单选题4 In most American cities, the rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $ 250 or more per month in recent years. In some smaller cities such as Louisville, Kentucky or Jacksonville, Florida the rent was less, but in larger cities it was more. For example, if you lived in Los Angeles, you had to pay $ 400 or more to rent a one-bedroom apartment, and the same apartment rented for $ 625 and up in Chicago. The most expensive rents in the U. S. were in New York City, where you had to pay at least $ 700 a month to rent a one-bedroom apartment in most parts of the city. Renters and city planners are worried about the high cost of renting apartments. Many cities now have rent-control laws to keep the cost of renting low. These laws help low income families who cannot pay high rents. Rent controls in the United States began in 1943 when the government imposed rent controls on all American cities to help workers and the families of soldiers during World War 1][. After the war, only one city—New York—continued these World War [[ controls. Recently, more and more cities have returned to rent controls. At the beginning of the 1980s, nearly one fifth of the people in the United States lived in cities with rent-control laws. Many cities have rent-control laws, but why are rents so high? Builders and landlords blame rent controls for the high rents. Rents are high because there are not enough apart ments to rent, and they blame rent controls for the shortage of apartments. Builders want more money to build more apartment buildings, and landlords want more money to repair their old apartment buildings. But they cannot increase rents to get this money because of the rent-control laws. As a result, landlords are not repairing their old apartments, and builders are not building new apartment buildings to replace the old apartment build ings. Builders are building apartments for high-income families, not low-income families, so low-income families must live in old apartments that are in disrepair. Builders and land lords claim that rent-control laws really hurt low-income families. Many renters disagree with them. They say that rent control is not the problem. Even without rent controls, builders and landlords will continue to ignore low-income housing because they can make more money from high-income housing. The only answer, they claim, is more rent controls and government help for low-income housing.

单选题Mercury orbits the Sun in 88 Earth days at an average speed of 48 kilometres per second, allowing it to Uovertake/U Earth every 116 Earth days.

单选题U.S. Secretary of State Rice______a three-day trip to the Middle East with an agreement from Israeli and Palestinian leaders to hold meetings every two weeks.

单选题 Throughout history man has had to accept the fact that all living things must die, but people now live longer than they{{U}} (51) {{/U}}Yet, all living things still show the{{U}} (52) of {{/U}}aging, which will eventually{{U}} (53) {{/U}}death. Aging is not a disease, but as a person passes maturity, the cells of the body and the{{U}} (54) {{/U}}they form do not function{{U}} (55) {{/U}}they did in childhood and adolescence. The body provides less{{U}} (56) {{/U}}against disease mad is more{{U}} (57) {{/U}}accident. A number of related causes may{{U}} (58) {{/U}}aging. Some cells of the body have a fairly long life, but they are not{{U}} (59) {{/U}}when they, die. As a person ages,{{U}} (60) {{/U}}of brain cells and muscle cells decreases.{{U}} (61) {{/U}}body cells die and are replaced by new cells. In an aging person the{{U}} (62) {{/U}}cells may not be as viable or as{{U}} (63) {{/U}}growth as those of a young person. Another{{U}} (64) {{/U}}in aging may be changes within the cells{{U}} (65) {{/U}}Some of the protein chemicals in cells are known{{U}} (66) {{/U}}with age and become less elastic. This is why the skin of old people{{U}} (67) {{/U}}and hangs loose. This is also the reason old people{{U}} (68) {{/U}}in height. There may be other more important chemical changes in the cells. Some complex cell chemicals, such as DNA and RNA, store and{{U}} (69) {{/U}}information that the cells need. Aging may affect this{{U}} (70) {{/U}}and change the information-carrying molecules so that they do not transmit the information as well.

单选题It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans" life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death—and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it"s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians— frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient—too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U.S. spent $0.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way", so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O"Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people"s lives.

单选题Your letters ______ those pleasant days when we worked together, I'll remember forever. A. call out B. call for C. call up D. call on

单选题It is probably both that he is going to the meeting on time ______ by the morning traffic jam. A. and that he might be delayed B. or that he might be delayed C. and he might be delayed D. otherwise that he might be delayed

单选题The economy is showing signs of ______.

单选题Fellman would avoid making the Lincoln Bedroom look _________ .

单选题{{B}}Passage 5{{/B}} The average population density of the world is 47 persons per square mile. Continental densities range from no permanent inhabitants in Antarctica to 211 per square mile in Europe. In the western hemisphere, population densities range from about 4 per square mile in Canada to 675 per square mile in Puerto Rico. In Europe the range is from 4 per square mile in Iceland to 831 per square mile in the Netherlands. within countries there are wide variations of population densities. For example, in Egypt, the average is 55 persons per square mile, but 1,300 persons inhabit each square mile in settled portions where the land is arable. High population densities generally occur in regions of developed industrialization, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain, or where lands are intensively used for agriculture, as in Puerto Rico and Java. Low average population densities are characteristic of most underdeveloped countries. Low density of population is generally associated with a relatively low percentage of cultivated land. This generally results from poor-quality lands. It may also be due to natural obstacles to cultivation, such as deserts, mountains or malaria-infested jungles, to land uses other than cultivation, as pasture and forested land, to primitive methods that limit cultivation, to social obstacles, and to land ownership systems which keep land out of production. More economically advanced countries of low population density have, as a rule, large proportions of their populations living in urban areas. Their rural population densities are usually very low. Poorer developed countries of correspondingly low general population density, on the other hand, often have a concentration of rural population living on arable land, which is as great as the rural concentration found in the most densely populated industrial countries.

单选题It is always______in some ways, because if it were performed as a primitive fending-off or covering-up action, it would obviously be too transparent

单选题Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such behaviour is regarded as "all too human", with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely. But a study by Sarach Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well. The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of "goods and services" than males. Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan's and Dr. de Waal's study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different. In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods(are much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber(without an actual monkey to eat it)was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin. The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a cooperative, group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation, it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems for the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

单选题According to the research findings mentioned in the passage, reptiles ______.

单选题She______his invitation to dinner as she was on a diet. A. inclined B. declined C. denied D. disinclined

单选题Reading became difficult for the old man, so the optician ______ glasses.

单选题Their signing of the treaty was regarded as a conspiracy against the British Crown.

单选题The Chinese world diving champion was ______ from the national team, which has been front-page reported in the country for several days.

单选题If you smoke and you still don"t believe that there"s a definite between smoking and bronchial troubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you are certainly deceiving yourself. No one will accuse you of hypocrisy. Let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wishful thinking. This needn"t make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. Whenever the subject of smoking and health is raised, the governments of most countries hear no evil, see no evil and smell no evil. Admittedly, a few governments have taken timid measures. In Britain, for example, cigarette advertising has been banned on television. The conscience of the nation is appeased, while the population continues to puff its way to smoky, cancerous death. You don"t have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings have been so lukewarm. The answer is simply money. Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. It"s almost like a tax on our daily bread. In tax revenue alone, the government of Britain collects enough from smokers to pay for its entire educational facilities. So while the authorities point out ever so discreetly that smoking may, conceivably, be harmful, it doesn"t do to shout too loudly about it. This is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. While money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on efforts to cure people suffering from the disease. Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether. of course, we are not ready for such drastic action. But if the governments of the world were honestly concerned about the welfare of their peoples, you"d think they"d conduct aggressive antismoking campaigns. Far from it! Tile tobacco industry is allowed to spend staggering sums on advertising. Its advertising is as insidious as it is dishonest. We are never shown pictures of real smokers coughing up their lungs early in the morning. That would never do. The advertisements always depict virile, clean-shaven young men. They suggest it is manly to smoke, even positively healthy! Smoking is associated with the great open-air life, with beautiful girls, true love and togetherness. What utter nonsense! For a start, governments, could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising and should then conduct anti-smoking advertising campaigns of their own. Smoking should be banned in all public places like theatres, cinemas and restaurants. Great efforts should be made to inform young people especially of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. A horrific warning--say, a picture of a death"s head--should be included in every packet of cigarettes that is sold. As individuals we are certainly weak, but if governments acted honestly and courageously, they could protect us from ourselves.