Questions 11 to 18 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
A. Get directions to the bus station.
B. Get to the grocery store.
C. Give the man directions to the bus station.
D. Find out where the stoplight is.
It’s in the CardsIn recent years, more and more people have been paying for things with credit cards. There are now 565 million credit cards worldwide, but it doesn’t stop there. Debit cards (电子记账卡) are being issued by banks, and store cards are being offered by many department stores. Bills and coins are gradually being replaced by "plastic money." In many countries, phone cards have been introduced for people to use in pay phones. In addition, cards made of paper are being replaced by plastic ones by many organizations and clubs. For example, if you belong to a sports club, your membership card may well be made of plastic.How safe is the plastic used to make these cards, though Until now, most cards have been made from a plastic called PVC. While PVC is being produced, harmful chemicals are released into the atmosphere. One of the most dangerous chemicals that is released is dioxin, which is known to cause cancer in humans. A further problem is that, when a PVC card is thrown away, it is not biodegradable; this means that it does not "break down" and cannot be recycled. Obviously, recycling reduces pollution of the environment.The executive director of the environmental organization and charity Greenpeace, Peter Melchett, says, "If there is a solution to this-and an alternative then it would be madness not to use it." Greenpeace has found a solution and an alternative. Their new credit card is made entirely from a biodegradable plastic that uses plants. The card breaks down in around three months in soil; in this way, it is recycled. In contrast, a PVC card lasts for centuries. Greenpeace hopes that many organizations will soon follow their example and issue cards that do not threaten the public health. The new Greenpeace card breaks down in a few months.()
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned
Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的). One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. "The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer," explains the professor. "People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme." About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these "programme assembly failures". Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a. m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. "Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ’programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work." Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men probably because they were more reliable reporters. A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse, even dangerous. We learn from the third paragraph that ______.
A. absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day
B. women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods
C. women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness
D. men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations
From the very beginning, water has furnished man with a source of food and a highway to travel. The first civilizations arose (76) water was the dominant element in the environment, a challenge (77) man’s ingenuity. The Egyptians invented the 365-day calendar (78) the Nile’s annual flooding. The Babylonians (79) were among the most famous law-makers in ancient times, invented laws (80) water usage. Water inspired the Chinese to build a 1,000 miles’ canal, a complex system (81) , after 2,500 years, remains particularly in use and still commands the astonishment of engineers. But the ancients never found complete solutions (82) their water problem. The Yellow River is also known as "China’s Sorrow". It is so unpredictable and dangerous (83) in a single flood it has caused a million deaths. Floods slowed the great (84) of the Indus River Valleys, and innumerable damages ruined much of its land. Today, water dominates man as it always has done. Its presence continues to influence the location of his homes and cities; its violent variability can (85) man or his herds or his crops; its routes link him to his fellows; its immense value may add to the already dangerous political conflicts. There are many examples of this in our own time.
A. that
B. which
C. because
D. as