单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Come on, my fellow white folks, we have something to confess. Out with it, friends, the biggest secret known to whites since the invention of powdered rouge: welfare is a white program. The numbers go like this: 61% of the population receiving welfare, listed as "means-tested cash assistance" by the Census Bureau, is identified as whit e, while only 33% is identified as black. These numbers notwithstanding, the Republican version of "political correctness" has given us "welfare cheat" as a new term for African American since the early days of Ronald Reagan. Our confession surely stands: white folks have been gobbling up the welfare budget while blaming someone else. But it's worse than that. If we look at Social Security, which is another form of welfare, although it is often mistaken for an individual insurance program, then whites are the ones who are crowding the trough. We receive almost twice as much per capita, for an aggregate advantage to our race of ＄10 billion a year--much more than the ＄ 3. 9 billion advantage African American gain from their disproportionate share of welfare. One sad reason: whites live an average of six years longer than African Americans, meaning that young black workers help subsidize a huge and growing "over-class" of white retirees. I do not see our confession bringing much relief. There's a reason for resentment, though it has more to do with class than with race. White people are poor too, and in numbers far exceeding any of our more generously pigmented social groups. And poverty as defined by the government is a vast underestimation of the economic terror that persists at incomes--such as ＄ 20,000 or even ＄ 40,000 and above--that we like to think of as middle class. The problem is not that welfare is too generous to blacks but that social welfare in general is too stingy to all concerned. Naturally, whites in the swelling "near poor" category resent the notion of whole races supposedly frolicking at their expense. Whites, near poor and middle class, need help too--as do the many African Americans. So we white folks have a choice. We can keep pretending that welfare is black program and a scheme for transferring our earnings to the pockets of shiftless, dark-skinned people. Or we can clear our throats, blush prettily and admit that we are hurting too--for cash assistance when we're down and out, for health insurance, for college aid and all the rest. {{U}}Racial scapegoating{{/U}} has its charms, I will admit: the surge of righteous anger, even the fun--for those inclined--of wearing sheets and burning crosses. But there are better, nobler sources of white pride, it seems to me. Remember this: only we can truly, deeply blush.

单选题 {{B}}Passage Three Glass{{/B}} (1)Since the Bronze Age, about 3000 B. C, glass has been used for making various kinds of objects. It was first made from a mixture of silica, lime, and an alkali such as soda or potash, and these remained the basic ingredients of glass until the development of lead glass in the seventeenth century. (2) When heated the mixture becomes soft and moldable and can be formed by various techniques into a vast array of shapes and sizes. The homogeneous mass thus formed by melting then cools to create glass, but in contrast to most materials formed in this way (metals, for instance), glass lacks the crystalline structure normally associated with solids, and instead retains the random molecular structure of a liquid. In effect, as molten glass cools, it progressively stiffens until rigid, but does so without setting up a network of interlocking crystals customarily associated with that process. This is why glass shatters so easily when dealt a blow. (3) Another unusual feature of glass is the manner in which its viscosity changes as it turns from a cold substance into a hot, ductile liquid. Unlike metals that flow or "freeze" at specific temperatures, glass progressively softens as the temperature rises, going through varying moldable stages until it flows like a thick syrup. Each of these stages allows the glass to be manipulated into various forms, by different techniques, and if suddenly cooled the object retains the shape achieved at that point. Glass is thus open to a greater number of heat-forming techniques than most other materials.

单选题Who were the earliest people living in North America?

单选题Which of the following can best describe the view of the author?

单选题This article deals with the natural ______ which is most interesting to everyone. A. phenomenon B. phenomena C. phenomenons D. phenomenas

单选题Japan is a______society of one nationality and a few underrepresented minority groups, such as the ethnic Chinese and Koreans.

单选题The number of stay-at-home fathers reached a record high last year, new figures show, as families saw a(n) ______ in female breadwinners. A. raise B. rise C. arise D. increase

单选题I prefer walking ( ).

单选题Not only the students but also the teacher ______ going to see the film. A. will B. are C. is D. has

单选题{{B}}练习五{{/B}} The American economic system is organized around a basically private-enterprise, market oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most. Private businessmen, striving to make their profits, produce these goods and services in competition with other businessmen: and the profit motive, operating under competitive pressures, largely determines how these goods and services are produced. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it. An important factor in a market-oriented economy is the mechanism by which consumer demands can be expressed and responded to by producers. In the American economy, this mechanism is provided by a price system, a process in which prices rise and fall in response to relative demands of consumers and supplies offered by seller-producers. If the product is in short supply relative to the demand, the price will be a bit up and some consumers will be eliminated from the market. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit more consumers to buy the product. Thus, price is the regulating mechanism in the American economic system. The important factor in a private-oriented economy is that individuals are allowed to own productive resources (private property), and they are permitted to hire labor, gain control over natural resources, and produce goods and services for sale at a profit. In the American economy, the concept of private property embraces not only the ownership of productive resources but also certain rights, including the right to determine the price of a product or to make a free contract with another private individual.

单选题Rocket fuels are more explosive than methane gas because of ______.

单选题Watch out! Here comes London Mayor Boris Johnson riding a bicycle from his new bike hire plan. "What we've put in is a new form of public transport. These bikes are going to belong to everybody. " More than 12000 people have signed up for the plan. They each receive a key at a cost of three pounds, with costs at one pound for a 24-hour membership, five pounds for seven days, and 45 pounds for an annual membership. John Payne, a London teacher who cycles a lot, is among the first to use the system. "It's very comfortable. For people who don't cycle much I think it'll be very useful. But for people who cycle regularly, they are possibly a bit slow. But they're perfect for London streets, very strong. I think they'll be very widely used. " And Johnson says it's of good value. "I think it's extremely good value. The first half hour is free. If you cycle smart and you cycle around London--most journeys in London take less than half an hour, you can cycle the whole day free. " Some 5 000 bikes are currently available at over 300 docking stations (租车点) in central London. Johnson says the city will gradually expand the system, "Clearly one of our ambitions is to make sure that in 2012 when the world comes to London, they be able to use London hire bikes to go to the Olympic stadiums. /

单选题Forests are delicate systems that if disturbed can be permanently destroyed.

单选题The panel is made up of ______. A. scientists B. homeowners C. citizens D. factory, owners

单选题The apples were divided ______ according to the age and size of the children. A. equally B. approximately C. proportionately D. sufficiently