A: I like this apartment very much, but I"ll come back this evening with my wife and kids. Will that be convenient? B: ______
The United States has historically higher rates of marriage than those of other industrialized countries. The current annual marriage【B1】in the United States—about 9 new marriages for every 1,000 people—is substantially higher than it is in other industrialized countries. However, marriage is【B2】as widespread as it was several decades ago. The proportion of American adults who are married【B3】from 72 percent in 1970 to 60 percent in 2002. This does not mean that large numbers of people will remain unmarried【B4】their lives. Throughout the 20th century, about 90 percent of Americans married at some point in their lives. Experts【B5】that about the same proportion of today"s young adults will eventually marry. The timing of marriage has varied【B6】over the past century. In 1995 the average age of women in the United States at the time of their first marriage was 25. The average age of men was about 27. Men and women in the United States marry for the first time at an average of five years later than people did in the 1950s.【B7】, young adults of the 1950s married younger than did any previous【B8】in U.S. history. Today"s later age of marriage is in line with the age of marriage between 1890 and 1940. Moreover, a greater proportion of the population was married (95 percent) during the 1950s than at any time before【B9】. Experts do not agree on why the "marriage rush" of the late 1940s and 1950s occurred, but most social scientists believe it represented a【B10】to the return of peaceful life and prosperity after 15 years of severe economic depression and war.
He added that the state government has made ______ arrangements for the conference.
Although the United States cherishes the tradition that it is a nation of small towns and wide open spaces, only one in every eight Americans now lives on a farm. The【B1】population trend has been a double one, toward both urbanization and suburbanization, Metropolitan areas have grown explosively in the past decade and nearly half this increase has been in the【B2】, With the rapid growth of cities has come【B3】rapid decentralization. The flight of Americans from the central city to the suburbs【B4】one of the greatest migrations of modern times; quiet residential sections outside cities have become conglomerations of streets, split-level houses, and shopping centers. 【B5】, this spurt of suburban expansion does not alter the basic fact that the United States【B6】one of the most urban nations on the face of the earth. Census Bureau【B7】show that the【B8】population has been shrinking steadily since 1880. When the United States became a nation it had no large cities at all; today【B9】fifty cities have populations of more than 258,000. Mammoth complexes of cities are developing in the area of the East Coast and the east north central states, on the pacific and Gulf coasts, and near the shores of the Great Lakes. Some sociologists now regard the entire 600-mile stretch between Boston and Washington, D.C.—an area holding a fifth of the country"s population—【B10】one vast city or, as they call it, megalopolis.
Many people think there is no need to take special care over home security. "I"m all right, I"m insured". Maybe if you"re fully insured. Even then you can never recover the real value you place upon your possessions. But you can"t insure against the upset and unhappiness that we all feel if our homes are seriously damaged by some stranger, our windows and doors smashed, our precious possessions ruined. "It won"t happen to me". Won"t it? A home is broken into almost every minute of the day. Thefts of all kinds, including cars and property stolen, happen twice as frequently. "I"ve nothing worth stealing". You may think not. But in fact every one has something worth a thief"s attention. And we all have things of special value to us even if they"re worth little or nothing in cash terms. "I"m only a tenant here". The thief doesn"t care whether you"re a tenant or an owner-occupier. You"re just as likely to be robbed. Have a word with the owner of the house ff you think extra locks and fastenings are necessary. "They"ll get in any way". Most thieves are always looking for easy jobs. They are soon discouraged by houses they can"t get into quickly and easily. So it"s worth taking care. This booklet will help you. It"s based on the practical experience of police forces throughout the country. Most of the suggestions will cost you only a few minutes extra time and thought. A few may involve some expense, but this is small compared with the loss and unhappiness you might otherwise suffer. If you are in doubt, ask for free advice from the Crime Prevention Officer at your local police station.
Man: How long does the journey take if I go by bus? Woman: ______. I think the Airport Express is your best bet. Man: Many thanks.
David: Could you have my car fixed before noon, please? Clerk: ______
In a sudden ______ of anger, the man tore up everything within reach.
Tourist A: Excuse me. How do I get to Porter Street from here? Tourist B: ______. You"d better ask someone else.
A: Could you lay the table for me? B: Of course. ______ A: That"s all. Everything else has been done.
Americans eat ______ as they actually need every day.
I"d rather _________a room that is smaller but more comfortable.
A: ______Madam? B: I"d like to see some bed linen, please.
Tony: Will you please pass me the saltshaker, Bill?Bill: Sure. ______.Tony: Thank you.
A group of 11 delegates from the Chinese university returned home last week. They came in second place with 13 other university teams. The conference is the world"s largest university-level U.N. simulation. It is held each April, for a week, in New York, to give students a chance to debate international affairs. It is meant to mirror the real-life business of the U.N. Teams from more than 23 countries gathered this year to discuss and debate serious issues such as the AIDS epidemic and water shortages. Some U.N. senior staff members, U.S. professors, and former student participants formed the judge panel. The Chinese team applied to take part in the event and was assigned to represent Japan this year, working on various committees and arguing Japan"s position on resolutions to problems like international migration. According to Li Xiaocong, the Chinese team leader, their efforts in finding approaches to resolutions made them stand out. Li attributes their success to "solid training".
It"s high time that the girl______sent to school.
They have all got up, and______.
It seems to me that the main requirement of an international language is that it ______ easily learned.
Phone caller: Hello. Could I please speak to Helen? Helen: ______.
Attacking an increasingly popular Internet business practice, a consumer watchdog group Monday filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission(FTC), asserting that many online search engines are concealing the impact special fees have on search results by Internet users. Commercial Alert, a 3-year-old group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, asked the FTC to investigate whether eight of the Web"s largest search engines are violating federal laws against deceptive advertising. The group said that the search engines are abandoning objective formulas to determine the order of their listed results and selling the top spots to the highest bidders without making adequate disclosures to Web surfers. The complaint touches a hot-button issue affecting tens of millions of people who submit search queries each day. With more than 2 billion pages and more than 14 billion hyperlinks on the Web, search requests rank as the second most popular online activity after E-mail. The eight search engines named in Commercial Alert"s complaint are: MSN, owned by Microsoft; Netscape, owned by AOL Time Warner; Directhit, owned by Ask Jeeves; HotBot and Lycos, both owned by Term Lycos; Altavista, owned by CMGI; LookSmart, owned by LookSmart; and iWon, owned by a privately held company operating under the same name. Portland, Ore.-based Commercial Alert could have named more search engines in its complaint, but focused on the biggest sites that are auctioning off spots in their results, said Gary Ruskin, the group"s executive director. "Search engines have become central in the quest for learning and knowledge in our society. The ability to skew(扭曲) the results in favor of hucksters(小贩) without telling consumers is a serious problem". Ruskin said. By late Monday afternoon, three of the search engines had responded to The Associated Press" inquiries about the complaint. Two, LookSmart and AltaVista, denied the charges. Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla said MSN is delivering "compelling search results that people want". The FTC had no comment about the complaint Monday. The complaint takes aim at the new business plans embraced by more search engines as they try to cash in on their pivotal(关键的) role as Web guides and reverse a steady stream of losses. To boost revenue, search engines in the past year have been accepting payments from businesses interested in receiving a higher ranking in certain categories or ensuring that their sites are reviewed more frequently.