单选题The word "precedent" ( Line 1, Para 4) probably refers to ______.

单选题"My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas." Many American school children are taught this sentence to help them remember the order of the planets of the solar system. Soon though, this may change because, on July 29th, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of a very distant celestial body larger than Pluto. The researchers claim that the new body—which they are informally calling Xena—should be classified as a planet. The new body—temporarily named 2003UB313—orbits the Sun once every 560 years. It is currently over 14 billion kilometres away, about three times farther out than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever discovered in the solar system. The researchers think it is part of the Kuiper belt, a ring of rocky objects that extends beyond Neptune. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory and David Rabino witz of Yale University discovered the object in data recorded at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego in October 2003, but its motion did not become apparent until they reanalysed the data in January 2005. The question of whether or not the new body should be considered a planet has rekindled the debate over what exactly counts as a planet. A handful of objects of similar size to, but smaller than, Pluto have been discovered in the Kuiper belt over the past few years. These have not been considered planets, mainly because they were smaller than Pluto. But 2003UB313 is larger than Pluto. If Pluto is a planet, shouldn't it be as well? The case is not so clear cut. Many astronomers argue that Pluto should not be considered a planet. It is more like a large asteroid, they hold. Meanwhile, Dr. Brown asserts that as Pluto has historically been considered a planet, anything larger should also be considered one. Ultimately, the International Astronomical Union, a group of professional astronomers, will end this existential anxiety. Dr. Brown expects the process to take months, and the team is not allowed to reveal its suggested name until then. Since most Greek and Roman names have already been used, he and his colleagues have previously drawn upon Native American and Inuit mythology for names. He will only hint that the new name comes from a different tradition altogether. Time will tell whether mother wilt be serving "nine polished xylophones", "nine pizzas" or just "noodles".

单选题Psychotherapy for as long as nine months is significantly more effective than short-term treatment for alleviating depression associated with bipolar disease, new research suggests. The drugs used to treat depression are of limited use in treating the repeating depressive episodes of bipolar illness, according to background information in the article, published last week in The Archives of General Psychiatry. The researchers studied 293 patients with bipolar disease at 15 medical centers nationwide. They randomly assigned one group of 163 people to one of three kinds of psychotherapy consisting of up to 30 50-minute sessions over nine months. A second group of 130 patients was assigned to "collaborative care," three sessions over six weeks designed to offer a brief version of the most common psychological and behavioral strategies shown to be beneficial in bipolar illness. The participants, whose average age was 40, were followed for one year, and all were also being treated with mood-stabilizing medicines. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on challenging and controlling negative thoughts. In interpersonal and social rhythm therapy, patients concentrate on stabilizing daily routines and resolving interpersonal problems. Family therapy engages family members to help solve problems related to the illness, like failing to take medication properly, and to reduce the number of negative family interactions. Therapists at each of the 15 medical centers received brief training in the therapies they administered. "The study included real-world patients experiencing the early phases of a depressive episode," said David J. Miklowitz, the study's lead author. "And the therapists who delivered the treatment were trained by experts in the field with low-intensity training, which is typical of what's available in real-life practice." Recovery rates after one year were a combined average of 64 percent for the intensive therapy groups, but only 52 percent for those who had brief therapy. In any given month, a patient undergoing longer-term therapy was more than one and a half times as likely to be well as one who had short-term treatment. Family therapy was slightly more effective than interpersonal or cognitive behavioral therapy, but the differences among the types of intensive treatment were not statistically significant. "This is a monumental study," said a professor of psychiatry who was not involved in the work. "There are no pharmaceutical companies willing to pay for research in psychotherapy, so we don't have many clinical trials." But, she added: "Psychosocial treatment for bipolar illness is not an alternative to medication. It's a supplement." The cost of long-term therapy is high, and insurance companies are reluctant to cover it. But according to the professor, the cost of not covering it could be higher. "It isn't just the cost of the therapy. It's the long-term cost. Bipolar illness has devastating effects on families as well as on the patients themselves./

单选题Both Jeff and Tom agree that

单选题Which of the following tasks is not stated as having formed part of the research?

单选题Dr. Faurie takes traditional societies as the subject of investigation because in them

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} You could say on the court, these are the best days in the history of NBA. So why isn't the world is singing the praise of the NBA? Why isn't today's NBA outperforming the NFL, NASCAR, and Major League of Baseball (MLB), all of which have been rocked by scandals large and small over the last few years? Simple Because today's NBA scares the white people. The NBA stands at the dead-center intersection of two rampant social dynamics: the ascendancy of hip-hop culture and 21st-centrury marketing's sworn duty to easily definable demographic group. Break yourself into generalized demographic qualities: gender, age, race, economic class. There is full range of music, TV shows, movies, and website explicitly designed to keep you warm and toasty in your comfort zone, free from sharp edges. The NBA as it stands today has plenty of sharp edges and has a serious image problem; more than any other sports. For years, whites make up a majority of fan base, blacks make up a majority of players. And those players have benefited from ever-upward-spiraling paychecks, they've exercised their influence' to shape the sight of the game around them in their own image. But the NBA is still all about improvisation, artistry, jazz, poetry on the way to and above the rim. And while we appreciated the artistry in and of itself, the fact that we can't do it puts many fans at some kind small, but measurable emotional distance from the game. For the white audience, the skill divide one thing. There always been players that could do things the rest of us couldn't. What's freaking white Americans out is the way NBA is embracing every element' of hip-hop culture--the music, the fashion, the attitude, everything... Many events, stories hurt NBA, cementing its lawless-blacks image in observers' minds. Referring to the word "thug", that's operative in short-handing the new NBA culture, as many observers noted. "Thug" was so-opted by black culture sometime during the Tupac Era. When people slag NBA' players as "thug", it's good bet they're not taking about Adam Morris or J. J. Redic. It's absolutely a racial tag. The NBA, more than any other sports entity, has potential to be a bridge between cultures, a way to bring both sides together in cheering some best athletes of any color. It's already produced Jordan, the most widely known athlete in history, and it's gaining ground fast on soccer as the world's best known sport. But it's fragile indeed, with fans in colors viewing basketball as a zero-sum game, where every stereotypically black or white culture apparently forces out it's ethic opposite. But with serious image problems, another slat falls out of the bridge. And it's not hard to imagine a time when nobody will be interested in crossing over.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} 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 statement can NOT be drawn from the information given in para. 8?_______

单选题Which of the following concerning those who reject naturalism are true?

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Multifunction superpills aren't nearly as farfetched as they may sound. And reducing such serious risks to heart health as soaring cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure potentially could save many lives and be highly lucrative for drug companies. A combo pill from Pfizer (PFE) of its hypertension drug Norvasc and cholesterol-lowering agent Lipitor "could have huge potential," says Shaojing Tong, analyst at Mehta Partners. "Offering two functions in one pill itself is a huge convenience." If such pills catch on, they could generate significant revenues for drug companies. In Pfizer's ease, the goal is to transfer as many qualified patients as possible to the combo pill. Norvasc's patents expire in 2007, but Pfizer could avoid losing all its revenues from the drug at once if it were part of a superpill. Sena Lund, an analyst at Cathay Financial, sees Pfizer selling $4.2 billion worth of Norvasc-Lipitor by 2007. That would help take up the slack for falling sales of Lipitor, which he projects will drop to $5 billion in 2007, down from $ 8 billion last year. Pfizer argues that addressing two distinct and serious cardiovascular risk factors in one pill has advantages. People with both hypertension and high LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind) number around 27 million in the U. S. , notes Craig Hopkinson, medical director for dual therapy at Pfizer, and only 2% of that population reaches adequate treatment goals. Taking two treatments in one will increase the number of patients who take the medications properly and "assist in getting patients to goal," be says. Doctors also may be quick to adopt Norvasc-Lipitor, Pfizer figures, because it's made up of two well-studied drugs, which many physicians are already familiar with. But Dr. Stanley Rockson, chief of consultative cardiology at Stanford University Medical Center, says fixed-dose combination pills represent "an interesting crossroads" for physicians, who are typically trained to "approach each individual problem with care." Combining treatments would challenge doctors to approach heart disease differently. But better patient compliance is important enough, says Rockson, that he expects doctors, to Be open to trying the combined pill. Some other physicians are more skeptical. "If you want to change dosage on one of the new pill's two drugs, you're stuck," fears Dr. Irene Gavris, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. She says she would feel most comfortable trying the combination pill on patients who "have been on the drugs for a while" and are thus unlikely to need changes in dosage. As usual, economics could tip the scales. Patients now taking both Lipitor and Norvasc "could cut their insurance co pay in half" by switching to the combo drug, Gavris notes. That's a key advantage. Controlling hypertension, for instance, can require three or more drugs, and the financial burden on patients mounts quickly. If patients also benefit--as Pfizer and other drug companies contend--making the switch to superpills could be advantageous for everyone.

单选题Young people often feels that the age of eighteen is the ______.

单选题According to the passage, "West Texas Intermediate" (Line 4, Paragraph 4) refers to