单选题When he was young, he was {{U}}afflicted{{/U}} with paralysis.
A. inflicted
B. stricken
C. reflected
D. influenced
单选题 Only a handful of creatures on earth carry the dread
title "man-eater". The great white shark is one, quick at times snap up swimmers
and ship-wrecked sailors. People have been meals for lions and tigers.
Crocodiles will attack human prey. But perhaps no creature is more blindly
savage than a small fish of South America's inland waters—the piranha.
At first glance, the piranha seems harmless enough. Deep-bellied and
flat, it looks like a sunfish a youngster might catch on a lazy Sunday
afternoon. It is actually a close relative to silver dollar—an ornamental and
placid fish prized by aquarium enthusiasts. But towards the business end of a
piranha, any similarity to its more docile brethren ends. The
head of the piranha is massive by scale, its raked-back skull armored by thick
bone. Its large, round eyes are sometimes blood red; its mouth is armed with
triangular teeth as keen as razors. When the lower jaw, thrust forward in
bulldog fashion, snaps shut, the upper and lower teeth mesh perfectly. The
result on anything caught in between is that of surgical steel on butter. One
bite and out comes a neat piece of flesh the size of a dollar.
We had a chance to see those dread jaws in action ourselves when we hired a
guide, Jorge, to take us fishing out from Manarus, in Brazil's jungle. An hour
after we left the city, Jorge cut the engine in an inlet off the muddy Amazon,
and baited a hook with raw meat. Almost immediately, something struck, and Jorge
hauled the line back in, flipping a struggling fish about 12 inches long into
the bilge," Red piranha," he warned." Watch your hands and feet."
Thrashing in the narrow boat bottom, sunlight glittering off its
vermilion belly, it looked as handsome as any tropical fish we'd see. The
fierce-looking jaws, however, were snapping wildly at the air, Jorge reached for
an oar to deal it a blow just as the hook worked loose from the fish's mouth.
With a lightning-swift snap, the piranha chopped a neat semicircular chunk from
the wooden oar. We now understand why so many fishermen in piranha country are
missing fingers and toes.
单选题Impressed by the women's desire to learn, Sachs and Brown helped them hammer out a business plan. A. hang out B. set out C. figure out D. work out
单选题The company has announced that it will {{U}}undertake{{/U}} an
investigation into this accident.
A. enter upon
B. put off
C. turn in
D. set aside
单选题Fearful of losing her job for good, this lady decided to talk to the manager directly. A. for benefits B. by luck C. for ever D. at hand.
单选题Ways have to be found to
accommodate
the special needs of these left-behind children in rural areas.
单选题Directions: In this section you will hear two mini-talks.
At the end of each talk, there will be some questions. Both the talks and the
questions will be read only once. After each question, there will be a pause.
During the pause.
单选题This old man had trouble expressing the
attachment
he felt when arriving at his native town.
单选题Although in her teens, the eldest daughter had to quit school to help
______ the family.
A. provide for
B. head for
C. fall for
D. go for
单选题The government will ______ a long time to dissipate the mistrust among
stakeholders in the market.
A. take
B. spend
C. cost
D. involve
单选题 {{B}}Passage Four {{/B}} Iris
Rossner has seen eastern Germany customers weep for joy when they drive away in
shiny, new Mercedes-Benz sedans. "They have tears in their eyes and keep saying
how lucky they are," says Rossner, the Mercedes employee responsible for
post-delivery celebrations. Rossner has also seen the French pop corks on
bottles of champagne as their national flag was hoisted above a purchase. And
she has seen American business executives, Japanese tourists and Russian
politicians travel thousands of miles to a Mercedes plant in southwestern
Germany when a classic sedan with the trade mark three-pointed star was about to
roll off the assembly line and into their lives. Those were the good economic
miracle of the 1960s and ended in 1991. Times have
changed. "Ten years ago, we had clear leadership in the market," says Mercedes
spokesman Horst Krambeer. "But over this period, the market has changed
drastically. We are now in a pitched battle. The Japanese are partly
responsible, but Mercedes has had to learn the hard way that even German firms
like BMW and Audi have made efforts to rise to our standards of technical
proficiency." Mercedes experienced one of its worst
years ever in 1992. The auto market's worldwide car sales fell by 5 percent from
the previous year, to a low of 527,500. Before the decline, in 1988, the company
could sell close to 600,000 cars per year. In Germany alone, there were 30,000
fewer new Mercedes registrations last year than in 1991. As a result, production
has plunged by almost 600,000 cars to 529,400 last year, a level well beneath
the company's potential capacity of 650,000, Mercedes'
competitors have been catching up in the United States, the world's largest car
market. In 1986, Mercedes sold 100,000 vehicles in America; by 1991, the number
had declined to 59,000. Over the last two years, the struggling company has lost
a slice of its US market share to BMW, Toyota and Nissan. And BMW outsold
Mercedes in America last year for the first time in its history. Meanwhile, just
as Mercedes began making some headway in Japan, a notoriously difficult market,
the Japanese economy fell on hard times and the company saw its sales decline by
13 percent in that country. Revenues will hardly
improve this year, and the time has come for getting down to business. At
Mercedes, that means cutting payrolls, streamlining production and opening up to
consumer needs—revolutionary steps for a company that once considered itself
beyond improvement.
单选题An important innovation in this college was the introduction of the seminary method for advanced students. A. idea B. change C. matter D. policy
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单选题 On September 13, the New York City Health Department became
the first in the nation to ban the sale of sugared beverages larger than 16 oz.
at restaurants, mobile food carts, sports arenas and movie theaters.
Supermarkets and convenience stores would be exceptions to the law,
however. The ban on large drinks was championed by New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has a reputation for taking aggressive steps
to improve city residents' health. Often criticized for creating a government
that tries to give too much advice or make too many laws about how people should
live their lives, Bloomberg has been at the forefront of finding innovative but
controversial ways of pushing people to make healthier choices.
It's a bold experiment in the anti-obesity campaign. With at least two-thirds of
American adults now considered overweight or obese—including more than half of
New York City adults and nearly 40% of the city's public elementary and
secondary school students—fighting obesity is one of the mayor's signature
causes, and sugary drinks a longtime target. "We are dealing with a crisis... we
need to act on this," said Board of Health member Deepthiman Gowda, a professor
of medicine at Columbia University. Bloomberg has noted that the ban doesn't
prevent people from buying several small sodas at a time if they wish, but
health officials hope that the inconvenience will eventually get people to cut
down on their use of sugared drinks. While it's widely
supported by health professionals, it's not popular with food retailers or most
city residents. Some health officials, as well as the restaurant and beverage
industry, are critical of the ban. They ask, why single out sugared sodas;
obesity has many causes and contributors, not just what people drink. And if
sugared beverages are being targeted, why not take stronger measures against
other sources of sugar, such as candy and other sweets? Many
restaurant owners, fast-food chains and makers of sodas, including Coca-Cola and
McDonald's, are also upset over what they see as a discriminatory policy that
could hurt certain businesses while rewarding others. The groups plan to
continue to challenge the ruling, including taking their concerns to court. "We
are smart enough to make our own decisions about what to eat and drink," Liz
Berman, the chairperson of the New Yorkers for Beverage Choices coalition, said
in a statement.
单选题 Only moments after announcing a policy of zero
tolerance on cellphone use in the classroom, Ali Nazemi heard a ring. Nazemi, a
business professor at Roanoke College in Virginia, took out a hammer and walked
towards a young man. He smashed the offending device. Students' faces turned
white all over the classroom. This episode reflects a growing
challenge for American college teachers in, as the New York Times puts it, a
"New Class (room) War: Teacher vs. Technology". Fortunately, the smashed-phone
incident had been planned ahead of time to demonstrate teachers' anger at
inattentive students distracted by high-tech gadgets. At age
55, Nazemi stands on the far shore of a new sort of generational divide between
teacher and student. The divide separates those who want to use technology to
grow smarter from those who want to use it to get dumber. Perhaps there's a
nicer way to put it. {{U}}"The baby boomers{{/U}} seem to see
technology as information and communication," said Michael Bugeja, the author of
Interpersonal Divide: the Search for Community in a Technological Age.
"Their children seem to see the same devices as entertainment and
socializing." All the advances schools and colleges have made
to supposedly enhance learning have instead enabled distractione.
Bugeja's online survey of several hundred students found that a majority
had used their cell phones, sent or read e-mail, and logged onto social-network
sites during class time. A quarter of the respondents admitted they were taking
the survey while sitting in a different class. The Canadian
company Smart Technologies makes and sells a program called SynchronEyes. It
allows a classroom teacher to monitor every student's computer activity and to
freeze it at a click. Last year, the company sold more than 10,000 licenses. The
biggest problem, said Nancy Knowlton, the company's chief executive officer, is
staying ahead of students trying to crack the program's code. "There's an active
discussion on the Web, and we're monitoring it." Knowlton said. "They keep us on
our toes."
单选题A disease known as chestnut blight {{U}}wiped out{{/U}} large numbers of
American chestnut trees.
A. altered
B. penetrated
C. devalued
D. destroyed
单选题To achieve sustainable development, the ______ of resources is assuming
new importance.
A. conservation
B. reservation
C. exhaustion
D. devastation
单选题The girl was fortune enough to live under the care of an
{{U}}involved{{/U}} father and a loving mother.
A. sympathetic
B. convicted
C. concerned
D. separated
单选题Passage Three Hand in hand with the one you love, you gaze at the horizon to watch the earth rise. It sounds like science fiction, but companies around the world are working hard to make this sort of holiday a reality. The idea of space tourism has been around for nearly forty years now. At first NASA made plans for the ultimate in holiday destinations, but then private companies became involved in the mid- 1980s. The Challenger shuttle disaster of 1986 postponed their plans, but now space is back as a future holiday resort. The Hilton hotel group has produced ambitious and serious plans for hotels on the moon, as well as orbiting hotels, hoping to give their space tourists' different holiday experience. But zero-gravity will be a little uncomfortable. "There will be space motion sickness in the first few days, with headaches and nausea." says George Turner, a hopeful space tour operator. Hotels will try to prevent these problems by providing areas with the sensation of gravity. This means going to parts of the hotel that will be spinning. Centrifugal (离心的) force will push you against the wall, and give the feeling of some weight. Since it will be possible to lie down, many people will probably prefer to sleep in these areas. The alternative will be to strap themselves into a sleeping bag attached to a wall. Sunbathing will be possible, but will require some very strong sunscreen protection factor. 1,000 will do it. However the plans all depend on one thing: cheap space travel. At the moment the only re-usable rocket is NASA's space shuttle. The cost of each shuttle launch is U.S.$1 billion. A space craft that only costs U.S.$2 million per launch is what the travel industry is looking for. So far that remains a far-off dream, but it may come a lot closer if someone wins the X-Prize. Launched in 1997, the X-Prize offers U.S.$10 million to anyone who can build a re-usable space craft. All you have to do is launch three people 100 km into space twice within three weeks. So far 16 companies are racing to win the prize money. But the real prize will be the income from space tourism, estimated to be U.S.$12 billion per year: as Turner explains: "Just think what you'll be able to tell your friends that you had a holiday that was really out of this world!/
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