单选题Questions 23-26

单选题In the information technology industry, it is widely acknowledged that how well IT departments of the future can fulfill their business goals will depend not on the regular updating of technology, which is essential for them to do, but on how well they can hold on to the people skilled at manipulating the newest technology. This is becoming more difficult. Best estimates of the current shortfall in IT staff in the UK are between 30,000 and 50,000, and growing. And there is no end to the problem in sight. A severe industry-wide lack of investment in training means the long-term skills base is both ageing and shrinking. Employers are chasing experienced staff in ever-decreasing circles, and, according to a recent government report, 250,000 new IT jobs will be created over the next decade. Most employers are confining themselves to dealing with the immediate problems. There is little evidence, for example, that they are stepping up their intake of raw recruits for in-house training, or retraining existing staff from other functions. This is the course of action recommended by the Computer Software Services Association, but research shows its members are adopting the short-term measure of bringing in more and more consultants on a contract basis. With IT professionals increasingly attracted to the financial rewards and flexibility of consultancy work, average staff turnover rates are estimated to be around 15%. While many companies in the financial services sector are managing to contain their losses by offering skilled IT staff "golden handcuffs" — deferred loyalty bonuses that tie them in until a certain date — other organizations, like local governments, are unable to match the competitive salaries and perks on offer in the private sector and contractor market, and are suffering turnover rates of up to 60% a year. But while loyalty bonuses have grabbed the headlines, there are other means of holding on to staff. Some companies are doing additional IT pay reviews in the year and paying market premiums. But such measures can create serious employee relations problems among those excluded, both within and outside IT departments. Many industry experts advise employers to link bonuses to performance wherever possible. However, employers are realising that bonuses will only succeed if they are accompanied by other incentives such as attractive career prospects, training, and challenging work that meets the individual"s long-term ambitions.

单选题 Does using a word processor affect a writer's style? The medium usually does do something to the message after all, even if Marshall McLuhan's claim that the medium simply is the message has been heard and largely forgotten now. The question matters. Ray Hammond, in his excellent guide The Writer and the Word Processor (Coronet ￡2.95 pp224), predicts that over half of the professional writers in Britain and the USA will be using word processors by the end of 1995. The best-known recruit is Len Deighton, from as long ago as 1968, though most users have only started since the micro-computer boom began in 1980. Ironically word processing is in some ways psychologically more like writing in rough than typing, since it restores fluidity and provisionality to the text. The typist's dread of having to get out the Tippex, the scissors and paste, or of redoing the whole thing if he has any substantial second thoughts, can make him consistently choose the safer option in his sentences, or let something stand which he knows to be unsatisfactory or incomplete, out of weariness. In word processing the text is loosened up whilst still retaining the advantage of looking formally finished. This has, I think, two apparently contradictory effects. The initial writing can become excessively sloppy and careless, in the expectation that it will be corrected later. That crucial first inspiration is never easy to recapture though, and therefore, on the other hand, the writing can become over-deliberated, lacking in flow and spontaneity, since revision becomes a larger part of composition. However these are faults easier to detect in others than in oneself. For most writers, word processing quite rapidly comes to feel like the ideal method (and can always be a second step after drafting on paper if you prefer). Most of the writers interviewed by Hammond say it has improved their style ("immensely", says Deighton). Seeing your own words on a screen helps you to feel cool and detached about them. Thus it is not just by freeing you from the labour of mechanical re-typing that a word processor can help you to write. One author (Terence Feely) claims it has increased his output by 400%. Possibly the feeling of having a reactive machine, which appears to do things, rather than just have things done with it, accounts for this — your slave works hard and so do you. Are there no drawbacks? It costs a lot and takes time to learn — "expect to lose weeks of work", says Hammond, though days might be nearer the mark. Notoriously it is possible to lose work altogether on a word processor, and this happens to everybody at least once. The awareness that what you have written no longer exists at all anywhere, is unbelievably enraging and baffling.

单选题 You have seen them in movies: scientists who are infallible and coldly objective--little more than animated computers in white lab coats. They take measurements and record results as if the collection of data were the sole object of their lives. The assumption= If one gathers enough facts about something, the relationships between those facts will spontaneously reveal themselves. Nonsense! The myth of the infallible scientist evaporates when one thinks of the number of great ideas in science whose originators were correct in general but wrong in detail. The English physicist John Dalton gets credit for modern atomic theory, but his mathematical formulas for calculating atomic weights were incorrect. The Polish astronomer Copernicus, who corrected Ptolemy's ancient concept of an Earth-centered universe, nevertheless was mistaken in the particulars of the planets' orbits. Luck, too, has played a determining role in scientific discovery. The French chemist Pasteur demonstrated that life does not arise spontaneously from air. But it may have been luck that he happened to use an easy-to-kill yeast and not the hay bacillus that another, long-forgotten, investigator had chosen for the same experiment. We now know that hay bacillus is heat-resistant and grows even after the boiling that killed Pasteur's yeast. If Pasteur had used the hay bacillus, his "proof" would not have materialized. Gregor Mendel, the founder of modern genetics, epitomizes the humanness of the scientist. Plant hybridization intrigued and puzzled Mendel, an Augustinian monk with some training in mathematics and the natural sciences. He had read in the professional literature that crosses between certain species regularly yielded many hybrids with identical traits; but when hybrids were crossed, all kinds of strange new combinations of traits cropped up. The principle of inheritance, if there was one, was elusive. Mendel had the basic idea that there might be simple mathematical relationships among plants in different generations. To pursue this hypothesis, he decided to establish experimental plots in the monastery garden at Brunn, raise a number of varieties of peas, interbreed them, count and classify the offspring of each generation, and see whether any reliable mathematical ratios could be deduced. After many years of meticulously growing, harvesting, and counting pea plants, Mendel thought he had something worth talking about. So, in 1865, he appeared before the Brunn Society for the Study of Natural Science, reported on his research, and postulated what have since come to be called the Mendelian laws. Society members listened politely but, insofar as anybody knows, asked few questions and engaged in little discussion. It may even be that, as he proceeded, a certain suspicion emerged out of the embarrassed silence. After all, Mendel lacked a degree and had published no research. Now, if Pasteur had advanced this idea... Mendel's assertion that separate and distinct "elements" of inheritance must exist, despite the fact that he couldn't produce any, was close to asking the society to accept something on faith. There was no evidence for Mendel's hypothesis other than his computations; and his wildly unconventional application of algebra to botany made it difficult for his listeners to understand that those computations were the evidence. Mendel undoubtedly died without knowing that his findings on peas had indeed illuminated a well-nigh universal pattern. Luck had been with him in his choice of which particular traits to study. We now know that groups of genes do not always act independently. Often they are linked, their effect being to transmit a package of traits. Knowing nothing about genes, let alone the phenomenon of linkage, Mendel was spared failure because the traits that he chose to follow were each controlled separately. The probability of making such a happy choice in random picks is only about 1 in 163!

单选题The traditional two-parent family is fast giving way in the America of the 1980s to households in which one adult must juggle the often enormous demands of making a living and raising children. For many, single parenthood is synonymous with economic need. More than 3 million single-parent families live in poverty, according to The Census Bureau, and joblessness, plus cuts in public assistance, has helped drive up the number of poor children in such families by about 20 percent in Just three years. The biggest burden falls on households that are headed by single mothers. Nearly half of these families are below the poverty "as" the most compelling social fact "of the last 10 years". This deprivation is not only hard on its victims but expensive for taxpayers since single women and their offspring receives 40 to 80 percent of the benefits in various welfare programs that cost the government a total of 40 billion dollars a year. Despite cuts in benefits averaging 10 percent, rising number of eligible women are likely to keep the overall cost up, according to economist Alice Rivlin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. Fanning the single-parent spiral are two dramatic offshoots of the sexual revolution: divorce and unwed motherhood. The divorce rate has doubled in the last 15 years, and the number of illegitimate births has more than doubled to 700,000 annually. One tenth of white children and more than one half of black children are now born out of wedlock. What"s more, there is a strong tendency now for women and teenagers who have illegitimate children to keep them rather than put them up for adoption. Typical is Rufina Nera of Los Angles. When she became pregnant at 15, abortion was never mentioned in her home. Instead, her mother encouraged her to have the child, says Nera, adding: "She even gave a baby shower for me." Now, Nera shares a crowded bedroom with her 2-year-old daughter as well as her sister. She holds no hope of help from the father, although she remarked during the only time he saw the child that she was prettier than his other illegitimate baby. Even so, Nera tries to keep her attention on two goals: Moving into her own apartment and getting enough education to become a secretary or a nurse. Her first step along that path is attending Ramona High School, an "opportunity school" where she and 110 other girls study while their babies are cared for in a nursery.

单选题The author of the passage holds that ______.

单选题 {{B}}Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following conversation.{{/B}}

单选题The author's analysis of the impulse toward bodily transformation is most weakened by a failure to explore the ______.

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this part of the test, you will hear several short talks and conversations. After each of these, you will hear a few questions. Listen carefully because you will hear the talk or conversation and questions {{B}}ONLY ONCE.{{/B}} When you hear a question, read the four answer choices and choose the best answer to that question. Then write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your {{B}}ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}} {{B}}Questions 11—14{{/B}}

单选题Questions 11—14

单选题

单选题Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: that international contests encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic games have done little to support the view that sports encourages international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident involving the murder of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by lesser incidents caused principally by minor national contests. One country received its second-place medals with visible indignation after the hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were convinced that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents' victory was unfair. Their manager was in a rage when he said: "This wasn't hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished." The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension of the team for at least three years. The American basketball team announced that they would not yield first place to Russia, after a disputable end to their contest. The game had ended in disturbance. It was thought at first that the United States had won, by a single point, but it was announced that there were three seconds still to play. A Russian player then threw the ball from one end of the court to the other, and another player popped it into the basket. It was the first time the USA had ever lost an Olympic basketball match. An appeal jury debated the matter for four and a half hours before announcing that the result would stand. The American players then voted not to receive the silver medals. Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages aggressive patriotism.

单选题 Questions 15-18

单选题Because of satellite links which now enable broadcast news organizations to originate live programming from any part of the globe, the entire world is becoming one giant sound stage for television news. As a result, Marshall McLean"s reference to the post-television world as being a single "global village" is gaining new acceptance and Shakespeare"s famous line, "all the world"s a stage," has taken on an interesting new twist in meaning. But, beyond the philosophical dimensions of global television communications there are some dramatic, political implications. Even before today"s worldwide satellite links were possible, the growing effect of broadcast news technology on national and international politics was becoming increasingly evident. Because television is a close-up medium and a medium that seems to most readily involve emotions, it is most effective when it is revealing the plights of people. It was probably the appalling footage of the Nazi death camps that first demonstrated the power of motion pictures and television to affect the collective consciousness of a world audience. In the United States during the 50"s and 60"s the power of television to stir the consciousness of large numbers of people was demonstrated in another way. Night after night graphic news footage of the civil rights struggle was brought into U.S. homes. Years later, this role was to take on a new and even more controversial dimension during the Vietnam War. Reading about war was one thing; but war took on a deeper and more unsavory dimension when it was exported directly into U.S. living rooms night after night by television. Public opinion eventually turned against the war and to some measure against President Johnson who was associated with it. As a result of the public opinion backlash during these times, the Pentagon was thereafter much more careful to control what foreign correspondents and TV crews would be allowed to see and report. It was during this time that President Carter brought the issue of human rights to the centre of his foreign policy, and, to some degree, to the centre of international politics. "Human rights are the soul of our foreign policy," Carter said. "Of all human rights the most basic is to be free of arbitrary violence, whether that violence comes from government, from terrorists, from criminals, or from self-appointed messiahs operating under the cover of politics or religion. " Although political viewpoints have changed since then, because of the emotional nature of human rights, this has emerged as the "soul" of television news. The transgression of human rights has been the focus of many, if not most, major international television news stories. The reporting of these stories has created outrage in the world, prompted attempts at censorship by dictators, and in many cases resulted in the elimination of human rights abuses.

单选题Questions 16～20 The miserable fate of Enron"s employees will be a landmark in business history, one of those awful events that everyone agrees must never be allowed to happen again. This urge is understandable and noble: thousands have lost virtually all their retirement savings with the demise of Enron stock. But making sure it never happens again may not be possible, because the sudden impoverishment of those Enron workers represents something even larger than it seems. It"s the latest turn in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promise of the 20th century. The promise was assured economic security—even comfort—for essentially everyone in the developed world. With the explosion of wealth, that began in the 19th century it became possible to think about a possibility no one had dared to dream before. The fear at the center of daily living since caveman days—lack of food, warmth, and shelter—would at last lose its power to terrify. That remarkable promise became reality in many ways. Governments created welfare systems for anyone in need and separate programs for the elderly (Social Security in the U. S.). Labor unions promised not only better pay for workers but also pensions for retirees. Giant corporations came into being and offered the possibility—in some cases the promise—of lifetime employment plus guaranteed pensions. The cumulative effect was a fundamental change in how millions of people approached life itself, a reversal of attitude that most rank as one of the largest in human history. For millennia the average person"s stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately I"m on my own. Now it became, ultimately I"ll be taken care of. The early hints that this promise might be broken on a large scale came in the 1980s. U.S. business had become uncompetitive globally and began restructuring massively, with huge layoffs. The trend accelerated in the 1990s as the bastions of corporate welfare faced reality. IBM ended it"s no-layoff policy. AT ＆ T fired thousands, many of whom found such a thing simply incomprehensible, and a few of whom killed themselves. The other supposed guarantors of our economic security were also in decline. Labor-union membership and power fell to their lowest levels in decades. President Clinton signed a historic bill scaling back welfare. Americans realized that Social Security won"t provide social security for any of us. A less visible but equally significant trend affected pensions. To make costs easier to control, companies moved away from defined-benefit pension plans, which obligate them to pay out specified amounts years in the future, to defined contribution plans, which specify only how much goes into the play today. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is the 401(k). The significance of the 401(k) is that it puts most of the responsibility for a person"s economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how much goes into the plan each year and how it gets invested—the two factors that will determine how much it"s worth when the employee retires. Which brings us back to Enron? Those billions of dollars in vaporized retirement savings went in employees" 401(k) accounts. That is, the employees chose how much money to put into those accounts and then chose how to invest it. Enron matched a certain proportion of each employees 401 (k) contribution with company stock, so everyone was going to end up with some Enron in his or her portfolio; but that could be regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally covering up the company"s problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enron"s 401(k) accounts were locked while the company changed plan administrators in October, when the stock was falling, so employees could not have closed their accounts if they wanted to. But by far the largest cause of this human tragedy is that thousands of employees were heavily overweighed in Enron stock. Many had placed 100% of their 401(k) assets in the stock rather than in the 18 other investment options they were offered. Of course that wasn"t prudent, but it"s what some of them did. The Enron employees" retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic security. That"s why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal shift to I"ll-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It won"t be complete until a new generation of employees see assured economic comfort as a 20th century quirk, and understand not just intellectually but in their bones that, like most people in most times and places, they"re on their own.

单选题Questions 1-5 I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun, You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness. Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion. Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends. I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells "happiness". But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness. Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he"s honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features. Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out whenever they want and sleep as late as they want. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night"s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don"t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations we can ever come to. It liberates time. now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money, buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those rich and glamorous people we were so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

单选题Questions 27-30

单选题According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about NNI?

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this part of the test, you will hear several short talks and conversations. After each of these, you will hear a few questions. Listen carefully because you will hear the talk or conversation and questions {{B}}ONLY ONCE.{{/B}} When you hear a question, read the four answer choices and choose the best answer to that question. Then write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your {{B}}ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}} {{B}}Questions 11—14{{/B}}

单选题