单选题You are not supposed to take advantage of such a little girl by making her work for 50 cents an hour.

单选题Floods and droughts take a heavy ______ on farmers living in disaster-prone areas. A. loss B. casualty C. influence D. toll

单选题 Passage One Animals are more like us than we ever imagined. They feel pain, they experience stress, and they show affection, excitement and love. All these findings have been made by scientists in recent years—and such results are beginning to change how we view animals. Strangely enough, this research was sponsored by fast food companies like McDonald's and KFC. Pressured by animal rights groups, these companies felt they had to fund scientists researching the emotional and mental states of animals. McDonald's, for instance, funded studies on pig behaviors at Purdue University, Indiana. This research found that pigs seek affection and easily become depressed if left alone or prevented from playing with each other. If they become depressed, they soon become physically ill. Because of this, and other similar studies, the European Union has banned the use of isolating pig stalls from 2012. In Germany, the government is encouraging pig farmers to give each pig 20 seconds of human contact a day, and to provide them with toys to prevent them from fighting. Other scientists have shown that animals think and behave like humans. Koko, the 300-pound gorilla (大猩猩) at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, for instance, has been taught sign language. Koko can now understand several thousand English words, more than many humans who speak English as a second language. On human IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95. Before such experiments, humans thought language skills were absent from the animal kingdom. Other myths are also being overturned, like the belief that animals lack self-awareness. Studies have also shown that animals mourn their dead, and that they play for pleasure. These striking similarities between animal and human behavior have led some to ask a question: "If you believe in evolution, how can't you believe that animals have feelings that human beings have?" Until recently, scientists believed that animals behaved by instinct and that what appeared to be learned behavior was merely genetically-programmed activity. But as Koko the Gorilla shows, this is not the case. In fact, learning is passed from parents to offspring far more often than not in the animal kingdom. So what implications does this knowledge have for humans? Because of this, should we ban hunting and animal testing? Should we close zoos? Such questions are being raised by many academics and politicians. Harvard and 25 other American law schools have introduced courses on animal rights.

单选题This old man had trouble expressing the attachment he felt when arriving at his native town. A. hospitality B. affection C. appeal D. frustration

单选题When you leave a job with a traditional pension, don't assume you've lost the chance to collect it. You're entitled to whatever benefit you've earned — and you might even be entitled to take it now. "A lot of people forget they have it, or they think that by waiting until they're 65, they'll have a bigger benefit," says Wayne Bogosian, president of the PFE Group, which provides corporate pre-retirement education. Your former employers should send you a certificate that says how much your pension is worth. If it's less than $5,000, or if the company offers a lump-sum payout, it will generally close your account and cash you out. It may not seem like much, but $5,000 invested over 20 years at eight percent interest is $23,000. If your pension is worth more than $5,000, or your company doesn't offer the lump-sum option, find out how much money you're eligible for at the plan's normal retirement age, the earlier age at which you can collect the pension, the more severe penalty for collecting it early. You'll probably still come out ahead by taking the money now and investing it. What if you left a job years ago, and you're realizing you may have unwittingly left behind a pension? Get help from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It has an online search tool that has helped locate $47 million in lost benefits for more than 12,000 workers. If you have a traditional pension, retiring early costs more than you might expect. Most people assume you take a proportional cut for leaving before your plan's normal retirement age. For example, you might think that if you need to accrue 30 years of service and you leave three years early, you'd get a pension 90 percent of the full amount. But that's not how- it works. Instead, you take an actuarial reduction, determined by the employer but often around five percent a year, for each year you leave early. So retiring three years early could leave you with only 85 percent of the total amount. When you retire early with a defined-contribution plan, the problem is you start spending investments on which you could be earning interest. If you retire when you're 55, for example, and start using the traditional pension then, by age 65 you'll have only about half of what you would've had if you'd kept working until 65.

单选题 Things are finally being made in the U.S.A. again! Better yet, a whole new crop of newer businesses are growing based on the fact that every product they sell is manufactured right here in the United States. Most newer businesses are for products made and marketed locally, such as a dog biscuit brand out of San Luis Obispo, but old standards like Unionwear are still going strong. In fact, Unionwear owner has had a whole host of new customers calling him. The fact that more consumers are seeking out American-made products in greater numbers is a good thing for business owners. That means that they will be wiring to pay a little bit more for your products and services—as long as you capitalize on the fact that your products were made here. The shift back to treasuring American-made goods follows several horrific disasters in factories overseas. Coupled with the public's strong desire to see the American economy rise again, many consumers are looking for products made in the U.S.A., even if they cost a bit more. Even Walmart is making an effort to carry more domestically made goods in stores. Ultimately, your customers want to buy things without having to wonder if a small child made it for just pennies a day. This renewed passion for domestic products is great for businesses. Forecasters predict that labor costs in China are going to rise, which means that the country will no longer be the center of cheap manufacturing. If the cost of Chinese labor surges, it will no longer be cost-efficient for companies to ship their manufacturing jobs overseas. If your business is not already manufacturing domestically, maybe now is the time you should start. If your business already makes its products in the United States, now is a great time for marketing. When you are reminding potential customers that your products are America-made, be sure to be clear. False patriotism will turn your customers off, even if you have a great product. The fact that consumers are seeking American products with renewed intensity encourages all business owners to take advantage of this passion by cleverly marketing the fact that you are a domestic or local business. With patriotic summer holidays upon us, why not have a sale to capitalize on your company's patriotic support of the American economy? Your customers will love it and so will you.

单选题{{U}}Probably{{/U}} there's a good reason for her absence, as she doesn't usually stay away from work. A. Conspicuously B. Prospectively C. Incidentally D. Presumably

单选题 {{B}}Passage Four{{/B}} We can make mistakes at any age. Some mistakes we make are about money. But most mistakes are about people. One might say, "Did Jerry really care when I broke up with Helen?" "When I got that great job, did Jim really feel good about it, as a friend? Or did he envy my luck?" "And Paul—why didn't I pick up that he was friendly just because I had a car?" When we look back, doubts like these can make us feel bad. But when we look back, it's too late. Why are we wrong about our friends—or our enemies? Sometimes what people say hides their real meaning. And if we don't really listen, we miss the feeling behind the words. Suppose someone says to you, "You are a lucky dog". There's a bit of envy in those words. Maybe he doesn't see it himself. But bringing in the "dog" he puts you down a little. What he may be saying is that he doesn't think you deserve your luck. "Just think of all the things you have to be thanking for" is another noise that says one thing and means another. It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem as part of your life as a whole. But is he? Wrapped up in this phrase is the thought that your problem isn't important. It's telling you to think of all the starving people in the world when you have not got a date for Saturday night. How can you tell the real meaning behind someone's words? One way is to take a good look at the person talking. Do his words fit the way he looks? Does what he says square with his tone of voice, his posture, the look in his eyes? Stop and think. The minute you spend thinking about the real meaning of what people say to you may save another mistake. Therefore, when you hear some one saying, please try to know what he really means. Don't just listen to what he says with your ears but feel the words he uses with your head. In this way you may make fewer mistakes.

单选题The police went out of their way to investigate the explosion case, but there were no indications that standard security arrangements were______. A. at hand B. in fault C. in question D. in effect

单选题The number of hours that have intervened between the accident and operation is a crucial factor.

单选题Their house was in close {{U}}proximity{{/U}} to ours, so we became intimate friends in time. A. vicinity B. contact C. relation D. community

单选题PM2.5 particles are thought particularly damaging to health because they can ______ deep into the lungs. A. dive B. penetrate C. elevate D. dig

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单选题Children usually ______ after an illness much more quickly than adults. A. pick over B. pick up C. pick on D. pick off

单选题Despite the suspect's ______ to be innocent, there is compelling evidence that he was involved. A. conviction B. assertion C. accusation D. speculation

单选题This old man developed nerve damage to his brain, ______him nearly disabled. A. leaving B. keeping C. allowing D. causing

单选题Directions: In this section you will hear two mini-talks. At the end of each talk, there will be some questions. Both the talks and the questions will be read only once. After each question, there will be a pause. During the pause.

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单选题 My kids tell me that I am "so 20th century", which troubles me. A person likes to feel that he is "with it", as we used to say in the 20th century. So I have been thinking how I might change myself into a true 21st-century man. Clearly, in my advanced state of age I would be foolish to attempt some wild leap into the contemporary fashion. And anyway, my distinctive taste attracts much favourable comment. But if my clothing is too characteristic to change, perhaps I should do something about my lifestyle. So last week I took myself to the NEC for the Smart Home Show which is "the exhibition dedicated to all the latest trends in smart home technology". It was a shock. How could I have lived for half a century without a fingerprint-operated front door? ("Never lock yourself out of your home again!") Or vacuum cleaners that suck dust straight into a dustbin, via a system of pipes in your house walls? (MI you have to do is rebuild your entire home.) Or automatic garden sprinklers which are so smart that they turn themselves off when it starts to rain? Of course, you could just look out of the window, observe that it's raining and turn them off yourself, but that would be so 20th century. Besides, those were just the simpler things. For the true smart-home owner, a plasma (等离子) TV fireplace is a must. At first glance it's just an electric fire with a mantelpiece, but press your remote and a giant TV screen rises from the mantelpiece. "Thieves won't even know it's there," a spokesman claimed. Just as well. At ￡5,280, it would be a pity to have it broken. But the real revolution has happened in the bathroom. Never again need you feel cut off from world events as you go about your washing. Forget the mirrors that turn into TV screens. They're old hat. The buzz in bathrooms now is all about heated towel-racks that turn into TVs. Enough! I was convinced: I want a smart home. There's only one problem: The cost. You are looking at ￡18,000 to ￡25,000 for an average home. Hmm. I won't be entering the 21st century just yet, then.