单选题Bram Cohen was an unusual kid. While other first-graders were outside playing, he was writing computer code. By junior high, he could solve Rubik's Cube in a few minutes. A college dropout, he went on to co-found a hacker's convention in San Francisco. " I was always really weird, " he says. Yet it was only two years ago, at age27, that he learned why. Cohen says he has trouble examining his thoughts and making eye contact but has learned to control his symptoms using behavioral psychology. Now he has a new task: warding off accusations by the Hollywood film industry that a breakthrough piece of software he wrote is threatening the movie business the way Napster menaced—and subsequently revolutionized—the music world. Cohen is the author of a free program called BitTorrent, which has been downloaded more than 20 million times and underpins a new generation of file-sharing technology. BitTorrent addresses a couple of the biggest problems of file sharing—that downloading bogs down when lots of folks access a file at once, and that some people leech, downloading content but refusing to share with others on the network. BitTorrent eliminates the bottleneck by having everyone share little pieces of a file at the same time—a process techies call swarming. And the program prevents leeching since folks must upload a file while they download it. All this means that the more popular the content, the more efficiently it zips through the network—bad news if you're a movie studio trying to hinder the trading of films like The In credibles. Says Andrew Parker of the Web-tracking firm CacheLogic, " It has turned the download world on its head. " Hollywood has good reason to be worried. BitTorrent downloads account for one-third of Internet traffic, according to CacheLogic. So-called tracker sites post links to movies, video games and episodes of TV shows, the content of which is then traded at express speeds. With more folks logging onto the Internet via broadband connections, online trading of movies and TV shows is surging. Downloads of feature films alone are up 175% in the past year, says BigChampagne. In response, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently filed dozens of civil suits against tracker sites in the U. S. and Britain, as well as criminal complaints against sites in France. The industry is hoping that in a case scheduled for next month, the U. S. Supreme Court will rule against firms that produce file-sharing software, such as Morpheus and Grokster. Neither Cohen nor BitTorrent is named in the lawsuit, although an MPAA spokesman says Cohen is under examination for continuing to develop the software " and making it easy to steal copyright material. /

单选题The idea that, if your house is built in the right position, this may affect your success in life seems strange to many people. However, to believers in Feng-Shui, or the art of geomancy, not only the position but also the choice of decorations and even the color of your home can mean the difference between good fortune and disaster. This art has been practiced for centuries in China and is still used all over South East Asia. Even the huge Hong Kong banks call in a geomant if they are planning to build new offices. They have such faith in his knowledge that if he advises them to move, they will alter their plans for even their biggest buildings. Like many Oriental beliefs the geomant's skill depends on the idea of harmony in nature. If there is no imbalance between the opposing forces of Yin and Yang, the building will bring luck to its inhabitants. This means that the house must be built on the right spot as well as facing the right direction, and also be painted an auspicious color. For instance, if there are mountains to the north, this will protest them from evil influences. If the house is painted red, this will bring happiness to the occupants while green symbolizes youth and will bring long life. Other factors, such as the owner's time and date of birth, are taken into account, too. The geomant believes that unless all these are considered when choosing a site for construction, the fortune of the people using it will be at risk. Indeed, to ignore the geomant's advice can have fatal results. The death of the internationally famous Kung-Fu star, Bruce Lee, has been used as an example. It is said that when Lee found out that the house he was living in was an unlucky one, he followed a geomant's advice and installed an eight-sided mirror outside his front door to bring him luck. Unfortunately, a storm damaged the mirror and the house was left unprotected from harmful influences. Soon afterwards Lee died in mysterious circumstances. Not only is Feng-Shui still used in South East Asia, but it has also spread right across the world. Even in modern New York a successful commercial artist called Milton Glaser has found it useful. He was so desperate after his office was broken into six times that he consulted a geomant. He was told to install a fish tank with six black fish and fix a red clock to the ceiling. Since then he has not been burglarized once. It may seem an incredible story, but no other suitable explanation has been offered.

单选题The statement which has not been mentioned in the passage is______

单选题After World War Ⅱ the glorification of an ever-larger GNP formed the basis of a new materialism, which became a sacred obligation for all Japanese governments, businesses and trade unions. Anyone who mentioned the undesirable by-products of rapid economic growth was treated as a heretic. Consequently, everything possible was done to make conditions easy for the manufacturers. Few dared question the wisdom of discharging untreated waste into the nearest water body or untreated smoke into the atmosphere. This silence was maintained by union leaders as well as by most of the country's radicals; except for a few isolated voices, no one protested. An insistence on treatment of the various effluents would have necessitated expenditures on treatment equipment that in turn would have given rise to higher operating costs. Obviously, this would have meant higher prices for Japanese goods, and ultimately fewer sales and lower industrial growth and GNP. The pursuit of nothing but economic growth is illustrated by the response of the Japanese government to the American educational mission that visited Japan in 1947. After surveying Japan's educational program, the Americans suggested that the Japanese fill in their curriculum gap by creating departments in chemical and sanitary engineering. Immediately, chemical engineering departments were established in all the country's universities and technical institutions. In contrast, the recommendation to form sanitary engineering departments was more or less ignored, because they could bring no profit. By 1960, only two second-rate universities, Kyoto and Hokkaido, were interested enough to open such departments. The reluctance to divert funds from production to conservation is explanation enough for a certain degree of pollution, but the situation was made worse by the type of technology the Japanese chose to adopt for their industrial expansion. For the most part, they simply copied American industrial methods. This meant that methods originally designed for use in a country that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific with lots of air and water to use as sewage receptacles were adopted for an area a fraction of the size. Moreover, the Japanese diet was much more dependent on water as a source of fish and as an input in the irrigation of rice; consequently discharged wastes built up much more rapidly in the food chain.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Even at the Vatican. not all sacred beliefs are absolute: Thou shalt not kill, but war can be just. Now, behind the quiet walls, a clash is shaping up involving two poles of near certainty: the church's long-held ban on condoms and its advocacy of human life. The issue is AIDS. Church officials recently confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had requested a report on whether it might be acceptable for Catholics to use condoms in one narrow circumstance: to protect life inside a marriage when one partner is infected with H.I.V. or is sick with AIDS. Whatever the pope decides, church officials and other experts broadly agree that it is remarkable that so delicate an issue is being taken up. But they also agree that such an inquiry is logical, and particularly significant from this pope, who was Pope John Paul II’s strict enforcer of church doctrine. "In some ways, maybe he has got the greatest capacity to do it because there is no doubt about his orthodoxy," said the. Rev. Jon Fuller, a Jesuit physician who runs an AIDS clinic at the Boston Medical Center. The issue has surfaced repeatedly as one of the most complicated and delicate facing the church. For years, some influential cardinals and theologians have argued for a change for couples affected by AIDS in the name of protecting life, while others have fiercely attacked the possibility as demoting the church's long advocacy of abstinence and marital fidelity to fight the disease. The news broke just after Benedict celebrated his first anniversary as pope, a relatively quiet papal year. But he devoted his first encyclical to love, specifically between a man and a woman in marriage. Indeed, with regard to condoms, the only change apparently being considered is in the specific case of married couples. But any change would be unpopular with conservative Catholics, some of whom have expressed disappointment that Benedict has displayed a softer face now as defender of the faith than he did when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the papal adviser. "It's just hard to imagine that any pope—and this pope—would change the teaching," said Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation, a Catholic-oriented advocacy group in Washington that opposes abortion and contraception. It is too soon to know where the pope is heading. Far less contentious issues can take years to inch through the Vatican's nexus of belief and bureaucracy, prayer and politics, and Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the pope's top aide on health care issues, and other officials declined requests for interviews.

单选题According to the text, the optimistic mood seems to be

单选题Concerning the nature/nurture controversy, the writer of this article______.

单选题Experts have long pointed out that in the face of car-ownership explosion,______

单选题Digital photography is still new enough that most of us have yet to form an opinion about it (1) develop a point of view. But this hasn’t stopped many film and computer fans from agreeing (2) the early conventional wisdom about digital cameras — they’re neat (3) for your PC, but they’re not suitable for everyday picture taking. The fans are wrong. More than anything else, digital cameras are radically (4) what photography means and what it can be. The venerable medium of photography (5) we know, it is beginning to seem out of (6) with the way we live. In our computer and camcorder (7) , saving pictures as digital (8) and watching them on TV is no less practical — and in many ways more (9) than fumbling with rolls of film that must be sent off to be (10) . Paper is also terribly (11) . Pictures that are incorrectly framed, (12) , or lighted are nonetheless committed to film and ultimately processed into prints. The digital medium changes the (13) . Still images that are (14) digitally can immediately be shown on a computer (15) , a TV screen, or a small liquid crystal display (LCD) built right into the camera. And since the points of light that (16) an image are saved as a series of digital bits in electronic memory, (17) being permanently etched onto film, they can be erased, retouched, and transmitted (18) . What’s it like to (19) with one of these digital cameras? It’s a little like a first date — exciting, confusing and fraught with (20) .

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on Answer Sheet 1. "We want Singapore to have the X-factor, that buzz that you get in London, Paris, or New York." That is how Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister,{{U}} (1) {{/U}}his government's decision to{{U}} (2) {{/U}}gambling in the country,{{U}} (3) {{/U}}two large, Vegas-style casinos. Whether the casinos will indeed help to transform Singapore's staid image remains to be seen. But the decision bas already{{U}} (4) {{/U}}an uncharacteristic buzz among the country's normally{{U}} (5) {{/U}}citizens. The government has contemplated, and rejected{{U}} (6) {{/U}}casinos several times in the past. One reason was{{U}} (7) {{/U}}Singapore's economic growth was so rapid that casinos seemed like an unnecessary evil. Buddhism and Islam, two of the country's main religions,{{U}} (8) {{/U}}on gambling. The government itself has traditionally had strong, and often{{U}} (9) {{/U}}, ideas about how its citizens should behave. Until recently, for example, it refused to{{U}} (10) {{/U}}homosexuals to the civil service. It also used to{{U}} (11) {{/U}}chewing gum, which it considers a public nuisance. Nowadays,{{U}} (12) {{/U}}, Singapore's electronics industry, the mainstay of the economy, is struggling to cope with cheap competition from places like China. In the first quarter of this year, output{{U}} (13) {{/U}}by 5.8% at an annual rate. So the government wants lo promote tourism and other services to{{U}} (14) {{/U}}for vanishing jobs in manufacturing. Merrill Lynch, an investment bank,{{U}} (15) {{/U}}the two proposed casinos could{{U}} (16) {{/U}}in as much as $4 billion in the initial investment alone.{{U}} (17) {{/U}}its estimates, they would have annual revenues of{{U}} (18) {{/U}}$3.6 billion, and pay at least $600 million in taxes and fees. The government, for its part, thinks the integrated{{U}} (19) {{/U}}, as it coyly calls the casinos, would{{U}} (20) {{/U}}as many as 35,000 jobs.

单选题It can be inferred from the passage that a relativistic view of ethics

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Reading the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. {{B}}Text 1{{/B}} On a weekday night this January, thousands of flag-waving youths packed Olaya Street, Riyadh's main shopping strip, to cheer a memorable Saudi victory in the GCC Cup football final. One car, rock music blaring from its stereo, squealed to a stop, blocking an intersection. The passengers leapt out, clambered on to the roof and danced wildly in front of the honking crowd. Having paralyzed the traffic across half the city, they sped off before the police could catch them. Such public occasion was once unthinkable in the rigid conformist kingdom, but now young people there and in other Gulf states are increasingly willing to challenge authority. That does not make them rebels: respect for elders, for religious duty and for maintaining family bonds remain pre-eminent values, and premarital sex is generally out of the question. Yet demography is beginning to put pressure on ultra-conservative norms. After all, 60% of the Gulf's native population is under the age of 25. With many more of its citizens in school than in the workforce, the region faces at least a generation of rocketing demand for employment. In every single GCC country the native workforce will double by 2020. In Saudi Arabia it will grow from 3.3m now to over 8m. The task of managing this surge would be daunting enough for any society, but is particularly forbidding in this region, for several reasons. The first is that the Gulf suffers from a {{U}}lopsided{{/U}} labor structure. This goes back to the 1970s, when ballooning oil incomes allowed governments to import millions of foreign workers and to dispense cozy jobs to the locals. The result is a two-tier workforce, with outsiders working mostly in the private sector and natives monopolizing the state bureaucracy. Private firms are as productive as any. But within the government, claims one study, workers are worth only a quarter of what they get paid. Similarly, in the education sector, 30 years spent keeping pace with soaring student numbers has taken a heavy toll on standards. The Saudi school system, for instance, today has to cope with 5m students, eight times more than in 1970. And many Gulf countries adapted their curricula from Egyptian models that are now thoroughly discredited. They continue to favor rote learning of "facts" intended to instill patriotism or religious values. Even worse, the system as a whole discourages intellectual curiosity. It channels students into acquiring prestige degrees rather than gaining marketable skills. Of the 120,000 graduates that Saudi universities produced between 1995 and 1999, only 10,000 had studied technical subjects such as architecture or engineering. They accounted for only 2% of the total number of Saudis entering the job market.

单选题The pursuit of information has been a human preoccupation since knowledge was first recorded. In the 3rd century BC Ptolemy stole every (1) scroll from passing travellers to (2) his great library in Alexandria. After 2001 America (3) a program to compile as many data as possible about just about everything. Since 1996 Brewster Kahle has been (4) all the content on the web as a not-for-profit (5) called the "Internet Archive". It has (6) expanded to software, films, audio recordings and scanning books. There has always been more information than people can mentally process. The disparity between the amount of information and man's ability to deal with it may be (7) , but that need not be a cause for (8) Our sensory and attentional systems are tuned to be (9) People find patterns to compress information and make it manageable. (10) Commander Schmorrow does not think that man will be (11) by robots. "The flexibility of the human to consider as-yet-unforeseen (12) during critical decision-making, go (13) the gut when problem-solving under uncertainty and other such (14) reasoning behaviours will not be readily replaced by a computer," he says. The (15) of data now available is a resource, similar to other resources and even to technology itself. (16) , resources and technologies are neither good nor bad; it depends on how they are (17) . In the age of big data, computers will be monitoring more things, making more decisions and even (18) improving their own processes--and man will be left with the same (19) he has always faced. (20) T.S. Eliot asked: "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?/

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} When a disease of epidemic proportions rips into the populace, scientists immediately get to work, trying to locate the source of the affliction and find ways to combat it. Oftentimes, success is achieved, as medical science is able to isolate the parasite, germ or cell that causes the problem and finds ways to effectively kill or contain it. In the most serious of cases, in which the entire population of a region or country may be at grave risk, it is deemed necessary to protect the entire population through vaccination, so as to safeguard lives and ensure that the disease will not spread. The process of vaccination allows the patient's body to develop immunity to the virus or disease so that, if it is encountered, one can {{U}}ward it off naturally{{/U}}. To accomplish this, a small weak or dead strain of the disease is actually injected into the patient in a controlled environment, so that his body's immune system can learn to fight the invader properly. Information on how to penetrate the disease's defenses is transmitted to all elements of the patient's immune system in a process that occurs naturally, in which genetic information is passed from cell to cell. This makes sure that, should the patient later come into contact with the real problem, his body is well equipped and trained to deal with it, having already done so before. There are dangers inherent in the process, however. On occasion, even the weakened version of the disease contained in the vaccine proves too much for the body to handle, resulting in the immune system succumbing, and, therefore, the patient's death. Such is the case of the smallpox vaccine, designed to eradicate the smallpox epidemic that nearly wiped out the entire Native American population and killed massive numbers of settlers. Approximately 1 in 10,000 people who receives the vaccine contract the smallpox disease from the vaccine itself and dies from it. Thus, if the entire population of the United States were to receive the Smallpox Vaccine today, 3000 Americans would be left dead. Fortunately, the smallpox virus was considered eradicated in the early 1970's, ending the mandatory vaccination of all babies in America. In the event of a reintroduction of the disease, however, mandatory vaccinations may resume, resulting in more unexpected deaths from vaccination. The process, which is truly a mixed blessing, may indeed hide some hidden curses.