单选题 We Must Train People to Break the Rules A. Lay out the entrails, read omens and auguries (前兆，预兆，征兆), study the heavens, and shake your hoary (陈腐的，老掉牙的) locks like an ancient prophet. Signs and portents bring us messages, and we should notice them before civilization crumbles. B. Off Hope Cove, on the Devon coast, a crew of strong, experienced men has saved a girl's life with minutes to spare, only to find itself 'disciplined' because the only boat available was classified as an 'additional facility awaiting inspection'. Earlier and farther inland, two stronger men stood helplessly in their luminous Police Community Support uniforms, wittering (絮叨; 啰唆) into radios because they lacked the correct certificates to try to rescue a drowning boy. C. Elsewhere, a coastguard resigned after saving a 13-year-old dangling from a cliff. He failed to fetch and buckle (用扣环扣住，扣紧) on his own safety harness, and immediately found himself in trouble from bosses droning that they 'don't want dead heroes'. D. Meanwhile a thousand small habitual practices—from cake stalls to carpentry classes—find themselves under heavy reproof (责备，责怪，指责) and restraint. And in a hospital ward somewhere a dying, fragile old man repeatedly falls out of bed because nurses reckon that they can't put up the sides of the bed without a 'risk assessment', in case they breach his 'human rights' and 'unlawfully imprison' him. E. A frantic family tries to get a telephone line reconnected to a remote Welsh hillside where a man has had a stroke, and meets only call-centre shrugs because they don't have the account number off the bill; a neighbour phones the weekend 'on-call' doctor service about a diseased nonagenarian (90至99岁的人) neighbour, to be told by the doctor that nothing can be done until they give the victim's correct postcode and date of birth. F. An amateur dramatic group has to find lock-up storage for two plastic toy swords; and in Huddersfield, citizens have to barricade the road before Binmen will take away rubbish bags that didn't fit correctly into the wheelie bins, although the surplus is entirely due to the said Binmen having been on strike and omitting the last collection. G. From distant California, thanks to Times online message boards, comes the echo of a voice from the Ancient World. Jim from E1 Centro responded to the Hope Cove rescue story at the weekend with a quotation from Marcus Tullius Cicero: 'A bureaucrat is the most contemptible of men, though he is needed as vultures (趁火打劫的人，乘人之危的人) are needed, but one hardly admires vultures, which bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, tricky or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?' H. Something is wrong. We read too many stories about this craven, inhuman, poltroonish (怯懦的，胆小的) cowering behind rules and routines, and about individuals who get into trouble for momentarily breaching them in the name of humanity or sense. I take issue with Cicero and Jim a little, though—it is too easy to rage at bureaucracy itself and join in thoughtless laughing at 'suits'. Even Cicero accepts that efficient administration is necessary: It gets things done and distributed, and is a bulwark against chaos. So I think we have to choose our targets more carefully, and unpick more precisely the evil threads that make us so uneasy and unhappy and desperate to stick to rules in defiance of common sense and kindness. I. I would diagnose it as insecurity, linked to a misunderstanding of the concept of 'training' (which incidentally links straight back to the culture of unintelligent testing in schools), Depressed, anxious people always prefer to stick to rules rather than think for themselves; at the extreme they lapse (陷入，进入) into obsessive-compulsive disorder (强迫症), forever washing their hands and touching wood. Depressed, anxious institutions such as the Maritime (海事的) and Coastguard Authority, National Health Service (and quite a few call-centres) display this pathology (病理学) on a corporate level. You get the 'training', tick the right multiple-choice boxes and refuse to think that there might be another choice, not listed. You feel safer that way, like a troubled child determined not to colour outside the lines. J. Yet this is the opposite of real training, as practised for years in real armies, navies, laboratories and institutions. Real training lays down a framework of expertise and safety not to prevent initiative, but to free it. If you really know the rules and understand their purpose, you can judge when to make an exception and break them. K. A nurse should be able to think (as some no doubt do): 'Right, the patient is confused and rolling about, and might get hurt. I'll put up the sides of the bed and keep an eye on things, and have a word with the relatives later to explain.' L. The boat crew should feel flee to think (as they did): 'The big lifeboat isn't going to be in time. We know our own boat's safe even though it hasn't got the certificate yet, and if we do get into trouble it's worth a try to save a life—go for it!' The dustmen should say: 'OK, so there are bags lying beside the wheelie bins in violation of council regulations, but that'll be because of the strike, isn't it? Chuck (扔掉，丢弃) them in.' M. The NHS or telecom call-centre staff should be alert not only to the list of correct procedures on the wall, but to the note of panic in the distant voice. N. Employees should be allowed to be people too; and a good bureaucrat should feel safe to judge which value scored highest at the critical moment. We all see examples of this gentle accommodation every day. But we also know that those who break small rules for human values run a real risk, because of that corporate anxiety and depression. It is brought on by soulless micromanagement from the top and a culture that assumes the citizen is a fool. Keeping the balance is not always easy: But human life is a tightrope and always has been. Certainly the reckless rule-breakers should be curbed or sacked; but so should the stupidly rigid bureaucrats. O. Can't leave you on that gloomy note. So rejoice: 125 miles out in the dark North Sea, in the excellent Tall Ships Race, 13 crew (mainly teenage) have just been rescued from the flooded cutter Clyde Challenger by the crew of a fellow-competitor (mainly teenage), the Norwegian ketch Loyal. I am sure that they all obeyed the rules: Perish the thought that they wouldn't. But if they had to break a few, good luck to them.

单选题 Universities have started giving away their content free as 'massive open online courses', with the acronym (首字母缩略词) MOOC. Eleven top UK universities recently announced they were joining the Open University to launch FutureLearn, in a bid to catch up with the elite US institutions that have led the way in teaching huge numbers online. It all sounds great for people who, for one reason or another, can't go to a traditional university. But do MOOCs have anything to offer students who already study at a bricks-and-mortar institution, people like me who hate the niggling (烦人的) feeling that they might be missing out on a bargain? Well, I've signed up for a MOOC in microeconomics. I did it because I'm thinking about whether to do a master degree, and what to study. I'm testing my resolve: If I enjoy it enough to study in my own time, maybe I'm ready for masters. Better to find out before I hand over the money. Why else would a university student consider a MOOC? You could use it to boost CV—it shows you're motivated and you have a variety of interests and you're not struggling with your workload. And before you can use online courses to help you get a job, employers have to learn what they are and respect them. University isn't just about what you learn but proving you know it. The only proof you did your MOOC is that you clicked on 'I promise not to cheat' on the honor code. This is changing though: One of the biggest MOOC organizers, Coursera, is trialing facial recognition software to monitor students, and charging a small fee for verification. Do MOOCs pose a threat to old school universities? Should we fear that, before we've even paid them off, traditional university degrees will go the way of floppy (松软的，垂下的) disks? Probably not. As Patrick McGee writes, they are a long way from ready to replace traditional degrees. A MOOC versus traditional university mega-battle to the death is unlikely—instead online courses offer another option on higher education's menu of delights. MOOCs still have teething problems. A Coursera course—oh so ironically about planning online courses—crashed recently, unable to cope with the thousands of students trying to join online discussions. MOOCs are limited to subjects that can be assessed with multiple choice exams, marked automatically. Written any essays in your degree? Your professor's critique of them can't be replicated by a MOOC—yet. As for me, despite not making a single friend in a cohort (一批人) of 37000, I revelled in the chance to learn what I was interested in, on my own terms. MOOCs are a new take on education—and we traditional university students needn't miss out.

单选题 吃年夜饭是春节期间家家户户最热闹的时刻。除夕夜，丰盛的年夜菜摆满一大桌，一家人团聚在一起，围坐桌旁，欢声笑语，共享美餐。年夜饭可谓一年里最为丰盛的一顿大餐，为准备年夜饭，人们往往要提前忙上好几天，配备各种各样的食材。年夜饭上的菜肴各式各样，五花八门。一些地方一般少不了两样东西：一是火锅，二是鱼。火锅沸煮，热气腾腾，说明红红火火；“鱼”和“余”谐音，象征“吉庆有余”，也喻示“年年有余”。

单选题Natural disasters affect people at all levels. The experience can cause people to feel angry, 18 , and afraid. Mental health experts are worried about children who experience a 19 event before they are eleven years of age. They say such children are three times more likely to develop 20 problems than those who experience their first tragedy later in life. Experts say children are better able to deal with a tragedy if parents, friends and other 21 help them understand the experience. They say help should start as soon as possible after the event. Experts 22 a number of suggestions about how to explain a tragedy to children. They say that how adults react to a child's feelings and questions is important to helping a child feel safe again. First, experts say parents should try to control their reaction to the tragedy. Parents should remain as 23 as possible. They say children will react to what they see. Next, adults should help children feel 24 . Listen to the worries children 25 , without judging them. Parents should talk to their children. Tell children repeatedly that they and other loved ones are safe. Also, family members need to 26 in one area and spend more time together. Some experts ask adults to limit their time with radio or television when children are present. Experts also suggest that parents return to their normal 27 as soon as possible. They say people of all ages like to have an established way of doing things.

单选题New research finds that nearly 5200 kids are treated in an emergency department each year after falling from a window. That's 14 kids a day, according to a study published Monday. Typical hospital admission 25 for childhood injuries stand at 5%, but 25% of window-related injuries end up requiring care in the hospital, for pretty obvious reasons: a fall from a window can be 26 . New York City landlords are required to 27 the guards, which resemble horizontal jail bars and cover the bottom half of a window to forma barrier that prevents kids from 28 out. Programs like Children Can't Fly in New York and Kids Can't Fly in Boston, which have raised public 29 about the need for window guards, especially in high-rise buildings, have helped contribute to dramatic 30 in the number of children falling out of windows in those cities. Parents can also use window stops to 31 children. Stops are screwed into the window frame and block the window from sliding too far upward. Parents should further limit children's 32 to windows by moving dressers, beds and tables away from the openings; many kids fell through a window they accessed by climbing onto furniture. It's also important to be 33 watchful when the weather is warm since that's when windows tend to be open. And don't make the mistake of thinking that a window screen 34 any protection. It found that screens did not prevent falls. A. access B. account C. anxiety D. awareness E. crawling F. deadly G. entirely H. injurious I. install J. offers K. particularly L. protect M. rates N. reductions O. slipping

单选题 Now listen to the following recording and answer questions20-22.

单选题 1．有人认为生活中需要善意的谎言 2．有人认为任何形式的撒谎都是不对的行为 3．我的看法

单选题 Questions13-15 are based on the passage you have just heard.

单选题 An Unlikely Most Valuable Player A. It was a bitter winter night in New York—cold enough to keep most people indoors. But outside the Elwain home, someone was bouncing a ball repeatedly against the asphalt, totally ignoring the frigid air. It was Jason, a tall teenager, dressed lightly against the February chill, doing what he loved most: shooting hoops. No matter the weather, Jason practiced basketball, if not at home, then at his high school, Greece Athena. B. As a junior, he tried out for college team, but Jason is autistic (孤独症的), and lacking the fine coordination and strength of the other players, he didn't make it. He practiced harder and tried out again as a senior, only to be met with the same disheartening result. But because Jason's passion for basketball was so intense, the coach found a way for him to stay in the game—as the Trojans' team manager. It was Jason's job to hand out water and offer his teammates major doses of moral support. C. The Trojans enjoyed a solid season, playing 17 games and coming away with 12 victories—which was why, for their final home game, coach Jim asked his popular manager to suit up. As a surprise to Jason, he planned to let him play. With just four minutes left on the clock and the Trojans with a comfortable lead, Johnson called number 52 onto the court. D. A stunned Jason had his first shot badly, and he missed again with the second. Then suddenly, the 17-year-old made a clean hoop shot. He kept shooting, one basket after another, until he'd scored six three-pointers and one two-pointer for a total of 20 points. Applause filled the gymnasium as members of the crowd surged forward to lift Jason onto their shoulders. Coach Jim actually wept, and Jason's classmates waved signs with the boy's face on them, screaming, 'Jason, Jason.' The kid who lived for basketball but was never picked for the team was suddenly the most unexpected streak shooter in high school hoops history. E. Jason became an instant celebrity, winning headlines across the country. Highlights of his streak were shown repeatedly on TV news and ESPN. Movie offers poured in from Hollywood studios, and last July, Jason won the ESPY Award for Best Moment in sports. 'Though I knew it wasn't going to be me, I never thought Jason would be the one in our family to become famous,' his dad, David, a sales tax audit manager, says with a laugh. But Jason's feat on the basketball court was hardly the first dramatic moment in his life. F. The younger of two boys born to David and Debbie Elwain, Jason seemed a normal infant. Then, when he was six months old, everything changed. Jason became rigid if held; he soon stopped making eye contact and was completely unresponsive when he was rocked. 'I knew something was wrong,' says Debbie, a dentist. Though her husband and other relatives told her not to worry, Debbie couldn't avoid comparing Jason's development with that of his brother, Josh, older by 18 months. 'Josh talked a lot at age two,' she says. 'At the same age, Jason just sat in a corner and played with his fingers.' G. David and Debbie, fearing the worst, took Jason to Strong Children's Hospital in Rochester for a complete evaluation. There, doctors diagnosed the boy with severe autism. Affecting some 1.5 million Americans, autism is the country's fastest-growing developmental disability, although scientists do not know why. Jason also suffers from learning disabilities and has an IQ of 70. H. Debbie, who became her son's personal warrior, says, 'I was determined to get him out of it.' Having discovered that with early intervention, there is a chance a severely autistic child can become high functioning, she enrolled Jason, at age three, in an intensive special education program. She also worked to keep him stimulated at home and talked to him ceaselessly. When he wouldn't eat or drink, she'd flick the lights to distract him, then slip food into his open mouth. She made sure the only toys Jason received were the interactive kind. I. Like many autistic children, Jason was prone to violent behaviors. He'd run screaming around the house. All his parents could do was grab him and hold him tight. In trying to restrain her son, Debbie sometimes got hurt. Once, Jason gave her a black eye; another time, he dislocated her shoulder. 'I'd do anything to stop him from hurting himself,' says Debbie, 'but it was exhausting. The outbursts could last a half-hour.' Still, she says, 'you just keep going and try not to despair.' J. And whatever Josh did, Jason tried to do too. 'Usually at my insistence,' says Josh, who has always been protective of his little brother. The boys learned to play golf together. When Josh, now an outgoing and strong 19-year-old, became a lifeguard, Jason took lessons. When Josh took up the violin, Jason decided to play an instrument. In their neighborhood, Josh stood up for his brother when kids teased Jason or tried to make him do foolish things. When a student at school stole Jason's birthday money, Josh got it back. One downside to the brothers' close relationship: It was tough for Jason to say goodbye when Josh headed to college two years ago. K. Change can be extremely hard for the autistic, who typically finds comfort in routine. 'Jason is very superstitious,' explains Debbie. 'Before basketball games, he insists that his supper consist of chicken soup, peaches, apple sauce and a glass of milk—or his team will lose. And he has to wear the same black pants, white shirt and shoes courtside.' Those shoes no longer fit the night of the last game, but Jason wore them anyway—and ended up with blisters. L. Today, Jason, now 18, has learned to control his autistic humming in public. And when the urge to flap his arms comes, he thrusts his hands deep into his pockets. He has not outgrown his difficulty in making eye contact, but unlike some people with autism, he's very social. M. Jason's immediate response to his streak-shooting performance was pragmatic. 'It was great to achieve this before finishing high school.' He says. And his good fortune didn't end there. He took a pretty sophomore to the senior prom. Josh was proud of his brother's achievement. 'Everybody at my school knows who Jason is,' he says. 'Girls say to me, 'Oh, my God, you're Jason's brother. That's pretty cool.' I think so, too.' N. Late last spring, basketball great Magic Johnson paid a visit to Greece Athena High School to give a talk to the student body. 'He said he was really proud of us, and especially of Jason,' says one of Jason's teammates. Johnson, who said he was 'touched' by Jason's story, plans to serve as an executive producer on a Columbia Pictures movie about the boy. O. The film is expected to make Jason financially secure, alleviating one of his parents' longtime worries. 'I believe he can hold a job and support himself,' says his father. 'But the film means he'll be well looked after, and that's what we care about.' Jason is taking it all in stride. Last summer, he helped coach two Amateur Athletic Union basketball teams. At evening practices, when he joined his teenage players on the court, Jason Elwain was in his element.

单选题 Obtaining Linguistic Data A. Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language. They range from a carefully planned, intensive field investigation in a foreign country to a casual introspection about one's mother tongue carried out in an armchair at home. B. In all cases, someone has to act as a source of language data—an informant. Informants are (ideally) native speakers of a language, who provide utterances for analysis and other kinds of information about the language (e.g. translations, comments about correctness, or judgements on usage). C. Often, when studying their mother tongue, linguists act as their own informants, judging the ambiguity, acceptability, or other properties of utterances against their own intuitions. The convenience of this approach makes it widely used, and it is considered the norm in the generative approach to linguistics. D. But a linguist's personal judgements are often uncertain, or disagree with the judgements of other linguists, at which point resource is needed to more object methods of enquiry, using non-linguists as informants. The later procedure is unavoidable when working on foreign languages, or child speech. E. Many factors must be considered when selecting informants—whether one is working with single speakers (a common situation when languages have not been described before), two people interacting, small groups or large-scale samples. Age, sex, social background and other aspects of identity are important, as these factors are known to influence the kind of language used. F. The topic of conversation and the characteristics of the social setting (e.g. the level of formality) are also highly relevant, as are the personal qualities of the informants (e.g. their fluency and consistency). For larger studies, scrupulous attention has been paid to the sampling theory employed, and in all cases, decisions have to be made about the best investigative techniques to use. G. Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguist's claims about the language to be checked, and provides a way of making those claims more accurate ('difficult' pieces of speech can be listened to repeatedly). H. But obtaining naturalistic, good-quality data is never easy. People talk abnormally when they know they are being recorded, and sound quality can be poor. A variety of tape-recording procedures have thus been devised to minimise the 'observer's paradox' (how to observe the way people behave when they are not being observed). I. Some recordings are made without the speakers being aware of the fact—a procedure that obtains very natural data, though ethical objections must be anticipated. Alternatively, attempts can be made to make the speaker forget about the recording, such as keeping the tape recorder out of sight, or using radio microphones. A useful technique is to introduce a topic that quickly involves the speaker, and stimulates a natural language style (e.g. asking older informants about how times have changed in their locality). J. An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist's problems, however. Speech is often unclear and ambiguous. Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplements by the observer's written comments on the non-verbal behaviour of the participants, and about the context in general. K. A facial expression, for example, can dramatically alter the meaning of what is said. Video recordings avoid these problems to a large extent, but even they have limitations (the camera cannot be everywhere), and transcription always benefits from any additional commentary provided by an observer. L. Linguists also make great use of structured sessions, in which they systematically ask their informants for utterances that describe certain actions, objects or behaviours. With a bilingual informant, or though use of an interpreter, it is possible to use translation technique ('How do you say table in your language?'). M. A large number of points can be covered in a short time, using interview work-sheets and questionnaires. Often, the researcher wishes to obtain information about just a single variable, in which case a restricted set of questions may be used: a particular feature of pronunciation, for example, can be elicited by asking the informant to say a restricted set of words. There are also several direct methods of elicitation, such as asking informants to fill in the blanks in a substitution frame (e.g. 'I ______ see a car.'), or feeding them the wrong stimulus for correction ('Is it possible to say I no can see?'). N. A representative sample of language, complied for the purpose of linguistic analysis, is known as a corpus. A corpus enables the linguist to make unbiased statements about frequency of usage, and it provides accessible data for the use of different researchers. Its range and size are variable. Some corpora attempt to cover the language as a whole, taking extracts from many kinds of text; others are extremely selective, providing a collection of material that deals only with a particular linguistic feature. O. The size of the corpus depends on practical factors, such as the time available to collect, process and store the data: it can take up to several hours to provide an accurate transcription of a few minutes of speech. Sometimes a small sample of data will be enough to decide a linguistic hypothesis; by contrast, corpora in major research projects can total millions of words. An important principle is that all corpora, whatever their size, are inevitably limited in their coverage, and always need to be supplemented by data derived from the intuitions of native speakers of the language, though either introspection or experimentation.

单选题 Questions9-11 are based on the passage you have just heard.

单选题 Is your doctor telling you the truth? Possibly not, according to a new survey in Health Affairs of nearly 1,900 physicians around the country. The researchers found that 55% of doctors said that in the last year they had been more positive about a patient's prognosis (预断) than his medical history warranted. And 10% said they had told patients something that wasn't true. About a third of the M. D. s said they did not completely agree that they should disclose medical errors to patients, and 40% said they didn't feel the need to disclose financial ties to drug or device companies. Really? The study's lead author, Dr. Lisa Iezzoni, a medicine professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, was surprised to learn how dishonest her colleagues were. 'Some of the numbers were larger than I expected they might be,' she says. Why the white lies? In some cases, Iezzoni says it was for self-protection. Nearly 20% of the doctors admitted that they didn't disclose a medical error to their patients because they were afraid of being sued for malpractice. In other cases, it may have been for the patient's benefit. M. D. s might spare an anxious patient from hearing about the slightly abnormal results of a lab test, for example, if it has no impact on the patient's health. Conversely (相反地), the doctor might exaggerate a health result in hopes of motivating a patient to take better care of himself. 'The doctor-patient relationship is a human interaction, and physicians are human too,' says Iezzoni. 'They don't want to upset their patients, they don't want their patients to look unhappy or burst into tears. But they also need to be professionals, so they need to tell themselves that if there is a difficult truth they need to tell their patient, they need to figure out a way of communicating that effectively. ' That's critical for doctors to appreciate, because as well-intentioned as their lies may be, other studies consistently show that patients prefer the truth, and would rather hear harsh news than remain ignorant about a terrible medical condition. Being fully informed is a way that patients can cope and prepare for whatever might occur. As for the failure to disclose medical errors, Iezzoni says doctors' fear of malpractice suits may often be misplaced. Studies suggest that in cases where physicians are open about their mistakes, patients are more likely to be understanding and refrain from suing. So how can doctors learn to be more honest with their patients? More training about how to communicate with people about their health is critical—especially when it comes to delivering bad news. Patients also need to be clear and firm about how honest they want their doctors to be. Communication is a two-way street, after all, even in the doctor's office. (选自Time)

单选题 Now listen to the following recording and answer questions24-27.