单选题Just last week, for example, the World Heahh Organization (WHO) announced the disturbing disclosure that chick flu may be
pretty
deadlier than previously believed.
单选题No thing fuels cynicism for watching, two titanic institutions wrangle over their reputations. A. No... as B. Something... like C. Nothing... like D. No... than
单选题A year ago the firm had a ______ loss of 4.3 million dollars or 20 cents a share after all necessary deduction. A. total B. gross C. net D. clear
单选题The concept of a loyal opposition—the ______ of modern democracy—rarely prevails and. much more frequently, opposition is equated with treason and ruthlessly suppressed. A.100p B.essence C.equivalent D.velocity
单选题The climate in South China, where rains and storms are common occurrences, is much more
humid
than that of Xinjiang, a frozen land of ice.
单选题It was now clear that no such weapons were manufactured and none {{U}}been found{{/U}}.
单选题"They're the best team I've seen thus far," says ______ men's basketball coach Larry Brown. A. American's B. US C. the USA D. United State of America
单选题Since she did not have time to read the entire play before class, she read
an outline of the plot
instead.
单选题According to the International Law, the United Nations would impose economic ______ against an invading country.
单选题We suspect there is a quite deliberate attempt to sabotage the elections and undermine the electoral commission. A. conscious B. desperate C. clumsy D. intentional
单选题When {{U}}covering{{/U}} the Easongate incident, there was no mention of the tape that has been suppressed and that both CNN and Eason Jordan have declined to ask for it.
单选题The abolitionist"s
eloquent
speeches invoked a sharp response in the public and the fate of slaves has become a warm topic in American society.
单选题Researchers have discovered that dolphins are able to mimic human speech.
单选题The patient says he dreads ______ neighbors to carry him and his wheelchair up the stairs to his tenth-floor apartment when the elevator goes out.
单选题Most people would be impressed by the high quality of medicine available to most Americans. There is a lot of
specialization
, a great deal of attention to the individual, a vast amount of advanced technical equipment, and intense effort not to make mistakes because of the financial risk which doctors and hospitals must face in the courts if they handle things badly.
But the Americans are
in a mess
. The problem is the way in which health care is organized and financed. Contrary to public belief, it is not just a free competition system. To the private system has been joined a large public system, because private care was simply not looking after the less fortunate and the elderly.
But even with this huge public part of the system, which this year will eat up 84.5 billion dollars—more than 10 percent of the U.S. budget—large numbers of Americans are
left out
. These include about half the 11 million unemployed and those who fail to meet the strict limits on income fixed by a government trying to make savings where it can.
The basic problem, however, is that there is no central control over the health system. There is no limit to what doctors and hospitals charge for their services, other than what the public is able to pay. The number of doctors has shot up and prices have climbed. When faced with toothache, a sick child, or a heart attack, all the unfortunate person concerned can do is pay up.
Two-thirds of the population are covered by medical insurance. Doctors charge as much as
they
want knowing that the insurance company will pay the bill.
The medical profession has as a result become America"s new big businessmen. The average income of doctors has now reached $100,000 a year. With such vast incomes the talk in the doctor"s surgery is as likely to be about the doctor"s latest financial deal, as about whether the minor operation he is recommending at, several thousand dollars is entirely necessary.
The rising cost of medicine in the U. S. A. is among the most worrying problem facing the country. In 1981 the country"s health cost climbed 15.9 percent—about twice as fast as prices in general.
单选题The role of government in environmental management is difficult but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often,
41
governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subside the exploitation and
42
of natural resources. A whole
43
of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and (often)
44
no economic sense. Scrapping them offers a two-fold
45
: a cleaner environment and more efficient economy. Growth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to
46
the vested interest that subsidies create.
No activity affects more of the earth"s surface than farming. It shapes a third of the planet"s land area, not
47
Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 per cent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases in
48
from land already in
49
, but also beeause more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a
50
in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 1970s and 1980s.
All these activities may have
51
environmental impact. For example, land clearing for agricultures is the largest single
52
of deforestation; chemical fertilizers and pesticides may
53
water suppliers: more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods
54
exacerbate soil erosion; and the spread of monoculture and the use of high-yielding varieties of crops have been accompanied by the
55
of old varieties of food plants which
56
some insurance against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States,
57
the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate
58
to diminish the soil"s productivity. The country subsequently
59
a program to convert 11 per cent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is
60
much faster than in America.
单选题A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually hooked their TVs up to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer's home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry's cable providers do not yet offer high~definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them.
单选题Is it possible that the entire tale is but a garbled account of that voyage and Biarni another name for Leif? A. detailed B. plausible C. distorted D. eye-witness
单选题Jan Hendrik Schon"s success seemed too good to be true, and it was. In only four years as a physicist at Bell Laboratories, Schon, 32, had co-authored 90 scientific papers—one every 16 days—detailing new discoveries in superconductivity, lasers, nanotechnology and quantum physics. This output astonished his colleagues, and made them
suspicious
. When one co-worker noticed that the same table of data appeared in two separate papers—which also happened to appear in the two most prestigious scientific journals in the world, Science and
Nature
—the jig was up. In October 2002, a Bell Labs investigation found that Schon had falsified and
fabricated
data. His career as a scientist was finished. Scientific scandals, which are as old as science itself, tend to follow similar patterns of presumption and due reward.
In recent years, of course, the pressure on scientists to publish in the top journals has increased, making the journals much more crucial to career success. The questions are whether Nature and Science have become too powerful as arbiters of what science reaches to the public, and whether the journals are up to their task as gatekeepers.
Each scientific specialty has its own set of journals. Physicists have Physical Review Letters, neuroscientists have Neuron, and so forth. Science and Nature, though, are the only two major journals that cover the gamut of scientific disciplines, from meteorology and zoology to quantum physics and chemistry. As a result, journalists look to them each week for the cream of the crop of new science papers. And scientists look to the journals in part to reach journalists. Why do they care? Competition for grants has gotten so fierce that scientists have sought popular
renown
to gain an edge over their rivals. Publication in specialized journals will win the
acclaims
from academics and satisfy the publish-or-perish imperative, but
Science
and
Nature
come with the added bonus of potentially getting your paper written up in
The New York
Times and other publications.
Scientists tend to pay more attention to the big two than to other journals. When more scientists know about a particular paper, they"re more apt to cite it in their own papers. Being oft-cited will increase a scientist"s "hnpact Factor," a measure of how often papers are cited by peers. Funding agencies use the "Impact Factor" as a rough measure of the influence of scientists they"re considering supporting.
单选题The paradoxical aspect of the myths about Demeter,
when we consider the predominant image of her as
a tranquil and serene goddess, is her agitated search for her daughter.