单选题According to the passage, remote working

单选题Something big is happening to the human race--something that could be called The Great Transformation. The Transformation consists of all the changes that are occurring m human life due to advancing technology. For thousands of years such progress occurred slowly. Now, everything is changing so fast that you may find yourself wondering where all this progress is really leading. Nobody knows what all these changes really will mean in the long run. But this mysterious Transformation is the biggest story of all time. It is the story of the human race itself. Some people worry about what will happen when the deposits of petroleum are gone, but already researchers are finding all kinds of new ways to obtain energy. Someday, solar power collected by satellites circling the earth of fission power manufactured by mankind may give us all the energy we need for an expanding civilization. Space exploration promises to open up many new territories for human settlement, as well as leading to the harvest of mineral resources like the asteroids. Scientific research continues to open up previously undreamed-of possibilities. Fifty years ago, few people could even imagine things like computers, lasers, and holography. Today, a host of newly emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are opening up all kinds of new paths for technologists. Like it or not, our advancing technology has made us masters of the earth. We not only dominate all the other animals, but we are reshaping the world' s plant life and even its soil and rocks, its waters and surrounding air. Mountains are being dug up to provide minerals and stone for buildings. The very ground under our feet is washing away as we chop down the forests, plow up the fields, and excavate foundations for our buildings. Human junk is cluttering up not only the land but even the bottom of the sea. And so many chemicals are being released into the air by human activities that scientists worry that the entire globe may warm, causing the polar icecaps to melt and ocean waters to flood vast areas of the land. During the twentieth century, advancing technology has enabled man to reach thousands of feet into the ocean depths and to climb the highest mountains. Mount Everest, the highest mountain of all, resisted all climbers until the 1950's: Now man is reaching beyond Earth to the moon, Mars, and the stars. No one knows what the Great Transformation means or where it will ultimately lead. But one thing is sure: Human life 50 years from now will be very different from what it is today. It's also worth noting that our wondrous technology is posing an increasingly insistent question: When we can do so many things, how can we possibly decide what we really should do? When humans were relatively powerless, they didn't have to make the choices they have to make today. Technology gives us the power to build a magnificent new civilization—if we can just agree on what we want it to be. But today, there is little global agreement on goals and how we should achieve them. So it remains to be seen what will happen as a result of our technology. Pessimists worry that we will use the technology eventually to blow ourselves up. But they have been saying that for decades, and so far we have escaped. Whether we will continue to do so remains unknown--but we can continue to hope.

单选题Africa's elephants are divided between the savannahs of eastern and southern Africa and the forests of central Africa. Some biologists reckon the forest ones-smaller, with shorter, straighter tusks-may even constitute a distinct species. But not for long, at the latest rate of poaching. The high price of ivory is increasing the incentive to kill elephants everywhere in Africa, and especially in places where there is virtually no law. The latest reports suggest that the forest elephant population is collapsing on the back of rising Chinese demand for ivory. Some conservationists argue that a recent decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to auction 108 tonnes of stockpiled ivory from southern Africa may be prompting more poaching in central and eastern Africa, as criminals seek to mix illicit ivory in with the legitimate kind. But some economists maintain that the legitimate sale of ivory lowers prices, thus decreasing the incentive to poach. A study of a previous sale of ivory suggested it did not lead to more intensive poaching. Either way, the Congo basin is " hemorrhaging elephants ", says TRAFFIC, which monitors trade in wildlife. The head of the 790,000-hectare (1,952,000-acre) Virunga National Park in eastern Congo, Emmanuel de Merode, reports that 24 elephants have been poached in his park so far this year. The situation is dire: 2,900 elephants roamed Virunga when Congo became independent in 1964,400 in 2006, and fewer than 200 today. Most have been poached by militias, particularly Hutu rebels from Rwanda who hack off the ivory and sell it to middlemen in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, who then smuggle it to China. Once ivory has left its country of origin, and if it is not seized by customs officials, it can be hard to identify its source and those responsible for acquiring it. But forensic help may be at hand. Scientists from the University of Washington are using genetic markers in elephant dung to identify exactly where ivory has been poached. This should help governments in countries such as Tanzania and Zambia, which are capable of catching poachers, but not in anarchic eastern Congo, where 120-odd rangers have been killed in Virunga in recent years trying to protect elephants and gorillas. With an influx of businessmen and other officials from China engaged in infrastructure projects such as road building and logging, the slaughter is expected to accelerate. Forest elephants may survive in large numbers only in remote protected pockets of the Congo basin, such as the Odzala-Koukoua National Park in Congo-Brazzaville and Minkebe National Park in northeast Gabon.

单选题It can be inferred from Para 3 that

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C, and D on ANSWER SHEET 1. Most of us are taught to pay attention to what is said--the words. Words do provide us with some information, but meanings are{{U}} (1) {{/U}}from so many other sources that it would hinder our effectiveness{{U}} (2) {{/U}}a partner to a relationship to rely too heavily on words{{U}} (3) {{/U}}Words are used to describe only a small part of the many ideas we associate with any given{{U}} (4) {{/U}}. Sometimes we can gain insight into some of those{{U}} (5) {{/U}}if we listen for{{U}} (6) {{/U}}words. We don't always say what we mean{{U}} (7) {{/U}}mean what we say. Mostly we mean several things at once. A person wanting to purchase a house says to the current owner. "This step has to be fixed before I'll buy." The owner says, "It's been like that for years".{{U}} (8) {{/U}}, the step hasn't been like that for years, but the{{U}} (9) {{/U}}message is: "I don't want to fix it. We can put up with it why can't you?" The{{U}} (10) {{/U}}for a more expansive view of meaning can be developed by examining a message{{U}} (11) {{/U}}who said it, when it occurred, the{{U}} (12) {{/U}}conditions or situation, and how it was said. When a message occurs can also{{U}} (13) {{/U}}associated meaning. A friend's unusually docile behavior may only be understood by{{U}} (14) {{/U}}that it was preceded by situations that required a (n){{U}} (15) {{/U}}amount of assertiveness. We would do well to listen for how message are{{U}} (16) {{/U}}The words, "it sure has been nice to have you over," can be said with{{U}} (17) {{/U}}and excited or ritualistically. The phrase can be said once or{{U}} (18) {{/U}}several times. And the meaning we associate with the phrase will change{{U}} (19) {{/U}}Sometimes if we say something infrequently it assumes more importance; sometimes the more we say something the{{U}} (20) {{/U}}importance it assumes.

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read tile following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C, and D on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points) The "standard of living" of any country means the average person's share of the goods and services which the country produces. A country's standard of living, {{U}}(1) {{/U}}, depends first and{{U}} (2) {{/U}}on its capacity to produce wealth." Wealth" in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money{{U}} (3) {{/U}}on things that money can buy. "Goods" such as food and clothing, and "services" such as transport and "{{U}} (4) {{/U}}". A country's capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of{{U}} (5) {{/U}}have an effect on one another. Wealth depends{{U}} (6) {{/U}}a great extent upon a country's natural resources. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have a fertile soil and a{{U}} (7) {{/U}}climate; other regions possess none of them. Next to natural resources{{U}} (8) {{/U}}the ability to turn them to use. China is perhaps as well{{U}} (9) {{/U}}as the USA in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and{{U}} (10) {{/U}}wars, and{{U}} (11) {{/U}}this and other reasons was{{U}} (12) {{/U}}to develop her resources. {{U}}(13) {{/U}}and stable political conditions, and{{U}} (14) {{/U}}from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well{{U}} (15) {{/U}}by nature but less well ordered. A country's standard of living does not only depend upon the wealth that is produced and consumed{{U}} (16) {{/U}}its own borders, but also upon what is indirectly produced through international trade. {{U}}(17) {{/U}}, Britain's wealth in foodstuffs and other agricultural products would be much less if she had to depend only on{{U}} (18) {{/U}}grown at home. Trade makes it possible for her surplus manufactured goods to be traded abroad for the agricultural products that would{{U}} (19) {{/U}}be lacking. A country's wealth is, therefore, much influenced by its manufacturing capacity, {{U}}(20) {{/U}}that other countries can be found ready to accept its manufactures.

单选题Did you ever have someone's name on the tip of your tongue and yet you were unable to recall it? (1) this happens again, do no (2) to recall it. Do something (3) for a couple of minutes, (4) the name may come into your head. The name is there since you have met (5) person and his name. It (6) has to be dug out. The initial effort to recall (7) the mind for operation, but it is the subconscious (8) that go to work to dig up a (9) memory. Forcing yourself to recall (10) never helps because it doesn't (11) your memory；it only tightens it. Students find the preparatory method help (12) examinations. They read over the questions (13) trying to answer any of them. (14) they answer first the ones (15) which they are most confident. Meanwhile, deeper mental activities in the subconscious mind are taking (16) ; work is being done on the (17) difficult questions. By the time the easier questions are answered, answers (18) the more difficult ones will usually begin to (19) into consciousness. It is often (20) a question of waiting for recall to come to the memory.

单选题A factory that makes uranium fuel for nuclear reactors had a spill so bad it kept the plant closed for seven months last year and became one of only three events in all of 2006 serious enough for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to include in an annual report to Congress. After an investigation, the commission changed the terms of the factory's license and said the public had 20 days to request a hearing on the changes. But no member of the public ever did. In fact, no member of the public could find out about the changes. The document describing them, including the notice of hearing rights for anyone who felt adversely affected, was stamped "official use only," meaning that it was not publicly accessible. The agency would not even have told Congress which factory was involved were it not for the efforts of Gregory B. Jaczko, one of the five commissioners. Mr. Jaczko identified the company, Nuclear Fuel Services of Erwin, Tenn., in a memorandum that became part of the public record. His memorandum said other public documents would allow an informed person to deduce that the factory belonged to Nuclear Fuel Services. Such secrecy by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now coming under attack by influential members of Congress. These lawmakers argue that the agency is withholding numerous documents about nuclear facilities in the name of national security, but that many with-held documents are not sensitive. The lawmakers say the agency must rebalance its penchant for secrecy with the public's right to participate in the licensing process and its right to know about potential hazards. The agency, the congressmen said, "has removed hundreds of innocuous documents relating to the N.F.S. plant from public view." With a resurgence of nuclear plant construction expected after a 30-year hiatus, agency officials say frequently that they are trying to strike a balance between winning public confidence by regulating openly and protecting sensitive information. A commission spokesman, Scott Burnell, said the "official use only" designation was under review. As laid out by the commission's report to Congress and other sources, the event at the Nuclear Fuel Service factory was discovered when a supervisor saw a yellow liquid dribbling under a door and into a hallway. Workers had previously described a yellow liquid in a "glove box," a sealed container with gloves built into the sides to allow a technician to manipulate objects inside, but managers had decided it was ordinary uranium. In fact, it was highly enriched uranium that had been declared surplus from the weapons inventory of the Energy Department and sent to the plant to be diluted to a strength appropriate for a civilian reactor. If the material had gone critical, "it is likely that at least one worker would have received an exposure high enough to cause acute health effects or death," the commission said. Generally, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does describe nuclear incidents and changes in licenses. But in 2004, according to the committee's letter, the Office of Naval Reators, part of the Energy Department, reached an agreement with the commission that any correspondence with Nuclear Fuel Services would be marked "official use only./

单选题In October 2002, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank 1 a new electronic market (www.gs.com/econderivs/) for economic indices that 2 substantial economic risks, such as nonfarm payroll ( a measure of job availability) and retail sales. This new market was made possible by a 3 rating technology, developed by Longitude, a New York company providing software for financial markets, 4 the Parimutuel Digital Call Auction. This is "digital" 5 of a digital option : ie, it pays out only if an underlying index lies in a narrow, discrete range. In effect, Longitude has created a horse race, where each "horse" wins if and 6 the specified index falls in a specified range. By creating horses for every possible 7 of the index, and allowing people to bet 8 any number of runners, the company has produced a liquid integrated electronic market for a wide array of options on economic indices. Ten years ago it was 9 impossible to make use of electronic information about home values. Now, mortgage lenders have online automated valuation models that allow them to estimate values and to 10 the risk in their portfolios. This has led to a proliferation of types of home loan, some of 11 have improved risk-management characteristics. We are also beginning to see new kinds of 12 for homes, which will make it possible to protect the value of 13 ,for most people, is the single most important 14 of their wealth. The Yale University-Neighbourhood Reinvestment Corporation programme, 15 last year in the city of Syracuse, in New York state, may be a model for home-equity insurance policies that 16 sophisticated economic indices of house prices to define the 17 of the policy. Electronic futures markets that are based on econometric indices of house prices by city, already begun by City Index and IG Index in Britain and now 18 developed in the United States, will enable home-equity insurers to hedge the risks that they acquire by writing these policies. These examples are not impressive successes yet. But they 19 as early precursors of a technology that should one day help us to deal with the massive risks of inequality that 20 will beset us in coming years.

单选题A rare provision in San Francisco's business tax code that taxes companies when employees cash in their stock options has caused a stir in this hotbed of fledgling tech companies. Remarkably, few companies even knew about the tax, which has been in effect for seven years. But since city officials offered Twitter a payroll-tax break as an incentive for it to remain in San Francisco (the company is considered likely to go public soon), the stock-option provision has suddenly come under intense scrutiny. A number of other booming companies, including Zings, the maker of online games and one of the city's fastest-growing firms, have threatened to leave the city unless they receive similar payroll-tax exemptions before going public. Unlike most cities, San Francisco generates most of its business tax revenue through a payroll tax. The Twitter exemption bill, which will be considered by the full Board of Supervisors on April 5, would freeze payroll taxes for six years along a strip of Market Street—where Twitter is set to relocate—and several square blocks in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Twitter executives had been concerned because since 2004 the city's payroll tax code has counted stock options granted to employees as compensation, which is taxed at 1.5 percent. If Twitter goes public in San Francisco and a large number of workers exercise their options, the city would tax the company on its employees' stock gains—a bill likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars. "Twitter could be looking at a significantly larger payroll tax liability if and when it goes public," said Ted Egan, the chief economist in San Francisco's controller's office. Because of the dearth of I. P. O. 's inside the city limits in the last decade, the stockoption tax has gone under radar until now. Businesses, city officials and even seasoned tax lawyers are confounded. "Nobody ever talked about this because nobody's really tested these issues before," said Thomas H. Steele, a partner in Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office, specializing in state and local tax. He said that his clients began calling him this week to ask about the tax's ramifications. "A Pandora's box has already been opened," said Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a member of the Board of Supervisors' budget and finance committee, who has expressed concern about tailoring legislation for one company. "We've been going about this the wrong way," he said. The recent confusion has added impetus to calls for comprehensive business tax reform by David Chiu, the board president. "The stock option problem is real," Mr. Chiu said. "We have to address it in a fair and responsible way. /

单选题Elections often tell you more about what people are against than what they are for. So it is with the European ones that took place last week in all 25 European Union member countries. These elections, widely trumpeted as the world's biggest-ever multinational democratic vote, were fought for the most part as 25 separate national contests, which makes it tricky to pick out many common themes. But the strongest are undoubtedly negative. Europe's voters are angry and disillusioned—and they have demonstrated their anger and disillusion in three main ways. The most obvious was by abstaining. The average overall turnout was just over 45%, by some margin the lowest ever recorded for elections to the European Parliament. And that average disguises some big variations: Italy, for example, notched up over 70o//00, but Sweden managed only 37%. Most depressing of all, at least to believers in the European project, was the extremely low vote in many of the new member countries from central Europe, which accounted for the whole of the fall in turnout since 1999. In the biggest, Poland, only just over a fifth of the electorate turned out to vote. Only a year ago, central Europeans voted in large numbers to join the EU, which they did on May 1st. That they abstained in such large numbers in the European elections points to early disillusion with the European Union—as well as to a widespread feeling, shared in the old member countries as well, that the European Parliament does not matter. Disillusion with Europe was also a big factor in the second way in which voters protested, which was by supporting a ragbag of populist, nationalist and explicitly anti-EU parties. These ranged from the 16% who backed the UK Independence Party, whose declared policy is to withdraw from the EU and whose leaders see their mission as "wrecking" the European Parliament, to the 14% who voted for Sweden's Junelist, and the 27% of Poles who backed one of two anti-EU parties, the League of Catholic Families and Self-defense. These results have returned many more Eurosceptics and trouble-makers to the parliament, on some measures, over a quarter of the new MEPS will belong to the "awkward squad". That is not a bad thing, however, for it will make the parliament more representative of European public opinion. But it is the third target of European voters' ire that is perhaps the most immediately significant: the fact that, in many EU countries, old and new, they chose to vote heavily against their own governments. This anti-incumbent vote was strong almost everywhere, but it was most pronounced in Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Sweden. The leaders of all the four biggest European Union countries, Tony Blair in Britain, Jacques Chirac in France, Gerhard Schroder in Germany and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, were each given a bloody nose by their voters. The big question now is how Europe's leaders should respond to this. By a sublime (or terrible) coincidence, soon after the elections, and just as The Economist was going to press, they were gathering in Brussels for a crucial summit, at which they are due to agree a new constitutional treaty for the EU and to select a new president for the European Commission. Going into the meeting, most EU heads of government seemed determined to press ahead with this agenda regardless of the European elections—even though the atmosphere after the results may make it harder for them to strike deals.

单选题 College sports in the United States are a huge deal. Almost all major American universities have football, baseball, basketball and hockey programs, and{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}millions of dollars each year to sports. Most of them earn millions{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}as well, in television revenues, sponsorships. They also benefit{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}from the added publicity they get via their teams. Big-name universities{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}each other in the most popular sports. Football games at Michigan regularly{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}crowds of over 20, 000. Basketball’s national collegiate championship game is a TV{{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}on a par with any other sporting event in the United States,{{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}perhaps the Super Bowl itself. At any given time during fall or winter one can{{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}one’s TV set and see the top athletic programs — from schools like Michigan, UCLA, Duke and Stanford —{{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}in front of packed houses and national TV audiences. The athletes themselves are{{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}and provided with scholarships. College coaches identify{{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}teenagers and then go into high schools to{{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}the country’s best players to attend their universities. There are strict rules about{{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}coaches can recruit — no recruiting calls after 9 p. m., only one official visit to a campus — but they are often bent and sometimes{{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Top college football programs{{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}scholarships to 20 or 30 players each year, and those student-athletes, when they arrive{{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}campus, receive free housing, tuition, meals, books, etc. In return, the players{{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}the program in their sport. Football players at top colleges{{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}two hours a day, four days a week from January to April. In summer, it’s back to strength and agility training four days a week until mid-August, when camp{{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}and preparation for the opening of the September-to-December season begins{{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}. During the season, practices last two or three hours a day from Tuesday to Friday. Saturday is game day. Mondays are an officially mandated day of rest.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} It vanished in 2002, a result of a bad fall. As my neurosurgeon explained, when my head hit the ground, my brain sloshed around, which smashed delicate nerve endings in my olfactory system. Maybe they'll repair themselves, she said (in what struck me as much too casual a tone ), and maybe they won't, If I had to lose something, it might as well have been smell; at least nothing about my personality or my memory had changed, as can happen with head trauma. So it seemed almost churlish to feel, as the months went on, so devastated by this particular loss. But I was heartbroken. My sense of smell was always something I took pleasure in. Without scent, I felt as ff I were walking around the city without my contact lenses, dealing with people while wearing earplugs, moving through something sticky and thick. The sharpness of things, their specificity, diminished. I couldn't even tell when the milk had gone bad. Oddly, my sense of taste remained perfectly fine, but I was still nervous about opening a carton of yogurt without having someone nearby to sniff it for me. I had been stripped of the sense we all use, often without realizing it, to negotiate the world, to know which things are safe and which are dangerous. After nearly a year, I talked to a colleague savvying about neuro-science, who suggested I try to retrain my sense of smell on the assumption that the nerve endings had repaired themselves but that something was still broken along the pathway from nose to brain, where odor molecules activate olfactory receptors (the subject of this year's Nobel-winning research) . Her advice was to expose myself to strong, distinctive fragrances, asking the person I was with to tell me exactly what I was smelling even if I wasn't conscious of smelling anything at all. I began sticking my nose into everything that seemed likely to have a scent-the cumin in the spice cabinet, freshly ground coffee, red wine. I interrupted friends midsentence if we happened to be walking past a pizza place or a garbage truck and asked, stupidly, "What are you smelling now?" Slowly, the smell therapy started to work. At first, distressingly, all I could smell were unnatural scents: dandruff shampoo, furniture polish, a cloud of after-shave from a stocky young man. The first time I smelled cut grass again, in the small park near the American Museum of Natural History, was almost exactly two years after my fall. It made me cry. The tears embarrassed me, but cut grass is one of those fragrances that transport me directly to the landscape of childhood. And that's what I had been missing, really, and why getting back my sense of smell was so precious: a visceral connection to the person I used to be.

单选题The attitude of those who are "barking up Se wrong tree" towards the primacy of US in the 21st century seems to be ______.

单选题The word "customized" (Lines 3～4, Paragraph 5) can best be substituted by

单选题It can be inferred that eBay