单选题A good-looking robot is seriously hard to find. Robots can be pretty, some even handsome, but as soon as they get too realistic they start to creep us out. A new system for helping robots to generate more realistic expressions might go some way to help. Many years ago, roboticists realised that as you morph an abstract robot into a human you generate a peak of unease—the "uncanny valley principle"—that makes people feel uncomfortable when a robot looks realistic but not realistic enough. Some say it"s because they remind us of a corpse. However, research has shown that if you manipulate the robotic images so that they are more attractive, you can bypass this feeling of unease. To create a robot we are more likely to accept, life-like expressions are vital. That"s why Nicole Lazzeri at the University of Pisa, Italy, and her colleagues have designed a "Hybrid Engine for Facial Expressions Synthesis" (HEFES)—a facial animation engine that gives realistic expressions to a humanoid robot called FACE. To mimic the myriad expressions that facial muscles are capable of achieving, the team placed 32 motors around FACE"s skull and upper torso that manipulate its polymer skin in the same way that real muscles do. To create expressions they used a combination of motor movements based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS)—a system created over 30 years ago which codes facial expressions in terms of organic muscle movements. HEFES is used to control FACE"s expressions. It is essentially a mathematical programme that creates an "emotional space" which a person can use to choose an expression for FACE that exists anywhere between one or more basic emotions, including anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. The algorithm then works out which motors need to be moved to create that expression or transition between two or more. The team evaluated the accuracy of their expressions by asking five autistic and 15 non-autistic children to identify a set of expressions performed first by FACE and then by a psychologist. Both groups were able to identify happiness, anger and sadness but less able to identify fear, disgust and surprise. So is it more attractive? I"m not convinced. But FACE"s ability to smoothly transition between one emotion and another is pretty remarkable. And not too creepy.

单选题The film-awards season, which reaches its tearful climax with the Oscars next week, has long been only loosely related to the film business. Hollywood is dedicated to the art of funneling teenagers past popcorn stands, not art itself. But this year's awards are less relevant than ever. The true worth of a film is no longer decided by the crowd that assembles in the Kodak Theatre—or, indeed, by any American. It is decided by youngsters in countries such as Russia, China and Brazil. Hollywood has always been an international business, but it is becoming dramatically more so. In the past decade total box-office spending has risen by about one-third in North America while more than doubling elsewhere. Thanks to Harry Potter, Sherlock Holmes and "Inception", Warner Bros made $2.93 billion outside North America last year smashing the studio's previous record of $2.24 billion. Falling DVD sales in America, by far the world's biggest home-entertainment market, mean Hollywood is even more dependent on foreign punters. The rising foreign tide has lifted films that were virtually written off in America, such as "Prince of Persia" and "The Chronicles of Namia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Despite starring the popular Jack Black, "Gulliver's Travels" had a disappointing run in North America, taking $42 million at the box office so far. But strong tumout in Russia and South Korea helped it reach almost $150 million in sales elsewhere. As a result, it should turn a profit, says John Davis, the film's producer. The growth of the international box office is partly a result of the dollar's weakness. It was also helped by "Avatar", an eco-fantasy that made a startling $ 2 billion outside North America. But three things are particularly important: a cinema boom in the emerging world, a concerted effort by the major studios to make films that might play well outside America and a global marketing push to make sure they do. Russia, with its shrinking teenage population, is an unlikely spot for a box-office boom. Yet cinema-building is proceeding apace, and supply has created demand. Last year 160 million cinema tickets were sold in Russia—the first time in recent years that sales have exceeded the country's population. Ticket prices have risen, in part because the new cinemas are superior, with digital projectors that can show 3D films. The big Hollywood studios are muscling domestic film-makers aside. In 2007 American films made almost twice as much at the Russian box office as domestic films—8.3 billion roubles ($325 million) compared with 4.5 billion. Last year the imported stuff made some 16.4 billion roubles: more than five times as much as the home-grown product, estimates Movie Research, a Moscow outfit. Earlier this month Vladimir Putin, Russia's Prime Minister, said the government would spend less money supporting Russian film-makers and more on expanding the number of screens.

单选题 They may not be the richest, but Africans remain the world's staunchest optimists. An annual survey by Gallup International, a research outfit, shows that, when asked whether this year will be better than last, Africa once again comes out on top. Out of 52,000 people interviewed all over the world, under half believe that things are looking up. But in Africa the proportion is close to 60%—almost twice as much as in Europe. Africans have some reasons to be cheerful. The continent's economy has been doing fairly well with South Africa, the economic powerhouse, growing steadily over the past few years. Some of Africa's long-running conflicts, such as the war between the north and south in Sudan and the civil war in Congo, have ended. Africa even has its first elected female head of state, in Liberia. Yet there is no shortage of downers too. Most of Africa remains dirt poor. Crises in places like Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are far from solved. And the democratic credentials of Ethiopia and Uganda, once the darlings of western donors, have taken a bad knock. AIDS killed over 2 million Africans in 2005, and will kill more this year. So is it all just a case of irrational exuberance ? Meril James of Gallup argues that there is, in fact, usually very little relation between the survey's optimism rankings and reality. Africans, this year led by Nigerians, are consistently the most upbeat, whether their lot gets better or not. On the other hand, Greece— hardly the worst place on earth—tops the gloom-and-doom chart, followed closely by Portugal and France. Ms James speculates that religion may have a lot to do with it. Nine out of ten Africans are religious, the highest proportion in the world. But cynics argue that most Africans believe that 2006 will be golden because things have been so bad that it is hard to imagine how they could possibly get worse. This may help explain why places that have suffered recent misfortunes, such as Kosovo and Afghanistan, rank among the top five optimists. Moussaka for thought for those depressed Greeks.

单选题In the third paragraph, the author is trying ______.

单选题 Money corrupts, they say, and now there's a study that shows why people get so sneaky when it comes to making a profit. The research, which was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, revealed that people doubled the number of lies they told in order to earn extra cash if they were first prompted to think about money. The study involved more than 300 business students who participated in several experiments, all of which showed that cuing people to consider money increased either unethical intentions or actions. "Our research suggests that we may be vulnerable to some influences that we're not aware of," says study co-author Kristen Smith-Crowe, "Our moral behavior may be affected by things in the environment that we have no idea are affecting us." "The main point is a 'wow' finding-that small and unnoticeable reminders of money can produce lying, cheating, and essentially stealing 10 minutes later. That is really fascinating," says Kathleen Vohs, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, who has conducted similar research but was not associated with this study. Why would thoughts of money increase misbehavior? "Money cues trigger this business decision frame like seeing the world only through a cost/benefit analysis and the significance is that we're not considering other things like moral issues," says Smith-Crowe. The research adds to prior work connecting wealth, greed and unethical behavior; one series of studies found that those who were rich were more likely to engage in sketchy actions, ranging from shoplifting, cutting people off in their cars to lying to job seekers to giving less to charity proportionally than those who were less well off. In one study, this connection was explained almost entirely by the more common belief among the wealthy that greed—or love of money-was good, and an admirable quality, rather than by class itself. When the research was published, author Paul Piff of the University of California in Berkeley remarked, "We're not arguing that rich people are bad at all, but that psychological features of wealth have these natural effects." That may explain why money is so often seen as corrupting and having a negative influence on people's behavior. That doesn't bode well for a population living in an increasingly uncertain and highly unequal economy, where more relationships have become transactional and the "just business" strategy, rather than a morally driven one, seems to make more sense. "A lot of the socialization involves ideas like maximizing profits and shareholder wealth," says Smith-Crowe, "We want to ask the question, and we're just starting on research in this: Can people's concepts of business be changed so we can extend them to include moral considerations?"

单选题SomeoftheconcernssurroundingTurkey'sapplicationtojointheEuropeanUnion,tobe(1)onbytheEU'sCouncilofMinistersonDecember17th,areeconomic—inparticular,thecountry'srelativepoverty.ItsGDPperheadislessthanathirdoftheaverageforthe15pre-2004membersoftheEU.(2)itisnotfaroffthatofLatvia—oneofthetennewmemberswhich(3)onMay1st2004,anditismuchthesameas(4)oftwocountries,BulgariaandRomania,whichthisweekconcluded(5)talkswiththeEUthatcouldmakethemfullmembersonJanuary1st2007.(6),thecountry'srecenteconomicprogresshasbeen,accordingtoDonaldJohnston,thesecretary-generaloftheOECD,stunning.GDPinthesecondquarteroftheyearwas13.4%higherthanayearearlier,a(7)ofgrowththatnoEUcountrycomescloseto(8).Turkey's(9)ratehasjustfallenintosinglefiguresforthefirsttimesince1972,andthisweekthecountry(10)agreementwiththeIMFonanewthree-year,＄10billioneconomicprogramthatwillhelpTurkey(11)inflationtowardEuropeanlevels,andenhancetheeconomy'sresilience.Resiliencehasnothistoricallybeenthecountry'seconomicstrongpoint.(12),throughoutthe1990sgrowthoscillatedlikeanelectrocardiogram(13)aviolentheartattack.This(14)hasbeenoneofthemainreasonswhythecountryhasfaileddismallytoattackmuch-neededforeigndirectinvestment.Itsstockofsuchinvestmentislowernowthanitwasinthe1980s,andannual(15)havescarcelyeverreached＄1billion.Onedeterrenttoforeigninvestorsisdueto(16)onJanuary1st2005.Onthatday,Turkeywilltakeawaytherightofvirtuallyeveryoneofitscitizenstocallthemselvesamillionaire.Sixzeroswillberemovedfromthefacevalueofthelira(里拉,土耳其货币单位);oneunitofthelocal(17)willhenceforthbeworthwhatlmillionarenow—ie,about0.53(0.53欧元).Goodswillhavetobe(18)inboththenewandoldliraforthewholeoftheyear,(19)foreignbankersand(20)canbegintolookforwardtoatimeinTurkeywhentheywillnolongerhavetojugglementallywithindeterminatestringsofzeros.

单选题The author used the example of a traveler (Para. 3) to show that

单选题Even before canaries (特高频噪声) were brought into coal mines to alert workers to the presence of poisonous gas, birds were giving us early warning calls signaling the Earth's deteriorating environmental health. Global bird populations have shrunk by up to 25% since preagricultural (农业社会前的) times. Over the past 300 years, farmland has expanded from six percent of the Earth's surface to nearly 33%. Today, three quarters of threatened bird species depend on forests as their principal habitat; each year, however, some 13,000,000 hectares of forests are destroyed, an area the size of Greece. Nearly half the woodlands lost are relatively undisturbed primary forests that are home to a number of sensitive birds and other creatures. Direct exploitation, including hunting for food and capture for the pet trade, is the second greatest danger after habitat loss, while next is the intentional or accidental introduction of non-native species. As people travel to all parts of the globe, so too do the pests and pets that prey on, out-compete, or alter the habitat of native wildlife. Pollution poses an additional risk, affecting 12% of the threatened bird species. In addition to direct poisoning from fertilizer and pesticide applications, runoff of chemicals contaminates the wetlands that migrating waterfowl rely on. Persistent organic pollutants accumulate in the food chain and can lead to deformities, reproductive failure, and disease in birds. Worldwide, one-third of plant and animal species could become extinct by 2050 as a result of climate change, a relatively new threat. Global temperature spikes have brought severe alterations to the migration, breeding, and habitat ranges of some birds. In addition to these looming dangers, seven percent of threatened bird species are at risk from incidental mortality. A rapid decline in seabird populations over the last 15 years corresponds with the growth in commercial longline fisheries. In Europe, Central Asia, and Africa, electrocution on power lines has caused the mass mortality of raptors. Moreover, countless birds die each year from collisions with windows, the number-one cause of U.S. avian mortality. If birds disappear, so do the economically valuable services they provide. Preventing the extinction of additional bird populations depends largely on protecting the world's remaining wild spaces and preserving the health of our natural and altered ecosystems. Reports that the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, is still with us thrilled bird watchers and others, but this sort of second chance seldom occurs in nature. Even with continued habitat protection, once wildlife populations drop dramatically, a rebound is far from guaranteed. Without stabilizing climate and human numbers, putting fences around all the parks in the world will not lie enough to protect threatened species.

单选题Which of the following is the usual theme of blues?______

单选题The best title of this text should be

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} The mental health movement in the United States began with a period of considerable enlightenment. Dorothea Dix was shocked to find the mentally ill in jails and almshouses and crusaded for the establishment of asylums in which people could receive humane care in hospital-like environments and treatment which might help restore them to sanity. By the mid-1800s 20 states had established asylums. But during the late 1800s and early 1900s, in the face of economic depression, legislatures were unable to appropriate sufficient funds for decent care. Asylums became overcrowded and prison-like. Additionally, patients were more resistant to treatment than the pioneers in the mental health field had anticipated, and security and restraint were needed to protect patients and others. Mental institutions became frightening and depressing places in which the fights of patients were all but forgotten. These conditions continued until after World War Ⅱ. At that time, new treatments were discovered for some major mental illnesses considered untreatable (penicillin for syphilis of the brain and insulin treatment for schizophrenia and depressions), and a succession of books, motion pictures, and newspapers called attention to the plight of the mentally ill. Improvements were made, and Dr. David Vail's Humane Practices Programme is a beacon for today. But changes were store in coming until the early 1960s. At that time, the Civil Rights Movement led lawyers to investigate America's prisons, which were disproportionately populated by blacks, and they in turn followed prisoners into the institutions that were worse than the hospitals for the criminally insane. The prisons were filled with angry young men who, encouraged by legal support, were quick to demand their fights. The hospitals for the criminally insane, by contrast, were populated with people who were considered "crazy" and who were often kept obediently in their place through the use of severe bodily restraints and large dose of major tranquillizers. The young cadre of public interest lawyers liked their role in the mental hospitals. The lawyers found a population that was both passive and easy to champion. These were, after all, people who, unlike criminals, had done nothing wrong. And in many states, they were being kept in horrendous institutions, an injustice, which, once exposed, was hound to shock the public and, particularly, the judicial conscience. Judicial interventions have had some definite positive effects, but there is growing awareness that courts cannot provide the standards and the review mechanisms that assure good patient care. The details of providing day-to-day care simply cannot be mandated by a court, so it is time to take from the courts the responsibility for delivery of mental heath care and assurance of patient fights and return it to the state mental health administrators to whom the mandate was originally given. Though it is a difficult task, administrators must undertake to write rules and standards and to provide the training and surveillance to assure that treatment is given and patient rights are respected.

单选题The New Madrid fault is______.

单选题Judging from the context, the word "they" (Line 2, Paragraph 4) might refer to

单选题We have known for a long time that the organization of any particular society is influenced by the definition of the sexes and the distinction drawn between them. But we have realized only recently that the identity of each sex is not so easy to pin down, and that definitions evolve in accordance with different types of culture known to us, that is, scientific discoveries and ideological revolutions. Our nature is not considered as immutable, either socially or biologically. As we approach the beginning of the 21st century, the substantial progress made in biology and genetics is radically challenging the roles, responsibilities and specific characteristics attributed to each sex, and yet, scarcely twenty years ago, these were thought to be "beyond dispute". We can safely say, with a few minor exceptions, that the definition of the sexes and their respective functions remained unchanged in the West from the beginning of the 19tb century to the 1960s. The role distinction, raised in some cases to the status of uncompromising dualism on a strongly hierarchical model, lasted throughout this period, appealing for its justification to nature, religion and customs alleged to have existed since the dawn of time. The woman bore children and took care of the home. The man set out tc conquer the world and was responsible for the survival of his family, by satisfying their needs in peacetime and going to war when necessary. The entire world order rested on the divergence of the sexes. Any overlapping or confusion between the roles was seen as a threat to the time-honored order of things. It was felt to be against nature, a deviation from the norm. Sex roles were determined according to the "place" appropriate to each. Women"s place was, first and foremost, in the home. The outside world, i.e. workshops, factories and business firms, belonged to men. This sex-based division of the world (private and public) gave rise to a strict dichotomy between the attitudes, which conferred on each its special identity. The woman, sequestered at home, "cared, nurtured and conserved". To do this, she had no need to be daring, ambitious, tough or competitive. The man, on the other hand, competing with his fellow men, was caught up every day in the struggle for survival, and hence developed those characteristics which were thought natural in a man. Today, many women go out to work, and their reasons for doing so have changed considerably. Besides, the traditional financial incentives, we find ambition and personal fulfillment motivating those in the most favorable circumstances, and the wish to have a social life and to get out of their domestic isolation influencing others. Above all, for all women, work is invariably connected with the desire for independence.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} The first big-name {{U}}hackers{{/U}} include Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds, all now highly recognizable names behind many of the computer technologies used today. These early hackers had a love of technology and a compelling need to know how it all worked, and their goal was to push programs beyond what they were designed to do. Back then, the word "hacker" didn’t have the negative connotation it has today. The original hacker ethic, rooted out of simple curiosity and a need to be challenged, appears to be dead. The objectives of early hackers are a far cry from the goals of today's hacker. The motivation of the new breed of hackers appears not to be curiosity, or a hunger for knowledge, as it used to be. Instead, most of today's hackers are driven by greed, power, revenge, or some other malicious intent, treating hacking as a game or sport, employing the tools that are readily available via the Internet. The rate of security attacks is actually outpacing the growth of the Internet. This means that something besides the growth of the Internet is driving the rise in security attacks. Here are some realities you should know about: Operating systems and applications will never be secure. New vulnerabilities will be introduced into your environment every day. And even if you ever do get one operating system secure, there will be new operating systems with new vulnerabilities—phones, wireless devices, and network appliances. Employees will never keep up with security polices and awareness. It doesn't matter how much you train and educate your employees. If your employees disregard warnings about the hazards of opening questionable email attachments, how are you going to educate them about properly configuring firewalls and intrusion detection systems for their PCs? Managers have more responsibility than ever. And on top of the realities listed above, security managers are being asked to support increasing degrees of network availability and access. There are some good security measures you can take: Employ a layer 7, full-inspection firewall. Automatically update your anti-virus at the gateway, server and client. Keep all of your systems and applications updated. Hackers commonly break into a Web site through known security holes, so make sure your servers and applications are patched and up to date. Turn off unnecessary network services. Eliminate all unneeded programs. Scan network for common backdoor services--Use intrusion detection systems, vulnerability scans, anti virus protection.