阅读理解Passage Two Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage

阅读理解The Motor Car There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world — and the number is rising by more than 40 million each year. The average distance driven by car users is growing too—from 8 km a day per person in western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995. This dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major problems, including environmental pollution, depletion of oil resources, traffic congestion and safety. Problems While emissions (废气排放) from new cars are far less harmful than they used to be, city streets and motorways are becoming more crowded than ever, often with older trucks, buses and taxis, which emit excessive levels of smoke and fumes. This concentration of vehicles makes air quality in urban areas unpleasant and sometimes dangerous to breathe. Even Moscow has joined the list of capitals suffered form congestion and traffic fumes. In Mexico City, vehicle pollution is a major health hazard. Until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20 km range, the distance conveniently accessible by horse. Heavy freight could only be carried by water or rail. The invention of the motor vehicle brought personal mobility to the masses and made rapid freight delivery possible over a much wider area. Today about 90 per cent of inland freight in the United Kingdom is carried by road. Clearly the world cannot revert to the horse-drawn wagon. Can it avoid being locked into congested and polluting ways of transporting people and goods? In Europe most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport. Adaptation to the motor car has involved adding ring roads, one-way systems and parking lots. In the United States, more land is assigned to car use than to housing. The fast development of city life means that life without a car is next to impossible. Mass use of motor vehicles has also killed or injured millions of people. Other social effects have been blamed on the car such as alienation and aggressive human behavior. A 1993 study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that car transport is seven times as costly as rail travel in terms of the external social costs it leads to such as traffic jam, accidents, pollution, loss of crop-land and natural habitats, overuse of oil resources, and so on. Yet cars easily surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of personal transport. It is unrealistic to expect people to give up private cars in favor of mass transit. Solution Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem and increase the fuel efficiency of engines. But fuel consumption and exhaust emissions depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are driven. Many people buy larger cars than they need for daily purposes or waste fuel by driving aggressively. Besides, global car use is increasing at a faster rate than the improvement in emissions and fuel efficiency which technology is now making possible. One solution that has been put forward is the long-term solution of designing cities and neighborhoods so that car journeys are not necessary—all essential services being located within walking distance or easily accessible by public transport. Not only would this save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, it would also enhance the quality of community life, putting the emphasis on people instead of cars. Good local government is already bringing this about in some places. But few democratic communities are blessed with the vision—and the capital—to make such profound changes in modern lifestyles. A more practical way to solve the problem seems to be a combination of mass transit systems for travel into and around cities, with small "low emission" cars for urban use and larger hybrid or lean burn cars for use elsewhere. Electronically tolled highways might be used to ensure that drivers pay charges geared to actual road use. Better integration of transport systems is also highly desirable — and made more feasible by modern computers. But there are solutions for countries which can afford them. In most developing countries, old cars and old technologies continue to predominate.

阅读理解As Tourists Crowd Out Locals, Venice Faces Endangered List [A] On a recent fall morning, a large crowd blocked the steps at one of Venice s main tourist sites, the Rialto Bridge

阅读理解Passage Two The AlphaGo programs victory is an example of how smart computers have become

阅读理解One of the good things for men in women''s liberation is that men no longer have to pay women the old-fashioned courtesies. In an article on the new manners, Ms. Holmes says that a perfectly able woman no longer has to act helplessly in public as if she were a model. For example, she doesn''t need help getting in and out of cars. She also says there is no reason why a man should walk on the outside of a woman on the sidewalk. As far as manners are concerned, I suppose I have always been a supporter of women''s liberation. Over the years, out of a sense of respect, I imagine, I have refused to trouble women with outdated courtesies. It is usually easier to follow rules of social behaviour than to depend on one''s own taste. But rules may be safely broken, of course, by those of us with the gift of natural grace. For example, when a man and woman are led to their table in a restaurant and the waiter pulls out a chair, the woman is expected to sit in the chair. That is according to Ms. Ann Clark. I have always done it the other way, according to my wife. It came up only the other night. I followed the hostess to the table, and when she pulled the chair out I sat on it, quite naturally, since it happened to be the chair I wanted to sit in. "Well, "my wife said, when the hostess had gone, "you did it again. " "Did what?" I asked, utterly confused. "Took the chair. " Actually, since I''d walked through the restaurant ahead of my wife, it would have been awkward, I should think, not to have taken the chair. I had got there first, after all. Also, it has always been my custom to get in a car first, and let the woman get in by herself. This is a courtesy I insist on as the stronger sex, out of love and respect. In times like these, there might be attackers hidden about. It would be unsuitable to put a woman in a car then shut the door on her, leaving her at the mercy of some bad fellow who might be hiding in the back seat.

阅读理解The ways in which societies address environmental issues are in the midst of a profound transformation. Both the extent of this transformation and its implications for the future of environmental governance are only beginning to be appreciated. Of all the dimensions of environmental governance undergoing rapid change, most attention has been devoted to the growing urgency of the threats that need to be addressed. As argued by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, these now warrant consideration jointly with the other great global issues of the 21st century: "freedom from want, freedom from fear, and the freedom of future generations to sustain their lives on this plan et. "The first two of these issues reflect the longstanding concerns for poverty alleviation and physical security that framed the UN Charter. The last, as the secretary-general notes, was "not clearly identified in the charter because in 1945, our founders could scarcely imagine that it would ever be threatened. "Today, that threat is increasingly clear, and our most enlightened political leaders have begun to redefine the priority tasks of governance to include sustainability. A second rapidly changing dimension of environmental governance is the scale over which it needs to operate. The trends toward "globalization'' that have entrained so many aspects of our lives in the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century have affected the environment as well. In response, more international environmental treaties were adopted and more international environmental institutions were founded in the last quarter of the 20th century than in the preceding hundred years. A few of these have worked relatively well. In general, however, our capacity for effective implementation lags far behind the recognized need. Finally, the actors and institutions involved in environmental governance are changing. The political transformation of "a closed public policy process into a more open and participatory one" for Southeast Asia, is under way for much of the rest of the world as well, shifting power away from central governments toward local communities and civil society organizations. Simultaneously, the globalization trends noted above have pushed in the other direction, moving power toward multinational corporations and international institutions. In the midst of all these transformations, two things can nonetheless be said with confidence about environmental governance.. Neither its complexity nor its importance has ever been greater.

阅读理解Of all things in the world, I most dislike filling up forms. In fact, I have a positive horror of it. Applying for a driving license, registering for an evening course, booking a holiday abroad — everything nowadays seems to involve giving information about one''s personal life and habits that has little or nothing to do with the matter in hand. When applying for a job, it may be of some obscure interest to a perspective employer to learn that I collect stamps or had measles as a child. But why should he conceivably want to know that my father was a tobacconist to live in Foreland and died when he was 82? The authorities that require one to fill up forms frequently demand answers to questions that one would hesitate to put to one''s intimate friends. The worst of it is that, when confronted with such questions, my mind goes blank and I can hardly remember my own date of birth, let alone my nationality. Have I ever suffered from a serious illness? Have I? What do they mean by "serious"? I had my tonsils (扁桃腺) out in hospital when I was eight, and my mother always assured me I was delicate, but my father contended I was born lazy. Do I suffer from any personal defects? Well, I wear contact lenses and my upper teeth are not my own. But perhaps the word "defects" applies to my character. Am I supposed to admit that I like gambling and find it difficult to get up in the morning, both of which are true? Of all, I mink job applications are the worst — education, previous experience, posts held, given dates. Terrified by the awful warning about giving false declarations, which appears at the bottom of the form, I struggle to remember what exams I passed and how long I worked for what firms. However hard I try, there always seems to be a year or two for which I cannot satisfactorily account and which, I am certain, if left blank, will give the impression that I was in prison or engaged in some occupation too dubious (可疑的) to mention. Even when the form is safely posted, there is no relief as I hourly await the summons from some furious official to explain the discrepancies (差异，矛盾) on my form.

阅读理解Passage Two Popping food into the microwave for a couple of minutes may seem utterly harmless, but Europes stock of these quick-cooking ovens emit as much carbon as nearly 7 million cars, a new study has found

阅读理解From Taiwan to Algeria, thousands of foreigners (47) to U.S. universities to study. Those who come praise the libraries and the research facilities. Others praise the informality of the classroom where teachers encourage students to analyze and question what they read. Still others praise the (48) at universities, which pushes students to be creative thinkers as well as (49) thinkers. Yet, despite the high quality of many universities, tests given by the United Nations reveal there are some (50) in the educational quality in U.S. schools. Some call it "cultural illiteracy." This means that on general-knowledge questions concerning world topics, these students (51) very low. For example, many thought that the population of the U. S. was (52) than that of the P. R. C. (中国). Some said that Picasso painted in the twelfth century. Many did not even know when Christopher Columbus came to America. Another area Where students performed (53) was geography. The United States (54) sixth among ten nations. This survey showed that students in Sweden, Germany and Japan all did better than U.S. students. Britons, Italians, and Russians did worse. Most (55) was that 14 percent of the students tested in U.S. schools could not find their own country on a map. These students also had little knowledge about where Vietnam or India is. Although U.S. and Russian students were good at locating each other''s countries, they (56) geographical knowledge about the rest of the world. WORD BANK [A] scored [F] less [K] weaknesses [B] properly [G] lacked [L] critical [C] disturbing [H] atmosphere [M] became [D] enter [I] flock [N] larger [E] acquired [J] ranked [O] poorly

阅读理解Earthquakes What causes earthquakes? The earth is formed of layers. The surface of the earth, about 100 kilometers thick, is made of large pieces. When they move against each other, an earth quake happens, A large movement causes a violent earthquake, but a small movement causes a mild one. Earthquakes last only a few seconds. The rolling movements are called seismic (地震的) waves. The seismic waves start in one place, called the epicenter (震中) , and roll outward. A seismic wave travels around the earth in about twenty minutes. Usually, an earthquake is strong enough to cause damage only near its epicenter. However, epicenters at the bottom of the ocean create huge sea waves as tall as 15 meters. These waves cross the ocean in several hours. Rushing toward land, they destroy small islands and ships in their path. When they hit land, they flood coastal areas far from the epicenter of the earthquake. In 1868, a wave reached 4. 5 kilometers inland in Peru. In 1896, a wave in Japan killed 27,000 people. After an earthquake happens, people can die from lack of food, water and medical sup plies. The amount of destruction caused by an earthquake depends on where it happens, what time it happens,, and how strong it is. It also depends on types of buildings, soil conditions, and population. Of the 6,000 earthquakes in the world each year, only about fifteen cause great damage and many deaths. In 1556, an earthquake in northern China killed 830,000 people--the most in history. There was'' no way to measure its strength. In 1935, scientists started using the Richter Scale to measure seismic waves. A seriously destructive earthquake measures 6.5 or higher on the Richter Scale. How can scientists predict earthquakes? Earthquakes are not just scattered anywhere but happen in certain areas, places where pieces of the earth'' s surface meet. This pattern causes them to shake the same places many times. For example, earthquakes often occur on the west coasts of North and South America, around the Mediterranean Sea, and along the Pacific coast of Asia. Another way to predict earthquakes is to look for changes in the earth'' s surface, like a sudden drop of water level in the ground. Some people say animals can predict earthquakes. Before earthquakes, people have seen chickens sitting in trees, fish jumping out of the water, snakes leaving their holes, and other animals acting strangely. On February 4, 1975, scientists predicted an earthquake in northeastern China and told people in the earthquake zone to leave the cities. More than a million people moved into the surrounding countryside, into safe, open fields away from buildings. That afternoon, the ground rolled and shook beneath the people'' s feet. In seconds, 90 percent of the buildings in the city of Haicheng were destroyed. The decision to tell the people to leave the cities saved 10,000 lives. However, more than a year later, on July 28,1976, the scientists were not so lucky. East of Beijing, Chinese scientists were discussing a possible earthquake. During their meeting, the worst earthquake in modern times hit. Estimates of deaths ranged from 250,000 to 695,000. The earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter Scale. Earthquakes often come together with volcanic eruptions. In late 1984, strong earthquakes began shaking the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in the Colombia every day. On November 14,1985, it erupted. A nearby river became a sea of mud that buried four towns. This disaster killed more than 2,100 people. Mexico City has frequent earthquakes. An earthquake there on September 19,1985, measured 8.1 on the Richter Scale and killed 8,100 people. Most victims died when buildings fell on them. San Francisco, California, also has frequent earthquakes. However, newer buildings there are built to be safe in earthquakes. Therefore, when an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit northern California on October 17,1989, only 67 people were killed. The earth quake hit in the afternoon, when thousands of people were driving home from work. Freeways and bridges broke and fell. Buried under the layers of the Oakland Freeway, people were crushed in their flattened cars. Explosions sounded like thunder as older buildings seemed to burst apart along with the freeways. As the electric power lines broke from the falling bridges and buildings, the sky, covered with huge clouds of black dust, appeared to be filled with lightening. Water rushed into the streets from broken pipes and mixed with gas from broken gas lines, causing more explosions. Emergency workers had to cope with medical problems. Everyone worked together to save survivors and comfort victims. The next day, the disaster sites looked terrible. Victims couldn''t find their houses, their cars, or even their streets. Boats were destroyed, and debris (残骸，碎片) covered the surface of the sea. There was no water, no electricity, no telephone, only the smell of garbage floating in melted ice in refrigerators open to the sun. Losses and property damage from the earthquake amounted to millions of dollars. Seismology (地震学) is the study of earthquakes, and a seismologist is a scientist who observes earthquakes. Seismologists have given us valuable knowledge about earthquakes. Their equipment measures the smallest vibration on the surface of the earth. They are trying to find ways to use knowledge about earthquakes to save lives and to help solve the world'' s energy shortage. The earth'' s natural activity underground creates energy in the form of heat. Geothermal means earth heat. This geothermal energy could be useful. However, if we take natural hot water out of the earth in earthquake zones, we might cause earthquakes. People live in earthquake zones because of natural beauty, productive soil, and large existing centers of population. However, people who live there should expect earthquakes. They should be prepared to protect their lives and property. They must build safer buildings and roads. Hospitals and electric power stations must be built as far as possible from probable earth quake sites. When an earthquake starts, people must run to open ground or stay in protected areas like doorways even bathtubs. If seismologists could predict earthquakes, we could save about 20,000 human lives each year. Humans can control many things about nature, but we cannot control earthquakes.

阅读理解Stock, in business and finance, is a share of ownership in a corporation. Shares in a corporation can be bought and sold, usually on a public stock exchange. Consequently, the owner of shares can realize a profit or capital gain if the stock is sold at a price above what the owner originally paid for it. Some companies enable stockholders to share in the profits of the company. These payments of corporate profits to stockholders are called dividends. In addition to having a claim on company profits, stockholders are entitled to share in the sale of the company if it is dissolved. They may also vote in person or by proxy on a variety of corporate matters, including the most important matter of who should run the corporation. When the company issues new stock, stockholders have priority to buy a certain number of shares before they are offered for public sale. Stockholders also receive periodic reports, usually quarterly, that provide information regarding the corporation''s business performance. Stocks generally are negotiable, which means stockholders have the right to assign or transfer their shares to another individual. A stockholder is considered a business owner and has the protection of limited liability under United States laws. Limited liability means that a stockholder is not personally liable for the debts of the corporation. The most a stockholder can lose if the company fails is the amount of his or her investment -- what he or she originally paid for the stock. This arrangement differs from that of other forms of business organization, which are known as sole proprietorships and partnerships. These business owners are personally liable for the debts of their businesses. Corporations have good reasons to issue stocks. They issue stock in order to finance their business activities. This method of raising funds is only available to business firms organized as corporations; it is not available to sole proprietorships and partnerships. The corporation can use the proceeds of a stock offering in a variety of ways. Depending on the type of company, this might involve increasing research and development operations, purchasing new equipment, opening new facilities or improving old ones, or hiring new employees. An alternative to stock financing is debt financing or the sale of bonds, an interest-bearing loan. This alternative is also available to sole proprietorships and partnerships. With the issuance of a bond a company typically promises to make periodic interest payments to the lender or bondholder as well as pay back the amount of the bond when the term of the bond comes to an end. Thus bonds are evidence of loans while stocks are evidence of ownership. Stocks and bonds are collectively known as securities. When a corporation first makes stock available for public purchase, it works with an investment banking firm to arrange an initial public offering (IPO). The investment bank acquires the first issue of stocks from the corporation at a negotiated price, and then makes the shares available for sale to its clients and other investors. A corporation can only have one IPO -- the first time it makes stock available to the public. After its IPO, a company is said to be public. Public corporations that need additional financing for further business development may choose to issue more stock at a later time. This is called a subsequent, or follow-on, offering. Some corporations may choose not to go public. In this case it is said to be a privately held corporation. A corporation may elect to remain private because it docs not want to share its profits, or it may not want to give up control to shareholders. Most of the information reported in the daily news media about the buying and selling of stock refers to transactions involving previously issued stock. The daily buying and selling of stock rarely involves IPOs. Almost all stock transactions are "second-hand transactions." The corporation that initially issued the stock is not directly involved. A corporation''s capitalized value refers to the market value of the stock that it has issued and that remains outstanding -- that is, available for sale or purchase. A corporation'' s capitalized value may be greater or less than its book value. Book value is the value of the corporation'' s assets as reflected in its accounting statements -- that is, on its books. Capitalized value may also be greater or less than the corporation''s replacement value, the amount that it would take to replace all of the corporation''s assets. Corporations will sometimes split their stock. This means the corporation replaces outstanding shares with new shares on some multiple basis, such as a two-for-one or three for-one split. When a corporation splits its stock, it does not obtain any new funding. Splits usually occur when the market price of shares is deemed too high by corporate management. With a split the price of shares falls, making purchase by smaller investors more affordable. Keeping a stock relatively affordable for smaller investors makes it easier for a corporation to raise money with a follow-on stock offering. Why People Buy Stock? Economic gain represents the primary motive for the purchase of stock. The gain or return from stock consists of two parts: dividends, the periodic payments made from profits, and appreciation, the capital gain realized from selling a stock for more than its purchase price. An investor really has only two choices in acquiring the financial assets of a corporation -- buying stocks or bonds. As a financial claim against a company, bonds take precedence over all types of stock. Thus, they are a safer investment than stocks, especially in times of deflation (a period when the prices of goods and services are generally falling). Stocks, however, are usually the better investment during periods of inflation (a period when the prices of goods and services are generally rising) because they represent ownership of assets that will probably rise in value as fast as or faster than prices in general. Bemuse the dollar value of bonds is fixed, they cannot serve as a hedge or protection against inflation as do common stocks.

阅读理解Rapid Police Response Police departments in the United States and Canada see it as central to their role that they respond to calls for help as quickly as possible. This ability to react fast has been greatly improved with the aid of technology. The telephone and police radio, already long in use, assist greatly in the reduction of police response time. In more recent times there has been the introduction of the ''911'' emergence system, which allows the public easier and faster contact with police, and the use of police computer system, which assist police in planning patrols and assigning emergency requests to the police officers nearest to the scene of the emergency. An important part of police strategy, rapid police response is seen by police officers and the public alike as offering tremendous benefits. The more obvious ones are the ability of police to apply first-aid life-saving techniques quickly and the greater likelihood of arresting people who may have participated in a crime. It aids in identifying those who witnessed an emergency or crime, as well as in collecting evidence. The overall reputation of a police department, too, is enhanced if rapid response is consistent, and this in itself promotes the prevention of crime. Needless to say, rapid response offers the public some degree of satisfaction in its police force. While these may be the desired consequences of rapid police response, actual research has not shown it to be quite so beneficial. For example, it has been demonstrated that rapid response leads to a greater likelihood of arrest only if responses are on the order of 1-2 minutes after a call is received by the police. When response times increase to 3-4 minutes — still quite a rapid response — the likelihood of an arrest is substantially reduced. Similarly, in identifying witnesses to emergencies or crimes, police are far more likely to be successful if they arrive at the scene no more than four minutes, on average, after receiving call for help. Yet both police officers and the public define "rapid response" as responding up to 10-12 minutes after calling the police for help. Should police assume all the responsibility for ensuring a rapid response? Studies have shown that people tend to delay after an incident occurs before contacting the police. A crime victim may be injured and thus unable to call for help, for example, or no telephone may be available at scene of the incident. Often, however, there is no such physical barrier to calling the police. Indeed, it is very common for crime victims to call their parents, their minister, or even their insurance company first. When the police are finally called in such case, the effectiveness of even the most rapid of responses is greatly diminished. The effectiveness of rapid response also needs to be seen in light of the nature of the crime. For example, when someone rings the police after discovering their television set has been stolen from their home, there is little point, in terms of identifying those responsible for the crime, in ensuring a very rapid response. It is common in such burglary or theft cases that the victim discovers the crime hours, days, even weeks after it has occurred. When the victim is directly involved in the crime, however, as in the case of a robbery, rapid response, provided the victim was quickly able to contact the police, is more likely to be advantageous. Based on statistics comparing crimes that are discovered and those in which the victim is directly involved, Spelman and Brown (1981) suggest that three in four calls to police need not be met with rapid response. It becomes clear that the importance of response time in collecting evidence or catching criminals after a crime must be weighed against a variety of factors. Yet because police department officials assume the public strongly demands rapid response, they believe that every call to the police should be met with it. Studies have shown, however, that while the public wants quick response, more important is the information given by the police to the person asking for help. If a caller is told the police will arrive in five minutes but in fact it takes ten minutes or more, waiting the extra time can be extremely frustration. But if a caller is told he or she will have to wait 10 minutes and the police indeed arrive within that time, the caller is normally satisfied. Thus, rather than emphasizing rapid response, the focus of energies should be on establishing realistic expectations in the caller and making every attempt to meet them.

阅读理解Considered as a continuous body of fluid? the atmosphere is another kind of ocean. Yet, in view of the total amount of rain and snow on land areas in the course of the year, one of the most amazing water facts is the very small amount of water in the atmosphere at any given time. The volume of the lower seven miles of the atmosphere—the realm of weather events—is roughly four times the volumes of the world''s oceans. But the atmosphere contains little water. It is chiefly in the form of invisible vapor, some of which is carried over land by air currents. If all the vapor suddenly fell from the air onto the earth''s surface, it would form a layer only about one inch thick. A heavy rainstorm on a given area may use up only a small percentage of the water from the air mass that passes over. How, then, can some land areas receive more than 400 inches of rain per year? How can several inches of rain fall during a single storm in a few minutes of hours? The answer is that rain-yielding air masses are in motion, and as the driving air mass moves on, new moist air takes its place. The basic source of most water vapor is the ocean. Evaporation, vapor transport, and rainfall make up the continuous movement of water from ocean to atmosphere, to land and back to the sea. Rivers return water to the sea. In an underground area of the cycle, flowing bodies of water discharge some water directly into rivers and some directly to the sea.

阅读理解What does the author about retired people today?

阅读理解It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don''t, and if you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat and promptly useful bits. The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment (启蒙运动) to be told by any of us how little we know and how confusing seems the way ahead . It is this sudden confrontation (对抗) with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of 20th century science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up storied to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant, the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted. But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably no questions we can think up that can''t be answered, sooner or later, including even the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions we can''t think up, ever, and therefore, limits to the reach of human intellect, but that is another matter. Within our limits we should be able to work our way through to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.

阅读理解China to Quicken the Pace of Urbanization China expects to quicken the pace of urbanization during the next 15 years, with the urbanization rate rising from the present 30 percent to 50 percent. Cities are playing the role of the engine of economic growth. Windows of Reform and Opening Chinese cities have been serving as the windows of reform and opening-up. In 1979, the Chinese Government designated the four cities of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen as special economic zones, launching the opening-up program in China. In 1984, some 14 coastal port cities (Tianjin, Shanghai, Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang and Beihai) were cited as coastal open cities. In 1985 , the 51 counties and cities in the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas and the Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou triangle area in south Fujian Province were designated as coastal economic open areas. In 1988, the coastal economic open areas were extended to the Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong Peninsula and other cities and counties in coastal areas. Soon afterwards, the Hainan Special Economic Zone was established. As a result, an opening-up pattern was initially formed in coastal areas, comprising special economic zones, coastal open cities and coastal economic open areas. The coastal open areas, covering 426,000 square km of land area, embrace 293 counties and cities with a combined population of 280 million. The momentum of opening-up with the focus on cities was maintained in the 1990s. In 1990, the Government approved the opening and development of the Pudong New Area in Shanghai, spurring the progress of China''s largest city. In 1992, in the wake of Deng Xiaoping''s inspection tour of south China, the Chinese Government opened all inland provincial capital cities, some cities along the Yangtze River ( Wuhu, Jiujiang, Huang-shi, Yueyang and Chongqing) and the Three Gorges reservoir area, as well as 13 border cities in Jilin, Heilongjiang and Yunnan provinces, and Inner Mongolian, Xinjiang Uygur and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions. Over the past 20 years, Chinese cities have consistently stood on the front-line of reform and opening-up , playing the role of windows in opening the market, learning from modern management expertise and importing advanced technology. Propelling Economic Growth China''s economic reform, which began in rural areas, has been gradually introduced to the cities. Now, centering on the cities, the reform focuses on replacing the planned economic structure with a market economic structure, with the goal of establishing a socialist market economy. The urban economy mainly relies on secondary and tertiary industries, which feature concentrated enterprises and fairly high labor productivity. The cities, therefore, represent the most dynamic force in the national economy. Between 1988-1996, the GDP of Chinese cities registered an average annual increase of 18 percent, with the growth rate exceeding 28 percent between 1992 and 1994. In 1998, the GDP of Chinese cities reached 5 ,896. 2 billion yuan, accounting for 74. 1 percent of the national total. At present, the main task for China''s macro-economic control is to expand domestic demand. Obviously, the main force for accomplishing this task lies in the cities. According to statistics, with the fast growth of the income of urban residents, the urban consumption level has increased rapidly, with the a-mount of consumption of each urban resident equaling that of three rural inhabitants. In addition, China''s urban infrastructure construction requires tremendous investment. According to statistics, 400 billion yuan is required for the construction of urban roads, 30 billion yuan for sewage treatment facilities if the existing handling rate increases from 10 percent to 30 percent, and 20 billion yuan for garbage disposal to increase the current handling rate from 50 percent to 80 percent. Experts estimate that for every 1-percentage-point growth in the proportion of urban population, the volume of social retail sales and the GDP will rise by 1. 4 percentage points and 0. 4 percentage point respectively. This demonstrates the important role played by cities in advancing the national economy. The Wonder of Shenzhen Industrialization is of cardinal importance to the urbanization process of various countries worldwide. Equally, urbanization also helps quicken the pace of industrialization. Urbanization not only provides greater market demands for industrialization, but also helps raise the ratio of the secondary and tertiary industries in the economic structure, thereby propelling the process of industrialization of a country as a whole. In China, the development of Shenzhen and other newly emerging cities has followed the aforementioned course. In the early days of reform and opening-up, Shenzhen was merely a small town neighboring Hong Kong. Supported by the Government''s preferential policies, Shenzhen, relying on its favorable geographical location, absorbed huge amounts of overseas capital and began its process of urbanization, along with the gradual dwindling of the primary industry and the expansion of processing industries. The development of urbanization has attracted large quantities of labor force and capital and many talented people, and promoted urban infrastructure construction and environmental improvement, thus quickening the pace of urbanization. The development of the city has attracted more human talents, and diversified its city function from a simple processing industry base to a financial and trade center. To meet the expanded market and consumption demand, the city has developed electronic, manufacturing and service industries, which has readjusted and optimized its industrial structure and further advanced the progress of industrialization. Shenzhen, which formerly had a population of 23 ,000 and a land area of 3 square km, has grown into a large city, with its total land area reaching 101 square km, combined population exceeding 1. 08 million (789,100 of non-agricultural population) , and a GDP hitting 95 billion yuan in 1996. Compared with 1979, in 1991, the city''s GDP, industrial added value, social retail sales and export volume rose by 44 percent, 65. 5 percent, 41. 8 percent and 63. 7 percent respectively. In 1979, the city used US $ 15. 37 million of foreign capital and registered US $ 16. 76 million in import and export volume. In 1995, the amount of these two items soared to US $ 1. 74 billion and US $ 38. 77 billion respectively, ranking first in China, and the city''s per-capita GDP reached 2,338 yuan, which also came first in the country, thus creating a wonder in China''s history of development. East-West Gaps At present, the urbanization rate on the Pearl River Delta that has a fairly high industrialization level is 38.3 percent, greatly exceeding China''s average of 30.04 percent. In this area, there is a city on each 2,700 square km of land. In 1995, the eastern region, which accounts for 13.5 percent of the country''s total land area, had a city on each 4,600 square km of land. In the western region, which accounts for 56.3 percent of the country''s land area, there was only a city on each 47,800 square km of land. This increased the 1990 gap between the eastern and western regions in the density of cities by 2.3 percentage points to more than 10 fold.

阅读理解Most doctors are too optimistic in predicting how long dying patients have to live, and this has a (47)______ effect on the care they receive in their final days. A study by scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois showed that of the survival estimates for 486 terminally ill patients given by 343 doctors, only 20 percent were (48)______. Sixty-three percent of the predictions (49)______ the time patients had left, and in some cases doctors predicted patients had five times longer to live than proved to be the case. "Doctors are inaccurate in their prognoses (预测性诊断) for terminally ill patients and the error is systematically optimistic," Professor Nicholas Christakis and Dr Elizabeth Lamont said in a report in The British Medical Journal. The researchers added that doctors who knew their patients best were more (50)______ to get it wrong. " Although some error is (51)______, the type of systematic bias toward optimism that we have found in doctors'' objective prognostic (52)______ may be adversely (有害的) affecting patient care, "the researchers added. Instead of receiving three months of hospice care(晚期住院治疗), which is considered to be the i-deal, many patients (53)______ only one month''s care because of the optimistic prognosis. Patients who thought they had longer to live also opted for more (54)______ treatment instead of palliative (平缓的) care, the report said. The researchers suggested doctors should get second opinions from colleagues, particularly if they know a (55)______ well, before giving a prognosis. "Reliable prognostic information is a key (56) in both doctors and patients'' decision making," they added. WORD BANK A) likely B) positive C) accurate D) assignments E) unavoidable F) objective G) patient H) assessments I) evaluated J) received K) negative L) aggressive M) determinant N) estimated O) overestimated

阅读理解Aging happens to all of us ,and is generylly thought of as a natural part of life. It would seem silly to call such a thing a quot;diseasequot;.on the other hand,scientists are increasingly learning that aging and biological age are two different things,and that the former is a key risk factor for conditions such as heart disease,cancer and many more. in that light,aging itself might be seen as something treatable, the way you would treat high blood pressure or a vitamin deficiency.Biophysicist alex zhavoronkov believes that aging should be considered a disease. he said that describing aging as a disease creates incentives to develop treatments.quot;It unties the hands of the pharmaceutical(制药的)industry so that they can begin treating the disease and not just the side effects, quot;he said.quot;Right now, people think of aging as natural and something you can#39;t control quot;he said. quot;in academic circles, people take aging research as just an interest area where they can try to develop interventions. the medical community also takes aging for granted, and can do nothing about it except keep people within a certain health range.quot;But if aging were recognized as a disease, he said, quot;it would attract funding and change the way we do health care. what matters is understanding that aging is curable. quot;quot;it was always known that the body accumulates damage, quot;he added. quot;the only way to cure aging is to find ways to repair that damage. i think of it as preventive medicine for age-related conditions.Leonard hayflick, a professor at the university of califomia, san francisco, said the idea that aging can be cured implies the human lifespan can be increased, which some researchers suggest is possible. hayflick is not among them.quot; There #39;re many people who recover from cancer, stroke or heart disease. but they continue to age, because aging is separate from their disease, quot; said.quot;even if those causes of death were eliminated, life expectancy would still not go much beyond 92 years.quot;

阅读理解Euro(欧元) National currencies are vitally important to the way modern economies operate. They allow us to consistently express the value of an item across'' borders of countries, oceans, and cultures. Wealth can be easily stored or transported as currency. Currencies are also deeply embedded in our cultures and our psyche. Think about how familiar you are with the price of things. If you''ve grown up in the United States, you think of everything in "dollars," just like you think about distances in inches and miles. On January 1, 2002, the euro became the single currency of 12 member states of the European Union. This will make it the second largest currency in the world, (the U.S. dollar being the largest). It will also be the largest currency event in the history of the world. Twelve national currencies will evaporate (蒸发) and be replaced by the euro. Designing the Euro The European Commission (EC) was given the task of creating the euro symbol as part of its communications work. There were three things the design had to accomplish: It had to be easily recognized. It had to be easily written by hand. It had to be pleasing to look at. The EC had more than 30 designs drawn up. They selected 10 from those and let the public vote, which narrowed those 10 down to two. From them they made their final selection. The design ''that was selected is based on the Greek letter epsilon, and also resembles the "e" as the first letter of the word "Europe. " The two parallel lines through the center of the "c" represent stability. Where Did the Idea Come From? The original seed was planted in 1946 when Winston Churchill suggested the creation of the "United States of Europe." His goals were primarily political, in that he hoped a unified government would bring about peace for a continent that had been torn apart by two world wars. Then, in 1952, six west-European countries took Churchill''s suggestion and created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). These resources were quite strategic to the power of each country, so a requirement of the ECSC was that each country allows their resources to be controlled by an independent authority. Their goal, just as Churchill had intended, was to help prevent military conflict between France and Germany. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed, declaring the goal of creating a common European market. It was signed by France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. After many false starts, the process of creating the Euro got its real start in 1989, when the Delors Report was published by Jacques Delors, president of the European Commission. This important report outlined a three-stage transition (过渡) plan that would create a single European Currency. Planning the Transition As outlined in the Delors Report, the transition to a single European courtesy followed a three-stage plan: Stage one began on July 1, 1990, and immediately abolished (废止) (at least in principle.) all restrictions on the movement of capital between the member states. It also began the identification of issues that needed to be dealt with and the development of a working program to implement the . upcoming changes. Stage two began on January 1, 1994, and marked the establishment of the European Monetary Institute (EMI). The EMI was responsible for coordinating the monetary policy and strengthening the cooperation of the central banks, as well as making preparations for the establishment of the European System of Central Banks, which included the single monetary policy and single currency. In December 1995, the European Heads of State or Government at the European Council meeting in Madrid voted on the name "euro" for the single currency of the European Monetary Union. Stage three began on January 1, 1999, with the establishment of "irrevocably fixed exchange rates" of the currencies of the current 11 member states. At this point, the euro was the official currency of those countries, but could only be used in non-cash transactions such as electronic transfers, credit, etc. Economic Requirements for Participation In addition to the membership requirements of the EU, countries who wished to participate in the euro and be a part of "Euroland" had to pass some economic tests referred to as convergence criteria: The country''s annual government budget deficit (赤子) cannot exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP, the total output of the economy). The total outstanding government debt (the cumulative (累积的) total of each year''s budget deficit) cannot exceed 60 percent of GDP. In order to push down inflation rates and encourage more stable prices, the country''s rate of inflation must be within 1.5 percent of the three best performing EU countries. The average nominal long-term interest rate must be within 2 percent of the average rate in the three countries with the lowest inflation rates. (Interest rates are measured on the basis of long-term government bonds and/or comparable securities.) The country''s exchange rates must stay within "normal" fluctuation margins of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) for at least two years. While there was much debate over how strictly these requirements must be upheld, it was finally determined that participating countries must show that they are at least "on course" to meet the requirements. Meeting the initial requirements, however, is not a one-time thing. The Stability and Growth Pact, which was drafted in 1996, established an agreement stating that fines would be charged to countries who have excessive deficits. Member states cannot run a budget deficit that is greater than 3.0 percent of the GDP. If they do, they will be charged 0.2 percent of their GDP, plus 0.1 percent of the GDP for every percentage point of deficit above 3. 0 percent. The Pact does not automatically impose these fines, however. Countries that are in recession (不景气), which is defined as a fall by at least 2.0 percent for four fiscal quarters, may automatically be exempt (免除). A fall by any amount from 0.75 to 2.0 percent requires a vote by the EU to impose the fine. While the Pact is structured as a stabilizer for the economy, there are still those who argue that it can be damaging to economies in that governments can adopt a loose fiscal stance during times of fast growth, but put the brakes on excessively during slowdowns. Implementing the Changeover On January 1, 1999, the euro was established as the official currency of the 12 participating member states of the European Union. The conversion rates (汇价) were "irrevocably fixed," and the euro officially "existed. " At that point, the euro could be used for non-cash transactions, such as making electronic payments, writing checks, or credit transactions. Although this sounds confusing, in most cases the balances were shown both in the national currency as well as in the converted euro amounts. The currency changed, but because of the established conversion rate, the value remained the same. The euro currency was introduced on January 1, 2002. Some countries had slightly different schedules for the end of circulation of their existing national currency. When items ''were purchased with national currency, the change was given in euros. Exchange of cash was also done in banks." Automated teller machines (ATMs) began distributing only euros on January 1, 2002. During the "dual circulation period," until the final deadlines were reached for changeover, both national currencies and the euro were accepted, but after that point only the euro was acceptable legal tender. Banks will still be able to exchange old currency for new currency until approximately 2012.

阅读理解 If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky. If you say to your children “I''m sorry I got angry with you, but …” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology. Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I''m sorry you''re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done. Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I''m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement. These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies. But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children''s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent''s clothes without permission is not. If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky. If you say to your children “I''m sorry I got angry with you, but …” what follows that “but” can render the apology ineffective: “I had a bad day” or “your noise was giving me a headache” leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology. Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say “I''m sorry you''re upset”; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done. Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying “I''m useless as a parent” does not commit a person to any specific improvement. These pseudo-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness, Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies. But even when presented with examples of genuine contrition, children still need help to become a ware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old might need reminding that spoiling other children''s expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that raiding the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent''s clothes without permission is not. 文章大意：议论文。本文围绕如何向别人道歉展开议论。文章首段提出论点：怎样道歉是十分微妙的，需谨慎对待。第二段到第三段分别列举了三种人们十分常用却起不到效果的道歉方式来支持中心论点。第四段对以上三段的内容进行总结。最后一段起到递进作用，阐明了教孩子道歉还要考虑到他们的年龄。