单选题Questions 11-14
单选题Directions: In this section, you will read several passages.
Each passage is followed by several questions based on its content. You are to
choose ONE best answer, (A) , (B) , (C) or (D) , to each question. Answer all
the questions following each passage on the basis of what is stated or implied
in that passage and write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the
corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.
Questions 1~5 About three hundred years ago,
there were approximately half a billion people in the world. In the two
centuries that followed the population doubled, and, by 1850, there were more
than a billion people in the world. It took only 75 years for the figure to
double once more. Each day the population of the world increases by about
150,000. In former centuries the population grew slowly.
Famines, wars, and epidemics, such as the plague and cholera, killed many
people. Today, although the birth rate has not changed significantly, the death
rate has been lowered considerably by various kinds of progress.
Machinery has made it possible to produce more and more food in vast
areas, such as the plains of America and Russia. Crops have been increased
almost everywhere and people are growing more and more food. Improvement in
communications and transportation has made it possible to send more food from
the place where it is produced to other places where it is needed. This has
helped reduce the number of famines. Progress in medicine and hygiene has made
it possible for people to live longer. People in Europe and North America live,
on the average, twice as long as they did a hundred years ago. In other
countries, too, people generally live much longer than they once did. Babies,
especially, have a far better chance of growing up because of increased
protection against infant diseases. However, all countries do not benefit to
same degree from this progress in medicine and hygiene. Half
the world's people live in Asia, but most of them are concentrated in the
coastal regions and on the islands. The same type of populace concentration is
true of other continents, although they are often far less populated. There are
still vast regions of the world where very few people live: the central regions
of the larger continents, mountainous areas, deserts, the far north, and
tropical jungles. During the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, migrations have taken place within certain countries: the cities with
their industries have attracted people away from the country. The
possibility of earning a fixed salary in a factory or office was more attractive
than the possibility of staying on the farm and having one's work destroyed by
frost, storms, or droughts. Furthermore, the development of agricultural
machinery made it possible for fewer people to do the same amount of
work. Thus, at the same time that the industrial revolution
made it possible to produce goods more cheaply and more quickly in factories, an
agricultural revolution also took place. Instead of leaving fields empty every
third year, farmers began to plant clover or some other crop that would enrich
the soil. Instead of using only animal fertilizer, farmers began to use chemical
fertilizers to keep the soil rich. These methods have enabled French farmers,
for example, to get five times as much wheat as was obtained from the same land
two centuries ago.
单选题Questions 15-18
单选题In a remarkable moment during the State of the Union address, President George W. Bush caught the attention of the nation with five words: "America is addicted to oil." Soon after the speech, I talked to the President about energy, and he admitted that he had not anticipated the impact of that statement or that some commentators would find it incongruous.
I believe he is sincere in wanting to focus efforts more on pursuing alternative energy sources. But his Texas roots, his high-profile advocacy of opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, and other associations with the oil industry have created long-standing public impressions that the President is an oilman who believes in the oil economy.
Bush"s predicament mirrors the nation"s own love-hate relationship with 0il. For decades the energy debate in the U. S. has pitted so-called pro-oil realists against idealistic advocates of alternative energy. The pro-oil commentators have attempted to discredit alternatives by saying they make up a tiny share of energy consumed and that dependence on oil is a choice of the marketplace. They assert that our government can and should do little to change this. Former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond echoed such reasoning in 2005, when he noted that in 25 years, even with double-digit growth rates, alternatives like wind and solar power will still provide less than 1% of the energy needed to meet worldwide demand. "I am more interested in staying focused on the 99% ," he said.
Yes, advocates of alternative energy must resist the temptation to suggest that energy problems are easily solved. They are not. Relieving our dependence on oil is going to take huge investments of time, money, and political will. But the difficulty of solving the problem doesn"t make doing so any less necessary. With less than 5% of the world"s population, the U. S. consumes 25% of its oil and will spend about $320 billion on oil imports this year. Most of the world"s oil is concentrated in places either hostile to U. S. interests or vulnerable to political upheaval or terrorism.
Given that sobering outlook, I believe the balance of realism has passed from those who argue on behalf of oil and a laissez-faire energy policy relying on market evolution to those who recognize that life in America will be far more difficult in coming decades unless there is a major reorientation in the way we get our energy. No one who cares about U. S. foreign policy and long-term economic growth can ignore what is happening in Iran, Russia, or Venezuela. And no one who is honestly assessing the decline of American leverage around the world due to our energy dependence can fail to see that oil is the albatross of U. S. national security.
We need an urgent campaign, led by a succession of committed Presidents and Congresses, to promote alternative sources. We could take our time if this were simply a matter of managing an industrial conversion to more cost-effective technologies. Unfortunately, U. S. dependence on ever scarcer fossil fuels has already created conditions that threaten our security and prosperity and undermine international stability.
Most of the world"s oil and gas is not controlled by those who respect market forces. Foreign governments control up to 77% of world oil reserves via national oil companies, which set prices through production decisions—and can easily shut off the taps for political reasons.
I am not suggesting that markets won"t someday come into play to stanch America"s oil dependence. Eventually, because of scarcity, terrorist attacks, market shocks, and foreign manipulation, the high price of oil will lead to enormous investment in, and political support for, alternatives. The problem is that such investment won"t happen overnight. Even if it did, building supporting infrastructure and changing behavior could take decades. In other words, by the time a sustained energy crisis fully motivates the market, the resulting investment will come too late to prevent the dire consequences of our oil fixation. This is the very essence of a problem requiring government action.
That"s why I hope we will look back on President Bush"s declaration about oil addiction as a seminal moment in U. S. history. President Bush could use his standing as an oilman to lend special power to his advocacy of renewable energy. Such action is long overdue.
单选题Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following news.
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单选题If the past couple of weeks are any indication, mainstream media may be primed for a comeback. In July, The Washington Post published its massive "Top Secret America" series, painstakingly detailing the growth of the US intelligence community after 9/11. When it ran, New York Observer editor Kyle Pope crowed (on Twitter, ironically), "Show me the bloggers who could have done this !" The Los Angeles Times recently mobilized a community to action when it broke the news that top city officials in Bell, Caiif. , one of the poorest cities in Los Angeles county, were raking in annual salaries ranging from $100,000 to $ 800,000. Clearly, if mainstream media is an aging fighter against the ropes, it still has a few punches left to throw. But such make-a-difference journalism requires lots of time and money, something most news outlets don't have. And it runs counter to the frantic pace of modern, Web-driven newsrooms. So for journalism to survive in the Digital Age, it needs to be simultaneously fast-paced and substantive, snarky and thought-provoking. Or, at the very least, it must find some middle ground where illuminating investigative pieces and Mel Gibson telephone call mash-ups can coexist. The 24/7 newsroom has become an intractable part of the media landscape, and the Web is the primary battleground news outlets have to win in order to stay competitive. That has forced journalists to become much more mindful of online traffic, which can sap morale. As a recent New York Times piece put it.- "Young journalists who once dreamed of trotting the globe in pursuit of a story are instead shackled to their computers, where they try to eke out a fresh thought or be first to report anything that will impress Google algorithms and draw readers their way. " But the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times pieces demonstrate that, regardless of whether the stories appear in print or online, reporters still need the time and space to be effective watchdogs--to track down sources and slog through financial disclosures, and court documents that often fill the better part of a journalist's working life. Right out of college, I spent several years working for a mid-size regional daily newspaper. I covered endless city and county government meetings, reported on crime and education, and learned that reporters should always carry a sensible pair of shoes in their car in case they are sent into the mountains to cover a wildfire. In my relatively short time in the newspaper trenches, I developed a profound respect for the people who do the decidedly unglamorous work of keeping government honest for little pay and even less job security. The Pew Research Center's State of the News Media 2010 report found that, while reported journalism is contracting and commentary and analysis is growing, 99 percent of the links on blogs circle back to the mainstream press. (Just four outlets--BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post--account for 80 percent of all links. ) The report concludes that new media are largely filled with debate that is dependent on the shrinking base of reporting coming from old media. The same report included polling data showing that 72 percent of Americans feel that most news sources are biased in their coverage, feel overwhelmed rather than informed by the amount of news and information they're taking in. I'm not advocating a return to some supposed halcyon period before the Internet. I'm still a product of my generation. I like the alacrity of the Web and admire its ability to connect people around the world, and to aggregate and spread information at lightning speed. It s warming glow gives me probably 90 percent of the news I consume, and I enjoy commenting on articles that friends post on Facebook. But I hope it won't make me sound prematurely aged to say that sometimes the Internet exhausts me. That I'm troubled by how frequently I find myself sucked into the blogging vortex of endless linkage, circuitous kvetching, and petty media infighting. I often emerge from these binges hours later, bleary-eyed and less informed than when I started. The media need to be quick and smart. They should tell us something new, rather than simply recycle outrage. Some of the watchdog role has been shouldered by nonprofit outfits like the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica--which has recruited a number of top investigative reporters with a mission of producing journalism in the public interest--as well as smaller nonprofit ventures springing up around the country. Many old-school media outlets are moving, toward a primarily Web-focused model. The "Top Secret America" series may be the best example to date of a deeply reported piece that probably could not have been achieved without the resources and support of a major news operation, but which is also packaged appealingly for the Web. All of this seems to indicate that, despite reported journalism's painful contractions, a few small inroads are being made toward creating a new model for news. Solid reporting and thoughtful analysis shouldn't be the sole province of a dying medium.
单选题A.Clothes.B.Ideas.C.Languages.D.Food.
单选题Wheredidthemanfindhisschoolbag?[A]Inapark.[B]Inthelanguagelab.[C]Underatree.
单选题
Questions
26-30 Because of satellite links which now enable
broadcast news organizations to originate live programming from any part of the
globe, the entire world is becoming one giant sound stage for television news.
As a result, Marshall McLean's reference to the post-television world as being a
single "global village" is gaining new acceptance and Shakespeare's famous line,
"all the world's a stage," has taken on an interesting new twist in
meaning. But, beyond the philosophical dimensions of global
television communications there are some dramatic, political implications. Even
before today's worldwide satellite links were possible, the growing effect of
broadcast news technology on national and international politics was becoming
increasingly evident. Because television is a close-up medium
and a medium that seems to most readily involve emotions, it is most effective
when it is revealing the plights of people. It was probably the appalling
footage of the Nazi death camps that first demonstrated the power of motion
pictures and television to affect the collective consciousness of a world
audience. In the United States during the 50's and 60's the power of television
to stir the consciousness of large numbers of people was demonstrated in another
way. Night after night graphic news footage of the civil rights struggle was
brought into U.S. homes. Years later, this role was to take on a
new and even more controversial dimension during the Vietnam War. Reading about
war was one thing; but war took on a deeper and more unsavory dimension when it
was exported directly into U.S. living rooms night after night by
television. Public opinion eventually turned against the war and to some measure
against President Johnson who was associated with it. As a result of the public
opinion backlash during these times, the Pentagon was thereafter much more
careful to control what foreign correspondents and TV crews would be allowed to
see and report. It was during this time that President Carter
brought the issue of human rights to the centre of his foreign policy, and, to
some degree, to the centre of international politics. "Human rights are the soul
of our foreign policy," Carter said. "Of all human rights the most basic is to
be free of arbitrary violence, whether that violence comes from government, from
terrorists, from criminals, or from self-appointed messiahs operating under the
cover of politics or religion. " Although political viewpoints
have changed since then, because of the emotional nature of human rights, this
has emerged as the "soul" of television news. The transgression of human rights
has been the focus of many, if not most, major international television news
stories. The reporting of these stories has created outrage in the world,
prompted attempts at censorship by dictators, and in many cases resulted in the
elimination of human rights abuses.
单选题
BQuestions
11-14/B
单选题That was the first time I______ England's coast A. left B. had left C. would leave D. has left
单选题Questions 6~10 Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they' re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. "It's iniquitous," they say, "that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don't they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it's the consumer who pays. " The poor old consumer! He'd have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc. , from an advertisement. Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway byelaws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities. We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price! Another thing we mustn't forget is the "small ads. " which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the "hatch, match and dispatch" column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or "agony" column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It's the best advertisement for advertising there is!
单选题
Our culture has caused most Americans
to assume not only that our language is universal but that the gestures we use
are understood by everyone. We do not realize that waving good-bye is the way to
summon a person from the Philippines to one's side, or that in Italy and some
Latin-American countries, curling the finger to oneself is a sign of
farewell. Those private citizens who sent packages to our troops
occupying Germany after World War II and marked them GIFT to escape duty
payments did not bother to find out that "Gift" means poison in German.
Moreover, we like to think of ourselves as friendly, yet we prefer to be at
least 3 feet or an arm's length away form others. Latins and Middle Easterners
like to come closer and touch, which makes Americans uncomfortable.
Our linguistic and cultural blindness and the casualness with which we
take notice of the developed tastes, gestures, customs and languages of other
countries, are losing us friends, business and respect in the world.
Even here in the United States, we make few concessions to the needs of
foreign visitors. There are no information signs in four languages on our public
buildings or monuments; we do not have multilingual guided tours. Very few
restaurant menus have translations, and multilingual waiters, bank clerks and
policemen are rare. Our transportation systems have maps in English only and
often we ourselves have difficulty understanding them. When we
go abroad, we tend to cluster in hotels and restaurants where English is spoken.
The attitudes and information we pickup are conditioned by those natives—usually
the richer—who speak English. Our business dealings, as well as the nation's
diplomacy, are conducted through interpreters. For many years,
America and Americans could get by with cultural blindness and linguistic
ignorance. After all, America was the most powerful country of the free world,
the distributor of needed funds and goods. But all that is past.
American dollars no longer buy all good things, and we are slowly beginning to
realize that our proper role in the world is changing. A 1979 Harris poll
reported that 55 percent of Americans want this country to play a more
significant role in world affairs; we want to have a hand in the important
decisions of the next century, even though it may not always be the upper
hand.
单选题 Questions 21-25
There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one
most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from
ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human
beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as
unpredictable, and they sought, through various means, to control these unknown
and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results
were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals.
Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites.
As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths,
persisted and provided material for art and drama. Those who
believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained
the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always
used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances, and when
the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made
between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were
performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes
in the enactment of rite~, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing
masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or
supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect--success in hunt or battle,
the coming rain, the revival of the Sun--as an actor might. Eventually such
dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in
storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other
feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation,
action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of
the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to
those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations
of animal movements and sounds
单选题It is hard to escape the fact that in developed societies, despite progress, innovation and prosperity, there is something not quite right. In some cases, it is hard for people to put a finger on it. a feeling of emptiness and not belonging, a lack of defined relationships and solid social structures. In other respects, it is readily quantifiable, rates of drug abuse, violent crime and depression and suicide are rocketing. Why are we so unhappy? It seems that the Enlightenment brought forth unparalleled liberty in economic, social and political life, but we are now undergoing a midlife crisis. The politics of happiness is nothing new. Aristotle once said that happiness is the goal of life. But for me, the person who brings the great conundrum of personal happiness alive is Robert Kennedy. In a beautifully crafted speech, he said what "makes life worthwhile" is "the health of our children, the quality of their education, they joy of their play," "the strength of our marriages.., our devotion to our country" and our "wit... wisdom and courage. " And he pointed out that none of these could be measured by gross national product. Nor should we be surprised by the politics of happiness? Ask people how they are, and they will answer in terms of their family life, community life and work life, rather than just what they are paid. Despite this, it is a notoriously difficult subject for politicians to grasp. One reason is that happiness and well-being are generally not well served by statistical analysis. Politicians, obsessed with inputs and outputs, targets and controls, are flummoxed by immeasurable concepts such as the value people place on spending time with their families. Another reason is that electoral cycles lend themselves to a culture of short-termism, with a need for immediate and quantifiable measurements. One such measurement is GDP. In many ways, increasing this has been the raison d'etre for many center-right political parties since the 1980s. Back then, many developed economies were in a state of economic malaise, with persistently high inflation and unemployment. We needed something to reverse this stagnation and put us back onto the path of prosperity. Thankfully, we got that. Today we need to be just as revolutionary to put us back on track to social prosperity, to respond to that yearning for happiness. That is why I have been arguing in Britain that we need to refocus our energies on general well-being (GWB). It means recognizing the social, cultural and moral factors that give true meaning to our lives. In particular, it means focusing on a sustainable environment and building stronger societies. And yes, it also means recognizing that there is more to life than money., indeed, that quality of life means more than the quantity of money. I think the center-right can be the champions of this cause. The center-left never really get the well-being agenda because they treat individuals as units of account. And they find it difficult to understand how it cannot be delivered simply by the push of a legislator's pen. Instead, the politics of well-being is a politics that needs to be founded on sharing responsibility. Of course, government must take its own responsibilities. But that needs to be part of a wider cultural change, a cultural change that will occur as a consequence of legislation, leadership and social change. What's the government's role? It is to show leadership and set the framework. Showing leadership means leading the change in the many areas that impact on well-being. For example, everyone would agree that spending more time with family is crucial to happiness. Here governments should be pioneers of flexible working with public-sector employees. Setting the right framework means creating incentives and removing barriers to remodel the context within which the whole of society makes choices. Take the environment. Everyone would agree that a cleaner local environment would enhance our well-being. By setting a framework that creates a price for carbon in our economy and encourages green innovation, the government can help people make the better choice. Ultimately, society's happiness requires us all to play our part. Indeed, playing our part is part of being happy. That is why we need a revolution in responsibility. Corporate responsibility means businesses taking a proactive role, and taking account of their employees' lives. Civic responsibility means giving power back to local government, community organizations and social enterprises so they can formulate local solutions to local problems. And personal responsibility means we all do out bit, be it in cleaning up our local environment or participating in local politics. Professor Nell Browne at Bowling Green State University recently wrote an article. "If Markets Are So Wonderful, Why Can't I Find Friends at the Store?" It is not that markets are bad or that we are doomed to a life of perpetual unhappiness. Rather, given our advances in terms of political freedom, economic enterprise and cultural ingenuity, life could, and should, be more satisfying. That is why focusing on general well-being could be the big, defining political concept of the 21st century. And by recognizing the responsibility every section of society has, we also have the means to enhance it.
单选题
单选题Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.
单选题Questions 11-14
单选题Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word "flout" in Paragraph 2?
