单选题In some countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence has so come to be taken for granted as a means of solving differences, that it is not even questioned. There are countries where the white man imposes his rule by brute force; there are countries where the black man protests by setting fire to cities and by looting and pillaging. Important people on both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly argue in favor of violence-as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other. What is really frightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to the crunch, we have made no actual progress at all. We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged. The whole of the recorded history of the human race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing. We have still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute. The sheer horror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing. No solution ever comes to light the morning after when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us. The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and harder to get a hearing. They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because they advocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement. If half the energy that goes into violent acts were put to good use, if our efforts were directed at cleaning up the slums and ghettos, at improving living-standards and providing education and employment for all, we would have gone a long way to arriving at a solution. Our strength is sapped by having to mop up the mess that violence leaves in its wake. In a well-directed effort, it would not be impossible to fulfill the ideals of a stable social program. The benefits that can be derived from constructive solutions are everywhere apparent in the world around us. Genuine and lasting solutions are always possible, providing we work within the framework of the law. Before we can even begin to contemplate peaceful co-existence between the races, we must appreciate each other"s problems. And to do this, we must learn about them., it is a simple exercise in communication, in exchanging information. "Talk, talk, talk," the advocates of violence say, "all you ever do is talk, and we are none the wiser. " It"s rather like the story of the famous barrister who painstakingly explained his case to the judge. After listening to a lengthy argument the judge complained that after all this talk, he was none the wiser. "Possible, my lord," the barrister replied, "none the wiser, but surely far better informed. " Knowledge is the necessary prerequisite to wisdom, the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.

单选题 J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults, which treads on very different ground to her bestselling Harry Potter series, is set to become a publishing sensation when it hits bookshelves next week. Waterstones, the country's biggest book-chain store, revealed that the comic novel, The Casual Vacancy, has received the largest number of pre-order sales this year. This number is believed to be five figured, although online pre-orders have reportedly reached well over a million already. The RRP for the paperback is ￡20 but many outlets are reducing this considerably with Waterstones pricing it at ￡10. The secrecy, as well as the excitement, around Rowling's latest offering, has guaranteed its status as the biggest publishing event of the year. Waterstones is opening its doors an hour earlier than usual, at 8 a.m., on its official publication date next Thursday. Until then, Rowling's publisher Little, Brown has stipulated that the books should not even appear on display. Staff will come in early to put out display copies and prepare for the crowds. Jon Howells, a spokesman for Waterstones, described it as one of the first "Super Thursdays" leading up to Christmas, not least because Jamie Oliver was also publishing his book, 15-Minute Meals, on the same day. Mr. Howells said that while he anticipated a big rush at the outset, the book would, in all likelihood, not inspire the equivalent of Pottermania. "Certainly, the anticipation for J.K. Rowling's book has been great because it's the first non-Harry Potter book and it is for a purely adult audience. I think it will see a fantastic level of first day and first weekend sales and after that people will come to it more steadily." "We are treating it as a very different thing from the Harry Potter books. The way readers will approach this will be different. A lot of the readers will be curious and interested in what this book can do for them. There was a huge sense of urgency with the Harry Potter books, and people wanted to read them quickly so that they would not find out the plot through other mediums, while this is a standalone story," he said. A spokeswoman for Tesco, which will also be stocking the book, said: "If the hits on the Tesco Books blog are anything to go by, we think it could be one of our bestselling books in the run-up to Christmas." The plot of the book, which revolves around the inhabitants of a small English town, has been fiercely guarded, and newspaper reviewers have been asked to sign the kind of long and stiffly worded pre-publication confidentiality contracts that a celebrity footballer might use to protect his darkest secrets. A limited number of copies will be delivered by hand to reviewers' homes today. Rowling is due to attend her only question-and-answer session in front of a live audience in London on the day of publication. The event, at the 900-seat Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre, sold out within 48 hours and will also be attended by the world's media. The Southbank Centre condemned the selling of single ￡12 tickets on eBay for ￡85 each. The event, which will last just under two hours including a 30-minute Q & A with the audience, will be transmitted in a live feed on YouTube. Rowling will sign books afterwards, and audience members are limited to one copy per person. Next month she will appear at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and sign copies there. Little, Brown refused to reveal the numbers of copies that have been printed so far—but the book is expected to sell millions.

单选题 The basic story is very old indeed and familiar to most of us. The heroine, Cinderella, is treated cruelly by her stepmother and mocked by her two ugly stepsisters. And even though her father loves her, she can't tell him how unhappy she is because her stepmother has bewitched him. One day Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters are invited to a ball at the royal palace. Cinderella is told she cannot go and is understandably very unhappy. However, her fairy godmother comes to the rescue and, waving her magic wand, produces some beautiful clothes for Cinderella as well as a carriage to convey her to the ball. There, she dances with the handsome prince, who falls in love with her… Just a sweet, pretty tale? Not in the view of Ellen Macintosh, who has written extensively about fairy tales. "This story features the stock, two-dimensional characters of most fairy tales, and little character development is attempted," she says. Indeed, although her comment does make one wonder why simplicity of this sort should be out of place in a story for children. Be that as it may, Ellen's main problem is with what the story implies. "Instead of standing up to her cruel stepmother and absurd stepsisters, Cinderella just waits for a fairy godmother to appear and solve her problem. But wouldn't you want a daughter of yours to show more spirit?" The story is enduring, whatever its shortcomings, and it doesn't take much in the way of analytical skills to see its influence on a number of recent Hollywood productions, all aimed at girls aged five to fifteen. In these versions for the silver screen, the Cinderella character no longer has to clean the house and has no siblings to make her life a misery, though she persists in not showing much backbone. The character of the rich and handsome stranger, however, is retained, and in some cases really is a prince. The role of the fairy godmother is often played by coincidence or sheer luck; we live in an enlightened age when even very young children might reject the notion of fairies. The wicked stepmother may be transformed into a villain of some sort. In the majority of film versions, the heroine has a profession and is even permitted to continue working after marrying her prince — this is the twenty — first century, after all. Doesn't the success of these films indicate that the story has relevance to children even today? "Yes," admits Ellen, who sees its message as being rooted in a fundamental childhood desire for love and attention. "Most children experience a sense of inner loneliness as they are growing up and empathies with the protagonist who faces some sort of test or challenge. This can be seen in the original story of Cinderella, where the fairy godmother tells the heroine that she must learn to be gracious and confident if she is to go to the ball. She has to grow spiritually, and by maturing, she becomes attractive to the prince, thus ensuring that the ending of the story will be happy." "In the later versions, this element is missing," says Ellen, "and the theme of the story is simply that a girl's role in life is to be more beautiful than other little girls so that she can carry off the prize: the handsome prince. Is this really what we want girls to grow up believing?"

单选题 {{B}}Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following news.{{/B}}

单选题 {{B}}Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following talk.{{/B}}

单选题Questions 11-14

单选题Directions: In this section you will read several passages. Each one is followed by several questions about it. You are to choose ONE best answer, A. B. C. or D. to each question. Audiences from minority ethnic groups complained about tokenism, negative stereotyping and simplistic portrayal of their communities on television in a report published yesterday. But programmes such as the comedy shows Goodness Gracious Me and Ali G and the long-running soap Coronation Street were praised as being steps in the right direction. The report, Multicultural Broadcasting: Concept and Reality, was released by the BBC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority. It explores attitudes towards multicultural broadcasting from the perspective of the audience and from within the television, radio and advertising industries. All those questioned from minority ethnic groups said their country of origin was not represented at all or was negatively portrayed on television. There was also a sense of insufficient coverage of events concerning their countries of origin. The perspectives of ethnic and racial minorities were not featured sufficiently on terrestrial television, according to 69% of those working in television. Of the radio sample, 45% agreed. There was concern about stereotypical portrayal of certain issues. Groups from the Asian subcontinent spoke of the way in which arranged marriages were presented on television. They felt treatment of the issue was neither accurate nor reflective of the way in which the system had changed. The issue of tokenism was also significant—some people felt characters from minority ethnic groups were included in programmes because it was expected they should be, resulting in characters who were ill-drawn and unimportant. Audiences felt broadcasters had a social duty to include authentic and fair representations of minorities as it would foster understanding of different cultures and allow children to see themselves represented positively. It was seen as important that minority groups should be included in soap operas or game shows, as they have high viewing figures. They should also be more represented as presenters in news and documentary programming. Audiences from the subcontinent said they did not want to be labelled Asian and called for their distinctive cultural identities to be acknowledged. Similarly, those within mixed-race black groups said their issues were rarely represented. Throughout the audience research was an underlying feeling that as all people paid a licence fee for the BBC, it had a greater obligation to cater to minority tastes. Younger white participants tended to find it divisive to have programmes aimed at particular groups, and thought it better to concentrate on achieving fairer representation in the mainstream. Both audience and industry groups agreed that although progress had been made in the past five years, there still needed to be better representation of minorities on screen and behind the scenes. It is apparent in the report that ethnic minority groups are still under-represented in employment. Only 32% of people in radio and 22% of those in TV agreed that numbers of people from minorities in decision-making roles had increased in the last five years. But the overwhelming feeling among those working in the advertising industry was that commercial objectives should take priority. Paul Bolt, director of the BSC, said: "The report shows where things are now and what can be done in developing future policies." Weakness in numbers ● The number of people from minority ethnic groups on air has increased. ● Only 32% of the TV industry sample thought there had been a growth in programming relevant to the groups. In radio the figure was 63%. ● Only 32% of those working in radio and 22% in television agreed the number of ethnic minority staff in decision-making roles had increased in the last five years. ● The perspectives of ethnic and racial minorities were not featured sufficiently on terrestrial TV, according to 69% of those in television. Of the radio sample, 45% agreed this was true.

单选题Since the late 1960s, another image of "one world" has edged its way into contemporary consciousness--the globe in its physical finiteness. We share in "humanity", we are connected by the "world market", but we are condemned to one destiny because we are inhabitants of one planet. This is the message conveyed by the first photograph of the "one world", taken from outer space, which has irresistibly emerged as the icon of our age. The photo shows the planet suspended in the vastness of the universe and impresses on everybody the fact that the Earth is one body. Against the darkness of infinity, the circular Earth offers itself as an abode, a bounded place. The sensation of being on and inside it strikes the onlooker almost instantly. The unity of the world is now documented. It can be seen everywhere. It jumps out at you from book covers, T-shirt and commercials. In the age of TV, photographs are our eyewitness. For the first time in history, the planet is revealed in its solitude. From now on, "One world" means physical unity; it means "one Earth". The unity of mankind is no longer an Enlightenment fancy or a commercial act but a biophysical fact. However, this physical interconnectedness stands in relief against the background of proliferating dangers. From creeping desertification to impending climate disaster, alarm signals multiply. The biosphere is under attack and threatens to cave in. Local acts such as driving a car or clearing a forest add up, when multiplied, to global imbalances. They turn beneficial cycles into vicious ones that undermine the reliability of nature. In the face of incalculable debacles, concerned voices call for a global political coherence which would match the biophysical interconnections. "The Earth is one but the world is not. We all depend on one biosphere for sustaining our lives." After having intoned this leitmotiv, the Brundtland Reports spells out the fateful new meaning of unity. The Brundtland Report, the leading document on development policy in the late 1980s, takes unity for granted, but a unity which is now the result of a threat.

单选题 Bernard Jackson is a free man today, but he has many bitter memories. Jackson spent five years in prison after a jury wrongly convicted him of raping two women. At Jackson's trial, although two witnesses testified that Jackson was with them in another location at the times of the crimes, he was convicted anyway. Why? The jury believed the testimony of the two victims, who positively identified Jackson as the man who has attacked them. The court eventually freed Jackson after the police found the man who had really committed the crimes. Jackson was similar in appearance to the guilty man. The two women has made a mistake in identity. As a result, Jackson has lost five years of his life. The two women in this case were eyewitnesses. They clearly saw the man who attacked them, yet they mistakenly identified an innocent person. Similar incidents have occurred before. Eyewitnesses to other crimes have identified the wrong person in a police lineup or in photographs. Many factors influence the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. For instance, witnesses sometimes see photographs of several suspects before they try to identify the person they saw in a lineup of people. They can become confused by seeing many photographs or similar faces. The number of people in the lineup, and whether it is a live lineup or a photograph, may also affect a witnesses decision. People sometimes have difficulty in identifying people of other races. The questions the police ask witnesses also have an effect on them. Are some witnesses more reliable than others? Many people believe that police officers are more reliable than ordinary people. Psychologists decided to test this idea, and they discovered that it is not true. Two psychologists showed a film of crimes to both police officers and civilians. The psychologists found no difference between the police and the civilians in correctly remembering the details of the crimes. Despite all the possibilities for inaccuracy, courts cannot exclude eyewitness testimony from a trial. American courts depend almost completely on eyewitness testimony to resolve court cases. Sometimes it is the only evidence to a crime, such as rape. Furthermore, eyewitness testimony is often correct. Although people do sometimes make mistakes, many times they really do identify individuals correctly. American courts depend on the ability of the 12 jurors, and not the judges, to determine the accuracy of the witnesses testimony. It is their responsibility to decide if a certain witness could actually see, hear, and remember what occurred. In a few cases, the testimony of eyewitnesses has convicted innocent people. More importantly, it has rightly convicted a larger number of guilty people; consequently, it continues to be of great value in the American judicial system.

单选题 Questions 16-20 Science is a dominant theme in our culture. Since it touches almost every facet of our life, educated people, need at least some acquaintance with its structure and operation. They should also have an understanding of the subculture in which scientists live and the kinds of people they are. An understanding of general characteristics of science as well as specific scientific concepts is easier to attain if one knows something about the things that excite and frustrate the scientist. This book is written for the intelligent student or lay person whose acquaintance with science is superficial; for the person who has been presented with science as a musty storehouse of dried facts; for the person who sees the chief objective of science as the production of gadgets; and for the person who views the scientists as some sort of magician. The book can be used to supplement a course in any science, to accompany any course that attempts to give an understanding of the modern world, or--independently of any course--simply to provide a better understanding of science. We hope this book will lead readers to a broader perspective on scientific attitudes and a more realistic view of what science is. who scientists are, and what they do. It will give them an awareness and understanding of the relationship between science and our culture and an appreciation of the roles science may play in our culture. In addition, readers may learn to appreciate the relationship between scientific views and some of the values and philosophies that are pervasive in our culture. We have tried to present in this book an accurate and up-to-date picture of the scientific community and the people who populate it. That population has in recent years come to comprise more and more women. This increasing role of women in the scientific subculture is not a unique incident but, rather, part of the trend evident in all segments of society as more women enter traditionally male-dominated fields and make significant contributions. In discussing these changes and contribution, however, we are faced with a language that is implicitly sexist, one that uses male nouns or pronouns in referring to unspecified individuals. To offset this built-in bias, we have adopted the policy of using plural nouns and pronouns whenever possible and, when absolutely necessary, alternating him and her. This policy is far from being ideal, but it is at least an acknowledgment of the inadequacy of our language in treating hail of the human race equally. We have also tried to make the book entertaining as well as informative. Our approach is usually informal. We feel, as do many other scientists, that we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. As the reader may observe, we see science as a delightful pastime rather than as a grim and dreary way to earn a living.

单选题I am afraid to sleep. I have been afraid to sleep for the last few weeks. I am so tired that, finally, I do sleep, but only for a few minutes. It is not a bad dream that wakes me; it is the reality I took with me into sleep. I try to think of something else. Immediately the woman in the marketplace comes into my mind. I was on my way to dinner last night when I saw her. She was selling skirts. She moved with the same ease and loveliness I often saw in the women of Laos. Her long black hair was as shiny as the black silk of the skirts she was selling. In her hair, she wore three silk ribbons, blue, green, and white. They reminded me of my childhood and how my girlfriends and I used to spend hours braiding ribbons into our hair. I don"t know the word for "ribbons", so I put my hand to my own hair and , with three fingers against my head , I looked at her ribbons and said "Beautiful. " She lowered her eyes and said nothing. I wasn"t sure if she understood me (I don"t speak Laotian very well). I looked back down at the skirts. They had designs on them: squares and triangles and circles of pink and green silk. They were very pretty. I decided to buy one of those skirts, and I began to bargain with her over the price. It is the custom to bargain in Asia. In Laos bargaining is done in soft voices and easy moves with the sort of quiet peacefulness. She smiled, more with her eyes than with her lips. She was pleased by the few words I was able to say in her language, although they were mostly numbers, and she saw that I understood something about the soft playfulness of bargaining. We shook our heads in disagreement over the price; then, immediately, we made another offer and then another shake of the head. She was so pleased that unexpectedly, she accepted the last offer I made. But it was too soon. The price was too low. She was being too generous and wouldn"t make enough money. I moved quickly and picked up two more skirts and paid for all three at the price set; that way I was able to pay her three times as much before she had a chance to lower the price for the larger purchase. She smiled openly then, and, for the first time in months, my spirit lifted. I almost felt happy. The feeling stayed with me while she wrapped the skirts in a newspaper and handed them to me. When I left, though, the feeling left, too. It was as though it stayed behind in marketplace. I left tears in my throat. I wanted to cry. I didn"t, of course. I have learned to defend myself against what is hard; without knowing it, I have also learned to defend myself against what is soft and what should be easy. I get up, light a candle and want to look at the skirts. They are still in the newspaper that the woman wrapped them in. I remove the paper, and raise the skirts up to look at them again before I pack them. Something falls to the floor. I reach down and feel something cool in my hand. I move close to the candlelight to see what I have. There are five long silk ribbons in my hand, all different colors. The woman in the marketplace! She has given these ribbons to me! There is no defense against a generous spirit, and this time I cry, and very hard, as if I could make up for all the months that I didn"t cry.

单选题Imagine a bacterium that, when injected into the bloodstream, would travel to the site of a tumor, insert itself into the cancer cell, and then produce a cancer-killing compound. That"s exactly what scientists at the University of California, Berkeley(UCB) and University of California, San Francisco(UCSF) have set out to do. Traditional cancer therapies are limited for two key reasons: little of the drag actually reaches the tumor and the drug is toxic to both cancerous and healthy tissues. Bacteria, however, have the potential to precisely target cells. "In a way, bacteria are the ultimate in smart drugs," says George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston (he was not involved in the current work, but will collaborate on the project in the future). "It"s hard to pack a lot of intelligence into a small molecule or protein; but bacteria can have sensors and actuators and can drill into a cell, like a submarine." To build a cancer-killing bacterium, biologists must create organisms that can perform a series of complicated functions--namely, when in the bloodstream, they have to sense and respond to the tumor environment. Once inside the tumor, the bacteria must infiltrate the cancer cell, and then--and only then--start producing a tumor-killing toxin. The researchers plan to engineer such super-organisms by co-opting parts from different types of bacteria and inserting them into Escherichia coli, a bacterium commonly used in research. Tumor tissue has unique characteristics, including lower oxygen and higher lactic acid concentrations than surrounding tissue. To create a bacterium that can sense a tumor, Christopher Anderson, a postdoctoral researcher at UCB and UCSF, and colleagues took an oxygen sensor from E. coli and linked it to a special protein, called invasin, from another type of bacteria, which allows the organism to invade cancer cells. In a paper published earlier this year in the Journal of Molecular Biology, the researchers showed in a test tube that the engineered bacterium selectively invades tumor cells. Anderson and colleagues are now working on making the system even more specific. To ensure that the bacteria invade only tumor cells, they will create a genetic mechanism that allows the invasin protein to be expressed only when two conditions are met, such as when both the oxygen and lactic acid concentrations are at a certain level. Essentially, it"s a genetic version of what"s known in engineering terms as an AND gate--a regulatory circuit that"s turned on only if two conditions are met. "By using multiple cues, we can garner a great deal of specificity," says Adam Arkin, a bioengineer at UCB and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a TR100 recipient in 1999, and one of the senior scientists on the project. "After the bacteria sense the cues, they turn on the rest of the apparatus to do the job."

单选题 Questions 16-20 The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, you'd expect greater understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other's countries at a moderate cost. What was once the "grand tour", reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody's grasp. The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Modern travelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn't have dreamed of. But what's the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other? Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels, where he eats his international food and sips his international drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see only what the organizers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own; and anyway, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way. At its very worst, this leads to a new and hideous kind of colonization. The summer quarters of the inhabitants are temporarily reestablished on the island of Corfu. Blackpool is recreated at Torremolinos where the traveler goes not to eat paella, but fish and chips. The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We don't see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are. You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned, these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. You come away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, "Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites" or that "Latin peoples shout a lot". You only have to make a few foreign friends to understand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you? Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations stir up racial hatred and blind us to the basic fact--how trite it sounds! That all people are human. We are all similar to each other and at the same time all unique.

单选题 Questions 11-15 As regards social conventions, we must say a word about the well-known English class system. This is an embarrassing subject for English people, and one they tend to be ashamed of, though during the present century class-consciousness has grown less and less, and the class system less rigid. But it still exists below the surface. Broadly speaking, it means there are two classes, the "middle class" and the "working class". (We shall ignore for a moment the old "upper class", including the hereditary aristocracy, since it is extremely small in numbers; but some of its members have the right to sit in the House of Lords, and some newspapers take surprising interest in their private life. The middle class consists chiefly of well-to-do businessmen and professional people of all kinds. The working class consists chiefly of manual and unskilled workers. ) The most obvious difference between them is in their accent. Middle-class people use slightly varying kinds of "received pronunciation" which is the kind of English spoken by BBC announcers and taught to overseas pupils. Typical working-class people speak in many different local accent which are generally felt to be rather ugly and uneducated. One of the biggest barriers of social equality in England is the two-class education system. To have been to a so-called "public school" immediately marks you out as one of the middle class. The middle classes tend to live a more formal life than working-class people, and are usually more cultured. Their midday meal is "lunch" and they have a rather formal evening meal called "dinner", whereas the working man's dinner, if his working hours permit, is at midday, and his smaller, late-evening meal is called supper. As we have said, however, the class system is much less rigid than it was, and for a long time it has been government policy to reduce class distinctions. Working-class students very commonly receive a university education and enter the professions, and working-class incomes have grown so much recently that the distinctions between the two classes are becoming less and less clear. However, regardless of one's social status, certain standards of politeness are expected of everybody, and a well-bred person is polite to everyone he meets, and treats a laborer with the same respect he gives an important businessman. Servility inspires both embarrassment and dislike. Even the word "sir", except in school and in certain occupations (e. g. commerce, the army, etc. ) sounds too servile to be commonly used.

单选题You know Adam Smith for his "invisible hand," the mysterious force that steers the selfish economic decisions of individuals toward a result that leaves us all better off. It's been a hugely influential idea, one that during the last few decades of the 20th century began to take on the trappings of a universal truth. Lately, though, the invisible hand has been getting slapped. The selfish economic decisions of home buyers, mortgage brokers, investment bankers and institutional investors over the past decade clearly did not leave us all better off. Did Smith have it wrong? No, Smith did not have it wrong. It's just that some of his self-proclaimed disciples have given us a terribly incomplete picture of what he believed. The man himself used the phrase invisible hand only three times: once in the famous passage from The Wealth of Nations that everybody cites; once in his other big book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments; and once in a posthumously published history of astronomy (in which he was talking about "the invisible hand of Jupiter"--the god, not the planet). For Smith, the invisible hand was but one of an array of interesting social and economic forces worth thinking about. Why did the invisible, hand emerge as the one idea from Smith's work that everybody remembers? Mainly because it's so simple and powerful. If the invisible hand of the market really can be relied on at all times and in all places to deliver the most prosperous and just society possible, then we'd be idiots not to get out of the way and let it work its magic. Plus, the supply-meets- demand straightforwardness of the invisible-hand metaphor lends itself to mathematical treatment, and math is the language in which economists communicate with one another. Hardly anything else in Smith's work is nearly that simple or consistent. Consider The Theory of Moral Sentiments, his long-neglected other masterpiece, published 17 years before The Wealth of Nations, in 1759. I recently cracked open a new 250th-anniversary edition, complete with a lucid introduction by economist Amartya Sen, in hopes that it would make clearer how we ought to organize our economy. Fat chance. Most of the book is an account of how we decide whether behavior is good or not. In Smith's telling, the most important factor is our sympathy for one another." "To restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature," he writes. But he goes on to say that "the commands and laws of the Deity" (he seems to be referring to the Ten Commandments) are crucial guides to conduct too. Then, in what seems to be a strange detour from those earthly and divine parameters, he argues that the invisible hand ensures that the selfish and sometimes profligate spending habits of the rich tend to promote the public good. There are similar whiplash moments in The Wealth of Nations. The dominant theme running through the book is that self-interest and free, competitive markets can be powerful forces for prosperity and for good. But Smith also calls for regulation of interest rates and laws to protect workers from their employers. He argues that the corporation, the dominant form of economic organization in today's world, is an abomination. The point here isn't that Smith was right in every last one of his prescriptions and proscriptions. He was an 18th century Scottish scholar, not an all-knowing being. Many of his apparent self-contradictions are just that--contradictions that don't make a lot of sense. But Smith was also onto something that many free-market fans who pledge allegiance to him miss. The world is a complicated place. Markets don't exist free of societies and governments and regulators and customs and moral sentiments; they are entwined. Also, while markets often deliver wondrous results, an outcome is not by definition good simply because the market delivers it. Some other standards have to be engaged. Applying Smith's teachings to the modern world, then, is a much more complex and doubtful endeavor than it's usually made out to be. He certainly wouldn't have been opposed to every government intervention in the market. On financial reform, it's easy to imagine Smith supporting the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and crackdowns on giant financial institutions. He might have also favored the just-passed health care reform bill, at least the part that requires states to set up exchanges to ensure retail competition for health insurance. Then again, he might not have. Asking "What would Adam Smith say?" is a lot easier than conclusively answering it. It is pretty clear, though, that he wouldn't just shout, "Don't interfere with the invisible hand!" and leave it at that.

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单选题IN 1871 America added about 6,000 miles of track to its railways, an endeavor that occupied a tenth of its industrial labour force. But by 1875 track-building had fallen by more than two-thirds, and employed less than 3 % of America"s workers. According to Brad DeLong, an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley, the violent ups and downs of the railway industry help to explain the popularity, before the Great Depression and John Maynard Keynes, of a fatalistic view of the business cycle. Recessions, however unpleasant, were cathartic, and therefore necessary. They released capital and labour from profitless activities (such as laying the year"s 6,000th mile of track) as an essential prelude to redeploying them elsewhere. "Depressions are not simply evils, which we might attempt to suppress," wrote Joseph Schumpeter. They represent "something which has to be done". In Schumpeter"s day, this fatalism was shared by many at America"s Federal Reserve. But today"s Fed acts quickly to suppress recessions, which it recognises are mostly due to a lack of demand, not an excess of track. For the Fed, recessions are good for one thing, and one thing only: curbing inflation. Unfortunately, this task is now an urgent one. According to figures released this week, core consumer prices rose by 2.7% in the year to July—too fast for comfort. In theory, curbing this inflation could be painless. If the Fed"s commitment to price stability is credible, and if people look forward, not backward, when settling their wages and setting their prices, they will respond to the Fed"s promises. Unfortunately, in practice, inflation suffers from strong inertia. Hence cutting it typically requires a slowing of the economy as well as a lowering of inflationary expectations. Like pagans sharpening their knives, economists debate the size of this "sacrifice ratio": the number of people who must lose their jobs to appease the gods of price stability. Some models, including one of many that guide the Fed"s deliberations, put this ratio as high as 4.25, which means that unemployment must rise by one percentage point (or 1.5m people) for 4.25 years to reduce inflation by one percentage point. But other, less bloodthirsty economists suggest the ratio is more like 2 or 2.5. Ratios like these mean that for the first time in years America"s domestic economists, who track their country"s inflation and unemployment, are as worded about the future as its international economists, who fixate on the country"s external imbalances. The internationalists have long feared that a recession might lie ahead should foreigners abruptly abandon the dollar. The prospect of a more conventional downturn—engineered not by foreign central banks, but by America"s own—suggests the cart and horse belong in a different order. A recession might bring about a reversal of the current-account deficit, rather than the other way around. Recessions were, after all, part and parcel of Portugal"s current-account reversal, which began in 1982, Britain"s from 1989 and Spain"s from 1991. In reality, however, America"s deficit is unlikely to close without its industrial structure changing substantially. Only about a quarter of what it now produces can be sold across borders. Andrew Tilton of Goldman Sachs has calculated that to boost exports and narrow its deficit to 2.5% of GDP by 2010, America would need to increase its manufacturing capacity by about 17%. But until this year, it was housing, a non-traded good par excellence, which has attracted extra labour and capital. In 2005 the share of construction workers in payroll employment was the highest in 50 years, and residential investment accounted for the biggest chunk of GDP since 1951. Schumpeter, no doubt, would call this "maladjustment". Might a recession do for housing what it did for late-19th-century railways? The last downturn was accompanied by substantial restructuring, according to a widely cited paper by Erica Groshen and Simon Potter of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Workers who lost their jobs in the 2001 recession did not return to the same industry during the recovery. Instead, those who did not leave the labour force altogether slowly migrated to new industries. Companies, the authors wrote, saw the recession "not as an event to be weathered but as an opportunity—or even a mandate—to reorganise production permanently, close less efficient facilities and cull stuff". Schumpeter could not have put it better himself. Recession is not inevitable. But if a 2007 slowdown curbs inflation, narrows the trade deficit and clears space for an American manufacturing revival it will prove a surprisingly fruitful period of dearth.

单选题 {{B}}Questions 27-30{{/B}}

单选题In writing the last sentence, the author ______.

单选题 Bernard Jackson is a free man today, but he has many bitter memories. Jackson spent five, years in prison after a jury wrongly convicted him of raping two women. At Jackson's trial, although two witnesses testified that Jackson was with them in another location at the times of the crimes, he was convicted anyway. Why? The jury believed the testimony of the two victims, who positively identified Jackson as the man who had attacked them. The court eventually freed Jackson after the police found the man who had really committed the crimes. Jackson was similar in appearance to the guilty man. The two women had made a mistake in identity. As a result, Jackson has lost five years of his life. The two women in this case were eyewitnesses. They clearly saw the man who attacked them, yet they mistakenly identified an innocent person. Similar incidents have occurred before. Eyewitnesses to other crimes have identified the wrong person in a police lineup or in photographs. Many factors influence the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. For instance, witnesses sometimes see photographs of several suspects before they try to identify the person they saw in a line-up of people. They can become confused by seeing many photographs or similar faces. The number of people in the line-up, and whether it is a live line-up or a photograph, may also affect a witness's decision. People sometimes have difficulty identifying people of other races. The questions the police ask witnesses also have an effect on them. Are some witnesses more reliable than others? Many people believe that police officers are more reliable than ordinary people. Psychologists decided to test this idea, and they discovered that it is not true. Two psychologists showed a film of crimes to both police officers and civilians. The psychologists found no difference between the police and the civilians in correctly remembering the details of the crimes. Despite all the possibilities for inaccuracy, courts cannot exclude eyewitness testimony from a trial. American courts depend almost completely on eyewitness testimony to resolve court cases. Sometimes it is the only evidence to a crime, such as rape. Furthermore, eyewitness testimony is often correct. Although people do sometimes make mistakes, many times they really do identify individuals correctly. American courts depend on the ability of the 12 jurors, and not the judges, to determine the accuracy of the witness's testimony. It is their responsibility to decide if a certain witness could actually see, hear, and remember what occurred. In a few cases, the testimony of eyewitnesses has convicted innocent people. More importantly, it has rightly convicted a larger number of guilty people; consequently, it continues to be of great value in the American judicial system.