单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} This line of inquiry did not begin until earlier this month--more than three months after the accident--because there were "too many emotions, too many egos," said retired Adm. Harold Gehman, chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee, Gehman said this part of his inquiry Was in its earliest stages, starting just 10 days ago. But Gehman said he already has concluded it is "inconceivable" that NASA would have been unable or unwilling to attempt a rescue for astronaut, s in orbit if senior shuttle managers and administrators had known there was fatal damage to Columbia's left wing. Gehman told reporters after the hearing that answers to these important questions could have enormous impact, since they could place in a different context NASA's decisions against more aggressively checking possible wing damage in the days before Columbia's fatal return. Investigators believe breakaway insulating foam damaged part of Columbia's wing Shortly after liftoff, allowing superheated air to penetrate the wing during its fiery re-entry on Feb. 1 and melt it from the inside. Among those decisions was the choice by NASA's senior shuttle managers and administrators to reject offers of satellite images of possible damage to Columbia's left wing before the accident. The subject dominated the early part of Wednesday's hearing. Gehman complained that managers and administrators "missed signals" when they rejected those offers for images, a pointedly harsh assessment of the space agency's inaction during the 16 day shuttle mission. "We will attempt to pin this issue down in our report, but there were a number of bureaucratic and administrative missed signals here," Gehman told senators. "We're not quite so happy with the process." The investigative board already had recommended that NASA push for better coordination between the space agency and military offices in charge of satellites and telescopes. The U. S. National Imagery and Mapping Agency in March agreed to regularly capture detailed satellite images of space shuttles in orbit. Still, Gehman said it was unclear whether even images from America's most sophisticated spy satellites might have detected on Columbia's wing any damage, which Gehman said could have been as small as two inches square. The precise capabilities of such satellites was a sensitive topic during the Senate hearing.

单选题Which statement is NOT true according to para. 2?______.

单选题Arsenic, a naturally occurring poison and carcinogen found in ground water, is strongly linked to adult-onset diabetes, U. S. researchers said on Tuesday. Odorless, tasteless, colorless and easily soluble in water or wine, arsenic has long been a feared poison. A heavy dose is detectable in a corpse, but researchers say small amounts of arsenic may sicken people gradually. Dr. Ana Navas-Aeien and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found a " relatively strong " association between commonly found levels of arsenic in urine and type 2 diabetes in a study of American adults. " It seems there is maybe no safe level of arsenic. " Navas-Acien said in a telephone interview. " Worldwide it's a huge problem, " she said. " As water becomes a scarce resource. the situation becomes even more serious. " Arsenic raises the risk for cancers of the bladder, lung, kidney, skin and, possibly, the pros tate, Navas-Acien said. The 20 percent of nearly 800 study participants who had the most arsenic in their bodies, a tolerable 16. 5 micrograms per liter of urine, had 3. 6 times the risk of developing late-onset diabetes than those in the bottom 20 percent, who had 3 micrograms per liter. Levels of arsenic were 26 percent higher in people with late-onset, or type 2, diabetes than those without the disease, the study found. The U. S. government sets a limit for drinking water at 10 micrograms of arsenic per liter, which is exceeded in the water consumed by 13 million Americans who mostly live in rural areas that rely on wells to bring up ground water, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Arsenic contaminates drinking water for millions of people in Bangladesh, parts of Central Europe, Chile, Argentina and the western United States, where ground water is the source of drinking water and the land has higher concentrations of arsenic. Overall, 7. 8 percent of Americans are believed to have diabetes, although some do not know it. At least 90 percent of cases are the type 2 variety, in which the body loses its ability to use insulin properly. Navas-Acien said arsenic may play a significant role in diabetes incidence, but it is difficult to say how much. Arsenic can accumulate in the body, and can ruin the body's ability to use insulin and perform the vital task of converting blood sugar into energy. Normally, insulin fits into cells via molecular doorways called receptors, which in turn signal the cell to move glucose inside, but arsenic enters the cell and somehow blocks the activity. Seafood is another source of arsenic, but the organic form found in shellfish and some fish has a carbon molecule attached and poses no risk to health, she said.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Scholars and students have always been great travellers. The official case for "academic mobility" is now often stated in impressive terms as a fundamental necessity for economic and social progress in the world, and debated in the corridors of Europe, but it is certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready to go abroad in search of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous academies; in search of the purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the likeliest road to gold. Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas l their transference across frontiers, their simultaneous impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with students or with colleagues; one presumes that only eccentrics have no interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect. In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become vast highways. The vehicle which has made this possible has of course been the aeroplane, making contact between scholars even in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge. Apart from the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centres of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students. In addition one must recognise the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other countries. Frequently these specialisations lie in areas where very rapid developments are taking place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware of what is happening in different centres of research and to meet each other in conferences and symposia. From these meetings come the personal relationships which are at the bottom of almost all formalized schemes of cooperation, and provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus. But as the specialisations have increased in number and narrowed in range, there had been an opposite movement towards interdisciplinary studies. These owe much to the belief that one cannot properly investigate the incredibly complex problems thrown up by the modern world, and by recent advances in our knowledge along the narrow front of a single discipline. This trend has led to a great deal of academic contact between disciplines, and a far greater emphasis on the pooling of specialist knowledge, reflected in the broad subjects chosen in many international conferences.

单选题From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous disease. A large number of once fatal illness can now be found for the most stubborn remaining disease. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of them, women and children on the roads Man versus the motor-car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing Thousand of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen. It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his ear becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man's very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind steering wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving. The surprising thing is that the society smiles so gently on the motorist and seems to forgive his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made for more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through strict annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person's driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be made much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should he banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings not for motor-cars.

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D． {{B}}Text 1{{/B}} It is the world's fourth-most-important food crop, after maize, wheat and rice. It provides more calories, more quickly, using less land and in a wider range of climates than any Other plant. It is, of Course, the potato. The United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato. It hopes that greater awareness of the merits of potatoes will contribute to the achievement of its Millennium Development Goals, by helping to alleviate poverty, improve food security and promote economic development. It is always the international year of this or month of that. But the potato's unusual history means it is well worth celebrating by readers of The Economist because the potato is intertwined with economic development, trade liberalisation and globalisation. Unlikely though it seems, the potato promoted economic development by underpinning the industrial revolution in England in the 19th century. It provided a cheap source of calories and was easy to cultivate, so it liberated workers from the land. Potatoes became popular in the north of England, as people there specialised in livestock farming and domestic industry, while farmers in the south (where the soil was more suitable ) concentrated on wheat production. By a happy accident, this concentrated industrial activity in the regions where coal was readily available, and a potato-driven population boom provided ample workers for the new factories. Friedrich Engels even declared that the potato was the equal of iron for its "historically revolutionary role". The potato promoted free trade by contributing to the abolition of Britain's Corn Laws-the cause which prompted the founding of The Economist in 1843. The Corn Laws restricted imports of grain into the United Kingdom in order to protect domestic wheat producers. Landowners supported the laws, since cheap imported grain would reduce their income, but industrialists opposed them because imports would drive down the cost of food, allowing people to spend more on manufactured goods. Ultimately it was not the eloquence of the arguments against the Corn Laws that led to their abolition-and more's the pity. It was the tragedy of the Irish potato famine of 1845, in which 1million Irish perished when the potato crop on which they subsisted succumbed to blight. The need to import grain to relieve the situation in Ireland forced the government, which was dominated by landowners who backed the Corn Laws, to reverse its position. This paved the way for liberalisation in other areas, and free trade became British policy. As the Duke of Wellington complained at the time, "rotten potatoes have done it all. " In the form of French fries, served alongside burgers and Coca-Cola, potatoes are now an icon of globalisation. This is quite a turnaround given the scepticism which first greeted them on their arrival in the Old World in the 16th century. Spuds were variously thought to cause leprosy, to be fit only for animals, to be associated with the devil or to be poisonous. They took hold in 18th century Europe only when war and famine meant there was nothing else to eat; people then realised just how versatile and reliable they were. As Adam Smith, one of the potato's many admirers, observed at the time, "The very general use which is made of potatoes in these kingdoms as food for man is a convincing proof that the prejudices of a nation, with regard to diet, however deeply rooted, are by no means unconquerable. " Mashed, fried, boiled and roast, a humble tuber changed the world, and free-trading globalisers everywhere should celebrate it.

单选题What"s your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember learning to walk? Or talk? The first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom 1 events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, 2 children younger than three or four 3 retain any specific, personal experiences. A variety of explanations have been 4 by psychologists for this "childhood amnesia". One argues that the hippo-campus, the region of the brain which is 5 for forming memories, does not mature until about the age of two. But the most popular theory 6 that, since adults don"t think like children, they cannot 7 childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories or 8 one event follows 9 as in a novel or film. But when they search through their mental 10 for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don"t find any that fit the 11 It"s like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new 12 for childhood amnesia. She argues that there simply aren"t any early childhood memories to 13 . According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else"s spoken description of their personal 14 in order to turn their own short-term, quickly forgotten 15 of them into long term memories. In other 16 , children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about 17 — Mother talking about the afternoon 18 looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean Park. Without this 19 reinforcement, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form 20 memories of their personal experiences.

单选题September 11th 2001 drew the transatlantic alliance together; but the mood did not last, and over the five years since it has pulled ever further apart. A recent poll for the German Marshall Fund shows that 57% of Europeans regard American leadership in world affairs as "undesirable". The Iraq war is mainly to blame. But there is another and more intractable reason for the growing division: God. Europeans worry that American foreign policy under George Bush is too influenced by religion. The "holy warriors" who hijacked the planes on September 11th reintroduced God into international affairs in the most dramatic of ways. It seems that George Bush is replying in kind, encouraging a clash of religions that could spell global catastrophe. Dominique Moisi, a special adviser at the French Institute for International Relations, argues that "the combination of religion and nationalism in America is frightening. We feel betrayed by God and by nationalism, which is why we are building the European Union as a barrier to religious warfare." Josef Braml, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, complains that in America "religious attitudes have more of an influence on political choices than in any other western democracy." The notion that America is too influenced by religion is not confined to the elites. Three in five French people and nearly as many Dutch think that Americans are too religious—and that religion skews what should be secular decisions. Europeans who think that America is "too religious" are more inclined to anti-Americanism than their fellow countrymen. 38% of Britons have an unfavourable view of America, but that number rises to 50% among people who are wary of American religiosity. Is America engaged in a faith-based foreign policy? Religion certainly exerts a growing influence on its actions in the world, but in ways more subtle and complicated than Europeans imagine. It is true that America is undergoing a religious revival "Hot" religions such as evangelical Protestantism and hardline Catholicism are growing rapidly while "cool" mainline versions of Christianity are declining. It is also true that the Republican Party is being reshaped by this revival. Self-identified evangelicals provided almost 40% of Mr. Bush's vote in 2004; if you add in other theological conservatives, such as Mormons and traditional Catholics, that number rises closer to 60%. All six top Republican leaders in the Senate have earned 100% ratings from the Christian Coalition. It is also true that Mr. Bush frequently uses religious rhetoric when talking of foreign affairs. On September 12th he was at it again, telling a group of conservative journalists that he sees the war on terror as "a confrontation between good and evil", and remarking, "It seems to me that there's a Third Awakening" (in other words, an outbreak of Christian evangelical fervour, of the sort that has swept across America at least twice before). And Christian America overall is taking a bigger interest in foreign policy. New voices are being heard, Such as Sam Brownback, a conservative senator from Kansas who has led the fight against genocide in Darfur, and Rick Warren, the author of a bestseller called The Purpose-Driven Life, who is sending 2 000 missionaries to Rwanda. Finally, it is true that religious figures have done some pretty outrageous things. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. Lieu- tenant-General William "Jerry" Boykin, deputy under-secretary of defence for intelligence, toured the country telling Christian groups that radical Muslims hate America "because we' re a Christian nation and the enemy is a guy named Satan". He often wore uniform.

单选题According to the passage what appears to be changing rapidly in Britain and the USA?