单选题Biologically, there is only one quality which distinguishes us from animals: the ability to laugh. In a universe which appears to be utterly devoid of humor, we enjoy this supreme luxury. And it is a luxury, for unlike any other bodily process, laughter does not seem serve a biologically useful purpose. In a divided world, a laughter is a unifying force. Human beings oppose each other on a great many issues. Nations may disagree about systems of government and human relations may be plagued by ideological factions and political camps, but we all share the ability to laugh. And laughter, in turn, depends on the most complex and subtle of all-human qualities: a sense of humor. Certain comic stereotypes have a universal appeal. This can best be seen from the world-wide popularity of Charlie Chaplain's early films. The little man at odds with society never fails to amuse no matter which country we come from. As that great commentator on human affairs, Dr. Samuel Johnson, once remarked, "Men have been wise in very different modes; but they have always laughed in the same way. " A sense of humor may take various forms and laughter may be anything from refined tinkle to an earthquaking roar, but the effect is always the same. Humor helps us to maintain a correct sense of values. It is the one quality which political fanatics appear to lack. If we can see the funny side, we never make the mistake of taking ourselves too seriously. We are always reminded that tragedy is not really far removed from comedy, so we never get a lopsided view of things. This is one of the chief functions of satire and irony. Human pain and suffering are so grim; we hover so often on the brink of war, political realities are usually enough to plunge us into total despair. In such circumstances, cartoons and satirical accounts of somber political events redress the balance. They take the wind out of pompous and arrogant politicians who have lost their sense of proportion. They enable us to see that many of our most profound actions are merely comic or absurd. We laugh when a great satirist like Swift writes about wars in Gulliver's Travels. The Lilliputians and their neighbors attack each other because they can't agree which end to break an egg. We laugh because we are meant to laugh; hut we are meant to weep too. It is no wonder that in totalitarian regimes any satire against the Establishment is wholly banned. It is too powerful weapon to be allowed to flourish. The sense of humor must be singled out as man's most important quality because it is associated with laughter. And laughter, in turn, is associated with happiness. Courage, determination, initiative--these are qualities we share with other forms oflife. But the sense of humor is an unique human quality. If happiness is one of the great goals of life, then it is the sense of humor that provides the key.

单选题Certainly no creature in the sea is odder than the common sea cucumber. All living creatures, especially human beings, have their peculiarities, but everything about the little sea cucumber seems unusual. What else can be said about a bizarre animal that among other eccentricities, eats mud, feeds almost continuously day and night but can live without eating for long periods, and can be poisonous but is considered supremely edible by gourmets? For some fifty million years, despite all its eccentricities, the sea cucumber has subsisted on its diet of mud. It is adaptable enough to live attached to rocks by its tube feet, under rocks in shallow water, or on the surface of mud flats. Common in cool water on both Atlantic and Pacific shores, it has the ability to suck up mud or sand and digest whatever nutrients are present. Sea cucumbers come in a variety of colors, ranging from black to reddish-brown to sand-colored and nearly white. One form even has vivid purple tentacles. Usually the creatures are cucumber-shaped—hence their name and because they are typically rock inhabitants, this shape, combined with their flexibility, enables them to squeeze into crevices where they are safe from predators and ocean currents. Although they have voracious appetites, eating day and night, sea cucumbers have the capacity to become quiescent and live at a low metabolic rate—feeding sparingly or not at all for long periods, so that the marine organisms that provide their food have a chance to multiply. If it were not for this faculty, they would devour all the food available in a short time and would probably starve themselves out of existence. But the most spectacular thing about the sea cucumber is the way it defends itself. Its major enemies are fish and crabs. When attacked, it squirts all its internal organs into the water. It also casts off attached structures such as tentacles. The sea cucumber will eviscerate and regenerate itself if it is attacked or even touched: it will do the same if the surrounding water temperature is too high or the water becomes too polluted.

单选题Until recently, such ______ was limited to telephone questions and answers much like daytime talk shows.

单选题But for making money, his pen would prove mightier than his pickax. A. metonymy B. antithesis

单选题By almost every measure, Paul Pfingst is an unsentimental prosecutor. Last week the San Diego County district attorney said he fully intends to try (1) Charles Andrew Williams, 15, as an adult (2) the Santana High School shootings. Even before the (3) Pfingst had stood behind the controversial California law that (4) treating murder suspects as young as 14 as adults. So nobody would have wagered that Pfingst would also be the first D. A. ( district attorney) in the U. S. to (5) his very own Innocence Project. Yet last June, Pfingst told his attorneys to go back over old murder and rape (6) and see ff any unravel with newly developed DNA-testing tools. In other words, he wanted to revisit past victories—this time playing for the other team. "I think people misunderstand being conservative (7) being biased," says Pfingst. "I consider myself a pragmatic guy, and I have no interest in putting (8) people in jail." Around the U. S. , flabbergasted defense attorneys and their jailed clients cheered his move. Among prosecutors, (9) , there was an awkward pause. (10) , each DNA test costs as much as $ 5,000. Then there's the (11) risk: if dozens of innocents (12 , the D.A. will have indicted his shop. (13) nine months later, no budgets have been busted or prosecutors ousted. Only the rare case merits review. Pfingst's team considers convictions before 1993, when the city started (14) DNA testing. They discard cases if the defendant has been released. Of the 560 (15) files, they have re-examined 200, looking for cases with biological evidence and defendants who still (16) innocence. They have identified three so far. The most compelling involves a man (17) 12 years for molesting a girl who was playing in his apartment. But others were there at the time. Police found a small drop of saliva on the (18) shirt—too small a (19) to test in 1991. Today that spot could free a man. Test results are due any day. (20) by San Diego, 10 other counties in the U.S. are starting DNA audits.

单选题Some people are willing to rend ____ cars instead of new ones to save money.

单选题The employees tried to settle the dispute by direct _____with the boss

单选题During the twentieth century there has been a great change in the lives of women. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four of five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which chance and health made it unusual for them to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman"s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until sixty. This important change in women"s life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women"s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school and took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life.

单选题The writer of this article may agree with which of the following?

单选题The author considers the explanation put forward by Freyre and Tannenbaum for the treatment accorded Black slaves to be

单选题The orphans ______ the separate offers for adoption because they wished to stay together.

单选题The farmer was horrified at the ______ that he has dug from under the field.

单选题Man: I have called you several times, but you were not home. What have you been up to? Woman: I have joined a weight-loss support group, and now I feel great to be able to shop in the regular women"s department. Question: What is the woman"s aim to join the group?

单选题2 At home Theodore Roosevelt had affection, not compliments, whether these were unintentional and sincere or were thinly disguised flattery. And affection was what he most craved from his family and nearest friends, and what he gave to them without stint. As I have said, he allowed nothing to interrupt the hours set apart for his wife and children while he was at the White House; and at Oyster Bay there was always time for them. A typical story is told of the boys coming in upon him during a conference with some important visitor, and saying reproachfully, "It's long after four o'clock, and you promised to go with us at four. " "So I did," said Roosevelt. And he quickly finished his business with the visitor and went. When the children were young, he usually saw them at supper and into bed, and he talked of the famous pillow fights they had with him. House guests at the White House some times unexpectedly caught sight of him crawling in the entry near the children's rooms, with two or three children riding on his hack. Roosevelt's days were seldom less than fifteen hours long, and we can guess how he regarded the laboring men of today who clamor for eight and six, and even fewer hours, as the normal period for a day's work. He got up at half-past seven and always finished breakfast by nine, when what many might call the real work of his day began. The unimaginative laborer probably supposes that most of the duties which fall to all industrious President are not strictly work at all;but if any one had to meet for an hour and a half every forenoon such Congressmen and Senators as chose to call on him, he would understand that that was a job involving real work, hard work. They came every day with a grievance, or an appeal, or a suggestion, or a favor to ask, and he had to treat each one, not only politely, but more or less differently. Early in his Administration I heard it said that he offended some Congressmen by denying their requests in so loud a voice that others in the room could hear him, and this seemed to some a humilia- tion. President McKinley, on the other hand, they said, lowered his voice, and spoke so softly and sweetly that even his refusal did not jar on his visitor, and was not heard at all by the bystanders. If this happened, I suspect it was because Roosevelt spoke rather explosively and had a habit of emphasis, and not because he wished in any way to send his petitioner's rebuff through the room. Nor was the hour which followed this, when he received general callers, less wearing. As these persons came from all parts of the Union, so they were of all sorts and temperaments. Here was a worthy citizen from Colorado who, on the strength of having once heard the President make a public speech in Denver, claimed immediate friendship with him. Then might come an old lady from Georgia, who remembered his mother's people there, or the lady from Jacksonville, Florida, of whom I have already spoken. Once a little boy, who was almost lost in the crush of grown-up visitors, managed to reach the President. "What can I do for you?" the President asked; and the boy told how his father had died leaving his mother with a large family and no money, and how he was selling typewriters to help support her. His mother, he said, would be most grateful if the President would accept a typewriter from her as a gift. So the President told the little fellow to go and sit down until the other visitors had passed, and then he would attend to him. No doubt, the boy left the White House well contented--and richer.

单选题The Red Cross ______ food and shelter for disaster victims.

单选题For a national of pet-rovers, the British are surprisingly relaxed about the vast numbers of animal experiments that are conducted by its scientists. A dearth of publicity following the jailing of extremists who threatened the livelihoods (and, in other cases, the lives) of those who help provide animals for research may be one reason for the muted response to the recent Home Office announcement that the number of animals used in experiments rose once again last year. But another reason is that Britain already has the most restrictive rules in the world governing the use of animals, which curtail the use of many of the higher-order species for which people feel the greatest empathy, and that most of the research that is done instead involves rodents. Unlike America, where researchers routinely use chimpanzees to help develop vaccines against diseases such as hepatitis-C and HIV, no experiments of any kind have been conducted on great apes in Britain for more than a decade. Only relatively small numbers of monkeys are used (less than 0.1% of the total number of animals). Nevertheless their use is controversial so, to determine whether it is also worthwhile, Sir Patrick Bateson of the University of Cambridge recently conducted the first ever retrospective study of the use of primates in research, which was published on July 27th. Sir Patrick examined experiments on some 3,000 monkeys such as the macaque that were conducted over the decade to 2006. The lion's share involved neurological studies: scientists argue that if they can better understand how the brain works, then they will be better placed to develop ways to stave off degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. They were supervised by 72 people who held a license from the Home Office that allowed them to use primates in research; each experiment had to be licensed, too. And most did indeed help to further knowledge. However in a disturbing 9 % of cases "no clear scientific, medical or social benefit had emerged" by the time the evaluation was completed. That seems rather a lot of unnecessary pain and distress, as Sir Patrick acknowledges. Yet his colleague Sir Mark Walport of the Wellcome Trust, which funds medical research, points out that all scientific research carries a risk that it will reveal nothing novel, and that the fact that 91% of investigations using primates did prove worthwhile was something of a triumph. One of Sir Patrick's recommendations that is particularly welcome is that researchers "have a moral obligation to publish results—even if negative—in order to prevent work being repeated unnecessarily". For too long scientists have shared only the results of successful experiments, condemning others to repeat their mistakes. That is something we have previously argued against, and the ongoing shift away from paper-based journals to electronic: data repositories can only help. In an ideal world, there would be no animal testing. It is stressful for animals, and expensive and time-consuming for people. But while it remains necessary to advance both medical and veterinary research, conducting it under the strictest rules, and exposing what is done to external scrutiny, should help ensure Britain's continuing status as an animal-loving nation.

单选题About three-quarters of Americans, according to surveys, think the country is on the wrong track. About two-thirds of the public disapprove of the job performance of President Bush, and an even higher number disdain Congress. The media are excited about the prospect of a wealthy businessman running for President as an independent who could tap into broad public disgruntlement with the partisan politicians in Washington. 2007? Yes. But also 1992. The main difference between the two situations is that Michael Bloomberg is richer—and saner—than Ross Perot. But one similarity might be this: the American people were wrong then and may be wrong now. The widespread pessimism in the early 1990s about the course of the country turned out to be unwarranted. The rest of the decade featured impressive economic growth, a falling crime rate, successful reform of the welfare system and a reasonably peaceful world. Perhaps the problems weren't so bad in the first place, or perhaps the political system produced politicians, like Bill Clinton, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, who were able to deal with the problems. But, in any case, the country got back on course. That's not to say all was well in the 1990s, especially in foreign policy. Responsibilities in places ranging from Bosnia to Rwanda to Afghanistan were shirked, and gathering dangers weren't dealt with. Still, the sour complaints and dire predictions of 1992—oh, my God, the budget deficit will do us in! —were quickly overtaken by events. What' s more, the fear of many conservatives that we might be at the mercy of unstoppable forces of social disintegration turned out to be wrong. Indeed, the dire predictions were rendered obsolete so quickly that one wonders whether we were, in 1992, really just indulging in some kind of post-cold-war victory. Sometimes the public mood is…well, moody. Today we're moody again. We are obviously fighting a difficult and, until recently, badly managed war in Iraq, whose outcome is uncertain. This accounts for much of the pessimism. It also doesn't help that the political system seems incapable of dealing with big problems like immigration, an energy policy and health care. Still, is the general feeling that everything is going to the dogs any more justified today than it was 15 years ago? Not really. Think of it this way: Have events in general gone better or worse than most people would have predicted on Sept. 12, 2001? There's been no successful second attack here ill the U. S. —and very limited terrorist successes in Europe or even in the Middle East. We've had 5 1/2 years of robust economic growth, low unemployment and a stock-market recovery. Social indicators in the U. S. are mostly stable or improving—abortions, teenage births and teenage drug use are down and education scores are up a bit. As for American foreign policy since 9/11, it has not produced the results some of us hoped for, and there are many legitimate criticisms of the Bush Administration's performance. But, in fact, despite the gloom and doom from critics left and right (including, occasionally, me), the world seems to present the usual mixed bag of difficult problems and heartening developments. The key question, of course, is the fate of Iraq. A decent outcome—the defeat of al-Qaeda in what it has made the central front in the war on terrorism and enough security so there can be peaceful rule by a representative regime—seems to me achievable, if we don' t lose our nerve here at home. With success in Iraq, progress elsewhere in the Middle East will be easier. The balance sheet is uncertain. But it is by no means necessarily grim.

单选题It is a ______ not worthy of such heated argument. [A] trifle [B] trivial [C] pride [D] understanding