单选题TEXT E The role of governments in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, however, governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidise the exploitation and consumption of natural resources. A whole range of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and (often) make no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold bonus: a cleaner environment and a more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to confront the vested interest that subsidies create. No activity affects more of the earth's surface than farming. It shapes a third of the planet's land area, not counting Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 per cent between the 1970s and i980s mainly as a result of increases in yields from land already in cultivation, but also because more land has been brought under the plough. All these activities may have damaging environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation; chemical fertilizers and pesticides may contaminate water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods tend to exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the disappearance of old varieties of food plants which might have provided some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, where the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate likely to diminish the soil's productivity. The country subsequently embarked upon a programme to convert 11 percent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is vanishing much faster than in America. Government policies have frequently compounded the environmental damage that farming can cause. In the rich countries, subsidies for growing crops and price supports for farm output drive up the price of land. In the late 1990s and early 1990s some efforts were made to reduce farm subsidies. The most dramatic example was that of New Zealand, which scrapped most farm support in 1984. A study of the environmental effects, conducted in 1993, found that the end of fertiliser subsidies had been followed by a fall in fertiliser use (a fall compounded by the decline in world commodity prices, which cut farm incomes). The removal of subsidies also stopped land-clearing and overstocking, which in the past had been the principal causes of erosion. Farms began to diversify. The one kind of subsidy whose removal appeared to have been bad for the environment was the subsidy to manage soil erosion. In less enlightened countries, and in the European Union, the trend has been to reduce rather than eliminate subsidies, and to introduce new payments to encourage farmers to treat their land in environmentally friendlier ways, or to leave it fallow. It may sound strange but such payments need to be higher than the existing incentives for farmers to grow food crops. Farmers, however, dislike being paid to do nothing. In several countries they have become interested in the possibility of using fuel produced from crop residues either as a replacement for petrol (as ethanol) or as fuel for power stations (as biomass). Such fuels produce far less carbon dioxide than coal or oil, and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. They are therefore less likely to contribute to the greenhouse effect. But they are rarely competitive with fossil fuels unless subsidised and growing them does no less environmental harm than other crops. A result of the Uruguay Round of world trade negotiations is like]y to be a reduction of 36 percent in the average levels of farm subsidies paid by the rich countries in 1986-1990. Some of the world's food production will move from Western Europe to regions where subsidies are lower or nonexistent, such as the former communist countries and parts of the developing world. Some environmentalists worry about this outcome. It will undoubtedly mean more pressure to convert natural habitat into farmland. But it will also have many desirable environmental effects. The intensity of farming in the rich world should decline, and the use of chemical inputs will diminish. Crops are more likely to be grown in the environments to which they are naturally suited. And more farmers in poor countries will have the money and the incentive to manage their land in ways that are sustainable in the long run. That is important. To feed an increasingly hungry world, farmers need every incentive to use their soil and water effectively and efficiently.

单选题I've no idea when she'll be back. ______ you wait or come back later is up to you. A. When B. If C. Whether D. That

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities--as well as new and significant risks. Civil right activists have long argued that one of the principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups have difficulty establishing themselves in business is that they lack of access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded federal contracts of more than ＄500,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government. Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority enterprises. Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from ＄77 million in 1972 to 1.1 billion in 1977. The projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 1980's is estimated to be over ＄ 3 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses, they often need to make substantial investment in new plants, staff, equipment and the like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small company's efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer. A second risk is that White-owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionment through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire business that neither could acquire alone. But civil right groups and minority business owners have complained to Congress about minorities being set up as "fronts" with White backing, rather than being accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures. Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming and remaining dependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer bases; when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success. (469 words){{B}}Notes:{{/B}} civil rights activists 公民权利激进分子。Hispanics 西班牙后裔美国人。sizable orders 大额订单。subcontract 转包合同。on forms filed with the government 在政府存档备案。percentage goals 指标。apportionment 分配，分派。public works 市政工程。letup 减弱，缓和。promising as it is...这是as引导的让步状语从句，表语倒装了。patronage 优惠。concern n.公司。and the like 以及诸如此类的。crippling fixed expenses 引起损失的固定开支。the world of 大量的。bid 投标。to cash in on...靠……赚钱。team up 一起工作，合作。"fronts" 在此处意为“摆门面”。complacency 自满。

单选题During voting, the city ______ will win host of Olympics.

单选题By the fourth week of July conditions in the tropics were such that ______.

单选题Narrative crept back into art through a side door marked fashion photography. In April 1967, French Vogue published a spread by Bob Richardson, the American photographer, that soon became a legend Informally christened " the Greek trip " by Richardson's admirers, the spread featured Donna Mitchell, a striking brunet model, hanging out on the Aegean island of Rhodes with a male companion. Of course, narrative never disappeared—it just went to the movies, and stayed, and stayed. But what had caused stories to be exiled from high art? The idea of essence, and the equation of essence with goodness. Can you imagine? Visual art is essentially composed of form, color, materials. Anything to do with content is extraneous and therefore to be associated with badness; therefore to be eliminated. Moreover, content, says this line of thought, is controlling. This means that a rose is the Virgin Mary (depending on what the meaning of " is " is). And art, like society, must be liberated from such hierarchically imposed values. What this argument overlooked, of course, is that narrative is a form in itself, not just a vehicle for content. Indeed, the ideology of formalism originated, in Soviet Russia, with the analysis of old folk tales. Narrative form, the analysis went, typically proceeds from an initial state of equilibrium through a series of destabilizing episodes, concluding with a heightened state of equilibrium at the end. Think Indiana Jones. You can plug whatever content you want in there as long as it creates the form. Each episode simply has to do with the work of creating disequilibrium. A narrative does not, in other words, tell a story. A story is told to give listeners the pleasure of the narrative form. If you were to isolate the form of disequilibrium from the specifics of plot, you might arrive at something resembling the collected work of Cindy Sherman. Initially modeled after movie stills, Sherman's pictures are not, of course, abstract. Over the years, in fact, their content has become increasingly elaborate. I see this as a form of generosity as well as a sign of advanced technical skills. Not since Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), perhaps, has an artist contrived to turn the human figure into a more bountiful cornucopia for the eye. Yet even the most visually splendid of Sherman's images are minimalist, in that they reduce the narrative down to the precise moment when the center of gravity shifts. Perhaps some unheard word is spoken. A floorboard squeaks. From upstairs comes a thump. And a tentative state of equilibrium gives way to anxiety or dread. That moment, too, represents essence. What more do you need to know?

单选题______ I don't like pears.

单选题A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide—the division of the world into the info(information)rich and the info poor. And that【C1】______does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less invisible then, however, were the new, positive【C2】______that work against the digital divide. Actually, there are reasons to be【C3】______. There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more【C4】______, it is in the interest of business to universalize access—after all, the more people online, the more potential【C5】______there are. More and more enterprises, afraid their countries will be left【C6】______, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for【C7】______world poverty that we've ever had. Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has big potential. To【C8】______advantage of this tool, some poor countries will have to get over their outdated anticolonial prejudices【C9】______respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of【C10】______ (the basic structural foundations of a society)in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why America's Second Wave infrastructure—concerning roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on—were built with foreign investment.

单选题We ended the dinner up ______ fruit and coffee. A. at B. by C. in D. with

单选题Even the most ardent revolutionaries never went that far...

单选题My mother and father were invited to the party, but______of them went.

单选题Space is full of unseen hazards among which are cosmic rays. A. dangers B. ventures C. galaxies D. prospects

单选题Despite being thought of by most as a time for celebration, birthdays pose a serious health risk, according to a huge new study. Researchers who studied the deaths of more than two million people found we are 14 percent more likely to die on our birthday than any other day. The scientists suspect the stress of anniversary reaction hypothesis, or birthday blues, as the cause for the increase in death rates, however. But according to the study, causes of birthday deaths included increased rates of heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and suicide. One interesting finding is that more suicides happen on birthdays, though only in men. Researchers say that this increase could be related to more alcohol being drunk on birthdays. But the explanation was rejected by the scientists who believe that the event itself is largely responsible. Heart attacks and strokes they suspect are more common on the special day because of stress linked to celebrating a birthday—especially for older people.

单选题______knows the name of this song will receive a prize from the radio station. A．One B．Who C．Anyone D．Whoever

单选题He ______ in that hotel since the beginning of August．A．has been living B．livedC．iS living D．lives

单选题He told me that I ______ be present at the ceremony. A) could B) would C) should D) might

单选题Which ONE of the following concepts is related to the understanding of literary realism?