单选题World Crude Oil Production may Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS" Energy Fuels. Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil". "Peak oil" is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve, a related concept is that of "Peak Oil". The term "Peak Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline. The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide. However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say. The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world"s conventional crude oil. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world"s oil reserves are being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy, which related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.

单选题Safety is always our primary concern.A. leastB. secondaryC. lastD. chief

单选题Every new venture has the possibility of making or losing money.

单选题A Thirsty World The world is not only hungry; it is also thirsty for water. This seems strange to you, since nearly 75% of the earth's surface is covered with water. But about 97% of this huge amount is from sea-water, or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3%—the fresh water that comes from rivers, lakes, underground, and other sources. And we cannot even use all of that, because some of it is in the form of iceberg (冰山) and glaciers (冰川). Even worse, some of it has been polluted. At the moment, this small amount of fresh water is still enough for us. However, our need for water is increasing rapidly. Only if we take steps to deal with this problem now can we avoid a severe worldwide water shortage later on. A limited water supply would have a bad effect on agriculture and industry. In addition to stopping wasting our precious water, one useful step we should take is to develop ways of reusing it. Experiments have already been done in this field, but only on a small scale. Today, in most large cities tanks, water is used only once and it eventually returns to the sea or runs into underground storage tanks. But it is possible to pipe water that has been used to a purifying (净化) plant. There it can be filtered (过滤) and treated with chemicals so that it can be used again just as it were fresh from a spring. But even if every large city purified and reused its water, we still would not have enough. Where could we turn next? To the oceans! All we'd have to do to make use of the vast amount of sea-water is—remove the salt. This salt-removing process is already in use in many parts of the world.

单选题He was tempted by the high salary offered by the company.

单选题The council meeting terminated at 2 o’clock

单选题Tickets are limited and will be {{U}}allocated{{/U}} to those who apply first.

单选题The umbrella was ingeniously devised to fold up into the pocket.

单选题Mother Nature Shows Her Strength Tornadoes and heavy thunderstorms moved across the Great Lakes and into Trumbull County on Saturday evening. The storms were dramatic and dangerous. George Snyder was driving the fire truck down Route 88 when he first noticed that a funnel cloud was behind him. "I stopped the truck and watched the funnel cloud. It was about 100 feet off the ground and I saw it go up and down for a while. It was moving toward Bradley Road and then suddenly it disappeared," Snyder said. Snyder only saw one of the funnel clouds that passed through northeastern Ohio on Saturday. In Trumbull County, a tornado turned trees onto their sides. Some trees fell onto houses and cars. Other trees fell into telephone and electrical wires as they went down. Amanda Symcheck was having a party when the storm began. "Knew something was wrong," she said. "I saw the sky go green and pink. Then it sounded like a train rushing toward the house. I started crying and told everyone to go to the basement for protection." The tornado caused a lot of damage to cars and houses in the area. It will take a long time and much money to repair everything. There was also serious water damage from the thunderstorms. The heavy rains and high wind caused the power to go out in many homes. The storms caused serious flooding in areas near the river. More than four inches of rain fell in parts of Trumbull County. The river was so high that the water ran into streets and houses. Many streets had to be closed to cars and trucks because of the high water. This made it difficult for fire trucks, police cars and other rescue vehicles to help people who were in trouble. Many people who live near the river had to leave their homes for their own safety. Some people reported five feet of water in their homes. Local and state officials opened emergency shelters for the people who were evacuated. The Red Cross served meals to them. "This was a really intense storm," said Snyder. "People were afraid. Mother Nature can be fierce. We were lucky this time. No one was killed."

单选题He was elevated to the post of prime minister. A. pulled B. promoted C. lifted D. treated

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}}The Acquisition of Two Companies{{/B}} The Provident Companies, the No. 2 seller of individual disability insurance policies, agreed yesterday to buy the No. 1 insurer in the field in a deal that would give it more than 1/3 of the market. The $1.2 billion deal would eliminate about 600 jobs, give a big Swiss money-losing policies sold by the insurer that is being acquired, the Paul Revere company. Last year Provident's insurance units had $2.6 billion in premium revenues and Paul Revere had $1.5 billion. About 57 percent of the combined $4.1 billion in premiums came from disability policies that were sold to individuals. Provident's next largest competitor, the UNUM Corporation, has about 10 percent of the market. Paul Revere has been controlled since 1985 by Textron Inc. Textron acquired the insurer when it bought Avco Financial Services, which makes high interest rate loans to people whose employment and credit histories make them too risky for bank loans. James F. Hardymon, Textron's chairman and chief executive, said the sale "reinforces Textron's strategy to focus on its core manufacturing and finance businesses." He said, that up to half the income might be used to pay down the company's more than $10 billion of debt or to buy back stock. Paul Revere's remaining public shareholders will get $26 in cash for each share, Provident stock worth $26, or $20 in cash and Provident stock worth $6. To finance the deal, Provident is getting a $300 million infusion of cash from the Zurich insurance Group of Switzerland, which is buying a 15.2% stake in Provident under an agreement allowing it to increase the stake to 40%. Provident, which is based in Chattanooga, Tenn., announced a $423 million write-off on individual disability policies in December 1993. Paul Revere, which is based in Worchester, Mass., has not taken a similar write-off, said John M. Hanon, an analyst at Derby Securities. Provident, Paul Revere and other companies have previously said that they had to pay claims on diseases not even known when the policies were written and that many disability claims resulted in larger than expected benefits payment. The deal drew mixed responses from insurance ratings agencies, which had ranked both companies in the upper grades, indicating a strong likelihood that they would be able over the long haul to pay claims.

单选题"What do you mean by that?" Paul asked sharply .

单选题In 1860 Andrew Johnson often risked his life by telling crowds of people that secession from the Union would be harmful.

单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}} Egypt Felled by Famine Even ancient Egypts mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilian around 2180 BC. Now evidence gleaned(搜集) from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blem — and the same or worse could happen today. The ancient Egyptians depended on the Niles annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons(季风) southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these floods. Dwindling(逐渐变少；使变小) rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to establish the soil. When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment(沉积，沉积物) from the White Nile. The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope signature(名；特征) from that of the White Nile. So by analyzing isotope(同位素；核素) differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta, Michael Krom of Leads University worked out what proportion of sediment Came from each branch of the river. Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago, immediately predates the fall of the Egypts Old Kingdom. The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians. Changes that affect food supply don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies, says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory(天文台) in New York. Similar events today could be even more {{B}}{{I}}devastating{{/I}}{{/B}}, says team member Daniel Stanley, a geoarchaeologist (地质考古学家) from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.. Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations have increased dramatically.

单选题The little-known George Mason University was a dark horse because

单选题School Lunch Research has shown that over half the children in Britain who take their own lunches to school do not eat properly in the (51) of the day. In Britain (52) have to provide meals at lunchtime. Children can choose to bring their own food or have lunch at the school canteen. One shocking (53) of this research is that school meals are much (54) than lunches prepared by parents. There are strict (55) for the preparation of school meals, which have to include one portion of fruit and one of (56) , as well as meat, a dairy item and starchy food like bread or (57) . Lunchboxes (58) by researchers contained sweet drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Children consume twice as (59) sugar as they should at lunchtime. The research will provide a better (60) of why the percentage of (61) students in Britain has increased in the last decade. Unfortunately, the government cannot criticise parents, but it can (62) them of the (63) value of milk, fruit and vegetables. Small changes in their children's diet can (64) their future health. Children can easily develop bad eating (65) at this age, and parents are the only ones who can prevent it.

单选题I"d like to withdraw 500 from my current account.

单选题 {{B}}For job seekers{{/B}} There is a new type of small advetisement becoming increasingly common in news- papers classified columns. It is sometimes placed among" situations vacant", although it does not offer anyone a job, and sometimes it appears among "situations wanted", al- though it is not placed by someone looking for a job either. What it does is to offer help in applying for a job. "Contact us before writing your application," or "Make use of our long experience in preparing your resume or job history," is how it is usually expressed. The growth and apparent success of such a specialised service is, of course, a reflection on the current high levels of unemployment. It is also an indication of the growing importance of the resume (or job history), with the suggestion that it may now qualify as an art form in its own right. There was a time when job seekers simply wrote letters of application. "Just put down your name, address, age and whether you have passed any exams," was about the average level of advice offered to young people applying for their first jobs when they left school. The letter was really just for openers, it was explained, everything else could and should be saved for the interview. And in those clays of full employment the technique worked. The letter proved that you could write and were available for work. Your eager face and intelligent replies did the rest. Later, as you moved up the ladder, something slightly more sophisticated was called for. The advice then was to put something in the letter which would distinguish you from the rest. It might be the aggressive approach. "Your search is over. I am the person you are looking for," was a widely used trick that occasionally succeeded. Or it might be some special feature specially designed for the job in view. There is no doubt, however, that it is the increasing number of applicants with university education at all points in the process of engaging staff that has led to the greater importance of the resume.

单选题The use of the chemical may present a certain Uhazard/U to the laboratory workers.

单选题The Old Gate In the Middle Ages the vast majority of European cities had walls around them. This was partly for defensive reasons but another (51) was the need to keep out anyone (52) as undesirable, like people with contagious (53) The Old City of London gates were all demolished by the end of the 18th century. The last of London's gates was (54) a century ago, but by a (55) of luck, it was never destroyed. This gate is, in actual (56) , not called a gate at all; its name is Temple Bar, and it marked the boundary (57) the Old City of London and Westminster. In 1878 the Council of London took the Bar down, numbered the stones and put the gate in (58) because its design was (57) it was expensive to maintain and it was blocking the (60) . The Temple Bar Trust was (61) in the 1970's with the intention of returning the gate home. The (62) of the Trust is the preservation of the nation's (63) heritage. Transporting the gate will mean (64) pulling it down, stone by stone, removing and rebuilding it near St Paul's Cathedral. Most of the facade of the gate will probably be re- placed, though there is a good (65) that the basic structure will be sound. The hardest job of all, however, will be to recreate the statues of the monarchs that once stood on top of the gate.