单选题We are not conscious of the extent {{U}}of which{{/U}} work provides the psychological satisfactionthat can make the difference between a full and empty life.

单选题Most people would be impressed by the high quality of medicine available to most Americans. There is a lot of specialization , a great deal of attention to the individual, a vast amount of advanced technical equipment, and intense effort not to make mistakes because of the financial risk which doctors and hospitals must face in the courts if they handle things badly. But the Americans are in a mess . The problem is the way in which health care is organized and financed. Contrary to public belief, it is not just a free competition system. To the private system has been joined a large public system, because private care was simply not looking after the less fortunate and the elderly. But even with this huge public part of the system, which this year will eat up 84. 5 billion dollars—more than 10 percent of the U.S. budget—large numbers of Americans are left out . These include about half the 11 million unemployed and those who fail to meet the strict limits on income fixed by a government trying to make savings where it can. The basic problem, however, is that there is no central control over the health system. There is no limit to what doctors and hospitals charge for their services, other than what the public is able to pay. The number of doctors has shot up and prices have climbed. When faced with toothache, a sick child, or a heart attack, all the unfortunate person concerned can do is pay up. Two-thirds of the population are covered by medical insurance. Doctors charge as much as they want knowing that the insurance company will pay the bill. The medical profession has as a result become America"s new big businessmen. The average income of doctors has now reached $ 100,000 a year. With such vast incomes the talk in the doctor"s surgery is as likely to be about the doctor"s latest financial deal, as about whether the minor operation he is recommending at, several thousand dollars is entirely necessary. The rising cost of medicine in the U. S.A. is among the most worrying problem facing the country. In 1981 the country"s health cost climbed 15.9 percent—about twice as fast as prices in general.

单选题A dozen years ago, James Grant—one of the wisest commentators on Wall Street—wrote a book called The Trouble with Prosperity . Grant"s survey of financial history captured his crusty theory of economic predestination . If things seem splendid, they will get worse. Success inspires overconfidence and excess. If things seem dismal, they will get better. Crisis spawns opportunity and progress. Our triumphs and follies follow a rhythm that, though it can be influenced, cannot be repealed. Good times breed bad, and vice versa. Bear that in mind. It provides context for today"s turmoil and recriminations. The recent astounding events—the government"s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Treasury"s investments in private banks, the stock market"s wild swings—have thrust us into fierce debate. Has enough been done to protect the economy? Who or what caused this mess? We Americans want problems with instant solutions. We want victories and defeats with clear heroes and villains. We crave a world of crisp moral certitudes, when the real world is awash with murky ambiguities. So it is now. Start with the immediate question: has enough been done? Well, enough for what? If the goal is to prevent a calamitous collapse of bank lending, the answer is probably "yes". Last week, the government guaranteed most interbank loans (loans among banks) and pressured nine major banks to accept $125 billion of added capital from the Treasury. Together, these steps make it easier for banks to borrow and lend. There"s less need to hoard cash. But if the goal is to inoculate us against recession and more financial turmoil, the answer is "no". We"re probably already in recession. In September, retail sales dropped 1.2 percent. The housing collapse, higher oil prices (now receding), job losses and sagging stocks have battered confidence. Consumption spends—more than two thirds of all spending—may drop in the third quarter for the first time since 1991. Loans are harder to get, because there"s been a "correction of lax lending standards," says financial consultant Bert Ely. Economist David Wyss of Standard and nervous international investors sell everywhere. Brazil"s market has lost about half its value in the past year. In this fluid situation, one thing is predictable: the crisis will produce a cottage industry of academics, journalists, pundits, politicians and bloggers to assess blame. Is former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan responsible for holding interest rates too low and for not imposing tougher regulations on mortgage lending? Would Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin have spotted the crisis sooner? Did Republican free-market ideologues leave greedy Wall Streets types too unregulated? Was Congress too permissive with Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac? Some stories are make-believe. After leaving government, Rubin landed at Citigroup as "senior counselor." He failed to identify toxic mortgage securities as a big problem in the bank"s own portfolio. It"s implausible to think he"d have done so in Washington. As recent investigative stories in the New York Times and The Washington Post show, the Clinton administration broadly supported the financial deregulation that Democrats are now so loudly denouncing. Greenspan is a harder case. His resistance to tougher regulation of mortgage lending is legitimately criticized, but the story of his low-interest rate policies is more complicated. True, the overnight fed-funds rate dropped to 1 percent in 2003 to offset the effects of the burst tech bubble and 9/11. Still. The Fed started raising rates in mid-2004. Unfortunately and surprisingly, long-term interest rates on mortgages (which are set by the market) didn"t follow. That undercut the Fed and is often attributed to a surge of cheap capital from China and Asia. There"s a broader lesson. When things go well, everyone wants to get on the bandwagon. Skeptics are regarded as fools. It"s hard for government—or anyone else—to say, "Whoa, cowboys; this won"t last." In this respect, the tech bubble and the housing bubble were identical twins. We suffer cycles of self-delusion, sometimes too giddy and sometimes too glum. The next recovery usually lies in the ruins of the last recession. As the housing boom strengthened, lenders overlent, builders overbuilt and buyers overpaid. Existing home prices rose 50 percent from 2000 to 2006. Lending standards weakened. Investment bankers packaged dubious loans in increasingly opaque securities. But bankers—to their eventual regret—kept many bad loans themselves. Almost everyone assumed that home prices would rise forever, so risks were minimal. Congress was complicit. It allowed Fannie and Freddie to operate with meager capital. They were, in effect, giant hedge funds backed by government congress also increased the share of their mortgages that had to go to low—and moderate-income buyers, form 40 percent in 1996 to 52 percent in 2005. This blessed and promoted subprime mortgage lending. So Grant"s thesis is confirmed. We go through cycles of self-delusion, sometimes too giddy and sometimes too glum. The only consolation is that the genesis of the next recovery usually lies in the ruins of the last recession. Optimistic Americans "recognize error and put it behind them," Grant writes in the current Foreign Affairs. The Pew survey reports this contrast: though half of Americans believe there"s a recession, almost half also think the economy will improve in the next year. (by Robert J. Samuelson, from Newsweek, October 27, 2008)

单选题The reporter compares a husband to a particularly tricky musical instrument, one that a wife must learn to play ______ her advantage. A. for B. as C. to D. in

单选题Human beings are superior to animals because they can use language as a tool of communication.

单选题The reviewed the international situation in which important changes and great upheavals are taking place and ______ their respective positions and attitudes. A. expanded B. devoided C. expounded D. expired

单选题Her talk at the seminar clearly, ______ from the topic the supervisor expected in the field of sociology.

单选题This program will take kids who have a manifest history of violent acts.

单选题By the time Bob arrives in Beijing, {{U}}we have already arrived here for two days{{/U}}.

单选题When a person falls into the state of sleep, his ______.

单选题The campers ______ their tent in a sheltered valley. A. established B. installed C. pitched D. fixed

单选题Your grade will be based in large part on the originality of your ideas. A. creativity B. popularity C. feasibility D. flexibility

单选题He painted his bedroom black. It looks dark and dreary. He should choose a different color.

单选题According to conflict theorists, social control agents and systems are ______.

单选题The eastern bluebird is considered the most attractive bird native of North America by many bird-watchers.

单选题A court-martial has but recently decided to {{U}}acquit him{{/U}}.

单选题Just last week, for example, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the disturbing disclosure that chick flu may be pretty deadlier than previously believed.

单选题I saw with my own eyes he took up the purse and put it in his handbag. A. had taken up the purse and put it in his handbag. B. was taking up the purse and putting it into his handbag. C. take up the purse and put it into his handbag. D. has taken up the purse and putting it into his handbag.

单选题 Specific brain disorders can affect the perception of music in a very specific way. Experiments done on epileptics decades ago showed that stimulating certain areas of the temporal lobe on both sides of the brain awakened "musical memories"—vivid re-creations of melodies that the patients had heard years earlier. Lesions in the temporal lobe can result in so-called musicogenic epilepsy, an extremely rare form of the disorder in which seizures are triggered by the sound of music. Autism offers an even greater puzzle. People with this condition are mentally deficient, yet most are proficient musicians; some are "musical savants" possessed of extraordinary talent. The opposite is true of the less than 1 percent of the population who suffer from {{U}}amusia{{/U}}, or tree tone deafness. They literally cannot recognize a melody, let alone tell two of them apart, and they are incapable of repeating a song (although they think they are doing correctly). Even simple, familiar tunes such as Frere Jacques and Happy Birthday are mystifying to musics, but when the lyrics are spoken rather than sung, musics are able to recognize the song immediately. But for instrumentalists, at least, music can evidently trigger physical changes in the brain's wiring. By measuring faint magnetic field emitted by the brains of professional musicians, a team led by Christo Pantev of the University of Muenster's Institute of Experimental Audiology in Germany has shown that intensive practice of an instrument leads to discernible enlargement of parts of the cerebral cortex, the layer of gray matter most closely associated with higher brain function. As for music's emotional impact, there is some indication that music can affect levels of various hormones, including cortisol (involved in arousal and stress), testosterone (aggression and arousal) and oxytocin (nurturing behavior) as well as trigger release of the natural opiates known as endorphins. Using PET canners, Zatorre has shown that the parts of the brain involved in processing emotion seem to light up with activity when a subject hears music. As tantalizing as these nits of research are, they barely begin to address the mysteries of music and the brain, including the deepest question of all: Why do we appreciate music? Did our musical ancestors have an evolutionary edge over their tin-eared fellow? Or is music, as M. I. T. neuroscientist Steven Pinker asserts, just "auditory cheesecake," with no biological value? Given music's central role in most of our lives, it's time that scientists found the answers.

单选题He chose medicine but found, once again, some lack of meaning and so interrupted his studies first to collect ______ up the Amazon River and later to spend time recuperating from illness by a trip to Europe. A. laments B. fragments C. specimens D. commons