单选题Sleepless at Night It was a normal summer night. Humidity (湿气)hung in the thick air. I couldn't go to sleep, partly because of my cold and partly because of my expectations for the next day. My mum had said that tomorrow- was going to be a surprise. Sweat stuck to my aching body. Finally, I gathered enough strength to sit up. I looked out of my small window into the night. There was a big bright moon hanging in the sky, giving off a magic light. I couldn't stand the pressure anymore, So I did what I always do to make myself feel better. I went to the bathroom and picked up my toothbrush and toothpaste. I cleaned my teeth as if there was no tomorrow-. Back and forth, up and down. Then I walked downstairs to look for some signs of movement, some life. Gladiator, my cat frightened me as he meowed(喵喵地唱出)his sad song. He was on the Old orange couch(长沙发), sitting up on his front legs, waiting for something to happen. He looked at me as if to s "I'm lonely, pet me. I need a good hug(紧抱). " Even the couch begged me to sit on it. In one movement I settled down onto the soft couch. This couch represented my parents' marriage, my birth, and hundreds of other little events. As I held Gladiator, my heart started beating heavily. My mind was flooded with questions: What's life? Am I really alive? Are you listening to me? Every time I moved my hand down Gladiator's body, I had a new- thought; each touch sang a different song. I forget all about the heat and the next day's surprise. The atmosphere was so full of warmth and silence that I sank into its alms. Falling asleep with the big cat in my arms. I felt all my worries slowly move away.

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。 {{B}}Biological Identification Technologies{{/B}} When a person walks, the movement of his head, trunk, and limbs (肢体) are all reflected in Changes in his body. A computer stores these {{U}}(51) {{/U}} into a database (数据库). Later, the computer can accurately {{U}}(52) {{/U}} him according to these changes. This is a new biological identification {{U}}(53) {{/U}} and it can quickly identify an examinee without disturbing him. Everybody's voice is {{U}}(54) {{/U}}. When a person's voice is recorded by an instrument, his voice frequency spectrum (频谱) is called sound print. {{U}}(55) {{/U}} a fingerprint, everybody's sound print is different. How can a computer {{U}}(56) {{/U}} his sound? First, his voice is recorded, {{U}}(57) {{/U}} allows the computer to become familiar with his voice. It will then turn his sound characteristics into a series of digits (数字). These are the {{U}}(58) {{/U}} on which the computer can distinguish his voice from another's. We often bring ID cards, work cards, or driving licenses with us to {{U}}(59) {{/U}} our identify. If all these cards are forgotten or lost, how can we prove whom we are? In {{U}}(60) {{/U}} , it's not difficult to prove whom you are, {{U}}(61) {{/U}} your body itself has identifying markers. Some are physiological (生理的) features, such as fingerprints, sounds, facial (面部的) types and eye color. The computer can {{U}}(62) {{/U}} to identify you. Suppose your features have already been {{U}}(63) {{/U}} in the database. To identify you, we have to take your picture with a camera and send it to a computer for {{U}}(64) {{/U}}. First, the computer needs to reposition this picture according to the position of your eyes, and then starts to read the {{U}}(65) {{/U}} of your physiological features such as the ratio of your pupil to the whites of your eyes and the shape of your nose. Next, it seeks matching records from the database. Finally, it makes a decision.

单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}} The First Navigational Lights In the New World the first navigational lights were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there were only a dozen of so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses. The first eight lighthouses erected on the west coast in the 1850's featured the same basic new England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences, enormous towers were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; Some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy, it was often necessary to build tall towers there, massive structures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina lighthouse, which was lit in 1870. At 190 feet, is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most American lighthouses shared several features: a light, living quarters and sometimes a bell (later, a foghorn). They also had something else in common, a keeper and usually, the keeper's family. The keeper's essential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life ; they were seamen, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department, the keeper gradually became highly professional.

单选题Anderson left the table, remarking that he had some work to do.A. doubtingB. thinkingC. sayingD. knowing

单选题Will Quality Eat up the US Lead in Software? 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A Sense of Fairness Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human," with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature , suggests that it is all too monkey, as well. The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males. Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan"s and Dr. de Waal"s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different. In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin. The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a cooperative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

单选题There was no alternative but to close the road. A. way B. means C. choice D. reason

单选题American Firms The annual review of American company board practices by Korn/Ferry, a firm of headhunters, is a useful indicator of the health of corporate governance. This year's review, published on November 12th, shows that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in 2002 to try to prevent a repeat of corporate collapses such as Enron's and WorldCom's, has had an impact on the boardroom—albeit at an average implementation cost that Korn/Ferry estimates at $5.1 m per firm. Two years ago, only 41% of American firms said they regularly held meetings of directors without their chief executive present; this year the figure was 93%. But some things have been surprisingly unaffected by the backlash against corporate scandals. For example, despite a growing feeling that former chief executives should not sit on their company's board, the percentage of American firms where they do has actually edged up, from 23% in 2003 to 25% in 2004. Also, disappointingly few firms have split the jobs of chairman and chief executive. Another survey of American boards published this week, by A.T. Kearney, a firm of consultants, found that in 2002 14% of the boards of S&P 500 firms had separated the roles, and a further 16% said they planned to do so. But by 2004 only 23% overall had taken the plunge. A survey earlier in the year by consultants at McKinsey found that 70% of American directors and investors supported the idea of splitting the jobs, which is standard practice in Europe. Another disappointment is the slow progress in abolishing "staggered" boards—ones where only one-third of the directors are up for re-election each year, to three-year terms. Invented as a defence against takeover, such boards, according to a new Harvard Law School study by Lucian Bebchuk and Alma Cohen, are unambiguously "associated with an economically significant reduction in firm value". Despite this, the percentage of S&P 500 firms with staggered boards has fallen only slightly—from 63% in 2001 to 60% in 2003, according to the Investor Responsibility Research Centre. And many of those firms that have been forced by shareholders to abolish the system are doing so only slowly. Merck, a pharmaceutical company in trouble over the possible side-effects of its arthritis drug Vioxx, is allowing its directors to run their full term before introducing a system in which they are all re-elected (or otherwise) annually. Other companies' staggered boards are entrenched in their corporate charters, which cannot be amended by a shareholders' vote. Anyone who expected the scandals of 2001 to bring about rapid change in the balance of power between managers and owners was, at best, naive.

单选题The role of the body clock is to

单选题He was kept in appalling conditions in prison.A. necessaryB. terribleC. criticalD. normal

单选题Yet {{U}}in one way{{/U}} they are really so fortunate.

单选题It is virtually impossible to persuade him to apply for the job.

单选题下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。{{B}}第一篇{{/B}} How the First Stars in the Universe Came into Existence Researchers believe that our universe began with the Big Bang(宇宙大爆炸)about 13 billion years ago，and that soon after that event，matter began to form as small dust grains and gases．How the first stars formed from this dust and gas has been a burning question for years，but a state of-the-art computer simulation now offers the most detailed picture yet of how these first stars in the universe came into existence． The composition of the early universe was quite different from that of today，and the physics that governed the early universe were also somewhat simpler．Dr．Naoki Yoshida and colleagues in Japan and the U．S．incorporated these conditions of the early universe，sometimes referred to as the“cosmic dark ages，”to simulate the formation of an astronomical object that would eventually shine its light into this darkness． The result is a detailed description of the formation of a protostar(原恒星)-the early stage of a massive primordial(原始的)star of our universe-and the researchers'computer simulation sets the bar for further investigation into the star formation process．The question of how the first stars evolved is so important because their formations and eventual explosions provided the seeds for subsequent stars to come into being． According to their simulation，gravity acted on minute density variations in matter，gases，and the mysterious“dark matter”of the universe after the Big Bang in order to form this early stage of a star-a protostar with a mass of just one percent of our sun．The simulation reveals how pre-stellar(前恒星的) gases would have actually evolved under the simpler physics of the early universe to form this protostar． Dr．Yoshida's simulation also shows that the protostar would likely evolve into a massive star capable of synthesizing(合成)heavy elements，not just in later generations of stars，but soon after the Big Bang． Their simulation of the birth of a protostar in the early universe signifies a key step toward the ambitious goal of piecing together the formation of an entire primordial star and of predicting the mass and properties of these first stars of the universe．More powerful computers，more physical data，and an even larger range will be needed for further calculations and simulations，but these researchers hope to eventually extend this simulation to the point of nuclear reaction initiation-when a stellar(星球的)object be comes a true star．

单选题Hold the torch steady so I can see better. A. continuous B. quick C. finn D. exceptional'

单选题Defined most broadly , folklore includes all the customs, beliefs and traditions that people have handed down from generation to generation.

单选题You must be tired, but try to hang on till all the work"s finished.

单选题She was {{U}}clos{{/U}}e to success．

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}} Save Energy At Home{{/B}} On the average, Americans waste as much energy as two-thirds of the world's population consumes. That's largely the {{U}}(51) {{/U}} of driving inefficient cars, using inefficient appliances (设备), and living and working in poorly insulated (隔热) buildings. Then what can you do to {{U}}(52) {{/U}} the situation? Buy energy-efficient products -- Buy new appliances or electronics of the highest energy-efficiency rating. New energy-efficient models may cost more initially, but have a lower operating {{U}}(53) {{/U}} over their lifetimes. The most energy-efficient models {{U}}(54) {{/U}} the Energy Star label, which identifies products {{U}}(55) {{/U}} use 20-40 percent less energy than standard new products. According to the EPA (美国环境保护署), the typical American household can save about $400 per year in {{U}}(56) {{/U}} bills with products that carry the Energy Star. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs (荧光灯) -- Change the three bulbs you use {{U}}(57) {{/U}} in your house to compact fluorescents. Each compact fluorescent bulb will keep half a ton of CO2 out of the air {{U}}(58) {{/U}} its lifetime. {{U}}(59) {{/U}}, compact fluorescent bulbs last ten times as long and can save $30 per year in electricity costs. Set heating and cooling temperatures correctly -- Check thermostats (温度自调节器) in your home to make sure they are {{U}}(60) {{/U}} at a level that doesn't waste energy. Turn off the lights -- Turn off lights and other electrical appliances such as televisions and radios when you're not {{U}}(61) {{/U}} them. Install automatic timers for lights that people in your house frequently {{U}}(62) {{/U}} to turn them off when leaving a room. Let the sun shine in -- The cheapest and most energy-efficient light and heat source is often right outside your window. On {{U}}(63) {{/U}} days, open blinds (百叶窗) to let the sun light your home for free. Also remember that {{U}}(64) {{/U}} entering a room equals passive solar heating. Even on cold winter days, sun streaming into a room can raise the temperature by several {{U}}(65) {{/U}}.

单选题Youth Emancipation in Spain The Spanish Government is so worried about the number of young adults still living with their parents that it has decided to help them leave the nest. Around 55 percent of people aged 18434 in Spain still sleep in their parents' home,says the latest re- port from the country's state-run Institute of Youth. To coax(劝诱) young people from their homes,the Institute started a "Youth Emancipation(解放)" programme this month. The programme offers guidance in finding rooms and jobs. Economists blame young people's family dependence on the precarious(不稳定的)labour market and increasing housing prices. Housing prices have risen 17 percent a year since 2000. Cultural reasons also contribute to the problem, say sociologists(社会学家). Family ties in south Europe --Italy, Portugal and Greece -- are stronger than those in middle and north Europe, said Spanish soiologist Almudena Moreno Minguez in her report "The Late Emancipation of Spanish Youth. Key for Understanding". "In general, young people in Spain firmly believe in the family as the main body around which their private life is organized," said Minguez. In Spain -- especially in the countryside,it is not uncommon to find entire groups of aunts,uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews(外甥/侄子)all living on the same street. They regularly get together for Sunday dinner. Parents' tolerance is another factor. Spanish parents accept late-night partying and are wary of setting bedtime rules. "A child can arrive home at whatever time he wants. If parents complain he'll put up a fight and call the father a fascist," said José Antonio Gómez Yanez,a sociologist at Carlos Ⅲ University in Madrid. Mothers' willingness to do children's household chores(家务)worsens the problem. Dionisio Masso, a 60-year-old in Madrid, has three children in their 20s. The eldest 28, has a girlfriend and a job. But life with mum is good. "His mum does the wash and cooks for him;in the end,he lives well," Masso said.

单选题I can't put up with my neighbor's noise any longer；it's driving me mad． A．measure B．generate C．tolerate D．reduce