单选题 Para. 1 ①Men are tough; women are in touch with their feelings. ②Men are providers; women are nurturers. ③Men should punch back when provoked; women should be physically attractive. Para. 2 ①These stereotypical beliefs about gender differences remain strong, found a new survey from the Pew Research Center on Tuesday. ②Even in an era of transgender rights, a surge of women running for office and a rising number of stay-at-home fathers, most Americans believe men and women are fundamentally different, and that masculinity is more valued than femininity. Para. 3 The workplace is the one area in which a majority of men and women said the sexes were more alike than different in terms of what they were good at: 63 percent of respondents said men and women excelled at the same things at work, while 37 percent said they were good at different things. Para. 4 ①The survey results also shed light on some root causes of sexual harassment and discrimination. ②Nearly half of men, and 57 percent of men ages 18 to 36, said they felt pressure to join in when other men talked about women in a sexual way. Para. 5 ①Sexism was described as widespread, and baked in from a young age. ②The belief that society placed a higher premium on masculinity than femininity was reflected in views of how to raise children: Respondents more often approved of teaching girls that it was acceptable to be like boys than the other way around. Para. 6 ①A large majority of women thought parents should break gender norms when raising either girls or boys, but men's opinions changed depending on the sex of the child. ②Seventy-two percent thought parents should break gender norms for girls, and 56 percent for boys. ③Two-thirds of Republicans thought parents of girls should break gender norms, but less than half thought parents of boys should. Para. 7 In questions about life outside the workplace, most respondents said men and women were different in how they expressed their feelings and in their physical abilities, hobbies and parenting styles, according to the survey, which was nationally representative. Para. 8 ①In terms of gender differences in parenting styles and approaches, 60 percent of women said they were societal, while a similar share of men said they were biological. ②This was the gender difference that the largest share of respondents—just over half—thought was a good thing. Para. 9 Being a woman, according to respondents, meant pressure to be physically attractive and to be an involved parent. Para. 10 ①Being a man meant facing pressure to support a family financially and to be professionally successful, emotionally strong and interested in sports. ②To a lesser extent, it also meant being willing to throw a punch if provoked. ③Nearly haft of men，and more than half of millennial men, said it also meant facing pressure to have many sexual partners and to join in when other men talked about women in sexual ways. Para. 11 Despite the deep-seated beliefs about gender differences, there were some signs in the survey responses that attitudes about gender roles were becoming less rigid, particularly among women and Democrats, who were more likely to say that society should be more accepting of nontraditional gender roles.

单选题 Para. 1 ①Today's trade tensions are compounding a shift that has been under way since the financial crisis in 2008. ②Cross-border investment, trade, bank loans and supply chains have all been shrinking or stagnating relative to world GDP. ③Globalization has given way to a new era of sluggishness. ④Adapting a term coined by a Dutch writer, we call it 'slowbalization'. Para. 2 ①Globalization has slowed from light speed to a snail's pace in the past decade for several reasons. ②The cost of moving goods has stopped falling. ③Multinational firms have found that global sprawl burns money and that local rivals often eat them alive. ④Activity is shifting towards services, which are harder to sell across borders: scissors can be exported in 20ft-containers, hair stylists cannot. Para. 3 ①The new world will work differently. ②Slowbalization will lead to deeper links within regional blocs. ③Supply chains in North America, Europe and Asia are sourcing more from closer to home. ④In Asia and Europe most trade is already intra-regional, and the share has risen. ⑤Last year, Asian firms made more foreign sales within Asia than in America. ⑥As global rules decay, a fluid patchwork of regional deals and spheres of influence is asserting control over trade and investment. Para. 4 ①Fortunately, this need not be a disaster for living standards. ②Continental-sized markets are large enough to prosper. ③Some 1.2bn people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, and there is no reason to think that the proportion of paupers will rise again. ④Western consumers will continue to reap large net benefits from trade. ⑤In some cases, deeper integration will take place at a regional level than could have happened at a global one. Para. 5 ①Yet slowbalization has two big disadvantages. ②First, it creates new difficulties. ③In the past ten years most emerging countries were able to close some of the gap with developed ones. ④Now more will struggle to trade their way to riches. ⑤And there is a tension between a more regional trading pattern and a global financial system in which Wall Street and the Federal Reserve set the pulse for markets everywhere. ⑥Most countries' interest rates will still be affected by America's even as their trade patterns become less linked to it, leading to financial turbulence. ⑦The Fed is less likely to rescue foreigners by acting as a global lender of last resort, as it did a decade ago. Para. 6 ①Second, slowbalization will not fix the problems that globalization created. ②Automation means there will be no renaissance of blue-collar jobs in the West. ③Firms will hire unskilled workers in the cheapest places in each region. ④Climate change, migration and tax-dodging will be even harder to solve without global co-operation. Para. 7 ①Globalization made the world a better place for almost everyone. ②But too little was done to mitigate its costs. ③The integrated world's neglected problems have now grown in the eyes of the public to the point where the benefits of the global order are easily forgotten. ④Yet the solution on offer is not really a fix at all. ⑤Slowbalization will be meaner and less stable than its predecessor. ⑥In the end it will only feed the discontent.

单选题第一段①过去一年，我国发展面临国内外诸多矛盾叠加、风险隐患交汇的严峻挑战。②全国各族人民迎难而上，砥砺前行，推动经济社会持续健康发展。③各地区、各部门不断增强政治意识、大局意识、核心意识、看齐意识，推动全面建成小康社会取得新的重要进展，全面深化改革迈出重大步伐，全面依法治国深入实施，全面从严治党纵深推进，全年经济社会发展主要目标任务圆满完成。第二段④经济运行缓中趋稳、稳中向好。⑤国内生产总值达到74.4万亿元，增长6.7%，名列世界前茅，对全球经济增长的贡献率超过30%。⑥居民消费价格上涨2%。⑦工业企业利润由上年下降2.3%转为增长8.5%，单位国内生产总值能耗下降5%，经济发展的质量和效益明显提高。第三段⑧就业增长超出预期。⑨全年城镇新增就业1,314万人。⑩高校毕业生就业创业人数再创新高。年末城镇登记失业率4.02%，为多年来最低。13亿多人口的发展中大国，就业比较充分，十分不易。

单选题 第一段 ①中国宝武钢铁集团有限公司(简称中国宝武)由原宝钢集团有限公司和武汉钢铁(集团)公司联合重组而成，于2016年12月1日揭牌成立。②中国宝武注册资本527.9亿元，资产规模7,395亿元，产能规模7,000万吨，位居中国第一、全球第二，是国有资本投资公司试点企业。③2017年，中国宝武取得了中国钢铁行业最佳经营业绩，实现营业总收入4,004.8亿元，利润总额142.7亿元，位列《财富》世界500强第162位。 第二段 ④中国宝武以成为“全球钢铁业引领者和世界级企业集团”为愿景，以“驱动钢铁生态圈绿色智慧转型发展，促进企业各利益相关方共同成长”为使命，以“诚信、协同、创新、共享”为核心价值观，致力于通过改革和发展，构建在钢铁生产、绿色发展、智能制造、服务转型、效益优异等五方面的引领优势，打造以绿色精品智慧的钢铁产业为基础，新材料、现代贸易物流、工业服务、城市服务、产业金融等相关产业协同发展的格局。⑤最终形成若干个千亿级营收、百亿级利润的支柱产业和一批百亿级营收、十亿级利润的优秀企业。

单选题 第一段 ①一个时代有一个时代的问题，一代人有一代人的使命。②在新时代，中国人民将继续与世界同行、为人类作出更大贡献，坚定不移走和平发展道路，积极发展全球伙伴关系，坚定支持多边主义，积极参与推动全球治理体系变革，构建新型国际关系，推动构建人类命运共同体。 第二段 ③今年，我们将推出几项有标志意义的举措。④在服务业特别是金融业方面，去年年底宣布的放宽银行、证券、保险行业外资股比限制的重大措施要确保落地，同时要加快保险行业开放进程，放宽外资金融机构设立限制，扩大外资金融机构在华业务范围，拓宽中外金融市场合作领域。⑤在制造业方面，目前已基本开放，保留限制的主要是汽车、船舶、飞机等少数行业，现在这些行业已经具备开放基础，下一步要尽快放宽外资股比限制特别是汽车行业外资限制。

单选题 第一段 ①当今世界，以互联网为代表的信息技术日新月异，引领了社会生产新变革，创造了人类生活新空间，拓展了国家治理新领域，极大提高了人类认识世界、改造世界的能力。 第二段 ②作为人类社会的共同财富，互联网让世界变成了“地球村”。③各国在网络空间互联互通，利益交融，休戚与共。④维护网络空间和平与安全，促进开放与合作，共同构建网络空间命运共同体，符合国际社会的共同利益，也是国际社会的共同责任。 第三段 ⑤《网络空间国际合作战略》全面宣示中国在网络空间相关国际问题上的政策立场，系统阐释中国开展网络领域对外工作的基本原则、战略目标和行动要点，旨在指导中国今后一个时期参与网络空间国际交流与合作，推动国际社会携手努力，加强对话合作，共同构建和平、安全、开放、合作、有序的网络空间，建立多边、民主、透明的全球互联网治理体系。

单选题 第一段 ①当前，中国经济和世界经济高度关联。②中国将一以贯之地坚持对外开放的基本国策，构建全方位开放新格局，深度融入世界经济体系。③推进“一带一路”建设既是中国扩大和深化对外开放的需要，也是加强和亚欧非及世界各国互利合作的需要，中国愿意在力所能及的范围内承担更多责任义务，为人类和平发展作出更大的贡献。 第二段 ④“一带一路”是促进共同发展、实现共同繁荣的合作共赢之路，是增进理解信任、加强全方位交流的和平友谊之路。⑤中国政府倡议，秉持和平合作、开放包容、互学互鉴、互利共赢的理念，全方位推进务实合作，打造政治互信、经济融合、文化包容的利益共同体、命运共同体和责任共同体。 第三段 ⑥“一带一路”建设是沿线各国开放合作的宏大经济愿景，需各国携手努力，朝着互利互惠、共同安全的目标相向而行。

单选题 Para. 1 ①During the summer before the presidential election, John Seymour and Philip Tully, two researchers with ZeroFOX, a security company in Baltimore, unveiled a new kind of Twitter bot. ②By analyzing patterns of activity on the social network, the bot learned to fool users into clicking on links in tweets that led to potentially hazardous sites. Para. 2 ①The bot, called SNAP_R, was an automated 'phishing' system, capable of homing in on the whims of specific individuals and coaxing them toward that moment when they would inadvertently download spyware onto their machines. ②'Archaeologists believe they've found the tomb of Alexander the Great is in the U.S. for the first time,' the bot tweeted at one unsuspecting user. Para. 3 Even with the odd grammatical misstep, SNAP_R succeeded in eliciting a click as often as 66 percent of the time, on par with human hackers who craft phishing messages by hand. Para. 4 ①The bot was unarmed, merely a proof of concept. ②But in the wake of the election and the wave of concern over political hacking, fake news and the dark side of social networking, it illustrated why the landscape of fakery will only darken further. Para. 5 The two researchers built what is called a neural network, a complex mathematical system that can learn tasks by analyzing vast amounts of data. Para. 6 ①A neural network can learn to recognize a dog by gleaning patterns from thousands of dog photos. ②It can learn to identify spoken words by sifting through old tech-support calls. Para. 7 And, as the two researchers showed, a neural network can learn to write phishing messages by inspecting tweets, Reddit posts, and previous online hacks. Para. 8 ①Today, the same mathematical technique is infusing machines with a wide range of humanlike powers, from speech recognition to language translation. ②In many cases, this new breed of artificial intelligence is also an ideal means of deceiving large numbers of people over the internet. ③Mass manipulation is about to get a whole lot easier. Para. 9 ①'It would be very surprising if things don't go this way,' said Shahar Avin, a researcher at the University of Cambridge. ②'All the trends point in that direction.' Para. 10 ①Many technology observers have expressed concerns at the rise of A.I. that generates Deepfakes—fake images that look like the real thing. ②What began as a way of putting anyone's head onto the shoulders of a porn star has evolved into a tool for seamlessly putting any image or audio into any video. Para. 11 ①The threat will only expand as researchers develop systems that can metabolize and learn from increasingly large collections of data. ②Neural networks can generate believable sounds as well as images. ③This is what enables digital assistants such as Apple Siri to sound more human than they did in years past. Para. 12 ①Ideally, artificial intelligence could also provide ways of identifying and stopping this kind of mass manipulation. ②Mark Zuckerberg likes to talk about the possibilities. ③But for the foreseeable future, we face a machine-learning arms race.

单选题 Para. 1 Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber, a comic-book writer died on November 12th, 2018, aged 95. Para. 2 ①Perhaps he wasn't born with superhero powers, like the X-Men—or the god Thor, for that matter. ②Perhaps he didn't acquire them from a radioactive-spider bite (Spider-Man) or from studying the mystic arts (Doctor Strange). ③All the same, Stan Lee certainly had them! ④In his autobiography, graphic of course, they dazzled like sun-rays round his head. ⑤Waves of energy shook from his shoulders. ⑥For he was the man who had thought up those characters. ⑦He had brought Marvel Comics back from the dead, and with it the whole industry of comics, so that far from being something cheap and childish, which your parents didn't want you to read, they became grown-up too! ⑧And wildly popular! ⑨And took over Hollywood, and with it the whole of American pop culture, earning revenues in the billions and billions of dollars! Para. 3 ①So you would never have suspected anything of Stanley Leiber as he was growing up poor in Manhattan, with his father out of work, living on hot dogs and wandering the streets alone in summer while his friends were away at the camps his parents couldn't afford. ②But he could feel that inner strength stirring! ③It came from words. ④He read and read and read. ⑤Adventure tales, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Zola, Dickens, Shakespeare. ⑥He loved the sound of words, the music of vowels and consonants jostling each other. ⑦Inside him, he really believed, lay the Great American Novel! Para. 4 ①Yet he stumbled into comic-book writing instead, at Timely Comics, Marvel as it became. ②And wallowed in embarrassment! ③People scorned him for his silly trade. ④On the literary totem pole in New York Stanley Lieber was the lowest of the low. ⑤Yet they did not know—even he did not know!—that as soon as he had signed himself 'Start Lee' on his first bit of text-filler in 1941, hiding himself as he thought, he was putting on his superhero clothes! ⑥Once the bright beams of his new ideas had dazzled his boss at Marvel, nothing stopped him! ⑦Pulse-pounding characters flowed from him all the time. ⑧He could write five books a week. ⑨Sales of Marvel's titles rose from 18.7m in 1961 to 32m in 1965 until DC Comics, and Superman and Barman, were stunned and reeling! ⑩Stan Lee's legions of fans and true believers were exhorted to march onwards, shouting his watchword 'Excelsior! ' Para. 5 ①Commercial worries often held back his ideas. ②He was careless with money, and Marvel gave him no royalties. ③Even so, he spent too much of his last years in lawsuits over percentages from TV and films. ④He wasn't poor, of course! ⑤Just wanted his powers to be recognized. Para. 6 ①No wonder he loved to take cameo parts in the hugely grossing films that featured his creations! ②While they fought to the death in the vicinity he played a FedEx delivery man, or a security guard, or a man watering his lawn, or a passenger reading 'The Doors of Perception' on a city bus. ③He was the most ordinary person you could imagine! ④And yet, through his ideas, superheroically immortal.

单选题 第一段 ①珠海格力集团有限公司自1985年3月创立以来，已成长为珠海市规模最大、实力最强的国有龙头企业，主体资信评级达AAA级。②奠定了“一个核心，四大支柱”的战略性产业布局，涵盖制造业、金融投资、建设投资、建筑安装、海岛旅游多个领域。 第二段 ③凭借对市场的精准洞察和未来趋势的准确把握，三十多年间，格力集团完成了一家国际化企业的成长蜕变。④旗下核心制造企业——格力电器是享誉全国的著名品牌，家用空调产销量连续13年领跑全球，产品远销160多个国家和地区，2006年荣获“世界名牌”称号，并连续16年位居中国家电行业纳税第一。 第三段 ⑤立足本土，放眼国际，格力集团将积极发挥业务多元优势，依靠引领时代的技术实力和感性，一如既往地将创造未来的事业推进下去，全面提高格力在国际市场的传播力和竞争力，成为不负大众喜爱和信赖的全球化企业。

单选题第一段①爱丽舍宫位于巴黎香榭丽舍大街的东端，面积1.1万平方米，地处热闹的市中心，背倚一个2万多平方米的恬静大花园。②它的主楼是一座两层高的欧洲古典式石建筑，典雅庄重，两翼为对望的两座两层高的石建筑，中间是一个宽敞的矩形庭院。③宫内共有369间大小不等的厅室。第二段④爱丽舍宫兴建于1718年，迄今已有300年的历史。⑤此处原为一位伯爵(名叫戴弗罗)的私人住宅，所以当时称为戴弗罗公馆。⑥后来历经沧桑，几易其主，但长期都为达官贵人所享用。⑦路易十五和路易十六都先后入住过，并将此处改名为波旁大厦。⑧1815年拿破仑一世滑铁卢战役大败之后曾在此签降书逊位。⑨拿破仑三世于1848年当选总统后也曾迁至此处，他称帝后此处即成为皇家殿堂。⑩法兰西第三共和国于1873年颁布法令，正式指定爱丽舍宫为法国总统府。此后的百余年，历届法兰西共和国的总统几乎都在此工作和生活。从1989年开始，在每年9月份的法国古堡节，爱丽舍宫向公众开放。

单选题 Para. 1 When the world looks at the United States, it sees a land of exceptions: a time-tested if noisy democracy, a crusader in foreign policy, an exporter of beloved music and film. Para. 2 ①But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America's fans and critics alike. ②Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings? Para. 3 ①Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. ②Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. ③Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad. Para. 4 ①These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. ②Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion. Para. 5 The only variable that can explain the high rate of mass shootings in America is its astronomical number of guns. Para. 6 The top-line numbers suggest a correlation that, on further investigation, grows only clearer. Para. 7 ①Americans make up about 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the world's guns. ②In the past decade, 31 percent of the gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American, according to a study by Adam Lankford, a professor at the University of Alabama. Para. 8 ①Worldwide, Lankford found, a country's rate of gun ownership correlated with the odds it would experience a mass shooting. ②This relationship held even when he excluded the United States. Para. 9 The United States also has some of the world's weakest controls over who may buy a gun and what sorts of guns may be owned. Para. 10 ①Switzerland has the second-highest gun ownership rate of any developed country, about half that of the United States. ②Its gun homicide rate last year was 7.7 per million people—unusually high, in keeping with the relationship between gun ownership and murders, but still a fraction of the rate in the United States. Para. 11 The United States is one of only three countries, along with Mexico and Guatemala, that begin with the opposite assumption: that people have an inherent right to own guns. Para. 12 The main reason U.S. regulation of gun ownership is so weak may be the fact that the trade-offs are simply given a different weight in the United States than they are anywhere else. Para. 13 ①After Britain had a mass shooting in 1987, the country instituted strict gun control laws. ②So did Australia after a 1996 incident. ③But the United States has repeatedly faced the same calculus and determined that relatively unregulated gun ownership is worth the cost to society. Para. 14 That choice, more than any statistic or regulation, is what most sets the United States apart. Para. 15 ①'In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate,' Dan Hodges, a British journalist, wrote in a post on Twitter two years ago, referring to the attack that killed 20 young students at an elementary school in Connecticut. ②'Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.'

单选题 第一段 ①我们处在这样一个时代：世界多极化深入发展，新兴市场国家和发展中国家群体崛起，全球化、信息化持续推进，新一轮科技革命风起云涌，人类追求更大发展繁荣的机遇前所未有。 第二段 ②我们看到这样一个世界：国际格局和力量对比发生深刻变化，传统和非传统威胁突出，全球增长动能不足，逆全球化思潮泛起，人类实现持久和平和永续发展的挑战也前所未有。 第三段 ③我们又一次站到了十字路口，和平还是战争，开放还是封闭，团结还是分裂，我们必须作出正确抉择。④中国始终是致力于和平的力量。⑤我们为半岛核问题的和平解决做出了不懈努力。⑥不管形势如何演变，不管需要多长时间，不管遇到什么困难，中国，都将坚守半岛无核化的目标，坚持对话谈判的方向，坚定维护地区的和平稳定。

单选题 Para. 1 'I'm the first person who'll put it to you,' Bob Dylan said in a 1978 interview, 'and the last person who'll explain it to you.' Para. 2 The Swedish Academy, which awarded Mr. Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, has put it to us, and it has no explaining to do to most readers and listeners, however much they might have been pulling for Philip Roth or Don DeLillo or Margaret Atwood. Para. 3 ①Mr. Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minn., in 1941, was inspired when young by potent American vernacular music, songs by performers like Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson. ②When his voice became fully his own, in his work of the mid-to-late 1960s that led up to what is probably his greatest song, 'Like a Rolling Stone,' no one had ever heard pop songs with so many oracular, tumbling words in them. Para. 4 ①Before this Nobel Prize, Mr. Dylan has been recognized by the world of literature and poetry. ②In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a special citation 'for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.' Para. 5 ①His songs have always packed social and political power to match the imagery. ②In his book 'The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood,' Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke of what Mr. Dylan's songs meant to his father as well as to a generation: ③'Dylan's voice was awful, an aged quaver that sounded nothing like the deep-throated or silky RB that Dad took as gospel. ④But the lyrics wore him down, until he played Dylan in that addicted manner of college kids who cordon off portions to decipher the prophecies of their favorite band. ⑤Dad heard poetry, but more than that an angle that confirmed what a latent part of him had already suspected.' ⑥What was confirmed was this: The Vietnam War was a moral disgrace. Para. 6 ①Songs are not poems, exactly. ②Songs prick our senses in different manner. ③Many of Mr. Dylan's lyrics can no doubt, as English poet Philip Larkin put, look half-baked when set starkly alone on a white page. Para. 7 ①But Mr. Dylan's work—'with its iambics, its clackety-clack rhymes, and its scattergun images,' as the critic Robert Christgau wrote—has its own kind of emblematic verbal genius. ②His diction, focus and tone are those of a caustically gifted word man; his metrical dexterity is everywhere apparent. ③He is capable of rhetorical organization; more often he scatters his rhetoric like seed, or like curses. Para. 8 In an interview in The New York Times, the venerated critic and scholar Christopher Ricks summed up our sense of the best of Mr. Dylan's oeuvre: 'I just think we're terrifically lucky to be alive at a time when he is.'

单选题 第一段 ①颐和园主景区由万寿山、昆明湖组成，全园占地2.9平方千米，水面约占四分之三。②园内现存各式宫殿、园林古建7万平方米，并以珍贵的文物藏品闻名于世，是第一批全国重点文物保护单位。 第二段 ③颐和园前身为清漪园，始建于清朝乾隆十五年(1750)，咸丰十年(1860)被英法联军烧毁。④光绪十二年(1886)，清廷挪用海军经费等款项开始重建，并于两年后取用今名，作为慈禧太后的颐养之所。⑤一九〇〇年又遭八国联军破坏，一九〇二年修复。⑥中华人民共和国成立后，几经修缮，颐和园陆续复建了四大部洲、苏州街、景明楼、澹宁堂、文昌院、耕织图等重要景区。 第三段 ⑦颐和园集传统造园艺术之大成，借景周围的山水环境，既有皇家园林恢弘富丽的气势，又充满了自然之趣，高度体现了中国园林“虽由人作，宛自天开”的造园准则。⑧一九九八年十二月，颐和园被联合国教科文组织列入《世界遗产名录》。

单选题 Para. 1 For the first time in nearly a century, Miss America contestants will not strut onstage in swimsuits this year, the organizers announced on Tuesday, as the pageant tries to redefine its role in an era of female empowerment and gender equality. Para. 2 ①Miss America and swimsuits have been synonymous since its first contest in 1921 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. ②But what started as contestants wearing one-piece bathing suits, conservative by today's standards, became women in revealing bikinis and high heels parading around for a leering television audience. Para. 3 Now under mostly female leadership, the Miss America Organization said Tuesday that it was scrapping the swimsuit competition, starting at the national contest in September, in a sweeping change that will also reshape local and state contests. Para. 4 ①'I've talked to tons of young people who've said to me, 'I'd love to be a part of that program, but I don't want to parade around in a swimsuit,'' Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization's chairwoman, said in an interview. ②'I get it.' Para. 5 ①The organization, confronting its own harassment scandal and searching for its place in the #MeToo era, had worked on the new format for several months. ②The nine members of the board of directors—seven are now women—unanimously approved the change in March. Para. 6 Carlson, who assumed a prominent voice for women's rights in the workplace after filing a harassment lawsuit against the former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, said the competition would focus more on the contestants' talents, intelligence and ideas. Para. 7 ①'We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,' Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, said on ABC's 'Good Morning America' on Tuesday. ②'We are moving it forward and evolving it in this cultural revolution.' Para. 8 ①The changes will be immediate for Miss America, but will take longer to arrive at local and state events, Carlson confirmed. ②Since state contests are underway, they will not adopt the new format until after the national competition in September. Para. 9 ①Not everyone in the pageant world, however, agreed that the swimsuit portion was entirely about judging fitness. ②'I don't know if that's completely honest or accurate,' said Leah Summers, the executive director of the Miss West Virginia Scholarship Organization, who won that state's title in 1991. Para. 10 ①And, she noted, the news would no doubt bring contestants a measure of relief. ②'There's something to be said about not having to think about walking across a stage in a bikini,' she said. Para. 11 Beth Knox, executive director of the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Pageant, said that she was thrilled at the development: A woman's goals and aspirations were far more important than how she looked in a swimsuit. Para. 12 'If people really listen with an open mind to the reason this change is being implemented, I just do not see how anyone could not support this improvement,' Knox wrote in an email.

单选题 Para. 1 In an attempt to leapfrog the planets and vault into the interstellar age, a bevy of scientists and other luminaries from Silicon Valley and beyond, led by Yuri Milner, a Russian philanthropist and Internet entrepreneur, announced a plan on Tuesday to send a fleet of robot spacecraft no bigger than iPhones to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system, 4.37 light-years away. Para. 2 ①If it all worked out—a cosmically big 'if' that would occur decades and perhaps $10 billion from now—a rocket would deliver a 'mother ship' carrying a thousand or so small probes to space. ②Once in orbit, the probes would unfold thin sails and then, propelled by powerful laser beams from Earth, set off one by one like a flock of migrating butterflies across the universe. Para. 3 ①Within two minutes, the probes would be more than 600,000 miles from home—as far as the lasers could maintain a tight beam—and moving at a fifth of the speed of light. ②But it would still take 20 years for them to get to Alpha Centauri. ③Those that survived would zip past the star system, making measurements and beaming pictures back to Earth. Para. 4 ①Much of this plan is probably half a lifetime away. ②Mr. Milner and his colleagues estimate that it could take 20 years to get the mission off the ground and into the heavens, 20 years to get to Alpha Centauri and another four years for the word from outer space to come home. ③And there is still the matter of attracting billions of dollars to pay for it. Para. 5 ①'We came to the conclusion it can be done: interstellar travel,' Mr. Milner said. ②He announced the project, called Breakthrough Starshot, in a news conference in New York on Tuesday. Para. 6 The English cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking is one of three members of the board of directors for the mission, along with Mr. Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder. Para. 7 The project will be directed by Pete Worden, a former director of NASA's Ames Research Center. Para. 8 'There are about 20 key challenges we are asking the world's scientific experts to help us with—and we are willing to financially support their work,' Dr. Worden said in an email. Para. 9 ①Estimating that the project could cost $5 billion to $10 billion, Mr. Miiner is initially investing $100 million for research and development. ②He said he was hoping to lure other investors, especially from international sources. ③Both NASA and the European Space Agency have been briefed on the project, Dr. Worden said. Para. 10 ①In a sense, the start of this space project reflects the make-it-or-break-it mode of Silicon Valley. ②Rather than send one big, expensive spacecraft on a journey of years, send thousands of cheap ones. ③If some break or collide with space junk, others can take their place.

单选题 Para. 1 ①in the 1970s, the British comedian Tommy Cooper used to tell a joke about asking an auction house to value a violin and a painting that he had discovered in an attic. ②The good news, he was told, is that they were made by Stradivarius and Rembrandt. ③The bad news was that the painting was by Stradivarius and the violin was by Rembrandt. ④He then proceeded to ram the violin through the canvas. Para. 2 ①In those days, of course, Rembrandt was the gold standard. ②But the Dutchman and his fellow old masters have fallen out of fashion and are no longer as coveted by collectors and investors. Para. 3 ①As a measure of that fall, 10 works have sold at auction for more than $100 million in recent years, and all of them were made by modem or contemporary artists in the past 120 years. ②Older paintings have seen their value, in relative terms, level off or decline. ③The trend was plain to see in recent weeks, as London's auction houses tried to find buyers for their latest tranche of old masters. ④As has been the case in recent years, there were few works by major names. Para. 4 ①Christie's biannual evening sale on Dec. 8 raised just 6.5 million pounds with fees, about $9.7 million, against a low estimate of ￡12.7 million. ②Nineteen of the 45 works, or 42 percent, failed to sell. Para. 5 Anyone can have a bad day at the office, but this disappointing performance at Christie's followed an old masters sale in July that took in ￡19 million against a low estimate of ￡31.5 million. Para. 6 ①Little wonder, then, that Christie's, the dominant player in the auction market for modem and contemporary art, is re-marketing its old master paintings as 'classic art.' ②It will be offering old masters and other historical pieces next year at its Rockefeller Center sales in April, rather than January. ③The week will feature a themed sale that includes 20th-century works. ④And its 'classic art' format will debut in London in July, Christie's said on Friday. Para. 7 ①At its own auction the following evening, Sotheby's achieved a far more respectable total of ￡22.6 million with fees, although it was just above the low estimate of ￡21.8 million based on hammer prices. ②Of the 44 lots offered, 15 did not sell, or 34 percent. Para. 8 As a point of comparison, the combined ￡29.1 million total from those old master sales was 34 percent less than the ￡44.2 million Christie's and Sotheby's took in at equivalent events five years ago. Para. 9 ①People are still looking at old masters for pleasure, if not as lucrative investments. ②But there remains a mass of old master paintings in dealers' stocks—and in collectors' minds—whose asking prices still hark back to the age of Tommy Cooper. ③Unfortunately, in today's market, and at those prices, many of these paintings will be as sellable as that Stradivarius canvas with the hole in it.

单选题 Para. 1 ①The most remarkable aspect of the walkout at Google last week may not have been that an estimated 20,000 people participated or that it had global reach, or even that it came together in less than a week ②It was the way the organizers identified their action with a broader worker struggle, using language almost unheard-of among affluent tech employees. Para. 2 'This is part of a growing movement,' the organizers wrote in a news release, 'not just in tech, but across the country, including teachers, fast-food workers and others who are using their strength in numbers to make real change.' Para. 3 At the beginning of their protest near the company's San Francisco offices, the organizers even expressed support for Marriott workers on strike in the city. Para. 4 ①For decades, Silicon Valley has been ground zero for a vaguely utopian form of individualism—the idea that a single engineer with a laptop and an internet connection could change the world, or at least a long-established industry. ②Class-consciousness was passé. ③Unions were the enemy of innovation, an anchor to the status quo. Para. 5 ①But the issues that contributed to the walkout at Google—the company's controversial work with the Pentagon on artificial intelligence, and its handling of sexual harassment accusations against senior managers—proved too large for any worker to confront alone, even if that worker made mid-six figures. ②They required a form of solidarity that would be recognizable to the most militant 20th century labor organizers. Para. 6 ①'The myth of Silicon Valley is that all the power you need is embodied in you as an individual—if you want more money, go somewhere else,' said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley. ②'What they were saying here was that all the economic power they had as individuals wasn't enough.' Para. 7 And the consequences of that dawning realization, Shaiken and other labor experts said, could reverberate across the entire tech sector. Para. 8 Organizers say they're confident that the protests will only escalate if the chief executive, Sundar Pichai, and his team don't put forth a plan to act on some of their demands, among them a worker representative on the board of Google's parent company, and an end to employment contracts that prevent class-action lawsuits and require individual arbitration for discrimination and harassment cases. Para. 9 ①'Employees have raised constructive ideas for how we can improve our policies and our processes going forward,' Pichai said in a statement. ②'We are taking in all their feedback so we can turn these ideas into action.' Para. 10 Labor experts said any changes precipitated by the walkout could spread through Silicon Valley. Para. 11 'These companies are competing for employees,' said Matthew Bodie, a law professor at St. Louis University who is a former lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board. Para. 12 'If employees at Facebook are looking at this and saying 'Wow, that was impressive,'' Bodie said, then Facebook may have to follow suit.

单选题Para.1①WhatdoliterarytouristslookforwhentheyvisittheBritishIsles?②Oftenit'sthequaint,old-fashionedbookshopsthatprovidetheperfectexcusetobrowseuninterruptedandtodisconnectfromtheworld.③Untilrecently,thetrendforbarista-madecoffeeandhigh-speedWi-Fiwasconsideredbysomeinthecity'sbookishcrowdtoberuiningLondon'scenturies-oldtraditionofdisconnectedbrowsing.Para.2①Butacropofbookshopsisrebellingagainstfrenziedonlineengagementandiscreatingenvironmentswherethereal-life,internet-freebookbrowseisthemosteffectivewaytoexpandyoursocialandprofessionalnetworks.②AndincounteringtheInternetoverload,somestoresareprovingtobeamongLondon'shottesthangouts.Para.3①LeadingtherebelsisLibreriaBooksinLondon'sEastEnd,whichisaWi-Fi-andcoffee-freezone.②ItwasopenedinFebruarybyRohanSilva,aformerpolicyadvisertotheformerprimeministerDavidCameron,andco-founderofSecondHome,amembers'clubprovidingaworkspaceforentrepreneurs.Para.4①LibreriaisinthecompanyofTenderbooks,BuchhandlungWaltherLutyensRubinstein,andWordontheWater,allindependentbookshopsshunninghigh-speedcablesandlattes.②Theirmantrahasdrawnasophisticated,brainycrowd,butitspremiseissimple:Inthedigitalage,thebookshopshouldbearefuge,aninformationoverloadinitsownright.Para.5①'Ifsomeonegetsaphonecall,theyleavetheshop.②It'sthesamewiththeInternet—peoplejustknowthisisn'tthespaceforbeingonline,'saidTamsinClark,ownerofTenderbooks,whichopenedIn2014inCoventGarden,alivelyneighborhoodpackedwiththeatersandrare-bookshops.③'Thethingaboutbooksisthatthey'remoreinterestingthantheInternet—weassumethateveryonewhocomesherebelievesthat.'Para.6①Creativedowntimemeansembracingslowoverfastandrejectingyearsofbookshopcoolthat'sembodiedbyovereagerbaristasandagoofyWi-Fi-codescrawledonachalkboard.②TheInternet-freebookshopcampaignsforthedaysofhaughtyglancesoverthetopsofreadingglasses,gentleruttingatnoise,andhoursspentsimplyconsideringthewordsonthepage.Para.7①Thedistraction-freelibraryethosisactuallyacitytradition,fromtheprivatetranquillibrariesofstatelyhomessuchasNorthLondon's17th-centuryestateKenwoodHouseInHampsteadHeathtotheBritishLibrary'sReadingRoominKing'sCross—aplacewheretheetiquettepolicystronglydiscouragesthepresenceofmobilephonesentirelywithtactfullyplacedsigns.②It'sinthistraditionthatthesebookshopsoperate.Para.8①Mr.SilvaofLibreriaBookssaid'anold-fashionedspace'isclearlyappealingtobooklovers.②Hesaidhisshophashadtwiceasmanycustomersasanticipated,withvisitorsfromasfarafieldasAustraliaandChina.③Confrontedwithabookshelfcuratedbythepopularnewmayororsurroundedbyfirsteditions,whowantstodownloadamorningfullofemails?