单选题Remember the days when companies such as Microsoft and Mc-Kinsey took immense satisfaction from subjecting job candidates to mind-crunching strategy sessions? If you thought that was rough, imagine an interview in which no amount of research or questioning of insiders will help. Imagine instead that all you can do is have a healthy breakfast, pick out your nicest suit, and hope for the best. In the new interview, they're not just testing what you know. They're also testing who you are. It's called the situational interview, and it's quickly becoming a must in the job-seeking world. In the post-Enron culture of caution, corporations are focusing on an obvious insight: that a gold-plated resume and winning personality are about as accurate in determining job performance as Wall Street analysts are in picking stocks. Now, with shareholder scrutiny, hiring slowdowns, and expense-reducing, no manager can afford to hire the wrong person. Hundreds of companies are switching to the new methods. Whereas the conventional interview has been found to be only 7% accurate in predicting job performance, situational interviews deliver a rating of 54%—the most of any interviewing tool. The situational technique's superiority stems from its ability to trip up even the wittiest of interviewees. Of course, every applicant must display a healthy dose of occupational know-how, but behavior and ethical backbone play a big role. For example, a prospective analyst at a Wall Street bank might have to face, say, a customer with an account argument. It's not happening on paper, but in real time—with managers and experts watching nearby. The interviewer plays the role of a fierce customer on the phone, angry about money lost when a trade wasn't executed on time. It's set up as an obvious mistake on the banker's part. Interviewers watch the candidates' reactions: how they process the complex account information, their ability to talk the client down, what their body language displays about their own shortcomings, and which words they choose. In this instance, not being honest about the mistake or showing anger or frustration—no matter how glowing your resume—means you're out. Behavioral interviews are also being rounded out by other tools that, until recently, had been reserved for elite hires. Personality-testing outfit Caliper, for example, which probes candidates for emotional-intelligence skills and job ability, has seen its business jump 20% this year. Clearly, the new interview isn't without its drawbacks. Companies run the risk of arousing hostility in candidates, who may feel as if some line has been crossed into personal territory. Moreover, sortie companies worry about the fairness of personality tests. They have to make sure there are no inherent gender or racial biases in the test.

单选题According to the text, the European dream is likely to come true

单选题The role of governments in environmental management is deficit but inescapable. Sometimes, the state tries to manage the resources it owns, and does so badly. Often, 1 , governments act in an even more harmful way. They actually subsidize the exploitation and 2 of natural resources. A whole 3 of policies, from farm-price support to protection for coal-mining, do environmental damage and often 4 no economic sense. Making good policies offers a two-fold 5 : a cleaner environmentpolilicians and a more efficient economy. Crowth and environmentalism can actually go hand in hand, if politicians have the courage to 6 the vested interest that subsidies create. No activity affects more of the earth"s surface than farming, h shapes a third of the planet"s land area, not 7 Antarctica, and the proportion is rising. World food output per head has risen by 4 percent between the 1970s and 1980s mainly as a result of increases in 8 from land already in 9 , but also because more land has been brought under the plough. Higher yields have been achieved by increased irrigation, better crop breeding, and a 10 in the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 1970s and 1980s. All these activities may have 11 environmental impacts. For example, land clearing for agrieuhure is the largest single 12 of deforestation; chemical fertilizers and pesticides may 13 water supplies; more intensive farming and the abandonment of fallow periods 14 worsen soil erosion; and the spread of monochord and use of high-yielding varieties of euros have been accompanied by the 15 of old varieties of food plants which might have provided some 16 against pests or diseases in future. Soil erosion threatens the productivity of land in both rich and poor countries. The United States, 17 the most careful measurements have been done, discovered in 1982 that about one-fifth of its farmland was losing topsoil at a rate 18 to diminish the soil"s productivity. The country subsequently 19 a program to convert 11 percent of its cropped land to meadow or forest. Topsoil in India and China is 20 much faster than in America.

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Music comes in many forms; most countries have a style of their own. (1) the turn of the century when jazz was born, America had no prominent (2) of its own. No one knows exactly when jazz was (3) ,or by whom. But it began to be (4) in the early 1900s. Jazz is America's contribution to (5) music. In contrast to classical music, which (6) formal European traditions, jazz is spontaneous and free-form. It bubbles with energy, (7) the moods, interests, and emotions of the people. In the 1920, jazz (8) like America. And (9) it does today. The (10) of this music are as interesting as the music (11) . American Negroes, or blacks, as they are called today, were the jazz (12) . They were brought to the Southern states (13) slaves. They were sold to plantation owners and forced to work long (14) . When a Negro died his friends and relatives (15) a procession to carry the body to the cemetery. In New Orleans, a band often accompanies the (16) . On the way to the cemetery the band played slow, solemn music suited to the occasion. (17) on the way home the mood changed. Spirits lifted. Death had removed one of their (18) , but the living were glad to be alive. The band played (19) music, improvising on both the harmony and the melody of the tunes (20) at the funeral. This music made everyone want to dance. It was an early form of jazz.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} In one very long sentence, the introduction to the U. N. Charter expresses the ideals and the common aims of all the people whose governments joined together to form the U. N. "We, the people of the U. N. , determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has brought untold suffering to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations, large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends, to practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims." The name "United Nations" is accredited to U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the first group of representatives of member States met and signed a declaration of common intent on New Year's Day in 1942. Representatives of five powers worked together to draw up proposals, completed at Dumbarton Oaks in 1944. These proposals, modified after deliberation at the conference on International Organization in San Francisco which began in April 1945, were finally agreed on and signed as the U.N. Charter by 50 countries on 26 June 1945. Poland, not represented at the conference, signed the Charter later and was added to the list of original members. It was not until that autumn, however, after the Charter had been ratified by China, France, the U. S. S. R. U. , the U.K. and the U. S. and by a majority of the other participants that the U. N. officially came into existence. The date was 24 October, now universally celebrated as United Nations Day. The essential functions of the U. N. are to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate internationally in solving international economic, social, cultural and human problems, promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and to be a centre for co-ordinating the actions of nations on attaining these common ends. No country takes precedence over another in the U. N. Each member's rights and obligations are the same. All must contribute to the peaceful settlement of international dispute, and members have pledged to refrain from the threat or use of force against other states.

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D． {{B}}Text 1{{/B}} The swine flu will probably return in force earlier than seasonal flu usually begins, federal health officials predicted Friday, saying they expected it to erupt as soon as schools open rather than in October or November. The swine flu is still circulating in the United States, especially in summer camps, even though hot weather has arrived and the regular flu season ended months ago, "so we expect challenges when people return to school, when kids are congregating together," Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a telephone news conference held jointly with vaccine experts from the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. It is still unclear how many doses of a swine flu vaccine will be available by then, and officials have been reluctant to make firm predictions beyond saying that they expect tens of millions, rather than hundreds of millions, and they plan to distribute them to people who are the most vulnerable, like pregnant women and people who are the most likely to encounter the flu, like health care workers. The number of doses available will depend on how fast seed strains grow, how much protection a small dose provides, and whether immune-system boosters called adjuvants are needed and prove to be safe; adjuvants are not used in American flu vaccines now. Clinical trials testing those questions are expected to take another couple of months, said Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, director of the F. D．A．'s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Assuming a swine flu vaccination campaign begins, it will be voluntary, Dr. Schuchat emphasized, but she "strongly encouraged" pregnant women to get both a seasonal flu shot and a swine flu shot when they are available. The C．D．C．has been closely following the disease in the Southern Hemisphere winter, and it is mimicking the patterns seen in the United States and Mexico in the spring, she said. Most infections and most serious cases are in children and young adults, and those with underlying conditions, including pregnancy, are the most likely to die. Dr. Schuchat likened the spread's unpredictability to that of popcorn: one city could see an explosion of cases and overwhelmed hospitals while another saw few. Her most important message, she added, was that "the virus isn't gone, and we fully expect there will be challenges in the fall. "

单选题A mare basin is______.

单选题Most worthwhile careers require some kind of specialized training. Ideally, therefore, the choice of an (1) should be made even before the choice of a curriculum in high school. Actually, (2) , most people make several job choices during their working lives, (3) because of economic and industrial changes and partly to improve (4) position. The "one perfect job" does not exist. Young people should (5) enter into a broad flexible training program that will (6) them for a field of work rather than for a single (7) . Unfortunately many young people have to make career plans (8) benefit of help from a competent vocational counselor or psychologist. Knowing (9) about the occupational world, or themselves for that matter, they choose their lifework on a hit-or-miss (10) .Some drift from job to job. Others (11) to work in which they are unhappy and for which they are not fitted. One common mistake is choosing an occupation for (12) real or imagined prestige. Too many high school students-or their parents for them-choose the professional field, (13) both the relatively small proportion of workers in the professions and the extremely high educational and personal (14) . The imagined or real prestige of a profession or a "white collar" job is (15) good reason for choosing it as life's work. (16) , these occupations are not always well paid. Since a large proportion of jobs are in mechanical and manual work, the (17) of young people should give serious (18) to these fields. Before making an occupational choice, a person should have a general idea of what he wants (19) life and how hard he is willing to work to get it. Some people desire social prestige, others intellectual satisfaction. Some want security, others are willing to take (20) for financial gain. Each occupational choice has its demands as well as its rewards.

单选题If sustainable competitive advantage depends on workforce skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquistion is considered an individual responsibility. Labour is simply another factor of production to be rented at the lowest possible cost much as one buys raw materials or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human-resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human-resource management is central, usually the second most important, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces, in fact they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also much more narrowly focused on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear. If sustainable competitive advantage depends on workforce skills, American firms have a problem. Human resource management is not traditionally seen as central to the competitive survival of the firm in the United States. Skill acquistion is considered an individual responsibility. Labour is simply another factor of production to be rented at the lowest possible cost much as one buys raw materials or equipment. The lack of importance attached to human resource management can be seen in the corporate hierarchy. In an American firm the chief financial officer is almost always second in command. The post of head of human-resource management is usually a specialized job, off at the edge of the corporate hierarchy. The executive who holds it is never consulted on major strategic decisions and has no chance to move up to Chief Executive Officer (CEO). By way of contrast, in Japan the head of human-resource management is central, usually the second most important, after the CEO, in the firm's hierarchy. While American firms often talk about the vast amounts spent on training their work forces, in fact they invest less in the skills of their employees than do either Japanese or German firms. The money they do invest is also much more narrowly focused on the basic background skills that make it possible to absorb new technologies. As a result, problems emerge when new breakthrough technologies arrive. If American workers, for example, take much longer to learn how to operate new flexible manufacturing stations than workers in Germany (as they do), the effective cost of those stations is lower in Germany than it is in the United States. More time is required before equipment is up and running at capacity, and the need for extensive retraining generates costs and creates bottlenecks that limit the speed with which new equipment can be employed. The result is a slower pace of technological change. And in the end the skills of the bottom half of the population affect the wages of the top half. If the bottom half can't effectively staff the processes that have to be operated, the management and professional jobs that go with these processes will disappear.

单选题For me, scientific knowledge is divided into mathematical sciences, natural sciences or sciences dealing with the natural world (physical and biological sciences), and sciences dealing with mankind (psychology, sociology, all the sciences of cultural achievements, every kind of historical knowledge). Apart from these sciences is philosophy, about which we will talk later. In the first place, all this is pure or theoretical knowledge, sought only for the purpose of understanding, in order to fulfill the need to understand that is intrinsic and con-substantial to man. What distinguishes man from animals is that he knows and needs to know. If man did not know that the world existed, and that the world was of a certain kind, that he was in the world and that he himself was of a certain kind, he wouldn't be man. The technical aspects or applications of knowledge are equally necessary for man and are of the greatest importance, because they also contribute to defining him as man and permit him to pursue a life increasingly more truly human. But even while enjoying the results of technical progress, man must defend the primacy and autonomy of pure knowledge. Knowledge sought directly for its practical applications will have immediate and foreseeable success, but not the kind of important result whose revolutionary scope is for the most part unforeseen, except by the imagination of the Utopians. Let me recall a well-known example. If the Greek mathematicians had not applied themselves to the investigation of conic section zealously and without the least suspicion that it might someday be useful, it would not have been possible centuries later to navigate far from shore. The first men to study the nature of electricity could not imagine that their experiments, carried on because o mere intellectual curiosity, would eventually lead to modern electrical technology, without which we can scarcely conceive o contemporary life. Pure knowledge is valuable for its own sake, because the human spirit cannot resign itself to ignorance. But, in addition, it is the foundation for practical results that would not have been reached if this knowledge had not been sought disinterestedly.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The dot-com collapse may have been a disaster for Wall Street, but here in Silicon Valley, it was a blessing. It was the welcome end to an abnormal condition that very nearly destroyed the area in an overabundance of success. You see, the secret to the Valley's astounding multiple-decade boom is failure. Failure is what fuels and renews this place. Failure is the foundation for innovation. The valley's business ecology depends on failure the same way the tree-covered hills around us depend on fire--it wipes out the old growth and creates space for new life. The valley has always been in danger of drowning in the unwelcome waste products of success--too many people, too expensive houses, too much traffic, too little office space and too much money chasing too few startups. Failure is the safety valve, the destructive renewing force that frees up people, ideas and capital and recombines them, creating new revolutions. Consider how the Internet revolution came to be. After half a decade of start-up struggles, for example, hundreds of millions of Hollywood dollars were going up in smoke. It all seemed like a terrible waste, but no one noticed that the collapse left one very important byproduct, a community of laid-off C++ programmers who were now expert in multimedia design, and out on the street looking for the next big thing. These media geeks were the pioneer of the dot-com revolution. They were the Web's business pioneers, applying their newfound media sensibilities to create one little company after another. Most of these start-ups failed, but even in failure they advanced the new medium of cyberspace. A few geeks, like Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark, succeeded and utterly changed our lives. In 1994 Clark was unemployed after leaving the company be founded, doggedly trying to develop a new interactive-TV concept. He approached Marc Andreessen, the co-developer of Mosaic, the first widely used Internet browser, in hope of persuading Andreessen to help him de-sign his new system. Instead, Andreessen opened Clark's eyes to the Web's potential. Clark promptly tossed his TV plans in the trash, and the two co-founded Netscape, the cornerstone of the consumer-Web revolution. Like the interactive-TV refugees and generations of innovators before them, the dot comers are already hatching new companies. Many are revisiting good ideas executed badly in the' 90s, while others are striking out into entirely new spaces. This happy chaos is certain to mature into a new order likely to upset an establishment, as it delivers life-changing wonders to the rest of us. But this is just the start, for revolutions give birth to revolutions. So let's hope for more of Silicon Valley's successful failures.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} At some point during their education, biology students are told about a conversation in a pub that took place over 50 years ago. J. B. S. Haldane, a British geneticist, was asked whether he would lay down his life for his country. After doing a quick calculation on the back of a napkin, he said he would do so for two brothers or eight cousins. In other words, he would die to protect the equivalent of his genetic contribution to the next generation. The theory of kin selection--the idea that animals can pass on their genes by helping their close relatives--is biology's explanation for seemingly altruistic acts. An individual carrying genes that promote altruism might be expected to die younger than one with "selfish" genes, and thus to have a reduced contribution to the next generation's genetic pool. But if the same individual acts altruistically to protect its relatives, genes for altruistic behavior might nevertheless propagate. Acts of apparent altruism to non-relatives can also be explained away, in what has become a cottage industry within biology. An animal might care for the offspring of another that it is unrelated to because it hopes to obtain the same benefits for itself later on (a phenomenon known as reciprocal altruism). {{U}}The hunter who generously shares his spoils with others{{/U}} may be doing so in order to signal his superior status to females, and ultimately boost his breeding success. These apparently selfless acts are therefore disguised acts of self interest. All of these examples fit economists' arguments that Homo sapiens is also Homo economicus--maximizing something that economists call utility, and biologists fitness. But there is a residuum of human activity that defies such explanations: people contribute to charities for the homeless, return lost wallets, do voluntary work and tip waiters in restaurants to which they do not plan to return. Both economic rationalism and natural selection offer few explanations for such random acts of kindness. Nor can they easily explain the opposite: spiteful behavior, when someone harms his own interest in order to damage that of another. But people are now trying to find answers. When a new phenomenon is recognized by science, a name always helps. In a paper in Human Nature, Dr Fehr and his colleagues argue for a behavioral propensity they call "strong reciprocity". This name is intended to distinguish it from reciprocal altruism. According to Dr Fehr, a person is a strong reciprocator if he is willing to sacrifice resources to be kind to those who are being kind, and to punish those who are being unkind. Significantly, strong reciprocators will behave this way even if doing so provides no prospect of material rewards in the future.

单选题Of all the components of a good night"s sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control. In dreams, a window opens into a world where logic is suspended and dead people speak. A century ago, Freud formulated his revolutionary theory that dreams were the disguised shadows of our unconscious desires and fears; by the late 1970s, neurologists had switched to thinking of them as just "mental noise"—the random byproducts of the neural-repair work that goes on during sleep. Now researchers suspect that dreams are part of the mind"s emotional thermostat, regulating moods while the brain is "off-line." And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful mental events can be not only harnessed but actually brought under conscious control, to help us sleep and feel better, "It"s your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright, chair of psychology at Chicago"s Medical Center. "If you don"t like it, change it." Evidence from brain imaging supports this view. The brain is as active during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep—when most vivid dreams occur—as it is when fully awake, says Dr. Eric Nofzinger at the University of Pittsburgh. But not all parts of the brain are equally involved; the limbic system (the "emotional brain") is especially active, while the prefrontal cortex (the center of intellect and reasoning) is relatively quiet. "We wake up from dreams happy or depressed, and those feelings can stay with us all day." says Stanford sleep researcher Dr. William Dement. The link between dreams and emotions shows up among the patients in Cartwright"s clinic. Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night, progressing toward happier ones before awakening, suggesting that they are working through negative feelings generated during the day. Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life we don"t always think about the emotional significance of the day"s events—until, it appears, we begin to dream. And this process need not be left to the unconscious. Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control over recurring bad dreams. As soon as you awaken, identify what is upsetting about the dream. Visualize how you would like it to end instead; the next time it occurs, try to wake up just enough to control its course. With much practice people can learn to, literally, do it in their sleep. At the end of the day, there"s probably little reason to pay attention to our dreams at all unless they keep us from sleeping or "we wake up in a panic," Cartwright says. Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings of insecurity have increased people"s anxiety. Those suffering from persistent nightmares should seek help from a therapist. For the rest of us, the brain has its ways of working through bad feelings. Sleep—or rather dream—on it and you"ll feel better in the morning.

单选题To the people of the Bijagos archipelago, the shark is sacred. In (1) ceremonies young men from these islands (2) the coast of Guinea-Bissau must spear a shark and present the liver to their (3) But can this ancient ceremony (4) the economic fact that a bowl of shark's fin soup can cost $150 in the Far East? In the archipelago, and all along West Africa's coast, sharks are being "finned" to (5) Fishermen can earn $50-80 (6) a kilo of sharks' fins. far more than ordinary fish. By the time they (7) the Far East, they could be (8) $500 a kilo or more. valuable (9) aphrodisiacs as well as for gourmets. The high demand is (10) shark populations in West Africa and elsewhere. Most fish, .vulnerable to (11) eaten by bigger fish, protect their species by laying millions of eggs. But the shark has no natural enemy (12) man. and gives birth to just a (13) of young. (14) female sharks are often caught (15) pregnant, the result has been predictably disastrous. Shark-like sawfish, which are also "finned". are already virtually (16) off the Bijagos islands, and guitarfish are (17) threat. In some parts of West Africa, when sharks and other similar fish have been finned, the rest of the flesh is often (18) , salted and exported to places like Ghana, where there is a (19) for lt. Dried shark is used much (20) a stock cube would be elsewhere. But in the Bijagos islands, where traders are uninterested in exporting dried shark, carcasses are often left to rot on the beach.