Text 2 To understand how astrology works, we should first take a quick look at the sky. Although the stars are at enormous distances, they do indeed give the impression of being affixed to the inner surface of a great hollow sphere surrounding the earth. Ancient people, in fact, literally believed in the existence of such a celestial sphere. As the earth spins on its axis, the celestial sphere appears to turn about us each day, pivoting at points on a line with the earth's axis of rotation. This daily turning of the sphere carries the stars around the sky, causing most of them to rise and set, but they, and constellations they define, maintains fixed patterns on the sphere, just as the continent of Australian maintains its shape on a spinning globe of the earth. Thus the stars were called fixed stars.
The motion of the sun along the ecliptic is, of course, merely a reflection of the revolution of the earth around the sun, but the ancients believed the earth was fixed and the sun had an independent motion of its own, eastward among the stars. The glare of sunlight hides the stars in daytime, but the ancients were aware that the stars were up there even at night, and the slow eastward motion of the sun around the sky, at the rate of about thirty degrees each month, caused different stars to be visible at night at different times of the year.
The moon, revolving around the earth each month, also has an independent motion in the sky. The moon, however, changes its position relatively rapidly. Although it appears to rise and set each day, as does nearly everything else in the sky, we can see the moon changing position during as short an interval as an hour or so. The moon's path around the earth lies nearly in the same plane as the earth's path around the sun, so the moon is never seen very far from the ecliptic in the sky. There are five other objects visible to the naked eye that also appear to move in respect to the fixed background of stars on the celestial sphere. These are the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the Saturn. All of them revolve around the sun in nearly the same plane as the earth does, so they, like the moon, always appear near the ecliptic. Because we see the planets from the moving earth, however, they behave in a complicated way, with their apparent motions on the celestial sphere reflection both their own independent motions around the sun and our motion as well.
第26题:The ancient people believed that ________.
[A] the earth was spinning on the axis of the sky
[B] the sky was a hollow sphere spinning around the earth
[C] the patterns of stars on the sky would never change
[D] the stars around the sky were not stationary
Wimbledon is the site of______.
A.the U. S Open
B.the British championship
C.the French Open
D.both B and C
A.being
B.is
C.to be
D.been
It's hot here, Would you mind ______ the windows.?
A.to open
B.open
C.opening
D.opened
It's unwise for you to use "open" cheques when paying your telephone bills.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Doesn't say
The documentary collection provides the seller with a greater degree of protection than shipping on().
A.documentary credit
B.banker's letter of guarantee
C.banker's draft
D.open account
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Doesn't say
A.ease with which they could get their money
B.confidence that Mrs. Vaught showed
C.failure of several other banks to open
D.confidence shown by other depositors of the bank
听力原文:M: May I cash these traveler's checks for $300 here?
W: Of course. Would you please countersign them here? Also write place and date as specified.
Q: What does the man want to do according to the conversation?
(16)
A.To endorse his cheques.
B.To show his passport.
C.To cash some traveler' s cheques.
D.To open a checking account.
听力原文:W: Did you hear about Mr. William's case last week?
M: Yes. It's too terrible. As a matter of fact, he should not issue an open cheque in favor of a third party. Anyone who holds it would present it to the paying bank and obtain cash against it.
Q: What happened to Mr. Williams?
(16)
A.He lost a cheque and the thief cashed it.
B.He opened a cheque account.
C.A thief stole the money from the bank.
D.He cashed the cheque but the money was stolen by a thief.
If you miss Bruce and Robert, you can set your watch when Miss Mary Smith opens the door of the post office. You know it's seven fifty-five. She has five minutes to get ready for work—to put away her raincoat
and take off her hat and coat. Rain or shine, Miss Mary Smith brings raincoat. "You never can tell what the weather will be like when it's time to go home," she always says.
One after another the shops along Main Street open for the day. The clothes shop and the fruit shop get open for business. When Mr. King opens the bookshop, the clock above the shop strides nine.
But every weekday, people go to bed early in Fairfield. The streets are quiet, and the houses are dark when the big clock over the Farmers' Bookshop strikes tell o'clock. The small town is getting ready for tomorrow.
The post office starts its business at ______ every weekday.
A.7:00
B.7:55
C.0.333333
D.0.375