单选题Some works of literature hold one's interest to the very last page, but others serve only as a ______, to be kept handily at a bedside table.

单选题In a divorce, the mother usually is granted ______ of her children.

单选题The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City ______ shock and anger not only throughout America but also throughout the whole world.

单选题When he realized the police had spotted him, the man______the exit as quickly as possible. A. made for B. made out C. made up to D. made way

单选题This program will take kids who have a Umanifest/U history of violent acts.

单选题The conditions can be well imagined when one small settlement is expected to ______ 10,000 families.

单选题One theory is that too much vitamin E______bleeding risk, which would______the risk of a type of Stroke, while another theory suggests that at high doses vitamin E stops working like an antioxidant, removing harmful molecules in the body, and instead becomes a pro-oxidant, actually promoting the production of harmful molecules,

单选题Even the best medical treatment can not cure all the diseases that ______ men and women.

单选题It is the year 2050, and April blizzards have gripped southern England for the third successive year while violent storms batter the North Sea coast. The Gulf Stream, whose warming waters once heated our shores, has long since disappeared, destroyed by a deluge pouring south from the melting Arctic icecap. In the United States, much of Alaska has turned into a quagmire as permafrost and glaciers disintegrate. In Colorado, chair lift pylons stand rusting in the warm drizzle, reminders that the nation once supported a billion-dollar ski industry, while the remnants of Florida are declared America"s second island state. Africa is faring badly. Its coastline from Cairo to Lagos is completely folded and many of the major cities have been abandoned. Tens of millions of people have been forced to flee and are struggling to survive in a parched, waterless interior. In Asia there is a similar, terrifying picture. Bangladesh is almost totally inundated and the East Indies have been reduced to a few scrappy drippy islands. Tens of millions stand on the brink of death. It is a startling scenario worthy of a science fiction disaster film. And it would be easy to dismiss, were it not for the uncomfortable fact that these visions are the result of rigorous scientific analysis by some of the world"s most distinguished climatologists. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points out in its recent Climate Change 2001 report, global warming is likely to trigger a cascade of unpleasant effects: elderly people will suffer and die in smoggy, polluted cities; crops will fail; and wildlife and livestock will perish on a scorched and miserable planet. That report was the combined work of several thousands of the world"s leading meteorological experts and scientists whose views George Bush has now dismissed as "questionable" and whose work in creating the Kyoto 10 protocol has been utterly undone. The US decision to pull out of the international accord on climate change has caused predictable international alarm. Kyoto merely pledged developed countries to restrict their industrial output. "It was an excellent first step towards reversing climate change," according to Southampton University"s professor Nigel Arnell. Kyoto was, in effect, a statement of intent. The industrial nations, which had, after all, initiated the problem of global warming, would show their commitment by making the first crucial, self-sacrificing moves. Then the Third World could be drawn in, and the first decreases in carbon-dioxide emissions agreed over the next few years. "Bush has now made the attainment of these next crucial steps much more difficult," says Arnell. In fact, most experts believe he has made them impossible. If the West won"t act, why should the rest of the world?

单选题His writing depicts this changing world and the increasing cultural {{U}}diversity{{/U}} of the United States.

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单选题 Passage Four In November 1970 Yukio Mishima, together with some of his fanatical followers from the ultranationalistic Shield Society which he had founded in 1966, broke into the headquarters of Japan's Eastern Defense Forces armed with swords and daggers, overpowered some aides, tied up the commanding general, and demanded that the troops be assembled to hear a speech. Mishima addressed the troops for ten minutes, inciting them to rebel against the constitutional government imposed by the United States that had, in his words, "turned Japan spineless." Receiving only ridicule in response, he returned to the general's office and there, before the general's unbelieving eyes, proceeded to kill himself in strict accordance with the traditional samurai ritual of seppuku. After Mishima had driven a dagger deep into his left abdomen, one of his aides severed his head with a sword. The aide likewise killed himself and was beheaded; the others surrendered. In 1936 there had been a similar revolt and, though equally unsuccessful, it had foreshadowed the repressive regime of General Tojo that was to stage the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. That earlier revolt is the one referred to in "Patriotism," one of Mishima's most powerful stories. Here life and fiction become joined. The act of seppuku was for Mishima a fulfillment, "the ultimate dream of my life." Born of an ancient samurai family, he longed to die a hero's death in accordance with the ancient samurai code; but his weak body kept him from service in the war, and he had to compensate through body building (he became expert at karate and kendo) and, most important, through the discipline of writing. In his short lifetime he turned out twenty novels, thirty plays, many essays, and more than eighty smiles: he also produced, directed, and acted in movies, and even sang on stage. His first book of stories, A Forest in Flower, appeared in 1943, but it was Confession of a Mask (1948), dealing with the meditations of a young man of homosexual leanings in a repressive society, that brought him fame. Mishima has been called "Japan's Hemingway," while others have compared him to "aesthetic" writers like Walter Peter and Oscar Wilde.

单选题Do you forget to turn off the lights and heaters when you go out of a room? In 2040 it 1 not matter. They will turn themselves off and on again when you 2 . You will choose the temperatures for each room, the lighting and the humidity. A sensor 3 the presence of a human (and, with luck, ignore the dog!) and turn the systems on, and when the humans 4 it will turn them off again. The sensors will work through the central home computer and they will do 5 more than just turn the fires and lights on and 6 for you. They will detect 7 electrical appliances, plugs or switches, isolate them 8 they cannot harm anyone, and then 9 you that they need repair. They will detect fire and if you are out of the 10 , the computer will call the fire brigade. It will also 11 the police 12 the sensors detect 13 intruder. This will not be too difficult 14 the locks on the outside doors will be electronic. You will open them using your personal card—the one you use for shopping—maybe using a 15 known only to you. It will be 16 to lose the keys, and a housebreaker will have to 17 with the lock or with a window. It is not very difficult to make such tampering and 18 a signal to the computer. The computer will be more than a fireman-policeman-servant. It will be an 19 , and most of your entertainment will come right into your home. It does now, of course, but by 2040 "entertainment" will mean much more. For one thing, you will be able to take part 20 , rather than just watching.

单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society's present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer's epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies. Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose. Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because ours is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth-a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness-in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.

单选题The price of vegetables ______ according to the weather. A. formulates B. flourishes C. fluctuates D. frames

单选题It is also important to have something that can clean water and kill______so water from other sources can be made safe to drink.

单选题In the world of big business, James Linton is precocious in the extreme. Just two years into the job of reviving one of the most illustrious names in retail finance, RoCom, he has found himself a key player in one of the richest and certainly most audacious deals in the industry PTL's takeover of RoCom. PTL is paying ￡25 a share for RoCom—approximately 40 per cent more than the market value of the shares—and its offer document boasted that "PTL attaches great importance to key employees having appropriate performance related remuneration". Initially wary about the takeover, Linton has now negotiated a hands-off agreement with PTL, which confirms its intention to leave him very much to his own devices to continue building the business. All this and he will not turn 38 for another fortnight! Although Linton is credited with turning RoCom around, this is more a matter of work in progress than actual achievement. Yet he does seem to have instituted the biggest top-level shake-up in its near 70-year history, promoted some big-hitters amongst key staff and transformed RoCom's way of doing business. Linton has, however, warned that the takeover is by no means a guarantee of future success; indeed, deteriorating market conditions suggest that the way forward will be anything but smooth. Linton recently ventured the hypothesis that being shareholder owned had, in recent years, helped the business focus and argued that the sector's experience of rival takeovers was not encouraging. Indeed, the recently reported performance of rival organizations such as Marten Limited has not promoted the notion that big corporations are happy homes for experienced staff and managers such as Linton. It may have been his ideas about independence that made Linton address RoCom's 900 staff on the day the takeover was announced, rather than doing high-profile media interviews on what was immediately seen as a fantastic deal for share-holders. He is acutely aware of the need to nurture his staff if the business is to succeed, something which is not lost on them. This is not a management-school dictum. It is a genuine belief that every member of staff has contributed to the firm and enabled it to net ￡1.9 billion from PTL. Other CEOs say he is arrogant, but this probably reflects the fact that Linton may find talking to them difficult. He is also ferociously intelligent, and, while in others this could appear intimidating, in Linton it awakes further admiration amongst loyal employees. They clearly do not feel they have to grovel in front of this mastermind, and claim that although he's incredibly dedicated to his work, he has an affable manner. Linton boasts that staff turnover rates at RoCom have remained low for the industry, at about 12 percent since he took over as CEO two years ago. "People have a real affection for RoCom, and that runs right through the office here. They all want us to be number one" he says. He is aware of the possibility that the collegiate ethos he has worked so hard to create, the meritocracy on which he thinks much of RoCom's success depends, could be destroyed if PTL is too heavy-handed. He will need all his skills to keep RoCom on course, particularly when attention has immediately focused on the possibility that Susan Marshall, its respected investment chief, might be the first casualty of the takeover. Whatever the future holds for RoCom, we are certain to go on hearing a lot more of James Linton.