单选题The retired engineer plunked down $50,100 in cash for a midsize Mercedes as a present for his wife—a purchase______with money made in the stock the week before. A. paid off B. paid through C. paid out D. paid for

单选题The crucial years of the Depression, as they are brought into historical focus, increasingly emerge as the decisive decade for American art, if not for American culture in general For it was during this decade that many of the conflicts which had blocked the progress of American art in the past came to a head and sometimes boiled over. Janus-faced, the thirties look backward, sometimes as far as the Renaissance; and at the same time forward, as far as the present and beyond. It was the moment when artists, like Thomas Hart Benton, who wished to turn back the clock to regain the virtues of simpler times came into direct conflict with others, like Stuart Davis and Frank Lloyd Wright, who were ready to come to terms with the Machine Age and to deal with its consequences. America in the thirties was changing rapidly. In many areas the past was giving way to the present, although not without a struggle. A predominantly rural and small town society was being replaced by the giant complexes of the big cities; power was becoming increasingly centralized in the federal government and in large corporations. As a result, traditional American types such as the independent farmer and the small businessman were being replaced by the executive and the bureaucrat. Many Americans, deeply attached to the old way of life, felt disinhereited. At the same time, as immigration decreased and the population became more homogeneous, the need arose in art and literature to commemorate the ethnic and regional differences that were fast disappearing. Thus, paradoxically, the conviction that art, at least, should serve some purpose or carry some message of moral uplift grew stronger as the Puritan ethos lost its contemporary reality. Often this elevating message was a sermon in favor of just those traditional American virtues which were now threatened with obsolescence in a changed social and political context. In this new context, the appeal of the paintings by the Regionalists and the American Scene painters often lay in their ability to recreate an atmosphere that glorified the traditional American values-self-reliance tempered with good-neighborliness, independence modified by a sense of community, hard work rewarded by a sense of order and purpose. Given the actual temper of the times, these themes were strangely anachronistic, just as the rhetoric supporting political isolationism was equally inappropriate in an international situation soon to involve America in a second world war Such themes gained popularity because they filled a genuine need for a comfortable collective fantasy of a God-fearing, white-picket-fence America, which in retrospect took on the nostalgic appeal of a lost Golden Age. In this light, an autonomous art-for-art's sake was viewed as a foreign invader liable to subvert the native American desire for a purposeful art. Abstract art was assigned the role of the villainous alieen; realism was to personify the genuine American means of expression. The argument drew favor in many camps: .among the artists, because most were realists; among the politically oriented intellectuals, because abstract art was apolitical; and among museum officials, because they were surfeited with mediocre imitations of European modernism and were convinced that American art must develop its own distinct identity. To help along this road to self-definition, the museums were prepared to set up an artificial double standard, one for American art, and another for European art. In 1934, Ralph Flint wrote in Art News, "We have today in our midst a greater array of what may be called second-, third, and fourth-string artists than any other country. Our big annuals are marvelous outpourings of intelligence and skill; they have all the diversity and animation of a fine-ring circus./

单选题If you have any clothes ______ today, give them to me.

单选题Nobody knows why there are so few women at the ______ of movies.

单选题Historically, no artiste have presented clearer or the more complete records of the-development of human culture than sculptors have A. B. C. D.

单选题Can electricity cause cancer? In a society that literally runs on electric power, the very idea seems preposterous. But for more than a decade, a growing band of scientists and journalists has pointed to studies that seem to link exposure to electromagnetic fields with increased risk of leukemia and other malignancies. The implications are unsettling, to say the least, since everyone comes into contact with such fields, which are generated by everything electrical, from power lines and antennas to personal computers and micro-wave ovens. Because evidence on the subject is inconclusive and often contradictory, it has been hard to decide whether concern about the health effects of electricity is legitimate—or the worst kind of paranoia. Now the alarmists have gained some qualified support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the executive summary of a new scientific review, released in draft form late last week, the EPA has put forward what amounts to the most serious government warning to date. The agency tentatively concludes that scientific evidence "suggests a casual link" between extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields—those having very longwave-lengths—and leukemia, lymphoma and brain cancer, While the report falls short of classifying ELF fields as probable carcinogens, it does identify the common 60-hertz magnetic field as "a possible, but not proven, cause of cancer in humans". The report is no reason to panic—or even to lost sleep. If there is a cancer risk, it is a small one. The evidence is still so controversial that the draft stirred a great deal of debate within the Bush Administration, and the EPA released it over strong objections from the Pentagon and the White House. But now no one can deny that the issue must be taken seriously and that much more research is needed. At the heart of the debate is a simple and well-understood physical phenomenon: When an electric current passes through a wire, it generates an electromagnetic field that exerts forces on surrounding objects. For many years, scientists dismissed any suggestion that such forces might be harmful, primarily because they are so extraordinarily weak. The ELF magnetic field generated by a video terminal measures only a few milligauss, or about one-hundredth the strength of the earth"s own magnetic field. The electric fields surrounding a power line can be as high as 10 kilovolts per meter, but the corresponding field induced in human cells will be only about 1 millivolt per meter. This is far less than the electric fields that the cells themselves generate. How could such minuscule forces pose a health danger? The consensus used to be that they could not, and for decades scientists concentrated on more powerful kinds of radiation, like X-rays, that pack sufficient wallop to knock electrons out of the molecules that make up the human body. Such "ionizing" radiations have been clearly linked to increased cancer risks and there are regulations to control emissions. But epidemiological studies, which find statistical associations between sets of data, do not prove cause and effect. Though there is a body of laboratory work showing that exposure to ELF fields can have biological effects on animal tissues, a mechanism by which those effects could lead to cancerous growths has never been found. The Pentagon is far from persuaded. In a blistering 33-page critique of the EPA report, Air Force scientists charge its authors with having "biased the entire document" toward proving a link. "Our reviewers are convinced that there is no suggestion that electromagnetic fields present in the environment induce or promote cancer," the Air Force concludes. "It is astonishing that the EPA would lend its imprimatur on this report." Then Pentagon"s concern is understandable. There is hardly a unit of the modem military that does not depend on the heavy use of some kind of electronic equipment, from huge ground-based radar towers to the defense systems built into every warship and plane.

单选题Equal Rights ______ has been passed that should benefit all.

单选题What is the position of the executive of human-resource management in American firms?

单选题Passage One There are over 6,000 different computer and online games in the world now. A segment of them are considered to be both educational and harmlessly entertaining. One such game teaches geography and another trains pilots. Others train the player in logical thinking and literate, which is more important in this technology-driven era. But the dark side of the computer games has become more and more obvious. "A segment of games features anti-social themes of violence, sex and crude language," says David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and Family. "Unfortunately. It's a segment that seems particularly popular with kids aged from eight to fifteen." One study showed that almost 90 percent of the computer and online games young people preferred contained violence. The investigators said, "There are not just games anymore. These are learning machines. We're teaching kids in the most incredible manner what it's like to pull the trigger. What they are not learning are the real-life consequences. They also said, "The new and more sophisticated games are even worse, because they have better graphics and allow the player to participate in even more realistic violent acts." In the game Carmageddon, for example, the player will have driven over and killed up to 33,000 people by the time all levels are compelled. A description of the outcome of the game says: "Your victims not only squish under your tires and splatter blood on the windshield, they also get on their knees and beg for mercy, or commit suicide. If you like, you can also dismember them." Is all this simulated violence harmful? Approximately 3,000 different studies have been conducted on this subject. Many have suggested that there is a connection between violence in games and increased aggressiveness in the players. Some specialists downplay the influence of the games, saying that other factors must be taken into consideration, such as the possibility that kids who already have violent tendencies are choosing such games. But could it be that violent games still play a contributing role? It seems unrealistic to insist that people are not influenced by what they see. If that were true, why would the commercial world spend billions of dollars annually for television advertising?

单选题One busy day, I was racing around trying to get too much done, and I exclaimed to my three kids in the car, "We can get both things done and kill two birds with one stone!" My daughter Annie quietly suggested, "You mean feed two birds with one crumb, Mom, don't you? " I stopped short, realizing how steeped my language is in the culture of war. I had used "weapon" language without even knowing it. I was embarrassed and yet felt a grace: if a child can become conscious of using a new language of peace, then there is hope. Think about the business language: strategies, bullets, high-caliber, power point; about win-lose sports language like "decimate", "attack", "destroy the other team" , not to mention the movies and video games that simulate the most gruesome annihilations over and over. The lies of propaganda, one-sided media coverage, the alienation of others (those terrorists, the axis of evil) , all part of the " collective psychic numbing" of our times. The biggest lie of all is that nuclear weapons are go,ng to protect us. Nuclear weapons are an assault on our life, our planet, and on the Creator of the universe. It seems to afflict what our people could be as a result of the mess seeming too big to handle for the average person, disconnected and disempowered. When the world food programme for children equals 1/70th of the annual world military expense, we see what a crisis we are in. Yet it inspired hope with the life examples of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero and others. Each spiritual leader lived the maxim, "no justice, no peace," nonviolently insisting on the truth, speaking truth to power without harming others or stripping their dignity. Imagine if we focused on this commonality, rather than what divides us; imagine if religions and religious leaders promulgated a global culture of peace and tolerance. We do not have to feel overwhelmed; that U. N. structures, NGO documents, UNESCO declarations, peoples' ideas for education exist already, that the internet is a rich source of counterculture information, eonnectedness and hope. Of what use is a vote or medical care in a war-torn society? A culture of war is like a house of cards ; the house can fall and give rise, like the phoenix, to a new culture of peace. There are three fundamental ways to build a culture of peace: understand, participate, communicate. I'll bet our children can think of 50 more, going out and waging peace.

单选题Exactly how many people experience sttess-related eating______ isn't known, but as the obesity worsens, there's growing scientific interest in the topic. A. peregrination B. origination C. epidemic D. fragrance

单选题He was busy writing the essay all the morning, only ______occasionally to have a cup of tea. A. breaking off B. breaking out C. breaking D. breaking away

单选题Some people think it's______to smoke with a cigarette holder.

单选题Guthrie identified three methods for ______.

单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} Climatic conditions are delicately adjusted to the composition of the Earth's atmosphere. If there were a change in the atmosphere--for example, in the relative proportions of atmosphere gases--the climate would probably change also. A slight increase in water vapor, for instance, would increase the hem-retaining capacity of the atmosphere and would lead to a rise in global temperatures. In contrast, a large increase in water vapor would increase the thickness and extent of the cloud layer, reducing the mount of solar energy reaching the Earth' surface. The level of carbon dioxide, CO2 in the atmosphere has important effect on climatic change. Most of the Earth's incoming energy is short-wavelength radiation, which tends to pass through atmospheric CO2 easily. The Earth, however, reradiates much of the received energy as a long-wavelength radiation, Which CO2 absorbs and then remits toward the Earth. This phenomenon, known as the greenhouse effect, can result in an increase in the surface temperature of a planet. An extreme example of the effect is shown by the Venus, a planet covered by heavy clouds composed mostly of CO2, whose surface temperatures have been measured at 430℃. If the CO2 content of the atmosphere is reduced, the temperature falls. According to one respectable theory, if the atmospheric CO2 concentration were halved, the Earth would become completely covered with ice. Another equally respectable theory, however, states that a halving of the CO2 concentration would lead only to a reduction in global temperatures of 3℃. If, because of an increase in forest fires or volcanic activity, the CO2 content of the atmosphere increased, a warmer climate would be produced. Plant growth, which relies on both the warmth and the availability of CO2, would probably increase. As a consequence, plants would use more and more CO2. Eventually CO2 levels would diminish and the climate, in turn, would become cooler. With reduced temperatures many plants would die; CO2 would thereby be returned to the atmosphere and gradually the temperatures would rise again. Thus, if this process occurred, there might be a long-term oscillation in the amount of CO2 present in the atmosphere, with regular temperature increase and decrease of a set magnitude. Some climatologists argue that the burning of fossil fuels has raised the level of CO2 in the atmosphere and has caused a global temperature rise of at least 1℃. But a supposed global temperature rise of 1℃ may in reality be only several regional temperature increase, restricted to areas where there are many meteorological stations and caused simply by shifts in the pattern of atmospheric circulation. Other areas, for example the Southern Hemisphere oceanic zone, may be experiencing an equivalent temperature decrease that is unrecognized because of the shortage of meteorological recording stations.

单选题I enjoyed myself so much______I visited my parents in the countryside last year.

单选题 Montaigne's hold on his readers arises from many causes. There is his frank and curious self-delineation. That interests, because it is the revelation of a very peculiar nature. Then there is the positive value of separate thoughts imbedded in his strange whimsicality and humor. Lastly, there is the perennial charm of style, which is never a separate quality, but rather the amalgam and issue of all the mental and moral qualities in a man's possession, and which bears the same relation to these that light bears to the mingled elements that make up the orb of the sun. And style, after all, rather than thought, is the immortal thing in literature. In literature, the charm of style is indefinable, yet all-subduing, just as fine manners are in social life. In reality, it is not of so much consequence what you say, as how you say it. Memorable sentences are memorable on account of some irradiating word. "But Shadwell never deviates into sense, for instance." Young Roscius, in his provincial barn, will repeat you the great soliloquy of Hamlet, and although every word may be given with tolerable correctness, you find it just as commonplace as himself. The great actor speaks it, and you "read Shakespeare as by a flash of lightning". And it is in Montaigne's style, in the strange freaks and turnings of his thought, his constant surprises, his curious alternations of humor and melancholy, his careless, familiar form of address, and the grace with which everything is done, that his charm lies, and which makes the hundredth perusal of him as pleasant as the first.