单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} It is widely believed that our never-ending quest for material goods is part of the basic character of human beings. According to the popular belief, we may not like it, but there's little we can do about it. Despite its popularity, this view of human nature is wrong. While human beings may have a basic desire to strive towards something, there is nothing inevitable about material goods. There are numerous examples of societies in which things have played a highly restricted rule. In medieval Europe, the acquisition of goods was relatively unimportant. The common people, whose lives were surely poor by modern standards, showed strong preferences for leisure rather than money. In the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century United States, there is also considerable evidence that many working people also exhibited a restricted appetite for material goods. Materialism is not a basic trait of human nature, but a specific product of capitalism. With the development of the market system, materialism "spilled over", for the first time, beyond the circles of the rich. The growth of the middle class created a large group of potential buyers and the possibility that mass culture could be oriented around material goods. This process can be seen not only in historical experiences but is now going on in some parts of the developing world, where the growth of a large middle class has contributed to extensive materialism and the breakdown of traditional values. In the United States, the turning point was the 1920s—the point at which the "psychology of shortage" gave way to the "psychology of abundance". This was a crucial period for the development of modern materialism. Economy and discipline were out; waste and excess were in. Materialism flourished—both as a social ideology and in terms of high rates of real spending. In the midst of all this buying, we can detect the origins of modern consumer discontent. This was the decade during which the American dream, or what was then called "the American standard of living", captured the nation's imagination. But it was always something of an illusion. Americans complained about items they could not afford—despite the fact that in the 1920s most families had telephones, virtually all had purchased life insurance, two-thirds owned their own homes and took vacations, and over half had motor cars. The discontent expressed by many Americans was promoted—and to a certain extent even created—by manufacturers. The explosion of consumer credit made the task easier, as automobiles, radios, electric refrigerators, washing machines—even jewelry and foreign travel—could be paid for in installments. By the end of the 1920s, 60 percent of cars, radios, and furniture were being purchased this way. The ability to buy without actually having money helped encourage a climate of instant satisfaction, expanding expectations, and ultimately, materialism.

单选题The term "echelons" (Line 7, Paragraph 2) most probably means

单选题 The horse and carriage is a thing of the past, but love and the marriage are still with us and still closely interrelated. Most American marriages, particularly first marriages {{U}}(1) {{/U}} young couples, are the result of {{U}}(2) {{/U}} attraction and affection {{U}}(3) {{/U}} than practical considerations. In the United States, parents do not arrange marriages for their children. Teenagers begin {{U}}(4) {{/U}} in high school and usually find mates through their own academic and social {{U}}(5) {{/U}}. Though young people feel {{U}}(6) {{/U}} to choose their friends from {{U}}(7) {{/U}} groups, most choose a mate of similar background. This is {{U}}(8) {{/U}} in part to parental guidance. Parents cannot select spouses for their children, but they can usually {{U}}(9) {{/U}} choices by {{U}}(10) {{/U}} disapproval of someone they consider unsuitable. {{U}} (11) {{/U}}, marriages between members of different groups(interclass, interfaith, and interracial marriages) are increasing, probably because of the greater {{U}}(12) {{/U}} of today's youth and the fact that they are restricted by {{U}}(13) {{/U}} prejudices than their parents. Many young people leave their hometowns to attend college, {{U}}(14) {{/U}} in the armed forces {{U}}(15) {{/U}} pursue a career in a bigger city. Once away from home and family, they are more {{U}}(16) {{/U}} to date and marry outside their own social group. In mobile American society, interclass marriages are neither {{U}}(17) {{/U}} nor shocking. Interfaith marriages are {{U}}(18) {{/U}} the rise particularly between Protestants and Catholics. On the other hand, interracial marriage is still very uncommon. It can be difficult for interracial couples to find a place to live, maintain friendships, and {{U}}(19) {{/U}} a family. Marriages between people of different national {{U}}(20) {{/U}} (but the same race and religion) have been commonplace since colonial times.

单选题There will eventually come a day when The New York Times ceases to publish stories on newsprint. Exactly when that day will be is a matter of debate. "Sometime in the future," the paper"s publisher said back in 2010. Nostalgia for ink on paper and the rustle of pages aside, there"s plenty of incentive to ditch print. The infrastructure required to make a physical newspaper—printing presses, delivery trucks—isn"t just expen sive; it"s excessive at a time when online-only competitors don"t have the same set of financial constraints. Readers are migrating away from print anyway. And though print ad sales still dwarf their online and mobile counterparts, revenue from print is still declining. Overhead may be high and circulation lower, but rushing to eliminate its print edition would be a mis take, says BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti. Peretti says the Times shouldn"t waste time getting out of the print business, but only if they go about doing it the right way. "Figuring out a way to accelerate that transition would make sense for them," he said, "but if you discontinue it, you"re going to have your most loyal customers really upset with you." Sometimes that"s worth making a change anyway. Peretti gives the example of Netflix discontinuing its DVD-mailing service to focus on streaming. "It was seen as a blunder," he said. The move turned out to be foresighted. And if Peretti were in charge at the Times? "I wouldn"t pick a year to end print," he said. "I would raise prices and make it into more of a legacy product." The most loyal customers would still get the product they favor, the idea goes, and they"d feel like they were helping sustain the quality of something they believe in. "So if you"re overpaying for print, you could feel like you were helping," Peretti said. "Then increase it at a higher rate each year and essentially try to generate additional revenue." In other words, if you"re going to print product, make it for the people who are already obsessed with it. Which may be what the Times is doing already. Getting the print edition seven days a week costs nearly $500 a year—more than twice as much as a digital-only subscription. "It"s a really hard thing to do and it"s a tremendous luxury that BuzzFeed doesn"t have a legacy business," Peretti remarked. "But we"re going to have questions like that where we have things we"re doing that don"t make sense when the market changes and the world changes. In those situations, it"s better to be more aggressive than less aggressive."

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}} "It is an evil influence on the youth of our country." A politician condemning video gaming? Actually, a clergyman denouncing rock and roll 50 years ago. But the sentiment could just as easily have been voiced by Hillary Clinton in the past few weeks, as she blamed video games for "a silent epidemic of media desensitisation" and "stealing the innocence of our children". The gaming furore centers on "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", a popular and notoriously violent cops and robbers game that turned out to contain hidden sex scenes that could be unlocked using a patch downloaded from the Internet. The resulting outcry (mostly from Democratic politicians playing to the centre) caused the game' s rating in America to be changed from "mature", which means you have to be 17 to buy it, to "adults only", which means you have to be 18, but also means that big retailers such as Wal-Mart will not stock it. As a result the game has been banned in Australia; and, this autumn, America's Federal Trade Commission will investigate the complaints. That will give gaming's opponents an opportunity to vent their wrath on the industry. Skepticism of new media is a tradition with deep roots, going back at least as far as Socrates objections to written texts, outlined in Plato's Phaedrus. Socrates worried that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves." ( He also objected that a written version of a speech was no substitute for the ability to interrogate the speaker, since, when questioned, the text "always gives one unvarying answer". His objection, in short, wasthat books were not interactive. Perhaps Socrates would have thought more highly of video games. ) Novels were once considered too low-brow for university literature courses, but eventually the disapproving professors retired. Waltz music and dancing were condemned in the 19th century; all that twirling was thought to be "intoxicating" and "depraved", and the music was outlawed in some places. Today it is hard to imagine what the fuss was about. And rock and roll was thought to encourage violence, promiscuity and satanism but today even grannies buy Coldplay albums.

单选题Germany's chimney sweeps—hallowed as bringers of good luck, with their black top hats and coiled-wire brushes— are under attack. Last week the European Commission's directorate for the internal market revived proceedings against an antiquated German law that protects sweeps against competition. The country's chimney sweeps enjoy a near-perfect monopoly. Germany is divided into around 8000 districts, each ruled by its own master sweep who usually employs two more sweeps. Although this is a private enterprise, the maintenance and inspection service provided is compulsory and prices are set by the local authority: sweeps cannot stray outside their district, nor can householders change their sweep even if they loathe him. This rule cuts both ways. "There are some customers I can't stand either," says one Frankfurt sweep. The rationale is simple: chimney-sweeping and related gas and heating maintenance in Germany are treated as a matter of public safety. Annual or semi-annual visits are prescribed, keeping the sweeps busy all year round. For centuries, chimney-sweeps in Europe were a wandering breed. But in 1937 the chimney-sweep law was revised by Heinrich Himmler, then the acting interior minister. His roles tied chimney sweeps to their districts and decreed that they should be German, to enable him to use sweeps as local spies. The law was updated in 1969, leaving the local monopolies in place but opening up the profession, in theory at least, to non-Germ, ans. But in practice few apply. Four years ago a brave Pole qualified as a master in Kaiserslautern, according to a fellow student, and this year an Italian did so in the Rhineland Palatinate. But he, like most newly qualified German masters, will spend years on a waiting list before he gets his own district. The European Commission would like to see a competitive market in which people can choose their own sweeps, just as they choose builders or plumbers. It first opened infringement proceedings in 2003, and the German government of the time promised to change the law but failed to do so. And despite the huffing and puffing from Brussels, tile government is still reluctant to dismantle its antiquated system on safety grounds. The number of deaths from carbon-monoxide poisoning in Germany is around one-tenth that in France or Belgium, claims the Frankfurt sweep. So Germans are likely to be stock with their neighbourhood Schornsteinfegers—whether they can stand each other or not—for some time to come.

单选题According to paragraphs 6 and 7,which is most fundamental in producing hydroelectric power? ______.

单选题The author' s attitude toward the various kinds of compulsion employed by social institutions is best described as ______.

单选题On the eve of global warming negotiations, scientists from several Western nations are clamoring for a crash program to develop clean energy that would rival the Manhattan Project and the Apollo mission to the moon. Writing in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, scientists from North America and Europe predicted that global warming will soon become the environmental equivalent of the Cold War as the world's increasing reliance on fossil fuels releases more carbon dioxide and other heattrapping pollutants into the atmosphere. The 11 scientists urged negotiators at environmental talks scheduled to begin Nov. 2 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to push for a mobilization of scientific resources to develop alternative forms of energy, such as solar, wind and nuclear power. "Developing and commercializing carbon-flee power technologies by the mid-21st century could require efforts, perhaps international, pursued with the urgency of the Manhattan Project or the Apollo space program," said Martin Hoffert, a physicist at New York University. Only 20% or less of today's energy use comes from carbon-free sources. The Nature paper is unusual because it contains broad policy recommendations. Normally, the journal publishes straightforward scientific studies. Last year, governments meeting in Kyoto, Japan, agreed to emission reductions by the United States, Japan, the 15-nation European Union and 21 other industrial nations. The nations are to cut their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 5% below their 1990 levels by 2012. This year, negotiators for 166 nations are meeting to determine how each country will achieve the reductions. To some, rising annual average temperatures in the 1990s amount to early proof that global warming has arrived and that the current treaty won't protect nations from climatic upheaval during the 21st century. Some scientists said global warming is inevitable and no amount of effort—not even a crash program—will prevent it. "We will experience a substantial amount of further climate change even if we make huge cuts in emissions," said Martin Parry of University College in London. Others said there are many ways of reducing global warming without mobilizing scientists worldwide. Energy conservation and efficiency, such as greater use of cleaner-burning natural gas and nuclear power, might be a cheaper solution, they say. Smokestack and tailpipe controls, as well as planting trees, can reduce pollution, too. Countries can also provide utilities with financial incentives to invest in experimental technologies. Even optimists at the meeting agreed that demand for crude oil will outstrip production by 2020 and that worldwide reserves will be exhausted by 2100. Oil shortages and higher prices will make the world a more dangerous place, they warned.

单选题The attitude of most employers toward DDA amendments is

单选题Throughout the 19th century and into the 20th, citizens of the United States maintained a bias against big cities. Most lived on farms and in small towns and believed cities to be centres of (1) , crime, poverty and moral (2) Their distrust was caused, (3) , by a national ideology that (4) farming the greatest occupation and rural living (5) to urban living. This attitude (6) even as the number of urban dwellers increased and cities became an essential (7) of the national landscape. Gradually, economic reality overcame ideology. Thousands (8) the precarious (不稳定的) life on the farm for more secure and better paying jobs in the city. But when these people (9) from the countryside, they carried their fears and suspicions with them. These new urbanities, already convinced that cities were (10) with great problems, eagerly (11) the progressive reforms that promised to bring order out of the (12) of the city. One of many reforms came (13) the area of public utilities. Water and sewerage systems were usually operated by (14) governments, but the gas and electric networks were privately owned. Reformers feared that the privately owned utility companies would (15) exorbitant (过渡的) rates for these essential services and (16) them only to people who could afford them. Some city and state governments responded by (17) the utility companies, but a number of cities began to supply these services themselves. (18) of these reforms argued that public ownership and regulation would (19) widespread access to these utilities and guarantee a (20) price.

单选题The Catholic Church is changing in America at its most visible point: the parish church where believers pray, sing and clasp hands across pews to share the peace of God. Today there are fewer parishes and fewer priests than in 1990 and fewer of the nation's 65 million Catholics in those pews. And there's no sign of return. Some blame the explosive 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal and its financial price tag. But a study of 176 Roman Catholic dioceses shows no statistically significant link between the decline in priests and parishes and the $ 772 million the church has spent to date on dealing with the scandal. Rather, the changes are driven by a constellation of factors: ·Catholics are moving from cities in the Northeast and Midwest to the suburbs, South and Southwest. ·For decades, so few men have become priests that one in five dioceses now can't put a priest in every parish. ·Mass attendance has fallen as each generation has become less religiously observant. ·Bishops--trained to bless, not to budget--lack the managerial skills to govern multimillion-dollar institutions. All these trends had begun years before the scandal piled on financial pressures to cover settlements, legal costs, care and counseling for victims and abusers. The Archdiocese of Boston, epicenter of the crisis, sold chancery property to cover $ 85 million in settlements last year, and this year will close 67 churches and recast 16 others as new parishes or worship sites without a full-time priest. Archbishop Sean O'Malley has said the crisis and the reconfiguration plan are "in no way" related. He cites demographic shifts, the priest shortage and aging, crumbling buildings too costly to keep up. Fargo, N. D. , which spent $ 821,000 on the abuse crisis, will close 23 parishes, but it's because the diocese is short of more than 50 priests for its 158 parishes, some with fewer than a dozen families attending Mass. They know how this ~eels in Milwaukee. That archdiocese shuttered about one in five parishes from 1995 to 2003. The city consolidations "gave some people who had been driving back into the city from new homes in the suburbs a chance to say they had no loyalty to a new parish and begin going to one near their home,' says Noreen Welte, director of parish planning for the Milwaukee Archdiocese. "It gave some people who already were mad at the church for one reason or another an excuse to stop going altogether. /

单选题Americans are now flying the crowded, cranky skies. Flight delays in January were the worst for that month since 1999. Weather is always the primary cause of delays. Add to that the US Airways Christmas baggage meltdown and Comair's computer failure, the combination of which left hundreds of thousands of fliers stranded at airports. But airline employees see a deeper reason for both the increase in delays and passenger complaints: a demoralized and frustrated workforce that's being asked to do more even as it's getting paid lass. The airlines and unions are quick to praise their workers for rising to the challenge during these very difficult times, as well as for carrying the brunt of the cost cutting. But unease is growing within the ranks. And passengers have noticed. For instance, some of the so-called older carriers now require gate agents to clean the planes as well as check people in. So some passengers have found themselves without a customer-service agent to talk to until just before the plane leaves. Pilots find themselves stuck at the gate because their Crew of flight attendants has already worked as long as the FAA would allow them to. "They've cut employees to such a degree that they don't have enough employees to do the job and serve the customers properly," says one pilot. The major airlines contend that's not the case at all. Jeff Green, a spokesman for United Airlines, says the major carriers have shrunk significantly since 9/11. While there are far fewer employees, the airline also has far fewer flights. He also notes that United has had its best on-time performance in the past two years and that internal gauges of customer satisfaction are up. "What our employees are going through is not having an effect on our customer service," says Mr. Green. Employees on the front line tell a different story. "They're just closing the doors and releasing the brake so they can report an on- time departure, when in reality they may still be loading cargo for 30 minutes." Aviation experts contend that if that's the case, the major airlines may find even more challenges ahead. As their fare structures and prices come closer to those of the successful low-cost carriers, customer service will become even more crucial in determining which airlines succeed. "The way you're treated on the plane speaks a lot as to whether you'll fly that airline again," says Helane Becker, an airline analyst. "It's not the be-all and end-all. It's not going to put an airline out of business. But it's not going to help it a lot either if they're already in trouble./

单选题What field of television is intended for specific groups?