Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction room to make offers, or "bids", for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called "knocking down" the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a table at which he stands. This is often set on a raised platform called a rostrum. The ancient Romans probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auctio, meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called sub basra, meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries goods were often sold "by the candle", a short candle was lit by the auctioneer, and bids could be made while it stayed alight. Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hides, skins, wool, tea, cocoa, furs, spices, fruit and vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art. The auction rooms at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London and New York are world-famous. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by prospective buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a "lot", is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and continue in numerical order, he may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling, and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the rivalries among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other. It is largely on his advice that a seller will fix a "reserve" price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneers, however, find it difficult to stop a "knockout", whereby dealers illegally arrange beforehand not to bid against each other, but nominate one of themselves as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at extremely low prices. If such a "knockout" comes off, the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers. The auctioneer may decide to sell the "lots" out of order because ______.
A. he sometimes wants to confuse the buyers
B. he knows from experience that certain people will want to buy certain items
C. he wants to keep certain people waiting
D. he wants to reduce the number of buyers
The teaching of English as a second language (ESL) in schools has had a history of conflicting arguments, interesting innovations and some very positive methodological changes. To understand the present situation, it is necessary to consider the past and the wider educational context which has a hearing on it.Until quite recently, approaches to ESL work have been strongly influenced by methods developed to teach English as a foreign language to older learners. These methods placed much emphasis on drills, exercises and remedial programs that focus on language in abstraction. 46) The prescriptive nature of such methods and the demands they made on the teacher’s time developed the belief that ESL work could be tackled only by the specialist ESL teacher working with small groups of children. Such an approach does not fit comfortably into current notions of learning and teaching in the primary school, nor does it sufficiently equip ESL learners in the secondary school to benefit from normal schooling. 47) In prescribing what language is to be taught, it has ignored what children bring to the learning task and the choices they make about how and what they want to learn. Furthermore, the location and organization of language provision did not measure up to the demand. 48)The language centers and English language services all contributed to providing special and concentrated teaching of English as a second language in small groups, varying in size from four or five to fifteen. Whatever the pattern of provision, the main aim was to give pupils sufficient English to enable them to join normal schools as quickly as possible. The success of such special provision depended very much on the close and constant liaison of language teachers with the subject teachers and the class teachers and on the continuity of learning experiences provided by them. 49)One of the important disadvantages of language centers and withdrawal groups was that ESL children were being taught away from those English -speakers who provide the most powerful models, i. e. their peer group. Peer-group interaction is an important element in any learning situation, but its particular strengths in a classroom with ESL learners cannot be overemphasized.50) The separation of second language learners from the mainstream classroom cannot easily be justified on educational grounds, since in practice it leads to both their curriculum and language learning being impoverished. Notes: context 环境。bear on 对......有影响,关系到...... 。例如:I don’t see how this bears on the matter. (我不明白这一点与那些事的关系。)liaison n. 联结。liaison of A with A与B之间的联系。 55
Motorways are, no doubt the safest roads in Britain. Mile (21) mile, vehicle for vehicle, you axe much (22) likely to be killed or seriously injured than on an ordinary road. On (23) hand, if you do have a serious accident on a motorway, fatalities are much more likely to (24) than in a comparable accident (25) on the roads.Motorways have no (26) bends, no roundabouts or traffic lights and (27) speeds are much greater than on other roads. Though the 70 mph limit is (28) in force, it is often treated with the contempt that most drivers have for the 30 mph limit applying in built up areas in Britain. Added to this is the fact that motorway drivers seem to like traveling in groups with perhaps (29) ten meters between each vehicle. The resulting horrific pile-ups (30) one vehicle stops for some reason—mechanical failure, driver error and so on—have become all (31) familiar through pictures in newspapers or on television. How (32) of these drivers realize that it takes a car about one hundred meters to brake to a stop (33) 70 mph Drivers also seem to think that motorway driving gives them complete protection from the changing weather. (34) wet the road, whatever the visibility in mist or fog, they (35) at ridiculous speeds oblivious of police warnings or speed restrictions (36) their journey comes to a conclusion.Perhaps one remedy (37) this motorway madness would be better driver education. At present, learner drivers are barred (38) motorways and are thus as far as this kind of driving is (39) , thrown in at the deep end. However, much more efficient policing is required, (40) it is the duty of the police not only to enforce the law but also to protect the general public from its own foolishness. 34()
A. Whatever
B. However
C. Whoever
D. How
Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction room to make offers, or "bids", for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called "knocking down" the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a table at which he stands. This is often set on a raised platform called a rostrum. The ancient Romans probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auctio, meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called sub basra, meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries goods were often sold "by the candle", a short candle was lit by the auctioneer, and bids could be made while it stayed alight. Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hides, skins, wool, tea, cocoa, furs, spices, fruit and vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art. The auction rooms at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London and New York are world-famous. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by prospective buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a "lot", is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and continue in numerical order, he may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling, and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the rivalries among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other. It is largely on his advice that a seller will fix a "reserve" price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneers, however, find it difficult to stop a "knockout", whereby dealers illegally arrange beforehand not to bid against each other, but nominate one of themselves as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at extremely low prices. If such a "knockout" comes off, the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers. A candle used to burn at auction sales ______.
A. because they took place at night
B. as a signal for the crowd to gather
C. to keep the auctioneer warm
D. to limit the time when offers could be made