单选题The United States is the United Nations' biggest deadbeat. Conservatives in Congress, led by Senator Jessie Helms, stopped Washington from paying its dues until the UN reduced its assessment and made other changes. Now, thanks to the hard work of Richard Holbrooke, America's UN representative, and his staff, the UN has agreed to trim the U. S. share of financial burdens for the UN general budget and for peacekeeping. Mr. Helms, who has praised the deal, should release the dues he has been holding hostage— $582 million of the $1.3 billion the UN says it is owed. The new formula would reduce the U. S. contribution to the general UN budget to 22% from the current level of 25%—a symbolic difference of only $34 million a year. Washington, which has been paying just over 30% of the peacekeeping budget, would now pay 27%—a difference of $80 million to $120 million a year—and that percentage will drop further. While poor countries would not pay more, the dues of other wealthy nations would rise under the new system. The agreement would probably not have been reached without the intervention of the media magnate Ted Turner, who is already contributing $1 billion to UN programs over 10 years. Mr. Turner gave $34 million to cover the one-year gap during which other nations prepare to raise their contributions. His offer should embarrass Congress, which forced diplomats to waste their influence at the UN in months of negotiations to save a sum that is modest by federal budget standards. U. S. debts reduced the UN's ability to reimburse nations that contributed peacekeepers to UN missions worldwide. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan and other poor countries essentially made up for the absence of U. S. financial support. Since Washington benefits from peacekeepers, who damp down conflicts without U. S. troops, it should not be discouraging nations from sending them. Washington's natural allies at the UN were concerned that the U. S. wanted influence without meeting its treaty obligations. Some of them withheld support for U. S. proposals. Mr. Helms should also end his hold on an additional $244 million in back dues, whose release he has conditioned on a reduction in U. S. dues for specialized UN agencies such as Unicef and the UN refugee organization. These agencies need full support. A switch by Mr. Helms would help the incoming Bush administration, which would reap the benefits of the restoration of America's full influence at the United Nations.

单选题The fourth paragraph is intended mainly to______.

单选题The banks’ strategies invented to rip the account holders include

单选题The film-awards season, which reaches its tearful climax with the Oscars next week, has long been only loosely related to the film business. Hollywood is dedicated to the art of funneling teenagers past popcorn stands, not art itself. But this year's awards are less relevant than ever. The true worth of a film is no longer decided by the crowd that assembles in the Kodak Theatre—or, indeed, by any American. It is decided by youngsters in countries such as Russia, China and Brazil. Hollywood has always been an international business, but it is becoming dramatically more so. In the past decade total box-office spending has risen by about one-third in North America while more than doubling elsewhere. Thanks to Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes and "Inception", Warner Bros made $2.93 billion outside North America last year, smashing the studio's previous record of $2.24 billion. Falling DVD sales in America, by far the world's biggest home-entertainment market, mean Hollywood is even more dependent on foreign punters. The rising foreign tide has lifted films that were virtually written off in America, such as "Prince of Persia" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Despite starring the popular Jack Black, "Gulliver's Travels" had a disappointing run in North America, taking $42m at the box office so far. But strong turnout in Russia and South Korea helped it reach almost $150m in sales elsewhere. As a result, it should turn a profit, says John Davis, the film's producer. The growth of the international box office is partly a result of the dollar's weakness. It was also helped by "Avatar", and eco-fantasy that made a startling $2 billion outside North America. But three things are particularly important: a cinema boom in the emerging world, a concerted effort by the major studios to make films that might play well outside America and a global marketing push to make sure they do. Russia, with its shrinking teenage population, is an unlikely spot for a box-office boom. Yet cinema- building is proceeding apace, and supply has created demand. Last year 160m cinema tickets were sold in Russia—the first time in recent years that sales have exceeded the country's population. Ticket prices have risen, in part because the new cinemas are superior, with digital projectors that can show 3D films. The big Hollywood studios are muscling domestic film-makers aside. In 2007 American films made almost twice as much at the Russian box office as domestic films—8.3 billion roubles ($325m) compared with 4.5 billion. Last year the imported stuff made some 16.4 billion roubles: more than five times as much as the home-grown product, estimates Movie Research, a Moscow outfit. Earlier this month Vladimir Putin, Russia's Prime Minister, said the government would spend less money supporting Russian film-makers and more on expanding the number of screens. (471 words)

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} 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 insect population increased due to ______.

单选题The compound word "quick-fix" in Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 is the closest in meaning to______

单选题The most appropriate title for this text is

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} In a perfectly free and open market economy, the type of employer—government or private-should have little or no impact on the earnings differentials between women and men. However, if there is discrimination against one sex, it is unlikely that the degree of discrimination by government and private employers will be the same. Differences in the degree of discrimination would result in earnings differentials associated with the type of employer. Given the nature of government and private employers, it seems most likely that discrimination by private employers would be greater. Thus, one would expect that, if women are being discriminated against, government employment would have a positive effect on women' s earnings as compared with their earnings from private employment. The results of a study by Fuchs support this assumption. Fuchs's results suggest that the earnings of women in an industry composed entirely of government employees would be 14.6 percent greater than the earnings of women in an industry composed exclusively of private employees. Other things being equal. In addition, both Fuchs and Sanborn have suggested that the effect of discrimination by consumers on the earnings of self-employed women may be greater than the effect of either government or private employer discrimination on the earnings of women employees. To test this hypothesis, Brown selected a large sample of white male and female workers from the 1970 Census and divided them into three categories: private employees, government employees, and self-employed. (Black workers were excluded from the sample to avoid picking up earnings differentials that were the result of racial disparities. ) Brown's research design controlled for education, labor force participation, mobility, motivation, and age in order to eliminate these factors as explanations of the study's results. Brown's results suggest that men and women are not treated the same by employers and consumers. For men, self-employment is the highest earnings category, with private employment next, and government lowest. For women, this order is reversed. One can infer from Brown's results that consumers discriminate against self-employed women. In addition, self-employed women may have more difficulty than men in getting good employees and may encounter discrimination from suppliers and from financial institutions. Brown's results are clearly consistent with Fuchs's argument that discrimination by consumers has a greater impact on the earnings of women than does discrimination by either government or private employers. Also, the fact that women do better working for government than for private employers implies that private employers axe discriminating against women. The results do not prove that government does not discriminate against women. They do, however, demonstrate that if government is discriminating against women, its discrimination is not having as much effect on women's earnings as is discrimination in the private sector.

单选题"High tech" and "state of the art" are two expressions that describe very modern technology. High tech is just a shorter way of saying high technology. And high technology describes any invention, system of device that uses the newest ideas or discoveries of science and engineering. What is high tech? A computer is high tech. So is a communications satellite. A modern manufacturing system is surely high tech. High tech became a popular expression in the United States during the early 1980's. Because of improvements in technology, people could buy many new kinds of products in American stores, such as home computers, microwave ovens, etc. "State of the art" is something that is as modern as possible. It is a product that is based on the very latest methods and techn01ogy. Something that is "state of the art" is the newest possible design or product of a business or industry. A state of the art television set, for example, uses the most modern electronic design and parts. It is the best that one can buy. "State of the art" is not a new expression. Engineers have used it for years, to describe the best and most modern way of doing something. Millions of Americans began to use the expression in the late 1970's. The reason was the computer revolution. Every computer company claimed that its computers were "state of the art". Computer technology changed so fast that a state of the art computer today might be old tomorrow. The expression "state of the art" became as common and popular as computers themselves. Now all kinds of products are said to be "state of the art".

单选题It has been justly said that while "we speak with our vocal organs we (1) with our whole bodies. " All of us communicate with one another (2) , as well as with words. Sometimes we know what we're doing, as with the use of gestures such as the thumbs-up sign to indicate that we (3) . But most of the time we're not aware that we're doing it. We gesture with eyebrows or a hand, meet someone else's eyes and (4) . These actions we (5) are random and incidental. But researchers (6) that there is a system of them almost as consistent and comprehensible as language, and they conclude that there is a whole (7) of body language, (8) the way we move, the gestures we employ, the posture we adopt, the facial expression we (9) , the extent to which we touch and distance we stand (10) each other. Body language serves a variety of purposes. Firstly it can replace verbal communication, (11) with the use of gesture. Secondly it can modify verbal communication. Loudness and (12) of voice is an example here. Thirdly it regulates social interaction: turn taking is largely governed by non-verbal (13) . Fourthly it conveys our emotions and attitude. This is (14) important for successful cross-cultural communication. Every culture has its own body language, and children absorb its nuances (15) with spoken language. The way an Englishman crosses his legs is (16) like the way a male American does it. When we communicate with people from other cultures, the body language sometimes help make the communication easy and (17) , such as shaking hand is such a (18) gesture that people all over the world know that it is a signal for greeting. But sometimes the body language can cause certain misunderstanding (19) people of different cultures often have different forms of behavior for sending the same message or have different (20) towards the same body signals.