单选题He is determined to {{U}}consolidate{{/U}} his power.

单选题Even in a highly modernized country, manual work is still needed.

单选题Alligators still exist in some of the {{U}}dank{{/U}} swamps and bayous of Alabama's coastal regions.

单选题American Marriage and Family More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate need to be taken in this pro marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus marriage remains, by far, the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society. What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife's previous marriages, of the husband's, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses(配偶). Thus, one can find every type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriage; marriages with "full-time" children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with "full-time" children from the present marriage and "part-time" children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half-brothers, and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult life married.

单选题Screening Teens for Suicidal Ideas Not a Risk Asking teenagers if they think about suicide does not increase the risk they will act on it and may actually help adolescents who suffer from depression, researchers said on Tuesday. More than 2, 300 students at six suburban New York high schools filled out questionnaires with half answering questions about whether they thought about suicide while the other half did not. Neither group exhibited increased distress or suicidal thoughts after participating, including at - risk individuals with a history of suicide attempts, depression, or drug abuse. "On the contrary, the findings suggested that asking about suicidal ideation or behavior may have been beneficial for students with depression symptoms or previous suicide attempts," said the study' s lead author, Madelyn Gould of New York State Psychiatric Institute. "Our findings can allay concerns about the potential harm of high school - based suicide screening, "she wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. " Health professionals should not hesitate to pose such questions, "she added. Previous studies have shown screening can be very effective in identifying youths who may contemplate suicide. But suicide awareness programs in schools could be detrimental, the report said. The National Institute of Mental health said there were 1,611 suicides in the 15 to 19 age group in 2001 ,with five times as many boys killing themselves as girls. There were more than 4,000 suicides among 15 - to 24 - year - olds in 2002, according to government data collected by the American Association of Suieidology. For every suicide, as many as 100 to 200 others in the age group attempted suicide, the group said. Suicide rates in the United States generally declined in the decade to 2002, falling to 9.9 per 100,000 among 15 - to 24 - year - olds from 13.5 per 100,000 in 1993.

单选题He was reluctant to admit he was wrong.

单选题I started to be in favor of his plan on this issue.A. supportB. refuseC. agreeD. disagree

单选题{{B}}第三篇{{/B}} Eating Potatoes Gives Your Immune System a Boost Eating potatoes is not only good for bowel health, but also for the whole immune system, especially when they come in the form of a potato salad or eaten cold. In a study on an animal model, researchers in Spain found that pigs fed large quantities of raw potato starch (RPS) not only had a healthier bowel, but also decreased levels of white blood cells, such as leucocytes and lymphocytes in their blood. White blood cells are produced as a result of inflammation or disease, generally when the body is challenged. The general down-regulation of leucocytes observed by the Spanish researchers suggests an overall beneficial effect, a generally more healthy body. The reduction in leucocytes levels was about 15 percent. Lower lymphocyte levels are also indicative of reduced levels of inflammation, but the observed reduction in both lymphocyte density and lymphocyte apoptosis is surprising. In what was the longest study of its kind, pigs were fed RPS over 14 weeks to find out the effect of starch on bowel health. "The use of raw potato starch in this experiment is designed to simulate the effects of a diet high in resistant starch. " said study leader Jose Francisco Perez at the University Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. Humans do not eat raw potatoes, but they do eat a lot of foods that contain resistant starch, such as cold boiled potatoes, legumes, grains, green bananas, pasta and cereals. About 10 percent of the starch eaten by human is resistant starch--starch that is not digested in the small intestine and so is shunted into the large intestine where it ferments. Starch consumption is thought to reduce the risk of large bowel cancer and may also have an effect on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Immunology expert Lena Ohman's team previously found that the overall lymphocyte levels do not vary for IBS patients, but that lymphocytes are transferred from the peripheral blood to the gut, which support the hypothesis of IBS being at least partially an inflammatory disorder. She says the decrease in lymphocytes observed by the Spanish is therefore interesting, and a diet of resistant starch may be worth trying in IBS patients. Ohman is currently at the Department of Internal Medicine, Goteborg University, Sweden. The study is published in the journal Chemistry and Industry, The magazine of the SCI.

单选题The body thieves contributed in their gruesome way to

单选题However bad the situation is, the majority is unwilling to risk change.

单选题Stage Fright Fall down as you come onstage. That's an odd trick. Not recommended. But it saved the pianist Vladimir Feltsman when he was a teenager back in Moscow. The veteran cellist Mstislav Rostropovich tripped him purposely to cure him of pre-performance panic, Mr. Feltsman said. " All my fright was gone. I already fell. What else could happen? " Today, music schools are addressing the problem of anxiety in classes that deal with performance techniques and career preparation. There are a variety of strategies that musicians can learn to fight stage fright and its symptoms: icy fingers, shaky limbs, racing heart, blank mind. Teachers and psychologists offer wide-ranging advice, from basics like learning pieces inside out, to mental discipline, such as visualizing a performance and taking steps to relax. Don't deny that you're jittery, they urge; some excitement is natural, even necessary for dynamic playing. And play in public often, simply for the experience. Psychotherapist Diane Nichols suggests some strategies for the moments before performance, "Take two deep abdominal breaths, open up your shoulders, then smile, " she says. "And not one of these 'please don't kill me' smiles. Then choose three friendly faces in the audience, people you would communicate with and make music to, and make eye contact with them. " She doesn't want performers to think of the audience as a judge. Extreme demands by mentors or parents are often at the root of stage fright, says Dorothy Delay, a well-known violin teacher. She tells other teachers to demand only what their students are able to achieve. When Lynn Harrell was 20, he became the principal cellist of theCleverland Orchestra, and he suffered extreme stage fright. "There were times when I got so nervous I was sure the audience could see my chest responding to the throbbing. It was just total panic. I came to a point where I thought, 'If I have to go through this to play music, I think I'm going to look for another job. " Recovery, he said, involved developing humility-recognizing that whatever his talent, he was fallible, and that an imperfect concert was not a disaster. It is not only young artists who suffer, of course. The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz's nerves were famous. The great tenor Franco Corelli is another example. "They had to push him on stage, " Soprano Renata Scotto recalled. Actually, success can make things worse. "In the beginning of your career, when you're scared to death, nobody knows who you are, and they don't have any expectations, " Soprano June Anderson said. "There's less to lose. Later on, when you're known, people are coming to see you, and they have certain expectations. You have a lot to lose. " Anderson added, "I never stop being nervous until I've sung my last note. /

单选题What is the effect of exercise on elderly people with type 2 diabetes?

单选题To Be a Lawyer Boosted by booming international financial markets, the City of London has not had it so good since the end of the dotcom bonanza in the late 1990s. Basking in double-digit growth rates, London"s law firms have both contributed to that success and benefited from it. The earnings of top City lawyers can now exceed ￡2m a year. Having opted to expand and go global ahead of most others, Britain"s leading law firms tend to be bigger than their American rivals. Indeed, according to a survey of the world"s top 50 law firms, compiled by Legal Business, a British trade paper, five of the world"s top six law firms—in terms of turnover—are now British (if DLA Piper, the result of an Anglo-American merger, is included). But they have tended to lag behind in terms of their profitability. That is now changing. The profit margins of the City"s five "magic circle" firms—Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields—have soared in recent years and are now comparable with, if not higher than, those of New York"s "white shoe" elite. Slaughter and May, the only one of the five not to have gone global, has the joint second- highest profit margin among the top 50. Not so long ago, a London surgeon could expect to earn as much as a City lawyer. But even the recent big rises in hospital consultants" earnings pall in comparison with those enjoyed by London lawyers. At Slaughter and May, for example, average profits per equity partner (PEP) jumped by almost a third (in dollar terms) last year to $ 2.75m— more than at any other of the top 50 law firms bar two in New York where PEP averaged $ 2.8m and $ 3.0m respectively. Some senior partners get a lot more of course. Competition for the best lawyers is fierce and poaching frequent. Hence the need to keep headline PEP figures up—even at the cost of getting rid of equity partners, leaving a bigger share of the bounty for the remaining ones. Freshfields is in the process of shedding around 100 of its equity partners. Other leading firms are also undertaking painful restructuring. Newly qualified lawyers" salaries have also been shooting up in the search for the best talent. Both Freshfields and Allen & Overy now pay their first-year associates ￡65,000, rising to around ￡90,000 after three years. (First-year associates at America"s top law firms get the equivalent of ￡80,000. ) But, as many other top-rank City employers have discovered, big earnings do not necessarily guarantee big satisfaction. According to a YouGov poll, published by the Lawyer earlier this month, a quarter of Britain"s lawyers (including a fifth of law-firm partners) would like to leave the profession. The disgruntled complained about cripplingly long hours, intense competition and the impersonality of the biggest firms (some with more than 3,000 lawyers). So why don"t they quit? Because, say three-quarters, of the pay.

单选题U.S. Life Expectancy Hits New High Life expectancy rates in the United States are at an all-time high, with people born in 2005 projected to live for nearly 78 years, a new federal study finds. The finding reflects a continuing trend of increasing life expectancy that began in 1955, when the average American lived to be 69.6 years old. By 1995, life expectancy was 75.8 years, and by 2005, it had risen to 77.9 years, according to the report released Wednesday. "This is good news", said report coauthor Donna Hoyert, a health scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics. "It"s even beer news that it is a continuation of trends, so it is a long period of continuing improvement." Despite the upward trend, the United States still has a lower life expectancy than some 40 other countries, according to the U. S. Census (人口普查) Bureau. The country with the longest life expectancy is Andorra at 83.5 years, followed by Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore. Much of the increase owes to declining death rates from the three leading causes of death in the country-heart disease, cancer and stroke. In addition, in 2005, the U. S. death rate dropped to an all-time low of less than 800 deaths per 100,000. Dr. David Katz director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said, "News that life expectancy is increasing is, of course, good. But the evidence we have suggests that there is more chronic disease than ever in the U. S." Adding years to life is a good thing, Katz said. "But adding vital life to years is at least equally important. If we care about living well, and not just longer, we still have our work cut out for us." he said.

单选题The river {{U}}widens{{/U}} considerably as it begins to turn west. A. twists B. stretches C. broadens D. bends

单选题It is obvious that he will win the game. A. likely B. possible C. clear D. strange

单选题There is also a football team, whose colours are green and yellow. The team is known as "The Canaries (金丝雀)", though nobody can be sure why. The football team is called "The Canaries" because of the colours the players wear.A. RightB. WrongC. Not mentioned

单选题International applicants are not {{U}}eligible{{/U}} for financial aid. A. impressed B. mutual C. qualified D. outraged

单选题They Say Ireland"s the Best Ireland is the best place in the world to live in for 2,005, according to a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain"s Economist magazine last week. The ambitious attempt to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only measure of human satisfaction and well-being. The index of 111 countries uses data on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security, gender equality as well as what the magazine calls "freedom, family and community life". Despite the bad weather, troubled health service, traffic congestion (拥挤), gender inequality and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points out of 10. That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which managed 8.07. Zimbabwe troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is rated the gloomiest (最差的), picking up only 3.89 points. "Although rising incomes and increased individual choices are highly value," the report said, "some of the factors associated with modernization such as the breakdown (崩溃) in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact." "Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as stable family and community life." The magazine admitted measuring quality of life is not a straightforward thing to do, and that its findings would have their critics. No.2 on the list is Switzerland. The other nations in the top 10 are Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Australia, Iceland, Italy, Denmark and Spain. The UK is positioned at No.29, a much lower position chiefly because of the social and family breakdown recorded in official statistics. GDP (人均国内生产总值) after Luxembourg, took the 13th place in the survey, China was in the lower half of the league at 60th.

单选题Retirement Brings Most a Big Health Boost The self-reported health of the newly retired improves so much that most feel eight years younger, a new European study suggests. This happy news was true of almost everyone except a small minority -- only 2 percent -- who had experienced "ideal" conditions in their working life, anyway. "The results really say three things: that work puts an extra burden on the health of older workers, that the effects of this extra burden are largely relieved by retirement and, finally, that both the extra burden and the relief are larger when working conditions are poor," said Hugo Westerlund, lead author of a study published online Nov. 9 in The Lancet (柳叶刀). "This indicates that there is a need to provide opportunities for older workers to decrease the demands in their work out of concern for their health and well-being. " But of course, added Westerlund, who is head of epidemiology at the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University in Sweden, "not all older workers suffer from poor perceived health. Many are indeed remarkably healthy and fit for work. But sooner or later, everyone has to slow down because of old age catching up. " Last week, the same group of researchers reported that workers slept better after retirement than before. "Sleep improves at retirement, which suggests that sleeping could be a mediator between work and perception of poor health," Westerlund said. This study looked at what the same 15,000 French workers, most of them men, had to say about their own health up to seven years pre-retirement and up to seven years post-retirement. As participants got closer to retirement age, their perception of their own health declined, but went up again during the first year of retirement. Those who reported being in poorer health declined from 19.2 percent in the year prior to retirement to 14.3 percent by the end of the first year after retiring. According to the researchers, that means postretirement levels of poor health fell to levels last seen eight years previously. The changes were seen in both men and women, across different occupations, and lasted through the first seven years of not punching the clock. Workers who felt worse before retirement and had lower working conditions reported greater improvements as soon as they retired, the team found.