单选题Bill' s vulgar behavior affected Jane, who is very ______, and therefore, easily
单选题Anais Nin's diaries are often scandalous, probably because she describes herself as she is rather than ______ .
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单选题The teacher of reading is involved, whether this is consciously realized or not, in the development of a literate society. And every teacher, therefore, needs to determine what level of literacy is demanded by society, what role he or she should take in achieving the desired standard of literacy, and what the implications of literacy are in a world context. The UNESCO report presents a world view of literacy. Too often we limit our thoughts to the relatively small proportion of illiterates in our own country and fail to see it in its international context. The problems facing developing nations are also lacing industrialized nations. Literacy, as the report points out, is "inextricably intertwined with other aspects of national development...(and)...national development as a whole is bound up with the world context". Literacy is not a by-product of social and economical development—it is a component of that development. Literacy can help people to function more effectively in a changing environment and ideally will enable the individual to change the environment so that it functions more effectively. Literacy programmes instituted in different countries have taken and are taking different approaches to the problem, for example the involvement of voluntary non- governmental organizations, which underlines the importance of seeing literacy not as a condition imposed on people but as a consequence of active participation within society. People can learn from the attempts of other countries to provide an adequate "literacy environment". Who are the "illiterates" and how do we define them? At what point do we decide that illiteracy ends and literacy begins? Robert Hillerich addresses these questions. An illiterate, he finds, "may mean anything from one who has no formal schooling to one who has attended four years or less, to one who is unable to read or write at the level necessary to perform successfully in his social position". Literacy, he points out, is not something one either has or has not got, "Any definition of literacy must recognize this quality as a continuum, representing all degrees of development. " An educational definition—i, e. in terms of grades completed or skill mastered— is shown to be inadequate in that educationally defined mastery may bear only minimal relation to the language proficiency needed in coping with environmental demands. From a sociological/economic viewpoint the literacy needs of individuals vary greatly, and any definition must recognize the needs of the individual to engage effectively and to act with responsible participation. Such a broadened definition excludes assessment based on a " reading-level type"; assessment must, rather, be flexible to fit both purpose and population.
单选题It is possible for students to obtain advanced degrees in English while knowing little or nothing about traditional scholarly methods. The consequences of this neglect of traditional scholarship are particularly unfortunate for the study of women writers. If the canon—the list of authors whose works are most widely taught—is ever to include more women, scholars who do not know how to read early manuscripts, locate rare books, establish a sequence of editions, and so on are lacking in crucial tools for revising the canon. To address such concerns, an experimental, version of the traditional scholarly methods course was designed to raise students' consciousness about the usefulness of traditional learning for any modern critic or theorist. To minimize the artificial aspects of the conventional course, the usual procedure of assigning a large number of small problems drawn from the entire range of historical periods was abandoned, though this procedure has the obvious advantage of at least superficially familiarizing students with a wide range of reference sources. Instead students were engaged in a collective effort to do original work on a neglected eighteenth-century writer, Elizabeth Griffith, to give them an authentic experience of literary scholarship and to inspire them to take responsibility for the quality of their own work. Griffith's work presented a number of advantages for this particular pedagogical purpose. First, the body of extant scholarship on Griffith was so tiny that it could all be read in a day, thus students spent little time and effort mastering the literature and, had a clear field for their own discoveries. Griffith's play The Platonic Wife exists in three versions, enough to provide illustrations of editorial issues but not too many for beginning students to manage. In addition, because Griffith was successful in the eighteenth century, as her continued productivity and favorable reviews demonstrate, her exclusion from the canon and virtual disappearance from literary history also helped raise issues concerning the current canon. The range of Griffith's work meant that each student could become the world's leading authority on a particular Griffith text. For example, a student studying Griffith's Wife in the Right obtained a first edition of the play and studied it for some weeks. This student was suitably shocked and outraged to find its title transformed into A Wife in the Night in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. Such experiences, inevitable and common in working on a writer to whom so little attention has been paid, serve to vaccinate the student I hope for a lifetime against credulous use of reference sources.
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单选题 Motorola Inc., the world's second-largest mobile
phone maker, will begin selling all of the technology needed to build a basic
mobile phone to outside manufacturers, in a key change of strategy. The inventor
of the cell phone, which has been troubled by missteps compounded by a recent
industry slump in sales, is trying to become a neutral provider of mobile
technology to rivals, with an eye toward fostering a much larger market than it
could create itself. The Chicago area-based company, considered to have the
widest range of technologies needed to build a phone, said it planned to make
available chips, a design layout for the computer board, software, development
tools and testing tools. Motorola has previously supplied mobile phone
manufacturers with a couple of its chips, but this is the first time the company
will offer its entire line of chips as well as a detailed blueprint. Mobile
phones contain a variety of chips and components to control power, sound and
amplification. Analysts said they liked the new strategy but were cautious about
whether Motorola's mobile phone competitors would want to buy the technology
from a rival. The company, long known for its top-notch (等级)
engineering culture, is hoping to profit from its mobile phone technology now
that the basic technology to build a mobile phone has largely become a
commodity. Motorola said it will begin offering the technology based on the
next-generation GPRS (Global Packet Radio Service) standard because most mobile
phone makers already have technology in place for current digital phones. GPRS
offers faster access to data through "always on" network connections, and
customers are charged only for the information they retrieve, rather than the
length of download. Burgess said the new business will not
conflict with Motorola's own mobile phone business because the latter will
remain competitive by offering advanced features and designs. Motorola's phones
have been criticized as being too complicated and expensive to manufacture, but
Burgess said Motorola will simplify the technology in the phones by a third. In
addition to basic technology, Burgess said, Motorola would also offer additional
features such as Bluetooth, a technology that allows wireless communications at
a short distance, and Global Positioning System, which tracks the user's
whereabouts, and MP3 audio capability.
单选题Although Kerry has had no formal education, he is one of the ______ businessmen in the company.
单选题One of Freud' great ______ into the human personality was the
discovery of how it is influenced by unconscious processes.
A. convictions
B. concepts
C. insights
D. instincts
单选题Can you______ your explanation a little? —It's difficult to understand.
单选题{{B}}Passage 4{{/B}}
The evolution of sex ratios has
produced, in most plants and animals with separate sexes, approximately equal
numbers of males and females. Why should this be so? Two main kinds of answers
have been offered. One is couched in terms of advantage to population. It is
argued that the sex ratio will evolve so as to maximize the number of meetings
between individuals of the opposite sex. This is essentially a "group selection"
argument. The other, and in my view correct, type of answer was first put
forward by Fisher in 1930. This "genetic" argument starts from the assumption
that genes can influence the relative numbers of male and female offspring
produced by an individual carrying the genes. That sex ratio will be favored
which maximizes the number of descendants an individual will have and hence the
number of gene copies transmitted. Suppose that the population consisted mostly
of females, then an individual who produced sons only would have more
grandchildren. In contrast, if the population consisted mostly of males, it
would pay to have daughters. If, however, the population consisted of equal
numbers of males and females, sons and daughters would be equally valuable. Thus
a one-to-one sex ratio is the only stable ratio; it is an "evolutionarily stable
strategy." Although Fisher wrote before the mathematical theory of games had
been developed, his theory incorporates the essential feature of a game that the
best strategy to adopt depends on what others are doing. Since
Fisher's time, it has been realized that genes can sometimes influence the
chromosome or gamete in which they find themselves so that the gamete will be
more likely to participate in fertilization. If such a gene occurs on a
sex-determining (X or Y) chromosome, then highly aberrant sex ratios can occur.
But more immediately relevant to game theory are the sex ratios in certain
parasitic wasp species that have a large excess of females. In these species,
fertilized eggs develop into females and unfertilized eggs into males. A female
stores sperm and can determine the sex of each egg she lays by fertilizing it or
leaving it unfertilized. By Fisher's argument, it should still pay a female to
produce equal numbers of sons and daughters. Hamilton, noting that the eggs
develop within their host—the larva of another insect—and that the newly emerged
adult wasps mate immediately and disperse, offered a remarkably cogent analysis.
Since only one female usually eggs in a given larva, it would pay her to produce
one male only, because this one could fertilize all his sisters on emergence.
Like Fisher, Hamilton looked for an evolutionarily stable strategy, but he went
a step further in recognizing that he was looking for a
strategy.
单选题Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage. Religion consists of conscious ideas, hopes, enthusiasms, and objects of worship; it operates by grace and flourishes by prayer. Reason, on the other hand, is a mere principle or potential order, on which indeed we may come to reflect but which exists in us ideally only, without variation or stress of any kind. We conform or do not conform to it; it does not urge or chide us, not call for any emotions on our part other than those naturally aroused by the various objects which it unfolds in their true nature and proportion. Rationality is nothing but a form, an ideal constitution which experience may more or less embody. Religion is a part of experience itself, a mass of sentiments and ideas. The one is an inviolate principle, the other a changing and struggling force. And yet this struggling and changing force of religion seems to direct man toward something eternal. It seems to make for an ultimate harmony within the soul and for an ultimate harmony between the soul and all that the soul depends upon. Religion, in its intent, is a more conscious and direct pursuit of the Life of Reason than is society, science, or art, for these approach and fill out the ideal life tentatively and piecemeal, hardly regarding the foal or caring for the ultimate justification of the instinctive aims. Nevertheless, we must confess that this religious pursuit of the Life of Reason has been singularly abortive. Those within the pale of each religion may prevail upon themselves, to express satisfaction with its results, thanks to a fond partiality in reading the past and generous draughts of hope for the future ; but any one regarding the various religions at once and comparing their achievements with what reason requires, must feel how terrible is the disappointment which they have one and all prepared for mankind. To confuse intelligence and dislocate sentiment by gratuitous fictions is a short-sighted way of pursuing happiness. Thus religion too often debauches the morality it comes to sanction and impedes the science it ought to fulfill. Religion pursues rationality through the imagination. When it explains events or assigns causes, it is an imaginative substitute for science. When it gives precepts, insinuates ideals, or remoulds aspiration, it is an imaginative substitute for wisdom-I mean for the deliberate and impartial pursuit of all food. The condition and the aims of life are both represented in religion poetically, but this poetry tends to arrogate to itself literal truth and moral authority, neither of which it possesses. Hence the depth and importance of religion becomes intelligible no less than its contradictions and practical disasters. Its object is the same as that of reason, but its method is to proceed by intuition and by unchecked poetical conceits.
单选题In this part you are going to read six passages. Each of the passages is
followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each question there are
four choices marked A, B, C and D. Decide on the best choice according to the
passage you read and write your choice.
The relationship between formal
education and economic growth in poor countries is widely misunderstood by
economists and politicians alike progress in both area is undoubtedly necessary
for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other
societies, however, the conventional view that education should be one of the
very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor
countries is wrong. We are fortunate that is it, because new educational systems
there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance
would require two or three generations. The findings of a research institution
have consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job
to achieve radical higher productivity and, as a result, radically higher
standards of living. Ironically, the first evidence for this
idea appeared in the United States. Not long ago, with the country entering a
recessing and Japan at its pre-bubble peak. The U. S. workforce was derided as
poorly educated and one of primary cause of the poor U. S. economic performance.
Japan was, and remains, the global leader in automotive-assembly productivity.
Yet the research revealed that the U. S. factories of Honda Nissan, and Toyota
achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of their Japanese counterparts a
result of the training that U. S. workers received on the job.
More recently, while examing housing construction, the researchers
discovered that illiterate, non-English-speaking Mexican workers in Houston,
Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards despite the
complexity of the building industry's work. What is the real
relationship between education and economic development? We have to suspect that
continuing economic growth promotes the development of education even when
governments don't force it. After ail, that's how education got started. When
our ancestors were hunters and gatherers 10, 000 years ago, they didn't have
time to wonder much about anything besides finding food. only when humanity
began to get its food in a more productive way was there time for other
things. As education improved, humanity's productivity
potential, they could in turn afford more education. This increasingly high
level of education is probably a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for
the complex political systems required by advanced economic performance. Thus
poor countries might not be able to escape their poverty traps without political
changes that may be possible only with broader formal education. A lack of
formal education, however, doesn't constrain the ability of the developing
world's workforce to substantially improve productivity to the forested future.
on the contrary, constraints on improving productivity explain why education
isn't developing more quickly there than it is.
单选题 What are the chances that we will encounter some
alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy.If the argument about the time
scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, there ought to be many
other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems
could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not
crawling with self designing mechanical or biological life forms? Why hasn't the
Earth been visied, and even colonized. I discount suggestions that UFOs contain
beings from outer space. I think any visits by aliens would be much more
obvious, and probably also, much more unpleasant. What is the
explanation of why we have not been visited? One possibility is
that the argument about the appearance of life on Earth is wrong. Maybe the
probability of life spontaneously appearing is so low that Earth is the only
planet in the galaxy, or in the observable universe, in which it
happened. Another possibility is that there was a reasonable
probability of forming self-reproducing system, like cells, but most of these
forms of life did not evolve intelligence. A third possibility
is that there is a reasonable probability for life to form, and to evolve to
intelligent beings, in the external transmission phase. But at that point, the
system becomes unstable, and the intelligent life destroys itself. This would be
a very pessimistic conclusion. I very much hope it isn't true.
I prefer a fourth possibility: there are other forms of intelligent life out
there, but we have been overlooked. There used to be a project called SETI, the
search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It involved scanning the radio
frequencies, to see if we could pick up signals from alien civilizations. I
thought this project was worth supporting, though it was cancelled due to a lack
of funds. But we should have been wary of answering back, until we have
developed a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present
stage, might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus.
I don't think they were better off for it.
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单选题There I came into______ with some of the finest craftsmen I have ever met.
单选题For scientists who study human evolution, fossil remains provide the only direct evidence of our ancient ancestors. Access to these paleoanthropological Rosetta stones, how- ever, is limited by protective curators who are often reluctant to lend the fragile fossils. And in the case of fossil skulls, nature preserves critical information in the largely in- accessible interior. But help is on the way. At the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Salt Lake City this past April, researchers discussed how medical imaging, virtual reality and computer-controlled modelling technologies get around these obstacles noninvasively. Three-dimensional medical imaging based on computed tomography (CT) scans was developed in the early 1980s. On a computer, surgeons could electronically remove the patient's soft tissue and then explore the virtual skull inside and out before operating. It wasn't long before Glenn Conroy of Washington University and his colleagues demonstrated that these same techniques could also be applied to fossils, in which sediments take the place of soft tissue. With advances in computer graphics and computational power, paleoanthropologists can now perform on their computers a wide range of investigations that are impossible to attempt on the original fossil. Missing features on one Side of the skull can be re-created by mirroring the preserved features (postmortem deformations can be similarly rectified) and tiny, hidden structures such as the inner ear can be magnified for closer examination. Moreover, as Christoph P. E. Zollikofer and Marcias Ponce de Leon of the University of Zurich and others have shown, anthropologists can reconstruct fragmented fossils on-screen. The standard repertoire of measurements can also be made virtually, in most cases with the same degree of accuracy afforded by handheld calipers. And with the creation of a virtual "endocast", brain volume can be determined reliably. In fact, Conroy's recent re- Search has revealed a major discrepancy between the estimated and actual brain volume of an early hominid called Stw 505 (or Mr. Pies). Conroy suspects that the estimated cranial capacity of some other fossils might also be incorrect--a hunch that, if substantiated, could have important implications for our understanding of brain evolution.
单选题The walkers in front crossed the ledge easily, seemingly ______ of the fact that there was a 3000-foot drop on either side. A. attentive B. remindful C. oblivious D. pretentious
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单选题Cigarette smoking is a great health ______and may lead to fatal diseases.(2004年武汉大学考博试题)