单选题In para. 7, the author______.

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} The planet's wild creatures face a new threat -- from yuppies, empty nesters, singletons and one parent families. Biologists studying the pressure on the planet's dwindling biodiversity today report on a new reason for alarm. Although the rate of growth in the human population is decreasing, the number of individual households is exploding. Even where populations have actually dwindled -- in some regions of New Zealand, for instance -- the number of individual households has increased, bemuse of divorce, career choice, smaller families and longer lifespans. Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University and colleagues from Stanford University in California re- port in Nature, in a paper published online in advance, that a greater number of individual house-holds, each containing on average fewer people, meant more pressure on natural resources. Towns and cities began to sprawl as new homes were built. Each household needed fuel to heat and light it; each household required its own plumbing, cooking and refrigeration. "In larger households, the efficiency of resource consumption will be a lot higher, because more people share things," Dr. Liu said. He and his colleagues looked at the population patterns of life in 141 countries, including 76 "hotspot" regions unusually rich in a variety of endemic wildlife. These hot spots included Australia, New Zealand, the US, Brazil, China, India, Kenya, and Italy. They found that between 1985 and 2000 in the "hotspot" parts of the globe, the annual 3.1% growth rate in the number of households was far higher than the population growth rate of 1.8%. "Had the average household' size remained at the 1985 level," the scientists report, "there would have been 155m fewer households in hotspot countries in 2000. Paradoxically, smaller households do not mean smaller homes. In Indian River county, Florida, the average area of a one-storey, single family house increased 33 % in the past three decades." Dr. Liu's work grew from the alarming discovery that the giant pandas living in China's Wolong reserve were more at risk now than they were when the reserve was first established. The local population had grown, but the total number of homes had increased more swiftly, to make greater inroads into the bamboo forests. Gretchen Daily of Stanford, one of the authors, said: "We all depend on open space and wild places, not just for peace of mind but for vital services such as crop pollination, water purification and climate stabilization. The alarming thing about this study is the finding that, if family groups continue to become smaller and smaller, we might continue losing biodiversity -- even if we get the aggregate human population size stabilised."

单选题Don't look now, but they're all around you. They're standing by the copy machine, hovering by the printer, answering the phone. Yes, they're the overworked, underappreciated interns: young, eager and not always paid. And with just 20% of the graduating class of 2009 gainfully employed, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, there are more and more of them each day. It seems the importance of internships for securing full-time work has dramatically increased over the years. Intern, previously used in the medical profession to define a person with a degree but without a license to practice, became a term for a physician in training following World War I, when medical school was no longer seen as preparation enough for practice. Later, the word migrated to politics as an alternative to the term apprentice as a reference to those interested in learning about careers in government. Meanwhile, co-op programs, in which students would work at a company for an extended period during college, emerged. From 1970 to 1983, the number of colleges and universities offering the programs increased from 200 to 1,000. Sure, it took an extra year to earn a B.A., but for three months each school year, students worked for companies they were interested in, tried out careers they weren't sure about and earned money to help cover tuition. Internship programs have produced several successes: Bill Gates was once a congressional page, and Oprah Winfrey worked at a CBS affiliate during her college years, just to name a few. Of course, Monica Lewinsky was a 22-year-old White House intern when she engaged in an intimate relationship with President Clinton, a scandal that still taints both offices. Today's interns are not limited to summer jobs at their local businesses. Some programs provide dorm housing in cities like New York and Washington, allowing students from around the country to work for the nation's biggest companies. Many popular cities even have Facebook groups devoted to providing social outings and networking opportunities for the thousands of interns who descend each summer. Though internships were formerly touted as an opportunity for students to explore career options, doing so now comes with a price. Some experts argue that internships punish those who might decide later than age 18 what they want to do with their life. More important, they can favor wealthier students, who can afford to not make any money during the summer, over the less privileged. Still, with pressure increasing on students to find work, the clamor for internships is only growing. To land that first job, career advisers now say, applicants should have two or more internships under their belt. Anyone who takes a summer to simply explore might be too late.

单选题A dependent audit comes from your employer, who wants proof that the people you're carrying on the company health plan really are your dependents. If you can't prove they are, the company will drop them. The goal is to ferret out children who are over age 18 and not in school, ex-spouses, sometimes even nieces or nephews—people, in short, who do not meet an employer's definition of dependent. If your company does not already conduct these audits, chances are it eventually will. And while it may strike you as an annoyance, do not ignore this task. Otherwise, eligible dependents could lose their health coverage. From an employer's perspective, audits make good business sense. Health care costs have been rising by 5 to 10 percent a year for over a decade, and employers want to contain those costs. An audit of a 10,000-person employer will typically uncover 200 to 500 ineligible dependents, said John Fazio, a senior consultant with the employee benefits firm Towers Watson. Removing these people, who cost a company an average of $ 2,100 a head, translates into annual savings of $ 420,000 to $1.05 million a year for the employer. Dependent audits have been around for more than a decade. But they have become popular in the last few years, as employers desperately sought ways to trim their health care budgets. This year 69 percent of large companies plan to conduct a dependent audit, up from the 55 percent that planned to do so in 2008, according to a March survey by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit organization of large employers. From the employees' perspective, such audits are at best an annoyance, forcing them to gather paper work proving, say, that a child who had been covered for years remains eligible. At worst, an audit can be a wrenching and costly experience when a worker's dependent is found to be ineligible and has to get insurance elsewhere. What is more, a worker could become liable for the money that an employer paid out for a spouse or child who should not have been on the plan. And, as audits have become more common, the process for employees has become more onerous. "It used to be the honor system," says Michael Smith, the chief executive of ConSova, a dependent auditing company. Just five years ago, employers typically asked that you sign an affidavit stating that your dependent was eligible to be on your plan. "Now, they want documentation," Mr. Fazio said. "It's a more diligent process. " That means you may have to dig up birth and marriage certificates, bank statements, divorce agreements and other documents that prove your child or spouse are legal dependents.

单选题A pair of dice, rolled again and again, will eventually produce two sixes. Similarly, the virus that causes influenza is constantly changing at random and, one day, will mutate in a way that will enable it to infect billions of people, and to kill millions. Many experts now believe a global outbreak of pandemic flu is overdue, and that the next one could be as bad as the one in 1918, which killed somewhere between 25m and 50m people. Today however, advances in medicine offer real hope that another such outbreak can be contained—if governments start preparing now. New research published this week suggests that a relatively small stockpile of an antiviral drug—as little as 3m doses—could be enough to limit sharply a flu pandemic if the drugs were deployed quickly to people in the area surrounding the initial outbreak. The drug's manufacturer, Roche, is talking to the World Health Organisation about donating such a stockpile. This is good news. But much more needs to be done, especially with a nasty strain of avian flu spreading in Asia which could mutate into a threat to humans. Since the SARS outbreak in 2003 a few countries have developed plans in preparation for similar episodes. But progress has been shamefully patchy, and there is still far too little international coordination. A global stockpile of drugs alone would not be much use without an adequate system of surveillance to identify early cases and a way of delivering treatment quickly. If an outbreak occurred in a border region, for example, a swift response would most likely depend on prior agreements between different countries about quarantine and containment. Reaching such agreements is rarely easy, but that makes the task all the more urgent. Rich countries tend to be better prepared than poor ones, but this should be no consolation to them. Flu does not respect borders. It is in everyone's interest to make sure that developing countries, especially in Asia, are also well prepared. Many may bridle at interference from outside. But if richer nations were willing to donate anti-viral drugs and guarantee a supply of any vaccine that becomes available, poorer nations might be willing to reach agreements over surveillance and preparedness. Simply sorting out a few details now will have lives (and recriminations) later. Will there be enough ventilators, makes and drugs? Where will people be treated if the hospitals overflow? Will food be delivered as normal? Too many countries have no answers to these questions.

单选题We can learn from the first three paragraphs that______.

单选题Healthgrades. com claimed that it shouldn't be sued in Washington because______.

单选题{{B}}Text 3{{/B}} Success, it is often said, has many fathers--and one of the many fathers of computing, that most successful of industries, was Charles Babbage, a 19th-century British mathematician. Exasperated by errors in the mathematical tables that were widely used as calculation aids at the time, Babbage dreamed of building a mechanical engine that could produce flawless tables automatically. But his attempts to make such a machine in the 1920s failed, and the significance of his work was only rediscovered this century. Next year, at last, the first set of printed tables should emerge from a calculating "difference engine" built to Babbage's design. Babbage will have been vindicated. But the realization of his dream will also underscore the extent to which he was a man born ahead of his time. The effort to prove that Babbage's designs were logically and practically sound began in 1985, when a team of researchers at the Science Museum in London set out to build a difference engine in time for the 200th anniversary of Babbage's birth in 1992. The team, led by the museum's curator of computing, Doron Swade, constructed a monstrous device of bronze, iron and steel. It was 11 feet long, seven feet tall, weighed three tons, cost around $500 000 and took a year to piece together. And it worked perfectly, cranking out successive values of seventh-order polynomial equations to :31 significant figures. But it was incomplete. To save money, an entire section of the machine, the printer, was omitted. To Babbage, the printer was a vital part of design. Even if the engine produced the correct answers, there was still the risk that a transcription or typesetting error would result in the finished mathematical tables being inaccurate. The only way to guarantee error-free tables was to automate the printing process as well. So his plans included specifications for a printer almost as complicated as the calculating engine itself, with adjustable margins, two separate fonts, and the ability to print in two, three or four columns. In January, after years of searching for a sponsor for the printer, the Science Museum announced that a backer had been found. Nathan Myhrvold, the chief technology officer at Microsoft, agreed to pay for its construction (which is expected to cost $373 000 with one Proviso: that the Science Museum team would build him an identical calculating engine and printer to decorate his new home on Lake Washington, near Seattle). Construction of the printer will begin--in full view of the public--at the Science Museum later this month. The full machine will be completed next year. It is a nice irony that Babbage's plans should be realized only thanks to an infusion of cash from a man who got rich in the computer revolution that Babbage helped to foment. More striking still, even using 20th-century manufacturing technology the engine will have cost over $830 000 to build. Allowing for inflation, this is roughly a third of what it might have cost to build in Babbage's day-in contrast to the cost of electronic-computer technology, which halves in price every 18 months. That suggests that, even had Babbage succeeded, a Victorian computer revolution based on mechanical technology would not necessarily have followed.

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 SHEET 1. The fact that blind people can "see" things using other parts of their bodies apart from their eyes may help us to understand our feelings about color. If they can{{U}} (1) {{/U}}color differences, then perhaps we, too, are affected by{{U}} (2) {{/U}}unconsciously. Manufacturers have discovered by{{U}} (3) {{/U}}that sugar sells badly in green wrappings,{{U}} (4) {{/U}}blue foods are considered unpleasant, and the cosmetics should never be packaged{{U}} (5) {{/U}}brown. These discoveries have grown{{U}} (6) {{/U}}a whole discipline of color psychology that now finds{{U}} (7) {{/U}}in everything from fashion to interior decoration. Some of our{{U}} (8) {{/U}}are clearly psychological. Dark blue is the color of the night sky and{{U}} (9) {{/U}}associated with passivity and calm, while yellow is a day color with{{U}} (10) {{/U}}of energy and incentive. For primitive man, activity during the day{{U}} (11) {{/U}}hunting and attacking, while he soon saw as red, the color of blood and rage and the heat that came{{U}} (12) {{/U}}effort. And green is associated with passive{{U}} (13) {{/U}}and self preservation. Experiments have{{U}} (14) {{/U}}that green, partly bemuse of its physiological associations, also has a direct psychological{{U}} (15) {{/U}}, it is a calming color.{{U}} (16) {{/U}}its exciting connotations, red was chosen as the signal for changer,{{U}} (17) {{/U}}closer analysis shows that a vivid yellow can produce a{{U}} (18) {{/U}}basic state of alertness and (19) , so fire engines and ambulances in some advanced communities are now{{U}} (20) {{/U}}around in bright yellow colors that stop the traffic dead.

单选题Judging from the context, what does the word "them" (Line 4, Paragraph 4) refer to?

单选题Your eye is a window on the nerves and blood vessels, revealing vital information about your entire body. An (1) exam starts from the outside and works in. First the ophthalmologist (眼科医生) gauges (2) with the familiar wall chart and checks visual field by moving objects in and out of (3) . A limited visual field could be the (4) of the high inner eye pressure of glaucoma(青光眼)or (5) a tumor pressing on nerves leading from the eye. The physician also checks for infection around the lashes and notes how fast the lids follow the eyes downward. Lid lag sometimes (6) thyroid disease (甲状腺疾病). If one pupil contracts (7) the other doesn't, the physician is (8) to the fact that (9) a tumor or stroke, perhaps, has damaged the nerves between the eye and brain. A tumor as far away (10) the lung can cause capillary problems by hitting a nerve that loops through the neck. The white of the eye, tear ducts, lens and retina (视网膜) are checked for (11) of trouble. Too many white blood cells (12) inflammation, blood means tissue has tom or a vessel has burst, and deposits of (13) material can mean eye disease. The orange-red retina holds many more (14) for disease detection. High blood pressure may announce its (15) by pushing the vessels off track at their intersections. (16) vessel growth is a sign of diabetic retinopathy (糖尿病性视网膜病). Narrowed vessels may indicate (17) of the arteries, and damage to tiny capillaries could be a sign of early diabetes. The doctor even examines the pin-head-size hole in the back of the optic nerve on their way to the brain. (18) the appearance of these nerve fibers is abnormal, nerve tissue may have been damaged because of intraocular pressure, indicating glaucoma or the presence of a tumor. When a physician needs quick, (19) information about the body, the eyes have (20) .

单选题The passage suggests which of the following about air pollution?

单选题When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filling or polishing as nails as she'd like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator," she says, "I provide a service that people can do without when they're concerned about saving some dollars." So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus, "I don't know it other clients are going to abandon me, too." She says. Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealer-ships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only mildly concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening. Consumers say they're not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there's a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses." Says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says John Tealdi, a Bay Area real-estate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job. Many folks see silver linings to this slow-down. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn't mind a little fewer buddles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan's hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant used to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.

单选题{{B}}Text 4{{/B}} The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, announced here today that a delegation of Pakistani officials would fly to the Taliban~ s headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Monday to renew demands that the militia surrender Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden. U.S. officials have named Bin Laden, who has been given shelter by the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan, as the prime suspect in Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Washington and New York. "We are aware of the gravity of the situation and know that in the lives of nations, such situations do arise that require making important decisions," Musharraf said at a meeting with Pakistani newspaper editors. The Taliban's leader, Mohammad Omar, has refused to give up Bin Laden, claiming he is not responsible for the U.S. attacks. "The Pakistan government is leaning on the Taliban government to hand over Osama to save this entire region from catastrophe," said Najam Sethi, editor of the weekly newspaper Friday Times, who participated in the meeting with Musharraf. "I am not sure whether there is much chance of that happening, but the pressure is on from the Pakistan government." Pakistan has been a key supporter of the Taliban, which controls more than 90 percent of Afghanistan and has enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law in the country. Omar, the Taliban leader, today convened an emergency meeting of clerics(圣职人员) in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "As regards the possible attack by America on the sacred soil of Afghanistan, veteran honorable clerics should come to Kabul for a sharia decision," Omar said in a statement broadcast on the Taliban's Radio Shariat today. Sharia is Islamic law. Omar, who reportedly left Ms. Kandahar headquarters several days ago in anticipation of a U. S. attack, asked Afghans to pray and read the Koran to meet what he called a "test", according to the statement. He indicated he would not attend the meeting of clerics, though he reportedly met with a small group of senior clerics today. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported today it had received a statement from Bin Laden, dispatched by an aide from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, in which he denied involvement in last week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "I am residing in Afghanistan," the statement said, "I have taken an oath of allegiance to Omar which does not allow me to do such things from Afghanistan. We have been blamed in the past, but we were not involved."

单选题King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted "kings don"t abdicate, they die in their sleep." But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So, does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles? The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarised, as it was following the end of the Franco regime, monarchs can rise above "mere" politics and "embody" a spirit of national unity. It is this apparent transcendence of politics that explains monarchs, continuing popularity as heads of state. And so, the Middle East excepted, Europe is the most monarch-infested region in the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican City and Andorra). But unlike their absolutist counterparts in the Gulf and Asia, most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure. Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history—and sometimes the way they behave today—embodies outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomes Piketty and other economists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is bizarre that wealthy aristocratic families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic states. The most successful monarchies strive to abandon or hide their old aristocratic ways. Prince and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses (or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media intrusiveness makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image. While Europe"s monarchies will no doubt be smart enough to survive for some time to come, it is the British royals who have most to fear from the Spanish example. It is only the Queen who has preserved the monarchy"s reputation with her rather ordinary (if well-heeled) granny style. The danger will come with Charles, who has both an expensive taste of lifestyle and a pretty hierarchical view of the world. He has failed to understand that monarchies have largely survived because they provide a service—as non-controversial and non-political heads of state. Charles ought to know that as English history shows, it is kings, not republicans, who are the monarchy"s worst enemies.