Passage One
The making of glass is a very old industry--at least 4,500 years old. Glass has many extraordinary qualities and it is frequently being used in new ways.
One of the most interesting new uses for glass is in telephone communication. Scientists have developed glass fibers as thin as human hair, which are designed to can-y light signals. When the light reaches the other end, it is first changed into electrical signals, which are in turn converted into sound messages.
Called light wave communication, the new system was used successfully in an experiment in Chicago in 1997. During the experiment, two glass fibers were able to carry 672 conversations at the same time. The lightwave cable, containing 144 glass fibers, has the capacity to carry 50,000 conversations at the same time.
The lightwave communication system has two important advantages. First, the glass fiber cables are smaller and weigh less than copper. Second, they cost less
A. has been put into actual use
B. was first put into actual use in 1977
C. had been repeatedly experimented on before 1977
D. was put on experiment in 1977
When people communicate face to face, they convey information in several ways apart from by the words they use. Thus, how often they make eye contact and how long they sustain that contact can indicate their degree of intimacy, interest in or understanding of what they are communicating verbally. Their posture- the way they sit or stand- can reveal attention ,interest, disagreement or boredom. The distance they sit or stand from one another and the angle at which they do also can suggest friendship, hostility or respect. These and other forms of nonverbal communication are so pervasive that we usually scarcely notice them. Their importance quickly becomes apparent, however, when for some reason they are lacking or unclear.
One occasion when most people notice the importance of nonverbal communication is when they are talking on the telephone. There is an unwritten rule of telephone conversations that the listener must supply frequent and regular confirmation that he or sh
A. using language
B. making eye contact
C. by the posture
D. using ear contact
Text 3
Media mogul Ted Turner yesterday sold more than half of his AOL Time Warner Inc. holdings for about $780 million, a move that reflects his efforts to slash his financial stake in the media giant.
After the close of regular trading yesterday, Turner sold a block of 60 million shares to Goldman Sachs & Co. for $13.07 per share, or 31 cents below the stock’s closing price yesterday. Goldman was said by Wall Street sources to be offering the stock to major investors for $13.15.
An outspoken critic of the corporation, Turner remains AOL Time Warner’s largest individual shareholder, with 45 million shares, and a member of its board of directors. A spokeswoman for Turner referred questions to AOL Time Warner.
At his peak Turner owned about 130 million shares, but he lost billions of dollars in wealth and grew bitter after the stock plunged following the merger of America Online and Time Warner in January 2001.
Turner,
A. he had to sell a large portion of his shares to Goldman at a loss
B. the merger covered the dissatisfactory financial results of AOL
C. American Online was found to have exaggerated its revenue
D. he lost billions of dollars in wealth due to the stock's going low
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