单选题A Film Star Gets Six Years in the Clink
After receiving a six-year prison sentence on July 31st, Sanjay Dutt, an Indian film star, begged for bail while he appealed against it. "Sir, I made a mistake," he said. But the judge said no. Mr. Dutt"s crime—to have procured two guns from Muslim mobsters who were responsible for bomb attacks in Mumhai in 1993—was serious. Yet he urged Mr. Dutt, 48, to return to the silver screen after serving his sentence. "Don"t get perturbed," he said. "You have many years to go and work, like the "Mackenna"s Gold" actor Gregory Peck."
Thus ended one of the longest song-and-dances in India"s criminal legal history, Mr. Dutt was convicted last year, having already spent 16 months in jail. He was acquitted of direct involvement in the bombings, which killed 257 people. They were carried out in 1993 in revenge for the demolition of an ancient mosque in the Hindu holy city of Ayodhya by Hindu fanatics, and subsequent Hindu-Muslim rioting. Some 100 people have been found guilty of the bombing. They have all been sentenced in the past three months, including a dozen to death and 20 to life-imprisonment. But the alleged masterminds of the attacks are still at large. One of them, a Mumbai gangster called Dawood Ibrahim, is alleged by Indian officials to be linked to al-Qaeda and to be hiding in Pakistan.
Despite the bleak immediate outlook, Mr. Dutt, who made his name playing tough guy anti-heroes, is unlikely to find his career much damaged. The son of two of Bollywood"s biggest stars, a Hindu-Muslim couple, he has garnered enormous sympathy for his suffering. Many Indians believe his claim that he wanted the guns to protect his family during the riots. Other Bollywood stars express support for Mr. Dutt as passionately as their Hollywood peers worry about global warming.
Then again, Bollywood is rather shady. Gangsters and crooked politicians have long laundered ill—gotten money through film productions. Indeed Mr. Dutt was investigated over money—laundering allegations in 2001. Other recent Bollywood stars to grace the courts include Monica Bedi, an actress convicted of dealing in fake passports. Her accomplice was another Mumbai gangster, Abu Salem, who delivered the guns to Mr. Dutt, and is currently awaiting trial for his alleged part in the 1993 bombings.
An even bigger Bollywood star, Salman Khan, is appealing against two prison sentences of five years and one year for poaching respectively an endangered antelope and two gazelles. A Bollywood film about the case has been scheduled. Mr. Khan has also had to battle a four-year-old charge that he recklessly drove his car over five people sleeping on a pavement in Mumbai, killing one of them.
Bollywood"s biggest star, Amitabh Bachchan, also known as "the Big B", is, in contrast, venerated. Where Mr. Khan is vain and brash, he has a reputation for humility and Hindu piety. But even this has been imperiled of late by revelations that Mr. Bachchan and his film-star son, Abhishek, bought valuable plots of land reserved for farmers. They registered themselves thus after being allotted farmland by a former government of the state of Uttar Pradesh, led by the Samajwadi party. Mr. Bachchan is close to one of the party"s leading lights, Amar Singh, a famed socialite. Mr. Bachchan"s wife, Jaya, an actress, is now also a Samajwadi politician.
单选题It is
absurd
to predict that the sun will not rise tomorrow.
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 the Cleveland 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 seared 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The police gave a lot of aid during the accident.A. alarmB. helpC. callD. fight
单选题She could not endure the extreme tension and broke into tears suddenly.A. braveryB. strainC. dangerD. security
单选题Penicillin was discovered by chance in 1928.
单选题Neither of them thought highly of him and they both tried to
hamper
him in his work.
单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}
Common-cold Sense You
can't beat it, but you don't have to join it. Maybe it got the name "common
cold" because it's more common in winter. The fact is, though, being cold
doesn't have anything to do with getting one. Colds are caused by the spread of
rhinoviruses,and, at least so far, medical science is better at telling you how
to avoid getting one than how to get rid of one. Children are
the most common way cold viruses are spread to adults, because they have more
colds than adults--an average of about eight per year. Why do kids seem so much
more easily to get colds than their parents? Simple. They haven't had the
opportunity to become immune to many cold viruses. There are
more than 150 different cold viruses, and you never have the same one twice.
Being infected by one makes you immune to it--but only it.
Colds are usually spread by direct contact, not sneezing or coughing. From
another person's hand to your hand and then to your nose or eyes in the most
common route. The highest concentration of cold viruses anywhere is found under
the thumbnails of a boy, although the viruses can survive for hours on skin or
other smooth surfaces. Hygiene is your best defense. Wash your
hands frequently, preferably with a disinfectant soap, especially when children
in your household have colds. But even careful hygiene won't
ward off every cold. So, what works when a coughing, sneezing, runny nose
strikes? The old prescription of two aspirins, lots of water,
and bed rests a good place to start. But you'll also find some of the folk
remedies worth trying. Hot mixtures of sugar ( or honey), lemon, and water have
real benefits.
单选题The index is the government"s chief
gauge
of future economic activity.
单选题He impressed all his colleagues as a Uvigorous/U man in the prime of his career.
单选题The rising cost of living is as hard on country families as on city families.A. nationB. countrysideC. stateD. province
单选题Why is the Native Language Learnt So Well?
How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language, we often find this interesting fact. A little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed mental powers, in most case, may end up with a faulty and inexact command. What accounts for this difference?
Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself, partly in the behavior of the people around him. In the first place, the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favorable of all, namely, the first years of life. A child hears it spoken from morning till night and, what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation, and right use of words and right structure. He drinks in all the words and expressions, which come to him in a flash, ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance: there is perfect assimilation.
Then the child has, as it were, private lessons all the year round, while an adult language-student has each week a limited number of hours, which he generally shares with others. The child has another advantage: he hears the language in all possible situations, always accompanied by the right kind of gestures and facial expressions. Here there is nothing unnatural, such as is often found in language lessons in schools, when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching heat in January. And what a child hears is generally what immediately interests him. Again and again, when his attempts at speech are successful, his desires are understood and fulfilled.
Finally, though a child"s "teachers" may not have been trained in language teaching, their relations with him are always close and personal. They take great pains to make their lessons easy.
单选题
New US Plan for Disease
Prevention Urging Americans to take
responsibility for their health, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson on Tuesday launched a $15 million program to try to encourage
communities to do more to prevent chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer
and diabetes (糖尿病). The initiative highlights the costs of
chronic diseases—the leading causes of death in the United States—and outlines
ways that people can prevent them, including better diet and increased
exercise. "In the United States today, 7 of 10 deaths and the
vast majority of serious illness, disability and health care costs are caused by
chronic diseases," the Health and Human Services Department said in a
statement. The causes are often behavioral—smoking, poor eating
habits and a lack of exercise. "I am convinced that preventing
disease by promoting better health is a smart policy choice for our future,"
Thompson told a conference held to launch the initiative. "Our
current health care system is not structured to deal with the rising costs of
treating diseases that are largely preventable through changes in our lifestyle
choices." Thompson said heart disease and strokes will cost the
country more than $351 billion in 2003. "These leading causes
of death for men and women are largely preventable, yet we as a nation are not
taking the steps necessary for us to lead healthier, longer lives," he
said. The $15 million is designed to go to communities to
promote prevention, pushing for changes as simple as building sidewalks to
encourage people to walk more. Daily exercise such as walking
can prevent and even reverse heart disease and diabetes, and prevent cancer and
strokes. The money will also go to community organizations,
clinics and nutritionists who are being encouraged to work together to educate
people at risk of diabetes about what they can do to prevent it and encourage
more cancer screening. The American Cancer Society estimates
that half of all cancers can be caught by screening, including Pap tests (巴氏试验)
for cervical cancer (宫颈癌), mammograms for breast cancer, colonoscopies (结肠镜检查),
and prostate (前列腺的) checks. If such cancers were all caught by
early screening, the group estimates that the survival rate for cancer would
rise to 95 percent.
单选题I expect that he will be able to
cater for
your particular needs,
单选题One Good Reason to Let Smallpox Live It's now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it — one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the planet, what point was there in keeping these reserves? (1) reality, of course, it was naive to (2) that everyone would let (3) of such a potent potential weapon. Undoubtedly several nations still have (4) vials. (5) the last "official" stocks of live virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia (6) no obvious gain. Now American researchers have (7) an animal model of the human disease, opening the (8) for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So once again there's a good reason to (9) the virus — just in (10) the disease puts in a reappearance. How do we (11) with the mistrust of the US and Russia? (12) . Keep the virus (13) international auspices in a well-guarded UN laboratory that's open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesn't (14) the idea is wrong. If the virus (15) useful, then let's make it the servant of all humanity — not just a part of it.
单选题Dreams Everyone can dream. Indeed, everyone does dream. Those who (1) that they never dream at all actually dream (2) as frequently as the rest of us, (3) they may not remember anything about it. Even those of us who are perfectly (4) of dreaming night (5) night very seldom remember those dreams in (6) detail but merely retain an untidy mixture of seemingly unrelated impressions. Dreams are not simply visual-we dream with all our (7) , so that we appear to experience sound, touch, smell, and taste. One of the world's oldest (8) written documents is the Egyptian Book of Dreams. This volume is about five thousand years old, so you can (9) that dreams were believed to have a special significance even then. Many ancient civilisations believed that you (10) never wake a sleeping person as, during sleep, the soul had left the body and might not be able to return (11) time if the sleeper were suddenly (12) . From ancient times to the present (13) , people have been (14) attempts to interpret dreams and to explain their significance. There are many books available on the subject of dream interpretation, although unfortunately there are almost as many meanings for a particular dream (15) there are books.
单选题The recycling of aluminum conserves ninety-five percent of the energy needed to make new metal.
单选题The American Medical Association has called for the sport of boxing (拳击) to be banned.A. forbiddenB. regulatedC. studiedD. reorganized
单选题According to the latest report, the talks have {{U}}collapsed{{/U}}.
单选题Reading the job ad, he wondered whether he was
eligible
to apply for it.
