[不定项选择题]共用题干 第三篇

A Debate on the English Language

A measure declaring English the national language is under intense debate in the United States. The US Senate passed two declarations last week.One calls English the nation's official language
and the other says it is the "common and unifying（统一的）"tongue. But Americans found themselves divided on the issue.
Since people worldwide know that most Americans speak only English,many can't understand why the issue is so controversial（有争议的）.
"The discussion is related to fears of immigration issues,"says Dick Tucker,a social scientist at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University."It's related to a worry about the changing demography （人口统计）of the US. It's a worry about who will continue to have political and economic influence.
In fact,the notion of protecting the language has been kicked around almost since the nation's founding. John Adams lobbied（游说）in 1780 for the creation of a national academy to correct and improve the English language. But his proposal died, since lawmakers saw it as a royalist（保皇主义者）attempt to define personal behavior.
Since then,the country hasn't had a national language,but the idea of recognizing the special status of English lived on.
The emotions surrounding language resurface（再次浮现）not because people feel comfortable with English.It is more about the discomfort many Americans feel with the new languages,says Walt Wolfram,a professor at North Carolina State University.
"Language is never about language,"he says.
According to the 2000 US Census Bureau report,of 209 million Americans over 18 years old, 172 million speak only English at home.About 37 million speak languages other than English. Among them,6.5 million speak poor English and 3.1 million don't speak English at all. Which statement is true according to the 2000 US Census Bureau report?
A.172 million Americans speak only English in their work places.
B.37 million Americans speak English.
C.209 million Americans are above the age of 18.
D.6.5 million Americans speak good English.

[不定项选择题]共用题干 第三篇

Archive Gallery: The Best of Bionics（仿生学）

Humans might be the most highly-evolved species on the planet,but most animals possess skills we can
only dream of having.Imagine how much electricity we could save if we could see in the dark the way cats
do. Imagine leaping from tree to tree like a monkey.Giraffes（长颈鹿）,which are otherwise calm and good-
natured,sleep only 4.6 hours a day.
We realized a long,long time ago that nature provides the best blueprint（蓝图）for invention.We've
borrowed canals from beavers（河狸）and reflectors from cat's eyes.Although the words "bionics" became
popular only after the 1960s,history shows that nature has always provided ideas on solving everyday prob-
lems. Our archives（档案）don't go back to the time of Leonardo da Vinci and his bird-like flying machines,
but we can take you to the late 19th century,where we applied those same principles for building our first
practical airplanes.
To prepare for their flight at Kitty Hawk,the Wright brothers studied the movements of pigeons to figure
out how they stayed high up when they were heavier than air. Their success inspired scores of successors to
improve on the airplane by studying various aspects of nature,One of Orville Wright’、pupils caught and
stuffed seagulls to examine their wingspan.Meanwhile,two French inventors examined spinning sycamore（美
国梧桐）seeds in an effort to apply those same motions,reversed,to a helicopter.
Some examples are more obvious than others.The outside of the airplane designed by the Wright
brothers looks like a minimalistic（简单抽象艺术）structure. On the other hand , Barney Connett ' s fish
submarine（潜水艇）actually looks like a fish.
Some bio-inspired concepts have yet to be invented.In the 1960s，the US Army commissioned several
university professors to conduct research on the motor skills of animals in hope of applying those same abili-
ties to tanks. Tanks that run like horses or jump like grasshoppers（蚂昨）一sounds shocking,doesn't it?
But imagine how life would change if we could achieve that. What does the writer want to tell in the passage?
A.Some animals possess unique skills.
B.Many inventions get ideas from nature.
C.People should protect nature.
D.Bionics is far from perfect.