简单单选
简单单选
Were you able to recover your stolen laptop（）
A:get back B:reach back C:go back D:come back
Text 4
The good news is that after last year’s precipitous decline, worldwide demand for microchips is rising again. The not-so-good news is that the recovery is likely to be more muted than the industry had hoped. In fact, it could be years before the market makes up fully for 2001’ s record fall of 32% in chip sales. The latest figures from World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, an industry body, suggest that demand will creep up this year by 2.3% (to $142 billion) and by a healthier 16.6% or so in 2003. Se it could still be 2004 or beyond before the market for chips regains its former heights.
Why is the recovery so weak The main reason is that sales of personal computers(PCs), which run on such chips and which dominate the market for them, are still struggling to recover from last year’ s collapse in demand. Gartner Dataquest, a research firm, says worldwide sales of PCs rose by 5.8% year-on-year in the three months to the end of September. Don’t be misled: although this is a welcome return to growth, the increase recovers barely half the ground lost last year when the market for new PCs slumped after the bursting of the technology bubble; the September 11th terrorist attacks further depressed the market.
The uncertain outlook for the world economy is encouraging companies to postpone their spending on information technology (IT). In better times, companies would usually begin to replace outdated equipment during the third quarter. This time around, says Gartner Dataquest, the IT industry will probably have to wait until the middle of next year to see any real improvement in sales. Slowest to recover are likely to be sales in Latin America and Japan, where shipments of new PCs actually fell during the third quarter of this year.
Dan Niles of Lehman Brothers, an investment bank, is optimistic that, beginning next year, overall spending on IT will recover. He believes corporate expenditure in the United States is "slowly beginning to stabilize and to pick up". He predicts single-digit growth in America, followed by an improvement elsewhere later in the year. A noted pessimist for the past two years or so, Mr. Niles points to the declining level of inventories as a sign that the market is close to a recovery. Stocks of PCs and electronics goods have fallen every month, year-on-year, for the past 12’ months, he says.
A recovery in demand cannot come too soon for some. Chartered Semiconductor, one of the world’s largest producers of custom-made chips, said recently that it plans to cut its workforce in Singapore by 7%. Reporting its seventh consecutive quarterly loss, the company said it expected sales to fall again during the current period. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of Chartered’ s main rivals, is also expecting a tough end to the year.
The gloom is not shared by all. Intel, the world’ s biggest chip producer, saw its share of total sales rise significantly during the third quarter--to 87% of the worldwide market, the highest it has been for four years. Intel’s gain came mainly at the expense of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an American rival. Like others in the industry, AMD has suffered from falling orders as customers used up the excess stocks of chips overhanging the market. Worse, the soft market has also forced down the prices of its chips, squeezing its profit margins.
A:has an uncertain prospect B:is going to recover soon C:is to improve everywhere in the year D:remains tough until the end of the year
There is no creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day.
If you want to know why, just try going without sleep for a long period of time. You will discover that your mind and body would become too tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or concentrate on your work. So sleep is quite simply the time when the cells of your body recover from the work of the day and build up supplies of energy for the next period of activity.
One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are unconscious in sleep. We do not know what is going on around us. But that doesn’ t mean the body stops all activity. The important organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are slowed down.
For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats more slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(柔软的) and muscles are at rest. It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an extent if we were awake. So sleep does for us what the most quiet rest can not do.
Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep, which is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of covers. And even though you are unconscious, many of your reflexes(反射 动作) still work. For instance, if someone tickles(使觉得痒) your foot, you will put it away in your sleep, or even brush a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.
A:when you are asleep B:when you recover from your work of the day C:in the next period of activity D:when you are quiet
Passage Three
There is no creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day.
If you want to know why, just try going without sleep for a long period of time. You will discover that your mind and body would become too tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or concentrate on your work. So sleep is quite simply the time when the cells of your body recover from the work of the day and build up supplies of energy for the next period of activity.
One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are unconscious in sleep. We do not know what is going on around us. But that doesn’t mean the body stops all activity. The important organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are slowed down.
For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats more slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(柔软的) and muscles are at rest. It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an extent if we were awake. So sleep does for us what the most quiet rest can not do.
Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep, which is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of covers. And even though you are unconscious, many of your reflexes(习惯性思维) still work. For instance, if someone tickles(使觉得痒) your foot, you will put it away in your sleep, or even brush a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.
A:when you are asleep B:when you recover from your work of the day C:in the next period of activity D:when you are quiet
______ great was the destruction that the South took decades to recover.
A:Very B:Too C:So D:Such
Passage Three There is no creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day. If you want to know why, just try going without sleep for a long period of time. You will discover that your mind and body would become too tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or concentrate on your work. So sleep is quite simply the time when the cells of your body recover from the work of the day and build up supplies of energy for the next period of activity. One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are unconscious in sleep. We do not know what is going on around us. But that doesn’t mean the body stops all activity. The important organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are slowed down. For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats more slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(柔软的) and muscles are at rest. It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an extent if we were awake. So sleep does for us what the most quiet rest can not do. Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep, which is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of covers. And even though you are unconscious, many of your reflexes(习惯性思维) still work. For instance, if someone tickles(使觉得痒) your foot, you will put it away in your sleep, or even brush a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.
The cells of your body develop supplies of energy（）A:when you are asleep B:when you recover from your work of the day C:in the next period of activity D:when you are quiet
For chronically ill patients, giving up the hope that they will get better may actually lead to more happiness, U.S. researchers suggest.
"Hope is an important part of happiness, but there’s a dark side of hope. Sometimes, if hope makes people put off getting on with their life, it can get in the way of happiness," Dr. Peter A. Ubel from the University of Michigan Health System said in a university news release.
He and his colleagues studied patients who’d just had a colostomy (结肠造口术), which means their colons (结肠) were removed and they had to have howe1 (肠) movements in a pouch (小袋) outside the body. At the time of the surgery, some patients were told the procedure was reversible and they’d have a second operation in a few months to reconnect their bowels. Other patients were told the colostomy was permanent.
The patients were followed for six months, and the researchers found that those without hope of regaining normal bowel function were happier than those with reversible colostomies.
"We think they were happier because they got on with their life. They realized the cards they were dealt, and recognized that they had no choice but to play with those cards," Ubel said. "The other group was waiting for their colostomy to be reversed. They contrasted their current life with the life they hoped to lead, and didn’t make the best of their current situation. "
The study, published in the November edition of Health Psychology, also may explain why people whose spouse dies often recover better emotionally over time than those who get divorced, the researchers said.
That’s because people whose husband or wife dies have closure (结束), while those who get divorced may still have hope for some chance of making up, they explained.
A:if they keep thinking of their past. B:if they believe they’ll recover. C:if they put off moving on. D:if they manage to get on with their life.
