单选题It is believed that high interest rates ______ people from borrowing money from the commercial banks. A. discourage B. decrease C. disgust D. disturb

单选题I regret ______ him a thief, but I regret even more his stealing my watch! A. to call B. to have called C. having called D. called

单选题Passenger: Taxi! (A cab stops and he goes in.)Cab driver: ______.Passenger: King's Hotel on North Street.

单选题I can't decide whether to go sailing or, because of the bad weather forecast, ______ at home. A. stay B. staying C. to stay D. whether stay

单选题 QUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES TO THE FAR EAST! Airline Destination Travel Dates Fares from Atlantic Hong Kong 26 Aug. 07 - 30 Sep. 07 25 Oct. 07 - 14 Dee. 07 25 Dee. 07 - 20 Mar. 07 ￡284 Cathy Pacific Hong Kong 20 Aug. 07 - 31 Aug. 07 ￡670 Air New Zealand Hong Kong 26 Aug. 07 - 30 Sep. 07 25 Oct. 07 - 14 Dec. 07 25 Dee. 07 - 20 Mar. 07 27 Mar. 07 - 31 Mar. 07 ￡282 China Eastern Shanghai 20 Aug. 07 - 30 Nov. 07 24 Dec. 07 - 12 Mar. 07 24 Mar. 07 - 31 Mar. 07 ￡260 Lufthansa Beijing 20 Aug. 07 - 31 Dec. 07 ￡233 Austrian Beijing 20 Aug. 07 - 31 Aug. 07 15 Dec. 07 - 31 Dec. 07 ￡445 China Eastern Beijing 20 Aug. 07 - 30 Nov. 07 24 Dee. 07 - 12 Mar. 07 24 Mar. 07 - 31 Mar. 07 ￡300 Singapore Airlines Singapore, Hanoi 20 Aug. 07 - 30 Nov. 07 ￡425 Thai Bangkok Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City 20 Aug. 07 - 30 Nov. 07 ￡335 ￡395 ALL TAXES AND CHARGES ARE NOT INCLUDED For any other alternative dates please call our reservation hotline: 0207 484 8900. All tours can be tailor-made for individual/group travel therefore please call our tour department on 0207 484 8925 for further details.

单选题The earthquake ______ not have come at a worse time for the war-torn country. A. could B. must C. might D. should

单选题 Successful businesses tend to continue implementing the ideas that made them successful. But in a rapidly changing world, ideas often become obsolete overnight. What worked in the past won't necessarily work in the future. In order to thrive in the future, you must constantly create new ideas for every aspect of your business. In fact, you must continually generate new ideas just to keep your head above water. Businesses that aren't creative about their future may not survive. Although Bill Gates is the richest, most successful man on the planet, he did not anticipate the Internet. Now he's scrambling to catch up. If Bill Gates can miss a major aspect of his industry, it can happen to you in your industry. Your business needs to continually innovate and create its future. Gates is now constantly worried about the future of Microsoft. Here's what he said in a recent interview in U.S. News World Report: "Will we be replaced tomorrow? No. In a very short time frame, Microsoft is an incredibly strong company. But when you look to the two-to-three-year time frame, I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that any technology company has a guaranteed position. Not Intel, not Microsoft, not Compaq, not Dell, take any of your favorites. And that's totally honest." You may remember that in 1985 the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls were the best-selling toy on the market. But after Coleco Industries introduced their sensational line of dolls they became complacent and didn't create any new toys worth mentioning. As a result, Coleco went bankrupt in 1988. The most successful businesses survive in the long term because they constantly reassess their situations and reinvest themselves accordingly. The 3M Company has a 15% rule: employees are encouraged to spend 15% of their time developing new ideas on any project they desire; it's no surprise, then, that 3M has been around since 1902. Most businesses are not willing to tear apart last year's model of success and build a new one. Here's a familiar analogy to explain why they are lulled into complacency: imagine that your business is like a pot of lobsters; to cook lobsters, you put them into a pot of warm water and gradually turn up the heat; the lobsters don't realize they're being cooked because the process is so gradual. As a result, they become complacent and die without a struggle. However, if you throw a lobster into the pot when the water is boiling, it will desperately try to escape. This lobster is not lulled by a slowly changing environment. It realizes instantly that it's in a bad environment and takes immediate action to change its status.

单选题Secretary: Hello, ______ May I help you? Caller: Yes, this is jack Kordell. May I speak to Elaine Strong, please?

单选题Which of the following cities is closest to Berlin in weather conditions?

单选题 A scientist who wants to predict the way in which consumers (消费者) will spend their money must study consumer behavior. He must obtain data both on the resources of consumers and on the motives that tend to encourage or discourage money spending. If an economist were asked which of three groups borrow most--people with rising incomes, stable incomes, or decreasing incomes--he would probably answer, those with decreasing incomes. Actually in the years 1947--1950, the answer was: people with rising incomes. People with decreasing incomes were next and people with stable incomes borrowed the least. This shows us that traditional assumptions (假设) about earning and spending are not always reliable. Another traditional assumption is that if people who have money expect prices to go up they will hasten to buy. If they expect prices to go down, they will postpone buying. But research surveys have shown that this is not always true. The expectations of price increases may not stimulate buying. One typical attitude was expressed by the wife of a mechanic in an interview at a time of rising prices. "In a few months," she said, "we'll have pay more for meat and milk；we'll have less to spend on other things. " Her family had been planning to buy a new car but they postponed this purchase. Furthermore, the rise in prices that has already taken place may be disliked and buyer's resistance may be produced. This is shown by the following typical comment. "I just don't pay these prices； they are too high. " The investigations mentioned above were carried out in America. The condition most helpful to spending appears to be price stability. If prices have been stable and people consider that they are reasonable, they are likely to buy. Thus, it appears that the common business policy of maintaining stable prices is based on a correct understanding of consumer psychology.

单选题 OUR KIDS ARE AMAZING -especially compared with everybody else's (who seem to cry all the time). How do you show your love for your kids this holiday season? With toys that are smooth and colorful, interactive and exciting. And with ones that have educational value - because you are the boss. 1. FLAX ART HOSPITAL PUZZLE AND PLAY SET Here is a toy that doesn't need power -and the bike have to put it together themselves. This 50-piece puzzle set is made of soft-edged hardwood and makes a complete hospital, with an X-ray room. It also includes eight patients, a car and a driver. MYM 135; flaxart.com. 2. TINY LOVE ACTIVITY BALL Sure, it's cool, but this colorful baby toy also develops problem solving and motor skills. It has a head and legs, a magnetic hand and a tail. Suitable for little ones from 6 to 36 months. MYM 19.95; tinylove.com. 3. ROBOSAPIEN This small, remote-control robot is really powerful. It performs 67 preprogrammed functions, including throwing, kicking, picking up and dancing. You can even program your own function -- which, sadly, does not include doing windows. MYM 99; robosapienonline.com. 4. MINI PEDAL CAR Want a Mini Cooper but can't fit the family inside? Get one for the kids. They can jump into this Mini car, which comes in hot orange with a single adjustable seat, and ride away. But it could spoil them for that used car they'll be driving when they turn 16. For ages 3 to 5. MYM 189; miniusabc.com ( click on "gear up" then "Mini motoring gear" )

单选题The whole place was ______ with tourists.

单选题Wilson, Hello. May I speak to Peter? Peter: ______ A. Sorry, the number is engaged. Will you hold? B. Yes, speaking. C. Hello. Who're you, please? D. Hello. Thank you for calling.

单选题He scarcely cares for anything, ______?

单选题At the International Snow Sculpture Championships in Colorado on January 27, people will carve the white stuff into art. Planning begin mouths before the first snow falls. Teams submit applications and sketches of their sculptures in July. Then, a panel of judges chooses 14 teams for the championship. The rules are simple: Electric tools are not allowed. Teams carve snow with everything but the results are not entirely in the sculptors" hands, "if it is extremely sunny and warm." DeWall, the competition"s director of public relations, explained, "we will erect old sail from sail boats into the air to block the sun from melting the sculptures." If it snows, she continued, teams have to work extra hard to scrape (刮掉) the new snow off their work. The judges look for creativity, technical skill, and overall impact on the viewer. The winner does not receive any money. "There is no cash prize because the event began with the concept of global camaraderie(情谊)." DeWall explained. Instead of focusing on money, she continued, "winners revel (纵情) in the friendship, the art, and the hard work."

单选题{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}} The United States in the 1990s has had seven years of economic boom with low unemployment, low inflation, and low government deficit. Amid all of this good news, inequality has increased and wages have barely risen. Common sense knowledge seems to be right in this instance, that is, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class is shrinking. Though President Clinton boasts that the number of people on welfare has decreased significantly under his regime to 8 million, a 44% decline from 1994, he forgets that there are still 36.5 million poor people in the United States, which is only a 2% decline in the same amount of time. How is it possible that we have increasing inequality during economic prosperity? This contradiction is not easily explained by the dominant neoclassical economic discourse of our time. Nor is it resolved by neoconservative social policy. More helpful is the one book under review: James K. Galbraith's Created Unequal, a Keynesian analysis of increasing wage inequality. James K. Galbraith provides a multicausal analysis that blames the current free market monetary policy for the increasing wage inequality. He calls for a rebellion in economic analysis and policy and for a reapplication of Keynesian macroeconomics to solve the problem. In Created Unequal, Galbraith successfully debunks the conservative contention that wage inequality is necessary because the new skill-based technological innovation requires educated workers who are in short supply. For Galbraith, this is a fantasy. He also critiques their two other assertions: first, that global competition requires an increase in inequality and that the maintenance of inequality is necessary to fight inflation. He points to transfer payments that are mediated by the state: payment to the poor in the form of welfare is minor relative to payment to the elderly in the form of social security or to the rich in the form of interest on public and private debt. Galbraith minimizes the social indicators of race, gender, and class and tells us that these are not important in understanding wage inequality. What is important is Keynesian macroeconomics. To make this point, he introduces a sectoral analysis of the economy.. Here knowledge is dominant (the K-sector) and the producers of consumption goods (the C-sector) are in decline. The third sector is large and low paid (the S-sector). The K-sector controls the new technologies and wields monopoly power. Both wages and profit decline in the other two sectors. As a result of monopoly, power inequality increases.

单选题Throughout the nation"s more than 15,000 school districts, widely differing approaches to teaching science and math have emerged. Though there can be strength in diversity, a new international analysis suggests that this variability has instead contributed to lackluster (平淡的) achievement scores by U.S. children relative to their peers in other developed countries. Indeed, concludes William H. Schmidt of Michigan State University, who led the new analysis, "no single intellectually coherent vision dominates U.S. educational practice in math or science. " The reason, he said, "is because the system is deeply and fundamentally flawed. " The new analysis, released this week by the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., is based on data collected from about 50 nations as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Not only do approaches to teaching science and math vary among individual U. S. communities, the report finds, but there appears to be little strategic focus within a school district"s curricula, its textbooks, or its teachers" activities. This contrasts sharply with the coordinated national programs of most other countries. On average, U.S. students study more topics within science and math than their international counterparts do. This creates an educational environment that "is a mile wide and an inch deep," Schmidt notes. For instance, eighth graders in the United States cover about 33 topics in math versus just 19 in Japan. Among science courses, the international gap is even wider. U.S. curricula for this age level resemble those of a small group of countries including Australia, Thailand, Iceland, and Bulgaria. Schmidt asks whether the United States wants to be classed with these nations, whose educational systems "share our pattern of splintered (支离破碎 的) visions" but which are not economic leaders. The new report "couldn"t come at a better time", says Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association in Arlington. "The new National Science Education Standards provide that focused vision," including the call "to do less, but in greater depth". Implementing the new science standards and their math counterparts will be the challenge, he and Schmidt agree, because the decentralized responsibility for education in the United States requires that any reforms be tailored and instituted one community at a time. In fact, Schmidt argues, reforms such as these proposed national standards "face an almost impossible task, because even though they are intellectually coherent, each becomes only one more voice in the babble (嘈杂声). " (411 words)

单选题The headmaster warned him to ______his ways if he wanted to stay at the school.