单选题 Among the government's most interesting reports is one that estimates what parents spend on their children. Not surprisingly, the costs are steep. For a middle-class, husband-and-wife family (average pretax income in 2000: $ 76 250), spending per child is about $12 000 a year. With inflation the family's spending on a child will total $ 286 050 by age 17. The dry statistics ought to inform the ongoing deficit debate, because a budget is not just a catalog of programs and taxes. It reflects a society's priorities and values. Our society does not—despite rhetoric (说辞) to the contrary—put much value on raising children. Present budget policies tax parents heavily to support the elderly. Meanwhile, tax breaks for children are modest. If deficit reduction aggravates these biases, more Americans may choose not to have children or to have fewer children. Down that path lies economic decline. Societies that cannot replace their populations discourage investment and innovation. They have stagnant (萧条的) or shrinking markets for goods and services. With older populations, they resist change. To stabilize its population—discounting immigration—women must have an average of two children. That's a fertility rate of 2.0. Many countries with struggling economies are well below that. Though having a child is a deeply personal decision, it's shaped by culture, religion, economics, and government policy. 'No one has a good answer' as to why fertility varies among countries, says sociologist Andrew Cherlin of The Johns Hopkins University. Eroding religious belief in Europe may partly explain lowered birthrates. In Japan young women may be rebelling against their mothers' isolated lives of child rearing. General optimism and pessimism count. Hopefulness fueled America's baby boom. After the Soviet Union's collapse, says Cherlin, 'anxiety for the future' depressed birthrates in Russia and Eastern Europe. In poor societies, people have children to improve their economic well-being by increasing the number of family workers and providing support for parents in their old age. In wealthy societies, the logic often reverses. Government now supports the elderly, diminishing the need for children. By some studies, the safety nets for retirees have reduced fertility rates by 0.5 children in the United States and almost 1.0 in Western Europe, reports economist Robert Stein in the journal National Affairs. Similarly, some couples don't have children because they don't want to sacrifice their own lifestyles to the time and expense of a family. Young Americans already face a bleak labor market that cannot instill (注入) confidence about having children. Piling on higher taxes won't help, 'If higher taxes make it more expensive .to raise children, ' says Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute, 'people will think twice about having another child.' That seems like common sense, despite the multiple influences on becoming parents.

单选题Shop prices in June fell at the fastest 25 rate since at least 2006 as 26 fought to attract customers, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said. Prices were 1.8% lower in June compared with a year earlier, the BRC said. It is the biggest annual fall in prices since the BR's 27 began in December 2006 and the 14th month in a 28 that prices have decreased. The price of electrical goods and clothing both fell. Prices for non-food 29 were 3.4% lower in June compared with a year ago, while the rise in the cost of food slowed to 0.6%—its lowest pace since the series began. The BRC survey does not include online retailers or costs such as energy, transport and housing, which feed into the broader official consumer price 30 (CPI) measure 31 by the Bank of England. Competition among retailers for market share is driving the record fall in prices, the BRC said. 'Fierce competition among 32 has driven food price inflation to record low levels and with some grocers having announced plans to keep prices down, 33 stand to benefit for a while to come,' said BRC director-general Helen Dickinson. CPI inflation fell to a four-and-a-half year low of 1.5% in May, helped by the sharpest fall in food and non-alcoholic 34 prices for a decade. A. manufacturer B. experiment C. annual D. retailers E. survey F. recession G. grocers H. inflation I. article J. items K. beverage L. targeted M. row N. consequence O. consumers

单选题If you intend using humour in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to 26 shared experiences and problems. Your humour must be 27 to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in 28 with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the 29 methods of their secretaries; 30 if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses. Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful 31 , beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a 32 for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the 33 of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. 'Who is that?' the new arrival asked St. Peter. 'Oh, that's God.' came the reply, 'but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor.' Look for the humour. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar 34 'If at first you don't succeed, give up' or a play on words or on a situation. Search for 35 and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humour. A. accommodations B. identify C. notorious D. disorganized E. quote F. canteen G. attempt H. alternatively I. sympathy J. line K. exaggerations L. increasingly M. head N. end O. relevant

单选题 承德避暑山庄 丞德避暑山庄(the Chengde Mountain Resort)是中国现存最大的皇家园林(imperial garden)，位于河北省东北部的承德市。整个工程开始于1703年，建设用了近九十年。避暑山庄原为清代皇帝避暑和从事各种政治活动的场所，见证了清朝二百多年的繁荣与衰败。山庄吸收了南北园林的精华，既有北方景色的壮观，又有南方景观的秀丽。由于存在众多的历史文化遗产，避暑山庄及周围寺庙成为了中国十大名胜之一。1994年，承德避暑山庄及周围寺庙被列入《世界遗产名录》(World Heritage List)。

单选题 People receive their news from many sources these days—papers, television, web, mobiles. And now, rubbish bins. Renew, a company co-founded in 2002 by chief executive Kaveh Memari, has developed a newspaper recycling bin which doubles as an open-air information screen. It has placed nearly 100 of the hi-tech bins around the City of London under a 21-year contract with the authority. The bins—or techno-pods as Memari refers to them—are made of damage-resistant fibreglass with screens at either end which can relay anything from news to advertisements to information on London underground delays or the number of Boris bikes available in the vicinity. A team of journalists provide the news feed, with other content coming from magazines like The Economist. A group of software developers—what Memari calls the Geek Squad—operate from Athens. The initial impetus for the bins came from the City of London authorities, with the capital littered with discarded free newspapers and Brussels putting pressure on for it missing recycling targets. Memari said: 'We de-risked it for the City, they don't pay for the service and the only risk for them is reputational if things go wrong. ' The company had hoped to have 100 pods—200 screens—in place by the time of the Olympics, but that target slipped and was finally reached in November. But with the City getting the service for free, how does Renew propose to make money? Memari talks of several revenue streams: advertising, finding a major company to sponsor the pods, attracting publishers, talking to film studios, and even telecoms companies about using its wired connections to carry data services or conversations. 'We have killed the idea it's a grotty (肮脏的) place for advertisers and publishers to put their messages. We are also talking to seven major film studios and they are very interested in the possibilities.' Memari believes studios could film special scenes to be shown on the screens, linked to major movies in what is effectively a viral marketing campaign. The pods can also be used for emergency messages, with one recent test showing an alert reaching the system just three minutes after being received at the control room. Now the pods are in place. Renew has begun its real push to advertisers and media, with marketing campaigns under way for a number of businesses including CNBC, Qatari Islamic Bank, and Wallpaper, as well as a couple of charities which have been given free or heavily discounted airtime. Renew has raised ￡4 million in total from investors so far, mainly high net-worth individuals including one Premier League and England footballer. 'We went to all the high street banks, but nothing,' said Memari. It will need further funds as it expands overseas.

单选题The shorter growing seasons expected with climate change over the next 40 years will endanger hundreds of millions of already poor people in the global tropics, say researchers working with the world's leading agricultural organisations. The effects of climate change are likely to be seen across the entire tropical 25 but many areas previously considered to be 26 food secure are likely to become highly vulnerable to droughts, extreme weather and higher temperatures, say the researchers with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. Intensively farmed areas like northeast Brazil and Mexico are likely to see their 27 growing seasons fall below 120 days, which is 28 for crops such as corn to mature. Many other places in Latin America are likely to 29 temperatures that are too hot for bean production, a staple in the region. The impact could be felt most in India and southeast Asia. More than 300 million people in south Asia are likely to be affected even with a 5% decrease in the 30 of the growing season. Higher peak temperatures are also expected to take a heavy 31 on food producers. Today there are 56 million crop-dependent people in parts of west Africa and India who live in areas where, in 40years, maximum daily temperatures could be higher than 30℃. This is close to the maximum temperature that beans can tolerate, while corn and rice yields suffer when temperatures 32 this level. 'We are starting to see much more clearly where the effects of climate change on agriculture could 33 hunger and poverty , 'said research leader Patti Kristjanson. 'Farmers already adapt to variable weather by changing their planting schedules. What this study suggests is that the speed of climate 34 and the magnitude of the changes required to adapt could be much greater.' A. shifts B. lessen C. width D. experience E. critical F. prime G. vulnerable H. zone I. intensify J. exceed K. toll L. length M. gradually N. immune O. relatively

单选题 Imagining being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of own sex, how would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn't be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children conditions which they themselves wouldn't put up with for one minute! Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children's heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of educations is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock. A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live to gather from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is (to give just a small example) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girl or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its proper place. But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don't grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures—airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don't grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobbly knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.

单选题 Musicians-from karaoke singers to professional violin players-are better able to hear targeted sounds in a noisy environment, according to new research that adds to evidence that music makes the brain work better. 'In the past ten years there's been an explosion of research on music and the brain,' Aniruddh Patel, the Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, said today at a press briefing. Most recently brain-imaging studies have shown that music activates many diverse parts of the brain, including an overlap in where the brain processes music and language. Language is a natural aspect to consider in looking at how music affects the brain. Patel said. Like music, language is 'universal, there's a strong learning component, and it carries complex meanings.' For example, brains of people exposed to even casual musical training have an enhanced ability to generate the brain wave patterns associated with specific sounds, be they musical or spoken, said study leader Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Illinois. Kraus' previous research had shown that when a person listens to a sound, the brain wave recorded in response is physically the same as the sound wave itself. In fact 'playing' the brain wave produces a nearly identical sound. But for people without a trained ear for music, the ability to make these patterns decreases as background noise increases, experiments show. Musicians, by contrast, have subconsciously trained their brains to better recognize selective sound patterns, even as background noise goes up. At the same time, people with certain developmental disorders, such as dyslexia (阅读障碍症), have a harder time hearing sounds amid the noise-a serious problem, for example, for students straining to hear the teacher in a noisy classroom. Musical experience could therefore be a key therapy for children with dyslexia and similar languagerelated disorders, Kraus said. In a similar vein, Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug has found that stroke patients who have lost the ability to speak can be trained to say hundreds of phrases by singing them first. In his research, Schlaug demonstrated the results of intensive musical therapy on patients with lesions (损伤) on the left sides of their brains, those areas most associated with language. Before the therapy, these stroke patients responded to questions with largely incoherent sounds and phrases. But after just a few minutes with therapists, who asked them to sing phrases and tap their hands to the rhythm, the patients could sing 'Happy Birthday,' recite their addresses, and communicate if they were thirsty. 'The underdeveloped systems on the right side of the brain that respond to music became enhanced and changed structures,' Schlaug said. Overall, Schlaug said, the experiments show that ''music might be an alternative medium for engaging parts of the brain that are otherwise not engaged. '

单选题 Geothermal (地热的) energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating. It is simply power derived from the Earth's internal heat. This thermal energy is contained in the rock and fluids beneath Earth's crust. It can be found from shallow ground to several miles below the surface, and even farther down to the extremely hot molten rock called magma (岩浆). A geothermal heat pump system can take advantage of the constant temperature of the upper ten feet (three meters) of the Earth's surface to heat a home in the winter while extracting heat from the building and transferring it back to the relatively cooler ground in the summer. Geothermal water from deeper in the Earth can be used directly for heating homes and offices, or for growing plants in greenhouses. Some US cities pipe geothermal hot water under roads and sidewalks to melt snow. To produce geothermal-generated electricity, well, sometimes a mile (1.6 kilometers) deep or more, are drilled into underground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water that drive turbines linked to electricity generators. The first geothermally generated electricity was produced in Larderello, Italy, in 1904. There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash, and binary (二元介质式). Dry steam, the oldest geothermal technology, takes steam out of fractures in the ground and uses it to directly drive a turbine. Flash plants pull deep, high-pressure hot water into cooler, low-pressure water. The steam that results from this process is used to drive the turbine. In binary plants, the hot water is passed by a secondary fluid with a much lower boiling point than water. This causes the secondary fluid to turn to vapor, which then drives a turbine. Most geothermal power plants in the future will be binary plants. There are many advantages of geothermal energy. It can be extracted without burning a fossil fuel such as coal, gas, or oil. Geothermal fields produce only about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces. Unlike solar and wind energy, geothermal energy is always available, 365 days a year. It's also relatively inexpensive; savings from direct use can be as much as 80 percent over fossil fuels. But it has some environmental problems. The main concern is the release of hydrogen sulfide (硫化氢), a gas that smells like rotten eggs at low concentrations. Another concern is the disposal of some geothermal fluids, which may contain low levels of toxic materials. Although geothermal sites are capable of providing heat for many decades, eventually specific locations may cool down.

单选题As it is, sleep is so undervalued that getting by on fewer hours has become a badge of honor. Plus, we live in a culture that 26 to the late-nighter, from 24-hour grocery stores to online shopping sites that never close. It's no surprise, then, that more than half of American adults don't get the 7 to 9 hours of shut-eye every night as 27 by sleep experts. Whether or not we can catch up on sleep—on the weekend, say—is a hotly 28 topic among sleep researchers. The latest evidence suggests that while it isn't 29 , it might help. When Liu, the UCLA sleep researcher and professor of medicine, brought 30 sleep-restricted people into the lab for a weekend of sleep during which they logged about 10 hours per night, they showed 31 in the ability of insulin (胰岛素) to process blood sugar. That suggests that catch-up sleep may undo some but not all of the damage that sleep 32 causes, which is encouraging, given how many adults don't get the hours they need each night. Still, Liu isn't 33 to endorse the habit of sleeping less and making up for it later. Sleeping pills, while helpful for some, are not 34 an effective remedy either. 'A sleeping pill will 35 one area of the brain, but there's never going to be a perfect sleeping pill, because you couldn't really replicate (复制) the different chemicals moving in and out of different parts of the brain to go through the different stages of sleep,' says Dr. Nancy Collop, director of the Emory University Sleep Center. A. alternatively F. ideal K. presumption B. caters G. improvements L. ready C. chronically H. necessarily M. recommended D. debated I. negotiated N. surpasses E. deprivation J. pierce O. target

单选题 Questions14-16 are based on the passage you have just heard.

单选题In last year's Science study, researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined the relationship between stem-cell divisions and cancer development. They reported that the higher the number of stem-cell divisions in a given tissue, the higher risk for 28 cancer. At the time, they said that their findings suggested '65% of cancer...appears to be explained by the number of stem-cell divisions'. That stem-cell activity, the researchers suggested, could explain why some people without 29 factors like smoking will still get lung cancers. 'I was startled by their conclusion,' Dr. Yusuf Hannun says, a cancer researcher at Stony Brook University in New York and author of the new Nature study. Hannun and his team 30 that the first study assumed that stem-cell division and other environmental factors were 31 of each other. Hannun's team wanted to assess the 32 to which stem-cell division or environmental factors contribute to developing the disease. To do this, the researchers looked at a variety of data including epidemiological evidence that people living in different regions have different rates of cancer development. They also looked at cell-mutation patterns 33 with certain cancers, as well as mathematical models that helped parse how much a cancer was due to 34 factors like cell division versus extrinsic factors like environment or lifestyle. The new study reported that while intrinsic factors did have a 35 in cancer development, environmental factors had a more 36 effect and were responsible for 70%-90% of cancer cases. This isn't the last study to be published on the topic, but as scientists refine their 37 of the many things that can contribute to cancer risk, more information is needed. A. argue B. associated C. considering D. derived E. developing F. extent G. full H. independent I. intrinsic J. relation K. risk L. robust M. role N. seizes O. understanding

单选题 Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure A. As constant travelers and parents of a 2-year-old, we sometimes fantasize about how much work we can do when one of us gets on a plane, undistracted by phones, friends, or movies. We race to get all our ground work done: packing, going through security, doing a last-minute work call, calling each other, then boarding the plane. Then, when we try to have that amazing work session in flight, we get nothing done. Even worse, after refreshing our email or reading the same studies over and over, we are too exhausted when we land to soldier on with (继续处理) the emails that have inevitably still piled up. B. Why should flying deplete us? We're just sitting there doing nothing. Why can't we be tougher, more resilient (有复原力的) and determined in our work so we can accomplish all of the goals we set for ourselves? Based on our current research, we have come to realize that the problem is not our hectic schedule or the plane travel itself; the problem comes from a misconception of what it means to be resilient, and the resulting impact of overworking. C. We often take a militaristic, 'tough' approach to resilience and determination like a Marine pulling himself through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the ground for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate. D. The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient and successful. Research has found that there is a direct correlation between lack of recovery and increased incidence of health and safety problems. And lack of recovery—whether by disrupting sleep with thoughts of work or having continuous cognitive arousal by watching our phones—is costing our companies $62 billion a year in lost productivity. E. And just because work stops, it doesn't mean we are recovering. We 'stop' work sometimes at 5pm, but then we spend the night wrestling with solutions to work problems, talking about our work over dinner, and falling asleep thinking about how much work we'll do tomorrow. In a study just released, researchers from Norway found that 7.8% of Norwegians have become workaholics (工作狂). The scientists cite a definition of 'workaholism' as 'being overly concerned about work, driven by an uncontrollable work motivation, and investing so much time and effort in work that it impairs other important life areas.' F. We believe that the number of people who fit that definition includes the majority of American workers, which prompted us to begin a study of workaholism in the U.S. Our study will use a large corporate dataset from a major medical company to examine how technology extends our working hours and thus interferes with necessary cognitive recovery, resulting in huge health care costs and turnover costs for employers. G. The misconception of resilience is often bred from an early age. Parents trying to teach their children resilience might celebrate a high school student staying up until 3am to finish a science fair project. What a distortion of resilience! A resilient child is a well-rested one. When an exhausted student goes to school, he risks hurting everyone on the road with his impaired driving; he doesn't have the cognitive resources to do well on his English test; he has lower serf-control with his friends; and at home, he is moody with his parents. Overwork and exhaustion are the opposite of resilience and the bad habits we acquire when we're young only magnify when we hit the workforce. H. As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz have written, if you have too much time in the performance zone, you need more time in the recovery zone, otherwise you risk burnout. Gathering your resources to 'try hard' requires burning energy in order to overcome your currently low arousal level. It also worsens exhaustion. Thus the more imbalanced we become due to overworking, the more value there is in activities that allow us to return to a state of balance. The value of a recovery period rises in proportion to the amount of work required of us. I. So how do we recover and build resilience? Most people assume that if you stop doing a task like answering emails or writing a paper, your brain will naturally recover, so that when you start again later in the day or the next morning, you'll have your energy back. But surely everyone reading this has had times when you lie in bed for hours, unable to fall asleep because your brain is thinking about work. If you lie in bed for eight hours, you may have rested, but you can still feel exhausted the next day. That's because rest and recovery are not the same thing. J. If you're trying to build resilience at work, you need adequate internal and external recovery periods. As researchers Zijlstra, Cropley and Rydstedt write in their 2014 paper: 'Internal recovery refers to the shorter periods of relaxation that take place within the frames of the work day or the work setting in the form of short scheduled or unscheduled breaks, by shifting attention or changing to other work tasks when the mental or physical resources required for the initial task are temporarily depleted or exhausted. External recovery refers to actions that take place outside of work—e.g, in the free time between the work days, and during weekends, holidays or vacations.' If after work you lie around on your bed and get irritated by political commentary on your phone or get stressed thinking about decisions about how to renovate your home, your brain has not received a break from high mental arousal states. Our brains need a rest as much as our bodies do. K. If you really want to build resilience, you can start by strategically stopping. Give yourself the resources to be tough by creating internal and external recovery periods. Amy Blankson describes how to strategically stop during the day by using technology to control overworking. She suggests downloading the Instant or Moment apps to see how many times you turn on your phone each day. You can also use apps like Offtime or Unplugged to create tech free zones by strategically scheduling automatic airplane modes. The average person turns on their phone 150 times every day. If every distraction took only 1 minute, that would account for 2.5 hours a day. L. In addition, you can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to charge your batteries. Try to not have lunch at your desk, but instead spend time outside or with your friends—not talking about work. Take all of your paid time off, which not only gives you recovery periods, but raises your productivity and likelihood of promotion. M. As for us, we've started using our plane time as a work-free zone, and thus trine to dip into the recovery phase. The results have been fantastic. We are usually tired already by the time we get on a plane, and the crowded space and unstable internet connection make work more challenging Now, instead of swimming upstream, we relax, sleep, watch movies, or listen to music. And when we get off the plane, instead of being depleted, we feel recovered and ready to return to the performance zone.

单选题 端午节(Dragon Boat Festival)，农历五月初五日，已经有2000多年的历史了。赛龙舟(dragon boat racing)在全国各地都举行，是这个节日不可缺少的(indispensable)一部分。当发号枪一响，人们就会看到在龙形的独木舟上，选手们和谐而急速地划桨(oar)，伴随着急促的鼓声，快速朝着目的地划去。据民间故事传说(folk tale)，这一比赛起源于寻找屈原的遗体的活动。现在赛龙舟已经发展成为一个水上运动项目(aquatic sports item)，这是中国的传统与现代体育精神相结合的特征。1980年，赛龙舟被列入国家体育竞赛项目，每年都举办，该奖项被称为“屈原杯”。