单选题By mentioning Internet, the author means that

单选题The term "sunk cost" (Line 4, Paragraph 9) may probably mean that

单选题Plato asked "What is man?" and St Augustine asked "Who am I?" A new breed of criminals has a novel answer: "I am you!" Although impostors have existed for ages, the growing frequency and cost of identity theft is worrisome. Around 10m Americans are victims annually, and it is the leading consumer-fraud complaint over the past five years. The cost to businesses was almost ＄ 50 billion, and to consumers ＄ 5 billion, in 2002, the most recent year that America's Federal Trade Commission collected figures. After two recent, big privacy disasters, people and politicians are calling for action. In February, ChoicePoint, a large data-collection agency, began sending out letters warning 145,000 Americans that it had wrongly provided fraudsters with their personal details, including Social Security numbers. Around 750 people have already spotted fraudulent activity. And on February 25th, Bank of America revealed that it lost data tapes that contain personal information on over 1m government employees, including some Senators. Although accident and not illegality is suspected, all must take precautions against identity theft. Faced with such incidents, state and national lawmakers are calling for new regulations, including over companies that collect and sell personal information. As an industry, the firms—such as ChoicePoint, Acxiom, LexisNexis and Westlaw—are largely unregulated. They have also grown enormous. For example, ChoicePoint was founded in 1997 and has acquired nearly 60 firms to amass databases with 19 billion records on people. It is used by insurance firms, landlords and even police agencies. California is the only state with a law requiring companies to notify individuals when their personal information has been compromised—which made ChoicePoint reveal the fraud (albeit five months after it was noticed, and after its top two bosses exercised stock options). Legislation to make the requirement a federal law is under consideration. Moreover, lawmakers say they will propose that rules governing credit bureaus and medical companies are extended to data-collection firms. And alongside legislation, there is always litigation. Already, ChoicePoint has been sued for failing to safeguard individuals' data. Yet the legal remedies would still be far looser than in Europe, where identity theft is also a menace, though less frequent and costly. The European Data Protection Directive, implemented in 1998, gives people the right to access theft information, change inaccuracies, and deny permission for it to be shared. Moreover, it places the cost of mistakes on the companies that collect the data, not on individuals. When the law was put in force, American policymakers groaned that it was bad for business. But now they seem to be reconsidering it.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} After a shaky start, the Martian flotilla that has arrived over the past few weeks is getting down to business. Two of the five craft in it seem to be working perfectly. Two are lost, And a fifth is sick, but undergoing treatment. The most spectacular pictures so far have been provided by Mars Empress, the European Space Agency's contribution to the fleet. On January 28th this reached its final working orbit (which takes it over both poles, and thus allows it to see the whole of Mars over the course of a few days as the planet revolves beneath it). It has, however, been sending back data since shortly after it arrived, and a few days ago its controllers released a series of beautiful photographs, including a stereo image of Valles Marineris, a huge canyon that may have been formed by flowing water. The most scientifically significant result, though, has come from Opportunity, America's second Mars rover. One of Opportunity's cameras has photographed evidence of stratification. in nearby rocks. Such stratification indicates that the rocks concerned are sedimentary. The layers could be repeated wind-blown deposits, or consist of ash from successive volcanic eruptions. But the terrestrial rocks they most resemble are ones that have formed under water. The reason everyone is getting so excited is Because there is a widespread assumption that any form of tire which might dwell on Mars would need liquid water to live--or, even if it could now subsist by extracting moisture from ice, would have needed liquid water to evolve to that stage. Mars has seen more probes launched towards it than all of the other planets put together precisely because of this hope that it might harbour life. So there is a lot riding on the answer--not least the funding of future missions. Besides its scientific significance, the success of Opportunity has also helped to distract attention from the sudden refusal of Spirit, the first American rover to arrive on Mars, to talk to its controllers. This craft had tentatively, but successfully, nosed its way off its landing platform, and was about to drill its way into a nearby rock prior to doing a spot of chemical analysis, when it went silent. However, the engineers at NASA, America's space agency, are nothing if not resourceful, and they have a good record of carrying out running repairs on spacecraft that are millions of kilometres away. In the case of Spirit, they think that one of the craft's memory chips has got cluttered up with files created On the journey to Mars. That caused another chip, which manages the first, to throw a wobbly and to keep rebooting the computer. They are currently testing this idea by loading a diagnostic program on to the computer. In addition, as a precaution, they have deleted excess files from the equivalent memory chip on Opportunity. Spirit's spirits may thus revive. As to the failures, the Japanese abandoned their fly-by craft Nozomi in December, and the British team in charge of Beagle 2, which is presumed to have landed on December 25th but from which no signal has been received, also seems to have called it quits. Still, a 40～60% success rate (depending on whether Spirit is brought back into commission) is not bad by the historical standards of missions to Mars. Now, the real science begins.

单选题We have known for a long time that the organization of any particular society is influenced by the definition of the sexes and the distinction drawn between them. But we have realized only recently that the identity of each sex is not so easy to pin down, arid that definitions evolve in accordance with different types of culture known to us, that is, scientific discoveries and ideological revolutions. Our nature is not considered as immutable, either socially or biologically. As we approach the beginning of the 21st century, the substantial progress made in biology and genetics is radically challenging the roles, responsibilities and specific characteristics attributed to each sex, and yet, scarcely twenty years ago, these were thought to be "beyond dispute". We can safely say, with a few minor exceptions, that the definition of the sexes and their respective functions remained unchanged in the West from the beginning of the 19th century to the 1960s. The role distinction, raised in some cases to the status of uncompromising dualism on a strongly hierarchical model, lasted throughout this period, appealing for its justification to nature, religion and customs alleged to have existed since the dawn of time. The woman bore children and took care of the home. The man set out to conquer the world and was responsible for the survival of his family, by satisfying their needs in peacetime and going to war when necessary. The entire world order rested on the divergence of the sexes. Any overlapping or confusion between the roles was seen as a threat to the time-honored order of things. It was felt to be against nature, a deviation from the norm. Sex roles were determined according to the "place" appropriate to each. Women's place was, first and foremost, in the home. The outside world, i.e. workshops, factories and business firms, belonged to men. This sex-based division of the world (private and public) gave rise to a strict dichotomy between the attitudes, which conferred on each its special identity. The woman, sequestered at home, "cared, nurtured and conserved". To do this, she had no need to be daring, ambitious, tough or competitive. The man, on the other hand, competing with his fellow men, was caught up every day in the struggle for survival, and hence developed those characteristics which were thought natural in a man. Today, many women go out to work, and their reasons for doing so have changed considerably. Besides the traditional financial incentives, we find ambition and personal fulfillment motivating those in the most favorable circumstances, and the wish to have a social life and to get out of their domestic isolation influencing others. Above all, for all women, work is invariably connected with the desire for independence. (454 words)Notes: immutable 不可改变的。dualism 双重论。divergence 分歧，偏离。overlapping 部分重合、一致。time-honored 由来已久的。dichotomy 一分为二，对立。sequester 使隔离。be caught up in 被缠住于，如：He is caught up in the trivia (琐事) of everyday things, unduly 过度地，不恰当地。

单选题According to the text, Downing Street No. 10 is in an awkward predicament of

单选题 On the ground floor of the Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, there is an electronic game which tests a visitor's skill at setting interest rates. You have to decide how to respond to events such as rising inflation or a stockmarket crash. If you get all the answers right, the machine declares you the next Fed chairman. In real life, because of huge uncertainties about data and how the economy works, there is no obviously right answer to the question of when to change interest rates. Nor is there any easy test of who will make the best Fed chairman. So who would The Economist select for the job? Alan Greenspan will retire as Fed chairman on January 31st, after a mere 181/2 years in the job. So George Bush needs to nominate a successor soon. Mr. Bush has a penchant for picking his pals to fill top jobs: last week he nominated his personal lawyer Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. But his personal bank manager really would not {{U}}cut the mustard{{/U}} as Fed chairman. This is the most important economic-policy job in America—indeed in the whole world. The Fed chairman sets interest rates with the aim of controlling inflation, which in turn helps determine the value of the dollar, the world's main reserve currency. It is hardly surprising that financial markets worldwide can rise or fall on his every word. Financial markets are typically more volatile during the first year after the handover to a new chairman than during the rest of his tenure. In October 1987,barely two months after Mr. Greenspan took office, the stock market crashed. Current conditions for a handover are hardly ideal. America's economy has never looked so unbalanced, with a negative household savings rate, {{U}}a housing bubble{{/U}}, a hefty budget deficit, a record current-account deficit and rising inflation. Figures due on October 14th are expected to show that the 12-monthrate of inflation has risen above 4% —its highest since 1991.

单选题In 1998 consumers could purchase virtually anything over the Internet. Books, compact discs, and even stocks were 1 from World Wide Websites that seemed to 2 almost daily a few years earlier, some people had predicted that consuners accustomed to shopping in stores would be 3 to buy things that they could not see or touch 4 . For a growing number of time-starved consumers, however, shopping from their home computer was proving to be a convenient 5 to driving to the store. A research estimated that in 1998 US consumers could purchase $ 7.3 billion of goods over the Internet, double the 1997 total. Finding a bargain was getting easier, 6 the rise of online auctions and Websites that did comparison shopping on the Internet for the best 7 . For all the consumer interest, 8 in eyberspaee was still a largely 9 business, however. Internet pioneer Amazon. eom, which began selling books in 1995 and later 10 into recorded music and videos, posted 11 of $ 153.7 million in the third quarter, up from $ 37.9 million in the same period of 1997. Overall, 12 , the company" s loss widened to $ 45.2 million from $9.6 million, and analysts did not expect the company to turn a profit 13 2001. 14 the great loss, Amazon. tom had a stock market value of many billions, reflecting investors" 15 about the future of the industry. Internet retailing appealed 16 investors because it provided an efficient means for reaching millions of consumers without having the cost of operating 17 stores with their armies of salespeople. Selling online carried its own risks, however, 18 so many companies competing tor consumers" attention, price competition was 19 and profit 20 thin or nonexistent.

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 ANSWER SHEET 1. Like many other aspects of the computer age, Yahoo began as an idea,{{U}} (1) {{/U}}into a hobby and lately has{{U}} (2) {{/U}}into a full-time passion. The two developers of Yahoo, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph. D candidates{{U}} (3) {{/U}}Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, started their guide in April 1994 as a way to keep{{U}} (4) {{/U}}of their personal interest on the Internet. Before long they{{U}} (5) {{/U}}that their homebrewed lists were becoming too long and{{U}} (6) {{/U}}. Gradually they began to spend more and more time on Yahoo. During 1994, they{{U}} (7) {{/U}}yahoo into a customized database designed to{{U}} (8) {{/U}}the needs of the thousands of users{{U}} (9) {{/U}}began to use the service through the closely{{U}} (10) {{/U}}Internet community. They developed customized software to help them{{U}} (11) {{/U}}locate, identify and edit material{{U}} (12) {{/U}}on the Internet. The name Yahoo is{{U}} (13) {{/U}}to stand for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Orale", but Filo and Yang insist they selected the{{U}} (14) {{/U}}because they considered themselves yahoos. Yahoo itself first{{U}} (15) {{/U}}on Yang's workstation, "akebono", while the search engine was{{U}} (16) {{/U}}on Filo's computer, "Konishiki". In early 1995 Marc Andersen, co-founder of Netscape Communication in Mountain View, California, invited Filo and Yang to move their files{{U}} (17) {{/U}}to larger computers{{U}} (18) {{/U}}at Netscape. As a result Stanford's computer network returned to{{U}} (19) {{/U}}, and both parties benefited. Today, Yahoo{{U}} (20) {{/U}}organized information on tens of thousands of computers linked to the web.

单选题She was French; he was English; they had just moved to London from Paris. When he found out about her affair, she begged for a reconciliation. He was more ruthless: the same afternoon, he filed for divorce in France, one of the stingiest jurisdictions in Europe for the non-earning spouse and where adultery affects the court's ruling. Had she filed first in England her conduct would have been irrelevant, and she would have had a good chance of a large share of the marital assets, and even maintenance for life. International divorce is full of such dramas and anomalies, so the natural response of policymakers is to try to make things simpler and more predictable. But the biggest attempt in recent years to do just that, in a European agreement called Rome Ⅲ, has just been shelved. Instead, several EU countries are now pressing ahead with their own harmonisation deal. Many wonder if it will work any better. At issue is the vexed question of which country's law applies to the break-up of a mixed marriage. The spouses may live long-term in a third country and be temporarily working in a fourth. The worst way to sort that out is with expensive legal battles in multiple jurisdictions. The main principle at present is that the first court to be approached hears the case. Introduced in 2001, this practice has worked well in preventing international legal battles, but has made couples much more trigger-happy, because the spouse who hesitates in order to save a troubled marriage may lose a huge amount of money. Rome III aimed to remove the incentive to go to court quickly. Instead, courts in any EU country would automatically apply the local law that had chiefly governed the marriage. This approach is already in force in countries such as the Netherlands. A couple that moved there and sought divorce having spent most of the marriage in France, say, would find a Dutch court dividing assets and handling child custody according to French law. That works fine among continental European countries where legal systems, based on Roman law, leave little role for precedent or the judge's discretion. You can look up the rules on a website and apply them. But it is anathema in places such as England, where the system favours a thorough (and often expensive) investigation of the details of each case, and then lets judges decide according to previous cases and English law. Another snag is that what may suit middle-class expatriates in Brussels (who just happened to be the people drafting Rome Ⅲ) may not suit, for example, a mixed marriage that has mainly been based in a country, perhaps not even an EU member, with" a sharply different divorce law. Swedish politicians don't like the idea that their courts would be asked to enforce marriage laws based on, say, Islamic sharia. The threat of vetoes from Sweden and like-minded countries has blocked Rome Ⅲ. But a group of nine countries, led by Spain and France, is going ahead. They are resorting to a provision in EU rules-never before invoked-called " enhanced co-operation" This sets a precedent for a "multi-speed'" Europe in which like-minded countries are allowed to move towards greater integration, rather than seeking a "big-bang" binding treaty that scoops up the willing and unwilling alike. Some countries worry that using enhanced co-operation will create unmanageable layers of complexity, with EU law replaced by multiple adhoc agreements. The real lesson may be that Rome III was just too ambitious. A more modest but useful goal would be simply to clarify the factors that determine which court hears a divorce, and then let that court apply its own law. David Hodson, a British expert, proposes an international deal that would start by giving greatest weight to any prenuptial agreement, followed by long-term residency, and then take into account other factors such as nationality. That would then make it easier to end marriages amicably, with mediation and out-of-court agreement, rather than a race to start the beastly business of litigation.

单选题The best title for this text might be

单选题Which of the following is true about Microsoft?

单选题All animals must rest, but do they really sleep as we know it? The answer to this question seems obvious. If an animal regularly stops its activities and stays quiet and unmoving—if it looks as though it is sleeping—then why not simply assume that it is in fact sleeping? But how can observers be sure that an animal is sleeping? They can watch the animal and notice whether its eyes are open or closed, whether it is active or lying quietly, and whether it responds to light or sound. These factors are important clues, but they often are not enough. Horses and cows, for example, rarely close their eyes, and fish and snakes cannot close them. Yet this does not necessarily mean that they do not sleep. Have you ever seen a cat dozing with an eye partly open? Even humans have occasionally been observed to sleep with one or both eyes partially open. Animals do not necessarily lie down to sleep either. Elephants, for example, often sleep standing up, with their tusks resting in the fork of a tree. Finally, while "sleeping" animals often seem unaware of changes in the sounds and light and other stimuli around them, that does not really prove they are sleeping either. Observations of animal behavior alone cannot fully answer the question of whether or not animals sleep. The answers come from doing experiments in "sleep laboratories" using a machine called the electroencephalograph (EEC). The machine is connected to animals and measures their brain signals, breathing, heartbeat, and muscle activity. The measurements are different when the animals appear to be sleeping than when they appear to be awake. Using the EEC, scientists have confirmed that all birds and mammals studied in laboratories do sleep. There is some evidence that reptiles, such as snakes and turtles, do not truly sleep, although they do have periods of rest each day, in which they are quiet and unmoving. They also have discovered that some animals, like chimpanzees, cats, and moles (who live underground), are good sleepers while others, like sheep, goats, and donkeys, are poor sleepers. Interestingly, the good sleepers are nearly all hunters with resting places that are safe from their enemies. Nearly all the poor sleepers are animals hunted by other animals: they must always be watching for enemies, even when they are resting.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} A weather map is an important tool for geographers. A succession of three of four maps presents a continuous picture of weather changes. Weather forecasts are able to determine the speed of air masses and fronts; to determine whether an individual pressure area is deepening or becoming shallow and whether a front is increasing or decreasing in intensity. They are also able to determine whether an air mass is retaining its original characteristics or taking on those of the surface over which it is moving. Thus, a most significant function of the map is to reveal a synoptic picture of conditions in the atmosphere at a given time. All students of geography should be able to interpret a weather map accurately. Weather maps contain an enormous amount of information about weather conditions existing at the time of observation over a large geographical area. They reveal in a few minutes what otherwise would take hours to describe. The United States weather Bureau issues information about approaching storms, floods, frosts, droughts, and all climatic conditions in general. Twice a month it issues a 30-day "outlook" which is a rough guide to weather conditions likely to occur over broad areas of the United States. These 30-day outlooks are based upon an analysis of the upper air levels with often set the stage for the development of air masses, fronts, and storms. Considerable effort is being exerted today to achieve more accurate weather predictions. With the use of electronic instruments and earth satellites, enormous gains have taken place recently in identifying and tracking storms over regions which have but few meteorological stations. Extensive experiments are also in progress for weather modification studies. But the limitations of weather modification have prevented meteorological results except in the seeding of super-cooled, upslope mountainous winds which have produced additional orographical precipitation on the windward side of mountain ranges. Nevertheless, they have provided a clearer understanding of the fundamentals of weather elements.