单选题The author is most probably a ______.

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Reading 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}} The discovery of life beyond Earth would transform not only our science but also our religions, our belief systems and our entire world-view. For in a sense, the search for extraterrestrial life is really a search for ourselves--who we are and what our place is in the grand sweep of the cosmos. Contrary to popular belief, speculation that we are not alone in the universe is as old as philosophy itself. The essential steps in the reasoning were based on the atomic theory of the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. Yet philosophy is one thing, filling in the physical details is another. Although astronomers increasingly suspect that biofriendly planets may be abundant in the universe, the chemical steps leading to life remain largely mysterious. Traditionally, biologists believed that life is a freak--the result of a zillion-to-one accidental concatenation of molecules. It follows that the likelihood of its happening again elsewhere in the cosmos is infinitesimal. This viewpoint derives from the second law of thermodynamics, which predicts that the universe is dying--slowly and inexorably degenerating toward a state of total chaos. And similar reasoning applies to evolution. According to the orthodox view, Darwinian selection is utterly blind. Any impression that the transition from microbes to man represents progress is pure chauvinism of our part. The path of evolution is merely a random walk through the realm of possibilities. If this is right, there can be no directionality, no innate drive forward; in particular, no push toward consciousness and intelligence. Should Earth be struck by an asteroid, destroying all higher life-forms, intelligent beings would almost certainly not arise next time around. There is, however, a contrary view--one that is gaining strength and directly challenges orthodox biology. It is that complexity can emerge spontaneously through a process of self- organization. If matter and energy have an inbuilt tendency to amplify and channel organized complexity, the odds against the formation of life and the subsequent evolution of intelligence could be drastically shortened. Historically, Bertrand Russell argued that a universe under a death sentence from the second law of thermodynamics rendered human life ultimately futile. All our achievements, all our struggles, "all the noonday brightness of human genius," as he put it, would, in the final analysis, count for nothing if the very cosmos itself is doomed. But what if, in spite of the second law of thermodynamics, there can be systematic progress alongside decay? For those who hope for a deeper meaning or purpose beneath physical existence, the presence of extraterrestrial life-forms would provide a spectacular boost, implying that we live in a universe that is in some sense getting better and better rather than worse and worse.

单选题The most damning thing that can be said about the world's best-endowed and richest country is that it is not only not the leader in health status, but that it is so low in the ranks of the nations. The United States ranks 18th among nations of the world in male life expectancy at birth, 9th in female life expectancy at birth, and 12th in infant mortality. More importantly, huge variations are evident in health status in the United States from one place to the next and from one group to the next. The forces that affect health can be divided into four groupings that lend themselves to analysis of all health problems. Clearly the largest group of forces resides in the person's environment. Behavior, in part derived from experiences with the environment, is the next greatest force affecting health. Medical care services, treated as separate from other environmental factors because of the special interest we have in them, make a modest contribution to health status. Finally, the contributions of heredity to health are difficult to judge. No other country spends what we do per capita for medical care. The care available is among the best technically, even if used too freely and thus dangerously. Given the evidence that medical care is not that valuable and access to care not that bad, it seems most unlikely that our bad showing is caused by the significant proportion who are poorly served. Other hypotheses have greater explanatory power: excessive poverty, both actual and relative, and excessive wealth. Excessive poverty is probably more prevalent in the U. S. than in any of the countries that have a better infant mortality rate and female life expectancy at birth. This is probably true also for all but four or five of the countries with a longer male life expectancy. In the notably poor countries that exceed us in male survival, difficult living conditions are a more accepted way of life and in several of them, a good basic diet, basic medical care and basic education, and lifelong employment opportunities are an everyday fact of life. In the U. S. a national unemployment level of 10 percent may be 40 percent in the ghetto while less than 4 percent elsewhere. The countries that have surpassed us in health do not have such severe problems. Nor are such a high proportion of their people involved in them. Excessive wealth is not so obvious a cause of ill health, but, at least: until recently, few other nations could afford such unhealthful ways of living. Excessive intake of animal protein and fats, and use of tobacco and drugs, and dangerous recreational sports and driving habits are all possible only when one is wealthy. Our heritage, desires, and opportunities, combined with the relatively low cost of bad foods and speedy vehicles, make us particularly vulnerable. Our unacceptable health status, then, will not be improved appreciably by expanded medical resources nor by their redistribution so much as by a general attempt to improve the quality of life for all.

单选题It can be inferred from Paragraph 1 that one important factor in the increasing importance of education in the United States was ______.

单选题IT is a startling claim, but one that Congresswoman Deborah Pryce uses to good effect: the equivalent of two classrooms full of children are diagnosed with cancer every day. Mrs Pryce lost her own 9-year-old daughter to cancer in 1999. Pediatric cancer remains a little-understood issue in America, where the health-care debate is consumed with the ills, pills and medical bills of the elderly. Cancer kills more children than any other disease in America. Although there have been tremendous gains in cancer survival rates in recent decades, the proportion of children and teens diagnosed with different forms of the disease increased by almost a third between 1975 and 2001. Grisly though these statistics are, they are still tiny when set beside the number of adult lives lost to breast cancer (41,000 each year) and lung cancer (164,000). Advocates for more money for child cancer prefer to look at life-years lost. The average age for cancer diagnosis in a young child is six, while the average adult is diagnosed in their late 60s. Robert Arceci. a pediatric cancer expert at Johns Hopkins, points out that in terms of total life-years saved, the benefit from curing pediatric cancer victims is roughly the same as curing adults with breast cancer. There is an obvious element of special pleading in such calculations. All the same, breast cancer has attracted a flurry of publicity, private fund-raising and money from government. Childhood cancer has received less attention and cash. Pediatric cancer, a term which covers people up to 20 years old, receives one-twentieth of the federal research money doled out by the National Cancer Institute. Funding, moan pediatric researchers, has not kept pace with rising costs m the field, and NCI money for collaborative research will actually be cut by 3% this year. There is no national pediatric cancer registry that would let researchers track child and teenage patients through their lives as they can do in the case of adult sufferers. A pilot childhood-cancer registry is in the works. Groups like Mr Reaman's now get cash directly from Congress. But it is plainly a problem most politicians don't know much about. The biggest problem could lie with 15-19-year-olds. Those diagnosed with cancer have not seen the same improvement in their chances as younger children and older adults have done. There are some physical explanations for this: teenagers who have passed adolescence are more vulnerable to different sorts of cancer. But Archie Bleyer, a pediatric oncologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas, has produced some data implying that lack of health insurance plays a role. Older teenagers and young adults are less likely to be covered and checked regularly.

单选题What took place in literacy just before the Renaissance?______

单选题The author is of the opinion that Keneally's perspectives are

单选题The day was star-crossed: Friday the 13th in the month of October, on the eve of the second looming anniversary of a devastating market crash. "I'm telling you, psychology is really funny. People get crazy in situations like that," said portfolio strategist Elaine Garzarelli. Last week Friday the 13th lived up to its frightful reputation. After drifting lower at a sleepy pace for most of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average abruptly lurched into a hair-raising sky dive in the final hour of trading. The Bush Administration moved swiftly to avert any sense of crisis after the market Closed. Declared Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady: "It's important to recognize that today's stock market decline doesn't signal any fundamental change in the condition of the economy. The economy remains well balanced, and the outlook is for continued moderate growth." But Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, who chairs a House subcommittee on telecommunications and finance, vowed to hold hearings this week on the stock market slide. Said he: "This is the second heart attack. My hope is that before we have the inevitable third heart attack, we pay attention to these problems." Experts found no shortage of culprits to blame for the latest shipwreck. A series of downbeat realizations converged on Friday, ranging from signs of a new burst of inflation to sagging corporate profits to troubles in the junk-bond market that has fueled major takeovers. The singular event that shook investors was the faltering of a ＄6.75 billion labor management buyout of UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, the second largest U.S. carrier. On one point most thoughtful Wall Streeters agreed: the market had reached such dizzying heights that a correction of some sort seemed almost inevitable. Propelled by favorable economic news and a wave of multibillion-dollar takeovers, stocks had soared more than 1,000 points since the 1987 crash. But by last August some Wall streeters were clearly worried. The heaviest blow to the market came Friday afternoon. In a three-paragraph statement, UAL said a labor-management group headed by Chairman Stephen Wolf had failed to get enough financing to acquire United. Several banks had apparently balked at the deal, which was to be partly financed through junk bonds. The take-over group said it would submit a revised bid "in the near term," but the announcement stunned investors who had come to view the United deal as the latest sure thing in the 1980s buyout binge. Said John Downey, a trader at the Chicago Board Options Exchange: "The airline stocks have looked like attractive takeover targets. But with the United deal in trouble, everyone started to wonder what other deals might not go through. /

单选题According to the passage, work-life balance schemes

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 the ANSWER SHEET. What would you do with $590m? This is now a(n) {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}for Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest lottery in history. The blogosphere (the world of weblogs) is full of {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}for this lucky pensioner. But if she hopes her new-found money will {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}lasting feelings of fulfillment, she could do. {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}than read "Happy Money" by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton. These two {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}—she teaches psychology at the University of British Columbia; he {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}on marketing at Harvard Business School-use an array of behavioral research to show that the most {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}of fancy cars and palatial homes on remote seashores. {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}satisfaction with these material purchases {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}fairly quickly. What was {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}exciting and new becomes old-hat; remorse {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms. Dunn and Mr. Norton, like interesting trips, {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time—{{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}stories or memories—particularly if they involve feeling more {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}to others. Readers of "Happy Money" are clearly a {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}lot, anxious about fulfillment, not hunger. Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors' ideas, but most people will come {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}from this book believing it was money well spent.

单选题The writer mentioned the case of "the hunter who shares his spoils with others" to demonstrate ______.

单选题Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy , radiation , or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him. It"s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don"t die like the rest of us. What"s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. Of course, doctors don"t want to die ; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call "futile care" being performed on people. That"s when doctors bring the cutting edge of technology to bear on a grievously ill person near the end of life. The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs. I cannot count the number of times fellow physicians have told me, in words that vary only slightly, "Promise me if you find me like this that you" ll kill me. " How has it come to this—that doctors administer so much care that they wouldn"t want for themselves? The simple, or not-so-simple, answer is this: patients, doctors, and the system. To see how patients play a role, imagine a scenario in which someone has lost consciousness and been admitted to an emergency room, and shocked and scared family members find themselves caught up in a maze of choices. When doctors ask if they want "everything" done, they answer yes. Then the nightmare begins. Feeding into the problem are unrealistic expectations of what doctors can accomplish. For example, many people think of CPR as a reliable lifesaver when, in fact, the results are usually poor. But of course it"s not just patients making these things happen. Doctors play an enabling role, too. The trouble is that even doctors who hate to administer futile care must find a way to address the wishes of patients and families. Imagine, once again, the emergency room with those grieving family members. They do not know the doctor. Establishing trust and confidence under such circumstances is a very delicate thing. People are prepared to think the doctor is acting out of base motives, trying to save time, or money, or effort, especially if the doctor is advising against further treatment . It"s easy to find fault with both doctors and patients in such stories, but in many ways all the parties are simply victims of a larger system that encourages excessive treatment. In some unfortunate cases, doctors use the fee-for-service model to do everything they can, no matter how pointless, to make money. More commonly, though, doctors are fearful of litgation and do whatever they"re asked to avoid getting in trouble.

单选题Why is it impossible for people to build a remarkable new civilization today?

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} It has long been the subject of speculation among the police and criminologists: what would happen if all the officers who now spend so much of their time taking statements, profiling criminals and moving pieces of paper around were suddenly put on the streets? Crime figures released by London's Metropolitan Police this week provide the best answer yet. Following the bombings of July 7th and 21st, thousands of police officers materialised on London's pavements, many of them sporting brightly coloured jackets. Drawn from all over the city, they were assigned to guard potential targets such as railway stations. The police presence was especially heavy in the bombed boroughs: Camden (which was struck three times), Hammersnrith and Fulham, Lamheth, Tower Hamlets, Westminster and the City of London. The show of force did not just scare off terrorists. There was less crime in July than in May or June, which As unusual: the warmer month tends to bring out criminal tendencies, as windows are left open and alcohol is imbibed alfresco. But the chilling effect was much stronger in the six boroughs that were targeted by terrorists. There, overall crime was down by 12% compared with July 2004. In inner London as a whole, crime fell by 6%. But in outer London, where the blue line was thinner, it went up slightly. Simon Foy, who tracks such trends at the Metropolitan Police, says that crime fell particularly steeply on the days of the attacks, partly because of the overwhelming police presence and partly because "even criminals were watching their televisions". What is significant is that crime barely rose thereafter. That was a change from the aftermath of September 11th 2001, when crime quickly soared just about everywhere—possibly because officers were deployed only in the very centre of London. "The received wisdom among criminologists is that marginal changes in visible patrolling have little or no effect on crime," says Mike Hough, a criminologist at King's College London. July's experiment should put that argument to rest. Even if offenders do not make rational calculations about the odds of being caught—which was low both before and after the bombings--they will Be moved by a display of overwhelming force.