单选题If such unhappy persons don't change their bad behaviour, what should people do according to the author?______

单选题It is reported that the policemen are pursuing the bank robbers in the country.

单选题We usually want people to keep quiet in the cinema so that we can______the film.

单选题The marvelous telephone and television network that has now enmeshed the whole world, making all men neighbors, cannot be extended into space. It will never be possible to converse with anyone on another planet. Even with today"s radio equipment, the messages will take minutes—sometimes hours—on their journey, because radio and light waves travel at the same limited speed of 186, 000 miles a second. Twenty years from now you will be able to listen to a friend on Mars, but the words you hear will have left his mouth at least three minutes earlier, and your reply will take a corresponding time to reach him. In such circumstances, an exchange of verbal messages is possible—but not a conversation. To a culture which has come to take instantaneous communication for granted, as part of the very structure of civilized life, this "time barrier" may have a profound psychological impact. It will be a perpetual reminder of universal laws and limitations against which not all our technology can ever prevail. For it seems as certain as anything can be that no signal--still less any material object—can ever travel faster than light. The velocity of light is the ultimate speed limit, being part of the very, structure of space and time. Within the narrow confines of the solar system, it will not handicap us too severely. At the worst, these will amount to twenty hours—the time it takes a radio signal to span the orbit of Pluto, the outer-most planet. It is when we move out beyond the confines of the solar system that we come face to face with an altogether new order of cosmic reality. Even today, many otherwise educated men—like those savages who can count to three but lump together all numbers beyond four—cannot grasp the profound distinction between solar and stellar space. The first is the space enclosing our neighboring worlds, the planets; the second is that which embraces those distant suns, the stars, and it is literally millions of times greater. There is no such abrupt change of scale in the terrestrial affairs. Many conservative scientists, appalled by these cosmic gulfs, have denied that they can ever be crossed. Some people never learn ; those who sixty years ago scoffed at the possibility of flight, and ten years ago laughed at the idea of travel to the planets, are now quite sure that the stars will always be beyond our reach. And again they are wrong, for they have failed to grasp the great lesson of our age— that if something is possible in theory, and no fundamental scientific laws oppose its realization, then sooner or later it will be achieved. One day we shall discover a really efficient means of propelling our space vehicles. Every technical device is always developed to its limit and the ultimate speed for spaceships is the velocity of light. They will never reach that goal, but they will get very near it. And then the nearest star will be less than five years voyaging from the earth.

单选题{{B}}Passage One{{/B}} {{B}} Cell Phone Hegemony{{/B}} I recall how annoying it was years ago when smoking everywhere was legal in California. Many complained about the restrictions when they arrived, but I didn't, because I seriously hated watching shoppers smoking through the tomatoes and lettuce in the vegetable section of the store. People forget how sickening that used to be, especially with the butts all over the grocery store floor. Tossing a burning smoke on the ground, stomping it with your foot, and leaving it to be swept up by somebody else later was somehow OK. But laws were passed, and you could finally shop without having to buy broccoli while gagging on a nearby Winston. Grocery stores are now filled with drips talking on cell phones about their sisters. I believe these obnoxious chatterers are all rebellious smokers getting back at us. This is worse than smoking! How did these phones come to dominate our lives like this, and does anyone even try to resist? Cell phones now rule the world's collective unconscious in untold ways. What astonishes me about all this is the sociology that has crept up on us. Why do we have this incessant need to chat on cell phones all day long? Test out this thesis. Make a note of a friend who calls you from both a cell phone and a land-line at different times. Time the calls and note the content. The cell phone calls will always be longer and more inane-without exceptions!

单选题A good scientist ______ into all aspects era problem in order to find solutions.

单选题His eighth book came out earlier this year and was a(n)______ bestseller.(2010年四川大学考博试题)

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} “Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase,” George W. Bush said, announcing his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars. “They made that journey in the spirit of discovery... America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons.” Yet there are vital differences between Lewis and Clark’s expedition and a Mars mission. First, Lewis and Clark were headed to a place amenable to life; hundreds of thousands of people were already living there. Second, Lewis and Clark were certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation. Third, the Lewis and Clark venture cost next to nothing by today’s standards. In 1989 NASA estimated that a people-to-Mars program would cost $ 400 billion, which inflates to $ 600 billion today. But the fact that a destination is tantalizing does not mean the journey makes sense, even considering the human calling to explore. And Mars as a destination for people makes absolutely no sense with current technology. Present systems for getting from Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit are so fantastically expensive that merely launching the 1,000 tons or so of spacecraft and equipment a Mars mission would require could be accomplished only by cutting health-care benefits, education spending or other important programs or by raising taxes. Absent some remarkable discovery, astronauts, geologists and biologists once on Mars could do little more than analyze rocks and feel awestruck beholding the sky of another world. It is interesting to note that when President Bush unveiled his proposal, he listed these recent major achievements of space exploration: pictures of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets, evidence of water on Mars and the moon of Jupiter, discovery of more than 100 planets outside our solar system and study of the soil of Mars. All these accomplishments came from automated probes or automated space telescopes. Bush’s proposal, which calls for “reprogramming” some of NASA’s present budget into the Mars effort, might actually lead to a reduction in such unmanned science, the one aspect of space exploration that’s working really well. Rather than spend hundreds of billions of dollars to hurl tons toward Mars using current technology, why not take a decade or two decades, or however much time is required researching new launch systems and advanced propulsion? If new launch systems could put weight into orbit affordably, and if advanced propulsion could speed up that long, slow transit to Mars, then the dreams of stepping onto the Red Planet might become reality. Mars will still be there when the technology is ready. The drive to explore is part of what makes us human, and exploration of the past has led to unexpected glories. Dreams must be tempered by realism, however. For the moment, going to Mars is hopelessly unrealistic.

单选题For as long as multinational companies have existed—and some historians trace them back to banking under the Knights Templar in 1135—they have been derided by their critics as greedy rich-world beasts. If there was ever any truth to that accusation, it is fast disappearing. While globalisation has opened new markets to rich-world companies, it has also given birth to a pack of fast-moving, sharp-toothed new multinationals that is emerging from the poor world. The newcomers have some big advantages over the old firms. They are not restricted by the accumulated legacies of their rivals. Infosys, an Indian IT-service company, rightly sees itself as more energetic than IBM, because when it makes a decision it does not have to weigh the opinions of thousands of highly paid careerists in Armonk, New York. That, in turn, can make a difference in the competition for talent. Western multinationals often find that the best local people leave for a local rival as soon as they have been trained, because the prospects of rising to the top can seem better at the local firm. But the newcomers" advantages are not overwhelming. Take the difference in company ethics, for instance, which worries plenty of rich-world managers. They fear that they will engage in a race to the bottom with rivals unencumbered by the fine feelings of shareholders and domestic customers, and so are bound to lose. Yet the evidence is that companies harmonise up, not down. In developing countries multinationals tend to spread better working practices and environmental conditions; but when emerging-country multinationals operate in rich countries they tend to adopt local mores. So as those companies globalise, the differences are likely to narrow. Nor is cost as big an advantage to emerging-country multinationals as it might seem. They compete against the old guard on value for money, which depends on both price and quality. A firm like Tata Steel, from low-cost India, would never have bought expensive, Anglo-Dutch Corus were it not for its expertise in making fancy steel. This points to an enduring source of advantage for the wealthy companies under attack. A world that is not governed by cost alone suits them, because they already possess a formidable array of skills, such as managing relations with customers, polishing brands, building up know-how and fostering innovation. Nobody said that coping with a new brood of competitors was going to be easy. Some of today"s established multinational companies will not be up to the task. But others will emerge from the encounter stronger than ever. And consumers, wherever they are, will gain from the contest.

单选题A breakthrough (突破) in the provision of energy from the Sun for the European Economic Community (EEC) could be brought forward by up to two decades, if a modest increase could be provided in the EEC"s research effort in this field, according to the senior EEC scientists engaged in experiments in solar energy at EEC"s scientific laboratories at Ispra, near Milan. The senior West German scientist in charge of the Community"s solar energy programme, Mr. Joachim Gretz, told journalists that at present levels of research spending it was most unlikely that solar energy would provide as much as three per cent of the Community"s energy requirements even after the year 2000. But he said that with a modest increase in the present sums, devoted by the EEC to this work it was possible that the breakthrough could be achieved by the end of the next decade. Mr. Gretz calculates that if solar energy only provided three per cent of the EEC"s needs, this could still produce a saving of about a billion pounds in the present bill for imported energy each year. And he believes that with the possibility of utilizing more advanced technology in this field it might be possible to satisfy a much bigger share of the Community"s future energy needs. At present the EEC spends about $2.6 millions a year on solar research at Ispra, one of the EEC"s official joint research centres, and another $3 millions a year in indirect research with universities and other independent bodies.

单选题The north Australian city on Darwin was devastated by a strong cyclone(龙卷风) on Christmas Day. The death and destruction was due almost as much to human factors as to the violence of the wind. People in Darwin had become so accustomed to cyclone warnings that few of them paid attention to the radio warnings of Cyclone Tracy approach, which began early on Christmas Eve. Many people, in fact, died in their ears as they tried to drive home through the cyclone from Christmas parties or social calls. Since Townsville was devastated by a cyclone in December 1971, the weather authorities have regularly issued alarms of every dangerous cyclone. But because few of the cyclones ever hit the coastal towns, people there had come to ignore the warnings. Darwin"s last alert was broadcast only two weeks before Cyclone Tracy. On that occasion the storm changed direction and headed off harmlessly down the coast. Apart from those people killed in their cars, nearly all the other victims died in the damage of their homes which, despite the fact that Darwin lies in the recognized cyclone belt, had not been built to withstand cyclonic winds. Although building standards in other states of Australia were made much stricter after the tragedy at Townsville, the Darwin authorities never followed the new regulations. Consequently most of suburban Darwin was built of light wood and iron raised off the ground on piles to give coolness in the tropical climate. And the sides of the houses were simply nailed to the roof instead of being firmly attached with what Australian builders call "cyclone bolts". As a result, many people were killed by flying sheets of iron from the roofs.

单选题If books had never been discovered, man would have found some other way of recording his communication. But then, for our consideration, we should include as books everything that is a written record. This would include tablets, papyrus and anything else-including computer diskettes. In the case of music, it would be impossible to think that man can live without it. Looking at primitive cultures, it appears that music is actually a part of the human psyche. When two things are knocked together, music is produced. So for the sake of our discussion, it is intended to restrict the meaning of music to the popularly accepted concept. Music is the pleasing combination of sounds that we like to listen to. Though it is difficult to, we can pretend that these things never existed. In this case we would not miss them today. To compare with recent inventions, let us look at radio and television Though we cannot think of life without them today, this is so only from comparatively recent times. There are many of us living today who had seen a time when there was no television. They will tell us that life was not that much different. The same is probably true of radio. But books are a different thing because they, or something akin to them, began thousands of years ago. In the case of music, it goes back even further--perhaps to millions of years, we may be able to imagine a world which never saw books, because books are a human invention. However, in the case of music this does not seem possible. Pleasing sounds are all around us, like the singing of the birds and the whistling of the wind. Music just seems to be inborn in us and in the world around us. If books did not exist, the world will be a poorer place indeed. Great philosophies like Plato's would become unknown and all the pleasures and lessons we could get from them will be lost forever. Then there is literature like the works of the great masters like Shakespeare, Dickens and Jane Austen. What a so sombre, miserable world it will be without the pleasures of reading. Since there are so many other things which depend on reading-like plays, songs and movies--we can expect them to disappear also. It would be a dark and unsatisfying world where knowledge is not propagated, where there are no books to derive pleasure from. In the case of music: Without it the world will be bleak and cold indeed. It would be a terrible world with no cheery tunes, no songs to sing and no great music to lose ourselves in. A world which does not listen to the music of the great masters like Chopin and Beethoven would be a very sorry world. There will not be so many smiles on faces anymore. When we lose music, an expression of a deep part of ourselves--from the soul--is lost. With music, connected activities like dancing will be lost too. A world without music and dancing will bring us back to the Stone Age. Unlike radio, television, telephones and computers, reading and music are not mere conveniences that we can live without. Reading is crucial for self-expression and for passing on records and knowledge to future generations. Music is part of our very soul. A world without these will not be the world as we know it. In fact, many of us would not want to live in such a world.

单选题Throughout all ages man has always carved colossal figures out of stone. This can be seen in the ancient ruins of Egypt, Persia and Babylon. In modern times America has also taken up the same challenge and has carved huge sculptures into her mountains. On the East Coast of America not far from Atlanta, Georgia stands Stone Mountain, the largest mass of exposed granite in the world. Carved into the side of this mountain are three tremendous equestrian figures. They are sculptures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall Jackson." It is a memorial to the Confederacy. The colossal figure of Lee alone measures 138 feet from the top of his head to the tip of his horse"s hoof. To see these stone sculptures on the side of a mountain is most impressive and inspiring. It was commissioned in 1916 and was begun by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, but was not completed until 1969 by Walter K. Hancock. In South Dakota, a western state, is located another achievement of man"s ability to shape nature into his own image and the achievement is considered to be one of the great man-made wonders of the modern world. It is located in the Black Hills in the southwestern part of the state. It is called the "Shrine of Democracy" at Mount Rushmure about twenty-five miles from Rapid City. It is visible for 97 kilometers. this monument was conceived by master sculptor, Gutzon Borglum and was begun in 1927. He was born in Idaho and his first commission was a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Capitol in Washington, D. C. This masterpiece in stone consists of the faces of four U. S. presidents which are 60 feet high each. The monument took 14 years to complete and ranks as one of the great sculptures of the world equal to the colossal figures of gods and kings found in Egyptian temples and tombs. Some have argued that a fifth face should be carved next to the existing four, but this would be impossible because the stone on the rest of the mountain is not of good quality for carving. A trip to America would not he complete without viewing one of these monuments. Their size, scope and grandeur stand as a testimony to both art and technology and the grandeur of America.

单选题It was the color not the material ______he was surprised at.

单选题In the passage, the author is mainly concerned with ______.

单选题I'm far from certain that this group is going to be able to ______ what is necessary to gain complete control. A. carry out B. tear down C. break out D. close down

单选题Over the past few days, the U.S. has been in the world"s crosshairs. Political argument in Washington produced a debt agreement widely criticized as insufficient and incomplete. Standard & Poor"s downgraded America"s credit rating, raising concerns about the health of the world"s most important economy. Slow growth in the U.S. is threatening the entire global recovery. Stock-market turmoil on Wall Street has turned markets from London to Seoul into roller coasters. Yes, the U.S. has been a source of much uncertainty in recent days. But in my opinion, the real danger for the global economy lies elsewhere: in Europe. If we"re going to have another financial crisis, chances are it will start in the euro zone, not Washington. On a macro level, you could say the U.S. is worse off economically than Europe right now. Economists were frantically reducing their 2011 growth forecasts for the U.S. as its GDP limped along in the first half of the year. In Europe, growth is holding up. The IMF raised its growth projection for the euro zone in late June to 2%. And as a recent HSBC report noted, the state of American national finances is actually more feeble than the euro zone"s taken as a whole. Even before the financial crisis, the U.S. fiscal path was unsustainable, an ageing population combined with extravagant social security commitments suggested either the need for massive tax increases or dramatic spending cuts. The crisis, however, made matters a lot worse. According to the OECD, the US federal, state and local government deficit (NOT the federal deficit alone) jumped from 2.9% of GDP in 2007 to 10.6% in 2010. Though that may be true, the U.S. has one huge advantage over Europe at this moment, the luxury of time. Ironically, the reaction of the world"s investor community to the recent financial turmoil has been to rush into U.S. debt—yes, the very bonds downgraded by S&P. What that means is U.S. borrowing costs will continue to decline, and that buys Washington time to get its act together and put in place a real plan to fill the deficit and restore American growth. The euro zone, on the other hand, has no such luck. Borrowing costs for the zone"s weakest economies—the PIIGS, including Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy—remain highly elevated. That puts pressure on those governments to implement reform programs with great haste as well as pressure on the rest of the euro zone to take more and more dramatic action to stem the contagion. The European Central Bank swooped in to buy billions of dollars of Italian and Spanish debt, which is a major deviation from the ECB"s usual policy. But it is unlikely that the ECB can handle the crisis on its own over an extended period of time.

单选题On the outside, Betsy Lueth's school looks like any other in this arty neighborhood of Minneapolis: a sprawling, boxy red brick building with plain steel doors. Yet inside, the blond, friendly Minnesotan presides over an institution unique in the heartland: Yinghua Academy, a chartered public school where elementary students of every ethnicity study subjects ranging from math to American history in Mandarin. The idea behind Yinghua, as with many immersion programs, is to introduce kids to the language and culture as early as possible—ideally, before age 12, while they're still absorbing information like sponges. Kindergartners and first-graders are taught exclusively in Mandarin, and a single period of English is introduced in the second grade. By the sixth grade, kids are learning half in English and half in Mandarin, with the expectation of proficiency in both. The challenges at Yinghua are numerous. Most teachers come from Taiwan or mainland of China, and cultural misunderstandings prevail. Lueth's instructors are learning to be tolerant of local norms like nontraditional families and boys who cry—as well as a lot more parental input than they're used to. "In China, teachers are revered. They are not questioned," says Luyi Lien, Yinghua's Taiwan-born academic director. "In America, parents are more expressive of their opinions. " Yinghua's student body, once 70% Asian, is now 50% white, black or Hispanic. The school has more than tripled its enrollment, to 300 kids, many of whom commute an hour each day. Research has shown that in the long run, immersion programs can provide cognitive benefits, including more flexible, creative thinking. Though students from the programs lag for a few years in English, by the fifth grade they perform as well as or better than their monolingual peers on standardized reading and math tests. For multicultural families, the psychological boost can also be important. Lueth's adopted daughter, Lucy, used to squirm when cousins asked why her skin color was different from theirs. Now, Lucy proudly answers them, "Yeah, I was born in China. " Lueth recently won an $800,000 grant from the Department of Education to develop a teaching model for immersion middle schools, and she advises educators around the country who are starting their own programs. If Yinghua can make Mandarin a success in Minnesota, so can they. "This is a glorious culture and an increasingly important language that we are meaningfully teaching to our children. And we're in the middle of nowhere. /