首页 > 题库 > 中南大学
选择学校
A B C D F G H J K L M N Q S T W X Y Z

Ideally, people would like to know when an earthquake is going to happen and how bad it will be. People have long believed that earthquakes can be forecast. In Japan, scientists have wired the Earth and sea to detect movements. The Chinese have traditionally watched animals and plants for warning signs of earthquakes. (1) Certain birds, like pigeons, also seemed to be especially noisy, and were reported to be flying in unusual patterns before the earthquake. Perhaps most interesting, and most easily measured, is a chemical change in ground water before a quake. Experimental data seem to indicate that the amount of radon (氡) in the water under the surface of the Earth waxes before an earthquake.Every family needs to have earthquake emergency plans. How will family members leave the area during the chaos following and earthquake? Everyone should agree on a meeting point outside the area—perhaps in a town several miles away. (2) Also important is an arrangement for family member to communicate if there is an earthquake in case that an earthquake happens in a large city, many of the telephone lines within the city are likely to be down. The few remaining working lines will be busy with the calls that naturally occur after a disaster and it will be difficult to call from one part of the city to another. It might, however, be possible to call outside the city. (3) A sensible arrangement is to have all of the members of the family call to check in with a friend or relative who lives more than a hundred miles away.(4) Although scientists still cannot predict earthquakes, they are learning a great deal about how the large plates in the earth’s crust move, the stresses between plates, how earthquakes work, and the general probability that a given place will have an earthquake. Someday soon it may actually become possible to predict earthquakes with accuracy. (5) However, even if prediction becomes possible, people who live in areas where earthquakes are a common occurrence will still have to do their best to prevent disasters by building structures that are resistant to ground movement and by being personally prepared. These precautions can make a great difference in saving lives and preventing the loss of homes. Education concerning bow to survive an earthquake should be a major emphasis for all government programs and earthquake-related research projects.

查看试题

Socrates gives us a basic insight into the nature of teaching when he compares the art of teaching to the ancient craft of the midwife. Just as the midwife assists the body to give birth to new life, so the teacher assists the mind to deliver itself of ideas, knowledge, and understanding. The essential notion here is that teaching is a humble, helping art. The teacher does not produce knowledge or stuff ideas into an empty, passive mind. It is the learner, not the teacher, who is the active producer of knowledge and ideas.The ancients distinguish the skills of the physician and the farmer from those of the shoemaker and the house builder. Aristotle calls medicine and agriculture cooperative arts, because they work with nature to achieve results that nature is able to produce by itself. Shoes and houses would not exist unless men produced them; but the living body attains health without the intervention of doctors, and plants and animals grow without the aid of farmers. The skilled physician or farmer simply makes health or growth more certain and regular.Teaching, like farming and healing, is a cooperative art which helps nature do what it can do itself — though not as well without it. We have all learned many things without the aid of a teacher. Some exceptional individuals have acquired wide learning and deep insight with very little formal schooling. But for most of us the process of learning is made more certain and less painful when we have a teacher’s help.One basic aspect of teaching is not found in the other two cooperative arts that work with organic nature. Teaching always involves a relation between the mind of one person and the mind of another. The teacher is not merely a talking book, a living phonograph record, broadcast to an unknown audience. He enters into a dialogue with his student. This dialogue goes far beyond mere “talk,” for a good deal of what is taught is transmitted almost unconsciously m the personal interchange between teacher and student. We might get by with encyclopedias, phonograph records, and TV broadcasts if it were not for this intangible element, which is present in every good teacher-student relation.Speaking simply and in the broadest sense, the teacher shows the student how to find out, evaluate, judge, and recognize the truth. He does not impose a fixed content of ideas and doctrines that the student must learn by rote. He teaches the student how to learn and think for himself. He encourages rather than suppresses a critical and intelligent response.The student’s response and growth is the only reward suitable for such a labor of love. Teaching, the highest of the cooperative arts, is devoted to the good of others. It is an act of supreme generosity. St. Augustine calls it the greatest act of charity.1. Socrates compares the art of teaching to the ancient craft of the midwife, because ( ).2. The skills of the physician and the farmer differ from those of the shoemaker and the house builder in that ( ).3. The chief difference between a teacher and a farmer is that ( ).4. According to the passage the role of a teacher is ( ).

查看试题

The history of mammals dates back at least to Triassic time. Development was retarded, however, until the sudden acceleration of evolutional change that occurred in the oldest Paleogene. This led in Eocene time to increase in average size, larger mental capacity, and special adaptations for different modes of life. In the Oligocene Epoch, there was fun her improvement, with some appearance of some new lines and extinction of others. Miocene and Pliocene time was marked by culmination of several groups and continued approach toward modern characters. The peak of the career of mammals in variety and average large size was attained in the Miocene.The adaptation of mammals to almost all possible modes of life parallels that of the reptiles in Mesozoic time, and except for greater intelligence, the mammals do not seem to have done much better than corresponding reptilian forms. The bat is doubtless a better flying animal than the pterosaur, but the dolphin and whale ore hardly more fishlike than the ichthyosaur. Many swift-running mammals of the plains, like the horse and the antelope, must excel any of the dinosaurs. The tyrannosaur was a more ponderous and powerful carnivore than any flesh-eating mammal, but the lion or tiger is probably a more efficient and dangerous beast of prey because of a superior brain.The significant point to observe is that different branches of the mammals gradually filled themselves for all sorts of life, grazing on the plains and able to run swiftly (horse, deer, bison), living in rivers and swamps (hippopotamus, beaver), dwelling in trees (sloth, monkey), digging underground (mole, rodent), feeding on flesh in the forest (tiger) and plain (wolf), swimming in the sea (dolphin, whale, seal) and flying in the air (bat). Man is able by mechanical means to conquer the physical world and to adapt himself to almost any set of conditions.This adaptation produces gradual changes of form and structure. It is biologically characteristic of the youthful, plastic stage of a group. Early in its career, an animal assemblage seems to possess capacity for change, which, as the unit becomes old and fixed, disappears. The generalized types of organisms retain longest the ability to make adjustments when required, and it is from them that new, fecund stocks take origin — certainly not from any specialized end products. So, in the mammals, we witness the birth, plastic spread in many directions, increasing specialization, and in some branches, the extinction, which we have learned from observation of the geologic record of life is a characteristic of the evolution of life.1. In chronological order, the geologic periods are ( ).2. From this passage, we may conclude that the pterosaur ( ).3. That the mammals succeeding the reptile in geologic time were superior is illustrated by the statement that the ( ).4. The statements made by the writer are based on evidence ( ).

查看试题

Contending for the rights of woman, my main argument is built on this simple principle, that if she be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge and virtue; for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence on general practice. And how can woman be expected to co-operate unless she knows why she ought to be virtuous? Unless freedom strengthen her reason till, she comprehends her duty, and see in what manner it is connected with her real good? If children are to be educated to understand the true principle of patriotism, their mother must be a patriot; and the love of mankind, from which an orderly train of virtues spring, can only be produced by considering the moral and civil interest of mankind; but the education and situation of woman, at present, shuts her out from such investigations.Consider, sir, dispassionately, these observations — for a glimpse of this truth seemed to open before you when you observed, “that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other from all participation of government, was a political phenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain.” If so, on what does your constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a’ different opinion prevails in this country, built on the very arguments which you use to justify the oppression of woman — prescription.Consider — I address you as a legislator — whether, when men contend for their freedom, and to be allowed to judge for themselves respecting their own happiness, it be not inconsistent and unjust to subjugate women, even though you firmly believe that you are acting in the manner best calculated to promote their happiness? Who made man the exclusive judge, if woman partake with him the gift of reason?In this style, argue tyrants of every denomination, from the weak king to the weak father of a family; they are all eager to crush reason; yet always assert that they usurp its throne only to be useful. Do you not act a similar part, when you force all women, by denying them civil and political rights, to remain immured in their families groping in the dark?1. According to the passage, in order for society to progress, women must ( ).2. In the passage, the author claims that freedoms granted by society’s leaders have ( ).3. The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements about women in the eighteenth century?4. The intention for the passage is to dispute the idea ( ).

查看试题

No one can be a great thinker who does not realize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. Not that it is solely, or chiefly to form great thinkers that freedom of thinking is required. On the contrary, it is as much or even more indispensable to enable average human beings to attain the mental stature which they are capable of. There have been, and may again be, great individual thinkers in a general atmosphere of mental slavery. But there never has been, nor ever will be, in that atmosphere an intellectually active people. Where any people has made a temporary approach to such a character, it has been because the dread of heterodox speculation was for a time suspended. Where there is a tacit convention that principles are not to be disputed; where the discussion of the greatest questions which can occupy humanity is considered to be closed, we cannot hope to find that generally high scale of mental activity which has made some periods of history so remarkable. Never was when controversy avoided the subjects which are large and important enough to kindle enthusiasm the mind of a people stirred up from its foundations and the impulse given which raised even persons of the most ordinary intellect to something of the dignity of thinking beings.He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment, and unless he contents himself with that. He is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels the most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments or bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form: he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of; else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. Ninety-nine in a hundred of what are called educated men are in this condition; even of those who can argue fluently for their opinions. Their conclusion may be true, but it might be false for anything they know: they have never thrown themselves into the mental position of those who think differently from them and considered what such persons may have to say; and consequently they do not, in any proper sense of the word, know the doctrines which they themselves profess. They do not know those parts of it which explain and justify the remainder; the considerations which show that a fact which seemingly conflicts with another is reconcilable with it or that, of two apparently strong reasons, one and not the other ought to be preferred.1. The best title for this passage is ( ).2. According to the author, it is always advisable to ( ).3. According to the author, which of the following statements is true?4. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?

查看试题

The motivation for deep-space travel is shifting from discovery to economics. The past year has seen a flurry of proposals aimed at bringing celestial riches down to Earth. No doubt this will make a few billionaires even wealthier, but we all stand to gain: the mineral bounty and spin-off technologies could enrich us all.But before the miners start firing up their rockets, we should pause for thought. At first glance, space mining seems to sidestep most environmental concerns: there is (probably!) no life on asteroids, and thus no habitats to trash. But its consequences — both here on Earth and in space — merit careful consideration.Part of this is about principles. Some will argue that space’s “magnificent desolation” is not ours to despoil, just as they argue that our own planet’s poles should remain pristine. Others will suggest that glutting ourselves on space’s riches is not an acceptable alternative to developing more sustainable ways of earthly life.History suggests that those will be hard lines to hold, and it may be difficult to persuade the public that such barren environments are worth preserving. After all, they exist in vast abundance, and even fewer people will experience them than have walked through Antarctica’s icy landscapes.There’s also the emerging off-world economy to consider. The resources that are valuable in orbit and beyond may be very different to those we prize on Earth. Questions of their stewardship have barely been broached — and the relevant legal and regulatory framework is fragmentary, to put it mildly.Space miners, like their earthly counterparts, are often reluctant to engage with such questions. One speaker at last week’s space-mining forum in Sydney, Australia, concluded with a plea that regulation should be avoided. But miners have much to gain from a broad agreement on the for-profit exploitation of space. Without consensus, claims will be disputed, investments risky, and the gains made insecure. It is in all of our long-term interests to seek one out.1. The central claim of the passage is that space mining has positive potential but ( ).2. As used in the sentence underlined (Paragraph 4), “hold” most nearly means ( ).3. According to the passage the off-planet economy such as the future of space mining in future ( ).4. Which of the following statements provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?

查看试题

During recent years we have heard much about “race”: how this race does certain things and that race believes certain things and so on. Yet, the (1) phenomenon of race consists of a few surface indications.We judge race usually (2) the coloring of the skin: a white race, a brown race, a yellow race and a (3) race. But if you were to remove the skin you could not (4) anything about the race to which the individual belonged. There is (5) in physical structure, the brain or the internal organs to (6) a difference.There are four types of blood. All (7) are found in every race, and no type is distinct to any race. Human brains are the (8). No scientists could examine a brain and tell you the race to which the individual belonged. Brains will (9) in size, but this occurs within every race. (10) does size have anything to do with intelligence. The largest brain (11) examined belonged to a person of weak (12). On the other hand, some of our most distinguished people have had (13) brains.Mental tests which are reasonably (14) show no differences in intelligence between races. High and low test (15) both can be recorded by different members of any race. (16) equal educational advantages, there will be no difference in average standings, either on account of race or geographical location.Individuals of every race (17) civilization to go backward or forward. Training and education can change the response of a group of people, (18) enable them to behave in a (19) way.The behavior and ideals of people (20) according to circumstances, but they can always go back or go on to something new that is better and higher than anything in the past.

查看试题

暂未登录

成为学员

学员用户尊享特权

老师批改作业做题助教答疑 学员专用题库高频考点梳理

本模块为学员专用
学员专享优势
老师批改作业 做题助教答疑
学员专用题库 高频考点梳理
成为学员