单选题Questions 14 to 16 are based on an interview between Annabel Short and Phil Wells, Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation, about his role in giving Third World traders a better deal. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14 to 16.

单选题 Questions 17 to 20 are based on a telephone conversation between Ms Muller and a hotel receptionist. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17 to 20.

单选题{{I}} Questions 11 to 14 are based on the following talk on manufacturing. You now have 15 seconds read Questions 11 to 14.{{/I}}

单选题{{I}}Questions 14 - 16 are based on the following conversation. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14-16{{/I}}

单选题Wheredidclassicalmusicoriginate?A.InAsia.B.InAfrica.C.InEurope.D.InAustralia.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Personnel changes at the International Monetary Fund and proposals for changing the fund have been reported lately. After a lengthy public debate, the leading countries settled on another German, Horst Kohler, to replace Michel Camdessus as the IMF's managing director. Unfortunately, the circus-like process began to resemble an affirmative-action procedure when it became clear that a particular nationality--German--was a prerequisite for the job. Calls for changes at the IMF came in the report from Congress' International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, led by Allan H. Meltzer. (I was a witness before the commission on issues related to inequality.) The Meltzer Commission's report surprised me by not advocating abolition of the IMF. The report said: "The commission did not join the council of despair calling for the elimination of one or more of these institutions." The commission came close to recommending abolition, however, by proposing a new IMF that would be limited to short-term-liquidity assistance to solvent economies, collection and publication of data, and provision of economic advice. The short-term-loan facility would represent a reasonable return to the IMF's role under the Bretton Woods regime that prevailed until the early 1970s. However, that role expanded greatly in the 1990s, and it is not clear how such further expansion would be avoided under the new setup. So long as the IMF retains access to lots of money, it will be difficult to say no to large, insolvent countries, such as Mexico in 1995 and Russia in 1998. Past mistakes will probably be repeated, and the elimination of the IMF would have been a better choice. I agree that the IMF's role in the collection and distribution of data has been useful. An advisory role might also be satisfactory (and some of my friends and former students perform these tasks admirably). This function could be served just as well, however, by nongovernmental institutions. In any event, the demand for the IMF's economic advice is likely to be low if it is no longer tied to qualifying for some of its loans. The irony is that the IMF had available the ideal candidate in its deputy managing director, Stanley Fischer. Fischer not only is an outstanding economist but also has a pleasant and effective management style, together with experience at the fund. He also seemed ideal on political grounds because he was born in Africa, previously held a British passport (related to his residencies in the former British colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia), and now holds a U. S. passport. Apparently, Fischer's British passport was not enough to make him European, much less German. Anyway, since my opinion of the IMF's social value is unfavorable, I probably ought not to back the most capable candidate as managing director.

单选题Where in the passage does the author mention the designs of theaters built before the nineteenth centruy?

单选题Managers spend a great deal of their time in meetings. According to Henry Mintzberg, in his book, The Nature of Managerial Work, managers in large organizations spend only 22% of their time on meetings. So what are the managers doing in those meetings? There have conventionally been two answers. The first is the academic version: Managers are coordinating and controlling, making decisions, solving problems and planning. This interpretation has been largely discredited because it ignores the social and political forces at work in meetings. The second version claims that meetings provide little more than strategic sites for corporate gladiators to perform before the organizational emperors. This perspective is far more attractive, and has given rise to a large, and often humorous, body of literature on gamesmanship and posturing in meetings. It is, of course, true that meeting rooms serve as shop windows for managerial talent, but this is far from the truth as a whole. The suggestion that meetings are actually battle grounds is misleading since the raison d"etre of meetings has far more to do with comfort than conflict. Meetings are actually vital props, both for the participants and the organization as a whole. For the organization, meetings, represent recording devices. The minutes of meetings catalogue the change of the organization, at all levels, in a more systematic way than do the assorted memos and directives which are scattered about the company. They enshrine the minutes of corporate history, they itemize proposed actions and outcomes in a way which makes one look like the natural culmination of the other. The whole tenor of the minutes is one of total premeditation and implied continuity. They are a sanitized version of reality which suggests a reassuring level of control over events. What is more, the minutes record the debating of certain issues in an official and democratic forum, so that those not involved in the process can be assured that the decision was not taken lightly. As Dong Bennett, an administrative and financial manager with Allied Breweries, explains: "Time and effort are seen to have been invested in scrutinizing a certain course of action." Key individuals are also seen to have put their names behind that particular course of action. The decision can therefore proceed with the full weight of the organization behind it, even if it actually went through "on the nod". At the same time, the burden of responsibility is spread, so that no individual takes the blame. Thus, the public nature of formal meetings confers a degree of legitimacy on what happens in them. Having a view pass unchallenged at a meeting can be taken to indicate consensus. However, meetings also serve as an alibi for action, as demonstrated by one manager who explained to his subordinates: "I did what I could to prevent it—I had our objections minutes in two meetings." The proof of conspicuous effort was there in black and white. By merely attending meetings, managers buttress their status, while non-attendance can carry with it a certain stigma. Whether individual managers intend to make a contribution or not, it is satisfying to be considered one of those whose views matter. Ostracism, for senior managers, is not being invited to meetings. As one cynic observed, meetings are comfortingly tangible: "Who on the shop floor really believes that managers are working when they tour the works? But assemble them behind closed doors and call it a meeting and everyone will take it for granted that they are hard at work." Managers are being seen to earn their corn. Meetings provide managers with another form of comfort too—that of formality. Meetings follow a fixed format: Exchanges are ritualized, the participants are probably known in advance, there is often a written agenda, and there is a chance to prepare. Little wonder then, that they come as welcome relief from the upheaval and uncertainty of life outside the meeting room. Managers can draw further comfort from the realization that their peers are every bit as bemused and fallible as themselves. Meetings provide constant reminders that they share the same problems, preoccupations and anxieties, that they are all in the same boat. And for those who may be slightly adrift, meetings are ideal occasions for gently pulling them round. As Steve Styles, the process control manager (life services) at Legal & General, puts it: "The mere presence of others in meetings adds weight to teasing or censure and helps you to "round up the strays"." Such gatherings therefore provide solace and direction for the management team—a security blanket for managers. Meetings do serve a multitude of means as well as ends. They relieve managerial stress and facilitate consensus. For the organization, they have a safety-net-cum-rubber-stamping function without which decisions could not proceed, much less gather momentum. In short, meetings are fundamental to the well-being of managers and organizations alike.

单选题Questions 4--6 Answer the following questions by using NO MORE THAN three words.

单选题 Questions 14—16 are based on the following talk.

单选题 {{B}} Questions 17～20 are based on the following conversation. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17～20.{{/B}}

单选题The American Civil War broke out in ______. A. 1860 B. 1861 C. 1862 D. 1863

单选题{{I}}Questions 11～13 are based on the following talk. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 11～13.{{/I}}

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单选题What dose the writer really want to say in the passage？

单选题Evolutionary theories. The Belgian George Lemaitre proposed the idea that about 20,000 million years ago all the matter in the universe—enough, he estimated, to make up a hundred thousand million galaxies—was all concentrated in one small mass, which he called the" primeval atom". This primeval atom exploded for some reasons, sending its matter out in all directions, and as the expansion slowed down, a steady state resulted, at which time the galaxies formed. Something then upset the balance and the universe started expanding again, and this is the state in which the universe is now. There are variations on this theory: it may be that there was no steady state. However, Basically, evolutionary theories take it that the universe was formed in one place at one point in time and has been expanding ever since. Will the universe continue to expand? It may be that the universe will continue to expand for ever, But some astronomers believe that the expansion will slow down and finally stop. Thereafter the universe will start to contract until all the matter in it is once again concentrated at one point. Possibly the universe may oscillate for ever in this fashion, expanding to its maximum and then contracting over again. The steady-state theory. Developed at Cambridge by Hoyle, Gold and Bodi, the steady-state theory maintains that the universe as a whole has always looked the same and always will. As the galaxies expand away from each other, new material is formed in some ways between the galaxies and makes up new galaxies to take place of those which have receded. Thus the general distribution of galaxies remains the same. How matter could be formed in this way is hard to see, But no harder than seeing why it should all form in one place at one time. How can we decide which of these theories is closer to the truth? The method is in principle quite simple. Since the very distant galaxies are thousands of millions of light years away, then we are seeing them as they were thousands of millions of years ago. If the evolutionary theory is correct, the galaxies were closer together in the past than they are now, and so distant galaxies ought to appear to be closer together than nearer ones. According to the steady-state theory there should be no difference. The evidence seems to suggest that there is a difference, that the galaxies were closer together than they arc now, and so the evolutionary theory is partially confirmed and the steady-state theory—in its original form at least—must be rejected.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that our brain processes information in at least two major systems. The image system appears to be associated with the right hemisphere of the brain. This hemisphere seems to be specialized to process visual and auditory imagery, spatial representation, pure melodic thought, fantasy, and the emotional components of consciousness. Imagery allows us to continue to process information when we are not actively looking at or listening to new stimuli, It reproduces the sounds or sights of the past, enriching our thoughts, dreams, or fantasies with a sense of "actuality" or context. As a coding system, imagery operates by what is called "parallel" processing, e. g., we imagine the face of a friend in one instantaneous configuration. The lexical system is largely coordinated through the left hemisphere of the brain, and its chief functions include language and grammatical organization, abstract conceptualization and reasoning. This verbal or linguistic system functions sequentially; it takes time for a sentence to run its course so it can be understood. The lexical dimension is especially efficient for integrating diverse phenomena under one label or formula that allows extremely rapid retrieval of stored information (memories) later. Both imagery and lexical systems seem essential for the highest levels of thought. It is possible, however, that the immediacy of television precludes our more active integration of images and words. We need time to replay mentally material just witnessed and also to link pictures and sounds to word labels that make for the most efficient kind of storage and retrieval. So rapidly does television material come at us that it defies the capacities of our brain to store much of it unless we actively turn our attention from the set and engage in some kind of mental rehearsal. Only in the instant "replay" of sports programming does the medium itself consciously abet the human requirement for reduplication. Contrast this with the situation of reading. You are in control of the pace. You can reread a sentence, turn back to an earlier page and take the time to piece together combinations of images and words. As you read you are also likely on occasion to drift away into more extended private images and thoughts about the material. In effect, you are engaging in a more creative act of imagination and perhaps also in the forming of new combinations of words and images. Reading seems, therefore, harder work than watching television but ultimately more rewarding because it enhances your own imaginative capacities. We're not so naive as to believe that television can be eliminated from the household, as some suggest. Rather, we see the necessity for encouraging producers to free themselves from the assumption that the rapid paced, quick-cut format, whether directed at children or adults, is a necessity.

单选题There is a difference between science and technology. Science is a method of answering theoretical questions, technology is a method of solving practical problems (and sometimes creating new problems out of the "solutions"). Science has to do with discovering the facts and relationships between observable phenomena in nature and with establishing theories that serve to organize these facts and relalionships; technology has to do with tools, techniques, and procedures for implementing the findings of science. Another distinction between science and technology has to do with the progress in each. Progress in science excludes the human factor. And this is justly so. Scientists, who seek to comprehend the universe and know the truth within the highest degree of accuracy and certainty, cannot pay heed to their own or other people's likes or dislikes or to popular ideas about the fitness of things. What scientists discover may shock or anger people—as did Darwin's theory of evolution. But even an unpleasant truth is more than likely to be useful, besides, we have the option of refusing to believe it! But hardly so with technology, we do not have the option of refusing to hear the sonic boom produced by a supersonic aircraft flying overhead, we do not have the option of refusing to breathe polluted air, and we do not have the option of living in a nonatomic age. Unlike science, progress in technology must be measured in terms of the human factor. Technology must be our slave and not the reverse. The legitimate purpose of technology is to serve people—people in general, not merely some people, and future generation, not merely those who presently wish to gain advantage for themselves. Technology must be humanistic if it is to lead to a better world. We are all familiar with the abuses of technology. Many people blame technology itself for widespread pollution, resource depletion and even social decay in gereral—so much so that the promise of technology is obscured. That promise is a cleaner and healthier world. If wise applications of science and technology do not lead to a better world, what else will? Pioneers in technology, such as Buckminster. Fuller see the extension of science and technology in our sapcefaring activities of the last 2 decades as marking a major stage in our evolution. As little Jenny suggests in the photo at the beginning of this chaper, perhaps we are like the hatching chicken who has exhausted the resources of its inner egg environment and is about to break through to a whole new range of possibilities. This is an exciting time.

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