单选题 {{B}}Questions 9 to 12 are based on the following talk.{{/B}}

单选题 In politics, in the courts, even on the ubiquitous TV talkshow, it is good form to pick an intellectual fight. People attack each other- hurl insults, even- and it counts as logical argument. I cannot understand it. It seems that our society favours a kind of ritualized aggression. Everywhere you look, in newspapers and on television, issues are presented using the terminology of war and conflict. We hear of battles, duels and disputes. We see things in terms of winners and losers, victors and victims. The problem is society's unquestioning belief in the advantages of the debate as a way of solving disagreements, even proving right from wrong. Our brainwashing begins early at school, when the brightest pupils are co-opted onto the debating system. They get there because they can think up a good argument to support their case. Once on the debate team, they learn that they earn bonus points for the skill with which they verbally attack, or insult, the opposing team. They win if they can successfully convince the audience that they are right, even if the case they are arguing is clearly nonsensual. They do this by proving themselves to be stronger, brighter, more outrageous, even. The training in this adversarial approach continues at our tertiary institutions. The standard way to present an academic paper, for instance, is to take up an opposing argument to something expressed by another academic. The paper must set out to prove the other person wrong. This is not at all the same thing as reading the original paper with an open mind and discovering that you disagree with it. The reverence for the adversarial approach spills over into all areas of life. Instead of answering their critics, politicians learn to sidestep negative comments and turn the point around to an attack on accusers. Defense lawyers argue the case for their clients even when they suspect they may be guilty. And ordinary people use the same tactics—just listen to your teenager next time you pull him up for coming home late. You can be sure a stream of abuse will flow about your own time—keeping, your irritating habits, your history of bad parenting. Unfortunately, the smarter your kid, the better his or her argument against you will be. You'll be upset, but you'll comfort yourself that those teenage monsters of yours will one day turn into mature, though adults who can look after themselves—by which you mean, of course, they will be able to argue their way out of sticky situations. It's not that you should never use angry words, or take up a position in opposition to someone or something. There are certainly times when one should take a stand, and in such cases strong words are quite appropriate: if you witness injustice, for instance, or feel passionately about another's folly. Mockery—so cruel when practised on the innocent—can be very useful in such situations. There is no better way to bring down a tyrant than to mock him mercilessly. What I dislike is the automatic assumption most people have when it comes to disagreements: they should attack, abuse, preferably overpower their opponent, at whatever the cost. The approach is so ingrained that "compromise" has become a dirty word. We feel guilty if we are conciliatory rather than confrontational. We have trained ourselves, or been brainwashed into believing, that to be pleasant is a sign of weakness. But just think how easy it can be to persuade a "difficult" person to be considerate of you or your wished when you are pleasant to them, and unthreatening. Give them a way out of a potentially aggressive situation without losing face, and they will oblige you willingly. Discuss a subject without taking an adversarial position and you will find the other person happy to explore the possibilities with you. I'm prepared to bet on it. You'll get closer to the truth of the matter than you would by going to each other hammer and tongs.

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单选题Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired; without others we would soon die. Tiny amounts of some hormones can modify moods and actions, our inclination to eat or drink, our aggressiveness or submissiveness, and our reproductive and parental behavior. And hormones do more than influence adult behavior; early in life they help to determine the development of bodily form and may even determine an individual"s behavioral capacities. Later in life the changing outputs of some endocrine glands and the body"s changing sensitivity to some hormones are essential aspects of the phenomena of aging. Communication within the body and the consequent integration of behavior were considered the exclusive province of the nervous system up to the beginning of the present century. The emergence of endocrinology as a separate discipline can probably be traced to the experiments of Bayliss and Starling on the hormone secretion. This substance is secreted from cells in the intestinal walls when food enters the stomach; it travels through the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas to liberate pancreatic juice, which aids in digestion. By showing that special cells secrete chemical agents that are conveyed by the bloodstream and regulate distant target organs or tissues. Bayliss and Starling demonstrated that chemical integration could occur without participation of the nervous system. The term "hormone" was first used with reference to secretion. Starling derived the term from the Greek hormone, meaning "to excite or set in motion". The term "endocrine" was introduced shortly thereafter. "Endocrine" is used to refer to glands that secrete products into the bloodstream. The term "endocrine" contrasts with "exocrine", which is applied to glands that secrete their products though ducts to the site of action. Examples of exocrine glands are the tear glands, the sweat glands, and the pancreas, which secrete pancreatic juice through a duct into the intestine. Exocrine glands are also called duct glands, while endocrine glands are called ductless glands.

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单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In this part of the test, you will hear several short talks and conversations. After each of these, you will hear a few questions. Listen carefully because you will hear the talk or conversation and questions {{/B}}ONLY ONCE.{{/B}} When you hear a question, read the four answer choices and choose the best answer to that question. Then write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your {{B}}ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}} {{B}}Questions 11—14{{/B}}

单选题 The world seems to be going diet crazy, and yet our nation's obesity rate has shot up year after year. And, it's not only the over 20 population that has to worry about their weight anymore. Children from kindergarten to twelfth grade are also experiencing the problems of an overweight lifestyle. According to the website cosmiverse.com, 11% of adolescents are categorized as being over-weight, and another 16% are in danger of becoming overweight. This is a 60% jump from the 1980's. Some of the blame is being put on schools wanting to fit more academic classes into the children's schedule rather than waste time on physical education. This new take on education has left us with physical activity at an all-time national low, resulting in obesity and poor physical conditioning at an all-time national high. The schools have tried a few solutions; the most recent in the news has been taking soda out of schools and increasing the required time children must be active during school. Will those methods help at all? Education is important at school, but starts at home. I believe students are getting their bad habits from watching their parents and how they eat and exercise. The school system only helps to hinder the child's dietary eating. I know there are studies showing genes that determine how a child will be built. That does not explain however, why the rate continues to increase at such a rapid rate each year. It seems more likely that more and more families have both parents working, leaving their children to their own means for a meal. "Nintendo, TV, Playstation and the like," are what Physical Education teacher, Sue Arostegui, attributes the inactiveness to. "Parents are either gone or too scared with today's society to let them out and play." Classes on health need to become more regular and sports need to be encouraged. At Live Oak High School the staff does a good job of teaching how to eat and exercise to stay healthy. The freshmen study health every Wednesday in RE., and Para James teaches healthy eating and food preparation in Home Economics for the first few weeks of every school year. "Kids have no idea how many calories they are eating," said James of the overweight problems facing students. "Fast food is becoming more popular, it's easier and parents are busy. They are only setting their kids up to gain weight with that diet however." School cafeterias are also getting blamed for the students' eating habits. "Healthy eating should start at home," said L.O.H.S. cafeteria cool Brenda Myers. "Too many kids are being raised on fast food. After eating so much fast food they don't have any tastes for real home cooked food. I always have healthy foods for students, but they are less likely to eat them." Other schools do not even have the type of programs Live Oak offers and are suffering even worse consequences. Sports keep students fit and healthy. There need to be more readily available sports programs for anyone who would like to join. Many students when they feel they do not meet the standards for a team will admit defeat and drop off the team: There needs to be a program that all students will be interested in and continue through for the entire season. Schools can only do and be blamed for so much however, and it will be up to the parents to become more aware of what activities their children are participating in and how healthy they are eating. Until that happens, I foresee the obesity rate continuing on its uphill curve.

单选题Nobody much likes tourists. They have a reputation for being loud, rude and disruptive. They are blamed for everything from prostitution to environmental degradation. "They want to have a good time, they are not well informed and want a short "wow" factor," says Xavier Font, professor of tourism management at Britain"s Leeds Metropolitan University. "Many locals see tourists as stupid." Yet tourism may in fact be the true salvation of humankind"s cultural heritage. After all, it"s the main countervailing force to internationalization—that is, the global blah of TV, T shirts, tract housing, fast-food chains, business suits, malls and brand names. Internationalization has, in practice, been a process of everyone"s coming to live and act the same; the Japanese gave up their kimonos because they were considered "unmodern". But tourists are looking for something old and something different—and they"ll pay for it. The effect can be seen across the globe, rescuing traditional cities and cultures from the brink of extinction. Just five years ago the indigenous community of the Cayapas lived in little concrete houses with television sets, having moved from file banks of the Canande River in northwestern Ecuador to settle alongside the highway. They had nearly all abandoned the traditional hand-woven garb of their ancestors, and instead donned Nikes. "That"s what progress meant to them," says Pedro Armend riz, a tourism and development-planning engineer based in Quito. "It meant wearing tennis shoes and jeans, and having a TV so all the women could watch their soap operas every day." Thanks to an influx of tourists, things have recently changed for the Cayapas. With visitors coming in search of community, or ethnic, tourism—to eat, work and often even live with the indigenous people—the Cayapas are embracing the nearly forgotten culture of their ancestors. Once again, they are wearing traditional clothes, building old-style homes and using traditional agricultural techniques. "They have become a sustainable community microbusiness, with a preservationist conscience, because they have understood that their indigenous roots are what interest tourists," says Amend riz. "It makes them value their ancestral culture." The situation is similar throughout Latin America, where interest in cultural and ecological tourism has been on the rise in recent years. Tourism to Guatemala, for example, with its Mayan heritage, lush rain forests and lakes surrounded by volcanoes, has doubled in the past decade to nearly 2 million foreign visitors a year. Their dollars have kept young indigenous women interested in learning the specialized craft of weaving on the Mayans" backstrap looms, says Alejandrina Silva, head of the Guatemalan Tourism Ministry"s Cultural Heritage Office. "Indigenous artisanry forms an important part of the Guatemalan touristic product," she says. "If this were not the case, such crafts could die off and the younger generations would have to look for new trades that would allow them to survive." Indeed, the souvenir trade—often maligned for promoting kitsch—can almost single-handedly keep fading cultures alive. In the Tatra National Park in Zakopane, in southern Poland, the highlander tradition of making smoked sheep cheese—dying out among the younger generation—has earned a new lease on life thanks to tourists" desire for unforgettable souvenirs. Highlanders make the cheese, or oscypek, in theft huts, forming it by hand and smoking it over a fire. Visitors feel free to chat with the locals as they watch, have a taste of the cheese and a glass of fresh goat"s milk; most leave some money. They also snatch up the traditional clothing, wool hats, slippers and jackets—as well as sheep and goat cheese—on sale all over the city. Tourism is not just about preserving old cultures; it can also influence modem ones. Catering to tourist whims provides a quick education for fledgling entrepreneurs, from the little boys in Angkor Wat pushing postcards, to the people who run small travel agencies, bed-and-breakfasts and coffee shops. Backpackers in particular, who have created their own cities-within-cities such as Khaosan Road in Bangkok, have sparked entrepreneurs to invent entirely new businesses, including herbal spas, meditation centers and home-stay programs. For developed countries, tourism can help maintain a healthy competitive edge. Consider Japan, which until recently did not feel the need to court foreign travelers, and in the process nearly fell off the tourist map. The country ranks only 30th in the world as a tourist destination—about the same as Tunisia and Croatia. Without overseas visitors" clamoring for special services, hotels and inns rarely offer Internet access, ATM and mobile-phone networks won"t link up with the rest of the world, and design and amenities at resorts lag behind world standards. Without tourists, modern culture fails to take the next step. Of course, the biggest benefits of tourism may accrue to the tourists themselves. They go home having learned something about societies different from their own. And that, in the end, may do more good for the local cultures they visited than any amount of dollars. "When tourists from the Western world go to Third World countries, it increases the locals" pride in their own culture," says Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, a professor of tourism at Britain"s Nottingham University. "Tourism is the avenue on which we can exchange our cultures and learn from each other. Tourism brings peace." Not to mention some really unforgettable smoked sheep-cheese souvenirs.

单选题 "I delight in Buckingham Palace", said Queen Victoria, when she moved in three weeks after ascending to the throne. Today the 40-acre secluded garden contains specimen shrubs, trees and a large lake. Eight to nine thousand people visit it during the annual garden parties. It took George Ⅳ, on becoming King in 1820, and John Nash, Surveyor-general to GeorgeⅣ when he was Prince Regent, many years to turn the house into a sumptuous palace. Nash demolished the North and South wings and rebuilt them. He constructed Marble Arch as a grand entrance to the enlarged courtyard. As work continued, Nash let his costs run away with him, and Parliament complained. Joseph Hume, an English politician and reformer fighting for financial retrenchment, said, "The Crown of England does not require such splendour. Foreign countries might indulge in frippery, but England ought to pride herself on her plainness and simplicity." Nevertheless, elegance reigned. Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837. When she moved in, Buckingham Palace became, for the first time, the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns. There wasn't a room large enough for grand entertainments, so in 1853 — 1855, Queen Victoria ordered the Ballroom built. 122 feet long, 60 feet wide and 45 feet high, it is, today, used for many events such as the State Banquet, the Diplomatic Reception, and memorial concerts. This is the site of Investitures, where the Queen (who was crowned in 1952) presents the recipients of British honours with their awards. During World War Ⅱ, a chapel, converted by Queen Victoria from Nash's conservatory, was bombed. Prince Philip oversaw its rebuilding as the Queen's Gallery, home to a rotating collection of art from the Royal Collection. The Gallery, currently in the process of renovation, will reopen in 2002 for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. More than 600 rooms, including 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms comprise the castle's assets. But the "room" best known around the world is the Balcony where the Royal family' gathers on celebratory and solemn occasions to be seen by their subjects. The Palace is more than a home for the Royals. It is the official administrative headquarters of the monarchy and contains the Offices of their staff. It is the place where all Royal ceremonies and official banquets are held. Government ministers, top civil servants and heads of state visit to carry out their duties. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "working from home".

单选题A Black comedy by a first-time novelist with a past as colorful as his book has defied the bookies to win the ￡50,000 Man Booker prize, the most important honour in the British literary world. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, the nom de plume of 42-year-old Mexican-Australian Peter Finlay, was the unanimous choice of the Booker judges, chaired by John Carey, who took less than an hour to decide. The novel tells the story of Vernon Gregory, a Texan teenager who is put on trial accused of a massacre at his high school. At the awards ceremony at the British Museum in London last night, Professor Carey described it as a "coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with modern America". Accepting the prize, the novelist said: "My mum is in the audience. I want to say she and the rest of my family planted the idea that I could do anything and I would just like to apologise for taking it literally." It beat a shortlist including Brick Lane, the first novel by Monica Ali which was the bookmakers" favourite and has been the biggest seller in the shops, and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the only established author to make it to the final round of judging. Martyn Goff, the director of the Man Booker prize, said he was "absolutely amazed" at the swiftness of the decision which was made after the second shortest debate in the prize"s 35-year history. "Four of them jumped as one, and the fifth [member of the jury] was not unhappy," he said. The judges were particularly convinced by the way the author was able to create such a strong sense of America. "There was a feeling that it could only have been written by an American whereas we all know it wasn"t," he said. DBC Pierre—the initials stand for Dirty But Clean—is a reformed drug addict and gambler who was born into a wealthy family but lost virtually everything when the banks were nationalised in Mexico in 1982. Without his family money to fall back on, Finlay has admitted selling his best friend"s home and keeping the proceeds as well as working up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts in a scheme to find gold in Mexico. Revealing how his life was often stranger than fiction, he said in a recent interview. "For nine years I was in a drug haze, on a rampage of cocaine, heroin, any shit I could get. I am not proud of what I have done and I now want to put it right." A publishing deal for the book was sealed just one hour before the first plane hit New York"s World Trade Centre on 11 September, 2001. "Ever since, I feel like there"s some dark destiny swirling around the book," he said. His financial problems are likely to become a thing of the past. A filmmaker has bought an option to make a movie of the book and as well as the ￡50,000 prize cheque, the writer, who currently lives in Ireland, is guaranteed a significant increase in sales. Sales of last year"s winner, Yann Martel"s Life of Pi , have exceeded 1 million copies. Martin Higgs, literary editor of Waterstone"s , said. "The storyline for this book is one that you would as much see played out today on the six o"clock news as read in a novel and has for this reason struck a chord with book lovers." Finlay was second favourite to win, behind Monica Ali, 35, who created a flurry of interest even before her debut novel was published when she was named one of Granta"s best young British novelists. The other shortlisted books were The Good Doctor , by Damon Galgut, Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall, and Notes on a Scandal by the former Independent on Sunday journalist Zoe Heller, 38.

单选题When Harvey Ball took a black felt-tip pen to a piece of yellow paper in 1963, he never could have realized that he was drafting the face that would launch 50 million buttons and an eventual war over copyright. Mr. Ball, a commercial artist, was simply filling a request from Joy Young of the Worcester Mutual Insurance Company to create an image for their "smile campaign" to coach employees to be more congenial in their customer relations. It seems there was a hunger for a bright grin—the original order of 100 smiley-face buttons were snatched up and an order for 10,000 more was placed at once. The Worcester Historical Museum takes this founding moment seriously. "Just as you"d want to know the biography of General Washington, we realized we didn"t know the comprehensive history of the Smiley Face," says Bill Wallace, the executive director of the historical museum where the exhibit "Smiley—An American Icon" opens to the public Oct. 6 in Worcester, Mass. Worcester, often referred to by neighboring Bostonians as "that manufacturing town off Route 90," lays claim to several other famous commercial firsts, the monkey wrench and shredded wheat among them. Smiley Face is a particularly warm spot in the city"s history. Through a careful historical analysis, Mr. Wallace says that while the Smiley Face birthplace is undisputed, it took several phases of distribution before the distinctive rounded-tipped smile with one eye slightly larger than the other proliferated in the mainstream. As the original buttons spread like drifting pollen with no copyright attached, a bank in Seattle next realized its commercial potential. Under the guidance of advertising executive David Stern, the University Federal Savings & Loan launched a very public marketing campaign in 1967 centered on the Smiley Face. It eventually distributed 150,000 buttons along with piggy banks and coin purses. Old photos of the bank show giant Smiley Face wallpaper. By 1970, Murray and Bernard Spain, brothers who owned a card shop in Philadelphia, were affixing the yellow grin to everything from key chains to cookie jars along with "Have a happy day". "In the 1970s, there was a trend toward happiness," says Wallace. "We had assassinated a president, we were in a war with Vietnam, and people were looking for [tokens of] happiness. [The Spain brothers] ran with it." The Smiley Face resurged in the 1990s. This time it was fanned by a legal dispute between Wal-Mart, who uses it to promote its low prices, and Franklin Loufrani, a Frenchman who owns a company called SmileyWorld. Mr. Loufrani says he created the Smiley Face and has trademarked it around the world. He has been distributing its image in 80 countries since 1971. Loufrani"s actions irked Ball, who felt that such a universal symbol should remain in the public domain in perpetuity. So in a pleasant proactive move, Ball declared in 1999 that the first Friday in October would be "World Smile Day" to promote general kindness and charity toward children in need. Ball died in 2001. The Worcester exhibit opens on "World Smile Day", Oct. 6. It features a plethora of Smiley Face merchandise—from the original Ball buttons to plastic purses and a toilet seat and contemporary interpretations by local artists. The exhibit is scheduled to run through Feb. 11.

单选题Questions 19-22

单选题For whom does the author probably write this passage?

单选题Why does the author mention the community of the Cayapas in Paragraph 3 and 4?

单选题 It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional Small wonder. Americans' life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death, and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand everything that can possibly be done for us, even if it's useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians—frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient—too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $1,540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age—say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm "have a duty to die and get out of the way", so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is in her 70s, and former surgeon general C. Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly and dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people's lives.

单选题Questions 26-30 At some time in your life you may have a strong desire to do something strange or terrible. However, chances are that you don"t act on your impulse, but let it pass instead. You know that to commit the action is wrong in some way and that other people will not accept your behavior. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the phenomenon of taboo behavior is how it can change over the years within the same society, how certain behavior and attitudes once considered taboo can become perfectly acceptable and natural at another point in time. Topics such as death, for example, were once considered so upsetting and unpleasant that it was a taboo to even talk about them. Now with the publication of important books such as On Death and Dying and Learning to Say Goodbye, people have become more aware of the importance of expressing feelings about death and, as a result, are more willing to talk about this taboo subject. One of the newest taboos in American society is the topic of fat. Unlike many other taboos, fat is a topic that Americans talk about constantly. It"s not taboo to talk about fat; it"s taboo to be fat. The "in" look is thin, not fat. In the work world, most companies prefer youthful-looking, trim executives to sell their image as well as their products to the public. The thin look is associated with youth, vigor, and success. The fat person, on the other hand, is thought of as lazy and lacking in energy, self-discipline, and self-respect. In an image-conscious society like the U. S. , thin is "in", fat is "out". It"s not surprising, then, that millions of Americans have become obsessed with staying slim and "in shape". The pursuit of a youthful physical appearance is not, however, the sole reason for America"s fascination with diet and exercise. Recent research has shown the critical importance of diet and exercise for personal health. As in most technologically developed nations, the life-style of North Americans has changed dramatically during the course of the last century. Modern machines do all the physical labor that people were once forced to do by hand. Cars and buses transport us quickly from point to point. As a result of inactivity and disuse, people"s bodies can easily become weak and vulnerable to disease. In an effort to avoid such a fate, millions of Americans are spending more of their time exercising.

单选题Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following conversation.

单选题In the sentence "He gives short shrift to the rational decision-makers of economic models" (Para. 3), the expression "give a short shrift to" can be paraphrased as ______.