I played a racquetball game against my cousin Ed last week. It was one of the most   1   and tiring games I've ever had. When Ed first phoned and   2   we play. I laughed quietly, figuring on an   3   victory all. Ed's idea of   4   has always been nothing more   5   than lifting a fork to his mouth,   6   I can remember, Ed's been the least physically fit member in the family, and   7    proud of himself. His big stomach has always ballooned out between his T-shirt and trousers. Although the family often   8   about that I'd refused to buy a   9   T-shirt or to lose weight. So when Ed  10   for our game not only with the bottom of his shirt gathered inside his trousers but also with a stomach you could hardly  11   , I was so surprised that I was   12   . My cousin must have made an effort to get himself into shape.   13   , at the point in our game when I'd have predicted (预计) the score to be about 9 to 1 in my favor, it was   14   7 to 9 and Ed was  15   . The sudden realization was painful. We   16   to play like two mad men. When the score was 16 up. I was having serious   17   about staying alive until 21 years old, let alone    18   that many points. When the game finally ended, both of us were lying flat on our backs, too tired to   19   . In a way, I think we both won. I the game, but cousin Ed my  20

1. A. encouraging         B. hopeless           C. surprising         D. regular

2. A. declared             B. mentioned     C. persuaded         D. suggested

3. A. unforgettable          B. unexpected         C. easy             D. early

4. A. exercise             B. preparation         C. joy               D. fitness

5. A. time-saving          B. comfortable           C. suitable            D. effort-making

6. A. As soon as           B. As long as         C. When       D. Since

7. A. strangely            B. personally         C. reasonably          D. eagerly

8. A. cared               B. forgot            C. quarreled          D. joked

9. A. clean               B. larger             C. straight            D. darker

10. A. set out             B. got ready          C. arrived                D. returned

11. A. notice              B. admire            C. believe           D. measure

12. A. nervous                B. curious           C. careless            D. speechless

13. A. After all            B. As a result          C. Above all          D. At last

14. A. mistakenly          B. then             C. instead                D. naturally

15. A. leading             B. coming           C. waiting           D. counting

16. A. pretended           B. stopped            C. continued         D. decided

17. A. thoughts            B. doubts            C. situations          D. problems

18. A. scoring            B. completing          C. receiving          D. keeping

19. A. play               B. start             C. sleep              D. move

20. A. friendship           B. respect           C. support        D. favor

 

Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years—and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times—are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?

The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deduction—by steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.

A failure to employ or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observation—these are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or the moderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.

The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of “facts” and “theories” or “facts” and “ideas”—in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latter—proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts and theories are not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are facts—a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.

Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. To convert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the full characteristics of a fact.

     The title that best expresses the ideas of this passage is

[A]. Philosophy of mathematics.              [B]. The Recent Growth in Science.

[C]. The Verification of Facts.                [C]. Methods of Scientific Inquiry.

According to the author, one possible reason for the growth of science during the days of the ancient Greeks and in modern times is

[A]. the similarity between the two periods.

[B]. that it was an act of God.

[C]. that both tried to develop the inductive method.

[D]. due to the decline of the deductive method.

     The difference between “fact” and “theory”

[A]. is that the latter needs confirmation.

[B]. rests on the simplicity of the former.

[C]. is the difference between the modern scientists and the ancient Greeks.

[D]. helps us to understand the deductive method.

     According to the author, mathematics is

[A]. an inductive science.           [B]. in need of simple verification.

[C]. a deductive science.            [D]. based on fact and theory.

     The statement “Theories are facts” may be called.

[A]. a metaphor.                  [B]. a paradox.

[C]. an appraisal of the inductive and deductive methods.

[D]. a pun.

I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves.One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community.Both had died “full of years”, as the Bible would say.Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, “If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today.It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “If only I hadn’t insisted on my mother’s going to Florida, she would be alive today.That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take.It’s my fault that she’s dead.”
You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty.Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course — keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation — would have turned out better.After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty.The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens.That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen.It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault.The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.
A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it.He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks.He cries, and someone comes to attend to him.When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him.Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.
【小题1】The author had to hold the two women’s funerals probably because __________________.

A.he wanted to comfort the two families
B.he was an official from the community
C.he had great pity for the deceased
D.he was priest of the local church
【小题2】People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because _______________________.
A.they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow
B.they believe that they were responsible
C.they had neglected the natural course of events
D.they didn’t know things often turn out in the opposite direction
【小题3】According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that ______.
A.everything in the world is predetermined
B.the world can be interpreted in different ways
C.there’s an explanation for everything in the world
D.we have to be sensible in order to understand the world
【小题4】What’s the main idea of the passage?
A.Life and death is an unsolved mystery.
B.Every story should have a happy ending.
C.Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault.
D.In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away .

After a 15-year ban on the sale of fireworks in Beijing, Kang Guoliang, 51, was able to start his old trade again yesterday.

As a salesman in Xinhui store in Dongcheng District, he is happy about the increasing number of buying fireworks wrapped in red paper — a color standing for happiness and good luck.

“Fireworks are available for the first time in town for more than a decade,” Kang said happily.“People will buy them.”

The store has 300 boxes of fireworks piled up and is open 24 hours at the moment.Residents are buying the fireworks and firecrackers for the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on February 18.

Citywide, 2,116 registered stores and retailers, 585 in the centre and 1,600 on the outskirts are trading fireworks in the Chinese capital.Sales of fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road started yesterday and will last until March 4, Xinhua reported.Among the stores, 117 stores are permitted to operate 24 hours.About 600,000 boxes of firecrackers worth more than 100 million yuan have been carried to registered stores.

The Chinese capital began a ban in 1993 to reduce fireworks-related deaths and fires during the holiday season.Last September the ban was removed in response to residents’ fondness for fireworks when celebrating Spring Festival.

According to new rules, Beijing residents are allowed to set off fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road all day on Lunar New Year’s Eve and Lunar New Year’s day, from 7 a.m.to midnight every day from February 19 to March 4.

“Spring Festival without fireworks is not Spring Festival,” said Sheng Hefei, who was buying fireworks in the store.“It was fun to light the firecrackers when I was little,” he said.“The sound and view of fireworks make a real holiday.” However, not all residents welcome the return of firecrackers because of injuries, pollution and noise.“My child is scared of the sudden sound of firecrackers, and it is annoying to hear it all night long,” complained Lu Jun, a local resident.

(China Daily02/11/2008)

1.The passage is likely to belong to a(n)__________?

A.description

B.argument

C.advertisement

D.news report

2.What’s the main idea of the passage?

A.Beijing fireworks sales start after a 15-year ban.

B.People go to buy fireworks and firecrackers every where in Beijing.

C.Beijing residents all welcome the return of firecrackers.

D.Many stores began to sell fireworks and firecrackers.

3.We can learn from the passage that ____________.

A.every Spring Festival falls on February 18

B.Beijing residents can set off fireworks everywhere .

C.fireworks are allowed to be sold because people like them.

D.from February 19 to March 4, Beijing residents can set off fireworks twenty four hours every day.

4.What is the writer’s attitude towards the sales of fireworks in Beijing?

A.Negative

B.Not mentioned

C.Positive

D.Satisfactory

 

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