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. The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photographer's fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art{{U}} (1) {{/U}}distinctive from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defense of photography was identical with the{{U}} (2) {{/U}}to establish it as a fine art.{{U}} (3) {{/U}}the charge that photographers was a soulless mechanical duplication of{{U}} (4) {{/U}}, photographers{{U}} (5) {{/U}}that it was instead a privileged{{U}} (6) {{/U}}of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and{{U}} (7) {{/U}}worthy an art than painting. Ironically,{{U}} (8) {{/U}}photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or{{U}} (9) {{/U}}to label it as such. Serious photographers are no longer willing to{{U}} (10) {{/U}}whether photography is not involved with art,{{U}} (11) {{/U}}to proclaim that their own work is not involved with it. This shows the extent{{U}} (12) {{/U}}which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the{{U}} (13) {{/U}}of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art. Photographers' disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the troubled status of the contemporary{{U}} (14) {{/U}}of art{{U}} (15) {{/U}}about whether photography is or is not art. Photography,{{U}} (16) {{/U}}Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art. Photography,{{U}} (17) {{/U}}, has developed all the{{U}} (18) {{/U}}and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the{{U}} (19) {{/U}}of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity--{{U}} (20) {{/U}}, an art.

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 a Muslim attack On Hindus in a train in Gujarat 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Older people must be given more chances to learn if they are to contribute to society rather than be a financial burden, according to a new study on population published recently. The current approach which (1) on younger people and on skills for employment not (2) to meet the challenges of demographic change, it says. Only 1% of the education budget is (3) spent on the oldest third of the population. The (4) include the fact that most people can expect to spend a third of their lives in (5) , that there are now more people over 59 than under 16 and that 11.3 million people are (6) state pension age. " (7) needs to continue throughout life. Our historic concentration of policy attention and resources (8) young people cannot meet the new (9) ," says the report's author, Professor Stephen McNair. The major (10) of our education budget is spent on people below the age of 25. (11) people are changing their jobs, (12) , partners and lifestyles more often than (13) , they need opportunities to learn at every age. (14) some people are starting new careers in their 50s and later. People need opportunities to make a "midlife review" to (15) to the later stages of employed life, and to plan for the transition (16) retirement which may now happen (17) at any point from 50 to over 90, says McNair. And there should be more money (18) to support people in establishing a (19) of identity and finding constructive (20) for the "third age", the 20 or more years they will spend in healthy retired life.

单选题It is generally believed that Sickles shot Key, the lover of his wife,

单选题German Chancellor Angela Merkel won over German voters in the Federal Election on Sept. 27. Can she now be won over by a French charm offensive (1) at repairing the relationship that was once at the heart of Europe? That's the question being asked in Paris, (2) top government officials are (3) talking about their desire to rekindle closer ties (4) their neighbors across the Rhine. (5) the end of World War II the Franco-German relationship has been the motor of European integration, the (6) force behind the creation of the European Union and, more recently, the introduction of the euro. But the ardor has (7) in this decade, particularly under Merkel, who has regularly struggled to (8) her irritation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's grandstanding. Sarkozy, (9) , has often been impatient with what he (10) Merkel's lack of resolve. The sometimes (11) personal rapport is a long way from the public shows of affection their predecessors staged, particularly Helmut Kohl and FranCois Mitterrand, who movingly held (12) in 1984 in a Verdun cemetery. There's been tension on (13) , too. Charles Grant, director of the London-based think tank Centre for European Reform, points out that France and Germany have been (14) on issues from how best to reflate their economies during the economic (15) to the smartest strategies for dealing with Russia. But influential movers in France are now (16) to put the relationship back on a friendlier footing. In a recent paper French think tank Institute Montaigne (17) an ambitious agenda for the two nations, (18) that a new impetus is needed if Europe's voice is to be heard in a world (19) of big new players, such as Brazil and India, and at a time when President Obama seems fax more (20) with China and the rest of Asia than with America's traditional allies in Europe.

单选题Researchers at the University of Arizona, led by Teresa Cummins, conducted an exploratory study on the online learning modules, designed to supplement hands-on classes taught by local experts and supported by an overview text, to help users increase their understanding of key concepts in the Arizona Master Watershed Steward program. They also sought to determine whether program participants would use the non-compulsory modules. Their evaluation revealed that module users increased their understanding of key watershed concepts; participants in the evaluation demonstrated a 30 percent increase in content knowledge following module use. Additionally, 70 percent of participants retained this knowledge through a two-month follow-up test. A follow-up survey showed that approximately half of the participants returned to the online modules on their own; several of these users returned several times and spent multiple hours per session. Comments from the follow-up survey suggested that the users accessed the site either as they had the time or as they needed the information. Online usage statistics indicated participants continued to visit the site for many months following the modules' release and advertisement. Though many visits were very brief (a single pageview; only a couple of seconds), visitors with many returns to the site and/or long visits appeared to be working through the modules. One participant stated, "My brain can only hold so much information; the modules keep information on-hand." Other participants commented that the modules were "more interesting and interactive" than the text material, and a "very effective tool" and "a great resource to the Master Watershed Steward community." The Arizona Master Watershed Steward program, sponsored by University of Arizona, prepares adults to serve as volunteers in the conservation of water resources and the protection, restoration, and monitoring of their watersheds. The modules were intended to reinforce concepts covered in classes and further engage participants in the learning process. One key finding was that the modules were not clearly preferred by users over in-person instruction. One participant stated, "For me, they are just another avenue for learning, a supplement or additional reference. I prefer in person and real hands-on learning." Other participants similarly expressed their desire for hands-on and face-to-face interaction. Several participants noted that the usefulness of in-person lectures—was a function of the presenter. Overall, the exploratory evaluation indicated that the modules were a welcome supplement to the course and were effective in reinforcing key concepts. Participants retained knowledge for several weeks, although since subjects were self-selected, they may have been self-motivated to pay attention and master the online module materials. "I am constantly searching for new ways to educate our program's diverse audiences and reinforce watershed science concepts, " says Candice Rupprecht, state coordinator for the Master Watershed Steward program. "I am excited to know that online learning modules can enhance our program by offering additional independent learning opportunities for our volunteers./

单选题Personality is to a large extent inherent. A-type parents usually (1) A-type offspring. But the environment must also have a profound effect (2) if competition is important to the parents, it is (3) to become a major factor in the lives of their children. One place where children (4) A characteristics is school, which is, (5) its very nature, a highly competitive institution. Too many schools (6) the "win at all costs" moral standard and measure their success by sporting achievements. The current (7) for making children compete against their classmates or against the (8) produces a two-layer system, in which competitive A types seem in some way better than their B type fellows. Being too (9) to win can have dangerous consequences: remember that Pheidippides, the first marathon runner, (10) dead seconds after saying. "Rejoice, we conquer!" (11) the worst form of competition in schools is the disproportionate emphasis on examinations. There is, for example, a (12) school that allows pupils to concentrate on those things they do well. The (13) of competition by examination are somewhat questionable, but competition in the certain (14) of failure is positively harmful. (15) , it is neither practical nor desirable that all A youngsters change into B's. The world needs types, and schools have an important duty to try to (16) a child's personality to his possible future employment. It is top management. If the preoccupation of schools with academic work was (17) , more time might be spent teaching children surer values. Perhaps selection (18) the caring professions, especially medicine, could be made less by good grades in chemistry and more by such (19) as sensitivity and sympathy. It is surely a mistake to choose our doctors exclusively from A type stock. B's are important and should be (20) .

单选题The best information in par

单选题The word "luminaries" ( Line 3, Paragraph 4) most probably refers to people who

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} AMERICA'S central bank sent a clear message this week. For the second consecutive meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's policy-making committee, left short term interest rates unchanged at 1.75%. But it said that the risks facing the economy had shifted from economic weakness to a balance between weakness and excessive growth. This shift surprised no one. But it has convinced many people that interest rates are set to rise again--and soon. Judging by prices in futures markets, investors are betting that short-term interest rates could start rising as early as May, and will be 1.25 percentage points higher by the end of the year. That may be excessive. Economists at Goldman Sachs, who long argued that the central bank would do nothing this year, now expect short-term rates to go up only 0.75% this year, starting in June. But virtually everyone reckons some Fed tightening is in the offing. The reason? After an unprecedented 11 rate-cuts in 2001, short term interest rates are abnormally low. As the signs of robust recovery multiply, analysts expect the Fed to take back some of the rate-cuts it used as an "insurance policy" after the September 11th terrorist attack. They think there will be a gradual move from the Fed's {{U}}current "accommodative" monetary stance{{/U}} to a more neutral policy. And a neutral policy, many argue, ultimately implies short term interest rates of around 4 %. Logical enough. But higher rates could still be further off, particularly if the recovery proves less robust than many hope. Certainly, recent economic indicators have been extraordinarily strong: unemployment fell for the second consecutive month in February and industrial production rose in both January and February. The manufacturing sector is growing after 18 months of decline. The most optimistic Wall Streeters now expect GDP to have expanded by between 5% and 6% on an annual basis in the first quarter. But one strong quarter does not imply a sustainable recovery. In the short term, the bounce-back is being driven by a dramatic restocking of inventories. But it can be sustained only if corporate investment recovers and consumer spending stays buoyant. With plenty of slack capacity around and many firms stuck with huge debts and lousy profits, it is hard to see where surging investment will come from. And, despite falling unemployment, America's consumers could disappoint the bulls. These uncertainties alone suggest the central bank will be cautious about raising interest rates. Indeed, given the huge pressure on corporate profits, the Federal Reserve might be happy to see consumer prices rise slightly. In short, while Wall Street frets about when and how much interest rates will go up. The answer may well be not soon and not much.

单选题Aldous Huxley's remark implies that

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points){{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Like the look of our website? Whatever the answer, the chances are you made your mind up within the first twentieth of a second. A study by researchers in Canada has shown that the snap decisions Internet users make about the quality of a web page have a lasting impact on their opinions. We all know that first impressions count, but this study shows that the brain can make flash judgments almost as fast as the eye can take in the information. "My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds," says Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa. Instead they found that impressions were made in the first 50 milliseconds of viewing. Lindgaard and her team presented volunteers with the briefest glimpses of web pages previously rated as being either easy on the eye or particularly unpleasant, and asked them to rate the websites on a sliding scale of visual appeal. Even though the images flashed up for just 50 milliseconds, roughly the duration of a single frame of standard television shot, their decisions tallied well with judgments made after a longer period of examination. In the crowded and competitive world of the web, companies hoping to make millions from e-commerce should take notice." Unless the first impression is favorable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors," Lindgaard warns. For a typical commercial website, 60% of traffic comes from search engines such as Google. This makes a user's first impression even more critical. The lasting effect of first impressions is known to psychologists as the "halo effect": if you can snare people with an attractive design, they are more likely to overlook other minor faults with the site, and may rate its actual content more favorably. This is because of "cognitive bias". People enjoy being right, so continuing to use a website that gave a good first impression helps to "prove" to themselves that they made a good initial decision. "It's awfully scary stuff, but the tendency to jump to conclusions is far more widespread than we realize". These days, enlightened web users want to see a "puritan" approach. It's about getting information across in the quickest, simplest way possible. For this reason, many commercial websites now follow a fairly regular set of rules. For example, westerners tend to look at the top-left corner of a page first, so that's where the company logo should go. And most users also expect to see a search function in the top right. Of course, the other golden rule is to make sure that your web pages load quickly, otherwise your customers might not stick around long enough to make that coveted first impression. "That can be the difference between big business and no business".

单选题The 1920s was the decade of advertising. The advertising men went wild: everything from salt to household coal was being nationally advertised. Of course, ads had been around for a long time. But something new was happening, in terms of both scale and strategy. For the first time, business began to use advertising as a psychological weapon against consumers. Without their product, the consumer would be left unmarried, fall victim to a terrible disease, or be passed over for a promotion. N/Is developed an association between the product and one's very identity. Eventually they came to promise everything and anything-from self-esteem to status, friendship, and love. This psychological approach was a response to the economic dilemma business faced. Americans in the middle classes and above (to whom virtually all advertising was targeted) were no longer buying to satisfy basic needs-such as food, clothing and shelter. These had been met. Advertisers had to persuade consumers to acquire things they most certainly did not need. In other words, production would have to "create the wants it sought to satisfy". This is exactly what manufacturers tried to do. The normally conservative telephone company attempted to transform the plain telephone into a luxury, urging families to buy "all the telephones that they can conveniently use, rather than the smallest amount they can get along with" . One ad campaign targeted fifteen phones as the style for a wealthy home. Business clearly understood the nature of the problem. According to one historian: "Business had learned as never before the importance of the final consumer. Unless he or she could be persuaded to buy, and buy extravagantly, the whole stream of new cars, cigarettes, women's make-up, and electric refrigerators would be dammed up at its outlets." But would the consumer be equal to her/his task as the foundation of private enterprise? A top executive of one American car manufacturer stated the matter bluntly: business needs to create a dissatisfied consumer; its mission is "the organized creation of dissatisfaction". This executive led the way by introducing annual model changes for his company's cars, designed to make the consumer unhappy with what he or she already had. Other companies followed his lead. Economic success now depended on the promotion of qualities like waste and self-indulgence. The campaign to create new and unlimited wants did not go unchallenged. Trade unions and those working for social reform understood the long-term consequences of materialism for most Americans: it would keep them locked in capitalism's trap. The consumption of luxuries required long hours at work. Business was explicit in its resistance to increases in free time, preferring consumption as the alternative to taking economic progress in the form of leisure. In effect, business offered up the cycle of work-and-spend.

单选题Who is against euthanasia?______.

单选题Companies have embarked on what looks like the beginnings of a re-run of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) wave that defined the second bubbly half of the 1990s. That period, readers might recall, was characterized by a collective splurge that saw the creation of some of the most indebted companies in history, many of which later went bankrupt or were themselves broken up. Wild bidding for telecoms, internet and media assets, not to mention the madness that was Daimler's $40 billion motoring takeover in 1998-1999 of Chrysler or the Time-Warner/AOL mega-merger in 2000, helped to give mergers a thoroughly bad name. A consensus emerged that M&A was a great way for investment banks to reap rich fees, and a sure way for ambitious managers to betray investors by trashing the value of their shares. Now M&A is back. Its return is a global phenomenon, but it is perhaps most striking in Europe, where so far this year there has been a stream of deals worth more than $600 billion in total, around 40% higher than in the same period of 2004. The latest effort came this week when France's Saint-Gobain, a building-materials firm, unveiled the details of its￡3.6 billion ($6.5 billion) hostile bid for BPB, a British rival. In the first half of the year, cross-border activity was up threefold over the same period last year. Even France Telecom, which was left almost bankrupt at the end of the last merger wave, recently bought Amena , a Spanish mobile operator. Shareholder's approval of all these deals raises an interesting question for companies everywhere, are investors right to think that these mergers are more likely to succeed than earlier ones? There are two answers. The first is that past mergers may have been judged too harshly. The second is that the present rash of European deals does look more rational, but-and the caveat is crucial-only so far. The pattern may not hold. M&A 's poor reputation stems not only from the string of spectacular failures in the 1990s, but also from studies that showed value destruction for acquiring shareholders in 80% of deals. But more recent studies by economists have introduced a note of caution. Investors should look at the number of deals that succeed or fail (typically measured by the impact on the share price), rather than (as you might think) weighing them by size. For example, no one doubts that the Daimler-Chrysler merger destroyed value. The combined market value of the two firms is still below that of Daimler alone before the deal. This single deal accounted for half of all German M&A activity by value in 1998 and 1999, and probably dominated people's thinking about mergers to the same degree. Throw in a few other such monsters and it is no wonder that broad studies have tended to find that mergers are a bad idea. The true picture is more complicated.