单选题One of the most promising methods of storing hydrogen fuel is ______.
单选题{{I}} In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen
carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to
each question on your answer sheet.{{/I}} {{I}}
Questions 6 and 7 are based on the following news. At the end of the news
item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the two questions. Now
listen to the news.{{/I}}
单选题{{B}}TEXT B{{/B}}
So far, inflation is roaring in only a few sectors
of the economy. While platinum has soared 121 percent, soybeans have risen 115
percent, and an index of Real Estate Investment Trusts has climbed 42 percent
since May 2001, the consumer price index (CPI) has gone up only 4.2 percent
during the same period. The challenge is figuring out what happens
next. Astute investors are asking two questions: 1) Will the
dollar continue to decline? 2) Which assets will continue to inflate?
The value of the dollar matters because much of what Americans buy comes
from abroad. And in the past two years, the dollar has been slipping badly: down
some 25 percent against a basket of foreign currencies, including the euro and
the yen. That makes imported goods more expensive. If the dollar falls further,
the rise in prices could boost inflation. And that's exactly
what some analysts predict. "This is not a run-of-the-mill problem where the
currency corrects 25 percent" then stabilizes, says David Tice, Dallas-based
manager of the Prudent Global Income Fund. "We have an economy that's very
dependent upon ever-increasing amounts of debt. Look at borrowing in this
country for automobiles and housing. At the federal level, we are creating
credit as if it is going out of style. Given that, we think the dollar can
decline substantially more from here." That's why Mr. Tice's
income fund has invested in government bonds in countries that are major trading
partners of the US. These bonds tend to increase in value as the dollar
weakens. There are other ways for investors to protect
themselves from inflation. For example: TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected
Securities) are US government bonds that increase both principal and interest
payments in line with the CPI/U, which measures prices for urban dwellers. Thus,
if the price of consumer goods goes up, TIPS owners get a boost in their rate of
return. That's a level of inflation protection that most bonds and money-market
funds don't provide. Still, there are no guarantees. If real
interest rates rise faster than inflation, TIPS can lose value if they're not
held to maturity. "TIPS have. generally been less volatile than traditional
bonds," but investors have already seen periods when their inflation-protection
doesn't match the actual rise in prices, warns Duane Cabrera, head of the
personal financial planning group at Vanguard, based in Valley Forge, Pa. For
example, the year-over-year change in the CPI/U is running about 1.9 percent, he
points out, but college costs have been rising about 5 percent
annually. Investors should also discuss the tax consequences
with their investment advisers, Mr. Cabrera notes. On the stock
front, investors can also turn to natural-resource stocks or mutual funds that
invest in them A slightly more exotic option: exchange-traded funds, which act
like mutual funds but trade like stocks. Commodities offer
another avenue for profit during inflationary times. Individual investors
probably want to avoid commodity trading, often a wild and woolly experience.
But certain mutual funds offer shareholders a chance to profit when commodity
prices go up. The PIMCO Commodity Real Return Fund, for example, provides
exposure to the performance of the Dow-Jones AIG Commodity Index while
generating income from TIPS. Another option: the Oppenheimer Real Asset Fund,
which is actively managed and tracks the Goldman Sachs Commodity
Index. There's no clear winner between these stock funds and the
commodities their companies have invested in. When commodity prices are falling,
natural-resource firms can protect themselves by hedging their risks, says Kevin
Baum, portfolio manager of the Oppenheimer Real Asset Fund. On the other hand,
hedging may keep them from benefiting when commodity prices rise. And the stocks
can be more volatile than the commodities themselves. Gold funds typically are
three times more volatile than the price of gold itself.
Sometimes, the commodities and funds tied to those commodities move in
opposite directions, Mr. Baum says. PIMCO's Mr. Harris is quick
to note that many commodity prices have been soaring. So the key question is:
Which ones will continue to rise in price? Individual investors should maintain
strict discipline when they pick commodities funds; he
says.
单选题
{{B}}TEXT A{{/B}} Educators are seriously
concerned about the high rate of dropouts among the doctors of philosophy
candidates and the consequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph.D.s. Some
have placed the dropouts' loss as high as 50 percent. The extent of the loss
was, however, largely a matter of expert guessing. Last week a well-rounded
study was published. It was published. It was based on 22,000 questionnaires
sent to former graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it
seemed to show many past fears to be groundless. The dropouts
rate was found to be 31 percent, and in most cases the dropouts, while not
completing the Ph.D. requirement, went on to productive work. They are not only
doing well financially, but, according to the report, are not far below the
income levels of those who went on to complete their doctorates.
Discussing the study last week, Dr. Tucker said the project was initiated
"because of the concern frequently expressed by graduate faculties and
administrators that some of the individuals who dropped out of Ph.D. programs
were capable of completing the requirement for the degree. Attrition at the
Ph.D. level is also thought to be a waste of precious faculty time and a drain
on university resources already being used to capacity. Some people expressed
the opinion that the shortage of highly trained specialists and college teachers
could be reduced by persuading the dropouts to return to graduate schools to
complete the Ph.D." "The results of our research" Dr. Tucker
concluded, "did not support these opinions." Lack of motivation was the
principal reason for dropping out. Most dropouts went as far in their doctoral
program as was consistent with their levels of ability or their specialties.
Most dropouts are now engaged in work consistent with their education and
motivation. Nearly 75 percent of the dropouts said there was no
academic reason for their decision, but those who mentioned academic reason
cited failure to pass the qualifying examination, uncompleted research and
failure to pass language exams. Among the single most important personal reasons
identified by dropouts for non-completion of their Ph.D. program, lack of
finances was marked by 19 percent. As an indication of how well
the dropouts were doing, a chart showed 2% in humanities were receiving $20,000
and more annually while none of the Ph.D. s with that background reached this
figure. The Ph.D. s shone in the $7,500 to $15,000 bracket with 78% at that
level against 50% for the dropouts. This may also be an indication of the fact
that top salaries in the academic fields, where Ph.D.s tend to rise to the
highest salaries, are still lagging behind other fields. As to
the possibility of getting dropouts back on campus, the outlook was glum. The
main condition which would have to prevail for at least 25% of the dropouts who
might consider returning to graduate school would be to guarantee that they
would retain their present level of income and in some cases their present
job.
单选题Touraine features all of the following except ______.
单选题In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and
then answer the questions that follow.
单选题The recent surge in oil prices to roughly $55 a barrel teaches some useful lessons. One is that surprises happen. A year ago futures contracts predicted today's price would be $25. A second is that the economy has grown less vulnerable to oil "shocks". Compared with 1973, we now use almost 50 percent less energy for each dollar of output. New industries (software, theme parks) need less than the old (steel, chemicals). But the largest lesson is depressingly familiar. Americans won't think realistically about oil. We consider cheap fuel a birthright, and when we don't get it, we whine—rather than ask why or what we should do. If prices rise, we blame a conspiracy of greedy oil companies, OPEC or someone. The reality is usually messier. Energy economist Philip Verleger Jr. attributes the present price run-up to massive miscalculation. Oil companies and OPEC underestimated global demand, particularly from China. Since 2001 China's oil use has jumped 36 percent. This error led OPEC and companies to underinvest in new production capacity, he says. In 2002 the world had 5 million barrels a day of surplus production capacity; now it has little. Unexpected supply interruptions (sabotage in Iraq, civil war in Nigeria) boost prices. Verleger says prices could go to $60 next year or even $80 if adverse supply conditions persist. No one really knows. Analyst Adam Sieminski of Deutsche Bank thinks prices may retreat to the low $30s in 2005. A slowing Chinese economy could weaken demand. But the uncertainties cannot obscure two stubborn realities. First, world oil production can't rise forever; dwindling reserves will someday cause declines. And, second, barring miraculous discoveries, more will come from unstable regions—especially the Middle East. We need to face these realities; neither George Bush nor John Kerry does. Their energy plans are rival fantasies. Kerry pledges to make us "independent" of Middle East oil, mainly through conservation and an emphasis on "renewable" fuels (biomass, solar, wind). Richard Nixon was the first president to promise energy "independence". It couldn't happen then— and can't now. The United States imports about 60 percent of its oil. A fifth of imports come from the Persian Gulf. Even if we eliminated Persian Gulf imports, we'd still be vulnerable. Oil scarcities and prices are transmitted worldwide. The global economy—on which we depend—remains hugely in need of Persian Gulf oil. Bushes pitch is that we can produce our way out of trouble. No such luck. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with possible reserves of 10 billion barrels, might provide 1 million barrels a day, or 5 percent of present U.S. demand. Fine. But the practical effect would be to offset some drop in production elsewhere. American oil output peaked in 1970; it's down 34 percent since then. A groundbreaking study from the consulting company PFC Energy illuminates our predicament. The world now uses 82 million barrels of oil a day; that's 30 billion barrels a year. To estimate future production, the study examined historical production and discovery patterns in all the world's oil fields. The conclusion: The world already uses about 12 billion more barrels a year than it finds. "In almost every mature oil basin, the world has been producing more than it's finding for close to 20 years," says PFC's Mike Rodgers. That can't continue indefinitely. The study is no doomsday exercise. Rodgers says that future discovery and recovery rates could be better—or worse than assumed. With present rates, he expects global oil supply to peak before 2020 at about 100 million barrels a day. Whatever happens, the world will probably depend more on two shaky regions., the Persian Gulf and the former Soviet Union. The Gulf now supplies a quarter of the world's oil; PFC projects that to rise to a third in a decade. Although the future is hazy, what we ought to do isn't. We need to dampen oil use, expand production and if oil prices recede—significantly increase the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These steps can't end our vulnerability to global price surges or the effects of a catastrophic loss of oil supplies from, say, war or terrorism. But they can reduce it. Most important, Americans should curb gasoline use. The Energy Information Administration reports the following: Gasoline represents about 45 percent of U. S. oil demand; since 1991 the explosion of SUVs and light trucks has meant no gains in average fuel mileage efficiency; and over the same period, typical drivers travel almost 1,000 miles more annually. We should be promoting fuel-efficient vehicles, particularly "hybrids". Combining gasoline and electric power, they get 20 percent to 40 percent better mileage than conventional vehicles, says David' Greene of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They also cost from $3,000 to $4,000 more than conventional cars, he says, mainly because they have two power sources. But Greene plausibly asserts that if production expanded, the cost gap would shrink. The way to expand demand would be to adopt a gasoline tax of $1 to $2 a gallon. Americans would know that fuel prices would stay high. They'd have reason to economize. Of course, a fuel tax is a political showstopper. It isn't in Bush's or Kerry's plan. They promote hydrogen-powered cars. These sound great but—given the technical obstacles— won't become widespread for many years, if ever. This captures our choice: taking modestly unpleasant preventive steps; or running greater future risks by clinging to our fantasies. History favors our fantasies.
单选题
单选题[此试题无题干]
单选题On role-playing, the passage seems to indicate that chairman
单选题______ is the prmary medium of language.A. SpeechB. LangueC. WritingD. Parole
单选题BeforeenteringtheFloridaKeyWest,HurricaneDennishascauseddamagein______.A.MexicoB.HaitiC.CubaD.Columbia
单选题Criminology has treated women"s role in crime with a large measure of indifference. The intellectual tradition from which criminology derives its conception of these sexes maintains esteem for men"s autonomy, intelligence and force of character while disdaining women for their weaknesses of compliance and passivity. Women who conform as pure, obedient daughters, wives and mothers benefit men and society. Those women who don"t, that is, are non-conforming, may simply be one who questions established beliefs or practices, or one who engages in activities associated with men, or one who commits a crime. These women are doubly damned and doubly deviant. They are seen as "mad" not "bad". These behaviors frequently lead to interpretations of being mentally abnormal and unstable. Those doing the defining, by the very act, are never defined as "other", but are the norm. As "men" are the norm, women are deviant. Women are defined in reference to men. In the words of Young, "sexual difference is one of the ways in which normal is marked out from deviant". So why do these differences exist within the criminal justice system and society as a whole? In order to understand why offending and punishment differs between genders it is important to acknowledge and analyze past perceptions, theories and perspectives from predominant sociologists and criminologists of that time towards women In society.
Up until the turn of the century, women were primarily perceived as sexual objects and expected to remain within male dominated ideologies such as homemaker, carer and nurturer taking second place after men. Women who strayed from the norm were severely punished, void of any opportunities to explain their actions. Perhaps interventions from Elizabeth Fry in the early nineteenth century campaigning for women to be housed in separate prisons from men and offered rehabilitation could be marked as the starting point for intense studies being conducted into relationships between women and crime. The conception at that time was that women must be protected from, rather than held responsible for their criminal actions. Unfortunately, such intervention only caused coaxing rather than coercion, that is, women became segregated even more as individual members of their community.
Later in the late nineteenth century, Lombroso and Ferrero wrote a book called,
The Female Of-fender
. Their theories were based on "atavism". Atavism refers to the belief that all individuals displaying anti-social behavior were biological throwbacks. The born female criminal was perceived to have the criminal qualities of the male plus the worst characteristics of women. According to Lombroso and Ferrero, these included deceitfulness, cunning and spite among others and were not apparent among males. This appeared to indicate that criminal women were genetically more male than female, therefore biologically abnormal. Criminality in men was a common feature of their natural characteristics, whereby women, their biologically-determined nature was exactly opposite to crime. Female social deviants or criminals who did not act according to pre-defined standards were diagnosed as pathological and requiring treatment, they were to be "cured" or "removed".
Other predominant theorists such as Thomas and later, Pollack, believed that criminality was a pathology and socially Induced rather than biologically inherited. As Thomas says, "the girl as a child does not know she has any particular value until she learns it from others". Pollack believed, "it is the learned behaviour from a very young age that leads girls into a "masked" character of female criminality", that is, how it was and still is concealed through under-reporting and low detection rates of female offenders. He further states, "in our male-dominated culture, women have always been considered strange, secretive and sometimes dangerous". A greater leniency towards women by police and the justice system needs to be addressed especially if a "true" equality of genders is to be achieved in such a complicated world.
单选题{{B}}TEXT E{{/B}}
The biggest problem facing Chile as it
promotes itself as a tourist destination to be reckoned with, is that it is at
the end of the earth. It is too far south to be a convenient stop on the way to
anywhere else and is much farther than a relatively cheap half-day flight away
from the big tourist markets, unlike Mexico, for example. Chile,
therefore, is having to fight hard to attract tourists, to convince travelers
that it is worth coming halfway round the world to visit. But it is succeeding;
not only in existing markets like the USA and Western Europe but in new
territories, in particular the Far East. Markets closer to home, however, are
not being forgotten. More than 50% of visitors to Chile still come form its
nearest neighbor, Argentina, where the cost of living is much higher.
Like all South American countries, Chile sees tourism as a valuable earner
of foreign currency, although it has been far more serious than most in
promoting its image abroad. Relatively stable politically within the region, it
has benefited from the problems suffered in other areas. In Peru, guerrilla
warfare in recent years has dealt a heavy blow to the tourist industry and fear
of street crime in Brazil has reduced the attraction of Rio de Janeior as a
dream destination for foreigners. More than 150, 000 people are
directly involoved in Chile's tourist sector, an industry which earn the country
more than US $ 950 million each year. The state-run National Tourism Service, in
partnership with a number of private companies, is currently running a worldwide
campaign, taking part in trade fairs and international events to attract
visitors to Chile. Chile's great strength as a tourist
destination is its geographical diversity. From the parched Atacama Desert in
the north to the Antarctic snowfields of the south, it is more than 5,000 kms
long. With the Pacific on one side and the Andean mountains on the other, Chile
boasts natural attractions. Its beaches are not up to Caribbean standards but
resorts such as Vine del Mar is generally clean and unspoiled and has a high
standard of services. But the trump card is the Andes mountain
range. There are a number of excellent ski resorts within hour's drive of the
capital, Santiago, and the national parks in the south are home to rare animal
and plant species. The parks already attract specialist visitors, including
mountaineers, who come to climb the technically difficult peaks, and fishermen,
lured by the salmon and trout in the region's rivers. However,
infrastructural development in these areas is limited. The ski resorts do not
have as many lifts and pistes as their European counterparts and the poor
quality of roads in the south means that only the most determined travelers see
the best of the national parks. Air links between Chile and the
rest of the world are, at present, relatively poor. While Chile's two largest
airlines have extensive networks within South America, they operate only a small
number of routes to the United States and Europe, while services to Asia are
almost nonexistent. Internal transport links are being improved
and luxury hotels are being built in one of its national parks. Nor is
development being restricted to the Andes. Easter Island and Chile's Antarctic
Territory are also on the list of areas where the Government believes it can
create tourist markets. But the rush to open hitherto
inaccessible areas to mass tourism is not being welcomed by everyone. Indigenous
and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, say that many parts of the Andes
will suffer if they become over-developed. There is a genuine
fear that areas of Chile will suffer the cultural destruction witnessed in
Mexico and European resort. The policy of opening up Antarctica to tourism is
also politically sensitive. Chile already has permanent settlements on the ice
and many people see the decision to allow tourists there as a political move,
enhancing Santiago's territorial claim over part of Antarctica.
The Chilean Government has promised to respect the environment as it seeks
to bring tourism to these areas. But there are immense commercial pressures to
exploit the country's tourism potential. The Government will have to monitor
developments closely if it is genuinely concern in creating a balanced,
controlled industry and if the price of an increasingly lucrative tourist market
is not going to mean the loss of many of Chile's natural
riches.
单选题
{{B}}TEXT A{{/B}} Since the late 1970's, in
the face of a severe loss of market share in dozens of industries, manufacturers
in the United States have been trying to improve productivity and therefore
enhance their international competitiveness through costcutting programs.
(Cost-cutting here is definding the amount of labor constant.) However, from
1978 through 1982, productivity—the value of goods manufactured divided by the
amount of labor input—did not improve; and while the results were better in the
business upturn of the three years following, they ran 25 percent lower than
productivity improvements during earlier, post-1945 upturns. At the same, it
became clear that the harder manufactures worked to implement costcutting, the
more they lost their competitive edge. With this paradox in mind, I recently
visited 25 companies: it became clear to me that the costcutting approach to
increasing productivity is fundamentally flawed, Manufacturing regularly
observes a" 40, 40, 20" rule, roughly 40 percent of any manufacturing-based
competitive advantage derives from long-term changes in manufacturing structure
(decisions about the number, size, location, and capacity of facilities) and in
approaches to materials. Another 40 percent comes from major changes in
equipment and process technology. The final 20 percent rests on implementing
conventional costcutting. This rule does not be tried. The well-known tools of
this approach—including simplifying jobs and retraining employees to work
smarter, not harder-do produce results. But the tools quickly reach the limits
of what they can contribute. Another problem is that the cost-cutting approach
hinders innovation and discourages creative people. As Abernathy' s study of
automobile manufacturers has shown, an industry can easily become prisoner of
its own investments in costcutting techniques, reducing its ability to develop
new products. And managers under pressure to maximize cost-cutting will resist
innovation because they know that more fundamental changes in processes or
systems will wreak havoc with the results on which they are measured, production
managers have always seen their job as one of minimizing costs and maximizing
output. This dimension of performance has until recently sufficed as a basis of
evaluation, but it has created a penny pinching, mechanistic culture in most
factories that has kept away creative managers. Every company I
know that has freed itself from the paradox has done so, in part, by developing
and implementing a manufacturing strategy. Such a strategy
facturing and implementing a manufacturing strategy. Such a strategy focuses on
the manufacturing structure and on equipment and process technology. In one
company a manufacturing strategy that allowed different areas of the factory to
specialize in different markets replaced the conventional cost-cutting approach,
within three years the company regained its competitive advantage. Together with
such strategies, successful companies are also encouraging managers to focus on
a wider set of objectives besides cutting costs. There is hope for
manufacturing, but it clearly rests on a different way of managing.
单选题How does the author think about "Paris in the 20th Century"?
单选题{{B}}TEXT B{{/B}} We find that bright
children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both
their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many
disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that
children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright
and the not-so-bright children. After all, it can he quite discouraging to he at
the bottom of the top grade! Besides, it is rather unreal to
grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one
aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of
all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value
personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching
contributes to all these aspects of learning. In our classroom,
we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the
opportunity to learn to cooperate, to share, and to develop leadership skills.
They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to
think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate
effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the
teacher. Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work
on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed.
They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage
our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order
to do this effectively. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not
matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their
least, and we give them every encouragement to attain this goal.
单选题Most people have experienced the feeling, after a taxing mental work-out, that they cannot be bothered to make any more decisions. If they are forced to, they may do so intuitively, rather than by reasoning. Such apathy is of ten put down to tiredness; but a study published recently in Psychological Science suggests there may be more to it than that. Whether reason or intuition is used may depend simply on the decision-maker's blood-sugar level—which is, itself, affected by the process of reasoning. E.J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister of Florida State University discovered this by doing some experiments on that most popular of laboratory animals, the impoverished undergraduate. They asked 121 psychology students who had volunteered for the experiment to watch a silent video of a woman being interviewed that had random words appearing in bold black letters every ten seconds along the perimeter of the video. This was the part of the experiment intended to be mentally taxing. Half of the students were told to focus on the woman, to try to understand what she was saying, and to ignore the words along the perimeter. The other half were given no instructions. Those that had to focus were exerting considerable serf-control not to look at the random words. When the video was over, haft of each group was given a glass of lemonade with sugar in it and half was given a glass of lemonade with sugar substitute. Twelve minutes later, when the glucose from the lemonade with sugar in it had had time to enter the students' blood, the researchers administered a decision-making task that was designed to determine if the participant was using intuition or reason to make up his mind. The students were asked to think about where they wanted to live in the coming year and given three accommodation options that varied both in size and distance from the university campus. Two of the options were good, but in different ways: one was far from the campus, but very large; the other was close to campus, but smaller. The third option was a decoy, similar to ope of the good options, but obviously not quite as good. ff it was close to campus and small, it was not quite as close as the good close option and slightly smaller, if it was far from campus and large, it was slightly smaller than the good large option and slightly farther away. Psychologists have known for a long time that having a decoy option in a decision-making task draws people to choose a reasonable option that is similar to the decoy. Dr. Masicampo and Dr. Baumeister suspected that students who had been asked to work hard during the video and then been given a drink without any sugar in it would be more likely to rely on intuition when making this decision than those from the other three groups. And that is what happened; 64% of them were swayed by the decoy. Those who had either not had to exert mental energy during the showing of the video or had been given glucose in their lemonade, used mason in their decision-making task and were less likely to be swayed by the decoy. It is not clear why intuition is independent of glucose. It could be that humans inherited a default nervous system from other mammals that was similar to intuition, and that could make snap decisions about whether to fight or flee regardless of how much glucose was in the body. Whatever the reason, the upshot seems to be that thinking is, indeed, hard work. And important decisions should not be made on an empty stomach.
单选题In section B you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and
then answer the questions that follow. Mark the correct answer to each
question.Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of
the interview you will answer each of the following questions.
单选题When did the American Civil War break out?