单选题 You thought the rising cost of college tuition was bad? Then check out the rising cost of college textbooks. The American Enterprise Institute's Mark Perry has put together a detailed chart showing the notorious, 812 percent rise in the cost of course materials since 1978, as captured in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index data. The price of all those Introduction to Sociology and Calculus books have shot up faster than health-care, home prices, and, of course, inflation. Academic publishers will tell you that creating modern textbooks is an expensive, labor-intensive process that demands charging high prices. But as Kevin Carey noted in a recent article, the industry also shares some of the dysfunctions that help drive up the cost of healthcare spending. Just as doctors prescribe prescription drugs they will never have to pay for, college professors often assign titles with little consideration of cost. Students, like patients worried about their health, don't have much choice to pay up, lest they risk their grades. Meanwhile, Carey illustrates how publishers have done just about everything within their power to step up their profits, from bundling textbooks with software that forces students to buy new editions instead of cheaper used copies, to suing a low-cost textbook start-ups over ill-conceived and inadequate copyright claims. And that has consequences for students. According to the National Association of College Stores (NACS), the average college student reports paying about $655 for textbooks and supplies annually, down a bit from $702 four years ago. The NACS credits that fall to its efforts to promote used books along with programs that let students rent rather than buy their texts. But to put that $655 in perspective, consider this: after aid, the average college student spends about $2,900 on their annual tuition, according to the College Board. We're not talking about just another drop in the bucket here. AEI's Perry writes that he's confident open educational resources, made available via the web, will eventually make traditional textbooks obsolete, just as Wikipedia killed off the encyclopedia. The difference is that nobody I know ever had a college professor who said, "If you don't read the encyclopedia, you'll likely fail this class." If we ever want to bring the cost of these books under control, the faculty need to become responsive to the problem.

单选题Although in her teens, the eldest daughter had to quit school to help ______ the family.

单选题Passage Three Bears mostly live alone, except for mothers and their babies, and males and females during mating season. Bears form temporary groups only in exceptional circumstances, when food is plentiful in a small areA. Recent evidence also suggests that giant pandas may form small social groups, perhaps because bamboo is more concentrated than the patchy food resources of other bear species. Other bears may live alone but exist in a social network. A male and female may live in an area partly shared in common—although they tolerate each other, each defends, its range from other bears of the same sex. Male young usually leave their mothers to live in other areas, but female young often live in a range that is commonly shared with that of their mother. The key to a bear's survival is finding enough food to satisfy the energy demands of its large size. Bears travel over huge territories in search of food, and they remember the details of the landscape they cover. They use their excellent memories to return to locations where they have had success finding food in past years or seasons. Most bears are able to climb trees to chase small animals or gain access to additional plant vegetation. The exceptions are polar bears and large adult brown bears—their heavy weight makes it difficult for them to climb trees. Bears that live in regions with cold winters spend the coldest part of the year asleep in sheltered dens, including brown bears, American and Asiatic black bears, and female polar bears. Pregnant females give birth in the winter in the protected surroundings of these dens. After fattening up during the summer and fall when food is abundant, the bears go into this winter home to conserve energy during the part of the year when food is scarce. Winter sleep differs from hibernation (冬眠) in that a bear is easily aroused from sleep. In addition, a bear's body temperature drops only a few degrees in its winter sleep. In contrast, a true hibernator undergoes more extensive changes in bodily functions. For instance, the body temperature of the Arctic ground squirrel drops from 38℃ to as low as -3℃.

单选题Despite the huge progress that has been made, the price of property is far from ______. A. satisfied B. satisfaction C. satisfactory D. satisfy

单选题When asked to disclose financial ties to drug companies, many doctors will ______ such information. A. withdraw B. withstand C. wither D. withhold

单选题They are studying what kind of preferences might ______ this surging demand for home-made TV sets. A. take a fancy to B. bring into play C. give rise to D. grow out of

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}{{I}} There are 10 questions in this part of the test. Read the passage through. Then, go back and choose one suitable word or phrase marked A, B, C, or D for each blank in the passage. Mark the corresponding letter of the word or phrase you have chosen with a single bar across square brackets on your Machine-scoring Answer Sheet.{{/I}} Electronic communication, due to its speed and broadcasting ability, is fundamentally different from Paper-based communication such as letters and memos.{{U}} {{U}} 1 {{/U}} {{/U}}the other person's response time capability is{{U}} {{U}} 2 {{/U}} {{/U}}fast, e-mail is more "conversational" than traditional methods of communication. In a paper document, it is absolutely{{U}} {{U}} 3 {{/U}} {{/U}}to make everything completely clear and unambiguous because your audience may not have a chance to ask for{{U}} {{U}} 4 {{/U}} {{/U}}. With e-mail， however, your recipient can ask questions immediately. E-mail, therefore like conversational speech, tends to be much informal and more ambiguous. This is not always bad. It might not be a{{U}} {{U}} 5 {{/U}} {{/U}}expenditure, of energy to slave at a message, making sure that your spelling is{{U}} {{U}} 6 {{/U}} {{/U}}, your words eloquent, and that your grammar and punctuation are beyond reproach, if the point of the message is simply to inform the recipient that your are ready to go to lunch. {{U}} {{U}} 7 {{/U}} {{/U}}, you should put some effort into ensuring that your subjects agree with your veils, words are spelled correctly to avoid the mixing of metaphors, and so on. Because of the{{U}} {{U}} 8 {{/U}} {{/U}}of vocal variation, gestures, and a shared environment, e-mail is not so{{U}} {{U}} 9 {{/U}} {{/U}}a communication method as a face-to-face or even a telephone conversation. Your recipient may have difficulty{{U}} {{U}} 10 {{/U}} {{/U}}if you are being serious or joking, frustrated or euphoric. Thus, your e-mail compositions should be different from both your speech and paper compositions.

单选题The importance of protecting rainforests from human invasion is increasingly realized by developing and developed countries______. A. both B. either C. alike D. apart

单选题Competition compels districts to devote their limited resources to achieving results that compare______with other local districts. A. significantly B. favorably C. dramatically D. superficially

单选题 Long before the iPhone made him the god of gadgets, Steve Jobs launched his tech career by hacking land lines to make free long-distance calls. Bob Dylan's band, the Golden Chords, lost a high-school talent competition to a tap dancing act. Behind every success story is an embarrassing first effort, a stumble, a setback or a radical change of direction. It's these first clumsy steps on the road to fame and fortune that fascinate writer Seth Fiegerman, who edits the blog OpeningLines.org, a collection of case studies on the origins of famous careers. "When you see someone who's very successful, you almost imagine that it was an inevitable conclusion, that they're a genius, that they were destined for great things," says Fiegerman, who began the blog in 2009, after an early setback in his own career. "I think the big {{U}}takeaway{{/U}} is failure and setbacks, far from being uncommon, are in many ways essential." After Fiegerman, now 26, graduated from New York University in 2008, he landed a first job as a research editor at Playboy magazine. But he had worked there for just half a year when management announced that most of the staff would soon be laid off. As unemployment loomed, Fiegerman felt adrift. He began to explore the Playboy archives, discovering a valuable wealth of interviews with celebrities ranging from Marion Brando to Malcolm X. Many of these successful people shared tales of their less promising early days, and Fiegerman quickly became obsessed with these origin stories. He began reading biographies with great interest and requesting interviews with writers and musicians he admired, using the blog to document the fits and starts that began the careers of the famous and the infamous. Success, he learned, was less a matter of innate talent and more the product of perseverance, a willingness to stumble and stand up again and again. "You kind of assume that great geniuses are like Mozart," Fiegerman says. But few successful people were children of highly unusual talent and these children don't necessarily find success. "Most people don't stick to it." Like his subjects, Fiegerman found that his own early setback wasn't permanent. He landed a new job in journalism, and today he works at the tech news website Mashable, covering, appropriately enough, start-up businesses. While he has less time for the blog, he hopes his collection of origin stories will help other young people realize it's OK to fail.

单选题Scientists have been trying to ______ what factors can cause aging. A．find out B．turn out C．set out D．carry out

单选题There have been some insensible people who attempt to end their pains ______ through suicide. A. by and large B. once for all=forever C. heart and soul D. on the whole

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单选题 {{B}}Passage Three {{/B}} Young people often wonder at the large number of employers who do not respond to their applications for jobs. They say that despite enclosing return envelopes they hear nothing at all or, at best, an impersonal note is sent declaring that the post for which they applied has been filled. Applicants often develop the suspicion that vacancies are marked for friends and relatives and that advertisements are only put out to avert this accusation. Many of them tire of writing around and feel that if only they could obtain an interview with the right person their application would meet with success. Not to acknowledge applicants letters is impolite and there seems little excuse for this. Yet even sending brief replies to the many who apply takes much time and money. That so-called return envelop may not have been stamped by the sender, and a hard pressed office manager may be reluctant to send off long letters of explanation to disappointed job hunters. A brief note is all that can be managed and even that depends on the policy of the firm. But this difficulty is reasonably easy to remove with a little goodwill. The failure of an application is more often the fault of the applicant, for many applicants do not set about their task in the right way. They do not study the job requirements deeply enough and dispatch applications to all and sundry in the hope that one will bear fruit. The personnel manager of a textiles manufacturer, for example, advertised for designers. He was willing to consider young people without working experience provided they had good ideas. The replies contained many remarks like: "At school I was good at art", "I like drawing things" and even "I write very interesting stories". Only one applicant was sensible enough to enclose samples of her designs. She got the job. Personnel managers emphasize the need for a good letter of application. They do not look for the finest writing paper and perfect typing, but it is reasonable to expect legible writing on a clean sheet of paper, not a piece torn roughly from an exercise book. As soon as the applicant is lucky enough to receive an invitation to attend an interview, he should acknowledge the letter and say he will attend, but the matter does not end there. The wise applicant will fill in the interval, making himself familiar with the activities of the company he hopes to join. Some applicants have not the faintest idea what the company does and this puts them at a great disadvantage when they come to answer the questions that will be put to them in the interview. Finally, the way an applicant presents himself at the interview can sometimes mar his chances. The applicant who arrives late is almost certain not to be appointed, as no employer likes unpunctuality. Dress is important, too. An interview is a rather special occasion and the wise applicant will come dressed in a way that shows he takes it seriously.

单选题Individual goals have to fit in with the family or business goals as a whole. A. be converted into B. be superior to C. be in accord with D. be different from

单选题All the students in this university are {{U}}requested{{/U}} to comply with the regulations. A. required B. demanded C. ordered D. expected

单选题 The tomatoes your great-grandparents ate probably tasted little like the ones you eat today. In fact, tomatoes "were once so flavorful that you could take one in your hand and eat it straight away just like we regularly eat apples or peaches," according to plant scientist Alan Bennett. He belongs to a team of international scientists who now think they know one reason why the fruit has lost so much flavor. Although some unripe tomatoes have a dark green patch near the stem, farmers prefer that their unripe tomatoes are the same shade of green all over. The consistent coloring makes it easier for them to know when the fruit should be picked. But tomatoes without the dark green patch are also missing an important genetic ingredient that helps the fruit make more sugar and other tasty molecules. So by breeding tomatoes for that consistent color, Bennett's team says, crop scientists may have accidentally contributed to also making this fruit {{U}}bland{{/U}}. "It is a good illustration of unintended consequences," Harry Klee told Science News. Tomatoes make sugars in compartments called chloroplasts (叶绿体). Bennett and his colleagues found that tomatoes need the correct version of a gene (one called S1GLK2) to form chloroplasts properly in the fruit. A gene acts as a biological instruction book that tells cells which molecules to make. Tomatoes without the dark green patch have the wrong version of this gene, the researchers report in Science. As these fruits ripen, they can't make as many chloroplasts. And chloroplasts that they do produce are smaller. One result: The tomatoes make less sugar—and don't taste as good. Tomatoes also produce gases responsible for some of the odors we associate with the fruit. Even though you only breathe them, these gases affect the way that you perceive flavor. Tomatoes with weak chloroplasts can't make as much of these gases, further reducing flavor. But the newfound gene change is "not the whole story of why modern tomatoes are so bad, by a long shot," Klee told Science News. Tomatoes are also blander when they are picked too early or stored in the fridge.

单选题Too much time has ______ since we worked on this project.

单选题A.JohnFitzgeraldKennedy.B.JacquelineKennedy.C.DwightEisenhower.D.EdwardDurrellStone.

单选题On that January day in a small town, my life changed ______ and I became a high school teacher. A. course B. way C. road D. line