单选题The anhinga is a black water bird that frequents the perimeters of the everglades. A. waters B. swamps C. forests D. edges

单选题Water From the beginning, water has furnished man with a source of food and a highway to travel upon. The first (51) arose where water was a dominant element in the environment, a challenge to man's ingenuity. The Egyptians invented the 365-day calendar (52) the Nile's annual flooding. The Babylonians, who were among the most famous law-makers in ancient times, invented laws (53) water usage. Water inspired the Chinese to build a 1,000- (54) canal, a complex system which, after nearly 2,500 years, remains still practically (55) and still commands the astonishment of engineers. But the (56) never found complete solutions to their water problems. The Yellow River is also known (57) "China's Sorrow"; it is so unpredictable and dangerous (58) in a single flood it may cause a million (59) . Floods slowed the great civilization of the Indus River Valley, and inadequate drainage ruined (60) its land. Today water dominates (61) as it always has done. Its presence continues to (62) the location of his homes and cities; its violent variability can (63) man or his herds or his crops; its routes links him (64) his fellows; its immense value may (65) to already dangerous political conflicts. There are many examples of this in our own time.

单选题Invisibility Ring Scientists can"t yet make an invisibility cloak like the one that Harry Potter uses. But, for the first time, they"ve constructed a simple cloaking device that makes itself and something placed inside it invisible to microwaves. When a person "sees" an object, his or her eye senses many different waves of visible light as they bounce off the object. The eye and brain then work together to organize these sensations and reconstruct the object"s original shape. So, to make an object invisible, scientists have to keep waves from bouncing off it. And they have to make sure the object casts no shadow. Otherwise, the absence of reflected light on one side would give the object away. Invisibility isn"t possible yet with waves of light that the human eye can see. But it is now possible with microwaves. Like visible light, microwaves are a form of radiant energy. The yare part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes radio waves, infrared light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays. The wavelengths of microwaves are shorter than those of radio waves but longer than those of visible light. The scientists" new "invisibility device" is the size of a drink coaster and shaped like a ring. The ring is made of a special material with unusual ability. When microwaves strike the ring, very few bounce off it. Instead, they pass through the ring, which bends the waves all the way around until they reach the opposite side. The waves then return to their original paths. To a detector set up to receive microwaves on the other side of the ring, it looks as if the waves never changed their paths as if there were no object in the way! So, the ring is effectively invisible. When the researchers put a small copper loop inside the ring, it, too, is nearly invisible. However, the cloaking device and anything inside it do cast a pale shadow. And the device works only for microwaves, not for visible light or any kind of electromagnetic radiation. So, Harry Potter"s invisibility cloak doesn"t have any real competition yet.

单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}} {{B}}Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass{{/B}} In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida's citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina's .Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow. The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees. "We couldn't believe how cold it was," smd Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. "We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat." The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida's US $9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold. "Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant," said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who. expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible. Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus frees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or mote. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and pans of Virginia.

单选题More Than a Ride to School The National Education Association claims. "The school bus is a mirror of the community." They further add that, unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the reality of a chosen community. They are right—sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl. Bruce Hardy, school bus driver for Althouse BUS Company has been Liesl"s bus driver since kindergarten. Last year when Liesl"s family moved to Parkesburg, knowing her bus went by her new residence. She requested to ride the same bus. This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus. She says, "It"s been a great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener. Sometimes when you"re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important. Mr. Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important." Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree. Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company, Larry Althouse, president of the company, acknowledges Bruce Hardy"s outstanding record: "You do not come by employees like Bruce these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record. He was recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident free miles. Hardy"s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with the students that ride his bus." Althouse further adds, "Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been providing quality transportation ever since. My grandfather started the business with one bus. Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for many more years to come." Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed. Thanks to drivers like Bruce Hardy, they have been building relationships through generations, Liesl"s mother Carol also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy"s bus to the Octorara School District.

单选题If we leave now，we should {{U}}miss{{/U}} the traffic．

单选题His parent won't let her marry anyone ______. family is poor.A. thatB. whomC. whatD. whose

单选题A Phone That Knows You're Busy It's a modern problem: you're too busy to be disturbed by incessant (连续不断的) phone calls so you turn your cellphone off. But if you don't remember to turn it back on when you're less busy, you could miss some important calls. If only the phone knew when it was wise to interrupt you, you wouldn't have to turn it off at all. Instead, it could let calls through when you are not too busy. A bunch of behavior sensors (传感器) and a clever piece of software could do just that, by analyzing your behavior to determine if it's a good time to interrupt you. If built into a phone, the system may decide you're too busy and ask the caller to leave a message or ring back later. James Fogarty and Scott Hudson at Camegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania based their system on tiny microphones, cameras and touch sensors that reveal body language and activity. First they had to study different behaviors to find out which ones strongly predict whether your mind is interrupted. The potential "busyness" signals they focused on included whether the office doors were left open or closed, the time of day, if other people were with the person in question, how close they were to each other, and whether or not the computer was in use. The sensors monitored these and many other factors while four subjects were at work. At random intervals, the subjects rated how interruptible they were on a scale ranging from "highly interruptible" to "highly not-interruptible". Their ratings were then correlated with the various behaviors. "It is a shotgun (随意的) approach, we used all the indicators we could think of and then let statistics find out which were important," says Hudson. The model showed that using the keyboard, and talking on a landline or to someone else in the office correlated most strongly with how interruptible the subjects judged themselves to be. Interestingly, the computer was actually better than people at predicting when someone was too busy to be interrupted. The computer got it right 82 percent of the time, humans 77 percent. Fogarty speculates that this might be because people doing the interrupting are inevitably biased towards delivering their message, whereas computers don't care. The first application for Hudson and Fogarty's system is likely to be in an instant messaging system, followed by office phones and cellphones. "There is no technological roadblock (障碍) to it being deployed in a couple of years," says Hudson.

单选题Sulphur has Uoccasionally/U been found in the earth in an almost pure state.

单选题The price of a 29-inch television has decreased by 300%. A. increased B. cut C. rose D. dropped

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 ease, 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The Case of the Disappearing Fingerprints One useful anti-cancer drug can effectively erase the whorls and other characteristic marks that give people their distinctive fingerprints (指纹). Losing them could become troublesome. A case 1 online in a letter by Annals of Oncology (肿瘤学) indicates how big a 2 of losing fingerprints is. Eng-Huat Tan, a Singapore-based medical doctor describes a 62-year old man who has used capecitabine to 3 his nasopharyngeal cancer(鼻咽癌). After three years on the 4 , the patient decided to visit U. S. relatives last December. But he was stopped by U. S. customs officials 5 4 hours after entering the country when those officials couldn"t get fingerprints from the man. There were no 6 swirly marks appearing from his index finger. U. S. customs has been fingerprinting incoming foreign visitors for years, Tan says. Unfortunately, for the Singaporean traveler, one potential 7 effect of his drug treatment is a smoothing of the tissue on the finger pads. 8 ,no fingerprints. "It is uncertain when fingerprint 9 will begin to take place in patients who are taking capecitabine," Tan points out. So he 10 any physicians who prescribe the drag to provide their patients with a doctor"s 11 pointing out that their medicine may cause fingerprints to disappear. Eventually, the Singapore traveler made it into the United States. I guess the name on his passport didn"t raise any red flags. But he"s also now got the explanatory doctor"s note—and won"t leave home 12 it. By the way, maybe the Food and Drug Administration (美国食品药物管理局), 13 approved use of the drug 11 years ago, should consider updating its list of side effects 14 with this medicine. The current list does note that patients may experience vomiting (呕吐), stomach pain and some other side effects. But no where 15 it mention the potential for loss of fingerprints.

单选题下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每道题后面有4个选项。请根据文章的内容，从每题所给的4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。{{B}}第一篇{{/B}} {{B}} Technology Transfer in Germany{{/B}} When it comes to translating basic research into industrial success, few nations can match Germany. Since the 1940s, the nation's vast industrial base has been fed with a constant stream of new ideas and expertise from science. And though German prosperity (繁荣) has faltered (衰退) over the past decade because of the huge cost of unifying east and west as well as the global economic decline, it still has an enviable (令人羡慕的) record for turning ideas into profit. Much of the reason for that success is the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes that exists solely to solve industrial problems and create sought-after technologies. But today the Fraunhofer institutes have competition. Universities are taking an ever larger role in technology transfer, and technology parks are springing up all over. These efforts are being complemented by the federal programmes for pumping money into start-up companies. Such a strategy may sound like a recipe for economic success, but it is not without its critics. These people worry that favouring applied research will mean neglecting basic science, eventually starving industry of fresh ideas. If every scientist starts thinking like an entrepreneur (企业家), the argument goes, then the traditional principles of university research being curiosity-driven, free and widely available will suffer. Others claim that many of the programmes to promote technology transfer are a waste of money because half the small businesses that are promoted are bound to go bankrupt within a few years. While this debate continues, new ideas flow at a steady rate from Germany's research networks, which bear famous names such as Helmholtz, Max Planck and Leibniz. Yet it is the fourth network, the Fraunhofer Society, that plays the greatest role in technology transfer. Founded in 1949, the Fraunhofer Society is now Europe's largest organisation for applied technology, and has 59 institutes employing 12, 000 people. It continues to grow. Last year, it swallowed up the Heinrich Hertz Institute for Communication Technology in Berlin. Today, there are even Fraunhofers in the US and Asia.

单选题Where Have All the Bees Gone? Scientists who study insects have a real mystery on their hands. All across the country, honeybees are leaving their hives and never returning. Researchers call this phenomenon colony-collapse (瓦解) disorder. According to surveys of beekeepers (养蜂人) across the country, 25 to 40 percent of the honeybees in the United States have vanished from their hives (麻疹) since last fall. So far, no one can explain why. Colony collapse is a serious concern because bees play an important role in the production of about one-third of the foods we eat. As they feed, honeybees spread pollen from flower to flower. Without this process, a plant can't produce seeds or fruits. Now, a group of scientists and beekeepers have teamed up to try to figure out what's causing the alarming collapse of so many colonies. By sharing their expertise (专家的意见) in honeybee behavior, health, and nutrition, team members hope to find out what's contributing to the decline and to prevent bee disappearances in the future. It could be that disease is causing the disappearance of the bees. To explore that possibility, Jay Evans, a researcher at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bee Research Laboratory, examines bees taken from colonies that are collapsing. "We know what s healthy bee should look like on the inside, and we can look for physical signs of disease," he says. And bees from collapsing colonies don't look very healthy. "Their stomachs are worn down, compared to the stomachs of healthy bees," Evans says. It may be that a parasite is damaging the bees' digestive organs. Their immune systems may not be working as they should. Moreover, they have high levels of bacteria inside their bodies. Another cause of colony-collapse disorder may be certain chemicals that farmers apply to kill unwanted insects on crops, says Jerry Hayes, chief bee inspector for the Florida Department of Agriculture. Some studies, he says, suggest that a certain type of insecticide affects the honeybee's nervous system (which includes the brain) and memory. "It seems like honeybees are going out and getting confused about where to go and what to do," he says. If it turns out that a disease is contributing to colony collapse, bees' genes could explain why some colonies have collapsed and others have not. In any group of bees there are many different kinds of genes. The more different genes a group has, the higher the group's genetic diversity. So far scientists haven't determined the role of genetic diversity (差异) in colony collapse, but it's a promising theory, says Evans.

单选题Motion Sickness Living in space looks like lots of fun. You can do certain things in space (like floating around, or pushing huge objects) that you cannot do on earth. But being in space can do things to you, too. If you stay too long in a gravity-free environment, your bones could become weak, and a small spaceship just might annoy you after a while, because space travel could make you seasick! On July 4, 1982, after seven days orbiting the earth, astronauts Thomas K. Mattingly and Henry W. Hartsfield returned home. Although not all of the experiments on board worked properly, the flight basically seemed to be a success except for one "little" thing: early in the flight, astronaut Hartsfield became "seasick". Thomas Mattingly, who is also a jet pilot and is highly resistant to motion sickness on earth, did much better. Mattingly sailed through space with a steady stomach. But no one knows why Hartsfield felt uneasy and Mattingly did not. So far it seems there is no reliable way to predict who will become motion sick in outer space and who will not. In all, at least four astronauts have suffered from space motion sickness. Russian and American scientists are working together to try to understand and solve the motion sickness. Space program officials worry that if so many highly-trained pilots get sick in space, what will happen when civilians start flying in the shuttle? Motion sickness is a disagreeable feeling that comes from the pitching, rolling, swaying, or just the moving of the object you are riding in or on. Symptoms of motion sickness include: dizziness, headache, a sinking feeling in the stomach, and vomiting (呕吐). Why does motion make some people ill? Doctors believe that motion sickness is caused by a disturbance in the inner ear. Our ears do more than give us hearing. A．part of the ears gives us a sense of balance and helps make us aware of whether we are right side up or upside down. If you know that you get carsick or seasick, what can you do? Speak to your doctor. There are certain medicines available that can help stop that uneasy feeling. But many of them can also make you sleepy. Usually they work best taken before you begin feeling ill. Some people also recommend water, ice cubes, mints, or plain toast. But these remedies do not always work for everyone. Perhaps, since motion sickness is such a big problem in outer space, researchers may soon find a way to cure the astronauts—and those of us who stay on earth.

单选题In the situation comedy, a traditional format for television shows, the same characters appear repeatedly in humorous episodes.

单选题阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从 4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。 {{B}} The Greatest Mystery Of Whales{{/B}} The whale is a warm-blooded, air-breathing animal, giving birth to its young alive, sucking them-and, like all mammals, originated on land. There are many {{U}}(51) {{/U}} of this. Its front flippers (鳍状肢), used for steering and stability, are traces of feet. Immense strength is {{U}}(52) {{/U}} into the great body of the big whales, and in fact most of a whale's body is one gigantic muscle. The blue whale's pulling strength has been estimated {{U}}(53) {{/U}} 400 horsepower. One specimen was reported to have towed (拖) a whaling vessel for seven hours at the {{U}}(54) {{/U}} of eight knots (节). An angry whale will {{U}}(55) {{/U}} a ship. A famous example of this was the fate of whaler Essex, {{U}}(56) {{/U}} was sunk off the coast of South America early in the last century. More recently, steel ships have {{U}}(57) {{/U}} their plates buckled (使弯曲) in the same way. Sperm whales (抹香鲸) were known to seize the old-time whaleboats in their jaws and crush them. The greatest {{U}}(58) {{/U}} of whales is their diving ability. The sperm whale dives to the bottom for his {{U}}(59) {{/U}} food, the octopus (章鱼). In that search he is known to go as far down as 3,200 feet, where the {{U}}(60) {{/U}} is 1,400 pounds, to a square inch. Doing so he will {{U}}(61) {{/U}} underwater long as one hour. Two special skills are involved in this: storing up enough {{U}}(62) {{/U}} (all whales are air-breathed) and tolerating the great change in pressure. Just how he does it scientists have not {{U}} (63) {{/U}}. It is believed that some of the oxygen is stored in a special {{U}}(64) {{/U}} of blood vessels, rather than just held in the lungs. And it is believed that a special kind of oil in his head is some sort of compensating mechanism that {{U}}(65) {{/U}} adjusts the internal pressure of his body. But since you can't bring a live whale into the laboratory, for study, no one knows just how these things work.

单选题Sandre {{U}}came across{{/U}} an important letter yesterday while cleaning the desk.

单选题Of the reptile groups, the snake group was the final one to appear.

单选题The index is the government"s chief gauge of future economic activity.