incomprehensible（）

implied in the pssge tht, prior to Newton, ______.men believed themselves to be of little vlue B．men were unble to cope with the chnging fctors in nture C．men understood nture but did notpply their knowledge D．men believed nture to be essentilly incomprehensible

A．men believed themselves to be of little value

B．men were unable to cope with the changing factors in nature

C．men understood nature but did not apply their knowledge

D．men believed nature to be essentially incomprehensible

Whether at home or in a restaurant, meals in Brazil are sacred(神圣的) ; a time to eat, but also to share precious moments with family and friends. Now, here's a Brazilian custom I miss enormously: a decent, sit-down, leisurely-paced lunch and/or dinner. To this day, I have to keep reminding myself, "what's the big hurry？ " and I confess that one of the things I look forward to, when I go to Brazil, is the "family" meal. We have a joke that, if you see people sitting around a table in the US, having lunch for longer than 1/2 hour, it must be a business lunch. And also, sitting at your desk and eating lunch while you work is incomprehensible to most Brazilians, who leave their offices to eat with their colleagues and friends in restaurants and cafes. You guess, lunch is usually a more substantial meal than in the U.S.

(68) For lunch and, depending on the location, also dinner, Brazilians have wonderful, inexpensive restaurants where home-style. meals are sold by kilo. You just pile the food on your plate and someone will weigh it for you. The same goes for desserts. You order drinks from your waiter and pay him at the end of your meal.

Dinner is served much later than in the U. S. In the big cities, children are a common sight in restaurants at night, since Brazilians will take their kids out to dinner at all hours. As a result of this and the traditional Sunday lunches, Brazilian kids learn table manners at an early age. For many of my Brazilian friends, dinner is a lighter meal of bread, cheese and cold cuts. So expect either type of meal.

In Brazil, people usually have meals______.

A．in a hurry at restaurants

B．in a leisurely manner

C．at their desk in the office

D．for less than 1/2 hour

so.Britain is, in fact, a nation which can be divided into several separate parts, each part being an individual country with its own language, character and cultural traditions.Thus Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales (and even Cornwall perhaps) do not claim to belong to “England” because their inhabitants are not strictly “English”.They are Scottish, Irish, Welsh (or Cornish) and many of them prefer to speak their own native tongue which in turn is incomprehensible(不可理解的) to the others.

These cultural minorities have been Britain's original inhabitants.In varying degrees they have managed to preserve their national identity, their particular customs and way of life.This is probably even more true of the remoter areas where traditional life has not been so affected by the growth of industrialism(工业化) as the border areas have been.The Celtic (凯尔特人) races are said to be more emotional by nature than the English.

An Irish temper is legendary.The Scots would rather forget about their reputation for excessive thrift (节俭) and prefer to be remembered for their ballads and dances, while the Welsh are famous for their singing.The Celtic temperament as a whole produces numerous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Burns, and Welsh Dylan Thomas, to mention but a few.

36.Some British people regard Britain as().

A.a single, unified country

C.a wholly Celtic country

B.a country of foreign cultures

D.an individualistic unit

37.“Their own native tongue” means().

A.the language of a foreign country

B.the language of their own country

C.the British way of speaking

D.a secret language

38.“A cultural minority” could be described as().

A.educated people who are few in number

B.people of the same race who are small in stature (身材)

C.members of ethic groups under the age of 12

D.small ethnic groups

39.According to the passage some cultural minorities have().

A.lost their individual character centuries ago

B.retained their individual character

C.lost count of their numbers

D.managed to preserve their English character

40.What may be one of the probable reasons for preservation of traditional life？ ()

A.Ethnic custom

B.A specialized life style

C.The growth of industrialism

D.Geographical isolation

n that enactment (扮演角色), performance, dramatization are the most successful forms of teaching. Students must be incorporated, made, so far as possible, an integral part of the learning process. The notion that learning should have in it an element of inspired play would seem to the greater part of the academic establishment merely silly, but that is nonetheless the case. Of Ezekiel Cheever, the most famous schoolmaster of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his onetime student Cotton Mather wrote that he so planned his lessons that his pupils "came to work as though they came to play", and Alfred North Whitehead, almost three hundred years later, noted that a teacher should make his/her students "glad they were there"

Since, we are told, 80 to 90 percent of all instruction in the typical university is by the lecture method, we should give close attention to this form. of education. There is, I think, much truth in Patricia Nelson Limerick's observation that "lecturing is an unnatural act, an act for which God did not design humans. It is perfectly all right, now and then, for a human to be possessed by the urge to speak, and to speak while others remain silent. But to do this regularly, one hour and 15 minutes at a time.., for one person to drag on while others sit in silence？ ... I do not believe that this is what the Creator.., designed humans to do".

The strange, almost incomprehensible fact is that many professors, just as they feel obliged to write dully, believe that they should lecture dully. To show enthusiasm is to risk appearing unscientific, un-objective; it is to appeal to the students' emotions rather than their intellect. Thus the ideal lecture is one filled with facts and read in an unchanged monotone.

The cult (推崇) of lecturing dully, like the cult of writing dully, goes back, of course, some years. Edward Shils, professor of sociology, recalls the professors he encountered at the University of Pennsylvania in his youth. They seemed "a priesthood, rather uneven in their merits but uniform. in their bearing; they never referred to anything personal. Some read from old lecture notes and then haltingly explained the thumb-worn last lines. Others lectured from cards that had served for years, to judge by the worn edges... The teachers began on time, ended on time, and left the room without saying a word more to their students, very seldom being detained by questioners... The classes were not large, yet there was no discussion. No questions were raised in class, and there were no office hours" .

The author believes that a successful teacher should be able to______.

A．make study just as easy as play

B．improve students' learning performance

C．make inspired play an integral part of the learning process

D．make dramatization an important aspect of students' learning

d be much more likely to speak in a more standardized accent and ask: "Excuse me, sir may I have the correct time please？" People are generally aware that the phrases and expressions they use are different from those of earlier generations; but they concede less that their own behavior. also varies according to the situation in which they find themselves; People have characteristic ways of talking, which are relatively stable across varying situations. Nevertheless, distinct contexts, and different listeners, demand different patterns of speech from one and the same speaker.

Not only this, but, in many cases, the way someone speaks affects the response of the person to whom he is speaking in such a way that "modeling" is seen to occur. This is what Michael Argyle has called "response matching". Several studies have shown that, the more one reveals about oneself in ordinary conversation, and the more intimate these details are, the more personal secrets the other person will divulge.

Response matching, has, in fact, been noted between two speakers in a number of ways, including how long someone speaks, the length of pauses, speech rate and voice loudness. The correspondence between the length of reporters questions when interviewing President Kennedy, and the length of his replies has been shown to have increased over the duration of his 1961—1963 news conferences. Argyle says this process may be one of "imitation". Two American researchers, Jaffe and Feldstein, prefer to think of it as the speaker's need for equilibrium. Neither of these explanations seems particularly convincing. It may be that response matching can be more profitably considered as an unconscious reflection of speakers' needs for social integration with one another.

This process of modeling the other person's speech in a conversation could also be termed speech convergence. It may only be one aspect of a much wider speech change. In other situations, speech divergence may occur when certain factors encourage a person to modify his speech away from the individual he is dealing with. For example, a retired brigadier's wife, renowned for her incessant snobbishness, may return her vehicle to the local garage because of inadequate servicing, voicing her complaint in elaborately phrased, yet mechanically unsophisticated(不老练的) language, with a high soft-pitched voice. These superior airs and graces may simply make the mechanic reply with a flourish of almost incomprehensible technicalities, and in a louder, more deeply-pitched voice than he would have used with a less irritating customer.

What does the example of the English schoolboy in paragraph 1 indicate？______

A．Nowadays, English schoolboys are impolite towards people except towards their teachers

B．The way of asking time is different from that of earlier generations

C．People's speaking styles vary according to the different situations

D．People's ways of speaking are relatively stable on varying occasions

the English language.

After the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was founded in 1927, the particular style. of speech of the BBC announcers was recognized as Standard English or Received Pronunciation (RP) English.Now, most people still consider that the pronunciation and delivery of BBC announcers is the clearest and most understandable spoken English.

English has had a strong association with class and social status.However, since the Second World War there has been a considerable change of attitude towards speech snobbery, and hallmarks of class distinction such as styles of speech have been gradually discarded, especially by the younger generation.

As the need has arisen, new words have been invented or found from other languages and incorporated into English.Similarly, old words and expressions have been discarded as their usefulness has diminished or the fashions have passed.This also happens to styles and modes of speech which became fashionable at a particular time and in specific circumstances.

By the end of the 1960s it became apparent that it was not necessary to speak Standard English or even correct grammar to become popular, successful and rich.The fashionable speech of the day was no longer the prerogative of a privileged class but rather a defiant expression of class lessness.

The greatest single influence of the shaping of the English language in modern times is the American English.Over the last 25 years the English used by many people, particularly by those in the media, advertising and show business, has become more and more mid-Atlantic in style, delivery and accent.

In the 1970s, fashion favoured stressless pronunciation and a language full of jargon, slang and “in” words, much of it quite incomprehensible to the outside world.What is considered modern and fashionable in Britain today is often not the kind of English taught in schools and colleges.

1.Which one of the following is NOT true？

A.The use of the English language has not changed much in this century.

B.The BBS announcers speak Standard English.

C.English has no association with class and social status now.

D.Young people all speak English in the same way.

2.What does the author imply by saying “there has been a considerable change of attitude towards speech snobbery” (Para.3)？

A.People all speak English like BBC announcers.

B.There is a great change of attitude about how English should be spoken.

C.Some people still think their way of speaking is inferior.

D.Most people don’t believe their way of speaking is inferior.

3.According to the author, there was a trend in the U.S.for the young people _________.

A.to speak Standard English.

B.to speak English without class distinction

C.to speak English with class distinction

D.to speak English with grammar mistakes

4.The word “mid-Atlantic” in the passage (Para.6) probably means _________.

A.American and European

B.American and British

C.the Atlantic Ocean

D.in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

5.It can be concluded from the passage that ________.

A.Standard English is taught in school and colleges

B.the young people are defiant because they refuse to speak standard English

C.English language is influenced by American English in the last 25 years

D.there has been a great change in the English language in this century

Mobile Phones: Are They about to Transform. Our Lives？

We love them so much that some of us sleep with them under the pillow, yet we are increasingly concerned that we cannot escape their electronic reach. We use them to convey our most intimate secrets, yet we worry that they are a threat to our privacy. We rely on them more than the Internet to cope with modern life, yet many of us don't believe advertisements saying we need more advanced services.

Sweeping aside the doubts that many people feel about the benefits of new third generation phones and fears over the health effects of phone masts(天线杆), a recent report clains that the long-term effects of new mobile technologies will be entirely positive so long as the public can be convinced to make use of them. Research about users of mobile phones reveals that the mobile has already moved beyond being a mere practical communications tool to become the backbone (支柱)of modern social life, from love affairs to friendship to work. One female teacher, 32, told the researchers: “I love my phone. It's my friend. ”

The close relationship between user and phone is most pronounced among teenagers, the report says, who regard their mobiles as an expression of their identity. This is partly because mobiles are seen as being beyond the control of parents. But the researchers suggest that another reason may be that mobiles, especially text messaging, are seen as a way of overcoming shyness. “Texting is often used for apologies, to excuse lateness or to communicate other things that make us uncomfortable, ”the report says, The impact of phones, however, has been local rather than global, supporting existing friendships and networks, rather than opening users to a new broader community. Even the language of texting in one area can be incomprehensible to anybody from another area.

Among the most important benefits of using mobile phones, the report claims, will be a vastly improved mobile infrastructure(基础设施), providing gains throughout the economy, and the provision of a more sophisticated location-based services for users. The report calls on government to put more effort into the delivery of services by mobile phone, with suggestions including public transport and traffic information and doctors' text messages to remind patients of appointments. “I love that idea, ”one user said in an interview. “It would mean I wouldn't have to write a hundred messages to myself. ”

There are many other possibilities. At a recent trade fair in Sweden, a mobile navigation product was launched. When the user enters a destination, a route is automatically downloaded to their mobile and presented by voice, pictures and maps as they drive. In future, these devices will also be able to plan around congestion(交通堵塞)and road works in real time. Third generation phones will also allow for remote monitoring of patients by doctors. In Britain scientists are developing a asthma(哮喘)management solution, using mobiles to detect early signs of an attack.

What does the writer suggest in the first paragraph about our attitudes to mobile phones？

A．We can't live without them.

B．We are worried about using them so much.

C．We have contradictory feelings about them.

D．We need them more than anything else to deal with modem life.

s sleep with them under the pillow,yet we are increasingly concerned that we cannot escape their electronic reach.We use them to convey our most intimate secrets,yet we worry that they are a threat to our privacy.We rely on them more than the lnternet to cope with modern life,yet many of us don’t believe advertisements saying we need more advanced services.

Sweeping aside the doubts that many people feel about the benefits of new third generation phones and fears over the health effects of phone masts(天线竿),a recent report clains that the long-term effects of new mobile technologies will be entirely positive so long as the public can be convinced to make use of them.Research about users of mobile phones reveals that the mobile has already moved beyond being a mere practical communications tool to become the backbone (支柱)of modern social life,from love affairs to friendship to work.One female teacher,32,told the researchers:“I love my phone.It’s my friend.”

The close relationship between user and phone is most pronounced among teenagers,the report says,who regard their mobiles as an expression of their identity.This is partly because mobiles are seen as being beyond the control of parents.But the researchers suggest that another reason may be that mobiles,especially taxt messaging,are seen as a way of overcoming shyness.“Texting is often used for apologies,to excuse lateness or to communicate other things that make us uncomfortable,”the report says,The impact of phones,however,has been local rather than global,supporting existing friendships and networks,rather than opening users to a new broader community.Even the language of texting in one area can be incomprehensible to anybody from another area.

Among the most important benefits of using mobile phones,the report claims,will be a vastly improved mobile infrastructure(基础设施),providing gains throughout the economy,and the provision of a more sophisticated location-based services for users.The report calls on govemment to put more effort into the delivery of services by bobile phone,with suggestions including public transport and traffic information and doctors’ text messages to remind patients of appointments.“I love that idea,”one user said in an interview.“It would mean I wouldn’t have to write a hundred messages to myself.”

There are many other possibilities.At a recent trade fair in Sweden,a mobile navigation product was launched.When the user enters a destination,a route is automatically downloaded to their mobile and presented by voice,pictures and maps as they drive.In future,these devices will also be able to plan around congestion(交通堵塞)and road works in real time.Third generation phones will also allow for remote monitoring of patients by doctors.In Britain scientists are developing a asthma(哮喘)management solution,using mobiles to detect early signs of an attack.

第11题：What does the writer suggest in the first paragraph about our attitudes to mobile phones？

A．We can’t live without them.

B．We are worried about using them so much.

C．We have contradictory feelings about them.

D．We need them more than anything else to deal with modem life.

Dear Diary， I Hate You

Reflections on journals in an age of overshare．

A．I suspect that many people who don"t keep a diary worry that they ought to， and that， for some， the failure to do so is a source of incomprehensible self-hatred．What could be more worth rememberingthan one"s own life？ Is there a good excuse for forgetting even a single day？ Something like thisanxiety seems to have prompted the poet Sarah Manguso to begin writing a journal， which she haskept ever since．"I wrote so I could say I was truly paying attention，" she tells us early in hermemoir （回忆录） "Ongoingness"．"Experience in itself wasn"t enough．The diary was my defenseagainst waking up at the end of my life and realizing I"d missed it．"

B．The journal， first imagined as an amulet （护身符） against the passage of time， has grown tooverwhelming proportions．"I started keeping a diary twenty-five years ago，" Manguso writes．"It"seight hundred thousand words long．" And the memoir， a kind of meta-diary， is her attempt toquestion her crazy drive to maintain a record of her existence．Of all the psychological conditions tobe burdened with， the crazy impulse to write is hardly the worst， and Manguso doesn"t quitesucceed in eliminating the suspicion that she is a little proud of her weird habits， perhaps evenexaggerating them．But she seems genuinely not proud of the diary．"There"s no reason to continuewriting other than that I started writing at some point——and that， at some other point， I"ll stop，" shewrites．Looking back at entries fills her with embarrassment and occasionally even indifference．Shereports that， after finding that she"d recorded "nothing of consequence" in 1996， she "threw theyear away．"

C．In her memoir， Manguso makes the striking decision never to quote the diary itself．As she started tolook through the old journals， she writes， she became convinced that it was impossible to pull the"best bits" from their context without distorting the sense of the whole: "I decided that the onlyway to represent the diary in this book would be either to include the entire thing untouched——whichwould have required an additional eight thousand pages——or to include none of it．" The diary， sheobserves， is the memoir"s "dark matter"， everywhere but invisible， and the book revolves around acenter that is absent．

D．Manguso， whose previous books include two other memoirs and two books of poetry， grew upoutside Boston．Now in her early forties， she teaches writing in Los Angeles， at Otis College of Artand Design．But for most of the book we come away with only the roughest outline of Manguso"slife．She"s married， with a son．Her son is young; her husband is from Hawaii; she was once veryill．The individual memories she chooses to share often don"t link up to produce a continuousnarrative．We get Manguso， at fourteen， looking through a telescope for a comet （彗星）， failing tosee it， and not caring; Manguso， in 1992， writing mostly about hating her mother; Manguso， incollege， discovering that a boyfriend has read her diary; Manguso， in her late thirties， drinldng teain an attempt to trigger early labor， hoping that her husband can be present for both the birth of hisson and， an ocean away， the death of his mother．

E．The memoir， rather than being a summary of the life recorded by the diary， is mostly a set of deepthoughts on the fact of the diary"s existence．The tone is matter-of-fact， and the controlled， evendull sentences seem deliberately to reject the wild， exaggerative quality of a diary．The bookproceeds in rare， brief fragments， almost like prose poems．None are longer than a page， and someare just a single sentence．

F．Manguso seldom reveals any particularly sensitive information， and yet her material is， in a sense，vastly more intimate than what we usually think of as private．Her impressions， while clear， are trueto the vague mental life as we experience it．"Ongoingness" is an attempt to take， as Virginia Woolfwrote， "a token of some real thing behind appearances" and "make it real by putting it intowords．" It"s hard to think of a riskier way to write．

G．The great merit of the book is that it succeeds in not feeling abstract， even though it frequentlyavoids specificity．There is， in fact， a narrative here， although one that functions without thenormal signposts （明显的线索或迹象） of life-writing．Instead， it is a narrative about the gradual

shift， as Manguso gets older， in her relationship to time．It is telling that motherhood receives themost attention．"Then I became a mother，" she writes．"I began to spend time differently．" Sheknows that this is something all parents discover——" this has all been said before "——but theconsequences are nonetheless immense．"Nursing an infant creates so much lost， empty time，" shewrites．

H．As Manguso"s sense of time dissolves， so does her devotion to the diary．In her twenties， she wrotedown her experiences constantly and in minute detail．In her thirties， the diary became more of alog: "The rhapsodies （狂想曲） of the previous decade thinned out．" As she entered her forties，"reflection disappeared almost completely．" Manguso doesn"t say that she intends to stop keepingher diary， but the subtitle of the memoir——" The End of a Diary"——implies that the habit may haveoutlived its usefulness．Another meaning hides， too: Why does one keep a diary at all？ As she looksback on the huge project， she feels its uselessness．

I．One could argue that reading memoirs comes more naturally to us now than ever before．Our criticalfaculties are primed as they"ve never been．Social media annoy us daffy with fragmented first-personaccounts of people"s lives．But what constantly self-reporting your own life does not seem to enablea person to do——at least， not yet——is to communicate to others a private sense of what it feels like tobe you．With "Ongoingness" Manguso has achieved this．In her almost illusive deep thoughts ontime and what it means to preserve one"s own life， she has managed to copy an entirely interiorworld．She has written the memoir we didn"t realize we needed．

"Ongoingness" describes how Manguso gradually changes in her relationship to time as she grows old． 查看材料