单选题______A durableB excessiveC surplusD multiple

金砖四国　　近年来，没有哪种概念比“金砖四国”在商界和政界人士中间更流行的了。“垒砖四国”是指巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国这四个正在崛起的庞大经济体。据认为，这些国家的实力和影响力正在改变世界经济和政治现实。然而，把这四个国家归入一类掩盖了一个简单的事实：中国和印度的崛起表明力量对比正在发生实实在在的变化，而俄罗斯和巴西经济无足轻重，支撑两国经济的是高昂的自然资源价格。这种区别意义重大。　　中国、印度与俄罗斯、巴西的根本区别在于，中印两国正在同西方争夺“知识资本”：努力建设一流的大学，对高增值、技术密集型产业进行投资，利用事业有成的海外侨胞在祖国进行创业活动。例如中国立志建设100所世界一流的大学，重点在于科学技术。印度是除了美国之外信息技术产业最具活力的国家之一。中国和印度都面临诸多挑战，但两国都在采取必要措施，以实现可持续的绎济增长。

Not much people realize that apples have been cultivated for over 3,000 years.

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The Atlantic coast of Patagonia is increasingly vulnerable. Squid fishing is depleting food stocks vital to marine life.

Public Schools　　However good the state schools may be, it is still true that if an English parent has enough money to pay the fees to send his children to an independent school he will most probably do so.　　In independent schools boys and girls above the age of eight are usually educated separately. The terms “primary” and “secondary” are not usually applied to independent schools at the different levels because the age of transfer from a lower to a higher school is normally thirteen or fourteen instead of eleven. The principal schools for boys of over thirteen are called “public schools” and those for younger boys are usually called “preparatory” (or colloquially “prep”) schools.　　For girls there are some preparatory schools and public schools which are female imitations of the boys’ institutions.　　A typical “preparatory school’“—or private primary school—is very small, with between fifty and a hundred boys, either all boarders or all dayboys, or some of each. Many of these schools are in adapted houses in the country or in small towns, houses built in the nineteenth century and too big to be inhabited by families in the conditions of the modern world. If there are fifty boys, aged between eight-plus and thirteen-plus, they will probably be taught in five or six grades (or “forms”); the headmaster will himself work as an ordinary teacher, and he will have four or five assistants working for him. The preparatory schools prepare boys for the public schools’ common entrance examination and for public school life. The, schools in the state system do not prepare boys for the public schools’ common entrance examination, so a boy who tried to change from the states system to the independent school system at the age of thirteen would find difficulty in entering a public school at all.　　With a few exceptions public schools are all boarding schools, providing residential accommodation for their pupils, though many of them take some day-boys also. Most are in the southern half of England. Some of them are several hundred years old, but many others, including some of the most prominent thirty, were founded during the past 140 years. Most public schools, particularly the most eminent ones, are called by the name of the town or village in which they are situated; some are called “College” and some are not. The four most famous of all are Eton College, Harrow School, Winchester College and Rugby School.　　Public schools are inspected by the inspectors of the Department of Education, but otherwise they are quite independent. Each has a board of governors. They control the finances and appoint the headmaster, who in his turn appoints the other teachers. To send a boy to .a leading public school costs about 900 to 1,100 pounds a year, though some of the less prominent schools may cost as little as 600 pounds. All the schools award “scholarships” to some of their boys who do very good work in an examination on entering or during their first year, and the boys who win scholarships pay reduced fees or in a few cases no fees at all.

I do not advocate building the park near a jetport, which might make people to suffer from defective hearing.

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全球变暖　　科学家与环保人士担心全球变暖的问题。使用化石燃料(如石油、煤)或大面积砍伐森林，是地球大气“温室气体”不断增加的两大因素。这些气体所吸收的热能越来越多，最终将改变天气型态、造成海平面与海洋温度的上升，以及形成有害于植物、野生动物和人类栖息地的气候反常。　　虽然科学界对全球变暖的影响程度尚有歧见，但若人类对温室效应造成的危险置之不理，无异于玩火自焚。为避免温室效应加剧，从个人角度来看我们可以做的就是降低对化石燃料的依赖、减少用电，并采取最不耗损自然资源的生活方式。在政府这个层面，世界大部份的工业化国家，已在1997年所签定的京都议定书中，宣誓将做到气体排放减量。

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Leonard da Vinci, the famous Italian painter, was also distinguished for his contributions to architecture.

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I have a tinge of regret that I didn’t accept her offer.

We will show how the International Olympics have commercialized internationally, and are financed from corporate and private sponsorships and how this funding scenario can be used to fund new projects.

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回顾过去60年，中俄关系走过了不平凡的发展历程。这印年，是两国政治关系日益走向成熟的60年。1996年4月，两国领导人在认真总结历史经验教训的基础上，从两国人民根本利益出发，顺应时代潮流，着眼两国关系未来，建立中俄战略协作伙伴关系。经过十几年的发展，中俄战略协作伙伴关系已成为成熟、稳定、健康的国家关系，两国政治互信达到前所未有的高水平。　　这60年，是两国务实合作成果日益丰富的60年。中俄积极探索互利合作途径，不断扩大双边经贸合作规模，提高合作质量和水平。近10年来，双边贸易额持续高速增长，去年达到创纪录的568亿美元，相互投资、合作生产加工等方面合作呈现新的良好发展态势，地方合作方兴未艾。　　这60年，是两国在国际事务中的合作逐步推进的60年。中俄两国长期致力于维护世界和平稳定。近年来，两国在国际和地区事务中密切沟通和配合，为推动世界多极化和国际关系民主化作出了不懈努力。中俄关系已成为促进大国关系良性互动、维护地区和世界和平稳定的重要因素。

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Transformation of St Kilda　　Seventy-five years ago, the residents of a group of islands off the northwest coast of Scotland packed up and left for good. Their home—St Kilda—-now has World Heritage status but with the departure of the St Kildans in August 1930, a way of life that had existed for thousands of years, vanished. St Kilda was years for years known as the most remote settlement in the entire British Empire, but actually it is not so far away—-around 200 km west of the nearest point of the Scottish mainland.　　Seventy-five years ago, at the end of August 1930, the last 36 islanders banked up their turf fires, opened their Bibles at Exodus, put some oats on the table, then left forever, bringing to an end a habitation and a way of life that stretched back at least two thousand years.　　St Kilda is an archipelago of sea stacks, skerries and four islands, of which only one, Hirta, was permanently inhabited. It was remote in ways other than geography. The people, who never numbered more than a couple of hundred, spoke not English but a distinctive form of Gaelic. Their economy, their whole culture, revolved round seabirds—fulmars, gannets and puffins. They ate them and exchanged their feathers and precious oil for goods such as tea and sugar from the mainland.　　In the Victorian era, at the height of Britain’s imperial adventure, this self-sufficient life held a strange fascination. St Kilda became a fashionable tourist destination and steamers regularly dropped anchor in Village Bay. But the visitors could not comprehend the St Kildans they gawped at. There is an astonishing recording in the BBC’s archives of an islander saying that her mother, in payment for a bale of tweed which had taken all winter to weave, was given an orange. She didn’t know what it was.　　There had been worse traumas: St Kilda’s graveyard is one of the most heartrending places. It is full of tiny hummocks, where infants are buried. Newborn babies were all anointed where the cord had been cut with a concoction of fulmar oil, dung and earth and 8 out of 10 of them died of neonatal tetanus. The minister finally put a stop to this in 1891 and after that the babies lived, but it was too late.　　Add to this grief, emigration and harsh religion and it’s no wonder that the St Kildans lost heart. By the 1920s there were no longer enough people to do all the work. In 1930 they planted no crops and petitioned the government to take them off the island.　　St Kilda is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. There are tow National Trust wardens and in the summer volunteer work parties come to maintain the buildings. There’s a  resident archaeologist.　　A century on St Kilda has become a chic destination once again. There were 15,000 visitors last year. Recently one of the wardens found the first piece of litter; a plastic water bottle wedged between the stones of a wall.

人工智能　　现代世界已经日益充斥着智能的装置，虽然几乎不被人察觉，但它们的普遍存在却节省了许多人类劳力。我们的工厂里轰鸣着机器人生产线的节奏；我们的金融服务完成于自动柜员机旁，它们还会机械地、有礼貌地感谢我们；我们的地铁车辆由不知疲倦的机器人驾驶着。有一些机器人系统已能够进行精确到毫米的脑部和骨髓手术，其精确性远远超过技术娴熟的医生用双手所能达到的水平。　　人们希望人工智能能够模仿人脑的活动。但是最近研究人员已经开始将这个预测延后数十年，甚至数百年。　　在试图建造思维模型的过程中，研究人员发现，人脑中的近l000亿个神经细胞要比以前想象的更聪明，人类的感知也比以前想象的更复杂。他们建造的机器人在严格控制的工厂环境里，能够识别仪表盘上毫米之间的误差。但是人的大脑能够扫描一个快速变化的场景，迅速排除98％的不相干的物体，立即聚焦于人群中的一张可疑的脸。地球上最先进的计算机系统也不能达到这种能力。

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A newly developed plastic, prized by engineers for its low weight and its durability , has been developed.

He was such a good friend that he was practically a member of the family.