单选题Man: Jenny, why do you often watch talk shows? Woman: They make me laugh and sometimes crack me up, and I have learned a lot from their talks. Question: Why does the woman like watching talk shows?

单选题They got there without any difficulty with the guide ______ the way.

单选题The consequences of heavy drinking are well documented: failing health, broken marriages, regrettable late-night phone calls. But according to Gregory Luzaich's calculations, there can be a downside to modest drinking, too—though one that damages the wallet, not the liver. The Pek Wine Steward prevents wine from spoiling by injecting argon, an inert gas, into the bottle before sealing it airtight with silicon. Mr. Luzaich. a mechanical engineer in Windsor, Calif.—in the Sonoma County wine country—first tallied the costs of his reasonable consumption in October 2001. "I'd like to come home in the evening and have a glass of wine with dinner," he said. "My wife doesn't drink very much. so the bottle wouldn't get consumed. And maybe I would forget about it the next day, and I'd check back a day or two later, and the wine would be spoiled." That meant he was wasting most of a $15 to $20 bottle of wine. dozens of times a year. A cheek of the wine-preservation gadgets on the market left Mr. Luzaich dissatisfied High-end wine cabinets cost thousands of dollars—a huge investment for a glass-a-day drinker. Affordable preservers, meanwhile, didn't quite perform to Mr. Luzaich's liking; be thought they allowed too much oxidation, which degrades the taste of a wine. The solution, he decided, was a better gas. Many preservers pumped nitrogen into an opened bottle to slow a wine's decline, even though oenological literature suggested that argon was more effective. So when he began designing the Pek Wine Steward. a metal cone into which a wine bottle is inserted, Mr. Luzaich found that his main challenge was to figure out how best to introduce the argon. He spent months fine-tuning a gas injection system. "We used computational fluid dynamics to model the gas flow," Mr. Luzaich said. referring to a computer-analysis technique that measures how smoothly particles are flowing. The goal was to create an injector that could swap a bottle's oxygen atoms for argon atoms; argon is an inert gas, and thus unlikely to harm a nice Chianti. Mr. Luzaich, who had previously designed medical and telecommunications products, also worked on creating an airtight seal, to secure the bottle after the argon was injected. He experimented with several substances, from neoprene to a visco-elastic polymer (which he dismissed as "too gooey"), before settling on a food-grade silicon. To save wine, a bottle is placed inside the Pek Wine Steward, the top is closed, and a trigger is pulled for 5 to 10 seconds, depending on how much wine remains. When the trigger is released, the bottle is sealed automatically, preserving the wine for a week or more. the company says. "We wanted to make it very easy for the consumer," Mr. Luzaich said. "It's basically mindless." The device, which resembles a high-tech thermos, first became available to consumers in March 2004, and 8,000 to 10.000 have been sold, primarily through catalogs like those of The Wine Enthusiast and Hammacher Schlemmer The base model sells for $99; a deluxe model, which also includes a thermoelectric cooler, is $199

单选题Cartons are comparatively light, ______ and more ______ . A．inconvenient, impact B．convenient, compact C．compact, convenient D．impact, inconvenient

单选题It would be enormously convenient to have a single, generally accepted index of the economic and social welfare of the people of the United States. A glance at it would tell us how much better or worse off we had become each year, and we would judge the desirability of any proposed action by asking whether it would raise or lower this index. Some recent discussion implies that such an index could be constructed. Articles in the popular press even criticize the Gross National Production because it is not such a complete index of welfare, ignoring, on the one hand, that it was never intended to be, and suggesting, on the other, that with appropriate changes it could be converted into one. The output available to satisfy our wants and needs is one important determinant of welfare. Whatever want, need, or social problem engages our attention, we ordinarily can more easily find resources to deal with it when output is large and growing than when it is not. GNP measures output fairly well, but to evaluate welfare we would need additional measures which would be far more difficult to construct. We would need an index of real costs incurred in production, because we are better off if we get the same output at less cost. Use of just man-hours for welfare evaluation would unreasonably imply that to increase total hours by raising the hours of eight women from 60 to 65 a week imposes no more burden than raising the hours of eight men from 40 to 45 a week, or even than hiring one involuntarily unemployed person for 40 hours a week. A measure of real costs of labor would also have to consider working conditions. Most of us spend almost half our waking hours on the job and our welfare is vitally affected by the circumstances in which we spend those hours. To measure welfare we would need a measure of changes in the need our output must satisfy. One aspect, population change, is now handled by converting output to a per capita basis on the assumption that, other things equal, twice as many people need twice as many goods and services to be equally well off. But an index of needs would also account for differences in the requirements for living as the population becomes more urbanized and suburbanized; for the changes in national defense requirements; and for changes in the effect of weather on our needs. The index would have to tell us the cost of meeting our needs in a base year compared with the cost of meeting them equally well under the circumstances prevailing in every other year. Measures of "needs" shade into measure of the human and physical environment in which we live. We all are enormously affected by the people around us. Can we go where we like without fear of attack? We are also affected by the physical environment—purity of water and air, accessibility of park land and other conditions. To measure this requires accurate data, but such data are generally deficient. Moreover, weighting is required, to combine robberies and murders in a crime index; to combine pollution of the Potamac and pollution of Lake Erie into a water pollution index; and then to combine crime and water pollution into some general index. But there is no basis for weighting these beyond individual preference. There are further problems. To measure welfare we would need an index of the "goodness" of the distribution of income. There is surely consensus that given the same total income and output, a distribution with fewer families in poverty would be the better, but what is the ideal distribution? Even if we could construct indexes of output, real costs, needs, state of the environment, we could not compute a welfare index because we have no system of weights to combine them.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Like all quintessentially British things, gardening is a pastime that has long been in decline. From a high point of ￡5 billion in 2001, spending on plants, tools and garden furniture has fallen every year since then, to around ~3 billion in 2008．The arrival of economic recession only deepened the gloom: to credit-crunched consumers, shrubs and hanging baskets seemed obvious candidates for cuts. Yet the latest figures from the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) suggest a bumper year for garden-related expenditure is in the making. Sales volumes were up by 21% in March and 28% in April compared with the same months a year earlier. This was not the result of deep discounting, a strategy that many other retailers have been adopting. The value of garden goods sold was 37% higher in March and 42% higher in April than a year earlier, whereas the value of all sales had increased by just 3% in April. Datamonitor, a market-research firm, reckons that gardening will continue to outperform the rest of retailing for at least the next two years. Much of the good news is due to the weather, admits Tim Briercliffe, the HTA's director of business development. Last year the vital spring months were damp and miserable; this year sunshine (and weathermen's prediction of a hot summer) has boosted custom. But the economic downturn itself has turned out to be as much a blessing as a curse. Gardening may be a luxury, argues Mr. Briercliffe, but it competes with other, more expensive luxuries. "People who might have otherwise booked a city break to Prague are staying at home and making the best of what they have," he maintains. According to Ipsos MORI, a pollster, three-quarters of people plan to spend at least as much on their garden this year as last. Economic hardship has created a new breed of gardener too. Partly, that reflects people making the most of their enforced leisure: "We get some unemployed city types who are just filling time while looking for another job," admits a garden-centre worker near the London commuter town of Guilford. But there are more positive developments. Much of the growth in garden spending has come from the under-35s, not traditionally a green-fingered demographic. One explanation is that environmentalism and thriftiness have made growing vegetables trendy, an idea that is supported by growing shortage of allotments. But there is more to it than pleasant weather and belt-tightening. The HTA detects deeper, and darker, changes in the national psyche. Citing research from the Future Foundation, a prognosticatory consultancy, it reckons that people are spending more time in their homes, fortifying them into havens from an unwelcoming world haunted by crime, bureaucracy and rising unemployment. The longer the downturn persists, the greener the grass may grow.

单选题Just because you" re better educated doesn" t mean that you" re any more rational than everyone else, no matter how hard you may try to give that impression. Take the selection of lottery numbers. A survey in Florida described at this year" s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows that better educated people try to use random number systems to pick their lottery numbers. Despite the apparent logic of choosing random numbers, however, their chances of winning are no better than those of ordinary folk who use birthdays, anniversaries and other "lucky" dates. Nor are they better off than those who draw on omens and intuitions, picking numbers seen on car number-plates and in dreams. But no doubt they feel a lot more rational. That appearance of "rationality" may be a dangerous thing. Scientists are not immune to subtle and subjective influences on their judgements. Take the data from a survey of the public and member of the British Society of Toxicology discussed at the same meeting. The survey showed that most people agree with the view that animals can be used to help predict how human will react to chemicals, and that if a chemical causes cancer in an animal, we can be "reasonably sure" it will cause cancer in humans. The toxicologists, however, are more circumspect. They accept the fast statement but less likely to agree that if a chemical causes cancer in an animal, it will do so in a human. Can this difference be attributed to their expertise? Perhaps. But consider the considerable variation among toxicologists: those who were young, female, working in academia rather than industry or who felt that technology is not always used for the good of all, were more likely to agree that what causes cancer in an animal will cause cancer in a human. Maybe we need to think more about how who we are affects our "rational" decisions.

单选题Their watch is______to all the other watches on the market.

单选题That Microsoft's three tasks are colliding is reflected in the fact that______.

单选题Valentine's Day may come from the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. (1) the fierce wolves roamed nearby, the old Romans called (2) the god Lupercus to help them. A festival in his (3) was held on February 15th. On the eve of the festival the (4) of the girls were written on (5) of paper and placed in jars. Each young man (6) a slip. The girl whose name was (7) was to be his sweetheart for the year. Legend 88 it that the holiday became Valentine's Day (9) a Roman priest named Valentine. Emperor Claudius II (10) the Roman soldiers NOT to marry or become engaged. Claudius felt married soldiers would (11) stay home than fight. When Valentine (12) the Emperor and secretly married the young couples, he was put to death on February 14th, the (13) of Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine became a (14) . Christian priests moved the holiday from the 15th to the 14th—Valentine's Day. Now the holiday honors Valentine (15) of Lupercus. Valentine's Day has become a major (16) of love and romance in the modem world. The ancient god Cupid and his (17) into a lover's heart may still be used to (18) falling in love or being in love. But we also use cards and gifts, such as flowers or jewelry, to do this. (19) to give flower to a wife or sweetheart on Valentine's Day can sometimes be as (20) as forgetting a birthday or a wedding anniversary.

单选题______ a young woman, the office was empty.

单选题Nor has Washington yet ______ to Mexican demands for a treaty specifying extradition for U. S. officials who disregard the new stricture. A. profaned B. contemplated C. acceded D. manipulated

单选题Linens should complement your dinnerware. The underlined word means ______. A. be the same color as B. hide defects in C. go welt with D. serve as a contrast to

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read tile following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Nuclear weapons were first developed in the United States during the Second World War, to be used against Germany. However, by the time the first bombs were ready for use, the war with Germany had ended and, as a result, the decision was made to use the weapons against Japan instead. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have suffered the consequences of this decision to the present day. The real reasons why bombs were dropped on two heavily-populated cities are not altogether clear. A number of people in 1944 and early 1945 argued that the use of nuclear weapons would be unnecessary, since American Intelligence was aware that some of the most powerful and influential people in Japan had already realized that the war was lost, and wanted to negotiate a Japanese surrender. It was also argued that, since Japan has few natural resources, a blockade by the American navy would force it to surrender within a few weeks, and the use of nuclear weapons would thus prove unnecessary. If a demonstration of forcewas required to end the war, a bomb could be dropped over an unpopulated area like a deserr, in front of Japanese observers, or over an area of low population inside Japan, such as a forest. Opting for this course of action might minimize the loss of further lives on all sides, while the power of nuclear weapons would still be adequately demonstrated. All of these arguments were rejected, however, and the general consensus was that the quickest way to end the fighting would be to use nuclear weapons against canters of population inside Japan. In fact, two of the more likely reasons why this decision was reached seem quite shocking to us now. Since the beginning of the Second World War both Germany and Japan had adopted a policy of genocide (i. e. killing as many people as possible, including civilians). Later on, even the US and Britain had used the strategy of fire bombing cities (Dresden and Tokyo, for example) in order to kill, injure and intimidate as many civilians as possible. Certainly, the general public in the West had become used to hearing about the deaths of large numbers of people, so the deaths of another few thousand Japanese, who were the enemy in any case, would not seem particularly unacceptable—a bit of "justifiable" revenge for the Allies' own losses, perhaps. The second reason is not much easier to comprehend. Some of the leading scientists in the world had collaborated to develop nuclear weapons, and this development had resulted in a number of major advances in technology and scientific knowledge. As a result, a lot of nor-mal, intelligent people wanted to see nuclear weapons used; they wanted to see just how destructive this new invention could be. It no doubt turned out to be even more "effective" than they had imagined.

单选题Was ______ that I saw last night at the concert?A．it youB．not youC．youD．that you

单选题The history of African—Americans during the past 400 years is traditionally narrated (1) an ongoing struggle against (2) and indifference on the part of the American mainstream, and a struggle (3) as an upward movement is (4) toward ever more justice and opportunity. Technology in and of (5) is not at fault; it's much too simple to say that gunpowder or agricultural machinery or fiber optics (6) been the enemy of an (7) group of people. A certain machine is put (8) work in a certain way—the purpose (9) which it was designed. The people who design the machines are not intent on unleashing chaos; they are usually trying to (10) a task more quickly, cleanly, or cheaply, (11) the imperative of innovation and efficiency that has ruled Western civilization (12) the Renaissance. Mastery of technology is second only (13) money as the true measure of accomplishment in this country, and it is very likely that by (14) this under-representation in the technological realm, and by not questioning and examining the folkways that have (15) it, blacks are allowing. (16) to be kept out of the mainstream once again. This time, however, they will be (17) from the greatest cash engine of the twenty-first century. Inner-city blacks in particular are in danger, and the beautiful suburbs (18) ring the decay of Hartford, shed the past and learn to exist without contemplating or encountering the tragedy of the inner city. And blacks must change as well. The ways that (19) their ancestors through captivity and coming to freedom have begun to loose their utility. If blacks (20) to survive as full participants in this society, they have to understand what works now.

单选题The line "studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability" is written by____.