单选题The Beginning of American Literature American has always been a land of beginnings. After Europeans‘iscovered’ America in the fifteenth century, the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life, an escape from poverty and persecution, a chance to start again. We can say that, as nation, America begins with that hope. When, however, does American literature begin? American literature begins with American experiences. Long before the first colonists arrived, before Christopher Columbus, before the Northmen who 'found' America about the year 1,000, Native Americans lived here. Each tribe's literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of lining with the land. Another kind of experience, one filled with fear and excitement, found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers sent home in Spain, France and England. In addition, the journals of the people who lived and died in the New England wilderness tell unforgettable tales of hard and sometimes heartbreaking experiences of those early years. Experience, then, is the key to early American literature. The New World provided a great variety of experiences, and these experiences demanded a wide variety of expressions by an even wider variety of early American writers. These writers included John Smith, who spent only two-and a half years on the American continent. They included Jonathan Edwards and William Byrd, who thought of themselves as British subjects, never suspecting a revolution that would create a United States of America with a literature of its own. American Indians, explorers, Puritan ministers, frontier wives, plantation owner-they are all the creators of the first American literature.

单选题She was close to success.

单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}} {{B}}Light Night, Dark Stars{{/B}} Thousands of people around the globe step outside to gaze at their night sky. On a clear night, with no clouds, moonlight, or artificial lights to block the view. people can see more than 14,000 stars in the sky, says Dennis Ward. an astronomer with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder. Colo. But when people are surrounded by city lights, he says, they're lucky to see ISO stars. If you've ever driven toward a big city at night and seen its glow from a great distance, you've witnessed fight pollution. It occurs when light from streetlights, office buildings, signs, and other sources streams into space and illuminates the night sky. This haze of light makes many stars invisible to people on Earth. Even at night, big cities like New York glow from light pollution, making stargazing difficult. Dust and particles of pollution from factories and industries worsen the effects of light pollution. "If one city has a lot more light pollution than another." Ward says, "that city will suffer the effects of light pollution on a much greater scale." Hazy skies also make it far more difficult for astronomers to do their jobs. Cities are getting larger. Suburbs are growing in once dark. rural areas. Light from all this new development is increasingly obscuring the faint light given off by distant stars. And if scientists can't locate these objects, they can't learn more about them. Light pollution doesn't only affect star visibility. It can harm wildlife too. It's clear that artificial light can attract animals, making them go off course. There's increasing evidence, for example, that migrating birds use sunsets and sunrises to help find their way, says Sydney Gauthreaux Jr., a scientist at Clemson University in South Carolina. "When light occurs at night," he says, "it has a very disruptive influence." Sometimes birds fly into lighted towers, high-rises, and cables from radio and television towers. Experts estimate that millions of birds die this way every year.

单选题When does the next train depart? A. pull up B. pull down C. pull out D. pull in

单选题The Television Camera The television camera is rather like the human eye. Both the eye and the camera have a lens, and both produce a picture on a screen. In each case the picture is made up of millions of spots of light. Let us see how the eye works. When we look at an object-a person, a house, or whatever it may be, we do not see all the details of the object in one piece. We imagine that we do, but this is not the case. In fact, the eye builds up the picture for us in our brain, which controls our sight, in millions of separate parts, and although we do not realize it, all these details are seen separately. This is what happens when we look at something. Beams of light of different degrees of intensity, re-fleeted from all parts of the object, strike the lens of the eye. The lens then gathers together the spots of light from these beams and focuses them on to a light-sensitive plate-the retina-at the back of the eyeball. In this way, an image of the object is produced on the retina in the form of a pattern of lights. The retina contains millions of minute light-sensitive elements, each of which is separately connected to the brain by a tiny fiber in the optic nerve. These nerve fibers, working independently, pick out minute details from the image on the retina and torn the small spots of light into nerve impulses of different strengths. They then transmit these impulses to the brain. They do this all at the same time. All the details of the image are fed to the brain, and as we have taught our brain to add them together correctly, we see a clear picture of the object as a whole. Television, which means vision at a distance, operates on a similar principle. A television picture is built up in thousands of separate parts. Beams of light reflect from the subject being televised strike the lens of the television camera, which corresponds to the lens of the eye. The camera lens gathers together the spots of light from these beams and focuses an image of the subject on to a plate, the surface of which is coated with millions of photo-electric elements sensitive to light. The spots of light forming the image on the plate cannot be transmitted as light. So they are temporarily converted by an electronic device into millions of electrical impulses ; that is, into charges of electricity. These electrical impulses are then sent through space on a wireless wave to the homes of the viewers. They are picked up by the aerials and conveyed to the receivers to the television set. There, they are finally converted back into the spots of light that make up the picture on the television screen.

单选题Cell Phones: Hang Up or Keep Talking? Millions of people are using cell phones today. In many places it is actually considered unusual not to use one. In many countries, cell phones are very popular with young people. They find that the phones are more than a means of communication--having a mobile phone shows that they are cool and connected. The explosions around the world in mobile phone use make some health professionals worried. Some doctors are concerned that in the future many people may suffer health problems from the use of mobile phones. In England, there has been a serious debate about this issue. Mobile phone companies are worried about the negative publicity of such ideas. They say that there is no proof that mobile phones are bad for your health. On the other hand, why do some medical studies show changes in the brain cells of some people who use mobile phones? Signs of change in the tissues of the brain and head can be detected with modern scanning(扫描)equipment. In one case, a traveling salesman had to retire at a young age because of serious memory loss. He couldn't remember even simple tasks. He would often forget the name of his own son. This man used to talk on his mobile phone for about six hours a day, every day of his working week, for a couple of years. His family doctor blamed his mobile phone use, but his employer's doctor didn't agree. What is it that makes mobile phones potentially harmful? The answer is radiation. High-tech machines can detect very small amounts of radiation from mobile phones. Mobile phone companies agree that there is some radiation, but they say the amount is too small to worry about. As the discussion about their safety continues, it appears that it's best to use mobile phones less often. Use your regular phone if you want to talk for a long time. Use your mobile phone only when you really need it. Mobile phones can be very useful and convenient, especially in emergencies. In the future, mobile phones may have a warning label that says they are bad for your health. So for now, it's wise not to use your mobile phone too often.

单选题2. Finding Yourself without GPS As more mobile phones tap into the Internet, people increasingly turn to them for location-centric services like getting directions and finding nearby restaurants. While Global Positioning System (GPS) technology provides excellent accuracy, only a fraction of phones have this capability. What's more, GPS coverage is spotty in dense urban environments, and in—phone receivers can be slow and drain a phone's battery. To sidestep this problem, last week Google added a new feature, called My Location, to its Web-based mapping service. My Location collects information from the nearest cell-phone tower to estimate a person's location within a distance of about 1,000 meters. This resolution is obviously not sufficient for driving directions, but it can be fine for searching for a restaurant or a store. "A common use of Google Maps is to search nearby," says Steve Lee, product manager for Google Maps, who likened the approach to searching for something within an urban zip code, but without knowing that code. "In a new city, you might not know the zip code, or even if you know it, it takes time to enter it and then to zoom in and pan around the map." Many phones support software that is able to read the unique identification of a cell-phone tower and the coverage area that surrounds it is usually split into three regions. Lee explains that My Location uses such software to learn which tower is serving the phone—and which coverage area the cell phone is operating in. Google also uses data from cell phones in the area that do have GPS to help estimate the locations of the devices without it. In this way, Google adds geographic information to the cell—phone tower's identifiers that the company stores in a database. As the database grows, says Lee, the service will become more accurate. It will never be as accurate as GPS, but he expects that it could eventually find a person within a couple hundred meters.

单选题we packed up the things we had accumulated(积累)over tlle last three years aild {{U }}left{{/U }}．

单选题Marxism doctrine was {{U}}spelled out{{/U}} in the Communist Manifesto.

单选题We had only a vague description of the attacker.

单选题The indecisive man was {{U}}readily{{/U}} persuaded to change his mind again.

单选题I don't get into a Upanic/U speaking the language when I'm in Greece, it's driving on the other side of the road which bothers me.

单选题Leaves are not distributed {{U}}accidentally{{/U}} on a plant stem, but are arranged in a very precise way that assures them the maximum light.

单选题下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。{{B}}第一篇{{/B}} {{B}}Human and Life{{/B}} If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses. Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table himself. “Who is that?” the new arrival asked St. Peter. “Oh, that’s God,” came the reply, “but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor.” If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn’t attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen of their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system. If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off the cuff remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it’s the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light hearted remark. Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote “If at first you don’t succeed, give up” or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and under statements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.

单选题David Jones and His Salary Computer programmer David Jones earns ￡35,000 a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a bank prepared to let him have a cheque card (支票卡). Instead, he has been told to wait another two years, until he is 18. The 16-year-old works for a small firm In Liverpool, where the problem of most young people of his age is finding a job. David's firm releases two new games for the home computer market each month. But David's biggest headache is what to do with his money. Despite his salary, earned buy inventing new programs, with bonus payments and profit-sharing, he cannot drive a car, buy a house, or obtain credit cards (信用卡). He lives with his parents in Liverpool. His company has to pay ￡150 a month in taxi fares to get him the five miles to work and back every day because David cannot drive. David got his job with the Liverpool-based company four months ago, a year after leaving school and working for a time in a computer shop. "I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs," he said. "I suppose ￡35,000 sounds a lot but I hope it will come to more than that his year." He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother ￡20 a week. But most of his spare time is spent working. "Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school," he said. "But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway." David added: "I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement (退休) is a possibility. You never know when the market might disappear./

单选题What is your goal in life?

单选题Some Things We Know about Language Many things about language are a mystery, and many will always remain so. But some things we do know. First, we know that all human beings have a language of some sort. There is no race (种族) of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one another. Furthermore, in historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language. Second, there is no such thing as a primitive (原始的) language. There are many people whose cultures are undeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized, but the languages they speak are not primitive. In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing. This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated. Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate. Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises. Study has proved this to be nonsense. There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old. They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive than English and Greek. A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate. That is, each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language. Finally, we know that language changes. It is natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones. This is easy to understand if we look backward in time. Change goes on in all aspects of language. Grammatical features change as do speech sounds, and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive and may occur very rapidly. Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language.

单选题The wing of A3XX will not be spoiled when it is stricken by a strong wind because its surfaces are designed to be movable.

单选题Talking to Kids about SARS (非典) School age children may he learning about SARS from adults and the media, but may not know what to make of the situation, says a national health charity. The Lung Association says parents should take time to talk to their 1 and explain the facts about SARS and how to avoid the illness. The following is based on recommendations 2 Thursday by the Lung Association: ▲ Ask your children if they have heard 3 SARS at school, from friends, from TV, etc. Finding out what they already know can be a good 4 to start the conversation and to clear away any wrong ideas they might have about the illness and how it is spread. ▲ School age children are usually old 5 to understand concepts such as getting sick from germs (细菌) and how to avoid illness. A simple reminder (提示) 6 to cough on people and to wash their hands often may be sufficient for younger kids. All children should be shown how to 7 their hands properly. ▲ Remember to keep it simple so 8 not to overwhelm children with information, but answer them truthfully. Kids can tell when you"re not being honest or if you"re hiding something, and sometimes the unknown can be more frightening than the 9 . Parents with anxious children will know 10 their kids will handle information on SARS and can tailor their discussion accordingly. ▲ One way to explain the illness is to tell children that SARS is like a bad breathing problem. It is 11 from a cold, but people can catch it in the same ways—such as coughing on someone, not washing your hands or sharing a glass with a sick person. ▲ Describe how SARS is spread, but mention that the chance of 12 SARS is small. There is no reason to tell children people are dying of SARS 13 they ask. Never use the threat of death as a way to remind kids to wash their hands. ▲ Children should be 14 to trust their parents and other caregivers. Explain that many smart people, 15 doctors and scientists, are working on the problem and looking out for everyone"s health.

单选题Sleep stairs can present a particular hazard to older people. A. picture B danger C. evidence D. case