1In order to show how black people throughout North American were culturally isolated from the start, it Is important to recognize how strange and unnatural the initial contact with Western society was for the African. Once we realize what a shock this first encounter was, we can begin to understand the amazing albeit agonizing transformation that produced contemporary black Americans from the people who were first bound and brought to this country. Life in colonial America was completely different from what the African thought human existence should be. This was one of the most important aspects of the enslavement of the African, the radically different, even opposing cultural perspectives that the colonial American and the African brought to one another. Early European-Americans could not appreciate the profundity of the African world view because it differed so greatly from the Western system of thought and ideas. Western culture, which views the ultimate happiness of humanity as the sole purpose of the universe, could not comprehend the goals or “canons of satisfaction” of a culture with elaborate concepts of predetermination and of the subservience of human beings to a complex of Gods. The cruelty of this misunderstanding, when contained within already terrifying circumstance of slavery, should be readily apparent. Africans were unable to preserve many of the achievements of their civilization under a system of slavery which denied cultural autonomy to the oppressed. European-Americans immediately attempted to eradicate all manifestations of African political, social, and economic traditions. Moreover, the highly developed African system of Jurisprudence could not function under the American form of slavery. Nevertheless, Africans were able to preserve some of their own cultural perspectives, and many of the attitudes, customs, and cultural characteristics of the black American can be traced directly back to Africa. Religion, non-material aspects of African culture, which could not be suppressed, now form the most apparent legacies of African past. Because of the violent differences between what was indigenous to their culture and what was forced on them m slavery, Africans developed an eclectic view of the world, containing both those elements of African temperament that could not be suppressed and those elements of Western culture that were essential to survival in North America. Afro-Americans (the first American-born black people, who retained many pure Africanisms ) and later black Americans inherited these cultural complexities and added individual nuances of their own. So, after several generations in the United States, the black Americans developed a separate culture which reflects both their African and their American experience. The African culture, the retention of some parts of this culture in American, and the weight of the step-culture produced a new people.

2结构推理Crackdown on loan repayment penalties People who repay loans early will get a fairer deal under changes outlined today.

3Scientists have discovered a genetic defect that appears to cause deficit-hyperactivity disorder, more commonly known as hyperactivity. People afflicted with this disorder have trouble focusing their attention and controlling impulses, and tend to be rest-less and aggressive. The defect occurs in a gene that regulates the bodys use of the thyroid hormone. This finding was made in continuing study organized by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in which 70 percent of children inheriting the gene were hyperactive while only 20 percent of the children not inheriting the gene were hyperactive. And although the researchers admit that this defective gene probably accounts for only a fraction of cases of hyperactivity, this discovery will allow doctors to spot newborn babies likely to have the disorder, and also to provide clues for its cause and treatment.

4结构推理Extra places confirm faith in foundation degrees There will be an extra 10,000 places on foundation degree courses next year, giving more people a chance to study for a vocationally-focused higher education qualification.

5In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, delivery and related risks. The modern marketing concept encompasses all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles. It subscribes to the notion that production can be economically justified only by consumption. In other words, goods should be produced only if they can be sold. Therefore, the producer should consider who is going to buy the product-or what the market for the product is-before production begins. This is very different from making a product and then thinking about how to sell it.

6结构推理Employment levels continue to grow New figures show that the job market remains strong. There are now a record 27.9 million people in work in the UK.

7结构推理Hong Kong was hit hard by Sars and had a difficult year but is bouncing back, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said during his visit to the region.

8结构推理Schools and colleges encouraged to go green Green action plans for schools, colleges and universities will encourage them to care for the environment.

9结构推理Firms fined for fixing football kit prices Ten businesses have been fined a total of $18.6m for infringing the 1998 Competition Act by fixing the price of football shirts.

10Petroleum products, such as gasoline, kerosene, home heating oil, residual fuel oils, and lubricating oils, come from one source-crude oil found below the earths surface, as well as under large bodies of water, from a few hundred feet below the surface to as deep as 25,000 feet into the earths interior. Sometimes crude oil is secured by drilling a hole through the earth, but more dry holes are drilled than those producing oil. Pressure at the source or pumping forces crude oil to the surface. Crude oil wells flow at varying rates, from ten to thousands of barrels per hour. Petroleum products are always measured in 42-gallon barrels. Petroleum products vary greatly on physical appearance: thin, thick, transparent or opaque, but regardless, their chemical composition is made up of only two elements: carbon and hydrogen, which form compounds called hydrocarbons. Other chemical elements found in union with the hydrocarbons are few and are classified as impurities. Trace elements are also found, but these are of such minute quantities that they are disregarded. The combination of carbon and hydrogen forms many thousands of compounds which are possible because of the various positions and joining of these two atoms in the hydrocarbon molecule. The various petroleum products are refined from the crude oil by heating and condensing the vapors. These products are the so-called light oils, such as gasoline, kerosene, and distillate fuel oil and is used mostly for burning under boilers. Additional complicated refining processes rearrange the chemical structure of the hydrocarbons to produce other products, some of which are used to upgrade and increase the octane rating of various types of gasoline.

11Baltimore was founded in 1729. For a generation it seemed no different from a dozen other small settlements springing up at the head of the Chesaeake Bay; its claim to distinction consisted of a blacksmiths shop, flour mill, and tobacco warehouse. Yet Baltimore was rated for a more dynamic future than its slow beginnings seemed to portend. Spurred by an agricultural revolution in the Maryland and Pennsylvania countryside as well as dramatic disruptions in the Atlantic economy, Baltimore at mid century began to Boom. By 1790 it had risen to become the new republics fourth largest city with aspirations to overtake the three still ahead: New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Although the Baltimore of the Jeffersonian era looked utterly unlike the colonial village from which it had emerged, the two shared more than might be apparent at first glance. Baltimores economy had expanded tremendously, to be sure, but the same forces that sparked expansion around 1750 continued to sustain it fifty years later. Despite the establishment of new governments at the state level in 1776, national level in 1788, and municipal level in 1797, the same festering issues continued to convulse its politics. If Baltimore had become richer and bigger, its occupational structure, wealth distribution, and residential patterns withstood the pressures of growth and looked about the same in 1790 as in 1812. In other words, beneath the frenzied and seemingly chaotic pace of urbanization, Baltimore enjoyed a strong element of stability. For in 1812, no less than in 1929, Baltimore was a pre-industrial town.

12阅读理解Tenure, the practice of assuring professors (1) continuation in their positions (2) they have passed successfully through a probationary period and provided they are not later found seriously deficient (3) a carefully specified procedure, is an important protection of academic freedom. (4) academic freedom of untenured professors, and of students is not formally protected, (5) of equal concern in academic (6) . Until the student movements of the 1960s, the United States lagged in (7) student academic (8) ; statements on student academic freedom (9) been issued by the AAUP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The U. S. Supreme Court has given legal (10) to academic freedom claims as falling (11) , the First Amendment in decisions such (12) Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957) and Perry v. Sinderman (1972). (13) such actions, challenges (14) academic freedom regularly occur and have become acute (15) critical stages in U.S. history. Following World War Ⅱ, (16) example, the credentials of academics suspected of Communist-party affiliation were often questioned, and teachers were dismissed as actual or (17) Communists. In the late 1980s some American colleges and universities tried to prevent speech offensive to minority groups. (18) endorsing efforts to discourage such speech, (19) both faculty and students, the courts ruled explicit speech codes designed to enforce political correctness unconstitutional as (20) the First Amendment, and the ACLU condemned the codes as undermining academic freedom. The codes were abandoned by the end of 1993.

13The main burden of assuring that the resources of the federal government are well managed falls on relatively few of the five million men and women whom it employs. Under the department and agency heads there are 8r600 political, career, military, and foreign. Service executives-the top managers and professionals who exert major influence on the manner in which the rest are directed and utilized. Below their level there are other thousands with assignments of some managerial significance, but we believe that the line demarcation selected is the best available for our purposes in this attainment. In addition to presidential appointment in responsible posts, the 8,600 include the three highest grades under Classification Act; the three highest grades in the postal field service, comparable grades in the foreign service, general officers in the military service, and similar classes in Other special services and in agencies or positions excepted from the Classification Act. There is no complete inventory of positions or people in federal service at this level. The lack may be explained by separate agency statutes and personnel systems, diffusion among so many special services, and absence of any central point (short of the President himself) with jurisdiction over all upper-level personnel of the government. The committee considers establishment and maintenance of a central inventory of these key people and .positions to bean elementary necessity a first step in improved management throughout the Executive Branch. Top presidential appointees, about 500 of them, bear the brunt of translating the philosophy and aims of the current administration into practical programs. This group includes the secretaries and assistant secretaries of cabinet departments, agency heads and their deputies, heads and members of boards, and commissions with fixed terms and chiefs and directors of major bureaus, divisions and services. Appointments to many of these politically sensitive positions are made on recommendation by department or agency beads, but all are presumably responsible to Presidential leadership. One qualification for office at this level is that there be no basic disagreement with presidential political philosophy, at least so far as administrative judgments and actions are concerned. Apart from the bipartisan boards and commissions these men are normally identified with the political party of the president) or are sympathetic to it, although there are exceptions. There are four distinguishable kinds of top presidential appointees including -Those whom the President selects at the outset to establish immediate and effective control over the government (e. g. Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, his own White House staff and Executive Office personnel). -Those selected by department and agency heads in order to establish control within their respective organizations (e. g. assistant secretaries, deputies, assistants, and major line posts in some bureaus and divisions). -High-level appointees, who--though often requiring clearance through political or interest group channels, or both-must have known scientific or technical competence (e.g. the Surgeon General, the Commissioner of Education). -Those named to residual positions traditionally fdled on a partisan patronage basis. These appointees are primarily regarded as policy makers and over-seers of policy execution. In practice, however, they usually have substantial responsibilities ill line management, often requiring a thorough knowledge of substantive agency programs.

14A team of Russian scientists has challenged the theory that the Woolly mammoths became extinct 10,000 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. The scientists reported in Nature that the beasts may have survived until 2000 BC on an island off the coast of Siberia. Researchers uncovered 29 fossilized woolly mammoth teeth that range from 4,000 to 7,000 years of age. How did these prehistoric pachyderms survive in their island environment? It appears that they adapted to their confined surroundings by decreasing their bulk. Their smaller tooth size has led scientists to believe that they were only six-feet tall at the shoulder compares with 10 feet of their full-sizes counterpart. The researchers have not been able to uncover the reasons for this isolated group’s belated disappearance.

15Loneliness is a curious thing. Most of us can remember feeling most lonely when we were surrounded by people. Everyone has experienced at same time that utter sense of isolation that comes over you when you are at a party or in an audience at a lecture. It suddenly seems to you as if everybody knows everybody else, everybody is sure of himself? everybody that is, except you. The feeling pf loneliness which can overcome you when you are m a crowd is very difficult to get rid of. People living alone are advised to tackle their loneliness by joining a club or society, by going out and meeting people. Does it really help? There are no easy solutions. Your first day at work, or at a new school or university, is atypical situation in which you are likely to feel lonely. You feel that everybody else is full of confidence and knows what to do, but you are adrift and helpless. The fact of the matter is that, in order to survive, we all put on a show of self-confidence to hide our uncertainties and doubts. In a big city it is particularly easy to get the feeling that everybody except you is leading a full, rich and busy life. Everybody is going somewhere, and you tend to assume that they are going somewhere nice and interesting whereas your destination is less exciting and fulfdling.

16结构推理Get the latest govemment news delivered direct to your desktop-register for e-mail updates.

17结构推理What are about The Inverted Pyramid in reading American British News Publications?

18Marian Anderson had a brilliant singing career which began a the age of six when she leamed spirituals at the Union Baptis Church in her hometown of Philadelphia. Her tour of Europe in the 1920s drew vast acclaim; however, when .she returned to the United States she was still barred from performing on the American operatic stage. After she was prevented from singing in Washingtons segregated Constitution Hall in 1939 Eleanor Roosevelt intervened and arranged for her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial. A crowd of 75, 000 people came to watch her sing before the Memorial. Her beautiful contralto voice was breaking down racial barriers, showing Americans that black had a profound contribution to make to Americans cultural life. Eventually, she became the first African-American singer to perform at New Yorks Metropolitan Opera in 1955. In her many years of touring she had to endure a racism that forced her to enter concert halls and hotels through service entrances. Her grace under this stress showed a moral perseverance that paralleled that of the famous Martin Luther King, Junior.