Watch out, Yahoo．There’s search engine out there with super speed and accuracy．It’s really cool．
Google is the Web’s largest search engine．In just two years it has gained a reputation for surprising speed and accuracy, delivering exactly what you’re looking for in a second．The site now does this 40 million times a day – a number achieved without spending a penny on a TV or newspaper ad．
Google doesn’t need them．In the past six months alone, the site has won a Webby （the online version of the Oscar） for technical excellence, set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages．
Yahoo still has 10 times the audience, but Google consistently ranks first in customer satisfaction: 97% of users find what they’re looking for most or all the time．“You see people smile when they use it, like they’ve found something no one else knows about,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of an online newsletter．
No one is smiling more than Larry Page, 27, and Sergey Brin, 26, who seem certain to become billionaires when the company goes public, probable sometime next year．They make a great comedy duo．When they first met as Ph． D．students, the pair say, they found each other horrible – “I still find him horrible,” adds Brin – but were driven together by a computer – science project aimed at coming up with better ways of searching the Web．
The idea behind Google is that traditional search engines are stupid．They think relevance is based on repetition; if you type in a request for Tiger Woods, say, you’ll get websites listed according to how many times those words appear．Not only is this no guarantee of quality, but it’s also open to abuse．If you own a Tiger fan site and want to lead more people to it, simply type his name thousands of times in the site’s source code．The first paragraph serves to ．
| A．compare two websites | B．bring out the topic |
| C．put blame on Yahoo | D．give the background of the topic |
What does the underlined word “then” in the third paragraph refer to?
| A．40 million times． | B．Achievements． |
| C．TV and newspaper ads． | D．Web pages． |
Which of the following wins greater customer satisfaction?
| A．Yahoo． | B．Google． | C．Page． | D．Brin． |
It can be inferred that Page and Brin ．
| A．work for Google | B．are Tiger fans |
| C．hated each other | D．work for Yahoo |
●●●
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is likely to visit China at an “ appropriate” time this year, a senior Chinese military official said on Monday. Colonel Tu Qiming, director of the American and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Office at the National Defence Ministry, made the remark during Sino -US defence talks this week. This is the first ever “special defence policy dialogue” between the two defence ministries, according to the Chinese military.
●●●
FRANCES Agriculture Ministry has confirmed (证实) the first case of mad cow disease detected in a goat last Friday. The goat killed in 2002 tested positive for mad cow disease. It is the first case in the world of the fatal disease being found in an animal other than a bovine. The human form of mad cow disease causes brain - wasting, personality change, loss of body function, and ends in death. The European Commission has not advised any change in farming and consuming goats, said the French Ministry in a statement published last Friday.
●●●
MOBILE phone sales hit a new record in 2004, with some 684 million units sold around the world, the US research institute Strategy Analytics said on Thursday. The number represents an increase of 32 per cent over 2003, when 571 million units were sold. Strategy Analytics predicts a more modest rise of 8 per cent for this year, to 735 million. Finnish cellphone provider Nokia stayed out in front in 2004, with sales of 207.6 million units, giving it a market share of 30.4 per cent. Motorola moved to No 2, just ahead of the South Korean company Samsung.
●●●
SIX male penguins (雄企鹅) at a German zoo are proving stubbornly resistant to females brought in from Sweden to make them into breeding (繁殖). Of the ten male penguins at the zoo, six have formed into " homosexual" couples and have shown no interest in the females, making breeding an impossibility. So the zoo imported the four female penguins from Sweden last month, full of hope that the new arrivals could “turn” the males. But so far, the boys are remaining strictly with the boys.How many countries are mentioned in the pieces of news?
| A．Six. | B．Five. | C．Three. | D．Seven. |
From the fourth piece of news we know that ．
| A．the scientists haven’t succeeded in doing their experiment |
| B．the scientists have successfully got six female penguins into breeding |
| C．the Sweden girls made the boys show interest in them |
| D．German boys don’t like Sweden boys |
Which of the following are the suitable headlines for the pieces of news?
| A．a. US Defence Secretary Visit Likely | B．a. US Defence Secretary Visit Likely b. France Confirms 'Mad Goat" Caseb. France Confirms ' Mad Goat" Case c. Nokia Stays on Topc. Mobile Phone Sales d. Male Penguins and Female Penguinsd. Birds of a Feather |
| C．a. Defence Policy Dialogue | D．a. Sino - US Talks |
b. Mad Goat Disease b. Mad Goat Case
c. Mobile Phone Sales c. Motorola' s Sales Reduced
d. Importing Female Penguins d. Boys and Girls
“Keep an eye on Esther. I’ll be back in a second,” Joy Warren said to her three-year-old son Stephen, who was sitting in the back of the Buick. She didn’t like leaving the children alone in the car, but the baby was sleeping soundly. And it would only be a moment.
She had hardly walked 40 yards when she saw the car moving. It headed straight towards the river. Unable to swim, Joy shouted, “My babies are in that car!”
Daniel Whitehead, a 17-year-old student, was walking by the river when the Buick crashed into the water just yards ahead .Without thinking, Daniel jumped in. Though a competitive swimmer, he was shocked by the icy chill.
Two minutes earlier, Skip Womack had pulled to a halt as the Buick ran in front of him. Now seeing it hit the water and hearing Joy’s cries, Skip got out of his truck and jumped into the water. He had only one thought: If I don’t get them out, they’ll drown.
Daniel reached the car and grabbed a door handle. But the water was only four inches beneath the window, and the door wouldn’t open. With one powerful punch, Daniel and Skip broke a window. Daniel reached inside and lifted Stephen out. He placed him on his back and set out for shore. At the same time, Skip squeezed himself through the window .He managed to free Esther from beneath her seat belt. After he got out of the car with the baby, he held her over the water and swam toward the shore. All this took place just seconds before the Buick disappeared beneath the water.
Later, driving home, Skip thought of his wife and children—how close he’d come to leaving them behind. He thought of the miracle he’d lived through, and how two children were still alive because he and Daniel happened to be in the right place at the right time.Why did Joy leave her children in the car?
| A．He did not like shopping with a child in hand. |
| B．She didn’t like waking up her baby. |
| C．Stephen was big enough to take care of his sister. |
| D．It was icy cold outside. |
Daniel and Skip, who saved the lives of the two kids, _____.
| A．had been good friends |
| B．were two close friends of Joy Warren’s |
| C．were Joy Warren’s neighbors |
| D．were strangers before the accident |
How did Daniel get Stephen out of danger?
| A．He squeezed into the car and carried him out. |
| B．He pulled him out through the broken window. |
| C．He freed him from his seatbelt before he got him out. |
| D．He held him over the water and swam back to shore. |
What happened to Joy Warren’s Buick?
| A．It had four inches of water in it. |
| B．One of its windows could not be opened. |
| C．It was pulled out of water and set on the shore. |
| D．It sank to the bottom of the river. |
How did Skip feel in his way home?
| A．He felt lucky to be still alive after having saved the lives of two kids. |
| B．He missed his wife and children, whom he left behind in the morning. |
| C．He felt very thankful to Daniel, without whom he would not have made it. |
| D．He wondered how he and Daniel could be in the right place at the right time. |
Treasure hunts have excited people’s imagination for hundreds of years both in real life and in books such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Is-land. Kit Williams, a modern writer, had the idea of combining the real excitement of a treasure hunt with clues found in a book when he wrote a children’s story, Masquerade, in 1979. The book was about a hare, and a month before it came out Williams buried a gold hare in a park in Bedfordshire. The book contained a large number of clues to help readers find the hare, but Williams put in a lot of “red herrings”, or false clues, to mislead them.
Ken Roberts, the man who found the hare, had been looking for it for nearly two years. Although he had been searching in the wrong area most of the time, he found it by logic，not by luck. His success came from the fact that he had gaine4d an important clue at the start. He had realized that the words: “One of Six to Eight” under the first picture in the book connected the hare in some way to Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII’s six wives. Even here, however, Williams had succeeded in misleading him. Ken knew that Katherine of Aragon had died at Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire in 1536 and thought that Williams had buried the hare there. He had been digging there for over a year before a new idea occurred to him. He found out that Kit Williams had spent his childhood near Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, and thought that he must have buried the hare in a place he knew well, but he still could not see the connection with Katherine of Aragon, until one day he came across two stone crosses in Ampthill Park and learnt that they had been built in her honor in 1773.
Even then his search had not come to an end. It was only after he had spent several nights digging around the cross that he decided to write to Kit Williams to find out if he was wasting his time there. Williams encouraged him to continue, and on February 24th 1982, he found the treasure. It was worth 3000 in the beginning, but the excitement it had caused since its burial made it much more valuable.Which of the following describes Roberts’ logic in searching for the hare?
| A．Henry VIII’s six wives |
| B．Katherine’s burial place at Kimbolton |
| C．Williams’ childhood in Ampthill |
| D．Katherine of Argon |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．An exciting historical event. |
| B．A modern treasure hunt. |
| C．The attraction of Masquerade. |
| D．The importance of logical thinking. |
1996 Production of the United States
Director: Charles Russell
Major Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (As John Kruger)
Vanessa Williams (As Lee Cullen)
James Caan (As Robert Deguerin)
After Last Action Hero, Junior and True Lies have been warmly received by the whole world, the best known film actor Arnold Schwarzenegger once again stars as an unbeatable and witty tough man. Together with the pop star Vanessa Williams, he has made it among the 1996’s best movies as well as The Rock and Mission : Impossible. John Kruger, an agent for the Federal Witness Protection Program, is to protect Lee Cullen, an employee of the Cyrez Corporation. Cyrez is supposed to be developing technology for US defense, but they are secretly selling it to the Russian Mafia. Cullen has two computer disks as proof and she is willing to testify (作证). However the disks she gives to the Feds have disappeared and she herself is in danger. Kruger hides her in New York’s Chinatown. Robert Deguerin, Kruger’s director, turns out to be a spy for the Cyrez Corporation. He tries to cheat Kruger into taking them to Cullen. Kruger gets on the plane with Deguerin but gives him the wrong address. A gun battle is started and Kruger parachutes (跳伞) out of the plane. Kruger is reported to be a spy! He is forced to escape and finds Johnny and asks for his help. The three of them break into the Cyrez Corporation to read the disk. Deguerin and the others are waiting, but are outsmarted. In a shipyard of Baltimore, Deguerin and Kruger battle it out. The shipment is stopped and Kruger clears his name.The film is directed by _____.
| A．Michael Bay | B．Brian De Palma | C．Charles Russell | D．Robert Deguerin |
According to the introduction, Arnold Schwarzenegger once took an important part in the film _________.
| A．The Rock | B．True Lies | C．Mission: Impossible | D．All the above |
The Cyrez Corporation is unlawful because ______.
| A．it is developing technology for US defence. |
| B．It is secretly selling some disks to the Russian Mafia. |
| C．It is selling technology for US defence to others. |
| D．It is to protect witness for the Feds. |
Kruger, Johnny and Cullen break into the Cyrez Corporation in order to ______.
| A．steal the lost disk |
| B．find out where Deguerin is |
| C．stop the shipment |
| D．find some necessary information from the disk |
What does the underlined word “outsmart” mean?
| A．fool | B．kill | C．catch | D．find |
A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students. It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problem on arrival. This was followed by speaking. Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in. Reading remained as a significant(显著的) problem.
The information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course. Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonable motivation(动机), we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest. Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country. To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation, especially if it has failed in the past. Therefore a different method may help because it is different.
Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintaining(保持) or increasing motivation. Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout, but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest by about halfway through the ten weeks. This led us to a major re-think, so finally we brought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.What is the text mainly about?
| A．Foreign students have more problems. |
| B．There are many ways to improve English. |
| C．Teaching should meet students’ needs. |
| D．English learning problems should be studied again. |
Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students________.
| A．had to write their papers |
| B．became better at speaking |
| C．became less interested in reading |
| D．had fewer problems with listening |
We may infer from the last two paragraphs that ________.
| A．different teaching methods should be used |
| B．grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging |
| C．English courses are necessary for foreign students |
| D．teaching content should be changed halfway. |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号