Today, moving and changing are as much a part of a... - 搜题云问答

第1题

Few Americans remain in one position or one place for a lifetime. We moving from town to c

ity to suburb, from high school to college in a different state, from a job in one region to a better job elsewhere, from the home where we raise our children to the home where we plan to live in retirement. With each moving we are forever making new friends, who become part of our new life at that time.

For many of us summer is a special time for forming new friendships. Today millions of Americans vacation abroad, and they go not only to see new sights but also with the hope of meeting new people. No one really expects a vacation trip to produce a close friend, but the beginning of a friendship is possible.

The word "friend" can be applied to a wide range of relationships—to someone one has known for a few weeks in a new place, to a fellow worker, to a childhood playmate, to a man or woman, to a trusted confidant (知己) .

The reasons why many Americans move from place to place are as follows except______.

A．saving money

B．getting a better job

C．going to college

D．finding a place to spend the rest of the life

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第2题

Today the official language of the United States and most of Canada is English. However, F

rench almost became the official language because of a war.

The French and Indian War was fought between 1754 and 1763. The name of this war is not accurate because the war was actually between England and France. The Indians fought on the side of the French.

France and England were trying to gain control of North America. France held Canada, and England held part of what is now the United States. However, France tried to expand its land by moving southward into New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia. When the French built a fort on the Ohio, River, the residents in Virginia sent George Washington to attack the fort in 1754. However, the French defeated Washington.

The French, aided by the Indians, outsmarted the English and won many early battles. Later, the British began to do well against the French. In the final battle in Quebec, Canada, General Wolfe of England faced General Montcalm from France. Both generals died in this battle, but the English outlasted the French and won the battle. Thus, most of North America today has the English culture and language.

The word "gain" in Para. 3 means ______.

A．get

B．buy

C．lose

D．sell

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第3题

Television—that most attractive modern technology, marked by rapid change and growth—is mo

ving into a new era which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possible by the marriage of television and computer technologies.

The word "television" can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance. Very simply put, it works in this way: through a complete system of electronics, television provides the capability of converting an image into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These impulses, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be electronically reconstructed into that same image.

Television is more than just an electronics system, however. It is a means of expression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.

The field of television can be divided into two types. First, there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals. Second, there is non-broadcast television, which provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups through controlled transmission techniques.

Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. It has been with us for about thirty- seven years in a form. similar to what exists today. During those years, it has been controlled mostly by the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and CBS, who have been the major suppliers of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have actually not only shaped television as a source of entertainment, but placed our role in this active medium as the passive viewer.

What is the topic of the passage？

A．The role of television in today's society.

B．The marriage of broadcasting giants.

C．Recent changes in modern technology.

D．The content of broadcast television programs.

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第4题

Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by c

Part A

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

More Americans are cohabiting-living together out of wedlock—than ever. Some exports applaud the practice, but others warn playing house does not always lead to marital bliss. At one time in America, living together out of wedlock was scandalous. Unmarried spouses who "shacked up" were said to be "living in sin". Indeed, cohabitation was illegal throughout the country until about 1970. Today, statistics tell a different tale. The number of unwed couples living together has risen to a new high—more than 4.1 million as of March 1997, according to the Census Bureau. That figure was up from 3.96 million couples the previous year and represents a quantum leap from the 430,000 cohabiting couples counted in 1960.

The bureau found' that cohabiting is most prevailing in the 24—35 age group, accounting for 1.6 million such couples. Cohabitants claim they live together primarily to solidify their love and commitment to each other. Most intend to marry; only 13% of cohabitants do not anticipate legalizing their relationship. But the reality from many couples is different: Moving in does not lead to "happily ever after." Forty percent of cohabitants never make it to the altar. Of the 60% who do marry, more than half divorce within 10 years (compared with 30% of married couples who did not live together first). Cohabiting partners are more unfaithful and fight more often than married couples, according to research by the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society. Other studies have come to equally similar conclusions.

Still, experts predict the number of cohabiting couples is likely to increase. As the offspring of the baby boomer come of age, they are inclined to defer marriages, as did their parents. This will lead to more cohabitation and nontraditional families. Until people unearth that living together has pitfalls, it won't wane in popularity. Cohabiting has been portrayed with "careful neutrality" in the media, and Hollywood celebrities who move in and out of each other's homes set the standard.

But Warren Farrell, the San Diego-based author of Why Men Are the Way They Are, argues that living together is a good idea for a short period. "To make the jump from dating, when we put our best foot forward, to being married"—without showing each other the "shadow side of ourselves"—is to treat marriage frivolously, he says.

It can be seen from the passage that______.

A．experts hold an unanimously critical view on cohabitation

B．Americans are in general more tolerant of cohabitation

C．cohabitation rate actually dropped despite the increase in the number of unwed couples living together

D．living together out of wedlock is considered morally wrong today

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第5题

Television—that most pervasive and persuasive of modem technologies, marked by rapid chang

e and growth—is moving into a new era, an era of extraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape our lives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possibly by the marriage of television and computer technologies.

The world "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin (vision: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance. Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system of electronics, television provides the capacity of converting an image (focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera) into electronic impulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These impulse, when fed into a receiver (television set), can then be electronically reconstituted into that same image.

Television is more than just an electronic system, however. It is a means of expression as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes a powerful tool for reaching other human beings.

The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by its means of transmission. First there is broadcast television, which reaches the masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals. Second, there is nonbroadcast television, through which provides for the needs of individuals or specific interest groups through controlled transmission techniques.

Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are-most familiar with broadcast television because it has been with us for about forty-seven years in a form. similar to what exists today. During those years, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks, ABC, NBC and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news, information, and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have actually shaped not only television but our perception of it as well. We have come to look upon the picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing out role in this dynamic medium as the passive viewer.

With what topic is the passage primarily concerned？

A．Recent changes in modem technology.

B．The marriages of broadcasting giants.

C．The role of television in today's society.

D．The content of broadcast television programs.

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第6题

Have a look at Paragraphs 11 to 13 to find out the comparisons made between people who live with oth

ers and those who live alone. Then fill out the chart below.

Paras. 11-13

If you live with other people, their temporary absence can be refreshing. Solitude will end on Thursday. If today I use a singular personal pronoun to refer to myself, next week I will use the plural form. While the others are absent you can stretch out your soul until it fills up the whole room, and use your freedom, coming and going as you please without apology, staying up late to read, soaking in the bath, eating a whole pint of ice cream at one sitting, moving at your own pace. Those absent will be back. Their waterproof winter coats are in the closet and the dog keeps watching for them at the window. But when you live alone, the temporary absence of your friends and acquaintances leaves a vacuum; they may never come back.

The condition of loneliness rises and falls, but the need to talk goes on forever. It's more basic than needing to listen. Oh, we all have friends we can tell important things to, people we can call to say we lost our job or fell on a slippery floor and broke our arm. It's the daily succession of small complaints and observations and opinions that backs up and chokes us. We can't really call a friend to say we got a parcel from our sister, or it's getting dark earlier now, or we don't trust that new Supreme Court justice.

Scientific surveys show that we who live alone talk at length to ourselves and our pets and the television. We ask the cat whether we should wear the blue suit or the yellow dress. We ask the parrot if we should prepare steak, or noodles, for dinner. We argue with ourselves over who is the greater sportsman: that figure skater or this skier. There's nothing wrong with this. It's good for us, and a lot less embarrassing than the woman in front of us in line at the market who's telling the cashier that her niece Melissa may be coming to visit on Saturday, and Melissa is very fond of hot chocolate, which is why she bought the powdered hot chocolate mix, though she never drinks it herself.

If you live with other people, ________________________. (Para. 11)

When you live alone: ________________________. (Para. 11)

Supporting details: We need to talk to others. ________________________. (Para. 12)

Supporting details: People who live alone will behave ridiculously: ________________________. (Para. 13)

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第7题

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence （AI) predicted that, by the end of t

In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they're nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for humanlike behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid.

A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which nature came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field.

Imitating the brain's neural network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. "People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors", he explains, "but it's not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves. " Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain's capabilities stem from the pattern recognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build an artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills.

Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.

The author says that the powerful computers of today ______.

A．are capable of reliably recognizing the shape of an object

B．are close to exhibiting humanlike behavior

C．are not very different in their performance from those of the 50's

D．still cannot communicate with people in a human language

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第8题

Now that the damage inflicted by the Asian financial crisis looks like it was caused by an

economic neutron bomb. The crisis has hurt great numbers of people, but has left the main structures of the world economy standing. The worst of the direct impact may be over. Many of the hardest-hit countries are on the road to recovery, financial "contagion" has been contained and world economic growth seems set to pick up soon.

The most important development, however, is a non-event: the collapse of global capitalism has not occurred. Instead, the post-crisis world is likely to be even more market-oriented than the one that preceded it, with a proliferation of new rules and practices that will help markets to operate more smoothly. The countries recovering best, such as Thailand and South Korea, are doing so by moving further in a free-market direction. None of the affected nations has tried to isolate itself from the global economy, and the widely feared worldwide wave of protectionism has not yet materialized.

Nor has there been the great rethinking of economic globalization that some feared and others advocated. The critics of global capitalism pounced on the crisis as proof of globalization's fatal flaws. Their analyses often concluded that "there must be something better." On the contrary, economists have taken free-market principles as the starting point for new ideas, not called them into question.

There has been much criticism of the so-called Washington consensus—the traditional free-market orthodoxy that uniformly prescribes fiscal discipline, deregulation, and financial liberalization. Partly as a result of the crisis, a new consensus simply adds extra prescriptions—such as better financial supervision, labor market, etc.—to the list. It is an elaboration of the original consensus, not a new departure.

Numerous studies also show that engagement in the global economy leads to higher growth and helps to reduce poverty in developing countries. Today's economic arguments are not over fundamental free-market policies, but what must be done to supplement them. Likewise, the efforts to devise a new "international financial architecture" in the wake of the crisis, due to continue during the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, will not involve rebuilding the system from scratch. The aim is to make incremental improvements in financial rules and practices that will oil the wheels of the market system, not to trade it in for a non-existent new model.

What is the main idea of the first paragraph？

A．After the severe Asian Financial Crisis, the world economy began to recover.

B．Asian Financial Crisis is as devastating as a neutron bomb and causes great damage.

C．There are still direct and indirect impacts so that the economy cannot recover.

D．The direct impact of Asian Financial Crisis has gone.

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第9题

"There is a senseless notion that children grow up and leave home when they are 18, and th

e truth is far from that," says sociologist Lary Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin. Today, unexpected numbers of young adults are living with their parents. "There is a major shift in the middle class," declares sociologist Allasn Schnaiberg of Northwestern University, whose son, 19, moved back in after an absence of eight months.

Analysts cite a variety of reasons for this return to the nest. The marriage age is rising, a condition that makes home and its pleasantness particularly attractive to young people. A high divorce rate and a declining remarriage rate are sending economically pressed and emotionally hurt survivors back to parental shelters. For some, the expense of an away-from-home college education has become so excessively great that many students now attend local schools. Even after graduation, young people find their wings clipped by skyrocketing housing costs.

Living at home, says Knighton, a school teacher, continues to give her security and moral support. His mother agreed, "It's ridiculous for the kids to pay all that money for rent. It makes sense for kids to stay at home." But sharing the family home requires adjustments for all. There are the hassles over bathrooms, telephones and privacy. Some families, however, manage the delicate balancing act. But for others, it proves too difficult. Michelle Del Turco, 24, has been home three times—and left three times. "What I considered a social drink, my dad considered an alcohol problem," she explains. "He never liked anyone I dated, so I either had to hide away or meet them at friends' houses."

Just how long should adult children live with their parents before moving on？ Most psychologists feel lengthy homecomings are a mistake. Children, struggling to establish separate identities, can end up with "a sense of inadequacy, defeat and failure." And aging parents, who should be enjoying, some financial and personal freedom, find themselves stuck with responsibilities. Many agree that brief visits, however, can work beneficially.

According to the text, there was once a trend in the U.S.______

A．for middle class young adults to stay with their parents

B．for young adults to leave their parents and live independently

C．for married young adults to move back home after a lengthy absence

D．for young adults to get jobs nearby in order to live with their parents

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Today, moving and changing are as much a part of a modern business way of life as they are