单选题In English Civil War, also called the Puritan Revolution, a famous general ______ defeated the king at Naseby in 1645.

单选题Mark Twain"s instructions were quite clear: his autobiography was to remain unpublished until 100 years after his death. You couldn"t imagine a writer doing something like that these days. Who could resist a pay cheque in the here and now for deferred immortality in the hereafter? More to the point, could any modern writer be certain their lives would still be interesting to anyone so long after their death? Hubris never came into Twain"s calculations. He was the American writer, the rags-to-riches embodiment of the American dream, and it never seems to have occurred to him that his popularity would fade. Nor has it. He is still the writer before whom everyone from Faulkner to Mailer has knelt. And even though his literary executors might not have followed his instructions to the letter — various chunks of his autobiography have been published over the years — this year"s publication of the first of three planned collections of Twain"s full autobiographical writings to coincide with the centenary of his death has still been one of the literary events of the year. Still more remarkable is that Twain"s reputational longevity is based on so few books. As John Sutherland, emeritus Lord Northcliffe professor of English at University College London, points out, " Huckleberry Finn has been largely off-limits in American schools and colleges because of Twain"s use of the word "nigger", so most readers only know him for his aphorisms and Tom Sawyer . Dickens published 12 novels, any one of which can be argued to vindicate his status as Britain"s greatest. Where are Twain"s dozen? What makes him the "father" of American fiction?" Sutherland suggests the answer lies in voice, eye and attitude. Twain was a gifted public speaker; he tamed literature into something that was heard as well as seen; and cast himself as an innocent, with a decidedly bitter, feisty gaze on the rest of the world. "Take these three elements," he says, "and, as Hemingway argued, you have the essence of a national literature. After Twain, no one could dismiss it as "English literature written in America". It was itself." And it"s the voice that shines through his autobiography. Harriet Smith, editor of the Mark Twain Project, says, "What we get is him speaking to us from beyond the grave; even in the passages that seem quite boring his appeal still resonates for the infelicities — rather than being a flaw — are a window into how he thought and what jogged his memory." Above all, there is no linear narrative. He first toyed with the idea of writing his autobiography in the 1870s but abandoned the idea because he couldn"t find a way of telling the truth about himself. Finally, after the death of his wife, Olivia, in 1904, he came up with two solutions. The first — almost certainly borrowed from the Freudian psychoanalytic model of free association — was to dictate his thoughts to a stenographer; for 15 minutes each day he would start by deliberating on an item of news that had captured his attention and see where it led. The second was to self-impose a 100-year rule, so that by the time any judgment was passed he would be "dead, unaware and indifferent". Not that any of this necessarily had the desired effect. "If you"re relying on memory," says novelist Michael Frayn, "how — even with the best of intentions — can you distinguish between what you remember and what you make up? A biographer can seek corroboration elsewhere; a personal memoir does not have that advantage." Biographer Claire Tomalin takes this further, "Any journal that is intended for publication — even in 100 years" time — is probably in some way compromised. The only person I can think of who got close to an unexpurgated truth is Samuel Pepys, and that"s because his diaries were never meant to be read." Blake Morrison, whose two memoirs of the lives — and as importantly — deaths of both his parents were both bestsellers, concludes that a writer can only tell his or her truth and that you just have to accept it may not be someone else"s. "I did make some compromises," he says. "I gave the manuscript of When Did You Last See Your Father ? to my mother to read and made a number of small changes — including concealing the fact she was a Catholic — she requested." "But I wasn"t conscious of deliberately suppressing anything. In fact, the reverse. Sometimes it"s easier to say something on the page rather than in person: I certainly got a few odd looks in the office the week after the book was published and everyone had read "that" passage about me masturbating in the bath." You certainly won"t find anything like that in the Twain autobiography. Indeed, he as good as admitted that in many instances he didn"t even try to tell the cruel truth when he wrote that he could think of 1,500 incidents which he was ashamed of and had not put to paper. Twain understood the value of his image and went to some lengths to protect it. Some of the more fascinating passages in the autobiography are those that have been crossed out. These are, more often than not, the ones about which he was particularly sensitive. And they aren"t to do with the personal, such as his feelings of loss over the deaths of his wife and daughter, Susy, or his suspicions about being financially ripped off by his manager, Ralph Ashcroft, and his secretary, Isabel Lyon. They are about the abstract. Such as religion. "There are some extracts, including one in which he confuses the Virgin birth and the Immaculate Conception, in which he declares his religious scepticism robustly, about which Twain was extremely nervous," says Smith. "He was so worried he would be ostracised and shunned for this by God-fearing Americans that he actually set a publication date of 2406 for those sections." Imagine. A man so protective and nervous of his own reputation that he sought to keep some of the ideas he thought might alienate his public silent for 500 years. Yet equally a man so sure of his reputation that he had no doubts people would still want to read him 500 years after his death. There, in essence, is Twain"s ambivalence between the public and the private, between truth and spin. Needless to say, his executors didn"t adhere to the 500-year diktat and the American public continue to adore him regardless. Then Twain being Twain, he"d have hardly expected anything less.

单选题In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true gladiators. We're pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT prep courses and build resumes so they can get' into the college of our first choice. We say our motives are selfless and sensible. A degree from Stanford or Princeton is the ticket for life. If Aaron and Nicole don't get in, they' re forever doomed Gosh, we're delusional. I've twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. It's one-upmanship among parents. We see our kids' college pedigrees as trophies attesting to how well or how poorly we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford. Admissions anxiety afflicts only a minority of parents. It's true that getting into college has generally become tougher because the number of high-school graduates has grown. From 1994 to 2006, the increase is 28 percent. Still, 64 percent of freshmen attend schools where acceptance rates exceed 70 percent, and the application surge at elite schools dwarfs population growth. We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough trophies to go around. Fearful parents prod their children to apply to more schools than ever. "The epicenters of parental anxiety used to be on the coasts: Boston, New York, Washington Los Angeles," says Tom Parker, Amherst's admissions dean. "But it's radiated throughout the country. " Underlying the hysteria is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that's plausible—and mostly wrong. "We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters," says Ernest T. Pascarella of the University of Iowa, co-author of How College Affects Students, an 827-page evaluation of hundreds of studies of the college experience. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less-selective schools, according to a study by Pascarella and George Kuh of Indiana University. Some do; some don't. On two measures—professors' feedback and the number of essay exams—selective schools do Slightly worse. By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates' lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2 percent to 4 percent for every 100-point increase in a school's average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke. A well-known study by Princeton economist Alan Krueger and Stacy Berg Dale of Mathematica Policy Research examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status Schools. Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it's not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college isn't life's only competition. In the next competition—the job market, graduate school—the results may change. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the Graduate Record Exam helped explain who got in; Ivy League degrees didn' t. So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated. up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study of students 20 years out found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints. What fires parents' fanaticism is their self-serving desire to announce their own success. Many succumb; I did. I located my ideal school for my daughter. She got in and went elsewhere. Take that, Dad. I located the ideal school for my son. Heck, he wouldn't even visit the place. Pow, Dad. They both love their schools and seem amply stimulated. Foolish Dad.

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单选题In her novel of "Reunion, American Style", Rona Jaffe suggests that a class reunion "is more than a sentimental journey. It is also a way of answering the question that lies at the back of nearly all our minds. Did they do better than I?" Jaffe's observation may be misplaced but not completely lost. According to a study conducted by social psychologist Jack Sparacino, the overwhelming majority who attend reunions aren't there invidiously to compare their recent accomplishments with those of their former classmates. Instead, they hope, primarily, to relive their earlier successes. Certainly, a few return to show their former classmates how well they have done; others enjoy observing the changes that have occurred in their classmates (not always in themselves, of course). But the majority who attend their class reunions do so to relive the good times they remember having when they were younger. In his study, Sparacino found that, as high school students, attendees had been more popular, more often regarded as attractive, and more involved in extracurricular activities than those dassmates who chose not to attend. For those who turned up at their reunions, then, the old times were also the good times! It would appear that Americans have a special fondness for reunions, judging by their prevalence. Major league baseball players, fraternity members, veterans groups, high school and college graduates, and former Boy Scouts all hold reunions on a regular basis. In addition, family reunions frequently attract blood relatives from faraway places who spend considerable money and time to reunite. Actually, in their affection for reuniting with friends, family or colleagues, Americans are probably no different from any other people, except that Americans have created a mind-boggling number and variety of institutionalized forms of gatherings to facilitate the satisfaction of this desire. Indeed, reunions have increasingly become formal events that are organized on a regular basis and, in the process, they have also become big business. Shell Norris of Class Reunion, Inc., says that Chicago alone has 1,500 high school reunions each year. A conservative estimate on the national level would be 10,000 annually. At one time, all high school reunions were organized by volunteers, usually female homemakers. In the last few years, however, as more and more women have entered the labour force, alumni reunions are increasingly being planned by specialized companies rather than by part-time volunteers. The first college reunion was held by the alumni of Yale University in 1792. Graduates of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, and Brown followed suit. And by the end of the 19th century, most 4-year institutions were holding alumni reunions. The variety of college reunions is impressive. At Princeton, alumni parade through the town wearing their class uniforms and singing their alma mater. At Marietta College, they gather for a dinner-dance on a steamship cruising the Ohio River. Clearly, the thought of cruising on a steamship or marching through the streets is usually not, by itself, sufficient reason for large numbers of alumni to return to campus. Alumni who decide to attend their reunions share a common identity based on the years they spent together as undergraduates. For this reason, universities that somehow establish a common bond - for example, because they are relatively small or especially prestigious - tend to draw substantial numbers of their alumni to reunions. In an effort to enhance this common identity, larger colleges and universities frequently build their dass reunions on participation in smaller units, such as departments or schools. Or they encourage "affinity reunions" for groups of former cheerleaders, editors, hatemity members, musicians, members of military organizations on campus, and the like. Of course, not every alumnus is fond of his or her alma mater. Students who graduated during the late 1960s may be especially reluctant to get involved in alumni events. They were part of the generation that conducted sit-ins and teach-ins directed at university administrators, protested military recruitment on campus and marched against "establishment politics." If this generation has a common identity, it may fall outside of their university ties - or even be hostile to them. Even as they enter their middle years, alumni who continue to hold unpleasant memories of college during this period may not wish to attend class reunions.

单选题According to the passage, people may idealize the suburban life for all the reasons below EXCEPT that_________

单选题North America borders both the North ______ and the North ______.

单选题If Reno Preval's supporters exceeded 50~ of the total voters, he would A. surpass another candidate. B. be the president of Haiti. C. avoid a second round runoff. D. defeat his rival in the first round.

单选题AccordingtoEllen,theincreasingdemandforhiringisdueto

单选题Which category of writing does the text belong to?

单选题Most of the measures F.D. Roosevelt took in the first hundred days he was in the White House were to ______.A. stop bank failuresB. prevent radical actions in the United StatesC. prevent the further worsening of the economic situation and lessen the personal sufferings of the peopleD. prevent further worsening of the unstable political situation

单选题In the last paragraph the author cites the example of beautiful peacocks with gorgeous tails to mean ______.

单选题 No company likes to be told it is contributing to the moral decline of nation. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?" At Time Warner, however, such questions are simply the latest manifestation of the soul searching that has involved the company ever since the company was born in 1990. It a self-examination that has, at various times, involved issues of responsibility, creative freedom and the corporate bottom line. At the core of this debate is chairman Gerald Levin, 56, who took over for the late Steve Ross in 1992. On the financial front, Levin is under pressure to raise the stock price and reduce the company's mountainous debt, which will increase to ＄17.3 billion after two new cable deals close. He has promised to sell off some of the property and restructure the company, but investors are waiting impatiently. The flap over rap is not making life any easier for him. Levin has consistently defended the company's rap music on the grounds of expression. In 1992, when Time Warner was under fire for releasing Ice T's violent rap song Cop Killer, Levin described rap as a lawful expression of street culture, which deserves an outlet. "The test of any democratic society," he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be. We won't retreat in the face of any threats." Levin would not comment on the debate last week, but there were signs that the chairman was backing off his hard-line stand, at least to some extent. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders' meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students. But he talked as well about the "balanced struggle" between creative freedom and social responsibility, and he announced that the company would launch a drive to develop standards for distribution and labeling of potentially objectionable music. The 15-member Time Warner beard is generally supportive of Levin and his corporate strategy. But insiders say several of them have shown their concerns in this matter. "Some of us have known for many, many years that the freedoms under the First Amendment are not totally unlimited," says Lute. "I think it is perhaps the case that some people associated with the company have only recently come to realize this." (458 words)

单选题The Great Civil War, as it became known, was fought between ______.A. Royolists and Parliamentarians B. the House of Lancaster and the House of YorkC. king and church D. England and Scotland

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单选题By referring to Asheraft's attempt as a backdoor assault, the author means that ______.

单选题The natural environment has, of course, always conditioned technology. For example, the nature of an environment (polar, desert, jungle) engenders the development of technologies appropriate to that environ merit to enable man to adapt successfully to it. Further, emerging scarcity of some technological resource may ignite a research for, and gradual transition to, a new technology using resources present in the environment in greater abundance, as, for example, in the case of the gradual change from wood-based to coal-based technology in England that began in Elizabethan times and stretched until the end of the eighteenth century. In modem Western society, environment has begun to condition technology in new ways, although admittedly more indirectly. The safety and quality of the environment and public perceptions of it have begun to translate into presidential politics and congressional mandates to regulatory agencies to protect or enhance environmental quality or safety, occasionally even at the cost of some perturbation of the tech-economic stares quo. In France, Italy, and recently the United States, political parties have been formed, organized around a complex of technology / environment issues. In general, in the last fifteen years, the gradual development of broad-based environmental awareness, the lobbying and litigious activities of environmental interest groups, and guidelines issued and reinforced by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in response to congressional mandates have markedly increased the heed paid to the environment by many coq)orations in going about their technological activities. Both research and development priorities and capital investment programs of the corporations have been affected by this.

单选题Which conclusion drawn from the passage is NOT true?

单选题Canada's largest city is [A] Montreal. [B] Toronto. [C] Ottawa. [D] Vancouver.

单选题The idea that government should regulate intellectual property through copyrights and patents is relatively recent in human history, and the precise details of what intellectual property is protected for how long vary across nations and occasionally change. There are two standard sociological justifications for patents or copyrights: They reward creators for their labor, and they encourage greater creativity. Both of these are empirical claims that can be tested scientifically and could be false in some realms. Consider music. Star performers existed before the 20th century, such as Franz Liszt and Niccolo Paganini, but mass media produced a celebrity system promoting a few stars whose music was not necessarily the best or most diverse. Copyright provides protection for distribution companies and for a few celebrities, thereby helping to support the industry as currently defined, but it may actually harm the majority of performers. This is comparable to Anatole France's famous irony, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges." In theory, copyright covers the creations of celebrities and obscurities equally, but only major distribution companies have the resources to defend their property rights in court. In a sense, this is quite fair, because nobody wants to steal unpopular music, but by supporting the property rights of celebrities, copyright strengthens them as a class in contrast to anonymous musicians. Internet music file sharing has become a significant factor in the social lives of children, who download bootleg music tracks for their own use and to give as gifts to friends. If we are to believe one recent poll done by a marketing firm rather than social scientists, 48 of American Internet users aged 12 to 17 had downloaded music files in the past month. In so doing, they violate copyright laws, and criminologists would hypothesize they thereby learn contempt for laws in general. A poll by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that two-thirds of an estimated 35 million Americans who download music files do not care whether they are copyrighted. Thus, on the level of families, ending copyright could be morally as well as economically advantageous. On a much higher level, however, the culture-exporting nations (notably the United States) could stand to lose, although we cannot really predict the net balance of costs and benefits in the absence of proper research. We do not presently have good cross national data on file sharing or a well-developed theoretical framework to guide research on whether copyright protection supports cultural imperialism versus enhancing the positions of diverse cultures in the global marketplace. It will not be easy to test such hypotheses, and extensive economic research has not conclusively answered the question of whether the patent system really promotes innovation. We will need many careful, sharp-focus studies of well-formed hypotheses in specific industries and sectors of life. For example, observational and interview research can uncover the factors that really promote cultural innovation among artists of various kinds and determine the actual consequences for children of Internet peer-to-peer file sharing.