单选题Passage One Because agriculture is so important to a nation's well-being, governments have always been concerned with it. For example, the United States and Canada have long produced surpluses that complicate their economies. Surpluses tend to lower prices to farmers and seriously endanger the agriculture industry. Governments have instituted systems of price supports to maintain a fair price when surpluses cause prices to drop. The system in the United States is a good example. A government program supports the prices paid to farmers for grains, and other agricultural products. Support prices are based on parity, which is the ratio between the prices farmers receive for their crops and the prices they must pay for things they need. The government selected the period from 1910 to 1914 as a time when farm prices were in a fair ratio with farming costs. This is the base period now used to determine parity prices. The idea is to assure farmers that what they get for a bushel of wheat will buy the same amount of, say, seed as it did in the years of the base period; if prices drop too far below this ideal the government can help in a number of ways. For example, it may buy much of a surplus at parity prices. Governments have instituted a wide variety of other controls for prices and, also, for farm output, mainly at the request of the farmers themselves. Farm prices tend to fluctuate more than other prices do, and the incomes of farmers fluctuate along with farm prices. Various measures for maintaining farm prices and incomes include tariff or import levies, import quotas, export subsidies, direct payment to farmers, and limitations on production. All of these measures are useful and are used to some extent by most developed countries. An important example of such a program is the soil-bank plan, which aimed at limiting production while improving farmland. The European Economic Community (EEC) established a common agricultural policy (CAP) for its member nations, called the Common Market countries. The aim is to create free trade for individual commodities within the community. When production of a commodity exceeds EEC consumption, the EEC may buy the excess for storage, pay to have it reprocessed, or export it to countries outside the Common Market. In this way the EEC can maintain its members' farm prices at levels equal to or even higher than those in such market-competitive nations as the United States and Canada.

单选题Corruption in government was exposed through the agency of the press.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Most human beings actually decide before they think. When any human being—executive, specialized expert, or person in the street—encounters a complex issue and forms an opinion, often within a matter of seconds, how thoroughly has he or she explored the implications of the various courses of action? Answer: not very thoroughly. Very few people, no matter how intelligent or experienced, can take inventory of the many branching possibilities, possible outcomes, side effects, and undesired consequences of a policy or a course of action in a matter of seconds. Yet, those who pride themselves on being decisive often try to do just that. And once their brains lock onto an opinion, most of their thinking thereafter consists of finding support for it. A very serious side effect of argumentative decision making can be a lack of support for the chosen course of action on the part of the "losing" faction. When one faction wins the meeting and the others see themselves as losing, the battle often doesn't end when the meeting ends. Anger, resentment, and jealousy may lead them to sabotage the decision later, or to reopen the debate at later meetings. There is a better way. As philosopher Aldous Huxley said, "It isn't who is right, but what is right, that counts." The structured-inquiry method offers a better alternative to argumentative decision making by debate. With the help of the Internet and wireless computer technology, the gap between experts and executives is now being dramatically closed. By actually putting the brakes on the thinking process, slowing it down, and organizing the flow of logic, it's possible to create a level of clarity that sheer argumentation can never march. The structured-inquiry process introduces a level of conceptual clarity by organizing the contributions of the experts, then brings the experts and the decision makers closer together. Although it isn't possible or necessary for a president or prime minister to listen in on every intelligence analysis meeting, it's possible to organize the experts' information to give the decision maker much greater insight as to its meaning. This process may somewhat resemble a marketing focus group; it's a simple, remarkably clever way to bring decision makers closer to the source of the expert information and opinions on which they must base their decisions.

单选题I ______ the meeting yesterday, but some urgent matter prevented me from coming. A. ought to attend B. was about to attend C. was to have attended D. was to attend

单选题The millions of calculations involved, had they been done by hand, ______ all practical value by the time they were finished. A. could lose B. would have lost C. might lose D. ought to have lost

单选题What do the fourth-grade students seem to be doing in the first paragraph?

单选题After the divorce, he began to feel tired and resigned and did not want to do anything else but ______ himself to drinking. A. devote B. adapt C. abandon D. adjust

单选题Nurse: Do you have any designated doctor? Patient: Yes, Dr. Hurt, Cliff Hurt. Nurse: Here is your registration card. Dr. Hurt is at clinic No. 6. ______. A. You may stay here and wait for your right B. You can sit over there and wait for your turn C. You may stand in line here and wait for your arrangement D. You may sit here and wait for your order

单选题Never before (has) (so many) people (in) the United States been (interested in) soccer.

单选题What did women do since they were not allowed to participate in the Olympics?

单选题Even plants can run a fever, especially when they're under attack by insects or disease. But unlike humans, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away --straight up. A decade ago, adapting the infrared scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide (杀虫剂) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don't have pest (害虫) problems. Even better, Paley's Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running "fevers". Farmers could then spot-spray, using 40 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would. The bad news is that Paley's company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. "This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States." says George Oerther of Texas A&M. Ray Jackson, who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

单选题The government______regulations that put this old city under protection. A. published B. issued C. discharged D. released

单选题The biggest safety threat facing airlines today may not be a terrorist with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class. In the last 15 years, pilots have reported that well over 100 incidents could have been caused by electromagnetic interference. The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, experts are pointing the blame at portable electronic device such as portable computers, radio and cassette players and mobile telephones. RTCA, an organization which advises the aviation (航空) industry, has recommended that all airlines ban (禁止) such devices from being used during "critical" stages of flight, particularly take-off and landing. Some experts have gone further, calling for a total ban during all flights. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although some airlines prohibit passengers from using such equipment during take-off and landing, most are reluctant to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during flights. The difficulty is predicting how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft"s computers. Experts know that portable device emit radiation which affects those wavelengths which aircraft use for navigation and communicatioa But, because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory, they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not. The fact that aircraft may be vulnerable (易受损的) to interference raises the risk that terrorists may use radio systems in order to damage navigation equipment. As worrying, though, is the passenger who can"t hear the instructions to turn off his radio because the music"s too loud. (275 words)

单选题This research has attracted wide ______ coverage and has featured on BBC television' s Tomorrow' s World. A. message B. information C. media D. data

单选题I'd rather you ______ make any comment on the issue for the time being. A. don't B. wouldn't C. didn't D. shouldn't

单选题Mr. Smith can be quite sad ______ , though in public he is extremely cheerful.