试卷详情
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考研英语-524
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[单项选择]Timothy Berners-Lee, might be giving Bill Gates a run for the money, but he passed up his shot at fabulous wealth -- intentionally--in 1990. That’s when he decided not to patent the technology used to create the most important software innovation in the final decade of the 20th century: the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee wanted to make the world a richer place, not amass personal wealth. So he gave his brainchild to us all.
Berners-Lee regards today’s Web as a rebellious adolescent that can never fulfill his original expectations. By 2005, he hopes to begin replacing it with the Semantic Web--a smart network that will finally understand human languages and make computers virtually as easy to work with as other humans.
As envisioned by Berners-Lee, the new Web would understand not only the meaning of words and concepts but also theological relationships among them. That has awesome potential. Most knowledge is built on two pillars: semantic and mathematics. In number-crunching, c
A. created the most important innovation in the 1990s.
B. accumulated as much personal wealth as Bill Gates.
C. patented the technology of Microsoft software
D. given his brainchild to us all.
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[单项选择]Positive surprises from government reports on retail sales, industrial production, and housing in the past few months are leading economists to revise their real gross domestic product forecasts upward, supporting the notion that the recession ended in December or January.
Bear in mind: This recovery won’t have the vitality normally associated with an upturn. Economists now expect real GDP growth of about 1. 5% in the first quarter. That’s better than the 0. 4% the consensus projected in December, but much of the additional growth will come from a slower pace of inventory drawdowns, not from surging demand.
Moreover, the economy won’t grow fast enough to help the labor markets much. The only good news there is that jobless claims have fallen back from their spike after September 11 and that their current level suggests the pace of layoffs is easing.
The recovery also does not mean the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates soon. The January price indexes show that inf
A. their government is announcing the end of a recession.
B. US economy is showing some signs of an upturn so soon.
C. some economic sectors have become leading industries.
D. they have to revise the product forecasts so often.
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[单项选择]
There is growing interest in East Japan Railway Co. , one of the six companies, created out of the (1) national railway system. In an industry lacking exciting growth (2) , its plan to use real-estate assets in and around train stations (3) is drawing interest.
In a plan dubbed "Station Renaissance" that it (4) in November, JR East said that it would (5) using its commercial spaces for shops and restaurants, extending them to (6) more suitable for the information age. It wants train stations as pick-up (7) for such goods, as books, flowers and groceries purchased (8) the Internet. In a country (9) urbanites depend heavily on trains (10) commuting, about 16 million people a day go to its train stations anyway, the company (11) . So, picking up purchases at train stations spare (12) extra travel and missed home deliveries.
JR East already has been using its station (13)
A. privatized
B. individualized
C. personalized
D. characterized -
[简答题]Directions:
You have received an invitation to the birthday party of your friend, Torn. But you can’t attend it. Write a letter to Tom to
1) thank him for the invitation,
2) give reasons why you can’t go,
3) apologize and express your wishes.
You should write about 100 words neatly on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.
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[单项选择]For more than two decades, U.S. courts have been limiting affirmative-action programs in universities and other areas. The legal rationale is that racial preferences are unconstitutional, even those intended to compensate for racism or intolerance. For many colleges, this means students can be admitted only on merit, not on their race or ethnicity. It has been a divisive issue across the U. S., as educators blame the prolonged reaction to affirmative-action for declines in minority admissions. Meanwhile, activists continue to battle race preferences in courts from Michigan to North Carolina.
Now chief executives of about two dozen companies have decided to plunge headfirst into this politically unsettled debate. They, together with 36 universities and 7 non-profitable organizations, formed a forum that set forth an action plan essentially designed to help colleges circumvent court-imposed restrictions on affirmative action. The CEOs’ motive: "Our audience is growing more diverse,
A. minorities no longer hold the once favored status.
B. the quality of American colleges has improved.
C. racial preferences has replaced racial prejudice.
D. the minority is on an equal footing with the majority.
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[简答题]
The value which society places on work has traditionally been closely associated with the value of individualism and as a result it has had negative effects on the development of social security. (46) It has meant that in the first place the amount of benefits must be small lest people’s willingness to work and support themselves suffers. Even today with flat rate and earnings-related benefits, the total amount of the benefit must always be smaller than the person’s wages for fear of malingering, "The purpose of social security," said Huntford referring to Sweden’s comparatively generous benefits, "is to dispel need without crossing the threshold of prosperity." (47) Second, social security benefits are granted under conditions designed to reduce the likelihood of even the boldest of spirits attempting to live on the State rather than work. Many of the rules surrounding the payment of unemployment or supplementary benefit are fo
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[单项选择]"I’ve never met a human worth cloning," says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from the cramped confines of his lab at Texas A & M University. "It’s a stupid endeavor.’ That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two calves and expect to clone a cat soon. They just might succeed in cloning Missy later this year--or perhaps not for another five years. It seems the reproductive system of man’s best friend is one of the mysteries of modem science.
Westhusin’s experience with cloning animals leaves him vexed by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missyplicity project, using hundreds upon hundreds of canine eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy’s DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted fetuse
A. Animal cloning is a stupid attempt.
B. Human cloning is not yet close to getting it worked out.
C. Cloning is too inefficient and should be stopped.
D. Animals cloning yes, and human cloning at least not now.
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[填空题]
The making of weathervanes (devices fixed on the top of buildings to show directions of the wind) is an ancient skill, going back to early Egyptian times. Today the craft is still very much alive in the workshop that Graham Smith has set up. He is one of the few people in the country who make hand-cut weathervanes. Graham’s designs are individually created and tailored to the specific requirements of his customers. "That way I can produce a unique personalized item," he explains, "A lot of my customers are women buying presents for their husbands. They want a distinctive gift that represents the man’s business or leisure interests."
It’s all a far cry from the traditional cock, the most common design for weathervanes.
It was not a cock but a witch on a broomstick that featured on the first weathervane Graham ever made. Friends admired his surprise present for his wife and began asking him to make vanes for them. "I realiz