单选题 The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped. But the unwanted petrol and diesel did not go to waste for long, thanks to the development of the internal-combustion engine a few years later. Since then demand for oil has, with a couple of {{U}}blips{{/U}} in the 1970s and 1980s, risen steadily alongside ever-increasing travel by car, plane and ship. Three-fifths of it ends up in fuel tanks. With billions of Chinese and Indians growing richer and itching to get behind the wheel of a car, the big oil companies, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and America's Energy Information Administration all predict that demand will keep on rising. We believe that they are wrong, and that oil is close to a peak. This is not the "peak oil" widely discussed several years ago, when several theorists, who have since gone strangely quiet, reckoned that supply would flatten and then fall. We believe that demand, not supply, could decline. In the rich world oil demand has already peaked: it has fallen since 2005. Even allowing for all those new drivers in Beijing and Delhi, two revolutions in technology will dampen the world's thirst for the black stuff. The first revolution was led by a man from Texas who has just died. George Mitchell championed "fracking" as a way to release huge supplies of "unconventional" gas from shale (a smooth soft rock) beds. This, along with vast new discoveries of conventional gas, has recently helped increase the world's reserves from 50 to 200 years. The other great change is in automotive technology. Rapid advances in engine and vehicle design also threaten oil's dominance. Foremost is the efficiency of the internal-combustion engine itself. Petrol and diesel engines are becoming ever more frugal. Not surprisingly, the oil "supermajors" and the IEA disagree. They point out that most of the emerging world has a long way to go before it owns as many cars, or drives as many miles per head, as America. But it would be foolish to predict from the rich world's past to booming Asia's future. The sorts of environmental policies that are reducing the thirst for fuel in Europe and America by imposing ever-tougher fuel-efficiency standards on vehicles are also being adopted in the emerging economies.

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. In his 1979 book, The Sinking Ark, biologist Norman Myers estimated that {{U}}(1) {{/U}} of more than 100 human-caused extinctions occur each clay, and that one million species {{U}}(2) {{/U}} by the century's end. Yet there is little evidence of {{U}}(3) {{/U}} that number of extinctions. For example, only seven species on the {{U}}(4) {{/U}} species list have become extinct {{U}}(5) {{/U}} the list was created in 1973. Bio- {{U}}(6) {{/U}} is an important value, according to many scientists. Nevertheless, the supposed mass extinction rates bandied about are {{U}}(7) {{/U}} by multiplying {{U}}(8) {{/U}} by improbables to get imponderables. Many estimates, for instance, rely a great deal on a "species-area {{U}}(9) {{/U}} ", which predicts that twice as many species will be found on 100 square miles {{U}}(10) {{/U}} on ten square miles. The problem is that species are not distributed {{U}}(11) {{/U}} , so bow much of a forest are destroyed may be as important as {{U}}(12) {{/U}} . {{U}} (13) {{/U}} , says Ariel Lugo, director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico, "Biologists who predict high {{U}}(14) {{/U}} rates {{U}}(15) {{/U}} the resiliency of nature". One of the main muses of extinctions is deforestation. According to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, what destroys tropical trees is not commercial logging, {{U}}(16) {{/U}} "poor farmers who have no other {{U}}(17) {{/U}} for feeding their families than slashing and burning a {{U}}(18) {{/U}} of forest". In countries that practice modern {{U}}(19) {{/U}} agriculture, forests are in {{U}}(20) {{/U}} danger. In 1920, U. S. forests covered 732 million acres. Today they cover 737 million.

单选题The present situation about the work-life balance problem is that

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. The effect of the baby boom on the schools helped to make possible a shift in thinking about the role of public education in the 1920's. In the 1920's, but especially{{U}} (1) {{/U}}the Depression of the 1930's, the United States experienced a{{U}} (2) {{/U}}birth rate. Then with the prosperity{{U}} (3) {{/U}}on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it, young people married and{{U}} (4) {{/U}}households earlier and began to{{U}} (5) {{/U}}larger families than had their{{U}} (6) {{/U}}during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955.{{U}} (7) {{/U}}economics was probably the most important{{U}} (8) {{/U}}, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed{{U}} (9) {{/U}}the idea of the family also helps to{{U}} (10) {{/U}}this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming{{U}} (11) {{/U}}the first grade by the mid-1940's and became a{{U}} (12) {{/U}}by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself{{U}} (13) {{/U}}The wartime economy meant that few new schools were buih between 1940 and 1945.{{U}} (14) {{/U}}, large numbers of teachers left their profession during that period for better-paying jobs elsewhere. {{U}} (15) {{/U}}, in the 1950's, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the custodial rhetoric of the 1930's no longer made{{U}} (16) {{/U}}; keeping youths ages sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high{{U}} (17) {{/U}}for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children. With the baby boom, the focus of educators{{U}} (18) {{/U}}turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and{{U}} (19) {{/U}}. The system no longer had much{{U}} (20) {{/U}}in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.

单选题The latest bad news is that reading and writing scores on the SAT have once again declined. The language competence of high schoolers fell steeply in the 1970s and has never recovered. This is very worrisome, because the best single measure of the overall quality of our primaries and secondary schools is the average verbal score of 17-year-olds. This score correlates with the ability to learn new things readily, to communicate with others and to hold down a job. It also predicts future income. The most credible analyses have shown that the chief causes are vast curricular changes, especially in the critical early grades. In the decades before the Great Verbal Decline, a content-rich elementary school experience evolved into a content-light, skills-based, test-centered approach. Cognitive psychologists agree that early childhood language learning (ages 2 to 10) is critical to later verbal competence, not just because of the remarkable linguistic plasticity of young minds, but also because of the so-called Matthew Effect. The name comes from a passage in the Scriptures: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Those who are language-poor in early childhood get relatively poorer, and fall further behind, while the verbally rich get richer. The origin of this cruel truth lies in the nature of word learning. The more words you already know, the faster you acquire new words. This sounds like an invitation to vocabulary study for tots, but that's been tried and it's not effective. Most of the word meanings we know are acquired indirectly, by intuitively guessing new meanings as we understand the overall gist of what we are hearing or reading. The Matthew Effect in language can be restated this way: "To those who understand the gist shall be given new word meanings, but to those who do not there shall ensue boredom and frustration." Clearly the key is to make sure that from kindergarten on, every student, from the start, understands the gist of what is heard or read. If preschoolers and kindergartners are offered substantial and coherent lessons concerning the human and natural worlds, then the results show up five years or so later in significantly improved verbal scores. By staying on a subject long enough to make all young children familiar with it, the gist becomes understood by all and word learning speeds up. This is especially important for low-income children, who come to school with smaller vocabularies and rely on school to impart the knowledge base affluent children take for granted. Current reform strategies focus on testing, improving teacher quality and other changes. Attention to these structural issues has led to improvements in the best public schools. But it is not enough.

单选题The scientific experiment about monkeys indicates that the author thinks

单选题From the first sentence of the passage, we learn that______

单选题Money has become plastic in the age of the credit card, but in an increasing number of countries, cash really is becoming plastic. After more than 300 years in (1) , the traditional paper banknote is gradually being (2) by new polymer technology. Note Printing Australia (NPA), a wholly (3) subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is (4) the only company in the world making plastic money, and it is (5) on an aggressive strategy to (6) more countries to its cause. The (7) of plastic notes are considerable. They cost about twice as much as paper notes but (8) four to five times as long--Australia's $ 10 paper note had a(n) (9) life of eight months but plastic lasts at least 30 months. In Papua New Guinea the 2 kina (54 cents) paper note lasted only four months but its plastic (10) lasts 24 months. This increased life (11) is particularly important in Asia where environmental conditions (12) humidity drastically reduce the life of a paper note. Plastic notes also cause 38% fewer paper jams in ATMs. But the real (13) point is that plastic notes are very hard to counterfeit. With increased (14) to computer scanners and printers, even schoolchildren can now (15) . good quality counterfeit paper notes. According to the U. S. Secret Service, which is in (16) of the security of U. S. banknotes, the $ 100 bill is the most counterfeited note in the world. The $ 100 bill (17) for 65% of the $ 500 billion (18) of U. S. banknotes in circulation, and an (19) 487,000 of these notes are fake--about 150 fakes per million notes. In Australia there are (20) about three fakes per million notes.

单选题Even in an era of global networks and cheap travel, international communication still faces one great barrier: we don't all speak the same language. But that gap is (1) as online translation services advance. Recently (2) website Meedan translates Arabic-language news stories into English, and vice versa, and displays the two versions (3) each other. Comments in either language are (4) translated. A new site for bloggers, called Mojofiti, automatically makes posts (5) to readers in 27 languages. And Google now has a tool that will (6) allow anyone with a camera-phone to photograph, say, a German restaurant menu, send the (7) as a multimedia message to Google's servers, and get an English translation sent back to them. All these services ultimately (8) a technique called statistical machine translation, in which software learns to translate by using mathematics to (9) large collections of previously translated documents. It then uses the (10) it has learned this way to (11) the most likely translation in future. (12) translation procedures have improved, some human (13) is still needed to provide a translation that reads well. Meedan's news articles, (14) , are machine translated and then tidied up by editors. Google's Toolkit for professional translators produces a machine translation for them to tidy up, in the process providing (15) to the software to improve its translation (16) With the fight help even a monoglot user (someone that speaks only a single language) could produce resuits as good as those of a (17) , says Philip Koehn of the University of Edinburgh, UK. His service, Caitra, (18) several possible phrases if it is uncertain which one is correct. This lets a monoglot user fix confusing phrases that would (19) be impossible without reading the (20)

单选题The underlined word "breached" in the last sentence of the text could best be replaced by

单选题"escape from"(Line 6, Para. 1) can be substituted for

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Feeling anxious? Your mood may actually change how your dinner tastes, making the bitter and salty flavors recede, according to new research. This link between the chemical balance in your brain and your sense of taste could one day help doctors to treat depression. There are currently no on-the-spot tests for deciding which medication will work best in individual patients with this condition. Researchers hope that a test based on flavor detection could help doctors to get more prescriptions right first time. It has long been known that people who are depressed have lower-than-usual levels of the brain chemicals serotonin or noradrenaline, or in some cases both. Many also have a blunted sense of taste, which is presumably caused by changes in brain chemistry. To unpick the relationship between the two, Lucy Donaldson and her colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK, gave 20 healthy volunteers two antidepressant drugs, and checked their sensitivity to different tastes. The drug that raised serotonin levels made people more sensitive to sweet and bitter tastes, the team reports in the Journal of Neuroscience. The other, which increased noradrenaline, enhanced recognition of bitter and sour tastes. In healthy people, volunteers whose anxiety levels were naturally higher were less sensitive to bitter and salty tastes. "What hasn't been done be{ore is to look precisely at which tastes are affected in depression," says Donaldson. Now the results are in, "we can discriminate between the chemicals and the tastes that seem to be altered," she says. Testing sensitivity to sweet and sour tastes could potentially help doctors to pick up on which chemicals are dipping, guiding them when choosing which drug to rectify the problem. Currently, doctors rely on physical and emotional symptoms to make a best guess at an individual's imbalance, prescribe a drug and wait about a month to check on any improvement. Good doctors have about a 60-80% success rate in selecting the right drug the first time, says psychiatrist Jan Melichar, a co-author on the paper. Are there any decent tests for prescribing drugs for depression? "No. We do a best guesstimate," says Melichar. "I'm excited by this finding because in 3, 5 or 7 years we could have a simple taste test. " Next, the team plans to perform similar tests in depressed people, and in healthy volunteers given another brain chemical called tryptophan. This chemical would lower the healthy subjects' levels of serotonin, as actually happens in depressed patients. The work has also generated interest from flavor houses--companies that develop chemicals for the food and drink industry--who are interested in making foods taste just as sweet with half the amount of sugar. "Theoretically there would be the possibility of enhancing your meal with drugs that affect brain chemicals so that things would taste better--you couid have a 'designer taste tablet'," Donaldson says.

单选题Over the last decade, demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like greatest enlargements and most jobs, has increased by more than 400 percent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. "What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that. " In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centers on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Amber recommends "maintenance" work for people in their thirties. "The idea of waiting until one needs heroic transformation is silly, " he says, "By then, you"ve wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand. " Dr. Imber draws the line at operation on people who are under 18, however. "It seems that someone we don"t consider old enough to order a drink shouldn"t be considering plastic surgery. " In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies, who claims to "eater for the average person", agrees. He says, "I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡ 3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday. " Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who, recently paid ￡ 2,500 for liposuction to remove fat from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery veteran is a deceptively gentle one. "I had my legs done because they"d been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don"t think there"s any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it. "