单选题From this passage, we learn that the people ______.

单选题Plato asked "What is man?" and St Augustine asked "Who am I?" A new breed of criminals has a novel answer: "I am you!" Although impostors have existed for ages, the growing frequency and cost of identity theft is worrisome. Around 10m Americans are victims annually, and it is the leading consumer-fraud complaint over the past five years. The cost to businesses was almost $ 50 billion, and to consumers $ 5 billion, in 2002, the most recent year that America's Federal Trade Commission collected figures. After two recent, big privacy disasters, people and politicians are calling for action. In February, ChoicePoint, a large data-collection agency, began sending out letters warning 145,000 Americans that it had wrongly provided fraudsters with their personal details, including Social Security numbers. Around 750 people have already spotted fraudulent activity. And on February 25th, Bank of America revealed that it lost data tapes that contain personal information on over 1m government employees, including some Senators. Although accident and not illegality is suspected, all must take precautions against identity theft. Faced with such incidents, state and national lawmakers are calling for new regulations, including over companies that collect and sell personal information. As an industry, the firms--such as ChoicePoint, Acxiom, LexisNexis and Westlaw--are largely unregulated. They have also grown enormous. For example, ChoicePoint was founded in 1997 and has acquired nearly 60 firms to amass databases with 19 billion records on people. It is used by insurance firms, landlords and even police agencies. California is the only state with a law requiring companies to notify individuals when their personal information has been compromised--which made ChoicePoint reveal the fraud (albeit five months after it was noticed, and after its top two bosses exercised stock options ). Legislation to make the requirement a federal law is under consideration. Moreover, lawmakers say they will propose that rules governing credit bureaus and medical companies are extended to data-collection firms. And alongside legislation, there is always litigation. Already, ChoicePoint has been sued for failing to safeguard individuals' data. Yet the legal remedies would still be far looser than in Europe, where identity theft is also a menace, though less frequent and costly. The European Data Protection Directive, implemented in 1998, gives people the right to access their information, change inaccuracies, and deny permission for it to be shared. Moreover, it places the cost of mistakes on the companies that collect the data, not on individuals. When the law was put in force, American policymakers groaned that it was bad for business. But now they seem to be reconsidering it.

单选题 It is only natural for leaders to try to make the most of their strengths. The theory of comparative advantage directs people, as well as countries and firms, to focus on what they are good at. Management experts have tended to {{U}}concur{{/U}}: one of the bestselling business books of recent years is called Now Discover Your Strengths. When business schools (and indeed business columnists) profile bosses, they often assume that more is better. But is this right? Three recent books express some doubts. In Fear Your Strengths, Robert Kaplan and Robert Kaiser argue, "what you are best at could be your biggest problem. " Forcefulness can become bullying; decisiveness can turn into pigheadedness; niceness can develop into indecision. In From Smart to Wise, Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou argue that the strengths that today's leaders are most likely to overuse are what Americans called "smarts"—the sort of skills managers pick up studying at business school or working in consultancies. In Tipping Sacred Cows, Jake Breeden goes further, arguing that many so-called management virtues are just as likely to be vices in disguise. These three books are all valuable exercises in iconoclasm—deliberate destruction of icons. But the trouble with iconoclasm when you apply it to the analysis of leadership is that you can go on forever. Many successful leaders are successful precisely because they push their strengths to the limit. Richard Branson has turned Virgin into a global brand by relentlessly exploiting his two biggest strengths: his ability to take on "big bad wolves"—firms that are overcharging and underserving the public-and his talent for infusing Virgin with a counter-cultural personality. Leadership skills are context-dependent. Margaret Thatcher was undoubtedly a nightmare to work for. In 1981 her closest advisers were so angry with her that they produced a memo that criticized her for breaking "every rule of good man-management", including bullying her weaker comrades, criticizing her colleagues in front of officials and refusing to give praise or credit. It warned her that she was "likely to become another failed Tory prime minister sitting with Edward Heath". But her abrasive style was exactly what Britain needed in the 1980s. The word that is too often missing from leadership studies is "judgment". Everybody involved in the business is desperate to appear scientific: academics because they want to get research grants and consultants because they want to prove that they are selling something more than just instinct. But judgment is what matters most, and it is hard to measure. It takes judgment to resist getting carried away with one quality (such as decisiveness) or one measure of success (such as the share price). It takes judgment to know when to modulate your virtues and when to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately judgment is in rather shorter supply than leadership versatility indices.

单选题It can be learned that the types of entertainment of mid-nineteenth century

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The mid-sixties saw the start of a project that, along with other similar research, was to teach us a great deal about the chimpanzee mind. This was Project Washoe, conceived by Trixie and Allen Gardner. They purchased an infant chimpanzee and began to teach her the signs of ASL, the American Sign Language used by the deaf. Twenty years earlier another husband and wife team, Richard and Cathy Hayes, had tried, with an almost total lack of success, to teach a young chimp, Vikki, to talk. The Hayes*s undertaking taught us a lot about the chimpanzee mind, but Vikki, although she did well in IQ tests, and was clearly an intelligent youngster, could not learn human speech. The Gardners, however, achieved spectacular success with their pupil, Washoe. Not only did she learn signs easily, but she quickly began to string them together in meaningful ways. It was clear that each sign evoked, in her mind, a mental image of the object it represented. If, for example, she was asked, in sign language, to fetch an apple, she would go and locate an apple that was out of sight in another room. Other chimps entered the project, some starting their lives in deaf signing families before joining Washoe. And finally Washoe adopted an infant, Loulis. He came from a lab where no thought of teaching signs had ever penetrated. When he was with Washoe he was given no lessons in language acquisition—not by humans, anyway. Yet by the time he was eight years old he had made fifty-eight signs in their correct contexts. How did he learn them? Mostly, it seems, by imitating the behavior of Washoe and the other three signing chimps, Dar, Moja and Tam. Sometimes, though, he received tuition from Washoe herself. One day, for example, she began to swagger about bipedally, hair bristling, signing food! food! food! in great excitement. She had seen a human approaching with a bar of chocolate. Loulis, only eighteen months old, watched passively. Suddenly Washoe stopped her swaggering, went over to him, took his hand, and moulded the sign for food (fingers pointing towards mouth). Another time, in a similar context,, she made the sign for chewing gum—but with her hand on his body. On a third occasion Washoe picked up a small chair, took it over to Loulis, set it down in front of him, and very distinctly made the chair sign three times, watching him closely as she did so. The two food signs became incorporated into Loulis's vocabulary but the sign for chair did not. Obviously the priorities of a young chimp are similar to those of a human child! Chimpanzees who have been taught a language can combine signs creatively in order to describe objects for which they have no symbol. Washoe, for example, puzzled her caretakers by asking, repeatedly, for a rock berry. Eventually it transpired that she was referring to brazil nuts which she had encountered for the first time a while before. Another language-trained chimp described a cucumber as a green banana. They can even invent signs. Lucy, as she got older, had to be put on a leash for her outings. One day, eager to set off but having no sign for leash, she signaled her wishes by holding a crooked index finger to the ring on her collar. This sign became part of her vocabulary.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} The topic of cloning has been a politically and ethically controversial one since its very beginning. While the moral and philosophical aspects of the issues are entirely up to the interpretation of the individual, the application of cloning technology can be studied objectively. Many in the scientific community advocate the use of cloning for the preservation and support of endangered species of animals, which aside from cloning, have no other practical hope for avoiding extinction. The goal of the use of cloning to avoid extinction is the reintroduction of new genes into the gene pool of species with few survivors, ensuring the maintenance and expansion of genetic diversity. Likely candidates for this technique are species known to have very few surviving members, such as the African Bongo Antelope, the Sumatran Tiger, and the Chinese Giant Panda. In the case of Giant Panda, some artificial techniques for creating offspring have already been performed, perhaps paving the way for cloning as the next step in the process. With the estimated population of only about 1000 Giant Pandas left in the world, the urgency of the situation has led to desperate measures. One panda was born through the technique of artificial insemination in the San Diego Zoo in the United States. "Hua Mei" was born in 1999 after her parents, Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling, had trouble conceiving naturally. The plan to increase the Giant Panda population through the use of cloning involves the use of a species related to the Giant Panda, the American Black Bear. Egg cells will be removed from female black bears and then fertilized with Panda cells such as those from Ling-Ling or Hsing-Hsing. The fertilized embryo will then re-implanted into the black bear, where it will grow and mature, until a new panda is delivered from the black bear host. Critics of cloning technology argue that the emphasis on cloning as a method by which to preserve species will draw funding away from other methods, such as habitat preservation and conservation. Proponents of cloning counter that many countries in which many endangered species exist are too poor to protect and maintain the species' habitats anyway, making cloning technology the only practical way to ensure that those species survive to future generations. The issue is still hotly debated, as both sides weigh the benefits that could be achieved against the risks and ethical concerns that constantly accompany any argument on the issue. (402 words){{B}}Notes:{{/B}} ethically 道德上。gene pool 基因库。insemination n.受精。fertilize 使受精。embryo 胚胎。proponent支持者，拥护者。weigh A against B权衡A和B的利弊。

单选题Justice in society must include both a fair trial to the accused and the election of an appropriate punishment for those proven guilty. Because justice is regarded as one form of equality, we find in its earlier expressions the idea of a punishment equal to the crime. Recorded in the Old Testament is the expression "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth". That is, the individual who has done wrong has committed an offense; society must get even, which can be done only by inflicting an equal injury upon him. This conception of retributive justice is reflected in many parts of the legal codes and procedures of modern times. It is illustrated when we demand the death penalty for a person who has committed murder. This philosophy of punishment was supported by the German idealist Hegel. He believed that society owed it to the criminal to administer a punishment equal to the crime he had committed. The criminal had by his own actions denied his true self and it is necessary to do something that will counteract the denial and restore the self that has been denied. To the murderer nothing less than giving up his own life will pay his debt. The execution of the death penalty is a right the state owes the criminal and it should not deny him his due. Modern jurists have tried to replace retributive justice with the notion of corrective justice. The aim of the latter is not to abandon the concept of equality but to find a more adequate way to express it. It tries to preserve the idea of equal opportunity for each individual to realize the best that is in him. The criminal is regarded as being socially ill and in need of treatment that will enable him to become a normal member of society. Before a treatment can be administered, the cause of his antisocial behavior must be found, what's more, provisions must be made to have this done. Only those criminals who are incurable should be permanently separated from the rest of society. This does not mean that criminals will escape punishment or be quickly returned to take up careers of crime. It means that justice is to heal the individual, not simply to get even with him. If severe punishment is the only adequate means for accomplishing this, it should be administered. However, the individual should be given every opportunity to assume a normal place in society. His conviction of crime must not deprive him of the opportunity to make his way in the society of which he is a part.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Although many factors affect human health during periods in space, weightlessness is the dominant and single most important one. The direct and indirect effects of weightlessness lead to a series of related responses. Ultimately, the whole body, from bones to brain, kidneys to bowels, reacts. When space travelers grasp the wall of their spacecraft and jerk their bodies back and forth, they say it feels as though they are stationary and the spacecraft is moving. The reason is based in our reliance on gravity to perceive our surroundings. The continuous and universal nature of gravity removes it from our daily notice, but our bodies never forget. Whether we realize it or not, we have evolved a large number of silent, automatic reactions to cope with the constant stress of living in a downward-pulling world. Only when we decrease or increase the effective force of gravity on our bodies do our minds perceive it. Our senses provide accurate information about the location of our center of mass and the relative positions of our body parts. Our brains integrate signals from our eyes and ears with other information from the organs in our inner ear, from our muscles and joints, and from our senses of touch and pressure. The apparatus of the inner ear is partitioned into two distinct components: circular, fluid-filled tubes that sense the angle of the head, and two bags filled with calcium crystals embedded in a thick fluid, which respond to linear movement. The movement of the calcium crystals sends a signal to the brain to tell us the direction of gravity. This is not the only cue the brain receives. Nerves in the muscles, joints, and skin—particularly the slain on the bottom of the feet—respond to the weight of limb segments and other body parts. Removing gravity transforms these signals. The inner ear no longer perceives a downward tendency when the head moves. The limbs no longer have weight, so muscles are no longer required to contract and relax in the usual way to maintain posture and bring about movement. Nerves that respond to touch and pressure in the feet and ankles no longer signal the direction of down. These and other changes contribute to orientation illusions, such as a feeling that the body or the spacecraft spontaneously changes direction. In 1961 a Russian astronaut reported vivid sensations of being upside down; one space shuttle specialist in astronomy said, "When the main engines cut off, I immediately felt as though we had inverted 180 degrees." Such illusions can recur even after some time in space.

单选题You could say on the court, these are the best days in the history of NBA. So why isn't the world is singing the praise of the NBA? Why isn't today's NBA outperforming the NFL, NASCAR, and Major League of Baseball (MLB), all of which have been rocked by scandals large and small over the last few years? Simple Because today's NBA scares the white people. The NBA stands at the dead-center intersection of two rampant social dynamics: the ascendancy of hip-hop culture and 21st-centrury marketing's sworn duty to easily definable demographic group. Break yourself into generalized demographic qualities: gender, age, race, economic class. There is full range of music, TV shows, movies, and website explicitly designed to keep you warm and toasty in your comfort zone, free from sharp edges. The NBA as it stands today has plenty of sharp edges and has a serious image problem; more than any other sports. For years, whites make up a majority of fan base, blacks make up a majority of players. And those players have benefited from ever-upward-spiraling paychecks, they've exercised their influence' to shape the sight of the game around them in their own image. But the NBA is still all about improvisation, artistry, jazz, poetry on the way to and above the rim. And while we appreciated the artistry in and of itself, the fact that we can't do it puts many fans at some kind small, but measurable emotional distance from the game. For the white audience, the skill divide one thing. There always been players that could do things the rest of us couldn't. What's freaking white Americans out is the way NBA is embracing every element' of hip-hop culture--the music, the fashion, the attitude, everything... Many events, stories hurt NBA, cementing its lawless-blacks image in observers' minds. Referring to the word "thug", that's operative in short-handing the new NBA culture, as many observers noted. "Thug" was so-opted by black culture sometime during the Tupac Era. When people slag NBA' players as "thug", it's good bet they're not taking about Adam Morris or J. J. Redic. It's absolutely a racial tag. The NBA, more than any other sports entity, has potential to be a bridge between cultures, a way to bring both sides together in cheering some best athletes of any color. It's already produced Jordan, the most widely known athlete in history, and it's gaining ground fast on soccer as the world's best known sport. But it's fragile indeed, with fans in colors viewing basketball as a zero-sum game, where every stereotypically black or white culture apparently forces out it's ethic opposite. But with serious image problems, another slat falls out of the bridge. And it's not hard to imagine a time when nobody will be interested in crossing over.

单选题Baby boomers fretting over their pensions should spare a thought for Constance DeCherney. Like many of her generation, the 27-year-old Web strategist at Planned Parenthood in New York has done little to prepare for retirement. "Just the idea of [saving for retirement] feels overwhelming," she says. "My fear of doing something wrong, or not doing enough, sort of paralyzes me." DeCherney is typical of America's so-called Generation Y, the twentysomethings who have entered the workforce in the past I0 years. Already saddled with student debts averaging almost $20,000, according to New York-based think tank Demos, Gen Y is in a tougher financial position than previous generations. The average salary for 25-to 34-year- olds, for instance, fell 19 percent over the last 30 years, after adjusting for inflation, to $35,100, Demos estimates. That's if they can get jobs: unemployment among 19-to 24-year- olds stands at 15.3 percent vs. the overall rate of 9.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While many of their parents have guaranteed retirement income from being in a company-funded pension for part of their careers, Gen Y is "the first do-it-yourself retirement generation," says Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies in Los Angeles. Investment companies are stepping up efforts to engage Gen Yers in retirement planning. Charles Schwab has revamped its website to include weekly advice for younger workers on everything from retirement planning to paying down debt. Vanguard is testing out social media, using more blogs, a Facebook page, and soon, Twitter. "It's how this younger generation learns," says Vanguard Chief Executive Officer William McNabb Ⅲ. Fidelity, the nation's largest 401 (k) administrator, in June launched an iPhone app for tracking retirement savings and has replaced bulky pension literature with e-mail updates. "This generation lacks confidence about making financial decisions," says Beth McHugh, Fidelity's vice-president of market insights. "You have to explain why planning for retirement is so important." That's presuming you can get their attention. Fewer than 4,000 Facebook users have clicked the "like" button for Fidelity's page and about 9,000 have done so for Vanguard's. Meanwhile, 4.2 million people say they like Apple iTunes on Facebook. Schwab, which began sending Twitter feeds in mid-June, has 277 followers. Whole Foods Market has 1.8 million. Some baby boomer parents enlist the help of their financial planners in giving their kids a retirement reality check. Jim Stoops, a Schwab financial consultant in Chicago, says his 250-plus clients often bring their sons and daughters to his office for advice. "Parents just can't believe how difficult retirement will be for their children," he says. "They're trying to instill financial values in their kids./