To evaluate medical claims, one must__...

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups — those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country. Which of the following statements is nearly identical in meaning with the sentence "they ate until you would expect them to burst" in the second paragraph

A．You bet they would never stop to eat till they are full.
B．What you can expect is that they would not stop eating unless there was no more food.
C．The only thing you would expect is that they wouldn’t stop eating till they had had enough of the food.
D．the only thing is that they wouldn’t stop eating till they felt sick.

单项选择题

To Err Is Human by Lewis Thomas Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they’’re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account." These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible. I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides. It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities. The title of the writing "To Err Is Human" implies that

A．making mistakes is confined only to human beings.
B．every human being cannot avoid making mistakes.
C．all human beings are always making mistakes.
D．every human being is born to make bad mistakes.

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. By "a system of built-in obsolescence" the author means________.

A．no formal systems exist in modern industrial society
B．old people have no status in modern industrial society
C．young people have chances in modern industrial society
D．knowledge changes rapidly in modern industrial society

单项选择题

A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually ^hooked their TVs up# to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer’’s home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry’’s cable providers do not yet offer high-definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them. According to the first sentence, the sales of HDTV sets since last year, by the time when this article was written, had reached________.

A．4.6 million
B．9.2 million
C．18.4 million
D．I do not know how many

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. IPCC probably does not________.

A．analyse climate change information
B．record weather changes on its premises
C．predict what is to happen to the earth
D．collect weather date from many countries

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. In this passage, a quack or a charlatan is someone who________.

A．has a special ability
B．has little knowledge
C．is not a good doctor
D．pretends to be a doctor

单项选择题

Air France SA said Monday that its second-quarter net profit fell 35 percent to €57 million ($57.4 million), but sales were steady and operating profit surged. Earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating income, gained 86 percent to €141 million as fuel costs fell and cargo traffic rose. Air France has been hurt less than rivals such as British Airways PLC and Lufthansa AG by the slowdown on North Atlantic routes following the war on Iraq in 2003 because it has fewer flights in that market. Net income fell as the airline paid deferred taxes that came due. Sales rose 0.9 percent to €3.2 billion. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. An accord was reached tying future pay increases to inflation. The carrier said that first-half fuel costs fell 15 percent to €680 million. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent in the second quarter, while passenger traffic rose 1.1 percent. The airline’’s shares gained 87 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at €12.11. Separately, Air France and Alitalia SpA agreed to buy 2 percent stakes in each other as Europe’’s second- and sixth-largest airlines deepen their partnership. € in "€57 million" and "€141 million" probably stands for________.

A．English
B．the euro
C．European
D．European Currency Unit

单项选择题

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups — those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country. Which of the following statements is Not true

A．English people had bad table manners.
B．American food was exclusively unique in its flavors and varieties.
C．American diet contained a lot of fat, salt and liquor.
D．Europeans were not at all accustomed to the American way of eating.

单项选择题

To Err Is Human by Lewis Thomas Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they’’re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account." These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible. I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides. It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities. The first paragraph implies that

A．computer errors are so obvious that one can hardly prevent them from happening.
B．a computer is so capable of making errors that none of them is avoidable.
C．computers make such errors as miscalculation and inaccurate reporting.
D．computers can’t think so their errors are natural and unavoidable.

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. According to the passage, a Chinese city that recorded 45 degrees Celsius at noon on August 4,2004, will most probably witness a temperature measuring ________at 12:00 sharp in the year of 2100.

A．46.1°C
B．1.4°C
C．5.8°C
D．a number that I do not know

单项选择题

A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually ^hooked their TVs up# to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer’’s home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry’’s cable providers do not yet offer high-definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them. Hook up as in "hooked their TVs up" in Paragraph 1 most probably means to________.

A．have a hood over the TV
B．be connected to
C．relate oneself to
D．keep contact with

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. According to the first paragraph, which of the following is true

A．People don’t have to gain education.
B．People don’t have to learn job skills.
C．People don’t have to be treated as equals.
D．People don’t have chances to begin anew.

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. The sentence "pain seems to be a chronic human condition" means pain seems to________.

A．be very serious
B．be very difficult
C．last for a long time
D．be always happening

单项选择题

Air France SA said Monday that its second-quarter net profit fell 35 percent to €57 million ($57.4 million), but sales were steady and operating profit surged. Earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating income, gained 86 percent to €141 million as fuel costs fell and cargo traffic rose. Air France has been hurt less than rivals such as British Airways PLC and Lufthansa AG by the slowdown on North Atlantic routes following the war on Iraq in 2003 because it has fewer flights in that market. Net income fell as the airline paid deferred taxes that came due. Sales rose 0.9 percent to €3.2 billion. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. An accord was reached tying future pay increases to inflation. The carrier said that first-half fuel costs fell 15 percent to €680 million. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent in the second quarter, while passenger traffic rose 1.1 percent. The airline’’s shares gained 87 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at €12.11. Separately, Air France and Alitalia SpA agreed to buy 2 percent stakes in each other as Europe’’s second- and sixth-largest airlines deepen their partnership. Which of the following is not a cause for Air France’s earnings to rise before interest and tax

A．The drop in fuel cost.
B．The rise in cargo traffic.
C．The rise in passenger traffic.
D．Its partnership with Alitalia SpA.

单项选择题

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups — those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country. The author’s attitude towards American food is that

A．American food is better than foods from other countries.
B．American food is superior to European food.
C．European food had helped enrich the flavors and varieties of American food.
D．people from other countries could still identify from the American foods the foods that were unique to their countries.

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. The more highly developed a society is,________.

A．the more advanced technology will be
B．the larger the number of people will be
C．the more diminished old people’s status will be
D．the lower the overall status of the people will be

单项选择题

To Err Is Human by Lewis Thomas Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they’’re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account." These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible. I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides. It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities. The author uses his hypothesis that "computers represent an extension of the human brain" in order to indicate that

A．human beings are not infallible, nor are computers.
B．computers are bound to make as many errors as human beings.
C．errors made by computers can be avoided the same as human mistakes can be avoided.
D．computers are made by human beings and so are their errors.

单项选择题

A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually ^hooked their TVs up# to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer’’s home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry’’s cable providers do not yet offer high-definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them. A majority of HDTV consumers could not enjoy high-quality digital pictures because________.

A．they did not tune in to the right channel
B．they did not install the system
C．the market retailers created the confusion on purpose
D．the manufacturers did not have a uniform standard for their sets

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. According to the author, climate researchers________.

A．are quite sure about why it’s getting hotter and hotter
B．declared that we humans are the cause why it’s getting hotter
C．have discussed the possible causes why it’s hotter
D．have claimed that changes in nature are the roots of hot days

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. Quackery thrives even in modern times because________.

A．patients pay any amount of money
B．patients do not like their physicians
C．quacks say that they can help patients
D．best medical treatment costs very much

单项选择题

Air France SA said Monday that its second-quarter net profit fell 35 percent to €57 million ($57.4 million), but sales were steady and operating profit surged. Earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating income, gained 86 percent to €141 million as fuel costs fell and cargo traffic rose. Air France has been hurt less than rivals such as British Airways PLC and Lufthansa AG by the slowdown on North Atlantic routes following the war on Iraq in 2003 because it has fewer flights in that market. Net income fell as the airline paid deferred taxes that came due. Sales rose 0.9 percent to €3.2 billion. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. An accord was reached tying future pay increases to inflation. The carrier said that first-half fuel costs fell 15 percent to €680 million. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent in the second quarter, while passenger traffic rose 1.1 percent. The airline’’s shares gained 87 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at €12.11. Separately, Air France and Alitalia SpA agreed to buy 2 percent stakes in each other as Europe’’s second- and sixth-largest airlines deepen their partnership. Which of the following is not a trouble confronting Air France

A．Deferred taxes being due.
B．The shrinking French market.
C．A four-day strike by pilots in September.
D．The war on Iraq.

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. Based on the text, we know that temperature rises will probably________.

A．knock off sea levels
B．have a serious effect on sea-level rises
C．keep the sea level rising
D．keep knocking at the sea

单项选择题

Air France SA said Monday that its second-quarter net profit fell 35 percent to €57 million ($57.4 million), but sales were steady and operating profit surged. Earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating income, gained 86 percent to €141 million as fuel costs fell and cargo traffic rose. Air France has been hurt less than rivals such as British Airways PLC and Lufthansa AG by the slowdown on North Atlantic routes following the war on Iraq in 2003 because it has fewer flights in that market. Net income fell as the airline paid deferred taxes that came due. Sales rose 0.9 percent to €3.2 billion. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. An accord was reached tying future pay increases to inflation. The carrier said that first-half fuel costs fell 15 percent to €680 million. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent in the second quarter, while passenger traffic rose 1.1 percent. The airline’’s shares gained 87 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at €12.11. Separately, Air France and Alitalia SpA agreed to buy 2 percent stakes in each other as Europe’’s second- and sixth-largest airlines deepen their partnership. Why did Air France’s net income fall despite rising sales

A．Because it had to pay deferred taxes that came due.
B．Because the French market was shrinking.
C．Because of a four-day strike by pilots in September.
D．Because the Iraqi war had reduced Atlantic flights.

单项选择题

To Err Is Human by Lewis Thomas Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they’’re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account." These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible. I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides. It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities. The rhetoric the author employed in writing the third paragraph, especially the sentence "A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess..." is usually referred to in writing as

A．climax.
B．personification.
C．hyperbole.
D．onomatopoeia.

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. People who seek the advice of quacks and charlatans are those who________.

A．are poorly educated
B．are highly educated
C．dislike medical treatments
D．mistrust physicians’ truths

单项选择题

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups — those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country. Immigrant groups, when they got. settled down in the United States, still have had their own sense of self-identity because

A．their foods are easily identified among all the foods Americans eat.
B．their foods stand out in sharp contrast to foods of other countries.
C．they know pretty well what elements of American food are of their own countries’ origin.
D．they know pretty well how their foods contribute to American cuisine.

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. The high development of economic technology________.

A．makes job skills out of fashion
B．lowers the demand for workers
C．forces old people into retirement
D．creates new jobs for older people

单项选择题

A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually ^hooked their TVs up# to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer’’s home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry’’s cable providers do not yet offer high-definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them. According to the passage, which of the following offers most of the HDTV programmes so far

A．Retailer delivery services.
B．Cable providers.
C．Commercial television stations.
D．HDTV set manufacturers.

单项选择题

Air France SA said Monday that its second-quarter net profit fell 35 percent to €57 million ($57.4 million), but sales were steady and operating profit surged. Earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating income, gained 86 percent to €141 million as fuel costs fell and cargo traffic rose. Air France has been hurt less than rivals such as British Airways PLC and Lufthansa AG by the slowdown on North Atlantic routes following the war on Iraq in 2003 because it has fewer flights in that market. Net income fell as the airline paid deferred taxes that came due. Sales rose 0.9 percent to €3.2 billion. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. An accord was reached tying future pay increases to inflation. The carrier said that first-half fuel costs fell 15 percent to €680 million. Cargo traffic rose 11 percent in the second quarter, while passenger traffic rose 1.1 percent. The airline’’s shares gained 87 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at €12.11. Separately, Air France and Alitalia SpA agreed to buy 2 percent stakes in each other as Europe’’s second- and sixth-largest airlines deepen their partnership. The carrier lost about €80 million in revenue because of a four-day strike by pilots in September. What does "the carrier" refer to here

A．British Airways PLC.
B．Lufthansa AG.
C．Air France SA.
D．Alitalia SpA.

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. To evaluate medical claims, one must________.

A．turn to reputable doctors
B．make an adequate choice
C．have the necessary training
D．disbelieve promise of relief

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. Which of the following statements is NOT true

A．Retired people could only live on fixed incomes.
B．Retired people are more skillful than young people.
C．Young people are educated in the new technology.
D．Young people are keeping pace with rapid changes.

单项选择题

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American by Jeff Smith Our real American foods have come from our soil and have been used by many groups — those who already lived here and those who have come here to live. The Native Americans already had developed an interesting cuisine using the abundant foods that were so prevalent. The influence that the English had upon our national eating habits is easy to see. They were a tough lot, those English, and they ate in a tough manner. They wiped their mouths on the tablecloth, if there happened to be one, and they ate until you would expect them to burst. European travelers to this country in those days were most often shocked by American eating habits, which included too much fat and too much salt and too much liquor. Not much has changed! And, the Revolutionists refused to use the fork since it marked them as Europeans. The fork was not absolutely common on the American dinner table until about the time of the Civil War, the 1860s. Those English were a tough lot. Other immigrant groups added their own touches to the preparation of our New World food products. The groups that came still have a special sense of self-identity through their ancestral heritage, but they see themselves as Americans. This special self-identity through your ancestors who came from other lands was supposed to disappear in this country. The term melting pot was first used in reference to America in the late 1700s, so this belief that we would all become the same has been with us for a long time. Thank goodness it has never worked. The various immigrant groups continue to add flavor to the pot, all right, but you can pick out the individual flavors easily. The largest ancestry group in America is the English. There are more people in America who claim to have come from English blood than there are in England. But is their food English Thanks be to God, it is not! It is American. The second largest group is the Germans, then the Irish, the Afro-Americans, the French, the Italians, the Scottish, and the Polish. The Mexican and American Indian groups are all smaller than any of the above, though they were the original cooks in this country. Which of the following statements is true

A．People from other cultures or nations start to lose their self-identity once they get settled down in America.
B．The "melting pot" is supposed to melt all the foods but in reality it doesn’t.
C．The special sense of self-identity of people from other countries can’t be maintained once they become Americans.
D．The "melting pot" finds it capable of melting all the food traditions into the American tradition.

单项选择题

To Err Is Human by Lewis Thomas Everyone must have had at least one personal experience with a computer error by this time. Bank balances are suddenly reported to have jumped from $379 into the millions, appeals for charitable contributions are mailed over and over to people with crazy sounding names at your address, department stores send the wrong bills, utility companies write that they’’re turning everything off, that sort of thing. If you manage to get in touch with someone and complain, you then get instantaneously typed, guilty letters from the same computer, saying, "Our computer was in error, and an adjustment is being made in your account." These are supposed to be the sheerest, blindest accidents. Mistakes are not believed to be the normal behavior of a good machine. If things go wrong, it must be a personal, human error, the result of fingering, tampering a button getting stuck, someone hitting the wrong key. The computer, at its normal best, is infallible. I wonder whether this can be true. After all, the whole point of computers is that they represent an extension of the human brain, vastly improved upon but nonetheless human, superhuman maybe. A good computer can think clearly and quickly enough to beat you at chess, and some of them have even been programmed to write obscure verse. They can do anything we can do, and more besides. It is not yet known whether a computer has its own consciousness, and it would be hard to find out about this. When you walk into one of those great halls now built for the huge machines, and standing listening, it is easy to imagine that the faint, distant noises are the sound of thinking, and the turning of the spools gives them the look of wild creatures rolling their eyes in the effort to concentrate, choking with information. But real thinking, and dreaming, are other matters. On the other hand, the evidence of something like an unconscious, equivalent to ours, are all around, in every mail. As extensions of the human brain, they have been constructed the same property of error, spontaneous, uncontrolled, and rich in possibilities. The author compared the faint and distant sound of the computer to the sound of thinking and regarded it as the product of

A．dreaming and thinking.
B．some property of errors.
C．consciousness.
D．possibilities.

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. The IPCC announcement three years ago that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is"________.

A．possibly due to human activities
B．possibly because human activities
C．due to likely human activities
D．human activities likely attributable

单项选择题

A total of 4.6 million digital televisions have been sold, and the sales of HDTV sets have quadrupled since last year. Consumers have bought HDTVs to play their DVDs and to have clearer pictures and wide screens. Only a small percentage of the people who have purchased HDTVs, however, have actually ^hooked their TVs up# to receive high-definition television digital signals. Perhaps television viewers are having trouble keeping up with the changes in technology. Even the manufacturers of HDTVs, like Mitsubishi, Thomson Multimedia, Sony, and Samsung seem to have a tough time learning how to make their sets work with the various digital TV formats because little standardization has been required or implemented in the industry. Some of the HDTVs weigh over 200 lbs., and a variety of retailers offer a delivery service to the buyer’’s home to help install the heavy sets. This is known as a white-glove service and usually comes with an extra fee. After HDTV purchasers get their sets home and hook them up, they will still need to work to get the digital signals to their systems. Most of the industry’’s cable providers do not yet offer high-definition programing, and only about 15% of commercial television stations have switched over to even the lowest improved digital pictures. Worse yet, viewers may need to install antenna before they can even get the digital signals to their new HDTV sets. Another frustration for home-theater seekers is that the current HDTV sets allow owners only to watch high-definition programs, not to record them. On the whole, this passage is positioned to dwell on________.

A．the overall picture of the HDTV sector
B．how the giant TV makers should offer better products
C．a lament over consumers’ inability to use a high-end TV set
D．a criticism of the TV makers for doing nothing about a big problem

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. According to the author, a very few home remedies are________.

A．useless
B．harmful
C．pleasant
D．effective

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. According to this passage, the status of the aged is lowered by their________.

A．forced retirement
B．inferior housing
C．longer life span
D．fixed incomes

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. Which statement was more forceful

A．Global temperature will rise by 2100 between 1.4°C and 5.8°C.
B．Temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world.
C．Most of the warming is likely to be attributable to human activities.
D．There was a "discernible human influence on the climate".

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. Which of the following statements is NOT true

A．Quacks are really sympathetic.
B．Snake oil does not work.
C．Doctors cannot cure all ills.
D．Patients are often impatient.

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. The Second Assessment Report was released ________years ago.

A．five
B．six
C．seven
D．eight

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. Many individuals opt for "snake oil" because they________.

A．are misled by a secret formula
B．cannot afford a treatment
C．lack medical knowledge
D．do not trust physicians

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. The sentence "our life span outpaces our usefulness" means we can live longer________.

A．and make progress
B．and do more work
C．but move slowly
D．but become useless

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. Snake oil is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts because it has________.

A．actually worked
B．some fruit stones
C．been misunderstood
D．alcohol or narcotic drugs

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. Such a link in the passage refers most probably to ________.

A．IPCC and climate changes
B．global temperatures and sea levels
C．natural changes and human activities
D．human activities and temperature rises

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. The author’s attitude toward the aged is________.

A．realistic
B．optimistic
C．pessimistic
D．sympathetic

单项选择题

The field of medicine has always attracted its share of quacks and charlatans — disreputable women and men with little or no medical knowledge who promise quick cures at cheap prices. The reasons why quackery thrives even in modern times are easy to find. To begin with, pain seems to be a chronic human condition. A person whose body or mind "hurts" will often pay any amount of money for the promise of relief. Second, even the best medical treatment cannot cure all the ills that beset men and women. People who mistrust or dislike the truths that their physicians tell them often turn to more sympathetic ears. Many people lack the training necessary to evaluate medical claims. Given the choice between (a) a reputable physician who says a cure for cancer will be long, expensive and may not work at all, and (b) a salesperson who says that several bottles of a secret formula "snake oil" will cure not only cancer but tuberculosis as well, some individuals will opt for "snake oil". Many "snake oil" remedies are highly laced with alcohol or narcotic drugs. Anyone who drinks them may get so drunk or stoned that they drown their pains in the rising tide of pleasant intoxication. Little wonder that "snake oil" is a popular cure-all for minor aches and hurts! But let there be no misunderstandings. A very few "home remedies" actually work. However, most remedies sold by quacks are not only useless, but often can be harmful as well. Which of the following would be the best title of this passage

A．Distrust of Physicians
B．Medical Treatment
C．Snake Oil Remedies
D．Guard Against Quackery

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. It can be deduced from this passage that one should________.

A．learn new skills
B．be open-minded
C．have a good personality
D．keep pace with the times

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. The risk mentioned in the text probably refers to________.

A．a possibility that there will be more climate changes
B．a potential that sea level will possibly keep rising
C．temperature rises that are expected to affect all countries
D．a prediction warning human beings not to ruin the environment

单项选择题

Modern industrial society grants little status to old people. In fact, such a society has a system of built-in obsolescence. There is no formal system for continuing our education throughout our life in order to keep up with rapidly changing knowledge. When our education and job skills have grown obsolete, we are treated exactly like those who have never gained an education or job skills and are not encouraged or given the opportunity to begin anew. As a society becomes more highly developed, the overall status of older people diminishes. Improved health technology creates a large pool of old people, who compete for jobs with the young. However, economic technology lowers the demand for workers and creates new jobs for which the skills of the aged are obsolete, forcing older people into retirement. At the same time, young people are being educated in the new technology and are keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge. Finally, urbanization creates age-segregated neighborhoods. Because the old live on fixed incomes, they must often live in inferior housing. All these factors — retirement, obsolete knowledge and skills, inferior standards of living — lower the status of the aged in society. A century ago, when one could expect to live only to 50 or so, the life span more or less coincided with the occupation and family cycle. But today the average life span allows for fifteen to twenty years of life after these cycles. It appears that our life span is outpacing our usefulness in society. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage

A．The Problem of Aging
B．Social Structures
C．Economic Technology
D．Continuing Education

单项选择题

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 to assess information on climate change and its impact. Its Third Assessment Report predicts global temperature rises by 2100 of between 1.4°C and 5.8°C. Although the issue of the changing climate is very complex and some changes are uncertain, temperature rises are expected to affect countries throughout the world and have a knock-on effect with sea-level rises. Scientists have argued about whether temperature rises are due to human activities or due to natural changes in our environment. The IPCC announced in 2001 that "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is likely to be attributable to human activities". This was a more forceful statement than in 1996 when the Second Assessment Report stated that there was a "discernible human influence on the climate" which was the first time they had concluded such a link. Many experts believe the faster the climate changes, the greater the risk will be. Key points of the projections for climate change globally include that by the second half of the 21st century, wintertime rainfall in the northern mid to high latitudes and Antarctica will rise, that meanwhile Australia, Central America and southern Africa are likely to see decreases in autumn precipitation, that some land areas in the tropics will see more rainfall, and that there will generally be more hot days over land areas. Obviously, the word "precipitation" most probably refers to________.

A．latitude
B．rainfall
C．temperature
D．projection

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