1 Coketown was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and the ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of buildings full of windows where there was a rattling and trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down like the head of an elephant in a state of madness. The town contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another.
2 A sunny midsummer day. There was such a thing sometimes, even in Coketown. Seen from a distance in such weather, Coketown lay covered in a haze of its own. You only knew the town was there, because you knew there could have been no such blotch upon the view without a town.
3 The streets were hot and dusty on the summer day, and the sun was so bright that it even shone through the haze over Coketown, and could not be looked at steadily. Workers emerged from low underground doorways into factory yards, and sat on posts and steps, wiping their faces and contemplating coals. The whole town seemed to be frying in oil. There was a stifling smell of hot oil everywhere. The atmosphere of those places was like the breath of hell, and their inhabitants wasting with heat, toiled languidly in the desert. But no temperature made the mad elephants more mad or more sane. Their wearisome heads went up and down at the same rate, in hot weather and in cold, wet weather and dry, fair weather and foul. The measured motion of their shadows on the walls was the substitute C0ketown had to show for the shadows of rustling woods; while for the summer hum of insects, it could offer all the year round, from the dawn of Monday to the night of Saturday, the whirr of shafts and wheels.
Which of the following adjectives is NOT appropriate to describe Coketown?
A. dull
B. dirty
C. noisy
D. savage
【B11】
A. in a word
B. in the meantime
C. in other words
D. in that case
1 Clearly if we are to participate in the society in which we live we must communicate with other people. A great deal of communicating is performed on a person-to-person basis by the simple means of speech. If we travel in buses, buy things in shops, or eat in restaurants, we are likely to have conversations where we give information or opinions, receive news or comment, and very likely have our views challenged by other members of society.
2 Face-to-face contact is by no means the only form. of communication and during the last two hundred years the art of mass communication has become one of the dominating factors of contemporary society. Two things, above others, have caused the enormous growth of the communication industry. Firstly, inventiveness has led to advances in printing, telecommunications, photography, radio and television. Secondly, speed has revolutionized the transmission and reception of communications so that local news often takes a back seat to national news, which itself is often almost eclipsed by international news.
3 No longer is the possession of information confined to a privileged minority. In the last century the wealthy man with his own library was indeed fortunate, but today there are public libraries. Forty years ago people used to flock to the cinema, but now far more people sit at home and turn on the TV to watch a programme that is being channelled into millions of homes.
4 Communication is no longer merely concerned with the transmission of information. The modern communication industry influences the way people live in society and broadens their horizons by allowing access to information, education and entertainment. The printing, broadcasting and advertising industries are all involved with informing, educating and entertaining.
5 Although a great deal of the material communicated by the mass media is very valuable to the individual and to the society of which he is a part, the vast modern network of communications is open to abuse. However, the mass media are with us for better, for worse, and there is no turning back.
In the first paragraph the writer emphasizes the __________ of face-to-face contact in social settings.
A. nature
B. limitation
C. usefulness
D. creativity
听力原文:A: What do you think? Am I OK?
B: Well, there is some information that seems to me .... I want to have a thorough checkup and do some tests.
What's the probable relationship between the two speakers?
A. Teacher and student.
B. Doctor and patient.
C. Lawyer and client.
D. Boss and secretary.