单选题
单选题Because of recent political and economic upheavals in these countries, it seems likely that the trend will be toward decentralized, Western-style systems.
单选题Many advertisers remain ______ of the Internet and question how heavily to rely on it.
单选题He portrays the relationship between an animal and its owner as a______ substitution for a real human relationship.
单选题{{B}}Passage 5{{/B}}
Standard usage includes those words and
expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a
language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these
words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries.
Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are
understood by almost all speakers of language and used in informal speech or
writing, but not considered acceptable for more formal situations. Almost all
idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, refers to words
and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as
appropriate formal usage by the majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang
may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both Colloquial
usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing.
Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also
passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary
popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts
certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective
memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe
familiar objects and events. It has been pointed out by a number
of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a
large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new
objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large
number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority
population. Finally, it is worth noting that the terms
"standard," "colloquial," and "slang" exist only as abstract labels for
scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language
will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers
of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types
of expressions.
单选题Passage 2 Pity those who aspire to put the initials Ph.D 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. 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 Ph.D candidates were finishing within four years. The ESRC'S response has been to stop Ph.D 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 Ph.D 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 Ph.D 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 cannot 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 ______ question in this case is whether the accused had a motive for this crime or not.
单选题It can be inferred from the last paragraph that in Ohio ______.
单选题Ted agreed to ______ the strike if the company would satisfy the demand of the workers.
单选题{{B}}Passage 4{{/B}}
Cloning shakes us all to our very
souls. For humans to consider the cloning of one another forces them all to
question the very concepts of right and wrong that make them all human. The
cloning of any species, whether they be human or non-human, is wrong. Scientists
and ethicists alike have debated the implications of human or non-human cloning
extensively since 1997 when .scientists at Roslin Institute in Scotland produced
Dolly. No direct conclusions have been drawn, but compelling arguments state
that cloning of both human and non-human species results in harmful physical and
psychological effects on both groups. The possible physical
damage that could be done if human cloning became a reality is obvious when one
looks at the sheer loss of life that occurred before the birth of Dolly. Less
than ten percent of the initial transfers survive to be healthy creatures. There
were 277 trial implants of nuclei. Nineteen of those 277 were deemed healthy
while the others were discarded. Five of those nineteen survived, but four of
them died within ten days of birth of severe abnormalities. Dolly was the only
one to survive. Even Lan Wilmut, one of the scientists accredited with the
cloning phenomenon at the Roslin Institute agrees, "the more you interfere with
reproduction, the more danger there is of things going wrong." The psychological
effects of cloning are less obvious, but nonetheless, very plausible. In
addition to physical harms, there are worries about the psychological harms to
cloned human children. One of those harms is that cloning creates serious issues
of identity and individuality. Human cloning is obviously
damaging to both the family and the cloned child. It is harder to convince that
non-human cloning is wrong and unethical, but it is just the same. Western
culture and tradition has long held the belief that the treatment of animals
should be guided by different ethical standards than the treatment of humans.
Animals have been seen as non-feeling and savage beasts since time began. Humans
in general have no problem with seeing animals as objects to be used whenever it
becomes necessary. But what would happen if humans started to use animals as
body for growing human organs? What if we were to learn how to clone functioning
brains and have them grow inside of chimps? Would non-human primates, such as a
chimpanzee, who carried one or more human genes via transgenic technology, be
defined as still a chimp, a human, a subhuman, or something else? If defined as
human, would we have to give it rights of citizenship? And if humans were to
carry non-human transgenic genes, would that alter our definitions and treatment
of them? Also, if the technology were to be so that scientists could transfer
human genes into animals and vice versa, it could create a worldwide catastrophe
that no one would be able to stop.
单选题Diversity is a hallmark of life, an intrinsic feature of living systems in the natural world. The demonstration and celebration of this diversity is an endless rite. Look at the popularity of museums, zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens. The odder the exhibit, the more different it is from the most common and familiar life forms around us, the more successful it is likely to be. Nature does not tire of providing oddities for people who look for them. Biologists have already formally classified 1.7 million species. As many as 30 to 40 million more may remain to be classified.
Most people seem to take diversity for granted. If they think about it at all they assume it exists in endless supply. Nevertheless, diversity is endangered as never before in its history. Advocates of perpetual economic growth treat living species as expendable. As a result, an extinction crisis of unprecedented magnitude is under way. Worse yet, when diversity needs help most it is neglected and misunderstood by much of the scientific community that once championed it.
Of the two great challenges to the legitimacy of this diversity, the familiar one comes primarily from economists. Their argument, associated with such names as Julian Simon, Malcolm McPherson and the late Herman Kahn, can be paraphrased: "First, if endangered species have a value as resources—which has been greatly exaggerated—then we should be able to quantify that value so that we can make unbiased, objective decisions about which species, if any, we should bother to save, and how much the effort is worth. Secondly, the global threat to the diversity of species, particularly in the tropics, has been overestimated. Thirdly, we have good substitutes for the species and ecosystems that are being lost, and these substitutes will nullify the damage caused by the extinctions."
The structure of the argument seems to me to be identical in form to that of an old joke from the American vaudeville circuit. One elderly lady complained to another about her recent vacation at a resort in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. "The food was terrible", she moaned. "Pure poison. I couldn"t eat a bite. And the portions were so tiny!"
Species may be valuable, but not especially so, and the threat to them has been exaggerated. But this does not matter anyway, say the economists, because we can replace any species that vanishes.
It is not cleat how much of an impact this argument has on the informed public, but it has certainly provoked an outcry among scientific conservationists. It has set the terms for, and dominated, most of the pro-diversity literature of the past few years, making it a literature of response, thus limiting its scope and creative force.
单选题At the end of the passage the author states all the following EXCEPT that ______.
单选题About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way; women are luckier only about one in two hundred is affected in this manner. There are different forms of color blindness. A man may not be able to see deep red.
He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shades of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green—a strange world indeed.
In certain occupations color blindness can be dangerous and candidates are tested most carefully. For example, when fighting at night, soldiers use lights of flares to signal to each other. A green light may mean "Advance" and a red light may mean: "Danger! Keep back!" You can see what will happen if somebody thinks that red is green! Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called "cones". These help to see in a bright light and to tell the difference between colors. There are also millions of "rods" but these are used for seeing when it is nearly dark. They show us shape but not color. Wait until it is dark tonight, then go outside. Look round you and try to see what colors you can recognize.
Birds and animals which hunt at night have eyes which contain few or no cones at all, so they cannot see colors. As far as we know, bats and adult owls cannot see colors at all only light and dark shapes. Similarly cats and dogs cannot see colours as well as we can.
Insects can see ultra violet rays which are invisible to us, and some of them can even see X rays. The wings of a moth may seem grey and dull to us, but to insects they may appear beautiful, showing colors which we cannot see. Scientists know that there are other colors around us which insects can see but which we cannot see. Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes like blue, but do not like yellow. A red light will not attract insects but a blue lamp will.
单选题The conference appealed to the international community to jointly ______ the issue of global warming.(2011年华东师范大学试题)
单选题The murder charge against Beckwith has been ______ for lack of evidence.
单选题Stressful environment leads to unhealthy behaviors such as Ix)or eating habits, which ______ increase the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
单选题Another example of the exercise of power by Congress was the action it took during the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War. It has already been noted that President Johnson favored a lenient policy toward the South and attempted to carry out Lincoln's "10 percent plan". He pardoned most of the Southern leaders and permitted them to restore their state governments. They were permitted to elect Senators and Representatives. Congress, however, led by the Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens, had other ideas about the handing of the defeated Confederacy. Congress favored punitive policies. The South should be treated as conquered territory, and its readmission should be handled by Congress rather than the President. Congress opposed the "Johnson Governments" and the "Black Codes" passed by Southern states which virtually restored former slaves to their masters. Accordingly, it passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. This measure divided the South into five military districts and provided that a seceded state would be readmitted in the Union only after it had ratified the 14th Amendment which provided that all persons born or naturalized in the United States should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they resided, granted equality before the law to all persons, and prohibited a state from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Congress also barred rebel leaders from federal office, repudiated the Confederate debt, and reduced the representation of states which barred qualified persons from voting. Later it adopted the 15th Amendement guaranteeing the Negroes the right to vote. Johnson vigorously opposed these measures. He vetoed the Reconstruction Act and others, only to see Congress repass them over his veto. After such passage of the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson, believing it unconstitutional, violated it and removed a member of his Cabinet without consulting Congress. The House of Representatives proceeded to impeach Johnson. The Senate, however, failed, by one vote, to reach the two-thirds majority necessary for his removal.
单选题
单选题There are ______ differences between theory and practice.
单选题Einstein's special Theory of Relativity is quite_____me.
