单选题Located in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress contains an imposing {{U}}array{{/U}} of books on every conceivable subject.

单选题They Say Ireland"s the Best Ireland is the best place in the world to live in for 2005, according to a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain"s Economist magazine last week. The ambitious attempt to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only measure of human satisfaction and well-being. The index of 111 countries uses data on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security, gender equality as well as what the magazine calls "freedom, family and community life". Despite the bad weather, troubled health service, traffic congestion (拥挤), gender inequality and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points out of 10. That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which managed 8.07. Zimbabwe troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is rated the gloomiest (最差的), picking up only 3.89 points. "Although rising incomes and increased individual choices are highly value," The report said, "some of the factors associated with modernization such as the breakdown (崩溃) in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact." "Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as stable family and community life." The magazine admitted measuring quality of life is not a straightforward thing to do, and that its findings would have their critics. No. 2 on the list is Switzerland. The other nations in the top 10 are Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Denmark and Spain. The UK is positioned at No. 29, a much lower position chiefly because of the social and family breakdown recorded in official statistics. The US, which has the second highest per capita GDP (人均国内生产总值) after Luxembourg, took the 13th place in the survey. China was in the lower half of the league at 60th.

单选题Changes in Museums Museums have changed. They are no longer places that one "should" visit; they are places to enjoy and learn. At a Science museum in Ontario, Canada, you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body. At the Metropolitan (大城市的) Museum of Art in New York City, you can look at the seventeenth century instruments while listening to their music. At New York"s American Museum of Natural History recently, you can help make a bone-by-bone reproduction of the museum"s dinosaur (恐龙), a beast that lived 200 million years ago. More and more museum directors are realizing that people learn best when they can somehow become part of what they are seeing. In many science museums, for example, there are no guided tours. The visitor is encouraged to touch, listen, operate, and experiment so as to discover scientific principles for himself. The purpose is not only to provide fun but also to help people feel at home in the world of science. The theory is that people who do not understand science will probably fear it, and those who fear science will not use it to best advantage. One cause of all these changes is the increase in wealth and leisure time. Another cause is the rising percentage of young people in the population. Many of these young people are college students or college graduates. Leon F. Twiggs, a young black professor of art once said, "They see things in a new and different way. They are not satisfied to stand and look at works of art; they want art they can participate (参加) in. "The same is true of science and history.

单选题Do you follow what I am saying?

单选题Longer Lives for Wild Elephants Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators don't exist. Without such problems, animals in zoos should live to a ripe old age. But matter may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth. Scientists have known that elephants in zoos often suffer from poor health. They develop diseases, joint problems and behavior changes. Sometimes, they even become infertile or unable to have babies. To learn more about how captivity affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands. Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care, documenting factors such as birth dates, illnesses, weight and death. These records made it possible for the researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800 African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe. The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo born elephants with the life spans of thousands of female wild elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that work in logging camps, over approximately the same time period. The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years--more than three times as long. Female Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos, they lived 18.9 years, while those in the logging camps lived 41.7 years. Scientists don't yet know why wild elephants seem to fare so much better than their zoo-raised counterparts. Georgia Mason, a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study, thinks stress and obesity may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the wild, and most are very fat. Elephant social lives are also much different in zoos than in the wild, where they live in large herds and family groups. Another finding from the study showed that Asian elephants born in zoos were more likely to die earlier than Asian elephants captured in the wild and brought to zoos. Mason suggests stress in the mothers in zoos might cause them to have babies that are less likely to survive. The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos. While some threatened and endangered species living in zoos reproduce successfully and maintain healthy populations, which doesn't appear to be the case with elephants." Currently, zoos alert consumers of elephants, not net producers," Mason says.

单选题Poor schooling was the Uroot/U of the unemployment problem.

单选题I enjoyed the play, because it had a clever plot and very funny dialogues.

单选题The eruption of Mount Saint Helens attracted a large number of foreign tourists.

单选题The company {{U}}recommended{{/U}} that a new petrol station (should) be built here.

单选题Please give my best wishes to your family.A. noticeB. attentionC. regardsD. cares

单选题Rodman met with Tony to try and settle the dispute over his contract.

单选题These old buildings are Ugorgeous/U.

单选题The Hubble Space Telescope helps scientists to understand the nature of the universe.

单选题How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed mental powers, in most cases, may end up with a faulty and inexact command. What accounts for this difference? Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself, partly in the behavior of the people around him. In the first place, the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favorable of all, namely, the first years of life. A child hears it spoken from morning till night and, what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation, right use of words and right structure. He drinks in all the words and expressions which come to him in a flesh, ever—bubbling spring. There is no resistance: there is perfect assimilation. "Accounts for" in the last sentence of the first paragraph can be best replaced withA. makes forB. excuses forC. explainsD. tells

单选题The dentist has decided to extract her bad tooth. A. take out B. break off C. push in D. dig up

单选题The trumpet was part of the opera orchestra long before it became a standard orchestral instrument.

单选题How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed mental powers, in most cases, may end up with a faulty and inexact command. What account for this difference? What may happen in most eases when a grow-up tries to learn a foreign language?A. He succeeds in a complete mastery of the language.B. He develops full knowledge of the language.C. He develops an inexact command of the language.D. He confuses his mother tongue with the foreign languag

单选题If you find and cure everybody who has the disease, you can Ucurb/U the epidemic in its tracks.

单选题We"re happy to report that business is booming this year.

单选题The little girl grasped her mother"s hand as she crossed the street.