题目内容
Crime (罪行) has its own cycles, a magazine reported some years ago. Police records that were studied for five years from over 2 400 cities and towns show a surprising link between changes in the season and crime patterns.
The pattern (模式) of crime has varied very little over a long period of years. Murder reaches its high point during July and August, as do rape (强奸案) and other violent (猛烈的) attacks. Murder, besides, is more than seasonal: it is a weekend crime. It is also a nighttime crime: 62 percent of murders are committed between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m.
Unlike the summer high in crimes of bodily harm, burglary (抢劫) has a different cycle. You are most likely to be robbed between 6 p. m. and 2 a. m. on a Saturday night in December, January, or February. The most uncriminal month of all is May except for one strange statistic. More dog bites are reported in this month than in any other month of the year.
Obviously our intellectual (智力的) seasonal cycles are completely different from out criminal tendencies (倾向). Professor Huntington, of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, made careful studies to discover the seasons when people read serious books, attend scientific meetings, make the highest scores in examinations, and propose the most changes to patents (专利). In all instances, he found a spring peak (高峰) and an autumn peak separated by a summer low. On the other hand, Professor Huntington's studies show that June is the peak month for suicides (自杀) and admissions to mental hospitals. June is also a peak month for marriages!
Possibly, high temperatures and high humidity (湿度) bring on our strange and terrifying summer actions, but police officials are not sure. “There is of course, no proof of a connection between humidity and murder,” they say. “Why murder's high time should come in the summertime we really don't know.”
(1) The main idea of paragraph 1 is ________.
[ ]
A．there is a link between changes in the seasons and crime patterns.
B．crime is not linked to the changes in season.
C．2400 towns were studied for five years.
D． the crime patterns have no connections with summer.
(2) The subject of paragraph 2 is ________.
[ ]
(3) In Paragraph 3 what is the one strange statistic (数据) of May?
[ ]
A．There are more robberies in May.
B．There are more dog bites in May.
C．There is the most crime in May.
D．There are most marriages in May.
(4) In paragraph 4, a graph for our intellectual cycles might look like this:
W = winter Sp = spring Su = summer A = autumn (见P93上图)
(5) The information in paragraph 5 says: ________.
[ ]
A．There may be a connection between murder and hot weather.
B．There is surely a connection between murder and hot weather.
C．There is no connection between murder and hot weather.
D．There must be a connection between cold weather and murder.
We do not know when man first began to use salt, but we do know that it has been used in many different ways throughout history. Historical evidence shows, for example, that people who lived over 3,000 years ago ate salted fish. Thousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used to preserve (保存) the dead.
Stealing salt was considered a major crime (罪行) during some periods of history. In the eighteenth century, for example, if a person was caught stealing salt, he could be put in prison and his ears could be cut off.
In the Roman Empire, one of the most important roads was the one that carried salt from the salt mines to Rome. Guards were stationed along the route to protect against salt thieves, and they received their pay in salt, thus bringing the English word, salary. Any guard who fell asleep while on duty was thought to be “not worth his salt”, and as a result he would get a little less salt on his next payday. The expression, “not worth his salt”, is still used today in English.
In the modern world salt has many uses beyond the dining table. It is used in making glass and airplane parts, in the growing of crops, and in the killing of weeds (杂草). It is also used to make water soft, to melt (融化) ice on roads and highways, to make soap, and to fix colors in cloth.
Salt can be got in various ways besides being taken from mines underground. Salt water from the ocean, salt water lakes or small seas can be used to make salt. Yet, no matter where it comes from, salt will continue to play an important role in the lives of people everywhere.
【小题1】According to the text, salt can be used in the following EXCEPT _____.
| A．keeping dead bodies |
| B．punishing thieves |
| C．protecting crops |
| D．making industrial products |
| A．protect the city of Rome |
| B．watch people carrying salt |
| C．prevent thieves from stealing salt |
| D．carry salt from the mines to Rome |
| A．fails to do his work well |
| B．should not be paid in salt |
| C．doesn’t want to work at all |
| D．should use less salt |
| A．how salt was found and got |
| B．salt is important in people’s life |
| C．salt was difficult to get in the past |
| D．what salt brings to the English language |
With the possible exception of equal rights, perhaps the most heated argument across the United States today is the death penalty (死刑). Many argue that it is an effective deterrent (威慑) to murder（谋杀）, while others think there is no enough proof that the death penalty reduces the number of murders. The argument advanced by those who are against the death penalty is that it is cruel and inhuman punishment, that it is a mark of a bad society and finally that it is of questionable effectiveness as a deterrent (威慑物) to crime (罪行) anyway.
In our opinion, the death penalty is a necessary action. Throughout recorded history there have always been those peculiar persons in every society who made terrible crimes such as murder. But some are more dangerous than others. For example, it is one thing to take the life of another in time of blind anger, but quite another to coldly plan and carry out the murder of one or more people in the style of a butcher. Thus, murder, like all other crimes, is a matter of different degree. While it could be argued with some reason that the criminal in the first instance should be merely kept from society, such should not be the fate of the latter type murderer.
The value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime may be open to discussion. But the majority of people believe that the death penalty protects them. Their belief is proved by the fact that the death penalty prevents murder. For example, from 1954 to 1963, when the death penalty was carried out from time to time in California, the murder rate remained between three and four murders for each 100, 000 population. Since 1964 the death penalty has been done only once, and the murder rate has risen to10.4 murders for each 100, 000 population. The sharp climb in the state's murder rate, which began when killings stopped, does not happen by chance. It certainly shows that the death penalty does stop many murderers. If the law about death penalty is vetoed (否决), some people will be murdered----some whose lives may have been saved if the death penalty were in effect. This is really a life or death matter. The lives of thousands of people must be protected.
【小题1】The main purpose of this passage is to _________.
| A．speak for the majority |
| B．argue against the value of the death penalty |
| C．speak ill of the government |
| D．argue for the value of the death penalty |
| A．Air pollution. | B．The war against Iraq. |
| C．Equal rights. | D．Election of president. |
| A．if they stick to death penalty, the number of murders will be reduced |
| B．death penalty almost stopped from 1954 to 1963 |
| C．the population of California has risen |
| D．death penalty is of little value |
| A．the death penalty is the most important problem in the United States today |
| B．the second type of murderers (in Paragraph 2) should be sentenced to death |
| C．the veto of the law about death penalty is of little importance |
| D．the value of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime is not to be discussed |