单选题The author thinks highly of older employees because _______.
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单选题Journalists who write about families as well as social and cultural issues can count on receiving an annual barrage of public relations pitches for Valentine's Day. The PR blitz begins right after Christmas and continues almost until the big day itself. Daily, sometimes hourly, e-mails pop up on my computer screen, as publicity agents propose stories on a variety of love-rated subjects. Some suggest traditional topics: How about interviewing the author of a new book on how to find the perfect mate? Or what about a story offering ideas on the best gifts to give to your heartthrob? Other suggestions take a thoroughly modern approach to romance. Publicists would be happy to provide information about the newest matchmaking website or the hottest dating coach. There's even a "psychic medium" who promises to tell radio and television audiences about their "current and future relationships". Individually, these story promotions could be taken for what they are: just another day, another client, another dollar in the life of publicity agents. But collectively, they signal more than simply a desire to capitalize on a holiday that has mushroomed into a $17 billion industry. In their varied forms, these promotions reflect the urgency of the quest for love and companionship in a society where one-quarter of all households now consist of single people. These pitches also serve as a measure of how much Valentine's Day itself has changed. They can impel long-married observers to look back with a certain nostalgia to a time several decades ago when Feb. 14 didn't carry such intensity--and when courtship didn't cost quite so much. That was a time before men were expected to spend two months' worth of their salary for an engagement ring, before men and women decided they would settle for nothing less than a "soul mate", and before it was necessary to seek advice from an army of self-help gurus bearing titles such as "relationship and interpersonal communication expert". That was also an era when many hopeful Prince Charmings could show their love with a card or a heart-shaped box of drugstore chocolates, and when even a single rose could melt a young woman's heart. What a contrast to today, when anything less than a dozen long-stemmed roses can risk making a sender appear frugal, and when an ardent suitor who wants to make an impression will buy chocolates from Belgium, whatever the cost. This year the average man will spend $120 and the average woman $ 85, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Is this love, or obligation? For some men, it might even include a bit of guilt. As Tracy Mullin, CEO of the NRF, notes, presumably with tongue planted firmly in cheek, some men "may be looking at Valentine's Day as a way to make up for that HDTV they splurged on for the Super Bowl." As one public radio station announcer put it during a Valentine's Day fundraiser offering long-stemmed roses. "This is a perfect way to fulfill your Valentine's obligations." Another host making a similar appeal urged listeners to "take care of your Valentine's Day duties." And if you don't? One relationship expert quoted in a Valentine's Day press release offers the stern warning that "if a guy doesn't come through on Valentine's Day, it means he doesn't care about you," so just say goodbye and move on. But assuming he does care, another PR firm suggests a high-tech approach to the day. "This year, think outside the box and send a Video Valentine!" the e-mail pitch begins. "Too shy to say those three little words in person? Profess your love on video! Or use your cellphone to record yourself shopping for the perfect gift. " Diamonds, anyone? Whatever the approach, couples might do well to follow the advice of a group of husbands in Japan who say they know the answer to wedded bliss. In an effort to communicate better with their wives, they offer Three Principles of Love. Say "sorry" without fear, say "thank you" without hesitation, and say "I love you" without shame. It's a trio of sentiments that women could adopt as well. Tomorrow all the unsold Valentines with their declarations of love and affection will disappear from card racks, to be replaced by Easter messages featuring eggs and bunnies. Long stemmed roses will begin to open, boxes of chocolate will be nibbled away, and cards with sentimental messages will be propped on desks and dressers. Whatever hopes and expectations are fulfilled--or not--today, the celebration offers a touching reminder that when it comes to matters of the heart, the approaches might change, but the yearning for love and companionship doesn't. Above all, it offers this comforting reassurance. Cupid lives.
单选题Questions 26~30 Extract 1 Simply put, a newspaper editorial is an article that expresses an opinion. While this single sentence may not seem to do justice to defining what an editorial is, think about this brief definition. What other types of article express this defining characteristic? What other articles actively promote the expression of an opinion? Reviewers may include factual information, so their personal opinions do not totally dominate a review, and news reporters attempt to give "just the facts" about a situation. Editorials are one of the few types of articles that celebrate the expression of opinion; they are wholly centred on the opinion being presented by the writer and the debate and discussion that the opinion incites. That said, an editorial writer often attempts to the best of his or her own ability to defend the opinion that is being presented against potential counterarguments—a good editorial does not appear in a vacuum; this defence employs argument, logic, and other appeals to readers in an attempt to achieve a desired effect. The purpose of any given editorial is entirely directed by its writer. Most often, however, editorial writers seek to prove the validity of an opinion through argument, point out something that has been ignored, or simply create discussion about a topic. In sum, most editorials will inevitably involve the defence of an opinion in the hopes of advancing some goal that the writer has in mind. Extract 2 If you want to become a music journalist, there are several starting points. One is to have a good knowledge of the greats, because when you write you have to put today's music into context. It isn't enough simply to be familiar with the music of the last five years. Another way is to specialize in a particular type of music, such as folk, country or techno. And the third starting point is to be a musician. This opens doors to the magazines targeted specifically at musicians rather than a more general readership. There may be opportunities if you don't fit any of those three categories, but it's a competitive marketplace so it's important that in some way you meet the sometimes quite specific needs of the music magazines. Staff jobs do get advertised from time to time, but your best approach might be to work freelance. This way you can do non-music writing as well, if necessary, to add to your income, and equally importantly, you'll have greater creative freedom by writing for different music magazines. In general they make sure they meet their readers' very specific expectations, and so you may find writing just for one is limiting. Extract 3 This book was published before under a different title and the material has been reissued in the A Very Short Introduction... series of titles which aim to give readers a brief, colourful insight into a subject and ignite a passion for further learning and discovery. The series is an alternative to the Introducing... series of yesteryear, which briefly introduced readers to people, topics and ideas. Journalism: A Very Short Introduction suffers where the Introducing... titles excelled. Humour was used by the Introducing... series to great effect to draw the reader in and make the subject covered that much more interesting. So much rests on how a subject is taught, and being likened to a textbook, which is a real risk in the present case, would be the kiss of death for a title such as this.
单选题Questions 11-14Questions 11-14
单选题According to the passage, all American presidents have experienced ______.
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Joy and sadness are experienced by
people in all cultures around the world, but how can we tell when other people
are happy or despondent? It turns out that the expression of many emotions may
be universal. Smiling is apparently a universal sign of friendliness and
approval. Baring the teeth in a hostile way, as noted by Charles Darwin in the
nineteenth century, may be a universal sign of anger. As the originator of the
theory of evolution, Darwin believed that the universal recognition of facial
expressions would have survival value. For example, facial expressions could
signal the approach of enemies (or friends) in the absence of
language. Most investigators concur that certain facial
expressions suggest the same emotions in a people. Moreover, people in diverse
cultures recognize the emotions manifested by the facial expressions. In
classic research Paul Ekman took photographs of people exhibiting the emotions
of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness. He then asked people around the
world to indicate what emotions were being depicted in them. Those queried
ranged from European college students to members of the Fore, a tribe that
dwells in the New Guinea highlands. All groups including the Fore, who had
almost no contact with Western culture, agreed on the portrayed emotions. The
Fore also displayed familiar facial expressions when asked how they would
respond if they were the characters in stories that called for basic emotional
responses. Ekman and his colleagues more recently obtained similar results in a
study of ten cultures in which participants were permitted to report that
multiple emotions were shown by facial expressions. The participants generally
agreed on which two emotions were being shown and which emotion was more
intense. Psychological researchers generally recognize that
facial expressions reflect emotional states. In fact, various emotional states
give rise to certain patterns of electrical activity in the facial muscles and
in the brain. The facial-feedback hypothesis argues, however, that the causal
relationship between emotions and facial expressions can also work in the
opposite direction. According to this hypothesis, signals from the facial
muscles ("feedback") are sent back to emotion centers of the brain, and so a
person's facial expression can influence that person's emotional state. Consider
Darwin's words: "The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies
it. On the other hand, the repression, as far as possible, of all outward signs
softens our emotions.' Can smiling give rise to feelings of good will, for
example, and frowning to anger? Psychological research has given
rise to some interesting findings concerning the facial- feedback hypothesis.
Causing participants in experiments to smile, for example, leads them to report
more positive feelings and to rate cartoons (humorous drawings of people or
situations) as being more humorous. When they are caused to frown, they rate
cartoons as being more aggressive. What are the possible links
between facial expressions and emotion? One link is arousal, which is the level
of activity or preparedness for activity in an organism. Intense contraction of
facial muscles, such as those used in signifying fear, heightens arousal.
Self-perception of heightened arousal then leads to heightened emotional
activity. Other links may involve changes in brain temperature and the
release of neurotransmitters (substances that transmit nerve impulses). The
contraction of facial muscles both influences the internal emotional state and
reflects it. Ekman has found that the so-called Duchenne smile, which is
characterized by "crow's feet" wrinkles around the eyes and a subtle drop in the
eye cover fold so that the skin above the eye moves down slightly toward the
eyeball, can lead to pleasant feelings. Ekman's observation may
be relevant to the British expression "keep a stiff upper lip" as a
recommendation for handling stress. It might be that a "stiff" lip suppresses
emotional response—as long as the lip is not quivering with fear or tension. But
when the emotion that leads to stiffening the lip is more intense, and involves
strong muscle tension, facial feedback may heighten emotional
response.
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A wise man once said that the only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a
police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people.
Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime.
Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It
has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I
think I know what it is: accountability. Accountability isn't
hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions
and liable for their consequences. Of the many values that hold
civilization together—honesty, kindness, and so on— accountability may be the
most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no
law-and, ultimately, no society. My job as a police officer is
to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose
it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people's
behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame
and embarrassment. Fortunately there are still
communities—smaller towns, usually—where schools maintain discipline and where
parents hole up standards that proclaim: "In this family certain things are not
tolerated—they simply are not done!" Yet more and more,
especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are
loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his
property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage
him. The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in
attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered
the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it's the criminal who is considered
victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn't teach
him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the
parents who didn't provide a stable home. I don't believe it.
Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in
criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability,
we become a society of endless excuses where no one accepts responsibility for
anything. We in America desperately need more people who believe
that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for
it.
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I remember meeting him one evening with
his pushcart. I had managed to sell all my papers and was coming home in the
snow. It was that strange hour in downtown New York when the workers were
pouring homeward in the twilight. I marched among thousands of tired men and
women whom the factory whistles had unyoked. They flowed in rivers through the
clothing factory districts, then down along the avenues to the East
Side. I met my father near Cooper Union. I recognized him, a
hunched, frozen figure in an old overcoat standing by a banana cart. He looked
so lonely, the tears came to my eyes. Then he saw me, and his face lit with his
sad, beautiful smile—Charlie Chaplin's smile. "Arch, it's
Mikey," he said. "So you have sold your papers! Come and eat a
banana." He offered me one. I refused it. I felt it crucial that
my father sell his bananas, not give them away. He thought I was shy, and coaxed
and joked with me, and made me eat the banana. It smelled of wet straw and
snow. "You haven't sold many bananas today, pop," I said
anxiously, He shrugged his shoulders. "What can I do? No one seems to want
them." It was true. The work crowds pushed home morosely over
the pavements. The rusty sky darkened over New York building, the tall street
lamps were lit, innumerable trucks, street cars and elevated trains clattered
by. Nobody and nothing in the great city stopped for my father's
bananas. "I ought to yell," said my father dolefully. "I ought
to make a big noise like other peddlers, but it makes my throat sore. Anyway,
I'm ashamed of yelling, it makes me feel like a fool." I had
eaten one of his bananas. My sick conscience told me that I ought to pay for it
somehow. I must remain here and help my father. "I'll yell for you, pop," I
volunteered." "Arch, no," he said, "go home; you have worked enough today. Just
tell momma I'll be late." But I yelled and yelled. My father,
standing by, spoke occasional words of praise, and said I was a wonderful
yeller. Nobody else paid attention. The workers drifted past us wearily,
endlessly; a defeated army wrapped in dreams of home. Elevated trains crashed;
the Cooper Union clock burned above us; the sky grew black, the wind poured, the
slush burned through our shoes. There were thousands of strange, silent figures
pouring over the sidewalks in snow, None of them stopped to buy bananas. I
yelled and yelled, nobody listened. My father tried to stop me
at last. "Nu," he said smiling to console me, "that was wonderful yelling.
Mikey. But it's plain we are unlucky today! Let's go home." I
was frantic, and almost in tears. I insisted on keeping up my desperate yells.
But at last my father persuaded me to leave with
him.
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An eccentric is by definition someone
whose behavior is abnormal, someone who refuses to conform to the accepted norms
of his society. This, of course, immediately begs the question, "What is
normal?" Most of us, after all, have our quirks and oddities. It may be a
passion for entering newspaper competitions, a compulsion for collecting beer
mats, a tendency to write indignant letters to the press on every conceivable
subject. Eccentricity is the assertion of our individuality. Within most of us
that urge is constantly in conflict with the contrary force. It is as though in
the depths of our psyche we have two locomotives head-to- head on the same
track, pushing against each other. One is called individualism and the other
conformity, and in most of us it is conformity that is more powerful. The desire
to be accepted, loved, appreciated, to feel at one with our fellows, is stronger
than the desire to stand out in the crowd, to be our own man, to do our own
thing. Notice, for example, how people who have unusual hobbies,
strong opinions, or unconventional behaviour, tend to congregate. They form
clubs, hold meetings, and organize rallies where they can get together and
discuss their common enthusiasms or problems. The important word is "common".
They look for other people with whom they can share what in the normal run of
events is regarded by relatives, friends and neighbors as an oddity. A crowd,
even a small crowd, is reassuring. Probably all of us recognize
a tension within ourselves between the two forces of individualism and
conformity, for at the same time that most of us are going with the crowd, we
tend to resent any suggestion that this is what we are doing. We feel a
self-conscious need to assert our individuality as when the belligerent man at
the bar informs his small audience, "Well, I say what I think." Or the wary
stranger to whom we have just been introduced announces, "You must take me as
you find me. I don't stand on ceremony." Any of us can, at any
time, reverse this trend. We can stoke the boiler of individualism, assert our
own personality. Many people have made it to the top in their chosen
professions. One example is Bob Dylan, the American singer, who has gone on
record as saying, "When you feel in your gut what you are doing and then
dynamically pursue it—don't back down and don't give up—then you're going to
mystify a lot of folk." But that self-conscious assertion of individuality is
not eccentricity, at least not in the early stages. When a pop singer
deliberately wears bizarre clothes to gain publicity, or a society hostess makes
outrageous comments about her guests in order to get herself noticed in the
gossip columns, that is not eccentricity. However, if the pop star and the
society hostess perpetuate such activities until they become a part of
themselves, until they are no longer able to return to what most of us consider
"normal behaviour", then they certainly would qualify. For the most important
ingredient of eccentricity is its naturalness. Eccentrics are not people who
deliberately try to be odd, they simply are odd. The true
eccentric is not merely indifferent to public opinion, he is scarcely conscious
at all. He simply does what he does, because of who he is. And this marks the
eccentric as essentially different from, for example, enthusiasts, practical
jokers, brilliant criminals, exhibitionists and recluses. These people are all
very conscious of the world around them. Much of what they do, they do in
reaction to the world in which they live. Some wish to make an impression on
society, some wish to escape from society, but all are very much aware of
society. The eccentric alone goes on his merry way
regardless.
单选题Questions 21-25 Once it was possible to define male and female roles easily by the division of labor. Men worked outside the home and earned the income to support their families, while women cooked the meals and took care of the home and the children. These roles were firmly fixed for most people, and there was not much opportunity for women to exchange their roles. But by the middle of this century, men's and women's roles were becoming less firmly fixed. In the 1950s, economic and social success was the goal of the typical American. But in the 1960s a new force developed called the counterculture. The people involved in this movement did not value the middle-class American goals. The counterculture presented men and women with new role choices. Taking more interest in childcare, men began to share child-raising tasks with their wives. In fact, some young men and women moved to communal homes or farms where the economic and childcare responsibilities were shared equally by both sexes. In addition, many Americans did not value the traditional male role of soldier. Some young men refused to be drafted as soldiers to fight in the war in Vietnam. In terms of numbers, the counterculture was not a very large group of people. But its influence spread to many parts of American society. Working men of all classes began to change their economic and social patterns. Industrial workers and business executives alike cut down on "overtime" work so that they could spend more leisure time with their families. Some doctors, lawyers, and teachers turned away from high paying situations to practice their professions in poorer neighborhoods. In the 1970s, the feminist movement, or women's liberation, produced additional economic and social changes. Women of all ages and at all levels of society were entering the work force in greater numbers. Most of them still took traditional women's jobs as public school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. But some women began to enter traditionally male occupations: police work, banking, dentistry, and construction work. Women were asking for equal work, and equal opportunities for promotion. Today the experts generally agree that important changes are taking place in the roles of men and women. Naturally, there are difficulties in adjusting to these transformations.
单选题Which of the following can NOT be concluded from Hughes' comment "It's a for-profit product that allows you to exercise your conscience." (Para. 2) ______.
单选题Whenistheconversationtakingplace?A.Atten.B.Atten-thirty.C.Nearlyatmidnight.
单选题Laura Holshouser"s favorite video games include Halo, Tetris, and an online training game developed by her employer. A training game? That"s right. The 24-year-old graduate student, who manages a Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream store in Riverside, Calif. , stumbled across the game on the corporate Web site in October.
It teaches portion control and customer service in a cartoon-like simulation of a Cold Stone store. Players scoop cones against the clock and try to avoid serving too much ice cream. The company says more than 8,000 employees, or about 30% of the total, voluntarily downloaded the game in the first week. "It"s so much fun," says Holshouser. "I e-mailed it to everyone at work."
The military has used video games as a training tool since the 1980s. Now the practice is catching on with companies, too, ranging from Cold Stone to Cisco Systems Inc. to Canon Inc. Corporate trainers are betting that games" interactivity and fun will hook young, media-savvy employees like Holshouser and help them grasp and retain sales, technical, and management skills. "Video games teach resource management, collaboration, critical thinking, and tolerance for failure," says Ben Sawyer, who runs Digitalmill Inc. , a game consultancy in Portland, Me.
The market for corporate training games is small but it"s growing fast. Sawyer estimates that such games make up 15% of the "serious," or nonentertainment market, which also includes educational and medical training products. Over the next five years, Sawyer sees the serious-games market more than doubling, to $100 million, with trainers accounting for nearly a third of that. It"s numbers like those that prompted Cyberlore Studios Inc. , maker of Playboy: The Mansion, to refocus on training games—albeit based on its Playboy title. And training games will be top of mind at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. , this month.
Companies like video games because they are cost-effective. Why pay for someone to fly to a central training campus when you can just plunk them down in front of a computer? Even better, employees often play the games at home on their own time. Besides, by industry standards, training games are cheap to make. A typical military game costs up to $10 million, while sophisticated entertainment games can cost twice that. Since the corporate variety don"t require dramatic, warlike explosions or complex 3D graphics, they cost a lot less. BreakAway Games Ltd., which designs simulation games for the military, is finishing its first corporate product, V-bank, to train bank auditors. Its budget? Just $500,000.
Games are especially well-suited to training technicians. In one used by Canon, repairmen must drag and drop parts into the right spot on a copier. As in the board game Operation, a light flashes and a buzzer sounds if the repairman gets it wrong. Workers who played the game showed a 5% to 8% improvement in their training scores compared with older training techniques such as manuals, says Chuck Reinders, who trains technical support staff at Canon. This spring, the company will unveil 11 new training games.
Games are also being developed to help teach customer service workers to be more empathetic. Cyberlore, now rechristened Minerva Software Inc. , is developing a training tool for a retailer by rejiggering its Playboy Mansion game. In the original, guests had to persuade models to pose topless. The new game requires players to use the art of persuasion to sell products, and simulates a store, down to the carpet and point-of-purchase display details.
Don Field, director of certifications at Cisco, says games won"t entirely replace traditional training methods such as videos and classes. But he says they should be part of the toolbox. Last year, Cisco rolled out six new training games—some of them designed to teach technicians how to build a computer network. It"s hard to imagine a drier subject. Not so in the virtual world. In one Cisco game, players must put the network together on Mars. In a sandstorm. "Our employees learn without realizing they are learning," says Field. Sounds suspiciously like fun.