单选题

单选题The ______ to the advertisement she placed in the newspapers was very good; over a hundred letters of application were received.

单选题Most scholars agree that Isaac Newton, while formulating the laws of force and gravity and inventing the calculus in the late 1600s, probably knew all the science there was to know at the time. In the ensuing 350 years an estimated 50 million research papers and innumerable books have been published in the natural sciences and mathematics. The modern high school student probably now possesses more scientific knowledge than Newton did, yet science to many people seems to be an impenetrable mountain of facts. One way scientists have tried to cope with this mountain is by becoming more and more specialized. Another strategy for coping with the mountain of information is to largely ignore it. That shouldn"t come as a surprise. Sure, you have to know a lot to be a scientist, but knowing a lot is not what makes a scientist. What makes a scientist is ignorance. This may sound ridiculous, but for scientists the facts are just a starting place. In science, every new discovery raises 10 new questions. By this calculus, ignorance will always grow faster than knowledge. Scientists and laypeople alike would agree that for all we have come to know, there is far more we don"t know. More important, every day there is far more we know we don"t know. One crucial outcome of scientific knowledge is to generate new and better ways of being ignorant: not the kind of ignorance that is associated with a lack of curiosity or education but rather a cultivated, high-quality ignorance. This gets to the essence of what scientists do: they make distinctions between qualities of ignorance. They do it in grant proposals and over beers at meetings. As James Clerk Maxwell, probably the greatest physicist between Newton and Einstein, said, "Thoroughly conscious ignorance... is a prelude to every real advance in knowledge." This perspective on science-that it is about the questions more than the answers-should come as something of a relief. It makes science less threatening and far more friendly and, in fact, fun. Science becomes a series of elegant puzzles and puzzles within puzzles—and who doesn"t like puzzles? Questions are also more accessible and often more interesting than answers; answers tend to be the end of the process, whereas questions have you in the thick of things. Lately this side of science has taken a backseat in the public mind to what I call the accumulation view of science—that it is a pile of facts way too big for us to ever hope to conquer. But if scientists would talk about the questions, and if the media reported not only on new discoveries but the questions they answered and the new puzzles they created, and if educators stopped trafficking in facts that are already available on Wikipedia-then we might find a public once again engaged in this great adventure that has been going on for the past 15 generations.

单选题 Whenever I hear a weather report declaring it's the hottest June l0 on record or whatever, I can't take it too seriously, because "ever" really means "as long as the records go back", which is only as far as the late 1800s. Scientists have other ways of measuring temperatures before that, though--not for individual dates, but they can ten the average temperature of a given year by such proxy measurements as growth marks in corals, deposits in ocean and lake sediments, and cores drilled into glacial ice. They can even use drawings of glaciers as there were hundreds of years ago compared with today. And in the most comprehensive compilation of such data to date, says a new report from the National Research Council, it looks pretty certain that the last few decades have been hotter than any comparable period in the last 400 years. That's a blow to those who claim the current warm spell is just part of the natural up and down of average temperatures--a frequent assertion of the global--warming-doubters crowd. The report was triggered by doubts about past-climate claims made last year by climatologist Michael Mann, of the University of Virginia (he's the creator of the "hockey stick" graph A1 Gore used in "An Inconvenient Truth" to dramatize the rise in carbon dioxide in recent years). Mann claimed that the recent warming was unprecedented in the past thousand years--that led Congress to order up an assessment by the prestigious Research Council. Their conclusion was that a thousand years was reasonable, but not overwhelmingly supported by the data. But the past 400 was--so resoundingly that it fully supports the claim that today's temperatures ale unnaturally warm, just as global warming theory has been predicting for a hundred years. And if there's any doubt about whether these proxy measurements are really legitimate, the NRC scientists compared them with actual temperature data from the most recent century, when real thermometers were in widespread use. The match was more or less right on. In the past nearly two decades since TIME first put global warming on the cover, then, the argument against it has gone from "it isn't happening" to "it's happening, but it's natural", to "it's mostly natural"--and now, it seems, that assertion too is going to have to drop away. Indeed. Rep. Sherwood Boehert, the New York Republican who chairs the House Science Committee and who asked for the report declared that it did nothing to support the notion of a controversy over global warming science--a controversy that opponents keep insisting is alive. Whether President Bush will finally take serious action to deal with the warming, however, is a much less settled question.

单选题The Minister of Finance is believed______of imposing new taxes to raise extra revenue.(中南大学2007年试题)

单选题______ is the question of using existing resources to produce original and beneficial solutions, ideas or products.

单选题Within hours of appearing on television to announce the end of conscription, President Jacques Chirac moved quickly to prevent any dissent from within the military establishment. Addressing more than 500 military staff officers at the military academy in Paris yesterday, Mr Chirac said clearly that he "expected" their loyalty in the work of rebuilding France's national defense. He understood their "legitimate concerns, questions and emotions" at the reforms, but added: "You must understand that there is not and never has been any rigid model for French defense. Military service has been compulsory for less than a century. Realism required that our armed forces should now be professional." The President's decision to abolish conscription over a period of six years removes a rite of passage for young Frenchmen that has existed since the Revolution, even though obligatory national service only became law in 1905. As recently as 1993, an opinion poll showed that more than 60% of French people said they feared the abolition of conscription could endanger national security. A poll conducted this month, however, showed that 70% of those asked favored ending of practice, and on the streets and in offices yesterday, the response to Mr. Chirac's announcement was generally positive. Among people who completed their 10-month period of national service in the last few years or were contemplating the prospect, there was almost universal approval, tempered by a sense that something hard to define—mixing with people from other backgrounds, a formative experience, a process that encouraged national or social cohesion—might be lost. Patrick, who spent his year in the French city of Valance assigning and collecting uniforms, and is now a computer manager, said he was in tears for his first week, and hated most of his time. He thought it was "useless" as a form of military training— "I only fired a rifle twice" —but, in retrospect, useful for learning how to get on with people and instilling patriotism. As many as 25% of those liable for military service in France somehow avoid it—the percentage is probably much greater in the more educated and higher social classes. According to Geoffroy, a 26-year-old reporter, who spent his time in the navy with the information office in central Paris, the injustice is a good reason for abolishing it. People with money or connections, he said, can get well-paid assignments abroad. "It's not fair: some do it, some don't." Several expressed support for the idea of a new socially-oriented voluntary service that would be open to both men and women. But the idea seemed less popular among women. At present, women have the option of voluntary military service and a small number choose to take it.

单选题Henry David Thoreau used to {{U}}ramble{{/U}} through the woods before he wrote his most famous book Walden (1854).

单选题He denied ______ to send out the signal at exactly 8 p.m.

单选题President Clinton ______ power when the US economy was slow.

单选题Today's college students are more narcissistic (自恋的) and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society. "We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already. Unfortunately, narcissism can also have very negative consequences for society, including the breakdown of close relationships with others," he said. The study asserts that narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors". Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled- and More Miserable Than Ever Before", said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others. Some analysts have commended today's young people for increased commitment to volunteer work. But Twenge viewed even this phenomenon skeptically, noting that many high schools require community service and many youths feel pressure to list such endeavors on college applications. Campbell said the narcissism upsurge seemed so pronounced(非常明显的)that he was unsure if there were obvious remedies. "Permissiveness seems to be a component," he said. "A potential antidote would be more authoritative parenting. Less indulgence might be called for." Yet students, while acknowledging some legitimacy to such findings, don't necessarily accept negative generalizations about their generation. Hanady Kader, a University of Washington senior, said she worked unpaid last summer helping resettle refugees and considers many of her peers to be civic-minded. But she is dismayed (气馁；灰心) by the competitiveness of some students who seem prematurely focused on career status. "We're encouraged a lot to be individuals and go out there and do what you want, and nobody should stand in your way," Kader said. "I can see goals and ambitions getting in the way of other things like relationships." Kari Dalane, a University of Vermont sophomore, says most of her contemporaries are politically active and not overly self-centered. "People are worried about themselves--but in the sense of where are they're going to find a place in the world," she said. "People want to look their best, have a good time, but it doesn't mean they're not concerned about the rest of the world." Besides, some of the responses on the narcissism test might not be worrisome, Dalane said. "It would be more depressing if people answered, 'No, you are not special.'/

单选题"The artificial standard" (Paragraph 4) refers to the difference between standards of judgment for ______.

单选题The woman has not yet ______ the loss of her son. A. got up B. got by C. got over D. got round

单选题Mr. Smith is a(n)______ of equal rights for women.

单选题In old day's, when a glimpse of stocking was looked upon as something far too shocking to distract the serious work of an office, secretaries were men. Then came the First World War and the male secretaries were replaced by women. A man' s secretary became his personal servant, charged with remembering his wife' s birthday and buying her presents; taking his suits to the dry-cleaners; telling lies on the telephone to keep people he did not wish to speak to at bay and, of course, typing and filing and taking shorthand. Now all this may be changing again. The microchip and high technology is sweeping the British office, taking with it much of the routine clerical work that secretaries did. "Once office technology takes over generally, the status of the job will rise again because it will involve only the high-powered work and then men will want to do it again." That was said by one of the executives (male) of one of the biggest secretarial agencies in this country. What he has predicted is already under way in the US. One girl described to me a recent temporary job placing men in secretarial jobs in San Francisco. She noted that all the men she dealt with appeared to be gay so possibly that is just a new twist to the old story. Over here, though, there are men coming onto the job market as secretaries. Classically, girls have learned shorthand and typing and gone into a company to seek their fortune from the bottom— and that' s what happened to John Bowman. Although he joined a national grocery chain as secretary to its first woman senior manager, he has since been promoted to an administration job. "I filled in the application form and said I could do audio/typing, and in fact I was the only applicant. The girls were reluctant to work for this young, glamorous new woman with all this power in the firm." "I did typing at school, and then a commercial course. I just thought it would be useful finding a job. I never got any funny treatment from the girls, though I admit I' ve never met another male secretary. But then I joined the Post Office as a clerk and carelessly played with the typewriter, and wrote letters, and thought that after all secretaries were getting a good ￡ 1,000 a year more than clerks like me. There was a shortage at that time, you see." "It was simpler working for a woman than for a man. I found she made decisions, she told everybody what she thought, and there was none of that male bitchiness, or that stuff ring this number for me dear, which men go in for." "Don' t forget, we were a team—that’s how I feel about it—not boss and servant but two people doing different things for the same purpose." Once high technology has made the job of secretary less routine, will there be male takeover? Men should beware of thinking that they can walk right into the better jobs. There are a lot of women secretaries who will do the job as well as they because they are as efficient and well trained to cope with word processors and computers, and men.

单选题Every time an old building is torn down in this country, and a new building goes up, the ground floor becomes a bank. The reason for this is that banks are the only ones who can afford the rent for the ground floor of the new buildings going up. Besides, when a bank loans someone money to build a new building, it usually takes an option for the street-floor facilities. Most people don't think there is anything wrong with this and they accept it as part of the American free-enterprise system. But there is a small group of people in this country who are fighting for Bank Birth Control. This is how Huddlestone Hubbard, the BBC's chairman, explained it. "Whenever you see an old building torn down," Hubbard said, "you usually see a candy store, a dry cleaner, a delicatessen, and possibly a florist torn down with it. These shops are all replaced in the new buildings with a beautiful glass, aluminum, wall-to-wall-carpeted money factory. "Now from an aesthetic viewpoint, a bank looks better than a fry cleaner, a candy store, a delicatessen and a florist. But from a practical point of view, it's a sheer disaster, if you want a newspaper, a candy bar or a chocolate milk shake, you can't get it at a bank. Nor can you run out to a bank for a pound of Swiss cheese and a six-pack of beer when have guests coming over. "A bank is great if you want to buy a car, but it's useless if you want to have your dress cleaned. "And while a bank might buy flowers to give itself a human image, it doesn't sell any when you want to make up with your wife." "What you're saying then, Mr. Hubbard, is that every time a bank goes up, something in all of us dies." "Exactly. One of the reasons kids are getting in so much trouble these days is that there are no candy stores to hang around anymore. When tear down a delicatessen, the tangy smell of potato salad, corned beef and dill pickles are lost forever. Unless you're trying to make a loan, no one ever salivates in a bank. "It is true," I said. "The situation is more crucial than anyone thinks," Hubbard said. "At the rate they're tearing down consumer stores and replacing them with banks, we estimate that in ten years it will be impossible to buy a loaf of bread in the country. What good is it to get 7 percent on your money if you starve to death?" "Then what you're saying is that it isn't a question of not taking it with you. It's a question of staying alive while you have it," I said. "Something like that." Hubbard agreed. "We're trying to get the public to wake up to a fact: it's better to have a store that sells screwdrivers than a bank that gives away alarm clocks." "What's the solution?" "A government decree that a bank has to supply the same services of the stores it tore down on the same property, if it's a bakery, they have to sell cake, if it's a photography shop, they have to develop films, and if it's a dry-goods store, they have to sell warm underwear, if they provide the services of the stores they tore down, then we'll let them do a little money lending on the side./

单选题The authorities had failed to react fast enough to popular Udiscontent /Ubut told citizens that only hard work could bring an improvement in living standards.