单选题An obvious change of attitude at the top towards women' s status in society will ______ through the current law system in that country. A. permeate B. violate C. probe D. grope

单选题If the struggle for a sustainable society _____, we must have some vision of what we are aiming for.

单选题Pity those who aspire to put the initials PhD after their names. After 16 years of closely supervised education, prospective doctors of philosophy are left more or less alone to write the equivalent of a large book. Most social-science postgraduates have still not completed their theses by the time their grant runs out after three years. They must then get a job and finish in their spare time, which can often take a further three years. By then, most new doctors are sick to death of the narrowly defined subject, which has blighted their holidays and mined their evenings. The Economic and Social Research Council, which gives grants to postgraduate social scientists, wants to get better value for money by cutting short this agony. It would like to see faster completion rates: until recently, only about 25 % of PhD candidates were finishing within four years. The ESRC's response has been to stop PhD grants to all institutions where the proportion taking less than four years is below 10%; in the first year of this policy the national average shot up to 39%. The ESRC feels vindicated in its toughness, and will progressively raise the threshold to 40% in two years. Unless completion rates improve further, this would exclude 55 out of 73 universities and polytechnics-including Oxford University, the London School of Economics and the London Business School. Predictably, howls of protest have come from the universities, who view the blacklisting of whole institutions as arbitrary and negative. They point out that many of the best students go quickly into jobs where they can apply their research skills, but consequently take longer to finish their theses. Polytechnics with as few as two PhD candidates complain that they are penalized by random fluctuations in student performance. The colleges say there is no hard evidence to prove that faster completion rates result from greater efficiency rather than lower standards or less ambitious doctoral topics. The ESRC thinks it might not be a bad thing if PhD students were more modest in their aims. It would prefer to see more systematic teaching of research skills and fewer unrealistic expectations placed on young men and women who are undertaking their first piece of serious research. So in future its grants will be given only where it is convinced that students are being trained as researchers, rather than carrying out purely knowledge-based studies. The ESRC can not dictate the standard of thesis required by external examiners, or force departments to give graduates more teaching time. The most it can do is to try to persuade universities to change their ways. Recalcitrant professors should note that students want more research training and a less elaborate style of thesis, too.

单选题 "The highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton," says Emerson, "is that they set at nought books and traditions, and spoke not what men thought but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." It is strange that any one who has recognized the individuality of all works of lasting influence should not also recognize the fact that his own individuality ought to be steadfastly preserved. As Emerson says in continuation, "Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impressions with goodhumored inflexibility, then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterful good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our opinion from another." Accepting the opinions of another and the tastes of another is very different from agreement in opinion and taste. Originality is independence, not rebellion. It is sincerity, not antagonism. Whatever you believe to be true and false, that proclaim to be true and false. Whatever you think admirable and beautiful, that should be your model, even if all your friends and all the critics storm at you as a crotchet-monger and an eccentric. Whether the public will feel its truth and beauty at once, or after long years, or never cease to regard it as paradox and ugliness, no man can foresee. Enough for you to know that you have done your best, have been true to yourself, and that the utmost power inherent in your work has been displayed.

单选题Some observers thought the war would be Ucalamitous/U.

单选题Your advice would be______valuable to him, who is at present at his wit's end. A. exceedingly B. excessively C. extensively D. exclusively

单选题They ignored him, despite his repeated ______ that he was not on the scene of murder that evening. A.assumptions B.suppositions C.affirmations D.confirmations

单选题The government should really pay attention to this problem which can be found everywhere and by no means ______ to this region.

单选题Modem technology and science have produced a wealth of new materials and new ways of using old materials. For the artist this means wider opportunities. There is no doubt that the limitations of materials and nature of tools both restrict and shape a man's work. Observe how the development of plastics and light metals along with new methods of welding has changed the direction of sculpture. Transparent plastic materials allow one to look through an object, to see its various sides superimposed on each other (as in Cubism or in an X-ray). Today, welding is as prevalent as casting was in the past. This new method encourages open designs, where surrounding and intervening space becomes as important as form itself. More ambiguous than other scientific inventions familiar to modem artists, but no less influential, are the psychoanalytic studies of Freud and his followers, discoveries that have infiltrated recent art, especially Surrealism. The Surrealists, in their struggle to escape the monotony and frustrations of everyday life, claimed that dreams were the only hope. Turning to the irrational world of their unconscious, they banished all time barriers and moral judgments to combine disconnected dream experiences from the past, present and intervening psychological states. The Surrealists were concerned with overlapping emotions more than with overlapping forms. Their paintings often become segmented capsules of associative experiences. For them, obsessive and often unrelated images replaced the direct emotional message of expressionism. They did not need to smash paint and canvas; they went beyond this to smash the whole continuity of logical thought. There is little doubt that contemporary art has taken much from contemporary life. In a period when science has made revolutionary strides, artists in their studios have not been unaware of scientists in their laboratories. But this has rarely been a one-way street. Painters and sculptors, though admittedly influenced by modern science, have also molded and changed our world. If breakup has been a vital part of their expression, it has not always been a symbol of destruction. Quite the contrary: it has been used to examine more fully, to penetrate more deeply, to analyze more thoroughly, to enlarge, isolate and make more familiar certain aspects of life that earlier we were apt to neglect. In addition, it sometimes provides rich multiple experiences so organized as not merely to reflect our world, but in fact to interpret it.

单选题People with ______ dispositions recover quickly from disappointment.

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单选题You can' t ______your promise; all the people here are depending on you.

单选题He ______ leave her than a child would abandon a favorite plaything.

单选题Passage 1 The aroma of chocolate perfumes the air of the Rue d'Assas in Paris. Entering Christian Constant's state-of-the-art boutique, you find yourself in the kingdom of Paris's king of chocolate, where the humble cocoa bean is turned into mouth-watering chocolate Easter eggs. Constant, who is a chef, admits that chocolate is his passion and main interest in life. He first developed a fascination with chocolate when he was working for Gaston Len6tre, a famous French pastry chef. Every year he has a theme for decorating Easter eggs: this year his decorations are inspired by "Art Nouveau". Tonight he has a dinner for 130 to organize and he has to prepare a three-foot-high Art Nouveau-style Easter egg by noon tomorrow. This, for Constant, is a normal schedule. Constant believes that his chocolate creations are as much of a work of art as other sculptures. It is, therefore, understandable that the restaurant, which he opened last month, is situated in the National Monuments Museum in Paris. During the day the restaurant is a tearoom and offers chocolate in every imaginable form. Customers can choose from a selection of sweet chocolate desserts or try the more exotic spicy chocolates. Constant is also a professional "nose", working closely with the French Institute of Taste. He is capable of identifying 450 different tastes and flavors. Constant explains that the mouth, which can only taste four things--salt, sweet, acid and bitter-- is "stupid" in comparison to the nose. He believes that the nose is everything. In his book The Taste of Chocolate, he explains how in 1502 Christopher Columbus came across an island and went ashore. He was greeted by an Indian chief bearing gifts, among which were huge sacks of beans which Columbus thought was local currency. To his surprise, they prepared a drink for him. But Columbus, who disliked the odd bitter taste, continued on his travels, ignorant of the fact that he had just tasted cocoa. Like Columbus, Constant travels the cocoa countries where he checks quality and works with local experts. Quality can vary depending on the region, year, and method of preparation. According to Constant, Venezuela and Trinidad have the best cocoa beans, which they export all over the world either as beans or as cocoa. Constant, who is a hard worker, only sleeps three hours a night. He talks long into the night with members of a club he has formed. The club is called "The Chocolate Munchers". Their main official activity is to get together for monthly dinners where they eat a very tiny dinner and tons of chocolate desserts. "I am an addict," Constant admits, "and I don't want to be cured!/

单选题______ that should be given priority to.

单选题As a writer Walkter was very ______. A. imaginary B. imagining C. imaginative D. imaginable

单选题He was ______ to be a college graduate but he knew nothing about history.

单选题I thought the meeting was going to be awful, but it didn't ______ too badly. A. turn up B. turn out C. turn apart D. turn down

单选题What we today call America folk art was, indeed, art of, by, and for ordinary, everyday "folks" who, with increasing prosperity and leisure, created a market for art of all kinds, and especially for portraits. Citizens of prosperous, essentially middel-class republics—whether ancient Romans, seventeenth-century Dutch burghers, or nineteenth-century Americans—have always shown a marked taste for portraiture. Starting in the late eighteenth century, the United States contained increasing numbers of such people, and of the artists how could meet their demands. The earliest American folk art portraits come, not surpisingly, form New England—especially Connecticut and Massachusetts—for this was a wealthy and populous region and the center of a strong craft tradition. Within a few decades after the singning of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the population was pushing westward, and Missouri. Midway through its first century as a nation, the United States' population had increased roughly five times, and eleven new states had been added to the original thirteen. During these years the demand for portraits grew and grew, eventually to be satisfied by the camera. In 1839 the daguerreotype was introduced to America, ushering in the age of photography, and within a generation the new invention put an end to the popularity of painted portraits. Once again an original portrait became a luxury, commissioned by the wealthy and executed by the professional. But in the heyday of portrait painting-from the late eighteenth century until the 1850's—anyone with a modicum of artistic ability could become a limner, as such a portaitist was called. Local craftspeople-sign, coach, and house painters—began to paint portraits as a profitable sideline; sometimes a talented man or woman who began by sketching family members gained a local reputation and was besieged with requests for portraits; artists found it worth their while to pack their paints, canvases, and brushes and to travel the countryside, often combining house decorating with portrait painting.