单选题4 In most earthquakes the Earth's crust cracks like porcelain. Stress builds up until a fracture forms at the depth of a few kilometers and the crust slips to relieve the stress. Some earthquakes, however, take place hundreds of kilometers down in the Earth's mantle, where high pressure makes rock so ductile that it flows instead of cracking, even under stress severe enough to deform it like putty. How can there be earthquakes at such depths? That such deep events do occur has been accepted only since 1927, when the seismologist Kiyoo Wadati convincingly demonstrated their existence. Instead of comparing the arri- val times of seismic waves at different locations, as earlier researchers had done, Wadati relied on a time difference between the arrival of primary (P) waves and the slower secondary (S) waves. Because P and S waves travel at different but fairly constant speeds; the interval between their arrivals increases in proportion to the distance from the earthquake focus, or a rupture point. For most earthquakes, Wadati discovered, the interval was quite short near the epicenter, the point on the surface where shaking is the strongest. For a few events, however, the delay was long enough at the epicenter. Wadati saw a similar pattern when he analyzed data on the intensity of shaking. Most earthquakes had a small area of intense shaking, which weakened rapidly with increasing distance from the epicenter, but others were characterized by a lower peak intensity, felt over a broader area. Both the P-S intervals and the intensity patterns suggested two kinds of earthquakes: the more common shallow events, in which the focus lay just under the epicenter, and the deep events, with a focus several hundred kilometers down. The question remained- how can such quakes occur, given that mantle rock at a depth of more than 50 kilometers is too flexible to store enough stress to fracture? Wadati's work suggested that deep events occur in areas (now called Wadati-Benioff zones ) where one crustal plate is forced under another and descends into the mantle. The descending rock is substantially cooler than the surrounding mantle and hence is less ductile and much more liable to fracture.

单选题The decline in moral standards—which has long-concerned social analysts—has at last captured the attention of average Americans. And Jean Bethke Elshtain, for one, is glad. The fact that ordinary citizens are now starting to think seriously about the nation"s moral climate, says this ethics professor at the University of Chicago, is reason to hope that new ideas will come forward to improve it. But the challenge is not to be underestimated. Materialism and individualism in America society are the biggest obstacles. "The thought that "I"m in it for me" has become deeply rooted in the national consciousness." Ms. Elshtain says. Some of this can be attributed to the disintegration of traditional communities, in which neighbors looked out for one another, she says. With today"s greater mobility and with so many couples working, those bonds have been weakened, replaced by a greater emphasis on self. In a 1996 poll of-Americans, loss of morality topped the list of the biggest problems facing the U.S. And Elshtain says the public is correct to sense that: Data show that Americans are struggling with-problems unheard of in the 1950s, such as classroom violence and a high rate of births to unmarried mothers. The desire for a higher moral standard is not a lament for some nonexistent "golden age", Elshtain says, nor is it a wishful longing for a time that denied opportunities to women and minorities. Most people, in fact, favor the lessening of prejudice. Moral decline will not be reversed until people find ways to counter the materialism in society, she says. "Slowly, you recognize that the things that matter are those that can"t be bought."

单选题{{B}}阅读理解一{{/B}} {{B}}Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.{{/B}} The main idea of these business-school academics is appealing. In a word where companies must adapt to new technologies and source of competition, it is much harder than it used to be to offer good employees job security and an opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. Yet it is also more necessary than ever for employees to invest in better skills and sparkle with bright ideas. How can firms get the most out of people if they can no longer offer them protection and promotion? Many bosses would love to have an answer. Sumantrra Ghoshal of the London Business School and Christopher Bartlett of the Harvard Business School think they have one: "Employability." If managers offer the right of training and guidance, and change their attitude towards their underlings, they will be able to reassure their employees that they will always have the skills and experience to find a good job—even if it is with a different company. Unfortunately, they promise more than they deliver. Their thoughts on what an ideal organization should accomplish are hard to quarrel with: encourage people to be creative, make sure the gains from creativity are shared with the pains of the business that can make the most of them, keep the organization from getting stale and so forth. The real disappointment comes when they attempt to show how firms might actually create such an environment. At its nub is the notion that companies can attain their elusive goals by changing their implicit contract with individual workers, and treating them as a source of value rather than a cog in a machine. The authors offer a few inspiring example of companies—they include Motorola, 3M and ABB—that have managed to go some way towards creating such organizations. But they offer little useful guidance on how to go about it, and leave the biggest questions unanswered. How do you continuously train people, without diverting them from their everyday job of making the business more profitable? How do you train people to be successful elsewhere while still encouraging them to make big commitments to your own firm? How do you get your newly liberated employees to spend their time on ideas that create value, and not simply on those they enjoy? Most of their answers are platitudinous, and when they are not they are unconvincing.

单选题Direct adverting includes all forms of sales appeals, mailed, delivered, or exhibited directly to the prospective buyer of an advertised product or service, without use of any indirect medium, such as newspapers or television.. Direct advertising logically may be divided into three broad classifications, namely, direct-mail advertising, mail order advertising, and unmailed direct advertising. All forms of sales appeals that are sent through the mails are considered direct-mail advertising. The chief functions of direct-mail advertising are to familiarize prospective buyers with a product, its name, its maker, and its merits and with the product' s local distributors. The direct-mail appeal is designed also to support the sales activities of retailers by encouraging the continued patronage of both old and new customers. When no personal selling is involved, other methods are needed to persuade people to send in orders by mail. In addition to newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, other special devices order promotions are designed to accomplish a complete selling job without salespeople. Used for the same broad purposes as direct-mail advertising, unmailed direct-mail advertising, includes all forms of indoor advertising displays and all printed sales appeals distributed from door to door, handed to customers in retail stores or conveyed in some other manner directly to the recipient. With each medium competing keenly for its share of the business, advertising agencies continue to develop new techniques for displaying and selling wares and services. Among these techniques have been vastly improved printing and reproduction methods in the graphic field, adapted to magazine advertisements and to direct-mall enclosures; the use of color in newspaper advertisements and in television; and outdoor signboards more attractively designed and efficiently lighted. Many subtly effective improvements are suggested by advertising research.

单选题He wears strange clothes, talks to himself, and appears unkempt. Is it any wonder his neighbors view him as an Ueccentric/U?

单选题Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered acceptable for more formal situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as appropriate formal usage by the majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both Colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing. Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events. It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority population. Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard," "colloquial," and "slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.

单选题The police searched all the houses but found no______.

单选题The report was unusual in that it Uinsinuated/U corruption on the part of the minister.

单选题She was______ from school for cheating in the examination.

单选题Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine." Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd." William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word "habit" carries a negative connotation. So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks. Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits.In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives. But don't bother trying to kill off old habits, once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they're there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads. "The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder," says Dawna Markova, author of "The Open Mind". "But we are taught instead to 'decide,' just as our president calls himself 'the Decider.'" She adds, however, that "to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities." All of us work through problems in ways of which we're unaware, she says. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally(or collaboratively)and innovatively. At the end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life. The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. "This breaks the major rule in the American belief system — that anyone can do anything," explains M.J.Ryan, author of the 2006 book "This Year I Will..." and Ms. Markova's business partner. "That's a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you're good at and doing even more of it creates excellence." This is where developing new habits comes in.

单选题In the future, nobody will try to correct children when they speak wrong English, because ______.

单选题I don't ______ I will take an executive role, but rather become a consultant on merchandise and marketing.

单选题The presence of an actress at the Diner made the fund raising ______.

单选题Is it proper for the government to ______public opinion through self-serving, one-sided journalism?(2006年厦门大学考博试题)

单选题Rebuilding the highways will take a year or more even if they' re ______ with hundred dollar bills.

单选题The good harvest ______ the price of strawberries.

单选题______fire tests gold, so does adversity tests courage.

单选题The coastlines on the two sides of the Atlantic Ocean present a notable parallelism: the easternmost region of Brazil, in Pernambuco, has a convexity that corresponds almost perfectly with the concavity of the African Gulf of Guinea, while the contours of the African coastline between Rio de Oro and Liberia would, by the same approximation, match those of the Caribbean Sea. Similar correspondences are also observed in many other regions of the earth. This observation began to awaken scientific interest about sixty years ago, when Alfred Wegener, a professor at the University of Hamburg, used it as a basis for formulating a revolutionary theory in geological science. According to Wegener, there was originally only one continent or landmass, which he called Pangea. Inasmuch as continental masses are lighter than tile base on which they rest, he reasoned, they must float on the substratum of igneous rock, known as sima, as ice floes float on the sea. Then why, he asked, might continents not be subject to drifting? The rotation of the globe and other forces, he thought, had caused the cracking and, finally, the breaking apart of the original Pangea, along an extensive line represented today by the longitudinal submerged mountain range in the center of the Atlantic. While Africa seems to have remained static, the Americas apparently drifted toward the west until they reached their present position after more than 100 million years. Although the phenomenon seems fantastic, accustomed as we are to the concept of the rigidity and immobility of the continents, on the basis of the distance that separates them it is possible to calculate that the continental drift would have been no greater than two inches per year.

单选题Planning our vocation we must take the frequent ______ of the weather into consideration.(2008年四川大学考博试题)

单选题When the engine would not start, the mechanic inspected all the parts to find what was at ______. A. wrong B. trouble C. fault D. difficulty