单选题 I've decided to take the plunge and start up my own business. The underlined word means

单选题Monkeys are excellent climbers, and most are ______ tree dwellers.

单选题As a good photographer, you must develop an awareness of the world around you and the people who ______ it.

单选题After long negotiations, the firm ______ to build a double-purpose bridge across the river. A. contracted B. contacted C. consulted D. convinced

单选题The government slated new elections in the spring, largely as a result of the public Uclamor/U.

单选题She is unconscious now, but may ______ at intervals.

单选题Mary didn't ______the new rule that her father made of being home at 5 o'clock.

单选题Which of the following happens if there is mild inflation?

单选题 The poor nutrition in the early stages of infancy can ______ adult growth.

单选题 Some bosses dislike (to allow) people (to share) their responsibilities; they keep (all) important matters (tightly).in their own hands.

单选题She often thinks that her six years in Italy were wasted, ______ she ______ that time learning more Italian. A. but that; might have taken B. for that; should have found C. in that; could have spent D. with that; would have used

单选题Shortly after the accident, two ______ police were sent to the spot to keep order.

单选题However wealthy you are it can not ______ a healthy body.

单选题Scientists generally hold that language has been so long in use that the length of time writing is known to cover is ______in Comparison. A.overwhelming B.uninspiring C.astounding D.trifling

单选题 From Accountant to Yogi: Making a Radical Career Change A. At some point, almost all of us will experience a period of radical professional change. Some of us will seek it out; for others it will feel like an unwelcome intrusion into otherwise stable careers. Either way, we have choices about how we respond to it when it comes. B. We recently caught up with yoga entrepreneur Leah Zaccaria, who put herself through the fire of change to completely reinvent herself. In her search to live a life of purpose, Leah left her high-paying accounting job, her husband, and her home. In the process, she built a radically new life and career. Since then, she has founded two yoga studios, met a new life partner, and formed a new community of people. Even if your personal reinvention is less drastic, we think there are lessons from her experience that apply. C. Where do the seeds of change come from? The Native American Indians have a saying: 'Pay attention to the whispers so you won't have to hear the screams.' Often the best ideas for big changes come from unexpected places—it's just a matter of tuning in. Great leaders recognize the weak signals or slight signs that point to big changes to come. Leah reflects on a time she listened to the whispers: 'About the time my daughter was five years old, I started having a sense that 'this isn't right.'' She then realized that her life no longer matched her vision for it. D. Up until that point, Leah had followed traditional measures of success. After graduating with a degree in business and accounting, she joined a public accounting firm, married, bought a house, put lots of stuff in it, and had a baby. 'I did what everybody else thought looked successful,' she says. Leah easily could have fallen into a trap of feeling content; instead, her energy sparked a period of experimentation and renewal. E. Feeling the need to change, Leah started playing with future possibilities by exploring her interests and developing new capabilities. First trying physical exercise and dieting, she lost some weight and discovered an inner strength. 'I felt powerful because I broke through my own limitations,' she recalls. F. However, it was another interest that led Leah to radically reinvent herself. 'I remember sitting on a bench with my aunt at a yoga studio,' she said, 'and having a moment of clarity right then and there: Yoga is saving my life. Yoga is waking me up. I'm not happy and I want to change and I'm done with this.' In that moment of clarity Leah made an important leap, conquering her inner resistance to change and making a firm commitment to take bigger steps. G. Creating the future you want is a lot easier if you are ready to exploit the opportunities that come your way. When Leah made the commitment to change, she primed herself to new opportunities she may otherwise have overlooked. She recalls: H. One day a man I worked with, Ryan, who had his office next to mine, said, 'Leah, let's go look at this space on Queen Anne.' He knew my love for yoga and had seen a space close to where he lived that he thought might be good to serve as a yoga studio. As soon as I saw the location, I knew this was it. Of course I was scared, yet I had this strong sense of 'I have to do this.' Only a few months later Leah opened her first yoga studio, but success was not instant. I. Creating the future takes time. That's why leaders continue to manage the present while building toward the big changes of the future. When it's time to make the leap, they take action and immediately drop what's no longer serving their purpose. Initially Leah stayed with her accounting job while starting up the yoga studio to make it all work. J. Soon after, she knew she had to make a bold move to fully commit to her new future. Within two years, Leah shed the safety of her accounting job and made the switch complete. Such drastic change is not easy. K. Steering through change and facing obstacles brings us face to face with our fears. Leah reflects on one incident that triggered her fears, when her investors threatened to shut her down: 'I was probably up against the most fear I've ever had,' she says. 'I had spent two years cultivating this community, and it had become successful very fast, but within six months I was facing the prospect of losing it all.' L. She connected with her sense of purpose and dug deep, cultivating a tremendous sense of strength. 'I was feeling so intentional and strong that I wasn't going to let fear just take over. I was thinking, 'OK, guys, if you want to try to shut me down, shut me down.' And I knew it was a negotiation scheme, so I was able to say to myself, 'This is not real.'' By naming her fears and facing them head-on, Leah gained confidence. For most of us, letting go of the safety and security of the past gives us great fear. Calling out our fears explicitly, as Leah did, can help us act decisively. M. The cycle of renewal never ends. Leah's growth spurred her to open her second studio—and it wasn't for the money. N. I have no desire to make millions of dollars. It's not about that; it's about growth for me. Honestly, I didn't need to open a second studio. I was making as much money as I was as an accountant. But I know if you don't grow, you stand still, and that doesn't work for me. O. Consider the current moment in your own life, your team or your organization. Where are you in the cycle of renewal: Are you actively preserving the present, or selectively forgetting the past, or boldly creating the future? What advice would Leah give you to move you ahead on your journey? Once we're on the path of growth, we can continually move through the seasons of transformation and renewal.

单选题Seldom ______so warmly welcomed.

单选题A computer virus ______.

单选题 Don't lose your ______ in an emergency.

单选题 Shock Treatment A. The objective of America's Affordable Care Act of 2010—commonly known as Obamacare—was to ensure that the 40m-plus Americans who lacked health insurance could get it. Less widely appreciated, but at least as important, are the incentives and penalties the law introduced to make the country's terribly expensive and poorly performing health services safer and more efficient. Economists are debating on how much credit Obamacare should get for a recent moderation in the growth of health costs, and for a fall in the number of patients having to be readmitted to hospital. Whatever the answer is, many companies see the disruption unleashed by the reforms as the business opportunity of a lifetime. B. One of the biggest shifts under way is to phase out the 'fee for service' model, in which hospitals and doctors, surgeries are reimbursed (补偿) for each test or treatment with no regard for the outcome, encouraging them to put patients through unnecessary and expensive procedures. Since Obamacare they are increasingly being paid by results—a flat fee for each successful hip replacement, say. There are also incentives for providers which meet cost or performance targets, and new requirements for hospitals to disclose their prices. C. Millions of people are now looking for health insurance on the new public exchanges set up under the reforms. And Obamacare has come into effect at a time when American employers, who often provide health cover for their workers, are seeking to cut its cost by encouraging them to shop around on private exchanges, and by offering less generous plans. D. The result is that there are growing numbers of consumers seeking better treatment for less money. Existing health-care providers will have to adapt, or lose business. All sorts of other businesses, old and new, are seeking either to take market share from the conventional providers, or to provide the software and other tools that help hospitals, doctors, insurers and patients make the most of this new world. E. Patients are increasingly having to pay higher 'deductibles (免赔额)' out of their own pockets, before the insurance kicks in, to keep the cost of the cover down. So for minor ailments and simple tests, it makes sense for such patients to go to one of the increasing numbers of walk-in clinics, staffed by well-qualified nurses, on the premises of retail pharmacies such as Walgreens. The prices are clear, the care is cheap and the service is quick. Walgreens has a partnership with Theranos, a diagnostics firm, which offers customers a range of tests from a tiny drop of blood. Walmart, a giant supermarket chain with many in-store pharmacies, also intends to become one of the leading sellers of affordable health services, says Alex Hurd, its product-development chief. F. For injuries and illnesses that are more serious but not immediately life-threatening, lots of 'urgent-care centers' are being opened as an alternative to going to a hospital emergency unit. Private-equity firms are pouring money into independent chains of centers. Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm, reckons that between them, these chains now have just over 1,500 urgent-care centers, up from about 1, 300 at the start of 2013. The market is still fragmented but a national brand could emerge from one of the largest chains, such as Concentra or MedExpress. G. Some hospital operators, seeking to cut their costs of care, and choosing to be among the disrupters rather than the disrupted, are also opening urgent-care centers. Aurora Health Care, a Wisconsin-based chain of hospitals and clinics, now has more than 30 of them. H. Hospital operators are now facing a classic 'innovator's dilemma', as described by Clay Christensen, a Harvard business professor. If they persist with their high-cost business model even as their customers discover that cheaper alternatives are good enough, they will be in trouble. According to Strata Decision Technology, an analytics firm, many hospital groups saw what was coming and started to cut their costs well before the provisions of Obamacare started to bite. One of the fastest movers is Advocate Health Care, a hospital operator from Illinois, which says it now earns two-thirds of its revenues from value-based payments. I. The largest chains of for-profit hospitals, such as Tenet Healthcare, HCA and Community Health Systems, are rather profitable. They have trimmed their costs, been conservative with capital and, thanks to Obamacare raising the number of Americans with health insurance, now have more patients and fewer bad debts. However, credit-rating agencies are worried about the prospects for the not-for-profit hospitals, which are 60% of the total. With lower margins, and less capital to make investments, they have become targets for takeover, says Jim Bonnette of the Advisory Board Company, another consulting outfit. J. As a result, further consolidation in the hospital business is likely. This could mean greater efficiency and lower costs. But if antitrust authorities are not vigilant, it may lead to a concentration of market power. If so, the benefits from the efficiencies being wrung out of the hospital system may end up in the pockets of shareholders rather than saving patients and insurers money. K. Obamacare is also encouraging the creation of all sorts of health-related advisory and intermediary companies that help care providers, insurers and patients save money. A company called Vitals approaches employees on behalf of their company's health plan, and offers them cash rewards, and a taxi, if they agree to be treated at a cheaper provider. The sums to be saved can be astonishing: a new cost-comparison tool created by Blue Cross Blue Shield, a big alliance of private health insurers, has found that a colonoscopy (结肠镜检查) with a biopsy costs $ 8,489 at one clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but just $ 928 at another provider in Greensboro, only 50 miles (80km) or so away. L. Cohealo offers a 'sharing economy' solution for hospitals and clinics wanting to make the best use of expensive equipment, in much the same way as Airbnb helps people with spare rooms fill them with paying guests. Doximity is trying to be a Facebook for doctors, letting them refer patients and discuss treatments securely without the blizzard of faxes they rely on today. Grand Rounds is a sort of medical Match, com: an online matchmaker that pairs patients with specialists. As in other industries, administrators are being tempted to switch to renting software and data storage in the online 'cloud': Athenahealth, a seller of medical back-office software, is trying to get doctors and hospitals to move patients, health records onto its cloud-based service. Preliminary diagnosis M. For supporters of Obamacare, it is clear that the reforms are empowering patients, driving public and private health insurers to achieve better value, forcing existing providers to shape up and providing opportunities for disruptive newcomers. Digital technology is also helping to increase transparency about prices, making it easier to share information and increase efficiency. For some analysts it all adds up to a 'new health economy'—as PwC, a consulting firm, puts it—the most significant reengineering of the American health system, by far the world's costliest, since employers began providing cover for their workers in the 1930s. N. And the revolution has only just begun. The Obama administration recently set a target of making 50% of Medicare payments value-based, rather than fee for service, by the end of 2018. America's largest private payers have a target of 75% by 2020. So hospitals do not have long to shape up. Some will have their profits squeezed, and customers stolen by new rivals. Some may close, or be taken over. But for other businesses, from supermarket and pharmacy chains to digital-health startups, there will be billions to be made.