单选题It can be inferred from the passage that the author wants to

单选题Massive changes in all of the world's deeply cherished sporting habits are underway. Whether it's one of London's parks full of people playing softball, and Russians taking up rugby, or the Superbowl rivaling the British Football Cup Final as a televised spectator event in Britain, the patterns of players and spectators are changing beyond recognition. We are witnessing a globalization of our sporting culture. That annual bicycle race, the Tour de France, much loved by the French is a good case in point. Just a few years back it was a strictly continental affair with France, Belgium and Holland, Spain and Italy taking part. But in recent years it has been dominated by Colombian mountain climbers, and American and Irish riders. The people who really matter welcome the shift toward globalization. Peugeot, Michelin and Panasonic are multi-national corporations that want worldwide returns for the millions they invest in teams. So it does them literally a world of good to see this unofficial world championship become just that. This is undoubtedly an economic-based revolution we are witnessing here, one made possible by communications technology, but made to happen because of marketing considerations. Sell the game and you can sell Coca Cola or Budweiser as well. The skilful way in which American football has been sold to Europe is a good example of how all sports will develop. The aim of course is not really to spread the sport for its own sake, but to increase the number of people interested in the major money-making events. The economics of the Superbowl are already astronomical. With seats at US $125, gate receipts alone were a staggering $10,000,000. The most important statistic of the day, however, was the $100,000,000 in TV advertising fees. Imagine how much that becomes when the eyes of the world are watching. So it came as a terrible shock, but not really as a surprise, to learn that some people are now suggesting that soccer change from being a game of two 45-minute halves, to one of four 25-minute quarters. The idea is unashamedly to capture more advertising revenue, without giving any thought for the integrity of a sport which relies for its essence on the flowing nature of the action. Moreover, as sports expand into world markets, and as our choice of sports as consumers also grows, so we will demand to see them played at a higher and higher level. In boxing we have already seen numerous, dubious world title categories because people will not pay to see anything less than a "World Title" fight, and this means that the title fights have to be held in different countries around the world!

单选题Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical. In (1) world during the fifteenth century the term " reading" (2) meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become commonplace. One should be wary, however, of (3) that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is a(n) (4) to others. Examination of factors related to the (5) development of silent reading reveals that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in (6) . The last century saw a steady gradual increase in (7) and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, the number of potential listeners (8) , and thus there was some (9) in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a (10) activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would (11) distraction to other readers. Towards the end of the century there was still (12) argument over whether books should be used for information or treated (13) , and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way (14) weakening. Indeed this argument still remains with us in education. (15) its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was (16) by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a (17) readership on the other. By the end of the century students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use skills in reading them which were inappropriate, (18) not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological changes in the century had greatly (19) what the term "reading" (20) .

单选题What can be said of the normal process of aging, from a linguistic point of view? In general (1) , there is a clear and (2) relationship: no-one would have much difficulty (3) a baby, a young child, a teenager, a middle-aged person, or a very old person from a tape recording. With children, (4) is possible for specialists in language development, and people experienced (5) child care, to make very detailed (6) about how language correlates with age in the early years. (7) is known about the patterns of linguistic change that affect older people. It is plain that our voice quality, vocabulary, and style alter (8) we grow older, but research (9) the nature of these changes is in its earliest stages. However. a certain amount of (10) is available about the production and (11) of spoken language by very old people, especially regarding the phonetic changes that take place. Speech is (12) to be affected by reductions in the (13) of the vocal organs. The muscles of the chest (14) , the lungs become less elastic, the ribs (15) mobile: as a result, respiratory efficiency at age 75 is only about half (16) at age 30, and this has (17) for the ability to speak loudly, rhythmically, and with good tone In addition, speech is affected by poorer movement of the soft palate and changes in the facial skeleton, especially around the mouth and jaw. There are other, more general signs of age. Speech rate slows, and fluency may be more erratic. Hearing (18) , especially after the early fifties. Weakening (19) of memory and attention may affect the ability to comprehend complex speech patterns. But it is (20) all had news: vocabulary awareness may continue to grow, as may stylistic ability—skills in narration, for example. And grammatical ability seems to be little affected.

单选题Shares in Burger King (BK) soared on September 1st on reports that the fast-food company was talking to several private-equity firms interested in buying it. How much beef was behind these stories was unclear. But lately the company famous for the slogan "Have It Your Way" has certainly not been having it its own way. There may be arguments about whether BK or McDonald's serves the best fries, but there is no doubt which is more popular with stockmarket investors: the maker of the Big Mac has supersized its lead in the past two years. Recession has favoured McDonald's over BK, whose share price has fallen by half since the economy was flame-grilled in the summer of 2008. Shares in McDonald's have risen, reaching an all-time high in August. Same-store sales at BK have fallen for five successive quarters. Why has McDonald's been eating BK's lunch? Among other things, BK has always had a higher proportion of sales to young men, who have been hit especially hard by the recession. McDonald's, by contrast, has for several years wooed women and older people with relatively healthy salads and drinkable coffee. BK has struggled to follow suit. At the same time, it has had to contend with angry shareholders, as the rising cost of beef and other ingredients has clobbered its profits. BK may also have cannibalised its existing sales by offering value meals that were a bit too irresistible. BK is used to changes in ownership. It went from being part of Pillsbury, a food company, to Grand Metropolitan, a British conglomerate, then to Diageo, a drinks giant. In 2002 it was sold to a group of private-equity investors: TPG, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs. They did a fair job, improving sales with better marketing. They also helped turn around the most troubled of the franchisees who operate most BK restaurants. In 2006 BK floated its shares again. Its bosses may hope that going private once more will protect them from short-term stock market pressures while they ponder how to beat McDonald's. If BK does go private, it may be part of a trend in the private-equity industry—now that some of the bigger firms have rediscovered their appetite for deals—of gobbling up the companies they had taken public during the bubble years but which are now trading cheaply. TPG, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs still own a sizeable stake in BK, despite listing it on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. However, it seems that other private-equity firms are interested in buying it. If that happens, no doubt BK servers will appreciate the irony : the act of passing a company from one private-equity firm to another is known in the business as "flipping".

单选题The spokesman of Japan's "Enlightenment" thinks that

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The Republican Party has lost its mind. To win elections, a party needs votes, obviously, and constituencies. First, however, it needs ideas. In 1994--95, the Republican Party had after long struggle advanced a coherent, compelling set of political ideas expressed in a specific legislative agenda. The political story of 1996 is that this same party, within the space of six weeks, then became totally, shockingly intellectually {{U}}deranged{{/U}}. Then, astonishingly, on the very moment of their philosophical victory, just as the Republicans prepared to carry these ideas into battle in November, came cannon fire from the rear. Pat Buchanan first came out to declare a general insurrection. The enemy, according to Buchanan, is not the welfare state. It is that conservative icon, capitalism, with its ruthless captains of industry, greedy financiers and political elites (Republicans included, of course). All three groups collaborate to let foreigners--immigrants, traders, parasitic foreign-aid loafers--destroy the good life of the ordinary American worker. Buchananism would support and wield a big and mighty government apparatus to protect the little guy from buffeting, a government that builds trade walls and immigrant-repelling fences, that imposes punitive taxes on imports, and that polices the hiring and firing practices of business with the arrogance of the most zealous forcer. Republicans have focused too much on the mere tactical dangers posed by this assault. Yes, it gives ammunition to the Democrats. Yes, it puts the eventual nominee through a bruising campaign and delivers him tarnished and drained into the ring against Bill Clinton. But the real danger is philosophical, not tactical. It is axioms, not just policies, that are under fire. The Republican idea of smaller government is being ground to dust--by Republicans. In the middle of an election year, when they should be honing their themes against Democratic liberalism, Buchanan's rise is forcing a pointless rearguard battle against a philosophical corpse, the obsolete paleoconservatism--a mix of nativism, protectionism and isolationism--of the 1930s. As the candidates' debate in Arizona last week showed, the entire primary campaign will be fought on Buchanan's grounds, fending off his Smoot-Hawley-Franco populism. And then what? After the convention, what does the nominee do? Try to resurrect the anti-welfare state themes of the historically successful '94 congressional campaign? Political parties can survive bruising primary battles. They cannot survive ideological meltdown. Dole and Buchanan say they are fighting for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Heart and soul, however, will get you nowhere when you've lost your way--and your mind.

单选题Over the last decade, demand for the most common cosmetic surgery procedures, like greatest enlargements and most jobs, has increased by more than 400 percent. According to Dr. Dai Davies, of the Plastic Surgery Partnership in Hammersmith, the majority of cosmetic surgery patients are not chasing physical perfection. Rather, they are driven to fantastic lengths to improve their appearance by a desire to look normal. "What we all crave is to look normal, and normal is what is prescribed by the advertising media and other external pressures. They give us a perception of what is physically acceptable and we feel we must look like that. " In America, the debate is no longer about whether surgery is normal; rather, it centers on what age people should be before going under the knife. New York surgeon Dr. Gerard Amber recommends "maintenance" work for people in their thirties. "The idea of waiting until one needs heroic transformation is silly, " he says, "By then, you've wasted 20 great years of your life and allowed things to get out of hand. " Dr. Imber draws the line at operation on people who are under 18, however. "It seems that someone we don't consider old enough to order a drink shouldn't be considering plastic surgery. " In the UK cosmetic surgery has long been seen as the exclusive domain of the very rich and famous. But the proportionate cost of treatment has fallen substantially, bringing all but the most advanced laser technology within the reach of most people. Dr. Davies, who claims to "eater for the average person", agrees. He says, "I treat a few of the rich and famous and an awful lot of secretaries. Of course, ￡ 3,000 for an operation is a lot of money. But it is also an investment for life which costs about half the price of a good family holiday. " Dr. Davies suspects that the increasing sophistication of the fat injecting and removal techniques that allow patients to be treated with a local anesthetic in an afternoon has also helped promote the popularity of cosmetic surgery. Yet, as one woman who, recently paid ￡ 2,500 for liposuction to remove fat from her thighs admitted, the slope to becoming a cosmetic surgery veteran is a deceptively gentle one. "I had my legs done because they'd been bugging me for years. But going into the clinic was so low key and effective it whetted my appetite. Now I don't think there's any operation that I would rule out having if I could afford it. /

单选题AMERICA'S central bank sent a clear message this week. For the second consecutive meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's policy-making committee, left short term interest rates unchanged at 1.75%. But it said that the risks facing the economy had shifted from economic weakness to a balance between weakness and excessive growth. This shift surprised no one. But it has convinced many people that interest rates are set to rise again--and soon. Judging by prices in futures markets, investors are betting that short-term interest rates could start rising as early as May, and will be 1.25 percentage points higher by the end of the year. That may be excessive. Economists at Goldman Sachs, who long argued that the central bank would do nothing this year, now expect short-term rates to go up only 0.75% this year, starting in June. But virtually everyone reckons some Fed tightening is in the offing. The reason? After an unprecedented 11 rate-cuts in 2001, short term interest rates are abnormally low. As the signs of robust recovery multiply, analysts expect the Fed to take back some of the rate-cuts it used as an "insurance policy" after the September 11th terrorist attack. They think there will be a gradual move from the Fed's current "accommodative" monetary stance to a more neutral policy. And a neutral policy, many argue, ultimately implies short term interest rates of around 4 %. Logical enough. But higher rates could still be further off, particularly if the recovery proves less robust than many hope. Certainly, recent economic indicators have been extraordinarily strong: unemployment fell for the second consecutive month in February and industrial production rose in both January and February. The manufacturing sector is growing after 18 months of decline. The most optimistic Wall Streeters now expect GDP to have expanded by between 5% and 6% on an annual basis in the first quarter. But one strong quarter does not imply a sustainable recovery. In the short term, the bounce-back is being driven by a dramatic restocking of inventories. But it can be sustained only if corporate investment recovers and consumer spending stays buoyant. With plenty of slack capacity around and many firms stuck with huge debts and lousy profits, it is hard to see where surging investment will come from. And, despite falling unemployment, America's consumers could disappoint the bulls. These uncertainties alone suggest the central bank will be cautious about raising interest rates. Indeed, given the huge pressure on corporate profits, the Federal Reserve might be happy to see consumer prices rise slightly. In short, while Wall Street frets about when and how much interest rates will go up. The answer may well be not soon and not much.

单选题If succeed, Philip Polgreen and his colleagues might

单选题What is the tone of this passage?

单选题Most of us would like to be both (1) and creative. Why was Thomas Edison able to invent so many things? Was he simply more intelligent than most people? Did he spend long hours toiling away in private? Surprisingly, when Edison was a young boy, his teacher told him he was too (2) to learn anything. Other famous people whose creative genius went (3) when they were young include Walt Disney, who was fired from a newspaper job because he did not have any good ideas and Enrico Caruso, whose music teacher told him that his (4) was terrible. Disney, Edison and Caruso were intelligent and creative men; (5) , experts on creativity believe that intelligence is not the same as creativity. Creativity is the ability to think about something in new and unusual ways, and to (6) out unique solutions to problems. When creative people are asked what enables them to solve problems in new ways, they say that the ability to find affinities between (7) unrelated elements plays a key role. They also say that they have the time and independence in a(an) (8) setting to (9) a wide range of possible solutions to a problem. How strongly is creativity (10) to intelligence? (11) most creative people are quite intelligent, the (12) is not necessarily true. Many highly intelligent people ( (13) measured by IQ tests) are not very creative. Some experts remain skeptical that we will ever fully understand the creative process. Others believe that a psychology of creativity is within reach. Most experts agree, (14) , that the concept of creativity as (15) bubbling up from a magical (16) is a myth. Momentary (17) of insight, (18) by images, make up a (19) part of the creative process. At the heart of the creative process are ability and experience that (20) an individual's effort, often over the course of a lifetime.