单选题Humans are unique in the extent to which they can reflect on themselves and others. Humans are able to (1) , to think in abstract terms, to reflect on the future. A meaningless, (2) world is an insecure world. We do not like extensive insecurity. When it (3) to human behavior we infer meaning and (4) to make the behavior understandable. What all this means is that people develop "quasi theories" of human behavior, that is, theories that are not developed in an objective, scientific (5) . When doing so, people believe they know (6) humans do the things they do. Let's consider an example. In the United States people have been (7) with the increasing amount of crime for several years. The extent of crime bothers us; we ourselves could be (8) But what also bothers us is that people behave in such ways. Why can such things happen? We develop quasi theories. We (9) concerned about the high crime rate, but we now believe we (10) it: our criminal justice system is (11) ; people have grown selfish and inconsiderate as our moral values (12) from the influence of liberal ideas; too many people are (13) drugs. These explanations suggest possible solutions. (14) the courts; put more people in jail as (15) to other lawbreakers. There is hope that the problem of crime can be solved if only we (16) these solutions. Again, the world is no longer meaningless nor (17) so threatening. These quasi theories (18) serve a very important function for us. But how accurate are they? How (19) will the suggested solutions be? These questions must be answered (20) how people normally go about developing or attaining their quasi theories of human behavior.

单选题As a father to three young girls, I have been particularly struck over the past several months by the flurry of public activity related to childhood obesity . While the efforts are well-intentioned, it"s worrisome to watch the movement gain momentum when we still don"t really know whether what we"re doing is actually working — nor do we really know if there will be any downsides to the anti-obesity initiative. The most recent major move in the fight against childhood obesity came on Jan. 25 when First Lady Michelle Obama announced that school meal options were going to get a lot healthier. It is, undoubtedly, a good idea to make school lunches more nutritious, although some research suggests that by the time a child gets to school, his or her tastes for high calorie or otherwise unhealthy food is already in place and that changing lunch doesn"t make them eat healthier at home. In other words, school-based initiatives may be too little too late for those children who may be predisposed, whether through genetics or environment or both, towards obesity . According to the Centers for Disease Control, 17% of all children and adolescents in the U.S. are obese. Yet the majority of obesity programming, especially in our schools, is applied to the child and adolescent populations as a whole. Sure, promoting healthy eating, regardless of one"s weight or age, seems like a positive thing on the surface. But here"s the potential downside : We know kids and teens react differently than adults to external pressures like persistent messaging. Sometimes these pressures can translate into incredible waves of anxiety and fear. At the extreme, a healthy-weight youth could be pushed to monitor his weight more frequently or even begin an unsupervised diet — behaviors that might represent an impending eating disorder. So the real question is what are children saying and how are they behaving in light of our anti-obesity effort? A nationally representative survey, conducted last September by the C. S. Mott Children"s Hospital National Poll on Children"s Health, attempted to answer this question. The results, released in January, showed that 30% of parents of children age 6-14 report worrisome eating behaviors and physical activity in their children; 17% of parents report that their children are worried about their weight; 7% say their children have been made to feel bad at school about what or how much they were eating; and 3% of parents report their children had a sudden interest in vegetarianism. Certainly these data do not directly link the anti-obesity effort and eating disorders. They also do not offer any insight into whether obese children are actually losing weight. They do, however, serve as a reminder of how vulnerable these "worried" children already are to disordered eating and that everything we do, no matter how well-placed our intent carries risk . With that said, we shouldn"t stop promoting healthy eating habits in our children. And we shouldn"t necessarily downplay our anti-obesity efforts for fear of increasing the rate of childhood eating disorders. Instead, we should just be mindful — with their wonderful and special abilities as well as their unpredictabilities, children surely deserve an approach and awareness that is as well-thought out and balanced as the meals we"d like them to eat.

单选题Which of the following is excluded among the suggested requirements for the make-up of an ideal council?______

单选题Ms. Rowling's reading in London's Royal Albert Hall is mentioned to show______.

单选题A) due to B ) apt for C) all but D) prior to

单选题It is widely known that birds learn to fly through practice, gradually (1) their innate ability into a finely tuned skill. (2) , a recent study conducted by the University of Sheffield's Department of Psychology has discovered that the reason birds learn to fly so easily is because memories may have been left behind by their ancestors. These skills may be easy to enhance because of a (3) specified latent (4) for flying. The researchers used simple models of brains called (5) neural networks and computer (6) to test his theory. They discovered that learning in (7) generations (8) induces the formation of a latent memory in the current generation and (9) decreases the amount of learning required. These effects are especially pronounced if there is a large biological "fitness cost" to learning, where biological fitness is measured in terms of the number of (10) each individual has. The beneficial effects of learning also (11) the unusual form of information storage in neural networks. (12) computers, which store each item of information in a specific location in the computer's memory chip, neural networks store each item (13) over many neuronal connections. (14) information is stored in this way then (15) is accelerated, explaining how complex motor skills, such as nest building and hunting skills, are (16) by a combination of innate ability and learning over many generations. The researchers concluded that this new theory has its (17) in ideas (18) by James Baldwin in 1896, who firstly made the counter-intuitive argument that learning within each generation could guide evolution of innate behavior over future generations. Baldwin was right, (19) in ways less sophisticated than he could have imagined because concepts (20) artificial neural networks and distributed representations were not known in his time.

单选题According to the text, in relation to someone teaching his own language to foreigners, audio-visual aids can

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Historically, the European Union has not bothered with funding much basic scientific research. Such activities have mainly remained the preserve of national governments, not least because giving scientists free rein can lead to discoveries that not only make money but ultimately enhance military might. That attitude is now changing. The European Commission proposes to establish a European Research Council(ERC) that would spend a maximum of 12 billion (＄14 billion) over seven years on" blue skies" research. While the plans are being generally welcomed by Europe's member states, their details are problematic. The proposed ERC is intended to make Europe more competitive. Europe has some first-class universities, scientific institutions and research organisations. But, the ERC's proponents argue, their activities are fragmented, so they are not reaching their full potential. In America, teams from across the country compete with each other for grants from the National Science Foundation. The proposed ERC is modelled on this scheme. It would award grants to individual research teams for a specific project, solely on the basis of scientific merit judged by peer review. If the ERC were created, scientists from across Europe would compete with each other for funds, rather than merely competing with their fellow countrymen, as happens at present. This compares with the limited funding for basic research that currently exists in the EU, which places its emphasis on collaboration between researchers. It is open only to researchers in a narrow range of disciplines chosen by the European Parliament and the commission. The ERC would be quite different, placing its emphasis on competition between researchers and leaving scientists themselves to decide which areas of science to pursue. Helga Nowotny, who chairs the European Research Advisory Board—an advisory body to the commission—says that winning a grant from the ERC could come to be seen as unmistakable recognition of research excellence. The quality of European research needs to be stepped up a notch. Between 1980 and 2003, Europe had 68 Nobel laureates in medicine, physics and chemistry compared with 154 in America. With competition from China and India, Europe's share could fall further. One of the reasons for Europe's relatively weak performance is thought to be a lack of genuine competition between Europe's researchers. Another is its poor ability to attract young people into a research career. Recent estimates suggest that Europe needs an extra 700,000 researchers if it is to meet its overall target of raising spending(private,national and EU) on research and development to 3% of GDP by 2010. Many young scientists leave Europe for America once they have finished their training. Dr Nowotny says the ERC could help here too. It could establish a scheme to give young researchers the opportunity to follow their own ideas and become independent at an earlier stage in their careers, encouraging talent to stay in Europe. The crucial issue now is whether the ERC will be able to set its own research agenda, free from the interference and bureaucracy of the commission and influence of member states. Last month, 22 leading European scientists charged with shaping the ERC' s scientific strategy met for the first time to start hammering out a charter and constitution. Serious concerns remain over the legal structure of the body. The final decision on the ERC' s legal form, on a date yet unspecified, rests with the European Parliament and member states in the European Council. If both are genuine in their support for the ERC and Europe's aim of becoming more competitive, then they must find a way of keeping the ERC free from political interference. Europe would benefit from a competition for its best researchers which rewards scientific excellence. A quasi-competition that recognizes how many votes each member state is allotted would be pointless.

单选题What reason does the text suggest when women remain the minority of Internet users?

单选题Euthanasia has been a topic of controversy in Europe since at least 1936. On an average of six times a day, a doctor in Holland practices "active" euthanasia: (1) administering a lethal drug to a (2) ill patient who has asked to be relieved (3) suffering. Twenty times a day, life prolonging treatment is withheld or withdrawn (4) there is no hope that it can (5) an ultimate cure. "Active" euthanasia remains a crime on the Dutch statute books, punishable (6) 12 years in prison. But a series of court cases over the past 15 years has made it clear that a competent physician who (7) it out will not be prosecuted. Euthanasia, often called "mercy killing", is a crime everywhere in Western Europe. (8) more and more doctors and nurses in Britain, Germany, Holland and elsewhere readily (9) to practicing it, most often in the "passive" form of withholding or withdrawing (10) The long simmering euthanasia issue has lately (11) into a sometimes fierce public debate, (12) both sides claiming the mantle of ultimate righteousness. Those (13) to the practice see themselves (14) sacred principles of respect for life, (15) those in favor raise the banner of humane treatment. After years (16) the defensive, the advocates now seem to be (17) ground. Recent polls in Britain show that 72 percent of British (18) favor euthanasia in some circumstances. An astonishing 76 percent of (19) to a poll taken late last year in France said they would like the law changed to (20) mercy killings. Obviously, pressure groups favoring euthanasia and "assisted suicide" have grown steadily in Europe over the years. (272 words)Notes: euthanasia安乐死。lethal致命的。statute book 法典。prosecute 起诉。simmering 处于沸腾的状态。mantle 重任，责任。

单选题With its cluster of high-rises known as the "Frankfurter Manhattan", its big banks and its bustling airport, this is a town with pretensions. Petra Roth, the mayor, sees it as a "global city providing hub functions for the Continent", a place that should be "as cosmopolitan as New York". Frankfurt is not just the city of foreign companies, but it is also home to 80,000 Muslims, most of them Turks of modest means. Foreigners, including a large contingent from the former Yugoslavia, make up 30% of the population, one of the highest ratios for any city in Europe troubled by immigration. But there is no blood on the streets. Quietly flows the Main River beneath that mock-New World skyline. As Germany goes these days, so goes Europe. And if Frankfurt, the headquarters for Europe's new central bank and so the capital of Europe's nascent shared currency, the euro, is comfortable being a part-Muslim city with 27 mosques, perhaps the so-called New Europe of one money and blurred borders can be a more tolerant place. "Xenophobia is very unusual in Frankfurt," said Francesco Rinaldi, an Italian banker. "Perhaps it's the 300 foreign banks, or the vast airport, or the long American presence. " Not until 1994 did 30,000 American troops pack up and go home—the Cold War ended and, so people here say, the city shaped in the soldiers' open, can-do spirit. But even here, at the heart of American-influenced Europe, far from the strained psyche of a former East German city like Dessau, where rightists this year killed an African immigrant, the ghost of xenophobia is not entirely absent. For Frankfurt—like Germany, like Europe—is struggling to define a shifting identity. As the departed U. S. soldiers suggest, this city is no longer part of a Cold War country living what Zafer Senocak, a German intellectual of Turkish descent, has called a " quasi a-national existence under the umbrella of the West". Far from it, This is now the financial center of a strong Germany seeking to define and express a new national pride. But Frankfurt is also the capital of a unique experiment in abolishing the nation-state through the voluntary abandonment of sovereignty involved in giving up national control of monetary policy and adopting a common currency. So the Continent's largest state, one reborn only in 1990, yet also one that is being abolished, veers this way and that in its mood, one minute nostalgic for a "proud Fatherland", the next in the vanguard of what Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, himself a child of Frankfurt, calls a postnational era.

单选题It can be inferred that the 1967 Road Safety Act in Britain______