In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly , believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity . Others say that competition is bad ; that it sets one person against another ; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people .
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied (依赖)on how well they performed at tennis and other skills . For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit ( 追求)of success , the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten .
However ，while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed , others take an opposite attitude .In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players , they strongly blame competition . Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people . I often observe in them a desire to fail . They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success . By not trying , they always have an excuse : “I may have lost . but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try . “What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot . Such a loss would be a measure of their worth . Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves . Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others . Both are afraid of not being valued . Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition .
1.What does this passage mainly talk about?
A.Competition helps to set up self-respect.
B.Opinions about competition are different among people
C.Competition is harmful to personal quality development.
D.Failures are necessary experiences in competition
2.Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?
A.It pushes society forward. B.It builds up a sense of duty.
C.It improves personal abilities. D.It encourages individual efforts
3.The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means .
A.those who try their best to win
B.those who value competition most highly
C.those who are against competition most strongly
D.those who rely on others most for success
4.Which point of view may the author agree to?
A.Every effort should be paid back.
B.Competition should be encouraged.
C.Winning should be a life-and-death matter.
D.Fear of failure should be removed in competition.
One evening in February 2007, a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote road in Wales. She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path .That’s when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train. Her Renault Clio was parked across a railway line. Seconds later, she watched the train drag her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks.
Ceely’s near miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS (导航仪). She had never driven the route before. It was dark and raining heavily. Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no mention of the crossing. “I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train,” she told the BBC.
Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely’s story in his book When Machines Fail Us, points the finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says, but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small problems. And it’s not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless keyboards.
The problem with his argument in the book is that it’s not clear why he only focuses on digital technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. Perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor singalling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the GPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn’t say.
It’s a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an account of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He says that once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it’s also due to the shortage of policemen on the streets. Or changing social circumstances. Or some combination of these factors.
The game between humans and their smart devices is amusing and complex. It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in. Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be a way for a wiser use of technology.
If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines. After all, we have lived with them for thousands of years. They have probably been fooling us for just as long.
1.What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident？
A.She was not familiar with the road.
B.It was dark and raining heavily then.
C.The railway workers failed to give the signal.
D.Her GPS device didn’t tell her about the crossing.
2.The phrase “near miss” (Paragraph 2) can best be replaced by______.
A.close hit B.heavy loss C.narrow escape D.big mistake
3.Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?
A.Modern technology is what we can’t live without.
B.Digital technology often falls short of our expectation.
C.Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.
D.GPS error is not the only cause for Ceely’s accident.
4.In the writer’s opinion, Stevenson’s argument is _______.
A.one-sided B.reasonable C.puzzling D.well-based
Why elephants rarely get cancer is a mystery that has confused scientists for decades. A study was led by researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and Arizona State University, including researchers from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation may have found the answer. According to the results, elephants have 38 additional modified copies of a gene (基因) that encodes p53, a well-defined tumor (肿瘤) suppressor, as compared to humans, who have only two. Further, elephants may have a more powerful mechanism for killing damaged cells that are at risk for becoming cancerous. In isolated elephant cells, this activity is doubled compared to healthy human cells, and five times that of cells from patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, who have only one working copy of p53 and more than a 90 percent lifetime cancer risk in children and adults. The results suggest extra p53 could explain elephants’ increased resistance to cancer.
“Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer. It’s up to us to learn how different animals overcome the problem so we can adapt those strategies to prevent cancer in people,” says co-senior author Joshua Schiffman, M.D., pediatric oncologist (肿瘤学家) at Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, and Primary Children’s Hospital.
According to Schiffman, elephants have long been considered a walking problem. Because they have 100 times as many cells as people, they should be 100 times more likely to have a cell slip into a cancerous state and cause the disease over their long life span of 50 to 70 years. And yet it’s believed that elephants get cancer less often, a theory confirmed in this study. Analysis of a large database of elephant deaths estimates a cancer death rate of less than 5 percent compared to 11 to 25 percent in people.
1.Why do humans often get cancer compared to elephants according to the passage?
A.Elephants are bigger than humans.
B.Elephants have more p53 than humans.
C.Elephants are not as clever as humans.
D.Elephants eat more than humans.
2.Which of the following is right according to the passage?
A.Some damaged cells may be dangerous.
B.Some damaged cells are not dangerous.
C.Some damaged cells can’t be cancerous.
D.Some damaged cells in elephants’ bodies are more dangerous than those in humans’ bodies.
3.What can we know from the last paragraph?
A.Elephants have more cells than people. B.Elephants can get cancer easily.
C.Elephants seldom die from cancer. D.Elephants often die from cancer.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A.Elephants help us B.Learn from Nature
C.How to deal with cancer D.Nature helps us prevent cancer
Evening Workshops
Evening Workshops | |
Optional evening workshops will be held at small restaurants or other meeting places near the conference hotel. Meals and other costs are not included but are also optional. Locations will be announced at the conference site. Workshops are very loosely organized and most represent discussions that have been held at Society for Economic Botany (SEB) meetings over a series of years. | |
Workshop 1: Student Network | |
Date | Wednesday evening, Feb. 5th |
Chairs | Hugo de Boer and Arika Virapongse |
Sponsor | Society for Economic Botany |
Description | Student members of the SEB hold a networking mixer each year in order to meet each other and to become familiar with a variety of educational programs and faculty advisors (大学指导老师). Faculty members who are part of training programs are encouraged to join the mixer to meet and talk with students. |
Workshop 2: Botanical Film Making | |
Date | Wednesday evening, Feb. 5th |
Chair | David Strauch |
Sponsor | University of Hawaii |
Description | Digital film making is a particularly useful tool of linking cultural information to recognizable plants. This workshop is aimed towards increasing the quality of material recorded by giving participants greater control over the medium. We will cover technical aspects (e.g. camera settings, audio), technical aspects (framing, lighting, focus), and some ways of presenting the material. Experienced filmmakers are encouraged to attend, and participants are welcome to bring their own camera equipment. |
Workshop 3: Collections for Botany — Collections Development and Management | |
Date | Friday evening, Feb. 7th |
Chair | Jan Salick |
Sponsor | Society for Economic Botany |
Description | SEB is a network of researchers who have been developing standards for the development of collections of artifacts, plant samples and related materials. Participants discuss successes, problems, and funding sources for solving management issues. |
1.One of the purposes of a networking mixer held each year is to ________.
A.provide students with greater control over the media
B.link cultural information to recognizable plants
C.help the students to deal with most of the environment issues
D.help the students to be familiar with educational programs
2.Which of the following is true according to the poster?
A.Evening workshops will be held at small restaurants with meals included.
B.Participants have more than one option on Feb.5ththan another night.
C.Workshops have nothing to do with the discussions held at SEB meetings.
D.Faculty advisers can join the mixer without training experience.
3.You are a college student, interested in plants and good at taking TV pictures. Which of the Evening Workshops is most suitable for you?
A.Botanical Film Making. B.Collections for Botany.
C.Student Network. D.Society for Economic Botany.
听下面一段独白。回答以下小题。
1.Why did the waiter refuse to serve the man any drink?
A.The man was a taxi driver.
B.The man had had plenty of drink.
C.The man had never paid for the drink.
2.How did the man feel when he saw the waiter the second time?
A.Unexpected. B.Angry. C.Afraid.
3.From where did the man enter the bar the last time?
A.The front door. B.The side door. C .The back door.
4.What can we learn from the story?
A.The waiter called a policeman in the end.
B.The man asked the waiter to call a taxi for him.
C.The man thought he went to three different bars.
听下面一段较长对话。回答以下小题。
1.What are the speakers mainly discussing?
A.Old-fashioned televisions. B.The man’ s childhood. C.Difficult times of the past.
2.When did the TV programs start when the man was a child?
A.In the evening. B.In the afternoon. C.In the morning.
3.What did the man do on holiday when he was a boy?
A.He stayed at home.
B.He went to the seaside.
C.He took the train to England.
4.What does the woman think of the old days?
A.Hard. B.Funny. C.Boring.
