职称英语《综合类A》预测试卷二

The Only Way Is Up
Think of a modern city and the first im ige that comes to mind is the skyline It is full of great buildings, pointing like fingers to heaver,It is true that some cities don't permit buildings to go above a certain height.But these are cities concerned with the past.The first thing any city does when it wants to tell the world that it has arrived is to build skyscrapers。
When people gather together in cities,theY create a demand for land.Since cities are places where money is made,that demand can be met.And the best way to make money out of city land is to put as many people as possible in a space that covers the smallest amount of ground.That means building upwards.
The technology existed to do this as early as the 19th century.But the height of buildings was limited by one important factor.They had to be small enough for people on the top floors to climb stairs.People could not be expected to climb a mountain at th,e end of their journey to work,or home.
Elisha Otis,a US inventor,was the man who brought us the lift-or elevator,as he preferred to call it.
However,most of the technology is very old,Lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptians used to create the Pyramids.What Otis did was attach the system to a steam engine and develop the elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it up are broken.It was this that did the most to gain public confidence in the new invention,in fact,he spent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds,giving people the chance to try them out before selling the idea to architects arid builders.
A lift would not be a very good theme park attraction now.Going in a lift is such an everyday thing that it would just be boring.Yet psychologists and others who study human behavior find lifts fascinating.The reason is simple.Scientists have always studied animals in zoos.The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them in lifts.
"It breaks all the usual conventions about the bubble of persona.1 space we carry around with us-and you just can't choose to move away,"says workplace psychologist,Gary Fitzgibbon."Being trapped in this setting can create different types of tensions,"he says.Some people are scared of theim Others use them as an opportunity to get close to the boss。Some stand close to the door.Others hide in the corners.Most people try and shrink into the background.But some behave in a way that n.iakes others notice them.rfhere are a few people who just stand in a corner taking notes.
Don't worry about them.They are probably from a university.

How to Get Along Well With Your Boss
1 Before you argue with your boss,check with the boss's secretary to determine his mood.If he ate nails for breakfast,it is not a good idea to ask him for something.Even without the boss's secretary,there are keys to timing:don't approach the boss when he's on deadline,don't go in right before lunch,when he is apt to be distracted and rushed,don't go in just before or after he has taken a vacation.
2 If you're mad,that will only make your boss mad.Calm down first,and don't let a particular concern open the floodgates for all your accumulated frustration.The boss will feel that you think negatively about the company and it is hopeless trying to change your mind.Then maybe he will dismiss you.
3 Terrible disputes can result when neither the employer nor the employee knows what is the problem the other wants to discuss.Sometimes the fight will go away when the issues are made clear.The employee has to get his point across clearly in order to make the boss understand it.
4 Your boss has enough on his mind without your adding more.If you can't put forward an immediate solution,at least suggest how to approach the problem.People who frequently present problems without solutions to their bosses may soon find they can't get past the secretary.
5 To deal effectively with a boss,it's important to consider his goals and pressures.If you can put yourself in the position of being a partner to the boss,then he will be naturally more inclined to work with you to achieve your goals.

Life Connected With Computer
After too long on the Net,even a phone call can be a shock.My boyfriend's Liverpudlian accent sud- denly becomes indecipherable after the clarity of his words on screen,a secretary's tone seems more rejecting than I'd imagined it would be.Time itself becomes fluid-hours become minutes,and alternately seconds stretch into days.Weekends,once a highlight of my week,are now just two ordinary days.
For the last three years,since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose,I have done much of my work as a telecommuter.I submit articles and edit them via E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists.My boyfriend lives in England,so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.
If I desired,I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything.I can order food,and manage my money,love and work.In fact,at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home,going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries.I watched most of the blizzard of 96 on TV.
But after a while,life itself begins to feel unreal I start to feel as though I've merged with my machines, taking data in,spitting them back out,just another node on the Net.Others online report the same symptoms.We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing.It's like attending an A.A.meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink.We have become the Net opponents'worst nightmare.
What first seemed like a luxury,crawling from bed to computer,not worrying about hair,clothes and face,has become an avoidance,a lack of discipline.And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction,coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.
At times,I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background,something that I'd never done previously.The voices of the programs soothe me,but then I'm jarred by the commercials.1 find myself sucked in by soap operas,or compulsively needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather."Dateline," "Frontline","Nightline",CNN,New York 1,every possible angle of every story over and over,even when they are of no possible use to me.Work moves from foreground to background.

Older Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanoes were more destructive in ancient history,not because they were bigger,but because the carbon dioxide they released wiped out life with greater ease.
Paul Wignall from the University of Leeds was investigating the link between volcanic eruptions and mass extinctions.Not all volcanic eruptions killed off large numbers of animals,but all the mass extinctions over the past 300 million years coincided with huge formations of volcanic rock.To his surprise,the older the massive volcanic eruptions were,the more damage they seemed to do.He calculated the"killing efficiency" for these volcanoes by comparing the proportion of life they killed off with the volume of lava（熔岩）that they produced.He found that size for size,older eruptions were at least 10 times as effective at wiping out life as their more recent rivals.
The Permian（二叠纪）extinction,for example,which happened 250 million years ago,is marked by floods of volcanic rock in Siberia that cover an area roughly the size of western Europe.Those volcanoes are thought to have pumped out about 10 gigatonnes of carbon as carbon dioxide.The global warming that followed wiped out 80 percent of all marine genera（种类）at the time,and it took 5 million years for the planet to recover.Yet 60 million years ago,there was another huge amount of volcanic activity and global warming but no mass extinction.Some animals did disappear but things returned to normal within ten thousand of years."The most recent ones hardly
have an effect at all,"Wignall says.He ignored the extinction which wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,because many scientists believe it was primarily caused by the impact of an asteroid（小行星）.He thinks that older volcanoes had more killing power because more recent life forms were better adapted to dealing with increased levels of CO₂．
Vincent Courtill.ot,director of the Paris Geophysical Institute in France,says that Wignall's idea is provocative.But he says it is incredibly hard to do these sorts of calculations.He points out that the killing power of volcanic eruptions depends on how long they lasted.And it is impossible to tell whether the huge blasts lasted for tliousands or millions of years.He also adds that it is difficult to estimate how much lava prehistoric volcanoes produced,and that lava volume may not necessarily correspond to carbon dioxide emissions。

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 Mrican 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 is more treatable,and it said more research was 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 African Amnericans 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.

The Sandwich Generation
Today people often look forward to their middle age as a time when they will be able to take things easier.After their children are grown,they expect to enjoy the life they have worked hard to create.______(46) In middle age,many people discover that they have two ongoing responsibilities:one is to look after their aging parents,and the other is to help their young adult children deal with the pressures of life.Around the world, there are millions of people who are"sandwiched"in between the older and the younger generations.
Sometimes there may be two or three generations living in the same household-a situation that is common in many Asian countries and in some parts of Europe.In other cases,a couple may be taking care of parents and children,but they do not live with them.
There are two important reasons for the rise of the sandwich generation.First,people are living longer than they used to.In the early nineteenth century , the average life expectancy（预期寿命）for adalts in the United States,for example,was about 40,whereas today people live to an average age of 75.______(47)The second reason is that these days,young adults often live with their parents for a longer time than they did in the past.This is often for financial reasons.It's also more common for today's young adults to return home during or after college if they need financial or emotional support.
______(48)They may have to cover expenses that their parents cannot.They may have to manage their parents'financial and legel affairs.They may have to prepare for their parents'future needs,such as special medical care or a move to a nursing home.This can be a traumatic（使人不快的）experience for everyone.
Caring for adalt children presents challenges as well,and caregivers have to resolve important questions: How can financial responsibilities be shared among members of the household? How can household chores be shared? What is the best way to ensure everyone's privacy?______（49)
The financial and emotional pressures on the sandwich generation can be overwhelming.However,this time in life also has its rewards.______(50)It can also provide a valuable opportunity to spend more time with them.However,in order to survive this difficult period in their lives,the members of the sandwich generation must remember that they also need to pay attention to their own needs and look after the quality of their own lives.They can't be totally seffless.

Less Is More
It sounds all wrong-drilling holes in a piece of wood to make it more resistant to knocks.But it works because the energy from the blow gets distributed throughout the wood rather than focusing on one weak spot.The discovery should lead to more effective and lighter packaging materials.Carpenters have known______(51) centuries that some woods are tougher than others.Hickory（山核桃木）,for example, was turned into axe handles and cartwheel spokes（轮辐）because it can absorb shocks without breaking.
White oak,for example,is much more easily damaged,______(52)it is almost as dense.Julian Vincent at Bathe University and his team were convinced that the wood's internal structure could explain the differences.Many trees have tubular（管状的）vessels that run _______(53) the trunk and carry water to the leaves.In oak they are large,and arranged in narrow bands,but in hickory they are smaller,and more
evenly distributed.The researchers_______(54)this layout might distribute a blow's energy throughout the wood,soaking up a bigger hit.To test the idea,they drilled holes 0.65 millimetres across into a block of spruce（云杉）,a wood with ________( 55 ) vessels , and found that______( 56 ) withstood a harder knock.______(57)when there were more than about 30 holes per square centimetre did the wood's performance drop off.A uniform substance doesn't cope well with knocks because only a small proportion of the material is actually______(58).All the energy from the blow goes towards breaking the material in one or two places , but often the pieces left ______（59 ) are pristine（未经破坏的）.
But instead of the energy being concentrated in one place,the holes provide many weak spots that all absorb energy as they break,says Vincent."You are controlling the places_______(60)the wood breaks,and it can then absorb more______(61),more safely."The researchers believe the principle could be applied to any material________(62)example,to manufacture lighter and more protective packaging.It could_______(63)be used in car bumpers,crash barriers and armour for military vehicles,says Ulrike Wegst,a_______(64)at the Max Plank Institute for Mental Research in Stuttgart.
But she emphasizes that you______(65)to design the substance with the direction of force in mind."The direction of loading is crucial,"she says.