单选题 Questions 23-26

单选题The French word renaissance means rebirth. It was first used in 1855 by the historian Jules Michelet in his History of France, then adopted by historians of culture, by art historians, and eventually by music historians, all of whom applied it to European culture during the 150 years spanning 1450-1600. The concept of rebirth was appropriate to this period of European history because of the renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture that began in Italy and then spread throughout Europe. Scholars and artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries wanted to restore the learning and ideals of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. To these scholars this meant a return to human—as opposed to spiritual, values. Fulfillment in life—as opposed to concern about an afterlife—became a desirable goal, and expressing the entire range of human emotions and enjoying the pleasures of the senses were no longer frowned on. Artists and writers now turned to secular as well as religious subject matter and sought to make their works understandable and appealing. These changes in outlook deeply affected the musical culture of the Renaissance period— how people thought about music as well as the way music was composed, experienced, discussed, and disseminated. They could see the architectural monuments, sculptures, plays, and poems that were being rediscovered, but they could not actually hear ancient music—although they could read the writings of classical philosophers, poets, essayists, and music theorists that were becoming available in translation. They learned about the power of ancient music to move the listener and wondered why modem music did not have the same effect. For example, the influential religious leader Bernardino Cirillo expressed disappointment with the learned music of his time. He urged musicians to follow the example of the sculptors, painters, architects, and scholars who had rediscovered ancient art and literature. The musical Renaissance in Europe was more a general cultural movement and state of mind than a specific set of musical techniques. Furthermore, music changed so rapidly during this century and a half—though at different rates in different countries—that we cannot define a single Renaissance style.

单选题Britain"s cybercrime tsar is to ask the government for a programme based on its controversial counter-radicalisation strategy to stop children as young as 12 becoming involved in sophisticated computer crimes. Jamie Saunders said training was needed to help spot at-risk teenagers, as many young Internet users experiment with computer hacking or other cyber offences without realising that what they are doing is a crime. Saunders, Director of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the National Crime Agency, explained that he is proposing a scheme to ministers modelled in part on the official counter-radicalisation programme "Prevent", which has been dogged by controversy. But instead of trying to divert aspirant jihadists from terrorism, "cyber Prevent" would aim to divert computer-literate youngsters from carrying out Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) and other cybercrimes, such as hacking private Internet users" details. The "Cyber Prevent" programme might also be used to recruit tech-savvy young adults. Saunders said: "We need education for schools on the Computer Misuse Act, on what it is and isn"t. A lot of kids don"t realise they are committing a crime. We don"t want them to go to prison, we want them to come and work for us." Demand for computer skills is forecast to grow in the coming years. One core message at the heart of the new strategy is that young adults with computer skills can earn well and legitimately, as opposed to perpetrating cybercrimes and facing punishment. "A lot of kids are stumbling into this crime. This activity has consequences for them and others. There are legitimate opportunities for their skills, "Saunders said. The target group would be 12 to 25 years old. Analysis of investigations carried out by the NCCU in 2015 found the average age of suspects to be 17. The previous year the average was 24. Saunders said some cyber attacks have been carried out by children who did not realise the harm they could do, adding: "We are not dealing with serious criminals. Some are sucked in and damage their careers and do a lot of harm." Research shows that some who end up committing cybercrime start by learning how to outwit games programmers. "One of the entry points is cheating on online gaming, and you have to be quite clever to do that," he said. He said Cyber Prevent would be relatively low cost, especially compared with the harm it is trying to thwart. It would hire a network of regional specialists and industry might contribute to the cost. Cyber Prevent would also target parents, so they had a better chance of knowing what their children might be up to. The sheer volume of online offending means that only a fraction of offenders are likely to be caught. Compared with other major crime types, intelligence about cybercrime offenders is at a relatively early stage. "We keep finding clean skins, people we did not know about," Saunders said. The NCA says that also popular among teenage computer users is a malicious software called Remote Access Trojans (RATs). They allow people to remotely take full control of another computer, turning on webcams, stealing passwords and personal information, and launching further attacks on other computers. An NCA-led operation, targeting users of the Blackshades RAT, found that the average age of the 22 people who where arrested was 18, with the youngest person being just 12 years old. In 2014 the NCA coordinated the first UK-wide cybercrime operation to target users of the Blackshades RAT. More than 100 people were arrested worldwide, following an FBI-led crackdown. Saunders was previously director of international cyber policy at the Foreign Office. Prior to that he had worked at the UK Government Communications Headquarters.

单选题It is already common knowledge, on the beaches and in the cafes of mainland Europe, that Americans work too hard—just as it is well known on the other side of the Atlantic that Europeans, above all the French and the Germans, are slackers who could do with a bit of America"s vigorous work ethic. But a new survey suggests that even those vacations American employees do take are rapidly vanishing, to the extent that 40 per cent of workers questioned at the start of the summer said they had no plans to take any holiday at all for the next six months, more than at any time since the late 1970s. It is probably mere coincidence that George W. Bush, one of the few Americans who has been known to enjoy a French-style month off during August, cut back his holiday in Texas to a fortnight. But the survey by the Conference Board research group, along with other recent statistics, suggests an epidemic of overwork among ordinary Americans. A quarter of people employed in the private sector in the US get no paid vacation at all, according to government figures. Unlike almost all other industrialized nations, including Britain, American employers do not have to give paid holidays. The average American gets a little less than four weeks of paid time off, including public holidays, compared with 6.6 weeks in the UK—where the law requires a minimum of four weeks off for full-time workers—and 7.9weeks for Italy. One study showed that people employed by the US subsidiary of a London-based bank would have to work there for 10 years just to be entitled to the same vacation time as colleagues in Britain who has just started their jobs. Even when they do take vacations, overworked Americans find it hard to switch off. One in three find not checking their email and voicemail more stressful than working, according to a study by the Travelocity website, while the traumas of travel take their own toll. "We commonly complain we need a vacation from our vacations," the author Po Bronson wrote recently. "We leave home tired; we come back exhausted " Christian Schneider, a German-born scholar at the Wharton business school in Philadelphia, argues that there is "a tendency to really relax in Europe, to disengage from work. When an American finally does take those few days of vacation per year they are most likely to be in constant contact with the office. " Mindful that well-rested workers are more productive than burnt-out ones, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has started closing all its US offices completely twice a year, for 10 days over Christmas and about five around Independence Day. "We wanted to create an environment where people could walk away and not worry about missing a meeting, a conference call or 300 emails," Barbara Kraft, a partner at the company, told the New York Times. Left to themselves, Americans fail to take an average of four days of their vacation entitlement—an annual national total of 574 million unclaimed days.

单选题The author thinks highly of older employees because _______.

单选题 Questions 19-22

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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 ______.

单选题 {{B}}Questions 19—22{{/B}}

单选题 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.

单选题 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.

单选题 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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单选题 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.