, there"s the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say, in your pajamas (睡衣). But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course. While drop-out rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent, the rate for online students is 35 percent. Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup. In a survey conducted for eCornell, the DL division of Cornell University, less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course. Clearly, from the schools" perspective, there"s a lot of money to be saved. Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software, most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgraded (升级) systems. The more students who enroll in a course but don"t come to campus, the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms, paying doorkeepers, and maintaining parking lots. And, while there"s evidence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons, they won"t be paid any more, and might well be paid less.

单选题Spoilt for Choice Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. In daily life, people have come to expect endless situations about which they are required to make decisions one way or another. In the main, these are just irksome moments at work which demand some extra energy or brainpower, or during lunch breaks like choosing which type of coffee to order or indeed which coffee shop to go to. But sometimes selecting one option as opposed to another can have serious or lifelong repercussions. More complex decision-making is then either avoided, postponed, or put into the hands of the army of professionals, lifestyle coaches, lawyers, advisors, and the like, waiting to lighten the emotional burden for a fee. But for a good many people in the world, in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, created by companies and advertisers wanting to sell their wares. The main impact of endless choice in people"s lives is anxiety. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of consumer goods induces a sense of powerlessness, even paralysis, in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted in order to solve the problem and reduce the unease. Recent surveys in the United Kingdom have shown that a sizeable proportion of electrical goods bought per household are not really needed. The advertisers and the shareholders of the manufacturers are, nonetheless, satisfied. It is not just their availability that is the problem, but the speed with which new versions of products come on the market. Advances in design and production mean that new items are almost ready by the time that goods hit the shelves. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The classic example is computers which are almost obsolete once they are bought. At first, there were only one or two available from a limited number of manufacturers, but now there are many companies all with not only their own products but different versions of the same machine. This makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety. The plethora of choice is not limited to consumer items. With the greater mobility of people around the world, people have more choice about where they want to live and work—a fairly recent phenomenon. In the past, nations migrated across huge swathes of the earth in search of food, adventure, and more hospitable environments. Whole nations crossed continents and changed the face of history, so the mobility of people is nothing new. The creation of nation states and borders effectively slowed this process down.

单选题Dancing in the Streets If there is one thing certain to get Brazilians on their feet, it is the Rio Carnival (狂欢节). Held in Rio de Janeiro, the country"s biggest city, the carnival began on February 20 when the mayor gave key of the city to Rei Momo—the Lord of Misrule (无序之皇). On his orders, each year people turn the city into a paradise of dance and music. The following six days are so full of parades, street dancing, fantastic clothes and partying (聚会) that many people forget about eating and sleeping. "It was the passion of the carnival that attracted me to Brazil and made me settle down in Rio," said Bob Nadkarni, a British man who has lived in the city for several years. For many Brazilians, the centrepiece of the carnival is samba (桑巴舞), a typical Brazilian dance. Every year, tens of thousands of visitors and locals show off their passion and energy in the streets, following the beat (节拍) of the Latin music. The climax to this street party is the float (彩车) parade, in which floats decorated with tons of fresh flowers by various samba schools and local communities move through the city. On the top of each float stands the candidate for the Drum Queen, who is chosen at the end of the party. While most people are free to enjoy the celebrations, Rio"s police officers have to keep a clear head. Following the murder of three officers in a gunfight early last week, the Brazilian Government has tightened security in Rio. The street fighting, robbery and sex crimes that accompany the carnival are very difficult to police. Carnivals began in ancient Rome as a celebration at which people fed wild wolves, in honour of the city"s founder who was said to have been raised by a she-wolf. Brazil gave new life to this tradition and so, despite the troubles, the carnival will remain a symbol of the country"s culture.

单选题He kept in constant contact with his family while he was in Australia.

单选题The house had many drawbacks, most notably its price.______

单选题I rarely play cards.A. naturallyB. seldomC. oftenD. usually

单选题The last few weeks have been enjoyable.

单选题The republication of the poet's most recent works will certainly {{U}}heighten{{/U}} his national reputation. A. magnify B. strengthen C. enlarge D. enhance

单选题Eleven states, including the {{U}}adjoining{{/U}} states of North and South Carolina, seceded from the United States in the 1860's and formed a southern confederacy.