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单选题It's no use ______ with a drunken man. A. argue B. to argue C. arguing D. being argued
单选题We can't find our bikes ______. Have you seen them?A. anywhereB. somewhereC. nowhereD. where
单选题The number of students in our school ______.
A. increased
B. is increased
C. has increased
D. are increased
单选题The committee ______ a conclusion only after days of discussion. A．achieved B．reached C．arrived D．completed
单选题 The idea of test-tube babies may make you either delighted
at the wonders of modern medicine or irritated while considering the moral, or
legal, or technological implications of starting life in a laboratory. But if
you've ever been pregnant yourself, one thing is certain: You wonder what it's
like to carry a test-tube baby. Are these pregnancies normal? Are the babies
normal? The earliest answers come from Australia, where a group
of medical experts at the Queen Victoria Medical Center in Melbourne have taken
a look at the continent's first nine successful "in vitro" pregnancies. The
Australians report that the pregnancies themselves seemed to proceed according
to plan, but at birth some unusual trends did show up. Seven of the nine babies
turned out to be girls. Six of the nine were delivered by Caesarean section
(剖腹产手术). And one baby, a twin, was born with a serious heart defect and a few
days later developed life-threatening problems. What does it
all mean? Even the doctors don't know for sure, because the numbers are so
small. The proportion of girls to boys is high, but until there are many more
test-tube babies no one will know whether that's something that just happened to
be like that or something special that happens when egg meets sperm in a test
tube instead of a Fallopian tube (输卵管). The same thing is true of the single
heart defect; it usually shows up in only 15 out of 60,000 births in that part
of Australia, but the fact that it occurred in one out of nine test-tube babies
does not necessarily mean that they are at special risk. One thing the doctors
can explain is the high number of Caesareans. Most of the mothers were older,
had long histories of fertility problems and in some cases had had surgery on
the Fallopian tubes, all of which made them likely candidates for Caesareans
anyway. The Australian researchers report that they are quite
encouraged. All the babies are now making normal progress, even the twin with
the birth defects.
单选题ACM was established by ______. A．both mathematicians and electrical engineers B．some scientists C．computer engineers D．some universities
单选题Television has become quite a vigorous activity. Sitting up is exhausting so most people ______down while watching television.
单选题Of all the areas of learning the most important is the development of attitudes: emotional reactions as well as logical thought processes affect the behavior of most people. "The burnt child fears the fire" is one instance; another is the rise of despots like Hitler. Both these examples also point up the fact that attitudes come from experience. In the one case the experience was direct and impressive; in the other it was indirect and cumulative. The Nazis were influenced largely by the speeches they heard and the books they read. The classroom teacher in the elementary school is in a strategic position to influence attitudes. This is true partly because children acquire attitudes from those adults whose words are highly regarded by them. Another reason it is true is that pupils often devote their time to a subject in school that has only been touched upon at home or has possibly never occurred to them before. To a child who had previously acquired little knowledge of Mexico his teacher's method of handling such a unit would greatly affect his attitude toward Mexicans. The media through which the teacher can develop wholesome attitudes are innumerable. Social studies (with special reference to races, creeds and nationalities), science matters of health and safety, the very atmosphere of the classroom... these are a few of the fertile fields for the inculcation of proper emotional reactions. However, when children go to school with undesirable attitudes, it is unwise for the teacher to attempt to change their feelings by cajoling or scolding them. She can achieve the proper effect by helping them obtain constructive experiences. To illustrate, first-grade pupils afraid of policemen will probably alter their attitudes after a classroom chat with the neighborhood officer in which he explains how he protects them. In the same way, a class of older children can develop attitudes through discussion, research, outside reading and all-day trips. Finally, a teacher must constantly evaluate her own attitudes, because her influence can be negative if she has personal prejudices. This is especially true in respect to controversial issues and questions on which children should be encouraged to reach their own decision as a result of objective analysis of all the facts. (377 words)Notes: point up (= emphasize) 强调，突出。touch upon 触及。creed 信条，教义。inculcation 谆谆教诲。cajoling 哄骗。
单选题If you drive from the airport, go on the motorway and follow the______. A．designs B．signs C．ways D．points
单选题Don't let on to Doris that we are going to the movies tonight.
单选题The girl______her tablemate's arm to see if she was fast asleep at class.
单选题It"s a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove and you could bum down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers" misfortunes.
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might—surprise—fall off. The label on a child"s Barman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable user to fly".
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary—the dangers of drug interactions, for example—and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn"t clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn"t have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. "We"re really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren"t designed to prevent those kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete"s injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute—a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight—issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. "Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities," says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If the moderate demand of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
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单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following passages, decide on the best one of
the choices marked A, B, C, and D for each question or unfinished statement and
then mark the corresponding letter with a single bar across the square bracket
on ANSWER SHEET 1.{{B}}Passage One{{/B}}
When I was a kid, I never knew what my
parents-or anyone else's-did for a living. As far as I could tell, all grownups
had mysterious jobs that involved drinking lots of coffee and arguing about
Richard Nixon. If they had job-related stress, they kept it private. Now
American families are expected to be more intimate. While this has resulted in a
lot more hugs, "I love you," and attendance at kids' football games,
unfortunately we parents also insist on sharing the frustrations of our work
lives. While we have complained about our jobs or fallen asleep
in car-pool lines, our children have been noticing. They are worried about us. A
new survey, "Ask the Children," conducted by the Family and Work Institute of
New York City, queried more than 1000 kids between the ages of 8 and 18 about
their parents' work lives. "If you were granted one wish to change the way your
parents' work affected your life," the survey asked kids, "what would that wish
be?" Most parents assumed that children would want more time with them, but only
10% did. Instead, the most common wish (among 34%) was that parents would be
less stressed and tired by work. Allison Levin is the mother of
three young children and a professional in the growing field of "work/life
quality." Levin counsels employees who are overwhelmed by their work and family
obligations to carefully review their commitments-not only at the office but at
home and in the community too and start paring them down. "It's not about
getting up earlier in the morning so you can get more done," she says. "It's
about saying no and making choices." We can start by leaving
work, and thoughts of work, behind as soon as we start the trip home. Do
something to get yourself in a good mood, like listening to music, rather than
returning calls on the cell phone. When you get home, change out of your work
clothes, let the answering machine take your calls, and stay away from e-mail.
When your kids ask about your day, tell them about something good that happened.
(In the survey, 69% of moms said they liked their work, but only 42% of kids
thought their mothers really did.) Parents can also de-stress by
cutting back on their children's activities. If keeping up with your kids'
schedule is killing you, insist that be choose between karate lessons and the
theater troupe. Parents should also sneak away from work and family occasionally
to have some fun. I keep a basketball in the trunk of my car. I might never be
able to fix everything at work or at home, but at least I can work on my jump
shot.
单选题The most exciting kind of education is also the most personal. Nothing can (1) the joy of discovering for yourself something that is important to you. It may be an idea or a bit of information you (2) across accidentally--or a sudden (3) , fitting together pieces of information or working through a problem. Such personal (4) are the "payoff" in education. A teacher may (5) you to learning and even encourage you in it--but no teacher can make the excitement or the joy happen. That's (6) to you. A research paper, (7) in a course and perhaps checked at various stages by an instructor, (8) you beyond classrooms, beyond the texts for classes and into a (9) where the joy of discovery and learning can come to you many times. (10) the research paper is an active and individual process, and ideal learning process.
单选题According to the passage which of the following facts is NOT true?
单选题In early 2004 eight tiny sensors were dropped from a plane near a military base in California. After hitting the ground, the sensors—also known as smart dust sensors—organized themselves into a network and quickly detected a fleet of military vehicles on the ground. They determined the direction, speed and size of a series of military vehicles traveling along the road and later transmitted the data to a computer at a nearby base camp. Smart dust sens6rs are minicomputers—as small as a grain of rice in some cases—that can monitor and evaluate their physical environment and can relay the information via wireless communication. They can monitor elements such as temperature, moisture, humidity, pressure, energy use, vibration, light, motion, radiation, gas, and chemicals. These devices will soon have many applications, such as use in emergency rescue. Software has been developed to run these minicomputers. A key feature of the software is the ability of the sensors to automatically organize themselves into a communications network and talk to each other via wireless radio signals. If any one connection is interrupted, the sensors will self-correct and pass the information on to the next available sensor. Each sensor has a chip that does the computing work—recording things like temperature and motion at its location. Each sensor also has a tiny radio transmitter that allows it to talk to other sensors within 100 feet or so. With a single network of 10,000 sensors—thought to be the biggest array (排列) of sensors currently possible—you could cover 9 square miles and get information about each point along the way. The data finally works its way to a base station that can send the information to a computer or to a wireless network. The scientists who are working with this technology say smart dust sensors can be used to detect the location or movement of enemy troops in areas too dangerous or remote for soldiers to operate. Scattering hundreds of self-networking sensors from a manned or unmanned plane onto the battlefield, in theory, could produce critical information and lead to strategic advantage. Sensors could also be used to detect the presence of chemical weapons and could give troops the time needed to put on protective gear.
单选题These days we hear a lot of nonsense about the "great classless society". The idea that the twentieth century is the age of the common man has become one of the great cliches of our time. The same old arguments are put forward in evidence. Here are some of them: monarchy as a system of government has been completely discredited. The monarchies that survive have been deprived of all political power. Inherited wealth has been savagely reduced by taxation and, in time, the great fortunes will disappear altogether. In a number of countries the victory has been complete. The people rule; the great millennium has become a political reality. But has it? Close examination doesn't bear out the claim. It is a fallacy to suppose that all men are equal and that society will be leveled out if you provide everybody with the same educational opportunities. (It is debatable whether you can ever provide everyone with the same educational opportunities, but that is another question.) The fact is that nature dispenses brains and ability with a total disregard for the principle of equality. The old rules of the jungle, "survival of the fittest", and "might is right" are still with us. The spread of education has destroyed the old class system and created a new one. Rewards are based on merit. For "aristocracy" read "meritocracy"; in other respects, society remains unaltered: the class system is rigidly maintained. Genuine ability, animal cunning, skill, the knack of seizing opportunities, all bring material rewards. And what is the first thing people do when they become rich? They use their wealth to secure the best possible opportunities for their children, to give them a good start in life. For all the lip service we pay to the idea of equality, we do not consider this wrong in the western world. Private schools which offer unfair advantages over state schools are not banned because one of the principles in a democracy is that people should be free to choose how they will educate their children. In this way, the new meritocracy can perpetuate itself to a certain extent: an able child from a wealthy home can succeed far more rapidly than his poorer counterpart. Wealth is also used indiscriminately to further political ends. It would be almost impossible to become the leader of a democracy without massive, financial backing. Money is as powerful a weapon as ever it was. In societies wholly dedicated to the principle of social equality, privileged private education is forbidden. But even here people are rewarded according to their abilities. In fact, so great is the need for skilled workers that the least able may be neglected. Bright children are carefully and expensively trained to become future rulers. In the end, all political ideologies boil down to the same thing: class divisions persist whether you are ruled by a feudal king or an educated peasant.
单选题The apartment manager demanded ______ immediately.
单选题One of the most important problems is how to ______ students" interest in learning English.
单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}}
It was a merry Christmas for Sharper
Image and Neiman Marcus, which reported big sales increases over last year's
holiday season. It was considerably less cheery at Wal-Mart and other lowpriced
chains. We don't know the final sales figures yet, but it's clear that high-end
stores did very well, while stores catering to middle- and low-income families
achieved only modest gains. Based on these reports, you may be
tempted to speculate that the economic recovery is an exclusive party, and most
people weren't invited. You'd be right. Commerce Department figures reveal a
startling disconnect between overall economic growth and the incomes of a great
majority of Americans. In the third quarter, real G. D. P. rose at an annual
rate of 8.2%. But wage and salary income, adjusted for inflation, rose at an
annual rate of only 0.8%. Why aren't workers sharing in the so-called
boom? Start with jobs. Employment began rising in August, but
the pace of job growth remains modest, averaging less than 90 000 per month. But
if the number of jobs isn't rising much, aren't workers at least earning more?
You may have thought so. After all, companies have been able to increase output
without hiring more workers, thanks to the rapidly rising output per worker.
Historically, higher productivity has translated into rising wages.
But not this time: thanks to a weak labor market, employers have felt no
pressure to share productivity gains. Calculations by the Economic Policy
Institute show real wages for most workers flat or falling even as the economy
expands. So who's benefiting from the economy's expansion? The
direct gains are going largely to corporate profits. Indirectly, that means that
gains are going to the big stockholders, who are the ultimate owners of
corporate profits. For most Americans, current economic
growth is something interesting, that is, however, happening to other people.
This may change if serious job creation ever kicks in, but it hasn't so far. The
big question is whether a recovery that does so little for most Americans can
really be sustained. Can an economy thrive on sales of luxury goods alone? We
may soon find out.
单选题Richard didn't know his father because ______.
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单选题The climate of Earth is changing. Climatologists are confident that over the past century, the global average surface temperature has increased by about half a degree Celsius. This warming is thought to be at least partly the result of human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests for agriculture. As the global population grows and national economies expand, the global average temperature is expected to continue increasing by an additional 1.0℃ to 3.5℃ by the year 2100. Climate change is one of the most important environmental issues facing human- kind. Understanding the potential impacts of climate change for natural ecosystems is essential if we are going to manage our environment to minimize the negative consequences of climate change and maximize the opportunities that it may offer. Because natural ecosystems are complex, nonlinear systems, it follows that their responses to climate change are likely to be complex. Climate change may affect natural ecosystems m a variety of ways. In the short term. climate change can alter the mix of plant species in land ecosystems such as grasslands. In the long term, climate change has the potential to dramatically alter the geo- graphic distribution of major vegetation types savannas, forests, and climate change can also potentially alter global ecosystem processes, including the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Moreover. changes in these ecosystem processes can affect and be affected by changes in the plant species of the ecosystem and vegetation type. All of the climate change-induced alterations of natural ecosystems affect the services, that these ecosystems provide to humans. The global average surface temperature increase of half a degree Celsius observed over the past century has been in part due to differential changes in daily maximum and minimum temperatures, resulting in a narrowing of the diurnal temperature range. Decreases in the diurnal temperature range were first identified in the United States, where large-area trends showed that maximum temperatures have remained constant or increased only slightly, whereas minimum temperatures have increased at a faster rate. In this issue, Al-ward et al. report on the different sensitivities of rangeland plants to minimum temperature increases.
单选题{{B}} Directions: There are five reading Passages in this part.
Each passage is followed by five questions. For each question there are four
suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose one best answer and blacken the
corresponding letter on ANSWER SHEET I.{{/B}}{{B}}Passage One{{/B}}
Since the early 1980s, scientists have
revealed some 40 human genes involved in cancer. These genes are essential for
normal growth, but can be subverted to cause a tumor. Dr. Jorge
Yunis of the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis has found
that 70 percent of oncogenes, or cancer-causing genes, are located near
inherited weak points on chromosomes(染色体). Varying from individual to
individual, vulnerable to chemical carcinogens(致癌剂) ,X rays and other
cancer-inducing agents. "If a chromosome snaps apart in the
immediate vicinity of an oncogene," says Yunis, "normal genetic control
mechanisms could break down and the stage would be set for the formation of
cancer." Younis hag shown that such a sequence occurs at the beginning of
numerous leukemias (白血病), lymphomas (淋巴瘤) and some tumors of the lung, colon
(结肠) and breast. Yunis and Other investigators have found that
petroleum-based products--notably pesticides and insecticides--damage specific
sites on at least two of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes that carry genetic
information. Similarly, tobacco smoke tends to attack a part of another
chromosome.
单选题______ it be true that Albert passed the test in geography?A. MayB. ShouldC. CouldD. Would
单选题Electrical resistance is a common property of all materials, ______. A. only differs in degree B. only in degree it differs C. differing only in degree D. and differing in degree only
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单选题Last year the income of the organization was______more than one-fourth.
单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
When I was about 12 1 had an enemy, a
girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was
skinny, I wasn't a good student, I was boyish, I talked too loud, and so on. I
put up with her as long as I could. At last, with great anger, I ran to my
father in tears. He listened to my outburst quietly. Then he
asked, "Are the things she says true or not?" True? I wanted to
know how to strike back. What did truth have to do with it?
"Mary, didn't you ever wonder what you are really like? Well, you now have
that girl's opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the
points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said."
I did as he directed and discovered to my surprise that about half the
things were true. Some of them I couldn't change (like being skinny), but a good
number I could and suddenly wanted to change. For the first time
in my life I got a fairly clear picture of myself. I brought the
list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. "That's just for
you," he said. "You know better than anybody else the truth about yourself, once
you hear it. But you've got to learn to listen, not to close your ears in anger
or hurt. When something said about you is true you'll know it. You'll find that
it will echo inside you." Daddy's advice has returned to me at
many important moments.
单选题He is ______ taller than me.
单选题There is ______ sugar. You needn't go to buy any.
A. plenty of
B. a large number of
C. a great many
D. plenty
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单选题The guard at the gate insisted that everybody ______ the rules． A．obeys B．obeyed C．obey D．would obey
单选题One evening Mr. Green was driving home along a lonely country road. He had ￡1,000 in his pocket. At the loneliest part of the road, a man asked for a lift(搭车). Mr. Green told him to get into the car and continued his driving. When he talked to the man and learned that the man had been in prison for robbery and had broken out of prison two days before, Mr. Green was very worried. Suddenly he saw a police-ear and had a bright idea. He just reached a small town where the speed limit was 30 miles an hour. But he drove the car as fast as it could go. He looked back and saw that the police-car had begun to chase him. After a mile or so the police-car overtook (赶上) him and ordered him to stop. A policeman got out and came to Mr. Green' s ear. Mr. Green hoped that he could tell the policeman about the escaped robber, but he felt the man had put a gun against his back. The policeman took out his notebook and pencil, saying he wanted Mr. Green' s name and address. Mr. Green asked to be taken to the police station, but the policeman said,"No, you will have to appear at the police station later. " Mr. Green had to do as the policeman told him. The policeman wrote his name and address down, put his notebook and pencil back in his pocket and gave Mr. Green a talk about dangerous driving. Then Mr. Green started up his car again and drove on. Just as he reached the suburb of London, the passenger said,"I want to get off here. " Mr. Green stopped the car, the man got out and said,"Thanks for the lift. You' ve been good to me. This is the least I can do in return. "And he handed Mr. Green the policeman' s notebook, which he stole while the policeman was talking to Mr. Green.
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单选题All Eskimos live most of their lives close to salt or fresh water. They may follow game inland for several hundred miles, but they always return to the shores of rivers, lakes or seas. Eskimo land has a bare look. Large rocks, pebbles, and sand cover much of the surface. Plants called lichen grow right on rocks. And where there is enough soil, ever grass, flowers and small bushes manage to live. No trees can grow on the Eskimo land, so geographers sometimes call this country the Arctic plains. Some animals, such as rabbits and caribou, eat the plants. Others, like the white fox and grey wolf, eat the rabbits and caribou. The Eskimo is a meat-eater, too, and may even eat a wolf when food is scarce.
The Eskimo year has two main parts: a long, cold winter and a short, cool summer. Spring and fall almost too short to be noticed. Summer is the good time, when food is usually plentiful. But it is also the time when the Eskimos are very busy. Winter is never far away, and the men must bring home extra meat for the women to prepare and store. For seldom can enough animals be killed in winter to feed a family.
The Far North is sometimes called the land of the midnight sun. This is true in the middle of summer, for between April 21
st
and August 21
st
, the sun never sets in Northern Greenland. But in midwinter the Far North is a land with no sun shining at all. Around Oct. 21
st
the Eskimos of Northern Greenland see the sun setting straight south of them, and they don"t see it again until February 22
nd
. All places on earth get about the same amount of daylight during a year. As a result, if summer is lighter, winter has to be darker. Winter nights in the Far North are seldom pitch-black. As in the rest of the world, the stars and the moon provide a little light. The northern lights also help the Eskimos to see. And with the ground covered with snow, even a little light is reflected back to the Eskimo"s eyes.
单选题Which of the following is equal to x24 for all positive values of x? A. x12+x12 B. (-x12)-2 C. (x6)6 D. (x2)(x3)(x4) E. (x72)1/3
单选题A recent report on population trend conducted by the think (1) of the World watch Institute identifies signs of slowing growth in some countries. It says populations in 32 countries—all in the industrialized world—have stabilized because of declining birthrates. But in a handful of developing countries where population is slowing, the cause isn't something to (2) , because more people are dying. This trend is called "population fatigue", and it's beginning in many of the developing countries that have experienced (3) birthrates and sharp population growth for several decades. Governments in these countries are now having trouble dealing with feeding, housing and educating an increasing number of children, (4) at the same time confronting the falling water (5) , deforestation and soil erosion that rapid population growth brings. In these countries any new threat—infectious disease, drought or famine—can become a (6) crisis. AIDS is a case (7) . WHO estimates calculate that one-quarter of the adult population of Zimbabwe and Botswana are infected with the AIDS virus, (8) , these countries stands to lose at least one-quarter of their labor force in the next decade from AIDS alone, a situation (9) since the yellow fever swept through Europe in the 14'h century. Social unrest is also increasing in these countries. One example is the (10) conflict between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda, where population pressures reduced cropland (11) where it could no longer feed those who lived on it. Demands on the world fisheries and shared water resources are likely to spark similar conflicts. Already the waters of the Nile are so heavily used that little reaches the Mediterranean, so any increase in demand or (12) in allocation will also increase tensions. The bottom line is that human population growth is (13) to slow one way or the other. Developing societies will either recognize problems (14) the horizon and act to encourage smaller families — or unchecked births will have their (15) in rising death rates.
单选题It ______ him more than what was reasonable to have his dishwasher repaired.
单选题It is implied in Paragraph 3 that graduates should ______.
单选题{{B}}Questions 11-15 are based on the following passage:{{/B}}
Watercolor is the oldest painting
medium known. It dates back to the early cave dwellers who discovered they could
add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of
caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.
Fresco, one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It
is created by mixing pigments and water and applying these to wet plaster. Of
the thousands of people who stand under Michlangelo's heroic ceiling in the
Sistine Chapel, very few are aware that they are looking at perhaps the greatest
watercolor painting in the world. The invention of oil painting
by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century led to a decline in fresco
painting, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly as a
medium for doing preliminary sketches or as a tool for study. It was not until
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters reinstated
watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a notorious love for the
outdoors and also a great fondness for small, intimate pictures. The subdued
tones of watercolor had a remarkably strong appeal for
them.
单选题claustrophobia
单选题We hope the measures to control prices,______taken by the government, will succeed.
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单选题Most Hong Kong students aged 12 to 25 spend less than an hour a week studying online. However, it is claimed that e-learning (网上学习) may not be as popular among teenagers as commonly supposed. In a survey by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, 55% of 785 young people in Hong Kong said they did not like e-learning. "E-learning is not a very good system because it is so troublesome (麻烦的)," said Patrick, 17-year-old, recalling how his online homework disappeared because of a technical problem. Patrick also said some classmates give their account numbers and passwords (密码) to others so they could help them finish their online homework. Self-discipline (自律) is also necessary. In the survey, 34.3% of the teenagers said lack of self-discipline made it difficult for them to learn more from the Internet. But the teenagers also discovered some advantages in e-learning. About 41 percent of the teenagers said they work together with other Internet users in order to discuss their problems. Registered social worker Yuen Hin-sing said the effectiveness of e-learning is still not yet well supported by research data. He called for more resources to study the effectiveness of online learning.
单选题Honesty is the best policy, as the English saying goes. Unfortunately, honesty often deserts us when no one is watching, British psychologists reported last week. Researchers at UK's Newcastle University set up an experiment in their psychology department's coffee room. They set a kettle, with tea, coffee and milk on the counter and hung up a sign listing the prices for drinks. People helping themselves to a cup of drink were supposed to put a few cents in the box nearby. The scientists hung a poster above the money box, and it changed each week between images of gazing eyes and pictures of flowers. The researchers found that staff paid 2.76 times more for their drinks when the image of the eyes was hung. "Frankly we were shocked by the size of the effect," said Gilbert Roberts, one of the researchers. Eyes are known to be a powerful perceptual (感官的) signal for humans. "Even though the eyes were not real, they still seemed to make people behave more honestly," said Melissa Bateson, a behavioral biologist and leader of the study. Researchers believe the effect sheds light on our evolutionary past. It may arise from behavioral features that developed when early humans formed social groups to strengthen their chances of survival For social groups to work, individuals had to co-operate, rather than act selfishly. "There's an argument that if nobody is watching us, it is in our interests to behave selfishly. But when we're being watched we should behave better. So people see us as co-operative and behave the same way towards us," Bateson said. The new finding indicates that people have a striking response to eyes. That might be because eyes and faces send a strong biological signal we have evolved to respond to. The finding could be put to practical use, too. For example, images of eyes could increase ticket sales on public transport and improve supervision systems to prevent antisocial behavior.
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单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}}
Premarital cohabitation is becoming a way of life for more and
more people in American society. While some argue that the phenomenon may be a
good things, sociologists Alan Booth and David R.Johnson of the University of
Nebraska reject the idea, based on a nationwide study of 1 872 married persons,
16% of whom reported cohabiting before marriage. Instead, they say, it leads to
lower levels of marital interaction and higher levels of marital disagreement
and instability. One factor the researchers found that helps to
explain the relation between cohabitation and lower marital quality is that some
of those who live together already are poor marriage risks. Booth and Johnson
report that those who cohabit are more likely to have drug, alcohol, and
personality problems; and inability to handle money; and a history of
unemployment and being in trouble with the law. In a further
analysis, they found that cohabitation itself created difficulties for the
subsequent marriage. Living together caused problems with parents and in-laws, a
number of couples reported. Other respondents explained that unwanted children
were another problem-causing factor that carried forward into their
marriages. "The combination of being poor marriage material and
the problems created by cohabitation itself account for the negative relation
between living together before marriage and lower marital quality. Of the two,
being poor marriage material and the risk factors that contribute to such a
state are more significant. People whose cohabitation is trouble-free and who
are good marriage material -- don't use drugs or have personality problems, are
able to hold a job, and so on -- have marriages that are of the same quality as
those who do not cohabit."
单选题The first, second, and third prizes went ______ to Jack, Tom, and
Harry.
A. equally
B. differently
C. similarly
D. respectively
单选题The history of responses to the work of the artist Sandro Botticelli (1444 ～1510) suggests that widespread appreciation by critics is a relatively recent phenomenon. Writing in 1550, Vasari expressed an unease with Botticelli's work, admitting that the artist fitted awkwardly into his evolutionary scheme of the history of art. Over the next two centuries, academic art historians defamed Botticelli in favor of his fellows Florentine, Michelangelo. Even when anti-academic art historians of the early nineteenth century rejected many of the standards of evaluation adopted by their predecessors, Botticelli's work remained outside of accepted taste, pleasing neither amateur observers nor connoisseurs. (Many of his best paintings, however, remained hidden away in obscure churches and private homes.) The primary reason for Botticelli's unpopularity is not difficult to understand: most observers, up until the midnineteenth century, did not consider him to be noteworthy, because his work, for the most part, did not seem to these observers to exhibit the traditional characteristics of fifteenth-century Florentine art. For example, Botticelli rarely employed the technique of strict perspective and, unlike Michelangelo, never used chiaroscuro. Another reason for Botticelli's unpopularity may have been that his attitude toward the style of classical art was very different from that of his contemporaries. Although he was thoroughly exposed to classical art, he showed little interest in borrowing from the classical style. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a painter of large-scale classical subjects adopted a style that was only slightly similar to that of classical art. In any ease, when viewers began to examine more closely the relationship of Botticelli's work to the tradition of fifteenth-century Florentine art, his reputation began to grow. Analyses and assessments of Botticelli made between 1850 and 1870 by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, as well as by the writer Pater (although he, unfortunately, based his assessment on an incorrect analysis of Botticelli's personality), inspired a new appreciation of Botticelli throughout the English-speaking world. Yet Botticelli's work, especially the Sistine frescoes, did not generate worldwide attention until it was finally subjected to a comprehensive and scrupulous analysis by Home in 1908. Home rightly demonstrated that the frescoes shared important features with paintings by other fifteenth-century Florentines-- features such as skillful representation of anatomical proportions, and of the human figure in motion. However, Home argued that Botticelli did not treat these qualities as ends in themselves--rather, that he emphasized clear depletion of a story, a unique achievement and one that made the traditional Florentine qualities less central. Because of Home's emphasis crucial to any study of art, the twentieth century has come to appreciate Bottieelli's achievements.
单选题Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asked the crowd to gather in the auction room to bid for various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called "knocking down" the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a raised platform. The ancient Romans probably invented sales by auction and the English word comes from the Latin "autic", meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called "sub hasta", meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries goods were often sold "by the candle"; a short candle was lit by the auctioneer and bids could be made while it was burning. Practically all goods can be sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, cocoa, furs, fruit, vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and works of art. The auction rooms at Chritie's and Sotheby's in London and New York are world famous. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by the buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a "lot" , is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with lot one and continue the numerical order; he may wait until he notices the fact that certain buyers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer's services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. The auctioneer must know fairly accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling, and he should be acquainted with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the rivalries among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other. It is largely on his advice that a seller will fix a "reserve" price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneers, however, find it difficult to stop a "knock-out", whereby dealers illegally arrange beforehand not to hid against each other, but nominate one of themselves as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at extremely low prices. If such a "knock-out" comes off, the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers.
单选题{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}}
From the beginning, migration has been
6ne of the most conspicuous features of human history. Humanity did not appear
simultaneously all over the earth but, according to the current scientific
consensus, first evolved in Africa, and from there spread far and wide. Even
after mankind had populated most of the planet, migration continued to play a
decisive role in history down the centuries, as people contended for territory
and the resources that go with it. In many of history's biggest movements of
people, the migrants were not volunteers. In the 17th and
18th centuries, 15 million people were taken as slaves from Africa
and shipped to Brazil, the Caribbean and North America. In the 19th
century, between 10 and 40 million indentured workers (契约工人，苦力) were sent in
vast numbers around the world, mainly from China and India. The
20th century's wars in Europe and Asia displaced millions more. But
perhaps the most intense episode of migration-under-duress (强迫) in modern times
occurred after the partition of India in 1947, when 7 million Muslims fled India
for the new state of Pakistan and 7 million Hindus fled in the opposite
direction. As individuals, not merely as members of races or
religions in flight, people have always traveled in search of a better life.
Between the middle of the 19th century and the start of the second
world war, 60 million people left Europe and move overseas to the United States,
Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Much of this
movement was guided by economic calculation. Most modern migration is of this
kind, though nowadays the pull is high wages rather than cheap land.
For the 19th century or so, the pattern of migration has
shifted a good deal, with changes in government policy playing a key role. Until
t914 governments imposed almost no controls. This allowed the enormous
19th-century movement of migrants from Europe to North
America. Between 1914 and 1945; partly reflecting security
concerns, migration was curtailed. Many countries excluded immigrants. America's
Congress passed laws aiming to preserve the country's racial and religious
makeup. After 1945 came another great change. Many European
countries faced labor shortages. Governments actively recruited immigrants for
jobs in their expanding industries. Migration surged again, now not mainly
from Europe to North America but from the developing countries to the rich
ones. The next big change came in the 1970s. The rich countries
were no longer growing quickly and struggling with labor shortages. Recession
came to Europe and America, and immigration rules were tightened again. This
more restrictive regime continues to apply.
单选题According to the passage, the customers have to pay for ______ as well as. for the goods. A. the advertisement C. the repair B. the tax D. the wrapping material
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单选题Doctors are developing a new______ for treating that disease.
单选题Quotation and author are correctly paired in all the following except____.
单选题It is quite difficult to ______ money because the rate of inflation is so high.
单选题So far as is known, the original manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are no longer in ______ .
单选题If I cannot make myself ______ English, I will speak Chinese. A. understood with B. understand with C. understood in D. understand in
单选题The government recently presented an ambitious plan to tackle the violence and ______that follow when too many people drink too much too quickly in too small an area. A. alienation B. delimitation C. bareness D. mayhem
单选题More than 40 million Americans between the ages of 5 and 18 attend schools throughout the United States. About 2 million school-age children are taught at home. While home schooling offers an alternative to the school environment, it has become a controversial issue.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face of public education and a damaging move for the children. Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, the hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Some public schools have moved closer to tolerance, and, even in some cases, are seeking cooperation with home schoolers. "We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. Let"s give the kids access to public school so they"ll see it"s not as terrible as they"ve been told, and they"ll want to come back," says John Marshall, an education official.
Perhaps, but don"t count on it, say home-school advocates. Some home schoolers oppose that public school system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education—whether fueled by religious belief or the individual child"s interests and natural pace—is best. Other home schoolers contend "not so much that the schools teach heresy, but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately." "These parents are highly independent and strive to "take responsibility" for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient," says Van Gallon.
But Howard Carol, spokesman for America"s largest teachers union, argues that home schooling parents are trying to hide their children from the real world, says Van Gallon. "Maybe we are going to run into people with problems, people that have a drug problem, people that have an alcohol problem, and teenage pregnancy. We have many many problems that happen in our society and many of the children are victims. But shielding the children from the real mix of what happens every day is denying them something that they are going to need later in life." Mr. Carol also questioned the competence of parents as teachers though he admitted that some home schoolers do better academically. "We want to make sure that a student is not denied the full range of curriculum experiences and appropriate materials, especially now with the new technology that is being introduced and the costs involved there."
"The success of home schooling has been documented in standardized test scores administered by public school officials," says Frank Bernet, the executive director of the National Association of College Admission Councilors. "I know why they are doing it, but I wonder why they can"t work with school officials and teachers to make the school what they want it to be." The response from home schoolers: "We have tried that. Now it"s time to strike out on our own."
单选题Teachers and nurses who deal with children are Uobliged/U to report cases of suspected child abuse to authorities.
单选题Demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast enlargements and nose jobs, has increased by more than 400 per cent over the last decade. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. " What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that. " In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centres on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imber recommends " maintenance " work for people in their thirties. " The idea of waiting until one needs a heroic transformation is silly, " he says. " By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand. " Dr. Imber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however. " It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery. " In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies, who claims to " cater for the average person " , agrees. He says: " I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also all investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday. " Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anaesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who recently paid ￡2,500 for liposuction to remove cellulite from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery veteran is a deceptively gentle one. " I had my legs done because they'd been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it. /
单选题How do you know that the oil pressure is a bit low?
单选题Even if they are on sale, these refrigerators are equal in price to, if not more expensive than, ______ at the other store. A. any other B. the others C. the ones D. that
单选题Five hundred dollars ______ expensive. Have you nothing cheaper? A．are B．to be C．is D．has been
单选题We ______ admire his courage and self-confidence.
单选题To a philosopher, wisdom is not the same as knowledge. Facts may be known in enormous numbers without the knower of them loving wisdom. Indeed, the person who possesses encyclopedic (学士渊博的) information may actually have a genuine contempt (轻视) for those who love and seek wisdom. The philosopher is not content with a mere knowledge of facts. He desires to combine and evaluate facts, and to examine beneath the obvious to the deeper orderliness behind the immediately given facts. Insight into the hidden depths of reality, perspective (洞察) on human life and nature in their entirety, in the words of Plato, to be a spectator of time and existence-these are the philosopher's objectives. Too great an interest in the small details of science, may, and often does, obscure these basic objectives. Philosophers assume that the love of wisdom is a natural gift of the human being. Potentially every man is a philosopher because in the depths of his being there is an intense longing to penetrate to the meaning of the mysteries of existence. The inner deep longing expresses itself in various ways prior to any actual study of philosophy as a technical branch of human culture. Consequently every human being in so far as he has ever been or is a lover of wisdom has, to that extent, a philosophy of life.
单选题Who won the World Cup 1994 football game? What happened at the United Nations? How did the critics like the new play? (1) an event takes place, newspapers are on the streets (2) the details. Wherever anything happens in the world, reporters are on the spot to (3) the news. Newspapers have one basic (4) , to get the news as quickly as possible from its source, from those who make it to those who want to (5) it. Radio, telegraph, television, and (6) inventions brought competition for newspaper. So did the development of magazines and other means of communication. (7) , this competition merely spurred the newspapers on. They quickly made use of the newer and faster means of communication to improve the (8) and thus the efficiency of their own operations. Today more newspapers are (9) and read than ever before, competition also led newspapers to branch out into many other fields. Besides keeping readers (10) of the latest news, today's newspapers (11) and influence readers about politics and other important and serious matters. Newspapers influence readers' economic choices (12) advertising. Most newspapers depend on advertising for their very (13) . Newspapers are sold at a price that (14) even a small fraction of the cost of production. The main (15) of income for most newspapers is commercial advertising. The (16) in selling advertising depends on a newspaper's value to advertisers. This (17) in terms of circulation. How many people read the newspaper? Circulation depends (18) on the work of the circulation department and on the services or entertainment (19) in a newspaper's pages. But for the most part, circulation depends on a newspaper's value to readers as a source of information (20) the community, city, county, state, nation, and world—and even outer space.
单选题According to the passage, the Japanese investors ________.
单选题The experiment requires more money than______.
单选题wemovedtothecountrysothatthekidswouldhaveagarden __________ toplay.
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单选题You might not like the way Sam behaves, but please be kind to him. ______, he is your grandfather.
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单选题The grocer deals in tea, coffee, spices, and ______. A. so much B. etc. C. so forth D. alike
单选题She is a very ______ student. She's always talking about traveling to outer space. [A] imaginary [B] imaginative [C] imaginable [D] imagining
单选题Usually he managed to find plenty of work to______ him over hard times, I think it is a good idea.(2004年西南财经大学考博试题)
单选题This most important measurement A
has omitted
in the studies of the quality of education in this country, the only one, I think, B
that
extends C
even to children
the license to freely speak, write and D
be creative
.
单选题The combination of a sector number and a track number forms a unique ______. A．index B．program name C．disk address D．file name
单选题Probably the most widespread and familiar ethnic variety of the English language is______.
单选题In the world of climate change, it is in the Earth's cold regions where trends can most easily be seen. The cryosphere, where water is found in solid form, is among the most sensitive regions to temperature change. The sensitivity of ice and snow to temperature changes is an early indicator of even relatively small differences, says University of Colorado at Boulder senior researcher Richard Armstrong. He has found that today's receding and thinning sea ice, mountain glacier mass losses, decreasing snow extent, melting permafrost (永久冻土), and rising sea level are all consistent with warming. Global mean temperatures have risen one degree Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. with more than half of the increase occurring in the last 25 years, observes Armstrong who is affiliated with the National Snow and Ice Data Center headquartered at CU-Boulder. "As slight as that may seem, it's enough to make a difference, " said Armstrong. "Now, long-term monitoring of a series of cold region, or cryospheric, parameters (参数) shows that for several decades the amounts of snow and ice around the world have been decreasing. " The extent of Arctic sea ice is shrinking by about 3 percent per decade. but the trends are not uniform. While recent studies have indicated that the ice thickness also had decreased over several decades, new information shows that the ice may have thinned rapidly, Armstrong said. Examination of springtime ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean indicates that the mean ice thickness decreased 1.5 meters (4.8 feet) between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. To mark its 25th anniversary, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has organized a special session at the 2001 Fall Meeting of American Geophysical Union, taking place this week in San Francisco, that illuminates overall changes in the cryosphere. The session begins Tuesday and extends through Thursday afternoon, with 75 contributions from all areas of cryospheric study. Papers and posters include examinations of lake and river ice, glacier dynamics, and mass ice balance studies in polar and continental glaciers, regional and polar snow cover trends, and variations in Canadian ice cap elevations.
单选题Two main techniques have been used for training elephants, which we may call respectively the tough and the gentle. The former method simply consists of setting an elephant to work and beating him until he does what is expected. Apart from any moral considerations this is a stupid method of training, for it produces a resentful animal who at a later stage may well turn man-killer. The gentle method requires more patience in the early stages, but produces a cheerful, good-tempered elephant who will give many years of loyal service. The first essential in elephant training is to assign to the animal a single mahout who will be entirely responsible for the job. Elephants like to have one master just as dogs do, and are capable of a considerable degree of personal affection. There are even stories of half-trained elephant calves who have refused to feed and pained to death when by some unavoidable circumstance they have been deprived of their own trainer. Such extreme cases must probably be taken with a grain of salt, but they do underline the general principle that the relationship between elephant and mahout is the key to successful training. The most economical age to capture an elephant for training is between fifteen and twenty years, for it is then almost ready to undertake heavy work and can begin to earn its keep straight away. But animals of this age do not easily become subservient to man, and a very firm hand must be employed in the early stages. The captive elephant, still roped to a tree, plunges and screams every time a man approaches, and for several days will probably refuse all food through anger and fear. Sometimes a tame elephant is tethered nearby to give the wild one confidence, and in most cases the captive gradually quietens down and begins to accept its food. The next stage is to get the elephant to the training establishment, a ticklish business which is achieved with the aid of two tame elephants roped to the captive on either side. When several elephants are being trained at one time, it is customary for the new arrival to be placed between the stalls of two captives whose training is already well advanced. It is then left completely undisturbed with plenty of food and water so that it can absorb the atmosphere of its new home and see that nothing particularly alarming is happening to its companions when it is eating normally, its own training begins. The trainer stands in front of the elephant holding a long stick with a sharp metal point. Two assistants, mounted on tame elephants, control the captive from either side, while others rub their hands over his skin to the accompaniment of a monotonous and soothing chant. This is supposed to induce pleasurable sensations in the elephant, and its effects are reinforced by the use of endearing epithets, such as 'ho! my son', or 'ho! My father', or 'my mother' according to the age and sex of the captive. The elephant is not immediately susceptible to such blandishments, however, and usually lashes fiercely with its trunk in all directions. These movements are controlled by the trainer with the metal-pointed stick, and the trunk eventually becomes so sore that the elephant curls it up and seldom afterwards uses it for offensive purposes.
单选题You wouldn't have seen her if it______not been for him.
单选题New parents are annoying. They think you want to hear about every gurgle and baby-step. But it could be worse. When your boss has a sprog, watch your wallet. A study to be published next month in Administrative Science Quarterly looks at what happens to workers' pay when a male boss has a child. Researchers tracked salaries at every firm in Denmark with more than ten employees between 1996 and 2006.(They confined themselves to male bosses partly because the sample of female bosses was too small.) Male bosses, it turns out, pay themselves significantly more once they become fathers. Even after controlling for factors such as age, length of tenure and the performance of the firm, the study found that bosses with daughters pay themselves 3.5% more than childless ones. If they have a son, that increases to a hefty 6.4% . David Ross of Columbia Business School, one of the authors, says all fathers feel a duty to support their families. For grunts this means working harder. Bosses have the more agreeable option of raising their own wages. This is bad news for underlings. That extra money comes out of workers' pockets, the study finds. Staff employed by a father is typically paid less. The amount depends on such things as the sex of the baby and whether it is his first child. Male employees bear the brunt: if the boss's child is a son, for example, they can expect 0. 5% less salary than if he hadn't reproduced. Female staff fare better. After their boss's first child, they can expect to be paid a little more. Mr Ross speculates that this might be because, having seen their wives go through childbirth, they start to respect women more. Alas, such goodwill doesn't last. Once the boss has a second child, female workers' wages are likely to fall, just like men's.
单选题Less than five years ago. Scottish Opera was trapped in a financial quagmire from which few thought it could recover. Today, however, the national company seals its comeback by announcing its most wide-reaching program to date. In an interview with The Times, Alex Reedjik, general director of Scottish Opera, explained that a series of collaborations with other companies would enable it to maximize its output without
compromising its budget
. He admitted that the partnerships were borne of financial necessity, but argued they would allow the company to reach greater audiences than ever before. "Collaborations are the way forward," he said. "We have often done co-productions in the past but they are more important to us now to enable us to achieve all of our hopes. The problem is that sets are very expensive. If you can share those costs with another organization and not impact on artistic integrity, that is a positive, welcome and necessary thing.
Highlights of the 2009-10 season will include a new co-production with New Zealand Opera of Rossini"s The Italian Girl in Algiers, and a joint venture with Opera North The Adventures of Mr. Broucek, by Leos Janacek, featuring a 40-strong choir singing Hussite hymns, along with bagpipes and an organ. An unashamedly Italianate season this Autumn begins with a revival of Giles Havergal"s popular 1994 production of The Elixir of Love. There will also be a revival of the Tony-award winning director Stewart Laing"s production of Puccini"s La Boheme.
The turnaround in the company"s fortunes is striking. In 2005, the year before Mr. Reedjik joined the organization, Scottish Opera was forced to make half of its staff, including the entire chorus , redundant and abandon its main-scale productions for a season after accumulating debts of a-round ￡4.5 million. The company"s core grant, which at that time came from the Scottish Arts Council(it is now funded directly by the government)had not risen for several years. However, it had also haemorrhaged funds by staging the hugely expensive Ring Cycle, and according to some critics , had been overspending on props, with rumors of cast members wearing ￡ 300 designer shoes.
A ￡ 7 million rescue package put together by the then Labor-led Scottish Executive saved the company from going dark on a permanent basis, but
the ease with which it almost went under forced a rethink of priorities
. While the company continues to stage several major productions each season, it has also introduced smaller touring works—the acclaimed Five: 15 series—which pairs leading writers with composers to create 15-minute chamber pieces that could be developed into longer productions. The aim, says Mr. Reedjik, is to put on as much opera in Scotland as possible without breaking the bank. So far the strategy seems to be working, with audiences averaging at around 95 ,000 people in the past three years, a rise of almost 50 per cent compared with 2004 -05, the season before the company went dark. "What we are trying to do now is live within our means and raise as much as possible from philanthropic means," said Mr. Reedjik. " We seemed to have dropped out of the news for dumb stuff—now we"re in the news for our interesting work. "
单选题My mother _______ that sweater last year.
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单选题By saying these figures are conservative (Line 1, Paragraph 3), Dr Worm means that ______.
单选题Sharks have gained an unfair reputation for being fierce predators of large sea animals. Humanity's unfounded fear and hatred of these ancient creatures is leading to a worldwide slaughter that may result in the extinction of many larger, coastal shark species. The shark is the victim of a warped attitude of wildlife protection: we strive only to protect the beautiful, nonthreatening parts of our environment. And, in our efforts to restore only nonthreatening parts of our earth, we ignore other important parts. A perfect illustration of this attitude is the contrasting attitude towards another large sea animal, the dolphin. During the 1980s, environmentalists in the U. S. A. protested the use of driftnets for tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean since these nets also caught dolphins. The environmentalists generated enough political and economic pressure to prevent tuna companies from buying tuna that had been caught in driftnets. In contrast to this effort, the populations of sharks in the Pacific Ocean have decreased to the point of extinction and there has been very little effort by the same environmentalists to save this important species, of marine wildlife. Sharks are among the oldest creatures on earth, having survived in the seas for more than 350 million years. They are extremely efficient animals, feeding on wounded or dying animals, thus performing an important role in nature of weeding out the weaker animals in a species. Just the fact that species such as the Great White Shark have managed to live in the oceans for so many millions of years is enough proof of their efficiency and adaptability to changing environments. It is time for humans, who may not survive another 1000 years at the rate they are damaging the planet, to east away their fears and begin considering the protection of sharks as creatures that may provide us insight into our own survival.
单选题No bank will want ______ interest rates when the prices of goods keep rising.
单选题About half of the students expected there______more reviewing classes before the final exams.
单选题The workers fulfilled the task ahead of schedule _______ bad weather.
单选题_______ of them was good enough to use.
单选题The meeting was ______ when the chairman suddenly fell ill. A. put downs B. cut short C. put off D. set off
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单选题The press mocked his attempts to appeal to young voters. A. ridiculed B. entertained C. ignored D. drew
单选题It is generally recognized in the world that the second Gulf War in Iraq is a crucial test of high-speed Web. For decades, Americans have anxiously (1) each war through a new communications (2) , from the early silent film of World War I to the 24-hour cable news (3) of the first Persian Gulf War. Now, (4) bombs exploding in Baghdad, a sudden increase in wartime (5) for online news has become a central test of the (6) of high-speed Internet connections. It is also a good (7) both to attract users to online media (8) and to persuade them to pay for the material they find there, (9) the value of the Cable News Network persuaded millions to (10) to cable during the last war in Iraq. (11) by a steady rise over the last 18 months in the number of people with high-speed Internet (12) , now at more than 70 million in the United States, the Web sites of many of the major news organizations have (13) assembled a novel collage (拼贴) of (14) video, audio reports, photography collections, animated weaponry (15) , interactive maps and other new digital reportage. These Internet services are (16) on the remarkable abundance of sounds and images (17) from video cameras (18) on Baghdad and journalists traveling with troops. And they have found a (19) audience of American office workers (20) their computers during the early combat. (245 words)
单选题The idea of building "New Towns" to absorb growth is frequently considered a cure-all for urban problems. It is wrongly assumed that if new residents can be diverted from existing centers. the present urban situation at least will get no worse. It is further and equally wrongly assumed that since European New Towns have been financially and socially successful, we can expect the same sorts of results in the United States. Present planning, thinking, and legislation will not produce the kinds of New Town that have been successful abroad. It will multiply suburbs or encourage developments in areas where land is cheap and construction profitable rather than where New Towns are genuinely needed. Such ill-considered projects not only will fail to relieve pressures on existing cities but will, in fact, tend to weaken those cities further by drawing away high-income citizens and increasing the concentration of low-income groups that are unable to provide tax income. The remaining taxpayers, accordingly, will face increasing burdens, and industry and commerce will seek escape. Unfortunately, this mechanism is already at work in some metropolitan areas. The promoters of New Towns so far in the United States have been developers, builders, and financial institutions. The main interest of these promoters is economic gain. Furthermore, federal regulations designed to promote the New Town idea do not consider social needs as the European New Town plans do. In fact, our regulations specify virtually all the ingredients of the typical suburban community, with a bit of political rhetoric (修辞) thrown in. A workable American New Town formula should be established as firmly here as the national formula was in Britain. All possible social and governmental innovations as well as financial factors should be thoroughly considered and accommodated (容纳) in this policy. Its objectives should be clearly stated, and both incentives and penalties should be provided to ensure that the objectives are pursued. If such a policy is developed, then the New Town approach can play an important role in alleviating America's urban problems.
单选题Receptionist: Can I help you? Customer: ______. Where
do I pay my fees?
A. Yes, please
B. Thank you
C. As you please
D. Yes, you can
单选题How many times did the box hit the man?
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单选题They are having a picnic ______ the sun. [A] under [B] at [C] in
单选题The ______ you study English, the ______ progress you will make.
单选题Obviously she was ______ by the shop owner when she was shopping in
that store.
A. supposed
B. supplemented
C. swept
D. cheated
单选题Jack lay, quiet and unmoving, for thirty minutes while a stranger repeatedly stabbed him with sharp needles, causing blood to pour steadily out of his leg. Jack was getting a tattoo. His friend Tony had recently gotten a tattoo, and Jack was so impressed by Tony"s bravery and his tattoo that he decided to get one too. Getting a tattoo because your friends and peers have them is just one of the reasons why a lot of young people in North America get tattoos. Peer pressure, media influence, and personal expression are some of the common reasons for wearing tattoos today. The desire to be part of a group, to be accepted by one"s friends or peers, can have a great influence on what a person does. Sometimes, wearing a tattoo can be a sign that you belong to a certain group. Gangs often use special clothes and tattoos to identify their particular group. For example, in one gang all the members may wear green army jackets and have large"Xs" tattooed on their arms. It is not only gangs that have this type of special "uniform". Young people often belong to a certain group of friends. Some of these groups wear only brand-name clothes. Some wear only black clothes. Others wear tattoos. When a person"s friends are all doing something, such as getting a tattoo, that person is more likely to do the same thing, and get a tattoo, too. The media is another big influence behind the popularity of tattoos in North America. A wide variety of media images show tattoos. Tattoos can be seen on people appearing in commercials selling expensive cars. Famous sports heroes with tattoos are shown in magazines. Fashion models are often seen in magazines and on TV wearing designer clothes that show their bodies tattooed with detailed and colorful patterns. These media images link tattoos to ideas of wealth, success, and status. As a result, many people decide to get a tattoo for its fashion and status value. It is not always the influence of other people or the media that results in a person getting a tattoo. Many people decide to wear tattoos in order to express their artistic nature, their beliefs, or their feelings—in other words, to show their individuality. A musician in a rock band may get a tattoo of a guitar on the arm. Some environmentalists may tattoo pictures of endangered animals on their shoulders. Lovers may tattoo each others" names over their hearts. A tattoo can be a public sign to show what is important in a person"s life. As you can see, there are many reasons why young North Americans get tattoos. A tattoo can be part of a group"s uniform. It can be a sign of fashion. It can be an expression of individuality. The decision to get a tattoo is most often a result of the influence of friends or media or the desire to express oneself. For Jack, it was a mixture of all three.
单选题Modern English novel arose in the______century.
单选题____ , I'm busy at the moment. Can I call you back latter?
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单选题 Directions: In this part, there are incomplete
sentences in the following passage. For each sentence there are four choices
marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence.
One country that is certain of the effect of films
on tourism is Australia. The Tourist Office of Queensland say that Crocodile
Dundee, {{U}}61 {{/U}} Paul Hogan, made Australia the popular
{{U}}62 {{/U}} it is today. In the three years after Crocodile Dundee
was {{U}}63 {{/U}} , visitor numbers doubled. {{U}}64 {{/U}}
what makes people want to visit the place where a movie was filmed? In many
cases the reason is {{U}}65 {{/U}} the film makes audiences {{U}}66
{{/U}} of the existence of a place. {{U}}67 {{/U}} the James Bond
movie The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed in Phuket, Thailand, most
Westerners had never heard of it. Today it is a major destination. Leonardo di
Caprio's film The Beach has {{U}}68 {{/U}} tourism in another part of
Thailand. The film is about the discovery of the most idyllic beach in the
world. As a result the Thai authorities are {{U}}69 {{/U}} a tourist
boom in the film's {{U}}70 {{/U}} ,Koh Phi Phi. Some
people are influenced by a movie's {{U}}71 {{/U}} as much as its
location, especially if it is a romance. Four Weddings and a Funeral has
{{U}}72 {{/U}} that" The Crown" hotel in Amersham has been busy ever
{{U}}73 {{/U}} the movie was first shown. In fact the bedroom where the
{{U}}74 {{/U}} played by Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell spend their first
night together is {{U}}75 {{/U}} for years ahead. "We've {{U}}76
{{/U}} the number of marriage proposals that have been made there," say the
hotel {{U}}77 {{/U}}. It is not just the tourist boards
who are happy {{U}}78 {{/U}} the influence of films on a destination.
Residents of a rather run down area of London have seen house prices almost
double {{U}}79 {{/U}} Julia Robert's romance with Hugh Grant in Notting
Hill. Film stars, such as Madonna, who had previously thought of Notting Hill as
a good place for a party, have now bought {{U}}80 {{/U}} there. Perhaps
they hope to revive their romances.
单选题He did not deny, ______ admit, having made any statement to that effect. A．nor did he B．so did he C．either did he D．also did he
单选题Manufacturing is China's most important economic activity, ______over 30 percent of the workforce.
单选题______ of the worlds books and newspapers are written in English. A) Three quarter B) Three of quarters C) Third fourths D) Three fourths
单选题The first aid you learn from a course is not quite like reality. Most of us feel afraid when dealing with "the real thing". By overcoming these feelings, we are better able to use the first aid to cope with the unexpected.
Doing your part
First aid is not an exact science, and is thus open to human error. No matter how hard you try, the casualty(伤者) may not respond as hoped. Some conditions might lead to death, even with the best medical care.
Giving care with confidence
The casualty needs to feel protected and in safe hands. You can create an air of confidence and safety by:
·being in control, both of yourself and the problem;
·acting calmly and reasonably;
·being gentle, but firm, with your hands, and speaking to the casualty kindly, but hopefully.
Building up trust
Talk to the casualty throughout your examination and treatment(治疗).
·Explain what you are going to do.
·Try to answer questions honestly to reduce fears as best as you can. If you do not know the answer, say no.
单选题Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is ______.
单选题That's Peter, the boy ______ has just arrived at the airport.
单选题Although the work needs to be done more exhaustively, efforts have been made to collect the songs and ballads of the American Revolution.
单选题 Couples are restricting the size of their families in the
UK because of cash worries brought on by the financial crisis and the subsequent
decline. We're now up to nearly 3.7 million families where there is an only
child, a rise from about 3.3 million in 2005. That means nearly half of all
parents have only one child. Financial worries aren't the only
driver. The trend towards later motherhood has been mentioned as a cause, as
have soaring costs of raising a child, which have been calculated as ￡222,500
from birth to 21 years of age. This is an increase of nearly 40% in 10
years. The increasing availability of IVF (试管婴儿) is also a
factor and an interesting one. Couples who might have remained childless in the
past now invest in IVF and get pregnant. And because of the cost they stop after
one child. It may not be a bad thing; there are outstanding
examples of talented only children. Some argue that being an only child promoted
their success. These include actors Natalie Portman and Al Pacino, golfer Tiger
Woods and even Queen Victoria. A study from the Institute for Social and
Economic Research at the University of Essex also showed that the fewer brothers
and sisters a child has, the happier they are. It seems fighting for parental
attention and affection—which sometimes descends into physical fights—is more
stressful than any adult had previously thought. And it's not compensated (弥补)
by having a playmate.
单选题A knowledge of history ______ us to deal with the vast range of problems confronting the con temporary world. A. equips B. provides C. offers D. satisfies
单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}}
Justice in society must include both a
fair trial to the accused and the selection of an appropriate punishment for
those proven guilty. Because justice is regarded as one form of equality, we
find in its earlier expression the idea of a punishment equal to the crime.
Recorded in the Bible is the expression "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth." That is, the individual who has done wrong has committed an offense
against society. To make repayment for this offense, society must get equally
balanced, which can be done only by imposing an equal injury upon him. This
conception of deserved-punishment justice is reflected in many parts of the
legal codes and procedures of modern times, which is illustrated when we demand
the death penalty for a person who has committed murder. This philosophy of
punishment was supported by the German idealist Hegel, who believed that society
{{U}}owed it to the criminal to put into operation a punishment equal to the crime
he had committed.{{/U}} The criminal had by his own actions denied his true self
and it is necessary to do something that will eliminate this denial and restore
the self that has been denied. To the murderer nothing less than giving up his
life will pay his debt. The demand for the death penalty is a right the state
owes the criminal and it should not deny him what he deserves.
Modern jurists have tried to replace deserved-punishment justice with the
notion of corrective justice. The aim of the latter is not to abandon the
concept of equality but to find a more adequate way to express it. It tries to
preserve the idea of equal opportunity for each individual to realize the best
that is in him. This does not mean that criminals will escape punishment or be
quickly returned to take up careers of crime. It means that justice is to heal
the individual, not simply to get even with him. Therefore, his conviction of
crime must not deprive him of the opportunity to make his way in the society of
which he is a part.
单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}}
Science Fiction can provide students
interested in the future with a basic introduction to the concept of thinking
about possible futures in a serious way, a sense of the emotional forces in
their own culture that are affecting the shape the future may take, and a
multitude of predictions regarding the results of present trends.
Although SF seems to take as its future social settings nothing more
ambiguous than the current status quo or its totally evil variant, SF is
actually a more important vehicle for speculative visions about macroscopic
social change. At this level, it is hard to deal with any precision as to when
general value changes or evolving social institutions might appear, but it is
most important to think about the kinds of societies that could result from the
rise of new forms of interaction, even if one cannot predict exactly when they
might occur. In performing this "what if ..." function, SF can
act as a social laboratory as authors ruminate upon the forms social
relationships could take if key variables in their own societies were different,
and upon what new belief systems or mythologies could arise in the future to
provide the basic rationalizations for human activities. If it is true that most
people find it difficult to conceive of the ways in which their society, or
human nature itself, could undergo fundamental changes, then SF of this type may
provoke one's imagination--to consider the diversity of paths potentially open
to society. Moreover, if SF is the laboratory of the
imagination, its experiments are often of the kind that may significantly alter
the subject matter even as they are being carried out. That is, SF has always
had a certain cybernetic effect on society, as its visions emotionally engage
the future--consciousness of the mass public regarding especially desirable and
undesirable possibilities. The shape a society takes in the present is in part
influenced by its image of the future; in this way particularly powerful SF
images may become self-fulfilling or self-avoiding prophecies for society. For
that matter, some individuals in recent years have even shaped their own life
styles after appealing models provided by SF stories. The reincarnation and
diffusion of SF futuristic images of alternative societies through the media of
movies and television may have speeded up and augmented SF's social feedback
effects. Thus SF is not only change speculator but change agent, send an echo
from the future that is becoming into the present that is sculpting it. This
fact alone makes imperative in any education system the study of the kinds of
works discussed in this section.
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单选题Three university departments have been ______ $600,000 to develop good practice in teaching and learning.
单选题The Canadian unions tend to strive for wage Uparity/U, with their counterparts in the United States.
单选题The horns have sounded and the hounds are baying. Across the developed world the hunt for more taxes from the wealthy is on. Recent austerity budgets in France and Italy slapped 3% surcharges on those with incomes above 500, 000 ($680, 000) and 300, 000 respectively. Now Barack Obama has produced a new deficit-reduction plan that aims its tax increases squarely at the rich, including a "Buffett rule" to ensure that no household making more than $1m a year pays a lower average tax rate than "middle-class" families do. Tapping the rich to close the deficit is "not class warfare", argues Mr. Obama. "It's math." Actually, it's not simply math. The question of whether to tax the wealthy more depends on political judgments about the right size of the state and the appropriate role for redistribution. The math says deficits could technically be tamed by spending cuts alone—as Mr. Obama's Republican opponents advocate. Class warfare may be a loaded term, but it captures a fundamental debate in Western societies: who should suffer for righting public finances? There are three good reasons why the wealthy should pay more tax—though not, by and large, in the ways that the rich world's governments currently propose. First, the West's deficits should not be closed by spending cuts alone. Public spending should certainly take the brunt. But experience also argues that higher taxes should be part of the mix. In America the tax take is historically low after years of rate reductions. There, and elsewhere, tax rises need to bear some of the burden. Second, there is a political argument for raising this new revenue from the rich. Spending cuts fall disproportionately on the less well-off; and, even before the crunch, median incomes were stagnating. Meanwhile, globalization has been rewarding winners ever more generously. Voters' support for ongoing austerity depends on a disproportionate share of any new revenue coming from the wealthy. Given the rich world's need for faster growth, governments should be wary of sharp tax increases—especially since they are unnecessary. Indeed, the third argument for raising more money from the rich is that it can be done not by increasing marginal tax rates, but by making the tax code more efficient. The scope for doing so is most obvious in America, which relies far more than other countries on income taxes and has a mass of deductions on everything from interest payments on mortgages to employer-provided health care, so taxes are levied on a very narrow base. Since the main beneficiaries of the deductions are the wealthy, richer folk would pay most of that. And since marginal rates would be untouched (or reduced), such a reform would do less to discourage them from creating wealth.
单选题The police accused him of setting fire to the building but he denied______in the area on the night of the fire. A. be B. to be C. having been D. to have been
单选题A(For) all the fretting about outsourcing and B(trade deficits) in the United States, MTV offers a C(highly-end) case study in how to export what seems, at first glance, to be D(a uniquely American brand.)
单选题Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asked the crowd to gather in the auction room to bid for various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called "knocking down" the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a raised platform. The ancient Romans probably invented sales by auction and the English word comes from the Latin "autic", meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called "sub hasta", meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries goods were often sold "by the candle"; a short candle was lit by the auctioneer and bids could be made while it was burning. Practically all goods can be sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, cocoa, furs, fruit, vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, antique furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and works of art. The auction rooms at Chritie's and Sotheby's in London and New York are world famous. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by the buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a "lot", is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with lot one and continue the numerical order; he may wait until he notices the fact that certain buyers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer's services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding.
单选题The most widespread fallacy of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are actually caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in the isolated Arctic Regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty rooms. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose. If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on. No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors such as aspiring, but all they do is relieve the symptoms.
单选题Her office in the First National Bank building is provisional.
单选题"The message" Dr. Farid's work focuses on is close to ______.
单选题Woman: I"m clueless and, quite frankly, I"m getting worried about the future.
Man: We"re all in the same boat. Leaving school is a big step.
Question: What"s the issue they are facing now?
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单选题With only about 1,000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone the animal and save the endangered species. That's a move similar to what a Texas A＆M University researcher has been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noah's Ark". Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A＆M's College of Veterinary Medicine and a pioneer in embryo transfer work and related procedures, says he salutes the Chinese effort and "I wish them all the best success possible. It's a worthwhile project, certainly not an easy one, and it's very much like what we're attempting here at Texas A＆M—to save animals from extinction. " Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos, semen and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Kraemer says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future. It is estimated that as many as 2,000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will become extinct over the next 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years. This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal. The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete. "The nuclear transfer of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believes. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy. It takes a long time and it's difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort , "adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Missyplicity Project at Texas A＆M, the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog. "They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly applaud their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It's a research that is very much needed. /
单选题What those people were doing seemed quite strange ______ me.A. forB. atC. onD. to
单选题To broaden their voting appeal in the presidential election of 1796, the Federalists selected Thomas Pinckney, a leading South Carolinian, as running mate for the New Englander John Adams. But Pinckney's Southern friends chose to ignore their party's intentions and regarded Pinckney as a presidential candidate, creating a political situation that Alexander Hamilton was determined to exploit. Hamilton had long been wary of Adams' stubbornly independent brand of politics and preferred to see his running mate, over whom he could exert more control, in the President's chair. The election was held under the system originally established by the Constitution. At that time there was but a single tally, with the candidate receiving the largest number of electoral votes declared President and the candidate with the second largest number declared Vice-President, Hamilton anticipated that all the Federalists in the North would vote for Adams and Pinckney equally in an attempt to ensure that Jefferson would not be either first or second in the voting. Pinckney would be solidly supported in the south while Adams, yet both Federalists would outpoll Jefferson. Various methods were used to persuade the electors to vote as Hamilton wished. In the press, anonymous articles were published attacking Adams for his monarchial tendencies and Jefferson for being overly democratic, while pushing Pinckney as the only suitable candidate. In private correspondence with state party leaders the Hamiltonians encouraged the idea that Adams' popularity was slipping, that he could not win the election, and that the Federalists could defeat Jefferson only by supporting Pinckney. Had sectional Pride and loyalty not nm as high in New England as in the deep south, Pinckney might well have become Washington' s successor. New Englanders, however, realized that equal votes for Adams and Pinckney in their states would defeat Adams, therefore, eighteen electors scratched Pinckney's name from their ballots and deliberately threw away their second votes to men who were not even running. It was fortunate for Adams that they did, for the electors from South Carolina completely abandoned him, giving eight votes to Pinckney and eight to Jefferson. In the end, Hamilton's interference in Pinckney' s candidacy lost even the Vice-Presidency of South Carolina. Without New England's support, Pinckney received only 59 electoral votes, finishing third to Adams and Jefferson. He might have been President in 1979, or as Vice-President a serious contender for the Presidency in 1800; instead, stigmatized by a plot he had not devised, he served a brief term in the United States Senate and then dropped from sight as a national influence.
单选题I enjoy the concert last night; they played ______ beautiful music. A. such B. such a C. so D. so a
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单选题(Comparing) money with friends, I prefer the latter (more), (for) real friends are not easy (to come by), and we must value their real friendship.
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单选题A curious election will take place in St Louis on April 3rd. Seven candidates will compete for two seats on the city's school board. The polls will open at 6am and stay open until 7pm. Staffing the polling stations and counting the electronic ballots will cost taxpayers at least $260,000. Two happy candidates will celebrate and take office-just in time to have the state of Missouri complete the takeover of the district's schools and give them and the other board members nothing to do for several years. This election to nothing comes after years of falling test scores, revolving superintendents, screaming matches between board members at public meetings and a growing dissatisfaction with every aspect of public education. The state board of education voted on March 22nd to take over the school district, effective in mid-June. Some prominent figures endorsed this course, including the mayor of St Louis, and even some members of the St Louis school board. Others in the city, though, are deeply opposed and ready to fight about it. Although the city schools overall have an amply deserved reputation for low standards, there are some good schools and many good students. The best students have the most to lose, fearing that the turmoil could damage their chances of getting into good universities. When the state education board voted on the takeover, a group of angry students, teachers and other members of the public tried to disrupt the meeting. Protesters are still trying to use the courts to stop the action, and the teachers' union has threatened a strike. Under Missouri law the city's schools will now be placed under a three-member board appointed by the governor, the mayor and the president of the board of aldermen. Governor Matt Blunt's choice of Rick Sullivan, the head of a building firm, has already been attacked because of Mr Sullivan's lack of experience in education and because he lives in one of the wealthiest suburbs outside the city. Mr Sullivan and the other members, who have yet to be appointed, have an almost impossible task before them. The district, which in the past five years has turned a $52m surplus into a $24.5m deficit, has already closed schools, cut services and squeezed spending hard. But as its critics point out, the elected school board still found plenty of money for tours and public relations. The trickle of voters turning out for the pointless board election will pass banners celebrating the new season of the world baseball champions. St Louis has made huge progress in attracting a new generation of young professionals to its downtown area, building new business developments and installing new infrastructure. The great failure in its schools puts all that in danger.
单选题In a sweeping change to how most of its 1,800 employees are paid, the Union Square Hospitality Group will eliminate tipping at Union Square Cafe and its 12 other restaurants by the end of next year, the company"s chief executive, Danny Meyer, said on Wednesday. The move will affect New York City businesses. The first will be the Modem, inside the Museum of Modem Art, starting next month. The others will gradually follow.
A small number of restaurants around the country have reduced or eliminated tipping in the last several years. Some put a surcharge on the bill, allowing the restaurants to set the pay for all their employees. Others, including Bruno Pizza, a new restaurant in the East Village, factor the cost of an hourly wage for servers into their menu prices. Union Square Hospitality Group will do the latter.
The Modem will be the pilot restaurant, Mr. Meyer said, because its chef, Abram Bissell, has been agitating for higher pay to attract skilled cooks. The average hourly wage for kitchen employees at the restaurant is expected to rise to $15.25 from $11.75. Mr. Meyer said that restaurants such as his needed to stay competitive as the state moved to a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. If cooks" wages do not keep pace with the cost of living, he said, "it"s not going to be sustainable to attract the culinary talent that the city needs to keep its edge." Mr. Meyer said he hoped to be able to raise pay for junior dining room managers and for cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen workers.
The wage gap is one of several issues cited by restaurateurs who have deleted the tip line from checks. Some believe it is unfair for servers" pay to be affected by factors that have nothing to do with performance. A rash of class-action lawsuits over tipping irregularities, many of which have been settled for millions of dollars, is a mounting worry.
Scott Rosenberg, an owner of Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan, said in an interview in 2013 that he had eliminated tipping so his restaurant could more closely follow the customs of Japan, where tipping is rare. He said he also hoped his customers would enjoy leaving the table without having to solve a math problem. While Drew Nieporent, who owns nine restaurants in New York City and one in London, said he doubted the average diner would accept an increase in prices. "Tipping is a way of life in this country," he said. "It may not be the perfect system, but it"s our system. It"s an American system."
单选题Once upon a time there was a prince who unwisely confided to the media that while tending his beloved garden, he often talked to his plants. He also warned his future subjects about losing touch with their natural surroundings and their rich cultural heritage. But the people scoffed and said it was the fuddy-duddy Prince who was out of touch. And as for talking to his plants—well, they shook their heads and remembered the madness of the Prince"s forebear, King George III, who famously struck up a conversation with a tree that he had mistaken for the King of Prussia. These days Britain"s Prince of Wales is still considered a tad eccentric: after all, who in his right mind would have lost the love of the fairy-tale Princess Diana? But increasingly, Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor(who is not only Prince of Wales but also, inter alia, Duke of Cornwall, Lord of the Isle and Great Steward of Scotland)is winning applause for his not-so-crazy campaign to combat what he calls "the wanton destruction that has taken place... in the name of progress." For 30 years the Prince has been in the forefront of efforts to promote kinder, gentler farming methods; protect Britain"s countryside from urban sprawl; improve city landscapes; and safeguard the nation"s architectural heritage. And whereas his was once a lonely if plumy voice crying in the wilderness, the Prince has seen many of his once maverick opinions become mainstream. Charles is not the first royal concerned about nature. Mad King George dabbled in botany when he wasn"t losing his mind or the American colonies, and Charles"s father, the Duke of Edinburgh, has long supported wildlife causes. But it is Charles who has become the crusader, with a vision of Britain that may border on the romantic but is in synch with Britons alarmed by what is happening to their green and pleasant land. He has the energy and dedication to get things done. "My problem," he has said, "is that I become carried away by enthusiasm to try to improve things, and also feel very strongly that his only way to progress is by setting examples and then hoping others will eventually follow." An example people are following is organic farming, which Charles has adopted wholeheartedly on his own farmlands in the Duchy of Cornwall and surrounding his country home at Highgrove in western England. Charles once noted that when he decided to go organic, which means forswearing artificial fertilizers and pesticides, the experts were very polite, "but what they were saying about this latest demonstration of insanity once they were out of earshot can only be surmised." Today the experts have been confounded. The Duchy"s Home Farm near Highgrove is 100% organic and organic produce is in high demand, fetching premium prices in shops and supermarkets. "Seeing is believing" is one of Charles" favorite saying, no doubt repeated when the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture recently paid Highgrove a visit. And it"s a safe bet that the American visitor received an earful on Charles" other farming concern: genetically modified crops. Once again the Prince has shown himself to be ahead of the curve. Back in December 1995 he pronounced himself "profoundly apprehensive" about the brave new world of genetically modified organisms and complained of the "confidence bordering on arrogance" with which they are promoted. The Prince practices what he preaches, and a sign by the lane leading up to his Home Farm announces that "you are entering a gmofree zone." Charles" philosophy is simply expressed. "We should," he says, be adopting a "gentler, more considered approach, seeking always to work with the grain of nature in making better, more sustainable use of what we have."
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Sleep is a funny thing. We're taught
that we should get seven or eight hours a night, but a lot of us get by just
fine on less, and some of us actually sleep too much. A study out of the
University of Buffalo last month reported that people who routinely sleep more
than eight hours a day and are still tired are nearly three times as likely to
die of stroke--probably as a result of an underlying disorder that keeps them
from snoozing(睡)soundly. Doctors have their own special sleep
problems. Residents (住院医生) are famously sleep deprived. When I was training to
become a neurosurgeon, it was not unusual to work 40 hours in a row without
rest. Most of us took it in stride, confident we could still deliver the highest
quality of medical care. Maybe we shouldn't have been so sure of ourselves. An
article in the Journal of the American Medical Association points out that in
the morning after 24 hours of sleeplessness, a person's motor performance is
comparable to that of someone who is legally intoxicated. Curiously, surgeons
who believe that operating under the influence is grounds for dismissal often
don't think twice about operating without enough sleep. "I could
tell you horror stories." says Jaya Agrawal, president of the American Medical
Student Association, which runs a website where residents can post anonymous
anecdotes. Some are terrifying. "I was operating after being up for over 36
hours," one writes. "I literally fell asleep standing up and nearly face planted
into the wound." "Practically every surgical resident I know has
fallen asleep at the wheel driving home from work." writes another. "I know of
three who have hit parked cars. Another hit a 'Jersey barrier' on the New Jersey
Turnpike. going 65 m. p·h." "Your own patients have become the enemy," writes a
third, because they are "the one thing that stands between you and a few hours
of sleep." Agrawal's organization is supporting the Patient and
Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2001, introduced last November by
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan. Its key provisions, modeled on New
York State's regulations, include an 80-hour workweek and a 24-hour work-shift
limit. Most doctors, however, resist such interference. Dr. Charles Binkley, a
senior surgery resident at the University of Michigan, agrees that something
needs to be done but believes "doctors should be hound by their conscience, not
by the government'. The U. S. controls the hours of pilots and
truck drivers. But until such a system is in place for doctors, patients are on
their own. If you're worried about the people treating you or a loved one, you
should feel free to ask how many hours of sleep they have had and if more-rested
staffers are available. Doctors, for their part, have to give up their pose of
infallibility(不出错)and get the rest they need.
单选题Vitamins are organic compounds necessary in small amounts in the diet for the normal growth and maintenance of life of animals, including man. They do not provide energy, 21 do they construct or build any part of the body. They are needed for 22 foods into energy and body maintenance. There are thirteen or more of them, and if 23 is missing a deficiency disease becomes 24 . Vitamins are, similar because they are made of the same elements--usually carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 25 nitrogen. They are different 26 their elements are arranged differently, and each vitamin 27 one or more specific functions in the body. 28 enough vitamins is essential to life, although the body has no nutritional use for 29 vitamins. Many people, 30 , believe in being on the "safe side" and thus take extra vitamins. However, a well-balanced diet will usually meet all the body's vitamin needs.
单选题The sense relation which holds the pair of words sweet—suite is ______.
单选题Direct psychoanalysis could not possibly be found in the works of______.
单选题If you smoke, you'd better hurry. From July 1st pubs all over England will, by law, be no-smoking areas. So will restaurants, offices and even company cars, if more than one per-son uses them. England's smokers are following a well-trodden path. The other three bits of the United Kingdom have already banned smoking in almost all enclosed public spaces, and there are anti-smoking laws of varying strictness over most of Western Europe. The smoker' s journey from glamour through toleration to suspicion is finally reaching its end in pariah status. But behind this public-health success story lies a darker tale. Poorer people are much more likely to smoke than richer ones—a change from the 1950s, when professionals and la-borers were equally keen. Today only 15% of men in the highest professional classes smoke, but 42% of unskilled workers do. Despite punitive taxation—20 cigarettes cost around ￡ 5.00 ($10.00), three-quarters of which is tax—55% of single mothers on benefits smoke. The figure for homeless men is even higher; for hard-drug users it is practically 100% . The message that smoking kills has been heard, it seems, but not by all. Having defeated the big killers of the past—want, exposure, poor sanitation—governments all over the developed world are turning their attention to diseases that stem mostly from how individuals choose to live their lives. But the same deafness afflicts the same people when they are strongly encouraged to give up other sorts of unhealthy behavior. The lower down they are on practically any pecking order—job prestige, income, education, background-the more likely people are to be fat and unfit, and to drink too much. That tempts governments to shout ever louder in an attempt to get the public to listen and nowhere do they do so more aggressively than in Britain. One reason is that pecking orders matter more than in most other rich countries: income distribution is very unequal and the unemployed, disaffected, ill-educated rump is comparatively large. Another reason is the frustration of a government addicted to targets, which often aim not only to improve some-thing but to lessen inequality in the process. A third is that the National Health Service is free to patients, and paying for those who have arguably brought their ill-health on themselves grows alarmingly costly. Britain' s aggressiveness, however, may be pointless, even counter-productive. There is no reason to believe that those who ignore measured voices will listen to shouting. It irritates the majority who are already behaving responsibly, and it may also undermine all government pronouncements on health by convincing people that they have an ultra-cautious margin of error built in. Such hectoring may also be missing the root cause of the problem. According to Mr. Marmot, who cites research on groups as diverse as baboons in captivity, British civil servants and Oscar nominees, the higher rates of ill health among those in more modest walks of life can be attributed to what he calls the "status syndrome". People in privileged positions think they are worth the effort of behaving healthily, and find the will-power to do so. The implication is that it is easier to improve a person's health by weakening the connection between social position and health than by targeting behavior directly. Some public-health experts speak of social cohesion, support for families and better education for all. These are bigger undertakings than a bossy campaign; but more effective, and quieter.
单选题In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, scold her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesn't affect her. Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant's sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to department stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment. This top-down conception of the fashion business couldn't be more out of date or at odds with feverish world described in Overdressed, Elizabeth Cline's three-year indictment of "fast fashion". In the last decades or so, advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara, H her example, can't be knocked off. Though several fast fashion companies have made efforts to curb their impact on labor and the environment—including H people will only start shopping more sustainably when they can't afford to it.
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单选题In England, which of the following greetings are more likely to be heard?
单选题The college offers so many courses; the students haven't decided ______. A．where to choose B．whom to choose C．which to choose D．why to choose
单选题Some people hate everything that is modern. They cannot imagine how anyone can really like modern music; they find it hard to accept the new fashions in clothing; they think that all modern painting is ugly; and they seldom have a good word for the new buildings that are being built everywhere in the world. Such people look for perfection in everything, and they take their standards of perfection from the past. They are usually impatient with anyone who is brave enough to experiment with new or to express himself or the age in materials original ways. It is, of course, true that many artists do not succeed in their work and instead produce works that can only be considered as failures. If the work of art is a painting, the artist's failure concerns himself alone, but if it is a building, his failure concerns others too, because it may damage the beauty of the whole place. This does sometimes happen, but it is completely untrue to say, as some people do, that modern architecture is nothing. We can't judge every modern building by the standards of the ancient time, even though we admire the ancient buildings. Technologically, the modern buildings are more advanced. The modern architect knows he should learn from the ancient works, but with his greater resources of knowledge and materials, he will never be content to imitate the past. He is too proud to do that.
单选题Our culture has caused most Americans to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to summon a person from the Philippines to one's side, or that in Italy and some Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of farewell. Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops occupying Germany after World War Ⅱ and marked them GIFT to escape duty payments did not bother to find out that "Gift" means poison in German. Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at least 3 feet or an arm's length away from others. Latins and Middle Easterners like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable. Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world. Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public buildings or monuments; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them. When we go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken. The attitudes and information we pick up are conditioned by those natives--usually the richer--who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation's diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters. For many years, America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world, the distributor of needed funds and goods. But all that is past. American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper hand.
单选题Questions 20 to 24 are based on the following passage. Shyness is the cause of much unhappiness "for a great many people. Shy people are anxious and self-conscious; that is, they are excessively concerned with their own appearance and actions. Worrisome thoughts are constantly occurring in their minds: What kind of impression am 1 making? Do they like me? Do I sound stupid? Am I wearing unattractive clothes? It is obvious that such uncomfortable feelings must affect people adversely. A person's self-concept is reflected in the way he or she behaves, and the way a person behaves affects other people's reactions. In general, the way people think about themselves has a profound effect on all areas of their lives. Shy people, having low self-esteem, are likely to be passive and easily influenced by others. They need reassurance that they are doing "the right thing". Shy people are very sensitive to criticism; they feel it confirms their inferiority. They also find it difficult to be pleased by compliments because they believe they are unworthy of praise. A shy person may respond to a compliment with a statement like this one: "You're just saying that to make me feel good. I know it's not true." It is clear that, while self-awareness is a healthy quality, overdoing it is harmful. Can shyness completely eliminated, or at least reduced? Fortunately, people can overcome shyness With determined and patient effort in building self-confidence. Since shyness goes hand in hand with lack of self-esteem, it is important for people to accept their weaknesses as well as their strengths. For example, most people would like to be "A" students in every subject. It is not fair for them to label themselves inferior because they have difficulty in some areas. People's expectations of themselves must be realistic. Living on the impossible leads to a sense of inadequacy. Each one of us is a unique, worthwhile individual. We are interested in our own personal ways. The better we understand ourselves, the easier it becomes to live up our full potential. Let's not allow shyness to block our chances for a rich and fulfilling life.
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单选题As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year.
But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which one could be next?
The nation"s banks are in far less danger than they were in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 federally insured institutions went under during the savings-and-loan crisis. The
debacle
, the greatest collapse of American financial institutions since the Depression, prompted a government bailout that cost taxpayers about $125 billion.
But the troubles are growing so rapidly at some small and midsize banks that as many as 150 out of the 7,500 banks nationwide could fail over the next 12 to 18 months, analysts say. Other lenders are likely to shut branches or seek mergers.
"Everybody is drawing up lists, trying to figure out who the next bank is, No. 1, and No. 2, how many of them are there," said Richard X. Bove, the banking analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann, who released a list of troubled banks over the weekend. "And No. 3, from the standpoint of Washington, how badly is it going to affect the economy?"
Many investors are on edge after federal regulators seized the California lender, IndyMac Bank, one of the nation"s largest savings and loans, last week. With $32 billion in assets, IndyMac, a spinoff of the Countrywide Financial Corporation, was the biggest American lender to fail in more than two decades.
Now, as the federal administration grapples with the crisis at the nation"s two largest mortgage finance companies (住宅信贷公司), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a rush of earnings reports in the coming days and weeks from some of the nation"s largest financial companies are likely to provide more gloomy reminders about the sorry state of the industry.
The future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is vital to the banks, savings and loans and credit unions, which own $1.3 trillion of securities issued or guaranteed by the two mortgage companies. If the mortgage giants ever defaulted on those obligations, banks might be forced to raise billions of dollars in additional capital.
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单选题Why do some philosophers hold the view that animals cannot have rights?
单选题 After World War II the glorification of an ever-larger GNP
formed the basis of a new materialism, which became a sacred obligation for all
Japanese governments, businesses and trade unions. Anyone who mentioned the
undesirable by-products of rapid economic growth was treated as a heretic.
Consequently, everything possible was done to make conditions easy for the
manufacturers. Few dared question the wisdom of discharging untreated waste into
the nearest water body or untreated smoke into the atmosphere. This silence was
maintained by union leaders as well as by most of the country's radicals; except
for a few isolated voices, no one protested. An insistence on treatment of the
various {{U}}effluents{{/U}} would have necessitated expenditures on treatment
equipment that in turn would have given rise to higher operating costs.
Obviously, this would have meant higher prices for Japanese goods, and
ultimately fewer sales and lower industrial growth and GNP. The
pursuit of nothing but economic growth is illustrated by the response of the
Japanese government to the American educational mission that visited Japan in
1947. After surveying Japan's educational program, the Americans suggested that
the Japanese fill in their curriculum gap by creating departments in chemical
and sanitary engineering. Immediately, chemical engineering departments were
established in all the country's universities and technical institutions. In
contrast, the recommendation to form sanitary engineering departments was more
or less ignored, because they could bring no profit. By 1960, only two
second-rate universities, Kyoto and Hokkaido, were interested enough to open
such departments. The reluctance to divert funds from
production to conservation is explanation enough for a certain degree of
pollution, but the situation was made worse by the type of technology the
Japanese chose to adopt for their industrial expansion. For the most part, they
simply copied American industrial methods. This meant that methods originally
designed for use in a country that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific
with lots of air and water to use as sewage receptacles were adopted for an area
a fraction of the size. Moreover, the Japanese diet was much more dependent on
water as a source of fish and as an input in the irrigation of rice;
consequently discharged wastes built up much more rapidly in the food
chain.
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单选题You are legally entitled to take faulty goods back to the store where you bought them.
单选题His dog was______by a truck last night and died immediately.
单选题The folk art rubric has also been extended to include all manner of traditional artistic productions, even the self-consciously quaint.
单选题A: ______.B: No. I'm really not in the mood. A. I've heard that this Chinese restaurant is very good. B. Why don't we go dancing? C. It's Thanksgiving Day. D. It'll do you good to stay home.
单选题You can't change your energy cycle, ______ you can learn to make your life fit it better. A. but B. or C. if D. so
单选题According to the passage all of the following except ______ are true.
单选题He began to work in a factory when he was still ______. A) in his teen B) in his teens C) in teen D) in teens
单选题High interest rates ______ people from borrowing money even when they are in bad need of it.
单选题We looked everywhere for the ________.
单选题A. chemical B. accuse C. create D. cycle
单选题As the graduation is drawing near, every student began to ______ his
future.
A. compensate
B. contemplate
C. jeopardize
D. manifest
单选题Good morning, class. ______ of you wants to do the presentation first?
A. Which
B. Whom
C. What
D. Who
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According to a survey, which was based
on the responses of over 188,000 students, today's traditional-age college
freshmen are "more materialistic and less altruistic (利他主义的)"than at any time in
the 17 years of the poll. Not surprising in these hard times,
the student's major objective "is to be financially well off. Less important
than ever is developing a meaningful philosophy of life." It follows then that
today the most popular course is not literature or history but
accounting. Interest in teaching, social service and the
"altruistic" fields is at a low. On the other hand, enrollment in business
programs, engineering and computer science is way up. That's no
surprise either. A friend of mine (a sales representative for a chemical
company) was making twice the salary of her college instructors her first year
on the job--even before she completed her two-year associate degree.
While it's true that we all need a career, it is equally true that our
civilization has accumulated an incredible amount of knowledge in fields far
removed from our own and that we are better for our understanding of these other
contributions- be they scientific or artistic. It is equally true that, in
studying the diverse wisdom of others, we learn how to think. More important,
perhaps, education teaches us to see the connections between things, as well as
to see beyond our immediate needs. Weekly we read of unions who
went on strike for higher wages, only to drive their employer out of business.
No company; no job. How shortsighted in the long run! But the
most important argument for a broad education is that in studying the
accumulated wisdom of the ages, we improve our moral sense. I saw a cartoon
recently which shows a group of businessmen looking puzzled as they sit around a
conference table; one of them is talking on the intercom (对讲机): "Miss Baxter,"
he says, "could you please send in someone who can distinguish right from
wrong?" From the long-term point of view, that's what education
really ought to be about.
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单选题They planned to______in the middle of the night, when the guards were asleep.
单选题My brother's room is ______ mine. A. twice the size of B. as twice the size C. as twice as D. twice the size as
单选题In 1929 John D. Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip. During the past week The Economist"s economics editor has been advised by a taxi driver, a plumber and a hairdresser that "you can"t go wrong" investing in housing—the more you own the better. Is this a sign that it is time to get out? At the very least, as house prices around the world climb to ever loftier heights, and more and more people jump on to the buy-to-let ladder, it is time to expose some of the
fallacies
regularly trotted out by so many self-appointed housing experts.
One common error is that house prices must continue to rise because of a limited supply of land. For instance, it is argued that "house prices will always rise in London because lots of people want to live here". But this confuses the level of prices with their rate of change. Home prices are bound to be higher in big cities because of land scarcity, but this does not guarantee that urban house prices will keep rising indefinitely—just look at Tokyo"s huge price-drops since 1990. And, though it is true that a fixed supply of homes may push up house prices if the population is rising, this would imply a steady rise in prices, not the 20% annual jumps of recent years.
A second flawed argument is that low interest rates make buying a home cheaper, and so push up demand and prices. Lower interest rates may have allowed some people, who otherwise could not have afforded a mortgage, to buy a home. But many borrowers who think mortgages are cheaper are suffering from money illusion.
Interest rates are not very low in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Initial interest payments may seem low in relation to income, but because inflation is also low it will not erode the real burden of debt as swiftly as it once did. So in later years mortgage payments will be much larger in real terms. To argue that low nominal interest rates make buying a home cheaper is like arguing that a car loan paid off over four years is cheaper than one repaid over two years.
Fallacy number three is a favourite claim of Alan Greenspan, chairman of America"s Federal Reserve. This is that price bubbles are less likely in housing than in the stock market because higher transaction costs discourage speculation. In fact, several studies have shown that both in theory and in practice bubbles are more likely in housing than in shares. A study by the IMF finds that a sharp rise in house prices is far more likely to be followed by a bust than is a share-price boom.
单选题______ impressed the visitors deeply was ______ the workers made with
their hands.
A. What ... that
B. That ... that
C. What ... what
D. That ... what
单选题 In this year's State of the Union address, President
Obama outlined a plan to gradually raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9/hour.
Raising the minimum wage has always been contentious, but necessary. Yet this is
a political fight we shouldn't have to have. The poor—mostly women and
minorities-make too little. And the more radical aspect of Obama's plan could
fix that for good. The president has proposed indexing minimum wage, meaning
that it would increase each year as the cost of living slowly climbs, free from
the whims of partisan fighting. Our federal minimum wage began
in 1938, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act,
which also limited the work-week to 44 hours, provided guaranteed overtime and
placed limits on child labor. The minimum wage was set at 25 cents an hour
(about $4.10 today). Its purpose was simple: guarantee that Americans who went
to work received a wage they could live on. And the hope was that higher wages
for workers would mean more consumer spending, thus strengthening the U.S.
economy. Since its enactment, the benefits of a minimum wage have been well
established. It is important to consider how much people
earning the minimum wage actually make. At present, a minimum wage earner
working 40 hours a week without ever taking a vacation will make $15,080 a year.
Obama's proposed increase would mean an additional $3,640. Most minimum wage
workers are adults, not teens, and most work for large corporations, not
mom-and-pop stores. This means there are hard-working parents who are employed
full-time at places that make billions in profits and often receive considerable
tax breaks. And yet these parents still don't earn enough to live above the
poverty line. How have we gotten to a place where people can
work tirelessly and still not make ends meet? In large part it's the result of
political ambivalence to the conditions of poverty and the wages of our lowest
paid workers. As the minimum wage has remained flat, productivity has increased,
and so too have corporate profits. While the economic arguments
for raising the minimum wage are important, we should also not forget to think
about the morality of our economy. We all derive not just wages from our labors,
but purpose, meaning and a sense that we are part of something greater than
ourselves: by supporting our family, helping our co-workers, and participating
in the shared enterprise of community. Yes, the minimum wage should be higher.
But it's not just because it's good for the economy and will help raise the
wages of even non-minimum wageworkers. It's because there is a value to work
that is deeper than money.
单选题Speaker A: Hi, My name is Mark. I'm from Houston, Texas.
Speaker B: I'm Bill. Glad to meet you. What year are you?
Speaker A: ______.
A. I was born in 1990
B. I've been here for years
C. I'm 19 years old
D. I'm a first-year student
单选题Good looks ,the video-games industry is discovering ,will get you only so far. The graphics on a modern game may far outstrip the pixellated blobs of the 1980s, but there is more to a good game than eye candy. Photo-realistic graphics make the lack of authenticity of other aspects of gameplay more apparent. It is not enough for game characters to look better—their behaviour must also be more sophisticated, say researchers working at the interface between gaming and artificial intelligence(AI). Today' s games may look better, but the gameplay is " basically the same" as it was a few years ago, says Michael Mateas, the founder of the Experimental Game Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. AI, he suggests, offers an" untapped frontier" of new possibilities. "We are topping out on the graphics, so what's going to be the next thing that improves game-play?" asks John Laird, director of the AI lab at the University of Michigan. Improved AI is a big part of the answer, he says. Those in the industry agree. The high-definition graphics possible on next-generation games consoles, such as Microsoft' s Xbox 360, are raising expectations across the board, says Neil Young of Electronic Arts, the world' s biggest games publisher. "You have to have high-resolution models, which requires high-resolution animation," he says," so now I expect high-resolution behaviour." Representatives from industry and academia will converge in Marina del Rey, California, later this month for the second annual Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment(AIIDE) conference. The aim, says Dr Laird, who will chair the event, is to increase the traffic of people and ideas between the two spheres. "Games have been very important to AI through the years," he notes. Alan Turing, one of the pioneers of computing in the 1940s, wrote a simple chess-playing program before there were any computers to run it on; he also proposed the Turing test, a question-and-answer game that is a yardstick for machine intelligence. Even so, AI research and video games existed in separate worlds until recently. The AI techniques used in games were very simplistic from an academic perspective, says Dr. Mateas, while AI researchers were, in turn, clueless about modern games. But, he says, " both sides are learning, and are now much closer." Consider, for example, the software that controls an enemy in a first-person shooter (FPS)—a game in which the player views the world along the barrel of a gun. The behaviour of enemies used to be pre-scripted: wait until the player is nearby, pop up from behind a box, fire weapon, and then roll and hide behind another box, for example. But some games now use far more advanced" planning systems" imported from academia. "Instead of scripts and hand-coded behaviour, the AI monsters in an FPS can reason from first principles, "says Dr. Mateas. They can, for example, work out whether the player can see them or not, seek out cover when injured, and so on. "Rather than just moving between predefined spots, the characters in a war game can dynamically shift, depending on what' s happening," says Fiona Sperry of Electronic Arts. If the industry is borrowing ideas from academia, the opposite is also true. Commercial games such as" Unreal Tournament", which can be easily modified or scripted, are being adopted as research tools in universities, says Dr. Laird. Such tools provide flexible environments for experiments, and also mean that students end up with transferable skills. But the greatest potential lies in combining research with game development, argues Dr. Mateas. "Only by wrestling with real content are the technical problems revealed, and only by wrestling with technology does it give you insight into what new kinds of content are possible, "he says.
单选题No form of government in the world is ______; each system reflects the history and presents needs of the region and the nation. A. dominant B. influential C. integral D. drastic
单选题Dame Edna is famous ______.
单选题His constant attempts to
diminish
his colleagues" achievements eventually caused his dismissal.
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单选题Three people moved out, and two ______ moved in.
单选题That battered old hat of his is a______joke to all his friends.
A. steady
B. standing
C. persisting
D. stable
单选题He regretted ______the decision too hastily.
单选题He wants nothing but a house of ______.A. his ownB. himselfC. his fatherD. his own house
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Amazing Tours Ltd--Information for Travelers
{{B}}Luggage{{/B}} You may take one item of hand baggage with
you on the coach. Suitcases, etc. must be deposited in the van which will follow
the coach at all times. Inflammable materials explosives and weapons (including
scissors and pocket knives) may not be taken with you either in the hand baggage
or other baggage. {{B}}Accommodation{{/B}} Hotel
rooms are distributed on a double-room basis. If you prefer a single room,
please let us know one week before the departure date. There is a 30 % surcharge
for a single room. Please keep in mind that single rooms are not always
available. {{B}}Special requirements{{/B}} If you
require a special diet, please notify us at the time of booking, submitting a
writ- ten copy of your dietary requirements. There may be an extra charge for
special meals ingredients. Vegetarian dishes are available at all the hotels and
restaurants we visit at the same price as regular dishes, so advance notice is
not required. Travelers with small children, who desire special
hotel services such as baby-sitting, should also inform us at the time of
booking. {{B}}Entertainment{{/B}} Amazing Tours
arranges a program of evening entertainment, which consists of movies and
lectures, the cost of which is included in the price of the trip. Visits to art
galleries, museums, etc. are also arranged during the day, subject to a minimum
of five people wishing to make such visits. However, for these visits, the
individual traveler is responsible for the cost of entrance tickets.
The hotels also offer evening entertainment, such as stage shows, discos,
folk dancing, etc. The price is fixed by the hotel, and must be paid by the
traveler if he or she wishes to participate.
{{B}}Emergencies{{/B}} Every client of Amazing Tours Ltd is
fully insured in case of accidents occurring on the bus or in the hotels.
However, it is the individual traveler's responsibility to provide him- self or
herself with insurance to cover theft and medical emergencies.
If you need to take special medicine, please bring a supply with you, as
the countries we visit have only basic medical services.
单选题The boy could not Ureconcile/U himself to the failure, he did not believe that was his lot.
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