单选题According to the context, the word "disruption" in Paragraph 6 means_____

单选题The Anti -Alcohol Campaign Tries in Russia Last week Russian President Dmitry Medvedev kicked off a new anti - alcohol campaign aimed at cutting the nation's per capita consumption of alcohol by nearly a quarter by 2012. Russians currently drink about 18 liters ( 19 quarts) a year, more than double the 8 liters (8.4 quarts) deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO). With each additional liter, adds the WHO, men can subtract 11 months from their average life expectancy. The latest move consists of three parts: a media campaign, restrictions on beer consumption, and strict penalties for selling to minors. Russian officials plan to set up more than 500 health centers by the end of the year, complete with Soviet - era tactics like drawings of cirrhosis - stricken livers on their walls. Even with such aggressive measures, it's hardly the most ambitious campaign Russians has ever launched against drinking. Former leader Mikhail Gorbachev got alcohol sales to decline by 60 percent. Three years agom, a group of young Russians organized a sort of vigilante vice squad to single out and shame merchants who sold alcohol to minors. Supported by the Moscow city administration, the Solar Circle movement, as they called themselves, held rallies, and slapped leaflets on the shop doors of guilty establishments. They piqued media interest at first, but the momentum soon fizzled. Some critics say that, while admirable, it hardly addresses the biggest culprit of all : vodka. "The main problem is the availability of hard liquor, "says Aleksandr Nemtsov, a top Russian expert on alcohol policy. Some 70 percent of alcohol consumption in Russia is of the hard stuff, primarily vodka. One attempt, tried in the mid- 1990s ,substituted beer as a less intoxicating non- liquor alternative. Instead. "beer has become a gateway opening the way to alcoholism for teenagers," says Oleg Zykov, a member of the Public Chamber. The earlier people start down that route, the more likely they are to end up grappling with alcoholism problems later. Still, for now, Russians seem to support the government's new approach. As the National Center for the Study of Public Opinion reported last week. 65 percent of the population say they are in favor the new measures—especially those that restrict alcohol sales to those under 21. (Right now, the drinking age is 18. )

单选题 Health or Profit Although there is no direct evidence that salt is the cause of high blood pressure or "hypertension", there are studies which indicate that reducing salt intake lowers blood pressure. Some scientists are also concerned that excessive use of salt may cause asthma and kidney disease. Therefore most doctors would welcome a decision by food manufacturers to decrease the amount of salt in food. Many food manufacturers, however, are reluctant to reduce tile amount of salt. Salt is art important flavor enhancer and preservative. British Salt points out that salt is an essential nutrient and regular intake is required to maintain bodily functions. Moreover, according to British Salt, there are greater risk factors in hypertension, such as obesity (肥胖) , lack of exercise, alcohol intake and smoking. Another reason why food producers are not keen on lowering the amount of salt is probably that they fear that less salt will mean lower sales. Not only will the sale of processed food containing salt decease but also the sale of soft drinks. A recent study, published in The Lancet of April 1999, proves that if manufacturers cut the salt content of food it will not necessarily affect the taste of the product. Anthony Rodgers and Bruce Neal conducted a study to examine the difference in taste between bread with standard and reduced salt content. Three types of whole-meal bread were prepared, identical in all respects except for salt content. One loaf contained the standard quantity, one loaf 10% reduced and one 20% reduced. Sixty participants, who did not know the salt content were asked to rate the taste on a scale from zero to ten. They also had to guess which loaf contained the standard, 10% reduced and 20% reduced quantity. Of the 180 guesses of salt content, 63 were correct, which is not different from what would be expected by chance. The study by Rodgers and Neal indicates that small reductions in salt content will not necessarily affect sales. If food manufacturers decide to diminish the amount of salt in food, blood pressure of the entire population will shift downwards, which may result in considerable health benefits. One of Britain's largest supermarkets, Asda, has already decided to decrease the amount of salt in its products. The Asda products will contain up to 25% less salt.

单选题Many cities have restricted smoking in public places.

单选题Helen and Martin With a thoughtful sigh, Helen turned away from the window and walked back to her favourite armchair. (51) her brother never arrive? For a brief moment, she wondered if she really cared that much. Over the years Helen had given (52) waiting for Martin to take an interest in her. Her feelings for him had gradually (53) until now, as she sat waiting for him, she experienced no more than a sister's (54) to see what had (55) of her brother. Almost without (56) , Martin had lost his job with a busy publishing company after spending the last eight years in New York as a key figure in the US office. Somehow the two of them hadn't (57) to keep in touch and, left alone, Helen had slowly found her (58) in her own judgement growing. (59) the wishes of her parents, she had left university halfway (60) her course and now, to the astonishment of the whole family, she was (61) a fast-growing reputation in the pages of respected art magazines and was actually earning enough to live (62) from her paintings. Of course, she (63) no pleasure in Martin's sudden misfortune, but she couldn't (64) looking forward to her brother's arrival with (65) satisfaction at what she had achieved.

单选题Star Quality A new anti-cheating system for counting the judges' scores in ice skating is flawed, according to leading sports specialists. Ice skating's governing body announced the new rules last week after concerns that a judge at the Winter Olympics may have been unfairly influenced. Initially the judges in the pairs figure--skating event at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City voted 5 to 4 to give the gold medal to a Russian pair, even though they had a fall during their routine. But the International Skating Union suspended the French judge for failing to reveal that she had been put under pressure to Vote for the Russians. The International Olympics Committee then decided to give a second gold to the Canadian runners-up (亚军). The ISU, skating's governing body, now says it intends to change the rules. In future 14 judges will judge each event, but only 7 of their scores, selected at random, will count, the ISU won't finally approve the new system until it meets in June hut already UK Sport, the British Government's sports body has expressed reservations. "I remain to be convinced that the random selection system would offer the guarantees that everyone concerned with ethical sport is looking for", says Jerry Bingham, UK Sport's head of ethics. A random system can still be manipulated, says Mark Dixon, a specialist on sports statistics from the Royal Statistical Society in London. "The score of one or two judges who have been bribed may still be in the seven selected." Many other sports that have judges, including diving, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming have a system that discards the highest and lowest scores. If a judge was under pressure to favor a particular team, they would tend to give it very high scores and mark down the opposition team, so their scores wouldn't count. It works for diving, says Jeff Cook, a member of the international government body's technical committee. "If you remove those at the top and bottom you're left with those in the middle, you're getting a reasonable average." Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, diving has tightened up in its system still further. Two separate panels of judges score different rounds of diving during top competitions. Neither panel knows the scores given by the other, "We have done this to head off any suggestion of bias." says Cook. Bingham urged the ISU to consider other options. "This should involve examining the way in which other sports deal with the problem of adjudicating (裁定) on matter of style and presentation," he says.

单选题Acetate is one of the most important artificial fibers.

单选题 One Good Reason to Let Smallpox Live It's now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it—one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the planet, what point was there in keeping these reserves? {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}reality, of course, it was naive to {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}that everyone would let {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}of such a potent potential weapon. Undoubtedly several nations still have {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}vials. {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}the last "official" stocks of live virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia, {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}no obvious gain. Now American researchers have {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}an animal model of the human disease, opening the {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So once again there's a good reason to {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}the virus—just in {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}the disease puts in a reappearance. How do we {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}with the mistrust of the US and Russia? {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Keep the virus {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}international auspices in a well-guarded UN laboratory that's open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesn't {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}the idea is wrong. If the virus {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}useful, then let's make it the servant of all humanity—not just a part of it.

单选题 The Barbie Dolls In the mid 1940's, the young ambitious duo Ruth and Elliot Handler, owned a company that made wooden pictures frames. It was in 1945 that Ruth and Elliot Handler joined with their close friend Harold Mattson to form a company that would be known for the most famous and successful doll ever created. This company would be named MATTEL, MATT for Mattson and EL for Elliot. In the mid 1950's, while visiting Switzerland, Ruth Handler purchased a German Lilli doll. Lilli was a shapely, pretty fashion doll first made in 1955. She was originally fashioned after a famous cartoon character in the West German Newsletter, Build. Lilli is the doll that would inspire Ruth Handler to design the Barbie doll. With the help of her technicians and engineers at Mattel, Barbie was born. Ruth then hired Charlotte Johnson, a fashion designer, to create Barbies wardrobe. It was in 1958 that the patent for Barbie was obtained. This would be a fashion doll unlike any of her time. She would be long limbed, shapely, beautiful, and only 11.5 inches tall. Ruth and Elliot would name their new fashion doll after their own daughter, Barbie. In 1959, the Barbie doll would make her way to the New York Toy Show and receive a cool reception from the toy buyers. Barbie has undergone a lot of changes over the years and has managed to keep up with current trends in hairstyles, makeup and clothing. She is a reflection of the history of fashion since her introduction to the toy market. Barbie has a universal appeal and collectors both young and old enjoy time spent and memories made with their dolls.

单选题Elements of Art Throughout the history of the arts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before. Landscape (风景) is another unchanging element of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists, continued this practice. Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature, Ledge pains what he actually sees. In his paintings, there is no particular change in motion, and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography (摄影术) to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom. Besides, all art begs the age-old question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up, understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods. Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present, eastern or western, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.

单选题 阅读下面这篇短文，短文后列出7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断。 {{B}}Complaining is useful{{/B}} Complaining about faulty goods or bad service is never easy. Most people dislike making a fuss. But if something you have bought is faulty or does not do what was claimed for it, you are not asking for a favour to get it put right. It is the shopkeeper's responsibility to take the complaint seriously and to replace or repair a faulty article or put right poor service, because he is the person with whom you have entered into an agreement. The manufacturer may have a part to play but that comes later. Complaints should be made to a responsible person. Get back to the shop where you bought the goods, taking with you any receipt you may have. Ask to see the buyer in a large store. In a small store the assistant may also be the owner so you can complain directly. In a chain store ask to see the manager. If you telephone, ask the name the person who handles your enquiry, otherwise you many never find out who dealt with the complaint later. Even the bravest person finds it difficult to stand up in a group of people to complain, so if you do not want to do it in person, write a letter. Stick to the facts and keep a copy of what you write. At this stage you should give any receipt numbers, but you should not need to give receipts or other papers to prove you bought the article. If you are not satisfied with the answer you get, or if you do not get a reply, write to the managing director of the firm, shop, or organization. Be sure to keep copies of your own letters and any you receive. If your complaint is a just one, the shopkeeper may offer to replace or repair the faulty article. You may find this an attractive solution. In certain cases you may have the right to refuse the goods and ask for your money back, but this is only when you have hardly used the goods and have acted at once. Even when you cannot refuse the goods you may be able to get some money back as well. And if you have suffered some special loss, if for example a new washing machine tears your clothes, you might receive money to replace them. If the shopkeeper offers you a credit note to be used to buy goods in the same shops but you would rather have money, say so. If you accept a credit note remember that later you will not be able to ask for your money. If the shopkeeper refuses to give you money, ask for advice from your Citizens' Advice Bureau before you accept a credit note. In some cases the shopkeeper does not have to give you your money back—if, for example, he changes an article simply because you don't like it or it does not fit. He does not have to take back the goods in these circumstances.

单选题The walls are made of hollow concrete blocks.

单选题下面的短文后列出了7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断：如果该句是正确信息，请选择A；如果该句是错误信息，请选择B；如果该句的信息文中没有提及，请选择C。 Marriage Advertisements in India Every Sunday morning millions of Indians settle down with a cup of tea and special weekend issues of their newspapers, just as Americans do. But here, with the marriage season approaching, many of them quickly to a Sunday feature that is particularly Indian-the-columns of marriage advertisements in which young people look for husbands and wives. This is relatively modern change in the age-old custom of the arranged marriage. The thousands of advertisements published each week increasingly reflect social changes that coming to this traditional society. For example, although women are still described in terms of appearance, or skill in "the wifely arts", information about her earning power is entering more and more of the advertisements. This reflects the arrival in India of the working wife. Divorce, which used to be almost unheard of in India, is sometimes now mentioned in the advertisements as in the case of a woman whose advertisement in New Delhi newspaper explained that had been "the innocent party" when her marriage broke up. Because the custom of the dowry ( marriage payment) is now illegal, some advertisements say "no dowry" or "simple marriage", which means the same thing. However, the fathers of many bridegrooms still require it. In a land where light skin is often regarded as socially preferable, many also require that a woman have a "wheat-color" complexion or that a man be "tall, fair and handsome". Advertisements are placed and eagerly read by a wide range of people in the upper classes, mostly in cities. Many of them receive dozens of answers. "There's nothing embarrassing about it," explained a Calcutta businessman advertising a son-in-law. "It's just another way of broadening the contacts and increasing the possibility of doing the contacts and increasing the possibilities of doing the best one for one's daughter. " Because of high unemployment and a generally poor standard of living here, one of the best attractions a marriage advertisement can offer is a permit to live abroad, especially in Canada or the United States. A person who has one can get what he wants. One recent Sunday in Madras, for example, a Punjabi engineer living in San Francisco advertised for a "beautiful slim bride with lovely features knowing music and dance". And a man whose advertisement said that he held an American immigration permit was able to say, only girls from rich, well-connected families need apply.

单选题All the flats in the building had the same layout .

单选题I don't quite {{U}}follow{{/U}} what she is saying. A. observe B. understand C. explain D. describe

单选题According to some biologists, the instinct to care for the young is perhaps the most interesting characteristic of animals.

单选题You will be meeting her presently.A. shortlyB. currentlyC. latelyD. probably

单选题She came across three children sleeping under a bridge.

单选题Egypt felled by Famine Even ancient Egypt's mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilization around 2180 BC．Now evidence gleaned from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame-and the same or worse could happen today. The ancient Egyptians depended on the Nile's annual floods to irrigate their crops. But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons southwards out of Ethiopia would have been diminished these floods. Dwindling rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to stablise the soil. When rain did fail it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt, along with sediment from the White Nile. The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope signature from that of the White Nile. So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta, Michael Krom of Leeds University worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river. Krom reasons that during periods of drought, the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high. He found that one of these periods, from 4500 to 4200 years ago, immediately predates the fall of the Egypt's Old Kingdom. The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians. "Changes that affect food supply don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies, " says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. Similar events today could be even more devastating, says team member Daniel Stanley, a geoarchaeologist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. "anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system today because the populations have increased dramatically. /