单选题Nobody yet knows how long and how seriously the shakiness in the financial system will ______ down the economy. A. put B. settle C. drag D. knock

单选题Mass production is ______ only in an economy with a highly developed technology. A. feasible B. permissible C. allowable D. receivable

单选题A few years ago, in their search for ways to sell more goods, advertising men hit on a new and controversial gimmick. It is a silent, invisible commercial that, the ad men claim, can be rushed past the consumer's conscious mind and planted in his subconscious- and without the consumer's knowledge. Developed by James Vicary, a research man who studies what makes people buy, this technique relies on the psychological principle of subliminal perception. Scientists tell us that many of the sights coming to or eyes are not consciously "seen". We select only a few for conscious "seeing" and ignore the rest. Actually the discarded impressions are recorded in the brain though they are below the threshold of consciousness. There's little doubt in Vicary's mind as to the subliminal ad's effectiveness. His proof can be summed up in just two words: sales increase. In an unidentified movie house not so long ago, unknown audiences saw a curious film program. At the same time, on the same screen on which the film hero was courting the heroine a subliminal projector was flashing its invisible commercials. "Get popcorn", ordered the commercial for a reported one three-thousandths of a second every five seconds. It announced "Coca-Cola" at the same speed and frequency to other audiences. At the end of a six weeks trial, popcorn sales had gone up 57 percent, Coke sales 18 percent. Experimental Films. Inc, says the technique is not new. It began research on subliminal perception in 1954. Experimental Films stresses that its equipment was designed for helping problematic students and treating the mentally ill. At NYU two doctors showed twenty women the projected image of an expressionless face. They told the subjects to watch the face for some change of expression. Then they flashed the word angry on the screen at subliminal speeds. Now the women thought the face looked unpleasant. When the word happy was flashed on the screen instead, the subjects thought the woman's facial expression looked much more pleasant. Subliminal techniques, its promoters believe, are good for more than selling popcorn. Perhaps the process can even be used to sell political candidates, by leaving a favorable impression of the candidate in the minds of the electorates subliminally. How convincing are these invisible commercials? Skeptical psychologists answer that they aren't anywhere near as effective as the ad men would like to think they are. Nothing has been proven yet scientifically, says a prominent research man.

单选题Latin America, with its many diverse musical cultures, is a case in point.

单选题{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}} It's navel gazing time again, that stretch of the year when many of us turn our attention inward and think about how we can improve the way we live our lives. But as we embark on this annual ritual of introspection, we would do well to ask ourselves a simple question: Does it really do any good? The poet Theodore Roethke had some insight into the matter: "Self-contemplation is a curse that makes an old confusion worse." As a psychologist, I think Roethke had a point, one that's supported by a growing body of controlled psychological studies. In a study I conducted with Dolores Kraft, a clinical psychologist, and Dana Dunn, a social psychologist, people in one group were asked to list the reasons their relationship with a romantic partner was going the way it was, and then rate how satisfied they were with the relationship. People in another group were asked to rate their satisfaction without any analysis; they just gave their gut reactions. It might seem that the people who thought about the specifics would be best at figuring out how they really felt, and that their satisfaction ratings would thus do the best job of predicting the outcome of their relationships. In fact, we found the reverse. It was the people in the "gut feeling" group whose ratings predicted whether they were still dating their partner several months later. As for the navel gazers, their satisfaction ratings did not predict the outcome of their relationships at all. Rather, too much analysis can confuse people about how they really feel. Self-reflection is especially problematic when we are feeling down. Research by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, a clinical psychologist at Yale University, shows that when people are depressed, ruminating on their problems makes things worse. For years it was believed that emergency workers like police officers and firefighters should undergo a debriefing process to focus on and relive their experiences; the idea was that this would make them feel better and prevent mental health problems down the road. But did it do any good? In an extensive review of the research, a team led by Richard McNally, a clinical psychologist at Harvard, concluded that debriefing procedures have little benefit and might even hurt by interrupting the normal healing process. People often distract themselves from thinking about painful events right after they occur, and this may be better than mentally reliving the events.

单选题Ever since Geoffrey sent a sizeable cheque to a well-known charity he's been ______ with requests for money from all sides. A. devastated B. smashed C. bombarded D. cracked

单选题That a different component part of the vaccine is necessary is principally due to the variable change of ______.

单选题During our stay m Paris we were splendidly ______ by the Italian Ambassador.

单选题There are strict laws about exporting______ animals.

单选题Some linguists believe that the ______ age for children learning a foreign language is 5 to 8. A. optimistic B. optional C. optimal D. oppressed

单选题Producing elastin through chemical synthesis is a tedious process consuming ______ three months. A. the better half of B. for the better of C. all the better for D. the better part of

单选题Jack would rather his younger sister ______ in the same hospital as he does.

单选题Travelling like this is really an adventure. Very often, you're doing something strange where you don't know what's going to ______ around the next bend. A. turn off B. turn on C. turn away D. turn up

单选题A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people. Day after day my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability. Accountability isn"t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences. Of the many values that hold civilization together-honesty, kindness, and so on—accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law—and ultimately, no society. My job as a police officer is to impose accountability on people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people"s behaviour are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment. Fortunately there still communities—smaller towns, usually—where schools maintaining discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: "In this family certain things are not tolerated—they simply are not done!" Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restrains are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him. The main cause of this breakdown is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it"s the criminal who is considered victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn"t teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didn"t provide a stable home. I don"t believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless excuses, where no one accepts responsibility for anything. We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.

单选题They have occupied our land, stolen our freedom and violated everything we held ______ .

单选题The trouble is that various worldly pressures will make you more, not less, inclined to play it ______.

单选题Despite her nerves, she walked towards her groom with no regrets about choosing such a ______ time to get married.