单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
According to the author, the system of power sharing between the White House and the generals ______.

A.is unstable and strange
B.is a guarantee for American military success
C.has caused a series of quarrels
D.undermines the bases of American military power
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单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
What does the last sentence of paragraph one imply

A.The author moved to a new place.
B.The climate changed greatly in the last few years.
C.In the last few years, the author’s mood changed.
D.There were some natural disasters.
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
Fish school suggests that ______.

A.it was a necessary evolutionary process
B.it has something to do with human right-handedness
C.they need to coordinate with other fish
D.their brain function is unique
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
Senior-Net ______.

A.is an agency providing marriage service for the old people
B.is a network for lonely, or disabled old people to socialize
C.is an online school for old people to learn computers
D.often holds meetings where old people can speak freely
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
According to the author, the system of power sharing between the White House and the generals ______.

A.is unstable and strange
B.is a guarantee for American military success
C.has caused a series of quarrels
D.undermines the bases of American military power
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
For a steel maker like Nucor Corp, the electric grid of which ______.

A.fails frequently
B.seldom fails
C.can not bear failure
D.affect little when fails
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes ______ .

A.lived not very far away from each other
B.got to know each other through Senior-Net and then got married
C.got to know each other at a party held before Christmas in 1991
D.got to know each other when having the computer classes
单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
After the divorce,______.

A.there wasn’t any change, since she used to play a main part in taking care of the children
B.she became interested in statistics
C.everything in her life was changed
D.it was the way by which she looked at life that changed
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
Locating a particular function in one hemisphere ______.

A.does not explain why handedness is such an overwhelming trend
B.does not explain why 85%people are right-handed
C.shows that human handedness is a unique by product of brain
D.enable people to think with the other hemisphere
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
The phrase "the uniformed elite" in paragraph one most probably refers to______.

A.outstanding soldiers
B.officers
C.officials
D.generals
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
Form the paragraph 2 we know the trio electrician ______.

A.worked extra time for bonus
B.have strong sense of commitment
C.are motivated by financial incentives
D.were eager to get promotion
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
The marriage between seniors and computers is very natural, because ______.

A.old people were not good at computers when they were young
B.old people are too shy to talk with each other
C.old people used to write a lot of letters and keep diaries
D.most of the old people who use Senior-Net are disabled
单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
According to the passage, ______ brought the unpleasant change in her life.

A.a kind of discrimination against single-parent families
B.her ex-husband
C.social scientists
D.the feeling about autumn
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
What are the second finding of Giorgio Vallortigara and Lesley Rogers

A.Lateralization of animals.
B.The human handedness and animal lateralization present common features.
C.animal species suffer from lateralization.
D.social conditions led to the lateralization of animal species.
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
According to the passage, Washington______.

A.struggled with the congress only for money.
B.lived up to the code of the constitution that the president was "the commander in chief"
C.looked more like a general than a president
D.did much more than he should as a president
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
Which of the following is NOT true about the employees at the Charlotte (N. C. )plant of Nucor

A.They are among the very motivated workforce.
B.They are ready to sacrifice themselves for the interests of company.
C.Front line workers can execute power and make key decision.
D.They are entitled to contribute advice and participate in decision making.
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
In the last paragraph, we can find that grandfathers ______.

A.have long air
B.do not comb their hair
C.do not dress their hair
D.behave informally
单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
In the few gray years, the author

A.felt helpless and sad
B.had the help from her friends
C.never lost hope, and believed that everything would change someday
D.became very nervous and silent
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
Due to ______, human handedness is not a exclusive phenomenon in animal world.

A.brain lateralization found in species from fish to primates
B.different brain structures of species
C.brain specialization attributable to language
D.the asymmetrical brains of Chimpanzees
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
Why was the putting of Grant in charge of the Union Army an important decision

A.Because Lincoln was inexperienced in military affairs, he had to do so.
B.Grant whole-heartedly believed in Lincoln, and their cooperation proved to be a nonesuch.
C.All things considered, Grant was somewhat better than McClellan.
D.The decision to put Grant in charge of the Union Army was not against the constitution.
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
The driving force for Nucor’s rapid development, according to the passage, lies in

A.its close relation with integrated steel giants.
B.its upstart identity in steel industry.
C.its admirable location of being close to integrated steel giants.
D.its corporate culture based on close relations among employees.
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
According to the passage, the Senior-Net subscribers _____.

A.enjoy themselves freely
B.are members of some liberal organizations
C.are sometimes out of their minds
D.are members of some anti-religion organizations
单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
In the last paragraph, the phrase "self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions" may possibly refers to

A.a complete family would have a happier life
B.a single mother would carry out the parental duties more successfully
C.a single parent family is marked by stigmas and different from those complete families in every aspect of life
D.a complete family would bring up brighter children
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
Why are baby chickens so prepared in fighting against enemies from left

A.Because other members stand on the right side.
B.Due to surrounding conditions their brain developed toward asymmetry in the same direction.
C.Because enemies always attack from left side.
D.Because they can spare more attention to locate predator.
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
In the last paragraph, the author implies that______.

A.Roosevelt was better prepared to be a wartime president than Lincoln
B.in the Second World War, the relationship between the White House and the generals was intense
C.both Lincoln and Roosevelt were good wartime presidents, although their actual way of dealing things may be different
D.George Washington was actually the best president
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
The statement of "The achievement makes him more than a worthy successor to Iverson" in the last paragraph may imply that ______.

A.DiMicco bears the hope of Iverson to carry on the close-knit culture
B.the newly bought plant and facilities are considered as achievement
C.the experience Nucor accumulated is not merely valuable for his own plant
D.the work Nucor has done turns to be the unique culture for the steel-making companies
单项选择题

Passage Four
Still happily together, Mayer Solen and Joann Oakes credit Senior-Net for "introducing" them not only to each other but also to a world of computer-literate over-60 s. "Senior-Net offers a forum where senior citizens can talk freely, help each other, and even console each other,"
Joann says. "Even though we are scattered across the country, we can share thoughts, opinions and concerns about issues that affect us. It’s like a big family. When Mayer and I travel around the country, we make it a point to look up other Senior-Net members."
Mary Furlong, founder of the 10-years-old network, says it is a painless way to socialize, especially for those recently widowed and reluctant to go out alone, and for the disabled. Senior-Net has more then 6 000 members across the United States.
Joann Oakes and Mayer Solen fell for each other just before Christmas in 1991. She had been watching from a distance as Mr. Solen flitted from one group of friends to another. Finally, the two began a conversation. They discovered they were both widowed. They talked on and on. At midnight, they said good night, turned off their computers and went to bed, Mr. Solen in the south-western state of Nevada, and Mrs. Oakes in the north-western state of Washington. From then on they talked nearly every day via their computers until their marriage.
Computers are playing Cupid for what seems to be an unlikely target—a generation that didn’t know the difference between a mouse and a modem until they reached 60. Now, older adults are plugged in to exchange gardening tips, debate religion ,or try to recall the lines of old time popular songs. The marriage between seniors and computers is, in fact, perfectly natural. They grew up in a time when people wrote weekly letters to each other and kept journals and diaries. A computer is an easier way to do the same.
With no risk of censure or rejection, grandfathers can let their hair down. Church-going people confess they are not really sure what they think about religion. People who always thought of themselves as conserved and "respectable" may be found flirting shamelessly with correspondents who live 500 miles away. If anyone dislikes the company or the discussion, they don’t have to be polite. "Just hit the control button and you’re gone," says Joann Oakes.
Which of the following is the attitude of the author towards the Senior Net

A.Highly appreciative.
B.Entirely positive.
C.Somewhat indifferent.
D.Reserved in some way.
单项选择题


Passage One
Passage One
I have an infatuation(迷恋)with autumn. The colors of the season, and the smells, have always thrilled me. I have always found joy in this time of year. The last few autumns of my life, however, I recollect in shades of gray rather than cheerful oranges and yellows.
When I became a single mother, every aspect of life took on new meaning. Since I was used to carrying out most of the parental duties without much help during my marriage, I truly did not foresee how different parenting would become after the marriage was over. But suddenly I realized I was a statistic. The daily routine was not changed so much; it was the angle at which I had begun to look at life.
I believed my ex-husband’s lawyer was tracking every grade the children made, and I was under a microscope in this new town where the children and I moved our "broken home." I feared having to eventually establish my family with each new teacher and each new term as a single-parent family. I just wanted to be us again, without the stigma (特征)of the label that put on us.
During those few gray years, I would reassure myself that soon things would be better, and that I would someday be able to feel whole again. There is no mathematical equation of adults proportioned to children to equal a stable, loving family. Every family has its strengths. In fact, studies show that in families who read together, eat together and communicate openly, children are likely to succeed academically, as well as socially and emotionally. I am sure these, habits are just as effective when practiced in single-parent families. I realize now that I am not a statistic. We are an active, vital family in this charming community, where we are not marked by any stigma of any statistics of any focus groups.
We are given opportunity, all of us. We are surrounded by beauty and immersed in possibility. There is joy to be found here, in what we see around us and in creating our own rendition of how we want to be seen. There is strength and grace in our own willingness to break free from conformity without falling behind the barriers of self-imposed limitations or preconceived notions of where we should fit in this world according to research.
What is the author’s main point

A.Every family has its happiness and unhappiness.
B.Her family has suffered a lot.
C.Her ex-husband is not a good man.
D.Every family has its strength and can create its happiness.
单项选择题

Passage Two
Ask why most people are right-handed, and the answer might fall along the same lines as why fish school(鱼成群地游). Two neuroscientists suggest that social pressures drive individuals to coordinate their behaviors so that everyone in the group gets an evolutionary edge.
Approximately 85 percent of people prefer their right hand, which is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. One theorized benefit of locating a particular function in one hemisphere is that it frees the other to deal with different tasks. But that idea does not explain why. population-wide trends for handedness exist in the first place.
Moreover, evidence gleaned in recent years has overturned the long-held belief that human handedness is a unique by-product of brain specialization attributable to language. A suite of studies has revealed brain lateralization in species from fish to primates(灵长类). Last August, for instance, scientists discovered that in the wild, chimpanzees show hand preferences.
The presence of lateralization throughout the animal kingdom suggests some benefit from it, contend neuroscientists Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia. Also, last August, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the two presented evidence to support their idea that social constraints force individuals toward asymmetry in the same direction. They noted, for example, that baby chickens attack more readily when a threat appears on their left. And Rogers has found that chicks with more asymmetrical brains form more stable social groups: perhaps by approaching each other on the right, she hypothesizes, the chicks fight one another less and are more likely to notice predators.
Lateralization seems to confer an advantage for some fish as well. In certain species, the majority tend to swim left when a predator attacks, whereas other species head right. The potential benefits of such patterns may not seem intuitive: a predator could learn that attacking a fish on one particular side is more effective. But Vallortigara and Rogers’s idea fits with the conventional explanation of why fish school at all. When threatened, fish turning in the same direction have a greater chance of survival than if they scatter to become a darting swarm of head-butting fish.
Nevertheless, the bird and fish. data do not explain human handedness.
"The issue then becomes: maybe this lateralization long predates the rise of the mammals," speculates Robin Dunbar ,an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Liverpool in England.
What can be the best title for this passage

A.Hand Preference of Chimpanzees.
B.Human Handedness and Animal Lateralization.
C.The Myth behind Human Handedness.
D.An Unique Animal Behavior.
单项选择题

Passage Five
It was about 2 p.m. on Mar. 9 when three Nucor Corp. electricians got the call from their colleagues at the Hickman (Ark.) plant. It was bad news: Hickman’s electrical grid had failed. For a minimill steelmaker like Nucor, which melts scrap steel from autos, dishwashers, mobile homes, and the like in an electric arc furnace to make new steel, there’s little that could be worse. The trio immediately dropped what they were doing and headed out to the plant.
No supervisor had asked them to make the trip, and no one had to. They went on their own. There wasn’t any direct financial incentive for them to blow their weekends, no extra money in their next paycheck, but for the company their, contribution was huge.
What’s most amazing about this story is that at Nucor it’s not considered particularly remarkable. "It could have easily been a Hickman operator going to help the Crawfordsville [Ind. ] mill," says Executive Vice-President John J. Ferriola "It happens daily." Nucor has nurtured one of the most dynamic and engaged workforces around. The 11 300 nonunion employees at the Charlotte (N. C. ) company don’t see themselves as worker bees waiting for instructions from above. Nucor’s flattened hierarchy and emphasis on pushing power to the front line lead its employees to adopt the mindset of owner-operators.
Nucor gained renown in the late 1980s for its radical pay practices, which base the vast majority of most workers’ income on their performance. An upstart nipping at the heels of the integrated steel giants, Nucor had a close-knit culture that was the natural outgrowth of its underdog identity. Legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson’s radical insight: that employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly,treat them with respect ,and give them real power.
Nucor is an upstart no more, and the untold story of how it has clung to that core philosophy even as it has grown into the largest steel company in the U, S. is in many ways as compelling as the celebrated tale of its brash youth. Iverson retired in 1999.
Under CEO Daniel R. DiMicco, a 23-year veteran, Nucor has snapped up 13 plants over the past five years while managing to instill its unique culture in all of the facilities it has bought, an achievement that makes him a more than worthy successor to Iverson.
Which of the following can be the best title for this passage

A.How to Run a Upstart in Steel Industry.
B.From A Upstart to A Integrated Steel.
C.The Story of A Steel Giant.
D.Corporate Culture behind Nucor success.
单项选择题

Passage Three
Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dates to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief." Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell(镇压)the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was boss, and everyone in uniform knew it.
In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln dealt directly with his generals, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton handled administrative details. Lincoln, inexperienced in military matters, initially deferred (顺从)to his generals. But when their caution proved disastrous, he issued his General War Order No.1—explicitly commanding a general advance of all Union forces. Some generals, George B. McClellan in particular, bridled at his hands-on direction. But in constitutional terms, Lincoln was in the right.
His most important decision was to put Ulysses S. Grant in charge of the Union Army in 1864. Left to its own timetable, the military establishment would never have touched Grant. The relationship between the president and his general provides a textbook lesson in civilian control and power sharing. Grant was a general who would take the fight to the enemy, and not second-guess the president’s political decisions. Unlike McClellan, for example, Grant cooperated wholeheartedly in recruiting black soldiers. For his part, Lincoln did not meddle in operations and did not visit the headquarters in the field unless invited.
The balance set up by Grant and Lincoln stayed more or less in place through World War Ⅰ Not until World War Ⅱ did the pendulum finally swing back toward the White House. Franklin Roosevelt, who had been assistant Navy secretary during World War I, was as well prepared to be commander in chief as any wartime president since George Washington.
Which of the following statement is NOT true

A.The issue of power-sharing between the president and the generals is always controversial.
B.George Washington struggled not only for financial power but military power.
C.In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was supplanted by his general Grant.
D.In World War Ⅱ, the military power went back to the hands of the White House.
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