搜档网
当前位置:搜档网 › 最新英语期末考试试卷

最新英语期末考试试卷

最新英语期末考试试卷
最新英语期末考试试卷

精品文档

重庆大学硕士研究生《英语 》课程试卷

2012 ~2013 学年 第 一 学期(春、秋)

开课学院: 课程编号: 考试日期:

考试方式:

考试时间: 120 分钟

硕士生B 类答题纸 英语班次:_______________ Answer Sheet

Part I. Reading Comprehension ( 40 points, 1-15 30points; 16-25 10points)

1. ( )

2. ( )

3. ( )

4. ( )

5. ( )

6. ( )

7. ( )

8. ( )

9. ( ) 10. ( ) 11. ( ) 12. ( ) 13. ( ) 14. ( ) 15. ( )

16. ( ) 17. ( ) 18. ( ) 19. ( ) 20. ( )

21.( ) 22.( ) 23.( ) 24.( ) 25.( )

Part II. Translation from English to Chinese ( 20 points)

Part III. Translation from Chinese to English ( 20 points )

Part IV . Writing ( 20 points)

(请写在背面,Please write your composition on the reverse side.)

命题(组题)人:黄萍

李雁

审题人: 黄萍

命题时间:

2012.12

研究生院制

学院 专业(领域) 类别 ( 学术 、专业 ) 学号 姓名

线

重庆大学硕士研究生《英语》课程试卷

2012~2013 学年第一学期

硕士生B类

Part I: Reading Comprehension 40%

Directions: Read the following passages carefully and then select the best answer from the four choices given to answer the questions or to complete the statements that follow each passage. Write your answer on your Answer Sheet.

Passage One

Psychologists agree that I.Q. contributes only about 20 percent of the factors that determine success. A full 80 percent comes from other factors,including what I call emotional intelligence. Following are two of the major qualities that make up emotional intelligence,and how they can be developed:

1. Self-awareness. The ability to recognize a feeling as it happens is the keystone of emotional intelligence. People with greater certainty about their emotions are better pilots of their lives.

Developing self-awareness requires tuning in to what neurologist Antonio Damasio calls “gut feelings”。Gut feelings can occur without a person being consciously aware of them. For example,when people who fear snakes are shown a picture of a snake,sensors on their skin will detect sweat,a sign of anxiety,even though the people say they do not feel fear. The sweat shows up even when a picture is presented so rapidly that the subject has no conscious awareness of seeing it.

Through deliberate effort we can become more aware of our gut feelings. Take someone who is annoyed by a rude encounter for hours after it occurred. He may be unaware of his irritability and surprised when someone calls attention to it. But if he evaluates his feelings, he can change them.

Emotional self-awareness is the building block of the next fundamental of emotional intelligence:being able to shake off a bad mood.

2. Mood Management. Bad as well as good moods spice life and build character. The key is balance. We often have little control over when we are swept by emotion. But we can have some say in how long that emotion will last. Psychologist Dianne Tice asked more than 400 men and women about their strategies for escaping foul moods. Her research,along with that of other psychologists,provides valuable information on how to change a bad mood.

Of all the moods that people want to escape,rage seems to be the hardest to deal with. When someone in another car cuts you off on the highway,your reflexive though may be,That jerk!He could have hit me!I can't let him get away with that!The more you stew,the angrier you get. Such is the stuff of hypertension and reckless driving.

What should you do to relieve rage?One myth is that ventilating will make you feel better. In fact,researchers have found that's one of the worst strategies. A more effective technique is “reframing”,which means consciously reinterpreting a situation in a more positive light. In the case of the driver who cuts you off,you might tell yourself:Maybe he had some emergency. This is one of the most potent ways, Tice found,to put anger to rest.

Going off alone to cool down is also an effective way to refuse anger, especially if you can't think clearly. Tice found that a large proportion of men cool down by going for a drive—a finding that inspired her to drive more defensively. A safer alternative is exercise, such as taking a long walk. Whatever you do,don't waste the time pursuing your train of angry thoughts. Your aim should be to distract yourself.

The techniques of reframing and distraction can alleviate depression and anxiety as well as anger. Add to them such relaxation techniques as deep breathing and meditation and you have an arsenal of weapons against bad moods.

1. What are gut feelings?

A. They are feelings one is born with.

B. They are feelings one may be unaware of.

C. They are feelings of fear and anxiety.

D. They are feelings felt by sensible people.

2. According to the author,the importance of knowing one's gut feelings is that

A. one can develop them.

B. one can call others' attention to them.

C. one may get rid of them.

D. one may control them.

3. The word “spice” in paragraph Six is closest in meaning to

A. add interest to

B. lengthen.

C. make dull

D. bring into existence.

4. On mood control, the author seems to suggest that we

A. can control the occurrence of mood.

B. are often unaware of what mood we are in.

C. can determine the duration of mood.

D. lack strategies for controlling moods.

5. The essence of “reframing” is

A. to forget the unpleasant situation.

B. to adopt a positive attitude.

C. to protect oneself properly.

D. to avoid road accidents.

Passage Two

The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become "better" people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don't go.

But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don't fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other's experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Other find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out—often encouraged by college administrators.

Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves—they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that is a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn't explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can't absorb an army of untrained

eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.

Some adventuresome educators and watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn't make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things—may it is just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.

6. According to the author, ___.

A. people used to question the value of college education.

B. people used to have full confidence in higher education.

C. all high school graduates went to college.

D. very few high school graduates chose to go to college.

7. In the 2nd paragraph, "those who don't fit the pattern" refer to___.

A. high school graduates who aren't suitable for college education.

B. college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis.

C. college students who aren't any better for their higher education.

D. high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college.

8. The dropout rate of college students seems to go up because___.

A. young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college.

B. many people are required to join the army.

C. young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education.

D. young people don't like the intense competition for admission to graduate school.

9. According to the passage, the problems of college education partly originate in the fact that___.

A .society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained graduates.

B. High school graduates do not fit the pattern of college education.

C. Too many students have to earn their own living.

D. College administrators encourage students to drop out.

10. In this passage the author argues that___.

A. college education is not enough if one wants to be successful.

B. college education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and

quick-learning people.

C. intelligent people may learn quicker if they don't go to college.

D. more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for high school graduates.

Passage Three

A controversy erupted in the scientific community in early 1998 over the use of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid ) fingerprinting in criminal investigations. DNA fingerprinting was introduced in 1987 as a method to identify individuals based on a pattern seen in their DNA, the molecule of which genes are made. DNA is present in every cell of the body except red blood cells. DNA fingerprinting has been used successfully in various ways, such as to determine paternity where it is not clear who the father of a particular child is. However, it is in the area of criminal investigations that DNA fingerprinting has potentially powerful and controversial uses.

DNA fingerprinting and other DNA analysis techniques have revolutionized criminal investigations by giving investigators powerful new tools in the attempt to trove guilt, not just establish innocence. When used in criminal investigations, a DNA fingerprint pattern from a suspect is compared with a DNA fingerprint pattern obtained from such material as hairs or blood found at the scene of a crime. A match between the two DNA samples can be used as evidence to convict a suspect.

The controversy in 1998 stemmed form a report published in December 1991 by population geneticists Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and Daniel L. Hartl called into question the methods to calculate how likely it is that a match between two DNA fingerprints might occur by chance alone. In particular, they argued that the current method cannot properly determine the likelihood that two DNA samples will match because they came from the same individual rather than simply from two different individuals who are members of the same ethnic group. Lewontin and Hartl called for better surveys of DNA patterns methods are adequate.

完整版五年级英语期末考试试卷及答案

紫云自治县2016—2017 学年度第一学期期末教学质量检测试卷()13.—Do you often play football on the weekend? —________ 语五年级英 B. Yes, I do. C. No, I do. A. Yes, I am. 100分钟)100 分时间:(总分:)14. Where________the girl come from? ( A. are B. is C. does 题号一二三四五六七八九总分

()15. ________nice camera it is! 分得A. What B. How C. What a 评卷人 三、根据所给场景,选择合适的句子。(10 分) 分)一、找出下列单词中与众不同的一项。(10 ()16.当你想知道今天是星期几时,应问:C. hot B. sweet ()1.A. tea A. What day is it today? B. What do you have? C. It's Monday? (B. bike C. lake )17.当你想知道别人会做什么事时,应问:()2.A. river A. What do you do? )(3.A. park B. old C. young B. What can you do? C. What are you do? ()18.当你想知道别人最喜欢的食物是什么时,应问:()4. A. flower C. mountain B. tree

A. What's your favorite food? B. What 's your best like food? C. Sunday 5. A. Friday B. dirty ()C. What's your favorite fruit? 20 分)二、单项选择。(()19.当你想感谢对方时,应说:________is your English teacher? (6. )—A. You are welcome. B. I see. C. Thank you! Miss Liu. —()20.当你问别人想喝什么时,你应说: C. Who B. Which A. What A. What do you like? B. What would you like to drink? 7. I________ a student. ()C. What's your like? C. is B. are A. am 四、从 B 栏中选出 A 栏的最佳答语。(10 分)8.

《英语语音》期末考试试卷及答案

《英语语音》考试试卷(A卷、闭卷) I. , (15%) ()1. A. B. C. D. ()2. A. B. C. D. ()3. A. B. C. D. ()4. A. B. C. D. ()5. A. B. C. ()6. A. B. C. D. ()7. A. B. C. D. ()8. A. B. C. D. ()9. A. B. C. D. ()10. A. B. C. D. . (15%) ()1. A. B. C. D. ()2. A. B. C. D. ()3. A. B. C. D. ()4. A. B. C. D. ()5. A. B. C. D. ()6. A. B. C. D. ()7. A. B. C. D. ()8. A. B. C. D. ()9. A. B.

C. D. ()10. A. B. C. D. . . (15%) ( ) 1. A . ( ) 2. . ( ) 3. / i: / / ? /. ( ) 4. / k / / g / . ( ) 5. , . ( ) 6. . ( ) 7. a . ( ) 8. , . ( ) 9. A a a a . A . ( )10. . . . ( 1 , 20%) 1. () , , , , . , , ; , , . 2. A . 3. : , . 4. , a a , .

5. , : 1) ; 2) . V. . (20%). 1. “” . A. B. C. 2. . , . A. B. C. a 3. . A. B. C. 4. “”, “”, “”“”, “c”“k” . A. B. C. 5. “ .” . A. ’s . B. ’s . C. . 6. I’ . A. B. a C. 7. a ? A. B. C. 8. ? A. B. C. 9. a . A. B. C. ? 10. :

大一英语期末考试试题精选

大一英语期末考试试题精选 又到一个学期的期末了,大家复习好大学英语了吗?为大家精心挑选了一份大学英语第一学期期末试卷,供大家复习使用,希望能够帮助到大家! 大学一年级英语试卷 Part II Reading Comprehension (30 %) Directions: There are four passages in this part. 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 and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheetwith a single line through the center. Passage One Science is not a set of unquestionable results but a way of understanding the world around us. Its real work is slow. The scientific method , as many of us learned in school, is a gradual process that begins with a purpose or problem or question to be answered. It includes a list of materials, a procedure to follow, a set of observations to make and, finally, conclusions to reach. In medicine, when a new drug is proposed that might cure or control a disease, it is first tested on a large random group of people, and their reactions are then compared with those of another random group not given the drug. All reactions in both groups are carefully recorded and compared, and the drug is evaluated. All of this takes time and patience. It’s the result of course, that makes the best news—not the years of quiet work that characterize the bulk of scientific inquiry. After an experiment is concluded or an observation is made, the result continues to be examined critically. When it is submitted for publication, it goes to a group of the scientist’s colleagues, w ho review the work. Einstein was right when he said: “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, a single experiment can at any time prove me wrong.”

第一学期期末考试英语试卷

濉溪县2019—2019 学年度第一学期期末考试 高二英语试卷 第一部分听力(共两节,满分20分) 第一节(共5小题;每小题1分,满分5分) 听下面5段对话。每段对话后有一个小题,从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项,并标在试卷的相应位置。听完每段对话后,你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。 ( ) 1. ? A. . B. . C. . ( ) 2. ’t ? A. . B. . C. ’t . ( ) 3. ’s ? A. . B. . C. . ( ) 4. ’s ’s ? A. A . B. A . C. A . ( ) 5. ? A. ’t . B. . C. . 第二节(共15小题;每小题1分,满分15分) 听下面5段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有几个小题,从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项,并标在试卷的相应位置。听每段对话或独白前,你将有时间阅读各个小题,每小题5秒钟;听完后,每小题将给出5秒钟的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。 听第6段材料,回答第6至7题。 ( ) 6 ? A. . B. . C. . ( ) 7 ? A. . B. . C. . 听第7段材料,回答第8至10题。 ( ) 8 ? A. A . B. A . C. A . ( ) 9 ? A. a . B. a . C. a . ( ) 10 ? A. . B. . C. . 听第8段材料,回答第11至13题。 ( ) 11 ? A. a . B. a . C. . ( ) 12 ? A. 1 . B. 2 . C. 3 . ( ) 13 ? A. . B. . C. . 听第9段材料,回答第14至17题。

最新酒店英语期末考试试卷-(1)

试卷代码: 南京城市职业学院2015-2016学年度第二学期 酒店管理专业酒店英语期末考试试题 班级:学号:姓名: 2016年6月 一、单选题(每题1分,共20分) 1、Good morning. _______ I help you? A、Would B、Must C、May D、Am 2、I would like to _________ a room, please. A.order B、book C、see D、look 3. It’s very kind __________ you to help me. A.of B、to C、by D、for 4. What’s the ________ for a double room? A. right B. rate C、money D、for 5. I would like to book a double room ________ bath. A. with B. of C、by D、for 6.Excuse me, sir. You need to ________ the form. A. fill in B. fill on C、fill of D、fill for 7.We are looking forward to __________ you. A. see B. saw C、seeing D、sees 8.I'm afraid we are fully booked _______ the 5th. A. with B. of C、by D、for 9.Do you want to pay _____ cash or _____ credit card. A. in in B. by by C、by in D、in by 10.The porter will show you _______ your room. A. with B. to C、by D、for 11.My flight will leave ______ 6 pm today. A. with B. on C、at D、for 12.The hotel is full and there is someone ________ your room. A. take B. To take C、takes D、taking 13.Let me _______ you with your luggage.

大学英语 期末试卷题型

《大学英语3》期末考试题型: 1、听力理解:25%(共25题,每题1分) 短对话7个、篇章理解2篇、复合式听写1篇,共25题,25分。 2、选词填空题:10% (共10题,每题1分) 3、阅读理解:20% (1)、完型填空1篇,10题,每题1分 (2)、传统仔细阅读1篇,5题,每题2分 4、翻译:25% (1)、句子翻译(中文翻译成英文):15% (5题,每题3分,15分) (2)、段落翻译(英文翻译成中文):10% (1题,10分) 5、作文:20% 注意:考试课文范围: 《大学英语3(新世纪)》:第三册第1、2、3、5单元 出题范围: 1、复习所学单元的生词、词组、搭配等,第二部分选词填空题在课后练习中出题: 《大学英语3(新世纪)》:课后练习 Words In Action 中Ex. 2 2、认真复习课文,段落翻译(英译中)从课文的Text A(新世纪)中抽取。 3、认真复习课后练习,句子翻译(中译英)从课后练习Translation1中抽取。 4、其余题目均从试题库中抽取。 另:请各位《大学英语3》任课老师提醒学生自带耳机,期末考试中有听力题型。

《大学英语1》期末考试题型: 1、听力理解:25%(共25题,每题1分) 短对话8个、长对话2篇、章理解3篇,共25题,25分。 2、选词填空题:10% (共10题,每题1分) 3、阅读理解:20% 传统仔细阅读2篇,10题,每题2分 4、翻译:25% (1)、句子翻译(中文翻译成英文):15% (5题,每题3分,15分) (2)、段落翻译(英文翻译成中文):10% (1题,10分) 5、作文:20% 注意:考试课文范围: 《大学英语1(新世纪)》:第一册第1、2、4、5单元 出题范围: 1、复习所学单元的生词、词组、搭配等,第二部分选词填空题在课后练习中出题: 《大学英语1(新世纪)》:课后练习 Words In Action 中Ex. 2 2、认真复习课文,段落翻译(英译中)从课文的Text A(新世纪)中抽取。 3、认真复习课后练习,句子翻译(中译英)从课后练习Translation中抽取。 4、其余题目均从试题库中抽取。 另:请各位《大学英语1》任课老师提醒大一新生购买耳机,期末考试中有听力题型。

大一第二学期英语期末试卷

each

C) He will go when he feels better. D) He won’t go as he hasn’t finished his work. 4. A) Check the timetable.B) Go to the railway station earlier. C) Travel on a later train.D) Cancel the trip earlier. 5. A) In New York.B) In Boston. C) In Newport.D) In Washington. 6. A) A clerk at the airport information desk. B) A clerk at the railway station information desk. C) A policeman. D) A taxi-driver. 7. A) A guest and a receptionist. B) A passenger and an air hostess. C) A customer and a shop assistant. D) A guest and a waitress. 8. A) He’s better.B) He’s feeling worse. C) He’s sick in bed.D) He has recovered. 9. A) The man didn’t want the woman to have her hair cut. B) The woman followed the man’s advice. C) The woman is wearing long hair now. D) The man didn’t care if the woman had her hair cut or not.

大一期末考试英语试题

01 Passage 1 Hypnotism (催眠术) is very old. Thousands of years ago people started to use it in Egypt. The use of hypnotism has grown very much since that time. Today, doctors and scientists are in almost every country hypnotize people to help them with their problems. What is hypnotism, and how does it work? Many people think that a hypnotist puts people to sleep. Then he makes the hypnotized people do strange things. This is not what a hypnotist does. Hypnotism is really just a way to relax the mind and body. What are some of the uses of hypnotism? We go to a hypnotist because w e have a problem. The problem makes us unhappy. The hypnotist asks us to think hard about something and relax. When we are relaxed, t he hypnotist gives us some ideas to help us with our problems. Hypnotism can help people to remember things. The police sometimes ask hypnotists to help them. For example, a man sees an accident. He forgets the license number of the car he sees. If he is hypnotized he may remember it. The police can then find the car and catch the driver. People who are hypnotized can also make mistakes or say something that isn't true. People remember what they think they saw. That may not be what really happened. The police don't hypnotize people who do something wrong. Why not? People who are hypnotized may say something that isn't true. A person who has done something bad has a good reason to say something that isn't true. 1. Hypnotist helps people by ____. [A] putting them to sleep [B] helping them to get relaxed [C] offering his ideas about their problems [D] making them forget their problems 2. When hypnotized, some people may say something that is not true, because ____. [A] they do not remember what has happened [B] they remember what they think has happened [C] they do not know what has happened [D] they are not interested in what has happened 3. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?____ [A] Hypnotism is very different form what it used to be. [B] When a person is hypnotized, his body gets relaxed, while his mind works hard. [C] Hypnotism is much more widely used today than it was thousands of years ago. [D] When hypnotized, a person will do something strange. 4. The passage mainly talks about ____. [A] how hypnotism works [B] the development of hypnotism [C] the use of hypnotism [D] the wonder of hypnotism

研究生英语期末考试试卷

ad if 命 封 线 密

A. some modern women prefer a life of individual freedom. B. the family is no longer the basic unit of society in present-day Europe. C. some professional people have too much work to do to feel lonely. D. Most Europeans conceive living a single life as unacceptable. 5.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage? A. To review the impact of women becoming high earners. B. To contemplate the philosophy underlying individualism. C. To examine the trend of young people living alone. D. To stress the rebuilding of personal relationships. Passage Two American dramas and sitcoms would have been candidates for prime time several years ago. But those programs -though some remain popular -increasingly occupy fringe times slots on foreign networks. Instead, a growing number of shows produced by local broadcasters are on the air at the best times. The shift counters longstanding assumptions that TV shows produced in the United States would continue to overshadow locally produced shows from Singapore to Sicily. The changes are coming at a time when the influence of the United States on international affairs has annoyed friends and foes alike, and some people are expressing relief that at least on television American culture is no longer quite the force it once was. “There has always been a concern that the image of the world would be shaped too much by American culture,” said Dr. Jo Groebek, director general of the European Institu te for the Media, a non-profit group. Given the choice, he adds, foreign viewers often prefer homegrown shows that better reflect local tastes, cultures and historical events. Unlike in the United States, commercial broadcasting in most regions of the world -including Asia, Europe, and a lesser extent Latin America, which has a long history of commercial TV -is a relatively recent development. A majority of broadcasters in many countries were either state-owned or state-subsidized for much of the last century. Governments began to relax their control in the 1980’s by privatizing national broadcasters and granting licenses to dozens of new commercial networks. The rise of cable and satellite pay-television increased the spectrum of channels. Relatively inexperienced and often financed on a shoestring, these new commercial stations needed hours of programming fast. The cheapest and easiest way to fill airtime was to buy shows from American studios, and the bidding wars for popular shows were fierce. The big American studios took advantage of that demand by raising prices and forcing foreign broadcasters to buy less popular programs if they wanted access to the best-selling shows and movies. “The studio priced themselves out of prime time,” said Harry Evans Sloan, chairman of SBS Broadcasting, a Pan-European broadcaster. Mr. Sloan estimates that over the last decade, the price of American programs has increased fivefold even as the international ratings for these shows have declined. American broadcasters are still the biggest buyers of American-made television shows, accounting for 90% of the $25 billion in 2001 sales. But international sales which totaled $2.5 billion last year often make the difference between a profit and a loss on show. As the pace of foreign sales slows -the market is now growing at 5% a year, down from the double-digit growth of the 1990’s -studio executives are rethinking production costs. 6. Which of the following best characterizes the image embodied in American shows? A. Self-contradictory B. Prejudice-free C. Culture-loaded D. Audience-targeted 7. The intervention of governments in the 1980’s resulted in __________ . A. the patenting of domination shows and movies B. the emergence of new commercial networks C. the promotion of cable and satellite pay-television D. the intense competition coming from the outside 8. The phrase “on a shoestring” (Para. 6) most probably means __________. A. in need of capital B. after a fashion C. on second thoughts D. in the interests of themselves 9. The main reason why American dramas and sitcoms are driven out of prime time is that ____. A. they lose competitiveness B. they are not market-oriented C. they are too much priced D. they fall short of audience expectations 10. American studio producers will give thought to production costs __________. A. if they have no access to popular shows B. because their endeavors come to no avail C. since bidding wars are no longer fierce D. as international sales pace slows down Passage Three How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales 1. A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfare—but it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how “swarm intelligence” (th at is,how ants,bees or any social animal,including humans,behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. 2. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome,Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani,a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology,described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance,by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store,forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes,also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. 3. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information,and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too.

大一英语上学期期末考试试卷

2010级大学英语第一学期期末考试(A卷) Jan., 2011 Part II Reading Comprehension (30 %) Directions: There are four passages in this part. 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 and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center. Passage One Science is not a set of unquestionable results but a way of understanding the world around us. Its real work is slow. The scientific method , as many of us learned in school, is a gradual process that begins with a purpose or problem or question to be answered. It includes a list of materials, a procedure to follow, a set of observations to make and, finally, conclusions to reach. In medicine, when a new drug is proposed that might cure or control a disease, it is first tested on a large random group of people, and their reactions are then compared with those of another random group not given the drug. All reactions in both groups are carefully recorded and compared, and the drug is evaluated. All of this takes time and patience. It’s the result of course, that makes the best news—not the years of quiet work that characterize the bulk of scientific inquiry. After an experiment is concluded or an observation is made, the result continues to be examined critically. When it is submitted for publication, it goes to a group of the scientist’s colleagues, who review the work. Einstein was right when he said: “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, a single experiment can at any time prove me wrong.” In August 1996, NASA announced the discovery in Antarctica of a meteorite(流星) from Mars that might contain evidence of ancient life on another world. As President Clinton said that day, the possibility that life existed on Mars billions of years ago was potentially one of the great discoveries of our time. After the excitement wore down and initial papers were published, other researchers began looking at samples from the same meteorite. Some concluded that the “evidence of life”was mostly contamination from Antarctic ice or that there was nothing organic at all in the rock. Was this a failure of science, as some news reports trumpeted? No! It was a good example of the scientific method working the way it is supposed to. Scientists spend years on research, announce their findings, and these findings

相关主题