We had planned to start before breakfast, but we were （ ）by the thick fog.

A.brought up B.turned up C.taken up D.held up

In the midst of so many evasive comments, this forthright statement, whatever its intrinsic merit, plainly stands out as （ ）.

A.an anomaly B.a profundity C.a paradigm D.a misnomer

No one knows who was the first to invent the dice as we know them. What is remarkable is that they have remained virtually intact across national boundaries and all through the age ——small cubes marked by dots from 1 to 6, so placed that the sum of the dots on opposite sides equals 7. Dice much like those used today were found in China in unearthed cultural relics dating from 600 BC and in ancient Egyptian tombs dating from 2000BC, as well as in the ruins of Babylon. The playing of dice was popular in Greece and even more so in Rome, and dice were used throughout the Middle Ages. In the simplest play with dice each player throws, or shoots, for the highest sum. In China and in the United States the most popular dice game is played with two dice.The number of random numbers that can be expressed by two dice is very limited; the number are: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.11 and 12, all eleven of them. The most probable throw is 7. The probability of 7 is six times that of 12. Therefore it would be ideal if a new kind of dice could be invented with an equal distribution of chances for each number. Well, such dice have already been invented by a British amateur astronomer by the name Aires. The new version.which the inventor calls “heartbreak dice”，also consists of two dice. But the number of random numbers that can be expressed by the new dice is more than three times that of the traditional ones, and the chances for each number are strictly equal.1.According to passage one, the Chinese had played dice （ ）.2.Which of the following statements about dice in China is true?3.In regard to the new kind of dice, we can tell that（ ）.

A.more than 2500 years before. B.3400 years earlier than Egyptians had done so C.in the Middle Ages D.just a little earlier than Christ was born
问题2：
A.Dice in ancient China were quite different from dice today B.Dice in China are very different from the ones used in other countries C.In China, people never play dice games with only one dice D.The aim of playing dice games in China is the same as the ones in other countries——to get the highest sum
问题3：
A.the idea isn’t practical B.it was also named “Aires” though it’s now called “heartbreak dice”. C.it’s famous for the equal distribution of chances for every possible number D.it also uses digits from 1 to 6

Barbara was interested in a very narrow （ ）of subjects, so it was hard to enlarge her knowledge.

A.ration B.rank C.rage D.range

With her last child having left home, she felt a（ ）need to fill her time.

A.tense B.thorough C.pressing D.small

While the population of the United States includes a great variety of racial and ethnic back grounds, Japan’s population is （ ）.

A.autonomous B.homogeneous C.ambitious D.anonymous