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I can"t
put up with
my neighbor"s noise any longer, it"s driving me mad.
单选题Many teachers don't like to use Uup-to-date/U textbooks in their classes.
单选题Where Did All the Ships Go?
The Bermuda Triangle is one
1
the greatest mysteries of the sea. In this triangular area between Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda in Atlantic, ships and airplanes
2
to disappear more often than in
3
parts of the ocean. And they do so
4
leaving any sign of all accidents or any dead bodies.
It is
5
that Christopher Columbus was the first person to record strange happenings in the area. His compass stopped working, a flame came down from the sky, and a wave 100 to 200 feet high carried his ship about a mile away.
The most famous disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle was the US Naval Air Flight 19.
6
December 5, 1945, five bomber planes carrying 14 men
7
on a training mission from the Florida coast. Later that day, all communications with Flight 19 were lost. They just disappeared without a trace.
The next morning, 242 planes and 19 ships took part in the largest air-sea search in history. But they found nothing.
Some people blame the disappearances
8
supernatural forces. It is suggested that the
9
ships and planes were either transported to other times and places, kidnapped by aliens
10
attacked by sea creatures.
There are
11
natural explanations, though. The US Navy says that the Bermuda Triangle is one of two places on earth
12
a magnetic compass points towards true north
13
magnetic north.
14
, planes and ships can lose their way if they don"t make adjustments.
The area also has changing weather and is known
15
its high waves. Storms can turn up suddenly and destroy a plane or ship. Fast currents could then sweep away any trace of an accident.
单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}
{{B}}Will Quality Eat up the US Lead in Software?{{/B}}
If US software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could
kiss their business good-bye. Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class
software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract
the top US quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their
country. AIready, of the world's 12 software houses that have
earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India. That's largely
because they have used new methodologies rejected by American software
specialists. For example, for decades, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming
and J. M.Juran had urged US software companies to change their attitudes to
quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the US — but not in
Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better,
cheaper products. They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of
good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. In US factories, the
cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still
is. Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software
production and then quality assurance. But his advice was seldom paid attention
to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing
and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For
example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost
60% of total software production costs. It tell to 15% in 1996 and has since
further dropped to below 10%. Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey
seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government
and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality
Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India. Let's hope that US
lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality
problems.
单选题
Microelectronics Revolution
The 1980s are likely to be considered as a more than somewhat interesting decade
for the United Kingdom and indeed for other industrialized countries. The
political, social and economic autonomic reflexes in operation for the greater
part of this century will have to give way to the new as conditions change.
Paramount amongst these changes is the advent of microelectronics with their
ability to increase productivity and the end of cheap, easily manipulated
sources of energy. Together these will undoubtedly change the pattern of
industrialization and industrialized life in a radical manner not seen in the UK
since the early 19th century. Most technological changes are
somewhat less than fundamental. Many act on an individual process of industry
and so their effects on the general economy can be boxed off. Others act on the
demand side with new products, often for new markets. Microelectronics, though,
are different. It is difficult to think of parts of the economy on which they
will not have an impact; it is especially very difficult to think of the many
new consumer products that will evolve. It is already being used, in productive
processes through robotics, in production planning through cheap computers, as
cheap and easy to maintain components, and through telecommunications, teletext
systems and word processing to provide, transmit and store
information. The resulting large increases in productivity will
mean that increased levels of output will be produced using fewer resources of
manpower, raw materials and energy. On the face of it this has to be a good
thing, it opens vistas that were previously closed. The cost, however, is
measured in terms of the resulting job losses, job changes and lack of new jobs.
If we sit back and allow the market to work allocating wealth and jobs, in other
words continue as we are at present, either the technologies will not be
introduced at all or there will be social confrontation on a massive
scale. This new technology improves productivity at precisely
the time world trade growth is declining, and this is likely to diminish even
further given the responses to the shortage of energy sources. This will almost
certainly mean that our ability to supply will outstrip (超过) our ability to
demand, giving a classic high unemployment.
单选题The {{U}}huge{{/U}} Olympic Park will be built outside the city.
单选题I don't quite {{U}}follow{{/U}} what she is saying.
A. believe
B. understand
C. explain
D. accept
单选题阅读下面这篇短文,短文后列出7个句子,请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断。
{{B}}Television Is Doing
Irrearable Harm{{/B}} “Yes, but what did we use to do before there
was television?” How often we hear statements like this! Television hasn’t been
with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was
like without it, Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes we never
found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilized
pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our
friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to
theatres, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events, We even used to read books
and listen to music and broadcast talks occasionally. All that belongs to the
past. Now all our free time is regulated by the “goggle box”. We rush home or
gulp down our meals to be in time for this or that programme. We have even given
up sitting at table and having a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of
the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do anything, providing it doesn’t
interfere with the programme. The monster demands absolute silence and
attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a
programme, he is quickly silenced. Whole generation are growing
up addicted to the telly. Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is
lost, The telly is a universal pacifier. It is now standard practice for mother
to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living room and turning on the
set. It doesn’t mater that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or
spectacles of sadism(性虐狂)and violence—so long as they are quiet.
There is a limit to the amount of creative talent available in the world,
Every day, television consumes vast quantities of creative work, That is why
most of the programmes are so bad : it is impossible to keep pace with the
demand maintain high standards as well. When millions watch the same programme,
the whole world becomes a village, and society is reduced to the conditions
which obtain in pre-literate communities (有文字之前的时期). We become utterly dependent
on the two most primitive media of communication: pictures and the spoken
work. Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content
with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchair watching
others working. Little by little “television” cuts us off from the real world.
We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our
sets, rather than go out into the world itself, Television may be a splendid
medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other.
We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we
spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains, far away from civilization, In
quiet natural surroundings we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic
(催眠)tyranny of King Telly.
单选题An old man stood outside the cinema Urattling/U a tin and asking for money.
单选题I think £ 7 for a drink is a bit
steep
, don"t you?
单选题We want to know his family Ubackground/U.
单选题
Academic Mobility
Scholars and students have always been great travelers. "Academic mobility" is
now often stated as a fundamental necessity for economic and social progress in
the world, but it is certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready
to go abroad in search of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous
academies; in search of the purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the
likeliest road to gold. Mobility of this kind means also
mobility of ideas, their transference across frontiers, their simultaneous
impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether
with students or with colleagues; one presumes that only eccentrics have an
interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It
must also have been reassured to know that other people in other parts of the
world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same
lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or
neglect. In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last
twenty years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become vast
highways. The vehicle which has made this possible has of course been the aero
plane, making contact between scholars even in most distant places immediately
feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge. Apart from
the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have
brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are
purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centers
of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students.
In addition, one must recognize the very considerable multiplication of
disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of
advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular
interests ale precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if
they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other
countries.
单选题Many tourists are attracted to the New England states by the autumn
foliage
.
单选题下面的短文有15处空白,请根据短文内容为每处空白确定1个最佳选项。
Paper or Plastic? Take
a walk along the Chesapeake Bay, and you are likely to see plastic bags floating
in the water. Ever since these now ubiquitous (到处存在的) symbols of American
super-consumption showed up in the supermarkets, plastic shopping bags have made
their {{U}}(51) {{/U}} into local waterways, and from there, into the
bay, where they can {{U}}(52) {{/U}} wildlife. Piles of them - the
{{U}}(53) {{/U}} takes centuries to decompose (分解) -- show up in
landfills and on city streets. Plastic bags also take an environmental toll in
the form of millions of barrels of oil expended every year to produce
them. Enter Annapolis {{U}}(54) {{/U}} you will see
plastic bags distributed free in department stores and supermarkets. Alderman
Sam Shropshire has introduced a well-meaning proposal to ban retailers
(零售商) {{U}} (55) {{/U}} distributing plastic shopping
bags in Maryland's capital. Instead, retailers would be required to offer bags
{{U}}(56) {{/U}} recycled paper and to sell reusable bags. The city of
Baltimore is considering a similar measure. Opponents of the idea, however,
argue that {{U}}(57) {{/U}} bags are harmful, too: they cost more to
make, they consume more {{U}}(58) {{/U}} to transport, and recycling
them causes more pollution than recycling plastic. The argument for depriving
Annapolis residents (居民) of their plastic bags is {{U}}(59) {{/U}}
accepted. Everyone in this {{U}}(60) {{/U}} is right about one thing:
disposable shopping bags of any type are {{U}}(61) {{/U}}, and the best
outcome would be for customers to reuse bags instead. Annapolis's mayor is
investigating how to hand out free, reusable (可以再度使用的) shopping bags to city
residents, a proposal that can proceed regardless of whether other bags are
banned. A less-expensive {{U}}(62) {{/U}} would be to encourage
retailers to give discounts to customers {{U}}(63) {{/U}} bring their
own, reusable bags, a policy that a spokesman for the supermarket Giant Food
says its chain already has in place. And this policy would be more {{U}}
(64) {{/U}} if stores imitated furniture mega-retailer Ikea and
charged for disposable bags at the checkout counter. A broad ban on the use of
plastic shopping bags, which would merely replace some forms of pollution with
others, is not the {{U}}(65) {{/U}}.
单选题There is no {{U}}risk{{/U}} to public health.
A. point
B. danger
C. chance
D. hope
单选题There is
an abundant
supply of cheap labor in this country.
单选题Mobile Phones: Change Our Life
In the case of mobile phones, change is everything. Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well.
First, let"s talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and its parent—the fixed-line phone, is that a mobile phone corresponds to a person, while a landline goes to a place. If you call my mobile, you get me. If you call my fixed-line phone, you get whoever answers it.
This has several implications (含义). The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the "meeting" influence. People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. You needed enough time to allow everyone to get from their place of work to the first meeting place. Now, however, a night out can be arranged on the run. It is no longer "see you there at 8", but "text me around 8 and we"ll see where we all are".
Texting changes people as well. In their paper, "Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS (Short Message Service) Text Messaging", two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the "talkers" and the "texters"—those who prefer voice to text messages and those who prefer text messages to voice.
They found that the mobile phone"s individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts. This suggests that texting allowed texters to present a self-image that differed from the one familiar to those who knew them well.
Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the "speakeasy": the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. And there is the "spacemaker": these people focus on themselves and keep out other people.
Who can blame them? Phone meetings get cancelled or reformed and camera-phones intrude (侵入) on people"s privacy. So, it is understandable if your mobile makes you nervous. But perhaps you needn"t worry so much. After all, it is good to talk.
单选题A large crowd Uassembled /U outside the American embassy
单选题The word "expertise" in line 3 could be best replaced by
