单选题 {{B}}TEXT A{{/B}} In 1896 a Georgia couple suing for damages in the accidental death of their two year old was told that since the child had made no real economic contribution to the family, there was no liability for damages. In contrast, less than a century later, in 1979, the parents of a three year old sued in New York for accidental-death damages and won an award of $750,0O0. The transformation in social values implicit in juxtaposing these two incidents is the subject of Viviana Zelizer's excellent book, Pricing the Priceless Child. During the nineteenth century, she argues, the concept of the "useful" child who contributed to the family economy gave way gradually to the present-day notion of the "useless" child who, though producing no income for, and indeed extremely costly to, its parents, is yet considered emotionally "priceless." Well established among segments of the middle and upper classes by the mid-1800's, this new view of childhood spread throughout society in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries as reformers introduced child-labor regulations and compulsory education laws predicated in pan on the assumption that a child's emotional value made child labor taboo. For Zelizer the origins of this transformation were many and complex, The gradual erosion of children's productive value in a maturing industrial economy, the decline in birth and death rates, especially in child mortality, and the development of the companionate family (a family in which members were united by explicit bonds of love rather than duty) were all factors critical in changing the assessment of children's worth. Yet "expulsion of children from the 'cash nexus,' ... although clearly shaped by profound changes in the economic, occupational, and family structures," Zelizer maintains, "was also pan of a cultural process 'of sacralization' of children's lives." Protecting children from the crass business world became enormously important for late-nineteenth-century middle-class Americans, she suggests; this sacralization was a way of resisting what they perceived as the relentless corruption of human values by the marketplace. In stressing the cultural determinants of a child's worth, Zelizer takes issue with practitioners of the new "sociological economics," who have analyzed such traditionally sociological topics as crime, marriage, education, and health solely in terms of their economic determinants. Allowing only a small role for cultural forces in the form of individual "preferences," these sociologists tend to view all human behavior as directed primarily by the principle of maximizing economic gain. Zelizer is highly critical of this approach, and emphasizes instead the opposite phenomenon: the power of social values to transform price. As children became more valuable in emotional terms, she argues, their "exchange" or "surrender" value on the market, that is, the conversion of their intangible worth into cash terms, became much greater.

单选题{{B}}TEXT B{{/B}} In business, if not politics, the world has quietened down a bit: the number of spectacular bankruptcies, indictments, scandals, and implosions is not as high as it was. Although executives still have to face a global slowdown, the uncertain effects of the war in the Middle East, and the still fresh confusion over bird flu, they might now be excused a deep breath and a look at aspects of their businesses that may have been neglected in the scramble to stay on top of new accounting laws and restated earnings. One area to start catching up on is knowledge. This is true both personally, as executives Work out whether or not they are staying on top of internal or external developments, but also at the level of companies. A survey of knowledge management, Knowledge Unplugged, published in 2005 by McKinsey, found that the best-performing companies were far more likely than the worst-performing ones to use creative techniques for acquiring, processing and distributing knowledge--everything from emphasizing teamwork in product development to holding "idea contests" and trying to avoid boring daily routines. But creating an atmosphere in which knowledge can be shared can be almost as challenging as obtaining it in the first place. This is the potential prisoner's dilemma of knowledge: the more valued it becomes, the less incentive employees have to share it with one another, at the risk of losing the competitive advantage of what they know--or, worse, seeing another profit at their expense. This proves to be even truer at the company level. While firms might turn to external partners to enhance their knowledge base, the sharing will be incomplete without mutual trust. Since "knowledge" is such a vague term, it helps to have specific goals in mind when looking to gain more of it. Are you looking for information about your company, or industry in particular? Despite the gen eral slowdown in executive education, there are still a number of courses devoted specifically to helping managers in given industries--technology, for example , or health care. Are you more concerned with acquiring more knowledge, or putting it to better use? Do you need to move quickly, or is this a subject that needs to be explored in greater depth? And bear in mind that styles of learning vary. Some people will profit most from informal networking; some enjoy learning in a classroom; others will be able to take advantage of the company intranet. Be flexible in the pursuit of knowledge; it is better to set performance targets, concentrate on meeting them, and allow individuals and their teams to explore their own solutions. Sometimes the best way to generate knowledge is simply a bit of brainstorming. The edition of Executive Education Outlook looks at the options available to executives in gaining knowledge, and enhancing what they already have. It includes a look at the state of distance learning--neither the revolution the hype claimed it would be in the late 1990s, nor completely dismissible--as a possiible conduit of knowledge, the best place to go for new programmes in knowledge management, and a consideration of the demand for the best sources of knowledge: business-school academics. Coming in June, Global Executive will also feature a series of Executive Dialogue interviews with prominent CIOs, further exploring the themes of information and knowledge gathering. Concentrating on knowledge now may be the best way to be prepared for the next challenges facing the business world.

单选题 The scientific name is the Holocene Age, but climatologists like to call our current climatic phase the Long Summer. The history of Earth's climate has rarely been smooth. From the moment life began on the planet billions of years ago, the climate has swung drastically and often abruptly from one state to another—from tropical swamp to frozen ice age. Over the past 10,000 years, however, the climate has remained remarkably stable by historical standards: not too warm and not too cold, or Goldilocks weather. That stability has allowed Homo sapiens, numbering perhaps just a few million at the dawn of the Holocene, to thrive; farming has taken hold and civilizations have arisen. Without the Long Summer, that never would have been possible. But as human population has exploded over the past few thousand years, the delicate ecological balance that kept the Long Summer going has become threatened. The rise of industrialized agriculture has thrown off Earth's natural nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, leading to pollution on land and water, while our fossil-fuel addiction has moved billions of tons of carbon from the land into the atmosphere, heating the climate ever more. Now a new article in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature says the safe climatic limits in which humanity has blossomed are more vulnerable than ever and that unless we recognize our planetary boundaries and stay within them, we risk total catastrophe. "Human activities have reached a level that could damage the systems that keep Earth in the desirable Holocene state," writes Johan Rockstrom, executive director of the Stockholm Environmental Institute and the author of the article. "The result could be irreversible and, in some cases, abrupt environmental change, leading to a state less conducive to human development." Regarding climate change, for instance, Rockstrom proposes an atmospheric-carbon-concentration limit of no more than 350 parts per million (p.p.m.)—meaning no more than 350 atoms of carbon for every million atoms of air. (Before the industrial age, levels were at 280 p.p.m.; currently they're at 387 p.p.m. and rising.) That, scientists believe, should be enough to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2℃ above preindustrial levels, which should be safely below a climatic tipping point that could lead to the wide-scale melting of polar ice sheets, swamping coastal cities. "Transgressing these boundaries will increase the risk of irreversible climate change," writes Rockstrom. That's the impact of breaching only one of nine planetary boundaries that Rockstrom identifies in the paper. Other boundaries involve freshwater overuse, the global agricultural cycle and ozone loss. In each case, he scans the state of science to find ecological limits that we can't violate, lest we risk passing a tipping point that could throw the planet out of whack for human beings. It's based on a theory that ecological change occurs not so much cumulatively, but suddenly, after invisible thresholds have been reached. Stay within the lines, and we might just be all right. In three of the nine cases Rockstrom has pointed out, however—climate change, the nitrogen cycle and species loss—we've already passed his threshold limits. In the case of global warming, we haven't yet felt the full effects, Rockstrom says, because carbon acts gradually on the climate—but once warming starts, it may prove hard to stop unless we reduce emissions sharply. Ditto for the nitrogen cycle, where industrialized agriculture already has humanity pouting more chemicals into the land and oceans than the planet can process, and for wildlife loss, where we risk biological collapse. "We can say with some confidence that Earth cannot sustain the current rate of loss without significant erosion of ecosystem resilience," says Rockstrom. The paper offers a useful way of looking at the environment, especially for global policy makers. As the world grapples with climate change this week at the U.N. and G-20 summit, some clearly posted speed limits from scientists could help politicians craft global deals on carbon and other shared environmental threats. It's tough for negotiators to hammer out a new climate-change treaty unless they know just how much carbon needs to be cut to keep people safe. Rockstrom's work delineates the limits to human growth—economically, demographically, ecologically—that we transgress at our peril. The problem is that identifying those limits is a fuzzy science—and even trickier to translate into policy. Rockstrom's atmospheric-carbon target of 350 p.p.m. has scien-tific support, but the truth is that scientists still aren't certain as to how sensitive the climate will be to warm over the long-term—it's possible that the atmosphere will be able to handle more carbon or that catastrophe could be triggered at lower levels. And by setting a boundary, it might make policymakers believe that we can pollute up to that limit and still be safe. That's not the case—pollution causes cumulative damage, even below the tipping point. By focusing too much on the upper limits, we still risk harming Earth. "Ongoing changes in global chemistry should alarm us about threats to the persistence of life on Earth, whether or not we cross a catastrophic threshold any time soon," writes William Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, in a commentary accompanying the Nature paper. But as the world attempts to break the carbon addiction that already has it well on the way to climate catastrophe, more clearly defined limits will be useful. But climate diplomats should remember that while they can negotiate with one another, ultimately, they can't negotiate with the planet. Unless we manage our presence on Earth better, we may soon be in the last days of our Long Summer.

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单选题The 18th century witnessed a new literary form--the modern English novel, which is contrary to the medieval romance, gives a ______, presentation of life of the common people.

单选题Whatisthemainideaofthenewsitem?A.UKhastrainedfarmorenursesthanitneeds.B.UKisfacingunemploymentanddownsizing.C.UKislosingitsnursestoAustraliainemployment.D.UKshouldencouragenursestoworkinAustralia.

单选题______ is the study of word formation and the internal structure of words.

单选题The largest and most important museum in Britain is ______.

单选题Current economic hardships have had what is called in constitutional law a "disparate impact": The crisis has not afflicted everyone equally. Although women are a majority of the workforce, perhaps as many as 80 percent of jobs lost were held by men. This injury to men is particularly unfortunate because it may exacerbate, and be exacerbated by, a culture of immaturity among the many young men who are reluctant to grow up. Increasingly, they are defecting from the meritocracy. Women now receive almost 58 percent of bachelor's degrees. This is why many colleges admit men with qualifications inferior to those of women applicants—which is one reason why men have higher dropout rates. The Pew Research Center reports that 28 percent of wives between ages 30 and 44 have more education than their husbands, whereas only 19 percent of husbands in the same age group have more education than their wives. Twenty-three percent of men with some college education earn less than their wives. In law, medical, and doctoral programs, women are majorities or, if trends continue, will be. In 1956, the median age of men marrying was 22.5. But between 1980 and 2004, the percentage of men reaching age 40 without marrying increased from 6 to 16.5. A recent study found that 55 percent of men from 18 to 24 are living in their parents' homes, as are 13 percent of men from 25 to 34, compared to 8 percent of women. Mike Stivic, a.k.a. Meathead, the liberal graduate student in All in the Family, reflected society's belief in the cultural superiority of youth, but he was a leading indicator of something else: He lived in his father-in-law Archie Bunker's home. What are today's "basement boys" doing down there? Perhaps watching Friends and Seinfeld reruns about a culture of extended youth utterly unlike the world of young adults in previous generations. Gary Cross, a Penn State University historian, wonders, "Where have all the men gone?" His book, Men to Boys: The Making of Modem Immaturity, argues that "the culture of the boy-men today is less a life stage than a lifestyle." If you wonder what has become of manliness, he says, note the differences between Cary Grant and Hugh Grant, the former, dapper and debonair, the latter, a perpetually befuddled boy. Permissive parenting, Cross says, made children less submissive, and the decline of deference coincided with the rise of consumer and media cultures celebrating the indefinite retention of the tastes and habits of childhood. The opening of careers to talented women has coincided with the attenuation of male role models in popular culture. In 1959, there were 27 Westerns on prime-time television glamorizing male responsibility. Cross says the large-scale entry of women into the workforce made many men feel marginalized, especially when men were simultaneously bombarded by new parenting theories, which cast fathers as their children's pals, or worse. In 1945, Parents magazine said a father should "keep yourself huggable" but show a son the "respect" owed a "business associate." All this led to "ambiguity and confusion about what fathers were to do in the postwar home and, even more, about what it meant to grow up male." Playboy magazine, a harbinger of perpetual adolescence, sold trinkets for would-be social dropouts: "Join the beat generation! Buy a beat generation tieclasp." Think about that. Although Cross, an aging academic boomer, was a student leftist, he believed that 1960s radicalism became "a retreat into childish tantrums" symptomatic "of how permissive parents infantilized the boomer generation." And the boomers' children?" Consider the television commercials for the restaurant chain called Dave & Buster's, which seems to be, ironically, a Chuck E. Cheese's for adults—a place for young adults, especially men, to drink beer and play electronic games and exemplify youth not as a stage of life but as a perpetual refuge from adulthood. At the 2006 Super Bowl, the Rolling Stones sang "Satisfaction," a song older than the Super Bowl. At this year's game, another 10ng-of-tooth act, the Who, continued the commerce of catering to baby boomers' limitless appetite for nostalgia. "My generation's obsession with youth and its memories," Cross writes, "stands out in the history of human vanity." Last November, when Tiger Woods's misadventures became public, his agent said: "Let's please give the kid a break." The kid was then 33. He is now 34 but, no doubt, still a kid. The puerile anthem of a current Pepsi commercial is drearily prophetic: "Forever young./

单选题{{B}}TEXT D{{/B}} It is a long time for a large mount of big corporations or international companies to pay much attention to an ever-important subject -- Industrial Psychology. For studying and using the subject, they can produce more profits than ever before. So, what is its definition? It is an application of various psychological techniques to the selection and training of industrial workers and to the promotion of efficient working conditions and techniques, as well as individual job satisfaction. This field of applied psychology first became prominent during World War II, when it became necessary to recruit and train the large number of new workers who were needed to meet the expanding demands of industry. The selection of workers for particular jobs is essentially a problem of discovering the special intelligence and personality characteristics needed for the job and of devising tests to determine whether candidates have such intelligence and characteristcs. The development of tests of this kind has long been a field of psychological research. Once the worker is on the job and has been trained, the fundamental aim of the industrial psychologist is to find ways in which a particular job can best be accomplished with a minimum of effort and a maximum of individual satisfaction. The psychologist's function, therefore, differs born that of the so-called efficiency expert, who places primary emphasis on increased production. Psychological techniques used to lessen the effort involved in a given job include a detailed study of the motions required to do the job, the equipment used, and the conditions under which the job is performed. These conditions include ventilation, heating, lighting, noise, and anything else affecting the comfort or morale of the worker. After making such a study, the industrial psychologist often determines that the job in question may be accomplished with less effort by changing the routine motions of the work itself, changing or moving the tools, improving the working conditions, or a combination of several of these methods. Industrial psychologists have also studied the effects of fatigue on workers to determine the length of working time that yields the greatest productivity. In some cases such studies have proven that total production on particular jobs could be increased by reducing the number of working hours or by increasing the number of rest periods, or "breaks", during the day. Industrial psychologists may also suggest less direct requirements for general improvement of job performance, such as establishing a better line of communication between employees and management.

单选题Canada occupies about ______ of North American.

单选题According the author the best way to solve race prejudice is ______.

单选题It can be inferred from the passage that the matching process in visual recognition is______.

单选题The author suggests that the work of Fisher and Hamilton was similar in that both scientists______.

单选题The Land of Disney Predicting the future is always risky. But it's probably safe to say that at least a few historians will one day speak of the 20th -century as America's "Disney era. " Today, it's certainly difficult to think of any other single thing that represents modern America as powerfully as the company that created Mickey Mouse. Globally, brands like Coca - Cola and McDonalds may be more widely - known, but neither encapsulates 20th -century America in quite the same way as Disney. The reasons for Disney's success are varied and numerous, but ultimately the credit belongs to one person--the man who created the cartoon and built the company from nothing, Walt Disney. Ironically, he could not draw particularly well. But he was a genius in plenty of other respects. In business, his greatest skills were his insight and his management ability. After setting himself up in Hollywood, he single - handedly pioneered the concepts of branding and merchandising--something his company still does brilliantly today. But what really distinguished Disney was his ability to identify with his audiences. Disney always made sure his films championed the "little guy", and made him feel proud to be American. This he achieved by creating characters that reflected the hopes and fears of the ordinary people. Some celebrated American achievements -- Disney's very first cartoon Plane Crazy, featuring a silent Mickey House, was inspired by Charles Lindbergh's flight acorss the Atlantic. Others, like the Three little pigs and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, showed how, through hard work and helping one's fellow man, ordinary Americans could survive social and economic crises like the Great Depression. Disney's other great virtue was the fact that his company--unlike other big corporations--had a human face. His Hollywood studio--the public heard--operated just like a democracy, where everyone was on first - name terms and had a stay in how things should be run. He was also regarded as a great patriot because not only did his cartoons celebrate America, but, during World War 1I , his studios made training films for American soldiers. The reality, of course, was less idyllic, as the public would later learn Disney's patriotism had an unpleasant side. After a strike by cartoonists in 1941. he became convinced that Hollywood bad been infiltrated by Communists. He agreed to work for the FBI as a mole, identifying and spying on colleagues whom he suspected were subversives. But, apart from his affiliations with the FBI, Disney was more or less the genuine article. A new book, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, by Steven Watts, confirms that he was very definitely on the side of ordinary Americans--in the 30s and 40s he voted for Franklin Roosevelt, believing he was a champion of the workers. Also, Disney was not an apologist for the FBI, as some have suggested. In fact, he was always suspicious of large, bureaucratic organisations, as is evidenced in films like That Darned Cat, in which he portrayed FBI agents as bungling incompetents. By the time he died in 1966, Walt Disney was an icon like Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers. To business people and filmmakers, he was a role model; to the public at large, he was "Uncle Walt" --the man who had entertained them all their lives, the man who represented all that was good about America. Since his death, not much has changed. In 1986, he was attacked as a Mc Carthyist, a supporter of big business, and a purveyor of "subliterate" entertainment. However, none of it has made any difference to the general public. Their loyalty to Uncle Walt remains as strong as ever.

单选题St. Petersburg, the very name brings to mind some of Russia's greatest poets, writers and composers: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky. The 19th century was a golden age for St. Petersburg's wealthy classes. It was a world of ballets and balls, of art and literature, of tea and caviar. The golden age ended with the advent of World War I. Working people were growing more and more discontented. In 1917, Communism came, promising peace and prosperity. St. Petersburg had become Petrograd in 1914. People wanted a Russian name for their city. Ten years later, the city's name changed again, this time to Leningrad. Then in 1991, Leningraders voted to restore the city's original name. Some people opposed the name change altogether. Others thought it was just too soon. Old, run-down Soviet Leningrad, they said, was not the St. Petersburg of 19th-century literature. What, then, is St. Petersburg? In the confusing post-Communist world, no one really knows. The quiet, if Soviet-style, dignity is gone. The Communist sayings are down and gaudy advertising up. Candy bars and cigarettes are sold from boxy, tasteless kiosks. And clothing? Well, anything goes. Everyone wants to be a little different. But many people do not know the true meaning of freedom. Personal crime has gone up, up, up in the past few years. Yet in spite of this, you can still find some of the city's grand past. Stand at the western tip of Vasilievsky Island. To the right is the elegant Winter Palace, former home of the czars. Its light blue sides and white classical columns make it perhaps St. Petersburg's most graceful building. It houses one of the world's most famous art museums: the Hermitage. Inside, 20km of galleries house thousands of works of art. Look over your fight shoulder. The massive golden dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral rises above the skyline. You'll see, too, why St. Petersburg is called a "floating city." Standing there, nearly surrounded by water, you can see four of the city's 42 islands. Cross the bridge and turn behind the Winter Palace. In the middle of the huge Palace Square stands the Alexander Column. It commemorates Russia's victory over Napoleon. The 650-ton granite column is not attached to the base in any way. Its own weight keeps it upright. Hoisted into place in 1832, it has stood there ever since. Continue to Nevsky Prospekt, the heart of the old city. Let the crowds hurry by while you take your time. Admire the fine carving on bridges and columns, above doorways and windows. Cross over canals and pass by smaller palaces and other classical structures. Let your eyes drink in the light blues, greens, yellows and pinks. Take time to wander among Kazan Cathedral's semi circle of enormous brown columns. Or, if you prefer Russian-style architecture, cross the street and follow the canal a short distance. The Church of the Resurrection occupies the site where Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. Travel outside the city to Petrodvorets Palace for a taste of old imperial grandeur. After a visit to France in the late 17th century, Peter the Great decided to build a palace for himself better than Versailles. His dream never came true in his lifetime. It took almost two centuries to complete the palace and park complex. Seldom does any city have the chance to reinvent itself. That chance has now come to St. Petersburg. A few people might hope to return to the glory of the past, but most know that is impossible. They want to preserve the best of past eras and push ahead. You can bet the city won't be old St. Petersburg, but something altogether different.

单选题Tony Blair may interview in the _____ with officials coming from foreign countries.A. Capitol B. Buckingham PalaceC. Kremlin D. Winter Palace

单选题By ______it is meant that something represents something else.

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单选题According to the author, the pursuit of religion has proved to be ______.