单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} Next to Sir Andrew in the clubroom sits Captain Sentry, a gentleman of great courage, good understanding, but invincible modesty. He is one of those that deserve very well, but are very awkward at putting their talents within the observation of such as should take notice of them. He was some years a captain, and behaved himself with great gallantry in several engagements and at several sieges; but having a small estate of his own, and being next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted a way of life in which no man can rise suitably to his merit, who is not something of a courtier as well as a soldier. I have heard him often lament that in a profession where merit is placed in so conspicuous a view, impudence should get the better of modesty. When he had talked to this purpose, I never heard him make a sour expression, but frankly confess that he left the world because he was not fit for it. A strict honesty, and an even regular behavior, are in themselves obstacles to him that must press through crowds, who endeavour at the same end with himself, the favor of a commander. He will, however, in his way of talk excuse generals for not disposing according to men's deserts, or inquiring into it; for, says he, that the great man who has a mind to help me, has as many to, break through to come at me, as I have to come at him: therefore he will conclude that the man who would make a figure, especially in a military way, must get over all false modesty, and assist his patron against the importunity of other pretenders, by a proper assurance in his own vindication. He says it is a civil cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to be slow in attacking when it is your duty. With this candour does the gentleman speak of himself and others. The same frankness runs through all his conversation. The military part of his life has furnished him with many adventures, in the relation of which he is very agreeable to the company; for he is never overbearing, though accustomed to command men in the utmost degree below him; nor ever too obsequious, from a habit of obeying men highly above him.

单选题Adolescents are taking longer to become fully productive members of society, Reed Larson, professor of human development, University of Illinois, Champaign, told the World Future Society, Bethesda, Md. "What we expect of young people is【C1】______," he argued. They must go to school for 12 years or longer without any【C2】______that their education will mean career success or relevance when they become adults. 【C3】______they do so without financial rewards, accept an identity【C4】______by society, and delay starting a family, all of【C5】______keeps adolescents in a kind of indeterminate state for years. Larson says that "There should be way stations along the climb【C6】______adulthood that allow young people to rest, gather themselves, and consider【C7】______. " The success of government, business, and private life in the next 50 years【C8】______it. Education, literacy, and versatile interpersonal skills【C9】______the list of necessary preparations for adulthood. Young people negotiating the complex worlds of home, work, and school【C10】______use these skills in order to do so【C11】______and competently. "The adolescent who is able to【C12】______in only one world is increasingly【C13】______for adult life," he warns. As the time spent on the road to adulthood increases, so【C14】______the danger that more youths will fall by the wayside. New and increased opportunities and initiatives will keep more youngsters focused, 【C15】______a smarter, more-versatile generation able to cope with the emerging global, high-tech world.

单选题Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Cognitive researchers, who study; various aspects of mental life, maintain that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others. The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary rewards sparks creativity in grade-school children, suggesting that properly presented inducements indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "If kids know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity," says Robert Eisenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark, "But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards." A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Eisenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and restore failing grades. In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economies, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.

单选题Millions of people in the United States suffer from ______ back pain that comes from sitting too long at a desk. A. chronic B. casual C. catastrophic D. elastic

单选题At present, China has signed many ______ trade agreements with other countries.

单选题She bought various ______,which later reminded her of the trip to Thailand.(2003年西南财经大学考博试题)

单选题 {{B}}Questions 21—23 are based on a global boycott of KFC. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 21—23.{{/B}}

单选题EGG: CHICKEN

单选题$50 billion might seem a lot of money, but it's a mere ______ in terms of what global capital markets can and do absorb. A. alms B. belongings C. hearsay D. pittance

单选题{{B}}Passage One{{/B}} She's cute, no question. Symmetrical features, flawless skin, looks to be 22 years old—entering any meat-market bar, a woman lucky enough to have this face would turn enough heads to stir a breeze. But when Victor Johnston points and clicks, the face on his computer screen changes into a state of superheated, crystallized beauty. "You can see it. It's just so extraordinary," says Johnston, a professor of biopsychology at New Mexico State University who sounds a little in love with his creation. The transformation from pretty woman to knee-weakening babe is all the more amazing because the changes wrought by Johnston's software are, objectively speaking, quite subtle. He created the original face by digitally averaging 16 randomly selected female Caucasian faces. The changing program then exaggerated the ways in which female faces differ from male faces, creating, in human-beauty-science field, a "hyper-female". The eyes grew a bit larger, the nose narrowed slightly and the lips plumped. These are shifts of just a few millimeters, but experiments in this country and Scotland are suggesting that both males and females find "feminized" versions of averaged faces more beautiful. Johnston hatched this little movie' as part of his ongoing study into why human beings find some people attractive and others homely. He may not have any rock-solid answers yet, but he is far from alone in attempting to apply scientific inquiry to so ambiguous a subject. Around the world, researchers are marching into territory formerly staked out by poets and painters to uncover the under-pinnings of human attractiveness. The research results so far are surprising—and humbling. Numerous studies indicate that human beauty may not be simply in the eye of the beholder or an arbitrary cultural artifact. It may be ancient and universal, wrought through ages of evolution that rewarded reproductive winners and killed off losers. If beauty is not truth, it may be health and fertility: Halle Berry's flawless skin may fascinate moviegoers because, at some deep level, it persuades us that she is parasite-free. Human attractiveness research is a relatively young and certainly contentious field—the allure of hyper-females, for example, is still hotly debated—but those on its front lines agree on one point: We won't conquer "looks-ism" until we understand its source. As psychologist Nancy Etcoff puts it: "The idea that beauty is unimportant or a cultural construct is the real beauty myth. We have to understand beauty, or we will always be enslaved by it."

单选题For eight months he has floated in his private ocean. This morning he awakens, opens his eyes, yawns and kicks vigorously several times. His umbilical cord drifts by his questing fingers. He plays with it briefly, brings his hands up to his mouth and sucks his thumb. Over his mother"s heartbeat and the gurgles of her digestive tract, he can hear her talking with his father. Interested, he stops sucking to listen. Until recent years, we could only speculate on what life was like for an unborn baby. Then, major advances in ultrasound scanning began opening a window to the womb; doctors could view every movement of the baby on a television-like screen. The pictures show unborn babies yawning, sucking, grasping, stretching, blinking and making faces—in short, all the things they will do after birth. Normally an unborn baby never experiences hunger or thirst. But if a mother does not consume sufficient nutrients, the baby"s diet will not be adequate either. When an unborn baby is severely malnourished—for instance, because his mother"s heavy smoking restricts blood flow to the placenta—Dr. Jason Birnholz, an ultrasound expert, believes he has seen the baby"s chest and throat making crying motions. A radio startles him awake. He blinks and grimaces at the new sensation, but then becomes interested in the music. He turns his head to bring his ear closer to the outside world. He notices the pressure of the book his mother is resting on her belly. He kicks at it, and her laugh comes to him as a dull, echoing rumble. She pats the spot he kicked and, entering into the spirit of the game, he kicks back. They play several rounds before he loses interest and falls asleep. Can a mother"s stress, anger, shock or grief harm her baby? No. The normal stresses and strains of life won"t hurt him. As the expert Maurers put it, such periods are the womb equivalent of having a spell of "bad weather". Some are startled when exposed to a series of loud buzzes, but some then turn an ear to listen. Severe continuous stress may be another story. It remains unclear whether problems arise from the stress itself or from the poor nutrition, smoking, drinking or drug taking that likely accompany it. In any case the baby is affected.

单选题According to the passage, the ability to distinguish between "self" and "nonself" enables vertebrates to ______.

单选题We were frightened by the ______ of the crowd.

单选题Most insulation devices of this kind, ______ manufactured for such purposes, are extremely expensive to install.

单选题Farmers often use water buffalo to help them in the ______fields. A. paddle B. paddy C. pagoda D. pagan

单选题But many in the commission are well aware of such needs, and are seeking to address them.

单选题The technology exists to complement and______ the human mind.

单选题Most art enthusiasts agree that Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the most famous painting in the world. It is a portrait of a woman, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine businessman. The name roughly translates from Italian to mean "Madam Lisa" and is a respectful term. Anyone who has ever viewed the painting, seasoned art critic or inexperienced museum visitor, remembers well its greatest feature Mona Lisa's smile. It is this smile that has captured the imagination of the millions of visitors who have seen the painting over the years. There is something powerful and alluring contained in Mona Lisa's smile that intrigues all who see it. The reason for her smile has long been the subject of discussion in the art world. But perhaps it is the fact that no one knows why she smiles that makes Mona Lisa the most famous of all paintings. There is something so appealing and recognizably human about an unexplained smile to which everyone can relate. Furthermore, if we ever tire of analyzing why Mona Lisa smiles, we can consider how da Vinci managed to capture the smile. What could he have been thinking while painting? A genuine smile is hard to capture even in a photograph with a modern camera, yet Leonardo da Vinci managed to capture this subtle expression m a painting. It is amazing that da Vinci was able to create for eternity a frozen picture of a smile that in reality lasts less than an instant. The painting now hangs in the Musee du Louvre in Paris, France. Several different owners have possessed it at various times throughout history, including Louis Ⅹ Ⅳ and Napoleon. It was even temporarily in the possession of a former museum employee who stole it in 1911. He was caught in 1913. It is likely that all who held the painting at one time or another wondered about the Mona Lisa smile, just as today's museum visitors do. Now the painting officially belongs to the French government. In some ways, though, it is really a painting (and a mystery) that belongs to the world.

单选题She ______ maintained that her grandsons were innocent, and nothing could dissuade her from that belief.