单选题Congress began 2010 with a bad case of legislative deja vu. Last year, it approved a $ 787 billion stimulus package meant to "create or save" millions of jobs. President Obama says the stimulus has saved or created as many as 2 million jobs so far. But even if that highly optimistic figure is true, in the real world, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus was signed into law--a dismal feat all financed with enormous debt. Now Congress is working on another stimulus package, but they're calling it a jobs bill. In December, the House passed a $174 billion "Jobs for Main Street Bill" that would use federal dollars to fund job-creating infrastructure projects, while extending unemployment benefits. Sound familiar? Unemployment remains at about 10% and state unemployment insurance funds are running out of money. While the Obama administration works to artificially inflate the number of jobs, the unemployed face diminished opportunities and income security. By 2012, 40 state unemployment trust funds are projected to be empty, requiring $ 90 billion in federal loans to continue operating Normally, state unemployment benefits pay jobless workers between 50 and 70% of their salaries for up to 26 weeks. But during this recession, what would be wrong with that? Everything. The state-federal unemployment insurance program (UI) is an economic drag on businesses and states. And it's a poor safety net for the unemployed. UI, a relic of the Depression, fails workers when they need it most. UI trust funds depend on a state- levied payroll tax on employers. During boom years, these funds are generally flush. But during recessions, they can get depleted quickly. The bind is that to replenish their UI fund, states have to raise payroll taxes. That hurts the bottom line for most businesses. Passed on to workers as a lower salary, high payroll taxes discourage businesses from hiring. During steep recessions, states face a fiscal Catch- 22: Reduce benefits or raise taxes. To date, 27 states have depleted their UI funds and are using $ 29 billion in federal loans they'll have to start repaying in 2011. Other states are slashing benefits. While federal guidelines recommend that states keep one year's worth of unemployment reserves, many states entered the recession already insolvent. When federal loans are exhausted, the only option left is higher payroll taxes--a move sure to discourage hiring and depress salaries. The increasingly small and uncertain payouts of UI are the opposite of income security. The effect of UI's eight-decade experiment has been to condition workers to save less for a "rainy day" and instead rely on a system that provides no guarantee. UI limits personal responsibility to save; gradually, individuals find themselves in financial peril. Real reform requires putting employees in charge with individual private accounts and getting the government out of the business of creating illusionary safety nets. Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts (UISAs), by contrast, give workers control of their own income, eliminating the negative effects of the UI program on businesses and budgets. Adopted by Chile in 2003, UISAs are also financed via a payroll tax on individual workers and employers. The difference is the money is directly deposited into the individual worker's account. Basically a form of forced savings, UISAs allow individuals to draw on their own accounts during periods of unemployment and roll unused funds into their savings upon retirement. With the burden reduced on employers, wages rise, leading to greater contributions to the individual's fund. The federal government is removed from the picture. And all workers are guaranteed a savings account upon retirement. UISAs liberate workers from uncertainty and improve incentives. When unemployed workers must rely on their own funds rather than the common fiscal pool, they find jobs faster. Congress's repeated extensions of the current UI program may be well intended, but they may also be counterproductive. Like any deadline extension, additional jobless benefits diminish the job seeker's urgency, all at taxpayers' expense. Today, expanded UI benefits mean higher state payroI1 taxes, which make it harder for employers to expand hiring or raise wages. UISAs, on the other hand, make the payroll tax on business part of the employer's investment in an individual worker, rather than a penalty for doing business. In 2010, it's time to say goodbye e to the problems created by broken policies. Congress should start this decade with a promise for true economic freedom: Let businesses create jobs and let workers keep what they've earned.

单选题"Museum" is a slippery word. It first meant ( in Greek) anything consecrated to the Muses: a hill, a shrine, a garden, a festival or even a textbook. Both Plato"s Academy and Aristotle"s Lyceum had a mouseion, a muses" shrine. Although the Greeks already collected detached works of art, many temples--notably that of Hera at Olympia (before which the Olympic flame is still lit)--had collections of objects, some of which were works of art by well-known masters, while paintings and sculptures in the Alexandrian Museum were incidental to its main purpose. The Romans also collected and exhibited art from disbanded temples, as well as mineral specimens, exotic plants, animals; and they plundered sculptures and paintings (mostly Greek) for exhibition. Meanwhile, the Greek word had slipped into Latin by transliteration (though not to signify picture galleries, which were called pinacothecae) and museum still more or less meant "Muses" shrine". The inspirational collections of precious and semi-precious objects were kept in larger churches and monasteries--which focused on the gold-enshrined, bejewelled relics of saints and martyrs. Princes, and later merchants, had similar collections, which became the deposits of natural curiosities: large lumps of amber or coral, irregular pearls, unicorn horns, ostrich eggs, fossil bones and so on. They also included coins and gems-- often antique engraved ones--as well as, increasingly, paintings and sculptures. As they multiplied and expanded, to supplement them, the skill of the fakers grew increasingly refined. At the same time, the 15th century, visitors could admire the very grandest paintings and sculptures in the churches, palaces and castles; they were not "collected" either, but "site-specific", and were considered an integral part both of the fabric of the buildings and of the way of life which went on inside them--and most of the buildings were public ones. In the 17th century, scientific and prestige collecting became so widespread that three or four collectors independently published directories to museums all over the known world. But it was the age of revolutions and industry which produced the next sharp shift in the way the institution was perceived: the fury against royal and church monuments prompted antiquarians to shelter them in asylum-galleries, of which the Musee des Monuments Francais was the most famous. Then, in the first half of the 19th century, museum funding took off, allied to the rise of new wealth: London acquired the National Gallery and the British Museum, the Louvre was organized, the Museum-Insel was begun in Berlin, and the Munich galleries were built. In Vienna, the huge Kunsthistorisches and Naturhistorisches Museums took over much of the imperial treasure. Meanwhile, the decline of craftsmanship (and of public taste with it) inspired the creation of "improving" collections. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London was the most famous, as well as perhaps the largest of them.

单选题Which statement is NOT true according to this article?

单选题 {{B}}Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following conversation.{{/B}}

单选题—You' ve made great progress in your studies of English, haven' t you? —Yes, but much______. [A] remains to do [B] is remained to do [C] remains to be done [D] is remained to be done

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单选题 Questions 27～30

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单选题Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following news.

单选题The passage mentions "the Bible" and "some New Age tome" in order to show

单选题 Questions 21-25 No one can be a great thinker who does not realize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. Not that it is solely or chiefly to form great thinkers that freedom of thinking is required. On the contrary, it is as much or even more indispensable to enable average human beings to attain the mental stature of which they are capable. There have been and may again great individual thinkers in a general atmosphere of mental slavery. But there never has been nor ever will be in that atmosphere an intellectually active people. Where any people have made even a temporary approach to such a character, it has been because the dread of heterodox speculation was for a time suspended. Where there is a tacit convention that principles are not to be disputed, where the discussion of the greatest questions which can occupy humanity is considered to be closed, one cannot hope to find that generally high scale of mental activity which has made some periods of history so remarkable! Never when controversy avoided the subjects which are large and important enough to kindle enthusiasm, were the minds of a people stirred up from their foundations and the impulse given which raised even persons of the most ordinary intellect to something of the dignity of thinking beings. He who knows only his side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons of the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. The rational position for him would be suspension of judgment and unless he contends himself with that, he is either led by authority, or adopts, like the generality of the world, the side to which he feels the most inclination. Nor is it enough that he should hear the arguments of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. That is not the way to do justice to the arguments, or to bring them into real contact with his own mind. He must be able to hear them form persons who actually believe them; who defend them in earnest, and do their very utmost for them. He must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form; he must feel the whole force of the difficulty which the true view of the subject has to encounter and dispose of; else he will never really possess himself of the portion of truth which meets and removes that difficulty. Ninety-nine in a hundred of what are called educated persons are in this condition--even of those who can argue fluently for their opinions. Their conclusions may be true, but they might be false for anything they know; they have never thrown themselves into the mental position of those who think differently from them and considered what such persons may have to say. Consequently they do not, in any proper sense of the word, know the doctrines which they themselves profess.

单选题 Directions: In this part of the test there will be some short talks and conversations. After each one, you will be asked some questions. The talks, conversations and questions will be spoken ONLY ONCE. Now listen carefully and choose the right answer to each question you have heard and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in, the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following talk.

单选题The world seems to be going diet crazy, and yet our nation"s obesity rate has shot up year after year. And, it"s not only the over 20 population that has to worry about their weight anymore. Children from kindergarten to twelfth grade are also experiencing the problems of an overweight lifestyle. According to the website cosmiverse.com, 11% of adolescents are categorized as being over-weight, and another 16% are in danger of becoming overweight. This is a 60% jump from the 1980"s. Some of the blame is being put on schools wanting to fit more academic classes into the children"s schedule rather than waste time on physical education. This new take on education has left us with physical activity at an all-time national low, resulting in obesity and poor physical conditioning at an all-time national high. The schools have tried a few solutions; the most recent in the news has been taking soda out of schools and increasing the required time children must be active during school. Will those methods help at all? Education is important at school, but starts at home. I believe students are getting their bad habits from watching their parents and how they eat and exercise. The school system only helps to hinder the child"s dietary eating. I know there are studies showing genes that determine how a child will be built. That does not explain however, why the rate continues to increase at such a rapid rate each year. It seems more likely that more and more families have both parents working, leaving their children to their own means for a meal. "Nintendo, TV, Playstation and the like," are what Physical Education teacher, Sue Arostegui, attributes the inactiveness to. "Parents are either gone or too scared with today"s society to let them out and play." Classes on health need to become more regular and sports need to be encouraged. At Live Oak High School the staff does a good job of teaching how to eat and exercise to stay healthy. The freshmen study health every Wednesday in RE., and Para James teaches healthy eating and food preparation in Home Economics for the first few weeks of every school year. "Kids have no idea how many calories they are eating," said James of the overweight problems facing students. "Fast food is becoming more popular, it"s easier and parents are busy. They are only setting their kids up to gain weight with that diet however." School cafeterias are also getting blamed for the students" eating habits. "Healthy eating should start at home," said L.O.H.S. cafeteria cool Brenda Myers. "Too many kids are being raised on fast food. After eating so much fast food they don"t have any tastes for real home cooked food. I always have healthy foods for students, but they are less likely to eat them." Other schools do not even have the type of programs Live Oak offers and are suffering even worse consequences. Sports keep students fit and healthy. There need to be more readily available sports programs for anyone who would like to join. Many students when they feel they do not meet the standards for a team will admit defeat and drop off the team: There needs to be a program that all students will be interested in and continue through for the entire season. Schools can only do and be blamed for so much however, and it will be up to the parents to become more aware of what activities their children are participating in and how healthy they are eating. Until that happens, I foresee the obesity rate continuing on its uphill curve.

单选题 6. A.The Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 4.75 percent.B.The reduction of interest rate is offering help to the economy of the United States.C.The discount rate was reduced by a bold half point.D.The Federal Reserve lowered the discount rate to lubricate credit market. A B C D B[解析] 6-10 Washington The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a modest quarter-percentage point on Tuesday, disappointing Wall Street hopes for bolder action but offering a bit more help to an economy facing credit strains and a deep housing slump. The central bank"s decision takes the bellwether federal funds rate, which governs overnight lending between banks, down to 4.25 percent. While the action was widely expected, some economists had thought the Fed might offer a bolder half-point reduction. In a related move, the Fed trimmed the discount rate it charges for direct loans to banks by a matching quarter point. Here too, some market participants were dissatisfied. Many had thought the Fed would lower the discount rate by more than the federal funds rate to lubricate tight credit markets. San Juan, Puerto Rico Subtropical Storm Olga knocked out power and caused widespread flooding in Puerto Rico on Tuesday and threatened the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with torrential downpours and mudslides. Olga was a relatively weak storm with top sustained winds of 45 mph and forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted strong winds in the upper atmosphere would start to tug it apart on Wednesday. They said Olga"s greatest threat was its torrential rains. "These rains have already produced life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in Puerto Rico," the forecasters said in an advisory. Tropical storm warnings and watches were issued for parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, and for the Turks and Caicos islands and the southeastern Bahamas. Paris New passenger car registrations in the European Union in November fell 1.3 percent to 1.217 million vehicles from a year ago but were up 0.9 percent over the first 11 months, the ACEA European car association said on Friday. Total European sales were down 1.1 percent in November and rose 1.1 percent for the 11 months. ACEA said private demand in most of the countries of western Europe was damped by sharp rises in fuel prices, loss of purchasing power and regulatory changes. Among car makers, Volkswagen Group remained the market leader for the 11 months, but its market share slipped to 19.7 percent from 20.1 percent. London The European Medicines Agency said on Friday that new warnings for doctors and patients were needed to increase awareness of cases of suicidal thoughts linked to Pfizer Inc"s new smoking cessation pill. Pfizer has been asked to submit changes to the marketing information for the product— sold as Champix in Europe and Chantix in the United States—before Dec. 19. The move follows similar action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which issued a warning last month about Chantix, amid reports of suicidal thoughts and behaviour, and at least one death potentially linked to the medication. Pfizer said there was no scientific evidence establishing a causal relationship between its medicine and these reported events, adding it was working closely with the European watchdog to review case histories. New York Amazon.com Inc, the Web retailer known for selling books, said it had paid about $ 4 million to buy a handwritten, illustrated book of wizardry by "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling. Sotheby"s on Thursday held an auction for the book called "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", which was mentioned in the last Potter book as having been left to Harry"s friend Hermione by their teacher, Albus Dumbledore. London dealer Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox had the winning bid of 1. 95 million pounds ( $ 3.98 million) on behalf of Amazon. com. All proceeds from the sale will go to the Children"s Voice, a charity Rowling co-founded in 2005 to help vulnerable children across Europe. Amazon. com has posted several pictures of the book—which it handles with white gloves—and a review of one tale called "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" on the Web site. The company plans to post reviews of all five tales.6: According to the report, which of the following statements is true? 7. A.Torrential rains and mudslides led to heavy casualties.B.Storm Olga caused a failure of electrical power and flooded the area.C.Strong winds in the upper atmosphere tugged Storm Olga apart.D.Tropical storm warnings and watches were issued. A B C D B[解析] What happened in Puerto Rico on Tuesday? 8. A.It has fallen down compared with the previous year.B.Total European sales were down over the first 11 months.C.Private demand in most western European countries were depressed for a number of reasons.D.Volkswagen Group was no longer the market leader since its market share dropped. A B C D A[解析] What can we find about the new passenger car registration in the European Union? 9. A.That there was scientific evidence proving the causal relationship between a certain kind of medicine and suicidal cases.B.That healthcare worker should pay more attention to cases of suicidal thoughts linked to a new smoking cessation pill.C.That it would warn against the clinical application of a new smoking cessation pill.D.That it would ask Pfizer Inc to submit changes to the marketing information. A B C D B[解析] What did the European Medicines Agency say on Friday? 10. A.It paid $ 4 million for a handwritten, illustrated version of "Harry Porter".B.It donated money to a charity co-founded by J. K. Rowling.C.It won the bid in an auction for a book written by J. K. Rowling.D.It posted reviews of all the tales on the Website. A B C D C[解析] According to the report, what did the web retailer, Amazon. com do?

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this section, you will read several passages. Each passage is followed by several questions based on its content. You are to choose {{B}}ONE{{/B}} best answer to each question. Answer all the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your {{B}}ANSWER BOOKLET{{/B}} Researchers have known that secondhand smoke can be just as dangerous for nonsmokers as smoking is for smokers, but now there's fresh evidence quantifying just how hazardous the after-burn from cigarettes can be, and how quickly it affects your body. Scientists at the Oregon Department of Health documented for the first time an hourly buildup of a cancer- causing compound from cigarette smoke in the blood of nonsmokers working in bars and restaurants in the state. Reporting in the American Journal of Public Health, the researchers found that waitstaff and bartenders working a typical night shift gradually accumulated higher levels of NNK, a carcinogen in cigarette smoke, at the rate of 6% each hour they worked. NNK is known to be involved in inducing lung cancer in both lab rats and smokers. "We were somewhat surprised by the immediacy of the effect and the fact that we could measure the average hourly increase," says Michael Stark, the lead author of the study and a principal investigator at the Mulmomah County Health Department in Oregon. The authors are confident that the increases in NNK in the workers they tested most likely came from their exposure to smoke—the study included a control group of similar subjects in restaurants where no smoking was allowed. "There is experimental evidence from studies where you put nonsmokers in a room, blow smoke into the room and measure their artery function, that you see the platelets get sticky, which can cause clots and lead to a heart attack, and the ability of the arteries to dilate decreases very rapidly," says Dr. Matthew McKenna, director of the office on smoking and public health for the Centers for Disease Control. All of which could mean more time loitering outside buildings and in alleyways for smokers intent on grabbing a puff. Thirteen states now prohibit smoking in restaurants altogether (most of these include bars as well), and while 11 states still put no restrictions on lighting up, individual cities within those states—such as Austin in Texas, for example have passed legislation banning smoking in eating establishments and other public areas. It's just getting harder to refute the scientific evidence; in a study done in Scotland several months after that nation instituted a ban on smoking in public places, researchers found that following the ban, bar patrons showed stronger lung capacity and reduced levels of inflammation (a red flag for a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease and asthma). "We made it pretty clear that the science on this is pretty irrefutable," says McKenna. And if smokers have fewer places to smoke, that message may finally get heard.

单选题I am ______ by his ______ attitude after hearing his words. [A] puzzled; puzzled [B] puzzling; puzzling [C] puzzled; puzzling [D] puzzling; puzzled

单选题The expression "The claim is as ambitious as it is pessimistic." can be best paraphrased as which of the following?

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单选题 {{B}}Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.{{/B}}

单选题Questions 1-5 In the case of mobile phones, change is everything. Recent research indicates that the mobile phone is changing not only our culture, but our very bodies as well. First, let's talk about culture. The difference between the mobile phone and its parent, the fixed-line phone, you get whoever answers it. This has several implications. The most common one, however, and perhaps the thing that has changed our culture forever, is the "meeting" influence. People no longer need to make firm plans about when and where to meet. Twenty years ago, a Friday night would need to be arranged in advance. You needed enough time to allow everyone to get from their place of work to the first meeting place. Now, however, a night out can be arranged on the run. It is no longer "see you there at 8", but "text-me around 8 and we'll see where we all are". Texting changes people as well. In their paper, "Insights into the Social and Psychological Effects of SMS Text Messaging", two British researchers distinguished between two types of mobile phone users: the "talkers" and the "texters"--those who prefer voice to text message and those who prefer text to voice. They found that the mobile phone's individuality and privacy gave texters the ability to express a whole new outer personality. Texters were likely to report that their family would be surprised if they were to read their texts. This suggests that texting allowed texters to present a self-image that differed from the one familiar to those who knew them well. Another scientist wrote of the changes that mobiles have brought to body language. There are two kinds that people use while speaking on the phone. There is the "speakeasy": the head is held high, in a self-confident way, chatting away. And there is the "spacemaker': these people focus on themselves and keep out other people. Who can blame them? Phone meetings get cancelled or reformed and camera-phones intrude on people's privacy. So, it is understandable if your mobile makes you nervous. But perhaps you needn't worry so much. After all, it is good to talk.