单选题The article was written to explain ______.

单选题 Questions 14—16 are based on the following passage about the drought. You now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14—16.

单选题James Joyce, the most well-known Irish writer of the modern period, used the stream of consciousness technique in his works [A] Dubliners. [B] A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. [C] Ulysses. [D] Essays.

单选题 Questions 17～20 are based on the following conversation about a new snack food. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17～20.

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单选题{{B}}Passage 2{{/B}} Boston is a tiny place. Even when inner urban suburbs such as Cambridge, Brookline, Somerville, and Chelsea are included, Greater Boston is still unusually small in scale for a major population center. That gives Boston much of its special flavor. Unfortunately, during times of great prosperity it also creates special challenges. Perhaps the most pressing of these challenges is housing. As the Phoenix's special package on housing shows, the apartment shortage in Greater Boston has reached crisis proportions. Since the mid 1990s, rents have gone up by 50 percent or more in some neighborhoods. And even at these grossly inflated prices, apartments are still nearly impossible to come by. Nevertheless, some modest steps can be taken. It's the old not-in-my-backyard syndrome: everyone knows there's a housing shortage, but no one wants to see new housing come into his or her own neighborhood. {{U}}Such opposition can be eased by involving local residents in planning for new housing. The lesson is that bottom-up solutions invariably work better than top-down edicts.{{/U}} Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and MIT have taken major steps toward building housing for their students on their own campuses. During the 1960s and 70s, student housing spread into neighborhoods such as the Fenway (near Northeastern) and Audubon Circle (near BU). Students kept such neighborhoods alive during those difficult years. But as neighborhoods become able to "thrive on their own" , universities should be encouraged, wherever possible, to pull back, thus opening up neighborhood housing to long-term residents. In his State of the City address in January, Mayor Tom Menino identified the housing crisis as his number-one priority, and named a respected legislator, Charlotte Richie, as his housing czar. In a recently published interview, Boston Redevelopment Authority head Tom O' Brien spoke of the need to preserve the diversity of Boston's neighborhoods, and identified the city's residential character as one of its saving graces. Yet the city has been missing in action. At the very least. Menino should make a concerted effort to ease the housing shortage in neighborhoods where the problem is particularly acute. More important, Menino has to realize that he cannot deal with housing as an "in box" mayor, taking on an issue here, an issue there as they come up. He should work with officials in surrounding communities and convene a housing summit to consider a wide range of ideas.

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单选题According to the passage, what difficulty did the social and behavioral sciences confront in the 1970's?

单选题 The commuter train that crashed on Sunday in the Bronx shouldn't have derailed. The four people who died should still be alive. And they would be, if only New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority had deployed safety technology already used elsewhere and pushed by rail safety watchdogs for 40 years. A dazed engineer barreled into a 30 mph curve at 82 miles per hour. No alarm sounded to shake him out of his stupor. No automatic brakes kicked in. Disaster was guaranteed. However, five years ago, in the wake of a fatal train accident in California, Congress mandated that all railroads install an automated braking system that could have prevented the crash. The deadline is 2015, but many railroads—wary of the cost—have failed to comply and are pushing for delay. It's fair to wonder what the MTA thinks of that strategy today. In 1969, after the NTSB investigated a deadly collision of two Penn Central trains in Connecticut, the board began calling for development of an automated backup system to slow or stop trains that missed signals or exceeded speed limits. Back then, the technology didn't exist. Today digital communications combined with GPS can monitor train locations and speeds, talk to trains and automatically take charge when a train needs to be slowed. About a third of train accidents from 2000 to 2009 were caused by human error, including cases when an engineer fell asleep or became distracted. It took the horrific 2008 collision in California to finally get Congress' attention. A Metrolink passenger train operator was texting, ran through a stop signal and collided with a freight train. The 25 deaths and 135 injuries pushed lawmakers to mandate that "positive train control" technology be installed on trains that carry passengers or hazardous materials by the end of 2015. The safety program is undoubtedly complex and costly. But there's one problem with the industry's insistence that the deadline couldn't be met, some railroads will meet it. If they can do it, why can't others? Some of the obstacles sound real. Commuter systems are often strapped for money. Congress has made available only one-fifth of what was supposed to be a ＄250 million fund to help with improvements. Even so, extending the deadline is no solution. It takes the pressure off the delinquents and is unfair to the railroads that have complied. Accidents happen. But this one was preventable. So is the next one, but only if the railroads act.

单选题Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D. Music comes in many forms; most countries have a style of their own. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}the turn of the century when jazz (爵士乐) was born, America had no prominent {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}of its own. No one knows exactly when jazz was {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}, or by whom. But it began to be {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}in the early 1900s. Jazz is America's contribution to {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}music. In contrast to classical music, which {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}formal European traditions. Jazz is spontaneous and free-form. It bubbles with energy, {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}moods, interests, and emotions of the people. In the 1920s, jazz {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}like America. And {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}it does today. The {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}of this music are as interesting as the music {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}, American Negroes, or blacks, as they are called today were the Jazz {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}. They were brought to the Southern states {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}slaves. They were sold to plantation owners and forced to work long {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}. When a Negro died, his friends and relatives {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}a procession to carry the body to the cemetery. In New Orleans, a band often accompanied the {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}. On the way to the cemetery the band played slow, solemn music suited to the occasion, {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}on the way home the mood changed. Spirits lifted. Death had removed one of their {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}, but the living were glad to be alive. The band played {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}music, improvising (即兴表演) on both the harmony and the melody of the tunes {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}at the funeral. This music made everyone want to dance. It was an early form of Jazz.

单选题Although the Reebok Company has solved the problem of fulfilling its orders, it ________.

单选题 In the 1960s the West Coast became an important center for rock music. Los Angeles and Southern California are famous for sunshine and surfing. There, a quieter kind of rock called surf rock became famous. The Beach Boys sang songs like "Surfin' U. S. A.", "California Girls" and "Fun, Fun, Fun". These songs made people dream about the good life in California. San Francisco was a center for young people and rock music in the late 1960s. This was the time of the Vietnam War, student protest, hippies, and drugs. Hippies talked about love and peace. They wore brightly colored clothes and had long hair. They listened to rock and folk-rock music. Drugs were a serious problem during that time. The deaths of three young rock stars, Janis Jopling, Jim Morrison and the great guitar player Jim Hendrix were all related to drugs. Not all of the rock musicians came from California or the U. S. A.. That was the time of the great British rock groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. British rock musicians had a very important place in the rock music of the 1960s in America. Another kind of softer rock music was created by the singers. Singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor wrote their own lyrics and their own music. Their songs were about love and friendship, good and bad times. In the 1960s big rock concerts were very welcomed by everyone. The most famous concert was Woodstock. In 1969 in New York State, a million young people came together to hear the rock stars. This peaceful Woodstock concert was the most important musical event of the 1960s. After World War Ⅱ a great number of black people moved from the South to the big industrial cities like New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia. Many black people lived in poor parts of the city such as Harlem in New York. Musicians wrote and sang about life in the big cities. Life was difficult but music and dancing made it a little easier. Popular black music had a strong beat for dancing. At first this music was called rhythm and blues. The 1960s called it soul. In Detroit, a black musician named Berry Gordy set up an all black record company. It was called Motown. Motown or motor town is another name for Detroit, where cars are made. Most of the famous soul musicians like the Supremes, the Temptations, and the Jackson Five recorded with Motown.