题目内容
Passage Sixteen (Mules)
Although the top men in smuggling business must work together, most of a syndicate’s small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.
Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.
Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”
1.What is a “mule”?
A.A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.
B.A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.
C.A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.
D.A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.
2.The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to
A.if he is arrested.
B.if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.
C.if he is recognized and arrested.
D.if he runs away.
3.Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?
A.To show how a smuggler is caught.
B.To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.
C.To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.
D.To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.
4.how does a mule work?
A.Jointly.
B.Independently.
C.consciously.
D.Separately.
1---4 CBDD
解析这是一篇介绍走私分子(绰号为骡子)的文章,采用一般到具体的写作手法。先从走私集团对具体走私分子实行单线,单方面联系,分配任务,以免他被逮住后出卖更多的人,危及走私集团。接货地点的人根据各集团自制的识别标志“会员联系信号带”和走私者联系。随后是具体培训走私分子,防范措施及出岔子等一般面谢佐以具体例子作说明,如:贝鲁特走私集团培训和从伦敦运送美金到法兰克福的事件。
1.C mule,骡子是为走私集团交货人的称呼,绰号。
A. 是为走私集团具体运送走私货物的人。只运送,不交货不能成为骡子。B.负责走私货物的人。也不对,负责者不一定运送和交货。D.从走私者那里接受指示的人。更不对。
2.B blown原义为:欠账了的,被炸毁的,坏了等。这里指:走私分子在过海关,机场检查处出事,不一定被逮捕。
A.逮捕。C.认出,逮捕。D.逃跑。都不符合blown原义。
3.D 说明走私分子会把利益归己。最后一段第一句“有时,走私分子带着货物逃跑,把利益归己”。走私集团为防范此事,常常派遣高级人物监视走私人,特别是新走私者,也于事无补。这段的具体例子:“走私者和委托人同机飞行,到法兰克福机场,9万美金也是不翼而飞,走私者已经捞到手。”就是说明走私者可以为自己留下财路。
A.走私者被捕之事,例子中没有提及。B.走私者不去警察局报案,并不易定是害怕警察局,而是报不了。C.监督毫无用处。是副线。
4.D单个干。这在第一段一开始就点明:“走私商的上层人物(头面人物)必须一起工作,而大多数辛迪加的小组织,特别是走私分子,他们只知道他们的直接联系人。一旦他们被逮捕,就没有什么可以出卖的。一个骡子甚至连给他指示的人的姓名都不知道,也不知道如何和此人联系”。
A.共同干。B.独立干,走私分子不是独立,大多数是在监督之下。C.有意识地干,上下都是有意识地干。
Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 9, 6. Read them loud. Now look away and spend 20 seconds memorizing them in order before saying them out loud again. If you speak English, you have about a 50% chance of remembering those perfectly. If you are Chinese, though, you’re almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because we most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within a two-second period. And unlike English, the Chinese language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.
That example comes from Stanislas Dahaene’s book The Number Sense. As Dahaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be spoken out in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English pronunciations are longer. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.
It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one might expect that we would also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen. But we don’t. We use a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen. For numbers above 20, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second (twenty-one, twenty-two), while for the teens, we do it the other way around (fourteen, seventeen, eighteen). The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan, and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten-one. Twelve is ten-two. Twenty-four is two-tens-four and so on.
That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children. Four-year-old Chinese children can count, on average, to 40. American children at that age can count only to 15. By the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian friends in the most fundamental of math skills.
The regularity of their number system also means that Asian children can perform basic functions, such as addition, far more easily. Ask an English-speaking seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty-two in her head, and she has to change the words to numbers (37+22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two-tens-two, and then the necessary equation(等式) is right there, in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: it’s five-tens-nine.
When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have a built-in advantage. For years, students from China, South Korea, and Japan --- outperformed their Western classmates at mathematics, and the typical assumption is that it has something to do with a kind of Asian talent for math. The differences between the number systems in the East and the West suggest something very different --- that being good at math may also be rooted in a group’s culture.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.The Asian number-naming system helps grasp advanced math skills better. |
B.Western culture fail to provide their children with adequate number knowledge. |
C.Children in Western countries have to learn by heart the learning things. |
D.Asian children’s advantage in math may be sourced from their culture. |
A.Their understanding of numbers. |
B.Their mother tongue. |
C.Their math education. |
D.Their different IQ. |
A.they pronounce the numbers in a shorter period |
B.they practice math from an early age |
C.English speaking children translate language into numbers first |
D.American children can only count to 15 at the age of four |