单选题It could be inferred from the last paragraph that______

单选题{{B}}Part C{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2. (10 points) What is the point of telling you about this second book? Well, it all hinges on the dates involved. The latter story was written in the early 1960s, whereas the Goosebumps series dates from the 1990s. (46) {{U}}This makes the point rather dear: The sands have shifted radically in 30 years. A "debunking" book like this is no longer fashionable{{/U}}. Who today wants to read about anything as thought-provoking and "uncool" as debunking? Where once a movie was commonplace? (47) {{U}}The "magical realism" movement, where natural and supernatural events happily converge, has become enormously influential in serious literature, as well{{/U}}. Movie and television viewers and readers of serious literature are given the tacit message that me line between the natural and supernatural is blurry, and perhaps even nonexistent. Not surprisingly, concomitant with these high--and pap--culture trends comes a profoundly disturbing collective shift in attitude. (48) {{U}}The general public no longer views science, let alone the ultimate truths of the universe, with a sense of awe and mystery, but instead considers it conservative and mundane, "trapped" in logical thinking.{{/U}} It is as if the shackles of rigidity have been removed when "open-minded" attitudes are conveyed on television, in books, in movies about ESP, UFQ, or any of a thousand other varieties of alleged paranormal phenomena. (49) {{U}}The great danger, in my estimation, is not so much that vast numbers of children and adults will get sucked wholesale into truly goofy belief systems, but that they will be misled into accepting the implicit message that science is boring, conservative, dose-minded, devoid of mystery, and a negative force in society.{{/U}} Again, this message is not overt, but tacit, perhaps not even consciously intended. Yet it is precisely this subliminality that makes it so insidious and dangerous. I have no quick fixes. I do not know how to quickly and easily repair decades of damage. I do not even fully understand why the sands have shifted so radically. (50) {{U}}All I can do is look on in sadness and worry about the future of rational inquiry, bemoaning the loss of awe toward genuine mysteries that our society was once lucky enough to possess{{/U}}.

单选题At the time when this article was written, the situation for doctors in Philadelphia seemed to be

单选题A variety of significant, attractive short-term benefits will drive the development of modern self-sufficient homes. These include security from severe weather, climate changes, and natural disasters; security from infectious diseases and related health problems; a fresh and nutritious diet; a dependable food supply; and security from global unrest. But the real benefit of Earth Homes will be the long-term sustainability of our planet. It should be no secret that the planet is experiencing unusual weather and climate abnormalities. The 10 hottest years in recorded history have all been in the last 15 years; the 1990s were the hottest decade on record. The Midwestern heat wave of 1995 killed 669 people in Chicago. In 1996, we had a season of record heat spells, and 1997 was the single wan nest year on record--until 1998 shattered global temperature records. Record-high temperatures throughout the southern United States during the summer of 1998 forced the shutdown of Walt Disney World's water parks because of the threat of a viral encephalitis outbreak. The United Nations and insurers blame unusual weather for thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Many scientists agree that the emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases. These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting in warming of the earth's surface. In 1990, scientists predicted that, if greenhouse gas emissions are not sharply decreased, we might experience a 1C to 3C rise in global temperatures. They suggested that we would have to cut in half our use of coal, oil, and gas in order to lower our emissions enough to maintain concentrations of greenhouse gases at the current levels. Proof of warning includes a decrease in the amount of snow that covers the Northern Hemisphere, a simultaneous decrease in Arctic sea ice, continued melting of alpine glaciers, and a rise in sea level. Rain has even been reported for the first time in Antarctica, and an ice-free patch of ocean about a mile wide has recently opened near the North Pole. Meanwhile, studies have shown that the carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere has been steadily increasing since 1958. Even though the rate of emissions from fossil fuels has been reduced, concentration has risen consistently. In 1995, the size of the ozone hole over Antarctica doubled to about the size of Europe. For the first time in recorded history, the hole stretched over populated areas, exposing residents in southern Chile and Argentina to very high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Studies have shown that a 1% decrease in ozone in the stratosphere produces a 2% increase in UV radiation reaching the ground, posing more risks to humans.

单选题John Mack and Mary Meeker shared similarities in that they both

单选题Some oil companies plan to get rid of some of the pollution they produce by pumping it into rocks deep inside the Earth, where they say it will stay for thousands of years. Other people ,though, aren't so sure this is advisable; environmental groups say that putting this pollution back into the Earth is a bad idea. When oil burns, it doesn' t just produce heat: it also produces carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a natural part of the air, but because people burn so much oil, there' s too much carbon dioxide in the air. This extra carbon dioxide is pollution; some scientific studies show that carbon dioxide is one of the" greenhouse gases" that is causing the Earth' s temperature to rise. Environmentalists say that the oil companies' plans may not work. The oil companies say they are making sure that the gas will never escape, but environmentalists wonder how the oil companies can be so sure that the gas won' t seep into the air. They also point out that there' s no way to check to make sure the gas isn' t leaking. In addition, the environmentalists point out that the pumping costs money--for research and for equipment--that the oil companies should be spending on preventing pollution, rather than on just moving it someplace else. Another problem, say some people who are concerned about the Earth, is that if the oil companies find a cheap way to get rid of their pollution, they won' t look for new kinds of energy. These environmentalists say that energy companies should be researching ways to use hydrogen, wind power, and solar power instead of finding better ways to use oil. They argue that continuing to use oil means that we will still need to buy oil from other countries instead of producing our own cheap, clean energy. Environmentalists also say that burying pollution just pushes the problem into the future, rather than really solving it. They say that if the oil companies pump carbon dioxide into the rocks inside the Earth, it will be there for thousands of years, and that no one knows if this plan--even if it works--might turn into a pollution problem for all of us in the future. The oil companies insist that their plan is safe, and that putting the gas inside the Earth is a reasonable way to deal with it. They point out that there is a lot of room in the Earth for this extra gas, and that putting carbon dioxide inside the Earth means that the gas won't be in the air, and if it' s not in the air, it won' t make the Earth warmer.

单选题 The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped. But the unwanted petrol and diesel did not go to waste for long, thanks to the development of the internal-combustion engine a few years later. Since then demand for oil has, with a couple of {{U}}blips{{/U}} in the 1970s and 1980s, risen steadily alongside ever-increasing travel by car, plane and ship. Three-fifths of it ends up in fuel tanks. With billions of Chinese and Indians growing richer and itching to get behind the wheel of a car, the big oil companies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and America's Energy Information Administration all predict that demand will keep on rising. We believe that they are wrong, and that oil is close to a peak. This is not the "peak oil" widely discussed several years ago, when several theorists, who have since gone strangely quiet, reckoned that supply would flatten and then fall. We believe that demand, not supply, could decline. In the rich world oil demand has already peaked: it has fallen since 2005. Even allowing for all those new drivers in Beijing and Delhi, two revolutions in technology will dampen the world's thirst for the black stuff. The first revolution was led by a man from Texas who has just died. George Mitchell championed "fracking" as a way to release huge supplies of "unconventional" gas from shale (a smooth soft rock) beds. This, along with vast new discoveries of conventional gas, has recently helped increase the world's reserves from 50 to 200 years. The other great change is in automotive technology. Rapid advances in engine and vehicle design also threaten oil's dominance. Foremost is the efficiency of the internal-combustion engine itself. Petrol and diesel engines are becoming ever more frugal. Not surprisingly, the oil "supermajors" and the IEA disagree. They point out that most of the emerging world has a long way to go before it owns as many cars, or drives as many miles per head, as America. But it would be foolish to predict from the rich world's past to booming Asia's future. The sorts of environmental policies that are reducing the thirst for fuel in Europe and America by imposing ever-tougher fuel-efficiency standards on vehicles are also being adopted in the emerging economies.

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. In his 1979 book, The Sinking Ark, biologist Norman Myers estimated that {{U}}(1) {{/U}} of more than 100 human-caused extinctions occur each clay, and that one million species {{U}}(2) {{/U}} by the century's end. Yet there is little evidence of {{U}}(3) {{/U}} that number of extinctions. For example, only seven species on the {{U}}(4) {{/U}} species list have become extinct {{U}}(5) {{/U}} the list was created in 1973. Bio- {{U}}(6) {{/U}} is an important value, according to many scientists. Nevertheless, the supposed mass extinction rates bandied about are {{U}}(7) {{/U}} by multiplying {{U}}(8) {{/U}} by improbables to get imponderables. Many estimates, for instance, rely a great deal on a "species-area {{U}}(9) {{/U}} ", which predicts that twice as many species will be found on 100 square miles {{U}}(10) {{/U}} on ten square miles. The problem is that species are not distributed {{U}}(11) {{/U}} , so bow much of a forest are destroyed may be as important as {{U}}(12) {{/U}} . {{U}} (13) {{/U}} , says Ariel Lugo, director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico, "Biologists who predict high {{U}}(14) {{/U}} rates {{U}}(15) {{/U}} the resiliency of nature". One of the main muses of extinctions is deforestation. According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, what destroys tropical trees is not commercial logging, {{U}}(16) {{/U}} "poor farmers who have no other {{U}}(17) {{/U}} for feeding their families than slashing and burning a {{U}}(18) {{/U}} of forest". In countries that practice modern {{U}}(19) {{/U}} agriculture, forests are in {{U}}(20) {{/U}} danger. In 1920, U. S. forests covered 732 million acres. Today they cover 737 million.

单选题The present situation about the work-life balance problem is that

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. The effect of the baby boom on the schools helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education in the 1920's. In the 1920's, but especially{{U}} (1) {{/U}}the Depression of the 1930's, the United States experienced a{{U}} (2) {{/U}}birth rate. Then with the prosperity{{U}} (3) {{/U}}on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it, young people married and{{U}} (4) {{/U}}households earlier and began to{{U}} (5) {{/U}}larger families than had their{{U}} (6) {{/U}}during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955.{{U}} (7) {{/U}}economics was probably the most important{{U}} (8) {{/U}}, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed{{U}} (9) {{/U}}the idea of the family also helps to{{U}} (10) {{/U}}this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming{{U}} (11) {{/U}}the first grade by the mid-1940's and became a{{U}} (12) {{/U}}by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself{{U}} (13) {{/U}}The wartime economy meant that few new schools were buih between 1940 and 1945.{{U}} (14) {{/U}}, large numbers of teachers left their profession during that period for better-paying jobs elsewhere. {{U}} (15) {{/U}}, in the 1950's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the custodial rhetoric of the 1930's no longer made{{U}} (16) {{/U}}; keeping youths ages sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high{{U}} (17) {{/U}}for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children. With the baby boom, the focus of educators{{U}} (18) {{/U}}turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and{{U}} (19) {{/U}}. The system no longer had much{{U}} (20) {{/U}}in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.

单选题The latest bad news is that reading and writing scores on the SAT have once again declined. The language competence of high schoolers fell steeply in the 1970s and has never recovered. This is very worrisome, because the best single measure of the overall quality of our primaries and secondary schools is the average verbal score of 17-year-olds. This score correlates with the ability to learn new things readily, to communicate with others and to hold down a job. It also predicts future income. The most credible analyses have shown that the chief causes are vast curricular changes, especially in the critical early grades. In the decades before the Great Verbal Decline, a content-rich elementary school experience evolved into a content-light, skills-based, test-centered approach. Cognitive psychologists agree that early childhood language learning (ages 2 to 10) is critical to later verbal competence, not just because of the remarkable linguistic plasticity of young minds, but also because of the so-called Matthew Effect. The name comes from a passage in the Scriptures: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Those who are language-poor in early childhood get relatively poorer, and fall further behind, while the verbally rich get richer. The origin of this cruel truth lies in the nature of word learning. The more words you already know, the faster you acquire new words. This sounds like an invitation to vocabulary study for tots, but that's been tried and it's not effective. Most of the word meanings we know are acquired indirectly, by intuitively guessing new meanings as we understand the overall gist of what we are hearing or reading. The Matthew Effect in language can be restated this way: "To those who understand the gist shall be given new word meanings, but to those who do not there shall ensue boredom and frustration." Clearly the key is to make sure that from kindergarten on, every student, from the start, understands the gist of what is heard or read. If preschoolers and kindergartners are offered substantial and coherent lessons concerning the human and natural worlds, then the results show up five years or so later in significantly improved verbal scores. By staying on a subject long enough to make all young children familiar with it, the gist becomes understood by all and word learning speeds up. This is especially important for low-income children, who come to school with smaller vocabularies and rely on school to impart the knowledge base affluent children take for granted. Current reform strategies focus on testing, improving teacher quality and other changes. Attention to these structural issues has led to improvements in the best public schools. But it is not enough.

单选题The scientific experiment about monkeys indicates that the author thinks

单选题From the first sentence of the passage, we learn that______

单选题Money has become plastic in the age of the credit card, but in an increasing number of countries, cash really is becoming plastic. After more than 300 years in (1) , the traditional paper banknote is gradually being (2) by new polymer technology. Note Printing Australia (NPA), a wholly (3) subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is (4) the only company in the world making plastic money, and it is (5) on an aggressive strategy to (6) more countries to its cause. The (7) of plastic notes are considerable. They cost about twice as much as paper notes but (8) four to five times as long--Australia's $ 10 paper note had a(n) (9) life of eight months but plastic lasts at least 30 months. In Papua New Guinea the 2 kina (54 cents) paper note lasted only four months but its plastic (10) lasts 24 months. This increased life (11) is particularly important in Asia where environmental conditions (12) humidity drastically reduce the life of a paper note. Plastic notes also cause 38% fewer paper jams in ATMs. But the real (13) point is that plastic notes are very hard to counterfeit. With increased (14) to computer scanners and printers, even schoolchildren can now (15) . good quality counterfeit paper notes. According to the U. S. Secret Service, which is in (16) of the security of U. S. banknotes, the $ 100 bill is the most counterfeited note in the world. The $ 100 bill (17) for 65% of the $ 500 billion (18) of U. S. banknotes in circulation, and an (19) 487,000 of these notes are fake--about 150 fakes per million notes. In Australia there are (20) about three fakes per million notes.

单选题Even in an era of global networks and cheap travel, international communication still faces one great barrier: we don't all speak the same language. But that gap is (1) as online translation services advance. Recently (2) website Meedan translates Arabic-language news stories into English, and vice versa, and displays the two versions (3) each other. Comments in either language are (4) translated. A new site for bloggers, called Mojofiti, automatically makes posts (5) to readers in 27 languages. And Google now has a tool that will (6) allow anyone with a camera-phone to photograph, say, a German restaurant menu, send the (7) as a multimedia message to Google's servers, and get an English translation sent back to them. All these services ultimately (8) a technique called statistical machine translation, in which software learns to translate by using mathematics to (9) large collections of previously translated documents. It then uses the (10) it has learned this way to (11) the most likely translation in future. (12) translation procedures have improved, some human (13) is still needed to provide a translation that reads well. Meedan's news articles, (14) , are machine translated and then tidied up by editors. Google's Toolkit for professional translators produces a machine translation for them to tidy up, in the process providing (15) to the software to improve its translation (16) With the fight help even a monoglot user (someone that speaks only a single language) could produce resuits as good as those of a (17) , says Philip Koehn of the University of Edinburgh, UK. His service, Caitra, (18) several possible phrases if it is uncertain which one is correct. This lets a monoglot user fix confusing phrases that would (19) be impossible without reading the (20)