单选题The pollution of Hong Kong's beaches by oil from a damaged tanker last year recalls a similar incident which took place in Britain in 1967 when the Torrey Canyon, a huge oil tanker, split in two and caused disaster in coastal areas. Shoals of fishes were killed, sea birds hopelessly fouled with oil and coastal holiday resorts put out of business for several weeks. As a result of this particular incident scientists are becoming restless at the thought of Britain's inability to cope with national disasters on a large scale. The reason for their concern is that technology is rapidly outstripping(超越) man's ability to control it. Oil tankers, for instance, have been allowed to get bigger and bigger without sufficient thought being given to emergency braking and manoeuvring arrangement. Collisions at sea continue, but little effect has been made to develop safety devices as effective as those used for aircraft. Scientists were outspoken in expressing their concern during a recent meeting of the British Association. Unanimous approval was voiced when the leading speaker urged that a permanent national rescue services should be established, equipped for any emergency and ready to move off immediately. Of all the possible disasters mentioned, the one promoting most discussion was a major release of radioactivity from a nuclear power station. One does not need a particularly vivid imagination to visualize the other possibilities discussed. What would be the effect of a jumbo-jet crashing on a large chemical plant handling destroying liquids? Could the tapping of natural gas lead to any form of collapse? Suppose a lorry full of a highly poisonous chemical crashed unseen into a large reservoir? Dams can burst, abnormal conditions can lead to massive electrical blackouts. An intensive study of such possibilities could at least reduce the effects of future disasters. For example, it would mean that a number of technical alternatives (such as the choice between detergent or chalk for dispersing oil) could be examined and tested in advance so that specially trained expert would know exactly what action was needed in a given emergency.

单选题Students choose to stay closer to home mainly because of

单选题What is the real cause of the anxiety of the workers and employees?_______

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. {{B}}Text 1{{/B}} For years Internet merchants have poured millions of dollars into new technologies to make their sites easier to use. So why aren't online customers happier? Customer satisfaction levels have remained almost flat through the last several years. The problem, according to Larry Freed, chief executive of a consulting and research firm called ForeSee Results, is not so much that consumers have ignored the many improvements made in recent years. Rather, he said, they still expect more from Internet shopping than it has delivered. "If we walk into a local store, we don't expect that experience to be better than it was a couple years ago," Mr. Freed said. "But we expect sites to be better. The bar goes up every year." In ForeSee's latest survey, released last month, just five e-commerce sites registered scores higher than 80 out of 100, and no site scored higher than 85. It was much the same story a year ago, when just five scored higher than 80, with no site surpassing 85. "Scores have inched up over time for the best e-commerce companies, but the overall numbers haven't moved drastically," Mr. Freed said. "At the same time though, if you don't do anything you see your scores drop steadily." That dynamic has been a challenge for online merchants and investors, who a decade ago envisioned Internet stores as relatively inexpensive (and therefore extremely profitable ) operations. Now some observers predict a future where online retailers will essentially adopt something like the QVC model, with sales staff pitching the site's merchandise with polished video presentations, produced in a high-tech television studio. QVC. com is evolving in that direction. The Web site, which sold more than $1 billion in merchandise' in 2006, has for the last five years let visitors watch a live feed of the network's broadcast. But in recent months, QVC. com has also given visitors the chance to watch archives of entire shows, and in the coming months visitors will be able to find more video segments from recent shows, featuring individual products that remain in stock. Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC. com, said the Web site's video salesmanship is especially effective when combined with detailed product information, customer reviews and multiple photographs. About eight months ago, for instance, a customer said that she could not determine the size of a handbag from the photographs on the site because she could not tell the height of the model who was holding it. Within two weeks the site tested and introduced a new system, showing the bags with women of three different heights. The results were immediate: women who saw the new photographs bought the bags at least 10 percent more frequently than those who had not. Still, Mr. Myers said, video is a critically important element to sales. "E-commerce started with television commerce," he said. "The sites who engage and entertain customers will be winning here in the near future." Such a prospect is not necessarily daunting to other e-commerce executives. Gordon Magee, head of Internet marketing for Drs. Foster & Smith, based in a Rhinelander, Wis. said a transition to video "will be seamless for us." The company, Mr. Magee said, has in recent weeks discussed putting some of its product on video "so customers could see a 360-degree view they don't have to manipulate themselves.

单选题Through studying grocery lists, Bill Keaggy finds that

单选题Despite the doubts, and despite complaints from shop owners, London's congestion charge --introduced in February 2003 -- has managed to ease the gridlock in the city centre. Traffic is down by 18%, jams by 30%. The scheme's biggest weakness is that it is crude: drivers pay ￡ 8 ($14) to enter the zone between 7am and 6:30pm, regardless of how congested the roads are, or how long they stay. So road-pricing fans are watching trials by Transport for London (TfL) of a new detection system, called tag-and-beacon, with interest. Under such a scheme (used in Singapore and on some European roads) cars are fitted with electronic tags that are read by roadside masts. If the trial is successful, TfL says that the city could switch to the system once the contract to run the congestion charge is re-let in 2009. Currently, cameras are used to read license plates and track motorists. They are not always reliable: an individual camera identifies only around 70% of cars. Most driven get photographed more than once, which boosts the system's effectiveness to over 95%, but that still leaves several thousand vehicles per day whose details must be laboriously checked by hand. Tag-and-beacon technology is much more accurate, with an identification rate of over 99%. TfL says the trial is partly designed to see whether the new system could allow drivers to pay charges by direct debit. That would be popular with motorists, who complain that the current payment system is unfriendly: the toll for a day' s travel must be paid manually -- online, by phone or in a shop -- by midnight, with steep fines levied on forgetful drivers. More precise detection also allows for more precision in policy, and road-pricing enthusiasts see radical possibilities ahead. TfL says it is considering using the new technology to charge drivers each time they cross the zone boundary (up to a daily maximum), instead of paying once for an entire day's travel. That would be cheaper for drivers who make few trips into the zone, although drivers who spend a long time trundling around without leaving (thereby causing the most congestion) would get off lightly, too. Further refinements may be possible. The current system has cut traffic most drastically in the middle of the day, when congestion is at its lowest. Demand for road space would better match supply if charges were variable -- high at the busiest times of day and low in quiet periods. Such a time-sensitive, variable-charging scheme using a tag-and-beacon system was endorsed last year by Bob Kiley, the TfL's boss, who also said that he wanted to extend the congestion charge to other parts of London. That would be controversial, and Mr. Kiley's underlings were quick to insist that his musings were not official policy. But the original scheme was controversial too, yet Ken Livingstone, London's mayor and its biggest backer, was re-elected after introducing it. It would be a shame if timidity took hold now.

单选题The safety of mobile phones (U. S. cell-phones) seems to face new questions after British researchers found that microwave emissions can affect the health of earthworms in unexplained ways. The larvae of tiny soil worms called nematodes grew faster and became more (1) after they were (2) for a long time to weak microwave radiation, of the (3) strength and frequency as that (4) by mobile phones, they found. Why this occurred is (5) , and there is no evidence that human health is also affected. But, they warn, the finding challenges the standards which (6) whether a mobile is safe or not. These standards are based on whether the radiation is strong enough to cause a batch of (7) to warm up. Heat causes the chemical bonds in cells to (8) , a disruption that can be a potential (9) for cancer. The research, led by David de Pomerai at Nottingham University, central England, said larvae exposed to the microwaves (10) between eight and eleven percent faster than (11) which had not been exposed. In addition, the (12) of worms that (13) into egg-bearing adults was 28～40 percent higher. By comparison, worms that had been exposed to (14) heat suffered a 10-percent reduction in their growth rate, and (15) none developed into fertile adults. The experiment is important because it suggests that microwaves might trigger biological effects. (16) warming any tissues. The scientists do not (17) out the possibility that radiation could cause hot-.spots to occur somewhere in the worm that then affected cell (18) . The worry, though, is that the 19 basis for determining mobile safety is whether microwaves cause heating in bulk tissue rather than just at (20) in it, they note.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} For months the Japanese searched fitfully for the right word to describe what was happening. At the Bank of Japan, the nation's central bank, officials spoke of "an adjustment phase.' Prime Minister admitted only to "a difficult situation." The Economic Planning Agency, the government's record keeper, referred delicately to a "retreat." Then two weeks ago, for the first time since 1997, the agency dropped its boilerplate reference to the "expansion" from its closely watched Monthly Economic Report, and the word game was over. Japan's economy, the world's second largest, conceded the experts, was in recession. That admission confirmed the bad news businessmen had been reading in their spreadsheets for several months. "In 2001 one market after another turned bad," says Yoshihiko Wakamoto, senior vice president of Toshiba Corp., which now admits that its pretax profits for fiscal 2001, ending March 31, may be down a whopping 42%. In April, when many Japanese companies announce their results for 2001 fiscal year, most will report declining profits. Blue chips like Sony, NEC and Matsushita have all experienced drops of over 40% in pretax profits. Japan's security houses, hit by declining commissions from a falling stock market, will announce even more dramatic drops. Nomura Securities, once Japan's most profitable company, is talking about an 80% decline in profits. Auto manufacturers, banks, airlines, steel companies, department stores--all are in a slump. {{U}}Technically{{/U}}, what is happening to the Japanese economy does not meet American criteria for a recession, normally defined as at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth. While economic growth has slowed in Japan, it has not ceased. Government economists are predicting a 3.5% increase in GNP for 2002. Outside experts are not so optimistic. But nearly everyone agrees that GNP growth in Japan is unlikely to slip into negative numbers, as it did last year in the U. S. and Britain. "There's no question that we are in a recession," pronounces Kunio Miyamoto, chief economist of the Sumitomo-Life Research Institute. "But it is a recession, Japanese-style." During the last half of the 1990s, Japanese companies based much of their expansion around the world on the wildly inflated values of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Japan's frenzied real estate market. Now both those markets have collapsed. And with long-term interest rates up from 5% to 7%, Japanese companies are less able to sell vast quantities of high-quality goods at razor-thin profit margins. Added to this are pressures from shareholders for a greater return on investments, from Japan's trading partners for restraints on its aggressive trade practices, and from its own citizens for a reduction in their working hours so they can enjoy the fruits of 40 years of relentless toil.

单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Every living thing has an inner biological clock that controls behavior. The clock works all the time; even when there are no outside signs to mark the passing of time. The biological clock tells plants when to form flowers and when the flowers should open. It tells insects when to leave the protective cocoon and fly away. And it tells animals when to eat, sleep and wake. It controls body temperature, the release of some hormones and even dreams. These natural daily events are circadian rhythms. Man has known about them for thousands of years. But the first scientific observation of circadian rhythms was not made until 1729. In that year a French astronomer, Jean Jacques d’Ortous de Mairan, noted that one of his plants opened its leaves at the same time every morning, and closed them at the same time every night. The plant did this even when he kept it in a dark place all the time. Later scientists wondered about circadian rhythms in humans. They learned that man’s biological clock actually keeps time with a day of a little less than 25 hours instead of the 24 hours on a man-made clock. About four years ago an American doctor, Eliot Weitzman, established a laboratory to study how our biological clock works. The people in his experiments are shut off from the outside world. They are free to listen to and live by their circadian rhythms. Dr. Weitzman hopes his research will lead to effective treatments for common sleep problems and sleep disorders caused by ageing and mental illness. The laboratory is in the Montefiore Hospital in New York City. It has two living areas with three small rooms in each. The windows are covered, so no sunlight or moonlight comes in. There are no radios or television receivers. There is a control room between the living areas. It contains computers, one-way cameras and other electronic devices for observing the person in the living area. A doctor or medical technician is on duty in the control room 24 hours a day during an experiment. They do not work the same time each day and are not permitted to wear watches, so the person in the experiment has no idea what time it is. In the first four years of research, Dr. Weitzman and his assistant have observed 16 men between the ages of 21 and 80. The men remained in the laboratory for as long as six months. Last month, a science reporter for “The New York Times” newspaper, Dava Sobel, became the first woman to take part in the experiment. She entered the laboratory on June 13th and stayed for 25 days. Miss Sobel wrote reports about the experiment during that time, which were published in the newspaper.

单选题In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent of the Black population of the United States left the South, where most of the Black population had been located, and migrated to northern states, with. the largest number moving, it is claimed, between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed, but not proved, that the majority of the migrants in what has come to be called the Great Migration came from rural areas and were motivated by two factors: the collapse of the cotton industry, which began in 1898, and increased demand in the North for labor following the cessation of European immigration caused by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assumption has led to the conclusion that the migrants' subsequent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied to rural background, a background that implies unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills. But the question of who actually left the South has never been thoroughly investigated. Although numerous investigations document an exodus (大批出走) from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration, no one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600, 000 Black workers, or ten percent of the Black work force, reported themselves to be engaged in "manufacturing and mechanical pursuits", the federal census category roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. The Great Migration could easily have been made up entirely of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move, but an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South. About thirty-five percent of the urban Black population in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery—blacksmiths, masons, carpenters—which had had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed out by competition, mechanization, and out-date. The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries— tobacco, lumber, coal and iron manufacture, and railroads. Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black workers were aware, through labor recruiters and the Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled workers in the North than they could as artisans in the South. During that period, urban black workers faced competition from the continuing arrival of both Black and White rural workers, who were driven to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs. Thus a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and steadily employed, and the easy conclusion tying their sub-sequent economic problems in the North to their rural background comes into question.

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. For the people who have never traveled across the Atlantic the voyage is a fantasy. But for the people who cross it frequently one crossing of the Atlantic is very much like another, and they do not make the voyage for the{{U}} (1) {{/U}}of its interest. Most of us are quite happy when we feel{{U}} (2) {{/U}}to go to bed and pleased when the journey{{U}} (3) {{/U}}On the first night this time I felt especially lazy and went to bed{{U}} (4) {{/U}}earlier than usual. When I{{U}} (5) {{/U}}my cabin, I was surprised{{U}} (6) {{/U}}that I was to have a companion during my trip, which made me feel a little unhappy. I had expected{{U}} (7) {{/U}}but there was a suitcase{{U}} (8) {{/U}}mine in the opposite corner. I wondered who he could be and what he would be like. Soon afterwards he came in. He was the sort of man you might meet{{U}} (9) {{/U}}，except that he was wearing{{U}} (10) {{/U}}good clothes that I made up my mind that we would not{{U}} (11) {{/U}}whoever he was and did not say{{U}} (12) {{/U}}.As I had expected, he did not talk to me either but went to bed immediately. I suppose I slept for several hours because when I woke up it was already the middle of the night. I felt cold but covered{{U}} (13) {{/U}}as well as I could and tries to go back to sleep. Then I realized that a{{U}} (14) {{/U}}was coming from the window opposite. I thought perhaps I had forgotten{{U}} (15) {{/U}}the door, so I got up{{U}} (16) {{/U}}the door but found it already locked from the inside. The cold air was coming from the window opposite. I crossed the room and{{U}} (17) {{/U}}the moon shone through it on to the other bed.{{U}} (18) {{/U}}there. It took me a minute or two to{{U}} (19) {{/U}}the door myself. I realized that my companion{{U}} (20) {{/U}}through the window into the sea.

单选题Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the sole measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives. To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so. Medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a predominantly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had minimal effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients captured in the product it was relatively inefficient. Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safe and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat loss and to diminishing biodiversity. What's more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050. Yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions. All this means that agriculture in the 21st century will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th. This will require radical thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are inevitably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the notion that agriculture can be "zero impact". The key will be to abandon the rather simple and static measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage. Instead we need a more dynamic interpretation, one that looks at the pros and cons of all the various way land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity. What is crucial is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.

单选题Never has a straitjacket seemed so ill-fitting or so insecure. The Euro area's "Stability and Growth Pact" was supposed to stop irresponsible member states running excessive budget deficits, defined as 3% of GDP or more. Chief among the restraints was the threat of large fines if member governments breached the limit for three years in a row. For some time now, no one has seriously believed those restraints would hold. In the early hours of Tuesday November 25th, the Euro's fiscal straitjacket finally came apart at the seams. The pact's fate was sealed over an extended dinner meeting of the euro area's 12 finance ministers. They chewed over the sorry fiscal record of the Euro's two largest members, France and Germany. Both governments ran deficits of more than 3% of GDP last year and will do so again this year. Both expect to breach the limit for the third time in 2004. Earlier this year the European Commission, which polices the pact, agreed to give both countries an extra year, until 2005, to bring their deficits back into line. But it also instructed them to revisit their budget plans for 2004 and make extra cuts. France was asked to cut its underlying, cyclically adjusted deficit by a full 1% of GDP, Germany by 0.8%. Both resisted. Under the pact's hales, the commission's prescriptions have no force until formally endorsed in a vote by the Euro area's finance ministers' known as the "Eurogroup." And the votes were simply not there. Instead, the Euro-group agreed on a set of proposals of its own, drawn up by the Italian finance minister, Giulio Tremonti. France will cut its structural deficit by 0.8% of GDP next year, Germany by 0.6%. In 2005, both will bring their deficits below 3%, economic growth permitting. Nothing will enforce or guarantee this agreement except France and Germany's word. The European Central Bank (ECB) was alarmed at this outcome, the commission was dismayed, and the smaller Euro-area countries who opposed the deal were apoplectic: treaty law was giving way to the "Franco-German steamroller," as Le Figaro, a French newspaper, put it. This seething anger will sour European politics and may spill over into negotiations on a proposed EU constitution. Having thrown their weight around this week, France and Germany may find other smaller members more reluctant than ever to give ground in the negotiations on the document. Spain opposes the draft constitution because it will give it substantially less voting weight than it currently enjoys. It sided against France and Germany on Tuesday, and will point to their fiscal transgressions to show that the EU's big countries do not deserve the extra power the proposed constitution will give them.

单选题Many countries will not allow cigarette advertising in their newspaper or on TV-especially (1) the advertisements are usually written with young people in mind. (2) advertising, the tobacco companies have begun to (3) sports events. They give money to football, motor racing, tennis and a number of (4) sports (5) condition that the name of the cigarette is (6) This is now (7) concern, because it does exactly (8) many ads try to do-suggest that smoking has some connection (9) being strong and athletic. In all this, the point of view of the non-smokers has to be (10) as well: "3 wish smoker would stop (11) the air. I wish I could eat in a restaurant (12) having to smell cigarettes smoke." It has been (13) that, in a room where a large number of people are smoking, a non-smoker will breathe in the (14) of two or three cigarettes during an evening. (15) , non-smokers are now majority in many western countries. More and more people are giving up the habit, discouraged by high prices, influenced by (16) advertising or just aware that smoking is no longer really a polite thing to do. Faced with lower sales, the western tobacco companies have begun to look outside their own countries. They have begun advertising (17) to persuade young people in developing countries that smoking American or British or French cigarette is a sophisticated western habit, which they should copy. As a result, more and more young people are spending (18) money they have on a product which the west recognizes (19) unhealthy and no longer wants. The high number of young smokers in India, in South America and in South East Asia will become some of tomorrow's (20) .