单选题 Creating a World without Smoking Smoking will be banned in all pubs, clubs and workplaces from next year after historic votes in the Commons last night. After last-minute appeals from health campaigners, MPs opted for a blanket prohibition which will start in summer 2007, ending months of argument over whether smokers should be barred in pubs and restaurants only. They voted to ban smoking in all pubs and clubs by 384 to 184, a surprisingly large majority of 200. Smoking will still be allowed in the home and in places considered to be homes, such as prisons, care homes and hotels. Smokers lighting up in banned areas will face a fixed penalty notice of ￡50 and spot fines of ￡200 will be introduced for failing to display no-smoking signs, with the possible penalty, if the issue goes to court, increasing to ￡1000. Carpline Flint, the Public Health Minister, also announced that the fine for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas would be increased to ￡2500—more than ten times the ￡200 originally proposed. The Bill also allows the Government to increase the age for buying cigarettes. Ministers will consult on raising it from 16 to 18. The Bill now goes to the Lords but will be through by the summer recess. Even a plan to allow smoking to continue in private clubs was thrown out as MPs on all sides were given permission to vote with their conscience rather than on a party line. Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said the Health Bill would ban smoking in "virtually every enclosed public place and workplace" in England and save thousands of lives a year. Smoke-free workplaces and public places "will become the norm". She said, "An additional 600000 people will give up smoking as a result of this law and millions more will be protected from second-hand smoke." Peter Hollins, director-general of the British Heart Foundation, said, "The vote is a landmark victory for the public health of this country and will save the lives of many people."

单选题I'm {{U}}sceptical{{/U}} of the team's chances of winning.

单选题This is not typical of English, hut is a feature of the Chinese language.

单选题下面的短文有15处空白，请根据短文的内容为每处空白处确定一个最佳选项。 Inflation Business and government leaders also consider the inflation rate to be an important general indicator. Inflation is a period of increased spending that causes rapid rises in prices. {{U}}(51) {{/U}} your money buys fewer goods so that you get {{U}}(52) {{/U}} for the same amount of money as before, inflation is the problem. There is a general rise {{U}}(53) {{/U}} the price of goods and services. Your money buys less. Sometimes people describe inflation as a time when "a dollar is not worth a dollar anymore". Inflation is a problem for all consumers. People who live on a fixed income are hurt the {{U}}(54) {{/U}}. Retired people, for instance, cannot count on an increase in income as prices rise. Elderly people who do not work face serious problems in stretching their incomes to {{U}}(55) {{/U}} their needs in time of inflation. Retirement income {{U}}(56) {{/U}} any fixed income usually does not rise as fast as prices. Many retired people must cut their spending to {{U}}(57) {{/U}} rising prices. In many cases they must stop {{U}}(58) {{/U}} some necessary items, such as food and clothing. Even {{U}}(59) {{/U}} working people whose incomes are going up, inflation can be a problem. The {{U}}(60) {{/U}} of living goes up, too. People who work must have even more money to keep up their standard of living. Just buying the things they need costs more. When incomes do not keep {{U}}(61) {{/U}} with rising prices, the standard of living goes down. People may be earning the same amount of money, but they are not living as well because they are not able to buy as many goods and services. Government units gather information about prices in our economy and publish it as price indexes {{U}}(62) {{/U}} the rate of change can be determined. A price index measures changes in prices u sing the price for a {{U}}(63) {{/U}} year as the base. The base price is set at 100, and the other prices are reported as a {{U}}(64) {{/U}} of the base price. A price index makes {{U}}(65) {{/U}} possible to compare current prices of typical consumer goods, for example, with prices of the same goods in previous years.

单选题More and more people are beginning to accept the idea that a person is dead

单选题Everyday Tom had nothing to do but{{U}} pass away{{/U}} time.

单选题{{B}}第二篇{{/B}} Such mental fatigue can be as threatening as a heart attack. Recent evidence indicates that sleepiness is a leading cause of traffic and industrial accidents. "Human error causes between 60% and 900 of all workplace accidents, depending on the type of job, " observes biological psychologist David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania. "And inadequate sleep is a major factor in human error, at least as important as drugs, alcohol and equipment failure." Other research suggests that sleep loss contributes to everything from drug abuse to poor grades in school. A typical adult needs about eight hours of shut-eye a night to function effectively. By that standard, millions of Americans are for a long time sleep deprived, trying to get by on six hours or even less. In many households, cheating on sleep has become an unconscious and harmful habit. "In its mild form, it's watching Ted Koppel and going to bed late and then getting up early to get to the gym, "says Cornell's Pollak. In extreme cases people stay up most of the night, seeing how little sleep will keep them going. They try to compensate by short sleeping late on weekends, but that makes up for only part of the shortfall. Over the months and years, some researchers believe, the imbalance builds up and the effects accumulate. "Most Americans no longer know what it feels like to be fully alert, " contends Dr. William Dement, director of Stanford University's Sleep Center. They go through the day in a sort of twilight zone; the eyes may be wide open, but the brain is partly shut down. Single parent Dianna Bennett, 43, works as a nurse at a correctional facility in Gardner, Mass. To be able to spend time with her three children during the day, she works the night shift, a schedule that usually allows her no more than four hours of sleep, "My kids tell me I'm always tired," she says. Amy Schwartzman, 35, a law student at Tulane University, gets up at 9 a.m. and, what with classes, simulated court and work as a research assistant, often does not get home until 10 p.m. That's when she studies or relaxation. Nights of throwing into bed at 3 a.m. make her feel "as if my brain isn't moving as quickly as quickly as it should." says Schwartzman, noting that the circles under her eyes keep getting darker. "My mother told me I look like a raccoon."

单选题There is an Uabundant/U supply of cheap labor in this country.

单选题 Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, while her wealthy English parents were traveling in Europe. As a child, she traveled to many places with her family and learned how to speak several languages. When Nightingale was 17, she told her family that she was going to help sick people. Her parents did not approve, but Nightingale was determined. She traveled to hospitals all over Europe. She saw that doctors were working too hard. She saw that patients died because they did not get enough care. Nightingale felt that women could be doing more to help doctors take care of sick people. Nightingale knew that in order for nurses to do more, they needed special training in how to take care of sick people. Nightingale went to a hospital in Germany to study nursing. Then she returned to London and became the head of a group of women called Gentlewomen During Illness. These women cared for sick people in their homes. In 1854, England was fighting a war with Russia. Warreporters wrote about the terrible conditions in the hospitals that cared for the wounded. People demanded that something be done about it. A leader of the government asked Florence Nightingale to take some nurses into the war hospitals. So, in November 1854, Nightingale finally got to work in a hospital. She took along 38 nurses whom she had trained herself. At first, the doctors on the battlefields did not want Nightingale and her nurses in their hospitals. They did not believe that women could help. But in fact, the nurses did make a difference. They worked around the clock, tending the sick. Thanks to their hard work, many wounded soldiers survived. After the war, Nightingale and her nurses were treated like heroes. Finally, in 1860, she started the Nightingale School for Nurses. In time, thanks to Florence Nightingale, nursing became an important part of medicine.

单选题Mysterious Nazca Drawings One of the most mysterious archaeological spectacles in the world is the immense complex of geometrical symbols, giant ground-drawings of birds and animals, and hundreds of long, ruler-straight lines, some right across mountains, which stretch over 1,200 square miles of the Peruvian tablelands, at Nazca. Nazca was first revealed to modern eyes in 1926 when three explorers looked down on the desert from a hillside at dusk and briefly saw a Nazca line highlighted by the rays of the sun. But it was not until the Peruvian airforce took aerial photographs in the 1940s that the full magnificence of the panorama was apparent. Hundreds of what looked like landing strips for aircraft were revealed. There were eighteen bird-like drawings, up to 400 feet long; four-sided figures with two lines parallel; and long needle-like triangles which ran for miles. Among the many abstract patterns were a giant spider, a monkey, a shark, all drawn on the ground on a huge scale. The scale is monumental, but from the ground almost invisible and totally incomprehensible. The amazing fact about Nazca, created more than 1,500 years ago, is that it can only be appreciated if seen from the air. Many, therefore, regarded it as a prehistoric landing ground for visitors from outer space, but Jim Woodman, an American explorer, who was long fascinated by the mystery of Nazca, had a different opinion. He believed that Nazca only made sense if the people who had designed and made these vast drawings on the ground could actually see them, and that led him to the theory that the ancient Peruvians had somehow learned to fly, as only from above could they really see the extent of their handiwork. With this theory in mind, he researched into ancient Peruvian legends about flight and came to the conclusion that the only feasible answer was a hot-air balloon. To prove his theory, Woodman would have to make such a thing using the same fabrics and fibers that would have been available to the men of Nazca at the time. He started by gathering information from ancient paintings, legends, books and archaeological sites. After many attempts, Woodman built a balloon-type airship. It took him into the air, letting him have the sensation he had never had from viewing the same ground that he had seen many times. His flight was a modern demonstration of an ancient possibility.

单选题It can be seen from the passage that the earth's supply of natural medicines

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Her Uspeciality/U is heart surgery.

单选题Can you Ufollow/U the plot so far?

单选题She has got a good job and earns a lot of money.A. a great deal ofB. a large quantity ofC. a large number ofD. a great level of

单选题Smoking is not permitted in the office.

单选题There is a {{U}}fundamental{{/U}} difference between the two ministers and their aims.

单选题Smallpox Virus 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 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 one 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Riches and Romance From Frante's Wine Harvest September is harvest time. And with bunches of grapes swinging (摇摆) in the wind, the vineyards of southern France are getting ready to celebrate it. The yearly wine festival is held in honor of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. It's a fun time with parties, music, dancing, big meals and, of course, lots of wine. French wine-making began more than 2,500 years ago. The world's oldest type of vine grows in France and always produces a good quality wine. Today France produces one-fifth of the world's wine, and some of the most famous varieties. The top wine-producing areas are Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire Valley. Champagne, a drink used in celebrations, is named after the place where sparkling (有汽泡的) wine was first produced in 1700. Wine is made from the juice of freshly picked grapes. It is the sugars that turn into alcohol. Traditionally, people used to take off their shoes and crush the grapes with their bare feet to bring out the juice. Nowadays, this practice is usually carried out by machines. Each wine producing region has its own character, based on its type of grapes and soil. The taste of wine changes with time. Until 1850, all French champagne was sweet. Now, both wine and champagne taste slightly bitter. The drink has always been linked with riches, romance and nobleness. Yet the French think of it in more ordinary terms. They believe it makes daily living easier, less hurried and with fewer problems. "All its links are with times when people are at their best; with relaxation, happiness, long slow meals and the free flow of ideas," wrote wine expert Hugh Johnson.

单选题The voyage is a recurrent metaphor in Romantic literature.A. loverB. journeyC. viewD. cliff