单选题 In the wake of 11 September, Visionics, a leading manufacturer, issued a fact sheet explaining how its technology could enhance airport security. They called it "protecting civilization from the faces of terror". The company's share price skyrocketed, as did the stocks of other face-recognition companies, and airports across the globe began installing the software and running trials. As the results start to come in, however, the gloss (光滑表面) is wearing off. No matter what you might have heard about face-recognition software, Big Brother is not so good as expected. The concern was based largely on an independent assessment of face-recognition systems carried out in 2000 in the U. S. by the Department of Defense. These tests found that to catch 90 percent of suspects at an airport, face-recognition software would have to raise a huge number of false alarms. one in three people would end up being dragged out of the line and that's assuming everyone looks straight at the camera and makes no effort to disguise himself. Results from the recent airport trials would seem to justify that concern. Most face-recognition systems use some kind of geometric technique to translate a picture of a face into a set of numbers that capture its characteristics. once it has identified these boundaries, the software calculates their relative sizes and positions and converts this geometry into what Visionics calls a "faceprint". Feed the software a series of mugshots, and it'll calculate their faceprints. Then it can monitor live CCTV images for the faces of known suspects. When it finds a match, it raises an alarm. Even if the system does manage to capture a face, the problems aren't over. The trouble is that a suspect's faceprint taken from live CCTV is unlikely to match the one in the database in every detail. To give themselves the best chance of picking up suspects, operators can set the software so that it doesn't have to make an exact match before it raises the alarm. But there's a price to pay: the more potential suspects you pick up, the more false alarms you get. You have to get the balance just right. Despite the disappointing tests, some people insist that face-recognition technology is good enough to put terrorists off. After all the claims and counter-claims, with no one able to discern(洞察) the truth, the industry may soon have to face up to reality.

单选题Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion—a world in which human beings could feel no love happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor pleasure, neither anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn. They could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear: People would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist: In a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds among members or groups. Society"s economic underpinnings would be destroyed: since there would be no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them. In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object"s physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us—hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are "good" and others are "bad", and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life—from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society explains our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, pride, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal and penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.

单选题Osteoporosis used to be called "the silent disease" because its victims didn"t know they had it until it was too late and they suffered a bone fracture. Today, doctors can identify osteoporosis early. Improved understanding of the disease has also led to new treatments and strategies for preventing the disease altogether. For post-menopausal women, the most common medical response to osteoporosis is hormone replacement therapy. Boosting estrogen levels strengthens the entire skeleton and reduces the risk of hip fracture. Unfortunately, it sometimes causes uterine bleeding and may increase the risk of breast cancer. To bypass such side effects, researchers have developed several alternative treatments. Synthetic estrogens called Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs) emulate estrogen with slight modifications. Another drug, alendronate, reduces spine, hip and wrist fractures by 50 percent. Researchers have even developed a nasal spray called calcitonin. Each of these alternatives has trade-offs, however. Patients must talk with their doctors to decide which therapy is best for them. The ideal way to address osteoporosis is by adopting a healthy lifestyle. And the best time to do this is in childhood, when most bone mass is accumulated. Because bodies continue building bone until about age thirty, some experts believe that women in their twenties can still increase their bone strength by as much as 20 percent. Calcium, which is available in low-fat dairy foods and dark green vegetables, is essential for preventing osteoporosis. So is vitamin D, which aides calcium absorption. Vitamin D comes from sunlight, but dietary supplements may be helpful in northern climates and among those who don"t get outside. The final component is regular moderate exercise because bone responds to the needs that the body puts on it. These are the simple steps that can help make "the silent disease" truly silent.

单选题It is no use having this $ 500 debt______, we might as well write it off.

单选题Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities—as well as new and significant risks. Civil rights activists have long argued that one of the principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups have difficulty establishing themselves in business is that they lack access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded federal contracts of more than $500,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government. Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority enterprises. Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from $77 million in 1972 to $1.1 billion in 1977. The projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 1980"s is estimated to be over 53 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses, they often need to make substantial investments in new plants, staff, equipment, and the like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small company"s efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer. A second risk is that White-owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionments through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire business that neither could acquire alone. But civil rights groups and minority business owners have complained to Congress about minorities being set up as "fronts a person, group, or thing used to mask the identity or true character or activity of the actual controlling agent" with White backing, rather than being accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures. Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming and remaining dependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer bases: when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success.

单选题We are going on the ______ that the work will be finished tomorrow. A. scheme B. assumption C. orbit D. procedure

单选题In various parts of the world, the Udevout/U participate enthusiastically in public procession during the major events of the liturgical year.

单选题When the engine did not start, the mechanic inspected all the parts to find what was at ______.

单选题All the finished products are stored in a ______ at the delivery port and shipping is available at any time.

单选题Villagers and those newly arrived from Europe, Ufed up with/U terms of employment and tenancy in the rural areas, took advantage of cheap modern transportation to move into the cities.

单选题Of all the components of a good night"s sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control. In dreams, a window opens into a world where logic is suspended and dead people speak. A century ago, Freud formulated this revolutionary theory that dreams were the disguised shadows of our unconscious desires and fears; by the late 1970s, neurologists had switched to thinking of them as just "mental noise"—the random byproducts of the neural-repair work that goes on during sleep. Now researchers suspect that dreams are part of the mind"s emotional thermostat, regulating moods while the brain is "off-line". And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful mental events can be not only harnessed but to help us sleep and feel better. "It"s your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright, chaff of psychology at Chicago"s Medical Center, "If you don"t like it, change it." Evidence from brain imaging supports this view. The brain is as active during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep—when most vivid dreams occur—as it is when fully awake, says Dr. Eric Nofzinger at the University of Pittsburgh. But not all parts of the brain are equally involved; the limbic system (the "emotional brain") is specially active, while the prefrontal cortex (the center of intellect and reasoning) is relatively quiet. "We wake up from dreams happy or depressed, and those feelings can stay with us all day," says Stanford sleep researcher Dr. William Dement. The link between dreams and emotions shows up among the patients in Cartwright"s clinic. Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night, progressing toward happier ones before awakening, suggesting that they are working through negative feelings generated during the day. Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life we don"t always think about the emotional significance of the day"s events—until, it appears, we begin to dream. And this process need not be left to the unconscious. Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control over recurring bad dreams. As soon as you awaken, identify what is upsetting about the dream. Visualize how you would like it to end instead; the next time it occurs, try to wake up just enough to control its course. With much practice people can learn to, literally, do it in their sleep. At the end of the day, there"s probably little reason to pay attention to our dreams at all unless they keep us from sleeping or "we wake up in panic," Cartwright says. Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings of insecurity have increased people"s anxiety. Those suffering from persistent nightmares should seek help from a therapist. For the rest of us, the brain has its ways of working through bad feelings. Sleep—or rather dream—on it and you"ll feel better in the morning.

单选题The word "fallacy" means ______.

单选题The boy's talent might have lain ______ had it not been for his uncle's encouragement. A. extinguished B. dormant C. malignant D. perishable

单选题Surveying the battleground at Gettysburg in 1863, Pres. Abraham Lincoln said: "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." Alas, he may have been right—not only has his short speech been pretty much forgotten, but also has the Civil War that inspired it. More than 100 years after the conflict, a Gallup poll of American college seniors found that 42% couldn't date the war to the correct half-century. In 2001, sampling 12-to 17-year-olds, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation discovered that nearly one in four students didn't even know the Civil War had been fought between the North and the South. Thirteen percent figured that it was the US against Great Britain, while five percent guessed it was East vs. West. In the same poll, over 5,000,000 US teenagers were clueless about the Fourth of July. Fourteen percent thought we had declared our independence from France; three percent, from Native Americans; and one percent, from Canada. So much for 1776! It's not just early history that students get failing grades on. Americans of all ages even draw a blank when it comes to the 20th century. Questioned in 1995, 60% of adults couldn't name the president who ordered the dropping of the first atomic bomb (Harry S. Truman). Even worse, 20% didn't know where—or even if—such a bomb had ever been used. The shocking results of these surveys show Americans are suffering from a disease called "cultural amnesia," the social equivalent of Alzheimer's disease. Unlike Alzheimer's, though, it afflicts the young as well as the old. Debilitating and progressive, the malady is eating away at America's soul, for just as an individual needs memories to maintain a sense of personal identity, so does a nation need them in order to survive. Survival means having a sense of continuity. As Civil War historian Bruce Catton put it, "The American story is above all other things a continued story. It did not start with us and it will not end with us." To sense this continuity, we need to know our history, for the selfrealization of a nation is based on keeping faith with the unfulfilled dreams and sacrifices of the past. It is to this idea that Lincoln referred in the Gettysburg Address when he spoke of the "unfinished work" that must be done if "this nation…shall have a new birth of freedom." Yet, when a national civics test was administered in 1998, 35% of high school seniors failed. As educational researcher Diane Rayitch reported: "Only nine percent of the kids were able to give two reasons why it is important for citizens to be involved in a democratic society." Combined with their historical ignorance, the civic disengagement of America's young leaves their country's future in peril. More so than any other system of government, a democracy relies on the wisdom and judgment of its people. To quote another president, Thomas Jefferson, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

单选题Blues comes from that sense of not being at the centre, "from nothingness, from want, from desire," as W. C. Handy put it. Bessie became the incarnation of that "absence, darkness, dentin" A. discarnating B. materialization C. personification D. representative

单选题Awards provide a(n) ______ for young people to improve their skills. A. incentive B. initiative C. fugitive D. captive

单选题The football game comes to you ______ from New York.

单选题When they had finished playing, the children were made to ______ all the toys they had taken out. [A] put off [B] put up [C] putout [D] put away

单选题In general, the amount that a student spends for housing should be held to one- fifth of the total ______ for living expenses.