Seeing the World Centuries Ago If you enjoy looking through travel books by such familiar authors as Arthur Former or Eugene Fodor.it will not surprise you to lean that travel writing has a long and venerable history. Almost from the earliest annals of recorded time individuals have found ready audiences for their accounts of journeys to strange and exotic locales. One of the earliest travel writers, a Greek geographer and historian named Strabb, lived around the time of Christ. Though Strabo is known to have traveled from east of the Black Sea west to Italy and as far south as Ethiopia, he also used details gleaned from other writers to extend and enliven his accounts. His multivolumed work Geography provides the only surviving account of the cities, peoples, customs, and geographical peculiarities of the whole known world of his time. Two other classic travel writers, the Italian Marco Polo and the Moroccan Ibn Battutah, lived in roughly the same time period. Marco Polo traveled to China with his father and uncle in about A. D. 1275 and remained there 16 or 17 years, visiting several other countries during his travels. When Marco returned to Italy he dictated his memoirs, including stories he had heard from others, to a scribe, with the resulting book II million being an instant success. Though difficult to attest to the accuracy of all he says, Marco’s book impelled Europeans to begin their great voyages of exploration. Ibn Battutah’s interest in travel began on his required Muslim journey to Mecca in 1325, and during his lifetime he journeyed through all the countries where Islam held sway. His travel book the Rihlah is a personalized account of desert journeys, court intrigues, and even the effect of the Back Death in the various lands he visited. In almost 30 years of traveling it is estimated that Ibn Battutah covered more than 75, 000 miles.

The cost of elections in the United States is borne by both the government and the private sector. known fought exposed assumed

They got in quite a brawl. snit fight bally littering

Do you follow what I am saying? change investigate write understand

The reporter was accused of unprofessional conduct. movement words principle behavior

Hurricanes(龙卷风) Did you know that before 1950, hurricanes had no names? They were simply given numbers. The first names were simply Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc. but in 1953, females names were given because of the unpredictability(不可预知)factor of the storms. In 1979, realizing the sexist(性别歧视的)nature of such names, the lists were expanded to include both men and women. Hurricanes and typhoons(台风)are the same things. If they form in the Atlantic, we call these strong storms hurricanes, from the West Indian word hurricane, meaning“big wind. “And if they are Pacific storms, they are called typhoons from the Chinese taifun, meaning “ great wind. “ To be classified as a hurricane, the storm must have maximum winds of at least 75 mph. These storms are big, many hundreds of miles in diameter. Hurricanes get their power from water vapor as it gives out its stored-up energy. All water vapor gives out heat as it condenses(凝结)from a gaseous state to a liquid state over fixed points on the equator(赤道). To make a hurricane, you must have extremely wet, warm air, the kind of air that can only be found in tropical region. Scientists have determined that the heat given out in the process of water condensation can be as high as 95 billion kilowatts per hour. In just one day alone, the storm can produce more energy than many industrialized nations need in an entire year! The problem is that we don’t know how to make sure such great energy work for us. Predicting the path of a hurricane is one of the most difficult tasks for forecasters. It moves at a typical speed of 15 mph. But not always. Some storms may race at twice this speed, then suddenly stop and remain in the same location for several days. It can be maddening(发疯的)if you live in a coastal area that may be hit. The biggest advance in early detection is continuous watch from weather satellites. With these, we can see the storms form and track them fully, from birth to death. While they can still kill people and destroy property, hurricanes will never surprise any nation again. A. A short history of naming hurricanes B. Harnessing the hurricane energy C. Difficulty in forecasting the course of a hurricane D. Huge energy stored in a hurricane E. Forecasting a hurricane through satellite watching F. Different names for the same things

Seeing the World Centuries Ago If you enjoy looking through travel books by such familiar authors as Arthur Former or Eugene Fodor.it will not surprise you to lean that travel writing has a long and venerable history. Almost from the earliest annals of recorded time individuals have found ready audiences for their accounts of journeys to strange and exotic locales. One of the earliest travel writers, a Greek geographer and historian named Strabb, lived around the time of Christ. Though Strabo is known to have traveled from east of the Black Sea west to Italy and as far south as Ethiopia, he also used details gleaned from other writers to extend and enliven his accounts. His multivolumed work Geography provides the only surviving account of the cities, peoples, customs, and geographical peculiarities of the whole known world of his time. Two other classic travel writers, the Italian Marco Polo and the Moroccan Ibn Battutah, lived in roughly the same time period. Marco Polo traveled to China with his father and uncle in about A. D. 1275 and remained there 16 or 17 years, visiting several other countries during his travels. When Marco returned to Italy he dictated his memoirs, including stories he had heard from others, to a scribe, with the resulting book II million being an instant success. Though difficult to attest to the accuracy of all he says, Marco’s book impelled Europeans to begin their great voyages of exploration. Ibn Battutah’s interest in travel began on his required Muslim journey to Mecca in 1325, and during his lifetime he journeyed through all the countries where Islam held sway. His travel book the Rihlah is a personalized account of desert journeys, court intrigues, and even the effect of the Back Death in the various lands he visited. In almost 30 years of traveling it is estimated that Ibn Battutah covered more than 75, 000 miles.

The first four minutes When do people decide whether or not they want to become friends? During their first four minutes together, according to a book by Dr. Leonard Zunin. In his book, “Contact: The first four minutes, “he offers this advice to anyone interested in starting new friendships:【B1】______A lot of people’s whole lives would change if they did just that. You may have noticed that average person does not give his undivided attention to someone he as just met.【B2】______If anyone has ever done this to you, you probably did not like him very much. When we are introduced to new people, the author suggests, we should try to appear friendly and self-confident. In general, he says, “People like people who like themselves. “ On the other hand, we should not make the other person think we are too sure of ourselves. It is important to appear interested and sympathetic, realizing that the other person has his won needs, fears, and hopes. Hearing such advice, one might say, “But I’m not a friendly, self-confident person. That’s not my nature. It would be dishonest for me to at that way. “ 【B3】______We can become accustomed to any changes we choose to make in our personality. “It is like getting used to a new car. It may be unfamiliar at first, but it goes much better than the old one. “ But isn’t it dishonest to give the appearance of friendly self-confidence when we don’t actually feel that way? Perhaps, but according to Dr. Zunin, “total honest“is not always good for social relationships, especially during the first few minutes of contact. There is a time for everything, and a certain amount of play-acting may be best for the first few minutes of contact with a stranger. That is not the time to complain about one’s health or to mention faults one finds in other people. It is not the time to tell the whole truth about one’s opinions and impressions. 【B4】______For a husband and wife or a parent and child, problems often arise during their first four minutes together after they have been apart. Dr. Zunin suggests that these first few minutes together be treated with care. If there are unpleasant matters to be discussed, they should be dealt with later. The author says that interpersonal relations should be taught as a required course in every school, along with reading, writing, and mathematics.【B5】______that is at least as important as how much we know. A. In reply, Dr. Zunin would claim that a little practice can help us feel comfortable about changing our social habits. B. Much of what has been said about strangers also applies to relationships with family members and friends. C. In his opinion, success in life depends mainly on how we get along with other people. D. Every time you meet someone in a social situation, give him your undivided attention for four minutes. E. He keeps looking over the other person’s shoulder, as if hoping to find someone more interesting in another part of the room. F. He is eager to make friends with everyone.

Animal’s “Sixth Sense“ A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals,【C1】______, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a “sixth sense“ for【C2】______, experts said. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24, 000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly【C3】______wild beasts, with no dead animals found. “No elephants are dead, not【C4】______a dead rabbit. I think animals can【C5】______disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening, “ H. D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The【C6】______washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife【C7】______and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. “There has been a lot of【C8】______evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven, “ said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior【C9】______at Johannesburg Zoo. “There have been no【C10】______studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting, “ he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this【C11】______. “Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain【C12】______, especially birds.. . there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters, “ said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife. Animals【C13】______rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid clanger such as predators. The notion of an animal “sixth sense“ — or【C14】______other mythical power is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s ravaged coast is likely to add to. The Romans saw owls【C15】______omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special power or attributes.

Maria Chapman, abolitionist and close associate of William Lloyed Garrison, wrote many brochures condemning slavery. slogans short poems sentiments short pamphlets

Its evident that her handling of them has bruised the peaches. promulgated infatuated damaged infuriated

People fishing on a lake must wait calmly so as not to scare the fish away. considerately hungrily alertly quietly

Laser beams can be used to bore metals and other hard materials. trim melt drill slice

Acknowledged as the main cause of hay fever the pollen of ragweed is very bothersome. intriguing annoying potent significant

She eventually married the most persistent one of her admirers. in a way in due course in the end in any case

He made a considerable sum of money in real estate. large positive powerful realistic

A crowd gathered to see what had happened. collected fixed divided assist

Computer Mouse The basic computer mouse is an amazingly clever invention with a relatively simple design that allows us to point at things on the computer and it is very productive. Think of all the things you can do with a mouse like selecting text for copying and pasting, drawing, and even scrolling on the page with the newer mice with the wheel. Most of us use the computer mouse daily without stopping to think how it works until it gets dirty and we have to learn how to clean it. We learn to point at things before we learn to speak, so the mouse is a very natural pointing device. Other computer pointing devices include light pens, graphics tablets and touch screens, but the mouse is still our workhorse. The computer mouse was invented in 1964 by Douglas Englehart of Stanford University. As computer screens became more popular and arrow keys were used to move around a body of text, it became clear that a pointing device that allowed easier motion through the text and even selection of text would be very useful. The introduction of the mouse, with the Apple Lisa computer in 1983, really started the computer public on the road to relying on the mouse for routine computer tasks. How does the mouse work? We have to start at the bottom, so think upside down for now. It all starts with the mouse ball. As the mouse ball in the bottom of the mouse rolls over the mouse pad.it presses against and turns two shafts. The shafts are connected to wheels with several small holes in them. The wheels have a pair of small electronic light-emitting devices called light-emitting diodes(LED)mounted on either side. One LED sends a light beam to the LED on the other side. As the wheels spin and a hole rotates by, the light beam gets through to the LED on the other side. But a moment later the light beam is blocked until the next hole is in place. The LED detects a changing pattern of light, converts the pattern into an electronic signal, and sends the signal to the computer through wires in a cable that goes out of the mouse body. This cable is the tail that helps give the mouse its name. The computer interprets the signal to tell it where to position the cursor on the computer screen. So far we have only discussed the basic computer mouse that most of you probably have or have used. One problem with this design is that the mouse gets dirty as the ball rolls over the surface and picks up dirt. Eventually you have to clean your mouse. The newer optical mice avoid this problem by having no moving parts.

Eat More, Weigh Less, Live Longer Clever genetic detective work may have found out. the reason why a near-starvation diet prolongs the life of many animals. Ronald Kahn at Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, and his colleagues have been able to extend the lifespan(寿命)of mice by 18 per cent by blocking the. rodent’s(啮齿动物)increase of fat in specific cells. This suggests that thinness-and not necessarily diet-promotes long life in “calorie(热量卡)restricted“ animals. “It’s very cool work, “says aging researcher Cynthia Kenyon of the University of California, San Francisco. “These mice eat all they want, lose weight and live longer. It’s like heaven. “ Calorie restriction dramatically extends the lifespan of organisms as different as worms and rodents. Whether this works in humans is still unknown, partly because few people are willing to submit to such a strict diet. But many researchers hope they will be able to trigger the same effect with a drug once they understand how less food leads to a longer life. One theory is that eating less reduces the increase of harmful things that can damage cells. But Kahn’s team wondered whether the animals simply benefit by becoming thin. To find out, they used biology tricks to disrupt the insulin(胰岛素)receptor(受体)gene in lab mice—but only in their fat cells. “Since insulin is needed to help fat cells store fat, these animals were protected against becoming fat, “ explains Kahn. This slight genetic change in a single tissue had dramatic effects. By three months of age, Kahn’s modified mice had up to 70 per cent less body fat than normal control mice, despite the fact that they ate 55 per cent more food per gram of body weight. In addition, their lifespan increased. The average control mouse lived 753 days, while the thin rodents averaged a lifespan of 887 days. After three years, all the control mica had died, but one-quarter of the modified rodents were still alive. “That they get these effects by just manipulating the fat cells is controversial, “ says Leonard Guarente of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who studies calorie restriction and aging. But Guarente says Kahn has yet to prove that the same effect is responsible for increased lifespan in calorie-restricted animals. “It might be the same effect or there might be two routes to long life, “ he points out, “and that would be very interesting. “

Messalina’s name has become a byword for notorious behavior. an epithet an abstraction an indication an oration

The caliber of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing was reassessed by literary critics in the 1950’s. idealism creativity quality imagery

This passage is mostly about______.

Ibn Battutah traveled______.

The books by the three writers were popular because______.

The overall organization of this passage is through______.

In this passage attest means to______.