单选题Those who consider the poverty line high point out that ______.

单选题Zimbabweans cope with the shortage of the dollars that count in various ways. The government grabs them from other people. On February 9th. it told the country's banks to start selling all their hard- currency inflows to the central bank and the state petrol-importing monopoly, at the official rate. It said that Zimbabwean embassies abroad face power cuts because they cannot pay their bills. But if staff in Moscow felt chilly, the grab did not warm them. Exporters told their customers to delay payments. Hard-currency inflows fell by some 90%, forcing the government to relent. Business folk were relieved. The economy is so stormy that many exporters stay afloat only by selling American dollars on the black market. Others try to keep their foreign earnings offshore. This is not easy, since most sell tobacco, gold, roses and other goods that can be observed and recorded as they leave the country. But some quietly set up overseas subsidiaries to buy their own products at artificially low prices. The subsidiary then sells the goods m the real buyer, and keeps the proceeds abroad. Since petrol, which must be imported, is scarce, some employers give their staff bicycles. But the two local bicycle makers have gone bankrupt, so bicycles must be imported too. Where possible, local products are replaced for imports. One firm, for example, has devised a way to make glue using oil from locally-grown castor beans instead of petroleum-based chemicals. But even the simplest products often have imported components. One manufacturer found it could not make first-aid kits, because it could not obtain zips for the bags. The local zip-maker had no dollars to import small but essential metal studs. An order worth $8,000 was lost for want of perhaps $100 in hard cash. Rich individuals are putting their savings into tangible assets, though not houses or land, which they fear the government may seize. Instead, they buy movable goods such as cars or jewellery. Unlike the Zimbabwean dollar, such assets do not lose half their value every year. Jewellery is also an easy way m move money abroad. Wear it on the plane, sell it in London. and leave the money there. The poor have fewer options. A typical unskilled wage now buys a loaf of bread and a litre of milk a day, plus the bus fare to work. For most poor Zimbabweans, the only measure against inflation is to plant maize in the back yard and hope they can harvest it before their landlord expels them.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Biologically, there is only one quality which distinguishes us from animals: the ability to laugh. In a universe which appears to be utterly devoid of humor, we enjoy this supreme luxury. And it is a luxury, for unlike any other bodily process, laughter does not seem serve a biologically useful purpose. In a divided world, a laughter is a unifying force. Human beings oppose each other on a great many issues. Nations may disagree about systems of government and human relations may be plagued by ideological factions and political camps, but we all share the ability to laugh. And laughter, in turn, depends on the most complex and subtle of all-human qualities: a sense of humor. Certain comic stereotypes have a universal appeal. This can best be seen from the world-wide popularity of Charlie Chaplain's early films. The little man at odds with society never fails to amuse no matter which country we come from. As that great commentator on human affairs, Dr. Samuel Johnson, once remarked, "Men have been wise in very different modes; but they have always laughed in the same way. " A sense of humor may take various forms and laughter may be anything from refined tinkle to an earthquaking roar, but the effect is always the same. Humor helps us to maintain a correct sense of values. It is the one quality which political fanatics appear to lack. If we can see the funny side, we never make the mistake of taking ourselves too seriously. We are always reminded that tragedy is not really far removed from comedy, so we never get a lopsided view of things. This is one of the chief functions of satire and irony. Human pain and suffering are so grim; we hover so often on the brink of war, political realities are usually enough to plunge us into total despair. In such circumstances, cartoons and satirical accounts of somber political events redress the balance. They take the wind out of pompous and arrogant politicians who have lost their sense of proportion. They enable us to see that many of our most profound actions are merely comic or absurd. We laugh when a great satirist like Swift writes about wars in Gulliver's Travels. The Lilliputians and their neighbors attack each other because they can't agree which end to break an egg. We laugh because we are meant to laugh; hut we are meant to weep too. It is no wonder that in totalitarian regimes any satire against the Establishment is wholly banned. It is too powerful weapon to be allowed to flourish. The sense of humor must be singled out as man's most important quality because it is associated with laughter. And laughter, in turn, is associated with happiness. Courage, determination, initiative--these are qualities we share with other forms oflife. But the sense of humor is an unique human quality. If happiness is one of the great goals of life, then it is the sense of humor that provides the key.

单选题The 1978 - 1987 averages of productivity are less than ______.

单选题Yasuhisa Shizoki, a 51-year old MP from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), starts tapping his finger on the dismal economic chart on his coffee table. "Unless we change the decision-making process," he says bluntly, "we are not going to be able to solve this kind of problem." With the economy in such a mess, it may seem a bit of a diversion to be trying to sort out Japan's political structures as well as its economic problems. Since co-writing a report on political reform, which was released by an LDP panel last week, Mr Shiozaki has further upset the party's old guard. Its legionaries, flanked by columns of the bureaucracy, continue to hamper most attempts to overhaul the economy. Junichiro Koizumi was supposed to change all that, by going over their heads and appealing directly to the public. Yet nearly a year after becoming prime minister, Mr Koizumi has precious little to show for his efforts. His popularity is now flagging and his determination is increasingly in doubt. As hopes of immediate economic reform fade, optimists are focusing on another potential benefit of Mr Koizumi's tenure. They hope that his highly personalized style of leadership will pave the way for a permanent change in Japanese politics: towards more united and authoritative cabinets that are held directly accountable for their policies. As that hap pens, the thinking goes, real economic reforms will be able to follow. Unfortunately, damage limitation in the face of scandal too often substitutes for real reform. More often, the scandals serve merely as distractions. What is really needed is an overhaul of the rules themselves. A leading candidate for change is the 40-year-old system--informal but religiously followed--through which the LDP machinery vets every bill before it ever gets to parliament. Most legislation starts in the LDP’s party committees, which mirror the parliamentary committee structure. Proposals then go through two higher LDP bodies, which hammer out political deals to smooth their passage. Only then does the prime minister's cabinet get fully involved in approving the policy. Most issues have been decided by the LDP mandarins long before they reach this point, let alone the floor of parliament, leaving even the prime minister limited influence, and allowing precious little room for public debate and even less for accountability. As a result, progress will probably remain slow. Since they know that political reform leads to economic reform, and hence poses a threat to their interests, most of the LDP will resist any real changes. But at least a handful of insiders have now bought into one of Mr Koizumi's best slogans: "Change the LDP, change Japan./

单选题 What's your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember learning to walk? Or talk? The first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}children younger than three or four{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}retain any specific, personal experiences. A variety of explanations have been{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}by psychologists for this " childhood amnesia " . One argues that the hippocampus, the region of the brain which is{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}for formling memories, does not mature until about the age of two. But the most popular theory{{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}that, since adults don't think like children, they cannot{{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories or{{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}—one event follows another as in a novel or film. {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}, when they search through their mental{{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don't find any that fit the{{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}. It's like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new{{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}for childhood amnesia. She argues that there simply aren't any early childhood memories to recall. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else's spoken{{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}of their personal{{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}in order to turn their own short-term, quickly forgotten{{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}of them into long-term memories. {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}, children have to talk about their{{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}and hear others talk about them—Mother talking about the afternoon{{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean Park. Without this{{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}reinforcement, says Dr.Simms, children cannot form{{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}memories of their personal experiences.

单选题Campaigns have become so expensive, and the politicians must spend so much of their time raising money, that neither the candidate nor the lobbyists have time for the old-fashioned schmoozing that was once the hallmark of the lobbying trade. It's all very businesslike now for both sides. For the politicians, the challenge is how to raise the most money in the least amount of time. For the lobbyists, the challenge is to know which politicians to shower with money in order to get maximum results. Moderate politics, a willingness to study issues and seek workable compromise, is no longer cost-effective. The politicians who send out fund-raising letters promising to give each issue careful study won't raise a dime. But if that politician targets those who are known to favor a certain issue and he lets that group know he will champion their cause no matter who opposes it, the money rolls in. The amount he can raise depends on how sharply he can draw a contrast between those who favor an issue and those who oppose it. There are sincere people on every side of every issue, but one reason that Congress continues to debate and vote on so many of the same issues over and over—like gun control and abortion—is that such issues bring in money to both sides. Liberals who favor gun control rail at the antics of the well-financed gun lobby, but in truth they welcome the endless debate over guns because it is a proven way to raise money from their supporters, just as the pro-gun lobby is a ready source of campaign cash for pro-gun forces. The debates over the perennials, as insiders call them, have little impact on the country, since they usually bring little or no change in the laws. But they are not really about the country's business; they are about the business of the members themselves and their own survival. What is remarkable about the process is that when members have to do it, they can put the partisan games aside and do what is necessary. In the weeks before the September 11 attack, the Senate had been in a nasty partisan fight over "who lost the big surpluses" that had been projected earlier in the year. Yet, in the week after the attack, the House and Senate authorized forty billion dollars in disaster relief and passed the legislation by a unanimous vote. Afterward, I asked the Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle how the country could afford to spend so much in light of all the earlier concern about who had lost the surplus. "Well," he said, "I think the question is, Can we afford not to?/

单选题Could money cure sick health-care systems in Britain, which will be the place to look for proof in 2003. The National Health Service (NHS), which offers free health care financed by taxes, is receiving an emergency no-expense-spared injection of cash. By 2007, total health spending in Britain will reach over 9% of GDP--the same share France had when it was rated the world's best health service by the World Health Organization in 2000. The Labor government's response was not to conduct a fundamental review about how best to reform health care for the 21st century. Rather, it concluded that shortage of money, not the form of financing or provision, was the main problem. In 2002, Gordon Brown, the powerful chancellor of the exchequer, used a review of the NHS's future financing requirements to reject alternative funding models that would allow patients to sign up with competing insurers and so exercise greater control over their own health care. Alan Milburn, the health minister, has made some tentative steps back towards the internal market introduced by the Conservative government. It means that a dozen top-ranking hospitals will also have been given greater freedom to run their own affairs. However, these reforms will not deliver real consumer power to patients. As a result, the return on the money pouring into the NHS looks set to be disappointingly meager. Already there are worrying signs that much of the cash cascade will be soaked up in higher pay and shorter hours for staff and bear little relation to extra effort, productivity and quality. Some improvements will occur but far less than might be expected from such a financial windfall. Health-care systems in the developed world share a common history, argues David Cutler at Harvard University. First governments founded generous universal systems after the second world war. With few controls over the demand for medical care or its supply, costs then spiraled up. Starting in the 1980s there was a drive to contain expenditure, often through crude constraints on medical budgets which ran counter to rising patient expectations Now this strategy has run its course: a third wave of reforms is under way to increase efficiency and restrain demand through cost-sharing between insurers and patients. Viewed from this perspective, the government's plan to shower cash on a largely unreformed NHS looks anomalous. But before more fundamental change can be contemplated in Britain, the old system must be shown to be incapable of cure through money. This harsh lesson is likely to be learnt as early as 2003.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Universal human rights begin in small places, close to home." And Tolerance. org, a Web site from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is helping parents across the country create homes in which tolerance and understanding are guiding themes. "The goal of nurturing open-minded, empathetic children is a challenging one," says Jennifer Holladay, director of Tolerance. org. "To cultivate tolerance, parents have to instill in children a sense of empathy, respect and responsibility—to oneself and to others—as well as the recognition that every person on earth is a treasure." Holladay offers several ways parents can promote tolerance: Talk about tolerance. Tolerance education is an ongoing process; it cannot be captured in a single moment. Establish a high comfort level for open dialogue about social issues. Let children know that no subject is {{U}}taboo{{/U}}. Identify intolerance when children are exposed to it. Point out stereotypes and cultural misinformation depicted in movies, TV shows, computer games and other media. Challenge bias when it comes from friends and family members. Do not let the moment pass. Begin with a qualified statement: "Andrew just called people of XYZ faith 'lunatics. ' What do you think about that, Zoe?" Let children do most of the talking. Challenge intolerance when it comes from your children. When a child says or does something that reflects biases or embraces stereotypes, confront the child: "What makes that joke funny, Jerome?" Guide the conversation toward internalization of empathy and respect—"Mimi uses a walker, honey. How do you think she would feel about that joke?" or "How did you feel when Robbie made fun of your glasses last week?" Support your children when they are the victims of intolerance. Respect children's troubles by acknowledging when they become targets of bias. Don't minimize the experience. Provide emotional support and then brainstorm constructive responses. For example, develop a set of comebacks to use when children are the victims of name-calling. Create opportunities for children to interact with people who are different from them. Look critically at how a child defines "normal." Expand the definition. Visit playgrounds where a variety of children are present—people of different races, socioeconomic backgrounds, family structures, etc. Encourage a child to spend time with elders—grandparents, for example. Encourage children to call upon community resources. A child who is concerned about world hunger can volunteer at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter. The earlier children interact with the community, the better. This will help convey the lesson that we are not islands unto ourselves. Model the behavior you would like to see. As a parent and as your child's primary role model, be consistent in how you treat others. Remember, you may say, "Do as I say, not as I do," but actions really do speak louder than words.

单选题In 1880, Sir Joshua Waddilove, a Victorian philanthropist, founded Provident Financial to provide affordable loans to working-class families in and around Bradford, in northern England. This month his company, now one of Britain's leading providers of "home credit"— small, short-term, unsecured loans—began the nationwide rollout of Vanquis, a credit card aimed at people that mainstream lenders shun. The card offers up to ￡ 200 ($ 380) of credit, at a price: for the riskiest customers, the annual interest rate will be 69%. Provident says that the typical interest rate is closer to 50% and that it charges no fees for late payments or breaching credit limits. Still, that is triple the rate on regular credit cards and far above the 30% charged by store cards. And the Vanquis card is being launched just when Britain's politicians and media are full of worry about soaring consumer debt. Last month, a man took his own life after running up debts of ￡ 130000 on 22 different credit cards. Credit cards for "sub-prime" borrowers, as the industry delicately calls those with poor credit records, are new in Britain but have been common in America for a while. Lenders began issuing them when the prime market became saturated, prompting them to look for new sources of profit. Even in America, the sub-prime market has plenty of room for growth. David Robertson of the Nilson Report, a trade magazine, reckons that outstanding sub-prime credit-card debt accounts for only 3% of the $ 597 billion that Americans owe on plastic. The sub-prime sector grew by 7.9% last year, compared with only 2.6% for the industry as a whole. You might wonder, though, how companies can make money from lending to customers they know to be bad risks—or at any rate, how they can do it legitimately. Whereas delinquencies in the credit-card industry as a whole are around 4%-5% , those in the sub-prime market are almost twice as high, and can reach 15% in hard times. Obviously, issuers charge higher interest rates to compensate them for the higher risk of not being repaid. And all across the credit-card industry, the assessment and pricing of risks has been getting more and more refined, thanks largely to advances in technology and data processing. Companies also use sophisticated computer programs to track slower payment or other signs of increased risk. Sub-prime issuers pay as much attention to collecting debt as to managing risk; they impose extra charges, such as application fees; and they cap their potential losses by lending only small amounts ($ 500 is a typical credit limit). All this is easier to describe than to do, especially when the economy slows. After the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, several sub-prime credit-card providers failed. Now there are only around 100, of which nine issue credit cards. Survivors such as Metris and Providian, two of the bigger sub-prime card companies, have become choosier about their customers' credit histories. As the economy recovered, so did lenders' fortunes. Fitch, a rating agency, says that the proportion of sub-prime credit-card borrowers who are more than 60 days in arrears (a good predictor of eventual default) is the lowest since November 2001. But with American interest rates rising again, some worry about another squeeze. As Fitch's Michael Dean points out, sub-prime borrowers tend to have not just higher-rate credit cards, but dearer auto loans and variable-rate mortgages as well. That makes a risky business even riskier.

单选题Although many factors affect human health during periods in space, weightlessness is the dominant and single most important one. The direct and indirect effects of weightlessness lead to a series of related responses. Ultimately, the whole body, from bones to brain, kidneys to bowels, reacts. When space travelers grasp the wall of their spacecraft and jerk their bodies back and forth, they say it feels as though they are stationary and the spacecraft is moving. The reason is based in our reliance on gravity to perceive our surroundings. The continuous and universal nature of gravity removes it from our daily notice, but our bodies never forget. Whether we realize it or not, we have evolved a large number of silent, automatic reactions to cope with the constant stress of living in a downward-pulling world. Only when we decrease or increase the effective force of gravity on our bodies do our minds perceive it. Our senses provide accurate information about the location of our center of mass and the relative positions of our body parts. Our brains integrate signals from our eyes and ears with other information from the organs in our inner ear, from our muscles and joints, and from our senses of touch and pressure. The apparatus of the inner ear is partitioned into two distinct components: circular, fluid-filled tubes that sense the angle of the head, and two bags filled with calcium crystals embedded in a thick fluid, which respond to linear movement. The movement of the calcium crystals sends a signal to the brain to tell us the direction of gravity. This is not the only cue the brain receives. Nerves in the muscles, joints, and skin—particularly the slain on the bottom of the feet—respond to the weight of limb segments and other body parts. Removing gravity transforms these signals. The inner ear no longer perceives a downward tendency when the head moves. The limbs no longer have weight, so muscles are no longer required to contract and relax in the usual way to maintain posture and bring about movement. Nerves that respond to touch and pressure in the feet and ankles no longer signal the direction of down. These and other changes contribute to orientation illusions, such as a feeling that the body or the spacecraft spontaneously changes direction. In 1961 a Russian astronaut reported vivid sensations of being upside down; one space shuttle specialist in astronomy said, "When the main engines cut off, I immediately felt as though we had inverted 180 degrees." Such illusions can recur even after some time in space.

单选题The mythology of a culture can provide some vital insights into the beliefs and values of that culture. By using fantastic and sometimes incredible stories to create an oral tradition by which to explain the wonders of the natural world and teach lessons to younger generations, a society exposes those ideas and concepts held most important. Just as important as the final lesson to be gathered from the stories, however, are the characters and the roles they play in conveying that message. Perhaps the epitome of mythology and its use as a tool to pass on cultural values can be found in Aesop"s Fables, told and retold during the era of the Greek Empire. Aesop, a slave who won the favor of the court through his imaginative and descriptive tales, almost exclusively used animals to fill the roles in his short stories. Humans, when at all present, almost always played the part of bumbling fools struggling to learn the lesson being presented. This choice of characterization allows us to see that the Greeks placed wisdom on a level slightly beyond humans, implying that deep wisdom and understanding is a universal quality sought by, rather than stealing from, human beings. Aesop"s fables illustrated the central themes of humility and self-reliance, reflecting the importance of those traits in early Greek society. The folly of humans was used to contrast against the ultimate goal of attaining a higher level of understanding and awareness of truths about nature and humanity. For example, one notable fable features a fox repeatedly trying to reach a bunch of grapes on a very high vine. After failing at several attempts, the fox gives up, making up its mind that the grapes were probably sour anyway. The fable"s lesson, that we often play down that which we can"t achieve so as to make ourselves feel better, teaches the reader or listener in an entertaining way about one of the weaknesses of the human psyche. The mythology of other cultures and societies reveal the underlying traits of their respective cultures just as Aesop"s fables did. The stories of Roman gods, Aztec ghosts and European elves all served to train ancient generations those lessons considered most important to their community, and today they offer a powerful looking glass by which to evaluate and consider the contextual environment in which those culture existed.

单选题We know from the author's suggestions that

单选题Many young animators pursue the career because they want to

单选题What is/was people's attitude towords death?

单选题Odd even pricing method ______.

单选题Times are tough for the hundreds of English-language colleges that cluster along the south coast of England. Reforms to the student-visa system that are (1) to help cut immigration are limiting the inflow of foreigners (2) in them. But language entrepreneurs are finding (3) ways to meet the rising demand for tuition. Students who visit English City, a language-teaching program, can chat to passers by (4) they wander through the streets, meet their tutors in virtual cafes and order snacks. Shiv Rajendran, who founded LanguageLab, a London-based start-up that (5) English City, says business is booming, though from a (6) base. Online language instructors are benefiting from recent changes to the immigration regime. Schools that (7) students from outside the European Union must now demonstrate their trustworthiness to the borders agency. (8) , students can no longer obtain a general visa that (9) their time at both language school and university. (10) , Tony Millns of English UK, a lobby group, (11) that 40,000 fewer language students will come this year, leaving Britain ￡600m (12) off. Another response to this (13) among some adventurous English-language colleges has been to set up shop abroad. The London School of English has established campuses in Georgia and Qatar and is (14) elsewhere. Still, some students who might have come to Britain will probably (15) instead for a conventional course in America or Australia. And reforms among English-language teachers in Britain won't (16) the impact of the visa changes on the broader economy. Colleges that are opening international branches will charge fees, but most of the income will remain (17) . Online educators are recruiting tutors in other time (18) so that classes can be taught (19) the clock. English is more popular than (20) , but the country of its birth is ill-placed to profit.

单选题Corals are approaching a brink. Warming oceans, acidification and a constellation of other man-made stressors mean coral reefs may face extinction within the century. And with around 25 percent of all sea life, dependent on the health of coral reefs, if the corals go down, they"re taking a huge swath of marine biodiversity with them. But in a paper published in the journal Science, a team of scientists made a hopeful discovery: Heat tolerance in corals can be inherited, and at a remarkably high rate of success too; 87 percent of all differences in survival rates among the heat-stressed coral they studied was explained by how heat-tolerant the corals" parents were. "This implies that heat tolerance could not only evolve, but evolve fast," explained Mikhail Matz, an associate professor of integrative biology and an author on the paper. In other words, some corals are already capable of genetically adapting to warmer oceans. If heat-tolerant coral parents can have heat-tolerant coral babies, then interbreeding between more and less heat-tolerant corals has the potential to help genetically rescue the next generation of a colony. Humans, the authors posit, could potentially harness the natural genetic variation among corals to help save them. More resilient coral could be born out of "something as simple as exchange of coral immigrants across latitudes," said Line Bay, an evolutionary ecologist and another author on the paper. If humans strategically move heat-tolerant, reproductively active corals to vulnerable reefs, the process of "genetic rescue" might be jump-started. "This is occasion for hope and optimism about coral reefs and the marine life that thrive there," Matz said. Meanwhile, a multitude of other problems face coral reefs. For example, as the paper notes, corals live a long time; from decades to centuries. With climate change poised to measurably warm and acidified oceans within the next several decades, and pollution causing oxygen depletion and "dead zones" in some areas, "it has been argued that in such long-lived organisms acclimatization rather than genetic adaptation will play the leading role in their response to climate change," the paper reads. In other words, to save reefs, something needs to be done for the coral that already exist. "Existing genetic variation is by no means a magic bullet that will solve the problem once and for all," Matz said. "The good news is that genetic variation will buy us some time; but it will eventually "run out" when the warming progresses beyond the high levels seen now in natural populations. So if we want to save corals (as well as the rest of biodiversity) we will still need to come up with a solution to curb global warming as a global problem."