单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} People, like most animals, are naturally lazy. So the ascent of mankind is something of a mystery. Humans who make their livings hunting and gathering in the traditional way do not have to put much effort into it. Farmers who rely on rain to water their crops work significantly harder, and lead unhealthier lives. But the real back-breaking is that carried out by farmers who use irrigation. Yet it was the invention of irrigation, at first sight so harmful to its practitioners that actually produced a sufficient surplus to feed the priests, scholars, artists and so on whose activities are collectively thought of as "civilization". In the past 10,000 years, the world's climate has become temporarily colder and drier on several occasions. The first of these, known as the Younger Dryas, after a tundra-loving plant that thrived during it, occurred at the same time as the beginning of agriculture in northern Mesopotamia. It is widely believed that this was not a coincidence. The drying and cooling of the Younger Dryas adversely affected the food supply of hunter-gatherers. That would have created an incentive for agriculture to spread once some bright spark invented it. Why farmers then moved on to irrigation is, however, far from clear. But Harvey Weiss, of Yale University, thinks he knows. Dr. Weiss observes that the development of irrigation coincides with a second cool, dry period, some 8,200 years ago. His analysis of rainfall patterns in the area suggests that rainfall in agriculture's upper-Mesopotamian heartland would, at this time, have fallen below the level needed to sustain farming reliably. Farmers would thus have been forced out of the area in search of other opportunities. Once again, an innovative spark was required. But it clearly occurred to some of these displaced farmers that the slow-moving waters of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, near sea level, could be diverted using canals and used to water crops. And the rest, as the cliche has it, is history. So climate change helped to intensify agriculture, and thus start civilization. But an equally intriguing idea is that the spread of agriculture caused climate change. In this case, the presumed criminal is forest clearance. Most of the land cultivated by early farmers in the Middle East would have been forested. When the trees that grew there were cleared, the carbon they contained ended up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Moreover, one form of farming—the cultivation of rice in waterlogged fields—generates methane, in large quantities. William Ruddiman, of the University of Virginia, explained that, in combination, these two phenomena had warmed the atmosphere prior to the start of the industrial era. As environmentalists are wont to observe, mankind is part of nature. These studies show just how intimate the relationship is.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} One meaning of the Greek word "dran" is to accomplish, and in this meaning lies a further key to the structure of drama. A play concerns a human agent attempting to accomplish some purpose. In tragedy his attempt is, in personal terms at least, unsuccessful; in comedy it is successful; in the problem play final accomplishment is often either ambiguous or doubtful. This action, from the beginning to the end of a movement toward a purposed goal, must also have a middle; it must proceed through a number of steps, the succession of incidents which make up the plot. Because the dramatist is concerned with the meaning and logic of events rather than with their casual relationship in time, he will probably select his material and order it on a basis of the operation, in human affairs, of laws of cause and effect. It is in this causal relationship of incidents that the element of conflict, present in virtually all plays, appears. The central figure of the play--the protagonist---encounters difficulties; his purpose or purposes conflict with events or circumstances, with purposes of other characters in the play, or with cross-purposes which exist within his own thoughts and desires. These difficulties threaten the protagonist's accomplishment; in other words, they present complications, and his success or failure in dealing with these complications determines the outcome. Normally, complications build through the play in order of increasing difficulty; one complication may be added to another, or one may grow out of the solution of a preceding one. At some point in this chain of complication and solution, achieved or attempted, the protagonist performs an act or makes a decision which irrevocably commits him to a further course, points toward certain general consequences. This point is usually called the crisis; the complications and solutions which follow work out the logical steps from crisis to find resolution, or denouement.

单选题Which of the following does NOT account for young people' traveling more?

单选题According the theory of kin selection, humans tend to act altruistically ______.

单选题The only reason for buying HDTV might be

单选题The hot spot theory may prove useful in explaining ______.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The world is undergoing tremendous changes. The rise of globalization, both an economic and cultural trend that has swept throughout the world, has forged new ground as we enter the 21st century. But are the effects of globalization always positive? Some say no. Michael Tenet, head of the International Institute for Foreign Relations in Atlanta, is worried about current resentment throughout the world toward the rise of globalization. "Ever since the 1980s and the economic collapse of the Asian Tigers in the late 1990s, there has been a re-evaluation of the role of globalization as a force for good," he said. "Incomes in many countries have declined and the gap between the most rich and the most poor has been aggravated. Without further intervention by governments, we could see a tragedy expressed in an increased level of poverty throughout the Latin America and Asia." Yet George Frank, an influential economist who works on Wall Street, sees no such danger. "Economic liberalization, increased transparency and market-based reforms have positive effect in the long run, even if market mechanisms can produce short-term destabilization problems," he said. "What is most important is that barriers to trade continue to fall so that active competition for Consumer goods reduces prices and in turn raises the average level of income." Others feel that globalization's cultural impact may be more important than its economic implications. Janice Yawee, a native of Africa, feels strongly that globalization is undermining her local culture and language. "Most of the world's dialects will become extinct under globalization. We're paving the world with McDonald's and English slang. It tears me up inside," she said. Governments of different countries have had mixed responses to the wave of globalization. The United States is generally seen as an active proponent of greater free trade, and it certainly has enormous cultural influence by virtue of its near monopoly on worldwide entertainment. But other countries, most notably in Europe and developing nations, have sought to reduce the impact that globalization has on their domestic affairs. "When I was a boy we had very little to speak of," says one Singaporean resident. "Now our country has developed into a booming hub for international finance." Others, however, are not so optimistic. "Globalization is an evil force that must be halted," a union official at a car plant in Detroit recently commented, "It's sucking away jobs and killing the spirit of our country." (401 words){{B}}Notes:{{/B}} slang 俚语。tear up 撕碎，挖开。proponent 支持者，拥护者。hub 轮毂。suck away减少。

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. Many professions are associated with a particular stereotype. The classic {{U}}(1) {{/U}} of a writer, for example, is {{U}}(2) {{/U}} a slightly crazy-looking person,{{U}} (3) {{/U}} in an attic, writing away furiously for days {{U}}(4) {{/U}} end. Naturally, he has his favorite pen and note-paper, or a beat-up typewriter, {{U}}(5) {{/U}} which he could not produce a readable word. Nowadays, we know that such images bear little {{U}}(6) {{/U}} to reality. But are they completely {{U}}(7) {{/U}}? In the case of at least one writer, it would seem not. Dame Muriel Spark, who {{U}}(8) {{/U}} 80 in February, in many ways resembles this stereotypical "writer". She is certainly not {{U}}(9) {{/U}}, and she doesn't work in an attic. But she is rather particular {{U}}(10) {{/U}} the tools of her trade. She insists on writing with a {{U}}(11) {{/U}} type of pen in a certain type of notebook, which she buys from a certain stationer in Edinburgh called James Thin. In fact, so {{U}}(12) {{/U}} is she that, if someone uses one of her pens by {{U}}(13) {{/U}}, she immediately throws it away. And she claims she {{U}}(14) {{/U}} enormous difficulty writing in any notebook other than {{U}}(15) {{/U}} sold by James Thin. This could soon be a {{U}}(16) {{/U}}, as the shop no longer stocks them, {{U}}(17) {{/U}} Dame Muriel's supply of 72-page spiral bound is nearly {{U}}(18) {{/U}}. As well as her "obsession" about writing materials, Muriel Spark {{U}}(19) {{/U}} one other characteristic with the stereotypical "writer": her work is the most {{U}}(20) {{/U}} thing in her life. It has stopped her from marrying; cost her old friends and made her new ones, and driven her from London to New York to Rome. Today she lives in the Italian province of Tuscany with a friend.

单选题In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by

单选题As to withstanding the temptations that have sucked male athletes into prima donna poses, which of the following does the author might agree?

单选题According to the author, which of the following is the most important reason for women to go to work?

单选题In 1910, Henry Van Dyke wrote a book called "The Spirit of America, " which opened with this sentence: "The Spirit of America is best known in Europe by one of its qualities— energy. " This has always been true. Americans have always been known for their manic dynamism. Some condemned this ambition as a scrambling after money. Others saw it in loftier terms. But energy has always been the country"s saving feature. So Americans should be especially alert to signs that the country is becoming less vital and assiduous . One of those signs comes to us from the labor market. According to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has a smaller share of prime age men in the work force than any other G-7 nation. Part of the problem has to do with human capital. More American men lack the emotional and professional skills they would need to contribute. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 35 percent of those without a high school diploma are out of the labor force, compared with less than 10 percent of those with a college degree. Part of the problem has to do with structural changes in the economy. Sectors like government, health care and high-tech have been growing, generating jobs for college grads. Sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and energy have been getting more productive, but they have not been generating more jobs. Instead, companies are using machines or foreign workers. The result is this: There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the Great Depression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical . This is a big problem. It can"t be addressed through the sort of short-term Keynesian stimulus some on the left are still fantasizing about. It can"t be solved by simply reducing the size of government, as some on the right imagine. It will probably require a broad menu of policies attacking the problem all at once: expanding community colleges and online learning; changing the corporate tax code and labor market rules to stimulate investment; adopting German-style labor market practices like apprenticeship programs, wage subsidies and programs that extend benefits to the unemployed for six months as they start small businesses. Reinvigorating the missing fifth—bringing them back into the labor market and using their capabilities—will certainly require money. If this were a smart country, we"d be having a debate about how to shift money from programs that provide comfort and toward programs that spark reinvigoration. But, of course, that"s not what is happening. Discretionary spending, which might be used to instigate dynamism, is declining. Health care spending, which mostly provides comfort to those beyond working years, is expanding. Attempts to take money from health care to open it up for other uses are being crushed . We"re locking in the nation"s wealth into the Medicare program and closing off any possibility that we might do something significant to reinvigorate the missing fifth. Next time you see a politician demagoguing Medicare, ask this : Should we be using our resources in the manner of a nation in decline or one still committed to stoking the energy of its people and continuing its rise?

单选题Most of the illusions that defined the tate global economic boom—the notion that global growth had moved to a non-stop higher plane and housing prices from Miami to Mumbai would rise indefinitely—are now indeed exhausted. Yet one idea still has the power to capture imaginations and markets: it is that commodities like oil, copper, grains and gold are all destined to rise over time. Lots of smart people believe that last year's increase in commodities prices represented a pause in a long-term bull market. It's view rooted in powerful and real trends, like the growth of India, the decline in global reserves, fears over resource nationalization and long-term lack of investment in energy and agriculture, which limits supply. At any point in time, there are always new economic powers emerging on the global scene, yet product prices have continued to fall. The 1980s and 1990s were a relatively strong period for the global economy, and India was growing at an average pace of 7 percent. But prices for most commodities did not follow, oil, for example, never broke through the upper limit of $40 a barrel. The reason oil prices did not spike higher is simple: demand for any product is price-elastic, which means that once the price goes too high, consumers stop buying it or make heroic efforts to find a substitute. There is good reason to believe that the world just passed a similar turning point. The last boom in the oil prices collapsed in 1979, when total spending on oil exceeded 7 percent of global GDP. Last year, spending on oil hit a similar share of global GDP, and the price has since fallen by more than two thirds. Yet markets are still betting that the price of oil is poised to spike again. Some analysts predict $90 a barrel by 2012. It's worth noting that until as recently as 2005, the markets acted on the exact opposite assumption. For years, sport prices ran much higher than futures prices, because most investors assumed prices would follow the historic trend line: down. Today investors are sill reacting to any sign of health in the global economy by pouring money back into commodities, producing the unstable upward price swing we've seen in recent weeks.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Well, he made it up. All of it, apparently. According to a report published on December 29th by Seoul National University in South Korea, its erstwhile employee Hwang Woo-suk, who had tendered his resignation six days earlier, deliberately falsified his data in the paper on human embryonic stem cells that he and 24 colleagues published in Science in May 2005. In particular, Dr Hwang claimed he had created 11 colonies of human embryonic stem cells genetically matched to specific patients. He had already admitted that nine of these were bogus, but had said that this was the result of an honest mistake, and that the other two were still the real McCoy. A panel of experts appointed by the university to investigate the matter, however, disagreed. They found that DNA fingerprint traces conducted on the stem-cell lines reported in the paper had been manipulated to make it seem as if all 11 lines were tailored to specific patients. In fact, none of them matched the volunteers with spinal-cord injuries and diabetes who had donated skin cells for the work. To obtain his promising "results", Dr Hwang had sent for testing two samples from each donor, rather than a sample from the donor and a sample of the cells into which the donor's DNA had supposedly been transplanted. The panel also found that a second claim in the paper-that only 185 eggs were used to create the 11 stem-cell lines-was false. The investigators said the actual number of eggs used was far larger, in the thousands, although they were unable to determine an exact figure. The reason this double fraud is such a blow is that human embryonic stem-cell research has great expectations. Stem cells, which have not yet been programmed to specialise and can thus, in principle, grow into any tissue or organ, could be used to treat illnesses ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease. They might even be able to fix spinal-cord injuries. And stem cells cloned from a patient would not be rejected as foreign by his immune system, Dr Hwang's reputation, of course, is in tatters. The university is now investigating two other groundbreaking experiments he claims to have conducted-the creation of the world's first cloned human embryo and the extraction of stem cells from it, and the creation of the world's first cloned dog. He is also in trouble for breaching ethical guidelines by using eggs donated by members of his research team. And it is even possible that the whole farce may have been for nothing. Cloned embryos might be the ideal source of stem cells intended to treat disease, but if it proves too difficult to create them, a rough-and-ready alternative may suffice.

单选题The human Y chromosome—the DNA chunk that makes a man a man—has lost so many genes over evolutionary time that some scientists have suspected it might disappear in 10 million years. But a new study says it'll stick around. Researchers found no sign of gene loss over the past 6 million years, suggesting the chromosome is "doing a pretty good job of maintaining itself," said researcher David Page of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass. That agrees with prior mathematical calculations that suggested the rate of gene loss would slow as the chromosome evolved, Page and study co-authors note in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. And, they say, it clashes with what Page called the "imminent demise" idea that says the Y chromosome is doomed to extinction. The Y appeared 300 million years ago and has since eroded into a dinky chromosome, because it lacks the mechanism other chromosomes have to get rid of damaged DNA. So mutations have disabled hundreds of its original genes, causing them to be shed as useless. The Y now contains only 27 genes or families of virtually identical genes. In 2003, Page reported that the modern-day Y has an unusual mechanism to fix about half of its genes and protect them from disappearing. But he said some scientists disagreed with his conclusion. The new paper focuses on a region of the Y chromosome where genes can't be fixed that way. Researchers compared the human and chimpanzee versions of this region. Humans and chimps have been evolving separately for about 6 million years, so scientists reasoned that the comparisons would reveal genes that have become disabled in one species or the other during that time. They found five such genes on the chimp chromosome, but none on the human chromosome, an imbalance Page called surprising. "It looks like there has been little if any gene loss in our own species lineage in the last 6 million years," Page said. That contradicts the idea that the human Y chromosome has continued to lose genes so fast it'll disappear in 10 million years, he said. "I think we can with confidence dismiss … the 'imminent demise' theory," Page said. Jennifer A. Marshall Graves of the Australian National University in Canberra, a gene researcher who argues for eventual extinction of the Y chromosome, called Page's work "beautiful" but said it didn't shake her conviction that the Y is doomed. The only real question is when, not if, the Y chromosome disappears, she said. "It could be a lot shorter than 10 million years, but it could be a lot longer," she said. The Y chromosome has already disappeared in some other animals, and "there's no reason to expect it can't happen to humans," she said. If it happened in people, some other chromosome would probably take over the sex-determining role of the Y, she said.

单选题Henry Kissinger may be the most successful, certainly the most flamboyant, Secretary of State to hold that office in modern times. When he was appointed in the late 1960's, there were no American ties with Communist China, Vietnam and Berlin seemed ready to draw the United States into a third world war, and Russia was seen as "the enemy". But all this has changed, and Henry Kissinger caused much of the change; in 1971, he made his first trip to China, a trip that was the beginning of the current ties between the United States and China. He brought the United States and Russia closer together on major issues by the policy he called "detente", literally meaning a relaxation. His philosophy was always to talk and to bring together. With these two policies, Kissinger did much to draw attention away from any possible Russia-American friction. In 1973 he made his first visit to Egypt. Here he was able to begin U.S. relations with Egypt. He used his contact later to begin the sort of talks that the American press called "shuttle diplomacy". For ninety-nine days, he "shuttled" back and forth on flights between Cairo and Jerusalem to work out a step-by-step withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai desert. His wit, his careful approach to detail, and his presence made "shuttle diplomacy" work. It was the only successful approach to Mid-east peace in the thirty years since the state of Israel was founded. Another major work was the Strategic Arms Limitation Talk. Though his term in office passed with the treaty unsigned, Kissinger left a draft of the treaty to which the Russians had already agreed. The SALT treaty spelled out a one-tenth reduction in nuclear arms, a major accomplishment by any standard, even if one does not consider all the other conditions and limitations included in the treaty. Even though he successfully helped bring an end to the Vietnam War, Kissinger's final days in office were affected, as was the entire executive branch in one way or another, by the scandals of the Nixon White House. Kissinger's critics point to his role in placing wiretaps on the phones of reporters and officials and to what they consider his "high-handed" approach to setting foreign policy. But Kissinger, during the last few months of the Nixon presidency, limited the effects of American domestic problems on our foreign policy. He continued talks in the Middle East. He continued close contact with the Soviet Union. History will decide in the final view, as Kissinger--and many presidents--often said, on the value of his service. Whatever they decide, whether his actions are finally to be considered wise or foolish, he had a personal vision that will he difficult to match.

单选题The examples of GE and Staples in the first paragraph are to show that both companies