单选题 Music is a mystery. It is unique to the human race: no other species produces elaborate sound for no particular reason. It has been, and remains, part of every known civilization on Earth. Lengths of bone fashioned into flutes were in use 40,000 years ago. And it engages people's attention more comprehensively than almost anything else: scans show that when people listen to music, virtually every area of their brain becomes more active. Yet it serves no obvious adaptive purpose. Charles Darwin, in "'The Descent of Man", noted that "neither the enjoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of the least direct use to man in reference to his ordinary habits of life." Then, what is the point of nmsic. Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist, has called music "auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties." If it vanished from our species, he said "the rest of our lifestyle would be virtually unchanged." Others have argued that, on the contrary, music, along with art and literature, is part of what makes people human; its absence would have a brutalizing effect. Philip Ball, a British science writer and an avid music enthusiast, comes down somewhere in the middle. He says that music is ingrained in our auditory, cognitive and motor functions. We have a music instinct as much as a language instinct, and could not rid ourselves of it. He goes through each component of music to explain how and why it works, using plentiful examples drawn from a refreshingly wide range of different kinds of music, from Bach to the Beatles, and from nursery rhymes to jazz. His basic message is encouraging and uplifting: people know much more about music than they think. They start picking up the rules from the day they are born, perhaps even before, by hearing it all around them. Very young children can tell if a tune or harmony is not quite right and most adults can differentiate between kinds of music even if they have had no training. Music is completely {{U}}sui generis{{/U}}. It should not tell a non-musical story; the listener will decode it for himself. Many, perhaps most, people have experienced a sudden rush of emotion on hearing a particular piece of music; a thrill or chill, a sense of excitement or exhilaration, a feeling of being swept away by it. They may even be moved to tears, without being able to tell why. Musical analysts have tried hard to find out how this happens, but with little success. Perhaps some mysteries are best preserved.

单选题According to the first paragraph, the grandfather resented

单选题With the spread of inter-active electronic media a man alone in his own home will never have been so well placed to fill the inexplicable mental space between cradle and crematorium. So I suspect that books will be pushed more and more into those moments of travel or difficult defecation (1) people still don't quite know what to do with. When people do read, I think they'll want to feel they are reading literature, or (2) something serious. (3) you're going to find fewer books presenting themselves as no-nonsense and (4) assuming literary pretensions and being packaged as works of art. We can expect an extraordinary variety of genre, but with an underlying (5) of sentiment and vision. Translators can only (6) from this desire for the presumably sophisticated. We can look forward to lots of difficult names and fantastic stories of foreign parts enthusiastically (7) by the overall worship of the "global village". Much of this will be awful and some wonderful, (8) don't expect the press or the organizers of prizes to offer you much help in making the appropriate distinctions. They will be chiefly (9) in creating celebrity, the greatest enemy of discrimination, but a good prop for the (10) consumer. Every ethnic grouping over the world will have to be seen to have a great writer—a phenomenon that will (11) a new kind of provincialism, more chronological than geographic, (12) only the strictly contemporary is talked about and (13) Universities, including Cambridge, will include (14) their literature syllabus novels written only last year. (15) occasional exhumation for the Nobel, the achievements of ten or only five years ago will be largely forgotten. In short, you can't go too far wrong when predicting more of the same. But there is a (16) side to this—the inevitable reaction against it. The practical things I would like to see happen—publishers seeking less to (17) celebrity through extravagant advertising, (18) and magazines (19) space to reflective pieces—are rather more improbable than the Second Coming(耶稣复临). But dullness never quite darkens the whole planet. In their own idiosyncratic fashion a few writers will (20) be looking for new departures.

单选题 For the past two years in Silicon Valley, the centre of America's technology industry, conference-goers have entertained themselves playing a guessing game: how many times will a speaker mention the phrase "long tail"? It is usually a high number, thanks to the influence of the long-tail theory, which was first developed by Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine, in an article in 2004. Though technologists and bloggers chuckle at how every business presentation now has to have its long-tail section, most are envious of Mr. Anderson, whose brainwave quickly became the most fashionable business idea around. Whether a blockbuster film, a bestselling novel, or a chart-topping rap song, popular culture idolises the hit. Companies devote themselves to creating them because the cost of distribution and the limits of shelf space in physical shops mean that profitability depends on a high volume of sales. But around the beginning of this century a group of internet companies realised that with endless shelves and a national or even international audience online they could offer a huge range of products—and make money at the same time. The niche, the obscure and the specialist, Mr. Anderson argues, will gain ground at the expense of the hit. As evidence, he points to a drop in the number of companies that traditionally calculate their revenue/sales ratio according to the 80/20 rule—where the top fifth of products contribute four-fifths of revenues. Ecast, a San Francisco digital jukebox company, found that 98% of its 10000 albums sold at least one track every three months. Expressed in the language of statistics, the experiences of Ecast and other companies such as Aragon, an online bookseller, suggest that products down in the long tail of a statistical distribution, added together, can be highly profitable. The internet helps people find their way to relatively obscure material with recommendations and reviews by other people, (and for those willing to have their artistic tastes predicted by a piece of software) computer programs which analyse past selections. Long-tail enthusiasts argue that the whole of culture will benefit, not just commercial enterprises. Television, film and music are such bewitching media in their own right that many people are quite happy to watch and listen to what the mainstream provides. But if individuals have the opportunity to pick better, more ideally suited entertainment from a far wider selection, they will take it, according to the theory of the long tail. Some analysts reckon that entire populations might become happier and wiser once they have access to thousands of documentaries, independent films and subgenres of every kind of music, instead of being subjected to what Mr. Anderson calls the tyranny of lowest-common-denominator fare. That might be taking things a bit far. But the long tail is certainly one of the internet's better gifts to humanity.

单选题In relation to the "writers on management" mentioned in Para. 2, the text suggests that they

单选题 Attempts to understand the relationship between social behavior and health have their origin in history. Dubos (1969) suggested that primitive humans were closer to the animals{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}they, too, relied'upon their instincts to stay healthy. Yet some primitive humans{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}a cause and effect relationship between doing certain things and alleviating{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}of a disease or{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}the condition of a wound.{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}there was so much that primitive humans did not{{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}the functioning of the body, magic became an integral component ofthe beliefs about the causes and cures of heath{{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}Therefore it is not{{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}that early humans thought that illness was caused{{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}evil spirit. Primitive medicines made from vegetables or animals were invariably used in combination with some form of ritual to{{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}harmful spirit from a diseased body. One of the. earliest{{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}in the Western world to formulate principles of health care based upon rational thought and{{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}of supernatural phenomena is found in the work of the Greek physician Hippocrates. The writing{{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}to him has provided a number of principles underiying modern medical practice. One of his most famous{{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}, the Hippocratic Oath, is the foundation of contemporary medical ethics. Hippocrates also argued that medical knowledge should be derived from a{{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}of the natural science and the logic of cause and effect relationships. In this{{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}thesis, On Air, Water, and Places, Hippocrates pointed out that human well-being is{{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}by the totality of environmental{{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}: living habits or lifestyle, climate, geography of the land, and the quality of air, and food.{{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}enough, concerns about our health and the quality of air, water, and places are{{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}very much written in twentieth century.

单选题The word "reading" in ( Line 3,Paragraph 2) denotes

单选题{{B}}Text 2{{/B}} Saudi Arabia, the oil industry's swing producer, has become its flip-flopper. In February, it persuaded OPEC to cut its total production quotas by lm barrels per day (bpd), to 23.5m, as a precaution against an oil-price crash this spring. That fear has since been replaced by its opposite. The price of West Texas crude hit $40 last week, its highest since the eve of the first Iraq war, prompting concerns that higher oil prices could sap the vigour of America's recovery and compound the frailty of Europe's. On Monday May 10th, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, called on OPEC to raise quotas, by at least 1. 5m bpd, at its next meeting on June 3rd. Thus far, the high oil price has been largely a consequence of good things, such as a strengthening world economy, rather than a cause of bad things, such as faster inflation or slower growth. China's burgeoning economy guzzled about 6m bpd in the first quarter of this year, 15% more than a year ago, according to Goldman Sachs. Demand was also strong in the rest of Asia, excluding Japan, growing by 5.2% to 8. 1m bpd. As the year progresses, the seasonal rhythms of America's drivers will dictate prices, at least of the lighter, sweeter crudes. Americans take to the roads en masse in the summer, and speculators are driving up the oil price now in anticipation of peak demand in a few months' time. Until recently, the rise in the dollar price of oil was offset outside America and China by the fall in the dollar itself. But the currency has regained some ground in recent weeks, and the oil price has continued to rise. Even so, talk of another oil price shock is premature. The price of oil, adjusted for inflation, is only half what it was in December 1979, and the United States now uses half as much energy per dollar of output as it did in the early 1970s. But if oil cannot shock the world economy quite as it used to, it can still give it "a good kick", warns Goldman Sachs. If average oil prices for the year come in 10% higher than it forecast, it reckons GDP growth in the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations will be reduced by 0.3%, or $70 billion. The Americans are certainly taking the issue seriously. John Snow, their treasury secretary, called OPEC's February decision "regrettable", and the rise in prices since then "not helpful". Washington pays close heed to the man at the petrol pump, who has seen the average price of a gallon of unleaded petrol rise by 39 cents in the past year. And the Saudis, some mutter, pay close heed to Washington. Besides, the high oil price may have filled Saudi coffers, but it has also affronted Saudi pride. Mr. al-Naimi thinks the high price is due to fears that supply might be disrupted in the future. These fears, he says, are "unwarranted". But the hulking machinery in the Arabian desert that keeps oil flowing round the world presents an inviting target to terrorists should they tire of bombing embassies and nightclubs. (ha May 1st, gunmen killed six people in a Saudi office of ABB Lummus Global, an American oil contractor. Such incidents add to the risk premium factored into the oil price, a premium that the Saudis take as a vote of no confidence in their kingdom and its ability to guarantee the supply of oil in the face of terrorist threats.

单选题The author thinks current entertainment is relatively poor because

单选题The author would be most likely to agree with which of the following conclusions?

单选题Barring an extraordinary change in investor behavior in the largest emerging economies, the role of equities in the global financial system will likely be reduced in the coming decade. That"s the central finding of a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). As emerging-market households attain a level of income that enables them to purchase financial assets, they are becoming a powerful new investor class, whose choices will help determine global demand for different asset classes. The actions of these new investors will, in turn, shape how businesses obtain the capital they need to grow, how other investors around the world fare, and how stable and resilient economies will be. The MGI study found that financial assets held by investors in developing nations have been growing at more than three times the rate of assets in developed nations, raising their share of global financial wealth from 7 percent to 21 percent over the past decade, or about $ 41.3 trillion. By the end of the current decade, investors in developing economies will hold as much as 36 percent of global financial wealth, or between $114 trillion and $141 trillion. Emerging-market investors currently behave differently than those in mature economies. Investors in Europe, the United States, and wealthier parts of Asia, hold 30 to 40 percent or more of their financial assets in equities, but the new investors of the emerging economies keep three-quarters of theirs in deposit accounts. While the use of equities in developing economies to finance growth and build savings is increasing, this evolution is taking place slowly. The likely result: a shift in the global allocation of financial assets toward deposits and fixed-income instruments and away from equities in this decade. This shift is being exacerbated by aging and other trends in the developed world that are dampening investor appetite for equities. As a result, equities could decline from 28 percent of global financial assets in 2010 to 22 percent in 2020. What"s behind the slow adoption of equity investing in developing markets? For an equity-investing culture to take root, there must be trusted, transparent markets with strong protections for small investors, as well as the institutions and systems to provide easy market access. Rules and regulations may be in place in emerging markets today, but enforcement is often unreliable. When the correct conditions are in place, investors are likely to gravitate to equities for higher returns. In the meantime, even though total investor demand for equities will grow over the next decade, it will fall short of what corporations need by $12. 3 trillion. This imbalance between the supply and demand for equity will be most pronounced in emerging economies, where companies need significant external financing for growth.

单选题From the passage we know that the author is very concerned with the role that ______.

单选题Over the past few years, a growing number of America's parentless children have found homes. In 2008 there were 463,000 children in foster care, a system where the government places orphans and children with parents who are abusive or unable to take care of them in the care of guardians. That is 11% down since 2002, and great news. But experts worry the trend might now go into reverse. Some welfare advocates fear that the bad economy may cause parents with frayed nerves to abuse and neglect their children, and even cause some to abandon them. Already, several hospitals across the country have reported an increase in the frequency and severity of injuries from child abuse. The most recent national data on child welfare available dates from September 2008, before the recession was in lull throttle; data from 2009 won't be reported until later this year. But there is some question about whether the data, when reported, will even be accurate. Many states and counties, in an attempt to cope with their fiscal straits, are considering cutting down on child-welfare services, such as benefits for foster parents and the number of social workers they employ. The average workload of caseworkers had already increased by 7% between 2006 and 2007, says Mary Hansen, of American University in Washington, DC. With more budget cuts, there will be fewer caseworkers to take notice of abuse and neglect, she says, and it will be more difficult to find someone to report problems to, potentially affecting the collection data. In the meantime, more parents are trying to keep their families intact. New York Foundling, an agency in New York, runs a crisis centre, where parents can leave their children tot up to three weeks. Requests for beds increased 20% in the last year. Safe Families, a non-profit outfit that places children in temporary homes with volunteer families until jobless parents can get back on their feet, saw the number of children it serviced triple in 2009, and it expects that number to double again in 2010. Most people are asking ['or help from Safe Families, says the organization's founder, David Anderson, because they don't want to risk losing custody, as they would if they put their kids into foster care. Thankfully, the recession has actually spurred more volunteers to come forward, says Mr. Anderson.

单选题Even at the Vatican. not all sacred beliefs are absolute: Thou shalt not kill, but war can be just. Now, behind the quiet walls, a clash is shaping up involving two poles of near certainty: the church's long-held ban on condoms and its advocacy of human life. The issue is AIDS. Church officials recently confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had requested a report on whether it might be acceptable for Catholics to use condoms in one narrow circumstance: to protect life inside a marriage when one partner is infected with H.I.V. or is sick with AIDS. Whatever the pope decides, church officials and other experts broadly agree that it is remarkable that so delicate an issue is being taken up. But they also agree that such an inquiry is logical, and particularly significant from this pope, who was Pope John Paul II’s strict enforcer of church doctrine. "In some ways, maybe he has got the greatest capacity to do it because there is no doubt about his orthodoxy," said the. Rev. Jon Fuller, a Jesuit physician who runs an AIDS clinic at the Boston Medical Center. The issue has surfaced repeatedly as one of the most complicated and delicate facing the church. For years, some influential cardinals and theologians have argued for a change for couples affected by AIDS in the name of protecting life, while others have fiercely attacked the possibility as demoting the church's long advocacy of abstinence and marital fidelity to fight the disease. The news broke just after Benedict celebrated his first anniversary as pope, a relatively quiet papal year. But he devoted his first encyclical to love, specifically between a man and a woman in marriage. Indeed, with regard to condoms, the only change apparently being considered is in the specific case of married couples. But any change would be unpopular with conservative Catholics, some of whom have expressed disappointment that Benedict has displayed a softer face now as defender of the faith than he did when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the papal adviser. "It's just hard to imagine that any pope—and this pope—would change the teaching," said Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation, a Catholic-oriented advocacy group in Washington that opposes abortion and contraception. It is too soon to know where the pope is heading. Far less contentious issues can take years to inch through the Vatican's nexus of belief and bureaucracy, prayer and politics, and Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the pope's top aide on health care issues, and other officials declined requests for interviews.