单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} It seems now that a dollar is not the same as that ten years ago. We can not use it to buy as many things as before. No one can deny that one dollar is worth 100 cents. The amount of money is fixed but the value has experienced great changes. Do our living conditions get decreased? Many people are confused about this question. All the goods are ruled by the {{U}}axioms{{/U}} of supply and demand. We all know that workers earn more than before, as a result, they have more to pay for what they need or what they like. The great demand promotes the price to go up. At the same time, if there is a shortage, the price also goes up. According to the economists, the value of money depends on the cost of living. The cost of living is what we spend on the necessities. The food, housing and medical expenses have increased largely these years, so the value of money has decreased. For some people whose salary has not increased much, the expense of living becomes a headache. Don't worry about that. To help you better manage your salary and keep the quality of your life, here comes some money saving tips. First, you need to set ambitious goals to encourage you to save money. For example, you plan to have a formal dress in one year, to own a car in five years or to buy an apartment in twenty years. Second, stay away from those that waste money. Learn to keep a diary of how much you spend and what it is for. Planning a budget is important. Budget helps you to spend money wisely though the cost of living increases. So, how do you make a budget? There are numerous charts and software and all kinds of things that you can buy to help you. They're all fine, but all that you really need is a notebook, a pencil and a small calculator. Just sit down and annotate everything that you spend money on in a month with these tools. Everything! Think twice before using money on expensive skin care products. The best way to keep your skin in good condition is sufficient sleep. After you know exactly where your money is going, you can have chance to get rid of your bad consumption habit. Following them your daily expense will be cut off easily, but still keep the quality of your life.

单选题Why does the writer use the Medieval and Renaissance painting in Paragraph 1 ?

单选题Some of the world's most accommodating businessmen specialize in getting you what you want at a fair market price. But they're businessmen with a difference — they're smugglers who deal only in what's illegal. A smuggling operation is complex, so it has to be businesslike. It has managers who plan trips, make deals, and arrange for purchases and pick-ups. It has travelers who deliver the goods, and specialists who recruit and train them. In fact, smugglers frequently have legitimate businesses on the side. A travel agency is helpful because the modern smuggler is a world traveler. When a gold smuggler was arrested recently, he had airline tickets from Geneva to Bangkok by way of Frankfurt, Istanbul, Beirut, Vancouver, Tokyo, Heng Kong, Manila, and Jakarta. The best places for smuggling operations are border cities and seaports. In one such city, annual sales at local stores amounted to $6,900 for every person in town. But the average person only made $3,575 per year. A tiny seaport is the world's third largest importer of Swiss watches — every year, it buys 50 watches for every person in the city. Obviously, the people in these cities are not buying all this merchandise — it is being bought by smugglers. As one expert wrote, "the ingenuity of the smuggler's mind is virtually limitless." In addition to special vests for carrying gold, there are other types of smuggling equipment. A diplomat was arrested in London with 298 watches sewn into his coat lining. British officials discovered a car with a special gas tank containing 2,581 illegal watches. But some smugglers don't need special equipment. A good diamond smuggler can hide two to three small diamonds in his mouth and still carry on a normal conversation. What makes people smuggle? Profit is definitely a motive. Over $1.5 billion in illegal gold alone is smuggled every year, not to mention a multi-million dollar art smuggling trade and a thriving business in illegal diamonds. But many smugglers love excitement as much as profit. As one said, "You don't feel happy unless you have a line open and somebody making a run for you./

单选题About the craft production, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

单选题What can be inferred from the talk?

单选题 In the 1950s, the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI) predicted that, by the end of this century, computers would be conversing with us at work and robots would be performing our housework. But as useful as computers are, they're nowhere close to achieving anything remotely resembling these early aspirations for human like behavior. Never mind something as complex as conversation: the most powerful computers struggle to reliably recognize the shape of an object, the most elementary of tasks for a ten-month-old kid. A growing group of AI researchers think they know where the field went wrong. The problem, the scientists say, is that AI has been trying to separate the highest, most abstract levels of thought, like language and mathematics, and to duplicate them with logical, step-by-step programs. A new movement in AI, on the other hand, takes a closer look at the more roundabout way in which naturally came up with intelligence. Many of these researchers study evolution and natural adaptation instead of formal logic and conventional computer programs. Rather than digital computers and transistors, some want to work with brain cells and proteins. The results of these early efforts are as promising as they are peculiar, and the new nature-based AI movement is slowly but surely moving to the forefront of the field. Imitating the brain's neural (神经的) network is a huge step in the right direction, says computer scientist and biophysicist Michael Conrad, but it still misses an important aspect of natural intelligence. "People tend to treat the brain as if it were made up of color-coded transistors", he explains, "but it's not simply a clever network of switches. There are lots of important things going on inside the brain cells themselves." Specifically, Conrad believes that many of the brain's capabilities stem from the patternrecognition proficiency of the individual molecules that make up each brain cell. The best way to build and artificially intelligent device, he claims, would be to build it around the same sort of molecular skills. Right now, the option that conventional computers and software are fundamentally incapable of matching the processes that take place in the brain remains controversial. But if it proves true, then the efforts of Conrad and his fellow AI rebels could turn out to be the only game in town.

单选题The question of whether war is inevitable is one, which has concerned many of the world's great writers. Before considering this question, it will be useful to introduce some related concepts. Conflict, defined as opposition among social entities directed against one another, is distinguished from competition, defined as opposition among social entities independently striving for something, which is in inadequate supply. Competitors may not be aware of one another, while the parties to a conflict are. Conflict and competition are both categories of opposition, which has been defined as a process by which social entities function is the disservice of one another. Opposition is thus contrasted with cooperation, the process by which social entities function in the service of one another. These definitions are necessary because it is important to emphasize that competition between individuals or groups in inevitable in a world of limited resources, but conflict is not. Conflict, nevertheless, is very likely to occur, and is probably an essential and desirable element of human societies. Many authors have argued for the inevitability of war from the premise that in the struggle for existence among animal species, only the fittest survive. In general, however, this struggle in nature is competition, not conflict. Social animals, such as monkeys and cattle, fight to win or maintain leadership of the group. The struggle for existence occurs not in such fights, but in the competition for limited feeding areas and for occupancy of areas free from meat-eating animals. Those who fail in this competition starve to death or become victims to other species. This struggle for existence does not resemble human war, but rather the competition of individuals for jobs, markets, and materials. The essence of the struggle is the competition for the necessities of life that are insufficient to satisfy all. Among nations there is competition in developing resources, trades, skills, and a satisfactory way of life. The successful nations grow and prosper; the unsuccessful decline. While it is true that this competition may induce efforts to expand territory at the expense of others, and thus lead to conflict, it cannot be said that war-like conflict among nations is inevitable, although competition is.

单选题 {{I}}Questions 22-25 are based on the following dialogue.{{/I}}

单选题According to the author, the deeper problems of aviation industry ______.

单选题The author suggests that the university's greatest shortcoming is its failure to______.

单选题Text 1Inflation has just exploded. The real problem is that we have an underlying rate of inflation— an impetus of wages chasing prices—of maybe 9 percent that is heading towards 10 percent. There also have been tremendous shocks in energy, food and housing prices, making it worse. By the end of the year, we will be in a situation where year in, year out, we can look forward to at least 10 percent inflation. And the question will be: How much worse will oil, food and housing prices make that? The situation has degenerated to the point that the only way to turn it around is to think of some very extreme changes in policy. A policy of gradualism, where you're talking about a mild recession and another 1 to 2 million people unemployed, won't make much difference. Postponing action just means that inflation presses further and is even more difficult to deal with. You have to start with revenue and monetary restraint. All the burden now is on monetary policy. We should shift to a much more restrictive revenue policy and an easier monetary policy. To be significant, the 1981 budget should be cut by at least 20 billion dollars from 616 billion President Carter proposed. That's a major cut in government programs— and very hard to do. It's impossible if you save defense and all the programs indexed for changes in the cost of living. So it means cuts across the board in every area — including the indexed programs, such as Social Security and food stamps. State and local-government revenue-sharing programs are another major candidate. You've also got to reopen the 1980 budget and cut that. Then I would favor wage and price controls to break the impetus of the wage-price interaction. In order to get quick results, I'd set the standard around 5 or 6 percent for both wages and prices. Basically, you're aiming to cut the rate of inflation in half the first year. There would be no exceptions, but you would focus on large corporations and major labor settlements. For the special sectors where the big shocks have occurred, controls won't work. Instead, you need additional policies in each one of those areas. There are no cheap or easy solutions to the inflation problem. My answer is to take all the things that everybody wants to do, and instead of choosing among them, do all of them. We've got to think in terms of a comprehensive program.

单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} A parent with a child carrying a musical instrument or a drawing board walking along a Beijing subway platform or street is a familiar sight on weekends. They are on the way to training schools. Education of their children has become the most important responsibility of parents who were sent to rural areas for "re-education" during the "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976. They lost the chance for university education and now hope their children can receive a better education than they did. As a result, these people now in their forties expose their little children to early training so that they can enter a prestigious school. The parents imagine a road to success: from excellent primary and middle schools to an elite university and then to a good job. On average, they may spend about 100 yuan a month on their children's education. And what results have these parents obtained? Most of them feel that the large investment has failed to lead to rapid progress in their children's study. "We seem to be throwing our money away," said one parent. However, many parents still think that spending more on their children's schooling will result in high scores. These parents have also introduced a "contract system", which offers rewards for good school grades. More than 80% of parents in families in Chengdu have signed contracts with their children, according to the Consumers" Times. The paper notes that the heavy pressure put on children to perform well at school has resulted in a decline in children's health. The parents' investment in their children also includes hiring tutors. A survey of 250 students in Xuzhou found that 10% of their parents hired tutors. The pay for one tutorial hour is three yuan. Liberation Daily commented that these parents have too high expectations of their children. According to the article, "They are trying to help the young plants grow by pulling them upwards." They ignore their children's psychology and perhaps will damage the real talents the children possess.

单选题Copernicus developed his theory ______.

单选题What the Chicago Public schools prefers to in language education is

单选题He borrowed ______ book in the library yesterday. A. a B. the C. an