单选题Being good-looking is useful in so many ways. In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, f'amd a higher-earning spouse and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers, The effects are not small: one study showed that an American worker who was among the bottom one-seventh in looks, as assessed by randomly chosen observers, earned 10 to 15 percent less per year than a similar worker whose looks were assessed in the top one-third — a lifetime difference, in a typical case, of about $ 230, 000. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors. This is not a matter of evil employers' refusing to hire the ugly: in our roles as workers, customers and potential lovers we are all responsible for these effects. How could we remedy this injustice? A radical solution may be needed: why not offer legal protections to the ugly, as we do with racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women and handicapped individuals? We actually already do offer such protections in a few places, including in some jurisdictions in California, and in the District of Columbia, where discriminatory treatment based on looks in hiring, promotions, housing and other areas is prohibited. The mechanics of legislating this kind of protection are not as difficult as you might think. Ugliness could be protected generally in the United States by small extensions of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Ugly people could be allowed to seek help from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other agencies in overcoming the effects of discrimination. You might argue that people can't be classified by their looks — that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In one study, more than half of a group of people were assessed identically by each of two observers using a five-point scale ; and very few assessments differed by more than one point. There are possible other objections. "Ugliness" is not a personal trait that many people choose to embrace; those whom we classify as protected might not be willing to admit that they are ugly. But with the chance of obtaining extra pay and promotions amounting to $ 230, 000 in lost lifetime earnings, there's a large enough incentive to do so. Bringing antidiscrimination lawsuits is also costly, and few potential plaintiffs could afford to do so. But many attorneys would be willing to organize classes of plaintiffs to overcome these costs, just as they now do in racial-discrimination and other lawsuits. Economic arguments for protecting the ugly are as strong as those for protecting some groups currently covered by legislation. So why not go ahead and expand protection to the looks-challenged? There's one legitimate concern. With increasingly tight limits on government resources, expanding rights to yet another protected group would reduce protection for groups that have commanded our legislative and other attention for over 50 years. You might reasonably disagree and argue for protecting all deserving groups. Either way, you shouldn't be surprised to see the United States heading toward this new legal frontier.

单选题Only applicants with the proper ______will be considered for the job.

单选题In 1993. New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage(饮料)containers. Within a year. Consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw materials for new products. But because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound up buried in landfills(垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic. Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled(回收利用)in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence posts, paint brushes, etc. Shrinking landfill space, and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to saving of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and trims the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.

单选题Although he is talkative, he is______to tell us anything about his family.

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} There are 5 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.{{B}}Passage 1{{/B}} Population tends to grow at an exponential(指数的)rate. This means that they progressively double. As an example of this type of growth rate, take one penny and double every day for one month. After the first week, you would have only 64 cents, but after the fourth week you would have over a million dollars. This helps explain why the population has come on "all of a sudden". It took from the beginning of human life to the year 1830 for the population of the earth to reach one billion. That repents(缓慢进行)a time span of at least two million years. Then it took from 1830 to 1930 for world population to reach 2 billion. The next billion was added by 1960, only thirty years, and in 1975 world population reached 4 billion, which is another billion people in only fifteen years. World population is increasing at a rate of 9000 per hour, 220000 per day, and 80 million per year. This is not only due to higher birth rate, but to lower death rate as well. The number of births has not declined at the same rate as the number of deaths. Some countries, such as Columbia, Thailand, Morocco, Costa Rica, and the Philippines, are doubling their population about every twenty-one years, with a growth rate of 3.3% a year or more. The United States is doubling its population about very eighty-seven years, with a rate of 0.8% per year. {{U}}Every time a population doubles, the country involved needs twice as much of everything, including hospitals, schools, resources, food and medicines to care for its people. {{/U}}It is easy to see that this is very difficult to achieve for the more rapidly growing countries.

单选题In 1880, Sir Joshua Waddilove, a Victorian philanthropist, founded Provident Financial to provide affordable loans to working-class families in and around Bradford, in northern England. This month his company, now one of Britain's leading providers of "home credit" -small, short-term, unsecured loans—began the nationwide rollout of Vanquis, a credit card aimed at people that mainstream lenders shun. The card offers up to they impose extra charges, such as application fees; and they cap their potential losses by lending only small amounts ( $ 500 is a typical credit limit). All this is easier to describe than to do, especially when the economy slows. After the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, several sub-prime credit-card providers failed. Now there are only around 100, of which nine issue credit cards. Survivors such as Metris and Providian, two of the bigger sub-prime card companies, have become choosier about their customers' credit histories. As the economy recovered, so did lenders' fortunes. Fitch, a rating agency, says that the proportion of sub-prime credit-card borrowers who are more than 60 days in arrears (a good predictor of eventual default)is the lowest since November 2001. But with American interest rates rising again, some worry about another squeeze. As Fitch's Michael Dean points out, sub-prime borrowers tend to have not just higher-rate credit cards, but dearer auto loans and variable-rate mortgages as well That makes a risky business even riskier.

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} Ethiopians appear to have evolved a unique way of coping with thin mountain air. But how they do it remains a mystery. One way for the body to get enough oxygen to its tissues when breathing oxygen-poor air is for it to make more red blood cells. This increases the amount of hemoglobin(血红蛋白), the protein that carries oxygen. Although less haemoglobin in the arteries is saturated with oxygen at high altitudes, having more of it makes up for the shortfall. People native to the high Andes are known to have more red blood cells than lowlanders, and athletes who train at altitude can increase their concentration of cells. But while many Tibetans also live at high altitudes, they do not have significantly elevated levels of haemoglobin. Instead they seem to boost the amount of nitric oxide, which dilates(使膨胀) blood vessels and increases blood flow. Now Cynthia Beall, an anthropologist from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, has found a third kind of adaptation. When she tested the blood of 236 people in the Ambaras region in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia, she found that 95 percent of the haemoglobin in their arteries is saturated with oxygen, almost as much as that of people living at low altitudes and roughly 5 per cent above that of residents in the Andes or Tibet. "That shouldn't be, "says Beall. They must have a massively efficient way to get oxygen from the lungs to the blood, she says. But just what remains mysterious. They do not have higher concentrations of haemoglobin than anyone else, nor do they have a different kind of haemoglobin. Beall adds that this ability might be found in all people living in that part of the world, and not just those in the study. It might be why so many world-class endurance athletes are Ethiopian. "The next study needs to look at that,"she says.

单选题To whom does the mother speak Korean? A. Her oldest daughter only. B. Her two daughters only. C. All of her children. D. Only to her son.

单选题Choose the best from the following sentences marked A to E to complete the article below. Write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. A Bad Time for Britain to Say "Auf Wiedersehen" History records that the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher scoffed at British diplomats" self-interested realism. Waving a map delineating past German expansionism, she embarked on a doomed effort to thwart unification. Francois Mitterrand was enlisted but the French president soon changed sides in the face of Helmut Kohl"s resolve. Britain found itself marginalised in Washington, where George H. W. Bush backed Mr. Kohl, and unwelcome in Bonn. 11. ______ This is not to say they are good. The relationship between Angela Merkel and David Cameron has turned from lukewarm to distinctly cool. Asked when the two leaders will next meet, one German official remarks: "What"s the point?" The eurozone crisis has bred a more assertive Germany—witness its willingness this week to scupper the proposed takeover of BAE Systems by EADS. 12. ______. The rot set in last December when Mr. Cameron tried to veto deeper economic and political eurozone integration. His pitch for special privileges and protections for the City of London was viewed in Berlin as an attempt to unpick the essential fabric of the single market—the EU"s cherished "acquis". 13. ______ What"s the point of Ms Merkel striking deals in Downing Street if they are cast aside when he feels a need to play to the eurosceptic gallery? Germany recently signed up to a British initiative to freeze the EU budget. Now it finds Mr. Cameron waving a unilateral veto. British ministers are also questioning some of the union"s fundamental pillars, including free movement of people. 14. ______ British disengagement from "core" Europe is inevitable. The government has already said it will not join a new banking union. Mr. Cameron is now suggesting a two-tier EU budget so that Westminster can pay less. Were Britain planning to leave the union—and on its present trajectory it is heading in that direction, such complacency might just make sense. But Mr. Cameron insists that EU membership remains vital to the nation"s prosperity. Any serious business leader would agree. Britain, albeit mostly by choice, is sliding fast into Europe"s second division. Whether a new relationship can be made to work will depend on how many friends it has. 15. ______ The breakdown of the EADS-BAE deal was another reminder, if one were needed, that Britain cannot escape the consequences of decisions taken on the continent. Mr. Cameron has Chosen the wrong moment to bid auf Wiedersehen to a natural ally. Questions A. But the real argument with Britain is about Europe. B. Relations between Britain and Germany are not as bad now as they were then. C. The answer at the moment is precious few. D. Mr. Cameron"s indulgence of hardline Tory eurosceptics has cast him as an unreliable partner. E. What does it matter if the Germans are cross?

单选题Battles are like marriages. They have certain fundamental experience they share in common; they differ infinitely, but still they are all alike. A battle seems to me a conflict of wills to the death in the same way that a marriage of love is the identification of two human beings to the end of the creation of life—as death is the reverse of life, and love of hate. Battles are commitments to cause death as marriages are commitments to create life. Whether, for any individual, either union results in death or in the creation of new life, each risks it—and in the risk commits himself. As the servants of death, battles will always remain horrible. Those who are fascinated by them are being fascinated by death. There is no battle aim worthy of the name except that of ending all battles. Any other conception is, literally, suicidal. The fascist worship of battle is a suicidal drive; it is love of death instead of life. In the same idiom, to triumph in battle over the forces which are fighting for death is-again literally-to triumph over death. It is a surgeon's triumph as he cuts a body and bloodies his hands in removing a cancer in order to triumph over the death that is in the body. In these thoughts I have found my own peace, and I return to an army that fights death and cynicism in the name of life and hope. It is a good army. Believe in it.

单选题For dinner that evening we had some ______ turtle meat.

单选题It was ______ we had hoped. A. more a success than B. a success more than C. as much of a succes as D. a success as much as

单选题The two claws of the mature American lobster are decidedly different from each other. The crusher claw is short and stout; the cutter claw is long and slender. Such bilateral asymmetry, in which the fight side of the body is, in all other respects, a mirror image of the left side, is not unlike handedness in humans. But where the majority of humans are righthanded, in lobsters the crasher claw appears with equal probability on either the right side or left side of the body. Bilateral asymmetry of the claws comes about gradually. In the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development, the paired claws are symmetrical and cutter like. Asymmetry begins to appear in the juvenile sixth stage of development, and the paired claws further diverge toward welldefined cutter and crusher claws during succeeding stages. An intriguing aspect of this development was discovered by Victor Emmer. He found that if one of the paired claws is removed during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw invariably becomes a crusher, while the regenerated claw becomes a cutter. Removal of a claw during a later juvenile stage or during adulthood, when asymmetry is present, does not alter the asymmetry; the intact and regenerate claws retain their original structures. These observations indicate that the conditions that trigger differentiation must operate in a random manner when the paired claws are intact, but in a nonrandom manner when one of the claws is lost. One possible explanation is that differential use of the claws determines their asymmetry. Perhaps the claw that is used more becomes the crusher. This would explain why, when one of the claws is missing during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw always becomes a crusher. With two intact claws, initial use of one claw might prompt the animal to use it more than the other throughout the juvenile fourth and fifth stages, causing it to become a crusher. To test this hypothesis, researchers raised lobsters in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development in a laboratory environment in which the lobsters could manipulate oyster chips. (Not coincidentally, at this stage of development lobsters typically change from a habitat where they drift passively, to the ocean floor where they have the opportunity to be more active by borrowing in the substrate. ) Under these conditions, the lobsters developed asymmetric claws, half with crusher claws on the left, and half with crusher claws on the right. In contrast, when juvenile lobsters were reared in a smooth tank without the oyster chips, the majority developed two cutter claws. This unusual configuration of symmetrical cutter claws did not change when the lobsters were subsequently placed in a manipulable environment or when they lost and regenerated one or both claws.

单选题This style of writing, incidentally, is suggestive of what is called the "newsreel technique" of John Dos Passos. A. reminiscent B. collective C. forgettable D. advisable

单选题The text seems to imply that other forms of life in the cosmos ______.

单选题 If a farmer wishes to succeed, he must try to keep a wide gap between his consumption and his production. He must store a large quantity of grain{{U}} (31) {{/U}}consuming all his grain immediately. He can continue to support himself and his family{{U}} (32) {{/U}}he produces a surplus. He must use this surplus in three ways: as seed for sowing, as an insurance{{U}} (33) {{/U}}the unpredictable effects of bad weather and as a commodity which he must sell in order to{{U}} (34) {{/U}}old agricultural implements and obtain chemical fertilizers to{{U}} (35) {{/U}}the soil. He may also need money to construct irrigation{{U}} (36) {{/U}}and improve his farm in other ways. If no surplus is available, a farmer cannot be{{U}} (37) {{/U}}. He must either sell some of his property or{{U}} (38) {{/U}}extra fids in the form of loans. Naturally he will try to borrow money at a low{{U}} (39) {{/U}}of interest, but loans of this kind are not{{U}} (40) {{/U}}obtainable.

单选题The main part of the title of the novel was taken from Bunyan" s The Pilgrim" s Progress, in which the pilgrims arrive at a place where all such merchandise are sold, as houses, lands, trades, honors , titles, countries, and delights of all sorts. . . The subtide of the novel reinforces the point, for it indicates that the novel is concerned principally not with individual heroes but with the society as a whole, though it is also possible to interpret the phrase as meaning that there are only heroines or one heroine but no heroes. And indeed the novel evolves chiefly around two women, Amelia Sedley and Becky Sharp.Which novel does the following passage discuss?