单选题what does the word "tug-of-war" probably refer to?

单选题 {{I}} Questions 17--20 are based on the following passage. You now have 20 seconds to read Questions 17--20.{{/I}}

单选题What aspect of potash does the passage mainly talks about?

单选题That summer an army of crickets started a war with my father. They picked a fight the minute they invaded our cellar. Dad didn't care for bugs much more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few spiders and assorted creepy crawlers living in the basement. Every farm house had them. A part of rustic living, and something you needed to put up with if you wanted the simple life. He told Mamma: Now that were living out here, you can't be jerking your head and swallowing your gum over what's plain natural, Ellen. But she was a city girl through and through and had no ears when it came to defending vermin. She said a cricket was just a noisy cockroach, just a dumb horny bug that wouldn't shut up. She said in the city there were blocks of buildings overrun with cockroaches with no way for people to get rid of them. No sir, no way could she sleep with all that chirping going on; then to prove her point she wouldn't go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father's cigarettes and she paced between the couch and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and leave, so Dad drove to the hardware store and hurried back. He squirted poison from a jug with a spray nozzle. He sprayed the basement and all around the foundation of the house. When he was finished he told us that was the end of it. But what he should have said was: This is the beginning, the beginning of our war, the beginning of our destruction. I often think back to that summer and try to imagine him delivering a speech with words like that, because for the next fourteen days mamma kept finding dead crickets in the clean laundry. Shed shake out a towel or a sheet and a dead black cricket would roll across the linoleum. Sometimes the cat would corner one, and swat it around like he was playing hockey, then carry it away in his mouth. Dad said swallowing a few dead crickets wouldn't hurt as long as the cat didn't eat too many. Each time Mamma complained he told her it was only natural that we'd be finding a couple of dead ones for a while. Soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma freaked because she thought they were the dead crickets come back to haunt, but Dad said these was definitely a new batch, probably coming up on the pipes. He fetched his jug of poison and sprayed beneath the sink and behind the toilet and all along the baseboard until the whole house smelled of poison, and then he sprayed the cellar again, and then he went outside and sprayed all around the foundation leaving a foot-wide moat of poison. For a couple of weeks we went back to finding dead crickets in the laundry. Dad told us to keep a sharp look out, He suggested that we'd all be better off to hide as many as we could from mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn't like because he scratched and bit for no reason. I hoped the poison might kill him so we could get a puppy. A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, he emptied the cellar of junk. Then he burned a lot of bundled newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned 'into nests. He stood over that fire with a rake in one hand and a garden hose in the other. He wouldn't leave it even when Mamma sent me out to fetch him for supper. He wouldn't leave the fire, and she wouldn't put supper on the table. Both my brothers were crying. Finally she went out and got him herself. And while we ate, the wind lifted some embers onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was in the lawn mowers fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the house. Once the roof caught, there wasn't much anyone could do.

单选题With the coming of the information age, the society is becoming

单选题According to the text, Case history is

单选题 The United States economy made progress in reducing unemployment and moderating inflation. On the international side, this year was much calmer than last. Nevertheless, continuing imbalances in the pattern of world trade contributed to intermittent strains in the foreign exchange markets. These strains intensified to crisis proportions, precipitating a further devaluation of the dollar. The domestic economy expanded in a remarkably vigorous and steady fashion. The resurgence in consumer confidence was reflected in the higher proportion of incomes spent for goods and services and the marked increase in consumer willingness to take on installment debt. A parallel strengthening in business psychology was manifested in stepped-up rate of plant and equipment spending and a gradual pickup in outlays for inventory. Confidence in the economy was also reflected in the strength of the stock market and in the stability of the bond market. For the year as a whole, consumer and business sentiment benefited from rising public expectations that a resolution of the conflict in Vietnam was in prospect and that East-West tensions were easing. The underpinnings of the business expansion were to be found in part in the stimulative monetary and fiscal policies that had been pursued. Moreover, the restoration of sounder liquidity positions and tighter management control of production efficiency had also helped lay the groundwork for a strong expansion. In addition, the economic policy moves made by the President had served to renew optimism on the business outlook while boosting hopes that inflation would be brought under more effective control. Finally, of course, the economy was able to grow as vigorously as it did because sufficient flexibility existed in terms of idle men and machines. The United States balance of payments deficit declined sharply. Nevertheless, by any other test, the deficit remained very large, and there was actually a substantial deterioration in our trade account to a sizable deficit, almost two thirds of which was with Japan. While the overall trade performance proved disappointing, there are still good reasons for expecting the delayed impact of devaluation to produce in time a significant strengthening in our trade picture. Given the size of the Japanese component of our trade measures undertaken by Japan. Also important will be our own efforts in the United States to fashion internal policies consistent with an improvement in our external balance.

单选题You will hear three dialogues or monologues. Before listening to each one, you will have 5 seconds to read each of the questions which accompany it. While listening, answer each question by choosing A, B, C or D. After listening, you will have 10 seconds to check your answer to each question. You will hear each piece once only.

单选题 Questions 14～16 are hosed on a text about ice phrases. Yon now have 15 seconds to read Questions 14～6.

单选题 The tango has probably traveled further and gone through more changes than almost{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}. African slaves brought the tango to Haiti and Cuba in the 18th century; in Cuba, the tango was influenced by the local Cuban dance,{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}"the Havana". From there{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}took the tango in Argentina in the 19th century,{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}it was changed once again and became popular in the{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}. It was an erotic dance of working class people by this time.{{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}made it difficult for middle-class Europeans to accept. {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}at the beginning of this century, the tango was refined, so that it{{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}its erotic features. It was preformed in{{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}casino ballrooms. The tango, in its sophisticated European{{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}, became popular in England and in the USA. Once{{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}, the tango became the rage in London and Paris. People began to{{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}the Viennese waltz custom of dancing in restaurants between the{{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}of a meal Proprietors{{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}this, "for the pleasure of the customers and for the benefit of their digestion"! After "tango teas"{{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}everywhere, even in private houses, Latin American music was played for the tango,{{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}more and more people owned gramphones. The tango returned in{{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}in a freer, more exotic form than{{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Rudolph Valentino, the Holly-wood film star, began his{{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}as a professional tango partner in American tea-rooms. Valentino{{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}immortalized the dance on film.

单选题It can be inferred from the passage that the war on terrorism can not draw enough support to justify a U. S. -dominated order because______.

单选题To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered______.

单选题WhichuniversitydidhistorianPatriceHigonnetgraduatefrom?A.StanfordUniversityB.HarvardUniversityC.MassachusettsInstituteofTechnologyD.UniversityofMichigan

单选题It"s almost an article of faith: your best ally in the fight against cancer is a doggedly optimistic outlook. And it would seem that mounting evidence of the links between emotional and physical well-being would support that view. The only problem is that there is no good evidence to support that belief when it comes to cancer. Moreover, the " tyranny " of positive thinking often becomes just one more burden for the sick. It was research in the 1970s and "80s that first popularized the idea that attitude might affect cancer outcomes. Such research led doctors to encourage patients to think happy thoughts and visualize their immune system blasting away cancer cells. But most of those studies have been dismissed as either flawed or inconclusive. A review of 37 studies that was published in the British Medical Journal in 2002 found that although a positive outlook does correlate with the perception of less pain by patients—a real benefit-there is "little consistent evidence that coping styles play an important part in survival from or recurrence of cancer." Still, the optimism theory remains attractive. One reason is that Americans live in a culture that desires control. We want to believe that we can beat cancer by imposing our will on the disease. A better reason is that mental states like depression and chronic anxiety have been shown to have physical consequences that affect the progression of such illnesses as heart disease and diabetes. While a similar connection is biologically plausible for cancer, it is far from proven. Even researchers who believe that studies will ultimately establish links between stress and the progression of cancer, like Stanford"s Dr. David Spiegel, know the picture is complex. "It isn"t a matter of "Fix it in your mind, and you fix it in your body,"" he says, "but it would be strange if what goes on in our minds didn"t affect how our bodies deal with illness." So where does that leave cancer patients? Doctors know that individuals will always bring their own disposition—sunny, sour or sarcastic—to bear on their illness and treatment. Pressuring them to be models of positive thinking is useless. Worse, it could cause them to hide their fears and reject support. But clinicians must remain alert for signs of depression, which can affect the outcome of any disease if it interferes with treatment. And many patients will also need—and welcome—help to improve poor coping skills. Spiegel says, "Having worked with people with life-threatening illnesses for 30 years, it"s clear that there are better and worse ways to deal with these things." False optimism isn"t helpful, but neither is despair.