单选题The word "counterproductive" ( Line 3, Paragraph 4) probably means

单选题The author regards the notion that heat pumps have a genuine drawback as a

单选题Toward the novel literary idea, the author% attitude seems to be that of

单选题From the fifth paragraph we may infer that Anorexia and Bulimia are

单选题By saying "The benefits are not to be sneezed at" (Line 1, Paragraph 4) , the author means

单选题When mentioning "the something-for-nothing days" (Paragraph 2), the writer is talking about ______.

单选题One of the recent, important changes in higher education relates to

单选题Americans usually consider themselves a friendly people. Their friendships, however, tend to be shorter and more casual than friendships among people from other cultures. It is not uncommon for Americans to have only one close friend during their life-time, and consider other "friends" to be just social acquaintances. This attitude probably has something to do with American mobility and the fact that Americans do not like to be dependent on other people. They tend to "compartmentalize" friendships, having "friends at work" ,"friends on the softball team", "family friends", etc. Because the United States is a highly active society, full of movement and change, people always seem to be on the go. In this highly charged atmosphere, Americans can sometimes seem brusque or impatient. They want to get to know you as quickly as possible and then move on to something else. Sometimes, early on, they will ask you questions that you may feel are very personal. No insult is intended; the questions usually grow out of their genuine interest or curiosity, and their impatience to get to the heart of the matter. And the same goes for you. If you do not understand certain American behavior or you want to know more about them, do not hesitate to ask them questions about themselves. Americans are usually eager to explain all about their country or anything "American" in which you may be interested. So much so in fact that you may become tired of listening. It doesn't matter, because Americans tend to be uncomfortable with silence during a conversation. They would rather talk about the weather or the latest sports scores, for example, than deal with silence. On the other hand, don't expect Americans to be knowledgeable about international geography or world affairs, unless those subjects directly involve the United States. Because the United States is not surrounded by many other nations, some Americans tend to ignore the rest of the world.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Many people consider the wider use of biofuels a promising way of reducing the amount of surplus carbon dioxide (CO2) being pumped into the air by the world’s mechanized transport. The theory is that plants such as sugar cane, maize (corn, to Americans), oilseed rape and wheat take up CO2 during their growth, so burning fuels made from them should have no net effect on the amount of that gas in the atmosphere. Theory, though, does not always translate into practice, and just as governments have committed themselves to the greater use of biofuels, questions are being raised about how green this form of energy really is. The latest comes from the International Council for Science (ICSU) based in Paris. The ICSU report concludes that, so far, the production of biofuels has aggravated rather than ameliorated global warming. In particular, it supports some controversial findings published in 2007 by Paul Crutzen of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany. Dr. Crutzen concluded that most analyses had underestimated the importance to global warming of a gas called nitrous oxide (N2O). The amount of this gas released by farming biofuel crops such as maize and rape probably negates by itself any advantage offered by reduced emissions of CO2. Although N2O is not common in the Earth’s atmosphere, it is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 and it hangs around longer. The result is that, over the course of a century, its ability to warm the planet is almost 300 times that of an equivalent mass of CO2. N2O is made by bacteria that live in soil and water and, these days, their raw material is often the nitrogen-rich fertiliser that modern farming requires. Since the 1960s the amount of fertiliser used by farmers has increased sixfold, and not all of that extra nitrogen ends up in their crops. Maize, in particular, is described by experts in the field as a “nitrogen-leaky” plant because it has shallow roots and takes up nitrogen for only a few months of the year. This would make maize (which is one of the main sources of biofuel) a particularly bad contributor to global N2O emissions. But it is not just biofuels that are to blame. The ICSU report suggests N2O emissions in general are probably more important than had been realised. Previous studies, including those by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations-appointed body of experts, may have miscalculated their significance — and according to Adrian Williams of Cranfield University, in Britain, even the IPCC’s approach suggests that the global-warming potential of most of Britain’s annual crops is dominated by N2O emissions.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} 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{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} When Marine Lt. Alan Zarracina finally did the splits after months of struggling with the difficult pose in yoga class, the limber women around him applauded. Zarracina, a 24-year-old Naval Academy graduate and flight student, admits he would have a hard time explaining the scene to other Marines. Each class ends with a chant for peace. Then, instructor Nancy La Nasa hands students incense sticks as a gift for their 90 minutes of back bends, shoulder stands and other challenging positions. Zarracina has tried to drag some of his military friends to class, but they make fun of him. "It's not necessarily considered masculine," he said. Still, the popular classes, based on ancient Hindu practices of meditation through controlled breathing, balancing and stretching, are catching on in military circles as a way to improve flexibility, balance and concentration. A former Navy SEAL told Zarracina about the class. The August edition of Fit Yoga, the nation's second-largest yoga magazine with a circulation of 100,000, features a photo of two Naval aviators doing yoga poses in full combat gear aboard an aircraft carrier. "At first it seemed a little shocking—soldiers practicing such a peaceful art," writes editor Rita Trieger. Upon closer inspection, she said, she noticed "a sense of inner calm" on the aviators' faces. "War is hell, and if yoga can help them find a little solace, that's good," said Trieger, a longtime New York yoga instructor. Retired Adm. Tom Steffens, who spent 34 years as a Navy SEAL and served as the director of the elite corps' training, regularly practices yoga at his home in Norfolk, Va. "Once in a while I'll sit in class, and everyone is a 20-something young lady with a 10-inch waist and here I am this old guy," he joked. Steffens, who said the stretching helped him eliminate the stiffness of a biceps injury after surgery, said the benefits of regular practice can be enormous. "The yoga cured all kinds of back pains," he said. "Being a SEAL, you beat up your body." Yoga breathing exercises can help SEALs with their diving, and learning to control the body by remaining in unusual positions can help members stay in confined spaces for long periods, he said. "The ability to stay focused on something, whether on breathing or on the yoga practice, and not be drawn off course, that has a lot of connection to the military," he said. "In our SEAL basic training, there are many things that are yoga-like in nature."

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Shortly after September 11th, President Bush's father observed that just as Pearl Harbor awakened this country from the notion that we could somehow avoid the call of duty to defend freedom in Europe and Asia in World War Two, so, too, should this most recent surprise attack erase the concept in some quarters that America can somehow go it alone in the fight against terrorism or in anything else for that matter. But America's allies have begun to wonder whether that is the lesson that has been learned--or whether the Afghanistan campaign's apparent success shows that unilateralism works just fine. The United States, that argument goes, is so dominant that it can largely afford to go it alone. It is true that no nation since Rome has loomed so large above the others, but even Rome eventually collapsed. Only a decade ago, the conventional wisdom lamented an America in decline. Bestseller lists featured books that described America's fall. Japan would soon become "Number One". That view was wrong at the time, and when I wrote "Bound to Lead" in 1989, I, like others, predicted the continuing rise of American power. But the new conventional wisdom that America is invincible is equally dangerous if it leads to a foreign policy that combines unilateralism, arrogance and parochialism. A number of advocates of "realist" international-relations theory have also expressed concern about America's staying-power. Throughout history, coalitions of countries have arisen to balance dominant powers, and the search for traditional shifts in the balance of power and new state challengers is well under way. Some see China as the new enemy; others envisage a Russia-China-India coalition as the threat. But even if China maintains high growth rates of 6% while the United States achieves only 2%, it will not equal the United States in income per head until the last half of the century. Still others see a uniting Europe as a potential federation that will challenge the United States for primacy. But this forecast depends on a high degree of European political unity, and a low state of transatlantic relations. Although realists raise an important point about the leveling of power in the international arena, their quest for new cold-war-style challengers is largely barking up the wrong tree. They are ignoring deeper changes in the distribution and nature of power in the contemporary world. The paradox of American power in the 21st century is that the largest power since Rome cannot achieve its objectives unilaterally in a global information age.

单选题What's your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember learning to walk? Or talk? The first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom (1) events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, (2) children younger than three or four (3) retain any specific, personal experiences. A variety of explanations have been (4) by psychologists for this "childhood amnesia". One argues that the hippo-campus, the region of the brain which is (5) for forming memories, does not mature until about the age of two. But the most popular theory (6) that, since adults don't think like children, they cannot (7) childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories or (8) one event follows (9) as in a novel or film. But when they search through their mental (10) for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don't find any that fit the (11) It's like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new (12) for childhood amnesia. She argues that there simply aren't any early childhood memories to (13) . According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else's spoken description of their personal (14) in order to turn their own short-term, quickly forgotten (15) of them into long term memories. In other (16) , children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about (17) — Mother talking about the afternoon (18) looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean Park. Without this (19) reinforcement, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form (20) memories of their personal experiences.

单选题According to the writer, it is difficult for you to go to sleep if ______.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} My inspiration is my grandmother, who's still alive at 96. She raised me from the time I was 8 on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. In another era she could have done what I do, although I didn't know what a CEO was then. I'm a real go-getter and don't know any other way. I tell my 12-year-old daughter, if you have a test, why not try for an A? I don't believe in half doing something. In my career, the biggest shock came in my 20's. I loved my job as a field systems analyst at 3M, and wanted my first manager's job at headquarters. They even told me I was the best candidate, totally qualified. Then they told me, "It's not possible because you're a woman." I was so shocked that I quit. I had this feeling of being totally blown away as I crawled back to Atlanta. I preach to people: there are no bad bosses. You learn how not to treat people. My worst boss was full of himself and wanted to micromanage. The man didn't have a complimentary bone in his body. I still have my performance review he wrote in small anal print. It was winter in Minnesota. I didn't want to drive. I was out the door at 5 p.m. because the bus left the front door at 5: 06. He put that down in my review how fast I was out the door. It didn't matter the rest of the year I was there until 6 or 7. Later, when I switched companies. I attended an off-site strategy meeting in Florida. There was a barbecue and the meeting continued on into the evening. My boss' boss threw a towel across the room and said, "Clean up, Carol." I caught the towel, went over and scrubbed his face. Everybody in the room went "Ohhhh." The luckiest thing in my career is that I have a computer science degree. Doors opened wide at a time when it wasn't necessarily great for women. If I could wave a magic wand, I'd have every girl pass college freshman calculus.

单选题We can infer that entertainment in 1845 was based on