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When we visited the country, our principal impression was one of poverty and hardship. main central unforgettable strong
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I didn’t help him. I would have however didn’t have the money. or but otherwise still
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Smoking is not permitted in the office. probable possible admitted allowed
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Gambling is lawful in this state. legal irresistible enjoyable profitable
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You don’t need to carry large amounts of cash; actually all financial businesses will be conducted by computers. transmissions transitions transactions transportation
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The people who speak Esperanto hope that the language someday will become the international language for trade, science, and diplomacy. common unique official well-known
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All dogs are capable of doing harm to human beings. damage injury danger wound
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They have been tightening their belts for months, adapting themselves to a war economy. modifying adopting arranging adjusting
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What makes a major success in Los Angeles is the strength of his public support. concentration intensity conservation stress
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They had put up with the behavior from their son which they would not have tolerated from anyone else. accepted suffered endured received
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He was awarded $1,000 damages for the injury he suffered in the accident. compensation insurance commission substitution
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The second injection should have been given once the first drug had taken effect. taken place injected worked out worked
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The next morning she told us that the last question didn’t depart till well after midnight. go leave come appear
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Capital punishment was abolished some years ago in some states of the U. S. created decorated improved eliminated
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Human facial expression differ from those of animals in the degree to which they can be deliberately controlled and modified. sufficiently noticeably intentionally absolutely
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An Awful Afternoon
Sometimes I feel that being the mother of three small children is like running a large circus(马戏团). One afternoon last week, my three sons were playing peacefully in the back yard, throwing the ball from one to the other. I jumped at the chance to talk to one of my friends on the phone, but before I got to the phone, I could tell that the boys had begun to quarrel with each other over something. I rushed out to make peace, but before I got there, Charles had begun to fight over this. Even David, the oldest boy, who won’t usually fight with anybody over anything, was involved. First, I made them stop fighting, and then I examined Mark’s eye. I decided that it wasn’t going to develop into a black eye, but I felt that they should suffer at least a little for what they had done. “I’m going to speak to your father about these when he comes home tonight,“ I said. “He and I will think of how to punish you.“ Things were pretty quiet after that for about half an hour, and then Charles broke a glass in the kitchen sink, and at almost the same moment, Mark fell out of the apple tree. I suppose I will be able to laugh at all these things someday. In the meantime, I just pray to heaven for patience.The mother of the three children is the manager of a large circus. Right Wrong Not mentioned
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Singapore
1 Singapore is an independent city-state in southeastern Asia, consisting of one major island the Singapore Island—and more than 50 small islands, located off the southern tip of Malay. The city of Singapore, the capital of the country, is at the southeastern end of the Singapore Island, it is one of the most important port cities and commercial centers of Southeast Asia. The total area of the republic is 640 sq. km.
2 Low-lying Singapore Island has no outstanding relief(轮廓鲜明的) features. A central area of hills rises to the maximum height of 176m. The country has a wet tropical climate, with an average annual temperature of 27.2℃: The average annual rainfall is 2,4t3 mm; the wettest months are November through January.
3 Singapore is governed under a constitution of 1959, as amended (修正后的). A president, elected to a four-year term, is head of state, and a prime minister is head of government. The president used to be elected by Parliament, but by a 1991 constitutional amendment (修正), the president is now elected directly by the people. The Parliament is the lawmaking body with its 81 members popularly elected.
4 In the late 1980s the country had some 290 primary schools with 278,300 pupils and 160 secondary schools with 200,200 students. The main institutions of higher education are the National University of Singapore (founded in 1980 with the combination of two major universities), several technical colleges, and a teachers college.
5 Singapore has one of the highest standards of living of any country in Asia. In the late 1980s the gross domestic product was estimated at $23.7 billion, or $8,870 per person. The fishing industry is centered on the port of During, on southwestern Singapore Island. Industry has grown rapidly since the 1960s, and Singapore now produces a diversity (多样化的) of goods, including chemicals, electronic items, clothing, and processed foods, etc. Shipbuilding and petroleum refining are also important.A Introduction to Singapore
B Education
C Economy
D State System of Singapore
E History of Singapore
F Land and Climate
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An Unusual Experience at Sea
It was early one morning in February 1972 when Mayoral and his partner Santos Luis Perez set out to fish in Laguna San Ignacio. Hundreds of gray whales were swimming in the three-mile-long, one-mile-wide inlet. This was usual between December and April, for the whales breed in the protected inlets of Baja, the final destination of their annual 6,000-mile migration from the Arctic. Mayoral and Perez stayed as for as possible from the spouting (喷涌) creatures, because the whales were said to smash boats with their powerful flukes (鲸尾的叶). Mayoral, who had 16 years’ experience at sea, knew no one who had been close to a healthy gray whale and lived.
As Mayoral rowed to catch the outgoing (退出去的) tide, he saw, straight ahead, a whale approaching. Heart pounding, the 31-year-old turned the little wooden boat and pulled hard for shore. Try as he might, however, he could not row over the huge beast. In moments, it overtook them. Expecting the worst, the fishermen dropped to their knees and made the sign of the cross. The whale raised its nine-foot head out of the water and looked at them. Then, remarkably, it began to rub gently against the boat.
Sinking and resurfacing (重新露出水面) on opposite sides of the boat, the whale continued its gentle rubbing for almost an hour. At first the men prayed, frozen in fear. But gradually Mayoral’s terror gave way to curiosity. He was tempted to reach out and touch this oddly unthreatening monster, but a lifetime of caution kept him still.
At last, having finished with whatever its purpose had been, the whale disappeared below the surface. Some time passed before either man spoke. Then they headed home. To his wife, Mayoral said only, “No fish today.“
But word spread through the cluster of small wooden houses near the salt-water lake. A strange thing had happened: one of the whales had tried to touch the men, and the men had returned unharmed. Why?
In nights to come, by faint kerosene lamps, Mayoral and Perez told the story. They and other fishermen struggled to understand. What did the whale want?We know from the passage that the whales traveled 6,000 miles from the Arctic to the inlets of Baja ______. just to have a change in environment to give birth to baby whales in winter to escape from the cold water for a while to find a warm place to settle down
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The Deer’s Death
He ran close, and again stood still, stopped by a new fear. Around him the grass was whispering and alive. He looked wildly about, then down. The ground was black with ants, great energetic ants that took no notice of him, but hurried towards the fighting shape. And as he drew in his breath and pity and terror seized him, the beast fell and the screaming stopped. Now he could hear nothing but a bird singing, and the sound of the rustling (沙沙声) whispering ants.
He peered over at the blackness that twitched with the jerking(抽搐) nerves. It grew quieter. There were small twitches from the mass that still looked vaguely like the shape of a small animal.
It came into his mind that he could shoot it and end its pain; and he raised the gun. Then he lowered it again. The deer could no longer feel; its fighting was a mechanical protest of the nerves. But it was not that which made him put down the gun. It was a swelling feeling of rage and misery and protest that expressed itself in the thought: if I had not come it would have died like this, so why should I interfere? All over the bush things like this happen; they happen all the time; this is how life goes on, by living things dying painfully. I cannot stop it. He was glad that the deer was unconscious and had gone past suffering so that he did not have to make a decision to kill it. At his feet, now, were ants tricking back with pink fragments in their mouths and there was a fresh acid smell in his nose. He sternly controlled the uselessly convulsing(痉挛的) muscles of his empty stomach, and reminded himself: the ants must eat too.
The shape had grown small. Now it looked like nothing to be recognized. He saw the blackness thin, and bits of white showed through, shining in the sun—yes, there was the sun just up. Then the boy looked at those insects. A few were standing and gazing up at him with small glittering eyes. “Go away!“ he said to the ants coldly. “I am not for you—not just yet, at any rate.“
He bent over the bones and touched the sockets(孔) in the skull: that was where the eyes were, he thought suspiciously, remembering the liquid eyes of a deer.
That morning, perhaps an hour ago, this small creature had been stepping proud and free through the bush even as he himself had done. Proudly stepping the earth, it had smelt the cold morning air. Walking like kings, it had moved freely through this bush, where each blade of grass grew for it alone, and where the river ran pure sparkling water for it to drink.
And then—what had happened? Such a sure swift footed thing could surely not be trapped by a swarm of ants?How was the deer when the boy first saw it? It was already dead in the bush. It was still on its feet. It was lying on the ground dying. It was fighting the ants to a finish.
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Generation Gap
A few years ago, it was fashionable to speak of a generation gap, a division between young people and their elders. Parents complained that children did not show them proper respect and obedience, while children complained that their parents did not understand them at all. What had gone wrong? Why had the generation gap suddenly appeared? Actually, the generation gap has been around for a long time. Many critics argue that it is built into the fabric of our society.
One important cause of the generation gap is the opportunity that young people have to choose their own life-styles. In more traditional societies, when children grow up, they are expected to live in the same area as their parents, to marry people that their parents know and approve of, and often to continue the family occupation. In our society, young people often travel great distances for their education, most out of the family home at an early age, marry or live or choose occupations different from those of their parents.
In our upwardly mobile society, parents often expect their children to do better than they did: to find better jobs, to make more money, and to do all the things that they were unable to do. Often, however, the ambitions that parents have for their children are another cause of the division between them. Often they discover that they have very little in common with each other.
Finally, the speed at which changes take place in our society is another cause of the gap between the generations. In a traditional culture, elderly people are valued for their wisdom, but in our society the knowledge of a lifetime may become obsolete overnight.
The young and the old seem to live in two very different worlds, separated by different skills and abilities.
No doubt, the generation gap will continue to be a feature of American life for some time to come. Its causes are rooted in the freedoms and opportunities of our society, and in the rapid pace at which society changes.The main idea of the first paragraph is that ______. the generation gap suddenly appeared the generation gap is a feature of American life how people can bridge the generation gap many critics argue over the nature of the generation gap