单选题What would happen if Finch tried to fly through the storms over the equator?

单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}} {{B}} Recycling Around the World{{/B}} Recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. But we could do more. People must not see recycling as fashionable, but essential. The Japanese are very good at recycling because they live in a crowded country. They do not have much space. They do not want to share their limited space with rubbish. But even so, Tokyo area alone is estimated to have three million tons of leftover rubbish at present. In 1996, the United States recycled and composted (制成肥料) 57 million tons of waste (27% of the nation's solid waste). This is 57 million tons of waste which did not go into landfills and incinerators (焚化炉). In doing this, 7,000 rubbish collection programmes and recycling centres helped the authorities. In Rockford, a city in Illinois, US, its officials choose one house each week and check its garbage (废物). If the garbage does not contain any newspapers or aluminium (铝) cans, then the resident of the house gets a prize of at least $1,000. In Japan, certain cities give children weekly supplies of tissue paper and toilet paper in exchange for a weekly collection of newspapers. In one year Britain recycles: · 1 out of every 3 newspapers. · 1 out of every 4 glass bottles and jars (罐子). · 1 out of every 4 items of clothing. · 1 out of every 3 aluminium drink cans. In 1999, Hong Kong transported 1.3 million tons of waste to mainland China for recycling. Around 535,000 tons of waste were recycled in Hong Kong itself. Over half the things we throw away could be recycled. That means we could recycle 10 times as much as we do now. However, recycling needs a lot of organisation and special equipment. Also, there is not much use for some recycled material.

单选题Ancient Egypt Brought Down by Famine Even ancient Egypt"s mighty pyramid (金字塔) builders were powerless in the face of the famine (饥荒) that helped bring down their civilization around 2180 B. C. Now evidence collected from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame—and the same or worse could happen today. The ancient Egyptians depended on the Nile"s annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons (季风) southwards out of Ethiopia would have reduced these floods. Declining rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to stabilize the soil. When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment (沉积) from the White Nile. Blue Nile mud has a different isotope (同位素) signature from that of the white Nile. So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta. Michael Krom of Leeds University worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river. Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago, immediately came before the fall of the Egypt"s old Kingdom. The weakened waters would have been disaster for the Egyptians. "Changes that affect food supply don"t have to be very large to have a ripple (波浪) effect in societies," says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. Similar events today could be even more devastating, says team member Daniel Stanley. A scientist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. "Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system today because the populations have increased dramatically."

单选题He has become a celebrity because of his wonderful performance in the play.A. directorB. actorC. starD. film-maker

单选题We packed up the things we had accumulated (积累) over the last three years and left. A．late B．recent C．past D．final

单选题A Phone That Knows You're Busy It's a modem 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 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 Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania based their system oil 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 cell phones. "There is no technological roadblock (障碍) to it being deployed in a couple of years, " says Hudson.

单选题Then the child has, as it were, private lessons all the year round, while an adult language student has each week a limited number of hours which he generally shares with others. The child has another advantage: he hears the language in all possible situations, always accompanied by the right kind of gestures and facial expressions. Here there is nothing "unnatural, such as is ofiten found in language lessons in schools, when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching heat in January. And what a child hears is generally what immediately interests him. Again and again, when his attempts at speech are successful, his desires are understood and fulfilled. "Fulfilled" in the last sentence of the paragraph is closest in meaning toA. satisfied.B. rejected.C. neglected.D. praise

单选题They have given up the hope to save their friends from drowning.A. endedB. abandonedC. builtD. strengthened

单选题Obtaining Drinking Water from Air Humidity Not a plant to be seen，the desert ground is too dry．But the air contains water，and research scientists have found a (51) of obtaining drinking water from air humidity． “The process we have developed is based exclusively on renewable energy sources (52) thermal solar collectors and photovoltaic(光电的)cells， (53) makes this method completely energy autonomous．It will (54) function in regions where there is no electrical infrastructure(基础设施)，”says Siegfried Egner，head of the research team．The principle of the (55) is as follows：hygroscopic(吸湿的)brine(盐水)，-saline(含盐的)solution which absorbs moisture-runs down a tower shaped unit and absorbs water from the air．It is then sucked (56) a tank a few meters off the ground in which a vacuum prevails．Energy from solar collectors (57) up the brine，which is diluted by the water it has (58) ． Because of the vacuum，the boiling point of the liquid is lower than it would be under (59) atmospheric pressure．The evaporated(蒸发的)，non-saline water is condensed and runs down through a completely filled tube in a controlled manner．The gravity of this water column (60) produces the vacuum and SO a vacuum pump is not needed．The reconcentrated brine (61) down the tower surface again to absorb moisture from the air． “The concept is suitable for various water (62) ．Single-person units and plants supplying water to entire hotels are conceivable，”says Egner．Prototypes have been built for (63) system components-air moisture absorption and vacuum evaporation-and the research scientists have already (64) their interplay on a laboratory scale．In a further (65) the researchers intend to develop a demonstration facility．

单选题This article mainly argues that

单选题He said some {{U}}harsh{{/U}} words about his brother.

单选题A great deal has been done to remedy the situation.

单选题The govemment is {{U}}debating{{/U}} the education laws.

单选题She omitted to mention that they were staying the night.

单选题Knowing that I had been out of work now, they were unwilling to lend me money.

单选题 下面的短文后有2项测试任务：(1)第23～26题要求从所给的6个选项中为第1～4段每段选择1个最佳标题；(2)第27～30题要求从所给的6个选项中为每个句子确定1个最佳选项。 　　　　　　　　　　　　　 {{B}}Meet Your Memory{{/B}} 1. Memory is something that cannot be seen, touched or weighed. It is thought to be abstract. It is a set of skills rather than an object. Neither is there a single standard for judging a good or poor memory. There are a number of different ways in which a person may have a good memory. 2. Memory is generally viewed as consisting of three stages: (1)acquisition refers to learning the material; (2)storage refers to keeping the material in the brain until it is needed;and(3)retrieval(提取)refers to getting the material back out when it is needed. 3. Memory consists of at least two different processes:short-term memory and long-term memory. Short-term memory has a limited capacity and a rapid forgetting rate. Its capacity can be increased by chunking(组成大块), or, grouping separate bits of information into larger chunks. Long-term memory has an almost unlimited capacity. 4 One measure of memory is recall, which requires you to produce information by searching the memory for it. In aided recall, you are given cues(提示)to help you produce the information. In free-recall learning you recall the material in any order;in serial learning you recall it in the order it was presented; and in paired-associate learning you learn pairs of words so that when the first word is given you can recal the second word. A second measure of memory is recognition, in which you do not have to produce the information from memory, but must be able to identify it when it is presented to you. In a third measure of memory, relearning, the difference between how long it took to learn the material the first time and how long it takes to learn it again indicates how much you remember. Relearning is generally a more sensitive measure of memory than is recognition because relearning shows retention(保持)while recognition does not. Recognition is generally a more sensitive measure than recall. A. Why do we forget things? B. How do we measure memory? C. What are the stages memory consists of? D. What is the difference between short-term memory and long-term memory? E. What is memory? F. Who may have a poor memory?

单选题Don't irritate her. She's on a short fuse today. A. tease B. attract C. annoy D. protect

单选题Maria Chapman, abolitionist and close associate of William Lloyed Garrison, wrote many brochures condemning slavery.

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}} To live in the Untied States today is to gain an appreciation for Dahrendorf' s assertion that social change exists everywhere. Technology, the application of knowledge for practical ends, is a major source of social change. Yet we would do well to remind ourselves that technology is a human creation; it does not exist naturally. A spear or a robot is as much a cultural as a physical object. Until humans use a spear to hunt game or a robot to produce machine parts, neither is much more than a solid mass of matter. For a bird looking for an object on which to rest, a spear or robot serves the purpose equally well. The explosion of the Challenger space shuttle(挑战者号航天飞机) and the Russian nuclear accident at Chernobyl drive home the human quality of technology; they provide cases in which well-planned systems suddenly went haywire(变得混乱)and there was no ready hand to set them right. Since technology is a human creation, we are responsible for what is done with it. Pessimists worry that we will use our technology eventually to blow our world and ourselves to pieces. But they have been saying this for decades, and so far we have managed to survive and even flourish. Whether we will continue to do so in the years ahead remains uncertain. Clearly, the impact of technology on our lives deserves a closer examination. Few technological developments have had a greater impact on our lives than the computer revolution. Scientists and engineers have designed specialized machines that can do the tasks that once only people could do. There are those who assert that the switch to an informationbased economy is in the same camp as other great historical milestones, particularly the Industrial Revolution. Yet when we ask why the Industrial Revolution was a revolution, we find that it was not the machines. The primary reason why it was a revolutionary is that it led to great social change. It gave rise to mass production and, through mass production, to a society in which wealth was not confined to the few. In somewhat similar fashion, computers promise to revolutionize the structure of American life, particularly as they free the human mind and open new possibilities in knowledge and communication. The industrial Revolution supplemented and replaced the muscles of humans and animals by mechanical methods. The computer extends this development to supplement and replace some aspects of the mind of human beings by electronic methods. It is the capacity of the computer for solving problems and making decisions that represents its greatest potential and that poses the greatest difficulties in predicting the impact on society.

单选题I will take up teaching this September.