单选题We have to ask them to quit talking in order that all people present could hear us clearly.

单选题Customers often defer payment for as long as possible this year.

单选题 第二篇 Artificial Intelligence For years there have been endless articles stating that scientists are on the verge of achieving artificial intelligence and that it is just around the corner. The truth is that it may be just around the corner, but they haven't yet found the right block. Artificial intelligence aims to build machines that can think. One immediate problem is to define thought, which is harder than you might think. The specialists in the field of artificial intelligence complain, with some justification, that anything that their machines do is dismissed as not being thought. For example, computer now plays very, very good chess. They can't beat the greatest players in the world, but they can beat just about anybody else. If a human being played chess at this level, he or she would certainly be considered smart. Why not a machine? The answer is that the machine doesn't do anything clever in playing chess. It uses its blinding speed to do a brute force search of all possible moves for several moves ahead, evaluates the outcomes and picks the best. Human don't play chess that way. They see patterns, while computers don't. This wooden approach to thought characterizes machine intelligence. Computers have no judgment, no common sense. So-called expert systems, one of the hottest areas in artificial intelligence aims to mimic the reasoning processes of human experts in a limited field, such as medical diagnosis or weather forecasting. There may be limited commercial applications for this sort of thing, but there is no way to make a machine that can think about anything under the sun, which a teenager can do. The hallmark of artificial intelligence to date is that if a problem is severely restricted, a machine can achieve limited success. But when the problem is expanded to a realistic one computers fall flat on their display screens. For example, machines can understand a few words spoken individually by a speaker that they have been trained to hear. They cannot understand continuous speech using an unlimited vocabulary spoken by just any speaker.

单选题The majority of people around here are decent people.A. honestB. richC. good- lookingD. high- ranking

单选题Preserving Nature for Future Demands for stronger protection for wildlife in Britain sometimes hide the fact that similar needs are felt in the rest of Europe. Studies by the Council of Europe, of which 21 countries are members, have shown that 45 per cent of reptile (爬行动物) species and 24 per cent of butterflies (蝴蝶) are in danger of dying out. European concern for wildlife was outlined by Dr. Peter Baum, an expert in the environment and natural resources division of the council, when he spoke at a conference arranged by the administrators of a British national park. The park is one of the few areas in Europe to hold the council"s diploma (证书) for nature reserves (自然保护区) of the highest quality, and Dr. Baum had come to present it to the park once again. He was afraid that public opinion was turning against national parks, and that those set up in the 1960s and 1970s could not be set up today. But Dr. Baum clearly remained a strong supporter of the view that natural environments needed to be allowed to survive in peace in their own right. "No area could be expected to survive both as a true nature reserve and as a tourist attraction," he went on. The short-sighted view that reserves had to serve immediate human demands for outdoor recreation (户外娱乐) should be replaced by full acceptance of their importance as places to preserve nature for the future. "We forget that they are the guarantee of life systems, on which any built-up area ultimately depends," Dr. Baum went on. "We could manage without most industrial products, but we could not manage without nature. However, our natural environment areas, which are the original parts of our countryside, have shrunk (缩小) to become mere islands in a spoiled and highly polluted land mass."

单选题The Choice of an Occupation Most worthwhile careers require some kind of specialized training. Ideally, therefore, the choice of an occupation should be made even before the choice of a curriculum in high school. Actually, 1 , most people make several job choices during their working lives, 2 because of economic and industrial changes and partly to improve 3 position. The "one perfect job" does not exist. Young people should 4 enter into a broad flexible training program that will fit them for a field of work rather than for a single 5 . Unfortunately many young people have to make career plans without benefit of help from a competent vocational counselor or psychologist. Knowing 6 about the occupational world, or themselves for that matter, they choose their lifework on a hit-or-miss basis. Some drift from job to job. Others 7 to work in which they are unhappy and for which they are not fitted. One common mistake is choosing an occupation for 8 real or imagined prestige. Too many high-school students or their parents for them choose the professional field, 9 both the relatively small proportion of workers in the professions and the extremely high educational and personal 10 The imagined or real prestige of a profession or a "White-collar" job is no good reason for choosing it as life"s work. 11 , these occupations are not always well paid. Since a large proportion of jobs are in mechanical and manual work, the 12 of young people should give serious 13 to these fields. Before making an occupational choice, a person should have a general idea of what he wants 14 life and how hard he is willing to work to get it. Some people desire social prestige, others intellectual satisfaction. Some want security; others are willing to take 15 for financial gain. Each occupational choice has its demands as well as its rewards.

单选题Tom searched his pockets looking for the keys.______

单选题Tom searched his pockets looking for the keys.______

单选题I rarely wear a raincoat because I spend most of my time in a car.

单选题She answered the difficult question and it was an {{U}}immense{{/U}} load off her heart. A. natural B. fatal C. tiny D. enormous

单选题 下面的短文后列出了7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断：如果该句提供的是正确信息，请选择A；如果该句提供的是错误信息，请选择B；如果该句的信息文中没有提及，请选择C。 {{B}} G8 Summit{{/B}} Leaders of the Group of Eight Major Industrialized Nations (G8) will meet in Scotland in July this year. Representatives from China, India, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil have also been invited. Here's what the G8 leaders want from the meeting. British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants the G8 to cancel debt to the world's poorest countries. He wants them to double aid to Africa to 50 billion pounds by 2010. He has also proposed reducing subsidies to Western farmers and removing restrictions on African exports. This has not got the approval of all members because it will hurt their agricultural interests. On climate change, Blair wants concerted (共同的) action by reducing carbon emissions (排放). US President George W. Bush agrees to give help to Africa. But he says he doesn't like the idea of increasing aid to countries as it will increase corruption. Bush said he would not sign an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the summit, according to media. The US is the only G8 member not to have signed the Kyoto Protocol (京都议定书). Although the US is the world's biggest polluter, Bush so far refuses to believe there is sufficient scientific data to establish beyond a doubt that there is a problem. French President Jacques Chirac supports Blair on Africa and climate, change. He is determined to get the US to sign the climate change deal. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder remains doubtful of Blair's Africa proposals. Schroder's officials have dismissed the notion that money will solve Africa's problems as "old thinking." Berlin says that African states should only receive extra money if they can prove they've solved the corruption problem. Russian President Vladimir Putin was doubtful about the value of more aid to Africa. But he has seen a way to make this work to his advantage. Putin intends to use the aid to Africa as a springboard (跳板) next year to propose aid to the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Moldova. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's priorities are a seat on the UN Security Council, for which he will be lobbying (游说) at the summit. And he's concerned about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

单选题John is crazy about pop music.

单选题 Animals' "Sixth Sense" A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a "sixth sense" for {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}, experts said. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast clearly {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}wild beasts, with no dead animals found. "No elephants are dead, not {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}a dead rabbit. I think animals can {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. "There has been a lot of {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}at Johannesburg Zoo. "There have been no {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}studies because you can't really test it in a lab or field setting," he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}. "Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}, especially birds…there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife. Animals {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators. The notion of an animal "sixth sense" — or {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}other mythical power is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka's ravaged coast is likely to add to. The Romans saw owls {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special power or attributes.

单选题He cannot {{U}}discriminate{{/U}} between a good idea and a bad one.

单选题Attempts have been made for nearly three decades to increase the amount of precipitation from clouds by seeding them with salt or silver iodide.

单选题Prolonging Human Life Prolonging human life has increased the size of the human population. Many people alive today would have died of childhood diseases if they had been born 100 years ago. Because more people live longer, there are more people around at any given time. In fact, it is a decrease in death rates, not an increase in birthrates that has led to the population explosion. Prolonging human life has also increased the dependency load. In all societies, people who are disabled or too young or too old to work are dependent on the rest of society to provide for them. In hunting and gathering cultures, old people who could not keep up might be left behind to die. In times of famine, infants might be allowed to die because they could not survive if their parents starved, whereas if the parents survived they could have another child. In most contemporary societies, people feel a moral obligation to keep people alive whether they can work or not. We have a great many people today who live past the age at which they want to work or are able to work; we also have rules which require people to retire at a certain age. Unless these people were able to save money for their retirement, somebody else must support them. In the United States many retired people live on social security checks which are so little that they must live in near poverty. Older people have more illness than young or middle aged people, unless they have wealth or private or government insurance, they must often "go on welfare" if they have a serious illness. When older people become senile or too weak and ill to care for themselves, they create grave problems for their families. In the past and in some traditional cultures, they would be cared for at home until they died. Today, with most members of a household working or in school, there is often no one at home who can care for a sick or weak person. To meet this need, a great many nursing homes and convalescent hospitals have been built. These are often profit-making organizations, although some are sponsored by religious and other nonprofit groups. While a few of these institutions are good, most of them are simply "dumping grounds" for the dying in which "care" is given by poorly paid, overworked, and under-skilled personnel.

单选题London Cabbies (出租车司机) Every city in the world has taxis to take tourists to interesting places. London is the only city in the world where taking a taxi is an 1 experience for tourists. This is partly because of the special black cabs, which are found in no other country. But it is also because of the drivers themselves. 2 British people are famous for being polite and reserved, London cabbies are well-known 3 their willingness to talk. Some customers say that once the door shuts and the cab 4 off they are a captive (监禁了的) audience. It is impossible to get the taxi driver to stop 5 . "They"re self-confident and free thinking," said Malcolm Linskey, the author of a history of taxi drivers in London. They are also expensive. London has the most expensive taxis of any city in the world except Tokyo. That"s why Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is planning to make taxi drivers negotiate their fares with 6 before they take a ride. Drivers agree that their fares are expensive. That"s because their black taxis 7 more than other cars, they say. And the customer is also paying for more driving expertise (专门知识) than anywhere else in the world. Before someone can qualify as a London taxi driver, that person has to pass a test 8 simply as "The Knowledge". This involves 9 the name and location of every street within six miles of a point in the exact centre of London. The trainee (受训者) must also learn the exact location of every important building within these streets. Finally he or she must be able to use this knowledge to work out the 10 distance between any two destinations within this area. It can 11 up to three years to pass "The Knowledge" Every day it is possible to see trainee taxi drivers on the streets of London, taking careful notes of popular destinations before tracing the route to their next stop. Cab driving is a job often 12 down in families. Many taxi drivers take their children out in their spare time to memorize 13 they need to know when it is their turn to do "The Knowledge". London cabbies also have bigger brains. Recent research found that the part of the brain that remembers things was larger and more 14 in cab drivers. They have to fit the whole of London into their heads, so their brains grow bigger. So perhaps it is not 15 that taxi drivers have lots to say.

单选题Can you account for your absence from the class last Thursday?

单选题Argument among the speakers at the conference Uis bordering on/U violence.

单选题After so many days without rain, the ground quickly {{U}}soaked{{/U}} the little rain up.