单选题{{B}}Passage 3{{/B}} Many critics of the current welfare system argue that existing welfare regulations foster family instability. They maintain that those regulations, which exclude most poor husband and wife families from Aid to Families with Dependent Children assistance grants, contribute to the problem of family dissolution. Thus, they conclude that expanding the set of families eligible for family assistance plans or guaranteed income measures would result in a marked strengthening of the low income family structure. If all poor families could receive welfare, would the incidence of instability change markedly? The unhappily married couple, in most cases, remain together out of a sense of economic responsibility for their children, because of the high costs of separation, or because of the consumption benefits of marriage. The formation, maintenance, and dissolution of the family is in large part a function of the relative balance between the benefits and costs of marriage as seen by the individual members of the marriage. The major benefit generated by the creation of a family is the expansion of the set of consumption possibilities. The benefits from such a partnership depend largely on the relative dissimilarity of the resources or basic endowments each partner brings to the marriage. Persons with similar productive capacities have less economic "cement" holding their marriage together. Since the family performs certain function society regards as vital, a complex network of social and legal buttresses has evolved to reinforce marriage. Much of the variation in marital stability across income classes can be explained by the variation in costs of dissolution imposed by society, e. g. division of property, alimony, child support, and the social stigma attached to divorce. Marital stability is related to the costs of achieving an acceptable agreement on family consumption and production and to the prevailing social price of instability in the marriage partners social economic group. Expected AFDC income exerts pressures on family instability by reducing the cost of dissolution. To the extent that welfare is a form of government subsidized alimony payments, it reduces the institutional costs of separation and guarantees a minimal standard of living for wife and children. So welfare opportunities are a significant determinant of family instability in poor neighborhoods, but this is not the result of AFDC regulations that exclude most intact families from coverage. Rather, welfare instability occurs because public assistance lowers both the benefits of marriage and the costs of its disruption by providing a system of government subsidized alimony payments.

单选题The burglars Uransacked/U the room taking anything of value they found.

单选题The actress lives in a very fashionable ______of town.(2014年厦门大学考博试题)

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} Proponents of creating large private sectors as quickly as possible in transition economies offer both political and economic arguments to support their view. They argue that if democracy is to become a viable political system in the countries undergoing transition, the state's monopoly over the bases of political power must be broken so that the countervailing sources of political influence may emerge [Berger, 1991]. Otherwise, the nomenklatura, managers of stateowned firms and former bureaucrats, may sabotage or block economic reforms, as well as loot, dissipate or transfer to their own possession the assets of the firms they manage. By creating property owners, privatization can create an ascent middle class that has a stake in the creation and maintenance of an effective system of property rights and the pursuit of economic policies that would enable the private sector to flourish. The most compelling economic reason for privatizing state-owned enterprises in the transition economies is that as units of production--as distinct from providers of secure employment--they were a failure. Private ownership is thus seen as the means of unlocking gains in productivity by stimulating productive efficiency, offering greater motivation for both managers and workers, and creating incentives to enter new markets and exit declining ones. Privatization, it is argued, will unleash dynamic small businesses, act as a lure for foreign direct investment and speed up the painful process of restructuring industry, and it would accomplish all this while returning property to its rightful historical owners and raising funds for the government. Despite this enticing list of promises, many countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union remain reluctant to privatize. Some of the opposition is ideological. Some comes from insiders at state-owned enterprises, both workers and managers, who fear the loss of income and power. More broadly, there are fears that privatization will reduce employment as private owners dismiss redundant workers and that the new private sector will be unlikely to provide the social benefits--like housing, health and nursery care, and recreation, sports and vacation facilities--that state-owned enterprises often provided. At the extreme; there are fears that if privatization exacerbates unemployment and causes declines in production, reformist governments will be swept away. Practical difficulties have compounded this resistance to privatization. The valuations of firms is difficult because capital markets barely exist, accounting statements can be almost meaningless, and profits and sales achieved in the communist era are a poor guide to future viability. Households in these countries do not have sufficient savings to purchase many of the largest firms, and, even if they did have the money, they view former state-owned enterprises as dubious investments. With a rudimentary banking system, loans for the purchase of state property are seen as both risky and inflationary. In this muddled situation, suspicions naturally arise that buyers are benefiting from low prices at the expense of the state.

单选题Although the main motivation for a renewed interest in logic was a search for the foundations of mathematics, the chief protagonists of this effort extended their inquiry into the domain of the natural languages.

单选题Honesty no longer seems to be the best policy with telling of lies becoming a common part of our daily lives. A new research by a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts has revealed that most people lie in everyday conversation when they are trying to appear likable and competent. (66)______"People tell a considerable number of lies in everyday conversation. It was a very surprising result. We didn't expect lying to be such a part of daily conversation," said Robert S. Feldman. The study also found that lies told by men and women differ in content, though not in quantity. (67)______ "Women were more likely to lie to make the person they were talking to feel good, while men lied most often to make themselves look better," Feldman noted. As part of the study, a group of 121 pairs of undergraduate students were recruited to participate. (68)______Participants were unaware that the session was being videotaped. At the end of the session, the students were then asked to watch the video of themselves and identify any inaccuracies in what they had said during the conversation. They were encouraged to identify all lies, no matter how big or small. Feldman said the students who participated in the study were surprised at their own results. "When they were watching themselves on videotape, people found themselves lying much more than they thought they had," Feldman said. The lies the students told varied considerably. (69)______Others were more extreme, such as falsely claiming to be the star of a rock band. "It's so easy to lie," Feldman said. "We teach our children to be honest, but we also tell them it's polite to pretend they like a birthday gift they' ve been given. (70)______." A. The results showed that men do not lie more than women or vice versa, but they lie in different ways. B. Kids get a very mixed message regarding the practical aspects of lying, and it has an impact on how they behave as adults. C. Some were relatively minor, such as agreeing with the person that they liked someone when they did not. D. They were told that the purpose of the study was to examine how people interact when they meet someone new. E. Anyway, the knowledge that we are all capable of lying makes it really hard to trust people when they tell you things. F. The study, published in the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, found that 60 percent of people lied at least once during a 10-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies.

单选题The concept of a loyal opposition-the ______ of modern democracy —rarely prevails and, much more frequently, opposition is equated with treason and ruthlessly suppressed.(2004年四川大学考博试题)

单选题Before the general election many senior citizens signed the______against the spreading of nuclear arms. A. contract B. petition C. supplication D. potential

单选题She wanted desperately to turn the flower-painted china ______ on the apple-green door, and go through, but somehow she could not.

单选题An upsurge of new research suggests animals have a much higher level of brainpower than previous thought. Before defining animals" intelligence, scientists defined what is not intelligence. Instinct is not intelligence. It is a skill programmed into an animal"s brain by its genetic heritage. Rote conditioning or cuing, in which animals learn to do or not to do certain things by following outside signals is also not intelligence, since tricks can be learned by repetition, but no real thinking is involved. Scientists believe insight, the ability to use tools, and communications using human language are effective measures. When judging animal intelligence, scientists look for insight, which they define as a flash of sudden understanding. When a young gorilla could not reach fruit from a tree, she noticed crates scattered about the lawn, piled them and then climbed on them to reach her reward. The gorilla"s insight allowed her to solve a new problem without trial and error. The ability to use tools is also an important sign of intelligence. Crows use sticks to pry peanuts out of cracks. The crow exhibits intelligence by showing it has learned what a stick can do. Likewise, otters use rocks to crack open crab and, in a series of complex moves, chimpanzees have been known to use sticks to get at favorite snack-termites. Many animals have learned to communicate using human language. Some primates have learned hundreds of words in sign language. One chimp can recognize and correctly use more than 250 abstract symbols on a keyboard and one parrot can distinguish five objects of two different types and can understand the difference between numbers, colors, and kinds of object. The research on animal intelligence raises important questions. If animals are smarter than once thought, would that change the way humans interact with them? Would humans stop hunting them for sport or survival? Would animals still be used for food or clothing or medical experimentation? Finding the answer to these tough questions makes a difficult puzzle even for a large-brained, problem-solving species like our own.

单选题The men were ______ to cheat the government by bringing jewels in without paying duty.

单选题In addition to being physically sick, my dad was in the midst of a nervous ______, though none of us knew to call it that at the time. A. breakup B. breakdown C. breakthrough D. breakout

单选题Your wish to go for a walk does not ______ your leaving the baby alone in the house.

单选题The writer ______ the newspaper readers against buying shares without getting good advice first.

单选题The new guppies I bought have just a tinge of yellow.

单选题According to the passage, the pro-life and pre-choice positions on abortion are ______.

单选题Difficult as it is, English study is in the long run ______ to a learner in his or her career development.

单选题The child's earliest words deal with concrete objects and actions, it is much later that he is able to grapple with ______.

单选题Martin Luther King, Jr. persuaded his followers to bring the ________ of the American Negroes to the attention of the United Nations, but they did not act very effectively.

单选题There are signs______restaurants are becoming more popular with families. (中南大学2006年试题)