Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought． Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way． The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though． As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best． Also at this time, sentences switched directions． A sentence read from left to right． The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc． The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They put something that can separate words in a sentence． The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.
When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points． The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading． Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation． He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence． He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause． Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗号).
Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family． The exclamation mark (感叹号) comes from the Latin word io． It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question． Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.
Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays． New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways． Take for example the “interrobang”． This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both． For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.
From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.
| A．good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks |
| B．a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece |
| C．ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks |
| D．the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times |
The passage is developed _______.
| A．by time | B．by space |
| C．by comparison | D．by importance |
We can learn from the passage that _______.
| A．ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks |
| B．exclamation and question marks came from Latin |
| C．spaces and slashes were already used before the 5thcentury |
| D．Aldus Manutius first started to use commas |
What can be concluded from the last paragraph?
| A．The combination of two marks will not work. |
| B．It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks. |
| C．Old punctuation marks need to be standardized. |
| D．Punctuation marks are still changing today. |
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If you want to buy an automobile business, you should call _____.
| A．3421577 | B．6560232 | C．9497221 | D．3328725 |
Who should Dora call?
| A．Trent. | B．Stein. | C．Walter. | D．Mrs. Meikle. |
Mrs. Meikle wants to _____.
| A．apply for a position | B．employ a working partner |
| C．run a business | D．show her talents in business |
How many selling ads are there in the chart?
| A．Four. | B．Six. | C．Eight. | D．Ten. |
The earth's biosphere (the surface layer of the planet and the surrounding atmosphere) provides the land, air, water, and energy necessary to sustain life. This life-support system is a complex, interdependent one in which energy from the sun is changed into food for humans. The entire system depends on the sun, reasonably moderate temperature, and enough supplies of oxygen, pure water, and fertile soil.
Since the earth's creation millions of years ago, the ecosystem has worked as an interdependent system relatively undisturbed by outside forces. But recently, especially since the Industrial Revolution, human beings have begun to disturb the balance of nature. Natural resources have been severely depleted (消耗) (forests have been destroyed, fertile land worn away, water polluted, and minerals used up), and the life-support system of air, water, and land has been poisoned by a variety of waste products and chemicals.
The degree of these problems was noted in a report by the U.N. Developing Council on Environmental Quality. This report predicted that if present trends continue, the world will be more crowded and polluted and less stable ecologically and politically than the world we live in now.
The twin problems of resource shortages and pollution are caused by three social forces. First, the tremendous increase in population growth constantly increases the demand for food, energy, and other products. As the current population continues to increase, the stress on an already overburdened environment will be increased．A second source of the problem is the concentration of people in urban areas, where the ecosystem simply cannot absorb their waste products. Finally, environmental problems are worsened as more and more nations move toward modem development: an increased reliance on modern technology. As these nations become more technological, they will consume more energy, deplete more natural resources, and create more waste products than the biosphere can absorb.The life-support system is composed of _____.
| A．air, water and land | B．the earth, the sun and energy |
| C．food, land and energy | D．food, energy and the sun |
The life-support system _____.
| A．change energy from the sun into food for humans |
| B．depends on the sun for enough supplies of air, water and land |
| C．exists in the surface layer of the earth and the surrounding atmosphere |
| D．is a complex but independent system |
The life-support system has been badly damaged by _____.
| A．natural forces | B．human activities | C．social movements | D．political changes |
The passage mainly talks about _____.
| A．the effects of Industrial Revolution on human beings |
| B．the importance of life-support system to human beings |
| C．the significance of balance of nature |
| D．the destruction of life-support system and its causes |
The Internet has opened up a whole new on-line world for us to meet, chat and go where we've never been before.
But just as in face-to-face communication, there are some basic rules of behavior that should be followed when online. The basic rule is simple: treat others in the same way you would want to be treated．Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes.
For anything you're about to send: ask yourself, "Would I say this to the person's face?" If the answer is no, rewrite and reread．Repeat the process till you feel sure that you'd feel comfortable saying the words to the person's face.
If someone in the chat room is rude to you, your instinct is to fire back in the same manner. But try not to do so. You should either ignore the person, or use your chat software to block their messages. If it was caused by a disagreement with another member, try to fix the situation by politely discussing it. Remember to respect the beliefs and opinions of others in the chat room.
Everyone was new to the network once. Offer advice when asked by newcomers, as they may not be sure what to do or how to communicate. When someone makes a mistake whether it's a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer be kind about it. If it's a small mistake, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before saying anything. Having good manners yourself doesn't give you license to correct everyone else.
If you do decide to tell someone about a mistake, point it out politely. At the same time, if you find you are wrong, be sure to correct yourself and apologize to those that you have offended.
It is not polite to ask others personal questions such as their age, sex, and marital status. Unless you know the person very well, and you are both comfortable with sharing personal information, don't ask such questions.When you send short messages to a person, you must _____.
| A．make sure that they mean no harm | B．read them again and again |
| C．say something good to hear | D．repeat them later to the person's face |
If you are hurt in the chat room by others, you should _____
| A．fight back in the same way | B．take them seriously |
| C．have none of them | D．be angry at them |
If a newcomer who communicates on line makes any mistakes, you _____.
| A．should point them out sharply |
| B．shouldn’t give any advice unless required by them |
| C．should say something about them |
| D．should take your responsibility to correct them |
This passage mainly tells us ______.
| A．some rules of Internet communication. | B．ways of sending messages |
| C．rules of the chat room | D．ways of making friends on the Internet |
While drunken driving may be on the decline, traffic safety experts remain puzzled over how to deal with another alcoholrelated danger: drunken pedestrains.
Pedestrians struck and killed by cars often are extremely drunk. In fact, they are intoxicated more frequently-and with higher bloodalcohol levels-than drunken drivers who are killed in accidents, various studies have shown. Forty percent of adult pedestrians involved in fatal crashes have a bloodalcohol level of at least 0.10-which by law in most states signifies intoxication-compared to only 25 percent of drivers in deadly accidents, according to recent federal data.
Some types of pedestrain accidents have been declining nationally, especially those involving children, but the number of adult pedestrians who are drunk when killed in traffic has remained relatively steady at 2500 a year. The total number of pedestrians killed annually in U.S. traffic accidents is at least 7000, or one of every seven highway accidents resulting in death.
“We’re dealing here, we think, with a very severe drinking problem that leads to a severe highway safety problem,” said Richard Blomberg, president of Dunlap and Associates Inc, in Norwalk, Coon.
Blomberg, whose consulting company found a very high rate of alcohol involvement in a controlled study of pedestrian accidents in New Orleans, was among several researchers who spoke on the topic at the annual meeting of the Research council’s Transportation Research Board(TRB) in Washington in January.
Pedestrian accidents have not received enough attention in the past, according to Kay Colpitts, who chairs the board’s committee on pedestrians. Few methods exist to monitor walking habits, she said, and researchers have been mystified about how to prevent disasters.
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Traffic Safety. | B．Drunken Drivers. |
| C．Drunken Pedestrian Accidents. | D．A Severe Highway Safety problem. |
.Among the causes of walkers’ accidents, the most serious problem is .
| A．long delays in traffic signals that may make people cross streets without paying attention to traffic rules |
| B．alcohol |
| C．a lack of adult keeping eyes on many children involved in accidents |
| D．former drunken drivers whose licenses are not allowed to use for a time |
According to recent federal data, drunken drivers with an over 0.10 bloodalcohol level in deadly accidents .
| A．are 15 percent less than drunken adult walkers with the same level |
| B．are 2500 a year |
| C．are at least 7000 in US traffic accidents |
| D．make up oneseventh of highway accidents |
According to the passage, what is Blomberg?
| A．A researcher. | B．A specialist in traffic safety. |
| C．A clerk of a consulting company. | D．A government official |
A strong wind can be a dangerous thing — sometimes it is powerful enough to knock you off your feet. But to plants, the wind is a source of new life, carrying them or their spores (孢子) thousands of miles.
A NASA satellite called QuikSCAT has discovered highways of wind over the Earth's oceans. Scientists believe these invisible roads may explain why many nonflowering plants, such as mosses (苔) and lichens (地衣), grow where they do.
The satellite is able to send microwaves (微波) from space to the surface of the ocean. The pattern of signals that come back shows which way the winds are blowing.
Using this data, the scientists studied a group of islands in the southern hemisphere (半球), near Antarctica．Winds tend to blow anticlockwise (逆时针) in this region, but there are lots of local differences.
When the researchers compared these local patterns to botanical (植物学) data, they found that the wind had an important effect on where species of mosses, lichens, and other nonflowering plants grow.
For example, Bouvet Island and Heard Island, share 30 per cent of their moss species, 29 per cent of liverworts (叶苔), and 32 per cent of lichens — even though they are 4,430 kilometers apart. In contrast, Gough Island and Bouvet Island, separated by just 1,860 kilometers of sea, share only 16 per cent of mosses and 17 per cent of liverworts. They have no lichens in common.
Ferns (蕨类植物) and flowering plants don't travel as well in the wind, so they don't show the same kinds of distribution (分布) patterns.This story is about _____.
| A．the discovery of wind highways | B．how wind travels |
| C．how wind affects different plants | D．one function of the wind |
The underlined word "data" in the fourth paragraph means _____.
| A．signal | B．pattern | C．information | D．research |
Which of the following is wrong?
| A．Bouvet Island, Heard Island and Gough Island are all in the southern hemisphere. |
| B．Winds in the researched area blow anti-clockwise. |
| C．The scientists shouldn't base this research on how winds affect where ferns grow. |
| D．Without the discovery of QuikSCAT, the research wouldn't have made sense. |
Which of the following diagrams shows the correct position of the islands?
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