单选题How would you describe the writer's attitude towards current learning strategies?

单选题{{I}}Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 20 seconds to answer the questions. Now listen to the news.{{/I}}

单选题Who among the following owns a soccer team?

单选题Why U.S. imposes so much on international students?

单选题{{B}}TEXT E{{/B}} Seven years ago, an Environmental Protection Agency statistician stunned researchers studying the effects of air pollution on health when he reported analyses indicating that as many as 60, 000 U. S. residents die each year from breathing federally allowed concentrations of airborne dust. This and subsequent studies figured prominently in EPA's decision last year to ratchet down the permitted concentration of breathable particles in urban air -- and in human airways. At the time, many industrialists argued that they shouldn't have to pay for better pollution control because science had yet to suggest a plausible biological mechanism by which breathing low concentrations of urban dust might sicken or kill people. Now, scientists at the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center describe how they uncovered what they think may be one of the basic elements of that toxicity. On the alert for foreign debris, a community of white blood cells known as alveolar macrophages patrols small airways of the lung. When these cells encounter suspicious material, they identify it and send out a chemical clarion call to rally the immune system cells best suited to disabling and disposing of such matter. The trick is to recruit only as many troops as are needed. If they call in too many, the lung can sustain inflammatory damage from friendly fire. Alongside the small troop of macrophages that stimulates defense measures, a larger squadron of macrophages halts immune activity when it threatens the host. Andrij Holian and his coworkers in Houston have found that people with healthy lungs normally have 10 times as many suppressor macrophages as stimulatory ones. In people with asthma and other chronic lung diseases -- who face an increased risk of respiratory disease from inhaling urban dust -- that ratio may be only 3 to 1. The reason for the difference is not known. In a report to be published in the March Environmental Health Perspectives, Holian's team describes test-tube studies of human alveolar macrophages. The macrophages showed no response to ask collected from the Mount St. Helen's eruption. However, when exposed to airborne dust from St. Louis and Washington, D. C. , most of the suppresser macrophages underwent apoptosis, or cellular suicide, while the stimulatory ones survived unaffected. Ash from burned residual oil, a viscous boiler fuel, proved even more potent at triggering suppressor cell suicides. It this test-tube system models what's actually happening in the human lung, Holian told Science News, the different responses of the two classes of lung macrophages could result in an overly aggressive immune response to normal triggering events. Indeed, he says, it would be the first step in a cascade that can end in inflammatory lung injury. "We may one day be able to target this up stream event and prevent that injury." "This is, I think, an important contribution to the overall story," says Daniel L. Costa of EPA's pulmonary toxicology branch in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Studies by EPA suggest that certain metals -- especially iron, vanadium, nickel, and copper -- in smoke from combustion of fossil fuels trigger particularly aggressive inflammatory responses by lung cells. Costa says these metals play a "preminent" role in the toxicity of airborne particulates. When EPA researchers removed the metals, they also removed the toxicity, he says. Moreover, he notes, these metals tend to reside on the smallest water-soluble particles in urban air --the fraction targeted for more aggressive controls under the new rules. John Vandenberg, assistant director of EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, says Holian's results are "a nice complement to our studies."

单选题Which of the following statements is supported by tile information given in the passage?

单选题Why are the two brothers and the sister of Wilbur and Orville mentioned in paragraph 5?

单选题As a contemporary artist, Jim Dine has often incorporated other people's photography into his abstract works. But, the 68-year-old American didn't pick up a camera himself and start shooting until he moved to Berlin in 1995--and once he did, he couldn't stop. The result is a voluminous collection of images, ranging from early-20th-century-style heliogravures to modern-day digital printings, a selection of which are on exhibition at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris. They are among his most prized achievements. " I make photographs the way I make paintings, "says Dine, "but the difference is, in photography, it's like lighting a fire every time." Though photography makes up a small slice of Dine's vast oeuvre, the exhibit is a true retrospective of his career. Dine mostly photographs his own artwork or the subjects that he has portrayed in sculpture, painting and prints including Venus de Milo, ravens and owls, hearts and skulls. There are still pictures of well-used tools in his Connecticut workshop, delightful digital self-portraits and intimate portraits of his sleeping wife, the American photographer Diana Miehener. Most revealing and novel are Dine's shots of his poetry, scribbled in charcoal on walls like graffiti. To take in this show is to wander through Dine's life:his childhood obsessions, his loves, his dreams. It is a poignant and powerful exhibit that rightly celebrates one of modern art's most intriguing--and least hyped-talents. When he arrived on the scene in the early 1960s, Dine was seen as a pioneer in the pop-art movement. But he didn't last long; once pop stagnated, Dine moved on. "Pop art had to do with the exterior world, "he says. He was more interested, he adds, in "what was going on inside me. "He explored his own personality, and from there developed themes. His love for handcrafting grew into a series of artworks incorporating hammers and saws. His Obsession with owls and ravens came from a dream he once had. His childhood toy Pinocchio, worn and chipped, appears in some self-portraits as a red and yellow blur flying through the air. Dine first dabbled in photography in the late 1970s, when Polaroid invited him to try out a new large-format camera at its head-quarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He produced a series of colorful, out-of-focus self-portraits, and when he was done, he packed them away. A half dozen of these images-in perfect condition-are on display in Paris for the first time. Though masterful, they feel flat when compared with his later pictures. Dine didn't shoot again until he went to Berlin in the mi he opens himself physically and emotionally before the lens. He says such pictures are an attempt to examine himself as well as" record the march of time, what gravity does to the face in everybody. I'm a very willing subject." Indeed, Dine sees photography as the surest path to self-discovery: "I've always learned about myself in my art, "he says. "But photography expresses me. It's me. Me. "The Paris exhibit makes that perfectly clear.

单选题In the United Kingdom, the party which wins the ______ number of seats in the House of Commons becomes the official Opposition. A.largest B.second largest C.third largest D.fourth largest

单选题According to the passage, ______ affects the objectivity of the results of scientists' research.

单选题Where is the West End?

单选题Web Du Bois was born a free man in his small village of Great Barington, Massachusetts, three years after the Civil War. For generations, the Du Bois family had been an accepted part of the community since before his great-grandfather had fought in the American Revolution. Early on, Du Bois was given an awareness of his African-heritage, through the ancient songs his grandmother taught him. This awareness set him apart from his New England community, with an ancestry shrouded in mystery, in sharp contrast to the precisely accounted history of the Western world. This difference would be the foundation for his desire to change the way African-Americans co-existed in America. As a student, Du Bois was considered something of a prodigy who excelled beyond the capabilities of his white peers. He found work as a correspondent for New York newspapers, and slowly began to realize the inhibitions of social boundaries he was expected to observe every step of the way. When racism tried to take his pride and dignity, he became more determined to make sure society 'recognized his achievements. Clearly, Du Bois showed great promise, and although he dreamt of attending Harvard, some influential members Of his community arranged for his education at Fisk University in Nashville. His experiences at Fisk changed his life, and he discovered his fate as a leader of the black struggle to free his people from oppression. At Fisk, Du Bois became acquainted with many sons and daughters of former slaves, who felt the pain of oppression and shared his sense of cultural and spiritual tradition. In the South, he saw his people being driven to a status of little difference from slavery, and saw them terrorized at the polls. He taught school during the summers in the eastern portion of Tennessee, and saw the suffering firsthand. He then resolved to dedicate his life to fighting the terrible racial oppression that held the black people down, both economically and politically. Du Bois's determination was rewarded with a scholarship to Harvard, where he began the first scientific sociological studies in the United States. He felt that through science, he could dispel the irrational prejudices and ignorance that prevented racial equality. He went on to create great advancements in the study of race relations, but oppression continued with segregation laws, lynching, and terror tactics on the rise. Du Bois then formed the Niagara Movement, and in 1909, was a vital part in establishing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was also the editor of the NAACP magazine The Crisis from 1910 to 1934. In this stage of his life, he encouraged direct assaults on the legal, political, and economic system, which he felt blossomed out of the exploitation of the poor and powerless black community. He became the most important black protest leader of the first half of the 20th century. His views clashed with Booker T. Washington, who felt that the black people of America had to simply accept discrimination, and hope to eventually earn respect and equality through hard work and success. Du Bois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903, criticizing Booker, claiming that his ideas would lead to a perpetuation of oppression instead of freeing the black people from it. Du Bois's criticism lead to a branching out of the black civil rights movement, Booker% conservative followers, and a radical following of his critics. Du Bois had established the Black .Nationalism that was the inspiration for all black empowerment throughout the civil rights movement, but had begun during the progressive era. Although the movement that germinated from his ideas may have taken on a more violent form, Web Du Bois felt strongly that every human being could shape their own destinies with determination and hard work. He inspired hope by declaring that progress would come with the success of the small struggles for a better life.

单选题At the turn of ______centuries romanticism came to be the new trend in English literature.

单选题 Jonas Frisen had his eureka moment in 1997. Back then, scientists suspected that there was a special type of cell in the brain that had the power to give rise to new brain cells. If they could harness these so-called neural stem cells to regenerate damaged brain tissue, they might someday find a cure for such brain diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But first they had to figure out where neural stem cells were and what they looked like. Frisen, then a freshly minted Ph. D. at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was peering through his microscope at some tissue taken from a rat's injured spinal cord when he saw cells that appeared to have been enervated by the injury, as though they were busy making repairs. Frisen thought these might be the neural stem cells scientists had been looking for. It took him six years of painstaking research to make sure. Frisen is quick to emphasize that his research is basic and that treatments are years off. But the findings so far hint at extraordinary potential. Two years ago he identified neural stem cells in the adult human brain, And he's now researching the mechanisms by which these cells grow into different types of brain cells. Rather than growing brain tissue in a petri-dish and implanting it in, say, the forebrain of a Parkinson's patient, doctors might someday stimulate the spontaneous growth of new neural cells merely by administering a drug. "It sounds like science fiction," Frisen says, "but we can already do it in mice." In 2007 he will publish the results of his recent experiments. He's isolated a protein in the mouse brain that inhibits the generation of nerve cells. Using other chemicals, he's been able to block the action of this inhibitor, which in turn leads to the production of new brain cells. Frisen honed his analytical mind at the dinner table in Goteborg, in southwest Sweden. His mother was a mathematics professor and his father was an ophthalmologist. Frisen went to medical school intending to be a brain surgeon or perhaps a psychiatrist, but ended up spending all his free time in the lab. In 1998 he got seed money from a Swedish venture capitalist to set up his own company, NeuroNova, to commercialize his work. A private foundation tried to lure him to Texas, but Swedish businessman Marcus Storch persuaded him to stay by funding a 15-year professorship at Karolinska, covering his salary and the running costs of his 15-person lab. "Jonas Frisen stood out from all candidates by far," says Storch, whose Tobias Foundation sponsors stem-cell research. "He is something of a king in Sweden." Two years ago two more venture capitalists helped the company expand by hiring a CEO and setting up a separate lab. Since most researchers are interested in stem cells taken from embryos, the practice has attracted considerable controversy in the past few years. Frisen has benefited indirectly from research restrictions in the United States, which have driven funds and brain-power to Singapore, the United Kingdom and Sweden. The Bush Administration currently forbids U. S. -funded work on all but 78 approved stem-cell cultures, many of which are located outside the country. In just one sign of the times, the U. S.-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation recently announced grants totaling $20 million for stem-cell research—the largest award yet given to the field by a medical charity—to research institutes in Sweden and elsewhere, but not in the United States. Since Frisen doesn't work with embryonic stem cells, he's unwittingly become a champion of the radical right, which argues that scientists ought to concentrate solely on adult stem cells. He happens to disagree. "It would be overoptimistic or outright stupid," he says. "To really understand adult cells, we need to master how embryonic stem cells work." But what really gets Frisen going is when people ask him when they can expect a drug for Parkinson's and other diseases. "I say, five decades, just to get the number thing out of the way," he quips. "I'm not going to oversell this." When pressed, he admits that clinical trials might begin in five years. That would be a eureka moment worth waiting for.

单选题According to the passage, what will be the consequence if the present trend goes on?

单选题The Silicon Valley is situated in ______.

单选题Which is the biggest church in London?

单选题Question 8 is based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the question. Now listen to the news. Which of the following statements about Mr. Singh is INCORRECT?

单选题{{B}}TEXT C{{/B}} This spring, disaster loomed in the global food market. Precipitous increases in the prices of staples like rice (up more than a hundred and fifty percent in a few months) and maize provoked food riots, toppled governments, and threatened the lives of tens of millions. But the bursting of the commodity bubble eased those pressures, and food prices, while still high, have come well off the astronomical levels they hit in April. For American, the drop in commodity prices has put a few more bucks in people's pockets; in much of the developing world, it may have saved many from actually starving. So did the global financial crisis solve the global food crisis? Temporarily, perhaps. But the recent price drop doesn't provide any long-term respite from the threat food shortages or future price spikes. Nor has it reassured anyone about the health of the global agricultural system, which the crisis revealed as dangerously unstable. Four decades after the Green Revolution, and after waves of market reforms intended to transform agricultural production, we're still having a hard time insuring that people simply get enough to eat, and we seen to be vulnerable to supply shocks than ever. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Over the past two decades, countries around the world have moved away from their focus on "food security" and handed market forces a greater rote in shaping agricultural policy. Before the nineteen-eighties, developing countries had so-called "agricultural marketing boards", which would buy commodities from farmers at fixed prices (prices high enough to keep farmers farming), and then store them in strategic reserves that could be used in the event of bad harvests or soaring import prices. But in the eighties and nineties, often as part of structural-adjustment programs imposed by the I.M.F. or the World Blank, many marketing boards were eliminated or cut back, and grain reserves, deemed inefficient and unnecessary, were sold off. In the same way, structural-adjustment programs often did away with government investment in and subsidies to agriculture--more notably, subsidies for things like fertilizers and high-yield seeds.. The logic behind these reforms was simple: the market would allocate resources more efficiently than government, leading to greater productivity. Farmers, instead of growing subsidized maize and wheat at high cost, could concentrate on cash crops, like cashews and chocolate, and use the money they made to buy staple foods. If a country couldn't compete in the global economy, production would migrate to countries that could. it was also assumed that, once governments stepped out of the way, private investment would flood into agriculture, boosting performance. And international aid seemed a more efficient way of relieving food crises than relying in countries to maintain surpluses and food-security programs, which are wasteful and costly. This "marketization" of agriculture has not, to be sure, been fully carried through. Subsidies are still endemic in rich countries and poor, while developing countries often place tariffs on imported food, which benefit their farmers but drive up prices for consumers. And in extreme circumstance countries restrict exports, hoarding food for their own citizens. Nonetheless, we clearly have a leaner, more market-friendly agriculture system than before. It looks, in fact, a bit like global manufacturing, with low inventories (wheat stocks are at their lowest since 1977), concentrated production (three countries provide ninety percent of corn exports, and five countries provide eighty percent of rice exports,) and fewer redundancies. Governments have a much smaller role, and public spending on agriculture has been cut sharply. The problem is that, while this system is undeniably more efficient, it's also much more fragile. Bad weather in just a few countries can wreak havoc across the entire system. When prices spike as they did this spring, the result is food shortages and malnutrition in poorer countries, since they are far more dependent on imports and have few food reserves to draw on. And, while higher prices and market reforms were supposed to bring a boom in agricultural productivity, global crop yields actually rose less between 1990 and 2007 than they did in the previous twenty years, in part because in many developing countries private-sector agricultural investment never materialized, while the cutbacks in government spending left them with feeble infrastructures. These changes did not cause the rising prices of the past couple of years, but they have made them more damaging. The old emphasis on food security was undoubtedly costly, and often wasteful. But the redundancies it created also had tremendous value when things went wrong. And one sure thing about a system as complex as agriculture is that things will go wrong, often with devastating consequences. If the just-in-time system for producing cars runs into a hitch and the supply of cars shrinks for a while, people can easily adapt. When the same happens with food, people go hungry or even starve. That doesn' t mean that we need to embrace price controls or collective farms, and there are sensible market reforms, like doing away with import tariffs, that would make developing-country consumers better off. But a few weeks ago Bill Clinton, no enemy of market reform, got it right when he said that we should help countries achieve "maximum agricultural self-sufficiency". Instead of a more efficient system. We should be trying to build a more reliable one.

单选题 {{B}}TEXT A{{/B}} High in a smooth ocean of sky floated a dazzling, majestic sun. Fragments of powdery cloud, like spray flung from a wave crest, sprinkled the radiant, lake-blue heaven. Relaxed on a bundle of hay in a comer of a meadow bathed in sunlight, Paul lay dreaming. A gentle breeze was stirring the surrounding hedges; bees moved, humming thoughtfully, from scarlet poppy to purple thistle; a distant lark, invisible in blue light, was flooding the vast realm of the sky with glorious song, as the sun was flooding the earth with brilliance. Beyond the hedge a brook tinkled over softlyglowing pebbles. Butterflies hovered above nodding clover. An ant was busily exploring the uncharted territory of Paul's suntanned wrist. A grasshopper skidded briskly over his ankle. And the blazing sun was steadily scorching his fair freckled face to bright lobster red. Neither sun, nor grasshopper, nor ant, however, was able to arouse him. Not even when a fly started crawling over his face did he open his eyes. For Paul was a thousand miles away, in a world of eternal snow and ice. Across the towering mountain range, a bitter gale was screaming furiously as with one hand he gripped a projecting knob of rock while with his axe he hacked out the next narrow foothold in the rock. As their infallible guide, he was leading his gallant party of climbers up a treacherous, vertical wall of rock towards the lofty peak above, hitherto unconquered by man. A single slip, however trivial, would probably result in death for all of them. To his right he could glimpse the furrowed glacier sweeping towards the valley, but he was far too absorbed in his task to appreciate fully the scene around or even to be aware of a view of almost unearthly beauty. A sudden gust of wind nearly tore him from the ledge where he was perched. Gradually he raised his foot, tested the new foothold on the sheer rock wall, transferred his weight, and signaled to the climbers below. Not until a tractor started working in the next field did he become conscious of his far from icy surroundings. He sat up, wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, glanced at his watch and sighed in resignation. He had a headache through sleeping in the hot sun, a pain in his shoulder from carrying his rucksack; his legs felt stiff and his feet ached. With no enthusiasm whatever he pulled the bulging rucksack over his shoulders and drew a large-scale map from his pocket. At the far end of the meadow two slates in the wall, which at this point replaced the hedge, indicated a stile, and beyond he could faintly see a thin thread of path which dwindled and finally disappeared as it climbed the steep slope of the down, quivering in the glare of the sun. The whole of Nature seemed to be luxuriating in warmth, sunshine and peace. Wherever he looked, leaves on twigs, grass blades, flower petals, all were sparkling in sunlight. Fifteen miles off, over the ridge, across a broad valley and then over a higher, even steeper range of hills lay the youth hostel: supper, company, a cool dip in the river. With a momentary intense longing for ice-axe, blizzard, glacier and heroic exploit (none of which was at all familiar to him), Paul strode off unwillingly to less dramatic but equally heroic achievement in the tropical heat of an English sun.