单选题On the 12th day of March 1847, in the rue Laffitte, I happened upon a large yellow notice announcing a sale of furniture and valuable curios. An estate was to be disposed of, the owner having died. The notice did not name the dead person, but the sale was to be held at 9 rue d"Antin on the 16th, between noon and five o"clock. The notice also stated that the apartments and contents could be viewed on the 13th and 14th.
I have always been interested in curios. I promised myself I would not miss this opportunity, if not of actually buying, then at least of looking.
The following day, I directed my steps towards 9 rue d"Antin.
It was early, and yet a good crowd of visitors had already gathered in the apartment, men for the most part, but also a number of ladies who, though dressed in velvet and wearing Indian shawls, and all with their own elegant broughams standing at the door, were examining the riches set out before them with astonished, even admiring eyes.
After a while, I quite saw the reason for their admiration and astonishment, for having begun myself to look around I had no difficulty in recognizing that I was in the apartment of a kept woman. Now if there is one thing that ladies of fashion desire to see above all else, and there were society ladies present, it is the rooms occupied by those women who have carriages which spatter their own with mud every day of the week, who have their boxes at the Opera or the Theatre-Italien just as they do, and indeed next to theirs, and who display for all Paris to see the insolent opulence of their beauty, diamonds and shameless conduct.
The woman in whose apartments I now found myself was dead: the most virtuous of ladies were thus able to go everywhere, even into the bedroom. Death had purified the air of this glittering den of iniquity. And in any case they could always say, if they needed the excuse, that they had done no more than come to a sale without knowing whose rooms these were. I had read the notices, they had wanted to view what the notices advertised and mark out their selections in advance. It could not have been simpler, though this did not prevent them from looking through these splendid things for traces of the secret life of a courtesan of which they had doubtless been given very strange accounts.
Unfortunately, the mysteries had died with the goddess, and in spite of their best endeavours these good ladies found only what had been put up for sale since the time of death, and could detect nothing of what had been sold while the occupant had been alive.
But there was certainly rich booty (战利品) to be had. The furniture was superb. Rosewood and Buhl-work pieces, Severs vases and blue china porcelain, Dresden figurines, satins, velvet and lace, everything in fact.
I wandered from room to room in the wake of these inquisitive aristocratic ladies who had arrived before me. They went into a bedroom hung with Persian fabrics and I was about to go in after them, when they came out again almost immediately, smiling and as it were put to shame by this latest revelation. The effect was to make me even keener to see inside. It was the dressing-room, complete down to the very last details, in which the dead woman"s profligacy (挥霍) had seemingly reached its height.
On a large table standing against one wall, it measured a good six feet by three, shone the finest treasures of Aucoc and Odiot. It was a magnificent collection, and among the countless objects each so essential to the appearance of the kind of woman in whose home we had gathered, there was not one that was not made of gold or silver. But it was a collection that could only have been assembled piece by piece, and clearly more than one love had gone into its making.
I, who was not the least put out by the sight of the dressing-room of a kept woman, spent some time agreeably inspecting its contents, neglecting none of them, and I noticed that all these magnificently wrought implements bore different initials and all manner of coronets (宝冠).
As I contemplated all these things, each to my mind standing for a separate prostitution of the poor girl, I reflected that God had been merciful to her since He had not suffered her to live long enough to undergo the usual punishment but had allowed her to die at the height of her wealth and beauty, long before the coming of old age, that first death of courtesans.
单选题People form a close connection to celebrities not because _______.
单选题Research into DNA has had a significant impact on medicine. Through recombinant DNA technology, scientists can modify microorganisms so that they become so-called factories that produce large quantities of medically useful drugs. This technology is used to produce insulin, which is a drug used by diabetics, and interferon, which is used by some cancer patients. Studies of human DNA are revealing genes that are associated with specific diseases, such as breast cancer. This information is helping physicians to diagnose various diseases, and it may lead to new treatments. For example, physicians are using a technology called chimeriplasty, which involves a synthetic molecule containing both DNA and RNA strands, in an effort to develop a treatment for a form of hemophilia. Forensic science uses techniques developed in DNA research to identify individuals who have committed crimes. DNA from semen, skin, or blood taken from the crime scene can be compared with the DNA Of a suspect, and the results can be used in court as evidence. DNA has helped taxonomists determine evolutionary relationships among animals, plants, and other life forms. It is useful for this purpose, because closely related species have more similar DNA than do species that are distantly related. One surprising finding to emerge from DNA studies is that vultures of the Americas are more closely related to storks than to the vultures of Europe, Asia, or Africa. Techniques of DNA manipulation are used in farming, in the form of genetic engineering and biotechnology. Strainsof crop plants to which genes have been transferred may produce higher yields and may be more resistant to insects. Cattle have been similarly treated to increase milk and beef production, as have hogs, to yield more meat and less fat. Despite the many benefits offered by DNA technology, some critics argue that its development should be monitored closely. One fear raised by such critics is that DNA fingerprinting could provide a means for employers to discriminate against members of various ethnic groups. Critics also fear that studies of people's DNA could permit insurance companies to deny health insurance to those people at risk for developing certain diseases. The use of DNA technology in agriculture has also sparked controversy. Some people question the safety, desirability, and ecological impact of genetically altered crop plants. In addition, animal fights groups have protested against the genetic engineering of farm animals. Despite these and other areas of disagreement, many people agree that DNA technology offers a mixture of benefits and potential hazards. Many experts also agree that an informed public can help assure that DNA technology is used wisely.
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单选题Which of the following does NOT belong to the methods of the addition of new words?A. Acronyms. B. Back-formation. C. Functional shift D. Semantic shift.
单选题A decade ago places like Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea were being largely ignored by the petroleum world majors for the following are reasons EXCEPT that ______.
单选题______ is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provide., methods for their description, classification and transportation.
单选题Emily Dickinson was regarded mainly as a (n) ______.
单选题{{I}}Questions 6 & 7 are based on the following news item. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each question.
Now listen to the news.{{/I}}
单选题Stewart found certain plant juices were useful in his experiments when he ______.
单选题The Head of State of New Zealand is
单选题The Capital of Northern Ireland is A. Swansea. B. Cardiff C. Rhonda. D. Belfast.
单选题Question 6-8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the question.Now listen to the news.
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单选题The Mississippi River used to be under the control of ______.
单选题The author is convinced that the eyes are ______.
单选题Henry David Thoreau's work ______ , has always been regarded as a masterpiece of New England Transcendentalism.
单选题The most populous city in New Zealand is ______.
单选题Why do boys and girls in co-education have no illusion about each other?