单选题Why does the writer say "You might be forgiven for thinking that ... "?

单选题Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who have studied how the websites are changing the (1) of friendship networks. Although social networking on the Internet helps people to (2) hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face (3) is nearly always (4) in forming truly close friendships. "Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be (5) , the actual number of close friends is (6) the same in the face to face real world," said Will Reader at Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have (7) rapidly in recent years. Previous research has suggested that a person's (8) friendship group (9) of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people who we keep in touch with less (10) . This figure is so (11) that scientists have suggested it is determined by our cognitive (12) . Larger numbers just require too much brain effort to keep (13) . But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to (14) this figure and broaden their (15) of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. What social network sites can do is to decrease the cost of (16) and forming these social networks because we can post information to (17) people," he said. But to (18) a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy. "We (19) time and effort in them in the hope that sometime they will help us out. It is a kind of (20) relationship," said Dr. Reader.

单选题Prolonged and excessive use of alcohol can seriously undermine an individual's health. Physical deterioration occurs. Large quantities of alcohol can directly damage body tissue and indirectly cause malnutrition. Nutritional deficiencies can result for several reasons. Alcohol contains empty calories, which have no significant nutritive value. When consumed in substantial amounts, alcohol curbs one' s appetite for more wholesome foods. Excessive alcohol intake can interfere with the proper digestion and absorption of food. Therefore, even the heavy drinker who does eat a well-balanced diet is deprived of me essential nutrients. Maintenance of a drinking habit can deplete economic resources otherwise available for buying good, wholesome food. Malnutrition itself further reduces the body' s ability to utilize the nutrients consumed. The result of damaged tissue and malnutrition can be brain injury, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer of the liver, and weakened muscle tissue. Untreated alcoholism can reduce one's life span by ten to twelve years. Heavy alcohol consumption also affects the body's usage of other drugs and medications. The dosages required by excessive drinkers may differ from those required by normal or non-drinkers. Serious consequences can be incurred unless the prescribing physician is aware of the patient's drinking habits. Sudden death may result from excessive drinking. It might occur when the individual has ingested such a large amount of alcohol that the brain center controlling breathing and heart action is adversely affected, or when taking some other drugs, particularly sleep preparations along with alcohol. Death, as a result of excessive drinking, can come during an automobile accident since half of all fatal traffic accidents involve the use of alcohol. Many self-inflicted deaths, as well as homicides, involve the use of alcohol. It is important to remember that alcohol is a drug that is potentially addictive. Once the user is hooked on alcohol, withdrawal symptoms occur when it is not sufficiently available to body cells. At the onset of developing alcohol addiction, these symptoms may be relatively mild and include hand tremors, anxiety, nausea, and sweating. As dependency increases, so does the severity of the withdrawal syndrome and the need for medical assistance to cope with it. In 1956 the American Medical Association supported the growing acceptance of alcoholism as an illness, falling under the treatment jurisdiction of the medical profession. Since then, the medical resources for problems of acute and chronic intoxication have increased and improved.

单选题Many video games feature an invincibility power-up that makes the players impervious to damage, at least for a while. As the economic crisis hit in late 2008, some said the same about the industry itself. The theory went that sales of video games, which had been strong in 2008, would also be strong in 2009, because games are a relatively cheap form of entertainment that let people escape from gloomy economic reality. At first glance the sales figures seem to debunk the idea that video games are recession-proof. In June 2009, for example, sales of games in America were 31% lower than in June 2008, according to NPD, a market-research firm. In July sales were down 26% , the fifth successive monthly decline. But the year ended with a record-breaking December, as people bought consoles and games for Christmas. Globally, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, a consuhancy, sales of games were down by 6.3% in 2009. The number of Nintendo Win and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles sold was flat in 2009 ; sales of Sow"s PlayStation 3 were up by 22% after a price cut. In some respects, this stumble reflects gaming"s new popularity. When it was less of a mainstream activity it was not so connected to the wider economic cycle. The success of the family-friendly Wii has broadened gaming"s appeal, but the new players it has attracted are less fanatical garners who are more likely to cut back in hard times. During 2009 more people turned to mobile, web-based or second-hand games, says Mr Harding-Rofls. Another way of looking at things, however, is to say that spending on gaming is driven by big hits, and that the slight decline in 2009 reflects creative rather than economic weakness. Entertainment industries always have their ups and downs, says Shigeru Miyamoto, the creative force behind many of Nintendo"s biggest games. There was an unusually large number of hits in 2008, which boosted sales, and fewer big releases in 2009 until late in the year, which may explain the weak mid-year sales. The biggest hit was "Modern Warfare 2", released in November, which became the fastest-selling game in history, selling 7 million copies worldwide on its first day. The top 20 games took a larger share of sales in 2009 than in 2008, which shows that the games industry is becoming increasingly polarised between hits and misses. Hence the hit-and-miss results of the big publishers of video games. Overall, says Mr Miyamoto, 2009"s crop of games may just have been less compelling. "We were not able to produce fun-enough products," he says. That highlights the importance of continued innovation, he says—but it leaves unanswered the question of whether gaming is indeed recession-proof.

单选题According to the text, no measures were resorted to in environmental protection after World War Ⅱ in Japan because

单选题This text appears to be a digest of

单选题We may safely conclude from the passage that ______.

单选题It can be learned from the text that new start-ups

单选题Education is one of the key words of our time. A man, without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of unfortunate circumstances deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states "invest" in institutions of learning to get back "interest" in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, is punctuated by textbooks--those purchasable wells of wisdom what would civilization be like without its benefits? So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births; but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on "facts and figures" and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of "college" imaginable. Among the people whom we like to call savages all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life. It is the ideal condition of the "equal start" which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to reach again. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding on all. There are no "illiterates"--if the term can be applied to peoples without a script--while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1976, and is still non-existent in a number of "civilized" nations. This shows how long it was before we considered it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the "happy few" during the past centuries. Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry that, in our society, often hampers the fui1 development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parents; therefore the jungles and the savages know of no "juvenile delinquency". No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to ""buy" an education for his child.

单选题The first two paragraphs suggest that