Increasingly, over the past ten years, people—espe... - 搜题云问答

第1题

_____________. That was five years ago and he has no regrets about his new directi

on. “My previous work didn’t have an artistic element to it, whereas this is exciting and creative,” he says. “I really enjoy the design side.”

［A］Graham has become increasingly busy, supplying flat-packed weathervanes to clients worldwide.

［B］Graham decided to concentrate his efforts on a weathervane business. He had served an apprenticeship as a precision engineer and had worked in that trade for 15 years when he and his wife, Liz, agreed to swap roles—she went out to work as an architectural assistant and he stayed at home to look after the children and build up the business.

［C］Last month, a local school was opened with his galleon ship weathervane hoisted above it.

［D］“For centuries, weathervanes have kept communities in touch with the elements, signaling those shifts in wind direction that bring about changes in the weather,” he explains.

［E］Graham has no plans for expansion, as he wants to keep the business as a rural craft.

［F］Graham has now perfected over 100 original designs. He works to very fine detail, always seeking approval for the design of the silhouette from the customer before proceeding with the hand-cutting.

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第2题

根据下列文章，回答31～35题。In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of only three players

in the National Basketball Association （NBA） listed at over seven feet. If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.

The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today''s people- especially those born to families who have lived in the U.S. for many generations- apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. And they aren’t likely to get any taller. In the general population today, at this genetic, environmental level, we''ve pretty much gone as far as we can go, says anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright State University. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the world.

Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demands calories and nutrients–notably, protein–to feed expanding tissues. At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average height- 5′9〞for men, 5′4〞for women- hasn''t really changed since 1960.

Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the individual organism, says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University.

Genetic maximums can change, but don''t expect this to happen soon. Claire C． Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass, ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, you could use today’s data and feel fairly confident.

第31题：Wilt Chamberlain is cited as an example to

A．illustrate the change of height of NBA players.

B．show the popularity of NBA players in the U.S……

C．compare different generations of NBA players.

D．assess the achievements of famous NBA players.

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第3题

In the early 1960s Wilt Chamberlain was one of the only three players in the National Bask

etball Association (NBA) listed at over seven feet. If he had played last season, however, he would have been one of 42. The bodies playing major professional sports have changed dramatically over the years, and managers have been more than willing to adjust team uniforms to fit the growing numbers of bigger, longer frames.

The trend in sports, though, may be obscuring an unrecognized reality: Americans have generally stopped growing. Though typically about two inches taller now than 140 years ago, today's people—especially those born to families who have lived in the U.S. for many generations—apparently reached their limit in the early 1960s. And they aren't likely to get any taller. "In the general population today, at this genetic, environmental level, we've pretty much gone as far as we can go," says anthropologist William Cameron Chumlea of Wright State University. In the case of NBA players, their increase in height appears to result from the increasingly common practice of recruiting players from all over the world.

Growth, which rarely continues beyond the age of 20, demands calories and nutrients—notably, protein—to feed expanding tissues. At the start of the 20th century, under-nutrition and childhood infections got in the way. But as diet and health improved, children and adolescents have, on average, increased in height by about an inch and a half every 20 years, a pattern known as the secular trend in height. Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, average height—5'9" for men, 5'4" for women—hasn't really changed since 1960.

Genetically speaking, there are advantages to avoiding substantial height. During childbirth, larger babies have more difficulty passing through the birth canal. Moreover, even though humans have been upright for millions of years, our feet and back continue to struggle with bipedal posture and cannot easily withstand repeated strain imposed by oversize limbs. "There are some real constraints that are set by the genetic architecture of the individual organism," says anthropologist William Leonard of Northwestern University.

Genetic maximums can change, but don't expect this to happen soon. Claire C. Gordon, senior anthropologist at the Army Research Center in Natick, Mass., ensures that 90 percent of the uniforms and workstations fit recruits without alteration. She says that, unlike those for basketball, the length of military uniforms has not changed for some time. And if you need to predict human height in the near future to design a piece of equipment, Gordon says that by and large, "you could use today's data and feel fairly confident."

Wilt Chamberlain is cited as an example to

A．illustrate the change of height of NBA players.

B．show the popularity of NBA players in the U.S.

C．compare different generations of NBA players.

D．assess the achievements of famous NBA players.

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第4题

It can be learned that the types of entertainment of mid-nineteenth centuryA．have become i

It can be learned that the types of entertainment of mid-nineteenth century

A．have become increasingly popular among scholars since the 80's.

B．were so sophisticated that audiences couldn't understand.

C．actually involved very little actual fraud and double consciousness.

D．discouraged people from suspecting their perceptions.

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第5题

For the most part, rapid economic development has been a favor. But there is a down side t

o development—health problems such as overweight are all becoming more common, as more people take taxis to work instead of riding their bicycles, and other labour-saving devices become more popular.

An increasingly fast pace of life makes it difficult for people to spend time playing sports. " I know exercise is good for your health, " a young lady said, " But after a busy work week, the only thing I want to do is watching TV and going to sleep. " That attitude may explain the results of a recent nationwide study, which suggested 15 percent of urban adults in China have heart problems.

Local researchers found that 31. 2 percent of elderly respondents were getting enough exercise, but less than 9 percent of youngsters and the middle-aged got enough physical activity.

Elderly people understand the importance of protecting their health. The young people, however, are busy working and use this as an excuse to avoid exercise. In fact, physical exercise doesn't require much time, money or a special gymnasium. People can make use of any time and any place at their convenience to take part in sports. Walking quickly, cycling, climbing the stairs and dancing are all helpful methods to improve one's health.

The benefits of adding a little more activity to your life are priceless. " There is no need to be an athlete (运动员) , however, "a local doctor said. People should walk for 30 minutes a day and take part in some other physical activities three to five times a week. He warns, however, that people in poor physical shape should start slowly, and build up over time.

By referring to rapid economic development as "a favor" at the beginning of the passage, the author means that______ .

A．it has benefited the general public greatly

B．it has done harm to people's health nationwide

C．it is going faster than anyone could have imagined

D．it has helped to establish a healthy lifestyle. of the public

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第6题

Money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value and for storing wealth. Alm

ost every society now has a money economy based on coins and bills of one kind or another. However, this has not always been true. In primitive societies a system of barter was used. Barter was a system of direct exchange of goods. Somebody could exchange a sheep, for example, for anything in the market place that he or she considered to be of equal value. Barter, however, was a very unsatisfactory system because people 's precise needs were seldom met. People needed a more practical system of exchange, and various money systems developed based on goods that the members of society recognized as having value. Cattle, grain, teeth, shells, feathers, salt, elephant tusks, and tobacco had all been used. Precious metals gradually took over because, when made into coins, they were portable, durable, recognizable, and divisible into larger and smaller units of value.

A coin is a piece of metal, usually disc-shaped, which bears words, designs or numbers showing its value. Until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, coins were given monetary worth based on the exact amount of metal contained in them, but most modern coins are based on face value—the value that the governments choose to give them, which doesn't show the actual metal content. Coins have been made of gold, silver, copper, aluminum (铝) , nickel(镍) , lead, zinc (锌) , plastic and in China even from tea leaves. Most governments now issue paper money in the form. of bills, which are really" promise to pay". Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much more convenient in the modern world. Checks and credit cards are being used increasingly, and it is possible to imagine a world where "money" in the form. of coins and paper currency will no longer be used. Even today, in the United States, many places, especially filling stations will not accept cash at night for security reasons.

Barter here means ______.

A．exchanging goods for money

B．exchanging sheep for anything in the market

C．exchanging goods for goods

D．exchanging money for goods

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第7题

The author's view on the historical development of toys is ______.A．the craftsmanship in t

The author's view on the historical development of toys is ______.

A．the craftsmanship in toy - making has remained essentially unchanged

B．toys have remained basically the same all through the centuries

C．the toy industry has witnessed great leaps in technology in recent years

D．toys are playing an increasingly important role in shaping a child's character

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第8题

Part ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by c

Part A

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

Income inequality in the United State remained relatively stable for a period of nearly forty years. Beginning in the 1970's, however, this period of stability ended, as the first signs of widening income inequality became apparent. Over the course of the 1970's and 1980's , an increasingly clear trend toward greater income inequality emerged. By the end of the 1980's, the top 20 percent of workers were receiving the largest share of income ever recorded by government figures, and the bottom three fifths were receiving the lowest shares ever recorded. This trend has continued into the 1990's and currently shows no signs of decline. When the indicators of growing inequality were first observed in the 1970's, some researchers argued that the effects were merely temporary artifacts of short-term labor market disturbances. The new occupational structure appears to be one with an increase of well-paid technical, scientific and professional jobs at the top, a sliding middle class, and a growing poorly-paid service and retail jobs at the bottom. Several important labor-force changes appeared to be contributing to the shifting occupational structure.

As occupational reconstructing and growing income inequality have become increasingly evident, a heated debate as to the causes and magnitude of these changes arose. Two dominant bodies of thought emerged around the issue: the job-skill mismatch thesis and the polarization thesis. Mismatch theorists argue that there is an increasing distance between the high skill requirements of post-industrial jobs and the inadequate training and mediocre qualifications of workers. They see the post-industrial economy leaving behind unskilled workers, especially women and minorities. For the mismatch theorist, the trend toward greater inequality is temporary arid will dissipate once the supply of workers acquires the skills demanded by a post-industrial economy. And they predict that the workers will experience an upgrading in their wages over the long run. Polarization theorists, on the other hand, believe that the rise in inequality is permanent, a result of the shift to a service-based economy. This vision of the postindustrial economy is characteristically polarized. The problem according to these theorists, is the type of jobs being generated in the new economy, not worker attributes. Because they believe the causes are structural and permanent, polarization theorists would deny the efficacy of public policies designed to educate and train unskilled workers. They predict a long-term continuation of the trend towards increasing income inequality.

Studies show that the long-run increase in income inequality is also related to changes in the Nation's labor market and its household composition. The wage distribution has become considerably more unequal with more highly skilled, trained and educated workers at the top experiencing real wage gains and those at the bottom real wage losses. One factor is the shift in employment from those goods-producing industries that have disproportionately provided high-wage opportunities for low-skilled workers, towards services that disproportionately employ college graduates, and towards low-wage sectors such as retail trade. But within industry, shifts in labor demand away from less-educated workers are perhaps a more important explanation of eroding wages than the shift out of manufacturing.

Also cited as putting downward pressure on the wages of less-educated workers are intensifying global competition and immigration, the decline of the proportion of workers belonging to unions, the decline in the real value of the minimum wage, the increasing need for computer skills, and the increasing use of temporary workers.

From the Paragraph 1, we can see that beginning in t

A．income became more unequal

B．income became more equal

C．income became more unstable

D．income became more stable

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第9题

"The essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism", remarked Franklin Roosevelt in 1933,"

"The essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism", remarked Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, "must be the same as those which constitute a good neighbour, namely mutual understanding and… a sympathetic appreciation of the other's point of view." That is advice which the United States would do well to heed in its relations with its immediate neighbours, Canada and Mexico. Most Americans may not be aware of it, but frustrations and resentments are building just across their borders to both south and north.

Of course, neighbourly ties in North America are closer than in Roosevelt's day. Under the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade among the three countries has more than doubled since 1994 and cross-border investment climbed even faster. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, the United States moved quickly to sign "smart border" agreements with both Canada and Mexico, to try to ensure that the demands of security did not interrupt trade. By the standards of much of the 20th century, political ties between the United States and Mexico are warm.

Yet go to either border and you wouldn't know all this. Fed up with the flow of illegal migrants from the south, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico this month declared a state of emergency. Violence between drug gangs recently led the United States temporarily to close its consulate in Nuevo Laredo, the busiest border-crossing point. The American ambassador bluntly criticises Mexico for its failure to prevent drug-related violence along the border. That has prompted retaliatory verbal blasts from Mexican officials.

Canada's mood is not much more cordial. Since September 11th, Canadians and Americans alike have become less keen on popping over what they liked to call " the world's longest undefended border" for shopping or recreation. Canadians increasingly disagree with Americans over matters as varied as the Iraq war and gay marriage. They are disillusioned with NAFTA, claiming it has failed to prevent the United States from unlawfully punishing their exports of, for example, lumber.

So what？ Friction is in the nature of international relations, and the problems on the northern border are different from those in the south. Yet there is a common denominator. Americans tend to see security, migration, drugs, even trade, as domestic political issues. But so they are for Canada and Mexico too. Like it or not, Americans rely on their neighbours for prosperity, energy and help with security. It behoves all three countries to show some "sympathetic understanding".

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that______.

A．the essential qualities of a true Pan-Americanism were defined by Franklin Roosevelt

B．mutual understanding is one of the most far-reaching elements in North America

C．few Americans may be aware of others'point of view

D．America's friendship with Canada and Mexico risks going sour

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第10题

（非英语专业做）Increasingly over the past 10 years, People especially young people have bec

（非英语专业做）

Increasingly over the past 10 years, People especially young people have become aware of the need to change their eating habits, because much of the food they eat, particularly processed foods, is not good for health. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in natural foods: foods which do not contain chemical additives and which have not been affected by chemical fertilizers widely used in farming today.

Natural foods, for example, include vegetables, fruit and grain which have been grown in soil that is rich in organic matter. In simple terms, this means that the soil has been nourished by unused vegetable matter, which provides it with essential vitamins and minerals. This in itself is a natural process compared with the use of chemicals and fertilizers, the main purpose of which is to increase the amount but not the quality of foods grown in commercial farming areas.

Natural foods also include animals which have been allowed to feed and move freely in healthy pastures. Compare this with what happens in the mass production of poultry: There are battery farms, for example, where thousands of chickens live crowded together in one building and are fed on food which is little better than rubbish. Chickens kept in this way are not only tasteless as food; they also produce eggs which lack important vitamins.

It is significant that nowadays fiber is considered to be an important part of a healthy diet. In white bread, for example, the fiber has been removed. But it is present in unrefined flour and of course in vegetables. It is interesting to note that in countries where the national diet contains large quantities of unrefined flour and vegetables, certain diseases are comparatively rare. Hence the emphasis placed on the eating of whole meal bread and more vegetables by modern experts on "healthy eating".

People have become more interested in natural foods because______.

A．they like changing their diet from time to time

B．they want to eat food that is more delicious

C．much of the food they eat is no longer considered to be healthy

D．they want to be fashionable

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第11题

Education is compulsory in Britain, whether at school "or otherwise"; and "other wise" is

becoming more popular. In 1999, only 12,000 children were listed as being home-schooled. Now that figure is 20,000, according to Mike Fortune-Wood, an educational researcher. But he thinks that, as most home-taught children never go near a school and are therefore invisible to officialdom, the total is probably nearer 50,000.

As usual, Britain lies between Europe and America. In Germany, home teaching is illegal. In America, it's huge: over 1 million children are home-schooled, mainly by religious parents. There are a small minority among British home-educators, who consist mainly of two types: hippyish middle-class parents who dislike schools on principle, and those whose children are unhappy at school.

The growth is overwhelmingly in this second category, says Roland Meighan, a home-education expert and publisher. One reason is that technology has made home-education easier. The internet allows parents to know as much as teachers. It is also a way of organizing get-togethers, sharing tips and outwitting official hassles. That supplements e vents such as the annual home-education festival last week, where 1,600 parents and children enjoyed Egyptian dancing and labyrinth-building on a muddy hillside in Devon.

But a bigger reason for the growth is changing attitudes. Centralisation, government targets and a focus on exams have made state schools less customer friendly and more boring. Classes are still based strictly on age groups, which is hard for children who differ sharply from the average. Mr. Fortune-Wood notes that the National Health Service is now far more accommodating of patients' wishes about timing, venue and treatment. "It's happened in health. Why can't it happen in education？" he asks.

Perhaps because other businesses tend to make more effort to satisfy individual needs, parents are getting increasingly picky. In the past, if their child was bullied, not coping or bored, they tended to put up with it. Now they complain, and if that doesn't work they vote with their (children's) feet. Some educationalists worry that home-schooling may hurt children's psychological and educational development. Home educators cite statistics showing that it helps both educational attainment and the course of grown-up life.

Labour's latest big idea in education is "personalisation", which is intended to al low much more flexible timing and choice of subjects. In theory, that might stem the drift to home—schooling. Many home-educators would like to be able to use school facilities occasionally—in science lessons, say, or to sit exams. But for now, schools, and the officials who regulate them, like the near-monopoly created by the rule of "all or nothing".

The term "otherwise" (Line 1, Paragraph 1) most probably means

A．the education in a developed nation.

B．the wave of compulsory education.

C．the popularity of teaching at school.

D．the trend of home-schooling.

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Increasingly, over the past ten years, people—especially young people—have become aware of