单选题The wild behavior depicted in the first paragraph is intended to

单选题The "MyDoom" virus could presage a generation of computer attacks by organised gangs aiming to extract ransoms from online businesses, experts said yesterday. The warning came as the website run by SCO, a company that sells Unix computer software, in effect disappeared from the web under a blizzard of automated attacks from PCs infected by the virus, which first appeared a week ago. The "MyDoom-A" version of the virus is reckoned to be the worst to have hit the internet, in terms of the speed of its spread, with millions of PCs worldwide believed to be infected. Such "zombie" machines begin to send out hundreds of copies of the virus every hour to almost any e-mail address in their files. On Sunday they began sending automated queries to SCO's website, an attack that will continue until 12 February. The attack is the web equivalent of ringing the company's doorbell and running away a million times a second, leaving its computers unable to deal with standard requests to view its pages. "You have to wonder about the time limit," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the antivirus company Sophos. "Someone could go to SCO after the 12th and say, 'If you don't want this to happen again, here are our demands'." Raimund Genes, European president of the security software firm Trend Micro, said: "Such a programme could take out any major website on the internet. It's not terrorism, but it is somebody who is obviously upset with SCO" SCO has earned the enmity of computer users through a lawsuit it has filed against IBM. SCO claims ownership of computer code it says IBM put into the free operating system Linux, and is demanding licence fees and damages of $1bn. Mr. Cluley said: "It might be that whoever is behind this will say to SCO, 'if you don't want the next one to target you, drop the lawsuit'." SCO has offered $250,000 (￡140,000) for information leading to the arrest of the person or people who wrote and distributed MyDoom. Nell Barrett, of the security company Information Risk Management, said, "I would give a lot of credence to the idea of gangs using viruses to extort money. It's hard for law enforcement to track them down, because they're using machines owned by innocent people." A second variant of MyDoom will start attacking part of Microsoft's website later today. The antivirus company MessageLabs said it had blocked more than 16 million copies of the virus in transit over the net so far. But millions more will have reached their targets.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Placing a human being behind the wheel of an automobile often has the same curious effect as cutting certain fibres in the brain. The result in either case is more primitive behaviour. Hostile feelings are apt to be expressed in an aggressive way. The same man who will step aside for a stranger at a doorway will, when behind the wheel, risk an accident trying to beat another motorist through an intersection. The importance of emotional factors in automobile accidents is gaining recognition. Doctors and other scientists have concluded that the highway death toll resembles an epidemic and should be investigated as such. Dr. Ross A. McFarland, Associate Professor of Industrial Hygiene at the Harvard University School of Public Health, said that accidents “now constitute a greater threat to the safety of large segments of the population than diseases do. ” Accidents are the leading cause of death between the ages of 1 and 35. About one third of all accidental deaths and one seventh of all accidental injuries are caused by motor vehicles. Based on the present rate of vehicle registration, unless the accident rate is cut in half, one of every 10 persons in the country will be killed or injured in a traffic accident in the next 15 years. Research to find the underlying causes of accidents and to develop ways to detect drivers who are apt to cause them is being conducted at universities and medical centres. Here are some of their findings so far: A man drives as he lives. If he is often in trouble with collection agencies, the courts, and police, chances are he will have repeated automobile accidents. Accident repeaters usually are egocentric, exhibitionistic, resentful of authority, impulsive, and lacking in social responsibility. As group, they can be classified as borderline psychopathic personalities, according to Dr. McFarland. The suspicion, however, that accident repeaters could be detected in advance by screening out persons with more hostile impulses is false. A study at the University of Colorado showed that there were just as many overly hostile persons among those who had no accidents as among those with repeated accidents. Psychologists currently are studying Denver high school pupils to test the validity of this concept. They are making psychological evaluations of the pupils to see whether subsequent driving records will bear out their thesis.

单选题Watching a three-and-a-half-pound chicken roast in 14 minutes, time loses all meaning. The skin turns gold and crisp, juices immediately rise to the surface, and the flesh firms before your eyes. It's dizzying and seductive, like the home makeovers on TV that compress as "Wow." you think "I could do this every single night." The makers of the TurboChef, a super-fast oven, used at Subway and Starbucks and, recently, by chefs like Charlie Trotter and Gray Kurtz, are banking on that reaction. Speed ovens made by TurboChef, Merrychef. Electrolux and others are common in commercial kitchens: they generally use some layering of microwave, convection, steam and infrared technologies, which provides even cooking, moistness and browning, all at high speed. No single technology has been able m produce all of those traits. The combination ovens are also mining up. in more limited roles, in some fine-dining kitchens. Mr. Trotter installed a commercial TurboChef in his upscale takeout cafe, Trotter's to Go. in Chicago about six years ago. Mr. Kurtz says that his speed oven is used mostly for souffi6s, reducing the cooking time from 25 minutes to 2. "I liked .taking that line off the menu where you have to order the souffi6 at the beginning of the meal," he said. This is hardly an everyday concern for home cooks. But manufacturers are unable to resist the lure of the lucrative residential market: companies like Electrolux. G.E. and Sharp already sell speed ovens for home cooks. TurboChef, however, has put an unusual amount of research and design energy into adapting its product for residential use. It will be introduced next month, priced at $5,995 for a solo unit and $7.895 for a TurboChef combined with a conventional oven. The company is pitching—hard—the notion that its appliance will do no less than revolutionize American home cooking. "I can't imagine a home cook who wouldn't respond to the speed of this oven," said Mr. Trotter. who has become a consultant and spokesman for TurboChef. "But speed alone wouldn't validate it. The results are glorious." Glorious is a strong word. So last week, I hauled raw chickens and a jug of souffle batter over to TurboChef's New York office for a road test. Three hours later, it was clear that the technology used by TurboChef—a combination of high-speed convection for rapid heat transfer and browning, plus "controlled bursts" of microwave for moist, even cooking—is far more successful for actual cooking than a microwave alone

单选题Formal economic forecasting is usually based on a (1) theory as to how the economy works. Some theories are complicated, and their application requires an elaborate (2) of cause and effect. Others are relatively simple, (3) most developments in the economy to one or two basic factors. Many economists, for example, believe that changes in the supply of money (4) the rate of growth of general business activity. Others (5) a central role to investment in new facilities-- housing, industrial plants, highways, and so forth. In the United States, where consumers (6) such a large share of economic activity, some economy believe that consumer decisions to (7) or save provide the principal (8) to the future course of the entire economy. Obviously the theory that a forecaster applies is of (9) importance to the forecasting process; it (10) his line of investigation, the statistics he will regard as most important, and many of the techniques he will apply. Although economic theory may determine the general (11) of a forecast, judgment also often plays an important role. A forecaster may decide that the circumstances of the moment are (12) and that a forecast produced by the (13) statistical methods should be modified to take account of special current circumstances. This is particularly necessary when some event outside the Usual run of economic activity has an a (14) economic effect. For example, forecasts of 1987 economic activity in the United States were more accurate when the analyst correctly foresaw that the exchange value of the dollar would (15) sharply during the year that consumer spending would slacken, and that (16) rates would rise only moderately. None of these conclusions followed (17) purely economic analysis; they all required judgment as to future decisions (18) , an economist may decide to adjust an economic forecast that was made by traditional methods to take account of other unique (19) ; he may, for example, decide that consumers will (20) their spending patterns because of special circumstances such as rising price of imports or fear of threatened shortages.

单选题The author's primary concern is that

单选题Even their parents struggle to draw the tiniest hint of emotion or social connection from autistic(患孤独症的) children, so imagine what happens when a stranger sits with the child for hours to get through the standard IQ test. For 10 of the test's 12 sections, the child must listen and respond to spoken questions. Since for many autistics it is torture to try to engage with someone even on this impersonal level, it's no wonder so many wind up with IQ scores just above a carrot's. More precisely, fully three quarters of autistics are classified as having below-normal intelligence, with many deemed mentally retarded. Researchers have tried a different IQ test, one that requires no social interaction. As they report in the journal Psychological Science, autistic children's scores came out starkly different than on the oral, interactive IQ test — suggesting a burning intelligence inside these kids that educators are failing to uncover. For the study, children took two IQ tests. In the more widely used Wechsler, they tried to arrange and complete pictures, do simple arithmetic, demonstrate vocabulary comprehension and answer questions— almost all in response to a stranger's questions. In the Raven's Progressive Matrices test, they got brief instructions, then went off on their own to analyze three-by-three arrays of geometric designs, with one missing, and choose the design that belonged in the empty place. The disparity in scores was striking. Overall, the autistics scored around the 30th percentile on the Wechsler, which corresponds to "low average" IQ. But they averaged in the 56th percentile on the Raven's. not a single autistic child scored in the "high intelligence" range on the Wechsler; on the Raven's, one third did. Healthy children showed no such disparity. That presents a puzzle. If many autistics arc more intelligent than an IQ test shows, why haven't their parents noticed? Partly because many parents welcome a low score, which brings their child more special services from schools and public agencies. But another force is at work. "We often think of intelligence as what you can show, such as by speaking fluently," says a psychologist. "Parents as well as professionals might be biased to look at that" rather than dig for the hidden intellectual spark. The challenge is to coax that spark into the kind of intelligence that manifests itself in practice. That is something autism researchers are far from doing. Many experts dismiss autistics' exceptional reading, artistic or other abilities as side effects of abnormal brain function. They advise parents to steer their child away from what he excels at and obsesses over, and toward what he struggles with. It makes you wonder how many other children, whose intellectual potential we're too blind to see, we've also given up on.

单选题{{B}}Part C{{/B}}Directions: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly . It is hard to get a grip on food. The UN's World Health Organisation worries about diminishing supplies and increased prices in poor countries; recent riots and near-riots in Haiti, Bangladesh and Egypt were sparked by the growing cost of wheat and rice. But, as Paul Roberts observes in "The End of Food", the developed world has lived through "a near miraculous period during which the things we ate seemed to grow only more plentiful, more secure, more nutritious, and simply better. " 46． {{U}}In the second half of the 20th century, world output of corn, wheat and cereal crops more than tripled. Yet there is not enough to feed the rich, the aspirational and the poor in the world. A golden age has been transformed quite suddenly into a global crisis.{{/U}} Mr Roberts insists that modern agribusiness is unsustainable and becoming more so. "Precisely at the moment in history when we need to shift our system of food production into overdrive, our agricultural engine is breaking down," he says. The industry has taken cheap oil for granted. Oil fuels transportation and farm machinery, and natural gas is the basis of synthetic nitrogen production ( prices have tripled since 2002). Agriculture accounts for three- quarters of freshwater use, and water is becoming an increasingly scarce and expensive resource. Climate change makes some old assumptions about farming redundant. 47．{{U}}A combination of these factors, he says, will ultimately force a complete rethinking of the way we make food.{{/U}} For years government subsidies held down grain prices, making food cheaper. 48．{{U}}Water was also plentiful-it takes 1,000 tonnes of water to produce a tonne of grain-and an ingenious process known as Haber-Bosch makes synthetic nitrogen fertiliser easily available to grain farmers. {{/U}}Ruthless price-cutting at supermarkets means consumers have grown accustomed to eating too much. (In the late 19th century, Europeans already thought Americans ate three or four times more than was necessary. ) The most damaging consequence is that by 2000 31% of American adults were obese, with another 16% defined as overweight. American airlines spend $ 275 million a year more on fuel simply to lift the heavier passengers. Mr Roberts claims that every year obesity causes 400,000 premature deaths in America. Food has become as deadly as tobacco. A fruitful start would be to halve the size of portions in all American restaurants, but most consumers are reluctant rethinkers. 49．{{U}}Eating organic product could be a partial solution,{{/U}} {{U}}although one study suggests that the cost of avoiding intensive farm chemicals would mean a 31% increase in food prices.{{/U}} Government scientists believe that genetically modified crops might be the only way out of the crisis, but a majority of consumers are reluctant to listen. Is there a model for the future? 50．{{U}}Fashionably, Mr. Roberts believes that a local system based on easily obtainable seasonal foods that do not need to be transported huge distances would form part of a solution. {{/U}}The economics and greenery of this are far from proven. Mr Roberts can find only one country that has made "serious efforts" in this direction: Cuba, hardly a comforting example. The coming food crisis, warns the author, is as intractable as global warming, and no less urgent.

单选题The author mentions increased installment debt in the first paragraph in order to show

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Of all the truths that this generation of Americans hold self-evident, few are more deeply embedded in the national psyche than the maxim "It pays to go to collage." Since the Gl Bill transformed higher education in the aftermath of W. W. II, a college diploma, once a birthright of the leisured few, has become a lodestone for the upwardly mobile, as integral to the American dream as the pursuit of happiness itself. The numbers tell the story: In 1950s, 43% of high-school graduates went on to pursue some form of higher education; at the same time, only 6% of Americans were college graduates. But by 1992, almost 2 to out of 3 secondary-school graduates were opting for higher education—and 21% of a much larger U.S. population had college diplomas. As Prof. Herbert London of New York University told a commencement audience last June: "The college experience has gone from a rite passage to a right of passage." However, as the class of 1993 is so painfully discovering, while a college diploma remains a requisite credential for ascending the economic ladder, it no longer guarantees the good life. Rarely since the end of the Great Depression has the job outlook for college graduates appeared so bleak: of the 1.1 million students who received their baccalaureate degrees last spring, fewer than 20% had lined up full-time employment by commencement. Indeed, an uncertain job market has precipitated a wave of economic fear and trembling among the young. "Many of my classmates are absolutely terrified," says one of the fortunate few who did manage to land a permanent position. "They wonder if they'll ever find a job." Some of this recession-induced anxiety will dissipate if a recovery finally begins to generate jobs at what economists consider a normal rate. But the sad fact is that for the foreseeable future, college graduates will be in considerable surplus, enabling employers to require a degree even for jobs for which a college education is really unnecessary. According to Kristina Shelley of the Bureau of Labor Statistics—who bases her estimate on a "moderate projection" of current trends—30 percent of college graduates entering the labor force between now and the year 2005 will be unemployed or will find employment in jobs for which they will be overqualified, joining what economists call the "educationally underutilized". Indeed, it may be quite a while—if ever—before those working temporarily as cocktail waitresses or taxi drivers will be able to pursue their primary career paths. Of course waiting on tables and bustling cab fares are respectable ways to earn a living. But they are not quite what so many young Americans—and their parents—had in mind as the end product of four expensive years in college.

单选题Quite apart from any awkwardness in the way he handled the hostile bid by rival Oracle for the firm he was running, Craig Conway seems to have been an unpopular CEO of PeopleSoft, a large enterprise-software company. Three managers who reported directly to him were apparently close to resigning in frustration, and the board was unhappy about "mis-statements" he made to analysts. So even though there was no "smoking gun", as the board put it, Mr. Conway was fired on October 1st and replaced by the firm's founder, David Duffield. Mr. Duffield's brief is now to address Mr. Conway's perceived shortcomings and his obsession with fending off the ＄7.7 billion takeover bid from Oracle. At the same time, says Paul Hamerman of Forrester, a research firm, Mr. Conway offered no compelling technological vision for PeopleSoft, and seemed deaf to "quite a noise level of customer complaints". Mr. Conway's firing prompted much speculation that PeopleSoft might now be more prepared to negotiate with Oracle rather than fight it. But PeopleSoft insists that both Mr. Duffield and the board focus on a long-term strategy for the company, not a quick sale. On the same day that Mr. Conway was fired, however, Oracle .scored another victory when America's Justice Department said that it would not appeal against a judge's decision to allow the takeover on antitrust grounds. So, this week, the battle moved to another courtroom, in Delaware, where both companies are registered. In this suit, Oracle is claiming that PeopleSoft is not properly looking after the interests of its shareholders by using a "poison pill" and a "customer assurance programme" to keep Oracle at bay. The poison pill is a very common provision, and one that PeopleSoft has had for almost a decade. It floods the market with new shares if a predator buys more than 20% of PeopleSoft's equity, thus making an acquisition very difficult. The customer-rebate programme, by contrast, was put in place last June. It guarantees that any PeopleSoft client can get a refund for between two and five times its software-licence fee if support for that software is ever cut off. To Oracle, this represents another dirty tactic, since it amounts to a potential liability of more than ＄2 billion. To PeopleSoft, however, it was not only fair but necessary to retain customers, since Oracle said at the time of its bid that it planned to kill PeopleSoft's products and switch clients to its own. The two companies' lawyers are likely to be at it for another few weeks, which could yet, see a higher bid from Oracle.

单选题There's nothing simple about gun control, a tangle of legal, political and public-health issues complicated by cultural preferences and regional biases. Passions run high on all sides. Lifelong hunters whogrew up with firearms, urban victims of gun violence, Second Amendment scholars, NRA lobbyists, chiefs of police—they've all got cases to make and they make them well, often contentiously. For the past 15 years, much of the debate has centered on the effectiveness of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, the federal gun-control bill that was passed in 1993. Critics say the focus on law-abiding gun buyers doesn't address the real issue—bad guys who acquire their weapons illegally. Supporters say that the bill stops thousands of illegal gun purchases and deters crime and violence. Now medical research has come to the rescue, sifting through the data to figure out which legal measures work best to reduce firearm suicides and homicides. In a paper published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Steven Sumner, a third-year med student and Dr. Peter Layde, codirector of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, found that local background checks, which are optional and used by just a handful of states, were more effective than the federal background checks mandated by the Brady law. The report compared the homicide and suicide rates in states that perform only federal checks with states that do state-level checks and those that perform local-level checks. The local-level checks were associated with a 27 percent lower firearm suicide rate and a 22 percent lower homicide rate among adults 21 and older, the legal age to purchase a gun. Why are local checks so much better? "We hypothesize that it's due to access to additional information that's not available at the federal checks," says Layde, "particularly related to mental-health issues and domestic-violence issues." All 50 states use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the minimum required under Brady, while 17 states also perform state-level checks and 12 do additional local-level checks. "This is the first study that's looked at this issue," says Layde. "If the magnitude of impact we found were in fact to apply to all 50 states, you would expect a very substantial reduction in suicides and homicides linked to firearms, many thousands. " However, background checks can be both an administrative and a cost burden for strapped and stretched local authorities. There is another way to get the same results., improve the flow of local information to the NICS databases. "In an ideal world," says Layde, "you might not have to have the local agencies involved if you just reliably got all the data they had up to the federal level. /