单选题As used in the third sentence of the second paragraph, "daily bread" refers to ______.

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, and 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 19tb 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 tc 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.

单选题Come on, my fellow white folks, we have something to confess. Out with it, friends, the biggest secret known to whites since the invention of powdered rouge: welfare is a white program. The numbers go like this: 61% of the population receiving welfare, listed as "means-tested cash assistance" by the Census Bureau, is identified as white, while only 33% is identified as black. These numbers notwithstanding, the Republican version of "political correctness" has given us "welfare cheat" as a new term for African American since the early days of Ronald Reagan. Our confession surely stands: white folks have been gobbling up the welfare budget while blaming someone else. But it's worse than that. If we look at Social Security, which is another form of welfare, although it is often mistaken for an individual insurance program, then whites are the ones who are crowding the trough. We receive almost twice as much per capita, for an aggregate advantage to our race of $10 billion a year--much more than the $3. 9 billion advantage African American gain from their disproportionate share of welfare. One sad reason: whites live an average of six years longer than African Americans, meaning that young black workers help subsidize a huge and growing "over-class" of white retirees. I do not see our confession bringing much relief. There's a reason for resentment, though it has more to do with class than with race. White people are poor too, and in numbers far exceeding any of our more generously pigmented social groups. And poverty as defined by the government is a vast underestimation of the economic terror that persists at incomes--such as $ 20,000 or even $ 40,000 and above--that we like to think of as middle class. The problem is not that welfare is too generous to blacks but that social welfare in general is too stingy to all concerned. Naturally, whites in the swelling "near poor" category resent the notion of whole races supposedly frolicking at their expense. Whites, near poor and middle class, need help too--as do the many African Americans. So we white folks have a choice. We can keep pretending that welfare is black program and a scheme for transferring our earnings to the pockets of shiftless, dark-skinned people. Or we can clear our throats, blush prettily and admit that we are hurting too--for cash assistance when we're down and out, for health insurance, for college aid and all the rest. Racial scapegoating has its charms, I will admit: the surge of righteous anger, even the fun--for those inclined--of wearing sheets and burning crosses. But there are better, nobler sources of white pride, it seems to me. Remember this: only we can truly, deeply blush.

单选题Someone has calculated that by the time an American reaches the age of 40, he or she has been exposed to one million ads. Another estimate is that we have encountered more than 600, 000 ads by the time we reach the age of only 18. Now, of course, we don't remember what exactly they said or even what the product was, but a composite message gets through: that you deserve the best, that you should have it now, and that it's okay to indulge yourself, because you deserve the compliments, sex appeal, or adventure you are going to get as a result of buying this car or those cigarettes. Our consumer-based economy makes two absolutely reciprocal psychological demands on its members. On the one hand, you need the "discipline" values to ensure that people will be good workers and lead orderly, law-abiding lives. On the other hand, you need the "enjoy yourself" messages to get people to be good consumers. One author was disturbed about the "enjoy yourself" side, but acknowledged that "without a means of stimulating mass consumption, the very structure of our business enterprise would collapse." The interesting question has to do with the psychological consequences of the discrepancy between the dual messages. The "discipline" or "traditional values" theme demands that one compartment of the personality have a will strong enough to keep the individual doing unpleasant work at low wages, or to stay in an unhappy marriage, and, in general, to do things for the good of the commonwealth. The "enjoy yourself" message, on the other hand, tends to encourage a very different kind of personality-one that is self-centered, based on impulse, and is unwilling to delay rewards. As an illustration, I can't. resist reciting one of my favorite ads of all time, an ad from a psychology magazine: "I love me. I'm just a good friend to myself. And I like to do what makes me feel good. I used to sit around, putting things off till tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll drink champagne, and buy a set of pearls, and pick up that new stereo. But now I live my dreams today, not tomorrow." So what happens to us as we take in these opposing messages, as we are, in fact, torn between the opposite personality types that our society seems to require of us? Tile result is anxiety, fear, and a mysterious dread. The fear of being sucked in and dragged down by our consumer culture is real: the credit card company is not friendly when you default on your bills. And we all know that the path of pleasure-seeking and blind acquisition is a recipe for financial ruin-for most of us, anyway-and that, in American society, there isn't much of a safety net to catch you if you fall.

单选题To Journalists, three of anything makes a trend. So after three school shootings in six days, speculation about an epidemic of violence in American classrooms was inevitable, and wrong. Violence in schools has fallen by half since the mid-1990s; children are more than 100 times more likely to be murdered outside the school walls than within them. On September 27th a 53-year-old petty criminal, Duane Morrison, walked into a school in Bailey, Colorado, with two guns. He took six girls hostage, molested some of them, and killed one before committing suicide as police stormed the room. And on September 29th a boy brought two guns into his school in Cazenovia, Wisconsin. Prosecutors say that 15-year-old Eric Hainstock may have planned to kill several people. But staff acted quickly when they saw him with a shotgun, calling the police and putting the school into "lock-down". The head teacher, who confronted him in a corridor, was the only one killed. October 2nd a 32-year-old milk-truck driver, Charles Roberts, entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He lined the girls up, tied their feet and, after an hour, shot them, killing at least five. He killed himself as police broke into the classroom. What to make of such horrors? Some experts see the Colorado and Pennsylvania cases as an extreme manifestation of a culture of violence against women. Both killers appeared to have a sexual motive, and both let all the boys in the classroom go free. But it is hard to infer from such unusual examples, and one must note that violence against women is less than half what it was in 1995. Other experts see all three cases as symptomatic of a change in the way men commit suicide. Helen Smith, a forensic psychologist, told a radio audience "men are deciding to take their lives, "and they're not going alone anymore. They're taking people down with them." True, but not very often. Gun-control enthusiasts think school massacres show the need for tighter restrictions. It is too easy, they say, for criminals such as Mr. Morrison and juveniles such as Mr. Hainstock to obtain guns. Gun enthusiasts draw the opposite conclusion: that if more teachers carried concealed handguns, they could shoot potential child-killers before they kill. George Bush has now called for a conference on school violence. Will it unearth anything new, or valuable? After the Columbine massacre in 1999, the FBI produced a report on school shooters. It concluded that it was impossible to draw up a useful profile of a potential shooter because "a great many adolescents who will never commit violent acts will show some of the behaviours on any checklist of warning signs./

单选题It can be learned from the text that soon after the Second World War

单选题Who benefited the most from the competition among travel agencies?

单选题Toward this adventure of Wal-Mart, the author's attitude can be best said to be

单选题 After their 20-year-old son hanged himself during his winter break from the University of Arizona five years ago, Donna and Phil Satow wondered what signs they had overlooked, and started asking other students for answers. What grew from this soul searching was Ulifeline (www. ulifeline, org), a website where students can get answers to questions about depression by logging on through their universities. The site has been adopted as a resource by over 120 colleges, which can customize it with local information, and over 1.3 million students have logged on with their college ID's. "It's a very, solid website that raises awareness of suicide, de-stigmatizes mental illness and encourages people to seek the help they need," said Paul Grayson, the director of counseling services at New York University, which started using the service nearly a year ago. The main component of the website is the Self-E-Valuator, a self-screening program developed by Duke University Medical Center that tests students to determine whether they areat risk for depression, suicide and disorders like anorexia and drug dependence. Besides helping students, the service compiles anonymous student data, offering administrators an important window onto the mental health of its campus. The site provides university users with links to local mental health services, a catalog of information on prescription drugs and side effects, and access to Go Ask Alice, a vast archive developed by Columbia University with hundreds of responses to anonymously posted inquiries from college students worldwide. For students concerned about their friends, there is a section that describes warning signs for suicidal behavior and depression. Yet it is hard to determine how effective the service is. The anonymity of the online service can even play out as a negative. "There is no substitute for personal interaction(个人互动才能解决)", said Dr. Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, based in Washington. Ulifeline would be the first to say that its service is no replacement for an actual therapist. "The purpose is to find out if there are signs of depression and then direct people to the right places," said Ron Gibori, executive director of Ulifeline. Mrs. Satow, who is still involved with Ulifeline, called it "a knowledge base" that might have prevented the death of her son, Jed. "If Jed's friends had known the signs of depression, they might have seen something," she said.

单选题As used in the second sentence of the third paragraph, the word "unique" means ______.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} A cramped public-school test kitchen might seem an unlikely outpost for a food revolution. But Collazo, executive chef for the New York City public schools, and scores of others across the country -- celebrity chefs and lunch ladies, district superintendents and politicians -- say they're determined to improve what kids eat in school. Nearly everyone agrees something must be done. Most school cafeterias are staffed by poorly trained, badly equipped workers who churn out 4.8 billion hot lunches a year. Often the meals, produced for about $1 each, consist of breaded meat patties, French fries and overcooked vegetables. So the kids buy muffins, cookies and ice cream instead -- or they feast on fast food from McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, which is available in more than half the schools in the nation. Vending machines packed with sodas and candy line the hall ways. "We're killing our kids" with the food we serve, says Texas Education Commissioner Susan Combs. As rates of childhood obesity and diabetes skyrocket, public-health officials say schools need to change the way kids eat. It won't be easy. Some kids and their parents don't know better. Home cooking is becoming a forgotten art. And fast-food companies now spend $ 3 billion a year on television ads aimed at children. Along with reading and writing, schools need to teach kids What to eat to stay healthy, says culinary innovator Alice Waters, who is introducing gardening and fresh produce to 16 schools in California. It's a golden opportunity, she says, "to affect the way children eat for the rest of their lives." Last year star English chef Jamie Oliver took over a school cafeteria in a working-class suburb of London. A documentary about his work shamed the British government into spending $ 500 million to revamp the nation's school-food program. Oliver says it's the United States' turn now. "If you can put a man on the moon," he says, "you can give kids the food they need to make them lighter, fitter and live longer." Changing school food will take money. Many schools administrators are hooked on the easy cash- up to $ 75,000 annually -- that soda and candy vending machines can bring in. Three years ago Gary Hirshberg of Concord, N. H., was appalled when his 13-year-old son described his daytime meal -- pizza, chocolate milk and a package of Skittles. "I wasn't aware Skittles was a food group," says Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm, a yogurt company. So he devised a vending machine that stocks healthy snacks: yogurt smoothies, fruit leathers and whole-wheat pretzels. So far 41 schools in California, Illinois and Washington are using his machines -- and a thousand more have requested them. Hirshberg says, "schools have to make good food a priority." Some states are trying. California, New York and Texas have passed new laws that limit junk food sold on school grounds. Districts in California, New Mexico and Washington have begun buying produce from local farms. The soda and candy in the vending machines have been replaced by juice and beef jerky. "It's not perfect," says Jannison. But it's a cause worth fighting for, Even if she has to battle one chip at a time.

单选题Soon after his appointment as secretary-general of the United Nations in 1997, Kofi Annan lamented that he was being accused of failing to reform the world body in six weeks. "But what are you complaining about?" asked the Russian ambassador: "You've had more time than God." Ah, Mr. Annan quipped back, "but God had one big advantage. He worked alone without a General Assembly, a Security Council and [all] the committees." Recounting that anecdote to journalists in New York this week, Mr. Annan sought to explain why a draft declaration on UN reform and tackling world poverty, due to be endorsed by some 150 heads of state and government at a world summit in the city on September 14th- 16th, had turned into such a pale shadow of the proposals that he himself had put forward in March. "With 191 member states", he sighed, "it's not easy to get an agreement." Most countries put the blame on the United States, in the form of its abrasive new ambassador, John Bolton, for insisting at the end of August on hundreds of last minute amendments and a line-by-line renegotiation of a text most others had thought was almost settled. But a group of middle-income developing nations, including Pakistan, Cuba, Iran, Egypt, Syria and Venezuela, also came up with plenty of last-minute changes of their own. The risk of having no document at all, and thus nothing for the world's leaders to come to New York for, was averted only by marathon all-night and all-weekend talks. The 35-page final document is not wholly devoid of substance. It calls for the creation of a Peacebuilding Commission to supervise the reconstruction of countries after wars; the replacement of the discredited UN Commission on Human Rights by a supposedly tougher Human Rights Council; the recognition of a new "responsibility to protect" peoples from genocide and other atrocities when national authorities fail to take action, including, if necessary, by force; and an "early" reform of the Security Council. Although much pared down, all these proposals have at least survived. Others have not. Either they provod so contentious that they were omitted altogether, such as the sections on disarmament and non-proliferation and the International Criminal Court, or they were watered down to little more than empty platitudes. The important section on collective security and the use of force no longer even mentions the vexed issue of pre-emptive strikes; meanwhile the section on terrorism condemns it "in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes", but fails to provide the clear definition the Americans wanted. Both Mr. Annan and, more surprisingly, George Bush have nevertheless sought to put a good face on things, with Mr. Annan describing the summit document as "an important step forward" and Mr. Bush saying the UN had taken "the first steps" towards reform. Mr. Annan and Mr. Bolton are determined to go a lot further. It is now up to the General Assembly to flesh out the document's skeleton proposals and propose new ones. But its chances of success appear slim.

单选题 According to a new research, dreaming about something you've learned may actually be an indicator that your memory is working overtime to retain that information. Doctors have long {{U}} {{U}} 21 {{/U}} {{/U}}the importance of a good night's rest-for everything from improving performance to {{U}} {{U}} 22 {{/U}} {{/U}}physical well being. {{U}} {{U}} 23 {{/U}} {{/U}}this latest inquiry suggests that {{U}} {{U}} 24 {{/U}} {{/U}}sleep is beneficial, dreams may actually {{U}} {{U}} 25 {{/U}} {{/U}}whether our memories continue to work through {{U}} {{U}} 26 {{/U}} {{/U}}. In this latest research, researchers found that, after {{U}} {{U}} 27 {{/U}} {{/U}}performing a task, study participants who took a nap and dreamt about that task {{U}} {{U}} 28 {{/U}} {{/U}}both those who hadn't slept, and those who'd had a dreamless sleep or whose dreams didn't touch {{U}} {{U}} 29 {{/U}} {{/U}}the task. As part of the research, subjects were asked to study a three dimensional computer maze so that later, when they were {{U}} {{U}} 30 {{/U}} {{/U}}placed somewhere in the middle of that maze, they'd be able to find their way out. Between the initial {{U}} {{U}} 31 {{/U}} {{/U}}of the maze, and the later task, some participants were allowed to nap. Among those who rested, several had dreams that {{U}} {{U}} 32 {{/U}} {{/U}}the maze-some saying that their dreams {{U}} {{U}} 33 {{/U}} {{/U}}the music that had been playing while they studied the maze earlier, while others imagined the maze as {{U}} {{U}} 34 {{/U}} {{/U}}caves that they'd had to {{U}} {{U}} 35 {{/U}} {{/U}}through. Later, when participants were put back in the maze, those who'd dreamt about it had greater {{U}} {{U}} 36 {{/U}} {{/U}}finding their way around than those who hadn't dreamt about the {{U}} {{U}} 37 {{/U}} {{/U}}, or who hadn't slept at all. The findings indicate that dreams may be a(n) {{U}} {{U}} 38 {{/U}} {{/U}}of memory processing, and working over a problem in your sleep is a(n){{U}} {{U}} 39 {{/U}} {{/U}}that your brain is actively trying to {{U}} {{U}} 40 {{/U}} {{/U}}that information. The next step in the research, they say, is to examine how dreams during a full night's sleep relate to memory process.

单选题According to the passage, what does social capital refer to?

单选题In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make silver articles?