单选题The idea that some groups of people may be more intelligent than others is one of those hypotheses that dare not speak its name. But Gregory Cochran is (1) to say it anyway. He is that (2) bird, a scientist who works independently (3) any institution. He helped popularize the idea that some diseases not (4) thought to have a bacterial cause were actually infections, which aroused much controversy when it was first suggested. (5) he, however, might tremble at the (6) of what he is about to do. Together with another two scientists, he is publishing a paper which not only (7) that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process that has brought this about. The group in (8) are a particular people originated from central Europe. The process is natural selection. This group generally do well in IQ test, (9) 12-15 points above the (10) value of 100, and have contributed (11) to the intellectual and cultural life of the West, as the (12) of their elites, including several world renowned scientists, (13) . They also suffer more often than most people from a number of nasty genetic diseases, such as breast cancer. These facts, (14) , have previously been thought unrelated. The former has been (15) to social effects, such as a strong tradition of (16) education. The latter was seen as a (an) (17) of genetic isolation. Dr. Coehran suggests that the intelligence and diseases are intimately (18) . His argument is that the unusual history of these people has (19) them to unique evolutionary pressures that have resulted in this (20) state of affairs.

单选题How best to solve the pollution problems of a city sunk so deep within sulfurous clouds that it was described as hell on earth? Simply answered: Relocate all urban smoke-creating industry and encircle the metropolis of London with sweetly scented flowers and elegant hedges. In fact, as Christine L. Corton, a Cambridge scholar, reveals in her new book, London Fog, this fragrant anti-smoke scheme was the brainchild of John Evelyn, the 17th-century diarist. King Charles Ⅱ was said to be much pleased with Evelyn"s idea, and a bill against the smoky nuisance was duly drafted. Then nothing was done. Nobody at the time, and nobody right up to the middle of the 20th century, was willing to put public health above business interests. And yet it"s a surprise to discover how beloved a feature of London life these multicolored fogs became. A painter, Claude Monet, fleeing besieged Paris in 1870, fell in love with London"s vaporous, mutating clouds. He looked upon the familiar mist as his reliable collaborator. Visitors from abroad may have delighted in the fog, but homegrown artists lit candles and vainly scrubbed the grime from their gloom-filled studio windows. "Give us light!" Frederic Leighton pleaded to the guests at a Lord Mayor"s banquet in 1882, begging them to have pity on the poor painter. The more serious side of Corton"s book documents how business has taken precedence over humanity where London"s history of pollution is concerned. A prevailing westerly wind meant that those dwelling to the east were always at most risk. Those who could afford it lived elsewhere. The east was abandoned to the underclass. Lord Palmerston spoke up for choking East Enders in the 1850s, pointing a finger at the interests of the furnace owners. A bill was passed, but there was little change. Eventually, another connection was established: between London"s perpetual veil of smog and its citizens" cozily smoldering grates. Sadly, popular World War I songs like "Keep the Home Fires Burning" didn"t do much to encourage the adoption of smokeless fuel. It wasn"t until what came to be known as the "Great Killer Fog" of 1952 that the casualty rate became impossible to ignore and the British press finally took up the cause. It was left to a Member of Parliament to steer the Clean Air Act into law in 1956. Within a few years, even as the war against pollution was still in its infancy, the dreaded fog began to fade. Corton"s book combines meticulous social history with a wealth of eccentric detail. Thus we learn that London"s ubiquitous plane trees were chosen for their shiny, fog-resistant foliage. It"s discoveries like these that make reading London Fog such an unusual and enlightening experience.

单选题Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D. The notion of using a management degree to do good while doing well has grown in popularity on today's business school campuses. And an ever-increasing number of students plan on putting their talent to use within the {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}sector. The recession has led many applicants to reevaluate their priorities and {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}what they want to do with their lives, often trading jobs with status and huge paychecks for careers with a (n) {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}social impact. In order to keep and develop the competitive {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}needed to survive in today's uncertain economy, non-profits must run themselves just like any other successful business. What you need to {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}a company well, as is often the {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}within this sector, business skills are essential. {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}are people skills, management skills, financial-analysis skills, IT skills—the list goes on. That's {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}the MBA degree comes in. While at business school, social enterprise-minded students can take {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}of numerous clubs, competitions, global experiences, and centers. And the centers are {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}to teach students about topics ranging from nonprofit management to starting businesses that {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}underrepresented communities. The Social Enterprise Initiative is a big part of MBA experience at Harvard Business School, which {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}mort than 500 books and cases published on the subject since 1993 and more than 90 HBS {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}engaged in social enterprise research and teaching. {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business, MBA students can earn a certificate in the Public Management Program as they focus their academic efforts in {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}such as the environment, international development, health care, and education. Across the pond, the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford's Said Business School {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}for its variety of social entrepreneurship electives, MBA projects on social innovation, and cocurricular activities. It was {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}in 2003 with a ￡4.4 million investment by the Skoll Foundation, the largest {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}center offers up to five fully funded MBA scholarships to {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}impressive candidates, named Skoll Skollars, who plan to {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}entrepreneurial solution for urgent social and environmental challenges.

单选题In August, environmentalists in the Philippines vandalized a field of Golden Rice, an experimental grain whose genes had been modified. Its seeds will be handed out free to farmers. The aim is to improve the health of children in poor countries by reducing vitamin A deficiency, which contributes to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and cases of blindness each year. Environmentalists claim that these sorts of actions are justified because genetically modified crops pose health risks. Now the main ground for those claims has crumbled. Last year a paper which was published in a respected journal found that unusual rates of tumours and deaths in rats that had been fed upon a variety of genetic modification (GM) corn. Other studies found no such effects. But this one enabled campaigners to make a health-and-safety argument against GM crops— one persuasive enough to influence governments. After the study appeared, Russia suspended imports of the grain in question. Kenya banned all GM crops. And the French prime minister said that if the results were confirmed he would press for a Europe-wide ban on the GM maize. There is now no serious scientific evidence that GM crops do any harm to the health of human beings. There is plenty of evidence, though, that they benefit the health of the planet. One of the biggest challenges facing mankind is to feed the 9 billion-10 billion people who will be alive and richer in 2050. This will require doubling food production on roughly the same area of land, using less water and fewer chemicals. It will also mean making food crops more resistant to the droughts and floods that seem likely if climate change is as bad as scientists fear. If the Green revolution had never happened, and yields had stayed at 1960 levels, the world could not produce its current food output even if it ploughed up every last acre of cultivable land. In contrast, GM crops boost yields, protecting wild habitat from the plough. They are more resistant to the vagaries of climate change, and to diseases and pests, reducing the need for agrochemicals. Genetic research holds out the possibility of breakthroughs that could vastly increase the productivity of farming, such as grains that fix their own nitrogen. Vandalizing GM field trials is a bit like the campaign of some religious leaders to prevent smallpox inoculations: it causes misery, even death, in the name of obscurantism and unscientific belief.

单选题Robots have been the stuff of science fiction for so long that it is surprisingly hard to see them as the stuff of management fact. It is time for management thinkers to catch up with science-fiction writers. Robots have been doing menial jobs on production lines since the 1960s. The world already has more than 1 million industrial robots. There is now an acceleration in the rates at which they are becoming both cleverer and cheaper: an explosive combination. Robots are learning to interact with the world around them. Their ability to see things is getting ever closer to that of humans, as is their capacity to ingest information and act on it. Tomorrow"s robots will increasingly take on delicate, complex tasks. And instead of being imprisoned in cages to stop them colliding with people and machines, they will be free to wander. Until now executives have largely ignored robots, regarding them as an engineering rather than a management problem. This cannot go on: robots are becoming too powerful and ubiquitous . Companies certainly need to rethink their human-resources policies—starting by questioning whether they should have departments devoted to purely human resources. The first issue is how to manage the robots themselves. An American writer, Isaac Asimov laid down the basic rule in 1942: no robot should harm a human. This rule has been reinforced by recent technological improvements: robots are now much more sensitive to their surroundings and can be instructed to avoid hitting people. A second question is how to manage the homo side of homo-robo relations. Workers have always worried that new technologies will take away their livelihoods, ever since the original Luddites" fears about mechanised looms. Now, the arrival of increasingly humanoid automatons in workplaces, in an era of high unemployment, is bound to provoke a reaction. Two principles—don"t let robots hurt or frighten people—are relatively simple. Robot scientists are tackling more complicated problems as robots become more sophisticated. They are keen to avoid hierarchies among rescue-robots (because the loss of the leader would render the rest redundant). They are keen to avoid duplication between robots and their human handlers. This suggests that the world could be on the verge of a great management revolution: making robots behave like humans rather than the 20th century"s preferred option, making humans behave like robots.

单选题We can see how the product life cycle works by looking at the introduction of instant coffee. When it was introduced, most people did not like it as well as "regular" coffee, and it took several years to gain general acceptance (introduction stage). At one point, though, instant coffee grew rapidly in popularity, and many brands were introduced (stage of rapid growth). After a while, people became attached to one brand and sales leveled off (stage of maturity). Sales went into a slight decline (衰退) when freeze-dried coffees were introduced (stage of decline). The importance of the product life cycle to marketers is this: Different stages in the product life cycle call for different strategies. The goal is to extend product life so that sales and profits do not decline. One strategy is called market modification. It means that marketing managers look for new users and market sections. Did you know, for example, that the backpacks that so many students carry today were originally designed for the military? Market modification also means searching for increased usage among present customers or going for a different market, such as senior citizens. A marketer may re-position the product to appeal to new market sections. Another product extension strategy is called product modification. It involves changing product quality, features, or style to attract new users or more usage from present users. American auto manufacturers are using quality improvement as one way to recapture world markets. Note, also, how auto manufacturers once changed styles dramatically from year to year to keep demand from falling.

单选题As a wise man once said, we are all ultimately alone. But an increasing number of Europeans are choosing to be so at an ever earlier age. This isn"t the stuff of gloomy philosophical contemplations, but a fact of Europe"s new economic landscape, embraced by sociologists, real-estate developers and ad executives alike. The shift away from family life to solo lifestyle, observes a French sociologist, is part of the "irresistible momentum of individualism" over the last century. The communications revolution, the shift from a business culture of stability to one of mobility and the mass entry of women into the workforce have greatly wreaked havoc on Europeans private lives. Europe"s new economic climate has largely fostered the trend toward independence. The current generation of home-aloners came of age during Europe"s shift from social democracy to the sharper, more individualistic climate of American-style capitalism. Raised in an era of privatization and increased consumer choice, today"s tech-savvy workers have embraced a free market in love as well as economics. Modern Europeans are rich enough to afford to live alone, and temperamentally independent enough to want to do so. Once upon a time, people who lived alone tended to be those on either side of marriage twenty something professionals or widowed senior citizens. While pensioners, particularly elderly women, make up a large proportion of those living alone, the newest crop of singles are high earners in their 30s and 40s who increasingly view living alone as a lifestyle choice. Living alone was conceived to be negative—dark and cold, while being together suggested warmth and light. But then came along the idea of singles. They were young, beautiful, strong! Now, young people want to live alone. The booming economy means people are working harder than ever. And that doesn"t leave much room for relationships. Pimpi Arroyo, a 35-year-old composer who lives alone in a house in Paris, says he hasn"t got time to get lonely because he has too much work. "I have deadlines which would make life with someone else fairly difficult." Only an Ideal Woman would make him change his lifestyle, he says. Kaufmann, author of a recent book called "The Single Woman and Prince Chaming" thinks this fierce new individualism means that people expect more and more of mates, so relationships don"t last long—if they start at all. Eppendorf, a blond Berliner with a deep tan, teaches grade school in the mornings. In the afternoon she sunbathes or sleeps, resting up for going dancing. Just shy of 50, she says she"d never have wanted to do what her mother did—give up a career to raise a family. Instead, "I"ve always done what I wanted to do: live a self-determined life."

单选题Google is talking to auto makers about how to bring its self-driving-car technology to market, executives said Tuesday. Project director Chris Urmson said a self-driving car is probably still six years away. But, he added, "We are thinking now about how to bring this car to market." There is a lot of "debate internally about how automobiles can use this technology," said Sebastian Thrun, the original leader of Google"s autonomous car project. "There will be a time when a significant number of cars will carry Google technology." Google"s co-founder Sergey Brin—Urmson"s boss—said roughly a year and a half ago that Google"s self-driving car was about five years away. Urmson said on Tuesday that he is working on a six-year timeline, based on when his 10-year-old son turns 16 and will be able to drive in California. Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at Stanford University"s Center for Automotive Research, said it can take up to six years to design and build a new car. Smith said any self-driving car ready in six years would likely be "limited in terms of capability, availability , or geography." Google"s car looks like a regular vehicle but it uses multiple sensors and map data in real time to understand where it is and maneuver through streets and highways without human intervention. The project started in 2009 and became an early part of Google X, the company"s research lab for risky, long-term initiatives. Some on Wall Street are concerned about Google"s increased focus on these projects; however, they also give the company a chance to expand into huge new markets, such as autos. Urmson said Google"s autonomous cars are expensive, but he declined to be specific. That"s partly due to the laser sensor perched on top of the vehicles, which is made by Silicon Valley-based Company Velodyne. About 150 of these laser devices are produced a year, which increases the price of the component, Urmson explained. Besides, Arturo Corral, one of Google"s test drivers, said weather is a serious challenge. In heavy rain, the system asks drivers to take back control of the car, Corral said. Google has not tested the vehicles in snow yet. "We still have a long way to go," he added.

单选题Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C, D. In theory, annual performance review are constructive and positive interactions between managers and employees working together to attain {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}performance and strengthen the organization. In reality, they often create division, {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}morale (士气), and spark anger and jealousy. {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}, although the object of the annual performance review is to improve performance, it often has the {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}result. A programmer at a brokerage (经济) firm was {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}to learn at her annual performance review that she was denied a promotion {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}she wasn't a "team player" . What were the data used to make this {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}? She didn't smile in the company photo. {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}this story might sound as if it came straight out of a comic strip, it is a true {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}of one woman's experience. By {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}a few tips and guidelines (准则) from industry analysis, this kind of ordeal (厄运) can be avoided. To end the year {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}a positive and useful performance review, managers and employees must start the year by working together to {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}clear goals and expectations. It may be helpful to allow employees to submit a list of people {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}with the company who will be in a good position to {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}their performance at the end of the year is out. These people may be coworkers, suppliers, or even customers. By checking {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}progress at about nine months, managers can give them a chance to correct mistakes and provide {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}to those who need it before the year is ont. When conducting the review, managers should {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}strengths and weaknesses during the past year and discuss future responsibilities, avoiding punishment or blame. {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}, when employees leave their performance reviews, they should be focusing on {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}they can do in the year {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}, not worrying about what went into their files about the past.

单选题Could the bad old days of economic decline be about to return? Since OPEC agreed to supply-cuts in March, the price of crude oil has jumped to almost $26 a barrel, up from less than $10 last December. This near-tripling of oil prices calls up scary memories of the 1973 oil shocks resulted in double-digit inflation and global economic decline. So where are the headlines warning of gloom and doom this time? The oil price was given another push up this week when Iraq suspended oil exports. Strengthening economic growth, at the same time as winter grips the northern hemisphere, could push the price higher still in the short term. Yet there are good reasons to expect the economic consequences now to be less severe than in the 1970s. In most countries the cost of crude oil now accounts for a smaller share of the price of petrol than it did in the 1970s. In Europe, taxes account for up to four-fifths of the retail price, so even quite big changes in the price of crude have a more muted effect on pump prices than in the past. Rich economies are also less dependent on oil than they were, and so less sensitive to swings in the oil price. Energy conservation, a shift to other fuels and a decline in the importance of heavy, energy-intensive industries have reduced oil consumption. Software, consultancy and mobile telephones use far less oil than steel or car production. For each dollar of GDP (in constant prices) rich economies now use nearly 50% less oil than in 1973. The OECD estimates in its latest Economic Outlook that, if oil prices averaged $22 a barrel for a full year, compared with $13 in 1998, this would increase the oil import bill in rich economies by only 0.25%～0.5% of GDP. That is less than one-quarter of the income loss in 1974 or 1980. On the other hand, oil-importing emerging economies—to which heavy industry has shifted—have become more energy-intensive, and so could be more seriously squeezed. One more reason not to lose sleep over the rise in oil prices is that, unlike the rises in the 1970s, it has not occurred against the background of general commodity-price inflation and global excess demand. A sizable portion of the world is only just emerging from economic decline. The Economist"s commodity price index is broadly unchanging from a year ago. In 1973 commodity prices jumped by 70%, and in 1979 by almost 30%.

单选题Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C, or D. At the heart of the debate over illegal immigration lies one key question: are immigrants good or bad for the economy? The American public overwhelmingly thinks they're bad. Yet the consensus among most economists is that immigration, both legal and illegal, provides a small net boost to the economy. Immigrants provide cheap labor, lower the prices of everything from farm produce to new homes, and leave consumers with a little more money in their pockets. So why is there such a discrepancy between the perception of immigrants'impact on the economy and the reality7 There are a number of familiar theories. Some argue that people are anxious and feel threatened by an inflow of new workers. Others highlight the strain that undocumented immigrants place on public services, like schools, hospitals, and jails. Still others emphasize the role of race, arguing that foreigners add to the nation's fears and insecurities. There's some truth to all these explanations, but they aren't quite sufficient. To get a better understanding of what's going on, consider the way immigration's impact is felt. Though its overall effect may be positive, its costs and benefits are distributed unevenly. David Card, an economist at UC Berkeley, notes that the ones who profit most directly from immigrants'lowcost labor are businesses and employers-meatpacking plants in Nebraska, for instance, or agricultural businesses in California. Granted, these producers'savings probably translate into lower prices at the grocery store, but how many consumers make that mental connection at the checkout counter7 As for the drawbacks of illegal immigration, these, too, are concentrated. Native low-skilled workers suffer most from the competition of foreign labor. According to a study by George Borjas, a Harvard economist, immigration reduced the wages of American high-school dropouts by 9% between 1980-2000. Among high-skilled, better-educated employees, however, opposition was strongest in states with both high numbers of immigrants and relatively generous social services. What worried them most, in other words, was the fiscal (财政的) burden of immigration. That conclusion was reinforced by another finding: that their opposition appeared to soften when that fiscal burden decreased, as occurred with welfare reform in the 1990s, which curbed immigrants'access to certain benefits. The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal. Even for those most acutely affected-say, low-skilled workers, or California residents-the impact isn't all that dramatic. "The unpleasant voices have tended to dominate our perceptions," says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. "But when all those factors are put together and the economists calculate the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one. " Too bad most people don't realize it.

单选题In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk (废话)". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society"s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people"s lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual"s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show"s main target audiences are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life"s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show"s exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world.

单选题Robots have been the stuff of science fiction for so long that it is surprisingly hard to see them as the stuff of management fact. It is time for management thinkers to catch up with science-fiction writers. Robots have been doing menial jobs on production lines since the 1960s. The world already has more than 1 million industrial robots. There is now an acceleration in the rates at which they are becoming both cleverer and cheaper: an explosive combination. Robots are learning to interact with the world around them. Their ability to see things is getting ever closer to that of humans, as is their capacity to ingest information and act on it. Tomorrow"s robots will increasingly take on delicate, complex tasks. And instead of being imprisoned in cages to stop them colliding with people and machines, they will be free to wander. Until now executives have largely ignored robots, regarding them as an engineering rather than a management problem. This cannot go on: robots are becoming too powerful and ubiquitous. Companies certainly need to rethink their human-resources policies—starting by questioning whether they should have departments devoted to purely human resources. The first issue is how to manage the robots themselves. An American writer, Isaac Asimov laid down the basic rule in 1942: no robot should harm a human. This rule has been reinforced by recent technological improvements: robots are now much more sensitive to their surroundings and can be instructed to avoid hitting people. A second question is how to manage the homo side of homo-robo relations. Workers have always worried that new technologies will take away their livelihoods, ever since the original Luddites" fears about mechanised looms. Now, the arrival of increasingly humanoid automatons in workplaces, in an era of high unemployment, is bound to provoke a reaction. Two principles—don"t let robots hurt or frighten people—are relatively simple. Robot scientists are tackling more complicated problems as robots become more sophisticated. They are keen to avoid hierarchies among rescue-robots (because the loss of the leader would render the rest redundant). They are keen to avoid duplication between robots and their human handlers. This suggests that the world could be on the verge of a great management revolution: making robots behave like humans rather than the 20th century"s preferred option, making humans behave like robots.

单选题If you watched a certain swimmer"s Rio Games debut on Sunday night, when he propelled the United States 4×l00-meter relay team to a gold medal, you know the answer: Michael Phelps. While it may look like the athletes have been in a bar fight, the purple dots actually are signs of "cupping," an ancient Chinese healing practice that is experiencing an Olympic moment. In cupping, practitioners of the healing technique—or sometimes the athletes themselves— place specialized cups on the skin. Then they use either heat or an air pump to create suction between the cup and the skin, pulling the skin slightly up and away from the underlying muscles. The suction typically lasts for only a few minutes, but it"s enough time to cause the capillaries just beneath the surface to rupture, creating the circular, eye-catching bruises that have been so visible on Phelps as well as members of the United States men"s gymnastics team. Physiologically, cupping is thought to draw blood to the affected area, reducing soreness and speeding healing of overworked muscles. Athletes who use it swear by it, saying it keeps them injury free and speeds recovery. Phelps posted an Instagram photo showing himself stretched on a table as his Olympic swimming teammate Allison Schmitt placed several cups along the back of his thighs. "Thanks for my cupping today!" he wrote. While there"s no question that many athletes, coaches and trainers believe in the treatment, there"s not much science to determine whether cupping offers a real physiological benefit or whether the athletes simply are enjoying a placebo effect. "A placebo effect is present in all treatments, and I am sure that it is substantial in the case of cupping as well," said Leonid Kalichman, a senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "A patient can feel the treatment and has marks after it, and this can contribute to a placebo effect." One 2012 study of 61 people with chronic neck pain compared cupping to a technique called progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR, during which a patient deliberately tenses his muscles and then focuses on relaxing them. About half the patients used cupping while the other half used PMR. Both patient groups reported similar reductions in pain after 12 weeks of treatment. Notably, the patients who had used cupping scored higher on measurements of well-being and felt less pain when pressure was applied to the area. Even so, the researchers noted that more study is needed to determine the potential benefits of cupping.

单选题Directions: Read the following four passages. Answer the questions below by choosing A, B, C or D. Germany's economic success presents something of an educational puzzle. On the one hand, its schools turn out a workforce capable of producing the goods that have made its companies the export champions of the world. On the other hand, the academic achievements of its school children, measured in international tests, look only moderate. The reading abilities of German 15-year-olds, according to the PISA studies published by the OECD, are below the average for rich countries. In a world where brainpower matters more and more, how does German business thrive? The answer is that a combination of schooling and apprenticeship has proved a reliable supplier and shaper of the sort of labor German businesses need to make goods of high quality, even as similar jobs have disappeared in other rich economies. At the age of 10 or 11 about two-fifths of children are selected to go to a Gymnasium. A lot of these go eventually to universities. Most who do not, and many of those at least academic schools, go ultimately into specialized training for one of around 350 trades, from gardening to glass-blowing. Students divide their time between classrooms and the factory floor, acquiring a lot of knowledge on the job. According to many company bosses, this makes them both expert and flexible. Because German jobs are fairly secure, many employees invest time in learning new skills. Companies invest in teaching them, too—for example, to use computers to design parts-because their workers are not like to quit. Moreover, basic education seems to be getting better. The first PISA study, published in 2001, in which German children did poorly, caused much national soul-searching. Germany's position in the OECD rankings has improved a great deal in the past few years. Even so, the system has flaws. Some worry, for example, that the stronger general education is needed to equip young Germans to change trades should demand for their specific expertise dry up. A bigger concern is that early selection fails children form poor and immigrant families, who are likeliest to attend the least academic schools and to miss out on apprenticeships. Partly for this reason, there is a large group of students at the bottom of the rankings—which explains why the German average is still below standard. Some think that this may eventually cost the economy. Ludger Wossmann, of the Ifo Institute at Munich University, reckons that the best long-run predictor of a country's economic growth rate is the performance of its children in comparative tests in science, math and so forth. Germany's scores, he points out, do not predict well.

单选题Happy people work differently. They"re more productive, more creative, and willing to take greater risks. And new research suggests that happiness might influence 1 firms work, too. Companies located in places with happier people invest more, according to a recent research paper. 2 , firms in happy places spend more on R&D (research and development). That"s because happiness is linked to the kind of longer-term thinking 3 for making investments for the future. The researchers wanted to know if the 4 and inclination for risk-taking that come with happiness would 5 the way companies invested. So they compared U. S. cities" average happiness 6 by Gallup polling with the investment activity of publicly traded firms in those areas. 7 enough, firms" investment and R&D intensity were correlated with the happiness of the area in which they were 8 . But is it really happiness that"s linked to investment, or could something else about happier cities 9 why firms there spend more on R&D? To find out, the researchers controlled for various 10 that might make firms more likely to invest——like size, industry, and sales——and for indicators that a place was 11 to live in, like growth in wages or population. The link between happiness and investment generally 12 even after accounting for these things. The correlation between happiness and investment was particularly strong for younger firms, which the authors 13 to "less codified decision making process" and the possible presence of "younger and less 14 managers who are more likely to be influenced by sentiment." The relationship was 15 stronger in places where happiness was spread more 16 Firms seem to invest more in places where most people are relatively happy, rather than in places with happiness inequality. 17 this doesn"t prove that happiness causes firms to invest more or to take a longer-term view, the authors believe it at least 18 at that possibility. It"s not hard to imagine that local culture and sentiment would help 19 how executives think about the future. "It surely seems plausible that happy people would be more forward-thinking and creative and 20 R&D more than the average," said one researcher.

单选题Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle viewed laughter as "a bodily exercise precious to health. " But {{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}some claims to the contrary, laughing probably has little influence on physical fitness Laughter does {{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}short-term changes in the function of the heart and its blood vessels, {{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}heart rate and oxygen consumption But because hard laughter is difficult to {{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}, a good laugh is unlikely to have {{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}benefits the way, say, walking or jogging does. {{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}, instead of straining muscles to build them, as exercise does, laughter apparently accomplishes the {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}, studies dating back to the 1930's indicate that laughter {{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}muscles, decreasing muscle tone for up to 45 minutes after the laugh dies down. Such bodily reaction might conceivably help {{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}the effects of psychological stress. Anyway, the act of laughing probably does produce other types of {{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}feedback, that improve an individual's emotional state. {{U}} {{U}} 11 {{/U}} {{/U}}one classical theory of emotion, our feelings are partially rooted {{U}} {{U}} 12 {{/U}} {{/U}}physical reactions. It was argued at the end of the 19th century that humans do not cry {{U}} {{U}} 13 {{/U}} {{/U}}they are sad but they become sad when the tears begin to flow. Although sadness also {{U}} {{U}} 14 {{/U}} {{/U}}tears, evidence suggests that emotions can flow {{U}} {{U}} 15 {{/U}} {{/U}}muscular responses. In an experiment published in 1988, social psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of wiirzburg in Germany asked volunteers to {{U}} {{U}} 16 {{/U}} {{/U}}a pen either with their teeth-thereby creating an artificial smile-or with their lips, which would produce a (n) {{U}} {{U}} 17 {{/U}} {{/U}}expression. Those forced to exercise their smiling muscles {{U}} {{U}} 18 {{/U}} {{/U}}more exuberantly to funny cartons than did those whose mouths were contracted in a frown, {{U}} {{U}} 19 {{/U}} {{/U}}that expressions may influence emotions rather than just the other way around {{U}} {{U}} 20 {{/U}} {{/U}}, the physical act of laughter could improve mood.

单选题Researchers have known for years that children whose mothers were chronically stressed during pregnancy—by famine, anxiety, the death of a relative or marital discord, for instance—show higher-than-normal rates of various psychological and behavioural disorders when they are adults. They have also known for a long time that those brought up in abusive environments often turn out to be abusive themselves. The second of these observations is usually put down to learning. The reason for the first has remained unclear. A study just published by Axel Meyer, Thomas Elbert and their colleagues at the University of Konstanz in Germany, however, points to a phenomenon called epigenetics as the likely answer. Epigenetics is a type of gene regulation that can be passed from a cell to its daughters. The most common mechanism is methylation, whose consequence is to inactivate the gene being methylated. They found that women abused during pregnancy were significantly more likely than others to have a child with methylated glucocorticoid-receptor genes. By contrast, abuse before or after pregnancy resulted in no such correlation. Nor was the mother"s own methylation affected by violence towards her. Taken together, these results suggest that glucocorticoid-receptor-gene methylation happens in the fetus in response to a mother"s stress, and persists into adolescence. This has implications for those adolescents" long-term health. Dampened glucocorticoid-receptor-gene activity has been shown to increase the risk of obesity and of depression. It also makes people more impulsive and aggressive—and therefore, if male, more likely to abuse the pregnant mothers of their children, thus perpetuating the whole sorry cycle. Why, in light of such negative effects, have humans evolved to be programmed this way while still in the womb? Part of the answer is probably that not all the negative consequences would have shown up at the time the mechanism was evolving. The other part is that some of the consequences probably have a positive effect. What can be done with such knowledge is unclear. Drugs that demethylate DNA are under development, but are still some way from approval—and, in any case, interfering with epigenetics, which is a widespread mechanism of gene regulation, is a drastic approach. The research might, though, point to the period when intervening to stop abuse will have the greatest effect. Then again, such intervention is always desirable, for the sake of both mother and child.

单选题 Picture-taking is a technique both for reflecting the objective world and for expressing the singular self. Photographs depict objective realities that already exist, though only the camera can disclose them. And they depict an individual photographer's temperament, discovering itself through the camera's cropping of reality. That is, photography has two directly opposite ideals: in the first, photography is about the world and the photographer is a mere observer who counts for little; but in the second, photography is the instrument of fearlessness, questing subjectivity and the photographer is all. These conflicting ideals arise from uneasiness on the part of both photographers and viewers of photographs toward the aggressive component in "taking" a picture. Accordingly, the ideal of a photographer as observer is attracting because it implicitly denies that picture-taking is an aggressive act. The issue, of course, is not so clear-cut. What photographers do cannot be characterized as simply predatory or as simply, and essentially, benevolent. As a consequence, one ideal of picture-taking or the other is always being rediscovered and championed. An important result of the coexistence of these two ideals is a recurrent ambivalence toward photography's means. Whatever are the claims that photography might make to be a form of personal expression just like painting, its originality is closely linked to the power of a machine. The steady growth of these powers has made possible the extraordinary informativeness and imaginative formal beauty of many photographs, like Harold Edgerton's high-speed photographs of a bullet hitting its target or of the swirls and eddies of a tennis stroke. But as cameras become more sophisticated, more automated, some photographers are tempted to disarm themselves or to suggest that they are not really armed, preferring to submit themselves to the limit imposed by pre-modern camera technology because a cruder, less high-powered machine is thought to give more interesting or emotive results, to leave more room for creative accident. For example, it has been virtually a point of honor for many photographers, including Walker Evans and Cartier Bresson, to refuse to use modern equipment. These photographers have come to doubt the value of the camera as an instrument of "fast seeing". Cartier Bresson, in fact, claims that the modern camera may see too fast. This ambivalence toward photographic means determines trends in taste. The cult of the future (of faster and faster seeing) alternates over time with the wish to return to a purer past when images had a handmade quality. This longing for some primitive state of the photographic enterprise is currently widespread and underlies the present-day enthusiasm for daguerreotypes and the work of forgotten nineteenth-century provincial photographers. Photographers and viewers of photographs, it seems, need periodically to resist their own knowingness.

单选题A truly informed diner would choose a restaurant based on the quality of the menu and the chef"s experience. The discerning investor would decide which company to back after studying the business plan and meeting the founders. In reality, people often copy the choices of others. Diners pick the crowded restaurant over the empty one. Investors go with the company that already has multiple backers. Such bandwagon effects are not necessarily irrational. Often, the buyer knows less about a product than the seller; the collective wisdom of the crowd can correct for such " asymmetric information ". Scholars are now asking whether herd behavior also prevails in labor markets. To find out, Kory Kroft of the University of Toronto devised an experiment in which they applied for 3,000 clerical, administrative, sales and customer-service jobs advertised online by submitting 12,000 fictitious CVs. The submissions were designed so that applicants with similar backgrounds, education and experience went for the same job. The only difference was how long the applicant had been jobless, a period that ranged from no time at all to as much as 36 months. They found that the odds of an applicant being called back by an employer declined steadily as the duration of unemployment rose, from 7.4% after one month without work down to 4-5% at the eight-month mark, where the call-back rate stabilized. These results, the authors say, cannot be because employers found some qualitative flaw in the longer-term unemployed that was hidden from outsiders, since the applicants were similar in other respects. Another explanation for long-term unemployment—that people make less effort to find work as their time out of the labor force lengthens—is also not applicable here. A third possibility is that employers equate lengthening unemployment with atrophying skills and thus falling productivity. But this should be true whether the economy is booming or in recession. The decline in call-back rates was much more pronounced in cities with tight labour markets; call-back rates changed relatively little when higher unemployment prevailed locally. From this, the authors infer that employers are more likely to overlook a long period of unemployment if overall economic conditions are stacked against candidates. These results strongly suggest that long-term unemployment is at least partly self-fulfilling. Like patrons who avoid restaurants purely because they are empty, employers were reluctant to hire someone other employers didn"t want.