单选题If you were to examine the birth certificates of every soccer player in 2006"s World Cup tournament, you would most likely find a noteworthy quirk: elite soccer players are more likely to have been born in the earlier months of the year than in the later months. If you then examined the European national youth teams that feed the World Cup and professional ranks, you would find this strange phenomenon to be even more pronounced. What might account for this strange phenomenon? Here are a few guesses: a.certain astrological signs confer superior soccer skills;b.winter-born babies tend to have higher oxygen capacity, which increases soccer stamina;c.soccer-mad parents are more likely to conceive children in springtime, at the annual peak of soccer mania;d.none of the above. Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, says he believes strongly in "none of the above." Ericsson grew up in Sweden, and studied nuclear engineering until he realized he would have more opportunity to conduct his own research if he switched to psychology. His first experiment, nearly 30 years ago, involved memory: training a person to hear and then repeat a random series of numbers. "With the first subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had risen from 7 to 20," Ericsson recalls. "He kept improving, and after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80 numbers." This success, coupled with later research showing that memory itself is not genetically determined, led Ericsson to conclude that the act of memorizing is more of a cognitive exercise than an intuitive one. In other words, whatever inborn differences two people may exhibit in their abilities to memorize, those differences are swamped by how well each person "encodes" the information. And the best way to learn how to encode information meaningfully, Ericsson determined, was a process known as deliberate practice. Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome. Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers. Their work makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers—whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming—are nearly always made, not born.

单选题That boys and girls—and men and women—are programmed by evolution to behave differently from one another is now widely accepted. But which of the differences between the sexes are "biological", in the sense that they have been honed by evolution, and which are "cultural" or "environmental" and might more easily be altered by changed circumstances, is still fiercely debated. The sensitivity of the question was shown last year by an uproar at Harvard University. Larry Summers, then Harvard's president, caused a storm when he suggested that innate ability could be an important reason why there were so few women in the top positions in mathematics, engineering and the physical sciences. Even as a proposition for discussion, this is unacceptable to some. But biological explanations of human behavior are making a comeback. The success of neo-Darwinism has provided an intellectual foundation for discussion about why some differences between the sexes might be innate. And new scanning techniques have enabled researchers to examine the brain's interior while it is working, showing that male and female brains do, at one level, operate differently. The results, however, do not always support past clichés about what the differences in question actually are. Another behavioral difference that has borne a huge amount of scrutiny is in mathematics, particularly since Dr Summers'comments. The problem with trying to argue that the male tendency to systemize might lead to greater mathematical ability is that, in fact, girls and boys are equally good at maths prior to teenage years. Until recently, it was believed that males outperformed females in mathematics at all ages. Today, that picture has changed, and it appears that males and females of any age are equally good at computation and at understanding mathematical concepts. However, after their mid-teens, men are better at problem solving than women are. The question raised by Dr Summers does not get to the heart of the matter. Over the past 50 years, women have made huge progress into academia and within it. Slowly, they have worked their way into the higher echelons of discipline after discipline. But some parts of the ivory tower have proved harder to occupy than others. The question remains, to what degree is the absence of women in science, mathematics and engineering caused by innate, immutable ability? Innate it may well be. That does not mean it is immutable. A variety of abilities are amenable to training in both sexes. And such training works. Biology may predispose, but it is not necessarily destiny.

单选题 Advice to would-be culture warriors in the 21st century: walk softly and carry a big thesaurus-a dictionary of classified synonyms. According to the conventional wisdom, the culture wars are over in Washington-or, at the very least, reduced to minor disputes. Buoyed by the support of centrist, socially conservative Christians, the Obama administration has ushered in a new era of conciliation. Ideological opponents-especially those on either side of the abortion issue-are now trying to establish common ground. A first order of business is "abortion reduction," a seemingly non-controversial and praiseworthy goal. By agreeing that abortion is a complex moral issue and that it should be less frequent, former enemies can work together to find ways to reduce abortions. Beneath all the optimism though, tensions continue to boil, and it can seem that differences between the old culture wars and the new ones are merely differences in tone and tactics, not in ideology. In previous eras, warriors fought with rhetorical arguments; now they use new semantic weapons so sharp they could split a hair. On both sides, people say they want abortion reduction. But listen carefully to how they say it. On the left, the so-called common ground advocates talk about reducing the need for abortion, while on the right, folks talk about reducing the number of abortions. The way you talk about your desire for common ground, it turns out, signals whose side you're actually on. The left wants to reduce demand for abortion; the right wants to reduce supply. Inside the Beltway, these seemingly invisible semantic differences have big policy implications, for the inevitable question arises: how do folks intend to reduce abortions? Two bills currently in Congress point to the deep, ideological differences that continue to linger. The Pregnant Women Support Act, favored mostly by pro-life groups, provides financial support especially for poor and younger mothers who want to carry their pregnancies to term. The Prevention First Act, favored mostly by pro-choice groups, funds contraception (the practice of preventing a woman from becoming pregnant when she has sex) and comprehensive sex education especially to poor and younger women. The conversation about "abortion reduction" then, is not really about abortion but about other hot-button issues: birth control, premarital sex, teen sex and sex education. Outside the Beltway, who really cares? According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll from August 2008, 54 percent of Americans support legal abortion in all or most cases-exactly the same percentage as a decade ago. It's hard to imagine anyone arguing with the basic premise: in an ideal world, fewer American women would seek abortions. How our government achieves that end matters; how activists talk about achieving it matters not at all.

单选题In Paris, a popular new bike rental program called Velib (a slang combination of the French words velo, for bike, and liberty, for liberty) was introduced. (1) The bikes, which are available from over 1,421 stations around the city, can be rented on a half-hourly basis (1 euro for the first half hour and 2 euros for the second half hour) or people can pay 29 euros for an entire year of bike riding. Riders can pick up the bike at one station and return it to any of the other stations scattered approximately 300 meters apart around the city. This system is meant to encourage riders to use the bikes as they would be a car or public transport. The ultimate goal, of course, is to reduce pollution in the city. But the mayor has also said that he likes the idea of Parisians and tourists alike enjoying the city by bicycle. The bike program—which started in Lyon—has become extremely popular with Parisians of all ages. Although riders must be at least 14 years old and 1.5 meters tall, these restrictions have not stopped teenagers from using the bikes to go out at night. "You can ride them home after a party, when the metro (the subway system in Paris) is closed," explained Agathe Deschamps, 14, who uses Velib to get to school sometimes. In fact, the Velib is so popular that enthusiasts often have to visit two or three stations before finding an available bike. At a recent dinner party, one guest excused herself for arriving so late because she couldn't find a Velib. Although helmets (头盔) are not required by French law, they are strongly recommended and rides of the road are spelled out on the Velib website. An increase in bicycle-related accidents has been inevitable despite the addition of some 371 kilometers of bike paths in the city. (2)And some riders complain that the pearl gray bikes, which feature baskets and rear lights that turn on automatically when the bike moves, do not have rear-view mirrors. After all, the city plans to have over 20,600 bikes circulating by December.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Some countries are more populous; some have more crime. But in no other country are crime fighters quite so knowledgeable about citizens as in Britain. On January 4th a boastful Home Office detailed the triumphs of the world's biggest forensic DNA database, which holds samples from more than 5% of the entire population of England and Wales. Recent changes to the rules governing the database mean that it may eventually hold profiles from more than a fifth of all adults. Once a country starts storing DNA samples from criminals it is hard to resist the urge to expand the collection. When the National DNA Database (NDNAD) was set up, in 1995, samples could only be taken from those charged with "recordable" offences. If a suspect was not tried, or was freed, the sample had to be destroyed and the profile removed from the database. That law was abandoned in 2001, after two men who had been convicted of murder and rape had their cases overturned on appeal--the DNA evidence against them related to crimes they had not beep convicted of, and so ought to have been removed from the database. The change has led to the retention of around 200,000 samples that world previously have been destroyed. Some 7,591 of these were subsequently matched with samples from crime scenes, including those from 88 murders and 116 rapes. And since April 2004, police have been able to take and keep samples from anyone arrested for a recordable offence, even if charges do not ensue. The main reason the NDNAD is larger than databases in other countries is that Britain was first to start using DNA as an investigative tool. So not only has it had time to collect more DNA samples, but it has also had longer to appreciate the sheer power of a large database.." Every other country that does databasing will get to where Britain is now," says Chris Asplen, a consultant to law enforcement agencies and governments on DNA technology. The increased use of DNA evidence has given rise to intriguing new courtroom defences. DNA tests are now so sensitive that they can detect if a person has sneezed or sweated near an object. John Swain, a barrister with a background in biochemistry, recently defended a man charged with armed robbery. The defendant's DNA was on the gun that was used, but the defence argued that he might just have been near it after he had been to the gym, and that an errant bead of sweat could account for the presence of his DNA on a weapon he had never handled. He was declared not guilty.

单选题Want a glimpse of the future of health care? Take a look at the way the various networks of people involved in patient care are being connected to one another, and how this new connectivity is being exploited to deliver medicine to the patient—no matter where he or she may be. Online doctors offering advice based on standardized symptoms are the most obvious example. Increasingly, however, remote diagnosis (telemedicine) will be based on real physiological data from the actual patient. A group from the University of Kentucky has shown that by using an off-the-shelf PDA(personal data assistance) such as a Palm Pilot plus a mobile phone, it is perfectly feasible to transmit a patient's vital signs over the telephone. With this kind of equipment in a first-aid kit, the cry asking whether there was a doctor in the house could well be a thing of the past. Other medical technology groups are working on applying telemedicine to rural care. And at least one team wants to use telemedicine as a tool for disaster response—especially after earthquakes. Overall, the trend is towards providing global access to medical data and expertise. But there is one problem. Bandwidth is the limiting factor for transmitting complex medical images around the world—CT scans being one of the biggest bandwidth consumers. Communications satellites may be able to cope with the short-term needs during disasters such as earthquakes, wars or famines. But medicine is looking towards both the second-generation Internet and third-generation mobile phones for the future of distributed medical intelligence. Doctors have met to discuss computer-based tools for medical diagnosis, training and telemedicine. With the falling price of broadband communications, the new technologies should usher in an era when telemedicine and the sharing of medical information, expert opinion and diagnosis are common.

单选题What does the author mean by "the blocking of some 'questionable’site was not comprehensive" ( Line 1, Last Paragraph) ?

单选题According to the author, the success of the campaigns may depend on

单选题A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people. Days after days my men and I struggle to hold back a tidal wave of crime. Something has gone terribly wrong with our once-proud American way of life. It has happened in the area of values. A key ingredient is disappearing, and I think I know what it is: accountability. Accountability isn't hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences. Of the many values that hold civilization together—honesty, kindness, and so on—accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law— and, ultimately, no society. My job as a police officer is to impose accountability to people who refuse, or have never learned, to impose it on themselves. But as every policeman knows, external controls on people's behavior are far less effective than internal restraints such as guilt, shame and embarrassment. Fortunately there are still communities—smaller towns, usually—where schools maintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that proclaim: "In this faimily certain things are not tolerated—they simply are not done!" Yet more and more, especially in our larger cities and suburbs, these inner restraints are loosening. Your typical robber has none. He considers your property his property; he takes what he wants, including your life if you enrage him. The main cause of this break-down is a radical shift in attitudes. Thirty years ago, if a crime was committed, society was considered the victim. Now, in a shocking reversal, it's the criminal who is considered victimized: by his underprivileged upbringing, by the school that didn't teach him to read, by the church that failed to reach him with moral guidance, by the parents who didn't provide a stable home. I don't believe it. Many others in equally disadvantaged circumstances choose not to engage in criminal activities. If we free the criminal, even partly, from accountability, we become a society of endless excuses where no one accepts responsibility for anything. We in America desperately need more people who believe that the person who commits a crime is the one responsible for it.

单选题This line of inquiry did not begin until earlier this month--more than three months after the accident--because there were "too many emotions, too many egos," said retired Adm. Harold Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee, Gehman said this part of his inquiry Was in its earliest stages, starting just 10 days ago. But Gehman said he already has concluded it is "inconceivable" that NASA would have been unable or unwilling to attempt a rescue for astronaut, s in orbit if senior shuttle managers and administrators had known there was fatal damage to Columbia's left wing. Gehman told reporters after the hearing that answers to these important questions could have enormous impact, since they could place in a different context NASA's decisions against more aggressively checking possible wing damage in the days before Columbia's fatal return. Investigators believe breakaway insulating foam damaged part of Columbia's wing Shortly after liftoff, allowing superheated air to penetrate the wing during its fiery re-entry on Feb. 1 and melt it from the inside. Among those decisions was the choice by NASA's senior shuttle managers and administrators to reject offers of satellite images of possible damage to Columbia's left wing before the accident. The subject dominated the early part of Wednesday's hearing. Gehman complained that managers and administrators "missed signals" when they rejected those offers for images, a pointedly harsh assessment of the space agency's inaction during the 16 day shuttle mission. "We will attempt to pin this issue down in our report, but there were a number of bureaucratic and administrative missed signals here," Gehman told senators. "We're not quite so happy with the process." The investigative board already had recommended that NASA push for better coordination between the space agency and military offices in charge of satellites and telescopes. The U. S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency in March agreed to regularly capture detailed satellite images of space shuttles in orbit. Still, Gehman said it was unclear whether even images from America's most sophisticated spy satellites might have detected on Columbia's wing any damage, which Gehman said could have been as small as two inches square. The precise capabilities of such satellites was a sensitive topic during the Senate hearing.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Standard & Poor's maintains a cautious stance on cable-TV operators in the wake of Verizon's (VZ) announcement in early May of aggressive price cuts for its digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet-access service. Our overall outlook for the S & P Cable & Broadcasting index, which also includes shares of over-the-air TV and radio broadcasters, is neutral to modestly positive. Cable operators have so far ruled out an overt price war on broadband services. However, expect to see near-term responses like increased bundling of services, extended free months, more aggressive marketing and promotions, even modest price cuts from cable outfits that offer multiple services such as broadband as they defend their high- growth Internet-access Business. Continued rapid growth in digital cable and high-speed data services helped support the industry's ongoing revenue growth. We at S & P are wary of price pressures on the long-term and short-term economics of cable's broadband business. That's especially true as another Baby Bell, SBC Communications (SBC), is also undercutting cable-service providers in many core markets. In their traditional business segment, U.S. cable operators continue to benefit from a modest rebound in advertising spending, following a significant downturn during the economic slump that started in 2001. The industry has actually increased its share of total U. S. ad spending. The cable sector posted uninterrupted revenue growth during the recent downturn, as its greater reliance on subscriber revenues gives it a more defensive posture than broadcasters. Subscriptions remain the industry's primary revenue source, accounting for roughly 65% of the total, with advertising makes up the rest. Our near-term outlook for cable remains tempered by heightened levels of geopolitical anxieties, though the Iraq war's end has alleviated their impact on advertising demand. Meanwhile, core subscription growth continues to be driven by robust rates of high-speed data sign-ups and by improved prospects for digital-video ancillary offerings like video-on-demand and high-definition TV. We believe that successful media operators will continue to anticipate, rather than react to, the ever changing dynamics of an increasingly competitive media environment. Even with increased regulatory surveillance, vertically and horizontally integrated media operators should begin to wield increasing competitive advantages as they leverage operating efficiencies and realize synergies across multiple delivery platforms.

单选题The word "globalization" usually conjures up images of globe-spanning companies and distance-destroying technologies. Its enablers are the laws of comparative advantage and economies of scale. In The Great Brain Race Ben Wildavsky points to another mighty agent o globalization: universities. These were some of the world's first "global" institutions. In the Middle Ages great universities such as Paris and Bologna attracted "wandering scholars" from across Europe. In the 19th century Germany's research universities attracted scholars from across the world. In the early 20th century philanthropists such as Cecil Rhodes and William Harkness established scholarships to foster deeper links between countries. By the 1960s globe-trotting professors were so commonplace that they bad become the butt of jokes. (What is the difference between God and professor so and so? God is everywhere. Professor so and so is everywhere but here. ) Universities are obsessed by the global marketplace for students and professors. They are trying to attract as many students from abroad as possible (not least because foreign students usually pay full fees). Nearly 3 million students now spend some time studying in foreign countries, a number that has risen steeply in recent years. Universities are also setting up overseas. New York University has opened a branch in Abu Dhabi. Six American universities have created a higher-education supermarket in Qatar. Almost every university worth its name has formed an alliance with a leading Chinese institution. But globalization is going deeper than just the competition for talent: a growing number of countries are trying to create an elite group of "global universities" that are capable of competing with the best American institutions. China and India are focusing resources on a small group. The French and German governments are doing hattie with academic egalitarians in an attempt to create European Ivy Leagues. Behind all this is the idea that world-class universities can make a disproportionate contribution to economic growth. This is a fascinating story. But Mr. Wildavsky, a former education reporter who now works for both the Kauffman Foundation and the Brookings Institution, is too earnest a writer to make the best of it. He wastes too much ink summarising research papers and quoting "experts" uttering banalities. And he fails to point out the humour of sabbatical man jet-setting hither and thither to discuss such staples of modern academic life as poverty and inequality. Mr. Wildavsky should spend less time with his fellow think-tankers (who are mesmerised by the idea of a global knowledge economy) and more talking to students, who experience the disadvantages as well as the advantages of the new cult of globalization at first hand.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Britain's undeclared general election campaign has already seen the politicians trading numbers as boxers trade punches. There is nothing new in such statistical slanging matches(相互谩骂)What is new is an underestimation of worry about what has been happening to official statistics under the Labour government. One of the most important figures for Gordon Brown when presenting his pre-election budget on March 16th was the current-budget balance. This is the gap between current revenues and current spending. It matters to the chancellor of the exchequer(财政部长) because he is committed to meeting his own "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest, so he has to ensure that the current budget is in balance or surplus over the economic cycle. Mr. Brown told MPs that he would meet the golden rule for the current cycle with ￡ 6 billion ($11.4 billion) to spare—a respectable-sounding margin, though much less than in the past. However, the margin would have been halved but for an obscure technical change announced in February by the Office for National Statistics to the figures for road maintenance of major highways. The ONS said that the revision was necessary because it had been double-counting this spending within the current budget. If this were an isolated incident, then it might be disregarded. But it is not the first time that the ONS has made decisions that appear rather convenient for the government. Mr. Brown aims to meet another fiscal rule, namely to keep public net debt below 40% of GDP, again over the economic cycle. At present he is meeting it but his comfort room would be reduced if the S 21 billion borrowings of Network Rail were included as part of public debt. They are not thanks to a controversial decision by the ONS to classify the rail-infrastructure corporation within the private sector, even though the National Audit Office, Parliament's watchdog, said its borrowings were in fact government liabilities. This makes it particularly worrying that the official figures can show one thing, whereas the public experiences another. One of the highest-profile targets for the NHS is that no patient should spend more than four hours in a hospital accident and emergency department. Government figures show that by mid-2004, the target was being met for 9696 of patients. But according to a survey of 55,000 patients by the Healthcare Commission, an independent body, only 77% of patients said they stayed no more than four hours in A&E. One way to help restore public confidence in official statistics would be to make the ONS independent, as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have suggested. Another would be for the National Audit Office to assess how the government has been performing against targets, as the Public Administration Committee has recommended.

单选题The views of the writer and Spitzer on American corporate governance are