单选题Sleep is a funny thing. We' re taught that we should get seven or eight hours a night, but a lot of us get by just fine on less, and some of us actually sleep too much. A study out of the University of Buffalo last month reported that people who routinely sleep more than eight hours a day and are still tired are nearly three times as likely to die of stroke—probably as a result of an underlying disorder that keeps them from snoozing soundly. Doctors have their own special sleep problems. Residents are famously sleep deprived. When I was training to become a doctor, it was not unusual to work 40 hours in a row without rest. Most of us took it in stride, confident we could still deliver the highest quality of medical care. Maybe we shouldn't have been so sure of ourselves. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association points out that in the morning after 24 hours of sleeplessness, a person's motor performance is comparable to that of someone who is legally intoxicated. Curiously, surgeons who believe that operating under the influence is grounds for dismissal often don't think twice about operating without enough sleep. "I could tell you horror stories," says Jaya Agrawal, president of the American Medical Student Association, which runs a website where residents can post anonymous anecdotes. Some are terrifying. "I was operating after being up for over 36 hours, "one writes." I literally fell asleep standing up and nearly face planted into the wound." "Practically every surgical resident I know has fallen asleep at the wheel driving home from work, "writes another." I know of three who have hit parked cars. Another hit a convenience store on the roadside, going [105km/h]." "Your own patients have become the enemy," writes a third," because they are the one thing that stands between you and a few hours of sleep." Agrawal's organization is supporting the Patient and Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2001, introduced last November by Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan. Its key provisions, modeled on New York State's regulations, include an 80-hour workweek and a 24hour work-shift limit. Most doctors, however, resist such interference. Dr. Charles Binkley, a senior surgery resident at the University of Michigan, agrees that something needs to be done but believes" doctors should be bound by their conscience, not by the government." The U. S. controls the hours of pilots and truck drivers. But until such a system is in place for doctors, patients are on their own. If you're worried about the people treating you, you should feel free to ask how many hours of sleep they have had. Doctors, for their part, have to give up their pose of infallibility and get the rest they need.

单选题Every second in the United States alone, more than 250 animals are slaughtered for food, adding up to more than 8 billion animals each year. Reducing the amount of meat in one’s diet is nutritionally, environmentally, and ethically beneficial. People who eat meat usually have weaker immune systems compared to those of vegetarians. Meat has been directly linked to diabetes, obesity, arthritis, and many other illnesses. Furthermore, meat-eaters are at a higher risk for diseases, including cancer, and they are more likely to die from these diseases. Critics say that a meatless diet does not provide enough nutrients, especially protein and iron. Actually, according to A Teen’s Guide to Going Vegetarian, by Judy Krizmanic, protein is found in almost every food, and iron appears in many vegetables. Getting enough nutrients in a meat-reduced diet should not be difficult. A 1988 study found that some of the highest pesticide residues appear in meat and eggs. Diets including more fruits and vegetables will only make people healthier. Some skeptics believe that there will be a shortage of food if animals are not eaten. In fact, the opposite is true. More than 80% of the corn and 95% of the oats grown in the US are fed to livestock. The world’s cattle alone consume enough food to equal the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people, more than the entire human population. One half of the water used in the Unites States also goes to livestock; 2.50 gallons of water produces only 1 pound of beef. If people eat less meat and more plants, the amount of available food will increase. Many people become vegetarians because they feel that eating animals is unethical. 90% of these animals are raised in confinement. Chickens and other birds have only about half. a square foot of space each, and since they are raised so close together, a hot blade is used to cut off their beaks to prevent them from pecking each other to death. Likewise, pigs that are repressed will bite each other’s tails, so both their teeth and tails are removed as soon as they are born. Eating animals is hazardous in numerous ways. Even a slight reduction in meat intake is better than nothing at all. Consuming less meat is beneficial to the health of animals, the health of people, and to the health of the world.

单选题On Mar. 14, when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced its first foray into Japan, the Bentonville (Ark.) retailing giant placed a big bet that it could succeed where countless other foreign companies have failed. In the past five years, a number of famous Western brands have been forced to close up shop after failing to catch on in Japan, one of the world's largest--but most variable--consumer markets. May Wal-Mart make a go of it where others have stumbled? One good sign is that the mass marketer is not rushing in blindly. It has taken an initial 6.1% stake in ailing food-and-clothing chain Seiyu Ltd. , which it can raise to a controlling 33.4% by yearend and to 66.7% by 2007. That gives Wal-Mart time to revise its strategy--or run for the exits. The question is whether Wal-Mart can apply the lessons it has learned in other parts of Asia to Japan. This, after all, is a nation of notoriously finicky consumers--who have become even more so since Japan slipped into a decade-long slump. How will Wal-Mart bring to bear its legendary cost-cutting savvy in a market already affected by falling prices? Analysts are understandably skeptical. "It is uncertain whether Wal-Mart's business models will be effective in Japan," Standard & Poor's said in a Mar. 18 report. Much depends on whether Seiyu turns out to be a good partner. The 39-year-old retailer is a member of the reputed Seibu Saison retail group that fell on hard times in the early '90s. It also has deep ties to trading house Sumitomo Corp. , which will take a 15% stake in the venture with Wal-Mart. Perhaps the best thing that can be said of Seiyu's 400-odd stores is that they're not as deeply troubled as other local retailers. Still, there's a gaping chasm between the two corporate cultures. "We've never been known for cheap everyday pricing," says a Seiyu spokesman. Another potential problem is Sumitomo, which may not want to lean on suppliers to the extent that Wal-Mart routinely does. The clock is ticking. Wal-Mart executives say they need several months to "study" the deal with Seiyu before acting on it, but in the meantime a new wave of hyper-competitive Japanese and foreign rivals are carving up the market. If Wal-Mart succeeds, it will reduce its reliance on its home market even further and--who knows? --it may even revolutionize Japanese retailing in the same way it has in the U. S.

单选题Despite decades of scientific research, no one yet knows how much damage human activity is doing to the environment. Humans are thought to be responsible for a whole host of environmental problems, ranging from global warming to ozone depletion. What is not in doubt, however, is the devastating effect humans are having on the animal and plant life of the planet. Currently, an estimated 50,000 species become extinct every year. If this carries on, the impact on all living creatures is likely to be profound, says Dr. Nick Middleton, a geographer at Oxford University. "All species depend in some way on each other to survive. And the danger is that, if you remove one species from this very complex web of interrelationships, you have very little idea about the knock-on effects of other extinctions." Complicating matters is the fact that there are no obvious solutions to the problem. Unlike global warming and ozone depletion—which, if the political will was there, could be reduced by cutting gas emissions— preserving biodiversity remains an intractable problem. The latest idea is "sustainable management", which is seen as a practical and economical way of protecting species from extinction. This means humans should be able to use any species of animal or plant for their benefit, provided enough individuals of that species are left alive to ensure its continued existence. For instance, instead of depending on largely ineffective laws against poaching, it gives local people a good economic reason to preserve plants and animals. In Zimbabwe, there is a sustainable management project elephants. Foreign tourists pay large sums of money to kill these animals for sport. This money is then given to the inhabitants of the area where the hunting takes place. In theory, locals will be encouraged to protect elephants, instead of poaching them—or allowing others to poach them—because of the economic benefit involved. This sounds like a sensible strategy, but it remains to be seen whether it will work. With corruption endemic in many developing countries, some observers are skeptical that the money will actually reach the people it is intended for. Others wonder how effective the locals will be at stopping poachers. There are also questions about whether sustainable management is practical when it comes to protecting areas of great-bio-diversity such as the world"s tropical forests. In theory, the principle should be the same as with elephants—allow logging companies to cut down a certain number of trees, but not so many as to completely destroy the forest. Sustainable management of forests requires controls on the number of trees which are cut down, as well as investment in replacing them. But because almost all tropical forests are located in countries which desperately need revenue from logging, there are few regulations to do this. Moreover, unrestricted logging is so much more profitable that wood prices from managed forests would cost up to five times more—an increase that consumers, no matter how "green", are unlikely to pay. For these reasons, sustainable management of tropical forests is unlikely to become widespread in the near future. This is disheartening news. It"s estimated these forests contain anything from 50 to 90 percent of all animal and plant species on Earth. In one study of a five-square-kilometer area of rain forest in Peru, for instance, scientists counted 1,300 species of butterfly and 600 species of bird. In the entire continental United States, only 400 species of butterfly and 700 species of bird have been recorded. Scientist Professor Norman Myers sees this situation as a gigantic "experiment we"re conducting with our planet". "We don"t know what the outcome will be. If we make a mess of it, we can"t move to another planet... It"s a case of one planet, one experiment."

单选题At his research clinic in Dallas, psychologist Jasper Smits is working on an unorthodox treatment for anxiety and mood disorders, including depression. It is not yet widely accepted, but his treatment is free and has no side effects. Compare that with antidepressant drugs, which cost Americans $10 billion each year and have many common side effects: sleep disturbances, nausea, tremors, changes in body weight. This intriguing new treatment? It's nothing more than exercise. In 1999, Duke University researchers demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that depressed adults who participated in an aerobic-exercise plan improved as much as those treated with medication. Subsequent trials have repeated these results, showing again and again that patients who follow aerobic-exercise plans see improvement in their depression comparable to that of those treated with medication, and that both groups do better than patients given only a placebo. But exercise trials on the whole have been small, and most have run for only a few weeks; some are plagued by methodological problems. Still, despite limited data, the trials all seem to point in the same direction: exercise boosts mood. It not only relieves depressive symptoms but also prevents them from recurring. Molecular biologists and neurologists have begun to show that exercise may alter brain chemistry in much the same way that antidepressant drugs do—regulating the key neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. At the University of Georgia, neuroscience professor Philip Holmes and his colleagues have shown that over the course of several weeks, exercise can switch on certain genes that increase the brain's level of galanin, a peptide neurotransmitter that appears to tone down the body's stress response by regulating another brain chemical, norepinephrine. The result is that exercise primes the brain to show less stress in response to new stimuli. In the case of lab rats and mice, those stimuli include being plunged into very cold water or being suspended by the tail. And while those are not exactly problems most people face, the thinking is that the human neurochemical response may well react similarly, with exercise leaving our brain less susceptible to stress in the face of harmless but unexpected events, like missing an appointment or getting a parking ticket. A little bit of mental strain and excess stimulation from exercise, in other words, may help us to keep day-to-day problems in perspective. Researchers wonder whether this interaction between body and brain may, evolutionarily speaking, be unchangeable. "It occurs to us that exercise is the more normal or natural condition and that being sedentary is really the abnormal situation, "Holmes says.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} George Bernard Shaw(1856—1950)was born in Dublin, Ireland. At the age of 14, after graduating from middle school, Shaw was put into a job as clerk in a land agent's office. At 20 he went to London where he remained jobless for 9 years, devoting much time to self-education. Meantime, Shaw took an active part in the socialist movement. A contemporary of Shaw's thus wrote of him: "I used to be a daily frequenter of the British Museum Reading Room. Even more assiduous in his attendance was a young man. ...My curiosity was piqued by the odd conjunction of his subjects of research. Day after day for weeks he had before him two books—Karl Marx's 'Das Kapital' (in French), and an orchestral score(管弦乐乐谱) of 'Tristan and Isolde'." Though Shaw admitted Marx's great influence on him, he failed to grasp the necessity of a revolutionary reconstruction of the world. A strong influence was exercised on Shaw by the Fabian society, the English reformist organization. In the early period of his literary career, Shaw wrote some novels, "An Unsocial Socialist" and others, in which he developed the traditions of critical realism, bitterly criticizing the stupidity, snobbishness and petty tyranny of the middle class. In the nineties Shaw turned to the theatre, first working as a dramatic critic, then writing plays for the stage. His role in the development of dramaturgy is very great. Shaw was an enemy of "art for art's sake". He wrote, "for art's sake I will not face the toil of writing a sentence." He used the stage to criticize the evils of capitalism. He wrote 51 plays in total, the important ones including "Widower's Houses", "Saint Joan" and "The Apple Cart". In his plays Shaw laid bare the gross injustice and utter inhumanity of the bourgeois society. This he achieved not so much by the structures of plots in his plays as by the brilliant dialogues between the characters. His exposure of capitalist society is very significant and it places Shaw among the most important representatives of critical realism in modern English literature.

单选题The logical organization of the first paragraph of the text is that

单选题Why does the writer put the suggestion that, advisory councils should be set up______

单选题Like many other aspects of the computer age, Yahoo began as an idea, (1) into a hobby and lately has (2) into a full-time passion. The two developers of Yahoo, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph. D candidates (3) Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, started their guide in April 1994 as a way to keep (4) of their personal interest on the Internet. Before long they (5) that their homebrewed lists were becoming too long and (6) . Gradually they began to spend more and more time on Yahoo. During 1994, they (7) yahoo into a customized database designed to (8) the needs of the thousands of users (9) began to use the service through the closely (10) Internet community. They developed customized software to help them (11) locate, identify and edit material (12) on the Internet. The name Yahoo is (13) to stand for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Orale", but Filo and Yang insist they selected the (14) because they considered themselves yahoos. Yahoo itself first (15) on Yang's workstation, "akebono", while the search engine was (16) on Filo's computer, "Konishiki". In early 1995 Marc Andersen, co-founder of Netscape Communication in Mountain View, California, invited Filo and Yang to move their files (17) to larger computers (18) at Netscape. As a result Stanford's computer network returned to (19) , and both parties benefited. Today, Yahoo (20) organized information on tens of thousands of computers linked to the web.

单选题Concrete is probably used more widely than any other substance except water, yet it remains largely unappreciated. “Some people view the 20th century as the atomic age, the space age, the computer age — but an argument can be made that it was the concrete age,” says cement specialist Hendrik Van Oss. “It’s a miracle material.” Indeed, more than a ton of concrete is produced each year for every man, woman and child on Earth. Yet concrete is generally ignored outside the engineering world, a victim of its own ubiquity and the industry’s conservative pace of development. Now, thanks to environmental pressures and entrepreneurial innovation, a new generation of concretes is emerging. This high-tech assortment of concrete confections promises to be stronger, lighter, and more environmentally friendly than ever before. Concrete is also a climate-change villain. It is made by mixing water with an aggregate, such as sand or gravel, and cement. Cement is usually made by heating limestone and clay to over 2,500 degrees F. The resulting chemical reaction, along with fuel burned to heat the kiln, produces between 7% and 10% of global carbon-dioxide emissions. “When we have to repeatedly regenerate these materials because they’re not durable, we release more emissions,” says Victor Li who has created a concrete suffused by synthetic fibers that make it stronger, more durable, and able to bend like a metal. Li’s creation does not require reinforcement, a property shared by other concretes that use chemical additives. Using less water makes concrete stronger, but until the development of plasticizers, it also made concrete sticky, dry, and hard to handle, says Christian Meyer, a civil engineering professor at Columbia University. Making stronger concretes, says Li, allows less to be used, reducing waste and giving architects more freedom. “You can have such futuristic designs if you don’t have to put rebar in there, or structural beams,” says Van Oss. A more directly “green” c6nerete has been developed by the Australian company TecEeo. They add magnesium to their cement, forming a porous concrete that actually scrubs carbon dioxide from the air. While experts agree that these new concrete will someday be widely used, the timetable is uncertain. Concrete companies are responsive to environmental concerns and are always looking to stretch the utility of their product, but the construction industry is slow to change. “When you start monkeying around with materials, the governing bodies, the building departments, are very cautious before they let you use an unproven material,” Meyer says. In the next few decades, says Van Oss, building codes will change, opening the way for innovative materials. But while new concretes may be stronger and more durable, they are also more expensive — and whether the tendency of developers and the public to focus on short-term rather than long-term costs will also change is another matter.

单选题For health insurance, the United States has taken the road less traveled. The United States is the only rich country without universal health insurance. People in the United States spend the most, rely heavily on the private sector, and obtain care from the world's most complicated delivery system. While some supporters have expressed satisfaction, if not pride, in these remarkable qualities, others contend that the United States faces unique limitations in reforming health care. In her exceptional book, Parting at the Crossroads, Antonia Maioni compares the formation of the U.S. and Canadian health-care systems for the years 1930—1960. The United States and Canada are often considered the most similar of Western democracies. They share a common border, are wealthy, and have federal government. Their trade unions are only moderately powerful, and their populations are diverse and young. Nevertheless, their health-insurance systems are nearly opposite. The United States relies on a mix of government plans, targeted to the elderly and indigent, and employment-based plans, which the government indirectly supports. Canada offers public health insurance to all qualified residents, with the private sector providing supplementary services in some provinces. Labor organizations became strong advocates for health-insurance reform in both countries. Their impact partially depended on political institutions and how other actors, particularly organized medicine, wielded them. Canada's governmental and electoral systems allowed labor to cooperate with a social democratic party in the Saskatchewan province, which established a universal program. The Saskatchewan program demonstrated universal insurance feasibility, spurring the dominant Liberals to introduce a national universal program. In contrast, the U.S. electoral system effectively precluded third-party formation, forcing organized labor to dilute its health-insurance goals because it was one of many interests represented by the Democratic Party. Maioni suggests that economic vitality is important for the future of both countries' systems, but the prognosis is uncertain. Despite recent concerns about the Canadian government's budgetary health, Maioni contends that widespread support protects universal insurance. Conversely, Maioni seems pessimistic about options for U.S. universal health insurance. Despite economic buoyancy, dissension will likely prevent reforms. Although a devastating economic downturn would make health finance difficult in either country, the U.S. system seems especially vulnerable. Employment-based insurance and medicare both rely on labor market attachment. High, chronic unemployment could result in coverage loss and financial difficulties for employer insurance and medicare, swelling the uninsured pool. Such a crisis could provide an opening for universal health insurance. In any case, whether the United States relies on the public or private sector, escalating health expenditures figure into budgets of government, corporations, and families. The U.S. health care system's future may depend on Americans' willingness to devote more of their national income to health care.

单选题France, which prides itself as the global innovator of fashion, has decided its fashion industry has lost an absolute right to define physical beauty for women. Its lawmakers gave preliminary approval last week to a law that would make it a crime to employ ultra-thin models on runways. The parliament also agreed to ban websites that "incite excessive thinness" by promoting extreme dieting. Such measures have a couple of uplifting motives. They suggest beauty should not be defined by looks that end up impinging on health. That"s a start. And the ban on ultra-thin models seems to go beyond protecting models from starving themselves to death—as some have done. It tells the fashion industry that it must take responsibility for the signal it sends women, especially teenage girls, about the social tape-measure they must use to determine their individual worth. The bans, if fully enforced, would suggest to women (and many men) that they should not let others be arbiters of their beauty. And perhaps faintly, they hint that people should look to intangible qualities like character and intellect rather than dieting their way to size zero or wasp-waist physiques. The French measures, however, rely too much on severe punishment to change a culture that still regards beauty as skin-deep—and bone-showing. Under the law, using a fashion model that does not meet a government-defined index of body mass could result in a $85,000 fine and six months in prison. The fashion industry knows it has an inherent problem in focusing on material adornment and idealized body types. In Denmark, the United States, and a few other countries, it is trying to set voluntary standards for models and fashion images that rely more on peer pressure for enforcement. In contrast to France"s actions, Denmark"s fashion industry agreed last month on rules and sanctions regarding the age, health, and other characteristics of models. The newly revised Danish Fashion Ethical Charter clearly states: "We are aware of and take responsibility for the impact the fashion industry has on body ideals, especially on young people." The charter"s main tool of enforcement is to deny access for designers and modeling agencies to Copenhagen Fashion Week (CFW), which is run by the Danish Fashion Institute. But in general it relies on a name-and-shame method of compliance. Relying on ethical persuasion rather than law to address the misuse of body ideals may be the best step. Even better would be to help elevate notions of beauty beyond the material standards of a particular industry.

单选题 What impact can mobile phones have on their users' health? Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, {{U}}(1) {{/U}} the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more {{U}}(2) {{/U}} Indeed, a systematic review {{U}}(3) {{/U}} out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, rounds up 150 {{U}}(4) {{/U}} of the use of text-messaging in the {{U}}(5) {{/U}} of health care. These uses {{U}}(6) {{/U}} three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by {{U}}(7) {{/U}} text-messaging into treatment regimes. Using texting to {{U}}(8) {{/U}} efficiency is not profound science, but big savings can be achieved. Several {{U}}(9) {{/U}} carried out in England have found that the use of text-messaging reminders {{U}}(10) {{/U}} the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39%, and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were {{U}}(11) {{/U}} nationally, this would translate {{U}}(12) {{/U}} annual savings of ￡256-364 million. Text messages can also be a good way to deliver public-health information, particularly to groups {{U}}(13) {{/U}} are hard to reach by other means. Text messages have been used in India to {{U}}(14) {{/U}} people about the World Health Organization's strategy to control lung disease. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a {{U}}(15) {{/U}} to immunize nearly 5 million children {{U}}(16) {{/U}} paralysis. {{U}} (17) {{/U}}, there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to {{U}}(18) {{/U}} their medicine, or to encourage accordance with exercise regimes. However, Dr. Rifat notes that the evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally {{U}}(19) {{/U}}, and more quantitative research is {{U}}(20) {{/U}}

单选题The telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and airline industries all have undergone radical changes in recent years. Pharmaceutical companies, which once sold drugs to the doctors that dispensed them, switched to the solution-selling method and started dealing with health-care companies. And many major airlines consolidated at the same time that low-cost firms like Jet Blue entered the market. In each of these industries, the game changed, and with new rules came new ways to win. That is the premise of Harvard Business School's "Changing the Game. Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making." The program, which covers not only deal-making but also topics as diverse as online auctions and strategic partnerships, "is for companies that are going through fundamental change in the way things are done," says Max Bazerman, program chair and professor of business administration at the school. This is not a program for novices, says Bazerman; most participants have already attended a general negotiation program. In "Changing the Game," participants learn to understand their thought processes regarding negotiation, to compare rational and intuitive decision-making strategies, and to identify common mistakes made by even the most experienced professionals. By focusing on competitive environments, the program draws on some of the most advanced concepts from the emerging areas of behavioral economics, behavioral decision research, and behavioral finance. Participants engage in simulated negotiations that highlight the tension between creating and assessing value, and learn how to think about both simultaneously. The soup-to-nuts simulations encompass preparation, team building, negotiating, and feedback, as well as the development of a conceptual structure for thinking about negotiations more rationally. Participants then apply that structure in their critiques of several large-scale negotiation cases. Ultimately participants apply their newly-honed analytic skills to their own companies and critique of past negotiations. Negotiations can take many forms, of course. Bazerman notes that auctions are becoming increasingly common. Thanks to a renewed focus on driving clown costs, auctions have emerged as a valuable way for buyers to exert maximum leverage (although the course offers advice to sellers as well). Here again, coursework focuses both on analysis of case studies and on simulations that give participants a chance to roll up their sleeves and put themselves to the test. "Max's approach is more pragmatic than other programs I've taken," says Gerry Dully, senior vice president of global marketing and logistics at Methanex, a producer of methanol based in Vancouver. "Looking at my prior experience, I could see what mistakes I made, and I'm more conscious of them now. The course had a profound impact on how I've modified my behavior in negotiating situations. /

单选题Mountaineering is a sport which involves ______.