单选题Generally speaking, after 4 000 years, on the average, the percentage of the 200 original words which remained in use was ______.

单选题Humanity uses a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet occurrences of shortages and droughts are causing famine and distress in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world's population is expected to double in the next 50 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a widespread water crisis. But that doesn't have to be the outcome. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world—if we start valuing water more than we have in the past. Just as we began to appreciate petroleum more after the 1970s oil crises, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economic perspective. We can no longer afford to consider water a virtually free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want. Instead, for all used except the domestic demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its actual value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs. Governments should also protect this resource by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound ways. For example, often the cheapest way to provide irrigation water in the dry tropics is through small-scale projects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions and pumping it to nearby cropland. No matter what steps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their institutional and legal approaches to water use. Rather than spread control among hundreds or even thousands of local, regional, and national agencies that watch various aspects of water use, countries should set up central authorities to coordinate water policy.

单选题{{B}}Passage 5{{/B}} Can the Internet help patients jump the line at the doctor's office? The Silicon Valley Employers Forum, a sophisticated group of technology companies, is launching a pilot program to test online "virtual visits" between doctors at three big local medical groups and about 6,000 employees and their families. The six employers taking part in the Silicon Valley initiative, including heavy hitters such as Oracle and Cisco Systems, hope that online visits will mean employees won't have to skip work to tend to minor ailments or to follow up on chronic conditions. "With our long commutes and traffic, driving 40 miles to your doctor in your hometown can be a big chunk of time," says Cindy Conway, benefits director at Cadence Design Systems, one of the participating companies. Doctors aren't clamoring to chat with patients online for free; they spend enough unpaid time on the phone. Only 1 in 5 has ever E-mailed a patient, and just 9 percent are interested in doing so, according to the research firm Cyber Dialogue. "We are not stupid," says Stifling Somers, executive director of the Silicon Valley employers group. "Doctors getting paid is a critical piece in getting this to work." In the pilot program, physicians will get $ 20 per online consultation, about what they get for a simple office visit. Doctors also fear they'll be swamped by rambling E-mails that tell everything but what's needed to make a diagnosis. So the new program will use technology supplied by Healinx, an Alameda, Calif-based start-up. Healinx' s "Smart Symptom Wizard" questions patients and. turns answers into a succinct message. The company has online dialogues for 60 common conditions. The doctor can then diagnose the problem and outline a treatment plan, which could include E-mailing a prescription or a face-to-face visit. Can E-mail replace the doctor's office? Many conditions, such as persistent cough, require stethoscope to discover what's wrong and to avoid a malpractice suit. Even Larry Bonham, head of one of the doctor's groups in the pilot, believes the virtual doctor's visits offer a "very narrow" sliver of service between phone calls to an advice nurse and a visit to the clinic. The pilot program, set to end in nine months, also hopes to determine whether online visits will boost worker productivity enough to offset the cost of the service. So far, the Internet's record in the health field has been underwhelming. The experiment is "a huge roll of the dice for Healing", notes Michael Barrett, an analyst at Internet consulting firm Forester Research. If the "Web visits" succeed, expect some HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) to pay for online visits. If doctors, employers, and patients aren't satisfied, figure on one more E-health start-up to stand down.

单选题Every ______of a motion picture is the responsibility of the director. A. section B. facet C. character D. footage

单选题"Candour" means ______.

单选题Her spirits ______ at the thought of all the work she had to do that morning.

单选题______there was an epidemic approaching, Mr. Smith ______ the invitation to visit that are

单选题Our country was founded on the lofty principles of freedom and justice for all. Our lofty principles ought to be______. A. faced up to B. looked up to C. lived up to D. made up to

单选题{{B}}Passage 5{{/B}} Much of the American anxiety about old age is a flight from the reality of death. One of the striking qualities of the American character is the unwillingness to face either the fact or meaning of death. In the more somber tradition of American literature - from Hawthorne and Melville and Poe to Faulkner and Hemingway - one finds a tragic depth that belies the surface thinness of the ordinary American death attitudes. By an effort of the imagination, the great writers faced problems which the culture in action is reluctant to face - the fact of death, its mystery, and its place in the back-and- forth shuttling of the eternal recurrence. The unblinking confrontation of death in Greek times, the elaborate theological patterns woven around it in the Middle Ages, tile ritual celebration of it in the rich, peasant cultures of Latin and Slavic Europe and in primitive cultures; these are difficult to find in American life. Whether through fear of the emotional depths, or because of a drying up of the sluices of religious intensity, the American avoids dwelling on death or even coming to terms with it; he finds it morbid and recoils from it, surrounding it with word avoidance (Americans never die; they "pass away" ) and various taboos of speech and practice. In some of the primitive cultures, there is difficulty in understanding the causes of death; it seems puzzling and even unintelligible. Living in a scientific culture, Americans have a ready enough explanation of how it comes, yet they show little capacity to come to terms with the fact of death itself and with the grief that accompanies it. "We jubilate over birth and dance at weddings," writes Maragaret Mead, "but more and more hustle the dead off the scene without ceremony, without an opportunity for young and old to realize that death is as much a fact of life as is birth. ' And, one may add, even in its hurry and brevity, the last stage of an American's life - the last occasion of his relation to his society -is as standardized as the rest.

单选题She does not believe that he is ______ the honor accorded him.

单选题In a stark _________ of fortunes, the Philippines – once Asia’s second richest country – recently had to beg Vietnam to sell its rice for its hungry millions.

单选题The new curriculum intends to strengthen children’s practice of basic social __________ .

单选题We need one hundred more signatures before we take the ______ to the governor. A. panel B. kernel C. petition D. paragraph

单选题I personally am offended by what they have tried to do in a very misleading way with, what I've said about two of my personal______, President Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.(厦门大学2008年试题)

单选题3 The House is expected to pass a piece of legislation Thursday that seeks to significantly rebalance the playing field for unions and employers and could possibly reverse decades of declining membership among private industries. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow a union to be recognized after collecting a majority of vote cards, instead of waiting for the National Labor Relations Board to over-see a secret ballot election, which can occur more than 50 days after the card vote is completed. Representatives of business on Capitol Hill oppose the bill. The National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups oppose the shift away from secret ballots saying the change could threaten the privacy of the workers. "This isn't about preventing increased unionization, it's about protecting rights," said the National Association of Manufacturer's Jason Straczewski, of his organization's opposition to bill. Straczewski says eliminating the secret-ballot step would open up employees to coercion (强迫，威胁) from unions. Samuel of the AFL-CIO contends the real coercion comes from employers. "Workers talking to workers are equals while managers talking to workers aren't," Samuel said. He cites the 31,358 cases of illegal employer discrimination acted on by the National Labor Relations Board in 2005. Samuel also points out that counter to claims from the business lobby, the secret bal-lot would not be eliminated. The change would only take the control of the timing of the election out of the hands of the employers. "On the ground, the difference between having this legislation and not would be the difference between night and day," said Richard Shaw of the Harris County Central I.abor Council, who says it would have a tremendous impact on the local level. The bill has other provisions (规定，条款) as well. The Employee Free Choice Act would also impose binding arbitration (仲裁) when a company and a newly formed union cannot agree on a contract after 3 months. An agreement worked out under binding compul- sory arbitration would be in effect for 2 years, a fact that Straczewski calls, "borderline unconstitutional. " "I don't see how it will benefit employees if they're locked into a contract," said Straczewski. The bill's proponents point to the trend of recognized unions unable to get contracts from unwilling employers. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the organization that oversees arbitration, reported that in 2004, 45 percent of newly formed unions were denied first contracts by employers. The bill would also strengthen the penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate employees. As it stands, the law on the books hasn't changed substantially since the National Labor Relations Act was made into law in 1935. The NLBR can enforce no other penalty than reinstating wrongfully fired employees or recovering lost wages.

单选题The London Stock Exchange has been famous as a place for men only, and women used to be strictly forbidden to enter. But the world is changing day by day, and even the Stock Exchange, which seemed to be a men"s castle, is gradually opening its doors to the other sex. On 16th November 1971, a great decision was taken. The Stock Exchange Council (the body of men that administers the Stock Exchange) decided that women should be allowed onto the new trading floor when it opened in 1973. But the "castle" had not been completely conquered. The first girls to work in "The House" were not brokers or jobbers. They were neither allowed to become partners in stock broking firms, nor to be authorized dealers in stocks and shares. They were simply junior clerks and telephone operators. Women have been trying to get into the Stock Exchange for many years. Several votes have been taken in "The House" to see whether the members would be willing to allow women to become members, but the answer has always been "No". There have been three refusals of this kind since 1967. Now women are admitted, although in a very junior capacity. Two forms of jobbers made an application to the Stock Exchange Council to be allowed to employ girl clerks. Permission was finally given. A member of the Stock Exchange explained after this news had been given, "The new floor is going to be different from the old one. All the jobbers will have their own stands, with space for a telephone and typewriters, therefore there will have to be typists and telephone operators. So women must be allowed in." This decision did not mean a very great victory in the war for equal rights for women. However, it was a step in the fight direction. The Chairman of the new building will eventually lead to women being allowed to have full membership of the Stock Exchange. It is only a matter of time; it must happen.