单选题 Read the following text. Choose the best word or phrase for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. With Airbus's giant A380 airliner about in to take to the skies, you might think planes could not get much bigger — and you would be right. For a given design, it turns {{U}}(21) {{/U}}, there comes a point where the wings become too heavy to generate {{U}}(22) {{/U}} lift to carry their own weight. {{U}}(23) {{/U}} a new way of designing and making materials could {{U}}(24) {{/U}} that problem. Two engineers {{U}}(25) {{/U}} University College London have devised an innovative way to customise and control the {{U}}(26) {{/U}} of a material throughout its three-dimensional structure. In the {{U}}(27) {{/U}} of a wing, this would make possible a material that is dense, strong and load-bearing at one end, close to the fuselage, {{U}}(28) {{/U}} the extremities could be made less dense, lighter and more {{U}}(29) {{/U}}. It is like making bespoke materials, {{U}}(30) {{/U}} you can customise the physical properties of every cubic millimetre of a structure. The new technique combines existing technologies in a(n) {{U}}(31) {{/U}} way. It starts by using finite-element-analysis software, of the type commonly used by engineers, {{U}}(32) {{/U}} a virtual prototype of the object. The software models the stresses and strains that the object will need to {{U}}(33) {{/U}} throughout its structure. Using this information it is then {{U}}(34) {{/U}} to calculate the precise forces acting on millions of smaller subsections of the structure. {{U}}(35) {{/U}} of these subsections is {{U}}(36) {{/U}} treated as a separate object with its own set of forces acting on it — and each subsection {{U}}(37) {{/U}} for a different microstructure to absorb those local forces. Designing so many microstructures manually {{U}}(38) {{/U}} be a huge task, so the researchers apply an optimisation program, called a genetic algorithm, {{U}}(39) {{/U}} This uses a process of randomization and trial-and-error to search the vast number of possible microstructures to find the most {{U}}(40) {{/U}} design for each subsection.

单选题Questions 17—20 are based on the following monologue. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17—20.

单选题 Questions 14 ～ 16 are based on the following dialogue. You now have 15 seconds to rend Questions 14 ～ 16.

单选题The millennium economic boom in Britain______.

单选题The world's biggest farm refers to [A] New Zealand. [B] Australia. [C] Canada. [D] The Republic of Ireland.

单选题There is a great deal of controversy within the medical profession regarding the use and value of the coronary bypass procedure, and for more than eight years the American Heart Association has discussed the question at its regular scientific sessions. The bypass operation consists of open heart surgery in which the physician takes a vein from the patient's leg and implants it near the heart to construct a passage around the blockage in a clogged artery so that blood can flow freely by. The operation performed on about 100,000 persons a year in the US and costs approximately $10,000. The procedure is designed to relieve tie pain of angina pectoris which occurs when the blood supply's obstructed and also to allow the patient more freedom of sustained activity. In persons with advanced heart disease and blockage in several arteries, the bypass operation is considered by most doctors to be the preferable means of prolonging life. In the case of those with a less advanced disease, or where only one artery is involved, the advisability of the procedure is much more controversial. The operation doesn't cure the disease that caused the blocked artery in the first place. According to some studies, somewhere around half of the patients have another blocked artery within five years, and in some cases even within one year. There is of course a mortality rate in any major operation which varies from physician to physician and hospital to hospital. The danger to the patient is greatly increased if he is in generally poor condition, very advanced in age, or suffering from some serious or debilitating illness. It is essential that the operation be performed by a skilled surgeon knowledgeable about this particular technique and in a hospital with the best possible facilities for his use.

单选题 Opportunities for rewarding work become fewer for both men and women as they grow older. After age 40, job hunting becomes even more difficult. Many workers stay at jobs they are too old for rather than face possible rejection. Our youth-oriented, throw-away culture sees little value in older people. In writer Lilian Hellman's words, they have "the wisdom that comes with age that we can't make use of." Unemployment and economic need for work is higher among older women, especially minorities, than among younger white women. A national council reports these findings: Though unemployed longer when seeking word, older women job-hunting harder, hold a job longer with less absenteeism, per- form as well or better, are more reliable, and are more willing to learn than men or younger women. Yet many older women earn poor pay and face a future of poverty in their retirement years. When "sexism meets ageism, poverty is no longer on the doorstep——it moves in", according to Tish Sommers, director of a special study on older women for the National Organization for Women. Yet a 1981 report on the White House Conference in Aging shows that as a group, older Americans are the "wealthiest, best fed, best housed, healthiest, most self-reliant older population in our history." This statement is small comfort to those living below the poverty line, but it does explode some of the old traditional beliefs and fears. Opportunities for moving in and up in a large company may shrink but many older people begin successful small businesses, volunteer in satisfying activities, and stay active for many years. They have few role models because in previous generations the life span was much shorter and expectations of life were fewer. They are ploughing new ground. Employers are beginning to recognize that the mature person can bring a great deal of stability and responsibility to a position. One doesn't lose ability and experience on the eve of one's 65th or 70th birthday any more than one grows up instantly at age 21.

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单选题{{B}}Part B{{/B}} Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. In New Zealand Christmas Day itself is observed much the same way as it is in the United States and Europe. {{U}}(61) There are some concessions to the reversed seasons, however, for Christmas down under comes in midsummer.{{/U}} On the New Zealand Christmas dinner menu, for instance, plum pudding is almost invariably flanked by fruit salad, ice cream, and fresh summer fruits such as strawberries and raspberries. In New Zealand Christmas is preeminently the season for reaffirming goodwill and friendship for the gathering and reunion of friends and families. For several weeks before December 25th, New Zealanders crowd the shops and department stores looking for presents for their families and close friends, and greeting cards for less intimate acquaintances. {{U}}(62) The big stores each have a professional Santa Claus, white-bearded, red-mantled, black-booted, perspiringly presiding over a "Magic Cave" or a "Toyland", and solemnly noting the Christmas Eve requirements of hundreds of excited children.{{/U}} Christmas Eve is much the same in New Zealand as it is in other countries. A last feverish flurry of shopping is made possible by a special late night in the stores, and then families and friends may foregather for a Christmas Eve party at home. There are few homes in which children do not carefully hang up their stockings for Santa Claus to fill with toys and candies. There are midnight services at the churches, for those who bear in mind the original significance of Christmas, and special broadcasts of Christmas programs on the radio network. {{U}}(63) Christmas carol-singing has also been inherited from the Old World, and in some towns on Christmas Eve. "Carols by Candlelight" are held in suitable settings outdoors.{{/U}} Christmas carols often usher in Christmas Day in New Zealand. {{U}}(64) Perhaps the most popular and most regular carollers are members of the Salvation Army, whose melodious rendering of the well-loved old Christmas hymns wakens many New Zealanders to the Feast of the Nativity.{{/U}} {{U}}(65) New Zealanders spend their Christmas Day with the friendly greetings, the gifts-and especially the toys for the children-and the sumptuous family dinner which is the center-piece of this day over the world.{{/U}} Christmas dinner in New Zealand usually includes poultry of some sort--turkey, chicken, duck or goose-meat joints such as lamb, pork, beef, or mutton, new season's peas and potatoes, and other vegetables, mince pies, plum pudding, and the rest of traditional fare inherited from New Zealand's British ancestry. But in most homes dishes more suitable to summer weather are added to or substituted on the menu. There are salads, cold poultry, fresh fruit and cold sweet dishes.

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单选题When was Emily Dickinson widely recognized?

单选题The family in the western world

单选题What does the word" shaky" mean in the last paragraph?

单选题{{B}}Passage 4{{/B}} Orchids are unique in having the most highly developed of all blossoms, in which the usual male and female reproductive organs are fused in a single structure called the column. The column is designed so that a single pollination will fertilize hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of seeds, so microscopic and light that they are easily carried by the breeze. Surrounding the column are three sepals and three petals, sometimes easily recognizable as such, often distorted into gorgeous, weird, but always functional shapes. The most noticeable of the petals is called the labellum, or lip. It is often dramatically marked as an unmistakable landing strip to attract the specific insect the orchid has chosen as its pollinator. To lure their pollinators from afar, orchids use appropriately intriguing shapes, colors, and scents. At least 50 different aromatic compounds have been analyzed in the orchid family, each blended to attract one, or at most a few, species of insects or birds. Some orchids even change their scents to interest different insects at different times. Once the right insect has been attracted, some orchids present all sorts of one-way obstacle courses to make sure it does not leave until pollen has been accurately placed or removed. By such ingenious adaptations to specific pollinators, orchids have avoided the hazards of rampant crossbreeding in the wild, assuring the survival of species as discrete identities. At the same time they have made themselves irresistible to collectors.

单选题 In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each question on your answer sheet.

单选题With a new Congress drawing near, Democrats and Republicans are busily designing competing economic stimulus packages. The Republicans are sure to offer tax cuts, the Democrats — among other things — financial relief for the states. There is one measure, however, that would provide not only an immediate boost to the economy but also immediate relief to those most in need: a carefully crafted extension of the federal unemployment insurance program The Senate approved such an extension before it adjourned in November. The House of Representatives refused to go along. It was among the greatest failures of the 107th Congress. One consequence is that jobless benefits for an estimated 780000 Americans will abruptly stop tomorrow, even though most recipients have not yet exhausted their benefits. President Bush failed to show any leader- ship on this matter during the November Congress. Later, he finally asked Congress to extend the program for these workers and to make the benefits effective from Dec. 28. That"s not enough. The way unemployment insurance typically works is that states provide laid-off workers with 26 weeks of benefits, followed by 13 weeks of federal aid. Under Mr Bush"s scheme, federal benefits would be extended only for those who were already receiving them on Dec. 28. The extension would not cover the jobless workers who will exhaust their regular state-funded benefits after Dec. 28 — an estimated 95000 every week —but will receive no federal help unless the program is re-authorized. By the end of March, 1.2 million workers could fall into this category. The Senate saw this problem coming, and under the leadership of Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Don Niekles of Oklahoma, passed a bill that would not only have covered people already enrolled in the federal program but provided 13 weeks of assistance for those losing their state benefits in the new year. The House, for largely trivial reasons, refused to go along. Bill Frist, the new Senate majority leader, says he is looking for ways to put a kinder, gentler face on the Republican Party. Passing the Clinton-Nickles bill would be a good way to begin. The House should then follow suit. One of the House"s complaints last year was that, at $ 5 billion, the Clinton-Nickles bill was too expensive. That"s ridiculous, considering the costs of the tax cuts that House Republicans have in mind. The unemployment rate last month stood at 6 percent, the highest since mid-]994. The country could use a $ 5 billion shot in the arm right about now. So could a lot of increasingly desperate people.