单选题The term "disruptive technology" is popular, but is widely misused. It refers not simply to a clever new technology, hut to one that undermines an existing technology--and which therefore makes life very difficult for the many businesses which depend on the existing way of doing things. Twenty years ago, the personal computer was a classic example. It swept aside an older mainframe-based style of computing, and eventually brought IBM, one of the world's mightiest firms at the time, to its knees. This week has been a coming-out party of sorts for another disruptive technology, "voice over internet protocol" (VOIP), which promises to be even more disruptive, and of even greater benefit to consumers, than personal computers. VOIP's leading proponent is Skype, a small firm whose software allows people to make free calls to other Skype users over the internet, and very cheap calls to traditional telephones--all of which spells trouble for incumbent telecoms operators. On September 12th, eBay, the leading online auction house, announced that it was buying Skype for ＄2.6 billion, plus an additional ＄1.5 billion if Skype hits certain performance targets in coming years. This seems a vast sum to pay for a company that has only ＄60m in revenues and has yet to turn a profit. Yet eBay was not the only company interested in buying Skype. Microsoft, Yahoo!, News Corporation and Google were all said to have also considered the idea. Perhaps eBay, rather like some over-excited bidder in one of its own auctions, has paid too much. The company says it plans to use Skype's technology to make it easier for buyers and sellers to communicate, and to offer new "click to call" advertisements, but many analysts are sceptical that eBay is the best owner of Skype. Whatever the merits of the deal, however, the fuss over Skype in recent weeks has highlighted the significance of VOIP, and the enormous threat it poses to incumbent telecoms operators. For the rise of Skype and other VOIP services means nothing less than the death of the traditional telephone business, established over a century ago. Skype is merely the most visible manifestation of a dramatic shift in the telecoms industry, as voice Galling becomes just another data service delivered via high-speed internet connections. Skype, which has over 54m users, has received the most attention, but other firms routing calls partially or entirely over the internet have also signed up millions of customers.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} It may be just as well for Oxford University's reputation that this week's meeting of Congregation, its 3 552-strong governing body, was held in secret, for the air of civilized rationality that is generally supposed to pervade donnish conversation has lately turned fractious. That's because the vice-chancellor, the nearest thing the place has to a chief executive, has proposed the most fundamental reforms to the university since the establishment of the college system in 1249; and a lot of the dons and colleges don' t like it. The trouble with Oxford is that it is unmanageable. Its problems—the difficulty of recruiting good dons and of getting rid of bad ones, concerns about academic standards, severe money worries at some colleges—all spring from that. John Hood, who was recruited as vice-chancellor from the University of Auckland and is now probably the most- hated antipodean in British academic life, reckons he knows how to solve this, and has proposed to reduce the power of dons and colleges and increase that of university administrators. Mr. Hood is right that the university's management structure needs an overhaul. But radical though his proposals seem to those involved in the current row, they do not go far enough. The difficulty of managing Oxford stems only partly from the nuttiness of its system of governance; the more fundamental problem lies in its relationship with the government. That's why Mr. Hood should adopt an idea that was once regarded as teetering on the lunatic fringe of radicalism, but these days is discussed even in polite circles. The idea is independence. Oxford gets around ￡ 5 000 ( $ 9 500) per undergraduate per, year from the government. In return, it accepts that it can charge students only ~ 1 150 (rising to ~ 3 000 next year) on top of that. Since it probably costs at least ~ 10 000 a year to teach an undergraduate, that leaves Oxford with a deficit of ~ 4 000 or so per student to cover from its own funds. If Oxford declared independence, it would lose the ~ 52m undergraduate subsidy at least. Could it fill the hole? Certainly. America's top universities charge around￡ 20,000 per student per year. The difficult issue would not be money alone: it would be balancing numbers of not-so-brilliant rich people paying top whack with the cleverer poorer ones they were cross subsidising. America's top universities manage it: high fees mean better teaching, which keeps competition hot and academic standards high, while luring enough donations to provide bursaries for the poor. It should be easier to extract money from alumni if Oxford were no longer state-funded.

单选题In spite of "endless talk of difference", American society is an amazing machine for homogenizing people. There is "the democratizing uniformity of dress and discourse, and the casualness and absence of deference" characteristic of popular culture. People are absorbed into "a culture of consumption" launched by the 19th-century department stores that offered "vast arrays of goods in an elegant atmosphere. Instead of intimate shops catering to a knowledgeable elite" these were stores "anyone could enter, regardless of class or background. This turned shopping into a public and democratic act." The mass media, advertising and sports are other forces for homogenization. Immigrants are quickly fitting into this common culture, which may not be altogether elevating but is hardly poisonous. Writing for the National Immigration Forum, Gregory Rodriguez reports that today"s immigration is neither at unprecedented levels nor resistant to assimilation. In 1998 immigrants were 9.8 percent of population; in 1900, 13.6 percent. In the 10 years prior to 1990, 3.1 immigrants arrived for every 1,000 residents; in the 10 years prior to 1890, 9.2 for every 1,000. Now, consider three indices of assimilation—language, home ownership and intermarriage. The 1990 Census revealed that "a majority of immigrants from each of the fifteen most common countries of origin spoke English "well" or "very well" after ten years of residence." The children of immigrants tend to be bilingual and proficient in English. "By the third generation, the original language is lost in the majority of immigrant families." Hence the description of America as a "graveyard" for languages. By 1996 foreign-born immigrants who had arrived before 1970 had a home ownership rate of 75.6 percent, higher than the 69.8 percent rate among native-born Americans. Foreign-born Asians and Hispanics "have higher rates of intermarriage than do U.S.-born whites and blacks." By the third generation, one third of Hispanic women are married to non-Hispanics, and 41 percent of Asian-American women are married to non-Asians. Rodriguez notes that children in remote villages around the world are fans of superstars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Garth Brooks, yet "some Americans fear that immigrants living within the United States remain somehow immune to the nation"s assimilative power." Are there divisive issues and pockets of seething anger in America? Indeed. It is big enough to have a bit of everything. But particularly when viewed against America"s turbulent past, today"s social indices hardly suggest a dark and deteriorating social environment.

单选题A bite of a cookie containing peanuts could cause the airway to constrict fatally. Sharing a toy with another child who had earlier eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could raise a case of hives. A peanut butter cup dropped in a Halloween bag could contaminate the rest of the treats, posing an unknown risk. These are the scenarios that "make your bone marrow turn cold" according to L. Val Giddings, vice president for food and agriculture of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Besides representing the policy interests of food biotech companies in Washington, D. C., Giddings is the father of a four-year-old boy with a severe peanut allergy. Peanuts are only one of the most allergenic foods; estimates of the number of people who experience a reaction to the beans hover around 2 percent of the population. Giddings says that peanuts are only one of several foods that biotechnologists are altering genetically in an attempt to eliminate the proteins that do great harm to some people's immune systems. Although soy allergies do not usually cause life-threatening reactions, the scientists are also targeting soybeans, which can be found in two thirds of all manufactured food, making the supermarket a minefield for people allergic to soy. Biotechnologists are focusing on wheat, too, and might soon expand their research to the rest of the "big eight" allergy-inducing foods: tree nuts, milk, eggs, shellfish and fish. Last September, for example, Anthony J. Kinney, a crop genetics researcher at DuPont Experimental Station in Wilmington, Del., and his colleagues reported using a technique called RNA interference (RNAi) to silence the genes that encode p34, a protein responsible for causing 65 percent of all soybean allergies. RNAi exploits the mechanism that cells use to protect themselves against foreign genetic material; it causes a cell to destroy RNA transcribed from a given gene, effectively turning off the gene. Whether the public will accept food genetically modified to be low-allergen is still unknown. Courtney Chabot Dreyer, a spokesperson for Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont, says that the company will conduct studies to determine whether a promising market exists for low allergen soy before developing the seeds for sale to farmers. She estimates that Pioneer Hi-Bred is seven years away from commercializing the altered soybeans. Doug Gurian-Sherman, scientific director of the biotechnology project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest—a group that has advocated enhanced Food and Drug Administration oversight for genetically modified foods—comments that his organization would not oppose low-allergen foods if they prove to be safe. But he wonders about "identity preservation" a term used in the food industry to describe the deliberate separation of genetically engineered and no nengineered products. A batch of nonengineered peanuts or soybeans might contaminate machinery reserved for low-allergen versions, he suggests, reducing the benefit of the gene-altered food. Such issues of identity preservation could make low-allergen genetically modified foods too costly to produce, Chabot Dreyer admits. But, she says, "it's still too early to see if that's true. /

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} EI Nino is the term used for the period when sea surface temperatures are above normal off the South American coast along the equatorial Pacific, sometimes called the Earth's heartbeat, and is a dramatic but mysterious climate system that periodically rages across the Pacific. EI Nino means "the little boy" or "the Christ child" in Spanish, and is so called because its warm current is felt along coastal Peru and Ecuador around Christmas. But the local warming is just part of an intricate set of changes in the ocean and atmosphere across the tropical Pacific, which covers a third of the Earth's circumference. Its intensity is such that it affects temperatures, storm tracks and rainfall around the world. Droughts in Africa and Australia, tropical storms in the Pacific, torrential rains along the Californian coast and lush greening of Peruvian deserts have all been ascribed to the whim of EI Nino. Until recently it has been returning about every three to five years. But recently it has become more frequent--for the first time on record it has returned for a fourth consecutive year--and at the same time a giant pool of unusually warm water has settled clown in the middle of the Pacific and is showing no signs of moving. Climatologists don't yet know why, though some are saying these {{U}}aberrations{{/U}} may signal a worldwide change in climate. The problem is that nobody really seems sure what causes the EI Nino to start up, and what makes some stronger than others. And this makes it particularly hard to explain why it has suddenly started behaving so differently. In the absence of EI Nino and its cold counterpart, La Nina, conditions in the tropical eastern Pacific are the opposite of those in the west: the east is cool and dry, while the west is hot and wet. In the east, it's the winds and currents that keep things cool. It works like this. Strong, steady winds, called trade winds, blowing west across the Pacific drag the surface water along with them. The varying influence of the Earth's rotation at different latitudes, known as the Coriolis effect, causes these surface winds and water to veer towards the poles, north in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. The surface water is replaced by colder water from deeper in the ocean in a process known as upwelling. The cold surface water in turn chills the air above it. This cold dense air cannot rise high enough for water vapor to condense into clouds. The dense air creates an area of high pressure so that the atmosphere over the equatorial eastern Pacific is essentially devoid of rainfall.

单选题According to the passage, Thompson attributes to laboring people in eighteenth century England, which of the following attitudes toward capitalist consumerism?

单选题Saudi Arabia, the oil industry's swing producer, has become its flip-flopper. In February, it persuaded OPEC to cut its total production quotas by lm barrels per day (bpd), to 23.5m, as a precaution against an oil-price crash this spring. That fear has since been replaced by its opposite. The price of West Texas crude hit $40 last week, its highest since the eve of the first Iraq war, prompting concerns that higher oil prices could sap the vigour of America's recovery and compound the frailty of Europe's. On Monday May 10th, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, called on OPEC to raise quotas, by at least 1.5m bpd, at its next meeting on June 3rd. Thus far, the high oil price has been largely a consequence of good things, such as a strengthening world economy, rather than a cause of bad things, such as faster inflation or slower growth. China's burgeoning economy guzzled about 6m bpd in the first quarter of this year, 15% more than a year ago, according to Goldman Sachs. Demand was also strong in the rest of Asia, excluding Japan, growing by 5.2% to 8. lm bpd. As the year progresses, the seasonal rhythms of America's drivers will dictate prices, at least of the lighter, sweeter crudes. Americans take to the roads en masse in the summer, and speculators are driving up the oil price now in anticipation of peak demand in a few months' time. Until recently, the rise in the dollar price of oil was offset outside America and China by the fall in the dollar itself. But the currency has regained some ground in recent weeks, and the oil price has continued to rise. Even so, talk of another oil-price shock is premature. The price of oil, adjusted for inflation, is only half what it was in December 1979, and the United States now uses half as much energy per dollar of output as it did in the early 1970s. But if oil cannot shock the world economy quite as it used to, it can still give it "a good kick", warns Goldman Sachs. If average oil prices for the year come in 10% higher than it forecast, it reckons CDP growth in the Group of Seven (CT) rich nations will be reduced by 0.3%, or $70 billion. The Americans are certainly taking the issue seriously. John Snow, their treasury secretary, called OPEC's February decision "regrettable", and the rise in prices since then "not helpful". Washington pays close heed to the man at the petrol pump, who has seen the average price of a gallon of unleaded petrol rise by 39 cents in the past year. And the Saudis, some mutter, pay close heed to Washington. Besides, the high oil price may have filled Saudi coffers, but it has also affronted Saudi pride. Mr. al-Naimi thinks the high price is due to fears that supply might be disrupted in the future. These fears, he says, are "unwarranted". But the hulking machinery in the Arabian desert that keeps oil flowing round the world presents an inviting target to terrorists should they tire of bombing embassies and nightclubs. On May 1st, gunmen killed six people in a Saudi office of ABB Lummus Global, an American oil contractor. Such incidents add to the risk premium factored into the oil price, a premium that the Saudis take as a vote of no confidence in their kingdom and its ability to guarantee the supply of oil in the face of terrorist threats.

单选题Which of the following would the best title for the text?

单选题The conclusion can be drawn from the text that Britain's public services may be

单选题The advertising man is said to share with the Church, the Bar, and Medicine, the ability to ______.

单选题The views of Michael Tenet and George Frank on globalization are

单选题"I've never met a human worth cloning," says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from the cramped confines of his lab at Texas A & M University. "It's a stupid endeavor.' That's an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two calves and expect to clone a cat soon. They just might succeed in cloning Missy later this year--or perhaps not for another five years. It seems the reproductive system of man's best friend is one of the mysteries of modem science. Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him vexed by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missyplicity project, using hundreds upon hundreds of canine eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted fetuses may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. "Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous," he says. Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly, the sheep, was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone at A&M College of Veterinary Medicine has been ringing busily. Cost is no obstacle for customers like Missy's mysterious owner, who wishes him remain unknown to protect his privacy. He's plopped down $ 3. 7 million so far to fund the research because he wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she dies. But he knows her clone may not have her temperament. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are "both looking forward to studying the ways that her clone differs from Missy." The fate of the dog samples will depend on Westhusin's work. He knows that even if he gets a dog viably pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems. "Why would you ever want to clone humans," Westhusin asks, "when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?/

单选题Which of the following is not a reason for the rapidity and intensity of pollution in Japan?

单选题How efficient is our system of criminal trial? Does it really do the basic job we ask of it—convicting the guilty and acquitting the innocent? It is often said that the British trail system is more like a game than a serious attempt to do justice. The lawyers on each side are so engrossed in playing hard to win, challenging each other and the judge on technical points, that the object of finding out the truth is almost forgotten. All the effort is concentrated on the big day, on the dramatic cross examination of the key witnesses in front of the jury. Critics like to compare our "adversarial" system (resembling two adversaries engaged in a contest) with the continental "inquisitorial" system, under which the judge plays a more important inquiring role. In early times, in the Middle Ages, the systems of trial across Europe were similar. At that time trial by "ordeal"—especially a religious event—was the main way of testing guilt or innocence. When this way eventually abandoned the two systems parted company. On the continent church-trained legal officials took over the function of both prosecuting and judging, while in England these were largely left to lay people, the Justice of the Peace and this meant that all the evidence had to be put to them orally. This historical accident dominates procedure even today, with all evidence being given in open court by word of mouth on the crucial day. On the other hand, in France for instance, all the evidence is written before the trial under supervision by an investigating judge. This exhaustive pretrial looks very undramatic; much of it is just a public checking of the written records already gathered. The Americans adopted the British system lock, stock and barrel and enshrined it in their constitution. But, while the basic features of our systems are common, there are now significant differences in the way serious cases are handled. First, because the U.S.A. has virtually no contempt of court laws to prevent pretrial publicity in the newspaper and on television, Americans lawyers are allowed to question jurors about knowledge and beliefs. In Britain this is virtually never allowed, and a random selection of jurors who are presumed not to be prejudiced are empanelled. Secondly, there is no separate profession of barrister in the United States, and both prosecution and defense lawyers who are to present cases in court prepare themselves. They go out and visit the scene, track down and interview witnesses, and familiarize themselves personally with the background. In Britain it is the solicitor who prepares the case, and the barrister who appears in court is not even allowed to meet witness beforehand. British barristers also alternate doing both prosecution and defense work. Being kept distant from the preparation and regularly appearing for both sides, barristers are said to avoid becoming too personally involved, and can approach cases more dispassionately. American lawyers, however, often know their cases better. Reformers rightly want to learn from other countries" mistakes and successes. But what is clear is that justice systems, largely because they are the result of long historical growth, are peculiarly difficult to adapt piecemeal.

单选题Major life changes may play a role in as many as a quarter of chronic daily headache cases that arise among otherwise healthy adult men and women, study findings suggest. "Major life events may precipitate or co-occur with the development of chronic daily headaches," Dr. Ann I. Scher said. Major life changes literally shake up our world, and invite or pressure us to interact with life in new ways. To grow, we need to change our belief systems to allow for new levels of thinking and performance. Scher, of Uniformed Services University, in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues assessed re ports of major life changes among 206 men and women who met criteria for chronic daily headache (180 or more headache days per year). They assessed similar reports from 507 men and women with "episodic" headache (2 to 104 headache days per year). The investigators assessed changes in work, marital status, children's status, or residence; as well as deaths of family or close friends. They also inquired about self-defined "extremely stressful situations," such as financial problems, an ongoing individual illness or that of a family member, or an ongoing abusive relationship. Compared with men and women with episodic headache, men and women with chronic daily headache were more likely to have experienced major life events in the 2-year period prior to the onset of their headache condition, the researchers report in the medical journal Cephalalgia. The strongest predictor of chronic daily headache was an ongoing extremely stressful situation. The researchers also noted a higher proportion of chronic daily headache among people 40 years and older. In this group, "a change in work status was related to increased risk for chronic daily headache, while in contrast, those younger than 40 years showed a decreased risk for chronic daily headache after a job change," Scher told Reuters Health. These findings are generally consistent with prior research related to other chronic pain conditions, the investigators note. "Our finding that the relationship may be stronger for those older than 40 was an interesting, but secondary, finding that should be replicated in other samples," Scher said.