单选题Up until a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largely—though by no means uniformly— glowingly positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all. Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to. But such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years—so why shouldn't we? Take a broader look at our species' place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Look up Homo sapiens in the "Red List" of threatened species of the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no major threats resulting in an overall population decline." So what does our deep future hold? A growing number of researchers and organizations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a mechanical clock that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years hence. Perhaps willfully, it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today's technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it's perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That's one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future. But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves. This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come.

单选题Mac and Dick managed all of the following businesses except ______.

单选题Many in the Middle East have difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new situation created by the departure of the imperial powers. For the first time in almost 200 years, the rulers and people of the Middle East have to accept the final responsibility for their own affairs, to make their own mistakes and to accept the consequences. This is difficult to internalize, even to perceive, after so long a period. For the entire lifetimes of those who formulate and conduct policy at the present time and of their predecessors for many generations, vital decisions were made elsewhere, ultimate control lay elsewhere, and the principal task of statesmanship and diplomacy was as far as possible to avoid or reduce the dangers of this situation and to exploit such opportunities as it might from time to time offer. It is very difficult to forsake the habits not just of a lifetime but of a whole era of history. The difficulty is much greater when alien cultural, social and economic preeminence continues and even increases, despite the ending of alien political and military domination. Military and to a growing extent political intervention by the West has indeed ended, but the impact of its science and culture, its technology, amenities and institutions remains and even increases. As in other parts of the non-Western world, this impact has been and will be enormous. In these circumstances, it is natural that Middle Easterners should continue to assume—and proceed on the assumption—that real responsibility and decision still lie elsewhere. In its crudest form, this belief leads to wild and strange conspiracy theories directed against those whom they regard as their enemies—Israel, and more generally the Jews, the United States, and more generally the West. No theory is too absurd to be asserted or too preposterous to be widely and instantly believed. Even among more responsible statesmen and analysts, a similar belief in alien power, albeit in a less crude form, often seems to guide both analysis and policy. Some even go so far as to invite outside intervention, presumable in the belief that only outside powers have the capacity to make and enforce decisions. A case in point is the constant appeal to the United States to involve itself in the Arab Israel conflict, oddly coupled with the repeated accusation of "American imperialism. " This state of mind is likely to continue for some time, with appeals for support or even intervention to the United States, to Russia and even to the European Union. In time, no doubt, Middle Eastern governments and people will learn how to use this window of opportunity to the best advantage—that is, of course, if the window remains open long enough.

单选题Malthusian fears that population growth will outstrip food supplies have been widely discounted as food production has kept well ahead of growing human numbers in the last half century. While population doubled, food supply tripled, and life expectancy increased from 46 in the 1950s to around 65 today. But more recently, some experts have once again been sounding the alarm about a possible food crisis. The reason lies in the combined impact of many factors including climate change, forest denudation, land degradation, water shortage, declining oil supplies, species extinction, destruction of coastal ecosystems and the growing demands for a meat-rich diet from newly developed parts of the world. At the root of all these problems has been the ruthless exploitation of the earth's resources, fuelled by growing affluence in some parts of the world and desperate poverty in others. Between 1980 and 2000, global population rose from 4.4 billion to 6.1 billion, while food production increased 50 per cent. By 2050, the population is expected to reach 9 billion. Data shows that while grain yields per acre have been increasing, the rate of increase has been slowing since the days of the Green Revolution in the 1970s. Most of the benefits of irrigation, machinery, fertilizer and plant breeding have already been realized. The production of grain per acre is close to the maximum obtainable through photosynthesis. To keep up with the growth in human population, more food will have to be produced over the next 50 years than has been during the past 10,000 years combined, said the participants of the recent UN-backed forum in Iceland on sustainable development. It is, of course, possible that new technologies, smart environmental management and sensitive social policies will combine to good effect to usher in a new green revolution. But as grain reserves have fallen to their lowest level for many years, this cannot be guaranteed. At the 1996 World Food Summit political leaders from 186 countries pledged to halve the number of hungry people in the world by the year 2015, or a reduction of 20 million each year. At that time, about 800 million people were reported to suffer from under- nourishment. In 2007 estimates from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest that there are 854 million people who do not get enough to eat every day. "Far from decreasing, the number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. (Of course, world population has increased by some 800 million in that time, so food supplies have kept up relatively well, but have failed to reach an increasing number, let alone reduce the total going hungry.)

单选题Why does the writer say "You might be forgiven for thinking that ... "?

单选题Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who have studied how the websites are changing the (1) of friendship networks. Although social networking on the Internet helps people to (2) hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face (3) is nearly always (4) in forming truly close friendships. "Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be (5) , the actual number of close friends is (6) the same in the face to face real world," said Will Reader at Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have (7) rapidly in recent years. Previous research has suggested that a person's (8) friendship group (9) of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people who we keep in touch with less (10) . This figure is so (11) that scientists have suggested it is determined by our cognitive (12) . Larger numbers just require too much brain effort to keep (13) . But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to (14) this figure and broaden their (15) of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. What social network sites can do is to decrease the cost of (16) and forming these social networks because we can post information to (17) people," he said. But to (18) a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy. "We (19) time and effort in them in the hope that sometime they will help us out. It is a kind of (20) relationship," said Dr. Reader.

单选题Prolonged and excessive use of alcohol can seriously undermine an individual's health. Physical deterioration occurs. Large quantities of alcohol can directly damage body tissue and indirectly cause malnutrition. Nutritional deficiencies can result for several reasons. Alcohol contains empty calories, which have no significant nutritive value. When consumed in substantial amounts, alcohol curbs one' s appetite for more wholesome foods. Excessive alcohol intake can interfere with the proper digestion and absorption of food. Therefore, even the heavy drinker who does eat a well-balanced diet is deprived of me essential nutrients. Maintenance of a drinking habit can deplete economic resources otherwise available for buying good, wholesome food. Malnutrition itself further reduces the body' s ability to utilize the nutrients consumed. The result of damaged tissue and malnutrition can be brain injury, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer of the liver, and weakened muscle tissue. Untreated alcoholism can reduce one's life span by ten to twelve years. Heavy alcohol consumption also affects the body's usage of other drugs and medications. The dosages required by excessive drinkers may differ from those required by normal or non-drinkers. Serious consequences can be incurred unless the prescribing physician is aware of the patient's drinking habits. Sudden death may result from excessive drinking. It might occur when the individual has ingested such a large amount of alcohol that the brain center controlling breathing and heart action is adversely affected, or when taking some other drugs, particularly sleep preparations along with alcohol. Death, as a result of excessive drinking, can come during an automobile accident since half of all fatal traffic accidents involve the use of alcohol. Many self-inflicted deaths, as well as homicides, involve the use of alcohol. It is important to remember that alcohol is a drug that is potentially addictive. Once the user is hooked on alcohol, withdrawal symptoms occur when it is not sufficiently available to body cells. At the onset of developing alcohol addiction, these symptoms may be relatively mild and include hand tremors, anxiety, nausea, and sweating. As dependency increases, so does the severity of the withdrawal syndrome and the need for medical assistance to cope with it. In 1956 the American Medical Association supported the growing acceptance of alcoholism as an illness, falling under the treatment jurisdiction of the medical profession. Since then, the medical resources for problems of acute and chronic intoxication have increased and improved.

单选题Many video games feature an invincibility power-up that makes the players impervious to damage, at least for a while. As the economic crisis hit in late 2008, some said the same about the industry itself. The theory went that sales of video games, which had been strong in 2008, would also be strong in 2009, because games are a relatively cheap form of entertainment that let people escape from gloomy economic reality. At first glance the sales figures seem to debunk the idea that video games are recession-proof. In June 2009, for example, sales of games in America were 31% lower than in June 2008, according to NPD, a market-research firm. In July sales were down 26% , the fifth successive monthly decline. But the year ended with a record-breaking December, as people bought consoles and games for Christmas. Globally, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, a consuhancy, sales of games were down by 6.3% in 2009. The number of Nintendo Win and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles sold was flat in 2009 ; sales of Sow"s PlayStation 3 were up by 22% after a price cut. In some respects, this stumble reflects gaming"s new popularity. When it was less of a mainstream activity it was not so connected to the wider economic cycle. The success of the family-friendly Wii has broadened gaming"s appeal, but the new players it has attracted are less fanatical garners who are more likely to cut back in hard times. During 2009 more people turned to mobile, web-based or second-hand games, says Mr Harding-Rofls. Another way of looking at things, however, is to say that spending on gaming is driven by big hits, and that the slight decline in 2009 reflects creative rather than economic weakness. Entertainment industries always have their ups and downs, says Shigeru Miyamoto, the creative force behind many of Nintendo"s biggest games. There was an unusually large number of hits in 2008, which boosted sales, and fewer big releases in 2009 until late in the year, which may explain the weak mid-year sales. The biggest hit was "Modern Warfare 2", released in November, which became the fastest-selling game in history, selling 7 million copies worldwide on its first day. The top 20 games took a larger share of sales in 2009 than in 2008, which shows that the games industry is becoming increasingly polarised between hits and misses. Hence the hit-and-miss results of the big publishers of video games. Overall, says Mr Miyamoto, 2009"s crop of games may just have been less compelling. "We were not able to produce fun-enough products," he says. That highlights the importance of continued innovation, he says—but it leaves unanswered the question of whether gaming is indeed recession-proof.

单选题According to the text, no measures were resorted to in environmental protection after World War Ⅱ in Japan because

单选题This text appears to be a digest of

单选题We may safely conclude from the passage that ______.

单选题It can be learned from the text that new start-ups

单选题Education is one of the key words of our time. A man, without an education, many of us believe, is an unfortunate victim of unfortunate circumstances deprived of one of the greatest twentieth-century opportunities. Convinced of the importance of education, modern states "invest" in institutions of learning to get back "interest" in the form of a large group of enlightened young men and women who are potential leaders. Education, with its cycles of instruction so carefully worked out, is punctuated by textbooks--those purchasable wells of wisdom what would civilization be like without its benefits? So much is certain: that we would have doctors and preachers, lawyers and defendants, marriages and births; but our spiritual outlook would be different. We would lay less stress on "facts and figures" and more on a good memory, on applied psychology, and on the capacity of a man to get along with his fellow-citizens. If our educational system were fashioned after its bookless past we would have the most democratic form of "college" imaginable. Among the people whom we like to call savages all knowledge inherited by tradition is shared by all; it is taught to every member of the tribe so that in this respect everybody is equally equipped for life. It is the ideal condition of the "equal start" which only our most progressive forms of modern education try to reach again. In primitive cultures the obligation to seek and to receive the traditional instruction is binding on all. There are no "illiterates"--if the term can be applied to peoples without a script--while our own compulsory school attendance became law in Germany in 1642, in France in 1806, and in England in 1976, and is still non-existent in a number of "civilized" nations. This shows how long it was before we considered it necessary to make sure that all our children could share in the knowledge accumulated by the "happy few" during the past centuries. Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means. All are entitled to an equal start. There is none of the hurry that, in our society, often hampers the fui1 development of a growing personality. There, a child grows up under the ever-present attention of his parents; therefore the jungles and the savages know of no "juvenile delinquency". No necessity of making a living away from home results in neglect of children, and no father is confronted with his inability to ""buy" an education for his child.