单选题According to Robert Arceci, child cancer research is also worth funding because

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} In 1880, Sir Joshua Waddilove, a Victorian philanthropist, founded Provident Financial to provide affordable loans to working-class families in and around Bradford, in northern England. This month his company, now one of Britain's leading providers of "home credit" -small, short-term, unsecured loans—began the nationwide rollout of Vanquis, a credit card aimed at people that mainstream lenders shun. The card offers up to they impose extra charges, such as application fees; and they cap their potential losses by lending only small amounts ( $ 500 is a typical credit limit). All this is easier to describe than to do, especially when the economy slows. After the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, several sub-prime credit-card providers failed. Now there are only around 100, of which nine issue credit cards. Survivors such as Metris and Providian, two of the bigger sub-prime card companies, have become choosier about their customers' credit histories. As the economy recovered, so did lenders' fortunes. Fitch, a rating agency, says that the proportion of sub-prime credit-card borrowers who are more than 60 days in arrears (a good predictor of eventual default)is the lowest since November 2001. But with American interest rates rising again, some worry about another squeeze. As Fitch's Michael Dean points out, sub-prime borrowers tend to have not just higher-rate credit cards, but dearer auto loans and variable-rate mortgages as well That makes a risky business even riskier.

单选题 Low levels of literacy and numeracy have a damaging impact on almost every aspect of adults, according to a survey published yesterday, which offers{{U}} (1) {{/U}}of a developing underclass. Tests and{{U}} (2) {{/U}}with hundreds of people born in a week in 1958 graphically illustrated the{{U}} (3) {{/U}}of educational underachievement. The effects can be seen in unemployment, family{{U}} (4) {{/U}}, low incomes, depression and social inactivity. Those who left school at 16 with poor basic skills had been employed for up to four years less than good readers{{U}} (5) {{/U}}they reached 37. Professor John Bynner, of City University, who carried the research, said that today’s{{U}} (6) {{/U}}teenagers would even encounter greater problems because the supply of{{U}} (7) {{/U}}jobs had shrunk. Almost one fifth of the 1,700 people interviewed for yesterday’s report had poor literacy and almost half{{U}} (8) {{/U}}with innumeracy, a proportion{{U}} (9) {{/U}}other surveys for the Basic Skills Agency. Some could not read a child’s book, and most found difficult{{U}} (10) {{/U}}written instruction. Poor readers were twice as likely to be a low wage and four times likely to live in a household where partners worked. Women in this{{U}} (11) {{/U}}were five times as likely to be{{U}} (12) {{/U}}depressed,{{U}} (13) {{/U}}both tended to feel they had no control over their lives, and to trust others{{U}} (14) {{/U}}. Those who had low literacy and numeracy were seldom{{U}} (15) {{/U}}in any community organization and less likely than others to{{U}} (16) {{/U}}in a general election. There had been no{{U}} (17) {{/U}}in the literary level of{{U}} (18) {{/U}}reporting problems. Alan Wells, the agency’s director, said: “ The results emphasize the dangers of developing an underclass people, who were out of work,{{U}} (19) {{/U}}depressed and often labeled themselves as{{U}} (20) {{/U}}. There is a circle of marginalization, with the dice against these people and their families.”

单选题 "The impulse to excess among young Britons remains as powerful as ever, but the force that used to keep the impulse in check has all but disappeared," claimed a newspaper. Legislation that made it easier to get hold of a drink was "an Act for the increase of drunkenness and immorality", asserted a politician. The first statement comes from 2005, {{U}}the second{{/U}} from 1830. On both occasions, the object of scorn was a parliamentary bill that promised to sweep away " antiquated" licensing laws. As liberal regulations came into force this week, Britons on both sides of the debate unwittingly followed a 19th-century script. Reformers then, as now, took a benign view of human nature. Make booze cheaper and more readily available, said the liberalisers, and drinkers would develop sensible, continental European-style ways. Nonsense, retorted the critics. Habits are hard to change; if Britons can drink easily, they will drink more. Worryingly for modern advocates of liberalisation, earlier doomsayers turned out to be right. Between 1820 and 1840, consumption of malt (which is used to make beer) increased by more than 50%. Worse, Britons developed a keener taste for what Thomas Carlyle called "liquid madness"—gin and other spirits. The backlash was fierce. Critics pointed to widespread debauchery in the more disreputable sections of the working class. They were particularly worried about the people who, in a later age, came to be known as "ladettes". An acute fear, says Virginia Berridge, who studies temperance at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was that women would pass on their sinful ways to their children. In the 19th century, temperance organisations set up their own newspapers to educate the public about the consequences of excess. That, at least, has changed: these days, the mainstream media rail against the demon drink all by themselves.

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} It is no longer just dirty blue-collar jobs in manufacturing that are being sucked offshore but also white-collar service jobs, which used to be considered safe from foreign competition. Telecoms charges have tumbled, allowing workers in far-flung locations to be connected cheaply to customers in the developed world. This has made it possible to offshore services that were once non-tradable. Morgan Stanley's Mr. Roach has been drawing attention to the fact that the "global labour arbitrage" is moving rapidly to the better kinds of jobs. It is no longer just basic data processing and call centres that are being outsourced to low-wage countries, but also software programming, medical diagnostics, engineering design, law, accounting, finance and business consulting. These can now be delivered electronically from anywhere in the world, exposing skilled white-collar workers to greater competition. The standard retort to such arguments is that outsourcing abroad is too small to matter much. So far fewer than lm American service-sector jobs have been lost to off-shoring. Forrester Research forecasts that by 2015 a total of 3.4m jobs in services will have moved abroad, but that is tiny compared with the 30m jobs destroyed and created in America every year. The trouble is that such studies allow only for the sorts of jobs that are already being off-shored, when in reality the proportion of jobs that can be moved will rise as IT advances and education improves in emerging economies. Alan Blinder, an economist at Princeton University, believes that most economists are underestimating the disruptive effects of off-shoring, and that in future two to three times as many service jobs will be susceptible to off-shoring as in manufacturing. This would imply that at least 30% of all jobs might be at risk. In practice the number of jobs off-shored to China or India is likely to remain fairly modest. Even so, the mere threat that they could be shifted will depress wages. Moreover, says Mr. Blinder, education offers no protection. Highly skilled accountants, radiologists or computer programmers now have to compete with electronically delivered competition from abroad, whereas humble taxi drivers, janitors and crane operators remain safe from off-shoring. This may help to explain why the real median wage of American graduates has fallen by 6% since 9000, a bigger decline than in average wages. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the pay gap between low-paid, low-skilled workers and high-paid, high-skilled Workers widened significantly. But since then, according to a study by David Autor, Lawrence Katz and Melissa Kearney, in America, Britain and Germany workers at the bottom as well as at the top have done better than those in the middle-income group. Office cleaning cannot be done by workers in India. It is the easily standardised skilled jobs in the middle, such as accounting, that are now being squeezed hardest. A study by Bradford Jensen and Lori Kletzer, at the Institute for International Economics in Washington D. C., confirms that workers in tradable services that are exposed to foreign competition tend to be more skilled than workers in non-tradable services and tradable manufacturing industries.

单选题For the first time, George Bush has acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world, where key terrorist suspects—100 in all, officials say--have been interrogated with "an alternative set of procedures". Fourteen of the suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks, were transferred on Monday to the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where some will face trial for war crimes before special military commissions. Many of these men--as Mr. Bush confirmed in a televised speech at the White House on September 6th--are al-Qaeda operatives or Taliban fighters who had sought to withhold information that could "save American lives". "In these cases, it has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held secretly (and) questioned by experts," the president said. He declined to say where they had been held or why they had not simply been sent straight to Guantanamo, as some 770 other suspected terrorists have been. Mr. Bush also refused to reveal what interrogation methods had been used, saying only that, though "tough", they had been "safe and lawful and necessary". Many believe that the main purpose of the CIA's prisons was to hide from prying eyes the torture and other cruel or degrading treatment used to extract information from prisoners. But Mr. Bush insisted that America did not torture: "It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorised it and I will not authorise it." The pentagon this week issued its long-awaited new Army Field Manual, forbidding all forms of torture and degrading treatment of prisoners by army personnel--though not the CIA. For the first time, it specifically bans forced nakedness, hooding, the Use of dogs, sexual humiliation and "waterboarding" (simulated drowning)--all practices that have been used at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. So why did the president decide now to reveal the CIA's secret programme? Partly, he confessed; because of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that minimum protections under the Geneva Conventions applied to all military prisoners, no matter where they were. This has put American agents at risk of prosecution for war crimes. Mr. Bush has now asked Congress to ban suspected terrorists from suing American personnel in federal courts.

单选题Which statement is NOT true according to par

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} "The essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism", remarked Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, "must be the same as those which constitute a good neighbour, namely mutual understanding and... a sympathetic appreciation of the other's point of view." That is advice which the United States would do well to heed in its relations with its immediate neighbours, Canada and Mexico. Most Americans may not be aware of it, but frustrations and resentments are building just across their borders to both south and north. Of course, neighbourly ties in North America are closer than in Roosevelt's day. Under the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade among the three countries has more than doubled since 1994 and cross-border investment climbed even faster. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the United States moved quickly to sign "smart border" agreements with both Canada and Mexico, to try to ensure that the demands of security did not interrupt trade. By the standards of much of the 20th century, political ties between the United States and Mexico are warm. Yet go to either border and you wouldn't know all this. Fed up with the flow of illegal migrants from thc south, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico this month declared a state of emergency. Violence between drug gangs recently led the United States temporarily to close its consulate in Nuevo Laredo, the busiest border-crossing point. The American ambassador bluntly criticises Mexico for its failure to prevent drug-related violence along the border. That has prompted retaliatory verbal blasts from Mexican officials. Canada's mood is not much more cordial. Since September 11th, Canadians and Americans alike have become less keen on popping over what they liked to call "the world's longest undefended border" for shopping or recreation. Canadians increasingly disagree with Americans over matters as varied as the Iraq war and gay marriage. They are disillusioned with NAFTA, claiming it has failed to prevent the United States from unlawfully punishing their exports of, for example, lumber. So what? Friction is in the nature of international relations, and the problems on the northern border are different from those in the south. Yet there is a common denominator. Americans tend to see security, migration, drugs, even trade, as domestic political issues. But so they are for Canada and Mexico too. Like it or not, Americans rely on their neighbours for prosperity, energy and help with security. It behoves all three countries to show some "sympathetic understanding".

单选题 Many foreigners who have not visited Britain call all the inhabitants English, for they are used to thinking of the British Isles as England. {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}, the British Isles contain a variety of people, and only the people of England call themselves,English. The others {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}to themselves as Welsh, Scottish, or Irish,{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}the case may be; they are often slightly annoyed at being {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}as "English". Even in England there are many differences in {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}character and speech. The chief {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}is between southern England and northern England. South of a line going from Bristol to London, people speak the type of English usually {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}by toreign students, {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}there are local variations. Further north, regional {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}is usually "broader" than that of southern Britain. Northerners are {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}to claim that they work harder than Southerners, and are more {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}. They are openhearted and hospitable; foreigners often find that they make friends with them {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Northerners generally have hearty {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}: the visitor to Lancashire or Yorkshire, for instance, may look forward to receiving generous {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}at meal times. In accent and character the people of the Midlands {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}a gradual change from the southern to the northern type of Englishman. In Scotland the sound {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}by the letter " R" is generally a strong sound, and " R" is often pronounced in words in which it would be {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}in southern English, The Scots are said to be a serious, cautious, thrifty people, {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}inventive and somewhat mystical. All the Celtic peoples of Britain (the Welsh, the Irish, the Scots) are frequently {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}as being more " fiery" than the English. They are of a race that is quite {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}from the English.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits. The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits. Waving signs that read "Shame on Viacom," the workers, most of them in their 20s, demanded that MTV Networks reverse a plan to reduce health and dental benefits for freelancers beginning On Jan. 1st. In a statement, MTV Networks noted that its benefits program for full-time employees had also undergone changes, and it emphasized that the plan for freelancers was still highly competitive within the industry. Many freelancers receive no corporate benefits. But some of the protesters asserted that corporations were competing to see which could provide the most mediocre health care coverage. Matthew Yonda, who works at Nickelodeon, held a sign that labeled the network "Sick-elodeon. " "I've worked here every day for three years-I'm not a freelancer," Mr. Yonda said. "They just call us freelancers in order to bar us from getting the same benefits as employees. " The changes to the benefits package were announced last Tuesday. Freelancers were told that they would become eligible for benefits after 160 days of work, beginning in January. While that eased previous eligibility rules, which required freelancers to work for 52 weeks before becoming eligible, it would have required all freelancers not yet eligible for benefits to start the waiting period over again on Jan. 1st. The 401 (k) plan was also removed. On Thursday, acknowledging the complaints, MTV Networks reinstated the 401 (k) plan and said freelancers who had worked consistently since March would be eligible. Fueled by a series of blog posts on the media Web site Gawker-the first post was headlined "The Viacom Permalance Slave System"-a loose cohort of freelancers created protest stickers and distributed walkout fliers last week. Caroline O'Hare, a unit manager who has worked for MTV for more than two years, said the new health care plan-with higher deductibles and a $ 2,000 cap on hospital expenses each year-had provoked outrage. "They think they can treat us like children that don't have families, mortgages or dreams of retirement," she said. Outside Viacom's headquarters, several workers held posters with the words, "There's too many of us to ignore. " It was unclear how many freelancers are on the company's payroll; an MTV Networks' spokeswoman said the figure was not known because it rises and falls throughout the year. The company has 5,500 full-time employees, excluding freelancers, around the world. Two freelancers and one full-time employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, estimated that the percentage of freelancers in some departments exceeded 75 percent. Another labor action is expected to take place outside Viacom later this week. Members of the Writers Guild of America, who have been on strike for five weeks, are expected to picket there on Thursday.

单选题We can learn from the first paragraph that INS.

单选题The author brings up the topic of the international space station in order to______.

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 had 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. Technically, 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}}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}} The history of the computer in the twentieth century is one of dramatic adaptation and expansion. The computer had modest beginnings in areas where it was used as a specialist tool. The first electronic computer was built in the 1930s and was solely for the use of undergraduate students in Iowa State University to handle mathematical computations in nuclear physics. In the 1960s an early version of the Internet, ARPPANET was used in computer science and engineering projects. However, only 10 years later computers were starting to change our life style, the way we do business and many other things and by the late 1980s' networks were expanding to embrace sections of the general public. Computerization has changed US high school education in many ways. Three different changes that consider being important. The first is the use of the computer as teaching aid for teachers. The next is the massive data storage and fast data retrieval facilitated by computer. Then comes the changes brought about by the introduction of simulation software. How prevalent is the use of computers in schools! As recently as the early 1980s only 20% of secondary science teachers in the USA were using microcomputers. However, since then high schools in the US have computerized rapidly. By 1987, schools had acquired about 1.5 million computers with 95% of public schools having at least one computer. Computers can be used as teaching aids both in schools and in homes. In schools, for example, teachers can plug a computer into an especially equipped overhead projector to bring texts, graphics, sound and videos into a classroom. By these multimedia computer animations, teachers can more readily attract and retain students' attention. Ann concludes that computer aided teaching can attract and motivate students who were dropping out when more traditional methods were being used. Let us now turn to the Internet. This is a global network connecting many local networks. Over the Internet, high school students can retrieve information and databases from every networked library around the world in seconds. The World Wide Web provides an easy way to access hard-to-find information. Students can now reach any library through the global network and find what they want. The final step is to download the scanned image. Though the slow transmission of signal through the network is a major limiting factor, it can still save us much time in finding useful information, and thus it is an invaluable tool to both high school teachers and students.

单选题As large as learning to use a word processor is concerned the writer of the passage feels that Hammond ______.

单选题"That extra cost"(Line 7, Para. 5) probably refers to

单选题According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar in which of the following ways?