单选题What do the writer think about the media' s report?

单选题"Target apologizes for any discomfort," said a spokesman for the discount chain. "that may have been caused by the baseball caps and shorts carrying the insignia '88' ." He explained that it was not the company's intent to promote hate. Since when does 88 mean "hate"? It turns out that some neoNazis have discovered that the eighth letter of the alphabet is "h", and to them the number 88 is an oh-so- secret ceded symbol for "heil Hitler" . The Boston Herald recalled the days of dot-and-dash telegraphy, with its two-digit codes for common phrases, and observed that "on CB and ham radio, and at the bottom of an odd e-mail, you still run across '88'—'love and kisses', which no gallant will dare use anymore to pique the interest of the YLs ( young ladies) for fear they'll think he is a bug-eyed, swastika--tattooed nutcake" Fans of Chet Gould's "Dick Tracy" strip of the 1950's will remember a piano-playing cartoon character with the musical name "88 Keys", played by Mandy Patinkin in the 1990 movie version. It comes from the number of keys on a piano keyboard, and its symbol can be the opposite of hatred: "Some of those 88 keys are white, and some black," notes Larry Horn of Yale University, "all playing together in peaceful harmony-and each set pretty boring on its own. Makes you wonder." This latest superstition imposed on a number, and its panicky effect on merchants, is nothing new. It's a variant of 311, throe references to the 11th letter, k, for the Ku Klux Klan. (Manufacturers who may have inadvertently turned out baseball caps with that number on it will now turn white as a sheet.) Before that, 666 was a hot number for the nervous. In the New Testament's Revelation 13: 9-18, the Apostle John recalls a vision of a boast that was an opponent of Christ: "Count the number of the beast," goes the King James Version, "for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six." Extrapolating this into a name is an example of gematria, an ancient numbers game that assigns each letter of the alphabet a numerical value. Some scholars point out that the verse characterizes, but does not name, the beast-which aren't Satan. Numbers are not letters. Hate groups and concerned cabals do not own the numbers, which can be used to stand for anything. So wear 88 all you like, and if you have nightmares about 666, as soda jerks used to say I'm 86 on the mail.

单选题As for dreams, we can conclude that

单选题Menorca or Majorca? It is that time of the year again. The brochures are piling up in travel agents while newspapers and magazines bulge with advice about where to go. But the traditional packaged holiday, a British innovation that provided many timid natives with their first experience of warm sand, is not what it was. Indeed, the industry is anxiously awaiting a High Court ruling to find out exactly what it now is. Two things have changed the way Britons research and book their holidays: low-cost airlines and the internet. Instead of buying a ready made package consisting of a flight, hotel, car hire and assorted entertainment from a tour operator's brochure, it is now easy to put together a trip using an online travel agent like Expedia or Travelocity, which last July bought Lastminute. com for ￡577m (＄1 billion), or from the proliferating websites of airlines, hotels and car-rental firms. This has led some to sound the death knell for high street travel agents and tour operators. There have been upheavals and closures, but the traditional firms are starting to fight back, in part by moving more of their business online. First Choice Holidays, for instance, saw its pre tax profit rise by 16% to ￡114m ( ＄196m) in the year to the end of October. Although the overall number of holidays booked has fallen, the company is concentrating on more valuable long-haul and adventure trips. First Choice now sells more than half its trips directly, either via the internet, over the telephone or from its own travel shops. It wants that to reach 75% within a few years. Other tour operators are showing similar hustle. MyTravel managed to cut its loss by almost half in 2005. Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays, now both German owned, are also bullish about the coming holiday season. Highstreet travel agents are having a tougher time, though, not least because many leading tour operations have cut the commissions they pay. Some high-street travel agents are also learning to live with the internet, helping people book complicated trips that they have researched online, providing advice and tacking on other services: This is seen as a growth area. But if an agent puts together separate flights and hotel accommodation, is that a package, too? The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says it is and the agent should hold an Air Travel Organisers- Licence, which provides financial guarantees to repatriate people and provide refunds. The scheme dates from the early 1970s, when some large British travel firms went bust, stranding customers on the Costas. Although such failures are less common these days, the CAA had to help out some 30,000 people last year. The Association of British Travel Agents went to the High Court in November to argue such bookings are not traditional packages and so do not require agents to acquire the costly licences. While the court decides, millions of Britons will happily click away buying online holidays, unaware of the difference.

单选题Some countries are more populous; some have more crime. But in no other country are crime fighters quite so knowledgeable about citizens as in Britain. On January 4th a boastful Home Office detailed the triumphs of the world's biggest forensic DNA database, which holds samples from more than 5% of the entire population of England and Wales. Recent changes to the rules governing the database mean that it may eventually hold profiles from more than a fifth of all adults. Once a country starts storing DNA samples from criminals it is hard to resist the urge to expand the collection. When the National DNA Database (NDNAD) was set up in 1995, samples could only be taken from those charged with "recordable" offences. If a suspect was not tried, or was freed, the sample had to be destroyed and the profile removed from the database. That law was abandoned in 2001 , after two men who had been convicted of murder and rape had their cases overturned on appeal -the DNA evidence against them related to crimes they had not been convicted of, and so ought to have been removed from the database. The change has led to the retention of around 200,000 samples that would previously have been destroyed. Some 7,591 of these were subsequently matched with samples from crime scenes, including those from 88 murders and 116 rapes. And since April 2004, police have been able to take and keep samples from anyone arrested for a recordable offence, even if charges do not ensue. The main reason the NDNAD is larger than databases in other countries is that Britain was first to start using DNA as an investigative tool. So not only has it had time to collect more DNA samples, but it has also had longer to appreciate the sheer power of a large database. "Every other country that does data basing will get to where Britain is now," says Chris Asplen, a consultant to law enforcement agencies and governments on DNA technology. The increased use of DNA evidence has given rise to intriguing new courtroom defences. DNA tests are now so sensitive that they can detect if a person has sneezed or sweated near an object. John Swain, a barrister with a background in biochemistry, recently defended a man charged with armed robbery. The defendant's DNA was on the gun that was used, but the defences argued that he might just have been near it after he had been to the gym, and that an errant bead of sweat could account for the presence of his DNA on a weapon he had never handled. He was declared not guilty.

单选题Clothes, decorations, physique, hair and facial (1) give a great deal of information about us. For instance, we wear clothes to keep us warm, (2) unlike animals we do not have a protective (3) of hair. But for the purpose of communication, we dress (4) clothes of different colours, style and material; we wear jewellery and other valuables; we use cosmetics and perfume; we (5) beards and sideburns; and we smoke pipes and carry walking sticks. Strict rules govern the clothes we wear. We do not, wear football boots with a dinner-jacket, (6) a boiler suit to work in an insurance office. A clerk on Wall Street will wear more formal dress than someone in a (7) job in a country town. Fashionable and smart (8) are associated with good qualities, and well-dressed people have been (9) to get more help and cooperation from (10) strangers. For example, a woman is often given more (11) of help with her broken-down car when she is dressed attractively than when she is dressed less (12) . Rebels consider themselves to be different from other people in society, and often (13) their physical appearance to show this. In the last two decades in Britain there have been a number of (14) movements with distinct uniforms. Hippies did not just wear simple clothes but dressed in a particular style that made them instantly (15) . But in our modem society some people (16) choose particular clothes to project the personalities. (17) types wear brighter colours than more reserved people. Some people wear odd (18) of clothes to express their individuality. For example, someone (19) give an impression of high social status, (20) origin and bad temper by wearing an expensive suit.

单选题When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn"t biting her nails just yet . But the 47-year-old manicurist isn"t cutting, filing or polishing as many nails as she"d like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I"m a good economic indicator," she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they"re concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middlebrow Dillard"s department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don"t know if other clients are going to abandon me, too." she says. Even before Alan Greenspan"s admission that America"s red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year"s pace. But don"t sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy"s long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening. Consumers say they"re not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there"s a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range , predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses," says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job. Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn"t mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan"s hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.

单选题The last sentence of paragraph 2 could be explained as which of the following? ______.

单选题Staples( in the third paragraph) are commodities ______.

单选题From paragraph 1 we can infer that it is now possible for women to embark on a career because

单选题It is evident that there is a close connection between the capacity to use language and the capacities covered by the verb" to think". Indeed, me writers have identified thinking with using words: Plato coined the saying, "In thinking the soul is talking to itself"; J.B. Watson reduced thinking to inhibited speech located in the minute movements or tensions of the physiological mechanisms involved in speaking; and although Ryle is careful to point out that there are many senses in which a person is said to think in which words are not in evidence, he has also said that saying something in a specific frame of mind is thinking a thought. Is thinking reducible to, or dependent upon, language habits? It would seem that many thinking situations are hardly distinguishable from the skilful use of language, although there are some others in which language is not involved. Thought cannot be simply identified with running language. It may be the case, of course, that the non-linguistic skills involved in thought can only be acquired and developed if the learner is able to use and understand language. However, this question is one which we cannot hope to answer in this book. Obviously being able to use language makes for a considerable development in all one's capacities but how precisely this comes about we cannot say. At the common-sense level it appears that there is often a distinction between thought and the words we employ to communicate with other people. We often have to struggle hard to find words to capture what our thinking has already grasped, and when we do find words we sometimes feel that they fail to do their job properly. Again when we report or describe our thinking to other people we do not merely report unspoken words and sentences. Such sentences do not always occur in thinking, and when they do they axe merged with vague imagery and the hint of unconscious or subliminal activities going on just out of range. Thinking, as it happens, is more like struggling, striving, or searching for something than it is like talking or reading. Words do play their part but they are rarely the only feature of thought. This observation is supported by the experiments of the Wurzburg psychologists reported in Chapter Eight who showed that intelligent adaptive responses can occur in problem solving situations without the use of either words or images of any kind; ",Set" and "determining tendencies" operate without the actual use of language in helping us to think purposefully and intelligently. Again the Study of speech disorders due to brain injury or disease suggest that patients can think without having adequate control over their language, some patients, for example, fail to find the names of objects presented to them and are unable to describe simple events which they witness; they even find it difficult to interpret long written notices. But they succeed in playing games of chess or draughts. They can use the concepts needed for chess playing or draughts playing but are unable to use many of the concepts in ordinary language. How they manage to do this we do not know. Yet animals such as Kohler's chimpan2ees can solve problems by working out strategies such as the invention of implements or Climbing aids when such animals have not language beyond a few warning cries. Intelligent or "insightful" behavior is not dependent in the case of monkeys on language skills: presumably human beings have various capacities for thinking situations which are likewise independent of language.

单选题Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank. In every cultivated language there are two great classes of words which, taken together, comprises the whole vocabulary. First, there are those words{{U}} (1) {{/U}}which we become acquainted in daily conversation, which we{{U}} (2) {{/U}}, that is to say, from the{{U}} (3) {{/U}}of our own family and from our familiar associates, and{{U}} (4) {{/U}}we should know and use{{U}} (5) {{/U}}we could not read or write. They{{U}} (6) {{/U}}the common things of life, and are the stock in trade of all who {{U}}(7) {{/U}}the language. Such words may be called "popular", since they belong to the people {{U}}(8) {{/U}}and are not the exclusive{{U}} (9) {{/U}}of a limited class. On the other hand, our language{{U}} (10) {{/U}}a multitude of words which are comparatively {{U}}(11) {{/U}}used in ordinary conversation. Their meanings are known to every educated person, but there is little{{U}} (12) {{/U}}to use them at home or in the market-place. Our{{U}} (13) {{/U}}acquaintance with them comes not from our mother's{{U}} (14) {{/U}}or from the talk of our school-mates, {{U}}(15) {{/U}} from books that we read, lectures that we{{U}} (16) {{/U}}, or the more{{U}} (17) {{/U}}conversation of highly educated speakers who are discussing some particular{{U}} (18) {{/U}}in a style appropriately elevated above the habitual{{U}} (19) {{/U}}of everyday life. Such words are called "learned", and the{{U}} (20) {{/U}} between them and the "popular" words is of great importance to a right understanding of linguistic process.