单选题(略){{B}}Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension{{/B}} Few people would defend the Victorian attitude to children, but if you were a parent in those days, at least you knew where you stood: children were to be seen and not heard. Freud and company did away with all that and parents have been bewildered ever since. The child's happiness is all-important, the psychologists say, but what about the parents' happiness? Parents suffer continually from fear and guilt while their children gaily romp about pulling the place apart. A good "old-fashioned" spanking is out of the question: no modern child-rearing manual would permit such barbarity. The trouble is you are not allowed even to shout. Who knows what deep psychological wounds you might inflict? The poor child may never recover from the dreadful traumatic experience. So it is that parents bend over backwards to avoid giving their children complexes which a hundred years ago hadn't even been heard of. Certainly a child needs love, and a lot of it. But the excessive permissiveness of modern parents is surely doing more harm than good. Psychologists have succeeded in undermining parents' confidence in their own authority. And it hasn't taken children long to get wind of the fact. In addition to the great modern classics on childcare, there are countless articles in magazines and newspapers. With so much unsolicited advice flying about, mum and dad just don't know what to do any more. In the end, they do nothing at all. So, from early childhood, the kids are in charge and parents' lives are regulated according to the needs of heir offspring. When the little dears develop into teenagers, they take complete control. Lax authority over the years makes adolescent rebellion against parents all the more violent. If the young people are going to have a party, for instance, parents are asked to leave the house. Their presence merely spoils the fun. What else can the poor parents do but obey'? Children are hardy creatures (far hardier than the psychologists would have us believe) and most of them survive the harmful influence of extreme permissiveness which is the normal condition in the modern household. But a great many do not. The spread of juvenile delinquency in our own age is largely due to parental laxity. Mother, believing that little Johnny can look after himself, is not at home when he returns from school, so little Johnny roams the streets. The dividing-line between permissiveness and sheer negligence is very fine 'indeed. The psychologists have much to answer for. They should keep their mouths shut and let parents get on with the job. And if children are knocked about a little bit in the process, it may not really matter too much. At least this will help them to develop vigorous views of their own and give them something positive to react against. Perhaps there's some truth in the idea that children who have had a surfeit of happiness in their childhood appear like stodgy puddings and fail to make a success of life.

单选题He was present in his ______ role of school manager, church warden and donor.

单选题There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external result or product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a promotion, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language--all these are examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts. By contrast, the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since by definition it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way. The process is not the road itself, but rather the attitudes and feelings people have, their caution or courage, as they encounter new experiences and unexpected obstacles. In this process, the journey never really ends. There are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept. In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to confront the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may "fail" at first. How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is essential to our ability to grow. Do we perceive ourselves as quick and curious? If so, then we tend to take more chances and to be more open to unfamiliar experiences. Do we think we're shy and indecisive? Then our sense of timidity can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and not to take a step until we know the ground is safe. Do we think we're slow to adapt to change or that we're not smart enough to cope with a new challenge? Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all. These feelings of insecurity and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow. If we do not confront and overcome these internal fears and doubts, if we protect ourselves too much, then we cease to grow. We become trapped inside a shell of our own making.

单选题He gave much ______ to the problem but still had no answer.

单选题The bandits demanded that one of the travelers should stay with them as a ______. A. humanitarian B. horn C. host D. hostage

单选题By mid-night ______ workers said they had found all those injured in the boat accident.

单选题When the chairman visited the district hit by the earthquake, he often Usignaled for/U the children to come to him.

单选题The American Presidential Gala of 1993 Mixing populism and celebrity, Clinton dances into office with a week-long multimillion-dollar party full of stars, saxophone music and presidential hugs. The Party was held in a way never seen since World War Ⅱ. Many movie and music stars showed up, offering their wishes to a new administration. They sang songs like "You know Bill's gonna get this Country straight. " "93! You and me! U-hi-tee! /Time to past with Big Bill and Hillaree. " The stars came out in constellation because they recognized Clinton one of their own.Not just that he plays the saxophone, a little. Or that Hillary is a smart, tough lawyer,like most Hollywood moguls. What matters is that Clinton is a beacon of middle-class charm, a love of being loved, a believer in the importance of image, metaphor, style. And he is an ace manipulator of media, selling his symbols directly to the people on TV, without the interference of nosy journalists. It all makes for a wondrous' 90s blend of show biz and politic. "This is our time," Clinton said in his Inaugural Address. "Let us embrace it." Last week he had an embrace for everyone, and not just the stars. This huge bear President needs to feel the public's approval. At one of the balls of the week, Clinton was like the college student who drops in the night before the exam to show he's one of the guys, then sneaks back to his dorm to cram.Perhaps there is as much Nixon in him (the ambition, the intellect) as Kennedy (the charm, the recklessness, his position as centrist custodian of liberal dreams). He will need to be the best of both men if he is to close, as he said last week, "the gap between our words and our deeds." During the gala, actor Edward James Olmos quoted Lincoln: "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Clinton, a good student with a good memory, mouthed the words as Olmos spoke them. Clinton must have realized that, in a different sense and different era, America faces the task of disenthralling itself, of shaking off the Hollywood stardust and facing facts. In 1992 Clinton vended optimism; now he must be careful in saying so. He sold the nation a miracle product, ALL-NEW HOPE: it gives you cleaner, cheaper government with a fresh minty flavor. But if it doesn't get the stains out, the electorate's high hopes could sour into despair. Then the man called Hope will become the man called Hype. All the big stars and better angels will leave him out in the spotlight, stranded, unmasked.

单选题{{B}}Passage Fore{{/B}} The growth of cell-phone users in the U.S. has tapered off from the breakneck pace of 50% annually in the late 1990s to what analysis project will be a 15% to 20% rise in 2002, and no more than that in 2003. To some extent, numerous surveys have found, slower growth in demand reflects consumer disillusionment with just about every aspect of cell-phone service--its reliability, quality, and notorious customer service. The cooling off in demand threatens to cascade through the industry: The big four U.S. cell-phone carders--Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint imperil their timetables for becoming profitable, not to mention their efforts to whittle down their mountains of debt. As the carders have begun to cut costs, wireless- equipment makers--companies such as Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson--have been left with a market that's bound to be smaller than they had anticipated. Handset makers have been insulated so far, but they, too, face a nagging uncertainty. They'll soon introduce advanced phones to the U.S. market that will run on the new networks the carders are starting up over the next year or two. But the question then will be : Will Americans embrace these snazzy data features--and their higher costs--with the wild enthusiasm that Europeans and Asians have? Long before the outcome in clear, the industry will have to adopt a new mind-set. "In the old days, it was all about connectivity. " says Andrew Cole, an analyst with wireless consultancy Adventis. Build the network, and customers will come. From now on, the stakes will be higher. The new mantra: Please customers, or you may not survive. To work their way out of this box, the carders are spending huge sums to address the problem. Much of Sprint PCS's $3.4 billion in capital outlays this year will be for new stations. And in fact, the new high-speed, high-capacity nationwide networks due to roll out later this year should help ease the calling-capacity crunch that has caused many consumer complaints. In the meantime, some companies are using better training and organization to keep customers happy. The nation's largest rural operator, Alltel (AT), recently reorganized its call centers so that a customer's query goes to the first operator who's available anywhere in the country, instead of the first one available in the customer's home area. That should cut waiting time to one minute from three to five minutes previously.

单选题In spite of the______economic forecast, manufacturing output has risen slightly. A. faint B. dizzy C. gloomy D. opaque

单选题With the two stories in Paragraph 2, the author explains ______.

单选题A number of researchers have examined the variables/strategies that affect students' learning English as a second language. This report identifies some of the learner variables/ strategies used by two students in a Hong Kong Technical Institute. The instruments for data collection included observation, interviews and questionnaires. The findings are discussed and some implications highlighted. What makes a 'good' language learner 'good', and what makes a 'poor' language learner 'poor'? What does this imply for the teaching of language in the Hong Kong context? These are the central questions of this assignment. The existing body of research attributes the differences between language learners to learner variables and learner strategies, Learner variables include such things as differences in personality, motivation, style, aptitude and age (Ellis, 1986: chap 5) and strategies refer to "techniques, approaches, or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning and recall of both linguistic and content area information" (Chamot, 1987: 71). It is important to note here that what we are considering is not the fact that language learners do and can learn, but why there should be such variations in speed of learning, ability to use the target language, and in achieving examination grades, areas which generally lead to the classification of students as being either 'good' or 'poor'. Learner variables and strategies have been the focus of a number of research projects, (O'Malley et al, 1985, Oxford, 1989). However, to the best of my knowledge, this area has not been researched in Hong Kong classrooms. Since I am a teacher of English working in Hong Kong, gleaning a little of what learner variables and strategies seem to work for local students seems to be a fruitful area of research. In discussing learner variables and strategies, we have to keep in mind the arbitrary nature of actually identifying these aspects. As the existing research points out, it is not possible to observe directly qualities such as aptitude, motivation and anxiety. (Oxford, 1986) We cannot look inside the mind of a language learner and find out what strategies, if any, they are using. These strategies are not visible processes. Also, as Naiman and his colleagues (1978) point out, no single learning strategy, cognitive style or learner characteristic is sufficient to explain success in language learning. The factors must be considered simultaneously to discover how they interact to affect success or failure in a particular language learning situation. Bearing these constraints in mind, the aim of this assignment is to develop two small scale studies of the language learners attempting to gain an overall idea of what strategies are in use and what variables seem to make a difference to Hong Kong students.

单选题The attack of the World Trade Center will leave a ______ impression on those who have witnessed the explosion. A. long B. forever C. lasting D. lively

单选题Only when one______ the powerful current of the times will one's life shine brilliantly. A. dips into B. comes into C. drops into D. plunges into

单选题Nowadays more and more people are interested in arranging time for exercises and ______ to release the stress caused by the fast pace and pressure of their lives.

单选题A mistake is rarely atoned for by a single apology, however Uprofuse/U.

单选题The report sets out strict inspection procedures to ensure that recommendations are properly implemented.

单选题Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus became part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manger to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay put long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have presumably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and seers to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present day economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled computers and highfalutin mathematical systems in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associated more readily with the description of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecasters with a batting average below that of the Mets, and the President-elect of the Association cautioned that "high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of what crude and inadequate statisticians assume". We left his birthday party somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired, that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is deluded into mistaking the delineation of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical exactitude.

单选题In writing this passage, the author sounds very ______.

单选题After completing her usual morning chores, Linda found herself ______ tired.