单选题My Space and other Web sites have unleashed a potent new phenomenon of social networking in cyberspace, (1) at the same time, a growing body of evidence is suggesting that traditional social (2) play a surprisingly powerful and under-recognized role in influencing how people behave. The latest research comes from Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, at the Harvard Medical School, and Dr. James H. Fowler, at the University of California at San Diego. The (3) reported last summer that obesity appeared to (4) from one person to another (5) social networks, almost like a virus or a fad. In a follow-up to that provocative research, the team has produced (6) findings about another major health (7) : smoking. In a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team found that a person's decision to (8) the habit is strongly affected by (9) other people in their social network quit—even people they do not know. And, surprisingly, entire networks of smokers appear to quit virtually (10) For (11) of their studies, they (12) of detailed records kept between 1971 and 2003 about 5,124 people who participated in the landmark Framingham Heart Study. Because many of the subjects had ties to the Boston suburb of Framingham, Mass. , many of the participants were (13) somehow—through spouses, neighbors, friends, co-workers—enabling the researchers to study a network that (14) 12,067 people. Taken together, these studies are (15) a growing recognition that many behaviors are (16) by social networks in (17) that have not been fully understood. And (18) may be possible, the researchers say, to harness the power of these networks for many (19) , such as encouraging safe sex, getting more people to exercise or even (20) crime.

单选题In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We're pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. We say our motives are selfless and sensible. A degree from Stanford or Princeton is the ticket for life. If Aaron and Nicole don't get in, they're forever doomed. Gosh, we're delusional. I've twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. It's the one-upmanship among parents. We see our kids' college rating as medals proving how well or how poorly we've raised them. But we can't acknowledge that our obsession is more about us than them. So we've contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn't matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford. Admissions anxiety afflicts only a minority of parents. It's true that getting into college has generally become tougher because the number of high-school graduates has grown. From 1994 to 2006, the increase is 28 percent. Still, 64 percent of freshmen attend schools where acceptance rates exceed 70 percent, and the application surge at elite schools dwarfs population growth. Take Yale. In 1994, it accepted 18. 9 percent of 12, 991 applicants; this year it admitted only 8.6 percent of 21,000. We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won't be enough medals to go around. Fearful parents prod their children to apply to more schools than ever. "The epicenters (of parental anxiety) used to be on the coasts, Boston, New York, Washington, Los Angeles," says Tom Parker, Amherst's admissions dean. "But it's radiated throughout the country." Underlying the hysteria is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that's plausible and mostly wrong. "We haven't found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters," says Ernest T. Pascarella of the University of Iowa, co author of "How College Affects Students," an 827-page evaluation of hundreds of studies of the college experience. Selective schools don't systematically employ better instructional approaches than less-selective schools, according to a study by Pascarella and George Kuh of Indiana University. Some do; some don't. On two measures professors' feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse.

单选题Analysts have their go at humor, and I have read some of this interpretative literature, (1) without being greatly instructed. Humor can be (2) , (3) a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are (4) to any but the pure scientific mind. One of the things (5) said about humorists is that they are really very sad 'people clowns with a breaking heart. There is some truth in it, but it is badly (6) . It would be more (7) , I think, to say that there is a deep vein of melancholy running through everyone's life and that the humorist, perhaps more (8) of it than some others, compensates for it actively and (9) Humorists fatten on troubles. They have always made trouble (10) They struggle along with a good will and endure pain (11) , knowing how well it will (12) them in the sweet by and by. You find them wrestling with foreign languages, fighting folding ironing hoards and' swollen drainpipes, suffering the terrible (13) of tight boots. They pour out their sorrows profitably, in a (14) of what is not quite fiction nor quite fact either. Beneath the sparking surface of these dilemmas flows the strong (15) of human woe. Practically everyone is a manic depressive of sorts, with his up moments and his down moments, and you certainly don't have to be a humorist to (16) the sadness of situation and mood. But there is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying, and if a humorous piece of writing brings a person to the point (17) his emotional responses are untrustworthy and seem likely to break over into the opposite realm, it is (18) humor, like poetry, has an extra content, it plays (19) to the big hot fire which is Truth, and sometimes the reader feels the (20) .

单选题According to the passage the number of cohabiting couples is likely to______.

单选题Though he' thinks highly of the development of computer science, the author doesn't mean that______A．computers are likely to become a new form of intelligent lifeB. human beings have lost control of computersC. the intelligence of computers will eventually surpass that of human beingsD. the evolution of intelligence will probably depend on that of electronic brains

单选题Scholars and students have always been great travellers. The official case for "academic mobility" is now often stated in impressive terms as a fundamental necessity for economic and social progress in the world, and debated in the corridors of Europe, but it is certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready to go abroad in search of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous academies; in search of the purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the likeliest road to gold. Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas l their transference across frontiers, their simultaneous impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with students or with colleagues; one presumes that only eccentrics have no interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect. In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become vast highways. The vehicle which has made this possible has of course been the aeroplane, making contact between scholars even in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge. Apart from the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centres of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students. In addition one must recognise the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other countries. Frequently these specialisations lie in areas where very rapid developments are taking place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware of what is happening in different centres of research and to meet each other in conferences and symposia. From these meetings come the personal relationships which are at the bottom of almost all formalized schemes of cooperation, and provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus. But as the specialisations have increased in number and narrowed in range, there had been an opposite movement towards interdisciplinary studies. These owe much to the belief that one cannot properly investigate the incredibly complex problems thrown up by the modern world, and by recent advances in our knowledge along the narrow front of a single discipline. This trend has led to a great deal of academic contact between disciplines, and a far greater emphasis on the pooling of specialist knowledge, reflected in the broad subjects chosen in many international conferences.

单选题A mandatory traceability system in the United States would help improve the safety of food, such as produce, a health official told lawmakers on Wednesday, and three weeks after the government declared an end to the worst foodborne outbreak in a decade. In the past, some produce firms, including many in the tomato industry, use voluntary traceability programs but their approaches vary. Lawmakers said a mandatory program was overdue, and would help U.S. regulators improve safety and restore consumer confidence in food following a series of foodborne outbreaks since 2006. "It is the system that is broken," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture. "You still do not have mandatory traceability, mandatory performance standards. You are looking for a needle in a haystack." Regulators struggled to pinpoint the source of an outbreak of Salmonella St. Paul earlier this year that sickened more than 1,400 people and put 286 in the hospital. They initially focused on tomatoes before shifting their attention to peppers. The slow pace of the investigation, which later traced the Salmonella strain to jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico, has renewed calls for greater monitoring of fresh fruits and vegetables and a national system to track produce. The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires produce processors and distributors to keep track of where food goes and where it came from. This does not include restaurants and farms. "We are going clown a road of examining what is going to work," said David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for food protection. He told the subcommittee a mandatory program "would have an impact." Acheson said FDA does not believe it has explicit authority to mandate a tracking system. The Salmonella outbreak was the latest health scare since 2006. The incidents, involving lettuce, peanut butter, pot pies and spinach, have resulted in dozens of hearings and proposals seeking tougher U.S. safety standards. The latest proposal, which DeLauro plans to introduce next week, would create a separate safety agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to handle all food safety issues currently administered by FDA In a briefing on food issues, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which includes leading companies such as General Mills Inc and ConAgra Foods Inc, expressed doubt that food safety legislation would be passed this year. Prospects dim further next year with a new administration pursuing its own agenda and congress dealing with other issues including health care and transportation. "This may be our only window for some period of time to actually enact these important reforms," said Scott Faber, a vice president at the Grocery Manufacturers. An estimated 76 million people in the United States get sick every year with foodborne illness and 5,000 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

单选题In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent to the Black population of the United States left the South, where the preponderance of the Black population had been located, and migrated to northern states, with the largest number moving, it is claimed, between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed, but not proved, that the majority of the migrants in what has come to be called the Great Migration came from rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent factors: the collapse of the cotton industry following the boll weevil infestation, which began in 1898, and increased demand in the North for labor following the cessation of European immigration caused by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assumption has led to the conclusion that the migrants' subsequent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied to rural background, a background that implies unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills. But the question of who actually left the South has never been rigorously investigated. Although numerous investigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration. No one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600,000 Black workers, or ten percent of the Black work force, reported themselves to be engaged in "manufacturing and mechanical pursuits," the federal census category roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. The Great Migration could easily have been made up entirely of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move, but an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South. About thirty-five percent of the urban Black population in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery-blacksmiths, masons, carpenters-which had had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed out by competition, mechanization, and obsolescence. The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries—tobacco, lumber, coal and iron manufacture, and railroads. Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black workers were aware, through labor recruiters and the Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled workers in the North than they could as artisans in the South. After the boll weevil infestation, urban Black workers faced competition from the continuing influx of both Black and White rural workers, who were driven to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs. Thus, a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and steadily employed, and the easy conclusion tying their subsequent economic problems in the North to their rural background comes into question.

单选题Dave O'Reilly and Hugo Chavez. believe that

单选题Directions:Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on the ANSWER SHEET. For much of this week, New York has been caught up in an unstoppable heat wave. At times like this, it's hard not to imagine the worst-case {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}. What if the world's air-conditioners just stopped working? What would we do then? Air-conditioning has {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}the polarity of summer: it has us fleeing inside during hot weather, {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}we used to flee outside, which might have been more fun, and was certainly more {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}. Arthur Miller's "Before Air-Conditioning" (1998)—probably the definitive New Yorker essay on this subject-describes the way New Yorkers would {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}together out-of-doors. During his childhood, Miller writes, in the twenties, "There were still elevated trains...Desperate people, unable to {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}their apartments, would {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}pay a nickel and ride around aimlessly for a couple of hours to cool off." At night, Central Park "was full of hundreds of people who slept on the grass. Babies cried in the darkness, men's deep voices {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}, and a woman let out a(n) {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}high laugh beside the lake." It was still hot in the park, and it was crowded, but the {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}of the space made the heat easier to {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}. The {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}and spread of air-conditioning, meanwhile, put {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}relief the habits of the pre-air-conditioning {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}. In a comment from July 4, 1959, A. J. Liebling {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}how "the dodges for coping with the heat that New Yorkers learned in three centuries of summer have become {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}, and in some cases hazardous. " New York buildings, Liebling complained, were now "twenty degrees colder in summer than in winter, when they are {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}to the needs of a woman who is going to shed a mink coat the {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}she gets inside, and is wearing nothing much underneath it." Nowadays, air-conditioners are cheap and {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}. And yet there are still summer days like these- days when it's {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}hot that the heat is almost all you can think about.

单选题What contribution does the author feel people must make now?

单选题The Federal Communications Commission is not alone in worrying about television stations that air corporate advertisements masquerading as news stories. In fact, the FCC requires that broadcast stations disclose the corporate backers of "video news releases" or face a maximum fine of $32,500 for each violation. Enough violations and a station could lose its license. The FCC sets out a clear policy: All outside news reporting must be identified, disclosing the source of any video news release aired on a news program. There are occasional declines. A nonprofit consumer watchdog group reported to the FCC that 77 stations broadcast video features about products from 49 companies without pointing out that they were produced by public relations firms representing these corporations. Public relations firms have one goal: to make their video news releases look as if they are legitimate news reports, not propaganda. However, PR-produced video news releases merely are the tip of the iceberg. Ever since newspapers began, special-interest groups have tried to influence the quality and quantity of the news printed. Often, in exchange for advertising revenue, newspapers would print glowing stories of their sponsors and suppress any news that might hurt their heavy advertisers. Those without the ability to inform the press, either through news releases or contacts usually are ignored unless they commit a crime or act in attention-getting ways. For most of the 20th century, women and people of color found it almost impossible to break the special-interest news barriers. Their stories were ignored unless there was a sensational or unique element. Usually, though, items concerning these minorities required an enormous wrongdoing, such as the murder of someone in the white community or some attack on the status quo that threatened the peace and quiet, as well as the productivity, of a neighborhood. There have been splendid exceptions, but not many. One reason the Hispanic news media has been so successful is that it caters to its audience in the same manner all media does. While its bias may seem different, it actually is the same bias all media has: an overwhelming concern to keep its supporters happy. So, while the hue and cry over PR-created video news releases are well and good, they really do not attack the problem of biased news, and appeals to a specific group that shares the same prejudices and concerns about the present and future. All of this is one key reason Americans so often are surprised when the news outlets are forced to report stories that do not please advertisers or consumers. Better to continue, when possible, a steady supply of news about the latest celebrity baby or yet another piece about sex offenders or restaurant health violations.

单选题The mechanic address from the retired brigadier's wife is an example of______

单选题What impact can mobile phones have on their users' health? Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, (1) the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more (2) Indeed, a systematic review (3) out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, rounds up 150 (4) of the use of text-messaging in the (5) of health care. These uses (6) three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by (7) text-messaging into treatment regimes. Using texting to (8) efficiency is not profound science, but big savings can be achieved. Several (9) carried out in England have found that the use of text-messaging reminders (10) the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39%, and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were (11) nationally, this would translate (12) annual savings of ￡256-364 million. Text messages can also be a good way to deliver public-health information, particularly to groups (13) are hard to reach by other means. Text messages have been used in India to (14) people about the World Health Organization's strategy to control lung disease. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a (15) to immunize nearly 5 million children (16) paralysis. (17) , there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to (18) their medicine, or to encourage accordance with exercise regimes. However, Dr. Rifat notes that the evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally (19) , and more quantitative research is (20)