单选题A: Please deposit twenty more cents. B: ______.
单选题
In recent years a new farming
revolution has begun, one that involves the {{U}}(61) {{/U}} of life at
a fundamental level--the gene. The study of genetics has {{U}}(62)
{{/U}} a new industry called biotechnology. As the name suggests, It
{{U}}(63) {{/U}} biology and modern technology through such techniques
as genetic engineering. Some of the new biotech companies specialize in
agriculture and are working feverishly to {{U}}(64) {{/U}} seeds that
give a high yield, that {{U}}(65) {{/U}} diseases, drought and frost,
and that reduce the need for {{U}}(66) {{/U}} chemicals. If such goals
could be achieved, it would be most {{U}}(67) {{/U}}. But some have
raised concerns about genetically engineered crops. In nature,
genetic diversity is created within certain {{U}}(68) {{/U}}. A rose can
be crossed with a different kind of rose, but a rose will never cross with a
potato. Genetic engineering, {{U}}(69) {{/U}} usually involves taking
genes from one species and inserting them into another {{U}}(70) {{/U}}
to transfer a desired characteristic. This could mean, for example, selecting a
gene which leads to the production of a chemical with anti-freeze {{U}}(71)
{{/U}} from an artic fish, and inserting it into a potato or strawberry to
make it frost-resistant. {{U}}(72) {{/U}}, then, biotechnology allows
humans to {{U}}(73) {{/U}} the genetic wails that separate
species. Like the green revolution, {{U}}(74) {{/U}}
some call the gene revolution contributes to the problem of genetic
uniformity--some say even more so {{U}}(75) {{/U}} geneticists can
employ techniques such as cloning and {{U}}(76) {{/U}} culture (培养),
processes that produce perfectly {{U}}(77) {{/U}} copies. Concerns about
the erosion of biodiversity, therefore, remain. Genetically altered plants,
however, raise new {{U}}(78) {{/U}}, such as the effects that they may
have on us and the environment. "We are flying blindly into a new {{U}}(79)
{{/U}} of agricultural biotechnology with high hopes, few constraints, and
little idea of the potential {{U}}(80) {{/U}} " said science writer
Jeremy Rifkin.
单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}}
More American mothers than ever are
working, and more workers are mothers. Yet their march into the world of paid
work continues to cause suspicion. One recent survey found that 48 percent of
Americans believe that preschoolers suffer if their mothers work, while another
found that 42 percent of employed parents think that working mothers care more
about succeeding at work than meeting their children's needs.
All mothers deserve our support--those who care for children at home and
those who have joined the work force. But many working mothers continue to
believe that they are shortchanging (少找钱)their children. They shouldn't.
Research tells us that kids do just fine when mothers work.
Suzanne Bianchi a scientist of the University of Maryland, has found that
mothers today spend as much if not more time with their children than they did
in 1965, even though the percentage of mothers who work rose from 35 percent to
71 percent. Then there are the obvious financial benefits. For many children,
these earnings are the difference between living in poverty—or out of
it. The kids are all right. Studies conducted by the University
of Michigan have consistently demonstrated that a child's social or academic
competence does not depend on whether a mother is employed. In my research four
out of five children (nine out of ten in single parent families) told me that
having a working mother was their preferred arrangement. My study found that
children with working mothers are no more likely to drop out, take drugs, break
the law, or experiment with sex prematurely than children with non-employed
mothers. Children have taken their mothers' example to heart. Ninety percent of
the young women I interviewed said they hoped to combine work with motherhood,
while two-thirds of the men said they wanted to share parenting and
work. Sadly, children support working mothers more than we do as
a society. Parental leave and child-care benefits in the United States remain
inadequate, particularly when compared to what's offered in other countries.
Children thrive when their mothers have satisfying, well-paid jobs when they can
count on other caretakers to share the load. The challenge facing us is thus not
whether good workers can also be good mothers, but whether we can create the
conditions that enable working mothers and fathers to be good
parents.
单选题Next semester, Susan must take three {{U}}compulsory{{/U}} courses.
单选题The "standard of living" of any country means the average person's share of the goods and services which the country produces. A country's standard of living, therefore, depends first and foremost on its capacity to produce wealth. "Wealth" in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money but on things that money can buy: "goods" such as food and clothing, and "services" such as transport and entertainment. A country's capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of which have an effect on one another. Wealth depends to a great extent upon a country's natural resources, such as coal, gold, and other minerals, water supply and so on. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have a fertile soil and a favourable climate; other regions possess none of them. Next to natural resources comes the ability to turn them to use. Some countries are perhaps well off in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and external wars, and for this and other reasons have been unable to develop their resources. Sound and stable political conditions, and freedom from foreign invasion, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well served by nature but less well ordered. Another important factor is the technical efficiency of a country's people. Industrialized countries that have trained numerous skilled workers and technicians are better placed to produce wealth than countries whose workers are largely unskilled. A country's standard of living does not only depend upon the wealth that is produced and consumed within its own borders, but also upon what is indirectly produced through international trade. For example, Britain's wealth in foodstuffs and other agricultural products would be much less if she had to depend only on those grown at home. Trade makes it possible for her surplus manufactured goods to be traded abroad for the agricultural products that would otherwise be lacking. A country's wealth is, therefore, much influenced by its manufacturing capacity, provided that other countries can be found ready to accept its manufactures.
单选题Woman: This software is very user-friendly.Man: Yes, but it leaves something to be desired.Question: What does the man think of the software?
单选题A: You're thirsty? There are some cans of Coke in the fridge.B: ______
单选题A: It's getting rather late. I have to say goodbye. B:______
单选题Valentine's Day is a festival of romance and affection. The holiday is an interesting combination of pagan (异教徒的) and Christian influences. Some of the day's customs probably came from an ancient Roman holiday caned Lupercalia, Which honored Juno (wife of Jupiter, the goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth) and Pan (the God of nature). During the Lupercalia festival, young women dropped poems bearing their names into a large vase. Each young man picked a name from the vase to find his sweetheart for that year. During the Middle Ages, church leaders wanted to relate this pagan holiday to Christianity, so they renamed it after a Christian saint and moved the holiday from February 15 to February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine. St. Valentine was a third-century Christian martyr, a young man who was imprisoned in Rome for refusing to worship pagan gods. According to legend, before Valentine was beheaded on February 14, he restored the eyesight of his jailer's blind daughter. Then he sent her a farewell letter signed, "From your Valentine". This phrase is now a common expression of affection that appears on many of the holiday greeting cards. Perhaps another reason that February 14 was picked as a holiday for lovers was that the ancient Romans believed that birds began to mate on this date. In modern times, early in February of each year, card shops, drugstores, and department stores begin displaying a wide variety of greeting cards called valentines. Most of them are illustrated with the symbolic red heart, which stands for love. Many also show a picture of Cupid with his bow and arrow. Some valentines are very fancy--decorated with paper lace, scented satin, feathers, ribbons, or bows. Some contain affectionate verses, while others simply say, "Be my Valentine". There are special Valentines for various family members, sweet hearts, and friends. People sometimes send anonymous valentines to the persons whom they are in secret love with. On that day, children usually buy packages of small, inexpensive valentines to give to classmates and teachers. Sweet-hearts and married couples may exchange more expensive cards, along with small gifts. Men often give red roses or chocolates wrapped up beautifully in red, heart-shaped boxes to their girlfriends or wives.
单选题A: ______ B: No. I'm trying to find a green sweater in extra large.
单选题
单选题Few foods are more alluring than chocolate. "Chocolate is a drug of abuse in its own category," jokes Dr. Louis Aronne. "It's ahnost as if people have chocolate receptors in their brains. " That may not be too far off the mark. In a recent book called "Breaking the Food Seduction," Dr. Neal Barnard contends that certain foods—including chocolate, cheese, red meat and practically anything combining sugar and fat—are just plain addictive. " It's not that you lack willpower. These foods stimulate the release of chemicals in the brain's pleasure center that keep you hooked. " Besides tapping the brain's own "feel good" chemicals, Barnard says, some of these foods contain drug-like molecules (分子) of of their own. Cheese delivers casomorphins, the same compounds in a mother's milk that help an infant bond during nursing, he says, but cheese is even more powerful, because it delivers casomorphins in an undiluted form. The result: "We're bonding to our refrigerators. " Other scientists doubt these drug-like compounds have enough force to make the foods addictive. But no one denies that fat and sugar exert a strong appeal. The brain is designed to reward eating and other behaviors that promote survival. And throughout history, with food relatively hard to come by, what prmnoted survival better than calorie-dense foods packed with fat and sugar? Besides, fat and sugar also calm the brain, lowering levels of stress hormones. "That's why we call them comfort foods," says physiologist Mary Dallman. But comfort is different from addiction. In classic addiction, the brain grows less sensitive to a pleasurable substance, and the addict requires higher and higher doses to derive the same rewards. Can food cause that kind of change? Perhaps. In a new study, Ann Kelley offered rats either plain water or a high-calorie chocolate drink. Over a two-week period, the animals drank more and more chocolate, but produced fewer brain opiates(镇静剂) in response. "You see the same thing in rats on morphine or heroin," she says. Admittedly, some foods can be hard to stop eating. But these foods are less habit-forming than alcohol—and most people can enjoy a drink without becoming alcoholic. The real problem today may be that we're constantly surrounded with food—and can't undo millions of years of evolution.
单选题Woman: You are burning the candle at both ends.Man: But I haven't saved enough for my retirement.Woman: What do you live for? Today or tomorrow?Question: What does the woman imply?
单选题A:Can you take over for me here for a little while? I have a friend coming to see me. B:I'd like to,but______Ask Peter,he's not so occupied at this moment.
单选题In recent years, Israeli consumers have grown more demanding as they've become wealthier and more worldly-wise. Foreign travel is a national passion; this summer alone, one in 10 citizens will go abroad. Exposed to higher standards of service elsewhere, Israelis are returning home expecting the same. American firms have also begun arriving in large numbers. Chains such as KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut are setting a new standard of customer service, using strict employee training and constant monitoring to ensure the friendliness of frontline staff. Even the American habit of telling departing customers to "Have a nice day" has caught on all over Israel. "Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, 'Let's be nicer, '" says Itsik Cohen, director of a consulting firm. "Nothing happens without competition. " Privatization, or the threat of it, is a motivation as well. Monopolies (垄断者) that until recently have been free to take their customers for granted now fear what Michael Perry, a marketing professor, calls "the revengeful (报复的) consumer. " When the government opened up competition with Bezaq, the phone company, its international branch lost 40% of its market share, even while offering competitive rates. Says Perry, "People wanted revenge for all the years of bad service. " The electric company, whose monopoly may be short-lived, has suddenly stopped requiring users to wait half a day for a repairman. Now, appointments are scheduled to the half-hour. The graceless ElAl Airlines, which is already at auction (拍卖), has retrained its employees to emphasize service and is boasting about the results in an ad campaign with the slogan, "You can feel the change in the air. " For the first time, praise outnumbers complaints on customer survey sheets.
单选题According to the author, a good driver should ______.
单选题(You'd better) hurry up (if) you want to buy (something) because there's hardly (nothing) left.
单选题Concern with money, and then more money, in order to buy the conveniences and luxuries of modern life, has brought great changes to the lives of most Frenchmen. More people are working than ever before in France. In the cities the traditional leisurely midday meal is disappearing. Offices, shops and factories are discovering the greater efficiency of a short lunch hour in company lunchrooms. In almost all lines of work emphasis now falls on ever-increasing output. Thus the “typical” Frenchman produces more, earns more, and buys more consumer goods than his counterpart of only a generation ago. He gains in creature comforts and ease of life. What he loses to some extent is his sense of personal uniqueness, or individuality. Some say that France has been Americanized. This is because the United States is a world symbol of the technological society and its consumer products. The so-called Americanization of France has its critics. They fear that "assembly-line life" will lead to the disappearance of the pleasures of the more graceful and leisurely old French style. What will happen, they ask, to taste, elegance, and the cultivation of the good things in life—to joy in the smell of a freshly picked apple, a stroll by the river, or just happy hours of conversation in a local cafe? Since the late 1950's life in France has indeed taken on qualities of rush, tension, and the pursuit of material gain. Some of the strongest critics of the new way of life are the young, especially university students. They are concerned with the future, and they fear that France is threatened by the triumph of the competitive, goods-oriented culture. Occasionally, they have reacted against the trend with considerable violence. In spite of the critics, however, countless Frenchmen are committed to keeping France in the forefront of the modern economic world. They find that the present life brings more rewards, conveniences, and pleasures than that of the past. They believe that a modern, industrial France is preferable to the old.
单选题Smoke particles and other air pollutants are often Utrapped/U in the atmosphere, thus forming dirty fog.
单选题Embroidery depicting scenic views became popular in the United States toward the end of the eighteenth century.
