单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} A variety of significant, attractive short-term benefits will drive the development of modern self-sufficient homes. These include security from severe weather, climate changes, and natural disasters; security from infectious diseases and related health problems; a fresh and nutritious diet; a dependable food supply; and security from global unrest. But the real benefit of Earth Homes will be the long-term sustainability of our planet. It should be no secret that the planet is experiencing unusual weather and climate abnormalities. The 10 hottest years in recorded history have all been in the last 15 years; the 1990s were the hottest decade on record. The Midwestern heat wave of 1995 killed 669 people in Chicago. In 1996, we had a season of record heat spells, and 1997 was the single warmest year on record—until 1998 shattered global temperature records. Record-high temperatures throughout the southern United States during the summer of 1998 forced the shutdown of Walt Disney World's water parks because of the threat of a viral encephalitis outbreak. The United Nations and insurers blame unusual weather for thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Many scientists agree that the emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases. These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting in warming of the earth's surface. In 1990, scientists predicted that, if greenhouse gas emissions are not sharply decreased, we might experience a 1℃ to 3℃ rise in global temperatures. They suggested that we would have to cut in half our use of coal, oil, and gas in order to lower our emissions enough to maintain concentrations of greenhouse gases at the current levels. Proof of warming includes a decrease in the amount of snow that covers the Northern Hemisphere, a simultaneous decrease in Arctic Sea ice, continued melting of alpine glaciers, and a rise in sea level. Rain has even been reported for the first time in Antarctica, and an ice-free patch of ocean about a mile wide has recently opened near the North Pole. Meanwhile, studies have shown that the carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere has been steadily increasing since 1958. Even though the rate of emissions from fossil fuels has been reduced, concentration has risen consistently. In 1995, the size of the ozone hole over Antarctica doubled to about the size of Europe. For the first time in recorded history, the hole stretched over populated areas, exposing residents in southern Chile and Argentina to very high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Studies have shown that a 1% decrease in ozone in the stratosphere produces a 2% increase in UV radiation reaching the ground, posing more risks to humans.

单选题 {{I}}Questions 15-17 are based on the following dialogue between friends about their family. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 15-17.{{/I}}

单选题The author regrets to see that______.

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单选题Tower of London used to be a ______. A. supermarket B. park C. prison D. garden

单选题In Britain, newspapers ______.

单选题What does a firm depend on if it wants to develop and not to be thrown out of the markets? You may say the firm should have some advantages of its own to stand still in the fierce competitive battle field of the commerce. And this is quite true. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on work force skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as the centre to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquisition is considered an individual responsibility. Labor is simply another factor of production to be hired/rented at the lowest possible cost--must as one buys raw materials or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate pecking order. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer. By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human resource management is central--usually the second most important executive, after the CEO, is the firm"s hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work force, in fact, they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also more highly concentrated on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in training workers are also much more narrowly focused on the specific skills necessary to do the next job rather than on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Ger many than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can"t effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.

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单选题 Bacteria are microscopic organisms which live on the surface of objects. They are one of the most ancient living things, which exist on this planet for nearly 4,000 million years. Do you know the size of bacteria? It can only be measured in microns. Maybe you have not a standard in your mind how long a micron is. One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter, which equals about the diameter of a pinhead. Therefore, even if we enlarged the rounded bacterium a thousand times, it would only be the size of a pinhead. We barely see bacteria by a magnification an ordinary microscope of 100 times, even if we try, we cannot make out anything of their structure. There are normally millions of them together, for they can multiply really fast. Scientists have found that some bacteria have attached to wavy-looking "hairs" called flagella. The flagella rotate, pushing the bacteria through the water. Others can glide along over surfaces by some little-understood mechanism. Bacteria are so small that they are influenced by the movements of the chemical molecules around them. They are active all the time. Even the bacteria without flagella often bound about in the water. They are pushed here and there, colliding with the watery molecules. Bacteria cannot be detected because they don't produce bad odor or change the color or texture of the food. Therefore, when people eat the food with many bacteria, they are likely to get hepatitis A, acute gastroenteritis and a host of other illnesses. Many households have refrigerators to prevent from bacteria. Of course, freezing food slows or stops the growth of bacteria, however, when food is thawed, the bacteria will become reactivated. Bacteria can not be totally destroyed before the food is thoroughly cooked. We need to know that not all bacteria are in connection with illness. Just some bacteria can cause disease. They are called pathogenic bacteria. Fortunately our immune system can protect us from them. Bacteria are prokaryotes ( single cells that do not contain a nucleus). It may seem weird to classify organisms according to such details, but with or without a nucleus is not trivial at all. The division between prokaryotes and eukaryotes (all organisms with a nucleus inside their cells) is of extreme importance in biology, and is the result of a major evolutionary breakthrough. Visit our program tomorrow if you want to know more, thank you.

单选题Real policemen hardly recognize any resemblance between their lives and what they see on TV. These are similarities, of course, but the cops don't think much of them. The first difference is that a policeman's real life revolves round the law. Most of his training is in criminal law, and what is more, he has to apply it on his feet, in the dark and rain, running down an alley after someone he wants to talk to. Little of his time is spent in chatting to a scantily-clad or in dramatic confrontation with desperate criminals. He will spend most of his working life typing millions of words on thousands of forms about hundreds of sad, unimportant people who are guilty—or not—of stupid, petty crimes. Most television crime drama is about finding the criminals as soon as he's arrested, the story is over. In real life, finding criminals is seldom much of a problem except in very serious cases like murders and terrorist attacks—whose failure to produce results reflects on the standing of the police. The police have an elaborate machinery which eventually shows up most wanted men. Having made an arrest, a detective really starts to work. He has to prove his case in court and to do that he often has to gather a lot of different evidence. Much of this has to be given by people who don't want to get involved in a court case. So, as well as being overworked, a detective has to be out at all hours of the day and night interviewing his witnesses and persuading them, usually against their own best interests, to help him. A third big difference between the drama detective and the real one is the unpleasant moral twilight in which the real one lives. Detectives are subject to two opposing pressures: first, as members of a police force they always have to get results. Second, they have to observe the rules. They can hardly ever do both. Most of the time some of them have to break the rules in small ways.

单选题What is the reporter’s impression of Britain?