【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[听力原文] It only took 10 minutes to auction off the main oil-pumping division of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos. But in a surprise, a virtually unknown company called the Baikal Finance Group won, paying just over $9 billion.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[听力原文] From baseball superstar to aging rock star, 2003 was the year Elvis Costello had his share of the jazz spotlight, in more ways than one. With the release of his number one jazz album North, Costello proved why he's considered one of today's best ballad singers and songwriters. He describes North as an album about "melody, harmony, mood and emotion, mostly emotion". An emotional Elvis also made news when he married jazz singer Diana Krall in December, a match some say was made in musical heaven.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文] The world's first treaty aimed at cutting tobacco-related deaths has come into force. The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control becomes legally binding upon countries that have ratified the landmark agreement. The WHO estimates that nearly five million people die prematurely every year from tobacco-related diseases. If current smoking trends are not reversed, the WHO warns by 2020, tobacco will kill 10 million people a year, 70 per cent of them in developing countries.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文] The firefighters, many in their early twenties, had gone out in two groups to battle the blaze but their efforts were hampered by strong winds and summer temperatures of up to forty degrees Celsius. The local authorities in the central Guadalajara Province say three people are still missing.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[听力原文] The men were rescued more than two thousand kilometers southeast of the island of Bermuda from a life-raft which was floating beside their upturned boat. They were saved by the crew on board a huge Spanish tanker, who answered their distress call and hauled the men on board in heavy seas and high winds.