单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} In the end, a degree of sanity prevailed. The militant Hindus who had vowed to breach a police cordon and start the work of building a temple to the god Ram at the disputed site of Ayodhya decided to respect a Supreme Court decision barring them from the area. So charged have Hindu-Muslim relations in India become in recent weeks, as the declared deadline of March 15th neared, that a clash at Ram's supposed birthplace might well have provoked bloodshed on an appalling scale across the nation. It has, unfortunately, happened often enough before. But the threat has not vanished. The court's decision is only an interim one, and the main Hindu groups have not given up on their quest to build their temple. Extreme religious violence, which seemed in recent years to have faded after the Ayodhya-related explosion of 1992--1993, is again a feature of the political landscape. Though faults lie on both sides (it was {{U}}a Muslim attack on Hindus in a train in Gujarat{{/U}} that started the recent slaughter), the great bulk of victims were, as always, Muslims. Once again, educated Hindus are.to be heard inveighing against the "appeasing" of Muslims through such concessions as separate constitutional status for Kashmir or the right to practice Islamic civil law. Once again, the police are being accused of doing little or nothing to help Muslim victims of {{U}}rampaging{{/U}} Hindu mobs. Once again, India's 130m Muslims feel unequal and unsafe in their own country. Far too many Hindus would refuse to accept that it is “their own country" at all. The wonder of it, perhaps, is that things are not worse. While the world applauds Pakistan for at last locking up the leaders of its extreme religious groups, in India the zealots still support, sustain and to a degree constitute the government. The BJP, which leads the ruling coalition, was founded as a political front for the Hindu movement. It is simply one, and by no means the dominant, member of what is called the Sangh Pariwar, the "family of organizations". Other members of the family are much less savoury. There is the VHP, the World Hindu Organization, which led the movement to build the Ram temple. There is the Bajrang Dal, the brutalist "youth wing" of the VHP. There is substantial evidence that members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal helped to organize the slaughter of hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat after 58 Hindus were killed on a train as they returned from Ayodhya.

单选题Bill Keaggy collects grocery lists because

单选题Exposure to asbestos fibres is harmful to people' s health ______.

单选题The word "instinct" probably means ______.

单选题The relentless march of technology into everyday life has always given rise to debate about whether it is a good or a bad thing. Some believe that the Internet and computer software are making humans more stupid or shallow. But others argue that computer programs in the form of video games can make people smarter or improve specific skills, such as spatial awareness. Shawn Green and Alexandre Pouget, from the University of Rochester, in New York state, set out to find an answer. Their study, reported in Current Biology, involved a number of experiments. In one, the participants had to watch 12 dots moving randomly on a screen and quickly assess their aggregate direction of movement. Another test asked participants to work out the direction of specific sounds embedded within stereo white noise. In both tests the video-garners did better. However, the scientists were aware that gamers could have been born with improved abilities to perform such tasks, which were possibly what attracted them to gaming in the first place. Consequently, a third test was necessary to see if these abilities could have been learnt. The non-gaming volunteers were put through 50 hours of video-game training. For some this involved playing fast-action shoot-em-up games such as "Call of Duty 2" and "Unreal Tournament", but others were given a slow-moving life-strategy game, " The Sims 2". The researchers found that those trained with action games raised their performance to the level of the experienced garners. Moreover, they were more efficient in their use of visual or auditory evidence than those playing with the Sims. The researchers conclude that fast action video-games players develop an enhanced sensitivity to what is going on around them and that this may help with activities such as multitasking, driving, reading small print, navigation and keeping track of friends or children in a crowd. The precise neural mechanism for this effect, however, is still unknown. What is known is that people make decisions based on probabilities that are constantly being calculated and refined in their heads—something called "probabilistic inference". The brain collects small pieces of information, eventually gathering enough to make an accurate decision. When driving a car, for example, many probabilities will be collated to make decisions such as whether or not to brake. The more efficient someone is at collecting visual and auditory information, the faster he can reach the threshold needed to make a decision. Shawn Green, Alexandre Pouget suggest that reaction times in the population will probably improve with the rise of fast-action video-games. There are a lot of players : last year a report estimated that 67% of American households contained at least one video-gamer. And if video-gamers are really better equipped to make quick decisions, they might also turn out to be better drivers and end up in fewer accidents. However, the notion that gamers acquire some minor physical skills may not pacify concerned parents. What, after all, of the skills they are not acquiring when shooting virtual cops instead of reading or talking?

单选题So what is depression? Depression is often more about anger turned (1) than it is about sadness. But it's usually (2) as sadness. Depression can (3) at all ages, from childhood to old age, and it's the United States' No. 1 (4) problem. When someone is depressed, her behavior (5) change and she loses interest in activities she (6) enjoyed (like sports, music, friendships). The sadness usually lasts every day for most of the day and for two weeks or more. What (7) depression? A (8) event can certainly bring (9) depression, but some will say it happens (10) a specific cause. So how do you know if you're just having a bad day (11) are really depressed? Depression affects your (12) , moods, behavior and even your physical health. These changes often go (13) or are labeled (14) simply a bad case of the blues. Someone who's truly (15) depression will have (16) periods of crying spells, feelings of (17) (like not being able to change your situation) and (18) (tike you'll feel this way forever), irritation or agitation. A depressed person often (19) from others, Depression seldom goes away by itself, and the greatest (20) of depression is suicide. The risk of suicide increases if the depression isn't treated.

单选题______ have an average of three children.

单选题For a large number of young adults in Britain, homeownership has become increasingly difficult to achieve, viewed as a distant goal attainable only later in life, if at all. That is a significant shift for Britain. For years owners occupy a higher percentage of homes in Britain than in the United States, France or Germany. One reason homeownership is so attractive in Britain is because property values dropped less drastically than in the United States, in part because of a shortage in housing. Prices in some large cities, including London, have even increased recently. People still perceive a home to be a better and safer investment than a pension fund, said Andrew Hull, research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. "Homeownership is also culturally entrenched, " he said. "Owning a home is the main way of showing you made it. " The big shift toward homeownership came in the 1980s when Mrs. Thatcher issued right-to-buy policy, which allowed many in rented government housing to buy their homes. About two million homes were sold, earning the government tens of billions of pounds. At the same time, the rental market became increasingly unattractive. Unlike Germany and other Continental European countries, Britain's private rental market is highly fragmented, with many landlords and laws that generally favor the property owner. Most leases are for six months only, with landlords rarely agreeing to commit to longer terms; this makes renting highly insecure. But as the pain of government-imposed austerity sinks in, disposable income has shrunk and loan requirements have toughened , forcing more and more Britons into renting rather than buying. Over the last 10 years the number of people who owned homes here dropped to 67 percent from 70 percent. Meanwhile, the number of people in private rented housing rose to 16 percent from 10 percent over the same period, according to the Office for National Statistics. Rising demand has pushed up rents by an average of 4.4 percent over the last year, according to LSL Property Services. In London rents increased 7.8 percent. "A growing number of young would-be buyers are preparing for lifelong renting—by necessity rather than choice, " said Jonathan Moore, director of easy roommate, co. uk, a property Web site. Charlotte Ashton, 30, has lived in rented accommodations ever since she left her parent's home to attend university. She said she was saving for a down payment to buy her own home. "I do believe in the fundamentals of owning bricks and mortar as security for the future, more than leaving my money in the banks at a low interest rate, " said Ms. Ashton, who works in public relations. "But now it seems unless you have a very well paid job and are willing to save every penny, it's unfeasible to buy without the help of the bank of Mum and Dad. " Some economists are concerned that as more people are forced to wait to buy a home, it could open up a widening of the wealth gap that already exists between homeowners and non homeowners, endangering the retirement prospects for a swelling group of young adults they call "generation rent. " It could also have implications for the cohesion of neighborhoods, Alison Blackwell, a research director at the National Center for Social Research and author of the Halifax report said. Renters tend to be less involved in local communities because they are forced to move more often. And the economy as a whole may suffer because renters tend to curb spending to save for a deposit.

单选题The Celts helped France to resist

单选题What is the writer's opinion concerning courteous manners toward women?

单选题Speaking of the rising egg consumption, the author implies the dominant factor accounting for this is that

单选题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 3{{/B}} When stars like our Sun die, they bloat to become red giants and then eject gigantic clouds of gas and dust into space. Increasingly, however, scientists found themselves at a profound loss to explain how exactly dying stars could blow away these clouds. Now astrophysicists propose that unexpected chemical reactions during the formation of stardust could help solve this mystery. Stars smaller than the Sun and up to eight times as massive die by swelling up into red giants before shedding most of their mass to shrink into very compact, dying embers (灰烬) called white dwarfs. Two kinds of red giants exist-those with lots of carbon, and others richer in oxygen than in carbon. Carbon-rich stars release carbon particles during their death throes. Scientists proposed these pitch-black grains absorb rays from the dying star and get shot into space by starlight, a theory that fit both the observations and computer models. Increasingly, however, researchers could not explain how oxygen-rich stars like our own Sun could propel their clouds away during the final stages of mass loss. Oxygen-rich stars create large quantities of water vapor and silicates, such as quartz (石英砂) or sand. These are transparent, meaning starlight should go right through them. Possible solutions have been contemplated by scientists. They first pondered whether the silicates might have iron in them, which would render them opaque instead of transparent. But calculations showed the dust grains would have evaporated if they had iron in them. They next wondered if enough molecules surrounded the core of a dying oxygen-rich star to block out its light and thus create a wind that blew the star's outermost layer into space. But their models suggested these molecules could not block off enough light and create strong enough Rinds. The scientists then suggested that pulsations occurred when stars die could perhaps force a star's matter out, but this idea did not match with astronomers' observations. But inspiration then dawned upon them. Perhaps some of the carbon in the oxygen-rich stars could help force the outer layers of the stars into space. They believe shock waves from the pulsations of dying stars could make carbon in oxygen-rich stars form pitch-black dust. "The theory fits with all our subsequent model calculations, and it matches observations from dying oxygen-rich red giants". Moreover," this mechanism strongly favors the presence of magnesium silicates over iron silicates in the interstellar medium," in agreement with recent findings from NASA's comet-sampling Stardust space probe. If proven correct, the beauty of the new scenario is that it suggests a common driving mechanism for many dying stars shedding their mass via dusty winds," with possible long-reaching consequences for the origin of chemical elements relevant for life."

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Kevin Hines, a manic-depressive, was 19 and in one of his weekly downswings on an overcast Monday morning in 2000. He went to the nearby Golden Gate Bridge to kill himself mostly because, with only a four-foot (1.2-metre) railing to leap, "I figured it was the easiest way." He dived over, but flipped and hit the water at 75mph with his feet first. His legs were crushed, but he somehow stayed conscious and started paddling with his upper body until the Coast Guard fished him out. Mr. Hines is one of 26 people who have survived suicide attempts at the bridge, but 1 223 are known to have succeeded (i. e., were seen jumping or found floating). People are throwing themselves off the bridge at the rate of two a month, which makes it the most popular place in the world for suicides. One book on the subject says that the Golden Gate is "to suicide what Niagara Falls is to honeymooners". Many San Franciscans think that the solution is to emulate the Empire State Building, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, St. Peter's basilica and other such places and put up a simple barrier. This, however, is a decision for the 19 board members of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, an entity that oversees the bridge itself and the buses and ferries that operate in the area. Most of its revenues' come from tolls and fares, and the district loses money. A barrier would cost between $15 million and $ 25 million. So the Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California, which has adopted the barrier as its cause, considers it a success that the board has merely allowed a feasibility study, for which various private and public donors have raised$ 2 million. Mel Blaustein, a director at the foundation, has heard several arguments against a barrier over the years-too ugly, too expensive, and so forth--but the most persistent has been that people would simply kill themselves somewhere else, so why bother.'? This is nonsense, he says, "Most suicides are impulsive and preventable." A bridge without a barrier, adds Pat Hines, Kevin's father, is "like leaving a loaded gun in the psychiatric ward."