Passage Five Auctions (拍卖) 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 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 auction, meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called "subusta", meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. 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. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by possible 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; be may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers arc in the room and then pro- duce 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. Practicaly all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hider, 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. The Romans used to sell by auction ()
A. spoilt goods
B. property taken from the enemy
C. old worn-out weapons
D. spears
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Passage Three Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors but also because of rays from the sun and other stars. The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth. Light gets through, and this is essential for plants to make the food which we eat. Heat, too, makes our environment endurable. Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous quantities of radiation from the sun are screened off. As soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their spacecraft, if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage. Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space. The unit of radiation is called "rem". Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1 ream without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage--a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of deformed (畸形的) children or even grandchildren. Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high radiation and, during the outward and return journeys, the Apollo crew accumulated a large amount of reams. So far, no dangerous amounts of radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far. It can be inferred from the passage that ()
A. the Apollo mission was very successful
B. protection from space radiation is no easy job
C. astronauts will have deformed children of grandchildren
D. radiation is not a threat to well protection space explorers
When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money. He may (1) the repayment of the money at any time, either (2) cash or by drawing a check in favor of another person. (3) , the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor who is (4) depending on whether the customer’s account is (5) credit or is overdrawn. But, in (6) to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer (7) a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give (8) to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is (9) against him.The bank must (10) its customer’s instructions, and not those of anyone else. (11) , for example, a customer opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in (12) of checks drawn by himself. He gives the bank (13) of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or (14) to pay out a customer’s money (15) a check on which its customer’s signature has been (16) It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very (17) one: the bank must recognize its customer’s signature. For this reason there is no (18) to the customer in the practice, (19) by banks, of printing the customer’s name on his checks. If this (20) Forgery, it is the bank that will lose, not the customer. (254 words) 10()
A. conform
B. comply
C. obey
D. abide
Passage Five Auctions (拍卖) 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 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 auction, meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called "subusta", meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. 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. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by possible 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; be may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers arc in the room and then pro- duce 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. Practicaly all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hider, 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. The end of the bidding is called "knocking down" because ()
A. the auctioneer knocks the buyer down
B. the auctioneer knocks the rostrum down
C. the goods are knocked down on to the table
D. the auctioneer bangs the table with a hammer
Mental Retardation (智力迟钝)Mental retardation is a condition in which people have lower than normal intelligence and are unable to function at the level expected for their age. People with mental retardation are usually born with it, or it develops early in their life. They may also have some difficulty with daily living skills such as learning to read and write and caring for themselves.Doctors and other professionals determine that a person has mental retardation based on their intelligence and how well they can do everyday activities. Intelligence is the ability to learn and understand Levels of intelligence are measured by special tests called intelligence tests. The score a person gets on one of these tests gives a numerical (数字的) measure of a person’s intelligence. This is called an intelligence quotient (智商) or IQ.An average score on an IQ test is about 90 to 110. a person with mental retardation will usually score below 75 on an IQ test.The IQ test alone does not determine whether someone is mentally retarded a person must also have trouble with everyday activities such as getting dressed, eating, washing, or learning basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.Mental retardation is not a disease itself. It cannot be cured and it’s not contagious (传染的). This condition can be caused by several things that injure the brain or don’t allow the brain to develop normally. Many times we don’t know why a person has mental retardation.Sometimes it may be caused by genes. Genes are chemical units found in every cell. They carry the instructions telling cells what to do. Sometimes, children receive abnormal genes from their parents.a defective gene may also develop spontaneously. Neither parent would have passed on the gene, but the gene changes before the baby develops;Some other problems that can cause mental retardation also happen before a child is born. It is important for the brain to develop properly if a child is to have normal intelligence. "Planning a pregnancy is the most important decision most of us will make in our lifetime. A healthy lifestyle and good medical care should begin before a woman becomes pregnant and continue throughout the pregnancy," says Jodi Rucquoi, a genetic counselor from Connecticut. If a woman abuses alcohol or drugs or doesn’t eat well, there is a risk to the developing baby. Also, a premature birth or problems during childbirth can sometimes harm the baby’s developing brain. While premature babies are generally fine, there is a greater chance that they may have mental retardation.In some cases, a young child can develop mental retardation after being sick with a serious infection or other illness, or after suffering a bad head injury. a child can be taken as mentally retarded if he or she()
A. was born prematurely.
B. has lower than normal intelligence.
C. has low intelligence and low daily living skills.
D. has normal intelligence but difficulties in learning.