1、Why do some countries drive on the left, while others – the majority- drive on the right? In fact, those that drive on the left make up about twenty-five per cent of the world’s countries and are, apart from the UK itself, mostly countries that were British colonies: India, South Africa, Singapore, Jamaica, and so on. Japan does too, although it wasn’t a colony, and as late as 2009, Samoa switched from driving on the right largely because they wanted to buy right-hand drive cars made in Japan and New Zealand. The Romans introduced the custom of keeping to the left, a habit that was reinforced in medieval times when riders throughout Europe passed oncoming strangers sword arm to sword arm – this idea is based on the fact that the majority of people are right-handed. An increase in horse traffic towards the end of the 18th century meant that the convention gained strength, but it was not put into law until 1835. Legend lias it that Napoleon is responsible for making the European countries which he conquered keep to the right, for the simple reason either that he was left-handed himself, or that he wanted to be different from his enemy, England. This is most probably nonsense, but an Emperor’s whims can go a long way. So France, obviously, and Spain, the Netherlands and other countries Napoleon overran used this system, and over the years other countries adopted the practice to make crossing borders easier and safer. The latest European country to convert was Sweden, in 1967.
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According to the text, which of the countries listed below drive on the left?
Japan Scotland Spain
Samoa South Africa Germany
2、In 1861, Matthew Brady, a well-known portrait photographer, approached President Lincoln requesting permission to move freely about the country photographing the Civil War. Lincoln granted him permission to travel anywhere with the Union armies, and his record of this conflict brought home to millions the horrors of war. Brady wasn’t the first official war photographer. Six years earlier, Roger Fenton, a lawyer and amateur photographer, had returned from the Crimea, having been personally chosen by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. However, his instructions were more likely to have been to send back work that boosted morale back home rather than the terrible realities of war. Brady’s coverage of the war made him a household name, but he had hundreds of assistants, and it’s even possible that he didn’t take any of the 7,000 pictures that were marketed under his name. But no one else could have organized the large army of photographers needed to cover the broad sweep of the war and provided access to many leading generals and politicians.
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Which of the following statements are true of Matthew Brady?
He was given permission to travel anywhere in the US.
He was able to give his photographers introductions to politicians.
He took as many as seven thousand pictures of the war.
He was responsible for organizing a large number of photographers.
Before the war he had been an amateur photographer.
3、Wheat is one of most primitive types of food in the world. Its discovery contributed to the development of Homo-sapiens from hunters to farmers. Civilization arose where soil was fertile and wheat could be produced. The Stone Age farmers in the Middle East 9000 years ago were perhaps the first to cultivate cereal grams, such as wheat and barley. They also developed bread wheat from a cross of wild wheat and grasses. Studies on Neolithic women in Syria highlight damage to their toes, knees and vertebrate as they had to spend long hours kneeling before saddle-shaped stones to crush grains. The finding that grain could be grounded to make a powder called a meal must have been fantastic because raw wheat is distasteful. This powder called meal was used to make porridge or gruel until baking was discovered. The baked flour was more enjoyable and tasty. Sieve or baskets were made using horse hair or papyrus to separate the ground meal into coarse bran particles and white flour. Later ancient Romans crushed the grain and sifted the flour through linen, twice. This was an expensive procedure that only the aristocracy could afford. The white flour obtained was called “pollen” meaning a fine powder. The Romans were the pioneers in the birth of the milling industry using animals or slaves to drive the wheels to grind wheat. It was only in the 11th century that water and wind mills appeared to grind the wheat.
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Which of the following statements is/are not true in accordance with the information given in the above passage?
Extracting fine pollen from raw wheat used to be an expensive process.
Discovery of wheat helped primitive societies to lead a nomadic life.
Crushing wheat with the help of saddle shaped stones used to be a difficult task for ancient women.
In ancient Rome milling was always done with the help of slaves.
Baked wheat flour is tastier than porridge.
4、Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before he discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it, and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. His discovery that the firebrand from which the torch may well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental purpose of preserving a flame. Lamps, too probably developed by accident. Early man may have had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twig of fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps, which were made of hollowed stones or sea-shells, have persisted in identical form up to quite recent times.
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Which of the following statements can be derived from the text?
Lighting his surroundings was a major concern for the primitive man.
Primitive man used to soften his food by heating it.
Torch was discovered more by accident than by design.
Preserving fire was not a major concern for the primitive man.
Some of the primitive lamp designs survived for long through the ages.
5、There are other environmental problems connected with offshore oil, besides oil pollution, many of them are routine part of operations. In drilling an offshore well, operators customarily discard overboard their drill cuttings with some un-separated drilling mud (which is not actually mud but a combination of clay and chemicals). A typical 15,000-foot well usually produces more than 1,000 tons of drill cuttings. In addition, mineral salts, which may have distinctly harmful effects on some forms of marine life, are released from geological formations and are regularly discharged after treatment in the course of production. Localized short-term impacts have been detected as a result of these discharges. Routine discharges like these, together with chronic low-level oil leaks, present “considerable environmental risk,” the Council on Environmental Quality concluded in its report on OCS oil and gas. Digging channels for service ships and barges, building docks and other structures at the waterfront, and, to a lesser extent, laying pipeline cause another kind of environmental disruption. Instead of poisoning marine creatures, these activities tend to bury them, choke them, or cut off the light, which is essential to their whole food chain. Most importantly, dredging and filling change drainage patterns of estuaries and wetlands and can lead to erosion or saltwater intrusion. Increased salinity of the water in marshes and estuaries is usually damaging to the young fish, shellfish, and other organisms residing there. They may not be able to tolerate the higher salinity or they may be decimated by invading predators with an affinity for saltier waters.
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According to the information given in the passage, select the statement(s) that the author may probably disagree with?
Offshore oil drilling invites serious environmental problems.
An offshore oil well may not pose as much danger to the environment once it becomes completely operational.
While some species may suffer due to higher salinity levels, the situation may be a boon to some others.
Offshore oil drilling can have disastrous impact on the marine food chain.
Pipelines laid to carry gas or oil from the offshore wells are more disastrous than the huge structures erected at the waterfront.
参考答案：1——1 2 4 5
2——1 2 4
3——2 4
4——2 3
5——2 5