单选题CAL especially refers to the use of a computer in the teaching or learning of a second or foreign language.

单选题The author thinks current entertainment is relatively poor because

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Saudi Arabia, the oil industry's swing producer, has become its flip-flopper. In February, it persuaded OPEC to cut its total production quotas by lm barrels per day (bpd), to 23.5m, as a precaution against an oil-price crash this spring. That fear has since been replaced by its opposite. The price of West Texas crude hit $40 last week, its highest since the eve of the first Iraq war, prompting concerns that higher oil prices could sap the vigour of America's recovery and compound the frailty of Europe's. On Monday May 10th, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, called on OPEC to raise quotas, by at least 1. 5m bpd, at its next meeting on June 3rd. Thus far, the high oil price has been largely a consequence of good things, such as a strengthening world economy, rather than a cause of bad things, such as faster inflation or slower growth. China's burgeoning economy guzzled about 6m bpd in the first quarter of this year, 15% more than a year ago, according to Goldman Sachs. Demand was also strong in the rest of Asia, excluding Japan, growing by 5.2% to 8. 1m bpd. As the year progresses, the seasonal rhythms of America's drivers will dictate prices, at least of the lighter, sweeter crudes. Americans take to the roads en masse in the summer, and speculators are driving up the oil price now in anticipation of peak demand in a few months' time. Until recently, the rise in the dollar price of oil was offset outside America and China by the fall in the dollar itself. But the currency has regained some ground in recent weeks, and the oil price has continued to rise. Even so, talk of another oil price shock is premature. The price of oil, adjusted for inflation, is only half what it was in December 1979, and the United States now uses half as much energy per dollar of output as it did in the early 1970s. But if oil cannot shock the world economy quite as it used to, it can still give it "a good kick", warns Goldman Sachs. If average oil prices for the year come in 10% higher than it forecast, it reckons GDP growth in the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations will be reduced by 0.3%, or $70 billion. The Americans are certainly taking the issue seriously. John Snow, their treasury secretary, called OPEC's February decision "regrettable", and the rise in prices since then "not helpful". Washington pays close heed to the man at the petrol pump, who has seen the average price of a gallon of unleaded petrol rise by 39 cents in the past year. And the Saudis, some mutter, pay close heed to Washington. Besides, the high oil price may have filled Saudi coffers, but it has also affronted Saudi pride. Mr. al-Naimi thinks the high price is due to fears that supply might be disrupted in the future. These fears, he says, are "unwarranted". But the hulking machinery in the Arabian desert that keeps oil flowing round the world presents an inviting target to terrorists should they tire of bombing embassies and nightclubs. (ha May 1st, gunmen killed six people in a Saudi office of ABB Lummus Global, an American oil contractor. Such incidents add to the risk premium factored into the oil price, a premium that the Saudis take as a vote of no confidence in their kingdom and its ability to guarantee the supply of oil in the face of terrorist threats.

单选题Speaker A: We have a booking for tonight. The name"s Cliff. Speaker B: ______. ... Yes, that was two single rooms with bath.

单选题We should______with the difficulties we were confronted with.

单选题After being tested in many ways, this newly-designed machine will______in the near future.A. take placeB. put into useC. come into useD. take action

单选题If it is true that morality cannot exist without religion, then does not the erosion of religion herald the __________ of moraliy?

单选题The badly wounded soldiers take______ for medical treatment over those only slightly hurt.(2002年上海交通大学考博试题)

单选题In a recent book entitled The Psychic Life of Insects, Professor Bouvier says that we must be careful not to credit the little winged fellows with intelligence when they behave in what seems like an intelligent manner. They may be only reacting. I would like to confront the professor with an instance of reasoning power on the part of an insect which cannot be explained away in any other manner. During the summer of 1899, while I was at work on my doctoral thesis, we kept a female wasp at our cottage. It was more like a child of our own than a Wasp, except that it looked more like a wasp than a child of our own. That was one of the ways we told the difference. It was still a young wasp when we got it (thirteen or fourteen years old) and for some time we could not get it to eat or drink, it was so shy. Since it was a female we decided to call it Miriam, but soon the children's nickname for it— "Pudge" —became a fixture, and "Pudge" it was from that time on. One evening I had been working late in my laboratory fooling around with some gin and other chemicals, and in leaving the room I tripped over a nine of diamonds which someone had left lying on the floor and knocked over my card index which contained the names and addresses of all the larvae worth knowing in North America. The cards went everywhere. I was too tired to stop to pick them up that night, and went sobbing to bed, just as mad as I could be. As I went, however, I noticed the wasp was flying about in circles over the scattered cards. "Maybe Pudge will pick them up," I said half laughingly to myself, never thinking for one moment that such would be the case. When I came down the next morning Pudge was still asleep in her box, evidently tired out. And well she might have been. For there on the floor lay the cards scattered all about just as I had left them the night before. The faithful little insect had buzzed about all night trying to come to some decision about picking them up and arranging them in the boxes for me, and then had figured out for herself that, as she knew practically nothing of larvae of any sort except wasp larvae, she would probably make more of a mess of rearranging them than if she had left them on the floor for me to fix. It was just too much for her to tackle, and, discouraged, she went over and lay down in her box, where she cried herself to sleep. If this is not an answer to Professor Bouvier's statement, I do not know what is.

单选题{{B}}Passage 3{{/B}} Concern with money, and then more money, in order to buy the conveniences and luxuries of modern life, has brought great changes to the lives of most Frenchmen. More people are working than ever before in France. In the cities the traditional leisurely midday meal is disappearing. Offices, shops and factories are discovering the greater efficiency of a short lunch hour in company lunchrooms. In almost all lines of work emphasis now falls on ever-increasing output. Thus the "typical" Frenchman produces more, earns more, and buys more consumer goods than his counterpart of only a generation ago. He gains in creature comforts and ease of life. What he loses to some extent is his sense of personal uniqueness, or individuality. Some say that France has been Americanized. This is because the United States is a world symbol of the technological society and its consumer products. The so-called Americanization of France has its critics. They fear that "assembly-line life" will lead to the disappearance of the pleasures of the more graceful and leisurely old French style. What will happen, they ask, to taste, elegance, and the cultivation of the good things in life--to joy in the smell of a freshly, picked apple, a stroll by the river, or just happy hours of conversation in a local cafe? Since the late 1950's life in France has indeed taken on qualities of rush, tension, and the pursuit of material gain. Some of the strongest critics of the new way of life are the young, especially university students. They are concerned with the future, and they fear that France is threatened by the triumph of the competitive, goods-oriented culture. Occasionally, they have reacted against the trend with considerable violence. In spite of the critics, however, countless Frenchmen are committed to keeping France in the forefront of the modern economic world. They find that the present life brings more rewards, conveniences, and pleasures than that of the past. They believe that a modern, industrial France is preferable to the old.

单选题As soon as Charles had ______ a little from his surprise, his one thought was to get away. A. returned B. absorbed C. dissolved D. recovered

单选题There are over 6 000 different computer and online games in the world now. A segment of them are considered to be both educational and harmlessly entertaining. One such game teaches geography, and another trains pilots. Others train the player in logical thinking and problem solving. Some games may also help young people to become more computer literate, which is more important in this technology-driven era. But the dark side of the computer games has become more and more obvious. "A segment of games features anti-social themes of violence, sex and crude language," says David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and Family. "Unfortunately, it"s a segment that seems particularly popular with kids aged eight to fifteen." One study showed that almost 80 percent of the computer and online games young people preferred contained violence. The investigators said "These are not just games anymore. These are learning machines. We"re teaching kids in the most incredible manner what it"s like to pull the trigger. What they are not learning are the real-life consequences. " They also said "The new and more sophisticated games are even worse, because they have better graphics and allow the player to participate in even more realistic violent acts." In the game Carmageddon, for example, the player will have driven over and killed up to 33 000 people by the time all levels are completed. A description of the outcome of the game says: "Your victims not only squish under your tires and splatter blood on the windshield, they also get on their knees and beg for mercy, or commit suicide. If you like, you can also dismember them. " Is all this simulated violence harmful? Approximately 3 000 different studies have been conducted on this subject. Many have suggested that there is a connection between violence in games and increased aggressiveness in the players. Some specialists downplay the influence of the games, saying that other factors must be taken into consideration, such as the possibility that kids who already have violent tendencies are choosing such games. But could it be that violent games still play a contributing role? It seems unrealistic to insist that people are not influenced by what they see. If that were true, why would the commercial world spend billions of dollars annually for television advertising?

单选题The Greening of America —How America is likely to take over leadership of the light against climate change; and how it can, get it right. A country with a presidential system tends to get identified with its leader. So, for the rest of the world, America is George Bush"s America right now. It is the country that has mismanaged the Iraq war; holds prisoners without trial at Guantanamo Bay; restricts funding for stem-cell research because fundamentalist religious beliefs; and destroyed the chance of a global climate-change deal based on the Kyoto Protocol. But to simplify this is to misunderstand especially in the case of the huge, federal America. One of its great strengths is the diversity of its political, economic and cultural life. While the White House dug its heels in on global warming, much of the rest of the country was moving. That"s what forced the president"s concession to greens in the state-of-the-union address. His poll ratings sinking under the weight of Iraq, President Bush is grasping for popular issues to keep him afloat; and global warming has evidently become such an issue. Albeit in the context of energy security, a now familiar concern of his, President Bush spoke for the first time to Congress of "the serious challenge of global climate change" and proposed measures designed, in part, to combat it. It"s the weather, appropriately, that has turned public opinion—starting with Hurricane Katrina. Scientists had been warming Americans for years that the risk of "extreme weather events" would probably increase as a result of climate change. But scientific papers do not drive messages home as convincingly as the destruction of a city. And the heat wave that torched America"s west coast last year, accompanied by a constant drip of new research on melting glaciers and dying polar bears, has only strengthened the belief that something must be done. Business is changing its mind too. Five years ago corporate America was solidly against carbon controls. But the threat of a patchwork of state regulations, combined with the opportunity to profit from new technologies, began to shift business attitudes. And that movement has gained momentum, because companies that saw their competitors espouse carbon controls began to fear that, once the government got down to designing regulations, they would be left out of the discussion if they did not jump on the band wagon. So now the loudest voices are not resisting change but arguing for it. Support for carbon controls has also grown among some unlikely groups: security hawks (who want to reduce America"s dependence on Middle Eastern oil); farmers (who like subsidies for growing the raw material for ethanol); and evangelicals (who worry that man should looking after the Earth God gave him a little better). This alliance has helped persuade politicians to move. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California"s Republican governor, has led the advance, with muscular measures legislating Kyoto-style curbs in his state. His popularity has rebounded as a result. And now there is movement too at the federal level, which is where it really matters. Bills to tackle climate change have proliferated. And three of the serious candidates for the presidency in 2008—John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—are all pushing for federal measures. Unfortunately, President Bush"s newfound interest in climate change is coupled with, and distorted by, his focus on energy security. Reducing America"s petrol consumption by 20% in 2017, a target he announced in the state-of-the-union address, would certainly diminish the country"s dependence on Middle Eastern oil, but the way he plans to go about it may not be either efficient or clean. Increasing fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks will go part of the way, but for most of the switch America will have to rely on a greater use of alternative fuels. That means ethanol (inefficient because of heavy subsidies and high tariffs on imports of foreign ethanol) or liquefied coal (filthy because of high car- bon emissions). The measure of President Bush"s failure to tackle this issue seriously is his continued rejection of the only two clean and efficient solutions to climate change. One is a carbon tax, which this paper has long advocated. The second is a cap-and-trade system of the sort Europe introduced to meet the Kyoto targets. It would limit companies" emissions while allowing them to buy and sell permits to pollute. Either system should, by setting a price on carbon, discourage emission; and, in doing so, encourage the development and use of cleaner-energy technologies. Just as America"s adoption of catalytic converters led eventually to the world"s conversion to lead-free petrol, so its drive to clean-energy technologies will ensure that these too spread. A tax is unlikely because of America"s aversion to that three-letter word. Given that, it should go for a tough cap-and-trade system. In doing so, it can usefully learn from Europe"s experience. First, get good data. Europe failed to do so: companies were given too many permits, and emissions have there-fore not fallen. Second, auction permits (which are, in effect, money) rather than giving them away free. Europe gave them away, which allowed polluters to make windfall profits . This will be a huge fight; for, if the federal government did what the Europeans did, it would hand out $40 billion to $50 billion in permits. Third, set a long time-horizon. Europeans do not know whether carbon emissions will still be constrained after 2012, when Kyoto runs out. Since most clean-energy projects have a payback period of more than five years, the system thus fails to encourage green investment. One of America"s most admirable characteristics is its belief that it has a duty of moral leader- ship. At present, however, it"s not doing too well on that score. Global warming could change that. By tackling the issue now it could regain the high moral ground (at the same time forging ahead in the clean-energy business, which Europe might otherwise dominate). And it looks as though it will; for even if the Toxic Texan continues to evade the issue, his successor will grasp it.

单选题The author would be most likely to agree with which of the following conclusions?

单选题It will take twenty minutes to get to the railway station, ______traffic delays.

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} The main feature of a {{U}}convention{{/U}}--a pattern of behavior that is customary, expected, and self-enforced--is that, out of a host of conceivable choices, only one is actually used. This fact also explains why conventions are needed: they resolve problems of indeterminacy in interactions that have multiple equilibria. Indeed, from a forma[ point of view, we may define a convention as an equilibrium that everyone expects in interactions that have more than one equilibrium. The economic significance of conventions is that they reduce transaction costs. Imagine the inconvenience if, whenever two vehicles approached one another, the drivers had to get out and negotiate which side of the road to take. Or consider the cost of having to switch freight from one type of railroad to another whenever a journey involves both a wide-gauge and a narrow-gauge railroad line. This was a common circumstance in the nineteenth century and not unknown in the late twentieth: until recently, Australia had different rail gauges in the states of South Wales and Victoria, forcing a mechanical switch for all trains bound between Sydney and Melbourne. Conventions are also a notable feature of legal contracts. People rely on standard leases, wills, purchasing agreements, construction contracts and the like, because it is less costly to fill in the blanks of a standard contract than to Create one from scratch. Even more important, such agreements are backed up by legal precedent, so the signatories have even greater confidence that, their terms are enforceable. We may discern two ways in which conventions become established. One is by central authority. Following the French Revolution, for example, it was decreed that horse-drawn carriages in Paris should keep to the right. The previous custom had been for carriages to keep left and for pedestrians to keep right, facing the oncoming traffic. Changing the custom was symbolic of the new order going on the left had become politically incorrect because it was identified with the privileged classes; going on the right was the habit of the common many and therefore-more "democratic." In Britain, by contrast there seems to have been no single defining event that gave rise to the dominant convention of left-handed driving. Rather, it grew up by local custom, spreading from one region to another. This is the second mechanism by which conventions become established: the gradual accretion of precedent. The two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, of course. Society often converges on a convention first by an informal process of accretion; later it is codified into law to regulate exceptions. In many countries, rules of the road were not legislated until the nineteenth century, but by this time the law was merely reiterating what had already become established custom. The surprising fact is that until the end of the eighteenth century, the dominant convention was for horse-drawn carriages to keep to the left. This situation obtained in Great Britain, France, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and parts of Italy. A chain of historical accidents--Napoleon adopting the new convention for his armies and imposing this convention in occupied countries; Portugal sharing a common border with occupied Spain; Austria, Hungary and Bohemian Czechoslovakia falling under German rule; Italy having elected a "modern" leader under a king--gradually tipped the balance.

单选题The woman ______ herself to doing scientific research.