单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} 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 There has been, in history, a man who was swallowed by a whale and lived to tell the tale. The man's name is James Bartley. The records to prove his unusual experience are in the British Admiralty. Bartley was making his first trip on the whaling ship Star of the East. Suddenly the lookout sighted a huge sperm whale. The whalers knew it was a huge whale by the size of the spray it blew into the air. They lowered their small boats. James Bartley was in the first longboat. The men rowed until they were close to the whale. A harpoon was thrown and it found its mark. It sank into the whale's flesh. The maddened beast crashed into the boat, snapping its tail at the men and the wreckage of their boats. When the survivors were picked up, James Bartley was missing. Shortly before sunset, the whale was finally captured. The sailors tied the whale's dead body to the side of the ship. Because of the hot weather it was important that they cut up the whale fight away. Otherwise, the meat would begin to rot and oil would begin to spoil. When they got to the stomach, they felt something moving about wildly. They thought it would be a big fish still alive inside. But when they opened the stomach they found James Bartley. After this trip, Bartley settled in England, and never returned to sea.

单选题Woman: Do you like the course we're taking? Man: It's beyond me. Question: What does the man mean? A. He doesn't want to answer the question. B. He doesn't like the course. C. He can't understand the course. D. He feels comfortable with the course.

单选题This passage would most probably be assigned reading for a course in what subject?

单选题Aluminum is found on earth mostly in the form of ______.

单选题New technology links the world as never before. Our planet has shrunk. It's a new "global village" where countries are only seconds away by fax or phone or satellite link. And, of course, our ability to benefit from this high-tech communications equipment is greatly enhanced by foreign language skills. Deeply involved with this new technology is a breed of modem businesspeople who have a growing respect for the economic value of doing business abroad. In modem markets, success overseas often helps support domestic business efforts. Overseas assignments are becoming increasingly important to advancement within executive ranks. The executive stationed in another country no longer needs fear being "out of sight and out of mind". He or she can be sure that the overseas effort is central to the company's plan for success, and that promotions often follow or accompany an assignment abroad, if an employee can succeed in a difficult assignment overseas, superiors will have greater confidence in his or her ability to come back in the United States where cross-cultural considerations and foreign language issues are becoming more and prevalent (普遍的) . Thanks to a variety of relatively inexpensive communications devices with business applications, even small businesses in the United States are able to get into international markets. English is still the international language of business. But there is an ever-growing need for people who can speak another language. A second language isn't generally required to get a job in business, but having language skills gives a candidate the edge when other qualifications appear to be equal. The employee posted abroad who speaks the country's principal language has an opportunity to fist-forward certain negotiations, and can have the cultural insight to know when it is better to move more slowly. The employee at the home office who can communicate well with foreign clients over the telephone or by fax machine is an obvious asset to the firm.

单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} While hackers with motives make headlines, they represent less than 20% of all net- work security breaches. More common are instances of authorized users accidentally winding up where they should not be and inadvertently deleting or changing data. However, the Internet introduces another concern: some Internet surfers are bound to go where they have no business and, in so doing, threaten to wipe out data to which they should not have access. Before picking a firewall, companies need to adopt security policies. A security policy states who or what is allowed to connect to whom or what. You can group all users by department or classification. The better firewall products let you drag and drop groups in a graphical user interface (GUI) environment to define network security easily. Two methods are most often used together to establish an Internet firewall. They are application and circuit gateways, as well as packet filtering. With application and circuit gateways, all packets are addressed to a user-level application on a gate-way that relays packets between two points. With most application gateways, additional packet-filter machines are required to control and screen traffic between the gateway and the networks. A typical configuration includes two routers. With a bastion host that serves as the application gateway sitting between them. A drawback to application and circuit gateways is that they slow network performance. This is because each packet must be copied and processed at least twice by all the communication layers. Packet-filter gateways, which act as routers between two nets, are less secure than application gateways but more efficient. They are transparent to many protocols and applications, and they require no changes in client applications, no specific application management or installation, and no extra hardware. Using a single, unified packet-filter engine, all net traffic is processed and then for- warded or blocked from a single point of control. However, most packet filters are state- less, understand only low-level protocols, and are difficult to configure and verity. In addition, they lack audit mechanisms. Some packet filters are implemented inside routers, limiting computing power and filtering capabilities. Others are implemented as s9ftware packages that filter the packets in application-layer processes, an inefficient approach that requires multiple data copies, expensive delays and context switches and delivers lower throughput. So what's a network administrator to do? Some vendors are developing firewalls that overcome many of these problems and combine the advantages of application gateways and packet filtering. These efficient, protocol-independent, secure firewall engines are capable of application-level security, user authentication, unified support, and handling of all protocols, auditing and altering. They are transparent to users and to system setup, and include a GUI for simple and flexible system management and configuration.

单选题Today Americans have different eating habits than in the past. There is a wide selection of food available. They have a broader knowledge of nutrition, so they buy more fresh fruit and vegetables than ever before. At the same time, Americans purchase increasing quantities of sweets, snacks and sodas. Statistics show that the way people live determines the way they eat. American life styles have changed. They now include growing numbers of people who live alone, single parents and children, and double-income families. These changing life styles are responsible for the increasing number of people who must rush meals or sometimes skip them altogether. Many Americans have less time than ever before t9 spend preparing food. Partly as a consequence of this limited time, 60 percent of all American homes now have microwave ovens. Moreover, Americans eat out nearly four times a week on the average. It is easy to study the amounts and kinds of food that people consume. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the food industry-growers, processors, marketers and restaurant managers compile sales statistics and keep accurate records. This information not only tells us what people are eating but also tells us about the changes in attitudes and tastes. Red meat, which used to be the most popular choice for dinner, is no longer an American favorite. Instead, chickens, turkey, and fish have become more popular. Sales of these foods have greatly increased in recent years. This is probably a result of the awareness of the dangers of eating food which contains high levels of cholesterol, or animal fat. Doctors believe that cholesterol is a threat to human health. According to a recent survey, Americans also change their eating patterns to meet the needs of different situations. They have certain ideas about which foods will increase their athletic ability, help them lose weight, make them alert for business meetings, or put them in the mood for romance. For example, Americans choose pasta, fruit, and vegetables, which supply them with carbohydrates, to give them strength for physical activity, such as sports. Adults choose food rich in fiber, such as bread and cereal, for breakfast, and salads for lunch to prepare them for business appointment. For romantic dinners, however, Americans choose shrimp and lobster. While many of these ideas are based on nutritional facts, some are not. Americans" awareness of nutrition, along with their changing tastes and needs, leads them to consume a wide variety of foods—foods for health, for fun, and simply for good taste.

单选题She crossed the enemy lines, disguised as a civilian, to bring medical______ to the Resistance fighters. A. surrey B. surcharge C. summation D. succor

单选题Word came ______ she died of old age.A. thatB. whichC. in whichD. how

单选题An opaque material is ______.

单选题Auctions (拍卖) are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction room to make offers, or "bids", for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of goods. This is called "knocking down the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer bangs a small hammer on a table at which he stands, This is often set on a raised platform called a rostrum. The ancient Romans probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auction, meaning "increase". The Romans usually sold in this way the spoils taken in war; these sales were called "subusta", meaning "under the spear", a spear being stuck in the ground as a signal for a crowd to gather. 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 stayed alight. An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by possible 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 1 and continue in numerical order; be may wait until he registers the fact that certain dealers arc in the room and then pro- duce 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. Practicaly all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, hider, skins, wool, tea, cocoa, furs, spices, fruit and vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, antique, furniture, pictures, rare books, old china, and similar works of art. The auction-rooms at Christie's and Sotheby's in London and New York are world famous.

单选题It can be inferred that the term "public duty" denotes

单选题It is high time that you______the problem carefully about what you will do in the future.

单选题We are living in an age______many things are done on the computer.