单选题Driven to Distraction Joe Coyne slides into the driver's seat, stars up the car and heads to town. The empty stretch of interstate gives way to urban congestion, and Coyne hits the brake as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him. But even if he hadn't stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn't real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn't really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University (ODU) examine how in-vehicle guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel. The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are too distracting—or whether any distractions are offset by the benefits drivers get from having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations. "We're looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers," said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor leading the research, which involves measuring drives' reaction time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues. The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs. light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people "get into more challenging driving situations, they don't have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment," Baldwin said. But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. The next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers' mental workload. "Is it best if they see a picture '" that shows their position, a map kind of display?" Baldwin said. "Is it best if they hear it?" Navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. "They're very unforgiving," Baldwin said. "If you miss a tarn, they can almost seem to get angry." That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions, Baldwin said. Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify systems to present some information in a way that makes sense for people who prefer the survey style, she said. Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 per cent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 per cent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don't like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.

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 species and 24 per cent of butterflies 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 for nature reserves of the highest quality, and Dr. Peter 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 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 to become mere islands in a spoiled and highly polluted land mass."

单选题John Hanson helped draft instructions for Maryland"s delegates to the Stamp Act Congress.

单选题Asbestos is a mineral fiber that can cause cancer if {{U}}inhaled{{/U}}.

单选题Norwich has been a city since its first cathedral was built.

单选题What are the most important events in the Olympic Games?

单选题It was a(n) inevitable consequence of the decision.

单选题About one - third of Americans who qualify for public assistance haven't signed up. That amounts to millions of people needlessly going without food stamps, low - income housing or health insurance. This trouble is what Real Benefits, a Boston—based software start- up, was created to solve. The five - person firm's web database substitutes easy - to - use screening(放映，播放) and enrollment tools for complicated government paperwork. So far Real Benefits has connected nearly 100,000 families to more than $ 371 million in government aid since 2000. What may be the reason that many Americans who qualify for public assistance haven't signed up?A. The application for social security is too complicated for many families.B. They can afford a life even without getting money from the government.C. They don't know how to use computer database to submit applications.D. They would not get aid from governments even though they sign up.

单选题 {{B}}Colors{{/B}} There are two ways to create colors in a photograph. One method, called additive, starts with three basis colors and adds them together to produce some other colors. The second method, called subtractive, starts with white light (a mixture of all colors in the spectrum) and, by taking away some or all other colors, leaves the one desired. In the additive method, separate colored lights combine to produce various other colors. The three additive primary colors are green, red and blue (each providing about one-third of the wavelengths in the total spectrum). Mixed in varying proportions, they can produce all colors. Green and red light mix to produce yellow; red and blue light mix to produce magenta; green and blue mix to produce cyan. When equal parts of all three of these primary-colored beams of light overlap, the mixture appears white to the eye. In the subtractive process, colors are produced when dye (as in paint or color photographic materials) absorbs some wavelengths and so passes on only part of the spectrum. The subtractive primaries are cyan (a bluish green), magents (a purplish pink), and yellow; these are the pigments or dyes that absorb red, green and blue wavelengths, respectively, thus subtracting them form white light. These dye colors are the complementary colors to the three additive primaries of red, green and blue. Properly combined the subtractive primaries and absorb all colors of light, producing black. But, mixed in varying proportions, they too can produce any color in the spectrum. Whether a particular color is obtained by adding colored lights together or by subtracting some light from the total spectrum, the result looks the same to the eye. The additive process was employed for early color photography. But the subtractive method, while requiring complex chemical techniques, has turned out to be more practical and is the basis of all modern color films.

单选题Prohibition in the United States ushered in an era of crime and corruption.

单选题The local authority will take measures to deal with noise pollution in the area.

单选题Going Back to Its Birthplace No sporting event takes hold of the world's attention and imagination like the Olympic Games The football world Cup fascinates fans in Europe and South America; baseball's World Series is required viewing in North America; and the world table Tennis Championships attracts the most interest in Asia. But the Olympics belong to the whole world. Now, after travelling to 17 countries over 108 years, the summer Games are returning to Athens, the place where the first modern Olympics was held. Participation in the Games is looked on not only as an achievement, but also as an honour. The 16 days between August 13 and 29 will see a record that 202 countries compete up from Sydney's 199. Afghanistan is back, having been banned from Sydney because the Taliban government didn't let women do sports. There is also a place for newcomers East Timer and Kiribati. A total of 10,500 athletes will compete in 28 sports, watched by 53 million ticket paying viewers as well as a television audience of 4 billion. Athens is to use its rich history and culture to make the Olympics as special as possible. The Games will open with cycling events which start in front of the Parthenon and Acropolis monuments. The final event will be a historic men's marathon following the original route by Phidippides in 490 BC to bring news of victory over the Persians. The ancient stadium at Olympia first used for the Games nearly three centuries ago, will stage the shot put competitions. And the Panathenian Stadium, where the first modem Olympics was held, is to host the archery (射箭) events. If the well-known ancient sites deliver a great sense of history to the Games, the 39 new venues add a modem touch to the city of Athens. The main Olympic stadium, with a giant glass and steel roof, is the landmark (标志) building of the Olympics. "We believe that we will organize a 'magical' Games." said Athens 2004 President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki. "Our history with the Olympic Games goes back nearly 3,000 years, and Athens 2004 could be the best ever./

单选题 Internet-based Instruction By almost any measure, there is a boom in Internet-based instruction. In just a few years, 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools, it's closer to 90 percent. If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't heard of the University of Phoenix. It grants degrees entirely on the basis of online instruction. It enrolls 90,000 students, a statistic used to support its claim to be the largest private university in the country. While the kinds of instruction offered in these programs differ, DL usually signifies a course in which the instructors post syllabi (课程大纲), reading assignments, and schedules on Websites, and students send in their assignments by e-mail. Generally speaking, face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether. The attraction for students might at first seem obvious. Primarily, there's the convenience promised by courses on the Net: you can do the work, as they say, in your pajamas (睡衣). But figures indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course. While drop-out rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20 percent, the rate for online students is 35 percent. Students themselves seem to understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup. In a survey conducted for Cornell, the DL division of Cornell University, less than a third of the respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the classroom course. Clearly, from the schools' perspective, there's a lot of money to be saved. Although some of the more ambitious programs require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative software, most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgraded (升级) systems. The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus, the more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms, paying doorkeepers, and maintaining parking lots. And, while there's evidence that instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons, they won't be paid any more, and might well be paid less.

单选题They agreed to modify their policy．

单选题Relief workers were shocked by what they saw.

单选题The secretary is very careful and never overlooks any little points.

单选题She has been the subject of {{U}}massive{{/U}} media coverage.

单选题This is a subject that has now moved into the political domain.

单选题We explored the possibility of expansion at the conference. A. offered B. included C. accepted D. investigated

单选题Costa Rica is insisting that economic growth and environmentalism work together. It has created a holistic(整体的，全面的)strategy to think about growth, one that demands that everything gets counted. So if a chemical factory sells tons of fertilizer but pollutes a river - or a farm sells bananas but destroys a carbon - absorbing and species - preserving forest - this is not honest growth. You have to pay for using nature. It is called "payment for environmental services"—nobody gets to treat climate, water, fish and forests as free anymore. The process began in the 1990s when Costa Rica, which sits at the intersection of two continents and two oceans, came to fully appreciate its incredible gift of biodiversity - and that its economic future lay in protecting it. So it did something no country has ever done: It put energy, environment, mines and water all under one minister. Costa Rica started to protect the environmentA. when it came to realize the importance of biodiversity in the 1990s.B. after its environment had been severely destroyed in the 1990s.C. before it had created a holistic strategy to think about growth.D. when the economy started to grow fast at the expense of environment.