Even if families don't sit down to eat together as frequently as before, millions of Britons will nonetheless have got a share this weekend of one of the nation's great traditions: the Sunday roast.
1 a cold winter's day, few culinary pleasures can 2 it.Yet as we report now, the food police are determined that this 3 should be rendered yet another guilty pleasure 4 to damage our health.
The Food Standards Authority (FSA) has 5 a public warning about the risks of a compound called acrylamide that forms in some foods cooked 6 hightemperatures.This means that people should 7 crisping their roast potatoes,reject thin-crust pizzas and only 8 toast their bread.But where is the evidence to support such alarmist advice? 9 studies have shown that acrylamide can cause neurological damage in mice, there is no 10 evidence that it causes cancer in humans.
Scientists say the compound is 11 to cause cancer but have no hard scientific proof.12 the precautionary principle, it could be argued that it is 1 3 to
follow the FSA advice.14 , it was rumoured that smoking caused cancer for years before the evidence was found to prove a 15 .
Doubtless a piece of boiled beef can always be 16 up on Sunday alongside some steamed vegetables, without the Yorkshire pudding and no wine.But
would life be worth living? 17 , the FSA says it is not telling people to cut out roast foods 18 , but to reduce their lifetime intake.However, its 19 risks coming across as being pushy and overprotective.Constant health scares just 20 with no one listening.
第6题答案是_____.
Even if families don't sit down to eat together as frequently as before, millions of Britons will nonetheless have got a share this weekend of one of the nation's great traditions: the Sunday roast.
1 a cold winter's day, few culinary pleasures can 2 it.Yet as we report now, the food police are determined that this 3 should be rendered yet another guilty pleasure 4 to damage our health.
The Food Standards Authority (FSA) has 5 a public warning about the risks of a compound called acrylamide that forms in some foods cooked 6 hightemperatures.This means that people should 7 crisping their roast potatoes,reject thin-crust pizzas and only 8 toast their bread.But where is the evidence to support such alarmist advice? 9 studies have shown that acrylamide can cause neurological damage in mice, there is no 10 evidence that it causes cancer in humans.
Scientists say the compound is 11 to cause cancer but have no hard scientific proof.12 the precautionary principle, it could be argued that it is 1 3 to
follow the FSA advice.14 , it was rumoured that smoking caused cancer for years before the evidence was found to prove a 15 .
Doubtless a piece of boiled beef can always be 16 up on Sunday alongside some steamed vegetables, without the Yorkshire pudding and no wine.But
would life be worth living? 17 , the FSA says it is not telling people to cut out roast foods 18 , but to reduce their lifetime intake.However, its 19 risks coming across as being pushy and overprotective.Constant health scares just 20 with no one listening.
第10题答案是_____.
Progressives often support diversity mandates as a path to equality and a way to level the playing field.But all too often such policies are an insincere form of virtue-signaling that benefits only the most privileged and does little to help average people.
A pair of bills sponsored by Massachusetts state Senator Jason Lewis and House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, to ensure "gender parity" on boards and commissions,provide a case in point.
Haddad and Lewis are concerned that more than half the state-government boards are less than 40 percent female.In order to ensure that elite women have more such opportunities, they have proposed imposing government quotas.If the bills become law, state boards and commissions will be required to set aside 50 percent of boards seats for women by 2022.
The bills are similar to a measure recently adopted in California, which last year became the first state to require gender quotas for private companies.In signing the measure,California Governor Jerry Brown admitted that the law, which expressly classifies people on the basis of sex, is probably unconstitutional.
The US Supreme Court frowns on sex-based classifications unless they are designed to address an "important" policy interest.Because the California law applies to all boards, even where there is no history of prior discrimination, courts are likely to rule that the law violates the constitutional guarantee of "equal protection."
But are such government mandates even necessary? Female participation on corporate boards may not currently mirror the percentage of women in the general population,but so what?
The number of women on corporate boards has been steadily increasing without government interference.According to a study by Catalyst, between 2010 and 2015 the share of women on the boards of global corporations increased by 54 percent.
Requiring companies to make gender the primary qualification for board membership will inevitably lead to less experienced private sector boards.That is exactly what happened when Norway adopted a nationwide corporate gender quota.
Writing in The New Republic, Alice Lee notes that increasing the number of opportunities for board membership without increasing the pool of qualified women to serve on such boards has led to a "golden skirt" phenomenon, where the same elite women scoop up multiple seats on a variety of boards.
Next time somebody pushes corporate quotas as a way to promote gender equity, remember that such policies are largely self-serving measures that make their sponsors feel good but do little to help average women.
The author believes that the bills sponsored by Lewis and Haddad will____.
Today,we live in a world where GPS systems, digital maps, and other navigation apps are all available on our smart phones. 1 of us just walk straight into the woods without a phone.But phones 2 on batteries,and batteries can die faster than were alize. 3 you get lost without a phone or a compass, and you 4 can't find north, a few tricks may help you navigate 5 to civilization, one of which is to follow the land.
When you find yourself well 6 a trail, but not in a completely 7 area,you have to answer two questions: Which 8 is downhill, in this particular area?
And where is the nearest water source? Humans overwhelmingly live in valleys, and on supplies of fresh water.9 ,if you head downhill, and follow any H20 you find, you should 10 see signs of people.
If you've explored the area before, keep an eye out for familiar sights - you may be 11 how quickly identifying a distinctive rock or tree can restore your bearings.
Another 12 : Climb high and look for signs of human habitation.13 ,even in dense forest, you should be able to 14 gaps in the tree line due to roads, train tracks, and other paths people carve 15 the woods.Head toward these 16 to find a way out.At night scan the horizon for 17 light sources, such as fires and streetlights, then walk toward the glow of light pollution.
18 , assuming you're lost in an area humans tend to frequent, look for the 19 we leave on the landscape. Trail blazes, tire tracks, and other features can 20 you to civilization.
第5题答案是____.
Today,we live in a world where GPS systems, digital maps, and other navigation apps are all available on our smart phones. 1 of us just walk straight into the woods without a phone.But phones 2 on batteries,and batteries can die faster than were alize. 3 you get lost without a phone or a compass, and you 4 can't find north, a few tricks may help you navigate 5 to civilization, one of which is to follow the land.
When you find yourself well 6 a trail, but not in a completely 7 area,you have to answer two questions: Which 8 is downhill, in this particular area?
And where is the nearest water source? Humans overwhelmingly live in valleys, and on supplies of fresh water.9 ,if you head downhill, and follow any H20 you find, you should 10 see signs of people.
If you've explored the area before, keep an eye out for familiar sights - you may be 11 how quickly identifying a distinctive rock or tree can restore your bearings.
Another 12 : Climb high and look for signs of human habitation.13 ,even in dense forest, you should be able to 14 gaps in the tree line due to roads, train tracks, and other paths people carve 15 the woods.Head toward these 16 to find a way out.At night scan the horizon for 17 light sources, such as fires and streetlights, then walk toward the glow of light pollution.
18 , assuming you're lost in an area humans tend to frequent, look for the 19 we leave on the landscape. Trail blazes, tire tracks, and other features can 20 you to civilization.
第11题答案是______.
This year marks exactly two centuries since the publication of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley.Even before the invention of the electric light bulb, the author produced a remarkable work of speculative fiction that would foreshadow many ethical questions to be raised by technologies yet to come.
Today the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) raises fundamental questions:"What is intelligence, identity, or consciousness? What makes humans humans?"
What is being called artificial general intelligence, machines that would imitate the way humans think, continues to evade scientists.Yet humans remain fascinated by the idea of robots that would look, move, and respond like humans, similar to those recently depicted on popular sci-fi TV series such as "West world" and"Humans."
Just how people think is still far too complex to be understood, let alone reproduced,says David Eagleman, a Stanford University neuroscientist."We are just in a situation where there are no good theories explaining what consciousness actually is and how you could ever build a machine to get there."
But that doesn't mean crucial ethical issues involving AI aren't at hand.The coming use of autonomous vehicles, for example, poses thorny ethical questions. Human drivers sometimes must make split-second decisions.Their reactions may be a complex combination of instant reflexes, input from past driving experiences,and what their eyes and ears tell them in that moment.AI "vision" today is not nearly as sophisticated as that of humans.And to anticipate every imaginable driving situation is a difficult programming problem.
Whenever decisions are based on masses of data, "you quickly get into a lot of ethical questions," notes Tan Kiat How, chief executive of a Singapore-based agency that is helping the government develop a voluntary code for the ethical use of AI.
Along with Singapore, other governments and mega-corporations are beginning to establish their own guidelines.Britain is setting up a data ethics center.India released its AI ethics strategy this spring.
On June 7 Google pledged not to "design or deploy AI" that would cause "overall harm,"or to develop AI-directed weapons or use AI for surveillance that would violate international norms.It also pledged not to deploy AI whose use would violate international laws or human rights.
While the statement is vague, it represents one starting point.So does the idea that decisions made by AI systems should be explainable, transparent, and fair.
To put it another way:How can we make sure that the thinking of intelligent machines reflects humanity's highest values? Only then will they be useful servants and not Frankenstein's out-of-control monster.
The author's attitude toward Google's pledges is one of______.
Trust is a tricky business.On the one hand, it's a necessary condition 1 many worthwhile things: child care, friendships, etc.On the other hand, putting your 2 in the wrong place often carries a high 3 .
4 , why do we trust at all? Well, because it feels good.5 people place their trust in an individual or an institution, their brains release oxytocin, a hormone that 6 pleasurable feelings and triggers the herding instinct that prompts humans to 7 with one another. Scientists have found that exposure 8 this hormone puts us in a trusting9 : In a Swiss study, researchers sprayed oxytocin into the noses of half the subjects; those subjects were ready to lend significantly higher amounts of money to strangers than were their 10 who inhaled something else.
11 for us, we also have a sixth sense for dishonesty that may12 us.A Canadian study found that children as young as 14 months can differentiate 13a credible person and a dishonest one.Sixty toddlers were each 14 to an adult tester holding a plastic container.The tester would ask, "What's in here?"before looking into the container, smiling, and exclaiming, "Wow!" Each subject was then invited to look 15 .Half of them found a toy; the other half 16 the container was empty and— realized the tester had 17them.
Among the children who had not been tricked, the majority were 18 to cooperate with the tester in learning a new skill, demonstrating that they trusted his
leadership.19 , only five of the 30 children paired with the " 20 " tester participated in a follow-up activity.
第16题答案是_____.
A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of President Trump's use of Twitter.The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White House to be filtered through other sources,not a president's social media platform.
Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines.Yet as distrust has risen toward all media, people may be starting to beef up their media literacy skills.Such a trend is badly needed.During the 2016 presidential campaign, nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter users in the politically critical state of Michigan was a fake news, according to the University of Oxford.And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44 percent of Facebook users rarely or never trust news from the media giant.
Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at separating fact from fiction in cyberspace.A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages 14 and 24 found they use "distributed trust" to verify stories.They cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectives -especially those that are open about any bias."Many young people assume a great deal of personal responsibility for educating themselves and actively seeking out opposing viewpoints," the survey concluded.
Such active research can have another effect.A 2014 survey conducted in Australia,Britain, and the United States by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young people's reliance on social media led to greater political engagement.
Social media allows users to experience news events more intimately and immediately while also permitting them to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests.This forces users to be more conscious of their role in passing along information.A survey by Barna research group found the top reason given by Americans for the fake news phenomenon is "reader error," more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting.About a third say the problem of fake news lies in "misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news" via social media.In other words,the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue."This
indicates there is a real personal responsibility in counteracting this problem,"says Roxanne Stone,editor in chief at Barna Group.
So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president, they reveal a mental discipline in thinking skills - and in their choices on when to share on social media.
According to the Knight Foundation survey, young people______.
Any fair-minded assessment of the dangers of the deal between Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)and DeepMind must start by acknowledging that both sides mean well.DeepMind is one of the leading artificial intelligence(AI) companies in the world．The potential of this work applied to health-care is very great,but it could also lead to further concentration of power in the tech giants．It is against that background that the information commissioner,Elizabeth Denham,has issued her damning verdict against the Royal Free hospital trust under the NHS，which handed over to DeepMind the records of 1.6 million patients in 2015 on the basis of a vague agreement which took far too little account of the patients’ rights and their expectations of privacy．
DeepMind has almost apologized.The NHS trust has mended its ways.Further arrangements—and there may be many—between the NHS and DeepMind will be carefully scrutinised to ensure that all necessary permissions have been asked of patients and all unnecessary data has been cleaned.There are lessons about informed patient consent to learn.But privacy is not the only angle in this case and not even the most important.Ms Denham chose to concentrate the blame on the NHS trust,since under existing law it“controlled”the data and DeepMind merely‘'processed”it．But this distinction misses the point that it is processing and aggregation,not the mere possession of bits,that gives the data value.
The great question is who should benefit from the analysis of all the data that our lives now generate.Privacy law builds on the concept of damage to an individual from identifiable knowledge about them.That misses the way the surveillance economy works.The data of an individual there gains its value only when it is compared with the data of countless millions more.
The use of privacy law to curb the tech giants in this instance feels slightly maladapted.This practice does not address the real worry.It is not enough to say that the algorithms DeepMind develops will benefit patients and save lives．What matters is that they will belong to a private monopoly which developed them using public resources.If software promises to save lives on the scale that drugs now can,big data may be expected to behave as a big pharma has done.We are still at the beginning of this revolution and small choices now may turn out to have gigantic consequences later.A long struggle will be needed to avoid a future of digital feudalism.Ms Denham’s report is a welcome start.
The author's attitude toward the application of AI to healthcare is_____.
The U.S.Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink.It reported a net loss of $5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue.Meanwhile,it has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly for employee health and retirement costs.There are many reasons this formerly stable federal institution finds itself at the brink of bankruptcy.Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality.
And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimate overseer —Congress — insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected.This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years,leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
Now comes word that everyone involved — Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service,the unions and the system's heaviest users — has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system.Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles,among other survival measures.Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shitting postal retirees int Medicare.The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions.
If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate —where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not comprehensive reform.There's no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs.Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery.That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year.But postal special-interest groups seem to have killed it, at least in the House.The emerging
consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS.It is not, however, a sign that they're getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 21 st century.
The long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions can be addressed by_____.
The U.S.Postal Service (USPS) continues to bleed red ink.It reported a net loss of $5.6 billion for fiscal 2016, the 10th straight year its expenses have exceeded revenue.Meanwhile,it has more than $120 billion in unfunded liabilities, mostly for employee health and retirement costs.There are many reasons this formerly stable federal institution finds itself at the brink of bankruptcy.Fundamentally, the USPS is in a historic squeeze between technological change that has permanently decreased demand for its bread-and-butter product, first-class mail, and a regulatory structure that denies management the flexibility to adjust its operations to the new reality.
And interest groups ranging from postal unions to greeting-card makers exert self-interested pressure on the USPS's ultimate overseer —Congress — insisting that whatever else happens to the Postal Service, aspects of the status quo they depend on get protected.This is why repeated attempts at reform legislation have failed in recent years,leaving the Postal Service unable to pay its bills except by deferring vital modernization.
Now comes word that everyone involved — Democrats, Republicans, the Postal Service,the unions and the system's heaviest users — has finally agreed on a plan to fix the system.Legislation is moving through the House that would save USPS an estimated $28.6 billion over five years, which could help pay for new vehicles,among other survival measures.Most of the money would come from a penny-per-letter permanent rate increase and from shitting postal retirees int Medicare.The latter step would largely offset the financial burden of annually pre-funding retiree health care, thus addressing a long-standing complaint by the USPS and its unions.
If it clears the House, this measure would still have to get through the Senate —where someone is bound to point out that it amounts to the bare, bare minimum necessary to keep the Postal Service afloat, not comprehensive reform.There's no change to collective bargaining at the USPS, a major omission considering that personnel accounts for 80 percent of the agency's costs.Also missing is any discussion of eliminating Saturday letter delivery.That common-sense change enjoys wide public support and would save the USPS $2 billion per year.But postal special-interest groups seem to have killed it, at least in the House.The emerging
consensus around the bill is a sign that legislators are getting frightened about a politically embarrassing short-term collapse at the USPS.It is not, however, a sign that they're getting serious about transforming the postal system for the 21 st century.
In the last paragraph, the author seems to view legislators with_______.
Could a hug a day keep the doctor away? The answer may be a resounding"'yes！" 1 helping you feel close and 2 to people you care about, it turns out that hugs can bring a3 of health benefits to your body and mind.Believe it or not, a warm embrace might even help you 4 getting sick this winter.
In a recent study 5over 400 healthy adults,researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania examined the effects of perceived social support and the receipt of hugs6 the participants' susceptibility to developing the common cold after being7 to the virus.People who perceived greater social support were less likely to come 8 with a cold, and there searchers 9 that the stress-reducing effects of hugging 10 about 32 percent of that beneficial effect.11among those who got a cold, the ones who felt greater social support and received more frequent hugs had less severe 12
. "Hugging protects people who are under stress from the 13 risk for colds that's usually 14 with stress," notes Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie.Hugging "is a marker of intimacy and helps 15 the feeling that others are there to help16 difficulty."
Some experts 17 the stress-reducing,health-related benefits of hugging to the release of oxytocin, often called "the bonding hormone" 18 it promotes attachment in relationships, including that between mothers and their newborn babies. Oxytocin is made primarily in the central lower part of the brain,and some of it is released into the bloodstream.But some of it 19 in the brain,where it 20 mood, behavior and physiology.
第9题选择是______.
"The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers," wrote Queen Liliuokalani,Hawaii's last reigning monarch, in 1897.Star watchers were among the most esteemed members of Hawaiian society.Sadly, all is not well with astronomy in Hawaii today.Protests have erupted over construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope(TMT), a giant observatory that promises to revolutionize humanity's view of the cosmos.
At issue is the TMT's planned location on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano worshiped by some Hawaiians as the piko, that connects the Hawaiian Islands to the heavens.But Mauna Kea is also home to some of the world's most powerful telescopes.Rested in the Pacific Ocean, Mauna Kea's peak rises above the bulk of our planet's dense atmosphere, where conditions allow telescopes to obtain images of unsurpassed clarity.
Opposition to telescopes on Mauna Kea is nothing new.A small but vocal group of Hawaiians and environmentalists have long viewed their presence as
disrespect for sacred land and a painful reminder of the occupation of what was once a sovereign nation.
Some blame for the current controversy belongs to astronomers.In their eagerness to build bigger telescopes, they forgot that science is not the only way of understanding the world.They did not always prioritize the protection of Mauna Kea's fragile ecosystems or its holiness to the island's inhabitants.Hawaiian culture is not a relic of the past; it is a living culture undergoing a renaissance today.
Yet science has a cultural history, too, with roots going back to the dawn of civilization.The same curiosity to find what lies beyond the horizon that first brought early Polynesians to Hawaii's shores inspires astronomers today to explore the heavens.Calls to disassemble all telescopes on Mauna Kea or to ban future development there ignore the reality that astronomy and Hawaiian culture both seek to answer big questions about who we are, where we come from and where we are going.Perhaps that is why we explore the starry skies, as if answering a primal calling to know ourselves and our true ancestral homes.
The astronomy community is making compromises to change its use of Mauna Kea.The TMT site was chosen to minimize the telescope's visibility around the island and to avoid archaeological and environmental impact.To limit the number of telescopes on Mauna Kea, old ones will be removed at the end of their lifetimes and their sites returned to a natural state.There is no reason why everyone cannot be welcomed on Mauna Kea to embrace their cultural heritage and to study the stars.
The construction of the TMT is opposed by some locals partly because_____.
Robert F.Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures "everything except that which makes life worthwhile." With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to.
The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century.Many argue that it is a flawed concept.It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do.By most recent measures, the UK's GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record low unemployment and high growth figures.If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brex it, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country's economic prospects?
A recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into well-being sheds some light on that question.Across the 163 countries measured,the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens.Rather than just focusing on GDP,over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing.
While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes.Yes, there has been a budding economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education,major economies have continued to decline.Yet this isn't the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and the environment.
This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: When GDP is no longer regarded as the sole measure of a country's success, the world looks very different.
So, what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough.It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes—all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being.
The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth.But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being rather than simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.
Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A．The first published sketch, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" brought tears to Dickens's eyes when he discovered it in the pages of The Monthly Magazine. From then on his sketches, which appeared under the pen name "Boz" in The Evening Chronicle,earned him a modest reputation.
B．The runaway success of The Pickwick Papers, as it is generally known today, secured Dickens's fame.There were Pickwick coats and Pickwick cigars, and the plump, spectacled hero, Samuel Pickwick, became a national figure.
C．Soon after Sketches by Boz appeared, a publishing firm approached Dickens to write a story in monthly installments, as a backdrop for a series of woodcuts by the then-famous artist Robert Seymour, who had originated the idea for the story.With characteristic confidence, Dickens successfully insisted that Seymour's pictures illustrate his own story instead.After the first installment,Dickens wrote to the artist and asked him to correct a drawing Dickens felt was not faithful enough to his prose.Seymour made the change, went into his backyard, and expressed his displeasure by committing suicide.Dickens and his publishers simply pressed on with a new artist.The comic novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, appeared serially in 1836 and 1837 and was first published in book form in 1837.
D．Charles Dickens is probably the best-known and, to many people, the greatest English novelist of the 19th century.A moralist, satirist, and social reformer, Dickens crafted complex plots and striking characters that capture the panorama of English society.
E．Soon after his father's release from prison, Dickens got a better job as errand boy in law offices.He taught himself shorthand to get an even better job later as a court stenographer and as a reporter in Parliament.At the same time,Dickens, who had a reporter's eye for transcribing the life around him,especially anything comic or odd, submitted short sketches to obscure magazines.
F．Dickens was born in Portsmouth, on England's southern coast.His father was a clerk in the British Navy pay office—a respectable position, but with little social status. His paternal grandparents, a steward and a housekeeper, possessed even less status, having been servants, and Dickens later concealed their background.Dickens's mother supposedly came from a more respectable family.Yet two years before Dickens's birth, his mother's father was caught stealing and fled to Europe, never to return.The family's increasing poverty forced Dickens out of school at age 12 to work in Warren's Blacking Warehouse, a shoe-polish factory, where the other working boys mocked him as "the young gentleman." His father was then imprisoned for debt.The humiliations of his father's imprisonment and his labor in the blacking factory formed Dickens's greatest wound and became his deepest secret.He could not confide them even to his wife, although they provide the unacknowledged foundation of his fiction.
G．After Pickwick, Dickens plunged into a bleaker world.In Oliver Twist, he traces an orphan's progress from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London.Nicholas Nickleby, his next novel, combines the darkness of Oliver Twist with the sunlight of Pickwick.The popularity of these novels consolidated Dickens' as a nationally and internationally celebrated man of letters.
第42题答案是_____.
A．The first published sketch, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" brought tears to Dickens's eyes when he discovered it in the pages of The Monthly Magazine. From then on his sketches, which appeared under the pen name "Boz" in The Evening Chronicle,earned him a modest reputation.
B．The runaway success of The Pickwick Papers, as it is generally known today, secured Dickens's fame.There were Pickwick coats and Pickwick cigars, and the plump, spectacled hero, Samuel Pickwick, became a national figure.
C．Soon after Sketches by Boz appeared, a publishing firm approached Dickens to write a story in monthly installments, as a backdrop for a series of woodcuts by the then-famous artist Robert Seymour, who had originated the idea for the story.With characteristic confidence, Dickens successfully insisted that Seymour's pictures illustrate his own story instead.After the first installment,Dickens wrote to the artist and asked him to correct a drawing Dickens felt was not faithful enough to his prose.Seymour made the change, went into his backyard, and expressed his displeasure by committing suicide.Dickens and his publishers simply pressed on with a new artist.The comic novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, appeared serially in 1836 and 1837 and was first published in book form in 1837.
D．Charles Dickens is probably the best-known and, to many people, the greatest English novelist of the 19th century.A moralist, satirist, and social reformer, Dickens crafted complex plots and striking characters that capture the panorama of English society.
E．Soon after his father's release from prison, Dickens got a better job as errand boy in law offices.He taught himself shorthand to get an even better job later as a court stenographer and as a reporter in Parliament.At the same time,Dickens, who had a reporter's eye for transcribing the life around him,especially anything comic or odd, submitted short sketches to obscure magazines.
F．Dickens was born in Portsmouth, on England's southern coast.His father was a clerk in the British Navy pay office—a respectable position, but with little social status. His paternal grandparents, a steward and a housekeeper, possessed even less status, having been servants, and Dickens later concealed their background.Dickens's mother supposedly came from a more respectable family.Yet two years before Dickens's birth, his mother's father was caught stealing and fled to Europe, never to return.The family's increasing poverty forced Dickens out of school at age 12 to work in Warren's Blacking Warehouse, a shoe-polish factory, where the other working boys mocked him as "the young gentleman." His father was then imprisoned for debt.The humiliations of his father's imprisonment and his labor in the blacking factory formed Dickens's greatest wound and became his deepest secret.He could not confide them even to his wife, although they provide the unacknowledged foundation of his fiction.
G．After Pickwick, Dickens plunged into a bleaker world.In Oliver Twist, he traces an orphan's progress from the workhouse to the criminal slums of London.Nicholas Nickleby, his next novel, combines the darkness of Oliver Twist with the sunlight of Pickwick.The popularity of these novels consolidated Dickens' as a nationally and internationally celebrated man of letters.
第43题答案是______.
Fluid intelligence is the type of intelligence that has to do with short-term memory and the ability to think quickly, logically, and abstractly in order to solve new problems.It 1 in young adulthood, levels out for a period of time, and then 2 starts to slowly decline as we age.But 3 aging is inevitable,scientists are finding out that certain changes in brain function may not be.
One study found that muscle loss and the 4 of body fat around the abdomen are associated with a decline in fluid intelligence.This suggests the 5 that lifestyle factors might help prevent or 6 this type of decline.
The researchers looked at data that 7 measurements of lean muscle and abdominal fat from more than 4,000 middle-to-older-aged men and women and 8 that data to reported changes in fluid intelligence over a six-year period.They found that middle-aged people 9 higher measures of abdominal fat 10 worse on measures of fluid intelligence as the years 11 .
For women, the association may be 12 to changes in immunity that resulted from excess abdominal fat; in men, the immune system did not appear to be 13 .It is hoped that future studies could 14 these differences and perhaps lead to different 15 for men and women.
16 there are steps you can 17 to help reduce abdominal fat and maintain lean muscle mass as you age in order to protect both your physical and mental 18 .The two highly recommended lifestyle approaches are maintaining or increasing your 19 of aerobic exercise and following Mediterranean-style 20 that is high in fiber and eliminates highly processed foods.
第11题答案是______.
How can British train operators possibly justify yet another increase to rail passenger fares?It has become a grimly reliable annual ritual: every January the cost of travelling by train rises, imposing a significant extra burden on those who have no option but to use the rail network to get to work or otherwise.This year's rise, an average of 2.7 percent,may be a fraction lower than last year's, but it is still well above the official Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation.
Successive governments have permitted such increases on the grounds that the cost of investing in and running the rail network should be borne by those who use it,rather than the general taxpayer.Why, the argument goes, should a car-driving pensioner from Lincolnshire have to subsidise the daily commute of a stockbroker from Surrey? Equally,there is a sense that the travails of commuters in the South East, many of whom will face among the biggest rises, have received too much attention compared to those who must endure the relatively poor infrastructure of the Midlands and the North.
However, over the past 12 months, those commuters have also experienced some of the worst rail strikes in years.It is all very well train operators trumpeting the improvements they are making to the network, but passengers should be able to expect a basic level of service for the substantial sums they are now paying to travel.The responsibility for the latest wave of strikes rests on the unions.However, there is a strong case that those who have been worst affected by industrial action should receive compensation for the disruption they have suffered.
The Government has pledged to change the law to introduce a minimum service requirement so that even when strikes occur, services can continue to operate.This should form part of a wider package of measures to address the long-running problems on Britain's railways.Yes, more investment is needed, but passengers will not be willing to pay more indefinitely if they must also endure cramped, unreliable services,punctuated by regular chaos when timetables are changed, or planned maintenance is managed incompetently.The threat of nationalisation may have been seen off for now,but it will return with a vengeance if the justified anger of passengers is not addressed in short order.
The stockbroker in Paragraph 2 is used to stand for______.
How can British train operators possibly justify yet another increase to rail passenger fares?It has become a grimly reliable annual ritual: every January the cost of travelling by train rises, imposing a significant extra burden on those who have no option but to use the rail network to get to work or otherwise.This year's rise, an average of 2.7 percent,may be a fraction lower than last year's, but it is still well above the official Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation.
Successive governments have permitted such increases on the grounds that the cost of investing in and running the rail network should be borne by those who use it,rather than the general taxpayer.Why, the argument goes, should a car-driving pensioner from Lincolnshire have to subsidise the daily commute of a stockbroker from Surrey? Equally,there is a sense that the travails of commuters in the South East, many of whom will face among the biggest rises, have received too much attention compared to those who must endure the relatively poor infrastructure of the Midlands and the North.
However, over the past 12 months, those commuters have also experienced some of the worst rail strikes in years.It is all very well train operators trumpeting the improvements they are making to the network, but passengers should be able to expect a basic level of service for the substantial sums they are now paying to travel.The responsibility for the latest wave of strikes rests on the unions.However, there is a strong case that those who have been worst affected by industrial action should receive compensation for the disruption they have suffered.
The Government has pledged to change the law to introduce a minimum service requirement so that even when strikes occur, services can continue to operate.This should form part of a wider package of measures to address the long-running problems on Britain's railways.Yes, more investment is needed, but passengers will not be willing to pay more indefinitely if they must also endure cramped, unreliable services,punctuated by regular chaos when timetables are changed, or planned maintenance is managed incompetently.The threat of nationalisation may have been seen off for now,but it will return with a vengeance if the justified anger of passengers is not addressed in short order.
If unable to calm down passengers, the railways may have to face_______.
Last year marked the third year in a row of when Indonesia's bleak rate of deforestation has slowed in pace.One reason for the turnaround may be the country's antipoverty program.
In 2007, Indonesia started phasing in a program that gives money to its poorest residents under certain conditions, such as requiring people to keep kids in school or get regular medical care.Called conditional cash transfers or CCTs, these social assistance programs are designed to reduce inequality and break the cycle of poverty.They're already used in dozens of countries worldwide.In Indonesia, the program has provided enough food and medicine to substantially reduce severe growth problems among children.
But CCT programs don't generally consider effects on the environment.In fact, poverty alleviation and environmental protection are oiten viewed as conflicting goals,says Paul Ferraro, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.
That's because economic growth can be correlated with environmental degradation, while protecting the environment is sometimes correlated with greater poverty.However, those correlations don't prove cause and effect.The only previous study analyzing causality,based on an area in Mexico that had instituted CCTs, supported the traditional view.There,as people got more money, some of them may have more cleared land for cattle to raise for meat, Ferraro says.
Such programs do not have to negatively affect the environment, though.Ferraro wanted to see if Indonesia's poverty-alleviation program was affecting deforestation. Indonesia has the third-largest area of tropical forest in the world and one of the highest deforestation rates.
Ferraro analyzed satellite data showing annual forest loss from 2008 to 2012————including during Indonesia's phase-in of the antipoverty program———in 7,468 forested villages across 15 provinces and multiple islands.The duo separated the effects of the CCT program on forest loss. With that,"We see that the program is associated with a 30 percent reduction in deforestation," Ferraro says.
That's likely because the rural poor are using the money as makeshift insurance policies against inclement weather, Ferraro says.Typically, if rains are delayed, people may clear land to plant more rice to supplement their harvests. With the CCTs,individuals instead can use the money to supplement their harvests.
Whether this research translates elsewhere is anybody's guess.Ferraro suggests the results may transfer to other parts of Asia, due to commonalities such as the importance of growing rice and market access.And regardless of transferability, the study shows that what's good for people may also be good for the environment."Even if this program didn't reduce poverty", Ferraro says, "the value of the avoided deforestation just for carbon dioxide emissions alone is more than the program costs."
According to Ferraro, the CCT program in Indonesia is most valuable in that____.
Shakespeare's life time was coincident with a period of extraordinary activity and achievement in the drama.(46)By the date of his birth Europe was witnessing thepassing of the religious drama, and the creation of new forms under the incentive of classical tragedy and comedy.These new forms were at first mainly written by scholars and performed by amateurs, but in England, as everywhere else in western Europe,the growth of a class of professional actors was threatening to make the drama popular, whether it should be new or old, classical or medieval, literary or farcical.Court,school, organizations of amateurs, and the traveling actors were all rivals in supplying a widespread desire for dramatic entertainment; and (47)no boywho went to a grammar school could be ignorant that the drama was a form ofliterature which gave glory_to Greece and Rome and might yet bring honor toEngland.
When Shakespeare was twelve years old the first public playhouse was built in London.For a time literature showed no interest in this public stage.Plays aiming at literary distinction were written for schools or court, or for the choir boys of St.Paul's and the royal chapel, who, however, gave plays in public as well as at court.(48)But the professional companies prospered in their permanent theaters, and university men with literary ambitions were quick to turn to these theaters as offering a means of livelihood.By the time that Shakespeare was twenty-five, Lyly, Peele, and Greene had made comedies that were at once popular and literary; Kyd had written a tragedy that crowded the pit; and Marlowe had brought poetry and genius to triumph on the common stage —where they had played no part since the death of Euripides.(49)Anative literary drama had been created, its alliance with the public playhousesestablished,and at least some of its great traditions had been begun.
The development of the Elizabethan drama for the next twenty-five years is of exceptional interest to students of literary history, for in this brief period we may trace the beginning, growth, blossoming, and decay of many kinds of plays, and of many great careers.We are amazed today at the mere number of plays produced, as well as by the number of dramatists writing at the same time for this London of two hundred thousand inhabitants.(50)To realize how great was the dramatic activity, we mustremember further that hosts of plays have been lost, and that probably there is noauthor of note whose entire work has survived.
第（48）题答案______.
Shakespeare's life time was coincident with a period of extraordinary activity and achievement in the drama.(46)By the date of his birth Europe was witnessing thepassing of the religious drama, and the creation of new forms under the incentive of classical tragedy and comedy.These new forms were at first mainly written by scholars and performed by amateurs, but in England, as everywhere else in western Europe,the growth of a class of professional actors was threatening to make the drama popular, whether it should be new or old, classical or medieval, literary or farcical.Court,school, organizations of amateurs, and the traveling actors were all rivals in supplying a widespread desire for dramatic entertainment; and (47)no boywho went to a grammar school could be ignorant that the drama was a form ofliterature which gave glory_to Greece and Rome and might yet bring honor toEngland.
When Shakespeare was twelve years old the first public playhouse was built in London.For a time literature showed no interest in this public stage.Plays aiming at literary distinction were written for schools or court, or for the choir boys of St.Paul's and the royal chapel, who, however, gave plays in public as well as at court.(48)But the professional companies prospered in their permanent theaters, and university men with literary ambitions were quick to turn to these theaters as offering a means of livelihood.By the time that Shakespeare was twenty-five, Lyly, Peele, and Greene had made comedies that were at once popular and literary; Kyd had written a tragedy that crowded the pit; and Marlowe had brought poetry and genius to triumph on the common stage —where they had played no part since the death of Euripides.(49)Anative literary drama had been created, its alliance with the public playhousesestablished,and at least some of its great traditions had been begun.
The development of the Elizabethan drama for the next twenty-five years is of exceptional interest to students of literary history, for in this brief period we may trace the beginning, growth, blossoming, and decay of many kinds of plays, and of many great careers.We are amazed today at the mere number of plays produced, as well as by the number of dramatists writing at the same time for this London of two hundred thousand inhabitants.(50)To realize how great was the dramatic activity, we mustremember further that hosts of plays have been lost, and that probably there is noauthor of note whose entire work has survived.
第（50）题答案______.
The growth of the use of English as the world's primary language for international communication has obviously been continuing for several decades.
(46)But even as the number of English speakers expands further there are signsthat the global predominance of the language may fade within the foreseeable future.
Complex international, economic, technological and cultural changes could start to diminish the leading position of English as the language of the world market,and UK interests which enjoy advantage from the breath of English usage would consequently face new pressures.Those realistic possibilities are highlighted in the study presented by David Graddol.(47)His analysis shouldtherefore end any self-contentedness among those who may believe that the globalposition of English is so stable that the young generations of the United Kingdomdo not need additional language capabilities.
David Graddol concludes that monoglot English graduates face a bleak economic future as qualified multilingual youngsters from other countries are proving to have a competitive advantage over their British counterparts in global companies and organisations.Alongside that, (48)many countries are introducing English into the primary-school curriculum but British schoolchildren and students do not appear to be gaining greater encouragement to achieve fluency in other languages.
If left to themselves, such trends will diminish the relative strength of the English language in international education markets as the demand for educational resources in languages, such as Spanish, Arabic or Mandarin grows and international business process outsourcing in other languages such as Japanese,French and German, spreads.
(49)The changes identified by David Graddol all present clear and majorchallenges to the UK's providers of English language teaching to people of othercountries and to broader education business sectors.The English language teaching sector directly earns nearly $1.3 billion for the UK in invisible exports and our other education related exports earn up to $10 billion a year more.As the international education market expands, the recent slowdown in the numbers of international students studying in the main English-speaking countries is likely to continue,especially if there are no effective strategic policies to prevent such slippage.
The anticipation of possible shifts in demand provided by this study is significant:(50)It gives a basis to all organisations which seek to promote the learning anduse of English, a basis for planning to meet the possibilities of what could be avery different operating environment.That is a necessary and practical approach. In this as in much else, those who wish to influence the future must prepare for it.
第（49）题答案_______.
World War II was the watershed event for higher education in modem Westem societies.(46)Those societies came out of the war with levels of enrollment that had been roughly constant at 3-5% of the relevant age groups during the decades before the war.
But after the war, great social and political changes arising out of the successful war against Fascism created a growing demand in European and American economies for increasing numbers of graduates with more than a secondary school education.(47)And the demand that rose in those societies for entry to higher education extended to groups and social classes that had not thought of attending a university before the war.These demands resulted in a very rapid expansion of the systems of higher education, beginning in the 1960s and developing very rapidly (though unevenly) during the 1970s and 1980s.
The growth of higher education manifests itself in at least three quite different ways,and these in turn have given rise to different sets of problems.There was first the rate of growth: (48)in many countries of Westem Europe, the numbers of students in higher education doubled within five-year periods during the 1960s and doubled again in seven, eight, or 10 years by the middle of the 1970s. Second, growth obviously affected the absolute size both of systems and individual institutions.And third, growth was reflected in changes in the proportion of the relevant age group enrolled in institutions of higher education.
Each of these manifestations of growth carried its own peculiar problems in its wake.For example, a high growth rate placed great strains on the existing structures of governance,of administration, and above all of socialization.When a faculty or department grows from, say, 5 to 20 members within three or four years, (49)andwhen the new staff are predominantly young men and women fresh from postgraduatestudy,they largely define the norms of academic life in that faculty.And if the postgraduate student population also grows rapidly and there is loss of a close apprenticeship relationship between faculty members and students, the student culture becomes the chief socializing force for new postgraduate students, with consequences for the intellectual and academic life of the institution—this was seen in America as well as in France, Italy, West Germany, and Japan.(50)High growth rates increased thechances for academic innovation; they also weakened the forms and processes by whichteachers and students are admitted into a community of scholars during periods ofstability or slow growth.In the 1960s and 1970s, European universities saw marked changes in their governance arrangements, with empowerment of junior faculty and to some degree of students as well.
第（50）题答案______.
