单选题It is often observed that the aged spend much time thinking and talking about their past lives, (1) about the future. These reminiscences are not simply random or trivial memories, (2) is their purpose merely to make conversation. The old person’s recollections of the past help to (3) an identity that is becoming increasingly fragile: (4) any role that brings respect or any goal that might provide (5) to the future, the individual mentions his past as a reminder to listeners, that here was a life (6) living. (7) , the memories form part of a continuing life (8) , in which the person (9) the events and experiences of the-years gone by and (10) on the overall meaning of his or her own almost completed life. As the life cycle (11) to its close, the aged must also learn to accept the reality of their own impending death. (12) this task is made difficult by the fact that death is almost a (13) subject in the United States. The mere discussion of death is often regarded as (14) .As adults many of us find the topic frightening and are (15) to think about it — and certainly not to talk about it (16) the presence of someone who is dying. Death has achieved this taboo (17) only in the modern industrial societies. There seems to bean important reason for our reluctance to (18) the idea of death. It is the very fact that death remains (19) our control; it is almost the only one of the natural processes (20) is so.

单选题What do you think of American health care system? Most people would be (1) by the high quality of medicine (2) to most Americans. There is a lot of specialization, a great deal of (3) to the individual, a (4) amount of advanced technical equipment, and (5) effort not to make mistakes because of the financial risk which doctors and hospitals must (6) in the courts if they (7) things badly. But the Americans are in a mess. To the problem is the way in (8) health care is organized and (9) . (10) to pubic belief it is not just a free competition system. To the private system has been joined a large public system, because private care was simply not (11) the less fortunate and the elderly. But even with this huge public part of the system, (12) this year will eat up 84.5 billion dollars—more than 10 percent of the U. S. Budget—a large number of Americans are left (13) . These include about half the 11 million unemployed and those who fail to meet the strict limits (14) income fixed by a government trying to make savings where it can. The basic problem, however, is that there is no central control (15) the health system. There is no (16) to what doctors and hospitals charge for their services, other than what the public is able to pay. The number of doctors has shot up and prices have climbed. When faced with toothache, a sick child, or a heart attack, all the unfortunate persons concerned can do is to pay (17) . Two thirds of the population are (18) by medical insurance. Doctors charge as much as they want (19) that the insurance company will pay the bill. The rising cost of medicine in the U. S. A. is among the most worrying problems facing the country. In 1981 the country's health bill climbed 15.9 percent—about twice as fast as prices (20) general.

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. The amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface appears to be growing. The phenomenon, which some dub "global brightening,"{{U}} (1) {{/U}}scientists with a puzzle. If the{{U}} (2) {{/U}}is real and global, how long will it last and what are the consequences for climate change, the planet's water cycle, and other{{U}} (3) {{/U}}that draw energy from sunlight?{{U}} (4) {{/U}}, the answer might seem obvious: More sunlight reaching the ground in a warming world means that temperatures will get warmer{{U}} (5) {{/U}}. Not so fast, some researchers say. Additional warming would be certain{{U}} (6) {{/U}}nothing else in the climate system changes. And the climate system is{{U}} (7) {{/U}}static. Some combinations of changes could reinforce the heating; others could{{U}} (8) {{/U}}it. Unraveling these interactions and forecasting their course require an accurate accounting of the sunlight reaching the surface and the{{U}} (9) {{/U}}the surface sends skyward. Moreover, researchers say, measurements of the sun's strength at Earth's surface are potentially powerful tools for{{U}} (10) {{/U}}human influences on the climate. Earth's radiation "budget"{{U}} (11) {{/U}}an "extremely important parameter that is{{U}} (12) {{/U}}known,' says Robert Charlson, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington at Seattle. "It needs to be{{U}} (13) {{/U}}much better than it is." {{U}} (14) {{/U}}about the amount of sunlight reaching Earth's surface were first raised in 1974. Researchers from the United States and Israel recorded a 12% drop{{U}} (15) {{/U}}sunlight over 40 years at a{{U}} (16) {{/U}}station in the southern Sinai Peninsula. Since then, others have used a variety of techniques to try to track{{U}} (17) {{/U}}sunlight. Three years ago, for example, a{{U}} (18) {{/U}}led by Beate Liepert at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory gathered data from ground{{U}} (19) {{/U}}around the world and found that solar radiation reaching the surface fell{{U}} (20) {{/U}}4% from 1961 to 1990.

单选题Which of the following statements can best indicate the author's attitude?

单选题The author considers those historians who describe early feminists in the US as "solitary" to be

单选题Where have the profits of globalization gone?

单选题Which statement is right according to the passage?

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} An analysis of workplace trends shows that employee perks, a reliable indicator of job market strength, are beginning to make a comeback. While not as Extravagant as those offered in the late 1990s, companies clearly are shifting their focus from workforce reduction to workforce retention. Firms realize that they require a foundation of experienced, trained, and motivated workers. These employers are improving and/ or adding perks to prevent an exodus of workers that could occur as the economy continues improving. They also may be looking further down the road when severe labor shortages are expected to return. An analysis of perks offered in today's workplace shows that many of the 1990s-style benefits, such as game rooms and luxury car leases, have been abandoned. The perks that remain popular with employers and employees are those that help workers stay healthy, career focused, and financially stable. Perhaps the most appreciated are those that help individuals maintain work-life balance. Work-life balance is just one part of the growing concern companies have about the overall emotional and physical health of their workers. Employees who are stressed out or depressed because they do not feel as if they are giving enough attention to the nonwork aspects of their lives ultimately are unproductive. More and more companies also are learning that workers desire the opportunity to grow professionally in the workplace. HewlettPackard, for instance, has boosted its employee education and development budget by 20%. Nationwide Insurance, based in Columbus, Ohio, established a career-planning website in 2003. The site provides information on company job opportunities, career development, and an in-house mentoring program. Nationwide also is helping to educate its employees in financial matters, acknowledging that workers distracted by such issues on the job are not giving their full attention to the company's priorities. It is adding classes and seminars on personal finance issues and 401(k) investments. Sometimes perks simply are about keeping employee morale elevated. Knowing that an improving economy might prompt valued employees to seek new opportunities, the owner of Ticketcity. com has lavished his best performers with tickets to the Masters golf tournament (锦标赛), access to country clubs, and invitations to a management retreat in Sedona, Ariz. Moreover, even companies that cannot afford to institute costly perks can find ways to make sure current employees are happy. Doug Dorman, vice president of human resources for the Greenville (S.C.) Hospital System explains that there is a definite sense of urgency when it comes to employee retention, knowing that labor shortages are returning. Dorman notes, however, that they have not focused on perks, "but rather on creating a culture of recognition and appreciation. Employees stay when they have good two-way communication with management and are truly appreciated and recognized for their contributions."

单选题People have good reason to care about the welfare of animals. Ever since the Enlightenment, their treatment has been seen as a measure of mankind"s humanity. It is no coincidence that William Wilberforce and Sir Thomas Foxwell Buxton, two leaders of the movement to abolish the slave trade, helped found the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the 1820s. An increasing number of people go further: mankind has a duty not to cause pain to animals that have the capacity to suffer. Both views have led people gradually to extend treatment once reserved for mankind to other species. But when everyday lives are measured against such principles, they are fraught with contradictions. Those who would never dream of caging their cats and dogs guzzle bacon and eggs from ghastly factory farms. The abattoir and the cattle truck are secret places safely hidden from the meat-eater"s gaze and the child"s story book. Plenty of people who denounce the fur-trade (much of which is from farmed animals) quite happily wear leather (also from farmed animals). Perhaps the inconsistency is understandable. After hundreds of years of thinking about it, people cannot agree on a system of rights for each other, so the ground is bound to get shakier still when animals are included. The trouble is that confusion and contradiction open the way to the extremist. And because scientific research is remote from most people"s lives, it is particularly vulnerable to their campaigns. In fact, science should be the last target, wherever you draw the boundaries of animal welfare. For one thing, there is rarely an alternative to using animals in research. If there were, scientists would grasp it, because animal research is expensive and encircled by regulations. Animal research is also for a higher purpose than a full belly or an elegant outfit. The world needs new medicines and surgical procedures just as it needs the unknowable fruits of pure research. And science is, by and large, kind to its animals. The couple of million (mainly rats and mice) that die in Britain"s laboratories are far better looked- after and far more humanely killed than the billion or so (mainly chickens ) on Britain"s farms. Indeed, if Darley Oaks makes up its loss of guinea pigs with turkeys or dairy cows, you can be fairly sure animal welfare in Britain has just taken a step backwards.

单选题After the terrorist attacks in America last September, terrorist risk became the pariah of perils. The airline industry was most directly affected by the attacks, and it was the first to find that no one wanted to insure terrorist risk. Insurance companies immediately increased premiums and cut cover for airlines' third-party terror and war liabilities to ＄ 50m per airline, per "event". Under pressure from airlines, the American government and the members of the European Union agreed to become insurers of last resort for airlines' war and terrorist liabilities, for a limited period. These government guarantees are due to expire at the end of the month. The American government has already agreed to extend its guarantee for another 60 days. The EU's transport ministers are meeting next week in Brussels to decide what to do. Insurers and reinsurers are keen for the commercial market to resume the provision of all airline insurance as soon as possible. No wonder: The premiums for such cover have inevitably increased considerably. However, in the case of terrorism, and especially of terrorism in the skies, a number of special factors arise. Some are purely practical: a disaster as sudden and unforeseen as the attacks on the World Trade Center has had destructive effects on the insurance industry. The maximum cover for third-party terrorist risk available in the primary aviation market is now $ 5Om, and that is not nearly enough cover risks that are perceived to be much higher since September 11th. Even if the market could offer sufficient cover, another catastrophe on such a scale would be more than the market could cope with. In addition, a rare and devastating risk of a political nature is arguably one that it is right for governments to cover, at least in part. In the wake of attacks by Irish terrorists the British government has recognized this point by agreeing to back a mutual fund to cover risks to property from terrorist attack. In the case of the airlines, the appropriate answer is some form of mutual scheme with government backing. In fact, under the code-name "Equitime", representatives of airlines, insurers and the American government are setting up an insurance vehicle to be financed by airlines and reinsured by the government. Governments would guarantee the fund's excess risk, but their role would diminish as the fund grew. Setting something up will take time. So, to bridge the gap, governments will have to remain insurer of last resort for airlines' war and terrorist risk for some time to come.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Charles Darwin wed his cousin Emma and spawned 10 children, including four brilliant scientists. Albert Einstein’s second wife Elsa was his first cousin. Queen Victoria said “I do” to hers. So have millions worldwide. In parts of Saudi Arabia, 39% of all marriages are between first cousins. In the U. S., though, the practice bears a stigma of inbreeding just this side of incest. The taboo is not only social hut legislative; 24 states ban the marriage of first cousins: five others allow it only if the couple is unable to bear children. A major reason for this ban is the belief that kids of first cousins are tragically susceptible to serious congenital illnesses. That view may have to change. A comprehensive study published recently in the Journal of Genetic Counseling indicates such children run an only slightly higher risk of significant genetic disorders like congenital heart defects — about two percentage points above the average 3% to 4%. Says the study’s lead author, Robin Bennett, president-elect of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, which funded the study: “Aside from a thorough medical family history, there is no need to offer any genetic testing on the basis of consanguinity alone”. Publication of the study will do more than tweak public awareness; it will enlighten doctors who have urged cousin couples not to have children. “Just this week,” says Bennett, “I saw a 23-year-old woman who had had a tubal ligation because her parents were cousins and her doctor told her she shouldn’t have children.” The American proscription against cousin marriages grew in the 19th century as wilderness settlers tried to distinguish themselves from the “savage” Indians, says Martin, author of the book Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage. “The truth is that Europeans were marrying their cousins and Native Americans were not.” And doesn’t God have stern words on the subject? Christie Smith, 37, a Nevada writer, says she felt guilty when she fell in love with her first cousin’s son Mark. “I was trying so hard to convince myself not to have these feelings,” she recalls, “that I went to the Bible looking for confirmation that it was wrong. And what I found was the exact opposite: support for cousin marriages.” The patriarch Jacob married two of his first cousins, Rachel and Leah. Smith married Mark in 1999. The medical ban is lifted; the social stain may take longer to disappear.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} A major reason most experts today support concepts such as a youth services bureau is that. traditional correctional practices fail to rehabilitate many delinquent youth. It has been estimated that as many as 70 percent of all youth who have been institutionalized are involved in new offenses following their release. Contemporary correctional institutions are usually isolated—geographically and socially--from the communities in which most of their inmates live. In addition, rehabilitative programs in the typical training school and reformatory focus on the individual delinquent rather than the environmental conditions which foster delinquency. Finally, many institutions do not play an advocacy role on behalf of those committed to their care. They fail to do anything constructive about the hack-home conditions-family, school, work--faced by the youthful inmates. As a result, too often institutionalization serves as a barrier to the successful return of former inmates to their communities. Perhaps the most serious consequence of sending youth to large, centralized institutions, however, is that too frequently they serve as a training ground for criminal careers. The classic example of the adult offender who leaves prison more knowledgeable in the ways of crime than when he entered is no less true of the juvenile committed to a correctional facility. The failures of traditional correctional institutions, then, point to the need for the development of a full range of strategies and treatment techniques as alternatives to incarceration. Most experts today favor the use of small, decentralized correctional programs located in, or close to, communities where the young offender lives. Half-way houses, ail-day probation programs, vocational training and job placement services, remedial education activities, and street working programs are among the community-based alternatives available for working with delinquent and potentially delinquent youth. Over and above all the human factors cited, the case for community-based programs is further strengthened when cost is considered. The most recent' figures show that more $258 million is being spent annually on public institutions for delinquent youth. The average annual operating expenditure for each incarcerated youth is estimated at a little over five thousand dollars, significantly more than the cost of sending a boy or girl to the best private college for the same period of time. The continuing increase in juvenile delinquency rates only serves to heighten the drastic under-financing, the lack of adequately trained staff, and the severe shortage of manpower that characterize virtually every juvenile correction system.

单选题 The biggest danger facing the global airline industry is not the effects of terrorism, war, SARS and economic downturn. It is that these blows, which have helped ground three national flag carriers and force two American airlines into bankruptcy, will divert attention from the inherent weaknesses of aviation, which they have exacerbated. As in the crisis that attended the first Gulf War, many airlines hope that traffic will soon bounce back, and a few catastrophic years will be followed by fuller planes, happier passengers and a return to profitability. Yet the industry's problems are deeper—and older—than the trauma of the past two years implies. As the centenary of the first powered flight approaches in December, the industry it launched is still remarkably primitive. The car industry, created not long after the Wright Brothers made history, is now a global industry dominated by a dozen firms, at least half of which make good profits. Yet commercial aviation consists of 267 international carriers and another 500-plus domestic ones. The world's biggest carrier, American Airlines, has barely 7% of the global market, whereas the world's biggest carmaker, General Motors, has (with its associated firms) about a quarter of the world's automobile market. Aviation has been incompletely deregulated, and in only two markets: America and Europe. Everywhere else, governments dictate who flies under what rules. These aim to preserve state-owned national flag-carriers, run for prestige rather than profit. And numerous restrictions on foreign ownership impede cross-border airline mergers. In America, the big network carriers face barriers to exit, which have kept their route networks too large. Trade unions resisting job cuts and Congressmen opposing route closures in their territory conspire to block change. In Europe, liberalization is limited by bilateral deals that prevent, for instance, British Airways (BA) flying to America from Frankfurt or Paris, or Lufthansa offering transatlantic flights from London's Heathrow. To use the car industry analogy, it is as if only Renaults were allowed to drive on French motorways. In airlines, the optimists are those who think that things are now so bad that the industry has no option but to evolve. Frederick Reid, president of Delta Air Lines, said earlier this year that events since the September llth attacks are the equivalent of a meteor strike, changing the climate, creating a sort of nuclear winter and leading to a "compressed evolutionary cycle". So how, looking on the bright side, might the industry look after five years of accelerated development?

单选题The standardized educational or psychological tests that are widely used to aid in selecting, assigning, or promoting students, employees, and military personnel have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress. The target is wrong, for in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely tools, with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified conditions. Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless, or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user. All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance. How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount, reliability, and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error. Standardized tests should be considered in this context. They provide a quick, objective method of getting some kinds of information about what a person has learned, the skills he has developed, or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has, qualitatively, the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information. Whether to use tests, other kinds of information, or both in a particular situation depends, therefore, upon the empirical evidence concerning comparative validity, and upon such factors as cost and availability. In general, the tests work most effectively when the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined (for example, ability to do well in a particular course of training program) and least effectively when what is to be measured or predicted cannot be well defined (for example, personality or creativity). Properly used, they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people. Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized, but there are many things they do not do. For example, they don't compensate for gross social inequality, and thus don't tell how able an underprivileged younger might have been had he grown up under more favorable circumstances. Notes: divert attention from 没有注意到。keep careful score 仔细记分。define vt.界定。had he grown up...

单选题Millions of people in Cairo and the Cape of Good Hope were subjected to a choking atmosphere because ______.