单选题UDeceptively /Usimple in design, the sculptural works of George Norton incorporate a broad range of textures, sizes, and contours.

单选题What does "the practical manifestations.., out of control" (Para. 3) mean?

单选题Which of the following is true of the environments in which fossils are found?

单选题The phrase "at a premium" (paragraph 2) might mean ______.

单选题{{B}}Directions: There are five reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and blackening the corresponding letter on the answer sheet.{{/B}}{{B}}Passage One{{/B}} Artificial flowers are used for scientific as well as for decorative purposes. They are made from a variety of materials, such as wax and glass, so skillfully that they can scarcely be distinguished from natural flowers. In making such models, painstaking skill and artistry are called for, as well as thorough knowledge of plant structure. The collection of glass flowers in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University is the most famous in North America and is widely known throughout the scientific world. In all, there are several thousand models in colored glass, the work of two artists-naturalists, Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolph. The intention was to have the collection represent at least one member of each flower family native to the United States. Although it was never completed, it contains more than seven hundred species representing 164 families of flowering plants, a group of fruits showing the effect of fungus diseases, and thousands of flower parts and magnified details. Every detail of these is accurately reproduced in color and structure. The models ate kept in locked cases, as they are too valuable and fragile for classroom use.

单选题Higher demand from developing countries and oil producers is offsetting the lower demand of wealthy countries. Consumption in these countries will rise 3 percent in 2008, or 1.2 million barrels a day, projects the International Energy Agency. Many of these countries subsidize fuel so that final customers are insulated from price increases. Gasoline is about 25 cents a gallon in Venezuela and about 60 cents in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran. There"s been a huge transfer of power to oil producers. Even at $100 a barrel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates will earn almost $8 trillion in oil revenues between now and 2020, estimates the McKinsey Global Institute. More troubling are the political implications. "This has really strengthened the Iranians, Russians and Venezuelans to be more provocative in the world," says Larry Goldstein of the Energy Policy Research Foundation. Although governments control crude supplies, private companies have dominated distribution. Anyone can buy oil at a price. Now oil could become a political commodity, used by governments to cement their alliances, offered to friends at a discount; withheld from rivals. How can we retrieve some of our lost power? The first thing is to get out of denial. Stop blaming oil companies, "speculators" and other scapegoats for a situation not of their making. Next, we need to expand oil and natural-gas drilling in the United States, including Alaska. No, we can"t "drill our way" out of this problem. But we can augment oil supplies and lessen price strains on global markets. It might take 10 years or more, because new projects are huge undertakings. But delay will only aggravate our future problems, just as past errors aggravate present problems. Finally, we need to let high prices work. Aside from encouraging fuel-efficient vehicles and disciplining driving habits, they may also stimulate development of new biofuels from wood chips, food waste and switch grass. Production costs of these fuels may be in the range of $1 a gallon. If true, that"s well below today"s wholesale gasoline prices. To assure new producers that they wouldn"t be wiped out if oil prices plunged, we should set a floor price for oil of $50 to $80 a barrel, about 40 percent to 60 percent of today"s levels. It"s a worthy idea and can be done with a standby tariff. It would activate only if prices hit the threshold. We know that oil prices are unpredictable, and should a price collapse occur, Americans wouldn"t be deluded into thinking we"ve returned permanently to cheap energy. We"ve made that mistake before.

单选题The ______ of the dollar can be directly linked to deterioration of the current account of the U.S. balance of payments. A. depression B. depreciation C. description D. deficit

单选题The payroll register constitutes the treasurer department's authority to pay the employees． Payment is usually made in the form of a check drawn on the company's regular bank account． Pre-numbered payroll checks should be used, and there should be independent verification of!the agreement of the checks with the payroll register in detail and in total． Payroll checks should be distributed directly to employees, on proper identification, by treasurer's department personnel．The checks should not be returned to payroll for distribution since the payroll department would then have control over both preparing and paying the payroll．Alternatively,payroll checks may be deposited directly in the employee's cheeking account． Payment of employees in cash is the exception rather than the rule．This form of payment is more easily influenced by errors, irregularities, and robbery than payment by check．Following payment, check numbers are entered on the register,the preparation and payment of the payroll are programmed on a computer． A termination notice should be issued by the personnel department on the completion of an individual's employment with the company．Copies of the termination authorization should be sent to the employee's supervisor and to payroll, and a copy should be filed in the employee's personnel record．The proper execution of this function is vital in preventing terminated employees from continuing on the payroll．The subsequent diversion of such payroll checks to an unauthorized individual has been responsible for many payroll cheat through the years． Every company is expected to fulfill the legal requirements relevant to the filing of payroll tax returns and the payment of the resulting taxes．Ordinarily,the payroll department prepares the tax returns and a check is issued through the guarantor system in payment of the taxes．The responsibility for the filing of returns before due dates should be assigned to a payroll department supervisor．Furthermore, there should be independent verification within that department of the accuracy and completeness of the return．Effective control over tax retums is necessary to avoid penalties for late or incorrect filings．

单选题The ship ______ at Sydney and we spent a day touring the city. A. berthed B. amassed C. dissuaded D. poached

单选题The Hadrian"s Wall was built during the period of______.

单选题The media can impact current events. As a graduate student at Berkeley in the 1960s, I re member experiencing the events related to the People's Park that were occurring on campus. Some of these events were given national media coverage in the press and on TV. I found it interesting to compare my impressions of what was going on with perceptions obtained from the news media. I could begin to see events of that time feed on news coverage. This also provided me with some healthy insights into the distinctions between these realities. Electronic media are having a greater impact on the people's lives every day. People gather more and more of their impressions from representations. Television and telephone communications are linking people to a global village, or what one writer calls the Electronic City. Consider the information that television brings into your home every day. Consider also the contact you have with others simply by using telephone. These media extend your consciousness and your contact. For example, the video coverage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake focused on "Live Action" such as the fires or the rescue efforts. This gave the viewer the impression of total disaster. Television coverage of the Iraqi War also developed an immediacy. CNN reported events as they happened. This coverage was distributed worldwide. Although most people were far away from these events, they developed some perception of these realities. In 1992, many people watched in horror as riots broke out on a sad Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, seemingly fed by video coverage Rodney King beating. We are now in an age where the public can have access to information that enables it to make its own judgments, and most people, who had seen the video of this beating, could not understand how the jury was able to ac- quit the policemen involved. Media coverage of events as they occur also provides powerful feed- back that influences events. This can have harmful results, as it seemed on that Wednesday night in Los Angeles. By Friday night the public got to that Wednesday night in Los Angeles. By Friday night the public got to see Rodney King on television pleading. "Can we all get along?" By Saturday, television seemed to provide positive feedback as the Los Angeles riot turned out into a rally for peace. The television showed thousands of people marching with banners and cleaning tools. Because of that, many more people turned out to join the peaceful event they saw unfolding on television. The real healing, of course, will take much longer, but electronic media will continue to be a part of that process.

单选题Only one member of the committee______from the final report.

单选题The long-term fortunes of the modern economy depend in part on the strength and sustainability of the family, both in relation to fertility trends and to marriage trends. This basic, but often overlooked principle is now at work in the current global economic crisis. The decline of marriage and fertility is one factor in the global economic crisis. That is, one reason that some of the world's leading economies — from Japan to Italy to Spain to the euro zone as a whole — are facing fiscal challenges is that their fertility rates have been below replacement levels(2.1 children per woman)for decades. Persistent sub-replacement fertility eventually translates into fewer workers relative to retirees, which puts tremendous strains on public coffers and the economy as a whole. Indeed, one recent study finds that almost half of the recent run-up in public debt in the West can be attributed to rapid aging over the last two decades. Even China may see its sky-high growth " come down to earth in the next few decades as its work force shrinks" because of its one-child policy, as Carlos Cavalle and I argued in a recent report, The Sustainable Demographic Dividend. By contrast, a recent Rand study suggests that "India will have more favorable demographics than China" over the next few decades, insofar as its work force is poised to grow. In fact, the Rand study suggests that India may be able to use this demographic advantage to outpace China's economic growth rates by the end of the century. Finally, it's not just fertility that matters; it's also marriage. At least in the West, children are more likely to acquire the human and social capital they need to thrive in the modern economy when they are raised in an intact, married family. In the U. S. , for instance, children are more likely to graduate from high school, complete college and be gainfully employed as young adults if they were raised in an intact, married family. And around the globe, men are more likely to give their work their fullest effort and attention when they are married; this is one reason men worldwide enjoy "marriage premiums" in their income, ranging from about 14 percent(Mexico)to 19 percent(United States)to 35 percent(Russia). So, at least when it comes to men, research suggests that marriage has important implications for worker productivity. The bottom-line message is that what happens in the home does not stay at home; rather, the size of families, and their stability and quality, has important implications for the health of the global economy.

单选题Do you believe that only boys do well in science? Does it seem to you that girls have better vocabularies than boys? In your opinion, are boys better at building things? If your answer to each of those questions is "Yes", you are right. On the average, males score higher on tests that measure mathematical reasoning, mechanical ability, and problem-solving skills. Females show superior ability in tests measuring vocabulary, spelling, and memory. It is known that bones, muscles (肌肉) and nerves (神经) develop faster in baby girls. Usually, too, baby girls talk at an earlier age than boys do. Scientists think there is a physical reason for this. They believe that the nerve endings in the left side of the brain develop faster in girls than in boys. And it is this side of the brain that strongly influences an individual"s ability to use words, to spell, and to remember things. By the time they start to school, therefore, little girls have an advantage that boys do not have. Girls are physically more ready to remember facts, to spell, and to read. These, of course, are skills that are important in elementary school. But what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have been developing something called aggression (进攻). An aggressive person has courage and energy. He feels strong and independent. He is often the first one to start fight.

单选题Long long ago, when the great library of Alexandria burned, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book, so a 1 man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coins. The book 22 very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was about the secret of the "Touchstone (试金石)" ! The touchstone was a small pebble (鹅卵石) that could 2 any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was 3 among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the 4 was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles were 5 So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the beach, and began 6 pebbles. He knew that if he picked up common pebbles and threw 7 down again, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day 8 this, but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold—throw it into the sea. Pick up 9 Cold—throw it into the sea. The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months and the months 10 years. One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea 11 he realized what he had done. He had formed 12 a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he 13 threw it away. So it is with chance. 14 we don"t pay enough attention, it is easy to miss a chance when it is in hand and it"s just as easy to throw it away.

单选题The development of the light bulb ______ partly as a result of the widespread availability of electricity and the need for cheap, clean light. A. occurring B. was occurring C. was occurred D. occurred

单选题As a member of the middle class, Gaskell could (hardly) help (approaching) working-class life as an outside observer and a reporter, and the reader of the novel (is) always (unconscious) of this fact.

单选题A: Martine, congratulations on your winning such a great award. B: ______

单选题You' d better take an umbrella with you ______ it rains. A. nevertheless B. although C. in case D. so that

单选题The company, EDS, is smart enough to ______ 90,000-person workforce into independent microteams that work directly with individual clients on creative business solutions. A. break out B. break off C. break away from D. break down