[单项选择]An American manufacturer of space heaters reported a 1994 fourth-quarter net income (total income minus total costs) of $41 million, compared with $28.3 million in the fourth quarter of 1993. This increase was realized despite a drop in U.S. domestic retail sales of space-heating units toward the end of the fourth quarter of 1994 as a result of unusually high temperatures.
Which of the following, if true, would contribute most to an explanation of the increase in the manufacturer’s net income ？（）
A. In the fourth quarter of 1994, the manufacturer paid its assembly-line workers no salaries in November or December because of a two-month-long strike, but the company had a sufficient stock of space-heating units on hand to supply its distributors.
B. In 1993, because of unusually cold weather in the Northeast, the federal government authorized the diversion of emergency funding for purchasing space-heating units to be used in the hardest-hit areas.
C. Foreign manufacturers of space heaters reported improved fourth-quarter sales in the American market compared with their sales in 1993.
D. During the fourth quarter of 1994, the manufacturer announced that it would introduce an extra-high-capacity space heater in the following quarter.
E. In the third quarter of 1994, a leading consumer magazine advocated space heaters as a cost-effective way to heat spaces of less than 100 square feet.

[简答题]It is reported that the American Medical Association has called for ______(禁止拳击运动).

[单项选择]

The American Space Agency is continuing experiments that would make possible extended periods of space travel. One of these experiments is aimed at finding ways to grow food in space. Scientists at the Kennedy Space Center in the Southern state of Florida are doing these experiments. They are attempting to grow vegetables that could survive without sunlight and dirt. Their laboratory is a large circular container. Computers control the levels of light, heat, water, fertilizer, and gases in the laboratory’s atmosphere. The plants are grown in special devices that hold about 1 centimeter of liquid plant food. Plastic sheets cover the roots of the plants. The containers are designed to keep the plants from floating away in the weightless environment of space. Water is collected and reused. Bacteria and fungi help turn plant matter into simple sugars that could be added to the astronaut’s food or fed to fish.
In the special containers plants can develop rapidly in
A. Scientists at the Kennedy Space Center are attempting to grow vegetables that could survive.
B. In the special containers plants can develop rapidly in a short period of time.
C. Scientists are also attempting to genetically design some of these plants to contain high levels of protein.
D. Space agency scientists hope to test some version of the experimental gardens on the planned space station.

[单项选择]

Apollo Program, is an American manned lunar-space program which is designed to land an astronaut on the moon and return him safely to earth, as well as to overtake the former Soviet Union in the race to dominate (统治；支配；控制) space exploration. The whole program was conducted between May 1961 and December 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the program successfully landed Nell Armstrong--the first person to walk on the moon--and 11 other astronauts on the moon. The program included 12 manned missions: 2 into earth orbit (Apollo 7 and 9); 2 into lunar orbit (Apollo 8 and 10); 3 lunar landing missions (Apollo 11, 12, and 14); and 3 lunar exploration missions (Apollo 15, 16, and 17), which involved extended stays on the moon’s surface and more in depth scientific exploration.
The Apollo Program was started by United States President John F. Kennedy on May 25,1961. At the time of Apollo preparations in 1965. NASA employed 36.000 civil serv
A. American Manned Lunar-space Program
B. NASA’s Space Program
C. Apollo Program
D. Space Competition between U.S. and Soviet Union

[单项选择]
American has always been a land of beginnings. After Europeans‘iscovered’ America in the fifteenth century, the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life, an escape from poverty and persecution, a chance to start again. We can say that, as nation, America begins with that hope. When, however, does American literature begin
American literature begins with American experiences. Long before the first colonists arrived, before Christopher Columbus, before the Northmen who ’found’ America about the year 1,000, Native Americans lived here. Each tribe’s literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of lining with the land. Another kind of experience, one filled with fear and excitement, found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers sent home in Spain, France and England. In addition, t
A. The hope that America would be discovered.
B. The hope to start a new iife.
C. The hope to see the mysteries of the New World.
D. The hope to find poverty here.

[单项选择]
American has always been a land of beginnings. After Europeans "discovered" America in the fifteenth century, the mysterious New World became for many people a genuine hope of a new life, an escape from poverty and persecution, a chance to start again. We can say that, as nation, America begins with that hope. When, however, does American literature begin
American literature begins with American experiences. Long before the first colonists arrived, before Christopher Columbus, before the Northmen who "found" America about the year 1,000, Native Americans lived here. Each tribe’s literature was tightly woven into the fabric of daily life and reflected the unmistakably American experience of lining with the land. Another kind of experience, one filled with fear and excitement, found its expression in the reports that Columbus and other explorers sent home in Spain, French and English. In addition, t
A. The hope that America would be discovered.
B. The hope to start a new life.
C. The hope to see the mysteries of the New World.
D. The hope to find poverty her

[单项选择]

American humor and American popular heroes were born together, The first popular heroes of the new nation were comic heroes, and the first popular humor of the new nation was the antics of its hero-clowns. The heroic and the comic were combined in novel American proportions in popular literature.
The heroic themes are obvious enough and not much different from those in the legends of other times and places: Achilles, Beowulf, Siegfried, Roland, and King Arthur. The American Davy Crockett legends repeat the familiar pattern of the Old World heroic story: the pre-eminence of a mighty hero whose fame in myth has a tenuous basis in fact; the remarkable birth and precocious strength of the hero; single combats in which he distinguished himself against antagonists, both man and beast; vows and boasts; pride of the hero in his weapons, his dog, and his woman.
Davy Crockett conquered man and beast with a swaggering nonchalance. He overcame animals by force of body and wil
A. Saving the sun.
B. Rescuing all living things on the earth.
C. Killing four wolves.
D. Killing a rattlesnake.

[填空题]British English vs. American English
American English is the form of English used in the United States. British English is the form of English used in the United Kingdom.
Ⅰ. History
A. the introduction of English to the Americans
—time: in the (1) (1)______
—way: by colonization
B. divergence after the introduction
—result: BE and AE
Ⅱ. Accents
A. before American independence
—American and British accents were similar
—both AE and BE were rhotic
i.e.letter R was pronounced (2) (2)______
B. since 1976
—accents diverged
—British English changed more
C. towards the end of the 18th century
—non-rhotic speech became (3) in Britain (3)______
—exce