单选题The human brain contains 10 thousand million cells and each of these may have a thousand connections. Such enormous numbers used to discourage us and cause us to dismiss the possibility of making a machine with humanlike ability, but now that we have grown used to moving forward at such a pace we can be less sure. Quite soon, in only 10 or 20 years perhaps, we will be able to assemble a machine as complex as the human brain, and if we can we will. It may then take us a long time to render it intelligent by loading in the right software (软件) or by altering the architecture but that too will happen. I think it certain that in decades, not centuries, machines of silicon (硅) will arise first to rival and then exceed their human ancestors. Once they exceed us they will be capable of their own design. In a real sense they will be able to reproduce themselves. Silicon will have ended carbon"s long control. And we will no longer be able to claim ourselves to be the finest intelligence in the known universe. As the intelligence of robots increases to match that of humans and as their cost declines through economies of scale we may use them to expand our frontiers, first on earth through their ability to withstand environments, harmful to ourselves. Thus, deserts may bloom and the ocean beds be mined. Further ahead, by a combination of the great wealth this new age will bring and the technology it will provide, the construction of a vast, mancreated world in space, home to thousands or millions of people, will be within our power.

单选题A: I heard you"ve had your book published. Congratulations! B: ______

单选题Just a few years ago, a graduate from Brown University medical school had just an inkling about how to care for the elderly. Now, Brown and other U. S. medical schools are plugging geriatric (老年) courses into their curricula. The U.S. Census Bureau projects the number of elderly Americans will nearly double to 71 million by 2030. The first members of the Baby Boomer generation, so named for the explosion in births in the years after World War Two, turn 65 in three years. In addition, people are living longer than ever. "The first ripples of the silver tsunami are lapping at the shores of our country, but there is not a coordinated or strategic response taking place in America," said Richard Besdine, who is direetor of the geriatrics division at Brown University medical school in Providence. Geriatries has never been a field of choice for young doctors. Elderly care doctors are paid less than most other physicians and surgeons and the aged can be hard to treat. They have complicated medical histories and their ailments, even such routine illnesses as pneumonia (肺炎), can be more difficult to diagnose because they may be masked by other conditions. Also, drugs can affect them differently than middle-aged adults." It"s a hard job; it"s not paid very well; it"s complicated; and there"s very little status within the hierarchy of medical specialties to being a geriatric physician," said Gavin Hougham, senior program officer and manager of medicine programs at the John A. Hartford Foundation. Out of 800 000 doctors in the United States, roughly 7 000 are geriatricians, Hougham said. The country needs another 13 000 to adequately care for today"s older population, according to the American Geriatrics Society. The shortfall could reach 36 000 by 2030. To help counter that, private groups are bankrolling medical schools" emphasis on aging. The Hartford Foundation has given more than $40 million to 27 schools to train faculty in elderly care, and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation has given more than $100 million to 30 schools to include more geriatrics content. "If they don"t learn it, they still have to deal with it," Hougham said. "It"s not that not learning geriatrics will cause these older people to go away. They"re coming whether we"re ready or not. "

单选题"Years ago, a friend of mine observed that 80 percent of the people in this country have too much self-esteem and 20 percent have much too little. That struck me as pretty accurate, but psychologists will tell you that self-esteem is not a constant. People"s appraisal of their own worth varies.... I have the impression that more people have unstable self-esteem than before. I say this because some of the traditional standards people used to measure their own worth have eroded (middle class respectability), whereas more people now seem to measure themselves against celebrities and superstars. It would be interesting to know if anybody has studied changes in the criteria we use to measure self-worth." Comment 1: You bring up an interesting point because I do believe values and beliefs have changed. It would be very interesting to see the criteria used for self-worth. I find it hard to believe that only 20% of people have low self-esteem. I"ve been following Brene Brown"s thoughts on the subject of self-worth, and low self-worth (on some level) seems much more common. Comment 2: If the quality of one"s self-esteem is going to be judged by comparisons with those who are celebrities and superstars, then the entire exercise is really pointless. Comment 3: Self-esteem solution: A happy marriage. Comment 4: Ego (self-worth) is proportionate to wealth. The more wealth, the more self-worth. Comment 5: Benjamin Franklin said it best, and it applies to all facets of life., "Contentment will make a poor man rich just as discontent will make a rich man poor." It does not mean not try to do your best, or be the richest. It simply means once you"ve done your best be content with yourself, just as if you don"t give your best effort discontent is sure to follow. Comment 6: I"ve "retired" from 30 years of expensive, if interesting, "personal growth" and "self-improvement." much probably motivated by trying to "fix" myself. Hanging out with friends at a local cafe is way more satisfying. Comment 7: A related concept you may be interested in is the "sociometer theory" of self-esteem, pioneered by Mark Leary (Wake Forest). Basically it states that our self-esteem is determined by the amount of perceived social acceptance/rejection, and that determination is full of cognitive biases and errors. Awesome stuff.

单选题A: I"m much grateful to you for everything you"ve done for me. B: ______

单选题In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child"s acquisition (学会) of each new skill—the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself. Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are severe over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general, the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child"s own happiness. As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and exeuse it the next is no foundation for morality (道德). Also, parents should realize that "example is better than precept". If they are not sincere and do not practise what they preach (说教), their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled. A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

单选题A: Can I get you something to drink? B: ______

单选题He______himself bitterly for his miserable behavior that evening.

单选题Man: I"m really exhausted. But I don"t want to miss the film that comes on at 11. Woman: If I were you, I"d skip it. We both have to get up early tomorrow. And anyway, I"ve heard it isn"t that exciting. Question: What does the woman mean?

单选题Almost half of UK Internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 45% of people surveyed said they 1 use of the net while out and about, compared with 31% in 2010. The most rapid growth was 2 younger people, where 71% of internet-connected 16 to 24-year-olds used mobiles. Domestic internet use also rose. According to the ONS, 77% of households now have 3 to a net connection. That figure was 4 4% from the previous year, representing the slowest rate of 5 since the ONS survey began in 2006. The figure for domestic connections contrasted sharply with the rapid growth in uptake of mobile services. 6 , the popularity of 3G broadband did not necessarily mean that more people were going online overall. Many of those using mobile phones are 7 to already have home broadband connections. Older users, who the government is particularly keen to get 8 , appeared to 9 relatively untouched by the phenomenon. While 71% of 16 to 24-year-old who went 10 said they used mobile broadband, just 8% of internet users aged over 65 made use of the newer technology.

单选题We"re happy to report that business is booming this year.

单选题Americans are proud of their variety and individuality, yet they love and respect few things more than a uniform, whether it is the uniform of an elevator operator or the uniform of a five-star general. Why are uniforms so popular in the United States? Among the arguments for uniforms, one of the first is that in the eyes of most people they look more professional than civilian (百姓的) clothes. People have become conditioned to expect superior quality from a man who wears a uniform. The television repairman who wears a uniform tends to inspire more trust than one who appears in civilian clothes. Faith in the skill of a garage mechanic is increased by a uniform. What easier way is there for a nurse, a policeman, a barber, or a waiter to lose professional identity (身份) than to step out of uniform? Uniforms also have many practical benefits. They save on other clothes. They save on laundry bills. They are tax-deductible (可减税的). They are often more comfortable and more durable than civilian clothes. Primary among the arguments against uniforms is their lack of variety and the consequent loss of individuality experienced by people who must wear them. Though there are many types of uniforms, the wearer of any particular type is generally stuck with it, without change, until retirement. When people look alike, they tend to think, speak, and act similarly, on the job at least. Uniforms also give rise to some practical problems. Though they are long-lasting, often their initial expense is greater than the cost of civilian clothes. Some uniforms are also expensive to maintain, requiring professional dry cleaning rather than the home laundering possible with many types of civilian clothes.

单选题By 1916 Canada had played a respectable role on the world stage, a role that would soon help undo its colonial status.

单选题In 2003, I was told by a restaurant owner on a Thai island that local fishermen used to wrap their lunch in banana leaves, which they would then casually toss overboard when done. That was OK, because the leaves decayed and the fish ate them all. But in the past decade, he said, plastic wrap had rapidly replaced banana leaves, so the beach was edged with a crust of plastic. This is a worldwide problem—we can"t point the finger at Thai fishermen. The UK alone produces more than 170m tons of waste every year, much of it food packaging. Now we live in an absurd age where a packet of cookies can have seven layers of wrapping. While it has revolut-ionised the way we store and consume food, there is now so much of it that landfills (垃圾填埋场) can"t cope. Some of it is poisonous, and some of it never degrades. It can take 450 years for some types of plastic bottle to break down. Indeed, as Rachelle Strauss of the UK"s Zero Waste Week says, we never actually throw anything "away"—it"s really just put somewhere else. It"s easy to despair at the scale of handling the plastic wrap, but it isn"t beyond humanity to solve it—look at how the world took action on CFCs (含氯氟烃): there are signs that the hole in the ozone layer is now closing. Food packaging ought to be a doddle . Comment 1: While as an individual I can do my best to avoid excessive packaging, it is really only government regulation that can force corporations to change their practices. Comment 2: I never understand why supermarket chains insist on covering products such as bananas and cucumbers in plastic wrap. Why? They have their own packaging—the skin or peel! Comment 3: I love packaging—if it"s well designed of course. It helps us be more hygienic and practical. The solution to these packaging necessities is clearly to encourage the use of bio-degradable packaging. Comment 4: Before, everything we threw out was bio-degradable and now it"s not. Guess it"s hard to change that behavior overnight.

单选题A: That"ll be $6.75. B: ______

单选题Woman: Bill, I want to have a few words with you about your performance in class lately. Man: I know I"ve gone down. I just haven"t been studying as much as I ought to. Question: What is Bill"s problem?

单选题Psychologists warn that plastic surgery can lead to an identity crisis, among other psychological issues. If you were a fan of the MTV reality series The Hills, you"ll remember the complete physical transformation of Heidi Montag. In mere months, she went from a petite (矮小), natural beauty from Colorado to resembling some sort of blonde Barbie as a result of multiple facial and body reconstructive surgeries that she didn"t even attempt to hide from the public. What"s worse is that she was in her early 20s at the time. We all figured that deep psychological issues were at the root of Montag"s shocking procedure list, and now, according to a number of U. S. psychologists, we can safely assume that she may also be suffering from an identity crisis. Psychologist Paul Lorene tells the Daily Mail that most patients undergo cosmetic surgery for the wrong reasons, wanting to look similar to a particular model or actor. "They have this glorified picture of this perfect identity," he says, and this can lead to deep psychological problems when the patients discover the identity they were after isn"t actually perfect. Often people don"t realize the attachments they have to their facial features until they alter them with surgery. Perhaps you always hated your large nose, but whether you liked it or not, it was a part of you for your life thus far. If you have surgery to make it smaller, it is reasonable to believe that your self identity could suffer if you end up feeling disconnected from your own face that is now unfamiliar. Do you think cosmetic surgeries can cause identity crisis? Comment 1: The image that people see in the mirror and take for granted actually runs deeper. After appearance-altering surgery, some patients come to realize "that imperfection is actually part of their identity". Comment 2: The identity crisis exists long before the surgery takes place. If you don"t get plastic surgery you will still have an identity crisis. I have identity crisis every morning when I look in the mirror. When did 1 get older? And where the hell is my hair? Comment 3: To quote American Judge Judy, "Beauty fades, dumb is forever." Comment 4: When you look in the mirror and don"t recognize yourself, then you have an identity crisis. Really, these studies and articles of this sort are stating the obvious.

单选题A: I"m not at all satisfied with the service B: ______

单选题Woman: Mr. Scott came back from L. A. very late yesterday. Man: So, even if he had been able to attend the party, he would have arrived late. Question: What do we learn about Mr. Scott?

单选题Man: I"m looking for an unfurnished two-bedroom apartment, but all your apartments are furnished. Woman: We can take care of that. We can simply remove the furniture. Question: What does the woman mean?