单选题Who doesn't love being in love? A true love listens to you talk about work, lets you have that last 28 of pie, and usually remembers to take out the trash. He is ready to forget all kinds of 29 . And he always thinks you're beautiful, even without 30 . Scientists have long been keen to prove that love gives us health 31 too. Researchers can't say for sure that a lover is more important than a loving family or warm friendship when it comes to wellness. But they are learning more about how a romantic partner makes us 32 , with health gains that 33 from faster healing and better control over illnesses to living longer. The benefits of love are 34 and measurable. A study last year from the University of Pittsburgh found that women in good marriages have a much lower risk of heart disease than those in high-stress relationships. The National Love and Health Study has been 35 more than a million subjects since 1979. The study shows that married people live longer, have fewer heart attacks and lower cancer rates, and even get pneumonia less frequently than singles. A new study from the University of Iowa also found that cancer patients with a strong sense of connection to others and in 36 relationship were better able to fight off cancer. It seems that love helps people 37 their immune system. A. range B. makeup C. stronger D. righteous E. tracking F. slice G. health H. strengthen I. benefits J. refreshing K. misunderstandings L. designing M. satisfying N. suggested O. explicit

单选题 每年的农历九月初九是中国的传统节日重阳节(the Double Ninth Festival)。重阳节有2000多年的历史，早在唐朝时期就正式被定为民间节日。皇帝和百姓，都根据礼仪和风俗庆祝重阳节。随着时间的流逝，重阳节逐渐形成一些庆祝习俗，如出游、登高、插茱萸(cornel)。重阳节那天，全家人通常在一起庆祝节日，而离家的人则会倍加思乡。汉族的传统观念认为，数字9代表健康长寿，因此中国政府于1989年将农历九月初九定为“老人节”。

单选题 One of the most interesting paradoxes in America today is that Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is now engaged in a serious debate about what a university should be, and whether it is measuring up (符合标准). Like the Roman Catholic Church and other ancient institutions, it is asking—still in private rather than in public—whether its past assumptions about faculty, authority, admissions, courses of study, are really relevant to the problems of our society. Should Harvard—or any other university—be an intellectual sanctuary, apart from the political and social revolution of the age, or should it be a laboratory for experimentation with these political and social revolutions; or even an engine of the revolution? This is what is being discussed privately in the big clapboard (楔形板) houses of faculty members around the Harvard Yard. The issue was defined by Walter Lippmann, a distinguished Harvard graduate, many years ago. 'If the universities are to do their work, ' he said, 'they must be independent and they must be disinterested... They are places to which men can turn for unbiased judgments. Obviously, the moment the universities fall under political control, or under the control of private interests, or the moment they themselves take a hand in politics and the leadership of government, their value as independent and disinterested sources of judgment is impaired...' This is part of the argument that is going on at Harvard today. Another part is the argument of the militant and even many moderated students: that a university is the keeper of our ideals and morals, and should not be 'disinterested' but activist in bringing the Nation's ideals and actions together. Harvard's men of today seem more troubled and less sure about personal, political and academic purpose than they did at the beginning. They are not even clear about how they should debate and resolve their problems, but they are struggling with them privately, and how they come out is bound to influence American university and political life in the 21st century.

单选题 The Art of Friendship Making Friends in Midlife A. One evening a few years ago I found myself in an anxiety. Nothing was really wrong—my family and I were healthy, my career was busy and successful—I was just feeling vaguely down and in need of a friend who could raise my spirits, meet me for coffee and let me rant until the clouds lifted. I dialed my best friend, who now lives across the country in California, and got her voice mail. That's when it started to dawn on me—lonesomeness was at the root of my dreariness. My social life had dwindled to almost nothing, but somehow until that moment I'd been too busy to notice. Now it hit me hard. My old friends, buddies since college or even childhood, knew everything about me; when they left, they had taken my context with them. B. Research has shown the long-range negative consequences of social isolation on one's health. But my concerns were more short-term. I needed to feel understood right then in the way that only a girl friend can understand you. I knew it would be wrong to expect my husband to replace my friends: He couldn't, and even if he could, to whom would I then complain about my husband? So I resolved to acquire new friends—women like me who had kids and enjoyed rolling their eyes at the world a little bit just as I did. Since I'd be making friends with more intention than I'd ever given the process, I realized I could be selective, that I could in effect design my own social life. The downside, of course, was that I Mt pretty frightened. C. After all, it's a whole lot harder to make friends in midlife than it is when you're younger—a fact women I've spoken with point out again and again. As Leslie Danzig, 41, a Chicago theater director and mother sees it, when you're in your teens and 20s, you're more or less friends with everyone unless there's a reason not to be. Your college roommate becomes your best pal at least partly due to proximity. Now there needs to be a reason to be friends. 'There are many people I'm comfortable around, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them friends. Comfort isn't enough to sustain a real friendship.' Danzig says. D. At first, finding new companions felt awkward. At 40 I couldn't run up to people the way my 4-year-old daughters do in the playground and ask, 'will you be my friend?' 'Every time you start a new relationship, you're vulnerable again,' agrees Kathleen Hall, D Min, founder and CEO of the Stress Institute, in Atlanta. Fortunately, my discomfort soon passed. I realized that as a mature friend seeker my vulnerability risk was actually pretty low. If someone didn't take me up on my offer, so what: I wasn't in junior high, when I might have been rejected for having the wrong clothes or hair. At my age I have collected enough self-esteem to realize that I have plenty to offer. E. Friends that make you a better you (1) We're all so busy, in fact, that mutual interests—say, in a project, class, or cause that we already make time for—become the perfect catalysts for bringing us in contact with candidates for comradeship. Michelle Mertes, 35, a teacher and mother of two in Wausau, Wisconsin, says a new friend she made at church came as a pleasant surprise. 'In high school I chose friends based on their popularity and how being part of their circle might reflect on me. Now it's our shared values and activities that count.' Mertes says her pal, with whom she organized the church's youth programs, is nothing like her but their drive and organizational skills make them ideal friends. F. Friends that make you a better you (2) Happily, as awkward as making new friends can be, self-esteem issues do not factor in—or if they do, you can easily put them into perspective. Danzig tells of the mother of a child in her son's pre-school, a tall, beautiful woman who is married to a big-deal rock musician. 'I said to my husband, 'she's too cool for me,'' she jokes. 'I get threat from people. But once I got to know her, she turned out to be pretty laid-back and friendly.' In the end there was no chemistry between them, so they didn't become good pals. 'I realized that we weren't each other's type, but it wasn't about hierarchy.' What midlife friendship is about, it seems, is reflecting the person you've become (or are still becoming) back at yourself, thus reinforcing the progress you've made in your life. G. Friends that make you a better you (3) Harlene Katzman, 41, a lawyer in New York City, notes that her oldest friends knew her back when she was less sure of herself. As much as she loves them, she believes they sometimes respond to issues in light of who she once was. An old chum has the goods on you. With recently made friends, you can turn over a new leaf. H. Friends that make you a better you (4) A new friend, chosen right, can also help you point your boat in the direction you want to go. Hanna Dershowitz, 39, an attorney and mother in Los Angeles, found that a new acquaintance from work was exactly what she needed in a friend. In addition to liking and respecting Julia, Dershowitz had a feeling that the fit and athletic younger woman would help her to get in shape. I. Be a better friend While you're busy making new friends, remember that you still need to nurture your old ones. We asked Maria Paul, author of The Friendship Crisis: Finding, Making, and Keeping Friends When You're Not a Kid Anymore, for the best ways to maintain these important relationships. ●Keep in touch. Your friends should be a priority; schedule regular lunch dates or coffee catch-up sessions, no matter how busy you are. ●Know her business. Keep track of important events in a friend's life and show your support. Call or e-mail to let her know you're thinking of her. ●Speak your mind. Tell a friend (politely) if something she did really upset you. If you can't be totally honest, then you need to reexamine the relationship. ●Accept her flaws. No one is perfect, so work around her quirks to cut down on frustration and fights. ●Boost her ego. Heartfelt compliments make everyone feel great, so tell her how much you love her new sweater or what a great job she did on a work project.

单选题 中国有句古话，“要想富，先修路。”世纪之交，传统的交通系统很难满足中国日益增长的经济发展需要，高铁(high-speed rail)应运而生。2007年，中国开始修建高速铁路。2009年，从武汉到广州的高速铁路开通。当前，中国拥有世界上最大的高速铁路网络。高铁不仅提高交通效率，也将中国的经济向前推进。高铁网络好比今日中国的丝绸之路(Silk Road)，带来了更多的贸易机会。

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单选题 The Rise of the Sharing Economy A. Last night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since its launch in 2008 more than 4 million people have used it—2.5 million of them in 2012 alone. It is the most prominent example of a huge new 'sharing economy', in which people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other, coordinated via the Internet. B. You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast. Owning a time share or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a much larger scale. The big change is the availability of more data about people and things, which allows physical assets to be divided and consumed as services. Before the interact, renting a surfboard, a power tool or a parking space from someone else was feasible, but was usually more trouble than it was worth. Now websites such as Airbnb, Relay Rides and Snap Goods match up owners and renters; smart phones with GPS let people see where the nearest rentable car is parked; social networks provide a way to check up on people and build trust; and online payment systems handle the billing. What's mine is yours, for a fee C. Just as peer-to-peer businesses like eBay allow anyone to become a retailer, sharing sites let individuals act as an ad hoc (临时的) taxi service, car-hire firm or boutique hotel (精品酒店) as and when it suits them. Just go online or download an app. The model works for items that are expensive to buy and are widely owned by people who do not make full use of them. Bedrooms and cars are the most obvious examples, but you can also rent camping spaces in Sweden, fields in Australia and washing machines in France. As advocates of the sharing economy like to put it, access trumps (胜过) ownership. D. Rachel Botsman, the author of a book on the subject, says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $26 billion. Broader definitions of the sharing economy include peer-to-peer lending or putting a solar panel on your roof and selling power back to the grid (电网). And it is not just individuals: the web makes it easier for companies to rent out spare offices and idle machines, too. But the core of the sharing economy is people renting things from each other. E. Such 'collaborative (合作的) consumption' is a good thing for several reasons. Owners make money from underused assets. Airbnb says hosts in San Francisco who rent out their homes do so for an average of 58 nights a year, making $9,300. Car owners who rent their vehicles to others using Relay Rides make an average of $250 a month; some make more than $1,000. Renters, meanwhile, pay less than they would if they bought the item themselves, or turned to a traditional provider such as a hotel or car-hire firm. And there are environmental benefits, too: renting a car when you need it, rather than owning one, means fewer cars are required and fewer resources must be devoted to making them. F. For sociable souls, meeting new people by staying in their homes is part of the charm. Curmudgeons (脾气倔的人) who imagine that every renter is a murderer can still stay at conventional hotels. For others, the web fosters trust. As well as the background checks carried out by platform owners, online reviews and ratings are usually posted by both parties to each transaction, which makes it easy to spot bad drivers, bathrobe-thieves and surfboard-wreckers. By using Facebook and other social networks, participants can check each other out and identify friends (or friends of friends) in common. An Airbnb user had her apartment trashed in 2011. But the remarkable thing is how well the system usually works. Peering into the future G. The sharing economy is a little like online shopping, which started in America 15 years ago. At first, people were worried about security. But having made a successful purchase from, say, Amazon, they felt safe buying elsewhere. Similarly, using Airbnb or a car-hire service for the first time encourages people to try other offerings. Next, consider eBay. Having started out as a peer-to-peer marketplace, it is now dominated by professional 'power sellers' (many of whom started out as ordinary eBay users). The same may happen with the sharing economy, which also provides new opportunities for enterprise; Some people have bought cars solely to rent them out, for example. H. Existing rental businesses are getting involved too. Avis, a car-hire firm, has a share in a sharing rival. So do GM and Dalmler, two carmakers. In future, companies may develop hybrid (混合的) models, listing excess capacity (whether vehicles, equipment or office, space) on peer-to-peer rental sites. In the past, new ways of doing things online have not displaced the old ways entirely. But they have often changed them. Just as internet shopping forced Wal-mart and Tesco to adapt, so online sharing will shake up transport, tourism, equipment-hire and more. I. The main worry is regulatory uncertainty. Will room-renters be subject to hotel taxes, for example? In Amsterdam officials are using Airbnb listings to track down unlicensed hotels. In some American cities, peer-to-peer taxi services have been banned after lobbying by traditional taxi firms. The danger is that although some rules need to be updated to protect consumers from harm, existing rental businesses will try to destroy competition. People who rent out rooms should pay tax, of course, but they should not be regulated like a Ritz-Carlton hotel. The lighter rules that typically govern bed-and-breakfasts are more than adequate. J. The sharing economy is the latest example of the internet's value to consumers. This emerging model is now big and disruptive (颠覆性的) enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its immense potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

单选题 There are few more sobering online activities than entering data into college-tuition calculators and gasping as the Web spits back a six-figure sum. But economists say families about to go into debt to fund four years of partying, as well as studying, can console themselves with the knowledge that college is an investment that, unlike many bank stocks, should yield huge dividends. A 2008 study by two Harvard economists notes that the 'labor-market premium to skill'—or the amount college graduates earned that's greater than what high-school graduate earned—decreased for much of the 20th century, but has come back with a vengeance (报复性地) since the 1980s. In 2005, the typical full-time year-round U.S. worker with a four-year college degree earned $50,900, 62% more than the $31,500 earned by a worker with only a high-school diploma. There's no question that going to college is a smart economic choice. But a look at the strange variations in tuition reveals that the choice about which college to attend doesn't come down merely to dollars and cents. Does going to Columbia University (tuition, room and board $49,260 in 2007～08) yield a 40% greater return than attending the University of Colorado at Boulder as an out-of-state student ($35,542)? Probably not. Does being an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado at Boulder yield twice the amount of income as being an in-state student ($17,380) there? Not likely. No, in this consumerist age, most buyers aren't evaluating college as an investment, but rather as a consumer product—like a car or clothes or a house. And with such purchases, price is only one of many crucial factors to consider. As with automobiles, consumers in today's college marketplace have vast choices, and people search for the one that gives them the most comfort and satisfaction in line with their budgets. This accounts for the willingness of people to pay more for different types of experiences (such as attending a private liberal-arts college or going to an out-of-state public school that has a great marine-biology program). And just as two auto purchasers might spend an equal amount of money on very different cars, college students (or, more accurately, their parents) often show a willingness to pay essentially the same price for vastly different products. So which is it? Is college an investment product like a stock or a consumer product like a car? In keeping with the automotive world's hottest consumer trend, maybe it's best to characterize it as a hybrid (混合动力汽车) :an expensive consumer product that, over time, will pay rich dividends.