单选题Meanwhile, I always kept in touch with my former professor at college, by letter and telephone.

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} If there is one thing scientists have to hear, it is that the game is over. Raised on the belief of an endless voyage of discovery, they recoil (畏缩) from the suggestion that most of the best things have already been located. If they have, today's scientists can hope to contribute no more than a few grace notes to the symphony of science. A book to be published in Britain this week, The End of Science, argues persuasively that this is the case. Its author, John Horgan, is a senior writer for Scientific American magazine, who has interviewed many of today's leading scientists and science philosophers. The shock of realizing that science might be over came to him, he says, when he was talking to Oxford mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose. The End of Science provoked a wave of denunciation (谴责) in the United States last year. "The reaction has been one of complete shock and disbelief," Mr. Horgan says. The real question is whether any remaining unsolved problems, of which there are plenty, lend themselves to universal solutions. If they do not, then the focus of scientific discovery is already narrowing. Since the triumphs of the 1960s—the genetic code, plate tectonics (快板构造税) , and the microwave background radiation that went a long way towards proving the Big Bang—genuine scientific revolutions have been scarce. More scientists are now alive, spending more money on research, that ever. Yet most of the great discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries were made before the appearance of state sponsorship, when the scientific enterprise was a fraction of its present size. Were the scientists who made these discoveries brighter than today's? That seems unlikely. A far more reasonable explanation is that fundamental science has already entered a period of diminished returns. "Look, don't get me wrong," says Mr. Horgan. "There are lots of important things still to study, and applied science and engineering can go on for ever. I hope we get a cure for cancer, and for mental disease, though there are few real signs of progress."

单选题The collapse of the Earth's magnetic field—which guards the planet and guides many of its creatures—appears to have started seriously about 150 years ago, the New York Times reported last week. The field's strength has decreased by 10 or 15 per cent so far and this has increased the debate over whether it signals a reversal of the planet's lines of magnetic force. During a reversal, the main field weakens, almost vanishes, and reappears with opposite polarity. The transition would take thousands of years. Once completed, compass needles that had pointed north would point south. A reversal could cause problems for both man and animals. Astronauts and satellites would have difficulties. Birds, fish and animals that rely on the magnetic field for navigation would find migration confusing. But experts said the effects would not be a big disaster, despite claims of doom and vague evidence of links between past field reversals and species extinctions. Although a total transition may be hundreds or thousands of years away, the rapid decline in magnetic strength is already affecting satellites. Last month, the European Space Agency approved the world's largest effort at tracking the field's shifts. A group of new satellites, called Swarm, is to monitor the collapsing field with far greater precision. "We want to get some idea of how this would evolve in the near future, just like people trying to predict the weather," said Gauthier Hulot, a French geophysicist working on the satellite plan. "I'm personally quite convinced we should be able to work out the first predictions by the end of the mission." No matter what the new findings, the public has no reason to panic. Even if a transition is coming on its way, it might take 2 000 years to mature. The last one took place 780 000 years ago, when early humans were learning how to make stone tools. Deep inside the Earth flow hot currents of melted iron. This mechanical energy creates electromagnetism. This process is known as the geophysical generator. In a car's generator, the same principle turns mechanical energy into electricity. No one knows precisely why the field periodically reverses. But scientists say the responsibility probably lies with changes in the disorderly flows of melted iron, which they see as similar to the gases that make up the clouds of Jupiter.

单选题Attending a church, temple, or mosque is one way to make agreeable friends.

单选题A brisk walk in cool weather is invigorating.

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} When Frank Dale took over as publisher of Los Angeles Herrald-Examiner, the organization had just ended a ten-year strike. There was much bitterness and, as he told us. "Everybody that I found there had lost their curiosity, they'd lost their cutting edge, there was no interest, they just hung on...I had a real problem." His very first task was to introduce himself to everybody, to thank them for their loyalty to that point, and to allow them to express their concerns and frustrations. To questions like "What makes you think you can make this thing go?" he responded, "I don't know yet, but in thirty days I’ll come back to you and let you know what I've found." He recruited a task force of the best people from throughout the Hearst Corporation to do a crash study, and in thirty days he had a written report on what needed to be done, which he shared with the staff. He had taken the all-important first steps to establish mutual trust, without which leadership would not have been possible. Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together. The accumulation of trust is a measure of the legitimacy of leadership. It cannot be demanded or purchased; it must be earned. Trust is the basic ingredient of all organizations, the lubrication that maintains the organization, and it is as mysterious and difficult a concept as leadership-and as important. One thing we can say for sure about trust is that if trust is to be generated, there must be predictability, the capacity to predict another's behavior. Another way of putting it is to say that organizations without trust would resemble the ambiguous nightmare of Kafka's The Castle, where nothing can be certain and nobody can be relied on or be held responsible. The ability to predict outcomes with s high probability of success generates and maintaining trust.

单选题Hundreds of years ago cloves (丁香) were used to remedy headaches.

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} He is a rare celebrity scientist. He's even had a TV cameo role (小角色) in Star Trek in which he plays poker with scientific icons (偶像)Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. Yet when asked about comparisons between himself and the two scientists, he calls it all "media hype (炒作)." Once asked how he felt about being labeled the world's smartest person, he responded: "It is very embarrassing. It is rubbish, just media hype. They just want a hero, and I fill the role model of a disabled genius. At least I am disabled, but I am no genius. " Hawking has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, a neuromuscular disease that progressively weakens muscle control. He gets around in a wheelchair, and after completely losing the use of his vocal chords in an operation to assist his breathing in 1985, he communicates through a computer. A speech synthesizer "speaks" for him after he punches in what he wants to say, selecting words in the computer software by pressing a switch with his hand. Unfortunately, it makes him sound like he has an American accent, he says. Despite his humorous, self-effacing manner, Hawking is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Many consider him to be the most brilliant since Einstein. Since 1979, he's held the post of Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University—which was once held by Isaac Newton no less—and has twelve honorary degrees. He's also a best-selling author. His book, A Brief History of Time ,has been translated into 33 languages and has sold nine million copies. For much of his academic life, Hawking has been among a group of theoretical physicists searching for a "theory of everything'—one unified scientific theory that explains the big cosmological questions like How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? and How will it end ? You are probably familiar with the existing theories, such as the Big Bang theory. However, these theories are inconsistent with each other. So Hawking—among a group of theoretical physicists—has been on a quest to come. up with a theory of quantum (量子)gravity that would incorporate these theories—the theory of everything (TOE)—which would solve the problem of what caused the universe to start expanding. How successful have the world's leading cosmologists been? Hawking predicts we'll have the TOE in the next 20 years.

单选题At a press conference after the award ceremony, the 18-year-old girl spoke in a barely ______ voice.

单选题A: Excuse me, boss. There's a Jack Welsh on the line. Do you want to talk to him?B: ______

单选题A: I'm much grateful to you for everything you've done for me.B: ______

单选题According to Todd Litman, the upgrade proposal .

单选题Earth has an atmosphere, which protects the surface from harmful {{U}}rays. {{/U}}

单选题Many Americans harbor a grossly distorted and exaggerated view of most of the risks surrounding food. Fergus Clydesdale, head of the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says bluntly that if the dangers from bacterially contaminated chicken were as great as some people believe, "the streets would be littered with people lying here and there." Though the public increasingly demands no-risk food, there is no such thing. Bruce Ames, chairman of the biochemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley, points out that up to 10% of a plant's weight is made up of natural pesticide (杀虫剂). Says he. "Since plants do not have jaws or teeth to protect themselves, they employ chemical warfare." And many naturally produced chemicals, though occurring in tiny amounts, prove in laboratory tests to be strong carcinogens--a substance that can cause cancer. Mushrooms (蘑菇) might be banned if they were judged by the same standards that apply to food additives (添加剂). Declares Christina Stark, a nutritionist at Cornell University: "We've got far worse natural chemicals in the food supply than anything man-made. Yet the issues are not that simple. While Americans have no reason to be terrified to sit down at the dinner table, they have every reason to demand significant improvements in food and water safety. They unconsciously and unwillingly take in too much of too many dangerous chemicals. If food already contains natural carcinogens, it does not make much sense to add dozens of new man-made ones. Though most people will withstand the small amounts of contaminants generally found in food and water, at least a few individuals will probably get cancer one day because of what they eat and drink. To make good food and water supplies even better, the Government needs to tighten its regulatory standards, stiffen its inspection program and strengthen its enforcement policies. The food industry should modify some long-accepted practices or turn to less hazardous alternatives. Perhaps most important, consumers will have to do a better job of learning how to select and cook food properly. The problems that need to be tackled exist all along the food-supply chain, from fields to processing plants to kitchens.

单选题Seeing the ghost-like figure, the man fled, ______ the door behind him.

单选题Why does the author attach so much importance to humanistic studies?

单选题Woman: So you finally listen to your wife's advice and give up smoking. Man: It was my doctor's advice. I'm suffering from high-blood pressure. Question: What do we learn from the conversation?

单选题Which of the following best describes the author's attitude towards busing cutbacks?

单选题The rude boy was ______ by his teacher for his bad behaviour.