单选题Speaker A: I take no interest in fishing. Speaker B: ______

单选题Watch out! Here comes London Mayor Boris Johnson riding a bicycle from his new bike hire plan. "What we"ve put in is a new form of public transport. These bikes are going to belong to everybody." More than 12,000 people have signed up for the plan. They each receive a key at a cost of three pounds, with cost at one pound for a 24-hour membership, five pounds for seven days, and 45 pounds for an annual membership. John Payne, a London teacher who cycles a lot, is among the first to use the system. "It"s very comfortable. For people who don"t cycle much I think it"ll be very useful. But for people who cycle regularly, they are possibly a bit slow. But they"re perfect for London streets, very strong. I think they"ll be very widely used. " And Johnson says it"s of good value. "I think it"s extremely good value. The first half hour is free. If you cycle smart and you cycle around London—most journeys in London take less than half an hour, you can cycle the whole day free." Some 5,000 bikes are currently available at over 300 docking stations (租车点) in central London. Johnson says the city will gradually expand the system. "Clearly one of our ambitions is to make sure that in 2012 when the world comes to London, they will be able to use London hire bikes to go to the Olympic stadiums."

单选题I don't know if Chris is right for the job--he doesn't really possess the skills that ______ a good manager. A. mark B. represent C. signal D. symbolize

单选题 What will man be like in the future--in 5 000 or even 50 000 years from now? We can only make a guess, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today. For man is slowly changing all the time. Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is a relatively short period of time, so we may assume that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain's capacity. As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and eventually we shall need larger ones. This is likely to bring about a physical change to the head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger. Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over a very long period of time it is likely that man's eyes will grow stronger. On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will growmore sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life. But what about hair? It will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald. Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at. This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and emotions similar to our own.

单选题Housewives who do not go out to work often feel they are not working to their flail ______.

单选题In the past few decades, remarkable findings have been made in ethology, the study of animal social behavior. Earlier scientists had (1) that nonhuman social life was almost totally instinctive or fixed by genetics. Much more careful observation has shown that (2) variation occurs among the social ties of most species, showing that learning is a part of social life. That is, the (3) are not solely fixed by the genes. (4) , the learning that occurs is often at an early age in a process that is called imprinting. Imprinting is clearly (5) instinctive, but it is not quite like the learning of humans; it is something in between the two. An illustration best (6) the nature of imprinting. Once, biologists thought that ducklings followed the mother duck because of instincts. Now we know that, shortly (7) they hatch, ducklings fix (8) any object about the size of a duck and will henceforth follow it. So ducklings may follow a basketball or a briefcase if these are (9) for the mother duck at the time when imprinting occurs. Thus, social ties can be considerably (10) , even ones that have a considerable base fashioned by genetics.

单选题Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls' lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls' identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls' lives and interests. Girls' attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletli, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What' s more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated will, strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid-1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children's marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years. I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children' s behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing trick by clothiug manufacturers in the 1930s. Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a "third stepping slime" between infant wear and older kids' clothes. It was only after "toddler" became a common shoppers' term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences--or invent them where they did not previously exist.

单选题Everyone asked me where he was, but it was ______ a mystery to me as to them. A. much of B. as of C. as much of D. such

单选题Today we think of automobiles as a necessity, but at first the automobile was a luxury that only the rich could afford. In 1899, only 600 were built and sold. By 1925, the number approached 20 million. Today you can choose from a huge number of models, some costing 25 times of others. It is said that there are enough motor vehicles in Great Britain and America to carry their combined population. Today we can say that much of the world runs on wheels. The four rubber tires of automobile move us from work to play. Wheels spin, and people drive off to their jobs. Tires turn, and they go shopping. Hub-caps whirl, and the whole family goes for a drive in the country. In addition to automobile, other types of motor vehicles shape our lives. Public buses provide quick and inexpensive transportation. No matter whether you are traveling 500 miles from one city to another, or just going across town, imagine what your life would be like without buses. Trucks also help us in many ways. It is usually cheaper to send goods by truck than by air or train. And because there are many more highways than there are railways, trucks can go to places that trains could not reach. Huge tractor trailers carry goods thousands of miles from Europe to Saudi Arabia. Small pick-up trucks help farmers in every country get their produce to market. The increased use of automobiles has brought a corresponding increase in auto-mobile-related problems such as traffic accidents and traffic congestion. One of the most serious results of our dependence on the automobile is air pollution. Automobiles pump hundreds of pounds of carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases into the air every day. Usually these gases do no immediate damage. However, under certain weather conditions, they may form clouds which cover the skies of large urban areas, threatening the lives of people, especially the sick and the old. In the past fifteen years people have become increasingly worried about the effects of air pollution. Therefore, some governments have required automobile manufacturers to find a solution to this problem. As a result, many new cars today have antipollution devices which decrease the amount of pollutants released into the air.

单选题The early retirement of experienced workers is seriously harming the U.S. economy, according to a new report from the Hudson Institute, a public policy research organization. Currently, many older experienced workers retire at an early age. According to the recently issued statistics, 79 percent of qualified workers begin collecting retirement benefits at age 62; if that trend continues, there will be a labor shortage that will hinder the economic growth in the twenty-first century. Older Americans constitute an increasing proportion of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the population of those over age 65 will grow by 60% between 2001 and 2020. During the same period, the group aged 18 to 44 will increase by only 4%. Keeping older skilled workers employed, even part time, would increase U.S. economic output and strengthen the tax base; but without significant policy reforms, massive early retirement among baby boomers seems more likely. Retirement at age 62 is an economically rational decision today. Social Security and Medicaid earnings limits and tax penalties subject our most experienced workers to marginal tax rates as high as 67%. Social Security formulas encourage early retirement. Although incomes usually rise with additional years of work, any pay increases after the 35-year mark result in higher social Security taxes but only small increases in benefits. Hudson Institute researchers believe that federal tax and benefit policies are at fault and reforms are urgently needed, but they disagree with the popular proposal that much older Americans will have to work because Social Security will not support them and that baby boomers are not saving enough for retirement. According to the increase in 401 (k) and Keogh retirement plans, the ongoing stock market on Wall Street, and the likelihood of large inheritances, there is evidence that baby boomers will reach age 65 with greater financial assets than previous generations. The Hudson institute advocates reforming government policies that now discourage work and savings, especially for older worker. Among the report's recommendations: Tax half of all Social Security benefits, regardless of other income; provide 8% larger benefits for each year beyond 65; and permit workers nearing retirement to negotiate compensation packages that may include a lower salary but with greater healthcare benefits. However, it may take real and fruitful planning to find the right solution to the early retirement of older experienced workers; any measures taken must be allowed to prolong the serviceability of older experienced workers.

单选题In some countries, ______ is called "equality" does not really mean equal rights for all people. A. which B. one C. that D. what

单选题Salesperson: Welcome to Red Rooster. can I help you? Customer: ______ A. Yes, is it for eat-in or take-away, please? B. Yes, I'm very glad to have your help and order a strawberry shake. C. Yes, please give me a chicken roll and a small potato salad. D. Yes, I'll grab a chicken nugget and a salad for take-away.

单选题The economy of the United States after 1952 was the economy of a well-fed, almost fully employed people. Despite occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. An economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950"s, may be typical as illustrating the rapid economic growth of the decade. The national output was valued at 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The production of manufacturers was about 40 percent more than it had averaged in the years immediately following World War Ⅱ. The country"s business spent about 30 billion dollars for new factories and machinery. National income available for spending was almost a third greater than it had been in 1950. Consumers spent about 256 billion dollars; that is about 700 million dollars a day, or about twenty-five million dollars every hour, all around the clock. Sixty-five million people held jobs and only a little more than two million wanted jobs but could not find them. Only agriculture complained that it was not sharing in the boom. To some observers this was an ominous (不祥的，恶兆的) echo of the mid-1920"s. As farmers" share of their products declined, marketing costs rose. But there were, among the observers of the national economy, a few who were not as confident as the majority. Those few seemed to fear that the boom could not last long and would eventually lead to the opposite-depression.

单选题If people feel hopeless, they don't bother to ______ the skills they need to succeed. A. adopt B. acquire C. accumulate D. assemble

单选题 When I was walking down the street the other day, I happened to notice a small brown leather wallet lying on the sidewalk. I picked it up and opened it to see if I could find out the owner's name. There was nothing inside it except some change and an old photograph--a picture of a woman and a young girl about twelve years old, who looked like the woman's daughter. I put the photograph back and took the wallet to the police station, where I handed it to the desk sergeant. Before I left, the sergeant took down my name and address in case the owner might want to write and thank me. That evening I went to have dinner with my aunt and uncle. They had also invited a young woman so that there would be four people at the table. Her face was familiar. I was quite sure that we had not met before, but I couldn't remember where I had seen her. In the course of conversation, however, the young woman happened to mention that she had lost her wallet that afternoon. All at once I realized where I had seen her. She was the young girl in the photograph, although she was now much older. She was very surprised, of course, when I was able to describe her wallet to her. Then I explained that I had recognized her from the photograph I had found in the wallet. My uncle insisted on going to the police station immediately to claim the wallet. As the police sergeant handed it over, he said that it was amazing that I had not only found the wallet, but also the person who had lost it.

单选题 Brazil has become one of the developing world's great successes at reducing population growth--but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard. Brazil's population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries. Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and instalment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world's biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil's most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities. "Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values- not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working," says Martine. "They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package." Meanwhile, the instalment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. "This 1ed to an enormous change in consumption patterns and consumption was in compatible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Martine.

单选题(In England) (as early as) the (twelfth century), young boys enjoyed (to play) football.

单选题Not only the professionals but also the amateurs will ______ from the new training facilities. A. derive B. acquire C. benefit D. reward

单选题Her father will never ______ of her going to study in the United States alone. A. prove B. agree C. admit D. approve