1. The Great Wall of China Walls and wall building have played a very important role in Chinese culture. These people, from the dim mists of prehistory have been wall-conscious; from the Neolithic period(新石器时代)-when ramparts (防御土墙) of pounded earth were used-to the Communist Revolution, walls were an essential part of any village. (46) The name for "city" in Chinese (ch’ eng) means wall, and over these walled cities, villages, houses and temples presides the god of walls and mounts, whose duties were, and still are, to protect and be responsible for the welfare of the inhabitants. (47) However, it is indeed a common mistake to perceive the Great Wall as a single architectural structure, and it would also be erroneous to assume that it was built during a single dynasty. For the building of the wall spanned the various dynasties, and each of these dynasties somehow contributed to the refurbishing and the construction of a wall, whose foundations had been laid many centuries ago. (48) Especially three of these states : the Ch’ in, the Chao and the Yen, corresponding respectively to the modem provinces of Shensi, Shanzi and Hopei, over and above building walls that surrounded their kingdoms, also laid the foundations on which Ch’ in Shih Huang Di would build his first continuous Great Wall. (49) Throughout the centuries many settlements were established along the new border. The garrison (驻军)troops were instructed to reclaim wasteland and to plant crops on it, roads and canals were built, to mention just a few of the works carried out. (50) Builders, garrisons, artisans, farmers and peasants left behind a trail of objects, including inscribed tablets, household articles, and written work, which have become extremely valuable archaeological evidence to the study of defense institutions of the Great Wall and the everyday life of these people who lived and died along the wall.A. Not only towns and villages; the houses and the temples within them were somehow walled, and the houses also had no windows overlooking the street, thus giving the feeling of wandering around a huge maze (迷宫).B. All these undertakings greatly helped to increase the country’s trade and cultural exchanges with many remote areas and also with the southern, central and western parts of Asia-the formation of the Silk Route.C. Thus a great and extremely laborious task such as constructing a wall, which was supposed to run throughout the country, must not have seemed such an absurdity (谬论).D. The construction of the Great Wall is responsible for a large number of deaths and a vast amount of destruction in various places.E. It was during the fourth and third centuryB.C. that each warring state started building walls to protect their kingdoms, both against one another and against the northern nomads (游牧民).F. The role that the Great Wall played in the growth of Chinese economy was an important on
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In recent years a new farming revolution has begun, one that involves the manipulation of life at a fundamental level—the gene. The study of genetics has (51) a new industry called biotcehnology. As the name suggests, it (52) biology and modern technology through such techniques as genetic engineering. Some of the new biotech companies specialize in agriculture and are working feverishly to (53) seeds that give a high yield, that (54) diseases, drought and frost, and that reduce the need for hazardous chemicals, If such goals could be achieved, it would be most (55) . But some have raised concerns about genetically engineered crops. In nature, genetic diversity is created within certain (56) . A rose can be crossed with a different kind of rose, but a rose will never cross with a potato. Genetic engineering, (57) usually involves taking genes from one species and inserting them into another in an attempt to transfer a desired characteristic. This could mean, for example, selecting a gene which leads to the production of a chemical with anti-freeze (58) from an artic fish, and inserting it into a potato or strawberry to make it frost, resistant, in essence, then, biotechnology allows humans to (59) the genetic walls that separate species. Just like the green revolution, (60) some call the gene revolution contributes to the problem of genetic uniformity-some say even more so (61) geneticists can employ techniques such as cloning and (62) culture (培养) and processes that produce perfectly (63) copies. Concerns about the erosion of biodiversity, therefore, remain. Genetically altered plants, however, raise new (64) ,such as the effects that they may have on us and the environment. "We are tlying blindly into a new era of agricultural biotechnology with high hopes, few constraints, and little idea of the potential (65) ," said science writer Jeremy Rifkin.
A. restrict
B. retrieve
C. reverse
D. resist
1. Digital Realm In the digital realm the next big advance will be voice recognition. The rudiments are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to "recognize speech," and it is likely to think you want it to "wreck a nice beach." But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away and machines will soak it all in. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to ourcomputers; we’ll also able to chat our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles, browsers, thermostats, VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around. That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age: artificial intelligence. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents. Scary, huh But potentially quite useful. At least until they don’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around. The law powering the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore’s: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power—the capacity of microprocessors and memory chips—would become nearly flee; his company kept churning out more and more lines of complex software to make use of the cheap bounty. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free. Along with the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this means a future in which all forms of content—movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt’s recipes and home videos—will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you’ll be able to create a movie or magazine, make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner! The result will be a transition from a mass. market world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to each user You call subscribe to news sources that serve up only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes. Bill Gates will rule the digital age for the next decade.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned
Half of world’s primates face extinction Almost 50% of the world’s 634 primate (灵长类动物) species face extinction, according to a report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Habitat loss is a major cause, but many monkeys and apes are being hunted to extinction for food, especially in forests of south-east Asia. "It’s cheaper to go into the forest and kill a monkey than to raise a chicken," says Jean-Christophe rie, deputy head of the IUCN’s species programmeand a co—author of the report. "We’ve raised concerns for years about primates being in danger, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined," says Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, which co-funded the study. The areas most at risk are in Vietnam and Cambodia, where 90% of species are being driven to extinction by demand for monkey meat and baby monkeys as pets. Most acutely affected are medium-sized monkeys such as gibbons(长臂猿), leaf monkeys and langurs, which are easy for hunters to track down and kill because of their size and the noise they make. In South America. spider monkeys and capuchin monkeys(卷尾猴)have been hit hardest. In Africa, red colobus monkeys are now critically endangered. Eleven of the 13 species assessed were listed as critically endangered or endangered. Two may already be extinct. " Among the African species, the great apes such as gorillas (大猩猩) and bonobos have always tended to grab the limelight, and even thought they’re deeply threatened, it is smaller primates such as the red colobus that could die out first," says Richard Wrangham, president of the International Primatological Society. Huge political efforts are needed now to reverse the impending losses of threatened species, says Vid. "What’s needed is national legislation to protect biodiversity, creation of protected areas with dedicated staff, crackdowns on corruption, and captive breeding programmes," he says. But it will be difficult to halt and reverse the damage done by habitat destruction and the hunters. Once habitat is gone, animals have nowhere to go. Also, killing primates rapidly depletes populations, because they have fewer young than many other mammals and take much longer to breed and raise families. Which of the following is not an effort suggested by Vié to reduce the threat to species
A. Captive breeding programmes.
B. National legislation to protect biodiversity.
Creation of protected areas with dedicated staff.
D. Stop of economic corruption.
A. to send goods to various pans of the worldB. at any time during the yearC. has greatly promoted tradeD. is it possible to produce on a large scaleE. the transport of goodsF. it is possible to produce on a large scale The development of modem means of transport ______.