单选题Dublin will no longer ______its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland, as it had promised to do on Sunday.

单选题I didn't stop at John's house because he had visitors, and I didn't want to {{U}}butt in{{/U}}.

单选题 In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of only three players in the National Basketball Association (NBA)listed at over seven feet. If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames. The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today's people-especially those born to families who have lived in the U. S. for many generations-apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. And they aren't likely to get any taller. "In the general population today, at this genetic, environmental level, we've pretty much gone as far as we can go," says anthropologist William Cameron Chum-lea of Wright State University. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the world. Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demands calories and nutrients-notably, protein--to feed expanding tissues. At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average height--5 '9" for men, 5'4" for women--hasn't really changed since 1960. Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. "There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the individual organism," says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University. Genetic maximums can change, but don't expect this to happen soon. Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, "you could use today's data and feel fairly confident."

单选题 Small, pink and very ugly. Hardly the qualities of a star, but they describe the deformed mouse that was the media darling at a recent science exhibition in Beijing. With a complex tissue structure in the shape of a human ear grafted on to its back, the rosy rodent was a stunning symbol of the serious strides China is making in the field of biotechnology. China is fast applying the latest life-science techniques learned from the West to aggressively pursue genome research. It's establishing its own centers of technical excellence to build a scientific base to compete directly with the United States and Europe. With a plentiful supply of smart young scientists at home and lots of interest abroad biotechnology is on the brink of a boom in China. And in the view of foreign scientists, Beijing is playing a clever hand, maximizing the opportunities open to them. For the moment, the cooperation exists mostly with Europe and the U. S.. But Asia's other biotech leaders, Japan, Singapore and Korea, also are recognizing China's potential as an attractive low-cost base to conduct research. These partnerships and China's advancement in the field of biotechnology—could help benefit the rest of Asia: China's rapid progress in improving crop yields will address food-security concerns in the region. In addition, China is more likely to focus on developing cheap technology that its predominantly poor population—and those of other Asian countries—can afford. There remain, however, serious barriers to the development of a strong biotech industry. Among them are a poor domestic legal framework, weak enforcement of intellectual-property rights and loose adherence to international standards. China is a signatory of the International Bio Safely Protocol, which should mean adherence to global standards governing the conduct of field trials. But some observers are skeptical. "The regulations look good, but I haven't met one scientist who believes they are being fully adhered to",says a European science analyst. If shortcuts are taken, then some of the recent scientific achievements trumpeted in the official press may never make it to market. But no matter how strict lab test are, other problems lie in wait. For example, there is a number of tasks it would take years to fulfill in the patents office, says one lawyer, leaving innovators with little protection if they take a product to market in China.

单选题Now many manufacturers build their business reputations by enclosing ______ in the new products in case of damage in shipment or by incorrect operation.

单选题 If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human management is not traditionally seen as a central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill Acquisition is considered as individual responsibility. Labor is simply another force of production to be hired/rented at the lowest possible cost, which is a must as one buys raw material or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate pecking order. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive officer. By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central-usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact, they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional or managerial employees. And the limited investments that made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany(as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at the speed with which new equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in theend the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.

单选题The figures show evidence that murders in the nation's capital are beginning to ______ .

单选题{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} As if they didn't have their hands full with Iraq and terrorism, U. S. intelligence agencies are being drawn into the debate over whether the United States is imminently threatened by a deadly outbreak of bird influenza and whether the Bush administration has adequately prepared for such an epidemic. Over the last two weeks, the administration has held bird flu briefings classified "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information" for members of both houses of Congress. A counterterrorism official indicated that the intelligence community is also studying whether it would be possible for terrorists to somehow exploit the avian flu virus and use it against the United States, though there is no evidence that terrorists have in any way tried to do so. The World Health Organization is warning that if a pandemic (a disease for which there is no certain treatment and to which humans have no natural immunity.) outbreak occurs, "at least 30 million people worldwide could require hospitalization, and at least 2 million people could die." The alarming figures like these in recent weeks caught the attention of President George W. Bush and other White House aides. An intelligence official said, "The briefings did contain classified information. The reason the information is classified is because some of it was acquired through clan-destine means." A leading public-health expert, Dr. Irwin Redlener, said, "This is old-fashioned cold war secrecy being applied to a public-health issue-a very bad idea." Redlener has criticized President Bush and other administration officials for hinting recently that in the event of a pandemic bird flu outbreak, the federal government might rely heavily on the military to establish quarantine zones and restrict public movement to limit the possible spread of disease. Despite HSN1 (a bird flu strain) is reported mortality rate of 50 percent or more, Dr. Redlener says that by the time such a virus did arrive in the United States, its strength might be significantly degraded. But he notes that in the case of the 1918 Spanish flu, the eventual mortality rate of the virus turned out to be around 2 percent, yet millions still died. What is vexing the Bush administration and other public-health professionals is the fact that the United States is not particularly well prepared in the event a bird flu pandemic does strike in the near future. HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) Secretary Mike Leavitt is currently on a trip to several countries in Asia to get a firsthand look at measures some countries are taking to contain the spread of known bird flu cases. The best defense against a deadly flu pandemic would be stopping it where it starts.

单选题 3 Industrial production managers coordinate the resources and activities required to pro duce millions of goods every year in the United States. Although their duties vary from plant to plant, industrial production managers share many of the same major responsibili ties. These responsibilities include production scheduling, staffing, procurement and ma intenance of equipment, quality control, inventory controI, and the coordination of pro duction activities with those of other departments. The primary mission of industrial production managers is planning the production schedule within budgetary limitations and time constraints. They do this by analyzing the plant's personnel and capital resources to select the best way of meeting the production quota. Industrial production managers determine, often using mathematical formulas, which machines will be used, whether new machines need to be purchased, whether over time or extra shifts are necessary, and what the sequence of production will be. They mo nitor the production run to make sure that it stays on schedule and correct any problems that may arise. Industrial production managers also must monitor product standards. When quality drops below the established standard, they must determine why standards are not being maintained and how to improve the product. If the problem relates to the quality of work performed in the plant, the manager may implement better training programs, reorganize the manufacturing process, or institute employee suggestion or involvement programs. If the cause is substandard materials, the manager works with the purchasing department to improve the quality of the product's components. Because the work of many departments is interrelated, managers work closely with heads of other departments such as sales, procurement, and logistics to plan and imple ment company goals, policies, and procedures. For example, the production manager works with the procurement department to ensure that plant inventories are maintained at their optimal level. This is vital to a firm's operation because maintaining the inventory of materials necessary for production ties up the firm's financial resources, yet insufficient quantities cause delays in production. A breakdown in communications between the produc tion manager and the purchasing department can cause slowdown and a failure to meet pro duction schedules. Just-in-time production techniques have reduced inventory levels, mak ing constant communication among the manager, suppliers, and purchasing departments even more important. Computers play an integral part in this coordination. They also are used to provide up-to-date information on inventory, the status of work in progress, and quality standards. Production managers usually report to the plant manager or the vice president for manufacturing, and may act as liaison between executives and first-line supervisors. In many plants, one production manager is responsible for all aspects of production. In large plants with several operations, there are managers in charge of each operation, such as machining, assembly, or finishing.

单选题How have Margherita's family reacted to her success?

单选题His colleagues were envious ______ his promotion.

单选题It happened in a flash, although ______ everything seemed to occur in slow motion, as though I were watching from another planet. A. in return B. in practice C. in reality D. in retrospect

单选题There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal combustion engine(内燃机)has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons(活塞)being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the computer's impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy(读写能力); it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art. Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different from saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making. Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more "user-friendly". Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase "learning to use a computer" mean? It sounds like "learning to drive a car", that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer. In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like "learning to play a game", but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such thing as teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.

单选题______ that they may eventually reduce the amount of labour needed on construction sites by 90 percent.

单选题The integration of staff for training has led to a good exchange of ideas, greater enthusiasm, and higher staff ______.

单选题Woody arrived at a most ______ moment; I was just getting into the bath.

单选题 Thanks to the protection of the tombs, so secure against the ravages of time if not against the hand of man, we possess a more complete sampling of Etruscan art in all its forms than we do of any other ancient European culture. Except for the frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Etruscan frescoes supply the only insight we have into the techniques of painting in classical civilization. It is in southern Etruria, where the tombs were cut in the rock, that these frescoes are preserved. They are intact at least until the tomb is opened, whereupon deterioration begins. Fortunately it is now possible to remove the paintings from the walls and take them to the safety of the museum. The Etruscan painter used pleasantly simple mineral colors that be laid on a fresh layer of plaster applied to the rock wall. With large, uninterrupted surfaces to work on, he was prompted to make complex pictorial compositions. But his purpose is always clear. Enclosed forever in the tomb, his pictures were to evoke for the deceased the joys of life. The dead man's occupation, which he intended to resume in the afterlife, is often depicted. Scenes of banquets and feasts are frequent. These guaranteed eternal satisfaction and pleasure to the departed; in the happy phrase of tile Belgian scholar Franz Cumont, "the ghost of a diner could be nourished by the appearance of food." The frescoes also perpetuated the pleasant hours of sports, games and dances. When Etruria came on difficult times, the funerary frescoes took on a more somber tone: the features of the departed, which were formerly peaceful, were expressions of anxiety and even of anguish. Etruscan sculptors preferred to work in clay or bronze rather than in stone. They were particularly fond of the bas-relief, in which they produced delightfully animated figures framed in elegant arabesques. Their forte, however, was the portrait. The art of portraiture had deep funerary significance: it furnished a faithful image of the deceased to aid his survival in the other life. Frequently, in the seventh century B. C. , the portrait of the deceased formed the lid of the crematory urn. Portraiture reached its peak in the last centuries of Etruscan civilization, when the characteristic Etruscan flair for detail, for the unusual, found its fullest expression.

单选题The average population density of the world is 47 persons per square mile. Continental densities range from no permanent inhabitants in Antarctica to 211 per square mile in Europe. In the western hemisphere, population densities range from about 4 per square mile in Canada to 675 per square mile in Puerto Rico. In Europe the range is from 4 per square mile in Iceland to 831 per square mile in the Netherlands. within countries there are wide variations of population densities. For example, in Egypt, the average is 55 persons per square mile, but 1,300 persons inhabit each square mile in settled portions where the land is arable. High population densities generally occur in regions of developed industrialization, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain, or where lands are intensively used for agriculture, as in Puerto Rico and Java. Low average population densities are characteristic of most underdeveloped countries. Low density of population is generally associated with a relatively low percentage of cultivated land. This generally results from poor-quality lands. It may also be due to natural obstacles to cultivation, such as deserts, mountains or malaria-infested jungles, to land uses other than cultivation, as pasture and forested land, to primitive methods that limit cultivation, to social obstacles, and to land ownership systems which keep land out of production. More economically advanced countries of low population density have, as a rule, large proportions of their populations living in urban areas. Their rural population densities are usually very low. Poorer developed countries of correspondingly low general population density, on the other hand, often have a concentration of rural population living on arable land, which is as great as the rural concentration found in the most densely populated industrial countries.