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She is always diplomatic when she deals with naughty students. firm tactful outspoken rude
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He was resolute in his attempt to climb up to the top of the mountain. disgusted determined tried disappointed
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That student is discourteous; he grumbles no matter how one tries to please him. giggles scolds complains sneers
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The chemist analyzed that there was no trace of poison in the coffee. indication taste color smell
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This kind of animals are on the verge of extinction, because so many are being killed for their fur. drying up dying out being exported being transplanted
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Only his relatives knew he had a fatal illness. strange deadly serious unknown
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Let’s postulate that she is a lawyer,then what’s her opinion about it? challenged assumed deducted decreed
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You should cultivate the habit of reading carefully. invent begin develop initiate
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The index is the government’s chief gauge of future economic activity. method measure way manner
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She is slender,with delicate wrists and ankles. sick weak slim pale
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Tom searched his pockets looking for the keys. went on was after went through cleared up
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He is in a rather difficult situation at present. location position preparation station
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This custom is still prevailing among members of the older generation. well-known widespread used celebrated
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During the SARS period,it is especially important to ventilate the room. dust clean remove air
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The moon was obscured by thick clouds. held prevented darkened blackened
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Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!
What are special effects? Do you enjoy movies that use a lot of special effects Dinosaurs(恐龙) from the distant past! Space batdes from the distant future! There has been a revolution in special effects, and it has transformed the movies we see.
The revolution began in the mid 1970s with George Lucas’s Star Wars, a film that stunned (使震惊)audiences.That revolution continues to the present, with dramatic changes in special-effects technology.The company behind these changes is Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).And the man behind the company is Dennis Muren, who has worked with Lucas since Star Wars.
Muren’s interest in special effects began very early.At the age of 6, he was photographing toy dinosaurs and spaceships.At 10, he had an 8 millimeter movie camera and was making these things move through stop-motion.(Stop-motion is a process in which objects are shot with a camera, moved slightly, shot again, and so on.When the shots are put together, the objects appear to move.)
Talk to Muren and you’ll understand what ILM is all about: taking on new challenges.By 1989, Muren decided he had pushed the old technology as far as it would go.
He saw computer graphics (图像) (CG) technology as the wave of the future and took a year off to master it.
With CG technology, images can be scanned into a computer for processing, for example, and many separate shots can be combined into a single image.CG technology has now reached the point, Muren says, where special effects can be used to do just about anything so that movies can tell stories better than ever before.The huge success of Jurassic Park and its sequel (续集) , The Lost World, the stars of which were computer-generated dinosaurs, suggests that this may very well be true.
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Spacing in Animals
1.Any observant person has noticed that a wild animal will allow a man or other potential enemy to approach only up to a given distance before it flees.“Flight distance“ is the terms used for this interspecies spacing.As a general rule, there is a positive relationship between the size of an animal and its flight distance—the larger the animal, the greater the distance it must keep between itself and the enemy.An antelope will flee when the enemy is as much as five hundred yards a-way.The wall lizard’s flight distance, on the other hand, is about six feet.Flight is the basic means of survival for mobile creatures.
2.Critical distance apparently is present wherever and whenever there is a flight reaction.“ Critical distance“ includes the narrow zone separating flight distance from attack distance.A lion in a zoo will flee from an approaching man until it meets a barrier that it cannot overcome.If the man continues the approach, he soon penetrates the lion’s critical distance, at which point the cornered lion reverses direction and begins slowly to stalk the man.
3.Social animals need to stay in touch with each other.Loss of contact with the group can be fatal for a variety of reasons including exposure to enemies. Social distance is not simply the distance at which an animal will lose contact with his group—that is, the distance at which it can no longer see, hear, or smell the group—it is rather a psychological distance, one at which the animal apparently begins to feel anxious when he exceeds its limits.We can think of it as a hidden band that contains the group.
4.Social distance varies from species to species.It is quite short—apparently only a few yards— among some animals, and quite long among others.
5.Social distance is not always rigidly fixed but is determined in part by the situation.When the young of apes and humans are mobile but not yet under control of the mother’s voice, social distance may be the length of her reach.This is readily observed among the baboons in a zoo.When the baby approaches a certain point, the mother reaches out to seize the end of its tail and pull it back to her.When added control is needed because of danger, social distance shrinks.To show this in man, one has only to watch a family with a number of small children holding hands as they cross a busy street.
A.Philosophical distance
B.Flight distance
C.Social distance is determined in part by the situation
D.Critical distance
E.Social distance
F.Physical distance
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A.differs among animal species
B.to psychological distance
C.begin to attack
D.to physiological distance
E.distance between an animal and its enemy before fleeing
F.distance between certain animal species before fleeing
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US Blacks Hard-hit by Cancer
Death rates for cancer are falling for all Americans, but black Americans are still more likely to-die of cancer than whites, the American Cancer Society said Monday.
In a special report on cancer and blacks, the organization said blacks are usually diagnosed with cancer later than whites, and they are more likely to die of the disease.
This could be because of unequal access to medical care, because blacks are more likely to have other diseases like diabetes as well, and perhaps because of differences in the biology of the cancer itself, the report added.
“ In general, African Americans have less likelihood of surviving five years after diagnosis than whites for all cancer sites and all stages of diagnosis,“ the report said.
“In describing cancer statistics for African Americans, this report recognizes that socioeconomic disparities and unequal access to medical care may underlie many of the differences associated with race.“
The Cancer Society said blacks should be encouraged to get check-ups earlier, when cancer was more treatable, and it said more research is needed to see if biological differences play a role.“The new statistics emphasize the continuing importance of eliminating these social disparities through public policy and education efforts,“ the organization said in a statement.But it also noted a drop in cancer death rates.
“ Cancer death rates in both sexes for all sites combined have declined substantially among black Americans since 1992, as have incidence rates,“ said the report.
“Increased efforts to improve economic conditions in combination with education about the relationship of lifestyle choices to cancer could further reduce the burden of cancer among African Americans.“
About 36 million Americans describe themselves as black, representing about 12 percent of the population.
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A Ride in a Cable-car
A ride in a cable-car is one of the exciting and enjoyable experiences a child can have.In Switzerland, which is the home of the cable-car, it is used mostly to take tourists up the slope of a mountain, to a restaurant from which one can have a bird-eye view of the surrounding country, or to a top of a ski-run, from which, in winter, skiers glide down the snow covered the slope on skis.In Singapore, however, the cable-car takes one from the summit of a hill on the main island to a low hill on Sentosa, a resort island just off the southern coast.
The cable-car is really a carriage which hangs from a strong steel cable suspended in the air.It moves along the cable with other cars on pulleys, the wheels of which are turned by electric motors. The cars are painted in eye-catching colours and spaced at regular intervals. Each car can seat up six persons. After the passengers have entered a car, they are locked in from outside by an attendant, they have no control over the movement of the car.
Before long, the passengers get a breath-taking view through the glass windows of the modern city, the bustling harbour, and the several islands off the coast.The car is suspended so high in the air that slips on the sea look like small boats, and boats like toys.On a clear day, both the sky above and the sea below look beautifully blue.
In contrast to the fast-moving traffic on the ground, the cars in the air move in a leisurely manner, allowing passengers more than enough time to take in the scenery during the brief trip to the island of Sentosa.After a few hours on Sentosa, it will be time again to take a cable-car back to Mount Faber.The return journey is no less exciting than the outward trip.
