单选题It is hard to get any agreement on the precise meaning of the term "social class" In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to place a new acquaintance, however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part. In the eighteenth-century one of the first modern economists, Adam Smith, thought that the "whole annual produce of the land and labor of every country' provided revenue to "three different orders of people: Those who live by rent, those who live by wages, those who live by profit" . Each successive stage of the industrial revolution, however, made the social structure more complicated. Many intermediate groups grew up during the nineteenth-century between the upper middle class and the working class. There were small-scale industrialists as well as large ones, small shopkeepers and tradesmen, officials and salaried employees, skilled and unskilled workers, and professional men such as doctors and teachers. Farmers and peasants continued in all countries as independent groups. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the possession of wealth inevitably affected a person's social position. Intelligent industrialists with initiative made fortunes by their wits which lifted them into an economic group far higher than their working-class parents. But they lacked the social training of the upper class, who despised them as the "new rich" . They often sent their sons and daughters to special schools to acquire social training. Here their children mixed with the children of the upper classes were accepted by them, and very often found marriage partners from among them. In the same way, a thrifty, hardworking labourer, though not clever enough himself, might save for his son enough to pay for an extended secondary school education in the hope that he would move into a white-collar' occupation, carrying with it a higher salary and move up in the social scale. In the twentieth century the increased taxation of higher incomes, the growth of the social services, and the wider development of educational opportunity have considerably altered the social outlook. The upper classes no longer are the sole, or even the main possessors of wealth, power and education, though inherited social position still carries considerable prestige. Many people today are hostile towards class distinctions and privileges and hope to achieve a classless society. The trouble is that as one inequality is removed, another tends to take its place, and the best that has as far been attempted is a society in which distinctions are elastic and in which every member has fair opportunities for making the best of his abilities.

单选题 In general, our society is becoming one of the giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic management in which man becomes {{U}}a small well-oiled cog in the machinery{{/U}}. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and "human relations" experts; yet all this oiling does not aver the fact that man has become powerless, that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-collar and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management. The. worker and employee are anxious not only because they might find themselves out of a job, they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction of interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings. Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on then are tested again and again by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior,soeia bitity, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one's fellow competitor ereates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness. Am I suggesting that we should return to the pre-industrial mode of production or to nineteenth century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically-man-aged industrialism in which maximal production and eonsumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities—those of all love and of reason-are the aims of social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.

单选题Of all the areas of learning the most important is the development of attitudes: emotional reactions as well as logical thought processes affect the behavior of most people. "The burnt child fears the fire" is one instance; another is the rise of despots like Hitler. Both these examples also point up the fact that attitudes come from experience. In the one case the experience was direct and impressive; in the other it was indirect and cumulative. The Nazis were influenced largely by the speeches they heard and the books they read. The classroom teacher in the elementary school is in a strategic position to influence attitudes. This is true partly because children acquire attitudes from those adults whose words are highly regarded by them. Another reason it is true is that pupils often devote their time to a subject in school that has only been touched upon at home or has possibly never occurred to them before. To a child who had previously acquired little knowledge of Mexico his teacher's method of handling such a unit would greatly affect his attitude toward Mexicans. The media through which the teacher can develop wholesome attitudes are innumerable. Social studies (with special reference to races, creeds and nationalities), science matters of health and safety, the very atmosphere of the classroom... these are a few of the fertile fields for the inculcation of proper emotional reactions. However, when children go to school with undesirable attitudes, it is unwise for the teacher to attempt to change their feelings by cajoling or scolding them. She can achieve the proper effect by helping them obtain constructive experiences. To illustrate, first-grade pupils afraid of policemen will probably alter their attitudes after a classroom chat with the neighborhood officer in which he explains how he protects them. In the same way, a class of older children can develop attitudes through discussion, research, outside reading and all-day trips. Finally, a teacher must constantly evaluate her own attitudes, because her influence can be negative if she has personal prejudices. This is especially true in respect to controversial issues and questions on which children should be encouraged to reach their own decision as a result of objective analysis of all the facts. (377 words)Notes: point up (= emphasize) 强调，突出。touch upon 触及。creed 信条，教义。inculcation 谆谆教诲。cajoling 哄骗。

单选题The history of responses to the work of the artist Sandro Botticelli (1444 ～1510) suggests that widespread appreciation by critics is a relatively recent phenomenon. Writing in 1550, Vasari expressed an unease with Botticelli's work, admitting that the artist fitted awkwardly into his evolutionary scheme of the history of art. Over the next two centuries, academic art historians defamed Botticelli in favor of his fellows Florentine, Michelangelo. Even when anti-academic art historians of the early nineteenth century rejected many of the standards of evaluation adopted by their predecessors, Botticelli's work remained outside of accepted taste, pleasing neither amateur observers nor connoisseurs. (Many of his best paintings, however, remained hidden away in obscure churches and private homes.) The primary reason for Botticelli's unpopularity is not difficult to understand: most observers, up until the midnineteenth century, did not consider him to be noteworthy, because his work, for the most part, did not seem to these observers to exhibit the traditional characteristics of fifteenth-century Florentine art. For example, Botticelli rarely employed the technique of strict perspective and, unlike Michelangelo, never used chiaroscuro. Another reason for Botticelli's unpopularity may have been that his attitude toward the style of classical art was very different from that of his contemporaries. Although he was thoroughly exposed to classical art, he showed little interest in borrowing from the classical style. Indeed, it is paradoxical that a painter of large-scale classical subjects adopted a style that was only slightly similar to that of classical art. In any ease, when viewers began to examine more closely the relationship of Botticelli's work to the tradition of fifteenth-century Florentine art, his reputation began to grow. Analyses and assessments of Botticelli made between 1850 and 1870 by the artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, as well as by the writer Pater (although he, unfortunately, based his assessment on an incorrect analysis of Botticelli's personality), inspired a new appreciation of Botticelli throughout the English-speaking world. Yet Botticelli's work, especially the Sistine frescoes, did not generate worldwide attention until it was finally subjected to a comprehensive and scrupulous analysis by Home in 1908. Home rightly demonstrated that the frescoes shared important features with paintings by other fifteenth-century Florentines-- features such as skillful representation of anatomical proportions, and of the human figure in motion. However, Home argued that Botticelli did not treat these qualities as ends in themselves--rather, that he emphasized clear depletion of a story, a unique achievement and one that made the traditional Florentine qualities less central. Because of Home's emphasis crucial to any study of art, the twentieth century has come to appreciate Bottieelli's achievements.

单选题As pointed out in the text, "reciprocal altruism theory" and "strong reciprocity theory" are ______.

单选题More than 40 million Americans between the ages of 5 and 18 attend schools throughout the United States. About 2 million school-age children are taught at home. While home schooling offers an alternative to the school environment, it has become a controversial issue. Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face of public education and a damaging move for the children. Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, the hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Some public schools have moved closer to tolerance, and, even in some cases, are seeking cooperation with home schoolers. "We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. Let"s give the kids access to public school so they"ll see it"s not as terrible as they"ve been told, and they"ll want to come back," says John Marshall, an education official. Perhaps, but don"t count on it, say home-school advocates. Some home schoolers oppose that public school system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education—whether fueled by religious belief or the individual child"s interests and natural pace—is best. Other home schoolers contend "not so much that the schools teach heresy, but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately." "These parents are highly independent and strive to "take responsibility" for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient," says Van Gallon. But Howard Carol, spokesman for America"s largest teachers union, argues that home schooling parents are trying to hide their children from the real world, says Van Gallon. "Maybe we are going to run into people with problems, people that have a drug problem, people that have an alcohol problem, and teenage pregnancy. We have many many problems that happen in our society and many of the children are victims. But shielding the children from the real mix of what happens every day is denying them something that they are going to need later in life." Mr. Carol also questioned the competence of parents as teachers though he admitted that some home schoolers do better academically. "We want to make sure that a student is not denied the full range of curriculum experiences and appropriate materials, especially now with the new technology that is being introduced and the costs involved there." "The success of home schooling has been documented in standardized test scores administered by public school officials," says Frank Bernet, the executive director of the National Association of College Admission Councilors. "I know why they are doing it, but I wonder why they can"t work with school officials and teachers to make the school what they want it to be." The response from home schoolers: "We have tried that. Now it"s time to strike out on our own."

单选题Demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast enlargements and nose jobs, has increased by more than 400 per cent over the last decade. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. " What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that. " In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centres on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Imber recommends " maintenance " work for people in their thirties. " The idea of waiting until one needs a heroic transformation is silly, " he says. " By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand. " Dr. Imber draws the line at operating on people who are under 18, however. " It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery. " In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies, who claims to " cater for the average person " , agrees. He says: " I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also all investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday. " Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anaesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who recently paid ￡2,500 for liposuction to remove cellulite from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery veteran is a deceptively gentle one. " I had my legs done because they'd been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it. /

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Science Fiction can provide students interested in the future with a basic introduction to the concept of thinking about possible futures in a serious way, a sense of the emotional forces in their own culture that are affecting the shape the future may take, and a multitude of predictions regarding the results of present trends. Although SF seems to take as its future social settings nothing more ambiguous than the current status quo or its totally evil variant, SF is actually a more important vehicle for speculative visions about macroscopic social change. At this level, it is hard to deal with any precision as to when general value changes or evolving social institutions might appear, but it is most important to think about the kinds of societies that could result from the rise of new forms of interaction, even if one cannot predict exactly when they might occur. In performing this "what if ..." function, SF can act as a social laboratory as authors ruminate upon the forms social relationships could take if key variables in their own societies were different, and upon what new belief systems or mythologies could arise in the future to provide the basic rationalizations for human activities. If it is true that most people find it difficult to conceive of the ways in which their society, or human nature itself, could undergo fundamental changes, then SF of this type may provoke one's imagination--to consider the diversity of paths potentially open to society. Moreover, if SF is the laboratory of the imagination, its experiments are often of the kind that may significantly alter the subject matter even as they are being carried out. That is, SF has always had a certain cybernetic effect on society, as its visions emotionally engage the future--consciousness of the mass public regarding especially desirable and undesirable possibilities. The shape a society takes in the present is in part influenced by its image of the future; in this way particularly powerful SF images may become self-fulfilling or self-avoiding prophecies for society. For that matter, some individuals in recent years have even shaped their own life styles after appealing models provided by SF stories. The reincarnation and diffusion of SF futuristic images of alternative societies through the media of movies and television may have speeded up and augmented SF's social feedback effects. Thus SF is not only change speculator but change agent, send an echo from the future that is becoming into the present that is sculpting it. This fact alone makes imperative in any education system the study of the kinds of works discussed in this section.

单选题Sharks have gained an unfair reputation for being fierce predators of large sea animals. Humanity's unfounded fear and hatred of these ancient creatures is leading to a worldwide slaughter that may result in the extinction of many larger, coastal shark species. The shark is the victim of a warped attitude of wildlife protection: we strive only to protect the beautiful, nonthreatening parts of our environment. And, in our efforts to restore only nonthreatening parts of our earth, we ignore other important parts. A perfect illustration of this attitude is the contrasting attitude towards another large sea animal, the dolphin. During the 1980s, environmentalists in the U. S. A. protested the use of driftnets for tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean since these nets also caught dolphins. The environmentalists generated enough political and economic pressure to prevent tuna companies from buying tuna that had been caught in driftnets. In contrast to this effort, the populations of sharks in the Pacific Ocean have decreased to the point of extinction and there has been very little effort by the same environmentalists to save this important species, of marine wildlife. Sharks are among the oldest creatures on earth, having survived in the seas for more than 350 million years. They are extremely efficient animals, feeding on wounded or dying animals, thus performing an important role in nature of weeding out the weaker animals in a species. Just the fact that species such as the Great White Shark have managed to live in the oceans for so many millions of years is enough proof of their efficiency and adaptability to changing environments. It is time for humans, who may not survive another 1000 years at the rate they are damaging the planet, to east away their fears and begin considering the protection of sharks as creatures that may provide us insight into our own survival.

单选题It is generally recognized in the world that the second Gulf War in Iraq is a crucial test of high-speed Web. For decades, Americans have anxiously (1) each war through a new communications (2) , from the early silent film of World War I to the 24-hour cable news (3) of the first Persian Gulf War. Now, (4) bombs exploding in Baghdad, a sudden increase in wartime (5) for online news has become a central test of the (6) of high-speed Internet connections. It is also a good (7) both to attract users to online media (8) and to persuade them to pay for the material they find there, (9) the value of the Cable News Network persuaded millions to (10) to cable during the last war in Iraq. (11) by a steady rise over the last 18 months in the number of people with high-speed Internet (12) , now at more than 70 million in the United States, the Web sites of many of the major news organizations have (13) assembled a novel collage (拼贴) of (14) video, audio reports, photography collections, animated weaponry (15) , interactive maps and other new digital reportage. These Internet services are (16) on the remarkable abundance of sounds and images (17) from video cameras (18) on Baghdad and journalists traveling with troops. And they have found a (19) audience of American office workers (20) their computers during the early combat. (245 words)

单选题A curious election will take place in St Louis on April 3rd. Seven candidates will compete for two seats on the city's school board. The polls will open at 6am and stay open until 7pm. Staffing the polling stations and counting the electronic ballots will cost taxpayers at least $260,000. Two happy candidates will celebrate and take office-just in time to have the state of Missouri complete the takeover of the district's schools and give them and the other board members nothing to do for several years. This election to nothing comes after years of falling test scores, revolving superintendents, screaming matches between board members at public meetings and a growing dissatisfaction with every aspect of public education. The state board of education voted on March 22nd to take over the school district, effective in mid-June. Some prominent figures endorsed this course, including the mayor of St Louis, and even some members of the St Louis school board. Others in the city, though, are deeply opposed and ready to fight about it. Although the city schools overall have an amply deserved reputation for low standards, there are some good schools and many good students. The best students have the most to lose, fearing that the turmoil could damage their chances of getting into good universities. When the state education board voted on the takeover, a group of angry students, teachers and other members of the public tried to disrupt the meeting. Protesters are still trying to use the courts to stop the action, and the teachers' union has threatened a strike. Under Missouri law the city's schools will now be placed under a three-member board appointed by the governor, the mayor and the president of the board of aldermen. Governor Matt Blunt's choice of Rick Sullivan, the head of a building firm, has already been attacked because of Mr Sullivan's lack of experience in education and because he lives in one of the wealthiest suburbs outside the city. Mr Sullivan and the other members, who have yet to be appointed, have an almost impossible task before them. The district, which in the past five years has turned a $52m surplus into a $24.5m deficit, has already closed schools, cut services and squeezed spending hard. But as its critics point out, the elected school board still found plenty of money for tours and public relations. The trickle of voters turning out for the pointless board election will pass banners celebrating the new season of the world baseball champions. St Louis has made huge progress in attracting a new generation of young professionals to its downtown area, building new business developments and installing new infrastructure. The great failure in its schools puts all that in danger.

单选题In a sweeping change to how most of its 1,800 employees are paid, the Union Square Hospitality Group will eliminate tipping at Union Square Cafe and its 12 other restaurants by the end of next year, the company"s chief executive, Danny Meyer, said on Wednesday. The move will affect New York City businesses. The first will be the Modem, inside the Museum of Modem Art, starting next month. The others will gradually follow. A small number of restaurants around the country have reduced or eliminated tipping in the last several years. Some put a surcharge on the bill, allowing the restaurants to set the pay for all their employees. Others, including Bruno Pizza, a new restaurant in the East Village, factor the cost of an hourly wage for servers into their menu prices. Union Square Hospitality Group will do the latter. The Modem will be the pilot restaurant, Mr. Meyer said, because its chef, Abram Bissell, has been agitating for higher pay to attract skilled cooks. The average hourly wage for kitchen employees at the restaurant is expected to rise to $15.25 from $11.75. Mr. Meyer said that restaurants such as his needed to stay competitive as the state moved to a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. If cooks" wages do not keep pace with the cost of living, he said, "it"s not going to be sustainable to attract the culinary talent that the city needs to keep its edge." Mr. Meyer said he hoped to be able to raise pay for junior dining room managers and for cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen workers. The wage gap is one of several issues cited by restaurateurs who have deleted the tip line from checks. Some believe it is unfair for servers" pay to be affected by factors that have nothing to do with performance. A rash of class-action lawsuits over tipping irregularities, many of which have been settled for millions of dollars, is a mounting worry. Scott Rosenberg, an owner of Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan, said in an interview in 2013 that he had eliminated tipping so his restaurant could more closely follow the customs of Japan, where tipping is rare. He said he also hoped his customers would enjoy leaving the table without having to solve a math problem. While Drew Nieporent, who owns nine restaurants in New York City and one in London, said he doubted the average diner would accept an increase in prices. "Tipping is a way of life in this country," he said. "It may not be the perfect system, but it"s our system. It"s an American system."

单选题The horns have sounded and the hounds are baying. Across the developed world the hunt for more taxes from the wealthy is on. Recent austerity budgets in France and Italy slapped 3% surcharges on those with incomes above 500, 000 ($680, 000) and 300, 000 respectively. Now Barack Obama has produced a new deficit-reduction plan that aims its tax increases squarely at the rich, including a "Buffett rule" to ensure that no household making more than $1m a year pays a lower average tax rate than "middle-class" families do. Tapping the rich to close the deficit is "not class warfare", argues Mr. Obama. "It's math." Actually, it's not simply math. The question of whether to tax the wealthy more depends on political judgments about the right size of the state and the appropriate role for redistribution. The math says deficits could technically be tamed by spending cuts alone—as Mr. Obama's Republican opponents advocate. Class warfare may be a loaded term, but it captures a fundamental debate in Western societies: who should suffer for righting public finances? There are three good reasons why the wealthy should pay more tax—though not, by and large, in the ways that the rich world's governments currently propose. First, the West's deficits should not be closed by spending cuts alone. Public spending should certainly take the brunt. But experience also argues that higher taxes should be part of the mix. In America the tax take is historically low after years of rate reductions. There, and elsewhere, tax rises need to bear some of the burden. Second, there is a political argument for raising this new revenue from the rich. Spending cuts fall disproportionately on the less well-off; and, even before the crunch, median incomes were stagnating. Meanwhile, globalization has been rewarding winners ever more generously. Voters' support for ongoing austerity depends on a disproportionate share of any new revenue coming from the wealthy. Given the rich world's need for faster growth, governments should be wary of sharp tax increases—especially since they are unnecessary. Indeed, the third argument for raising more money from the rich is that it can be done not by increasing marginal tax rates, but by making the tax code more efficient. The scope for doing so is most obvious in America, which relies far more than other countries on income taxes and has a mass of deductions on everything from interest payments on mortgages to employer-provided health care, so taxes are levied on a very narrow base. Since the main beneficiaries of the deductions are the wealthy, richer folk would pay most of that. And since marginal rates would be untouched (or reduced), such a reform would do less to discourage them from creating wealth.