It is difficult to imagine what life would be like without memory. The meanings of thousands of everyday perceptions, the bases for the decisions we make, and the roots of our habits and skills are to be found in our past experiences, which are brought into the present by memory. Memory can be defined as the capacity to keep information available for later use. It includes not only "remembering" things like arithmetic or historical facts, but also involves any change in the way an animal typically behaves. Memory is involved when a rat gives up an eating grain because he has sniffed something suspicious in the grain pile. Memory is also involved when a six-year-old child learns to swing a baseball bat. Memory exists not only in humans and animals but also in some physical objects and machines. Computer, for example, contains devices for storing data for later use. It is interesting to compare the memory storage capacity of a computer with that of a human being. The instant-access memory of a large computer may hold up to 1,000,000 "words" ready for instant use. An average U.S. teenager probably recognizes the meaning of about 100,000 words of English. However, his is but a fraction of the total amount of information which the teenager has stored. Consider, for example, the number of faces and places that the teenager can recognize on sight. The use of words is the basis of the advanced problem solving intelligence of human beings. A large part of a person’s memory is in terms of words and combinations of words. The whole passage implies that ______.
A. only human beings have problem solving intelligence
B. a person’s memory is different from a computer’s in every respect
C. animals are able to solve only very simple problems
D. animals solve problems by instincts rather than intelligence
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When we accept the evidence of our unaided eyes and describe the Sun as a yellow star, we have summed up the most important single fact about it at this moment in time. It appears probable, however, that sunlight will be the color we know for only a negligibly small part of the Sun’s history. Stars, like individuals, age and change. As we look out into space, we see around us stars at all stages of evolution. There are faint bloodred dwarfs so cool that their surface temperature is a mere 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there are searing ghosts blazing at 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost too hot to be seen, for the great part of their radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet range. Obviously, the "daylight" produced by any star depends on its temperature; today (and for ages to come) our Sun is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that most of the Sun’s light is concentrated in the yellow band of the spectrum, falling slowly in intensity toward both the longer and shorter light waves. That yellow "hump" will shift as the Sun evolves, and the light of day will change accordingly. It is natural to assume that as the Sun grows older, and uses up its hydrogen fuel—which it is now doing at the spanking rate of half a billion tons a second—it will become steadily colder and redder. According to the passage, which of the following descriptions are not true
A. Through our own unaided eyes, we will find that the yellow sunlight will change its color little by little.
B. The Sun, as a star, like an individual, always ages and changes.
C. Obviously, the "daylight" produced by any star doesn’t depend on its temperature.
D. Now, the Sun is using its hydrogen fuel at a very rapid speed.
In recent years, Israeli consumers have grown more demanding as they’ve become wealthier and more worldly wise. Foreign travel is a national passion, this summer alone, one in 10 citizens will go abroad. Exposed to higher standards of service elsewhere, Israelis are returning home expecting the same. American firms have also begun arriving in large numbers. Chains such as KFC, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut are setting a new standard of customer service, using strict employee training and constant monitoring to ensure the friendliness of frontline staff. Even the American habit of telling departing customers to "Have a nice day" has caught on all over Israel. "Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ’Let’s be nicer,’" says Itsik Cohen, director of a consulting firm. "Nothing happens without competition." Privatization, or the threat of it, is a motivation as well. Monopolies (垄断者) that until recently have been free to take their customers for granted now fear what Michael Perry, a marketing professor, calls "the revengeful (报复的) consumer". When the government opened up competition with Bezaq, the phone company, its international branch lost 40% of its market share, even while offering competitive rates. Says Perry, "People wanted revenge for all the years of bad service." The electric company, whose monopoly may be short-lived, has suddenly stopped requiring users to wait half a day for a repairman. Now, appointments are scheduled to the half-hour. The graceless E1A1 Airlines, which is already at auction (拍卖), has returned its employees to emphasize service and is boasting about the results in an ad campaign with the slogan, "You can feel the change in the air." For the first time, praise outnumbers complaints on customer survey sheets. If someone in Israel today needs a repairman in case of a power failure, ______.
A. they can have it fixed in no time
B. it’s no longer necessary to make an appointment
C. the appointment takes only half a day to make
D. they only have to wait half an hour at most
When you’re negotiating with someone, listen for the messages that he or she might be sending to you. For example, the word "difficult" does not mean the same as impossible. Imagine you’re staying in a hotel, and you want to change your room. The manager’s answer of, "That would be very difficult, sir", does not mean that he is saying "no". It just means that he wants to know what you are prepared to offer him in return for the change of room. If you are buying a new car, and want to pay less than the price being asked, then the salesman’s comment, "I’m sorry, but we never negotiate on the price", means that they do negotiate on other things, like the delivery time, or the "extra" that might be available as part of the purchase. In the same car showroom, if the salesman says, "Sorry, I can’t negotiate prices", then your response should be to ask who can. The message the salesman is sending suggests that his boss is the one you need to be talking to. In all of these situations, the message is never communicated in clear terms. In any negotiation, the two "players" wish to get as much out of it as they can, of course. In the three examples above, the salesmen and the hotel manager are hoping that you will accept their price or conditions, but their "messages" make it clear that there may be room for movement and compromise. In a successful negotiation, the two sides move towards each other and reach agreement on conditions that satisfy both sides. The passage tells us how to ______.
A. send messages in a negotiation
B. become a successful salesman
C. profit from business transactions
D. receive messages in a negotiation
(delight)I feel the ______, velvety texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable convolutions.