单选题Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors—retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living—lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society.

单选题The applications of genetic engineering are abundant and choosing one appropriate for this case can be rather difficult. A. plentiful B. sufficient C. adequate D. countable

单选题Many of the electric and electronic products we purchase and consume today are what some industrial experts call "{{U}}homogeneous toys{{/U}}".

单选题When be was told that be scored 58 in the final examination, he was in a comfort of remorse. A. a distress B. a suffering C. an agony D. a misery

单选题No one appreciated his work during his lifetime, but______it is clear that he was a great artist. A. in the aftermath B. by the time C. in retrospect D. in this eventuality

单选题The sentry guard dived into his ______ and closely observed the stranger towards him. A．fortress B．exodus C．foxhole D．eviction

单选题So far as the food industry is concerned, the processing of sheep and Iambs is relatively ______ in the United States, accounting for only about 7 percent of meat-packing production. A. irrelevant B. appropriate C. negligible D. redundant

单选题If a needle is thrown ______ on a sheet of paper ruled with lines, how often can it be expected to fall on a line? A．on purpose B．with accuracy C．at random D．according to one's own will

单选题In 1909, just two years before his death, Galton was knighted. Galtons"s place in the history of psychology is ensured. More than any other person, he set psychology on the road to quantifying its data, and, of course, the whole testing movement in educational psychology ______ Galton"s early work.

单选题The spokesman said he believed the attack was in ______ for the death of the bombing.

单选题We listened dumb-struck, full of ______, to the shocking details of the corruption of the president of the company. A. incredulity B. ingenuity C. ingenuousness D. incredibility

单选题John Smith has a blog at The Lonely Planet Times, and you can listen to a live audio stream by clicking this link below. A. steam B. water flow C. recording D. programming

单选题Written primarily for a specialized but diverse body of scholars, this book ______ the attention of those interested in seventeenth-century English literature.

单选题He read the story ______ for everybody present to hear. A. loud B. noisy C. aloud D. loudly

单选题{{U}}The belief is{{/U}} the legendary lost continent of Atlantis may someday be found.

单选题A majority of HDTV consumers could not enjoy high-quality digital pictures because ______.

单选题The Wright brothers continued their flying in France and ______ all who saw them.

单选题In the informal meeting the exporter learned that the importer was interested purchase rather than prepacked sets of 12. A．in bulk B．in essence C．at random D．at ease

单选题He was looking impatient at the visiting salesman, who showed no signs of getting ready to leave.

单选题SARS is still jeopardizing people"s lives before scientists come up with an effective treatment.