单选题When Ted Kennedy gazes from the windows of his office in Boston, he can see the harbor's "Golden Stairs", where all eight of his great-grandparents first set foot in America. It reminds him, he told his Senate colleagues this week, that reforming America's immigration laws is an " awesome responsibility" Mr. Kennedy is the Democrat most prominently pushing a bipartisan bill to secure the border, ease the national skills shortage and offer a path to citizenship for the estimated 12m illegal aliens already in the country. He has a steep climb ahead of him. As drafted, the bill seeks to mend America's broken immigration system in several ways. First, and before its other main provisions come into effect, it would tighten border security. It provides for 200 miles (320km) of vehicle barriers, 370 miles of fencing and 18 000 new border patrol agents. It calls for an electronic identification system to ensure employers verify that all their employees are legally allowed to work. And it stiffens punishments for those who knowingly hire illegals. As soon as the bill was unveiled, it was stoned from all sides. Christans, mostly Republicans, denounced it as an "amnesty" that would encourage further waves of illegal immigration. Tom Tancredo, a Republican congressman running for president (without hope of success) on an anti-illegal-immigration platform, demanded that all but the border-security clauses be scrapped. Even these he derided as "so limited it's almost a joke". Conservative talk-radio echoed his call. No one is seriously proposing mass deportation, but Mr. Tancredo says the illegals will all go home if the laws against hiring them are vigorously enforced. Most labor unions are skeptical, too. The AFL-CIO denounced the guest-worker program, which it said would give employers "a ready pool of labor that they can exploit to drive down wages, benefits, health and safety protections " for everyone else. Two Democratic senators tried to gut the program. One failed to abolish it entirely; another succeeded in slashing it from 400000 to 200000 people a year. Employers like the idea of more legal migrants but worry that the new system will be cumbersome. Many object to the idea that they will have to check the immigration status of all their employees. The proposed federal computer system to sort legal from illegal workers is bound to make mistakes. Even if only one employee in a hundred is falsely labelled illegal, that will cause a lot of headaches. And the points system has drawbacks, too. Employers are better placed than bureaucrats to judge which skills are in short supply. That is why the current mess has advantages--illegal immigrants nearly always go where their labor is in demand. Other groups have complaints, too. Immigrant-rights groups say that the path to citizenship would be too long and arduous and too few Hispanics would qualify. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, fretted that the new stress on skills would hurt families, adding that her party is "about families and family values". Some people worry that House Democrats will kill it to prevent Mr. Bush from enjoying a domestic success. Despite the indignation, public opinion favors the underlying principles. At least 60% of Americans want to give illegals a chance to become citizens if they work hard and behave.

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. Valentine's Day may come from the ancient Roman feast of Luperealia.{{U}} (1) {{/U}}the fierce wolves roamed nearby, the old Romans called{{U}} (2) {{/U}}the god Lupereus to help them. A festival in his{{U}} (3) {{/U}}was held February 15th. On the eve of the festival the{{U}} (4) {{/U}}of the girls were written on{{U}} (5) {{/U}}paper and placed in jars. Each young man{{U}} (6) {{/U}}a slip. The girl whose name was{{U}} (7) {{/U}}was to be his sweetheart for the year. Legend{{U}} (8) {{/U}}it that the holiday became Valentine's Day{{U}} (9) {{/U}}a roman priest named Valentine. Emperor Claudius II{{U}} (10) {{/U}}the Roman soldiers not to marry or become engaged. Claudius felt married soldiers would{{U}} (11) {{/U}}stay home than fight. When Valentine{{U}} (12) {{/U}}the Emperor and secretly married the young couples, he was put to death on February 14th, the{{U}} (13) {{/U}}of Lupercalia. After his death, Valentine became a{{U}} (14) {{/U}}. Christian priests moved the holiday from the 15th to the 14th---Valentine's Day. Now the holiday honors Valentine{{U}} (15) {{/U}}of Lupercus. Valentine's Day has become a major{{U}} (16) {{/U}}of love and romance in the modem world. The ancient god Cupid and his{{U}} (17) {{/U}}into a lover's heart may still be used to{{U}} (18) {{/U}}falling in love or being in love. But we also use cards and gifts, such as flowers Or jewelry, to do this.{{U}} (19) {{/U}}to give flower to a wife or sweetheart on Valentine's Day can sometimes be as{{U}} (20) {{/U}}as forgetting a birthday or a wedding anniversary.

单选题The birthplace of Leonardo is mentioned in the text

单选题A shortcoming of protective labor laws that singling out a particular group of workers for protection is

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Where is the second centre of Hollywood film making in Europe. after London*. Paris. or perhaps Berlin? Try Prague. Last year, Hollywood spent over $200m on shooting movies, commercials and pop videos in the Czech capital. This year. all the big studios will be in town. MGM has "Hart's War" starring Bruce Willis; Disney is shooting "Black Sheep" with Anthony Hopkins; and Fox has just finished filming "From Hell", a Jack the Ripper saga starring Johnny Depp. Praguers take Tinseltown in their stride. Old ladies looked only slightly confused last month when the cobbled streets of Mala Strana, Prague's old quarter, were cleared of real snow and sprayed with a more cinematically pleasing chemical alternative for Universal's "Bourne Identity", a $50m thriller starring Matt Damon. The film's producer, Pat Crowley, reckons a day filming in Prague costs him $100.000, against $250,000 in Paris. Czech crews, he says, are professional, English-speaking and numerous. They are also a bargain—40% cheaper than similar crews in London or Los Angeles, points out Matthew Stillman. the British boss of Stillking, a Prague-based production firm. Mr. Stillman founded Stillking in 1993 after arriving in Prague with $500 and a typewriter. Today, Hollywood producers come to the company for crews, catering, lights and much more. It claims to have about half of the local film-production business and this year hopes for revenues of over $50m. The biggest draw to Prague, however, is Barrandov—one of the largest film studios in Europe, with 11 sound-stages, onsite photo labs and top-notch technicians. It was founded during Czechoslovakia's pre-war first republic by Milos Havel, an uncle of the present Czech president, Vaclav Havel. The Nazis expanded it as a production centre for propaganda flicks—the sound-stages are courtesy of Joseph Goebbels. Then came the Communists with their own propaganda and, admittedly, a few impressive homegrown directors such as Milos Forman, who began Hollywood's march to Prague by filming "Amadeus" there. But it is partly thanks to Barrandov that Prague remains some way behind London as a film centre. The studio has suffered from doubtful management and is already stretched to capacity ("You can't even get an office there," moans one producer). Its present owner, a local steel company, is keen to sell but talks with a Canadian institution have been thorny, not least because the Czech government holds a golden share. Should the Canadian deal fall through, Stillking says it would consider a bid of its own.

单选题 The current French bestseller lists are wonderfully eclectic. In{{U}} (1) {{/U}}. there is everything{{U}} (2) {{/U}}blockbuster thrillers to Catherine Miller's La Vie Sexuelle de Catherine M., a novel which has been{{U}} (3) {{/U}}praised as high art and{{U}} (4) {{/U}}as upmarket porn. Then there are novels{{U}} (5) {{/U}}the sticky questions of good and{{U}} (6) {{/U}}(Le Demon et Mademoiselle Prym) and faith versus science m the modern world (L'apparition). Philosophical{{U}} (7) {{/U}}continue in the non-fiction list.{{U}} (8) {{/U}}this week by Michel Onfray's "Antimanuel de Philosophic". a witty talk{{U}} (9) {{/U}}some of philosophy's perennial debates. Those who like their big issues in small chunks are also enjoying Frederic Beigbeder's Dernier Inventaire avant Liquidation. a survey of France's{{U}} (10) {{/U}}20th-century books,{{U}} (11) {{/U}}with Mr. Beigbeder's{{U}} (12) {{/U}}humour from the title on (The 50 books of the Century Chosen by You and Critiqued by Me), In Britain. meanwhile, there is olive oil all over the non-fiction list. It's a major{{U}} (13) {{/U}}for Nigella Lawson, a domestic divinity and celebrity{{U}} (14) {{/U}}, whose latest{{U}} (15) {{/U}}of recipes tops the list. Annie Hawes, in second{{U}} (16) {{/U}}. took herself{{U}} (17) {{/U}}to the sun-drenched hills of Italy to grow her own olives and write a book about them as did Carol Drinkwater, just{{U}} (18) {{/U}}the border in France. Fiction-wise, it's business as{{U}} (19) {{/U}}, with the requisite holiday mix of thrillers, romance, fantasy and Harry Potter. with The Goblet of Fire still burning{{U}} (20) {{/U}}at number three.

单选题The entertainment industry and technology companies have been warring for years over the dazzling ability of computers and the Internet to copy and transmit music and movies. A crucial battle ended this week with a ruling by America's Supreme Court in favour of copyright holder and against two companies that distribute peer-to-peer (P2P) software, which lets users share files online with others. The court's decision, though ostensibly a victory for content providers, is nevertheless unlikely to stamp out file sharing -- much of which will continue from outside America -- or stop the technological innovation that is threatening the current business models of media firms. The court was asked to decide whether two firms, Grokster and StreamCast, were liable for copyright infringement by their customers. Two lower courts had said that the firms were not liable, citing a 1984 ruling in favour of Sony's Betamax video recorder. This held that a technology firm is immune from liability so long as the device concerned is "capable of substantial noninfringing uses". The court did not reinterpret the 1984 decision in light of the Internet. Instead the justices ruled that the case raised a far narrower issue: whether Grokster and StreamCast induced users to violate copyrights and chose not to take the simple steps available to prevent it. Such behaviour would make the firms clearly liable for copyright infringement and end their immunity, even under the Betamax standard. The court reasoned that there were sufficient grounds to believe that inducement occurred, and sent the case back to lower courts for trial. Although the Grokster decision will probably not squelch innovation as much as many tech firms fear, it should certainly make IT and electronics firms more cautious about how they market their products --and quite right, too. But the Supreme Court's narrow ruling makes this unlikely -- in- deed, the justices noted the technology's widespread legitimate use. Yet their decision will surely embolden the entertainment industry to pursue in court any firms that they can claim knowingly allow infringement. This could kill off some small innovative start-ups. On the other hand, the ruling could also provide legal cover for tech firms with the wit to plaster their products with warnings not to violate the law. But judged from a long-term perspective, this week's victory for copyright holders seems likely to prove a Pyrrhic one. The Internet and file sharing are disruptive technologies that give consumers vastly more ability to use all sorts of media content, col0yrighted or not. Surely entertainment firms must devise ways to use this technology to sell their wares that will also allow copyright to be protected. So long as technology continues to evolve in ways that enable legitimate content sharing, piracy will also probably continue to some degree. Happily, in this case the piracy seems to have prompted content fir-rug to compete by offering better fee-based services. The challenge for content providers is to use new technology to create value for customers, and to make those who use content illegally feel bad about it.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Prince Klemens Von Metternich, foreign minister of the Austrian Empire during the Napoleonic era and its aftermath, would have no trouble recognizing Google. To him, the world's most popular web-search engine would closely resemble the Napoleonic France that in his youth humiliated Austria and Europe's other powers. Its rivals—Yahoo!, the largest of the traditional web gateways, eBay, the biggest online auction and trading site, and Microsoft, a software empire that owns MSN, a struggling web portal—would look a lot like Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Metternich responded by forging an alliance among those three monarchies to create a "balance of power" against France. Google's enemies, he might say, ought now to do the same thing. Google announced two new conquests on August 7th. It struck a deal with Viacom, an "old" media firm, under which it will syndicate video clips from Viacom brands such as MTV and Nickelodeon to other websites, and integrate advertisements into them. This makes Google the clear leader in the fledgling but promising market for web-video advertising. It also announced a deal with News Corporation, another media giant, under which it will pro-vide all the search and text-advertising technology on News Corporation's websites, including My Space, an enormously popular social-networking site. These are hard blows for Yahoo! and MSN, which had also been negotiating with News Corporation. Both firms have been losing market share in web search to Google over the past year—Google now has half the market. They have also fallen further behind in their advertising technologies and networks, so that both make less money than Google does from the same number of searches. Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, a securities firm, estimates that for every advertising dollar that Google makes on a search query, Yahoo! makes only 60-70cents. Last month Yahoo! said that a new advertising algorithm that it had designed to close the gap in profitability will be delayed, and its share price fell by 22% , its biggest-ever one-day drop. MSN is further behind Google than Yahoo! in search, and its parent, Microsoft, faces an even more fundamental threat from the expansionist new power. Many of Google's new ventures beyond web search enable users to do things free of charge through their web browsers that they now do using Microsoft software on their personal computers. Google offers a rudimentary but free online word processor and spreadsheet, for instance. The smaller eBay, on the other hand, might in one sense claim Google as an ally. Google's search results send a lot of traffic to eBay's auction site, and eBay is one of the biggest advertisers on Google's network. But the relationship is imbalanced. An influential re-cent study from Berkeley's Haas School of Business estimated that about 12% of eBay's revenues come indirectly from Google, whereas Google gets only 3% of its revenues from eBay. Worst of all for eBay, Google is starting to undercut its core business. Sellers are setting up their own websites and buying text advertisements from Google, and buyers are using its search rather than eBay to connect with sellers directly. As a result, "eBay would be wise to strike a deep partnership with Yahoo! or Microsoft in order to regain a balance of power in the industry," said the study's authors, Julien Decot and Steve Lee, sounding like diplomats at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.

单选题Currently, the American armed forces are the largest professional military on the planet. Other (1) have professional soldiers, (2) not as many as the United States. For thousands of years, it was (3) that professional soldiers were superior to (4) timers. But (5) most of history, few nations could (6) an army of professionals, at least not on a permanent basis. It washt (7) the late 20th century that countries began to (8) large, permanent, all-volunteer armed forces that were carefully (9) and trained for combat. Britain was the first, when it phased out conscription in 1962. In 1975, the United States followed (10) . For over a century, conscription has been seen (11) the way to remain (12) strong without breaking the bank. But the conscripts did not stay in uniform long enough to get really good at fighting. Britain and American were the first two nations to realize that conscription was so (13) that the voters would pay extra to 14 a professional force. Within a decade, an army of professionals begins to pay (15) . The professionals are not only more (16) on the battlefield, but are also, if carefully (17) (for education and aptitude) more likely to constantly develop better ways to (18) This produces a tremendous battlefield (19) It doesn't make you (20) , but it does make you very difficult to defeat.

单选题Animal studies are under way, human trial protocols are taking shape and drug makers are on alert. All the international health community needs now is a human vaccine for the bird flu pandemic sweeping a cluster of Asian countries. The race for a vaccine began after the first human case emerged in Hong Kong in 1997. Backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), three research teams in the US and UK are trying to create a seed virus for a new vaccine. Their task is formidable, but researchers remain optimistic." There are obstacles, but most of the obstacles have been treated sensibly," says Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The biggest challenge is likely to be the rapidly mutating virus. Candidate vaccines produced last year against the H5N1 virus are ineffective against this year's strain. Scientists will have to constantly monitor the changes and try to tailor the vaccine as the virus mutates. They can't wait to see which one comes next. The urgency stems from fears that I-ISN1 will combine with a human flu virus, creating a pathogen(病原体) that could be transmitted from person to person. But if people have no immunity to the virus, the strain may not mutate as rapidly in people as it does in birds. To quickly generate the vaccine, researchers are using reverse genetics, which allows them to skip the long process of searching through reassorted viruses for the correct genetic combination. Instead, scientists clone sequences for hemagglutinin(红血球凝聚素) and neuraminidase(神经氨酸苷酶), the two key proteins in the virus. The sequences are then combined with human influenza genes to create a customized reference strain. Because products developed with reverse genetics have never been tested in humans, the candidate vaccines will first have to clear regulatory review. In anticipation, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) are both preparing pandemic response plans. The EMEA has produced a fist-track licensing program, an industry task force and detailed guidance for potential applicants. In Europe, a reassortant influenza virus -- but not the inactivated vaccine -- produced by reverse genetics would be considered a genetically modified organism, and manufacturers would need approval from their national or local safety authorities. The WHO has prepared a preliminary biosafety risk assessment of pilot-lot vaccine, which could help speed up the review. A preliminary version of their protocol calls for several hundred subjects, beginning with a group of young adults and gradually expanding to include those most susceptible to the flu -- children and the elderly." If we had product," says Lambert," it would probably be a couple of months at the earliest before we have early data in healthy adults./

单选题In Clements' eyes, Japanese animation

单选题The author's attitude towards the measure adopted by the President seems to be that of

单选题 Standard English is the variety of English which is usually used in print and which is normally taught in schools and to non-native speakers learning the language. It is also the variety which is normally{{U}} (1) {{/U}}by educated people and used in news broadcasts and other{{U}} (2) {{/U}}situations. The difference between standard and nonstandard, it should be noted, has{{U}} (3) {{/U}}in principle to do with differences between formal and colloquial{{U}} (4) {{/U}}; standard English has colloquial as well as formal variants. {{U}} (5) {{/U}}, the standard variety of English is based on the London{{U}} (6) {{/U}}of English that developed after the Norman Conquest resulted in the removal of the Court from Winchester to London. This dialect became the one{{U}} (7) {{/U}}by the educated, and it was developed and promoted{{U}} (8) {{/U}}a model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of society. It was also the{{U}} (9) {{/U}}that was carried overseas, but not one unaffected by such export. Today,{{U}} (10) {{/U}}English is arranged to the extent that tile grammar and vocabulary of English are{{U}} (11) {{/U}}the same everywhere in the world where English is used;{{U}} (12) {{/U}}among local standards is really quite minor,{{U}} (13) {{/U}}the Singapore, South Africa, and Irish varieties are really very{{U}} (14) {{/U}}different from one another so far as grammar and vocabulary are{{U}} (15) {{/U}}.Indeed, Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a tremendous{{U}} (16) {{/U}}on all local varieties, to the extent that many of long-established dialects of England have{{U}} (17) {{/U}}much of their vigor and there is considerable pressure on them to be{{U}} (18) {{/U}}. This latter situation is not unique{{U}} (19) {{/U}}English: it is also true in other countries where processes of standardization are{{U}} (20) {{/U}}.But it sometimes creates problems for speakers who try to strike some kind of compromise between local norms and national, even supranational ones.