单选题A. rainB. entertainC. mainD. mountain

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Those of us hurrying to finish our taxes by tomorrow's deadline will probably be subjected to thoughts of the I.R.S. (Internal Revenue Service) as an all-powerful bully. But the truth is, the government is not always a match for the tax advisors of wealthy people, so a lot of taxes will go unpaid at the top of the income scale. Lawyers who represent high-income taxpayers earn more than 10 times what senior government lawyers do—an obvious disadvantage for the government agencies in attracting and retaining top talent. The lawyers who write our tax rules are overworked and sometimes inexperienced, so that they leave loopholes that are exploited by more experienced private lawyers. And the government always loses cases which it should win, and provides private lawyers with precedents. As this vicious cycle shows, skimping (节约) on tax administration is a false economy. Instead, if we substantially increase government salaries and staffing levels, we can raise more revenue, with lower tax rates and less waste. Four reforms should be adopted immediately. First, the government should focus on hiring talented young lawyers, since the pay disparity with the private sector is narrower for them. These efforts will be more effective if Congress helps new graduates repay student loans, which often are more than $100,000. A loan repayment program would be a powerful recruiting device. Second, the government should tap another promising talent pool—recent retirees from private practice—to mentor young lawyers. The salary gap is less of an issue for retirees, and the opportunity to give back to the tax system can be quite appealing. Third, the government should retain a small team of a dozen top tax lawyers at salaries closer to the market rate. They can serve as a rapid reaction force, deciding whether to shut down a new aggressive strategy immediately or to let it be evaluated through usual government channels. Fourth, the government should retain private lawyers to help with high-priority projects. An important constraint is that lawyers who represent private clients may view it as a conflict to help the government. But this is not always true. Through bar associations, private lawyers already volunteer to review proposed changes in the tax law and offer ways to improve them. Tax academics can also be a valuable and conflict-free source of expertise, since they ordinarily do not represent clients. And some tax litigators (诉讼律师) may view it as a prestigious opportunity and a patriotic service to represent the government in a tax case that could set an important precedent. The tax system can be only as strong as the people who run it, so the government has to recruit and retain the most promising talent. A tax system can be fair and efficient only when it is administered soundly.

单选题Prolonged and excessive use of alcohol can seriously undermine an individual's health. Physical deterioration occurs. Large quantities of alcohol can directly damage body tissue and indirectly cause malnutrition. Nutritional deficiencies can result for several reasons. Alcohol contains empty calories, which have no significant nutritive value. When consumed in substantial amounts, alcohol curbs one' s appetite for more wholesome foods. Excessive alcohol intake can interfere with the proper digestion and absorption of food. Therefore, even the heavy drinker who does eat a well-balanced diet is deprived of me essential nutrients. Maintenance of a drinking habit can deplete economic resources otherwise available for buying good, wholesome food. Malnutrition itself further reduces the body' s ability to utilize the nutrients consumed. The result of damaged tissue and malnutrition can be brain injury, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer of the liver, and weakened muscle tissue. Untreated alcoholism can reduce one's life span by ten to twelve years. Heavy alcohol consumption also affects the body's usage of other drugs and medications. The dosages required by excessive drinkers may differ from those required by normal or non-drinkers. Serious consequences can be incurred unless the prescribing physician is aware of the patient's drinking habits. Sudden death may result from excessive drinking. It might occur when the individual has ingested such a large amount of alcohol that the brain center controlling breathing and heart action is adversely affected, or when taking some other drugs, particularly sleep preparations along with alcohol. Death, as a result of excessive drinking, can come during an automobile accident since half of all fatal traffic accidents involve the use of alcohol. Many self-inflicted deaths, as well as homicides, involve the use of alcohol. It is important to remember that alcohol is a drug that is potentially addictive. Once the user is hooked on alcohol, withdrawal symptoms occur when it is not sufficiently available to body cells. At the onset of developing alcohol addiction, these symptoms may be relatively mild and include hand tremors, anxiety, nausea, and sweating. As dependency increases, so does the severity of the withdrawal syndrome and the need for medical assistance to cope with it. In 1956 the American Medical Association supported the growing acceptance of alcoholism as an illness, falling under the treatment jurisdiction of the medical profession. Since then, the medical resources for problems of acute and chronic intoxication have increased and improved.

单选题Could a simple memory workout make you smarter? An intriguing new study by researchers at the University of Michigan suggests it can—a finding that adds a wrinkle to the prevailing notion that IQ is largely fixed by genes. The study involved 62 elementary-and middle-school children from southeast Michigan who were randomly assigned to train on one of two video game-like computer tasks. One group performed a mental training exercise aimed at improving working memory, the ability to hold and retrieve information in the short term. The other group practiced general knowledge and vocabulary skills. Both groups trained for one month, five times a week for 15 minutes per session. At the end of the intervention, many of the kids who had engaged in the working-memory task had boosted a key attribute of their intelligence—by some five points. Specifically, they improved their performance on tests of so-called fluid intelligence, the ability t9 solve new problems and reason abstractly. Researchers have long debated whether fluid intelligence—considered a significant predictor of educational success—could be reliably improved by training. Fluid intelligence is thought to be independent of learning, experience or education and, therefore, mainly governed by genes. By contrast, the other component of overall intelligence, crystallized intelligence, which involves the acquisition of discrete bits of knowledge, improves with learning. The Michigan researchers found that kids had not only enhanced their fluid intelligence after training on the working-memory tasks, but that they also maintained the gains for three months after training ended. There were several limitations to the findings, however. To start, the size of children's improvements was inconsistent. It's possible that kids who saw greater gains in fluid intelligence were those who started out at lower ability levels and simply had more room to improve. Further, not every child improved. The authors suggested that students who failed to benefit from the working-memory training found the task too difficult or boring, and became frustrated and disengaged. Indeed, the training task is a chore, even when dressed up in a video game. The job of the child is to press the space bar whenever the character returns to a spot where it has previously been, and to ignore the other irrelevant locations. As the children advance in the task, these locations move further back in time, forcing them to sort through an increasing amount of information. Perhaps more importantly, it's not clear whether higher scores on tests of fluid intelligence have any real-world significance: whether they naturally translate to better grades or improvements in other abilities-or for that matter whether they predict better jobs or more life success down the line. For now, the Michigan researchers are planning to investigate whether the same training task could benefit children with deficits in working memory and attention. Lead author Susanne Jaeggi and her team are also working on an intervention that can be easily implemented in schools and other educational settings.

单选题I can't stand ______ in queues.

单选题 Generally speaking, a British is widely regarded as a quiet, shy and conservative person who is{{U}} (1) {{/U}}only among those with whom he is acquainted. When a stranger is at present, he often seems nervous, even{{U}} (2) {{/U}}. You have to take a commuter train any morning or evening to (3) the truth of this. Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or dozing in a comer; hardly anybody talks, since to do so would be considered quite{{U}} (4) {{/U}}. {{U}} (5) {{/U}}, there is an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior which, once broken, makes the offender immediately the object of{{U}} (6) {{/U}}. It has been known as a fact that a British has a{{U}} (7) {{/U}}for the discussion of their weather and that, if given a chance, he will talk about it{{U}} (8) {{/U}}. Some people argue that it is because the British weather seldom{{U}} (9) {{/U}}forecast add hence becomes a source of interest and{{U}} (10) {{/U}}to everyone. This may be so.{{U}} (11) {{/U}}a British cannot have much{{U}} (12) {{/U}}in the weathermen, who, after promising fine, sunny weather for the following day, are often proved wrong{{U}} (13) {{/U}}a cloud over the Atlantic brings rainy weather to all districts! The man in the street seems to be as accurate -- or as inaccurate as the weathermen in his{{U}} (14) {{/U}}. Foreigners may be surprised at the number of references{{U}} (15) {{/U}}weather that the British{{U}} (16) {{/U}}to each other in the course of a single day. Very often conversational greetings are{{U}} (17) {{/U}}by comments on the weather. "Nice day, isn't it?" "Beautiful!" may well be heard, instead of "Good morning, how are you?" Although the foreigner may consider this exaggerated and comic, it is{{U}} (18) {{/U}}pointing out that it could be used to his advantage. If he wants to start a conversation with a British but is at a loss to know{{U}} (19) {{/U}}to begin, he could do well to mention the state of the weather. It is a safe subject which will{{U}} (20) {{/U}}an answer from even the most reserved of the British.

单选题A violent crime was______ every 32 seconds in this city last year.

单选题There are increasingly fraught relationships that adults are having with children—in all walks of life, from the police and politicians, within the public sector and within communities themselves. The fear of young people has changed the way society is policed, how pupils are treated in schools and how insecure adults relate to children on their estates. Rather than children and young people becoming more violent and anti-social, it is adults who have changed, having fewer relationships with young people and becoming less confident in their dealings with them. We must explore the role that crime and safety initiatives have on the outlook of the public. The attempt by government, council departments, the police and many others to reduce the fear within communities by developing safety initiatives is having the opposite effect, resulting in the institutionalization of this fear. Curfews have increased adults'fear of young people and reduced the amount of time young children are allowed out to play. They have raised the level of insecurity amongst parents about the safety of their children and ultimately reduced the contact between generations within this community. It is not far from the truth to say that "youth" no longer exists—if by youth we mean the freedom loving rebelliousness. The outcome of this process is breeding a generation of young people who are if anything more fragile and fearful than their grandparents. Finally, as well as exploring the fear of young people, we must look at the insecurity that parents have for their children. There has been a reduction in play, and specifically in "free play", and the effect of this more regulated environment on children's lives is yet to be determined and not something we can continually ignore in our rush to protect society from children.

单选题 Passage Three Visiting a National Park can be relaxing, inspiring and rejuvenating, but it can also be disturbing. As you drive into Rocky Mountain National Park, and you will see starving elk, damaged meadows and dying forests. Our parks are growing old because we have mistakenly protected them from natural processes, such as fire, predation, and insects. We believed that we were saving these remnants of wild America, but actually we have "protected" them to death. If we want to save our National Parks, the National Park Service must change its management priorities to-prevent over population of animals and to restore natural process in the forest in order to prevent their stagnation and "death" by old age. We must act soon: our parks are dying of old age because we have altered the forces in nature that keep them young and strong. By tracing the history of our National Parks, we can understand the problem and see why we need active management. In the early part of the 20th century, settlers exploited wildlife heavily, resulting in near-extinction of many species. Therefore, several National Parks were established by Congress primarily to save endangered animals. However, stricter wildlife protection laws and improved wildlife management techniques resulted in greater populations of animals overcrowding in areas of high concentration, such as the Yellowstone elk herds. Complicating the problem, the National Park Service in the early part of the 20th century adopted a policy of aggressive predator elimination, thus reducing natural wildlife population control. Subsequently, elk and deer populations exploded in many National Parks, resulting in severe damage to native vegetation. Vigorous forest fire and insect suppression in the National Parks throughout the 20th century further altered the natural environment by allowing forests to over-mature, without natural thinning processes. Park managers thought that they were protecting the land, but actually they were removing important controls from the forest ecosystems. Clearly, we must act immediately if we want to pass down to our children and grandchildren the green legacy of our National Parks; we must step in and restore the natural processes which we have altered through our well-intentioned, but misguided, policies in the past.

单选题I was______the chance of going to university when my parents' business collapsed and they lost everything they owned.

单选题Thewriterofthepassagehasa______attitudetowardsdangeroussports.

单选题Making good coffee is not a simple business. Coffee bushes must be grown in shade. A hillside is best--but it mustn't be too (1) . After three years, the bushes will start to (2) bright-red coffee "cherries", which are picked, processed to (3) the inner part, and spread out to dry for days, (4) on concrete. They are (5) again to separate the bean, which needs to rest, preferably for a few months. Only then can it be roasted, ground and brewed (6) the stuff that dreams are suppressed with. In Mexico and parts of Central America, (7) in Colombia, most coffee farmers are smallholders. They found it especially hard to (8) the recent fall in the coffee price. The (9) of their income makes it hard for farmers to invest to (10) their crop, says Fernando Celis. The fall forced many small farmers to (11) other crops, or migrate to cities. For farmers, one way out of this (12) is to separate the price they are paid (13) the international commodities markets. This is the (14) of Fair-trade, an organization which certifies products as "responsibly" sourced. Fair-trade determines at what price farmers make what it considers a (15) profit. Its current (16) is that the appropriate figure is 10% above the market price. (17) , sales of Fair-trade-certified coffee have increased from $ 22. 5m per year to $ 87m per year since 1998. This is still a tiny fraction of the overall world coffee trade, worth $10 billion (18) But there are plenty of other markets for high-quality coffee. Some small producers can (19) more by marketing their coffee as organic or "bird-friendly" because, unlike large, mechanized plantations, they have (20) shade trees.

单选题Many people proposed that a national committee be formed to discuss ______ to existing mass transit systems.(2003年中国科学院考博试题)

单选题Oxford is a very old town on the River Thames, about 60 miles from London. Unlike modern university towns, where you usually find the university on the edge of the town, or on its own campus (校园), Oxford's center is the university; and all around the crossroads at the very heart of Oxford, Carfax, there are grey stone colleges and other university buildings. In the center you can also find interesting old restaurants. There are a lot of churches, and a few really large and interesting buildings, such as the Ashmolean Museum, the "round" library, the Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera. Like all English towns, there are parks, and one" The Parks" is the home of university cricket(板球) in the summer months. As you leave the center and go towards the edge of Oxford you can see industrial areas in one direction; and in another, beautiful suburbs(郊区). There is, in fact, quite a lot of industry in Oxford.

单选题All flights ______ because of the snowstorm, they decided to take the train. A. were cancelled B. have been cancelled C. had been cancelled D. having been cancelled

单选题You may make good grades by studying only before examinations, but you will succeed eventually only by studying hard every day.

单选题In most cultures, when you meet acquaintances for the first time during a day, it is normal to greet them. The main purpose of this greeting is to【C1】______a good relationship between the people concerned, and each language usually has【C2】______set phrases which can be used for this purpose. Sometimes, though, there can be【C3】______differences in the type of phrases which can be used, and cultural misunderstandings can easily【C4】______The following is a true example. A young British woman went to Hong Kong to work, and at the time of her【C5】______she knew nothing about the Chinese culture or language. On her way to school one day, she went to the bank to get some money.【C6】______the bank clerk asked her if she had had her lunch. She was extremely surprised at such a question because in the British culture it would be【C7】______an indirect invitation to lunch. Between unmarried young people can also【C8】______the young man' s interest in dating the girl.【C9】______this bank clerk was a complete stranger【C10】______the British girl, she was very much taken aback, and hastily commented that she had eaten already. After this she【C11】______to school and was even more surprised when one of the teachers asked the same question. By now she【C12】______that it could not be an invitation, but was puzzled【C13】______why they asked it.【C14】______the following days she was asked the same question again and again. Only much later【C15】______that the question had no real meaning at all—it was merely a greeting.