单选题WhatwillthewomandonextTuesday?A.Visitherparents.B.Gotothedentist.C.Meetherprofessor.D.Haveajobinterview.
单选题Before National Day, these musicians composed some songs {{U}}in honor
of{{/U}} this special occasion.
A. in celebration of
B. in respect of
C. in case of
D. in excess of
单选题 Passage Five Faith in medicine runs deep in America. We spend more per person on health care than any other nation. Whether we eat too much or exercise too little, whether we're turning gray or feeling blue, we look to some pill or procedure to make us better. We assume that devoting ever more dollars to medicine will bring us longer, healthier lives. But there is mounting evidence that each new dollar we devote to the current health care system brings small and diminishing returns to public health. Today the United States spends more than $4,500 per person per year on health care. Costa Rica spends less than $300. Yet life expectancy at birth is nearly identical in both countries. Despite the highly publicized "longevity revolution," life expectancy among the elderly in the United States is hardly improving. Yes, we are an aging society, but primarily because of falling birthrates. Younger Americans, meanwhile, are far more likely to be disabled than they were 20 years ago. Most affected are people in their thirties, whose disability rates increased by nearly 130 percent, due primarily to overweight. Why has our huge investment in health care left us so unhealthy? Partly it is because so many promised "miracle cures," from interferon to gene therapies, have proven to be ineffective or even dangerous. Partly it's because health care dollars are so concentrated on the terminally ill and the very old that even when medical interventions "work," the gains to average life expectancy are small And partly it is because of medical errors and adverse reaction to prescription drugs, which cause more deaths than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. Each year roughly 200,000 seniors suffer fatal or life-threatening "adverse drug events" due to improper drug use or drug interaction. Why don't Americans live any longer than Costa Ricans? Overwhelmingly, it's because of differences ill behavior. Americans exercise less, eat more, drive more, smoke more, and lead more socially isolated lives. Even at its best, modern medicine can do little to promote productive aging, because by the time most people come in contact with it their bodies are already compromised by stress, indulgent habits, environmental dangers and injuries.
单选题 Passage Five Since 1975
advocates of humane treatment of animals have broadened their goals to oppose
the use of animals for fur, leather, wool, and food. They have mounted protests
against all forms of hunting and the trapping of animals in the wild. And they
have joined environmentalists in urging protection of natural habitats from
commercial or residential development. The occasion for these added emphases was
the publication in 1975 of "Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of
Animals" by Peter Singer, formerly a professor of philosophy at Oxford
University in England. This book gave a new impetus to the
animal rights movement. The post-1975 animal rights activists are far more vocal
than their predecessors, and the organizations to which they belong are
generally more radical. Many new organizations are formed. The tactics of the
activists are designed to catch the attention of the public. Since the mid-1980s
there have been frequent news reports about animal right organizations picketing
stores that sell furs, harassing hunters in the wild, or breaking into
laboratories to free animals. Some of the more extreme organizations advocate
the use of assault, armed terrorism, and death threats to make their point.
Aside from making isolated attacks on people who wear fur coats or trying to
prevent hunters from killing animals, most of the organizations have directed
their tactics at institutions. The results of the protests and other tactics
have been mixed. Companies are reducing reliance on animal testing. Medical
research has been somewhat curtailed by legal restrictions and the reluctance of
younger workers to use animals in research. New tests have been developed to
replace the use of animals. Some well-known designers have stopped using fur.
While the general public tends to agree that animals should be treated humanely,
most people are unlikely to give up eating meat or wearing goods made from
leather and wool. Giving up genuine fur has become less of a problem since
fibers used to make fake fur such as the Japanese invention Kanecaron can look
almost identical to real fur. Some of the strongest opposition to the animal
rights movement has come from hunters and their organizations. But animal rights
activists have succeeded in marshaling public opinion to press for State
restrictions on hunting in several parts of the nation.
单选题Many countries have made it illegal to talk into a hand-held mobile phone while driving. But the latest research provides further confirmation that the danger lies less in what a motorist's hands do when he takes a call than in what the conversation does to his brain. Even using a "hands-free" device can impair a driver's attention to an alarming extent. Melina Kunar of the University of Warwick and Todd Horowitz of the Harvard Medical School ran a series of experiments in which two groups of volunteers had to pay attention and respond to a series of moving tasks on a computer screen that were reckoned equivalent in difficulty to driving. One group was left undistracted while the other had to engage in a conversation about their hobbies using a speakerphone. As Dr. Kunar and Dr. Horowitz report in Psycbonomic Bulletin & Review, those who were making the equivalent of a hands-free call had an average reaction time 212 milliseconds slower than those who were not. That, they calculate, would add 5.7 meters to the braking distance of a car traveling at 100 kph. They found that the group using the hands-free kit made 83 percent more errors in their tasks than those who were not talking. They also explored the effect of simply listening to something—such as a radio programme. For this they played a recording of the first chapter of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." Even though the test subjects were told to pay attention because they would be asked questions about the story afterwards, it had little effect on their reaction time. The research led by Frank Drews of the University of Utah suggests the same thing is true of the idle chatter of a passenger. Dr. Kunar reckons that having to think about responses during a phone conversation competes for the brain's resources in a way that listening to a monologue does not. Punishing people for using hand-held gadgets while driving is difficult enough, even though they can be seen from outside the car. Stopping people making hands-free calls would probably be impossible—especially because more and more vehicles are now being fitted with the necessary equipment as standard. Persuading people to switch their phones off altogether when they get behind the wheel might be the only answer. Who knows, they might even come to enjoy not having to take calls. And they'll be more likely to arrive in one piece.
单选题I didn't know it then, but this {{U}}disruptive{{/U}} way of reading
started with the very first novel I ever picked up.
A. harmful
B. persistent
C. interruptive
D. characteristic
单选题She is______a musician than her brother.
A. much of
B. more of
C. much as
D. more as
单选题 Everyone knows about straight-A students. They get high
grades, all right, but only by becoming dull and diligent students, their noses
always stuck in a book. How, then, do we account for Paul Melendres? Melendres,
now a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at
Valley High School in Albuquerque. He joined the soccer and basketball teams of
his school, exhibited at the science fair, was chosen for the National Honor
Society and he achieved straight A's in all his classes. How do
super-achievers like Melendres do it? Brains aren't the only answer. "Top grades
don't always go to the brightest students," declares Herbert Walberg, professor
of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major
studies of super-achieving students. "Knowing how to make the most of your
innate abilities counts for more. Infinitely more." Hard work
isn't the whole story, either. "It's not how long you sit there with the books
open," said one of the many a students we interviewed. "It's what you do while
you're sitting." Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of
homework time than their lower-scoring classmates. The kids at
the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others
can readily learn. Set priorities. {{U}}Top students brook no
intrusions on study time{{/U}}. Once the books are open or the computer is booted
up, phone calls go unanswered, TV shows unwatched, snacks ignored. Study is
business; business comes before recreation. Study anywhere—or
everywhere. A cross-country runner who worked out every day used the time to
memorize biology terms. Another student posted a vocabulary list by the medicine
cabinet and learned a new word every day while brushing his teeth.
Get organized. In high school, McCray ran track, played rugby and was in
the band and orchestra. "I was so busy. I couldn't waste time looking for a
pencil or missing paper. I kept everything right where I could put my hands on
it," he says. Among the students we interviewed, study times
were strictly a matter of personal preference. Some worked late at night when
the house was quiet. Others awoke early. Still others studied as soon as they
came home from school when the work was fresh in their minds. All agreed,
however, on the need for consistency.
单选题As political stability is one of our
prime
concerns, we have much faith in the government.
单选题
单选题He displayed a complete lack of {{U}}courtesy{{/U}} and tact in dealing
with his employer.
A. tenacity
B. curiosity
C. civility
D. hostility
单选题 Marriage was one of the first non-biological factors
identified as improving life expectancy. The explanation given was that married
people tend to take fewer risks with their health and enjoy better mental and
emotional health. Marriage also provides more social and material
support. The difference between married people and single
people, in terms of health, is narrowing. To really understand this, we have to
be precise about terms. Researchers typically distinguish between never married,
currently married, widowed and divorced. As we look in-depth into this issue of
marriage and health, we'll see that things get pretty {{U}}fuzzy{{/U}}
nowadays. No one is saying that having a piece of paper that
says "married" on it is going to improve your life expectancy. There is
something about people who live in marriage that improves life expectancy—or to
be more precise, there was something about people who lived in marriage in the
70s that was found to improve life expectancy. Now, people could be listed as
"single never married" in census data, but be living with someone and be
experiencing all the health benefits of marriage without having the marriage
certificate. This complicates research on marriage and health.
Even using the traditional categories of "currently married" or "never married,"
singles are catching up, but only men. Men who were never married typically had
the lowest life expectancy (in 1972). Now, the never married men are closing in
on their currently married counterparts. The difference in life expectancy is
becoming smaller because that single men now have access to support and health
resources that only came because their wife took care of them. In other words,
in the 1970s, married men had the advantage because they had their wives to make
sure they went to the doctor and took care of themselves. Now, men are taking
more responsibility for their own health and take action.
Compared to 1972, people who are widowed now report poorer health than their
married counterparts. In the 70s, they reported their health as the same as
married people, now their health is about 7% worse. No one really knows why
widowhood is more damaging to health now than in the 70s. My guess is that
widowed people in the 70s had more of a community and extended family to help
them out. Now, the widowed are more likely to be isolated.
单选题The government's full public disclosure of the decision only swelled the chorus of protests. A. checked B. diminished C. intensified D. retrieved
单选题Some ancient people were able to tell the time by the shadow______by the sun on the slate. A. thrown B. flung C. cast D. tossed
单选题Some politicians in Japan still believe that the Nanjing Massacre is nothing but a ______. A. novel B. flaw C. truth D. myth
单选题It is considered a crime to ______ an election of any kind by bribing
voters.
A. fabricate
B. launch
C. populate
D. manipulate
单选题Most staff in this office did not like the manageress, for she was known to be sly, selfish and______. A. manifested B. manipulative C. conscientious D. controversial
单选题According to psychology professor Carol Dweck of Stanford University, "Praising children for being smart can backfire." If this doesn't get the attention of Millennium parents, I'm not sure what will. It is my observation that so many parents today believe that if their child appears to be the least bit "advanced" for his age, he's destined to be the next Albert Einstein, Tiger Woods, or Bill Gates. It's human nature for room and dad to show much admiration for their child and dish out praise for accomplishments achieved. The problem is, according to this study, parents may not be doing the best thing by praising their child for his intelligence. Dweck's research involved junior high students in New York and concluded that "classroom performance improved when her study subjects believed the brain is like a muscle that can grow." Students who "focused on the learning process (effort, concentration or strategies used) asked for feedback and did better in all subjects." Feedback such as, "You did well because you worked so hard" or "You used so many descriptive words to make this story interesting" can encourage children to try new things, as they are being rewarded for their effort. When the "time and effort" strategy is being positively reinforced, the child will probably use the same strategy next time they are learning something. Over time new strategies can be introduced, so the child's repertoire of strategies is broadened. Dweck goes on to say that "they (students who improved) performed better because their success was being measured by effort, not by test scores or grades." Parents should praise effort, not just results. Children who received praise about their innate abilities (talents or strengths) had less chance of trying new things and became anxious and under-performed as things became more difficult. That is one of the greatest dangers to continually praising children for whatever they do in order to falsely raise a child's self-esteem. What are mom and dad to do? Offer genuine praise and encouragement for efforts and successes, but balance this with setting appropriate expectations and following up with consequences when the child falls short due to laziness. Don't make excuses. Your child will better face the challenges life has to offer in the future when you as a parent recognize the efforts he is making today.
单选题We must take part in physical labor in order to ______ ourselves more
closely with the working people.
A. identify
B. incorporate
C. combine
D. involve
单选题 {{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} Botany, the
study of plants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge.
For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans
had anything more than the vaguest of insights. It is impossible to know today
just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can
observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of
plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants
are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants.
They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only
for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and a
great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon
recognize literally hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them
botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special
branch of "knowledge" at all. Unfortunately, the more
industrialized we become, the farther away we move from direct contact with
plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes
unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will
fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors,
living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain
grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next
season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was
taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture:
cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from
the controlled production of a few plants, rather than get a little here and a
little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of
tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild
would begin to fade away.
