单选题Man: I missed the bus again today because I turned my alarm clock off in my sleep. I don't know what to do. Woman: Try putting it far away from your bed so that you have to get up to turn it off. Question: What does the woman suggest the man do?
单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
When I was home in Britain on holiday
last summer, I spent an evening looking at photos my father had taken when he
stayed with us in Beijing in the spring of 1966. Of all these interesting scenes
of the past, the one I exclaimed at was a photo of Chang An Jie at Tiananmen.
The photo showed one car and two bicycles! This made me reflect
on the changes that have transformed Beijing since I came to the city 37 years
ago. In those days, the bicycle was king. What sheer joy it was to cycle along
with the hundreds (not thousands) of fellow pedallers (骑车人), never in fear of
life and limb as one is now. I bought my first bike in 1963. It cost me 150
yuan-in those days three or four months' salary for the average city
dweller. Such changes! Good or bad? Today, cycling is hazardous
but bikes are easily affordable. Gone are the old wooden houses I remember in
south Beijing and fast disappearing are the small, overcrowded courtyard houses
lacking running water, central heating and bathroom. Very many Beijingers now
live in more convenient, better-equipped flats in high-rises. But these very
high-rises are swallowing up the unique character of the old city of narrow
hutongs, age-old siheyuan and close-knit communities. I loved
years ago to cycle to Beihai to visit my friends (I then taught at China Foreign
Affairs University). In spring I rode through the blue-green wheat fields, in
summer through fields of tall maize (玉米). Further west; beyond Beijing Foreign
Studies University there were the vegetable fields of the Evergreen Commune
(四季青公社) and the rice paddies glistening in the summer sun. But now, as Beijing
stretches out further and further, west, east, north, south, there's decent
housing for families, busy offices for employment and large department stores
and supermarkets where, if you have the money, there's little you cannot
buy.
单选题Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away—straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infrared scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide (杀虫剂]) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest (害虫) problems. Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spotspray, using 40 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would. The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. "This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States," says George Other of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.
单选题This is the normal
courteous
manner of introduction among speakers of American English.
单选题Her style of dress {{U}}accentuated{{/U}} her extreme slenderness.
单选题I'd been living with my wife for eight years and one night. Morn says, "I guess you guys are never going to get married. I mean, you've been through jail together, you're living together, but…, oh, forget it." "Oh, well," I said," put it like that and I'll marry your daughter tomorrow." Actually, I don't know what we were waiting for, except that for a guy it's never the right time to get married. I' m also suspicious of any two people who don't struggle with that decision. Part of my problem was that I was still lusting in my heart after other ladies. But somehow I knew that I wasn't going to find another woman remotely as great as my soon-to-be wife. It's a good thing my mother-in-law finally spoke up. I finally gathered my courage one day when we were having a picnic, and popped the question. I also gave my wife a big tourist pamphlet about Switzerland. I wasn't taking any chances. She said no. It killed me. I felt sick to my stomach. I lost my appetite. Our dog just stared at me, thinking, "If you're not going to eat your lunch, I will." Finally, I said, "But the Switzerland trip is yours if you say yes." "Switzerland , "she said, "is filled with precise, humorless people." "Maybe I should have suggested Paris?" For a minute it seemed as if my change in travel plans would rate a solid "maybe". But she said no again. When we woke up the next morning, she told me that she'd slept on my proposal. "I guess I was a little rude to you last night," she explained. Meanwhile, I'm figuring I'm off the hook for this marriage thing for at least another eight years. I could afford to be generous. "I asked, you said no. It's okay," I said. I might have looked a little too relieved because later that day she gave me a little box. Inside was a gold watch. On the back was inscribed. "Yes. I've reconsidered." I liked the watch, so I did the right thing.
单选题Public speaking fills most people with dread. Humiliation is the greatest fear; serf-exposure and failing to appeal to the audience come a close second. Women hate it most, since girls are pressurized from an early age to be concerned with appearances of all kinds. Most people have plenty of insecurities, and this seems like a situation that will bring them out. If parents, teachers or peers mocked your foibles as a child, you fear a repeat. If you were under pressure to be perfect, you are terrified of failing in the most public of ways. While extroverts will feel less fear before the ordeal, it does not mean they will necessarily do it better. Some very shy people manage to shine. In fact, personality is not the best predictor of who does it well. Regardless of what you are like in real life, the key seems to be to act yourself. Actual acting, as in performing the scripted lines of a character other than yourself, does not do the job. While politicians may limit damage by having carefully rehearsed, written screeds to speak from, there is always a hidden awareness among the audience that the words might not be true. Although, as Earl Spencer proved at his sister Princess Diana's funeral, it is possible both to prepare every word and to act naturally, as script rarely works and it is used as a crutch by most people. But, being yourself doesn't work either. If you spoke as if you were in your own kitchen, it would be too authentic, too unaware of the need to communicate with an audience. I remember going to see British psychiatrist RD Laing speak in public. He behaved like a seriously odd person, talking off the top of his head. Although he was talking about madness and he wrote on mental illness, he seemed to be exhibiting rather than explaining it. The best psychological place from which to speak is an unselfconscious self-consciousness, providing the illusion of being natural. Studies suggest that this state of "flow", as psychologists call it, is very satisfying. Whether in normal life or making speeches, the key is to remind yourself that, contrary to what your teachers or parents may have implied, your best is good enough. In the zone, a strange place of authentic falsehood and shallow depth, play is possible.
单选题Scientists at Camegie Mellon University tried to find out ______.
单选题A compound {{U}}break{{/U}} is more serious than a simple one because there is more opportunity for loss of blood and infection.
单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
What makes teenagers moody and
impulsive? The answer used to be raging hormones plus a dearth of(短缺) life
experiences. But three years ago this simple equation was blown apart by
evidence from brain scans of strange goings-on behind the teenage
forehead. Till then, scientists had thought the brain's internal
structure was fixed by the end of childhood. The new scans showed the brain's
frontal cortex(皮层) thickening just before puberty(青春期), then slowly shrinking
back to normal during the teenage years. Suddenly, the erratic huffiness(发怒)
seemed to make sense: the teenage brain was a work in progress, a house in the
process of being rewired. Now comes more evidence of neural
turmoil. According to psychologists in California, the speed with which
youngsters can read the emotional expressions on people's faces dips suddenly at
around the age of 11 or 12 and takes years to get back on track.
The latest study, like the brain scan research before it, is a welcome and
necessary part of building up a picture of a typical teenage brain so that
scientists can get a better handle on what might be happening in the mental
illnesses that appear to be afflicting children and adolescents in ever greater
numbers. But there are dangers. Scientists still have no idea
how to interpret the subtle changes seen in adolescent brain scans. Yet in the
wrong hands, these findings could be used to justify hothousing, impulse control
training and other dubious attempts to get the most out of malleable teenage
brain cells. The science could also spark a new wave of moralising based on a
perceived need to protect teenagers' evolving brain connections from evil or
toxic influences. Incredibly, some scientists have already
suggested in the press that the brain scan evidence somehow proves that it is
biologically bad for teenagers to play video games or lie on the couch watching
MTV. A hundred years, ago one well-known "expert" urged teenage boys to drink
six to eight glasses of hot water a day to flush impure thoughts from their
bodies. Have we really learned so little?
单选题The election will be
brought forward
to June as so many people are on holiday in July.
单选题Woman: What can I do for you?Man: I would like to get my money work for me.Woman: There are two kinds. One is relatively safe but offers a low return on your money, the other promises high profits but that involves considerable speculation. Which one do you prefer?Question: What is the probable relationship between the two speakers?
单选题Man:Jennifer is really pretty, isn't she? Her skin looks so baby smooth! Woman: Well, it's just that she puts lots of make-up on her face. Actually, natural beauty comes from within. Man: Ah, I can smell jealousy in the air! Question: What does the man imply?
单选题Woman: Our work in the language lab has been of great benefit to me. You know when I first took the course, I used to be quite at a loss, I simply couldn't catch what the teacher said.Man: We share the same experience.Question: What does the man mean?
单选题The picture illustrates the compassion the artist has for his native land.
单选题A: Do you mind my smoking here?B: ______
单选题Improving the English ______ of graduate students is actually a demanding undertaking.
单选题A male dental assistant, Miguel Alquicira, is in the minority.
11
he is also part of a special, if little noticed, shift in workplace gender patterns. Over the last decade, men have begun
12
to fields long the province of women.
Mr. Alquicira, 21, graduated from high school in a
13
job market, one in which the traditional opportunities,
14
construction and manufacturing, for young men without a college degree had dried up (枯竭). After career consultants told him that
15
fields were growing, he borrowed money for an eight-month training course.
16
then, he has had no trouble finding jobs that pay $12 or $13 an hour.
He gave little
17
to the fact that more than 90 percent of dental assistants are women. But then, young men like Mr. Alquicira have come of age in a world of inverted expectations, where women far outpace (超过) men in earning degrees and
18
to hold jobs that have turned out to be, by and large, more
19
, more difficult to outsource, and more likely to grow.
"The way I look at it," Mr. Alquicira explained, "is that anything,
20
, that a woman can do, a guy can do."
单选题Is there enough oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)to help secure America's energy future? President Bush certainly thinks so. He has argued that tapping ANWR's oil would help ease California's electricity crisis and provide a major boost to the country's energy independence. But no one knows for sure how much crude oil lies buried beneath the frozen earth, with the last government survey, conducted in 1998, projecting output anywhere from 3 billion to 16 billion barrels. The oil industry goes with the high end of the range, which could equal as much as 10% of U.S. consumption for as long as six years. By pumping more than 1 million barrels a day from the reserve for the next two to three decades, lobbyists claim, the nation could cut back on imports equivalent to all shipments to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia. Sounds good. An oil boom would also mean a multibillion-dollar windfall(意外之才) in tax revenues, royalties (开采权使用费)and leasing fees for Alaska and the Federal Government. Best of all, advocates of drilling say, damage to the environment would be insignificant. "We've never had a documented case of an oil rig chasing deer out onto the pack ice," says Alaska State Representative Scott Ogan. Not so fast, say environmentalists. Sticking to the low end of government estimates, the National Resources Defense Council says there may be no more than 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in the coastal plain of ANWR, a drop in the bucket that would do virtually nothing to ease America's energy problems. And consumers would wait up to a decade to gain any benefits, because drilling could begin only after much bargaining over leases, environmental permits and regulatory review. As for ANWR's impact on the California power crisis, environmentalists point out that oil is responsible for only 1% of the Golden State's electricity output—and just 3% of the nation's.
单选题The exhibition is designed to facilitate further cooperation between Chinese TV industry and overseas TV industries.
