单选题The play is proved to be a remarkable success.
单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}
{{B}}
How Ford Turn Out
Cars{{/B}} When it comes to singling out those who have made a
difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a
century from now might well conclude that it was Ford who most influenced all
manufacturing, everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make
cars—one, strange to say, that originated in slaughterhouses.
Back in the early 1900's, slaughterhouses used what could have been called
a "disassembly line. " Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up
production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have
each worker completely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a
conveyer, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it, the same
one each time. Professor David of the University of Delaware, an expert on
industrial development, tells what happened: "The previous day,
workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20
minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13
minutes and 10 seconds per person. " Within a year, the time had
been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by
ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed past workers who completed them
on piece at a time. It wasn't long before Ford was turning out several hundred
thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and
economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $
260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not
afford them. Soon, auto makers the world over copied him. In fact, he encouraged
them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and
Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile has arrived. Today, aided by robots and
other forms of automation, everything from toasters to perfumes are made on
assembly lines.
单选题He is {{U}}certain{{/U}} that the dictionary is just what I want.
A. sure
B. angry
C. doubtful "
D. worried
单选题Even a novel in which there is no narrator tacitly creates a picture of an author behind the scenes. A.theoretically B.purposely C.instinctively D.implicitly
单选题Life Connected with Computer
After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend"s Liverpudlian accent suddenly becomes indecipherable after the clarity of his words on screen, a secretary"s tone seems more rejecting than I"d imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid—hours become minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.
For the last three years, since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit articles and edit them via E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England, so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.
If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the blizzard of 96 on TV.
But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I"ve merged with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another node on the Net. Others online report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the Outside forms of socializing. It"s like attending an A.A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink, We have become the Net opponents" worst nightmare.
What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, clothes and face, has become an avoidance, a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction, coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.
At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I"d never done previously. The voices of the programs soothe me, but then I"m jarred by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. "Dateline," "Frontline", "Nightline", CNN, New York 1, every possible angle of every story over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves from foreground to background.
单选题He predicted that an earthquake was imminent.A. foretoldB. proposedC. promisedD. identified
单选题Gadfly was too much {{U}}exhausted{{/U}} to wake easily when once asleep.
单选题Creating a World without Smoking
Smoking will be banned in all pubs, clubs and workplaces from next year after historic votes in the Commons last night. After last-minute appeals from health campaigners, MPs opted for a blanket prohibition which will start in summer 2007, ending months of argument over whether smokers should be barred in pubs and restaurants only. They voted to ban smoking in all pubs and clubs by 384 to 184, a surprisingly large majority of 200.
Smoking will still be allowed in the home and in places considered to he homes, such as prisons, care homes and hotels.
Smokers lighting up in banned areas will face a fixed penalty notice of £50 and spot fines of £200 will be introduced for failing to display no-smoking signs, with the possible penalty, if the issue goes to court, increasing to £1,000.
Carpline Flint, the Public Health Minister, also announced that the fine for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas would be increased to £2,500—more than ten times the £200 originally proposed.
The Bill also allows the Government to increase the age for buying cigarettes. Ministers will consult on raising it from 16 to 18.
The Bill now goes to the Lords but will be through by the summer recess.
Even a plan to allow smoking to continue in private clubs was thrown out as MPs on all sides were given permission to vote with their conscience rather than on a party line.
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said the Health Bill would ban smoking in "virtually every enclosed public place and workplace" in England and save thousands of lives a year. Smoke-free workplaces and public places "will become the norm".
She said: "An additional 600,000 people will give up smoking as a result of this law and millions more will be protected from second-hand smoke."
Peter Hollins, director-general of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The vote is a landmark victory for the public health of this country and will save the lives of many people."
单选题A lot of people could fall iii after drinking {{U}}contaminated{{/U}} water.
单选题Which of the statements is NOT true according to this passage?
单选题Red giant stars do not become white dwarf stars abruptly; the process takes more than fifteen hundred years.
单选题I have no Ualternative/U but to report him to the local police.
单选题After our computer network {{U}}stop short{{/U}} for the third time that
day, we all went home.
A. crashed
B. collided
C. smashed
D. fell
单选题{{B}}第一篇{{/B}}
Electric Backpack
Backpacks are convenient. They can hold your books, your lunch, and
a charge of clothes, leaving your hands free to do other things. Someday, if you
don't mind carrying a heavy load, your backpacks might also power your MP3
player, keep your cell phone running, and maybe even light your way
home. Lawrence C. Rome and his colleagues from the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole,
Mass. , have invented a backpack that makes electricity from energy produced
while its wearer walks. In military actions, search and-rescue operations, and
scientific field studies, people rely increasingly on cell phones, global
positioning system (GPS) receivers, night-vision goggles, and other
battery-powered devices to get around and do their work. The backpack's
electricity-generating feature could dramatically reduce the amount of a
wearer's load now devoted to spare batteries, report Rome and his colleagues in
the Sept. 9 Science. The backpack's electricity-crew, ring
powers depend on springs used to hang a cloth pack from its metal frame. The
frame sits against the wearer's back, and the whole pack moves up and down as
the person walks. A gear mechanism converts vertical movements of the pack to
rotary motions of an electrical generator, producing up to 7.4 watts.
Unexpectedly, tests showed that wearers of the new backpack alter their
gaits in response to the pack's oscillations, so that they carry loads more
comfortably and with less effort than they do ordinary backpacks. Because of
that surprising advantage, Rome plans to commercialize both electric and
non-electric versions of the backpack. The backpack could be
especially useful for soldiers, scientists, mountaineers, and emergency workers
who typically carry heavy backpacks. For the rest of us, power-generating
backpacks could make it possible to walk, play video games, watch TV, and listen
to music, all at the same time. Electricity-generating packs aren't on the
market yet, but if you do get one eventually, just make sure to look both ways
be{ore crossing the street!
单选题Trying to Find a Partner One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to star a family with. Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships? Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love? Or are we making it harder for ourselves? It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn't expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children. But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence. In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained (限制) by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged. Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl. But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint: the tyranny of choice. The expectations of partners are inflated (提高) to an unmanageable degree: good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression. We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn't, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don't put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.
单选题The great changes of the city
astonished
every visitor to that city.
单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}
{{B}}
Differences of Policemen{{/B}} Real policemen
hardly recognize any resemblance between their lives and what they see on
TV. The first difference is that a policeman's real life
revolves round criminal law. He has to know exactly what actions are crimes and
what evidence can be used to prove them in court. He has to know nearly as much
law as a professional lawyer, and what is more, he has to apply it on his feet,
in the dark and rain, running down a street after someone he wants to talk
to. Little of his time is spent in chatting, he will spend most
of his working life typing mil- lions of words on thousands of forms about
hundreds of sad, unimportant people who are guilty of stupid, petty
crimes. Most television crime drama is about finding the
criminal: as soon as he's arrested, the story is over. In real life, finding
criminals is seldom much of a problem. Except in very serious cases like murders
and terrorist attacks little effort is spent on searching.
Having made an arrest, a detective really starts to work. He has to
prove his case in court and to do that he often has to gather a lot of
difference evidence. At third big difference between the drama
detective and the real one is the unpleasant pressures: first, as members of a
police force they always have to behave absolutely in accordance with the law;
secondly, as expensive public servants they have to get results. They can hardly
ever do both. Most of the time some of them have to break the rules in small
ways. If the detective has to deceive the world, the world often
deceives him. Hardly anyone he meets tells him the truth. And this separation
the detective feels between himself and the rest of the world is deepened by the
simple-mindedness—as he sees it—of citizens, social workers, doctors,
law-makers, and judges, who, instead of eliminating crime punish the criminals
less severely in the hope that this will make them reform. The result,
detectives feel, is that nine tenths of their work is recatching people who
should have stayed behind bars. This makes them rather
cynical.
单选题He was rather
vague
about the reasons why he never finished school.
单选题People from many places were
drawn
to the city by its growing economy.
单选题Some children display an unquenchable curiosity about every new thing they encounter.
