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D From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people over the world are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen. It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving. The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behaviour. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten. It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be made much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor cars. Why does the author say that his car becomes the extension of his personality

A. Driving can show his real self.
B. Driving can show the other part of his personality.
C. Driving can bring out his character.
D. His car embodies his temper.

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His package looks pretty, people will buy just about anything. So says an advertising executive in New York, and he has proved his point by selling boxes of rubbish for the price of an expensive bottle of wine. Justin Gignac, 26, has sold almost 900(1)presented plastic boxes of rubbish from the street of the Big Apple at between $50 and $100 each. Buyers from 19 countries have paid for the souvenirs(纪念品). The idea has been so successful that he is thinking of promoting it around the world. It all began when Mr. Gignac was at a summer workshop. "We had a discussion about his importance of (2)," he recalls. "Someone said packaging was unimportant. I disagreed. The only way to prove it was by selling something nobody would ever want." He searches the streets of Manhattan and typical(3) include broken glass, subway tickets, Starbucks cups and used(4)forks. "Special editions" are offered at a high price. He charged $100 for rubbish from the opening day of the New York Yankees stadium. Mr. Gignac denies(5)his customers for fools: "They know what they're getting. They appreciate the fact that they're taking something nobody would want and finding beauty in it." Some(6)customers include people who used to live in the city and want a down to earth souvenir. He claims he has even sold to art collectors. Realizing that the concept appears to be a real moneymaker, Mr. Gignac has(7)a company and is employing his girlfriend as vice president. He(8)to discuss his profit margins: "Its actually quite a lot of effort putting them together-but yet, garbage is free."Mr. Gignac is considering more varieties of souvenirs. He maintains that he has signed(9)with people interested in(10)projects from as far as Berlin and London. 第(5)空应选择()

A. wind
B. snow
C. air
D. rain

As the Columbia Broadcasting System expanded its operations, soon become the largest radio network in the United States, it precociously recognized the potential for the rapidly evolving television broadcasting technology.

A. expanded
B. become
C. largest
D. evolving

F When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it’s amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak contemptuously of the poor old Romans because they relished the orgies of slaughter that went on in their arenas. We may despise them because they mistook these goings-on for entertainment. We may forgive them condescendingly because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority really justified. Are we any less bloodthirsty Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest Don’t the spectators who attend them hope they will see some violence Human beings remain as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungry lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of sophisticated arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long ago; sports which are quite as barbarous as, say, public hangings or bearbaiting. It is really incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men batter each other to pulp in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Let us not deceive ourselves. Any talk of "the sporting spirit" is sheer hypocrisy. People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Spectators are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavy-weight championship match, for instance, is front-page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they have been deprived of the exquisite pleasure of witnessing prolonged torture and violence. Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much You may well ask. The answer is simple, they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally—admittedly with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight of madmen being cooped up in cages, or public floggings of any of the countless other barbaric practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the grim forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because human beings have suddenly and unaccountably improved, but because positive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument of social change that we have and it may exert great civilizing influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognize that violence is degrading and unworthy of human beings. The author mentions the old Romans ______.

A. to compare the old Romans with today’s people
B. to give an example
C. to show human beings in the past knew nothing better
D. to indicate human beings used to be bloodthirsty

E Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they’re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for selfpromotion and because they have so much money to throw around. “It’s iniquitous,” they say, “that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods After all, it’s the consumer who pays...” The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of the ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement. Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bylaws while waiting for a train Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities. We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programs is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price! Another thing we mustn’t forget is the “small ads” which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the “hatch, match and dispatch” column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or “agony” column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It’s the best advertisement for advertising there is! The attitude of the author toward advertisers is ().

A. appreciative
B. trustworthy
C. critical
D. dissatisfactory

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