After the violent earthquake that shook Los Angeles in 1994, earthquake scientists had good news to report: The damage and death toll could have been much worse.
More than 60 people died in this earthquake.【C1】______comparison, an earthquake of similar intensity that shook America in 1988【C2】______25,000 victims.【C3】______and deaths were relatively less in Los Angeles because the quake occurred at 4:31 a.m. on a holiday,【C4】______traffic was light on the city's highways. In addition, changes made to the construction codes in Los Angeles during the last 20 years have【C5】______the city's buildings and highways, making them more【C6】______to quakes.
Despite the good news, civil engineers aren't【C7】______on their successes.【C8】______to their drawing boards are blueprints for improved quake-resistant buildings. The new designs should【C9】______even greater security to cities where earthquakes often take place.
In the past, making structures quake-resistant meant final yet【C10】______materials, such as steel and wood, which【C11】______without breaking. Later, people tried to lift a building off its foundation, and【C12】______rubber and steel between the building and【C13】______foundation to reduce the【C14】______of ground vibrations. The most recent designs give buildings【C15】______as well as concrete and steel supports. Called smart buildings, the structures【C16】______like living organisms to an earthquake's vibrations. When the ground shakes and the building【C17】______forward, the computer would force the building to【C18】______in the opposite direction.
The new smart structures could be very【C19】______to build. However, they would【C20】______many lives and would be less likely to be damaged during earthquakes.
【C1】
A. For
B. In
C. From
D. By
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
For about three centuries we have been doing science, trying science out, using science for the construction of what we call modern civilization. Every dispensable item of contemporary technology, from canal locks to dial telophones to penicillin, was pieced together from the analysis of data provided by one or another series of scientific experiments. Three hundred years seems a long time for testing a new approach to human inter-living, long enough to set back for critical appraisal of the scientific method, maybe even long enough to vote on whether to go on with it or not. There is an argument.
Voices have been raised in protest since the beginning, rising in pitch and violence in the nineteenth century during the early stages of the industrial revolution, summoning urgent crowds into the streets on the issue of nuclear energy. "Give it hack," say some of the voices, "It doesn't really work, we've tried it and it doesn't work. Go back three hundred years and start again on something else less chancy for the race of man."
The principle discoveries in this century, taking all in all, are the glimpses of the depth of our ignorance of nature. Things that used to seem clear and rational, and matters of absolute certainty—Newtonian mechanics, for example—have slipped through our fingers; and we are left with a new set of gigantic puzzles, cosmic uncertainties, and ambiguities. Some of the laws of physics are amended every few years; some are canceled outright; some undergo revised versions of legislative intent as if they were acts of Congress.
Just thirty years ago we call it a biological revolution when the fantastic geometry of the DNA molecule was exposed to public view and the linear language of genetics was decoded. For a while, things seamed simple and clear: the cell was a neat little machine, a mechanical device ready for taking to pieces and reassembling, like a tiny watch. But just in the last few years it has become almost unbelievably complex, filled with strange parts whose functions are beyond today's imagining.
It is not just that there is more to do, there is everything to do. What lies ahead, or what can lie ahead if the efforts in basic research are continued, is much more than the conquest of human disease or the improvement of agricultural technology or the cultivation of nutrients in the sea. As we learn more about fundamental processes of living things in general we will learn more about ourselves.
What CANNOT be inferred from the first paragraph?
A. Scientific experiments in the past three hundred years have produced many valuable items.
B. For three hundred years there have been people holding a hostile attitude toward science.
C. Modern civilization depends on science so man supports scientific progress unanimously.
D. Some people think three hundred years is not long enough to set back for critical appraisal of scientific method.
It can be concluded from the essay that the author's attitude toward the training game is
A. supportative
B. oppositive
C. skeptical
D. critical
A.Because they spend more time at home with family members.B.Because they are addicted
A. Because they spend more time at home with family members.
Because they are addicted to computer games or video games.
C. Because they are too busy to pay regular visit to their relatives.
D. Because they don't have the opportunity to see a large family relating in a natural, easy, friendly way.