单选题Please do not be ______ by his manners since he is merely trying to attract attention.

单选题{{B}}Passage One{{/B}} Thousands of years ago man used handy rocks for his surgical operations. Later he used sharp bone or horn, metal knives and more recently, rubber and plastic. And that was where we stuck, in surgical instrument terms, for many years. In the 1960s a new tool was developed, one which was, first of all, to be of great practical use to the armed forces and industry, but which was also, in time, to revolutionize the art and science of surgery. The tool is the laser and it is being used by more and more surgeons all over the world, for a very large number of different complaints. The word laser means: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Light. As we all know, light is hot; any source of light ——from the sun itself down to a humble match burning ——will give warmth. But light is usually spread out over a wide area. The light in a laser beam, however, is concentrated. This means that a light with no more power than that produced by an ordinary electric light bulb becomes intensely strong as it is concentrated to a pinpoint-sized beam. Experiments with these pinpoint beams showed researchers that different energy sources produce beams that have a particular effect on certain living cells. It is now possible for eye surgeons to operate on the back of the human eye without harming the front of the eye, simply by passing a laser beam right through the eyeball. No knives, no stitches (刀口缝合), no unwanted damage ——a true surgical wonder. Operations which once left patients exhausted and in need of long periods of recovery time now leave them feeling relaxed and comfortable. So much more difficult operations can now be tried. The rapid development of laser techniques in the past ten years has made it clear that the future is likely to be very exciting. Perhaps some cancers will be treated with laser in a way that makes surgery not only safer but more effective. Altogether, tomorrow may see more and more information coming to light on the diseases which can be treated medically.

单选题The italicized word "telesurgery" (Par. 1, sentence 2) can be best explained as ______.

单选题King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted "kings don't abdicate, they dare in their sleep. " But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyle? The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarized, as it was following the end of the Franco regime, mon-archs can rise above "mere" politics and "embody" a spirit of national unity. It is this apparent transcendence of politics that explains monarchs' continuing popularity polarized. And also, the Middle East excepted, Europe is the most monarch-infested region in the world, with 10 kingdoms(not counting Vatican City and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure. Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history—and sometimes the way they behave today—embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomas Piketty and other economists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states. The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Princes and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses(or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media intru-siveness makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image. While Europe's monarchies will no doubt be smart enough to survive for some time to come, it is the British royals who have most to fear from the Spanish example. It is only the Queen who has preserved the monarchy's reputation with her rather ordinary(if well-heeled)granny style. The danger will come with Charles, who has both an expensive taste of lifestyle and a pretty hierarchical view of the world. He has failed to understand that monarchies have largely survived because they provide a service—as non-controversial and non-political heads of state. Charles ought to know that as English history shows, it is kings, not republicans, who are the monarchy's worst enemies.

单选题Sorry, I can't repay you this week. I'm completely______.

单选题There was so much ______ material in the essay that it was difficult to get the author's message.

单选题The automobile salesman gave us some______on the latest models.

单选题The town was ______ after fifty years. A. exclusive B. subsequent C. invariable D. resolute

单选题Nor has Washington yet______to Mexican demands for a treaty specifying extradition for U. S. officials who disregard the new stricture.

单选题She complained that the treatment she received in the hospital had completely ______ her of her dignity.

单选题More often than not, it is difficult to ______ the exact meaning of a Chinese idiom in English. A. exchange B. transfer C. convey D. convert

单选题The author quotes Coleridge in order to______.

单选题It is impossible to ______ whether she'll be well enough to come home from the hospital next month. A. foresee B. infer C. fabricate D. inhibit

单选题The Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park in Texas were created by volcanic eruption that occurred______.

单选题Reforming the Social Security retirement program is an issue of enormous practical importance. Yet it remains the missing piece in American policy analysis. At a time when the Congress and the Administration are considering ways to reform welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and the income tax, elected officials are still unwilling to confront the serious problems of our Social Security system. Eventually, however, its deteriorating financial condition will force major reforms. Whether those reforms are good or bad, whether they deal with the basic economic problems of the system or merely protect the solvency of existing institutional arrangements will depend in part on whether we, as economists, provide the appropriate intellectual framework for analyzing reform alternatives. Major policy changes that affect the public at large can only happen in our democracy when there is widespread public support for the new direction of policy. In the field of economics, the views of the media, of other private-sector opinion leaders, and of politicians and their advisers, depend very much on their perception of what economists believe feasible and correct. Fundamental policy reforms in a complex area like social security also require the development of technical expertise, both in and out of government, about the options for change and their likely consequences. Fortunately, an expanding group of economists is now thinking and writing about social security reform. My remarks today greatly benefit from what they have written and from my conversations with many of them. I began to do my research on the effects of Social Security reform nearly 25 year ago [Feldstein, 1974, 1975]. A central concept in my analysis of Social Security has been the notion of "Social Security wealth," which I defined as the present actuarial value of the Social Security benefits to which the current adult population will be entitled at age 65 [or are already entitled to if they are older than 65] minus the present actuarial value of the Social Security taxes that they will pay before reaching that age. Social Security wealth has now grown to about ＄11 trillion or more than 1.5 times GDP. Since this is equivalent to more than ＄50000 for every adult in the country, the value of Social Security wealth substantially exceeds all other assets for the vast majority of American households. In the aggregate, Social Security wealth exceeds three-fourths of all private financial wealth, as conventionally measured. Social Security wealth is of course not real wealth but only a claim on current and future taxpayers. Instead of labeling this key magnitude "Social Security wealth," I could have called it the nation's "Social Security liability." Like ordinary government debt, Social Security wealth has the power to crowd out private capital accumulation; and Social Security wealth will continue to grow as long as our current system remains unchanged, displacing an ever larger stock of capital. The ＄11 trillion Social Security liability is three times as large as the official national debt. Although I certainly welcome the current political efforts to shrink future budget deficits, it is worth noting that, even if the traditional deficit is eliminated in the year 2002, so that the national debt is then no longer increasing, the national debt in the form of the Social Security liability is likely to increase that year by about ＄ 300 billion. Looking further into the future, the aggregate Social Security liability will grow as the population expands, as it become relatively older, and as income rises. Government actuaries predict that, under existing law, the tax rate required to pay each year's Social Security benefit will rise over the next 50 years from the present level of slightly less than 12 percent to more than 18 percent, and perhaps to as much as 23 percent.

单选题They issued a______to the effect that the covenant(违反契约的诉讼)would not have any place in the treaty.

单选题Mothers tend to be too______towards their children. They should let them see more of the world.

单选题By comparison, the author considers that ______.

单选题3 Almost since the beginning of mankind, governments have been recording the num bers of their populace. The first known census report took place in 3800 B. C. in Babylonia for the purpose of deciding who should pay taxes. As time went by, governments found other, more creative uses for knowing their numbers. Egyptian King Ramses II used the census not only to determine who should pay taxes, but also to figure out how to divide land for farming and to decide who could provide manpower for various government pro jects. These new ideas came about in the mid-1200s-B. C. William the Conqueror brought the concept of census taking to England in 1085. All landowners were required to name their holdings for the purpose of taxation. By the fif teenth century, Tudor kings found a new twist to the Egyptians' use of the census. They too used the population count as a means of getting ready manpower for important govern ment projects, namely, replenishing troops in the ongoing battles in western Europe. A rebellious tide swept over England, however, in the mid-1700s. A bill to authorize a regular census was defeated in Parliament on the grounds that it would give valuable in formation to England's enemies. But the tide of rebellion soon turned, and in 1800 England established its first regular census. Meanwhile the United States had already had an ongoing census for ten years. It was authorized in the Constitution for the purpose of deciding how many members of Congress would be needed for a fair representation of the American people. The constitutional article also established that the census would be taken in 1790 and every ten years thereafter. And so it has. Since its beginning, the American census has gone through many changes. Today the census provides more than a count of the people who live here. It takes polls on transporta tion, economic planning, and agriculture. The census also provides data for most govern ment agency statistics, such as the unemployment rate. Counting costs have risen since 1790. The government spent about a penny per person to count post-Revolutionary Americans. Today the census costs ﹩ 250 million—more than a dollar per person. That's a long way since 3800 B. C.

单选题Education in Russia and the other new countries faces especially daunting obstacles because the struggling economies of these nations often provide insufficient funds for education.