单选题The passage suggests which of the following about air pollution?

单选题When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filling or polishing as nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator," she says, "I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus, "I don't know it other clients are going to abandon me, too." She says. Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealer-ships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening. Consumers say they're not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there's a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses." Says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job. Many folks see silver linings to this slow-down. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn't mind a little fewer buddles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan's hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, announced here today that a delegation of Pakistani officials would fly to the Taliban~ s headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Monday to renew demands that the militia surrender Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden. U.S. officials have named Bin Laden, who has been given shelter by the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, as the prime suspect in Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. "We are aware of the gravity of the situation and know that in the lives of nations, such situations do arise that require making important decisions," Musharraf said at a meeting with Pakistani newspaper editors. The Taliban's leader, Mohammad Omar, has refused to give up Bin Laden, claiming he is not responsible for the U.S. attacks. "The Pakistan government is leaning on the Taliban government to hand over Osama to save this entire region from catastrophe," said Najam Sethi, editor of the weekly newspaper Friday Times, who participated in the meeting with Musharraf. "I am not sure whether there is much chance of that happening, but the pressure is on from the Pakistan government." Pakistan has been a key supporter of the Taliban, which controls more than 90 percent of Afghanistan and has enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law in the country. Omar, the Taliban leader, today convened an emergency meeting of clerics(圣职人员) in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "As regards the possible attack by America on the sacred soil of Afghanistan, veteran honorable clerics should come to Kabul for a sharia decision," Omar said in a statement broadcast on the Taliban's Radio Shariat today. Sharia is Islamic law. Omar, who reportedly left Ms. Kandahar headquarters several days ago in anticipation of a U. S. attack, asked Afghans to pray and read the Koran to meet what he called a "test", according to the statement. He indicated he would not attend the meeting of clerics, though he reportedly met with a small group of senior clerics today. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported today it had received a statement from Bin Laden, dispatched by an aide from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, in which he denied involvement in last week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "I am residing in Afghanistan," the statement said, "I have taken an oath of allegiance to Omar which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan. We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved."

单选题King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted "kings don"t abdicate, they die in their sleep." But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles? The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarised, as it was following the end of the Franco regime, monarchs can rise above "mere" politics and "embody" a spirit of national unity. It is this apparent transcendence of politics that explains monarchs, continuing popularity as heads of state. And so, the Middle East excepted, Europe is the most monarch-infested region in the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican City and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure. Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history—and sometimes the way they behave today—embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomes Piketty and other economists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states. The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Prince and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses (or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media intrusiveness makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image. While Europe"s monarchies will no doubt be smart enough to survive for some time to come, it is the British royals who have most to fear from the Spanish example. It is only the Queen who has preserved the monarchy"s reputation with her rather ordinary (if well-heeled) granny style. The danger will come with Charles, who has both an expensive taste of lifestyle and a pretty hierarchical view of the world. He has failed to understand that monarchies have largely survived because they provide a service—as non-controversial and non-political heads of state. Charles ought to know that as English history shows, it is kings, not republicans, who are the monarchy"s worst enemies.

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. There is virtually no limit to how one can serve community interests, from spending a few hours a week with some charitable organization to practically full-time work for a social agency. Just as there are opportunities for voluntary service{{U}} (1) {{/U}}(VSO) for young people before they take up full-time employment,{{U}} (2) {{/U}}there are opportunities for overseas service for{{U}} (3) {{/U}}technicians in developing countries. Some people,{{U}} (4) {{/U}}those who retire early,{{U}} (5) {{/U}}their technical and business skills in countries{{U}} (6) {{/U}}there is a special need. So in considering voluntary or{{U}} (7) {{/U}}community service, there are more opportunities than there{{U}} (8) {{/U}}were when one first began work. Most voluntary organizations have only a small full-time{{U}}(9) {{/U}}and depend very much on volunteers and part-timers. This means that working relationships are different from those in commercial organizations, and values may be different.{{U}} (10) {{/U}}some ways they may seem more casual and less efficient, but one should not{{U}} (11) {{/U}}them by commercial criteria. The people who work with them do so for different reasons and with different{{U}} (12) {{/U}}, both personal and{{U}} (13) {{/U}}. One should not join them{{U}} (14) {{/U}}to arm them with professional experience; they must be joined with commitment to the{{U}} (15) {{/U}}, not business efficiency. Because salaries are{{U}} (16) {{/U}}or non-existent many voluntary bodies offer modest expense. But many retired people take part in community service for{{U}} (17) {{/U}}, simply because they enjoy the work. Many community activities possible{{U}} (18) {{/U}}retirement were also possible during one's working life but they are to be undertaken{{U}} (19) {{/U}}seriously for that. Retired people who are just looking for something different or unusual to do should not consider{{U}} (20) {{/U}}community service.

单选题Even plants can run a fever, especially when they are under attack by insects or disease. But (1) humans, plants can have their temperature (2) from 3,000 feet away—straight up. A decade ago, (3) the infrared scanning technology developed for military purpose and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley (4) a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine (5) ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmer (6) target pesticide spraying (7) rain poison on a whole field, which (8) include plants that don't have the pest problem. Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problem before they became (9) to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet (10) , an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were (11) into a color-coded map showing (12) plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spot spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they (13) would. The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers (14) the new technology and long-term backers were hard (15) . But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to (16) into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt about the technology works. "This technique can be used (17) 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States," says George Oerther of Texas A＆M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks (18) infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But (19) Paley finds the financial backing (20) he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

单选题Based on the information in paragraph 4, which of the following was probably true about copper in the colonies?

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} As dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marilee Jones was responsible for ensuring that applicants represented their academic backgrounds honestly. So it was more than a shock when the 55-year-old resigned Thursday, admitting that she had misled school officials over a 28-year period into believing that she held three degrees from New York institutions. In fact, she had never received even an undergraduate degree from any school. While Jones's case is extreme, it points to a major concern for any corporation or institution that hires employees: embellishments and outright lies on resumes. But if an employer doesn't catch the falsehoods, how does an employee live with such a big lie in Jones's case, a falsehood that she maintained for 28 years? Psychologist Paul Ekman speculates that Jones's case is likely related to self-esteem. MIT officials noted that a college degree probably wasn't required for the entry-level position that Jones took on in 1979, and apparently no one checked her credentials with each successive promotion. Still, by all accounts, Jones was good at her job. "Even though the fake degrees didn't initially give her tangible benefits, she personally needed them in order to get people to respect her," Ekman says. "And in time it appears she did get a lot of respect, but by then she couldn't reveal she had lied without losing her position." Ekman says many people are tempted to exaggerate their credentials for the same reason a kid exaggerates his father's strength, but that most people resist. "They either know from past experience that they could never get away with it—perhaps because they are bad liars, they don't like taking risks—some people are risk takers so it attracts them to lying, or they are religiously observant," Ekman says. Early in her career, Jones didn't resist the temptation, and it may have become too difficult to rectify the situation as she climbed the workplace ladder. "My bet is that it was never out of her mind completely that she had taken such a risk, but I doubt she spent many nights worrying someone would catch her," Ekman says. "She had done such a great job and was so admired, that she probably became confident after all these years that no one was going to check." But the potential damages caused by hiring a poorly qualified employee are serious for companies. Depending on the position applied for, different background-information firms offer different service packages. For example, a credit check may not be necessary for a person applying for an administrative job; but an executive or financial position may call for a check of references, a credit check, a criminal-records check and even a check of driving records. With such diligence, it's much riskier for today's job hunters to lie than it was 30 years ago when Jones filled out her first application at MIT.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} The provision of positive incentives to work in the new society will not be an easy task. But the most difficult task of all is to devise the ultimate and final sanction to replace the ultimate sanction of hunger--the economic whip of the old dispensation. Moreover, in a society which rightly rejects the pretence of separating economies from politics and denies the autonomy of the economic order, that sanction can be found only in some conscious act of society. We can no longer ask the invisible hand to do our dirty work for us. I confess that I am less horror-struck than some people at the prospect, which seems to me unavoidable, of an ultimate power of what is called direction of labor resting in some arm of society, whether in an organ of state or of trade unions. I should indeed be horrified if I identified this prospect with a return to the conditions of the pre-capitalist era. The economic whip of laissea-faire undoubtedly represented an advance on the serf-like conditions of that period: in that relative sense, the claim of capitalism to have established for the first time a system of "free" labour deserves respect But the direction of labour as exercised in Great Britain in the Second World War seems to me to represent as great an advance over the economic whip of the heyday of capitalist private enterprise as the economic whip represented over pre-capitalist serfdom, Much depends on the effectiveness of the positive incentives, much, too, on the solidarity and self-discipline of the community. After all, under the system of laissea-faire capitalism the fear of hunger remained an ultimate sanction rather than a continuously operative force. It would have been intolerable if the worker had been normally driven to work by conscious fear of hunger; nor, except in the early and worst days of the Industrial Revolution, did that normally happen. Similarly in the society of the future the power of direction should be regarded not so much as an instrument of daily used but rather as an ultimate sanction held in reserve where voluntary methods fail It is inconceivable that, in any period or in any conditions that can now be foreseen, any organ of state in Great Britain would be in a position, even if it had the will, to marshal and deploy the labour force over the whole economy by military discipline like an army in the field. This, like other nightmares of a totally planned economy, can be left to those who like to frighten themselves and others with scarecrows.

单选题Cheerleaders for renewable energy are fond of pointing out that patches of desert receive enough energy each year from sunlight to power the entire world. But few could explain how the construction of the millions of solar cells required to convert that energy into electricity would be financed. Public utility bosses and policymakers tend to dismiss wind and solar power as noble but expensive distractions, sustainable only through huge subsidies. But new studies suggest that renewables might not be as dear as skeptics suspect. In a report that was due out on July 6th, Greenpeace, an environmental group, argues that public utilities would save money by investing in renewables. Windmills may cost more to build, the logic runs, but they do not require the purchase of fuel, unlike coal or gas-fired power plants. Those future fuel costs, Greenpeace says, massively outweigh the extra investment costs of renewables. If nuclear power were phased out and renewables' share of electricity generation rose dramatically, it calculates the average annual savings between 2004 and 2030 would be $180 billion. These figures, of course, rely on all sorts of questionable assumptions. In Greenpeace's picture, the prices of gas and coal will rise, despite stagnating consumption of the former, and a steep drop in demand for the latter. It also helps that the future as Greenpeace sees it includes a big dose of energy efficiency, although its business-as-usual projections do not. Public utilities, at any rate, must not be making the same assumptions, since they continue to invest in power plants run on fossil fuels. Other studies make a slightly less sweeping claim: that adding wind power to the electricity network can reduce the overall cost of electricity. The cost of producing wind power is almost nothing, since the fuel—wind—is free. So on a windy day, the cheapest power comes from wind turbines. That power, in turn, displaces electricity generation from sources with higher fuel costs, such as gas-fired plants. So power prices tend to fall when the wind is blowing. Nuon, a Dutch utility, calculates that in 2005 the average power price on the local spot market was over Euro 45 per megawatt hour when there was no wind, but under Euro 30 when the average wind-speed topped 13 metres per second. Researchers in Denmark have gone a step further and put a value on this effect. They believe that wind power saved 1 billion kroner ($ 167m) off Danish electricity bills in 2005. On the other hand, Danish consumers also paid 1.4 billion kroner in subsidies for wind power. But this year, reckons Rune Moesgaard of the Danish Wind Industry Association, wind power will actually save consumers' money for the first time, as the benefits resulting from lower power prices outweigh the falling cost of the subsidy.

单选题According to the author, the safety net can

单选题In every cultivated language there are two great classes of words which, taken together, comprises the whole vocabulary. First, there are those words (1) which we become acquainted in daily conversation, which we (2) , that is to say, from the (3) of our own family and from our familiar associates, and (4) we should know and use (5) we could not read or write. They (6) the common things of life, and are the stock in trade of all who (7) the language. Such words may be called "popular", since they belong to the people (8) and are not the exclusive (9) of a limited class. On the other hand, our language (10) a multitude of words which are comparatively (11) used in ordinary conversation. Their meanings are known to every educated person, but there is little (12) to use them at home or in the market-place. Our (13) acquaintance with them comes not from our mother's (14) or from the talk of our school-mates, (15) from books that we read, lectures that we (16) , or the more (17) conversation of highly educated speakers who are discussing some particular (18) in a style appropriately elevated above the habitual (19) of everyday life. Such words are called "learned", and the (20) between them and the "popular" words is of great importance to a right understanding of linguistic process.

单选题"Europe needs to import to export. " That is the slogan of the European Commission's new strategy for securing its economic place in the world, unveiled this week by Peter Mandelson, the European Union's commissioner for trade. The soundbite, of course, gets the economics precisely backwards: exports are the price a country must pay for its imports; Europeans toil away making stuff for others to consume only so they can in turn get their hands on the fruits of foreign labours. But the slogan does capture two awkward truths European exporters must now confront. First, only by offering to open its own markets can the EU hope to persuade foreign countries to open theirs. But with the collapse of the Doha round of trade talks, it is not obvious to whom the Europeans should make their offers. Second, European companies are now part of elaborate global supply chains. Clumsy efforts to protect some of them from foreign competition deprive others of the cheap inputs they need to thrive in world markets. The new trade strategy looks at both of these dilemmas, among others. Though Mr Mandelson insists that he remains wedded to multilateral negotiations at'the World Trade Organisation, he also fancies pursuing a bit on the side with other willing trade partners. The EU will pick its partners according to three criteria: do they offer a big, growing market? Are they cutting deals with America or Japan? And are they guilty of deterring European companies, either repelling them at the border with high tariffs, or bogging them down in cumbersome rules and regulations? The strategy names ASEAN, South Korea, India and Russia as priorities, as well as two regional blocks, Mercosur and the Gulf Co-operation Council, that it is already courting. The EU will reveal its plans for China at the end of the month. The strategy also proposes to look again at how the EU protects its own borders, because its favored weapons are prone to backfire. For example, EU ministers decided this week to slap antidumping duties on leather shoes from Vietnam and China, which threaten shoemakers in Italy, Portugal and Spain. But the duties are opposed by Europe's own retailers and some of its sportswear makers. Letting Asian workers stitch and glue sports shoes makes it possible for such firms to employ Europeans to design and market them. Mr Mandelson presented his strategy as a way to help the EU become more competitive. Opening up to foreign rivals is, of course, an excellent way to foster competition in cloistered domestic industries. A pity then that most of his concrete proposals were about conquering markets abroad, and that the EU is still so ready to raise its defences at home.

单选题Bilingual education in New York City was originally viewed as a transitional program that would teach foreign-born children in their native languages until they were fluent enough in English to enter the educational mainstream. But over the last 25 years, bilingual programs at many schools have become foreign-language ghettos from which many children never escape. The need to expose foreign-born students to more English during the school day--and to move them as quickly as possible into the mainstream-was underscored this week in a pair of reports, one from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's task force on bilingual education and one form Schools Chancellor Harold Levy. The push to reform bilingual education has intensified across the country since the Silicon Valley millionaire Ron k. Unz championed a ballot initiative that ended bilingual education in California two years ago. Opponents of bilingual education want it replaced with the so-called immersion method, in which students are forced to "sink or swim" in classes taught entirely in English. Immersion has at least a chance of success in the early grades, where children are mainly being taught to read and write. But it is a recipe for failure in the upper grades, where older foreign-born students must simultaneously learn English and master complex subjects like math, science and literature. Mayor Giuliani and Schools Chancellor Levy have wisely called for reforming special education instead of dismantling it. Both reports want to end the practice of dragooning children into the system, and call on administrators to offer parents a range of choices. Instead of automatically assigning students to bilingual classes— where they take subjects like mathematics and social studies in their native languages—parents would be allowed to choose other options, including the strategy of English as a second language, in which most instruction is offered in English. Children would be moved into the mainstream as quickly as possible, preferably within three years. But these sensible reforms have little chance of succeeding unless the city and the state act quickly to train and recruit teachers who can perform the needed task. Nearly 30 percent of bilingual instructors are uncertified. Some have not even mastered the languages they have been hired to teach. True reform will require dollars, determination and a qualified teacher in every classroom.