单选题The words “good sense”( Par

单选题In 1993, I published a book, The Rage of a Privileged Class, whose central thesis was that even the most gifted African-Americans assumed that they would never crash through America's glass ceiling—no matter how talented, well educated, or hardworking they were. Few people of any race would claim that true equality has arrived; but so much has changed since Rage came out. Color is becoming less and less a burden; race is less and less an immovable barrier. My new research explores how that phenomenon is changing the way people of all races view the American landscape. I polled two groups of especially accomplished people of color. One is the African-American alumni of Harvard Business School. The other is the alumni of A Better Chance, a program, founded in 1963, that sends ambitious, talented youngsters to some of the nation's best secondary schools. Generations, I concluded from my study, mattered deeply—with their defining characteristics rooted in America's evolving racial dynamics. Generation 1, in this categorization, is the civil-rights generation—those (born before 1945) who participated in, or simply bore witness to, the defining 20th-century battle for racial equality. It is the generation of whites who, in large measure, saw blacks as alien beings and the generation of blacks who, for the most part, saw whites as irremediably prejudiced. Gen 2s (born between 1945 and 1969) were much less racially constrained—though they remained, in large measure, stuck in a tangle of racial stereotypes. Gen 3s (born between 1970 and 1995) saw race as less of a big deal. And that ability to see a person beyond color has cleared the way for a generation of Believers—blacks who fully accept that America means what it says when it promises to give them a shot. That new reality made itself clear when I compared black Gen 1 Harvard M. B. A. s with their Gen 3 counterparts. Seventy-five percent of Gen 1s said blacks faced "a lot" of discrimination, compared with 49 percent of Gen 3s. Twenty-five percent of Gen 1s thought their educational attainments put them "on an equal professional footing with white peers or competitors with comparable educational credentials," compared with 62 percent of Gen 3s. Ninety-three percent of Gen 1s saw a glass ceiling at their current workplaces, compared with 46 percent of Gen 3s. I am not about to make a statistical argument based on these numbers, but the message nonetheless seems clear. In the time since the Gen 1s came on the scene, a revolution has occurred. Those uptight suburbanites who couldn't imagine socializing with, working for, or marrying a "Negro," who thought blacks existed in an altogether different dimension, who could no more see dining with a black person than dining with a giraffe, have slowly given way to a new generation that embraces—at least consciously—the concept of equality. Americans have, in some substantial way, re-created each other—to an extent that our predecessors might find astounding.

单选题Unless we spend money to spot and prevent asteroids (小行星) now, one might crash into Earth and destroy life as we know it, say some scientists. Asteroids are bigger versions of the meteoroids (流星) that race across the night sky. Most orbit the sun far from Earth and don't threaten us. But there are also thousands whose orbits put them on a collision course with Earth. Buy $ 40 million worth of new telescopes right now. Then spend $10 million a year for the next 25 years to locate most of the space rocks. By the time we spot a fatal one, the scientists say, we'll have a way to change its course. Some scientists favor pushing asteroids off course with nuclear weapons. But the cost wouldn't be cheap. Is it worth it? Two things experts consider when judging any risk are: 1) How likely the event is; and 2) How bad the consequences if the event occurs. Experts think an asteroid big enough to destroy lots of life might strike Earth once every 400000 years. Sounds pretty rare—but if one did fall, it would be the end of the world. "If we don't take care of these big asteroids, they'll take care of us," says one scientist. "It's that simple. " The cure, though, might be worse than the disease. Do we really want fleets of nuclear weapons sitting around on Earth? "The world has less to fear from doomsday (毁灭性的) rocks than from a great nuclear fleet set against them," said a New York Times article.

单选题It was Sunday. The trains were crowded. A gentleman was walking along the (1) looking into the windows and trying to find a place. In one of the (2) he saw a vacant seat. But a small suitcase was lying on (3) and a stout gentleman was sitting next to it. " Is this seat vacant?" "No, it is my friend's," (4) the stout gentleman. "He is coming. This is his suitcase./

单选题Those days people throughout the world were looking forward to the day of victory with great ______.

单选题The "standard of living" of any country means the average person's share of the goods and services the country produces. A country's standard of living, 【C1】______, depends first and 【C2】______on its capacity to produce wealth. "Wealth" in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money【C3】______on things that money can buy: "goods" such as food and clothing, and "services" such as transport and "【C4】______". A country's capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of【C5】______have an effect on one another. Wealth depends 【C6】______a great extent upon a country's natural resources. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have a fertile soil and a【C7】______climate; other regions possess none of them. Next to natural resources【C8】______the ability to turn them to use. 【C9】______and stable political conditions, and【C10】______from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well 【C11】______by nature but less well ordered. A country's standard of living does not only depend upon the wealth that is produced and consumed 【C12】______it own borders, but also upon what is indirecdy produced through international trade. For example, Britain's wealth in foodstuffs and other agricultural products would be much less if she had to depend only on【C13】______grown at home. Trade makes it possible for her surplus manufactured goods to be traded abroad for the agricultural products that would【C14】______be lacking. A country's wealth is, therefore, much influenced by its manufacturing capacity, 【C15】______that other countries can be found ready to accept its manufactures.

单选题Not too many decades ago it seemed "obvious" both to the general public and to sociologists that modern society has changed people's natural relations, loosened their responsibilities to kin (亲戚) and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years a growing body of research has revealed that the "obviousness" is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a smaller proportion of your neighbors than you do if you are a resident of a smaller community. But, for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else. Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small, private social worlds. Indeed, the number and quality of meaningful relationships do not differ between more and less urban people. Small-town residents are more involved with kin than are big-city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism may produce a different style of life, but the quality of life does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of smaller communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers. These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living next door or keep an eye out for young troublemakers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a community's population size and its social heterogeneity (多样性). For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behavior including gambling, drugs, etc. Large-city urbanites are also more likely than their small-town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan (见多识广者的) outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates, and to be tolerant of nontraditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so-called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size.

单选题When the novelist Jodi Picoult was approached to write a few installments of the "Wonder Woman" comics series, her first ______ was to take the character out of her trademark. A. conspiracy B. subversion C. impulse D dissipation

单选题A huge population of red fire ants has bedeviled Texas farmers for years. By some estimates the insectscost state businesses close to $1 billion a year due to crop and machinery destruction. Killing the ants and their nests has not proven easy. Texas A＆M researchers have discovered that the phorid fly from South America will lay eggs on the red fire ants and the maggots which are hatched eat away at the ant's brains, eventually causing their heads to fall off. Someone at the university was willing to underwrite the work to solve a problem. That investment was almost certainly much less than the $1 billion a year that fire ants cost businesses in the state. A recession does not stop advancements in technology. It just makes companies so frightened of risk that they choose not to make the investment in the red fire ant projects. In the last week, the two most successful technology companies in the world, IBM and Google have announced major new products. IBM released "stream computing" applications that allow businesses to look at and analyze huge amounts of data in real time. The most important product of Google allows the company's customers to take very large amounts of search data and organize it into spreadsheets. These are developments that will probably help the firms take business away from their competitors. The shares of Google and IBM have handily outperformed those of all the other large tech companies based in the U. S. such as Hewlett Packard (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), and Oracle (ORCL). Each of the companies is blessed with substantial earnings and technology staffs in the tens of thousands. But the firms are not all viewed the same, at least by investors who trade tens of millions of their shares each day. In most ways, IBM and Google are not like one another at all. IBM makes its money selling expensive hardware, client services, and software to companies, most of which are very large, and to governments. Google has millions of customers who pay nothing to use its services. It has millions of advertisers who spend money to reach people who look at search results and most of these marketers are very small. What the companies do have in common is a willingness to take risks, probably risks with long odds in order to launch new products. These products may be failures, but they are well enough researched and designed that they have a good chance of keeping IBM and Google ahead of the competition even if that does not immediately involve significant new revenue. The red fire ant problem never goes away. Unsolved problems in every industry cost companies money. Sometimes companies do not even know that their problems can be solved. The phorid fly is an obscure species. So is software that can analyze huge amounts of data in real time.

单选题—What would you like, sir? —______. A．Two cups coffee B．Two cups of coffees C．Two coffees D．Two cup of coffees

单选题Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease. In the past, it was often considered a death sentence. But many patients now live longer 1 of improvements in discovery and treatment. Researchers say death 2 in the United States from all cancers combined have fallen for thirty years. Survival rates have increased for most of the top fifteen cancers in both men and women, and for cancers in 3 . The National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the number of cancer survivors. A cancer survivor is defined 4 anyone who has been found to have cancer. This would include current patients. The study covered the period from 1971 to 2001. The researchers found there are three 5 as many cancer survivors today as there were thirty years ago. In 1971, the United States had about three million cancer survivors. Today there are about ten million. The study also found that 64% of adults with cancer can expect to still be 6 in five years. Thirty years ago, the five-year survival rate was 50%. The government wants to 7 the five-year survival rate to 70% by 2010. The risk of cancer increases with age. The report says the majority of survivors are 65 years and older. But it says medical improvements have also helped children with cancer live 8 longer. Researchers say 80% of children with cancer will survive at least five years after the discovery. About 75% will survive at 9 ten years. In the 1970s, the five-year survival rate for children was about 50%. In the 1960s, most children did not survive cancer. Researchers say they expect more improvements in cancer treatment in the future. In fact, they say traditional cancer-prevention programs are not enough anymore. They say public health programs should also aim to support the 10 numbers of cancer survivors and their families.

单选题 It was a beautiful summer day and I was taking a walk in the downtown area of Madrid. When I turned a street{{U}} (56) {{/U}}I heard the voice of a lovely Spanish singer{{U}} (57) {{/U}}from a nearby cafe. The music{{U}} (58) {{/U}}me, so I went to the cafe to hear it{{U}} (59) {{/U}}. I sat down at a table near the door. The waiter came over, and I{{U}} (60) {{/U}}a glass of wine. While{{U}} (61) {{/U}}my wine, I listened to the soft music. The{{U}} (62) {{/U}}was a young lady, a little too fat, but{{U}} (63) {{/U}}pretty. A black young man was playing the piano. The waiter returned{{U}} (64) {{/U}}the glass of wine and put it on the{{U}} (65) {{/U}}. I started drinking the wine slowly and{{U}} (66) {{/U}}the other people in the cafe. They were all men{{U}} (67) {{/U}}women seldom go into the cafes in Spain. There were three men{{U}} (68) {{/U}}at a table near mine. I could{{U}} (69) {{/U}}by their accents that one of them was an American, one an Englishman and the third man a{{U}} (70) {{/U}}. The waiter served each of the three men a glass of beer. By chance, each glass had a{{U}} (71) {{/U}}in it. The American picked up his glass, noticed the fly and poured the beer and the fly was thrown onto the floor. The English- man looked into his glass, noticed the fly and{{U}} (72) {{/U}}a spoon, with which he took the fly out of the beer, and drank the{{U}} (73) {{/U}}of it. The stranger noticed the fly in the beer,{{U}} (74) {{/U}}. He picked it up with his fingers, squeezed it carefully in order to save every drop of beer, then drank the beer{{U}} (75) {{/U}}.

单选题Los Angeles has planted 2,000 rubber trees down the middle of one of its main streets. These trees do not (21) rubber. They are, (22) , made of rubber. Mr. Joe Dynamo, a spokesman for Los Angeles (23) council, explained the reasons. He said: "These (24) are representative of our virtual society. We have polystyrene grass on our golf (25) . We have non-milk powder (26) our coffee. We (27) copies in plastic of old wooden furniture. We have fiberglass tombstones. (28) shouldn't we have trees made of rubber?" "At 50 miles an hour, (29) motorist will see any difference. And our preservation (30) will be lower. You give the trees an annual rinse (清洗) with detergent, and (31) them off twice a year. We (32) a lot of money because transplanting, pruning, weeding and leaf-collection are all (33) . And we have a 60-year (34) guarantee on each plant. This is rationalization at (35) best. /

单选题Rather than allowing the government to control investments, true power, should be given to the people, allowing individually owned and privately managed investment accounts ______.Individual Retirement Accounts.

单选题The damage to his car was ______; therefore, he could repair it himself. [A] appreciable [B] negligible [C] considerable [D] invisible

单选题Text 4 As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn't the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe's new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, realestate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the "irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on Europeans private lives. Europe's new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe's shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today's tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone. The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn't leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn't got time to get lonely because he has too much work. "I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult." Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called "The Single Woman and Prince Chaming—, thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don't last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she'd never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead, "I've always done what I wanted to do: live a serf-determined life/