单选题[此试题无题干]

单选题Read the following text. Answer the questions below the text by choosing A, B, C or D. During the past generation, the American middle-class family that once could count on hard work and fair play to keep itself financially secure has been transformed by economic risk and new realities. Now a pink slip, a bad diagnosis, or a disappearing spouse can reduce a family from solidly middle class to newly poor people in a few months. In just one generation, millions of mothers have gone to work, transforming basic family economics. Scholars, policymakers, and critics of all stripes have debated the social implications of these changes, but few have looked at the side effect: family risk has risen as well. Today's families have budgeted to the limits of their new two-paycheck status. As a result they have lost the parachute they once had in times of financial setback—a back-up earner (usually Mom) who could go into the workforce if the primary earner got laid off or fell sick. This "added-worker effect" could support the safety net offered by unemployment insurance or disability insurance to help families weather bad times. But today, a disruption to family fortunes can no longer be made up with extra income from an otherwise-stay-at-home partner. During the same period, families have been asked to absorb much more risk in their retirement income. Steelworkers, airline employees, and now those in the auto industry are joining millions of families who must worry about interest rates, stock market fluctuation, and the harsh reality that they may outlive their retirement money. For much of the past year, President Bush campaigned to move Social Security to a savings-account model, with retirees trading much or all of their guaranteed payments for payments depending on investment returns. For younger families, the picture is not any better. Both the absolute cost of healthcare and the share of it borne by families have risen and newly fashionable health-savings plans are spreading from legislative halls to Wal-Mart workers, with much higher deductibles and a large new dose of investment risk for families' future healthcare. Even demographics are working against the middle-class family, as the odds of having a weak elderly parent—and all the attendant need for physical and financial assistance—have jumped eightfold in just one generation. From the middle-class family's perspective, much of this, understandably, looks far less like an opportunity to exercise more financial responsibility, and a good deal more like a frightening acceleration of the wholesale shift of financial risk onto their already overburdened shoulders. The financial fallout has begun, and the political fallout may not be far behind.

单选题What does the word "precursor" in the context in Para. 3 mean?

单选题In the last five years prices for western art have soared. Popular artists can't paint fast enough to keep up with the demand for paintings that regularly sell for $30,000 to $50,000. The boom is all the more striking considering that 20 years ago western art had virtually no market at all. To some extent, its success reflects Americans' increased interest in their heritage. Certainly there are those who would argue that western art is the truly indigenous American art. Its roots date back at least as far as the early 19th century, when George Catlin, perhaps the greatest western artist of that period, took his paints and brushes and ventured into the wilderness in the company of William Clark. His close observations of the beautifully savage country molded a new and powerful aesthetic, one that incorporated the sweep of plains and the primitive dynamism of the people who lived there. Catlin's portraits of Indian chiefs are noble, his paintings of scenes such as "Buffalo Hunt with Bows and Arrows" are full of action and bravery, and for all the smallness of the canvas, they have tremendous scope. Frederic Remington and Charles Russell continued the tradition of painter as historian into the early 1900s. Their dramatic — some critics say melodramatic narrative art found an overwhelming public sympathy. Today when people speak of western art they mean realistic art with western subject matter, past and present. In the forefront are those who call themselves cowboy artists, and many of the elite of this group are members of the Cowboy Artists of America, whose first objective is "to perpetuate the memory and culture of the Old West." Not surprisingly, they paint cowboys and, by extension, indians and mountain men, but not landscapes and animal pictures. Cowboy Artists blend a romantic vision of the Old West with a historically accurate depiction of that way of life; every saddle girth is tied correctly; every feather in an Indian's war bonnet is in place and of the proper species. In Howard Terpning's "The Victors", for instance, an anthropologist could tell by the warriors' clothing which tribe they belonged to. Many critics today refuse to recognize western art as art. In a real sense, it is, as in the days of Remington and Russell, a popular movement-a middle- class phenomenon. And why not? Cowboy art is unequivocally stating middle- class values. In the west, "middle class" isn't a derogatory term. It's almost synonymous with America. Just as these people are unabashedly patriotic, they want their art to reflect their values of striving and prospering, of optimism and individualism.

单选题How did environmentalists manage to protect dolphins?

单选题The word "it" in line 3 refers to ______.

单选题 {{I}}Questions 14 -16 are based on the following passage. You now have 15 seconds to read questions 14 -16.{{/I}}

单选题The development discussed in the passage is primarily a problem of______.

单选题The Canadian political system consists of [A] the Governor General, the House of Commons and the Senate. [B] the Prime Minister, the Executive and the Judiciary. [C] the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. [D] the Legislature, the House of Commons and the Senate.

单选题What can be inferred from the last sentence of the text?

单选题 Questions 17 ～ 20 are based on a monologue by a tour guide giving some information about the BART system. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17 ～ 20.

单选题Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This is what is meant by ______. A. duality B. displacement C. productivity D. arbitrariness

单选题