em>Questions 18 to 20 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the conversation./em> According to the conversation, the day is special because ______.
When automation is introduced into the factory, all the work done by hand will______the assembly line.
The multi-billion-dollar Western pop music industry is em>under fire/em>. It is being blamed by the United Nations for the dramatic rise in drug abuse worldwide. "The most worrisome development is a culture of drug-friendliness that seems to be gaining prominence (显著)," said the UN's 13-member International Narcotics Control Board in a report released in late February 1998. The 74-page study says that pop music, as a global industry, is by far the most influential trend-setter for young people of most cultures. "Some lyrics advocate the smoking of marijuana (大麻) or taking other drugs, and certain pop stars make statements and set examples as if the use of drugs for non-medicinal purposes were a normal and acceptable part of a person's lifestyle," the study says. "Surprisingly," says the Board, "the effect of drug-friendly pop music seems to survive despite the occasional shock of death by overdose (过量用药)." "Such incidents tend to be seen as an occasion to mourn the loss of a role model, and not an opportunity to confront the deadly effect of 'recreational' drug use," it notes. Since the 1970s, several internationally famous singers and movie stars—including Elvis Presley, Janice Joplin, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Jonathan Melvin and Andy Gibbs—have died of either drug abuse or drug related illnesses. With the globalization of popular music, messages tolerating or promoting drug abuse are now reaching beyond their countries of origin. "In most countries, the names of certain pop stars have become familiar to the members of every household," the study says. The UN study also blames the media for its description of certain drug issues—especially the use of marijuana and issues of liberalization and legalization—which encourages, rather than prevents, drug abuse. "Over the last years, we have seen how drug abuse is increasingly regarded as being acceptable or even attractive," says Hamid Ghodse, president of the Board. "Powerful pressure groups run political campaigns aimed at legalizing controlled drugs," he says. Ghodse also points out that all these developments have created an environment which is tolerant of or even favorable to drug abuse and spoils international drug prevention efforts currently underway. The present study, he says; focuses on the issue of demand reduction and prevention within an environment that has become tolerant of drug abuse. The Board calls on governments to do their legal and moral duties, and to act against the pro-drug messages of the youth culture to which young people increasingly are being exposed. Which of the following statements does the author tend to agree with?
Lacking ______ sensibility because of unique upbringing, Monica does not care about right and wrong.
The spectacular auroral light displays that appear in Earth's atmosphere around the north and south magnetic poles were once mysterious phenomena. Now, scientists have data from satellites and ground-based observations from which we know that the auroral brilliance is an immense electrical discharge similar to that occurring in a neon sign. To understand the cause of auroras, first picture the Earth enclosed by its magnetosphere, a huge region created by the Earth's magnetic field. Outside the magnetosphere, blasting, toward the Earth is the solar wind, swiftly moving plasma of ionized gases with its own magnetic field. Charged particles in this solar wind speed earthward along the solar wind's magnetic lines of force with a spiraling motion. The Earth's magnetosphere is a barrier to solar wind, and forces the charged particles of the solar wind to flow around the magnetosphere itself. But in the polar regions, the magnetic lines of force of the Earth and of the solar wind bunch together. Here many of the solar wind's charged particles break through the magnetosphere and enter Earth's magnetic field. They then spiral back and forth between the Earth's magnetic poles very rapidly. In the polar regions, electrons from the solar wind ionize and excite the atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere, causing them to emit auroral radiations of visual light. The colors of an aurora depend on the atoms emitting them. The dominant greenish-white light comes from low energy excitation of oxygen atoms. During huge magnetic storms oxygen atoms also undergo high energy excitation and emit crimson light. Excited nitrogen atoms contribute bands of color varying from blue to violet. Viewed from outer space, auroras can be seen as dimly glowing belts wrapped around each of the Earth's magnetic poles. Each aurora hangs like a curtain of light stretching over the polar regions and into the higher latitudes. When the solar flares that result in magnetic storms and auroral activity are very intense, auroral displays may extend as far as the southern regions of the United States. Studies of auroras have given physicists new information about the behavior of plasmas, which has helped to explain the nature of outer space and is being applied in attempts to harness energy from the fusion of atoms. What does the passage mainly discuss?
______was given by the committee to all of those who donated money.
Despite Denmark's manifest virtues
Almost 300 ships arrived in Victoria in 1852
The director was critical______the way we were doing the work.
It is ______ whether Sam will come to attend his best friend's funeral as he has taken the town's money and made off with it.
The football team, for the most part
The degree of economic growth is an______of the level of living.
Between 5,000 million and 4,000 million years ago the Earth was formed. By 3
The negotiations which ______ the signing of the treaty took place over a number of years.
As computer security systems become even more advanced, ______ the methods of those who try to break into them illegally.
It is not long since conditions in the mines were worse than they are now. There are still 1 a few every old women who in their youth have worked 2 , with harness round their waists, and a chain 3 passed between their legs, crawling on all 4 and dragging tugs of coal. They used to go on 5 this even when they were pregnant. And 6 now, if coal could not be produced without pregnant women dragging it 7 and fro, I fancy we should let them do it 8 than deprive ourselves of coal. But most of the time, of course, we should 9 to forget that they were doing it. It is 10 with all types of manual work; it keeps us alive, and we are oblivious of its existence. More than anything 11 , perhaps, the miner can stand as the type of manual worker, not only because his work is so exaggeratedly awful, but also because it is so vitally necessary and 12 so 13 , that we are capable 14 forgetting it as we forget the blood in our veins. In 15 way it is even humiliating to watch coal miners working. It raises in you a momentary doubt 16 your own status as an "intellectual" and a superior person generally. For it is brought 17 to you, at least while you are watching, that it is only 18 miners sweat their guts out 19 superior persons can 20 superior.
A survey of 2,000 U.S
The ______ of new scientific discoveries to industrial production methods usually makes jobs easier to do.
They agreed to take their disputes before the committee and ______ by its decisions.
He noticed the helicopter hovering over the field. Then to his astonishment, he saw a rope ladder ______ out and three men climbing down it.