单选题Directions: In this section there are reading passages .followed by multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your answer sheet. Passage B The miserable fate of Enron's employees will be a landmark in business history, one of those awful events that everyone agrees must never be allowed to happen again. This urge is understandable and noble: thousands have lost virtually all their retirement savings with the demise of Enron stock. But making sure it never happens again may not be possible, because the sudden impoverishment of those Enron workers represents something even larger than it seems. It's the latest turn in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promises of the 20th century. The promise was assured economic security—even comfort—for essentially everyone in the developed world. With the explosion of wealth, that began in the 19th century it became possible to think about a possibility no one had dared to dream before. The fear at the center of daily living since caveman days—lack of food, warmth, shelter—would at last lose its power to terrify, That remarkable promise became reality in many ways. Governments created welfare systems for anyone in need and separate programs for the elderly (Social Security in the U. S. ). Labour unions promised not only better pay for workers but also pensions for retirees. Giant corporations came into being and offered the possibility—in some cases the promise—of lifetime employment plus guaranteed pensions? The cumulative effect was a fundamental change in how millions of people approached life itself, a reversal of attitude that most rank as one of the largest in human history. For millennia the average person's stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately I'm on my own. Now it became, ultimately I'll be taken care of. The early hints that this promise might be broken on a large scale came in the 1980s. U. S. business had become uncompetitive globally and began restructuring massively, with huge Layoffs. The trend accelerated in the 1990s as the bastions of corporate welfare faced reality. IBM ended its no-layoff policy. AT but that could be regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally covering up the company's problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enron's 401(k) accounts were locked while the company changed plan administrators in October, when the stock was falling, so employees could not have closed their accounts if they wanted to. But by far the largest cause of this human tragedy is that thousands of employees were heavily overweighed in Enron stock. Many had placed 100% of their 401(k) assets in the stock rather than in the 18 other investment options they were offered. Of course that wasn't prudent, but it's what some of them did. The Enron employees' retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic security. That's why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal shift to I'll-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It won't be complete until a new generation of employees see assured economic comfort as a 20th-century quirk, and understand not just intellectually but in their bones that, like most people in most times and places, they're on their own.

单选题The house by the sea had a mysterious air of ______ about it.

单选题In the preface ______ my book, I express my sincere gratitude to all the teachers and friends who have been of help to me during my three years' life in the university.

单选题Pocahomta, a seventeenth century Powhatan Indian, went to the Jamestown colony as her father's {{U}}emissary{{/U}}. A. ward B. attendant C. messenger D. translator

单选题I was standing waiting for a bus, ______ between two old ladies and their bags of shopping.

单选题She claimed that the government had only changed the law in order to ______ their critics. A. appease B. quash C. swelter D. maltreat

单选题______ he's already heard the news.

单选题They have mutually agreed that Party A ______ Party B with the manufacturing of television sets in Shenzhen with all necessary parts and components supplied by Party A.

单选题Carleton would still rank among the great ______: of nineteenth century American art even if the circumstance of her life and career were less ______ than they are. A. celebrities, obscure B. failures, illustrious C. charlatans, impeccable D. enigmas, mysterious

单选题"Sloganeering" did not originate in the 1960s. The term has a rich history. It originated from the Gaelic word slaughgharim, which signified a "host-shout," "war cry," or "gathering word or phrase of one of the old Highland clans; hence the shout or battle cry of soldiers in the field." English-speaking people began using the term by 1704. The term at the time meant "the distinctive note, phrase, or cry of any person or body of persons." Slogans were common throughout the European continent during the middle ages, and they were utilized primarily as "passwords to insure proper recognition of individuals at night or in the confusion of battle." The American revolutionary rhetoric would not have been the same without "the Boston Massacre," "the Boston Tea Party," "the shot heard around the world," and shouts of "no taxation without representation". Slogans operate in society as "social symbols" and, as such, their intended or perceived meaning may be difficult to grasp and their impact or stimulation may differ between and among individuals and groups. Because slogans may operate as "significant symbols" or as key words that have a standard meaning in a group, they serve both expressive and persuasive functions. Harold Lasswell recognized that the influencing of collective attitudes is possible by the manipulation of significant symbols such as slogans. He believed that a verbal symbol might evoke a desired reaction or organize collective attitudes around a symbol. Murray Edelman writes that "to the political scientist patterning or consistency in the context in which specific groups of individuals use symbols is crucial, for only through such patterning do common political meaning and claims arise." Thus, the slogans a group uses to evoke specific responses may provide us with an index for the group"s norm, values, and conceptual rationale for its claims. Slogans are so pervasive in today"s society that it is easy to underestimate their persuasive power. They have grown in significance because of the medium of television and the advertising industry. Television, in addition to being the major advertising medium, has altered the nature of human interaction. Political images are less personal and shorter. They function as summaries and conclusions rather than bases for public interaction and debate. The style of presentation in television is more emotional, but the content is less complex or ideological. In short, slogans work well on television. The advertising industry has made a science of sloganeering. Today, communication itself is a problem because we live in an "overcommunicated" society. Advertisers have discovered that it is easier to link product attributes to existing beliefs, ideas, goals, and desires of the consumer rather than to change them. Thus, to say that a cookie tastes "homemade" or is as good as "Morn used to make" does not tell us if the cookie is good or bad, hard or soft, but simply evokes the fond memories of Mother"s baking. Advertisers, then, are more successful if they present a product in a way that capitalizes on established beliefs or expectations of the consumer. Slogans do this well by crystallizing in a few words the key idea or theme one wants to associate with an issue, group, product, or event. "Sloganeering" has become institutionalized as a virtual art form, and an advertising agency may spend months testing and creating the right slogan for a product or a person. Slogans have a number of attributes that enhance their persuasive potential for social movements. They are unique and readily identifiable with a specific social movement or social movement organization. "Gray Power," for instance, readily identifies the movement for elderly Americans, and "Huelga" (strike in Spanish) identifies the movement to aid Mexican American field workers in the west and southwest.

单选题The number of people emigrating from Ireland is currently estimated at 30, 000 annually. There is no doubt that the bulk of young Irish emigrants end up in London. And while some of their problems are unique to this generation, many of them work in the same jobs and live in the same conditions as endless previous generations of emigrants to Britain. While some Irish take their degrees to London and use them to get jobs in the burgeoning service industry, for many others who left school in their teens and experienced months, if not years, of unemployment their second act on reaching London is to sign on for social welfare. Their first, and most difficult, is finding somewhere to live. Social welfare benefits, when they include a rent allowance, are better in England. For a young unemployed man or woman, living at home with little or no unemployment assistance in Ireland, this can seem an attractive proposition, offering independence, a subsistence income and at least the hope of a job in a city where unemployment, while real, is a lot lower than in Ireland. Many young Irish emigrants go straight on the dole when they arrive in England. Some find jobs fairly quickly, others remain on the dole for months. Andrew Fox is living on the dole, and is also in receipt of housing benefit. And he is living in relative comfort, as he's staying in Conway House, the hostel for young Irish men run by the Catholic Church in Kilburn. This costs ￡50 a week for bed and breakfast, and all the young men there spoke glowingly of the facilities it offers and the welcome they receive from staff. There was a 300 per cent increase in demand for places in this hostel in the first six months of last year. But those who get into Conway House are the lucky ones and there is a six-month time limit on residence there. It has a capacity for just 300, a drop in the ocean, and thousands of young Irish emigrants live in squats across north London. The squats are empty houses, many of them owned by the local council. They may be being prepared for sale into the private sector. Sometimes the council boards up the windows or removes the stairs, and the electricity is usually cut off. The conditions vary widely in the squats, from those in houses which are in good condition and where the illegal tenants are painters and decorators and do the place up, to those in bad repair where the squatters live on mattresses on the floors in rooms lit only by candles. If they reconnect the electricity they face arrest and charges for stealing it. Loneliness as well as the need for practical help ensures that many Irish people stick together. One of the subjects discussed at a seminar on emigration in Kilburn was the trauma experienced by Irish emigrants, revealed in statistics which showed a disproportionately high number of Irish admissions to mental hospitals. One of the reasons for the sense of alienation was the sense of being foreigners in England and the hostility they experienced from many sections of the media and the police. Those who leave the country voluntarily are more likely to adapt well than those, in the majority, forced to do so out of economic necessity. Most of those who attended the seminar in Kilburn were in no doubt about the category they belonged to. "I love Ireland," says Andrew Fox. "I wouldn't have left it, only there was no work there."

单选题This novel won critical praise while ______ a storm of controversy with its candid and raw descriptions of adolescent lust.

单选题I hope you don"t think I"m______but I"ve had the electric fire on for most of the day.

单选题Fertilizer applied to soil can replace {{U}}depleted{{/U}} nutrients. A. organic B. acidic C. exhausted D. desirable

单选题Mergers may be effected to revive or rejuvenate failing businesses by the infusion of new management and personnel.

单选题Jim isn't______, but he did badly in the final exams last semester.

单选题With the new leadership there came sweeping change.

单选题The major international auction houses (posted) annual earnings that pointed to a (healthy) art market, though (the one) not as robust as (that of) the frenetic 1980s.

单选题The ______ company has an excellent reputation-which is understandable, since it's been in business for twenty years and has thousands of satisfied customers.

单选题______please find one set of the shipping documents covering this consignment.