单选题Life really should be one long journey of joy for children born with a world of wealth at their tiny feet. But psychologists now believe that silver spoons can leave a bitter taste. If suicide statistics are an indicator of happiness, then the rich are a miserable lot. Figures show that it is the wealthy who most often do away with themselves. Internationally famous child psychiatrist Dr. Robert Coles is the world's top expert on the influence of money on children. He has written a highly-acclaimed book on the subject, The Privileged Ones, and his research shows that too much money in the family can cause as many problems as too little. "Obviously there are certain advantages to being rich," says the 53-year-old psychiatrist, "such as better health, education and future work prospects. But most important is the quality of family life. Money can't buy love." It can buy a lot of other things, though, and that's where the trouble starts. Rich kids have so much to choose from that they often become confused. Over-indulgence by their parents can make them spoilt. They tend to travel more than other children, from home to home and country to country, which causes feelings of restlessness. "But privileged children do have a better sense of their positions in the world," adds Mr. Coles, "and they are more self-assured. I can't imagine, for instance, that Prince William will not grow up to be self-assured." Prince William is probably the most privileged child in the world and will grow up to fill the world's most privileged position King of England. It is a fact that no one knows how much the Queen is worth. There are the royal estates two palaces, two castles and a country mansion. There's also the royal picture collection, the stamp collection, the library, the jewels and the royal yacht Britannia. Before he inherits that lot, William will succeed his father as Prince of Wales and enjoy the income from the Duchy of Cornwall, currently worth 771,480 pounds a year. Known jokingly around the Palace as West Country Limited, the Duchy consists of 26,600 acres of Cornwall including mineral rights for tin mining and 2,000 acres of forestry. It also owns the Oval cricket ground, 900 flats in London, oyster beds and a golf course. So money will never be one of Prince William's problems. Living anything that resembles a normal life will. "He will have a sense of isolation," cautions Dr. Coles, "and he could suffer from the handicap of not being able to deal with the everyday world because he will never really be given the chance. Royals exist in an elaborate social fantasy. Everything they have achieved is because of an accident of birth. There can be no tremendous inner satisfaction about that." Today's wealthy parents perhaps realise their riches can be more of a burden than a blessing to their children. So their priority is to ensure that their families are as rich in love as they are in money.

单选题In their darker moments, climatologists talk about their own "nightmare scenario". This is one where global warming has caused such significant climatic changes that ocean currents change direction. One scene from tile nightmare has the Gulf Stream moving south or even going into reverse, making winter in London look and feel like a St Petersburg January. The ocean is a great moderating influence on the planet, soaking up heat around the tropics and depositing it in the cooler polar regions. Yet scientists know surprisingly little about how the sea does this— they estimate that the North Atlantic alone moves energy equivalent to the output of several hundred million power stations. Last year oceanographers began their biggest international research initiative to learn more about ocean circulation. The first results from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment demonstrate just how complex the movement of sea-water can be. They have also given scientists a glance of the amount of heat being exchanged between the oceans and the atmosphere. As part of the experiment, researchers are monitoring the speed and direction of ocean currents, water temperature and salinity. Research ships taking part will gather detailed measurements at 24,000 points or "stations" along carefully designated trans-ocean routes. This undertaking dwarfs the 8,000 hydrographic stations created in the past hundred years of ocean surveying, A fleet of ships, buoys, seabed sensors and satellites will collect so much data that Britain, one of the 40 countries taking part, has opened a research institute, the James Rennell Centre for Ocean Circulation in Southampton, to process them. One of the justifications for the experiment, says John Woods, director of marine and atmospheric sciences at the Natural Environment Research Council, is that the oceans hold the key to understanding long-term changes in the global climate. The Earth has two "envelopes"—the ocean, consisting of slowly circulating water, and the atmosphere, made of fast-moving air. Far from being independent, they interact, one modifying the other until a balance is reached between them. The present balance came about at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. Scientists hope that knowing more about the ocean's "weather patterns" will help them to predict climate changes further ahead. Knowing how heat is moving around the ocean is decisive to such long-term forecasting. The top three metres of the ocean store more heat than all of the atmosphere. Some of the heat can be transported downward between 30 metres and several thousand metres. The deeper it goes, the longer it stays out of the atmosphere. Water heated in the equatorial region flows in shallow currents north or south towards the poles, where it releases its heat to the air and, as it becomes colder and denser, sinks to the sea floor, where it forms deep, cold currents that back to the equator. John Gould, one of the British scientists taking part in the ocean circulation experiment, is discovering just how this occurs in the Noah Atlantic. Shallow currents, less than 500m deep, of warm water at about 8℃ flow from the Atlantic into the Norwegian Sea, mainly along a path that follows the point where the continental shelf ends and the deep mid-ocean valleys begin. Meanwhile, at depth down to 5,000m, deep currents of cold water at about minus 1℃ flow south into the Atlantic along the deep ocean valley. (Salt water at this depth does not freeze at 0℃) Sensors positioned on the seabed have given Dr Could and his researchers an accurate assessment of just how much cold water is flowing back into the North Atlantic and have given up its heat to the atmosphere over north-west Europe. In total, he estimates, about 5 million cubic metres of water per second flows in these deep currents between Greenland and the British Isles. This means the warm water of the North Atlantic must be giving up about 200 million megawatts of energy to the atmosphere over north-west Europe. Research at the other end of the world, in the seas around Antarctica, is also finding that sea-floor topography plays a crucial role in determining the direction of ocean currents. In the past, oceanographers have assumed, for instance, that surface currents such as the Gulf Stream do not extend much beyond a kilometre in depth. But an analysis of currents in Antarctic waters has shown that currents are. not concentrated in the top kilometre, but reach down to the submerged mountain ranges. Dr Woods believes such research will help to save lives. "More deaths can be prevented by ocean forecasting, than by weather forecasting and our economic and social well-being are more vulnerable to change in the ocean than in the atmosphere./

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}TEXT 1{{/B}} It's been a hundred years since the last big one in California, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which helped give birth to modem earthquake science. A century later, we have a highly successful theory, called plate tectonics, that explains why 1906-type earthquakes happen-- along with why continents drift, mountains rise, and volcanoes line the Pacific Rim. Plate tectonics may be one of the signature triumphs of the human mind, geology's answer to biology's theory of evolution. There's the broader question: Are there clear patterns, rules, and regularities in earthquakes, or are they inherently random and chaotic? Maybe, as Berkeley seismologist Robert Nadeau says, "A lot of the randomness is just lack of knowledge." But any look at a seismic map shows that faults don't follow neat and orderly lines across the landscape. There are places, such as southern California, where they look like a shattered windshield. All that cracked, unstable crust seethes with stress. When one fault lurches, it can dump stress on other faults. UCLA seismologist David Jackson, a leader of the chaos camp, says the field of earthquake science is "waking up to complexity." This regular versus chaotic debate isn't some esoteric academic squabble. Earthquakes kill people. They level cities. The tsunami of December 26, 2004, spawned by a giant earthquake, annihilated more than 220,000 lives. One of the world's largest economies, Japan, rests nervously atop a seismically rambunctious intersection of tectonic plates. A major earthquake on one of the faults hidden underneath Los Angeles could kill ten thousand people. A tsunami could smash the Pacific Northwest. Even New York City could be rocked by a temblor. Yet at the moment, earthquake prediction remains a matter of myth, of fabulations in which birds and snakes and fish and bunny rabbits somehow sniff out the coming calamity. What scientists can do right now is make good maps of fault zones and figure out which ones are probably due for a rupture. And they can make forecasts. A forecast might say that, over a certain number of years, there's a certain likelihood of a certain magnitude earthquake in a given spot. And that you should bolt your house to its foundation and lash the water heater to the wall. Turning forecasts into predictions-- "a magnitude 7 earthquake is expected here three days from now" --may be impossible, but scientists are doing everything they can to solve the mysteries of earthquakes. They break rocks in laboratories, studying how stone behaves under stress. They hike through ghost forests where dead trees tell of long-ago tsunamis. They make maps of precarious, balanced rocks m see where the ground has shaken in the past, and how hard. They dig trenches across faults, searching for the active trace. They have wired up fault zones with so many sensors it's as though the Earth is a patient in intensive care. Surely, we tell ourselves--trying hard to be persuasive--there must be some way to impose order and decorum on all that slippery ground.

单选题The author mentioned all of the following EXCEPT______.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} In January 1995, the world witnessed the emergence of a new international economic order with the launching of the World Trade Organization. The WTO, which succeeds, the GATT, is expected to strengthen the world trading system and to be more effective than the GATT in governing international trade in goods and services in many ways. First, worldwide trade liberalization is expected to increase via the dramatic reductions in trade barriers to which the members of the WTO are committed. Under the WTO, members are required to reduce their tariff and non-tariffs on manufacturing goods. In addition, protecting domestic agricultural sectors from foreign competition will become extremely difficult in the new WTO system. Second, rules and regulations governing international trade will be more strongly enforced. Under the old system of the GATT, there were many cases where trade measures, such as anti-dumping and countervailing duties, were intentionally used solely for protectionist reasons. The WTO's strengthened rules and regulations will significantly reduce the abuse of such trade measures by its member countries. The WTO is also equipped with an improved dispute settlement mechanism. Accordingly, we expect to see a more effective resolution of trade disputes among the member countries in this new trade environment. Third, new multilateral rules have been established to cover areas which the GATF did not address, such as international trade in services and the protection of intellectual property rights. There still are a number of problems that need to be resolved before international trade in services can be completely liberalized, and newly developed ideas or technologies are fairly compensated. However, just the establishment of multilateral rules in these new areas is a significant contribution to the progress toward a global free trade system. Along with the launching of the WTO, this new era in world trade is characterized by a change in the structure of the world economy. Today, a world-wide market for goods and services is rapidly replacing a world economy composed of relatively isolated national markets. Domestic financial markets have been integrated into a truly global system, and the multinational corporation is becoming a principal mechanism for allocating investment capital and determining the location of production sites throughout much of the world.

单选题______is not the duty of deans.

单选题{{B}}Part B{{/B}} In the following article some paragraphs have been removed. For questions 66—70, choose the most suitable paragraph from the lists A—F to fit into each of the numbered gaps. There is one paragraph which does not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. For the first time, scientists have profiled specific genetic changes during the aging of experimental animals, a discovery that could aid work to extend life span and preserve health. The study, conducted with mice at the University of Wiscons in, combines a powerful new genetic technique with dietary restriction, the only known way to delay the aging process. 66.____________ Moreover, it reveals how a low-calorie diet, the only known method of slowing aging in several animal species, works at the most basic level to extend life span and preserve health. Such knowledge, used in concert with new technologies capable of rapidly surveying the activity of thousands of genes at once, premises to accelerate the development of drugs that mimic the age-retarding effects of a low-calorie diet, according to the Wisconsin scientists. The Wisconsin team, led by Tomas A Prolla, a UW-Madison professor of genetics, and Richard Weindruch, a UW-Madison professor of medicine, profiled the action of 6,347 genes. The team charted changes in genetic activity in two groups of mice, one group on a standard diet and another group whose diet had been reduced to 76 percent of the standard diet. 67.____________ "At the molecular level, normal aging looks like a state of chronic injury," said Prolla. However, in a big step forward in understanding how a reduced-caloriediet works to dramatically slow the physical manifestations of aging, many of the same genes that exhibited changes in activity with aging in mice on a standard diet remained almost completely intact in mice on a reduced diet. "This is a leap in our understanding of how caloric restriction works," said Weindruch, a leading authority in the field of diet and aging. "There hasn't been much consensus on how caloric restriction retards aging." 68.____________ The new study, Weindruch said, tends to support the idea that caloric restriction works by slowing metabolism, the chemical processes by which living organisms and cells convert food to energy. 69.____________ "Taken as a whole, our results provide evidence that during aging there is an induction of a stress response as a result of damaged proteins and other macromole cules," the Wisconsin scientists write in Science, "This response ensues as the systems required for the turnover of such molecules decline, perhaps as a result of an energetic deficit in the cell." 70.____________ The new study, according to Weindruch, is important not only because it provides a genetic map of aging, but because it shows the potential of harnessing gene chip technology to screen for the effects of drugs on the process of growing old. "It gives us a molecular test to see if an agent can affect the rate of aging," said Weindruch. "There are lots of implications. If we can understand the molecular mechanisms, we could perhaps develop drugs that mimic the effects of caloric restriction." [A] The research is published today in Science. The study is a milestone in aging research, providing scientists with an intimate look at the ebb and flow of genetic activity with age, and the roles individual genes play in the process of growing old. [B] In the process of metabolism, some toxic byproducts are produced, damaging proteins and triggering a stress response that acts to repair damaged molecules and that seems to be governed by a few select genes. But with age, the body's ability to repair damaged proteins declines, possibly as a result of shrinking cellular energy levels. [C] Over many years, studies of several animal species have consistently shown that reduced diets — 25 to 30 percent less than a typical diet-retard aging, extend life span and improve overall health in old age. [D] "This study has analyzed more genes with regard to aging than all previous studies combined," Prolla said of the study that surveyed 5 to 10 percent of the mouse genome using a "gene ship" — a small glass plate containing DNA that, when read with a laser, quickly reveals activity levels for thousands of individual genes. The Wisconsin group found that, with age, the activity of a very small number of genes — less than 2 percent of those surveyed — changed markedly. But those genes govern critical biological tasks such as stress responses, protein repair and energy production, and they changed in big ways. [E] The Wisconsin group plans to extend its studies to monkeys and humans. UW-Madison, at its Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, is the site of a decade-old study of rhesus macaques on a reducedcalorie diet. [F] Prolla and Weindruch have filed for a patent covering the use of gene chip technology in aging research through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

单选题Feminist sociolinguists (社会语言学家), over the course of the last few decades, have conducted studies that they believe and support the conclusion that women are routinely discriminated against in English-speaking society. They point to the words used to describe women, as well as the words used to describe society as a whole, as indications that the English language, and therefore the English-speaking culture, is slanted towards the advantage of males. The words used to describe women are used as instrument by feminist sociolinguists to denote an inherent sexism in the English language. Word pairs such as master and mistress and sir and madam, they claim, epitomize such sexism. All of the words in question once held positive connotations but, while the masculine (男性的) forms have retained their respectable associations, the feminine forms have undergone pejoration and now imply sexual promiscuity (混杂) and other negative characteristics. Feminist researchers assume that such pejoration indicate that the status of women in English-speaking society is relatively low. These researchers also find fault with the use of masculine words to describe unisex entities. For example, they feel that there is nothing inherently mainly about mankind, the best man for the job, or the common man. Similarly, the use of such constructions as the "the average students is worried about his grades" indicate to these researchers an inherent sexism in English that is reflective of the cultures in which they are produced. Carolyn Jacobson, author of Non-sexist Language has proposed a solution to this conundrum (难题). She advocates the elimination of all sexed words in favor of gender-neutral terms. No longer should we refer to actors and actresses or waiters and waitresses, as such dichotomies (男女有别) allow for the possibility of negative connotations being associated with the feminine designation. Likewise, she believes that phrases such as mankind should give way to humankind and that the use of the masculine pronoun as the default should be abandoned in favor of neutral constructions. Thus, when sexism is eliminated from the English language, the culture will be more amenable to the deliverance of women as well.

单选题Babies are less likely to grow up into fat children if they are fed breast milk exclusively, which provides powerful ammunition fi3r the campaign to encourage mothers to choose the breast over the bottle. German scientists say their findings are the result of the largest study to date investigating the link between breast-feeding and obesity later in life. The findings suggest breast-feeding could turn out to be a powerful strategy for fighting the spiraling level of childhood obesity. The study, which tracked 9,357 children in Bavaria, found that the longer babies were breast-fed exclusively before being switched to formula or food, the lower their chances of starting school as overweight children. The German study found that infants given only breast milk until they were 3 to 5 months old were more than a third less likely to be obese by the age of 5 or 6 than babies given only formula from the start. Those breast-fed exclusively for 6 months to a year fared even better -they were 43 percent less likely to be obese. Breast-feeding beyond a child's first birthday was better still, giving babies a 72 percent lower chance of turning out to be obese children. Even just some breast milk proved to be better than none, according to the study. Children who were breast-fed for only 1:he first month or two of their lives were 10 percent less likely to be obese by the time they entered elementary school. Besides being more likely to be obese, bottle-fed children also had a greater chance of being simply overweight by elementary school. As with obesity, the risk diminished the longer breast-feeding continued into childhood. Children were classed as overweight if their body mass index which allows comparison of the girth of people of different heights was in the highest 10 percent of all children their age and sex in IBavaria. They were labeled obese if they were in the highest 3 percent. The researchers took into account several factors that could have skewed the results, such as eatin.cl habits, socioeconomic class, birth weight, parents' and siblings' ages, how long the children played outside and whether they had their own bedrooms. In fact, the fatter children were eating less butter, fewer desserts and whole-milk products, and more low-fat dairy foods -probably in an attempt to lose weight. However, what is not clear from the study is how much of the children's weight problem was due to an inherited tendency to be fat. Experts noted that genetics might be responsible for a small percentage of the cases, but could not be the total explanation. A follow-up study which takes into account parents' weight suggests a genetic disadvantage doesn't seem to make much difference. But is it something in the breast milk, or something associated with the act of breast-feeding that makes a difference? It's a bit early for us to draw such a conclusion.

单选题The threat of diseases such as influenza or tuberculosis re-emerging in virulent form has been a common theme in recent years. That threat is not limited to human airwaves, our food plants get sick too, and just as human diseases evolve to evade antibiotics, so the diseases that strike our crops evolve to sidestep the resistance genes we have bred into them. For the vast majority of the calories the world eats, the key crop is grain. A ruinous wheat disease we have not had to worry about since the 1950s is making a comeback, and unless we are very lucky, we will not have sufficient defences to protect crops everywhere in the world against it in time. That stem rust would evolve and return to plague us was inevitable, but our lack of preparation to ward it off was not. Research into stem rust was bound to tail off once the disease seemed beaten, but the world let down its guard too far, for ideological reasons. In the 1980s governments of industrialized countries, especially the UK and US, started to lose patience with the "multilateral" agencies that engineered much of the global progress in agriculture after the Second World War. Each government wanted the agencies to dance only to its tune. This included the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, the global network of labs that created the "Green Revolution". The CGIAR remains the leading, sometimes only source of agricultural research devoted to global good rather than private profit. "Multilateral" funding meant these labs received income from rich donors with no strings attached. Researchers at the labs were able to spend the money the way they thought best—including the unglamorous task of making sure that crops" disease resistance kept pace with the diseases. However, for more than two decades, donors have been cutting this funding in favour of only financing projects allied to their own interests. As wheat stem rust re-emerged in 1999, the main CGIAR wheat lab was entering a major funding crisis, and ended up sacking a quarter of its scientists. It has taken until now to beg enough money to fight the disease. There are now signs that donors may be moving back to more open-ended funding, which is to be encouraged. They should also increase their derisory funding for this vital research: stem rust is poised to teach us the dangers of complacency. The world population is predicted to rise by another 3 billion by 2050, yet increases in food production have stagnated, technological fixes are spent, and global warming—and the return of diseases like stem rust—look likely to take back many of the gains we have made. Food security affects political security, and one of the first regions to suffer from stem rust will be the volatile Middle East, including Iraq. Agricultural research for the public good is the only way to provide that security. It is certainly cheaper than building armies.

单选题In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society's moral catastrophes, yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments of other people's lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual's quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show's main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life's tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18-to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, "sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show's exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world.

单选题 {{I}}Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following monologue about rainwater. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 18 to 20.{{/I}}

单选题The president of a university acts as the institution's chief executive officer. Presidents usually have extensive academic experience as either college or university administrators. In some cases, they may be people of notable achievement outside of academic life. For example, Dwight D. Eisenhower served as president of Columbia University in New York City from 1948 to 1950, after commanding the Allied forces in Europe during World War Ⅱ (1939～1945). He was later elected the 34th president of the United States, in 1952. Presidents of colleges and universities enforce the policies, regulations, and other procedures that govern their institution. They also meet with the board of trustees and make recommendations to the board regarding the government and policies of the school. They appoint and, if necessary, remove other officers of the institution, such as vice presidents or deans; they approve or disapprove new policies and procedures recommended by the institution's administrative and faculty committees; and they represent the college or university to the general public and to the institution's alumni. Depending on the size of the institution, a college or university will appoint a number of vice presidents to assist the president in running the school. The academic vice president is responsible for faculty appointments and dismissals and for approving or revising academic programs. Often the academic vice president is a former dean of a college or other academic division within the institution. The institution's financial and budgetary matters are the responsibility of the vice president for finance. The vice president for student services is responsible for nonacademic matters relating to students, such as operating counseling services, residence halls, and student activities and organizations. The vice president for human resources is responsible for nonfaculty appointments such as the hiring of secretaries and personnel to maintain the grounds and other facilities. The academic deans are the chief executives and administrators of the various colleges or other academic divisions of an institution. For example, at a large university, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the School of Law each have a dean who is appointed by the president or the academic vice president. Frequently, deans have had experience as chairperson of academic departments in the institution. The responsibilities of deans typically include implementing policies established by the board of trustees and the president; preparing the budgets and overseeing the spending of funds within the academic division; supervising the faculty; recommending faculty in their college or school to the academic vice president for appointment, promotion, tenured or termination; and maintaining or increasing student enrollments in their college or school.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} However important we may regard school life to be there is no gainsaying the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the great influence of parents cannot be ignored or discounted by the teachers. They can become strong allies of the school personnel or they can consciously or unconsciously hinder and thwart curricular objectives. Administrators have been aware of the need to keep parents apprised of the newer methods used in schools. Many principals have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness program, manuscript writing, and developmental mathematics. Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the supervisors, can also play an important role in enlightening parents. Many interviews carried on during the year as well as new ways of reporting pupils' progress, can significantly aid in achieving a harmonious interplay between school and home. To illustrate, suppose that a father has been drilling Junior in arithmetic processes night after night. In a friendly interview, the teacher can help the parent sublimate his natural paternal interest into productive channels. He might be persuaded to let Junior participate in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a yardstick or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating mileage on a trip, and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis. If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to assume that he will soon realize his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics and, at the same time, enjoying the work. Too often, however, teachers' conferences with parents are devoted to petty accounts of children's misdemenanors, complaints about laziness and poor work habits, and suggestions for penalties and rewards at home. What is needed in a more creative approach in which the teacher, as a professional adviser, plants ideas in parents' minds for the best utilization of many hours that the child spends out of the classroom. In this way, the school and the home join forces in fostering the fullest development of youngsters' capacities.

单选题KA Superba This big, user-friendly fridge is designed to accommodate everyone in the family — especially harried parents. It is packed with convenience features. Large families, gourmet cooks, and midnight snackers will all find something to love in this refrigerator — and for a 25-plus-cubic-foot refrigerator, it''s surprisingly energy-efficient. This large side-by-side refrigerator includes gallon storage as well as a beverage-can rack right inside the door, a wine rack, a covered egg container, and a meat locker that enjoys chilled air from the freezer. And thanks to a clever temperature sensor, when the refrigerator heats up, cold air from the freezer compartment comes in to cool things down. But the most striking feature in this refrigerator has got to be its ice-and-water dispenser. It produces both cubed and crushed ice, and it lights Up when the paddle is pressed. You can quickly disable the dispenser — either for cleaning or to slow down your naughty children with a hobby for making ice-water bombs. list price $1,590 street price $1,549 type side-by-side capacity 25. 1 cubic ft. average annual energy cost $73 width 35. 5 in. warranty 1 yr. best features energy-efficient. temperature sensor. Comparable Products KA Superba offers slightly larger and smaller versions of its model, such as the 26. 5-cubic-foot KA27FH and the KA22QG. There''s also a line of KA refrigerators with top-mounted freezers, such as the 24. 8-cubic-foot KA25KG, as well as a model with a bottom-mounted freezer, the 21.8-cubic-foot KA22KG, although neither comes with the KA25QG''s nifty ice-and-water dispenser. Consumer Reports gives high marks to the 25-cubic-foot Kenmore refrigerator. KD Continental Don''t be fooled by the old-fashioned look of this commercial-quality fridge. It''s modeled after a 1940s-style icebox, but that''s the only thing old-fashioned about it. Aside from being blessed with quiet operation, it has more in common with a caterer''s commercial fridge than with most of the models at your local appliance store. The Continental, the smallest refrigerator our company ever made, stores an amazing amount of food. For one thing, it''s all refrigerator — this model has no freezer. For another, its interior consists completely of white metal shelves that are easily adjusted to fit everything from a tray of soup to roast suckling pig, as well as produce and meat in a container of any size. The Continental''s design also helps keep it from hogging as much energy as a similar commercial model. Optional triple-paned windows let you peruse your food without having to open the doors. And because there are four separate doors, most of the refrigerator remains closed when you reach in for sandwich fixings. A beautiful wood frame hides the fact that this loading up this fridge is a practical way to store a big, fresh feast. list price $3 ,410 street price only available from our company type all-refrigerator capacity 23 cubic ft. average annual energy cost $150 width 31 in. warranty 1 yr. best features roomy custom wood frame adjustable shelves optional windows Comparable Products Even a 28-cubic-foot refrigerator with a freezer can''t compete with the capacity of the 23-cubic-foot KD Continental. But if you cook for crowds, the $3 ,950 42-cubic-foot KD will hold more than enough to feed the masses. If it''s a commercial-quality fridge you want, you''ll get a better price (but a lot more noise) with a model from Traulsen a built-in soda-can rack; a meat tray with adjustable temperature; adjustable door bins; humidity controlled crispers with compartment dividers; and an optional ice maker. It even has a locking compartment to prevent children from getting into medicine — or whatever — that needs to be kept cold. And the MTB2456 will fit virtually any kitchen. It''s the narrowest off-the-showroom-floor refrigerator you can buy with this capacity. Like most fridges, it''s available in white, black, or almond, but you can buy optional panels in a variety of colors, including stainless steel. For the money, you can''t do better than this quiet, convenient model. list price $1,040 street price $959 — $1,040 type top-mount capacity 23.7 cubic ft. average annual energy cost $64.00 width 32.75 in. warranty 1 yr. full. 5 yr. limited. best features energy-efficient, quiet Comparable Products Our company offers both larger and smaller top-mount-freezer versions of the MTB2456, notably the 26-cubic-foot MTB2656A and the 21-cubic-foot MTB2156B, as well as side-by-side versions, such as the comparable MSD2556A.

单选题 Questions 11 to 13 are based on the following talk on sports' and drama. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 11 to 13.

单选题{{I}} Questions 14 to 16 are based on a talk about campus life. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14 to 16.{{/I}}

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} One theory of human evolution is that our ancestors were semi-aquatic apes. They spent much time in water that they lost their body hair, which makes swimming difficult. Daedalus points out that in fact, water is a deadly environment for human beings — not by drowning, but by chilling. Our alleged aquatic ancestors should have grown even thicker, longer fur to minimize heat transfer. Indeed, in a maritime accident, it is worth putting on all the clothes you can find; you will live that much longer in the water. As for swimming — forget it. It stirs away all the body heat it generates. Sadly, many sea disasters happen so suddenly that there is no time to look for spare clothes. So Daedalus is devising a nautical uniform which reacts with water to form an ideal survival garment. His first inspiration was the absorptive acrylate polymer used in bandages and babies' nappy. It can take up hundreds of times its weight of water, expanding into soft jelly-like stuff as it does so. In fibrous form, it can be woven into cloth. Underclothes of this fabric would swell in water into a splendid wet-suit to prevent heatlosing. But Daedalus's suit will not merely insulate; it will actively generate heat. He recalls the immersion batteries on aircraft life-jackets, which use sea water to generate electricity, and power a signal lamp. His new garment will be one large distributed battery, triggered by immersion in water. Its electrochemistry is an interesting challenge. At first Daedalus wanted it to generate hydrogen — perhaps enough of it to fill a balloon and lift the wearer out of the water. But more sanely, he now wants it .to exploit the high energy for metal oxidation. A distributed zinc-air battery, exploiting the oxygen dissolved in the water, seems best. A few hundred grams of zinc could keep the wearer warm for hours in the coldest water. Hydrogen generated in a side reaction might usefully inflate floating pockets in the garment. Swollen by gas and absorbed water, the survival suit will usefully discourage at tempts to swim. Its wearer may generate a little added heat by shivering, though this also will stir away all the body heat. Only young babies can combat cold by passive thermogenesis. Advocates of our aquatic origins are welcome to the uninteresting argument that their ability is a very small remnant of our ancestral watery metabolism.

单选题 Questions 14 to 16 are based on a talk about au pairs in the UK. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14 to 16.