单选题The iPod revolutionized the way we consume music. The iPhone made us crazy for apps. And now the iPad is getting ready to rock our love lives—or at least help improve our search for someone to communicate with. In late May, Skout.com will become the first dating site to launch an iPad application. The free app will be similar to the version that's already available to phone users: members can enter search criteria, such as age range, gender and physical preferences, and a HotMap will show in real time the locations of active Skout users who fit those criteria. The idea is to help members meet up and see if magic happens. The cool thing about the iPad adaptation, says CEO Christian Wiklund, is that its screen is large enough to let the user view the map while simultaneously chatting and searching through another member's photos. David Evans, editor of onlinedatingpost.com, says we can expect to see more innovative technology in a few months after companies get acquainted with the capabilities of the iPad. "What I'm looking for are dating sites that are optimized for the iPad, with features native to the sleek computing device like (touch screen motions such as) pinch, twist, zoom and shake," he says. "It's the iPad that's going to enable developers to create entirely new ways to browse, discover and connect with singles." Steve Odom, CEO and founder of dating site Gelato, which launched last year and includes a live feed of members' social-media profiles, is redesigning his entire website based on the iPad's appearance. Profile pictures play a key role in online dating, Odom says, and the iPad gives sites an opportunity to play up the presentation of their clientele. "It's big, it's beautiful, and it's perfect for dating sites," says Odom, who plans to unveil the redesign in June. Evans predicts that online dating sites will begin to display their content like a magazine, letting users flip through pages of profiles and enlarge photos while simultaneously texting with one or more others. He says there's also been talk of adding a facial-coding and eye-tracking function that would use a webcam on the iPad to refine suggested matches based on a member's responses to certain profiles. If you grimace, the profile will fade away; if you smile or if your pupils dilate, similar profiles will be suggested. In other words, some day there could be an iPad app for love at first sight.

单选题How does direct carving differ from the nineteenth - century tradition of sculpture?

单选题Will the European Union make it? The question would have sounded strange not long ago. Now even the project"s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a "Bermuda triangle" of debt, population decline and lower growth. As well as those chronic problems, the EU face an acute crisis in its economic core, the 16 countries that use the single currency. Markets have lost faith that the euro zone"s economies, weaker or stronger, will one day converge thanks to the discipline of sharing a single currency, which denies uncompetitive members the quick fix of devaluation. Yet the debate about how to save Europe"s single currency from disintegration is stuck. It is stuck because the euro zone"s dominant powers, France and Germany, agree on the need for greater harmonisation within the euro zone, but disagree about what to harmonise. Germany thinks the euro must be saved by stricter rules on borrow spending and competitiveness, barked by quasi-automatic sanctions for governments that do not obey. These might include threats to freeze EU funds for poorer regions and EU mega-projects, and even the suspension of a country"s voting rights in EU ministerial councils. It insists that economic co-ordination should involve all 27 members of the EU club, among whom there is a small majority for free-market liberalism and economic rigour; in the inner core alone, Germany fears, a small majority favour French interference. A "southern" camp headed by French wants something different: "European economic government" within an inner core of euro-zone members. Translated, that means politicians intervening in monetary policy and a system of redistribution from richer to poorer members, via cheaper borrowing for governments through common Eurobonds or complete fiscal transfers. Finally, figures close to the France government have murmured, euro-zone members should agree to some fiscal and social harmonisation: e.g., curbing competition in corporate-tax rates or labour costs. It is too soon to write off the EU. It remains the world"s largest trading block. At its best, the European project is remarkably liberal: built around a single market of 27 rich and poor countries, its internal borders are far more open to goods, capital and labour than any comparable trading area. It is an ambitious attempt to blunt the sharpest edges of globalization, and make capitalism benign.

单选题Can computer viruses ever be a force for progress? In the wild west of the online world, the archetypal baddies are computer viruses and worms. These self-replicating programs are notorious for wreaking havoc in the systems of unwary users. But, as in the west, not all gunslingers wear black hats. Some virus writers wish their fellow users well, and have been spreading viruses that are designed to do good, not harm. Cheese Worm, which appeared a few weeks ago, attempts to fix computers that have been compromised by the Lion Worm. The Lion Worm is dangerous. It infects computers that use the Linux operating system, and creates multiple "backdoors" into the infected computer. It then e-mails information about these backdoors to people who wish to misuse that computer for nefarious purposes such as "denial of service" attacks on websites. (Such attacks bombard a site with so many simultaneous requests for access that it comes out with its hands up.) That might sound like a good thing. So might VBS. Noped. A @ mm. This virus, which arrives as an e-mail attachment, searches a user's hard drive for specific files which the (unknown) virus writer believes contain child pornography. If the virus finds any files on the proscribed list, it e-mails a copy of the file in question to a random recipient from a list of American government agencies, with an explanatory note. The notion of "good" viruses may sound novel; but, according to Vesselin Bontchev, a virus expert with Frisk Software International in Iceland, it is not. However, early attempts to create beneficial viruses—for example, programs that compressed or encrypted files without asking a user's permission—were resented, because they represented a loss of control over a user's computer, and a diversion of data-processing resources. Inoculating computers against infection sounds like a good idea, but fails because any unauthorised changes are suspicious. Cheese Worm, even though it is designed to help the user whose disk it ends up on, suffers from the same objection. And VBS. Noped. A @ mm, whatever social benefits its author might think it has, is not even meant to do that. If it works, it will harm the user rather than help him. It is little more than cyber-vigilantism. Appropriate to the wild west, perhaps, but if cyberspace is to be civilised, other solutions will have to be found.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} Contrary to the impression that grandmothers are delighted to help their grown daughters and care for their grandchildren, a study of multigenerational families indicates that many older women resent the frequent impositions of the younger generations on their home and energy. "Young women with children are under a lot of pressure these days, and they expect their mothers to help them pick up the pieces," noted Dr. Bertram J. Cohler, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago. "This is often the strongest source of resentment on the part of Grandmother, who has finished with child caring and now has her own life to live. Grandmothers like to see their children and grandchildren, but on their own time." In all the four New England families studied, the older women resented the numerous phone calls and visits from their grown daughter, who often turned to their mothers for advice, physical resources, affection, and companionship as well as baby sitting services. "American society keeps piling on the burdens for older people, particularly those in their 50s and 60s," Dr. Cohler said in an interview here. "They're still working and they're taking care of their grown children and maybe also their aged parents. Sometimes life gets to be too much. That's one reason many older folks move far away, to Florida or Arizona. They need more space and time to attend to their own affair and friends. Young people don't understand this, and that's part of what create tension between generations." He has found that, contrary to what the younger generations may have thought, older people have an enormous amount to do. "More than half of working-class grandmothers still work, and if they' re retired they have activities in the community that keep them occupied," he said. "Each generation has got to appreciate the unique needs of the other," Dr. Cohler went on. "The younger generation has to realize that grandparents have busy, active lives and that they need privacy and more space for themselves. And the older generation has to realize that continuing to be part of the family is important to the younger generation and that they need help and support." He noted that problems with interdependence between generations were likely to be more intense in working-class families than in middle and upper-class families. He explained that the working class tended to be geographically less mobile and to have fewer outside resources and that daughters were more likely to be reared with a strong family orientation and less emphasis on establishing an independent life.

单选题A really good day for Rob Borucki will be a day

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SIIEET 1. What can be said of the normal process of aging, from a linguistic point of view? In general{{U}} (1) {{/U}}, there is a clear and{{U}} (2) {{/U}}relationship: no-one would have much difficulty{{U}} (3) {{/U}}a baby, a young child, a teenager, a middle-aged person, or a very old person from a tape recording. With children,{{U}} (4) {{/U}}is possible for specialists in language development, and people experienced{{U}} (5) {{/U}}child care, to make very detailed{{U}} (6) {{/U}}about how language correlates with age in the early years.{{U}} (7) {{/U}}is known about the patterns of linguistic change that affect older people. It is plain that our voice quality, vocabulary, and style alter{{U}} (8) {{/U}}we grow older, but research (9) the nature of these changes is in its earliest stages. However. a certain amount of{{U}} (10) {{/U}}is available about the production and{{U}} (11) {{/U}}of spoken language by very old people, especially regarding the phonetic changes that take place. Speech is{{U}} (12) {{/U}}to be affected by reductions in the{{U}} (13) {{/U}}of the vocal organs. The muscles of the chest{{U}} (14) {{/U}}, the lungs become less elastic, the ribs{{U}} (15) {{/U}}mobile: as a result, respiratory efficiency at age 75 is only about half{{U}} (16) {{/U}}at age 30, and this has{{U}} (17) {{/U}}for the ability to speak loudly, rhythmically, and with good tone In addition, speech is affected by poorer movement of the soft palate and changes in the facial skeleton, especially around the mouth and jaw. There are other, more general signs of age. Speech rate slows, and fluency may be more erratic. Hearing{{U}} (18) {{/U}}, especially after the early fifties. Weakening{{U}} (19) {{/U}}of memory and attention may affect the ability to comprehend complex speech patterns. But it is{{U}} (20) {{/U}}all had news: vocabulary awareness may continue to grow, as may stylistic ability—skills in narration, for example. And grammatical ability seems to be little affected.

单选题We tend to think of the decades immediately following World War Ⅱ as a time of prosperity and growth, with soldiers returning home by the millions, going off to college on the G.I. Bill and lining up at the marriage bureaus. But when it came to their houses, it was a time of common sense and a belief that less could truly be more. During the Depression and the war, Americans had learned to live with less, and that restraint, in combination with the postwar confidence in the future, made small, efficient housing positively stylish. Economic condition was only a stimulus for the trend toward efficient living. The phrase "less is more" was actually first popularized by a German, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who like other people associated with the Bauhaus, a school of design, emigrated to the United States before World War Ⅱ and took up posts at American architecture schools. These designers came to exert enormous influence on the course of American architecture, but none more so than Mies. Mies"s signature phrase means that less decoration, properly organized, has more impact than a lot. Elegance, he believed, did not derive from abundance. Like other modern architects, he employed metal, glass and laminated wood—materials that we take for granted today but that in the 1940s symbolized the future. Mies"s sophisticated presentation masked the fact that the spaces he designed were small and efficient, rather than big and often empty. The apartments in the elegant towers Mies built on Chicago"s Lake Shore Drive, for example, were smaller—two-bedroom units under 1,000 square feet—than those in their older neighbors along the city"s Gold Coast. But they were popular because of their airy glass walls, the views they afforded and the elegance of the buildings" details and proportions, the architectural equivalent of the abstract art so popular at the time. The trend toward "less" was not entirely foreign. In the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright started building more modest and efficient houses—usually around 1,200 square feet—than the spreading two-story ones he had designed in the 1890s and the early 20th century. The "Case Study Houses" commissioned from talented modern architects by California Arts & Architecture magazine between 1945 and 1962 were yet another homegrown influence on the "less is more" trend. Aesthetic effect came from the landscape, new materials and forthright detailing. In his Case Study House, Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanical revolution would impact everyday life—few American families acquired helicopters, though most eventually got clothes dryers—but his belief that self-sufficiency was both desirable and inevitable was widely shared.

单选题According to the author, the American economic situation is ______.

单选题The studies cited by the National Eating Disorders Association are made among

单选题According to paragraph 3, some workers have been killed by harmful pollutants in that

单选题 So what is depression? Depression is often more about anger turned{{U}} (1) {{/U}}than it is about sadness. But it's usually{{U}} (2) {{/U}}as sadness. Depression can{{U}} (3) {{/U}}at all ages, from childhood to old age, and it's the United States' No. 1{{U}} (4) {{/U}}problem. When someone is depressed, her behavior{{U}} (5) {{/U}}change and she loses interest in activities she{{U}} (6) {{/U}}enjoyed (like sports, music, friendships). The sadness usually lasts every day for most of the day and for two weeks or more. What{{U}} (7) {{/U}}depression? A{{U}} (8) {{/U}}event can certainly bring{{U}} (9) {{/U}}depression, but some will say it happens{{U}} (10) {{/U}}a specific cause. So how do you know if you're just having a bad day{{U}} (11) {{/U}}are really depressed? Depression affects your{{U}} (12) {{/U}}, moods, behavior and even your physical health. These changes often go{{U}} (13) {{/U}}or are labeled{{U}} (14) {{/U}}simply a bad case of the blues. Someone who's truly{{U}} (15) {{/U}}depression will have{{U}} (16) {{/U}}periods of crying spells, feelings of{{U}} (17) {{/U}}(like not being able to change your situation) and{{U}} (18) {{/U}}(tike you'll feel this way forever), irritation or agitation. A depressed person often{{U}} (19) {{/U}}from others, Depression seldom goes away by itself, and the greatest{{U}} (20) {{/U}}of depression is suicide. The risk of suicide increases if the depression isn't treated.

单选题The main impact the Telecommunications Act of 1996 had on radio was to______.

单选题Biologists have made a lot of progress in understanding ageing. They have not, however, been able to do much about slowing it down. A piece of work reported in this week's Nature by Darren Baker, though, describes an extraordinary result that points to a way the process might be improved. Dr Baker has shown— in mice, at least—that ageing body cells not only suffer themselves, but also have adverse effects on otherwise healthy cells around them. If such ageing cells are selectively destroyed, these adverse effects go away. The story starts with an observation that senescent cells often produce a molecule called P16INK4A. Dr Baker genetically engineered a group of mice that were already quite unusual. They had a condition called progeria, meaning that they aged much more rapidly than normal mice. The extra tweak he added to the DNA of these mice was a way of killing cells that produce P16INK4A. He did this by inserting into the animals' DNA, near the gene for P 16INK4A, a second gene that was, because of this proximity, controlled by the same genetic switch. This second gene, activated whenever the gene for P16INK4A was active, produced a protein that was harmless in itself, but which could kill the senescent cells by the presence of a particular drug. The results were spectacular. Mice given the drug every three days from birth suffered far less age-related body-wasting than those which were not. Their muscles remained plump and effective. And they did not suffer cataracts of the eye. They did, though, continue to experience age-related problems in tissues that do not produce P16INK4A as they get old. In particular, their hearts and blood vessels aged normally. For that reason, since heart failure is the main cause of death in such mice, their lifespans were not extended. Regardless of the biochemical details, the most intriguing thing Dr Baker's result provides is a new way of thinking about how to slow the process of ageing—and one that works with the grain of nature, rather than against it. Actually eliminating senescent cells may be a logical extension of the process of shutting them down, and thus may not have adverse consequences. It is not an elixir of life, for eventually the body will run out of cells, as more and more of them reach their Hayflick limits. But it could be a way of providing a healthier and more robust old age than people currently enjoy. Genetically engineering people in the way that Dr Baker engineered his mice is obviously out of the question for the foreseeable fixture. But if some other means of clearing cells rich in P 16INK4A from the body could be found, it might have the desired effect. The wasting and weakening of the tissues that accompanies senescence would be a thing of the past, and old age could then truly become ripe.

单选题A study of practices of financial institutions with no discrimination against self-employed women would tend to contradict

单选题Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and services that took place in eighteenth-century England. MeKendrick has explored the Wedgewood Firm"s remarkable success in marketing luxury pottery. Plumb has written about the proliferation of provincial theaters, musical festivals and children" s toys and books . While the feat of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain : Who were the consumers? What were their motives? And what were the effects of the new demand for luxuries? An answer to the first of these has been difficult to obtain. Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and service actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We still need to know how large this consumer market was and how far down the social scale the consumer demand for luxury goods penetrated. With regard to this last question, we might note in passing that Thompson, while rightly restoring laboring people to the stage of eighteenth-century English history, has probably exaggerated the opposition of these people to the inroads of capitalist consumerism in general: for example, laboring people in eighteenth-century England readily shifted from home-brewed beer to standardized beer produced by huge, heavily capitalized urban breweries. To answer the question of why consumers became so eager to buy, some historians have pointed to the ability of manufacturers to advertise in a relatively uncensored press. This, however, hardly seems a sufficient answer. MeKendriek favors a Viable model of conspicuous consumption stimulated by competition for status. The " middling sort" bought goods and services because they wanted to follow fashions set by the rich. Again, we may wonder whether this explanation is sufficient. Do not people enjoy buying things as a form of self-gratification? If so, consumerism could be seen as a product of the rise of new concepts of individualism and materialism, but not necessarily of the frenzy for conspicuous competition. Finally, what were the consequences of this consumer demand for luxuries? MeKendriek claims that it goes a long way toward explaining the coming of the Industrial Revolution. But does it? What, for example, does the production of high-quality potteries and toys have to do with the development of iron manufacture or textile mills? I t is perfectly possiMe Go have the psychology and reality of consumer society without a heavy industrial sector. That future exploration of these key questions is undoubtedly necessary should not, however, diminish the force of the conclusion of recent studies: the insatiable demand in the tenth-century England for frivolous as well as useful goods and services foreshadows our own world.