The less the surface of the ground yields to the weight of a fully-loaded truck, ______to the truck.

(l)Suppose you are driving on a highway with three lanes going in your direction and you come upon a toll plaza with six toll booths. Three toll booths are straight ahead in the three lanes of traffic, and the three other booths are off to the right. Which lane should you choose? There are usually enough people searching for the shortest line so as to make all the lines about the same length. (2)The term profit in economics has a very precise meaning. Economists, however, often loosely refer to "good deals" or profitable ventures with no risk as profit opportunities. Using the term loosely, a profit opportunity exists at the toll booths if one line is shorter than the others. The general view of economics is that profit opportunities are rare. At any one time there are many people searching for such opportunities, and as a consequence few exist. (3)At major banks in big cities, you can buy foreign currencies. The prices of these currencies are determined in world money markets. With dollars we can buy marks; with these marks we can buy francs; and with these francs we can buy back dollars. Can we make money on this transaction? If this is possible, we say that there are profit opportunities in the market. There are in fact almost never any profit opportunities of this kind in foreign currency markets. There are always individuals looking for such opportunities, and if any opportunity does arise it is quickly eliminated. (4)If, for example, the mark-franc price is too low with respect to the other prices, there is an immediate rush to buy marks and sell francs, not by ordinary citizens at bank windows, but by a few large currency traders in Tokyo, London, or Zurich who watch prices every minute. Such a rush drives up the mark-franc price to the no-profit-opportunity point. Markets like this, where any profit opportunities are eliminated almost instantaneously are said to be efficient markets. (5)The common language way of expressing the efficient markets hypothesis is "there's no such thing as a free lunch". How should one react when a stock broker calls up with a hot tip on the stock market? With skepticism. There are thousands of individuals each day looking for hot tips in the market, and if a particular tip about a stock is valid there will be an immediate rush to buy the stock, which will quickly drive its price up. By the time the tip gets to your broker and then to you, the profit opportunity that arose from the tip (assuming that there was one) is likely to have been eliminated. Similar arguments can be made for bond markets and commodity markets. They are many "expert" in these markets, who take quick advantage of any news that affects prices. (6)This economist's view that there are very limited profit opportunities around can, of course, be carried too far. There are clearly times when profit opportunities exist. Someone has to be first to get the news, and some people have quicker insights than others. Nevertheless, news does get disseminated quickly, and there are thousands of people with quick insights. The general view that profit opportunities are rare is close to the mark.

_____ we have not made any arrangement for our picnic.

{{B}}PART I DICTATIONDirections: Listen to the following passage. Altogether the passage will be read to you four times. During the first reading, which will be done at normal speed, listen and try to understand the meaning. For the second and third readings, the passage will be read sentence by sentence, or phrase by phrase, with intervals of 15 seconds. The last reading will be done at normal speed again and during this time you should check your work.{{/B}}

In "Can you show me your photo ?", the underlined part is the _______ of the sentence.

Please ______ from smoking until the airplane is airborne.[1997]

_____ human behavior may be caused by eating substances that upset the delicate chemical balance in the brain.

Mary hoped that this job would serve as a firm ______ for her chosen career.

[此试题无题干]

(1)A conventional teacher's license usually requires a university degree in education plus an unpaid term of practice teaching. This has never made much sense. It excludes bright students who take degrees in other subjects, and might teach those subjects; it is costly and time-consuming for career-switchers, who must wait a year or more before they can enter a classroom; it is so rigid that private-school teachers or university professors with years of experience have to jump through hoops before they can start teaching in a state school. And there is virtually no evidence that it creates better teachers. For all that, it is strongly backed by schools of education, which have a monopoly of teacher-training, and by teachers' unions, whose members make more money when it is artificially hard for others to get into the profession. (2)Now, some 45 states and the Districts of Columbia offer an "alternative route" to a teacher's license, up from only a handful in the 1980s. Alternative certification (AC) generally allows individuals with a university degree to begin teaching immediately after passing an entrance examination. These recruits, watched over by a mentor teach the subject they studied at university, and take education courses at a sponsoring university while drawing their salaries. (3)The traditional sort of American teacher is likely to be young, white and female. Alternative certification attracts more men and more non-whites. In Texas, for instance, roughly 90% of public-school teachers are white, but 40% of those who have joined through alternative certification are non-whites. The AC route also draws teachers willing to go where they are most needed. A survey of Troops to Teachers, a program that turns ex-soldiers into public-school teachers ("Proud to serve again"), found that 39% of those taking part are willing to teach in inner-city schools, and 68% in rural areas. (4)Are they good teachers? Officialdom is reluctant to release the details which might answer that question for certain. But anecdotal evidence suggests they do well. In New Jersey, which has been running this sort of program since 1984, rich districts, which can afford to be choosy, consistently hire more AC teachers than poor districts do. In Houston, Texas, where the Teach of America program (TFA) puts recent university graduates into poor communities as teachers, the most effective teachers are generally the TFA ones. "School principals are our biggest fans," Wendy Kopp, TFA's president, says proudly. (5)So why not scrap the cumbersome teacher-licensing laws? Frederick Hess, a professor at the University of Virginia, has written a paper for the Progressive Policy Institute arguing that teacher-licensing ought to be stripped to the bare essentials. Prospective teachers should be required only to hold a college degree, pass a test of essential skills, and be checked to make sure they do not have a criminal background. Other training is important, argues Mr. Hess, but the market, not state legislators, should decide what that training looks like. This notion of "competitive certification" has drawn favorable attention from the administration.

Advance in science more often than not encounters powerful opposition, _____ Darvin's Theory of Evolution.

The following are all correct responses to "Who broke the glass?" EXCEPT

Many words in the English language are French in _______.

It is recommended that the project ______ until all the preparations have been made.

The _____ crown jewels are kept in the Tower of London.

Throughout our lives, mothers are there with an encouraging word, a sympathetic ear, and a(n)______ heart.

{{B}}SECTION A TALKIn this section you will hear a talk. You will hear the talk ONCE ONLY. While listening, you may look at ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word (s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.{{/B}}

[此试题无题干]

Under no ______ should we seek temporary economic development at the expense of the environment and resources.

In my first year at the university I learnt the ______ of journalism.[2007]