The table before which we sit may be, as the scientist maintains, composed of dancing atoms, but it does not reveal itself to us as anything of the kind, and it is not with dancing atoms but a solid and motionless object that we live.
   So remote is this "real" table—and most of the other "realities" with which science deals—that it cannot be discussed in terms which have any human value, and though it may receive out purely intellectual credence it cannot be woven into the pattern of life as it is led, in contradistinction to life as we attempt to think about it. Vibrations in the either are so totally unlike, let us say, the color purple that the gulf between them cannot be bridged, and they are, to all intents and purposes, not one but two separate things of which the second and less "real" must be the most significant for us. And just as the sensation which has led us to attribute an objective reality to a non-existent thing which we call "purple" is more important for human life than the conception of vibrations of a certain frequency, so too the belief in God, however ill founded, has been more important in the life of man than the germ theory of decay, however true the latter may be.
   We may, if we like, speak of consequence, as certain mystics love to do, of the different levels or orders of truth. We may adopt what is essentially a Platonist trick of thought and insist upon postulating the existence of external realities which correspond to the needs and modes of human feeling and which, so we may insist, have their being is some part of the universe unreachable by science. But to do so is to make an unwarrantable  assumption and to be guilty of the metaphysical fallacy of failing to distinguish between a truth of feeling and that other sort of truth which is described as a "truth of correspondence," and it is better perhaps, at least for those of us who have grown up in an age of scientific thought, to steer clear of such confusions and to rest content with the admission that, though the universe with which science deals is the real  universe, yet we do not and cannot have any but fleeting and imperfect contacts with it; that the most important part of our lives-our sensations, emotions, desires, and aspirations-takes place in a universe of illusions which science can attenuate or destroy, but which it is powerless to enrich.

These days we hear a lot of nonsense about the "great classless society". The idea that the twentieth century is the age of the common man has become one of the great cliches of our time. The same old arguments are put forward in evidence. Here are some of them: monarchy as a system of government has been completely discredited. The monarchies that survive have been deprived of all political power. Inherited wealth has been savagely reduced by taxation and, in time, the great fortunes will disappear altogether. In a number of countries the victory has been complete. The people rule; the great millennium has become a political reality. But has it? Close examination doesn't bear out the claim.
   It is a fallacy to suppose that all men are equal and that society will be leveled out if you provide everybody with the same educational opportunities. (It is debatable whether you can ever provide everyone with the same educational opportunities, but that is another question.) The fact is that nature dispenses brains and ability with a total disregard for the principle of equality. The old rules of the jungle, "survival of the fittest", and "might is right" are still with us. The spread of education has destroyed the old class system and created a new one. Rewards are based on merit. For "aristocracy" read "meritocracy"; in other respects, society remains unaltered: the class system is rigidly maintained.
   Genuine ability, animal cunning, skill, the knack of seizing opportunities, all bring material rewards. And what is the first thing people do when they become rich? They use their wealth to secure the best possible opportunities for their children, to give them a good start in life. For all the lip service we pay to the idea of equality, we do not consider this wrong in the western world. Private schools which offer unfair advantages over state schools are not banned because one of the principles in a democracy is that people should be free to choose how they will educate their children. In this way, the new meritocracy can perpetuate itself to a certain extent: an able child from a wealthy home can succeed far more rapidly than his poorer counterpart. Wealth is also used indiscriminately to further political ends. It would be almost impossible to become the leader of a democracy without massive, financial backing. Money is as powerful a weapon as ever it was.
   In societies wholly dedicated to the principle of social equality, privileged private education is forbidden. But even here people are rewarded according to their abilities. In fact, so great is the need for skilled workers that the least able may be neglected. Bright children are carefully and expensively trained to become future rulers. In the end, all political ideologies boil down to the same thing: class divisions persist whether you are ruled by a feudal king or an educated peasant.

The discovery of the Antarctic not only proved one of the most interesting of all geographical adventures, but created what might be called "the heroic age of Antarctic exploration". By their tremendous heroism, men such as Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen caused a new continent to emerge from the shadows, and yet that heroic age, little more than a century old, is already passing. Modern science and inventions are revolutionizing the techniques of former explorers, and, although still calling for courage and feats of endurance, future journeys into these icy wastes will probably depend on motor vehicles equipped with caterpillar traction rather than on the dogs that earlier discoverers found so invaluable.
   Few realize that this Antarctic continent is almost equal in size to South America, and enormous field of work awaits geographers and prospectors. The coasts of this continent remain to be accurately charted, and the mapping of the whole of interior presents formidable task to the cartographers who undertake the work. Once their labors are completed, it will be possible to prospect the vast natural resources which scientists believe will furnish one of the largest treasure hoards of metals and minerals the world has yet known, an almost inexhaustible sources of copper, coal, uranium, and many other ores will become available to man. Such discoveries will usher in an era of practical exploitation of the Antarctic wastes.
   The polar darkness which hides this continent for the six winter months will be defeated  by huge batteries of light, and make possible the establishing of air fields for the future intercontinental air service by making these areas as light as day. Present flying routes will completely change, for the Antarctic refueling bases will make flight from Australia to South America comparatively easy over the 5,000 miles journey.
   The climate is not likely to offer an insuperable problem, for the explorer Admiral Byrd has shown that the climate is possible even for men completely untrained for expeditions into those frozen wastes. Some of his parties were men who had never seen snow before, and yet he records that they survived the rigors of the Antarctic climate comfortably, so that, provided that the appropriate installations are made, we may assume that human beings from all countries could live there safely. Byrd even affirms that it is probably the most health climate in the world, for the intense cold of thousands of years has sterilized this continent, and rendered it absolutely germfree, with the consequences that ordinary and extraordinary sicknesses and disease from which man suffers in other zones with different climates are here utterly unknown.
   There exist no problems of conservation and preservation of food supplies, for the latter keep indefinitely without any signs of deterioration; it may even be that later generations will come to regard the Antarctic as the natural storehouse for the whole world. Plans are already on foot to set up permanent bases on the shores of this continent, and what so few years ago was regarded as a "dead continent" now promises to be a most active centre of human life and endeavor.

Television is one of today's most powerful and widespread means of mass communication. It directly influences our lives on both a short and long-term basis; it brings worldwide situations into our homes; it affords extensive opportunities for acquiring higher education; and it performs these tasks in a convenient yet effective manner. We are all aware of the popularly accepted applications of television, particularly those relative to entertainment and news broadcasting. Television, however, has also been a vital link in unmanned deep space exploration (such as the Voyager I and Ⅱ missions), in providing visions from hazardous areas (such as proximity to radioactive materials or environments) in underwater research, in viewing storms moving across a metropolitan area (the camera being placed in a weather-protective enclosure near the top of a tower), etc. The earth's weather satellites also use television cameras for vie- wing cloud cover and movements from 20,000 miles in space. Infrared filters are used for night views, and several systems include a spinning mirror arrangement to permit wide-area views from the camera. Realizing the unlimited applications for today's television, one may thus logically ponder the true benefits of confining most of our video activities to the mass-entertainment field.
   Conventional television broadcasting within the United States centres around free enterprise and public ownership. This requires funding by commercial sponsors, and thus functions in a revenue-producing business manner. Television in USSR-subjected areas, conversely, is a government-owned and maintained arrangement. While such arrangements eliminate the need for commercial sponsorship, it also has the possibility of limiting the type of programs available to viewers (a number of purely entertainment programs similar to the classic "Bewitched", however, have been seen on these government -controlled networks. All isn't as gray and dismal as the uninformed might unnecessarily visualize). A highly modified form of television called Slow-Scan TV is presently being used by many Amateur Radio operators to provide direct visual communications with almost any area of the world. This unique visual mode recently allowed people on the tiny South Pacific country of Pitcairn Island to view, for the first time in their lives, distant areas and people of the world. The chief radio Amateur and communications officer of Pitcairn, incidentally, is the legendary Tom Christian-great, great grandson of Tom Christian of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame. Radio Amateurs in many lands worked together for several months establishing visual capabilities. The results have proven spectacular, yet the visual capabilities have only been used for health education, or welfare purposes. Commercial TV is still unknown to natives of that tiny country. Numerous other forms of television and visual communication, have also been used on a semi-restricted basis. This indicates the many untapped areas of video and television which may soon be exploited on a more widespread basis. The old clich of a picture being worth a thousand words truly has merit.

Nanotechnology, according to its fans, will jump-start a new industrial revolution with molecular-sized structures as complex as the human cell and 100 times stronger than steel. The new technology transforms everyday products and the way they are made by manipulating atoms so that materials can be shrunk, strengthened and lightened all at once. To date only modest nanotech-based products—such as stain-resistant fabrics and fresh food packaging—have entered the market, but some scientists predict nanotechnology will eventually be the only game in town. "It will be a ubiquitous technology," said George Stephanopoulos, professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He echoes other nanotech supporters who say industrial countries are already sliding toward its use in every aspect of manufacturing.
   Aided by recent advances in microscopes, scientists can now place single atoms where they want for the first time. The potential applications are numerous, with microscopic computers, cancer-killing antennae and nonpolluting car engines on the distant horizon. When it's all going to happen, though, is another matter. According to most scientific accounts, the nanotech future may be 10 to 20 years off. Major hurdles need to be jumped. First, there is a lack of economic mass production. Some of the more complicated devices would require exact placement of billions of atoms. "It may take the lifetime of the universe to complete the construction of (such a) device," said George Barbastathis, assistant professor at MIT. Another challenge is bridging the nanoscale and macroscopic, he said. In other words, the smallness of a nano device is useless when it must be attached to large wires. It's unclear how scientists will overcome these problems. And fears derived from science fiction threaten to derail nanotechnology even as it emerges, in much the same way popular anxiety over "super-weeds" and "frankenfoods" have hobbled biotechnology in agriculture and fear of "designer babies" has set back stem-cell research.
   Lured by a market with billions of dollars in potential profits, giants like GE, Intel, Motorola and IBM are already heavily involved in research. Worldwide, the two industries with the potential to win big with nanotechnology are electronics and biotechnology, according to MIT researchers. On the biotech front, scientists are promoting the notion of nanoparticles made from gold that could be triggered remotely to heat and kill individual cancer cells. Nanotechnology holds equal promise for wealth creation, hut there isn't a consensus among venture capitalists on how to realize it. "Which direction is it going to work out in? That's the question on everyone's mind," Gang Chen, an associate professor at the MIT, told scientists at a Boston nano gathering.

The last decade has seen a tremendous expansion of scientific knowledge in human genetics. Our understanding of human genes and of the genetic basis of disease has grown dramatically. Currently, more than 4,000 diseases are known to be genetic and are passed on in families. Moreover, it is now known that alterations in our genes play a role in such common conditions as heart disease, diabetes, and many types of cancer.
   The identification of disease-related genes has led to an increase in the number of available genetic tests that detect disease or an individual's risk of disease. New tests arc being developed to detect colon cancer, breast cancer, and other conditions. Scientists are concerned not only that gene tests offered are reliable, but also that patients and health care professionals understand the limitations of such testing. The disclosure of test results could inflict psychological harm to a patient if safe and effective interventions are not also available.
   Gene testing involves examining a person's DNA-taken from cells "in a sample of blood or, occasionally, from other body fluids or tissues—for some anomaly that flags a disease or disorder. In addition to studying genes, genetic testing in a broader sense includes biochemical tests for the presence or absence of key proteins that signal aberrant genes.
   The most widespread type of genetic testing is newborn screening. Each year in the United States, four million newborn infants have blood samples tested for abnormal or missing gene products. Some tests look for abnormal arrangements of the chemical bases in the gene itself, while other tests detect inborn errors by verifying the absence of a protein that the cell needs to function normally. Carrier testing can be used to help couples to learn if they carry—and thus risk passing to their children. Genetic tests—biochemical and DNA-based—also are widely available for the prenatal diagnosis of conditions such as Down syndrome.
   Much of the current excitement in gene testing centers on predictive gene testing: tests that identify people who are at risk of getting a disease, before any symptoms appear. Tests are already available in research programs for some two dozen diseases, and as more disease genes are discovered, more gene tests can be expected.
   Tests for a few rare cancers are already in clinical use. Predictive gene tests for more common types of cancer are still primarily a research tool, difficult to execute and available only through research programs to small numbers of people who have a strong family history of disease. But the field of gene testing is evolving rapidly, with new genes being discovered almost daily and innovations in testing arriving almost as quickly.

In 14 years as a (n) ______in the major league Kobel I had never seen two baseball teams fight like this.
   A. goblin         B. sheik         C. statuary         D. umpire

Left in the garage where it was damp, the wooden frame had______.
   A. tingled        B. sizzled        C. swindled        D. warped

The two countries signed an agreement to reduce their nuclear______.
   A. tornadoes      B. armories      C. hectares         D. heretics

What kind of______. does the book have? Is it hard back or soft back?
   A. binding        B. mispresenting    C. mislaying       D. basking

Court life was governed by the most precise form of______.
   A. oracle         B. moratorium     C. etiquette        D. neurosis

She crossed the enemy lines, disguised as a civilian, to bring medical______ to the Resistance fighters.
   A. surrey         B. surcharge     C. summation      D. succor

Her voice is child-like, with a West Country______.
   A. tilt           B. lilt          C. lobe           D. loft

In a car engine, more ______.means better acceleration.
   A. renown        B. coronation    C. gravy           D. torque

The new factory that has been built next to us has ______the value of our house.
    A. demoralized    B. depreciated    C. deterred        D. derailed

The fall in demand for coffee could cause a ______in the market, forcing some producers to cut prices.
   A. dole           B. sonar        C. melee           D. glut

The airline ______me for the amount they had overcharged me.
   A. bartered       B. remitted      C. reinstated       D. reimbursed

The journalists and Camera crews began to ______in the heat as they stood waiting for the president to appear.
   A. conspire        B. transpire      C. perspire          D. inspire

Once the ______of the election had died down, it was back to normal for the President.
   A. husk          B. hump         C. hub             D. hubbub

$50 billion might seem a lot of money, but it's a mere ______in terms of what global capital marketts can and do absorb.
   A. alms           B. belongings    C. hearsay         D. pittance

The word "lady" has ______of refinement and excessive femininity that some women find offensive.
   A. abdomen      B. connotations     C. sashes          D. syndicates

After spending some time on the island they became ______to the hardships.
   A. scathed        B. sniggered     C. inured          D. outreached

Will the pressure applied by environmentalists be enough to ______the industrialized nations into using less fossil fuels?
   A. goad          B. gloat         C. gore            D. gibe

Farmers often use water buffalo to help them in the ______fields.
   A. paddle        B. paddy        C. pagoda         D. pagan

Her eyes were shining brightly and her face was ______with colour.
   A. proofread      B. prevaricated    C. stewed          D. suffused

Four members walked out of the session, with the result that the committee did not have a ______and would not take any decisions.
   A. babe          B. backbone     C. quorum         D. apartheid

The business of advertising is to invent methods of addressing massive audiences in a language designed to be easily accessible and immediately persuasive. No advertising agency wants to (51) out an ad that is not clear and convincing to millions of people. But the agency, (52) they would agree that ads should be written to sell products, disagree when it (53) down to the most effective methods of doing so. (54) the years, advertising firms have developed among themselves a variety of distinctive styles (55) on their understanding of the different kinds of audiences they want to reach. No two agencies would handle the (56) product identically. To people (57) whom advertising is an exacting discipline and a highly competitive profession, an ad is (58) more than a sophisticated sales pitch, an attractive verbal (59) device to serve manufactures. In fact, for those who examine ads critically or professionally, products may very well be (60) more than merely points of departure. Ads often (61) their products, and in the (62) of early advertisements for products that are no longer available, we cannot help (63) consider the advertisement independently of our responses, to those products. The point of examining ads apart (64) their announced subjects is not that we ignore the product completely, but (65) we try to see the product only (66) it is talked about and portrayed in the full (67) of the ad. Certainly, it is not necessary to (68) tried a particular product to be (69) to appreciate the technique section and design used in (70) advertisement.

51. 
A. shout            B. wear            C. take           D. put

52. 
A. though           B. yet             C. however        D. whatever

53. 
A. comes           B. settles           C. sinks           D. puts

54. 
A. Past             B. Over            C. Passing         D. After

55. 
A. basing           B. depended         C. based          D. decided

56. 
A. variable          B. distinguished      C. distinct        D. same

57. 
A. for              B. against           C. on            D. at

58. 
A. lot              B. many            C. more           D. much

59. 
A. oral             B. visual            C. lingual         D. edible

60. 
A. far              B. much            C. any            D. no

61. 
A. wear off         B. make to           C. outlive         D. destroy

62. 
A. point            B. term             C. run            D. case

63. 
A. rather           B. but              C. than            D. not

64. 
A. beyond          B. away            C. from           D. to

65. 
A. fact             B. however         C. that            D. maybe

66. 
A. how             B. alike            C. like            D. as

67. 
A. contest           B. context          C. look           D. product

68. 
A. seem            B. go              C. be             D. have

69. 
A. able             B. alike            C. like            D. on

70. 
A. their             B. his             C. its             D. this

In fact, one of the biggest virtues of virtual reality is that it allows students to learn in a safe environment, and this holds true for students with behavior disorders. After a student has learned an appropriate behavior or way of controlling his or her anger, the student is put in progressively more difficult virtual social situations where he or she can practice the new technique. And it is expected that future teachers will be exposed to virtual classes, complete with "difficult students" to help them master behavior management techniques.
   Virtual reality even allows us to tailor the world to meet a child's needs. Let's say we're teaching a child to cross the street by paying attention to traffic signs. Educators have found that it is often difficult for the child to locate the traffic sign in a busy environment.  With virtual reality, we can blow up the "walk sign" so the student knows what it looks like. Then we gradually begin shrinking the sign and adding other environmental elements. Once the student has mastered this virtually, he or she transfers the knowledge to the real world. In the end, this is the most important function of virtual reality programs for special students.

5月26日早上，天气很好，一架海军飞机从军事基地起飞，去执行搜索敌航空母舰(aircraft carrier)的任务。

我不会像作者在书中那样，甚至说它是唯一能涵盖一切事实的解释。

我将在本书中进一步阐述的理论是，文字不能代表事物，因而不能反映现实。

百慕大三角被士兵们看做“大西洋的墓地”，但美国海军并不认为它是一个危险区域。

认为外星人在三角区内人类尚未探索的大西洋海底建立了高度发达的文明的说法，在科学家中引发了一场争论。

作为消费者，日常生活中遇到消费者权益的问题该如何处理?
2．消费者对此持不同的态度。
3．我个人的意见。