单选题By saying "a variant on the formula" (Line 1, Paragraph 4), the author means that

单选题The phrase "familiar sights" in the first sentence is nearest in meaning to ______.

单选题 To the people of the Bijagos archipelago, the shark is sacred. In{{U}} (1) {{/U}}ceremonies young men from these islands{{U}} (2) {{/U}}the coast of Guinea-Bissau must spear a shark and present the liver to their{{U}} (3) {{/U}}But can this ancient ceremony{{U}} (4) {{/U}}the economic fact that a bowl of shark's fin soup can cost $150 in the Far East? In the archipelago, and all along West Africa's coast, sharks are being "finned" to{{U}} (5) {{/U}}Fishermen can earn $50-80{{U}} (6) {{/U}}a kilo of sharks' fins. far more than ordinary fish. By the time they{{U}} (7) {{/U}}the Far East, they could be{{U}} (8) {{/U}}$500 a kilo or more. valuable{{U}} (9) {{/U}}aphrodisiacs as well as for gourmets. The high demand is{{U}} (10) {{/U}}shark populations in West Africa and elsewhere. Most fish, .vulnerable to{{U}} (11) {{/U}}eaten by bigger fish, protect their species by laying millions of eggs. But the shark has no natural enemy{{U}} (12) {{/U}}man. and gives birth to just a{{U}} (13) {{/U}}of young.{{U}} (14) {{/U}}female sharks are often caught{{U}} (15) {{/U}}pregnant, the result has been predictably disastrous. Shark-like sawfish, which are also "finned". are already virtually{{U}} (16) {{/U}}off the Bijagos islands, and guitarfish are{{U}} (17) {{/U}}threat. In some parts of West Africa, when sharks and other similar fish have been finned, the rest of the flesh is often{{U}} (18) {{/U}}, salted and exported to places like Ghana, where there is a{{U}} (19) {{/U}}for lt. Dried shark is used much{{U}} (20) {{/U}}a stock cube would be elsewhere. But in the Bijagos islands, where traders are uninterested in exporting dried shark, carcasses are often left to rot on the beach.

单选题The author believes that sex discrimination in the West before the 1960s was

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}} Has America gone insane? Season six for American Idol has caused us to ask some fundamental questions about the reality television phenomenon. Show judge Simon Cowell repeatedly chides(斥责) contestants," This is a singing competition. But is it really? When talented singers such as Gina Glocksen are voted off in favor of a tone-deaf Sanjaya Malakar, with his trainwreck performances, the question is whether Idol is really a singing competition, or something altogether different. Although Sanjaya was only in the middle of the pack for last week's vote, on the Web he was the most searched for Idol contestant of the season, garnering(获得) more than twice the volume of searches than his nearest rival (not counting the continuing quests for racy photos of Antonella Barba, who is no longer in the competition). Theories abound as to Sanjaya's staying power on the show, from suggestions of a flood of offshore voting to the texting power of pre-pubescent girls. There is one theory that can actually be quantified by Internet data: shock-jock Howard Stern's campaigning for show-spoiler site Vote for the Worst" to support voting for the entertaining contestants who the producers would hate to see win on American Idol, according to site creator Dave Della Terza, who teaches a course in reality television at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. While {{U}}Votefortheworst.com{{/U}} is small compared to the official American Idol site, the fact that it gets nearly a fifth as many online visits gives it the strength to sway a vote. Vote for the Worst is gaining strength, with over a 50% growth since last season, which can be attributed largely to the self-proclaimed "King of All Media." But what does the American public think of the unlikely Idol star? Of all of the searches for Sanjaya over the last four weeks, 41% were searching on variations of his name," Sanjaya, or" Sanjaya Malakar, and various misspellings. At least 2.9% searched for information on Sanjaya's sister, who didn't make the cut on the show. The next most popular search topic regarded questions about Sanjaya's sexual orientation, with searches such as "Sanjaya Malakar gay", "Sanjaya gay" and" is Sanjaya gay? What's missing are searches related to Sanjaya's musical selection or talent. The Sanjaya phenomenon, while amusing, highlights the biggest challenge to reality shows that depend on a public vote for show outcome. It's not a singing contest, or even a popularity contest; it's become a race to see who can make the biggest spectacle. In that context, Sanjaya has the advantage.

单选题In the seventies, people would lie in a bath to ______.

单选题From the last paragraph the conclusion can be drawn that children who enjoy all-important happiness will

单选题As people in rich countries know very well, eating too much food and burning too few calories is why a substantial number of us are overweight or obese. Now, however, a remarkable change in perspective has come from the discovery that obesity actually provides people with temporary protection from the harmful effects of fat. The insight has come from re-examining the common assumption that fatness itself drives the development of metabolic syndrome, which is what causes so much of the actual damage. The syndrome comes with a mixture of life-threatening effects, with cardiovascular disease (diseases relating to the heart and blood vessels) and type 2 diabetes being among the most serious. In fact, it now seems that body fat may be a barrier that stops millions of Americans and fatty citizens elsewhere from going on to develop the syndrome. And the real damage is caused by the inflammatory effect of high levels of fat in the bloodstream. And ironically, it's fat cells that protect us from this by serving as toxic dumps, locking away the real villains of the modern diet. The problem is that this protection only lasts so long, until there is simply no more room inside the fat cells. That's when they start to break down, leading to a toxic spill into the bloodstream. This sets off an inflammatory response that causes various kinds of damage to body tissues. In this way, every excess calorie takes people closer to metabolic syndrome. So what can we do to stop a superabundance of fat triggering the syndrome? Of course there's no substitute for a healthy diet and exercise, but incitation to this effect seem to be of limited use. As with cigarettes and alcohol, a tax on calories--pricing foods by their energy content--is increasingly seen as another "lever" to change behaviour by making obesity too costly. The new research may even suggest treatments to combat metabolic syndrome, such as anti-inflammatory drugs. One promising candidate is salsalate, an arthritis drug related to aspirin, and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston is now considering large-scale trials. What might be more helpful, though, is simply a wider recognition that fatty and sugary foods are more directly toxic than we had assumed. Ideally, people should be as well informed about the harmful effects of what they eat as, for example, pregnant women are about drinking and smoking. There is a consolation--you have your fat tissue to protect you when you consume that extra burger or sweetened soda. But now you know the perils of pushing your friendly fat cells beyond their natural limits.

单选题From the introduction of the Sturgises, we learn that

单选题Text 4 Pursuing free trade through WTO has many attractions. Countries bind themselves and their trading partners to transparent and non-discriminatory trade rules, which the WTO then enforces even-handedly. Since most governments operate on the premise that opening domestic markets is a concession to be traded for access to foreign markets, multilateral liberalisation is often the most effective route to free trade. A successful WTO round requires two big bargains to be struck: a transatlantic deal between America and the EU and a north-south deal between the rich and the poor. Yet at Seattle this year there is a long way to go before such broad bargains can be considered, let alone struck. America wants a few priority issues to be settled. Its list includes an extension of the duty-free status of e-commerce, a broader IT pact, reform of the WTO dispute-settlement system, increased WTO transparency and the phase-out of tariffs in eight sectors including chemicals, energy products and environmental products. The EU on the other hand professes to want a more comprehensive approach that focuses on removing tariff peaks for such imports as textiles, glass and footwear, but would preserve tariff preferences for developing countries. The biggest obstacle may be the insistence of many developing countries that they will block further liberalisation until their gripes over the Uruguay round are addressed. They want their obligations in areas such as intellectual property, investor protection, subsidies and anti-dumping to be eased. They argue that the Uruguay round has failed to deliver expected benefits in such areas as agriculture and textiles. Though by no means a monolithic block, the developing countries share a feeling that whatever the promise of liberalisation at the WTO, rich countries will conspire to keep their markets closed. Indeed, the EU insists that freeing trade should be "controlled, steered and managed according to the concerns of EU citizens". That is in keeping with a view, widespread on the continent, that "a protectionist trade policy is a price readily paid for political objectives". However great these obstacles are, they could be overcome if America were still leading the drive for freer world trade. With its economy doing well, greater access to foreign markets seems a less pressing priority. The Clinton administration is unwilling to make politically painful concessions required to achieve that aim. So there is a possibility that the Seattle round will turn out to be a fiasco. If that happens, it will encourage the anti-WTO groups to go on the offensive. America, the EU and Janan would increasingly be tempted by managed trade.

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}} Americans are now flying the crowded, cranky skies. Flight delays in January were the worst for that month since 1999. Weather is always the primary cause of delays. Add to that the US Airways Christmas baggage meltdown and Comair's computer failure, the combination of which left hundreds of thousands of fliers stranded at airports. But airline employees see a deeper reason for both the increase in delays and passenger complaints: a demoralized and frustrated workforce that's being asked to do more even as it's getting paid lass. The airlines and unions are quick to praise their workers for rising to the challenge during these very difficult times, as well as for carrying the brunt of the cost cutting. But unease is growing within the ranks. And passengers have noticed. For instance, some of the so-called older carriers now require gate agents to clean the planes as well as check people in. So some passengers have found themselves without a customer-service agent to talk to until just before the plane leaves. Pilots find themselves stuck at the gate because their Crew of flight attendants has already worked as long as the FAA would allow them to. "They've cut employees to such a degree that they don't have enough employees to do the job and serve the customers properly," says one pilot. The major airlines contend that's not the case at all. Jeff Green, a spokesman for United Airlines, says the major carriers have shrunk significantly since 9/11. While there are far fewer employees, the airline also has far fewer flights. He also notes that United has had its best on-time performance in the past two years and that internal gauges of customer satisfaction are up. "What our employees are going through is not having an effect on our customer service," says Mr. Green. Employees on the front line tell a different story. "They're just closing the doors and releasing the brake so they can report an on- time departure, when in reality they may still be loading cargo for 30 minutes." Aviation experts contend that if that's the case, the major airlines may find even more challenges ahead. As their fare structures and prices come closer to those of the successful low-cost carriers, customer service will become even more crucial in determining which airlines succeed. "The way you're treated on the plane speaks a lot as to whether you'll fly that airline again," says Helane Becker, an airline analyst. "It's not the be-all and end-all. It's not going to put an airline out of business. But it's not going to help it a lot either if they're already in trouble."

单选题It is implied but not directly state in the passage that______

单选题One of the characteristics of a utopian society envisioned by Saint Simonians would