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完成对话A: I got another D for my coursework. The teacher must hate me.   B: Mr. Pierre is really nice. ____________
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完成对话Interviewer: Let me see if I understood you. You mean that you can work extra hours if needed, right?   Interviewee: __________
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完成对话Jack: Hey, how are you, Susie? Gee, we haven''t seen each other in...it must be close to three years! Susie: ______ Jack: OK.
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{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this part there are 4 passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers. Choose the one you think is the best answer. Mark your choice on the Answer Sheet by drawing with a pencil a short bar across the corresponding letter in the brackets.{{B}}Passage One{{/B}} Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because they's been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe. Now lions hold a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that spit from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former territory. India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live primarily in a 560-square-mile sanctuary (保护区). It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forest-and no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and gieatness. A tiger will hide in the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground, curious and unafraid—lionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Gir's lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. It's odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Git has as many lions as it can hold—too many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions move about near the boundary of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. That's one reason India 'is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of disease or natural disasters. In 1994 a serious disease killed more than a third of Africa'sSerengeti lions—a thousand animals—a fate that could easily happen to Gir's eats. These lions are especially vulnerable to disease because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals. "If you do a DNA test, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins," says Stephen O' Brien, a geneticist(基因学家) who has studied them. Yet the dangers are bidden, and you wouldn't suspect them by watching these lords of the forest. The lions display vitality, and no small measure of charm. Though the gentle intimacy of play vanishes when it' s time to eat, meals in Git are not necessarily frantic affairs. For a mother and her baby lion sharing a deer, or a young mate eating an antelope(羚羊), there's no need to fight for a cut of the kill. The animals they hunt for food are generally smaller in Gir than those in Africa, and hunting groups tend to be smaller as well.
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Most people think of lions as strictly African beasts, but only because they's been killed off almost everywhere else. Ten thousand years ago lions spanned vast sections of the globe. Now lions hold a small fraction of their former habitat, and Asiatic lions, a subspecies that spit from African lions perhaps 100,000 years ago, hang on to an almost impossibly small slice of their former territory. India is the proud steward of these 300 or so lions, which live primarily in a 560-square-mile sanctuary (保护区). It took me a year and a half to get a permit to explore the entire Gir Forest-and no time at all to see why these lions became symbols of royalty and gieatness. A tiger will hide in the forest unseen, but a lion stands its ground, curious and unafraid—lionhearted. Though they told me in subtle ways when I got too close, Gir's lions allowed me unique glimpses into their lives during my three months in the forest. It's odd to think that they are threatened by extinction; Git has as many lions as it can hold—too many, in fact. With territory in short supply, lions move about near the boundary of the forest and even leave it altogether, often clashing with people. That's one reason India 'is creating a second sanctuary. There are other pressing reasons: outbreaks of disease or natural disasters. In 1994 a serious disease killed more than a third of Africa's Serengeti lions—a thousand animals—a fate that could easily happen to Gir's eats. These lions are especially vulnerable to disease because they descend from as few as a dozen individuals. "If you do a DNA test, Asiatic lions actually look like identical twins," says Stephen O' Brien, a geneticist(基因学家) who has studied them. Yet the dangers are bidden, and you wouldn't suspect them by watching these lords of the forest. The lions display vitality, and no small measure of charm. Though the gentle intimacy of play vanishes when it' s time to eat, meals in Git are not necessarily frantic affairs. For a mother and her baby lion sharing a deer, or a young mate eating an antelope(羚羊), there's no need to fight for a cut of the kill. The animals they hunt for food are generally smaller in Gir than those in Africa, and hunting groups tend to be smaller as well.
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{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this part there are 4 passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers. Choose the one you think is the best answer. Mark your choice on the Answer Sheet by drawing with a pencil a short bar across the corresponding letter in the brackets. {{B}}Passage One{{/B}} Children live in a world in which science has tremendous importance. During their lifetimes it will affect them more and more. In time, many of them will work at jobs that depend heavily on science—for example, concerning energy sources, pollution control, highway safety, wilderness conservation, and population growth, and population growth. As taxpayers they will pay for scientific research and exploration. And, as consumers, they will Be bombarded(受到轰击) by advertising, much of which is said to be based on science. Therefore, it is important that children, the citizens of the future, become functionally acquainted with science-with the process and spirit of science, as well as with its facts and principles. Fortunately, science has a natural appeal for youngsters. They can relate it to so many things that they encounter—flashlights, tools, echoes, and rainbows. Besides, science is an excellent medium for teaching far more than content. It can help pupils learn to think logically, to organize and analyse ideas. It can provide practice in communication skills and mathematics. In fact, there is no area of the curriculum to which science cannot contribute, whether it is geography, history, language arts, music, or art! Above all, good science teaching leads to what might be called a "scientific attitude." Those who possess it seek answers through ohserving, experimenting, and reasoning, rather than blindly accepting the pronouncements of others. They weigh evidence carefully and reach conclusions with caution. While respecting the opinions of others, they expect honesty, accuracy, and objectivity and are on guard against hasty judgments and sweeping generalizations. All children should be developing this approach to solving problems, butit cannot be expected to appear automatically with the mere acquisition of information. Continual practice, through guided participation, is needed.
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Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. This is often done in the workplace, or (31) "continuing education" courses at secondary schools, or at a college or university. Educating adults differs from educating (32) in several ways. One of the most important (33) is that adults have gained knowledge and experience which can (34) add value to a learning experience or interfere with it. Another important difference is that adults frequently must apply their knowledge in some (35) fashion in order to learn effectively there must be a (36) and a reasonable expectation that the new knowledge will help them further that goal. One example, (37) in the 1990s, was the spread of computer training courses in (38) adults, most of them office workers, could enroll These courses would teach basic use of the operating system or specific application (39) . Because the skills (40) to interact with a PC were so new, many people who had been working white-collar jobs for ten years or more eventually took such training courses, either of their own will (to gain computer skills and thus can higher pay) or at the request of their managers.
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Is there something as truth? For a good many centuries "the search for truth" has been (31) the noblest activity of the human mind, but the seekers after truth have come to such (32) conclusions that it often seems that very little progress has been made. (33) ,there are many people who reel that we are actually going backward. They (34) , often contemptuously, that we have accumulated more "knowledge" than our ancestors, but they think we are farther from the truth than ever, or even that we have (35) the truth that we once possessed. If people look for anything long enough without finding it, the question naturally arises (36) the thing is really there to find. You have seen a picture of an animal with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail—and maybe an eagle's wings for good (37) . There is plenty of evidence that each part of this animal (38) —but there is no (39) evidence that the parts ever occur in this combination. It is at least conceivable that the seekers after "truth" have made a similar mistake and invented an (40) combination.
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{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} For each blank in the following passage, choose the best answer from the choices given below. Mark your answer on the Answer Sheet by drawing with a pencil a short bar across the corresponding letter in the brackets, Ireland is the best place in the world to live for 2005,{{U}} (31) {{/U}}a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain's Economist magazine last .week. The ambitious{{U}} (32) {{/U}}to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only{{U}} (33) {{/U}}of human satisfaction and well-being. The index of 111 countries uses{{U}} (34) {{/U}}on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security equality between men and women as well as what the magazine calls "freedom, family and community life". Despite the bad weather troubled health service, traffic problems, and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points{{U}} (35) {{/U}}10. That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which man- aged 8,07. Zimbabwe (津巴布韦), troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is'rated the lowest,{{U}} (36) {{/U}}only 3.89 points. "Although rising incomes and increased individual choices in developed countries are{{U}} (37) {{/U}}valued," the report said, "some of the factors associated with{{U}} (38) {{/U}}such as the breakdown in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact. "Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new—the fourth high- est gross domestic product per head in the world in 2005, low unemployment, political{{U}} (39) {{/U}}—with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as{{U}} (40) {{/U}}family and community life."
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Advertising is a form of selling. For thousands of years there have been individuals who have tried to (31) others to buy the food they have produced or the goods they have made or the services they can per form. But in the 19th century the mass production of goods resulting from the Industrial Revolution made per son to person selling inefficient. The mass distribution of goods that (32) the development of the rail way and highway made person-to-person selling too slow and expensive. At the same time mass corrmmunication first newspapers and magazines then radio and television made mass selling through (33) possible. The objective of any advertisement is to convince people that it is in their best interests to take the action the advertiser is recommending. The action (34) be to purchase a product use a service vote for a political candidate or even to join the Army. Advertising as a (35) developed first and most rapidly in the United States. The country that uses it to the greatest extent. In 1980 advertising expenditures in the U. S. exceeded 55 billion dollars or (36) 2 per cent of the gross national product. Canada spent about 1.2 percent of its gross national product (37) advertising. (38) advertising brings the economies of mass selling to the manufacturer it produces benefits for the consumer as well. Some of those economies are passed along to the purchaser so that the cost of a product sold primarily through advertising is usually far (39) than one sold through personal salespeople. Advertising brings people immediate news about products that have just come on the market. Finally advertising (40) for the programs on commercial television and radio and for about two thirds of the cost of publishing magazine and newspapers.
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American no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing, the Degradation of language and Music and why we should like, care, John Me Whorter, a linguist and controversialist of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960 scounter-eulture as responsible for the decline of formal English. But the cult of the authentic and the personal, "doing our own thing", has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page- Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative gene is the only form that could claim real liveliness, in both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft. Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive—there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper. Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speak- ers. Mr. Me Whorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms—he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English "on paper plates instead of china". A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.
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There is no living creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day. If you want to know why, just try{{U}} (41) {{/U}}without sleep for a long period of time! You{{U}} (42) {{/U}}discover that your mind and body would become{{U}} (43) {{/U}}tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or{{U}} (44) {{/U}}on your work. So sleep is quite{{U}} (45) {{/U}}the time when the cells of your body{{U}} (46) {{/U}}from the work of the day and{{U}} (47) {{/U}}supplies of energy for the next{{U}} (48) {{/U}}of activity. One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are{{U}} (49) {{/U}}in sleep. We do not know what is{{U}} (50) {{/U}}on around us. But that does not mean the body stops{{U}} (51) {{/U}}activity. The vital organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are{{U}} (52) {{/U}}down. For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats{{U}} (53) {{/U}}slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(软弱的), and muscles that control our posture(姿势) are{{U}} (54) {{/U}}. It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an{{U}} (55) {{/U}}if we were awake. So sleep does for us{{U}} (56) {{/U}}the most quiet rest cannot do. Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep,{{U}} (57) {{/U}}is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of{{U}} (58) {{/U}}. And even though you are unconscious, ninny of your reflexes (反射作用) still work.{{U}} (59) {{/U}}, if some one tickles your foot, you will pull it away in your sleep, or even{{U}} (60) {{/U}}a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.
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{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} Lead deposits, which accumulated in soil and snow during the 1960's and 70's,were primarily the result of leaded gasoline emissions originating in the United States. In the twenty years that the Clean Air Act has mandated unleaded gas use in the United States, the lead accumulation worldwide has decreased significantly. A study published recently in the journal Nature shows that air-borne leaded gas emissions from the United States were the leading contributor to the high concentration of lead in the snow in Greenland. The new study is a result of the continued research led by Dr. Charles Boutron, an expert on the impact of heavy metals on the environment at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. A study by Dr. Boutron published in 1991 showed that lead levels in arctic(北极的) snow were declining. In his new study, Dr. Boutron found the ratios of the different forms of lead in the leaded gasoline used in the United States were different from the ratios of European, Asian and Canadian gasolines and thus enabled scientists to differentiate(区分) the lead sources. The dominant lead ratio found in Greenland snow matched that found in gasoline from the United States. In a study published in the journal Ambio, scientists found that lead levels in soil in the Northeasten United States had decreased markedly since the introduction of unleaded gasoline. Many scientists had believed that the lead would stay in soil and snow for a longer period. The authors of the Ambio study examined samples of the upper layers of soil taken from the same sites of30 forest floors in New England, New York and Pennsylvania in 1980 and in 1990. The forest environment processed and redistributed the lead faster than the scientists had expeeted. Scientists say both studies demonstrate that certain parts of the ecosystem(生态系统) respond rapidly to reductions in atmospheric pollution, but that these findings should not be used as a license to pollute.
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{{B}}Passage Three{{/B}} In recent years, railroads have been combining with each other, merging into super systems, causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top four railroads accounted for under 70 per cent of the total ton-miles moved by rails. Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four rail roads will control well over 90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers. Supporters of the new super systems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reductions and better coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many shippers complain that for heavy bulk commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them by the throat. The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such "captive" shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for the business. Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appeal to the federal government's Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extreme cases. Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long nm it reduces everyone's cost. If railroads charged all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of keeping up the line. It% theory to which many economists subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail. "Do we really want railroads to be the arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace?" asks Mar- tin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents shipper. Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be his with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortuning fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to ac- quire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the $10. 2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail's net railway operating income in 1996 was just $ 427 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who% going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.
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{{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} Many things make people think artists are weird and the weirdest may be this: artists' only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad. This wasn't always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for ex- pressing ioy. But somewhere in the 19th century, more artists began seeing happiness as insipid, phony or, worst of all, boring as we went from Wordsworth's daffodils to Baudelaire' s flowers of evil You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen such misery. But it's not as if earlier times didn't know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today. After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology. People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in peril and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too. Today the messages your average Westerner is bombarded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agenda--to lure us to open our wallets to make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. "Celebrate!" commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks. What we forget—what our economy depends on is forgetting—is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring tile greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need someone to tell us as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you wiI1 die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. It's a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
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Ireland is the best place in the world to live for 2005, (31) a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain's Economist magazine last .week. The ambitious (32) to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only (33) of human satisfaction and well-being. The index of 111 countries uses (34) on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security equality between men and women as well as what the magazine calls "freedom, family and community life". Despite the bad weather troubled health service, traffic problems, and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points (35) 10. That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which man- aged 8,07. Zimbabwe (津巴布韦), troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is'rated the lowest, (36) only 3.89 points. "Although rising incomes and increased individual choices in developed countries are (37) valued," the report said, "some of the factors associated with (38) such as the breakdown in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact. "Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new—the fourth high- est gross domestic product per head in the world in 2005, low unemployment, political (39) —with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as (40) family and community life./
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There is no living creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day. If you want to know why, just try (41) without sleep for a long period of time! You (42) discover that your mind and body would become (43) tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or (44) on your work. So sleep is quite (45) the time when the cells of your body (46) from the work of the day and (47) supplies of energy for the next (48) of activity. One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are (49) in sleep. We do not know what is (50) on around us. But that does not mean the body stops (51) activity. The vital organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are (52) down. For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats (53) slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(软弱的), and muscles that control our posture(姿势) are (54) . It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an (55) if we were awake. So sleep does for us (56) the most quiet rest cannot do. Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep, (57) is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of (58) . And even though you are unconscious, ninny of your reflexes (反射作用) still work. (59) , if some one tickles your foot, you will pull it away in your sleep, or even (60) a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.
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判断题There are some unique problems in international trade and companies doing business overseas must be aware of them. In particular, these include (a) cultural problems, (b) monetary conversion, and (c) trade barriers. When companies do business overseas, they come in contact with people from different cultures. These individuals often speak a different language and have their own particular custom and manners. These differences can create problems. For example, in France, business meetings begin promptly at the designated time and everyone is expected to be there. Foreign business people who are late are often left outside to cool their heels as a means of letting them know the importance of promptness. Unless one is aware of such expected behaviors he may end up insulting the people with whom he hopes to establish trade relations. A second traditional problem is that of monetary conversion. For example, if a transaction is conducted with Russia, payment may be made in rubles. Of course, this currency is of little value to the American firm. It is, therefore, necessary to convert the foreign currency to American dollars. How much are these Russian rubles worth in terms of dollars? This conversion rate is determined by every market, where the currencies of countries are bought and sold. Thus there is an established rate, although it will often fluctuate from day to day. For example, the ruble may be worth $0.75 on Monday and $0.72 on Tuesday because of all announced wheat shortage in Russia. In addition, there is the dilemma associated with converting at $0.72. Some financial institutions may be unwilling to pay this price, feeling that the ruble will sink much lower over the next week. As a result, conversion may finally come at $0.69. These "losses" must be accepted by the company as one of the costs of doing business overseas. A third unique problem is trade barriers. For one reason or another, all countries impose trade barriers on certain goods crossing their borders. Some trade barriers are directly related to exports. For example, the United States permits strategic military material to be shipped abroad only after government permission has been obtained. Most trade barriers, however, are designed to restrict imports. Two of the most common import barriers are quotas and tariffs. A quota is a quantitative restriction that is expressed in terms of either physical quantity or value. For example, a quota that states that no more than 50000 Class A widgets may be imported from Europe each year is a restriction stated in terms of physical quantity. Meanwhile, a quota that restricts the importation of a certain type of Japanese glassware to no more than $1 million worth a year is stated in terms of value. A tariff is a duty or fee levied on goods being imported into the country. These tariffs can be of two types: revenue or protective. A revenue tariff is designed to raise money for the government. These tariffs are usually low, often amounting to less than twenty-five cents per item or pound. A protective tariff is designed to discourage foreign businesses from shipping certain goods into the country. The basic reason for a protective tariff is to keep out goods that will undersell products made in the home country. For this reason, protective tariffs are often very high, thus forcing the foreign business to raise its prices to cover the tariff.
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判断题Ⅰ.Too Many People Figures and numerous facts prove that there are already, and certainly that where will be, too many people. Simply calculating the lengths of time necessary to double the world's population is instructive. Impressively, the time required grows ever shorter: 6,000 years before Christ, 1,000,000 years were necessary to double the population, then about 1,650 years after Christ only 1,000 around the 1850's 200 years, in 1930's 80 years. Currently, the world's population doubles every 37 years. What would happen if the population were to continue doubling in volume every 37 years? According to recent calculations, maintaining such a rhythm of growth would result in 60 million billion people on the earth in 900 years, which represents 120 inhabitants per square meter. Optimists believe and often assert that science will indeed find solutions to the problem of overcrowding, namely by providing the means to immigrate to other planets. But this solution is totally impossible. In effect, even if it should become possible, 50 years would be sufficient for the 60 million billion persons to multiply to the point of populating Venus, Mercury, Mars, the Moon and the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn with a density equal to that of the Earth. Ⅱ.Food shortage Today, a good part of humanity suffers from malnutrition or from undernourishment. Some think that the recent scientific discoveries applied to agriculture and known under the name of "green revolution" will resolve the problem. Nothing is less certain. Promoters of the revolution themselves believe that it can offer only a respite of ten or twenty years. In underdeveloped countries, although mostly agricultural, the lag in food production in relation to population growth increases more and more. As the crisis worsens these countries will have to import food. But from where? Ⅲ.A Dying Planet The world's population explosion is the source of a whole series of environmental deteriorations, which in time can have disastrous consequences. Because the population—food imbalance makes it necessary to increase agricultural production "at any price", methods often harmful to the environment are used without judgment. For example, the construction of huge dams to irrigate hundreds of thousands of acres can in fact provoke catastrophes. Thus, the Aswan Dam currently prevents the deposit of fertile silts brought each year by the flooding of the Nile. The result will obviously be a decrease in the fertility of the Delta lands. Damming the Mekong risks the same consequences for Vietnam and neighbouring countries. Fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, DDT can be devastating, transforming complex ecosystems, necessary for the conservation of the environment, into simple ecosystems. Certain situations are perceived as dangerous only when they become critical enough to cause numerous deaths. Smog is an example. In London in 1952 it caused some 4,000 deaths. This incident provoked an awakening of conscience and resulted in decisions, which have proven effective. But smog presents still other dangers: namely, it destroys plants which offer little resistance, and whose oxygen production is indispensable to us, and it changes the earth's thermal equilibrium. For these forms of pollution as for all the others, the destructive chain of cause and effect goes back to a prime cause: "too many cars, too many factories, too many detergents, too many pesticides, more and more trails left by supersonic jets, inadequate methods for disinfecting sewers, too little water, too much carbon monoxide. The cause is always the same: too many people on the earth./
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判断题In 1998 consumers could purchase virtually anything over the Internet. Books, compact discs, and even stocks were available from World Wide Web sites that seemed to spring up almost daily. A few years earlier, some people had predicted that consumers accustomed to shopping in stores would be reluctant to buy things that they could not see or touch in person. For a growing number of time-starved consumers, however, shopping from their home computer was proved to be a convenient alternative to driving to the store. A research estimated that in 1998 US consumers would purchase $7.3 billion of goods over the Internet, double the 1997 total. Finding a bargain was getting easier owing to the rise of online auctions and Web sites that did comparison shopping on the Internet for the best deal. For all the consumer interest, retailing in cyberspace was still a largely unprofitable business, however. Internet pioneer Amazon. com, which began selling books in 1995 and later branched into recorded music and videos, posted revenue of $153.7 million in the third quarter, up from $37.9 million in the same period of 1997. Overall, however, the company's loss widened to $45.2 million from $9.6 million, and analysis did not expect the company to turn a profit until 2001. Despite the great loss, Amazon. com had a stock market value of many billions, reflecting investors' optimism about the future of the industry. Internet retailing appealed to investors because it provided an efficient means for reaching millions of consumers without having the cost of operating conventional stores with their armies of salespeople. Selling online carried its own risks, however. With so many companies competing for consumers' attention, price competition was intense and profit margins thin or nonexistent. One video retailer sold the hit movie Titanic for $9.99, undercutting (削价) the $19.99 suggested retail price and losing about $6 on each copy sold. With Internet retailing still in its initial stage, companies seemed willing to absorb such losses in an attempt to establish a dominant market position.
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