单选题The word "accepted" in the last sentence of the first paragraph roughly means ______.

单选题The main difference between the modem superfarm and diversified farms is______

单选题The purpose of the author in writing this article is to show how to

单选题The word "draconian" (Line 1, Paragraph 4) may probably mean

单选题It can be inferred that the statements in the last paragraph are most probably

单选题The pollution of Hong Kong's beaches by oil from a damaged tanker last year recalls a similar incident which took place in Britain in 1967 when the Torrey Canyon, a huge oil tanker, split in two and caused disaster in coastal areas. Shoals of fishes were killed, sea birds hopelessly fouled with oil and coastal holiday resorts put out of business for several weeks. As a result of this particular incident scientists are becoming restless at the thought of Britain's inability to cope with national disasters on a large scale. The reason for their concern is that technology is rapidly outstripping(超越) man's ability to control it. Oil tankers, for instance, have been allowed to get bigger and bigger without sufficient thought being given to emergency braking and manoeuvring arrangement. Collisions at sea continue, but little effect has been made to develop safety devices as effective as those used for aircraft. Scientists were outspoken in expressing their concern during a recent meeting of the British Association. Unanimous approval was voiced when the leading speaker urged that a permanent national rescue services should be established, equipped for any emergency and ready to move off immediately. Of all the possible disasters mentioned, the one promoting most discussion was a major release of radioactivity from a nuclear power station. One does not need a particularly vivid imagination to visualize the other possibilities discussed. What would be the effect of a jumbo-jet crashing on a large chemical plant handling destroying liquids? Could the tapping of natural gas lead to any form of collapse? Suppose a lorry full of a highly poisonous chemical crashed unseen into a large reservoir? Dams can burst, abnormal conditions can lead to massive electrical blackouts. An intensive study of such possibilities could at least reduce the effects of future disasters. For example, it would mean that a number of technical alternatives (such as the choice between detergent or chalk for dispersing oil) could be examined and tested in advance so that specially trained expert would know exactly what action was needed in a given emergency.

单选题Students choose to stay closer to home mainly because of

单选题What is the real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees?_______

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read 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}} For years Internet merchants have poured millions of dollars into new technologies to make their sites easier to use. So why aren't online customers happier? Customer satisfaction levels have remained almost flat through the last several years. The problem, according to Larry Freed, chief executive of a consulting and research firm called ForeSee Results, is not so much that consumers have ignored the many improvements made in recent years. Rather, he said, they still expect more from Internet shopping than it has delivered. "If we walk into a local store, we don't expect that experience to be better than it was a couple years ago," Mr. Freed said. "But we expect sites to be better. The bar goes up every year." In ForeSee's latest survey, released last month, just five e-commerce sites registered scores higher than 80 out of 100, and no site scored higher than 85. It was much the same story a year ago, when just five scored higher than 80, with no site surpassing 85. "Scores have inched up over time for the best e-commerce companies, but the overall numbers haven't moved drastically," Mr. Freed said. "At the same time though, if you don't do anything you see your scores drop steadily." That dynamic has been a challenge for online merchants and investors, who a decade ago envisioned Internet stores as relatively inexpensive (and therefore extremely profitable ) operations. Now some observers predict a future where online retailers will essentially adopt something like the QVC model, with sales staff pitching the site's merchandise with polished video presentations, produced in a high-tech television studio. QVC. com is evolving in that direction. The Web site, which sold more than $1 billion in merchandise' in 2006, has for the last five years let visitors watch a live feed of the network's broadcast. But in recent months, QVC. com has also given visitors the chance to watch archives of entire shows, and in the coming months visitors will be able to find more video segments from recent shows, featuring individual products that remain in stock. Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC. com, said the Web site's video salesmanship is especially effective when combined with detailed product information, customer reviews and multiple photographs. About eight months ago, for instance, a customer said that she could not determine the size of a handbag from the photographs on the site because she could not tell the height of the model who was holding it. Within two weeks the site tested and introduced a new system, showing the bags with women of three different heights. The results were immediate: women who saw the new photographs bought the bags at least 10 percent more frequently than those who had not. Still, Mr. Myers said, video is a critically important element to sales. "E-commerce started with television commerce," he said. "The sites who engage and entertain customers will be winning here in the near future." Such a prospect is not necessarily daunting to other e-commerce executives. Gordon Magee, head of Internet marketing for Drs. Foster & Smith, based in a Rhinelander, Wis. said a transition to video "will be seamless for us." The company, Mr. Magee said, has in recent weeks discussed putting some of its product on video "so customers could see a 360-degree view they don't have to manipulate themselves.

单选题Through studying grocery lists, Bill Keaggy finds that

单选题Despite the doubts, and despite complaints from shop owners, London's congestion charge --introduced in February 2003 -- has managed to ease the gridlock in the city centre. Traffic is down by 18%, jams by 30%. The scheme's biggest weakness is that it is crude: drivers pay ￡ 8 ($14) to enter the zone between 7am and 6:30pm, regardless of how congested the roads are, or how long they stay. So road-pricing fans are watching trials by Transport for London (TfL) of a new detection system, called tag-and-beacon, with interest. Under such a scheme (used in Singapore and on some European roads) cars are fitted with electronic tags that are read by roadside masts. If the trial is successful, TfL says that the city could switch to the system once the contract to run the congestion charge is re-let in 2009. Currently, cameras are used to read license plates and track motorists. They are not always reliable: an individual camera identifies only around 70% of cars. Most driven get photographed more than once, which boosts the system's effectiveness to over 95%, but that still leaves several thousand vehicles per day whose details must be laboriously checked by hand. Tag-and-beacon technology is much more accurate, with an identification rate of over 99%. TfL says the trial is partly designed to see whether the new system could allow drivers to pay charges by direct debit. That would be popular with motorists, who complain that the current payment system is unfriendly: the toll for a day' s travel must be paid manually -- online, by phone or in a shop -- by midnight, with steep fines levied on forgetful drivers. More precise detection also allows for more precision in policy, and road-pricing enthusiasts see radical possibilities ahead. TfL says it is considering using the new technology to charge drivers each time they cross the zone boundary (up to a daily maximum), instead of paying once for an entire day's travel. That would be cheaper for drivers who make few trips into the zone, although drivers who spend a long time trundling around without leaving (thereby causing the most congestion) would get off lightly, too. Further refinements may be possible. The current system has cut traffic most drastically in the middle of the day, when congestion is at its lowest. Demand for road space would better match supply if charges were variable -- high at the busiest times of day and low in quiet periods. Such a time-sensitive, variable-charging scheme using a tag-and-beacon system was endorsed last year by Bob Kiley, the TfL's boss, who also said that he wanted to extend the congestion charge to other parts of London. That would be controversial, and Mr. Kiley's underlings were quick to insist that his musings were not official policy. But the original scheme was controversial too, yet Ken Livingstone, London's mayor and its biggest backer, was re-elected after introducing it. It would be a shame if timidity took hold now.

单选题The safety of mobile phones (U. S. cell-phones) seems to face new questions after British researchers found that microwave emissions can affect the health of earthworms in unexplained ways. The larvae of tiny soil worms called nematodes grew faster and became more (1) after they were (2) for a long time to weak microwave radiation, of the (3) strength and frequency as that (4) by mobile phones, they found. Why this occurred is (5) , and there is no evidence that human health is also affected. But, they warn, the finding challenges the standards which (6) whether a mobile is safe or not. These standards are based on whether the radiation is strong enough to cause a batch of (7) to warm up. Heat causes the chemical bonds in cells to (8) , a disruption that can be a potential (9) for cancer. The research, led by David de Pomerai at Nottingham University, central England, said larvae exposed to the microwaves (10) between eight and eleven percent faster than (11) which had not been exposed. In addition, the (12) of worms that (13) into egg-bearing adults was 28～40 percent higher. By comparison, worms that had been exposed to (14) heat suffered a 10-percent reduction in their growth rate, and (15) none developed into fertile adults. The experiment is important because it suggests that microwaves might trigger biological effects. (16) warming any tissues. The scientists do not (17) out the possibility that radiation could cause hot-.spots to occur somewhere in the worm that then affected cell (18) . The worry, though, is that the 19 basis for determining mobile safety is whether microwaves cause heating in bulk tissue rather than just at (20) in it, they note.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} For months the Japanese searched fitfully for the right word to describe what was happening. At the Bank of Japan, the nation's central bank, officials spoke of "an adjustment phase.' Prime Minister admitted only to "a difficult situation." The Economic Planning Agency, the government's record keeper, referred delicately to a "retreat." Then two weeks ago, for the first time since 1997, the agency dropped its boilerplate reference to the "expansion" from its closely watched Monthly Economic Report, and the word game was over. Japan's economy, the world's second largest, conceded the experts, was in recession. That admission confirmed the bad news businessmen had been reading in their spreadsheets for several months. "In 2001 one market after another turned bad," says Yoshihiko Wakamoto, senior vice president of Toshiba Corp., which now admits that its pretax profits for fiscal 2001, ending March 31, may be down a whopping 42%. In April, when many Japanese companies announce their results for 2001 fiscal year, most will report declining profits. Blue chips like Sony, NEC and Matsushita have all experienced drops of over 40% in pretax profits. Japan's security houses, hit by declining commissions from a falling stock market, will announce even more dramatic drops. Nomura Securities, once Japan's most profitable company, is talking about an 80% decline in profits. Auto manufacturers, banks, airlines, steel companies, department stores--all are in a slump. {{U}}Technically{{/U}}, what is happening to the Japanese economy does not meet American criteria for a recession, normally defined as at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth. While economic growth has slowed in Japan, it has not ceased. Government economists are predicting a 3.5% increase in GNP for 2002. Outside experts are not so optimistic. But nearly everyone agrees that GNP growth in Japan is unlikely to slip into negative numbers, as it did last year in the U. S. and Britain. "There's no question that we are in a recession," pronounces Kunio Miyamoto, chief economist of the Sumitomo-Life Research Institute. "But it is a recession, Japanese-style." During the last half of the 1990s, Japanese companies based much of their expansion around the world on the wildly inflated values of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Japan's frenzied real estate market. Now both those markets have collapsed. And with long-term interest rates up from 5% to 7%, Japanese companies are less able to sell vast quantities of high-quality goods at razor-thin profit margins. Added to this are pressures from shareholders for a greater return on investments, from Japan's trading partners for restraints on its aggressive trade practices, and from its own citizens for a reduction in their working hours so they can enjoy the fruits of 40 years of relentless toil.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Every living thing has an inner biological clock that controls behavior. The clock works all the time; even when there are no outside signs to mark the passing of time. The biological clock tells plants when to form flowers and when the flowers should open. It tells insects when to leave the protective cocoon and fly away. And it tells animals when to eat, sleep and wake. It controls body temperature, the release of some hormones and even dreams. These natural daily events are circadian rhythms. Man has known about them for thousands of years. But the first scientific observation of circadian rhythms was not made until 1729. In that year a French astronomer, Jean Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, noted that one of his plants opened its leaves at the same time every morning, and closed them at the same time every night. The plant did this even when he kept it in a dark place all the time. Later scientists wondered about circadian rhythms in humans. They learned that man’s biological clock actually keeps time with a day of a little less than 25 hours instead of the 24 hours on a man-made clock. About four years ago an American doctor, Eliot Weitzman, established a laboratory to study how our biological clock works. The people in his experiments are shut off from the outside world. They are free to listen to and live by their circadian rhythms. Dr. Weitzman hopes his research will lead to effective treatments for common sleep problems and sleep disorders caused by ageing and mental illness. The laboratory is in the Montefiore Hospital in New York City. It has two living areas with three small rooms in each. The windows are covered, so no sunlight or moonlight comes in. There are no radios or television receivers. There is a control room between the living areas. It contains computers, one-way cameras and other electronic devices for observing the person in the living area. A doctor or medical technician is on duty in the control room 24 hours a day during an experiment. They do not work the same time each day and are not permitted to wear watches, so the person in the experiment has no idea what time it is. In the first four years of research, Dr. Weitzman and his assistant have observed 16 men between the ages of 21 and 80. The men remained in the laboratory for as long as six months. Last month, a science reporter for “The New York Times” newspaper, Dava Sobel, became the first woman to take part in the experiment. She entered the laboratory on June 13th and stayed for 25 days. Miss Sobel wrote reports about the experiment during that time, which were published in the newspaper.