未知题型 By the mid-nineteenth century, the term 'icebox' had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865),as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented. Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox. But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetownwas the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks.One advantage of is icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool. What does the passage mainly discuss?A.The influence of ice on the dietB.The development of refrigerationC.The transportation of goods to marketD.Sources of ice in the nineteenth century

未知题型 听力原文：Man: Good morning. Can I help you?Woman: Oh, yes. I want to rent an apartment. My name is Mary Smith.Man: Is it M-A-R-Y S-M-I-T-H?Woman: Yes, that's right.Man: Then what kind of apartment do you prefer?Woman: Well, I want to live near Oak Street.Man: Oak Street, right. Anything else?Woman: The rent should not be more than 100 pounds a month, including water and gas. I'd like an air-conditioner and heating system.Man: How long are you going to rent it?Woman: About a year and a half, from February.Man: Do you have the contact number?Woman: It's 62574988.Man: OK! As soon as I find an apartment I will call you.Woman: Thank you. I'm looking forward to your answer.?Look at the note below.?You will hear a woman calling about house renting.Phone Message PadHiring RegistrationDate: 5th Jan. Time: 9:30Name of the customer : Mary (5) ______Contact No: (6) ______Service Details :1. An apartment near (7) ______ street, with an air-conditioner and heating system2. Rent: on more than (8) ______ a month, including water and gas.3. Renting Period: about 1.5 years from February.

未知题型 Integrating All Communications1．Have you ever felt frustrated when you have to contact your friends, but cannot reach them even you've tried to call to their mobile phones, pager and telephone? You may have to try again and again to reach them through other means such as the Internet or ICQ chat lines until you find where they are.2．But never fear, the future will bring this running around to an end, an executive with Lucent Technologies says.3．'If you contact your friend through a traditional telephone, but you find no one there, the network will automatically search for other communication means until your friend is available and connects you, maybe through his mobile phone or instant message account,' Robert Cohen, Lucent's global product marketing director, said.4．The integration of different communication networks will make this possible, he said. The integrated telecommunication network is expected to be the next big thing in the next couple of years.5．Future networks will be developed to be multi-service networks that can support all kinds of communication methods and provide multiple communication services to users. Users would be able to communicate with one another across the different devices with a variety of multimedia contents such as voice, data and video.6．'It's the next generation network,' Cohen said. 'It's to combine fixed-line telephone, wireless communication, cable as well as the Internet under the same network, and allow communication to be done across different communication technologies.'7．Adoption of the integrated technologies will help lay the foundation for the 'single number' concept. Instead of having several contact numbers used for several kinds of devices, people will be assigned one number, and this number will be used to allow their friends to contact them through E-mail, mobile phone, pager, instant message or other kinds of devices. 'With just one number your friends will be able to contact you through all communication methods as the number will associate with each individual's communication device connected to the network, 'Cohen said.8．To usher the industry in the future, Lucent has introduced what is called SoftSwitch technology to be the brain for the 'next generation' network. SoftSwitch allows telecom operators to integrate different kinds of communication networks, even old circuit-based networks or the new 'packet' networks.9．The technology also allows operators to create enhanced communication services on their existing network infrastructure, helping them to take a shorter time for new service delivery