单项选择题X 纠错Flats were almost unknown in Britain until the 1850s when
they were developed, along with other industrial dwellings, for the laboring
classes. These vast blocks were plainly a convenient means of easing social
conscience by housing large numbers of the ever-present poor on compact city
sites. During the 1880s, however, the idea of living in comfortable residential
chambers caught on with the affluent upper and upper-middle classes, and
controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages of flat life was a topic of
conversation around many a respectable dinner-table. In Paris and other major
European cities, the custom whereby the better-off lived in apartments, or
fiats, was well established. Up to the late nineteenth century in England only
bachelor barristers had established the tradition of living in rooms near the
Law Court: any self-respecting head of household would insist upon a West End
town house as his London home, the best that his means could provide.
The popularity of flats for the better-off seems to have developed for a
number of reasons. One is the introduction of the railways, which had enabled a
wide range of people to enjoy a holiday staying in a suite at one of the luxury
hotels which had begun to spring up during the previous decade. Hence, there is
no doubt that many of the early luxury fiats were similar to hotel suites, even
being provided with communal dining-rooms and central boilers for hot water and
heating. Rents tended to be high to cover overheads, but savings were made
possible by these communal amenities and by tenants being able to reduce the
number of family servants.
One of the earliest substantial
London developments of flats for the well-to-do was begun soon after Victoria
Railway Station was opened in 1860, as the train service provided an efficient
link with both the City and the South of England. Victoria Street, adjacent to
both the Station and Westminster, had already been formed, and under the
direction of the architect, Henry Ashton, was being lined, with blocks of
residential chambers in the Parisian manner. These fiats were commodious indeed,
offering between eight and fifteen rooms apiece, including appropriate domestic
offices. The idea was an emphatic departure from the tradition of the London
house and achieved immediate Success.
Perhaps the most notable
block in the vicinity was Queen Anne’s Mansions, partly designed by E.R. Robson
in 1884 and recently demolished. For many years, this was London’s loftiest
building and had strong claims to be the ugliest. The block modeled on the
American skyscraper, and was nearly 200 feet high. The cliff-like walls of dingy
brick completely overshadowed the modest thoroughfare nearby. Although bleak
outside, the mansion fiats were palatial within, with sumptuously furnished
communal entertaining and dining rooms, and lifts to the uppermost floors. The
success of these tall blocks of flats could not have been achieved, of course,
without the invention of the lift, or ’ascending carriage’ as it was called when
first used in the Strand Law Courts in the 1870s.
A. the unusual number of rooms each fiat contained.
B. their revolutionary style of architecture.
C. the ease with which they could be used as offices.
D. their French style of architecture.
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单项选择题Luis Figueroa lives down the street from UC Merced, the
newest campus in the University of California system. So it’s not surprising
that the 21-year-old studies from the comfort of his own home. But he’s not
enrolled at Merced: from his living-room computer, Figueroa is earning his
bachelor’s degree in business administration at Columbia College in Missouri,
some 2,000 miles away. At $630 per course — about $1,800 per semester — his
online degree will cost far less than even in-state tuition at UC. Not only
that, Figueroa is able to continue working full time in a management-training
job with AT&T in Merced, a job he feels lucky to have in the current
economic climate. "Once I realized I had time constraints, I knew the
traditional classroom wouldn’t work," he says. "Courses online are open 24 hours
a day, and I’m able to go there any time I want."
That
convenience is one of the main reasons nearly 4 million American students took
at least one online course in the 2007-08 school year, according to a study by
the Sloan Foundation. The same study found that online enrollment is growing at
a rate more than 10 times that of the higher-education population at large —
12.9 percent vs. 1.2 percent for traditional "in seat" students. Nowhere is the
growth faster than among younger students like Figueroa who are opting for
online learning, even when the traditional classroom is — in his case — right
outside the front door. "This is a generation that lives online," says Vicky
Phillips, founder and CEO of Geteducated.com, a service that ranks online
learning institutions. "Everything is instant, accelerated, and accessible, and
they expect their education to be that way too. For them there is no clear line
between the virtual world and the actual world."
Once targeted
at older, working adults, distance learning has moved into the education
mainstream at stunning speed over the past couple of years, as technology allows
ever- richer, more-interactive learning experiences online — and as college
costs continue to rise and classrooms are packed to capacity. For traditional
brick-and-mortar institutions, that has meant a scramble to enter a lucrative
market that used to be the exclusive territory of for-profit institutions such
as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University. Established brand-name
educators — including Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, and MIT, which has placed
its entire curriculum online through its OpenCourseWare program — now offer
extensive online learning options and are competing with the for-profits for
students. "The stigma is gone," says Phillips. "Online learning has reached mass
cultural acceptance. It’s no longer the ugly stepsister of the higher-education
world."
Online offerings these days can sometimes even surpass
the classroom experience. Aaron Walsh, a professor at Boston College and a
former videogame designer, has pioneered Immersive Education, a method of
teaching through virtual worlds. Meeting in Second Life instead of a physical
classroom, says Walsh, allows for some feats that gravity renders impossible,
like having art-history students fly to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or
biology majors to take a Magic Schoolbus-like trip through the human body. Using
videos, podcasts, live chats, Webcams, and wikis, educators increasingly see
online learning as a way to engage the videogame generation with pedagogy that
feels more like entertainment than drudgery. Students in the new
homeland-security master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut this
fall, for example, will have coursework that resembles Grand Theft Auto:
dwelling in a cybercity called San Luis Rey plagued with suicide bombers,
biochemical attacks, and other disasters. At Arizona State, students in an
Introduction to Parenting class raise a "virtual child." They have to post the
progress of their online charge through all the phases of childhood. "The
classes are so much more interactive, and I can log on when I’m most ready to
learn," says Jaquelyn Holleran, a junior majoring in family and human
development at ASU. "I like that so much better than having to rush to class or
sit through a lecture that’s boring."
As the largest generation
since the baby boom attends college at a time of shrinking budgets and soaring
costs, many educators believe that online learning holds the greatest promise
for expanding the capacity of the U.S. higher-education system. And digital
classrooms will surely play an important role in helping the Obama
administration pursue its goal of raising the percentage of college graduates in
the U.S. to first in the world by 2020 (at least 10 other countries now stand in
the way). The surge in students with jobs and families, and those in the
military, has also caused online enrollments to soar. Sarah Gerke, an Army
private stationed in Iraq, keeps up with her coursework at Columbia College in
Missouri, despite the occasional bombing. "Even if I could attend in person,"
she writes in an e-mail from Camp Liberty, "I think I would stick with online
classes for the convenience."
For public institutions such as
the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts, online learning
not only extends their brand, it’s a cost-effective way to serve more students.
At UMassOnline, enrollment among students under the age of 25 has increased 91
percent over the past three years. At Thomas Edison State College in Trenton,
N.J., that growth rate over the same period is more than 100 percent. "The best
way to lower the cost of higher education is to graduate on time," says UMass
president Jack Wilson. "More and more we see students using online learning as
an accelerator, a way to move more quickly through their undergraduate
program."
A. enjoy some feats in physical classroom that gravity renders
impossible.
B. go to a city plagued with suicide bombers, biochemical attacks and so
on.
C. learn how to be a parent by raising an adopted child through
Internet.
D. have a simulated trip through the human body in front of a
computer.
单项选择题What if architects could build living systems rather than
static buildings — dynamic structures that modify their internal and external
forms in response to changes in their environment This provocative idea is
making waves in the field of architecture. Houses, for example, might shrink in
the winter to reduce surface area and volume, thus cutting heating costs. They
could cover themselves to escape the heat of the summer sun or shake snow off
the roof in winter. Skyscrapers could alter their aerodynamic profiles, swaying
slightly to distribute increased loads during hurricanes.
Such
"responsive architecture" would depend on two sorts of technology: control
systems capable of deciding what to do, and structural components able to change
the building’s shape as required. Architects have been working to improve the
control systems in buildings for many years, but shape-shifting technology is at
a much earlier stage of development.
One approach being pursued
by researchers is to imitate nature. Many natural constructions, including
spiders’ webs and cell membranes, are "tensegrity systems" — robust structures
made up of many interconnected elements which can be manipulated to change shape
without losing their structural integrity. "These structures can bend and twist,
but no element in the structure bends and twists," says Robert Skelton of the
Structural Systems and Control Laboratory at the University of California in San
Diego. "It’s the architecture of life."
While Dr Skelton is
working on solving the engineering equations associated with tensegrity systems,
Tristan d’Estrée Sterk at the Office for Robotic Architectural Media & the
Bureau for Responsive Architecture, an architectural practice based in
Vancouver, Canada, has begun to construct prototypes of shape-changing "building
envelopes" based on tensegrity structures. Lightweight skeletal frameworks,
composed of rods and wires and controlled by pneumatic "muscles", serve as the
walls of a building; adjusting their configuration to change the building’s
shape. Mr.Sterk is also developing the "brain" needed to control such a building
based on information from internal and external sensors.
Cars
are already capable of monitoring their own performance and acting with a
certain degree of autonomy, from cruise-control systems to airbag sensors. Such
responsive behaviour is considered normal for a car; architects argue that the
same sort of ideas should be incorporated into buildings, too.
And just as the performance of a car can be simulated in advance to choose the
best design for a range of driving conditions, the same should be done for
buildings, argues Gian Carlo Magnoli, an architect and the co-director of the
Kinetic Design Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is
devising blueprints for responsive houses. "We need to evolve designs for the
best performing responsive-building models," he says.
So will
we end up with cities of skyscrapers that wave in the breeze It sounds crazy.
But, says Mr.Sterk, many ideas that were once considered crazy are now
commonplace. "Electricity was a batty idea, but now it’s universal," he says.
Dynamic, intelligent, adaptable buildings are "the logical next step", he
claims.
A. He makes archetypes of shape-changing building frames.
B. He uses rods and wires to be the walls of a building.
C. He does more for responsive architecture than Dr Skelton.
D. He has invented the "brain" to control building.
单项选择题It is a universally acknowledged fact that human beings
possess a larger brain than animals. This allows us to coordinate our lives
better and communicate with each other on a higher, more sophisticated level.
Language is a mode of communication where with a limited number of words we can
produce an infinite number of sentences. It gives us the chance to discuss ideas
and look at the world with a critical eye. This process provides us with the
opportunity to stimulate our intelligence which in turn enables us to improve
our means of communication. It is of utmost importance to note that we have
developed our linguistic abilities so that we not only have the option of
interacting verbally and through signs but also on a written basis.
The central question to be examined is: How does language actually
influence our specifically animal operations A case in point would be that when
we look at an object, for example a tree, do we see it in its pure, realistic
and natural way or is language imposing a certain influence in the way we look
at this tree Do we regard it as an object of nature which is a tall woody plant
having a single, usually, long and straight main stem, generally with a few or
no branches on its lower part Or are we simply seeing it that way because of
the context of the language in our culture One theory which supports this point
of view is the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis.
Since the languages of
the world differ in regard to their semantic and structural characteristics, it
seems somewhat logical to argue that people speaking widely different languages
would also differ in the way they viewed and thought about the world. An example
may illustrate this point. If one must classify things such as camels,
automobiles or snow in certain ways, then one must perceive them differently
from someone who does not require to make these distinctions. Eskimos may have a
number of different meanings for the word "snow", whereas we only have one. In
Maltese, for example, there is no word which specifically describes the word
"snow". It is translated as "silg" which literally translated means "ice". From
this we can deduce that it is still debatable whether we perceive the world in
its real form or whether we are affected by the language of our society without
us realising. Hence one can infer that language imposes meaning on everything
existing in our world through the human being.
Consequently,
meaning must be placed at the center of any attempt to explain language. But,
meaning lies not in the words but in the people. We use words to approximate the
meanings we wish to communicate, but these words still remain imperfect and
incomplete representations of our meanings. After having delved deeper into this
subject, we can conclude that language is the trait which decisively
distinguishes man from all other creatures and that human language is arguably
the single most remarkable characteristic which we have and the one that most
truly sets our species apart. Undeniably, other creatures do have a way of
communicating with each other and appear to do this through some sort of
signaling system which allows them to pass on information within their species
and occasionally even with members outside their own species. The bottom line is
that the human language is so utterly different from all of these other
signaling systems, that we are obliged to treat it as a truly unique
phenomenon.
A. language shapes people’s world views.
B. the differences in language reflect the different views of different
people.
C. in addition to instinct, people are also affected by the confines of
their language.
D. what one thinks is determined by their language.
单项选择题Flats were almost unknown in Britain until the 1850s when
they were developed, along with other industrial dwellings, for the laboring
classes. These vast blocks were plainly a convenient means of easing social
conscience by housing large numbers of the ever-present poor on compact city
sites. During the 1880s, however, the idea of living in comfortable residential
chambers caught on with the affluent upper and upper-middle classes, and
controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages of flat life was a topic of
conversation around many a respectable dinner-table. In Paris and other major
European cities, the custom whereby the better-off lived in apartments, or
fiats, was well established. Up to the late nineteenth century in England only
bachelor barristers had established the tradition of living in rooms near the
Law Court: any self-respecting head of household would insist upon a West End
town house as his London home, the best that his means could provide.
The popularity of flats for the better-off seems to have developed for a
number of reasons. One is the introduction of the railways, which had enabled a
wide range of people to enjoy a holiday staying in a suite at one of the luxury
hotels which had begun to spring up during the previous decade. Hence, there is
no doubt that many of the early luxury fiats were similar to hotel suites, even
being provided with communal dining-rooms and central boilers for hot water and
heating. Rents tended to be high to cover overheads, but savings were made
possible by these communal amenities and by tenants being able to reduce the
number of family servants.
One of the earliest substantial
London developments of flats for the well-to-do was begun soon after Victoria
Railway Station was opened in 1860, as the train service provided an efficient
link with both the City and the South of England. Victoria Street, adjacent to
both the Station and Westminster, had already been formed, and under the
direction of the architect, Henry Ashton, was being lined, with blocks of
residential chambers in the Parisian manner. These fiats were commodious indeed,
offering between eight and fifteen rooms apiece, including appropriate domestic
offices. The idea was an emphatic departure from the tradition of the London
house and achieved immediate Success.
Perhaps the most notable
block in the vicinity was Queen Anne’s Mansions, partly designed by E.R. Robson
in 1884 and recently demolished. For many years, this was London’s loftiest
building and had strong claims to be the ugliest. The block modeled on the
American skyscraper, and was nearly 200 feet high. The cliff-like walls of dingy
brick completely overshadowed the modest thoroughfare nearby. Although bleak
outside, the mansion fiats were palatial within, with sumptuously furnished
communal entertaining and dining rooms, and lifts to the uppermost floors. The
success of these tall blocks of flats could not have been achieved, of course,
without the invention of the lift, or ’ascending carriage’ as it was called when
first used in the Strand Law Courts in the 1870s.
A. large and well-appointed hotels.
B. blocks of self-contained fiats.
C. rows of elegant town houses.
D. fiats similar to hotel suites.
单项选择题Luis Figueroa lives down the street from UC Merced, the
newest campus in the University of California system. So it’s not surprising
that the 21-year-old studies from the comfort of his own home. But he’s not
enrolled at Merced: from his living-room computer, Figueroa is earning his
bachelor’s degree in business administration at Columbia College in Missouri,
some 2,000 miles away. At $630 per course — about $1,800 per semester — his
online degree will cost far less than even in-state tuition at UC. Not only
that, Figueroa is able to continue working full time in a management-training
job with AT&T in Merced, a job he feels lucky to have in the current
economic climate. "Once I realized I had time constraints, I knew the
traditional classroom wouldn’t work," he says. "Courses online are open 24 hours
a day, and I’m able to go there any time I want."
That
convenience is one of the main reasons nearly 4 million American students took
at least one online course in the 2007-08 school year, according to a study by
the Sloan Foundation. The same study found that online enrollment is growing at
a rate more than 10 times that of the higher-education population at large —
12.9 percent vs. 1.2 percent for traditional "in seat" students. Nowhere is the
growth faster than among younger students like Figueroa who are opting for
online learning, even when the traditional classroom is — in his case — right
outside the front door. "This is a generation that lives online," says Vicky
Phillips, founder and CEO of Geteducated.com, a service that ranks online
learning institutions. "Everything is instant, accelerated, and accessible, and
they expect their education to be that way too. For them there is no clear line
between the virtual world and the actual world."
Once targeted
at older, working adults, distance learning has moved into the education
mainstream at stunning speed over the past couple of years, as technology allows
ever- richer, more-interactive learning experiences online — and as college
costs continue to rise and classrooms are packed to capacity. For traditional
brick-and-mortar institutions, that has meant a scramble to enter a lucrative
market that used to be the exclusive territory of for-profit institutions such
as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University. Established brand-name
educators — including Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, and MIT, which has placed
its entire curriculum online through its OpenCourseWare program — now offer
extensive online learning options and are competing with the for-profits for
students. "The stigma is gone," says Phillips. "Online learning has reached mass
cultural acceptance. It’s no longer the ugly stepsister of the higher-education
world."
Online offerings these days can sometimes even surpass
the classroom experience. Aaron Walsh, a professor at Boston College and a
former videogame designer, has pioneered Immersive Education, a method of
teaching through virtual worlds. Meeting in Second Life instead of a physical
classroom, says Walsh, allows for some feats that gravity renders impossible,
like having art-history students fly to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or
biology majors to take a Magic Schoolbus-like trip through the human body. Using
videos, podcasts, live chats, Webcams, and wikis, educators increasingly see
online learning as a way to engage the videogame generation with pedagogy that
feels more like entertainment than drudgery. Students in the new
homeland-security master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut this
fall, for example, will have coursework that resembles Grand Theft Auto:
dwelling in a cybercity called San Luis Rey plagued with suicide bombers,
biochemical attacks, and other disasters. At Arizona State, students in an
Introduction to Parenting class raise a "virtual child." They have to post the
progress of their online charge through all the phases of childhood. "The
classes are so much more interactive, and I can log on when I’m most ready to
learn," says Jaquelyn Holleran, a junior majoring in family and human
development at ASU. "I like that so much better than having to rush to class or
sit through a lecture that’s boring."
As the largest generation
since the baby boom attends college at a time of shrinking budgets and soaring
costs, many educators believe that online learning holds the greatest promise
for expanding the capacity of the U.S. higher-education system. And digital
classrooms will surely play an important role in helping the Obama
administration pursue its goal of raising the percentage of college graduates in
the U.S. to first in the world by 2020 (at least 10 other countries now stand in
the way). The surge in students with jobs and families, and those in the
military, has also caused online enrollments to soar. Sarah Gerke, an Army
private stationed in Iraq, keeps up with her coursework at Columbia College in
Missouri, despite the occasional bombing. "Even if I could attend in person,"
she writes in an e-mail from Camp Liberty, "I think I would stick with online
classes for the convenience."
For public institutions such as
the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts, online learning
not only extends their brand, it’s a cost-effective way to serve more students.
At UMassOnline, enrollment among students under the age of 25 has increased 91
percent over the past three years. At Thomas Edison State College in Trenton,
N.J., that growth rate over the same period is more than 100 percent. "The best
way to lower the cost of higher education is to graduate on time," says UMass
president Jack Wilson. "More and more we see students using online learning as
an accelerator, a way to move more quickly through their undergraduate
program."
A. It’s a convenient way of learning.
B. It’s a cost-effective way of learning.
C. It’s a bad-reputed way of learning.
D. It’s an excellent way of learning.
单项选择题What if architects could build living systems rather than
static buildings — dynamic structures that modify their internal and external
forms in response to changes in their environment This provocative idea is
making waves in the field of architecture. Houses, for example, might shrink in
the winter to reduce surface area and volume, thus cutting heating costs. They
could cover themselves to escape the heat of the summer sun or shake snow off
the roof in winter. Skyscrapers could alter their aerodynamic profiles, swaying
slightly to distribute increased loads during hurricanes.
Such
"responsive architecture" would depend on two sorts of technology: control
systems capable of deciding what to do, and structural components able to change
the building’s shape as required. Architects have been working to improve the
control systems in buildings for many years, but shape-shifting technology is at
a much earlier stage of development.
One approach being pursued
by researchers is to imitate nature. Many natural constructions, including
spiders’ webs and cell membranes, are "tensegrity systems" — robust structures
made up of many interconnected elements which can be manipulated to change shape
without losing their structural integrity. "These structures can bend and twist,
but no element in the structure bends and twists," says Robert Skelton of the
Structural Systems and Control Laboratory at the University of California in San
Diego. "It’s the architecture of life."
While Dr Skelton is
working on solving the engineering equations associated with tensegrity systems,
Tristan d’Estrée Sterk at the Office for Robotic Architectural Media & the
Bureau for Responsive Architecture, an architectural practice based in
Vancouver, Canada, has begun to construct prototypes of shape-changing "building
envelopes" based on tensegrity structures. Lightweight skeletal frameworks,
composed of rods and wires and controlled by pneumatic "muscles", serve as the
walls of a building; adjusting their configuration to change the building’s
shape. Mr.Sterk is also developing the "brain" needed to control such a building
based on information from internal and external sensors.
Cars
are already capable of monitoring their own performance and acting with a
certain degree of autonomy, from cruise-control systems to airbag sensors. Such
responsive behaviour is considered normal for a car; architects argue that the
same sort of ideas should be incorporated into buildings, too.
And just as the performance of a car can be simulated in advance to choose the
best design for a range of driving conditions, the same should be done for
buildings, argues Gian Carlo Magnoli, an architect and the co-director of the
Kinetic Design Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is
devising blueprints for responsive houses. "We need to evolve designs for the
best performing responsive-building models," he says.
So will
we end up with cities of skyscrapers that wave in the breeze It sounds crazy.
But, says Mr.Sterk, many ideas that were once considered crazy are now
commonplace. "Electricity was a batty idea, but now it’s universal," he says.
Dynamic, intelligent, adaptable buildings are "the logical next step", he
claims.
A. can cause change to elements in the structure.
B. are motivated by biological material architecture.
C. can change their shape without affecting their structural
integrity.
D. are fragile structures made up of many interconnected elements.
单项选择题It is a universally acknowledged fact that human beings
possess a larger brain than animals. This allows us to coordinate our lives
better and communicate with each other on a higher, more sophisticated level.
Language is a mode of communication where with a limited number of words we can
produce an infinite number of sentences. It gives us the chance to discuss ideas
and look at the world with a critical eye. This process provides us with the
opportunity to stimulate our intelligence which in turn enables us to improve
our means of communication. It is of utmost importance to note that we have
developed our linguistic abilities so that we not only have the option of
interacting verbally and through signs but also on a written basis.
The central question to be examined is: How does language actually
influence our specifically animal operations A case in point would be that when
we look at an object, for example a tree, do we see it in its pure, realistic
and natural way or is language imposing a certain influence in the way we look
at this tree Do we regard it as an object of nature which is a tall woody plant
having a single, usually, long and straight main stem, generally with a few or
no branches on its lower part Or are we simply seeing it that way because of
the context of the language in our culture One theory which supports this point
of view is the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis.
Since the languages of
the world differ in regard to their semantic and structural characteristics, it
seems somewhat logical to argue that people speaking widely different languages
would also differ in the way they viewed and thought about the world. An example
may illustrate this point. If one must classify things such as camels,
automobiles or snow in certain ways, then one must perceive them differently
from someone who does not require to make these distinctions. Eskimos may have a
number of different meanings for the word "snow", whereas we only have one. In
Maltese, for example, there is no word which specifically describes the word
"snow". It is translated as "silg" which literally translated means "ice". From
this we can deduce that it is still debatable whether we perceive the world in
its real form or whether we are affected by the language of our society without
us realising. Hence one can infer that language imposes meaning on everything
existing in our world through the human being.
Consequently,
meaning must be placed at the center of any attempt to explain language. But,
meaning lies not in the words but in the people. We use words to approximate the
meanings we wish to communicate, but these words still remain imperfect and
incomplete representations of our meanings. After having delved deeper into this
subject, we can conclude that language is the trait which decisively
distinguishes man from all other creatures and that human language is arguably
the single most remarkable characteristic which we have and the one that most
truly sets our species apart. Undeniably, other creatures do have a way of
communicating with each other and appear to do this through some sort of
signaling system which allows them to pass on information within their species
and occasionally even with members outside their own species. The bottom line is
that the human language is so utterly different from all of these other
signaling systems, that we are obliged to treat it as a truly unique
phenomenon.
A. the way people view the world.
B. the way people behave.
C. the way people voice ideas.
D. our culture.
单项选择题Flats were almost unknown in Britain until the 1850s when
they were developed, along with other industrial dwellings, for the laboring
classes. These vast blocks were plainly a convenient means of easing social
conscience by housing large numbers of the ever-present poor on compact city
sites. During the 1880s, however, the idea of living in comfortable residential
chambers caught on with the affluent upper and upper-middle classes, and
controversy as to the advantages and disadvantages of flat life was a topic of
conversation around many a respectable dinner-table. In Paris and other major
European cities, the custom whereby the better-off lived in apartments, or
fiats, was well established. Up to the late nineteenth century in England only
bachelor barristers had established the tradition of living in rooms near the
Law Court: any self-respecting head of household would insist upon a West End
town house as his London home, the best that his means could provide.
The popularity of flats for the better-off seems to have developed for a
number of reasons. One is the introduction of the railways, which had enabled a
wide range of people to enjoy a holiday staying in a suite at one of the luxury
hotels which had begun to spring up during the previous decade. Hence, there is
no doubt that many of the early luxury fiats were similar to hotel suites, even
being provided with communal dining-rooms and central boilers for hot water and
heating. Rents tended to be high to cover overheads, but savings were made
possible by these communal amenities and by tenants being able to reduce the
number of family servants.
One of the earliest substantial
London developments of flats for the well-to-do was begun soon after Victoria
Railway Station was opened in 1860, as the train service provided an efficient
link with both the City and the South of England. Victoria Street, adjacent to
both the Station and Westminster, had already been formed, and under the
direction of the architect, Henry Ashton, was being lined, with blocks of
residential chambers in the Parisian manner. These fiats were commodious indeed,
offering between eight and fifteen rooms apiece, including appropriate domestic
offices. The idea was an emphatic departure from the tradition of the London
house and achieved immediate Success.
Perhaps the most notable
block in the vicinity was Queen Anne’s Mansions, partly designed by E.R. Robson
in 1884 and recently demolished. For many years, this was London’s loftiest
building and had strong claims to be the ugliest. The block modeled on the
American skyscraper, and was nearly 200 feet high. The cliff-like walls of dingy
brick completely overshadowed the modest thoroughfare nearby. Although bleak
outside, the mansion fiats were palatial within, with sumptuously furnished
communal entertaining and dining rooms, and lifts to the uppermost floors. The
success of these tall blocks of flats could not have been achieved, of course,
without the invention of the lift, or ’ascending carriage’ as it was called when
first used in the Strand Law Courts in the 1870s.
A. live mainly outside London, where it was healthier and cheaper.
B. live in the West End.
C. live near their working place.
D. live in London, but mainly not in the West End.
单项选择题Luis Figueroa lives down the street from UC Merced, the
newest campus in the University of California system. So it’s not surprising
that the 21-year-old studies from the comfort of his own home. But he’s not
enrolled at Merced: from his living-room computer, Figueroa is earning his
bachelor’s degree in business administration at Columbia College in Missouri,
some 2,000 miles away. At $630 per course — about $1,800 per semester — his
online degree will cost far less than even in-state tuition at UC. Not only
that, Figueroa is able to continue working full time in a management-training
job with AT&T in Merced, a job he feels lucky to have in the current
economic climate. "Once I realized I had time constraints, I knew the
traditional classroom wouldn’t work," he says. "Courses online are open 24 hours
a day, and I’m able to go there any time I want."
That
convenience is one of the main reasons nearly 4 million American students took
at least one online course in the 2007-08 school year, according to a study by
the Sloan Foundation. The same study found that online enrollment is growing at
a rate more than 10 times that of the higher-education population at large —
12.9 percent vs. 1.2 percent for traditional "in seat" students. Nowhere is the
growth faster than among younger students like Figueroa who are opting for
online learning, even when the traditional classroom is — in his case — right
outside the front door. "This is a generation that lives online," says Vicky
Phillips, founder and CEO of Geteducated.com, a service that ranks online
learning institutions. "Everything is instant, accelerated, and accessible, and
they expect their education to be that way too. For them there is no clear line
between the virtual world and the actual world."
Once targeted
at older, working adults, distance learning has moved into the education
mainstream at stunning speed over the past couple of years, as technology allows
ever- richer, more-interactive learning experiences online — and as college
costs continue to rise and classrooms are packed to capacity. For traditional
brick-and-mortar institutions, that has meant a scramble to enter a lucrative
market that used to be the exclusive territory of for-profit institutions such
as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University. Established brand-name
educators — including Stanford, Cornell, Penn State, and MIT, which has placed
its entire curriculum online through its OpenCourseWare program — now offer
extensive online learning options and are competing with the for-profits for
students. "The stigma is gone," says Phillips. "Online learning has reached mass
cultural acceptance. It’s no longer the ugly stepsister of the higher-education
world."
Online offerings these days can sometimes even surpass
the classroom experience. Aaron Walsh, a professor at Boston College and a
former videogame designer, has pioneered Immersive Education, a method of
teaching through virtual worlds. Meeting in Second Life instead of a physical
classroom, says Walsh, allows for some feats that gravity renders impossible,
like having art-history students fly to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or
biology majors to take a Magic Schoolbus-like trip through the human body. Using
videos, podcasts, live chats, Webcams, and wikis, educators increasingly see
online learning as a way to engage the videogame generation with pedagogy that
feels more like entertainment than drudgery. Students in the new
homeland-security master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut this
fall, for example, will have coursework that resembles Grand Theft Auto:
dwelling in a cybercity called San Luis Rey plagued with suicide bombers,
biochemical attacks, and other disasters. At Arizona State, students in an
Introduction to Parenting class raise a "virtual child." They have to post the
progress of their online charge through all the phases of childhood. "The
classes are so much more interactive, and I can log on when I’m most ready to
learn," says Jaquelyn Holleran, a junior majoring in family and human
development at ASU. "I like that so much better than having to rush to class or
sit through a lecture that’s boring."
As the largest generation
since the baby boom attends college at a time of shrinking budgets and soaring
costs, many educators believe that online learning holds the greatest promise
for expanding the capacity of the U.S. higher-education system. And digital
classrooms will surely play an important role in helping the Obama
administration pursue its goal of raising the percentage of college graduates in
the U.S. to first in the world by 2020 (at least 10 other countries now stand in
the way). The surge in students with jobs and families, and those in the
military, has also caused online enrollments to soar. Sarah Gerke, an Army
private stationed in Iraq, keeps up with her coursework at Columbia College in
Missouri, despite the occasional bombing. "Even if I could attend in person,"
she writes in an e-mail from Camp Liberty, "I think I would stick with online
classes for the convenience."
For public institutions such as
the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts, online learning
not only extends their brand, it’s a cost-effective way to serve more students.
At UMassOnline, enrollment among students under the age of 25 has increased 91
percent over the past three years. At Thomas Edison State College in Trenton,
N.J., that growth rate over the same period is more than 100 percent. "The best
way to lower the cost of higher education is to graduate on time," says UMass
president Jack Wilson. "More and more we see students using online learning as
an accelerator, a way to move more quickly through their undergraduate
program."
A. about 4 million American students took online course in the 2007-08
school year.
B. the online enrollment is growing at a rate of more than 10 times per
year.
C. the ratio of traditional "in seat" and online enrollment growth rate is
12.9 to 1.2.
D. the biggest reason that so many people take online course is its
convenience.
单项选择题It is a universally acknowledged fact that human beings
possess a larger brain than animals. This allows us to coordinate our lives
better and communicate with each other on a higher, more sophisticated level.
Language is a mode of communication where with a limited number of words we can
produce an infinite number of sentences. It gives us the chance to discuss ideas
and look at the world with a critical eye. This process provides us with the
opportunity to stimulate our intelligence which in turn enables us to improve
our means of communication. It is of utmost importance to note that we have
developed our linguistic abilities so that we not only have the option of
interacting verbally and through signs but also on a written basis.
The central question to be examined is: How does language actually
influence our specifically animal operations A case in point would be that when
we look at an object, for example a tree, do we see it in its pure, realistic
and natural way or is language imposing a certain influence in the way we look
at this tree Do we regard it as an object of nature which is a tall woody plant
having a single, usually, long and straight main stem, generally with a few or
no branches on its lower part Or are we simply seeing it that way because of
the context of the language in our culture One theory which supports this point
of view is the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis.
Since the languages of
the world differ in regard to their semantic and structural characteristics, it
seems somewhat logical to argue that people speaking widely different languages
would also differ in the way they viewed and thought about the world. An example
may illustrate this point. If one must classify things such as camels,
automobiles or snow in certain ways, then one must perceive them differently
from someone who does not require to make these distinctions. Eskimos may have a
number of different meanings for the word "snow", whereas we only have one. In
Maltese, for example, there is no word which specifically describes the word
"snow". It is translated as "silg" which literally translated means "ice". From
this we can deduce that it is still debatable whether we perceive the world in
its real form or whether we are affected by the language of our society without
us realising. Hence one can infer that language imposes meaning on everything
existing in our world through the human being.
Consequently,
meaning must be placed at the center of any attempt to explain language. But,
meaning lies not in the words but in the people. We use words to approximate the
meanings we wish to communicate, but these words still remain imperfect and
incomplete representations of our meanings. After having delved deeper into this
subject, we can conclude that language is the trait which decisively
distinguishes man from all other creatures and that human language is arguably
the single most remarkable characteristic which we have and the one that most
truly sets our species apart. Undeniably, other creatures do have a way of
communicating with each other and appear to do this through some sort of
signaling system which allows them to pass on information within their species
and occasionally even with members outside their own species. The bottom line is
that the human language is so utterly different from all of these other
signaling systems, that we are obliged to treat it as a truly unique
phenomenon.
A. look at the world with a critical eye.
B. interact on a written basis.
C. have a face-to-face exchange with others.
D. verbally communicate their feelings, emotions and thoughts.