单选题Americans today don"t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education—not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren"t difficult to find. "Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual," says education writer Diane Ravitch. "Schools could be a counterbalance." Ravitch"s latest book, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms, traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits. But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, "We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society." "Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege," writes historian and professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a Pulitzer-Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book. Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." Mark Twain"s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized—going to school and learning to read—so he can preserve his innate goodness. Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines. School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country"s educational system is in the grips of people who "joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise."

单选题The writer seems to think that to a great extent your choice of color will be determined by ______.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} "It is an evil influence on the youth of our country. " A politician condemning video gaming? Actually, a clergyman denouncing rock and roll 50 years ago. But the sentiment could just as easily have been voiced by Hillary Clinton in the past few weeks, as she blamed video games for "a silent epidemic of media desensitisation" and "stealing the innocence of our children". The gaming furore centers on "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", a popular and notoriously violent cops and robbers game that turned out to contain hidden sex scenes that could be unlocked using a patch downloaded from the internet. The resulting outcry (mostly from Democratic politicians playing to the centre) caused the game's rating in America to be changed from "mature", which means you have to be 17 to buy it, to "adults only", which means you have to be 18, but also means that big retailers such as Wal-Mart will not stock it. As a result the game has been banned in Australia; and, this autumn, America's Federal Trade Commission will investigate the complaints. That will give gaming's opponents an opportunity to vent their wrath on the industry. Skepticism of new media is a tradition with deep roots, going back at least as far as Socrates' objections to written texts, outlined in Plato's Phaedrus. Socrates worried that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves." (He also objected that a written version of a speech was no substitute for the ability to interrogate the speaker, since, when questioned, the text "always gives one unvarying answer". His objection, in short, was that books were not interactive. Perhaps Socrates would have thought more highly of video games. ) Novels were once considered too low-brow for university literature courses, but eventually the disapproving professors retired. Waltz music and dancing were condemned in the 19th century; all that twirling was thought to be "intoxicating" and "depraved", and the music was outlawed in some places. Today it is hard to imagine what the fuss was about. And rock and roll was thought to encourage violence, promiscuity and Satanism ; but today even grannies buy Coldplay albums.

单选题The writer asserts that the definition of popular art is

单选题Directions:Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B,' C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. Food and oxygen pass easily from mother to fetus (an unborn baby). Now it seems that fleeting sadness or happiness is also {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}to an unborn baby. Stress or depression in pregnancy can {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}a fetus, but less is known about the {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}of transient emotions. To {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}, Kazuyuki Shinohara and colleagues at Nagasaki University in Japan showed 10 pregnant volunteers a cheery 5-minute clip from the musical The Sound of Music. Another 14 watched a tear-jerking 5 minutes from The Champ. Each clip was sandwiched between two "neutral" samples {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}the team could {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}any changes in fetal movements against a baseline. The women listened to the films through headphones to {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}that only the effect of their {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}, not the sounds, were being measured. "Fetuses can hear by the last three months," says Shinohara. The team {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}the number of arm, leg and whole body movements {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}ultrasound and found that during the happy film clip the fetuses moved their arms {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}more than when the pregnant women watched a neutral clip. {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}, the fetuses of sad women moved their arms less. What makes the {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}of happy mothers wave isn't clear. {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}, such movement is a(n) {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}of a working nervous and motor system, says Alexander Heazell at the University of Manchester, UK. He says the study offers us insights into how {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}influences affect fetuses. Shinohara suggests that sad- ness {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}more of the "fight or flight" hormone, which redirects blood away from the uterus. The' fetus diverts the reduced blood {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}to its brain and heart and away from its limbs. {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}it's too early to use the study to {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}women.

单选题According to the author , what do most people realize?______

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C, and D on ANSWER SHEET 1. Analysts have their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative literature, {{U}}(1) {{/U}}without being greatly instructed. Humor can be{{U}} (2) {{/U}},{{U}} (3) {{/U}}a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are{{U}} (4) {{/U}}to any but the pure scientific mind. One of the things{{U}} (5) {{/U}}said about humorists is that they are really very sad people-clowns with a breaking heart. There is some truth in it, but it is badly{{U}} (6) {{/U}}. It would be more{{U}} (7) {{/U}}, I think, to say that there is a deep vein of melancholy running through everyone's life and that the humorist, perhaps more{{U}} (8) {{/U}}of it than some others, compensates for it actively and{{U}} (9) {{/U}}. Humorists fatten on troubles. They have always made trouble{{U}} (10) {{/U}}. They struggle along with a good will and endure pain{{U}} (11) {{/U}}, knowing how well it will{{U}} (12) {{/U}}them in the sweet by and by. You find them wrestling with foreign languages, fighting folding ironing boards and swollen drainpipes, suffering the terrible {{U}}(13) {{/U}}of tight boots. They pour out their sorrows profitably, in a{{U}} (14) {{/U}}of what is not quite fiction nor quite fact either. Beneath the sparking surface of these dilemmas flows the strong {{U}}(15) {{/U}}of human woe. Practically everyone is a manic depressive of sorts, with his up moments and his down moments, and you certainly don't have to be a humorist to{{U}} (16) {{/U}}the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying, and if a humorous piece of writing brings a person to the point{{U}} (17) {{/U}}his emotional responses are untrustworthy and seem likely to break over into the opposite realm, it is{{U}} (18) {{/U}}humor, like poetry, has an extra content, it plays{{U}} (19) {{/U}}to the big hot fire which is Truth, and sometimes the reader feels the{{U}} (20) {{/U}}.

单选题 The first two stages in the development of civilized man were probably the invention of primitive weapons and the discovery of fire, although nobody knows exactly when people acquired the use of{{U}} (1) {{/U}}. The{{U}} (2) {{/U}}of language is also obscure. No doubt it began very gradually. Animals have a few cries that serve{{U}} (3) {{/U}}signals,{{U}} (4) {{/U}}even the highest apes have not been found able to pronounce words{{U}} (5) {{/U}}with the most intensive professional instruction. The superior brain of man is apparently{{U}} (6) {{/U}}for the mastering of speech. When man became sufficiently intelligent, we must suppose that he{{U}} (7) {{/U}}the number of cries for different purposes. It was a great clay{{U}} (8) {{/U}}he discovered that speed could be used for narrative. There are those who think that{{U}} (9) {{/U}}picture language preceded oral language. A man{{U}} (10) {{/U}}a picture on the wall of his cave to show{{U}} (11) {{/U}}direction he had gone, or{{U}} (12) {{/U}}prey he hoped to catch. Probably picture language and oral language developed side by side. I am inclined to think that language{{U}} (13) {{/U}}the most important single factor in the development of man. Two important stages came not{{U}} (14) {{/U}}before the dawn of written history. The first was the domestication of animals; the second was agriculture. Agriculture was{{U}} (15) {{/U}}in human progress to which subsequently there was nothing comparable{{U}} (16) {{/U}}our own machine age. Agriculture made possible{{U}} (17) {{/U}}immense increase in the number of the human species in the regions where it could be successfully practised.{{U}} (18) {{/U}}were, at first, only those in which nature fertilized the soil{{U}} (19) {{/U}}each harvest. Agriculture met with violent resistance from the pastoral nomads, but the agricultural way of life prevailed in the end{{U}} (20) {{/U}}the physical comforts it provided.

单选题Almost everyone agrees that America's health-care system has the incentives all wrong. Under the present system, doctors and hospitals get paid for doing more, even if added tests, operations and procedures have little chance of improving patients' health. So what happens when someone proposes that we alter the incentives to reward better care, not more care? Well, Rep. Paul Ryan and Republicans found out. No surprise: Democrats slammed them for "ending Medicare as we know it. " This predictably partisan reaction preying upon the anxieties of retirees—must depress anyone who cares about the country's future. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that unless we end Medicare "as we know it," America "as we know it" will end. Spiraling health spending is the crux of our federal budget problem. In 1965—the year Congress created Medicare and Medicaid—health spending was 2.6 percent of the budget. In 2010, it was 26.5 percent. The Obama administration estimates it will be 30.3 percent in 2016. By contrast, defense spending is about 20 percent; scientific research and development is 4 percent. Uncontrolled health spending isn't simply crowding out other government programs; it's also dampening overall living standards. Health economists Michael Chernew, Richard Hirth and David Cutler recently reported that higher health costs consumed 35.7 percent of the increase in per capita income from 1999 to 2007. They also project that, under reasonable assumptions, it could absorb half or more of the gain between now and 2083. Ryan proposes to change that. Beginning in 2022, new (not existing) Medicare beneficiaries would receive a voucher, valued initially at about $ 8,000. The theory is simple. Suddenly empowered, Medicare beneficiaries would shop for lowest-cost, highest-quality insurance plans providing a required package of benefits. The health-care delivery system would be forced to restructure by reducing costs and improving quality. Doctors, hospitals and clinics would form networks; there would be more "coordination" of care, helped by more investment in information technology; better use of deductibles and co-payments would reduce unnecessary trips to doctors' offices or clinics. It's shock therapy. Would it work? No one knows, but two things are clear. First, as Medicare goes, so goes the entire health-care system. Medicare is the nation's largest insurance program, with 48 million recipients and spending last year of $ 520 billion. Second, few doubt that today's health-care system has much waste: medical care that does no good. Under Ryan's plan, incentives would shift. Medicare would no longer be an open ATM; the vouchers would limit total spending. Providers would face pressures to do more with less; there would certainly be charges that essential care was being denied. The Obama administration argues that better results can be achieved by modifying incentives within the existing system. Perhaps. But history suggests skepticism. It's Ryan's radicalism vs. President Obama's remedy policy. Which is realistic and which is wishful thinking? Burdened by runaway spending, Medicare "as we know it" is going to end. The only questions are when and on whose terms.

单选题The figures in the first paragraph are cited to show that now

单选题Perhaps Only a small boy training to be a wizard at the Hogwarts school of magic could cast a spell so powerful as to create the biggest book launch ever. Wherever in the world the clock strikes midnight on June 20th, his followers will flock to get their paws on one of more than 10 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Bookshops will open in the middle of the night and delivery firms are drafting in extra staff and bigger trucks. Related toys, games, DVDs and other merchandise will be everywhere. There will be no escaping Pottermania. Yet Mr. Potter's world is a curious one, in which things are often not what they appear. While an excitable media (hereby including The Economist, happy to support such a fine example of globalisation) is helping to hype the launch of J. K. Rowling's fifth novel, about the most adventurous thing that the publishers (Scholastic in America and Britain's Bloomsbury in English elsewhere) have organised is a reading by Ms. Rowling in London's Royal Albert Hall, to be broadcast as a live webcast. Hollywood, which owns everything else to do with Harry Potter, says it is doing even less. Incredible as it may seem, the guardians of the brand say that, to protect the Potter franchise, they are trying to maintain a low profile. Well, relatively low. Ms. Rowling signed a contract in 1998 with Warner Brothers, part of AOL Time Warner, giving the studio exclusive film, licensing and merchandising rights in return for what now appears to have been a steal: some $500,000. Warner licenses other firms to produce goods using Harry Potter characters or images, from which Ms. Rowling gets a big enough cut that she is now wealthier than the queen--if you believe Britain's Sunday Times rich list. The process is self-generating: each book sets the stage for a film, which boosts book sales, which lifts sales of Potter products. Globally, the first four Harry Potter books have sold some 200 million copies in 55 languages; the two movies have grossed over $1.8 billion at the box office. This is a stunning success by any measure, especially as Ms. Rowling has long demanded that Harry Potter should not be over-commercialised. In line with her wishes, Warner says it is being extraordinarily careful, at least by Hollywood standards, about what it licenses and to whom. It imposed tough conditions on Coca-Cola, insisting that no Harry Potter images should appear on cans, and is now in the process of making its licensing programme even more restrictive. Coke may soon be considered too mass market to carry the brand at all. The deal with Warner ties much of the merchandising to the films alone. There are no officially sanctioned products relating to "Order of the Phoenix'; nor yet for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', the film of the third book, which is due out in June 2004. Warner agrees that Ms. Rowling's creation is a different sort of commercial property, one with long-term potential that could be damaged by a typical Hollywood marketing blitz, says Diane Nelson, the studio's global brand manager for Harry Potter. It is vital, she adds, that with more to come, readers of the books are not alienated. "The evidence from our market research is that enthusiasm for the property by fans is not waning./

单选题A pair of dice, rolled again and again, will eventually produce two sixes. Similarly, the virus that causes influenza is constantly changing at random and, one day, will mutate in a way that will enable it to infect billions of people, and to kill millions. Many experts now believe a global outbreak of pandemic flu is overdue, and that the next one could be as bad as the one in 1918, which killed somewhere between 25m and 50m peo-pie. Today however, advances in medicine offer real hope that another such outbreak can be contained—if governments start preparing now. New research published this week suggests that a relatively small stockpile of an anti-viral drug—as little as 3m doses—could be enough to limit sharply a flu pandemic if the drugs were deployed quickly to people in the area surrounding the initial outbreak. The drug's manufacturer, Roche, is talking to the World Health Organisation about donating such a stockpile. This is good news. But much more needs to be done, especially with a nasty strain of avian flu spreading in Asia which could mutate into a threat to humans. Since the SARS outbreak in 2003 a few countries have developed plans in preparation for similar episodes. But progress has been shamefully patchy, and there is still far too little international co-ordination. A global stockpile of drugs alone would not be much use without an adequate system of surveillance to identify early cases and a way of delivering treatment quickly. If an out- break occurred in a border region, for example, a swift response would most likely depend on prior agreements between different countries about quarantine and containment. Reaching such agreements is rarely easy, but that makes the task all the more urgent. Rich countries tend to be better prepared than poor ones, but this should be no consolation to them. Flu does not respect borders. It is in everyone's interest to make sure that developing countries, especially in Asia, are also well prepared. Many may bridle at interference from outside. But if richer nation's were willing to donate anti-viral drugs and guarantee a supply of any vaccine that becomes available, poorer nations might be willing to reach agreements over surveillance and preparedness. Simply sorting out a few details now will have lives ( and recriminations) later. Will there be enough ventilators, makes and drugs? Where will people be treated if the hospitals overflow7 Will food be delivered as normal? Too many countries have no answers to these questions.

单选题In the British Isles the temperature ______.