Meetings are very common nowadays. They can be weekly, monthly or annually. Some peopl
Most meetings are sometimes thought to be___.
A.solving many problems
B.discussing important matters
C.killing time and uninteresting
Most meetings are sometimes thought to be___.
A.solving many problems
B.discussing important matters
C.killing time and uninteresting
According to this passage, ______ is very important to people in a disaster area.
A.fast communication
B.modern technology .
C.the news
D.new ideas
The differences between American English and British English are not very great. Written English is more or less the same in both Britain and America, though there are some spelling differences. For example, centre, licence, colour and travelled are spelt as center, license, color and traveled in American English. In America "cock, rubber, iii, holiday, lorry, post... "are called "rooster, eraser, sick, vacation, truck, mail..." But people from the two countries can still understand each other easily.
There are only a very small number of differences in grammar between American English and British English. The most important differences are in spoken English. For example, Americans pronounce "tomato" differently from English people.
You may wonder "Which is correct?" The answer is that it does not matter. You should speak either American English or British English. But do not try to speak both at the same time.
When was English only spoken in England?
A.About the 6th century.
B.Before the 17th century.
C.Before the 14th century.
D.Before the 15th century.
Most firms' annual general meetings (AGMs) owe more to North Korea than ancient Greece. By long-standing tradition, bosses make platitudinous speeches, listen to lone dissidents with the air of psychiatric nurses towards patients and wait for their own proposals to be rubber-stamped by the proxy votes of obedient institutional investors. According to Manifest, a shareholder-advice firm, 97% of votes cast across Europe last year backed management.
So should corporate democrats be cheered by the rebellion over pay at Royal Dutch Shell? At the oil giant's AGM on May 19th, 59% of voting shareholders sided against pay packages for top executives. In particular they disliked 4.2 million ($ 5.8 million) in shares dished out to five executives, which comprised about 12% of their total pay for 2008.Under the firm's rules, such awards should be granted only if Shell's total return in the year is in the top three of its peer group. In 2007 and 2008, Shell came a very close fourth, so the firm decided to pay out anyway.
Shell is hardly a poster child for malfeasance: it is performing well, its pay is similar to that at other big oil firms and its shareholders previously gave directors discretion to bend the rules. They have used it to cut pay in the past. Still, although the vote is not binding, it is seriously embarrassing. The turnout was decent, at about 50%, and several big fund managers were clearly furious. The payouts have already been made and probably cannot be reversed, but Shell will be in disgrace for a while. Jorma Ollila, its chairman, said he took the vote "very seriously" and promised to "reflect carefully". After GSK, a British drugs firm, had a rebellion on pay in 2003, it completely redrew its pay policy.
It is not just Shell that is facing unrest. Rough markets and a wider political uproar over pay have fuelled discontent across corporate Europe. Almost half of the voting shareholders at BP, another oil giant, failed to support its pay policies in April. At Rio Tinto, a mining firm with a habit of digging holes for itself, a fifth of voting shareholders rejected its remuneration policy. So far this year 15% of votes cast on pay in Britain have dissented, compared with 7% last year. In continental Europe owners are grumpy, too: in February almost a third of voting shareholders at Novartis, a Swiss drugs firm, demanded the right to approve its remuneration policy each year.
But taking bosses to task for their ever-escalating salaries is not a substitute for keen oversight of performance and strategy. At Royal Bank of Scotland, which had to be rescued by taxpayers last year, 90% of voting shareholders rejected its pay policies last month. Yet back in August 2007, 95% of them ticked the box in support of the acquisition of ABN AMRO, the deal that brought the bank to its knees.
What can we infer from "most firms' annual general meetings (AGMs) owe more to North Korea than ancient Greece" in the first paragraph?
A.In the AGM there are some Greek traditions to be followed.
B.In the AGM, most of the time investors will vote in favour of the company's proposals without proposing any objections.
C.AGM was first created by North Korea and then accepted by European countries.
D.In the AGM it is always the case that any proposal will encounter severe debate, as Greeks are in strong favour of rhetoric.
A. I am awfully sorry,
B. Not at all.
C. It's my pleasure.
D. No, of course not.
E. Coffee, please.
F. You don't look well.
G. But he panned to.
H. Take it easy.
56. Tony: OK. Tom. Thank you very much for your invitation.
Tom:______.
Online distance learning (网上远程教育) is an instructional system which connects learners with educational resources. Students work on their own at home, at work, or at school and communicate with faculty and other students by means of e-mail, electronic meetings, videoconferencing, chat rooms, instant messaging and other forms of computer-based communication. There are both advantages and disadvantages to online distance learning.
There are many benefits to using online distance learning environments. Online education is available all the time, anywhere and to all people. However, there are weaknesses for some learners. The online learner only has the written text and no other face-to-face hints. This may confuse the learner and cause misunderstanding. While distance learning allows for an openness, it is also difficult because it is done by e-mail messages and writing, and therefore may take more time than face-to-face learning. Sometimes the messages can be overwhelming for many online students.
Universities, colleges and schools use online distance learning environments. These are important for students who may be unable to attend classes for various reasons like illnesses or busy everyday schedules. Some learners just want to further their studies at home. They enjoy the convenience of home learning as they take regular programs or enrichment classes.
Online courses keep learner very occupied at all hours of the day. There are a great many messages and other online resources to read .and respond to. Most learners have regular jobs or attend regular school classes on ground as well. However, the benefits are clear. Online distance learning is becoming very popular. Some online classes have become a profitable business as they replace regular traditional means of learning.
Which of the following is TRUE of the passage about online distance learning?
A.It has more disadvantages than advantages.
B.It is a learning form. based on internet.
C.It is not available for some students.
D.It has only enrichment classes.
Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas, their transference across frontiers, and their simultaneous impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with students or with colleagues. One presumes that only eccentrics have no interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect.
In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become even in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge.
Apart from the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centers of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students.
In addition one must recognize the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other countries.
Frequently these specializations lay in areas where very rapid developments are taking place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware of what is happening in different centers of research and to meet each other in conferences and symposia(座谈会). From these meetings come the personal relationships which are at the bottom of almost all formalized schemes of cooperation, and provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus.
According to the passage, scholars and students are great travelers because ______.
A.salaries and conditions are better abroad
B.standards are higher at foreign universities
C.they are eager for new knowledge
D.their governments encourage them to travel
MICE represents the combination of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions(MICE) ()
Who should pay for the expenses of the meetings and why?______
A.Council members should because they spend all the money
B.The company should because it will profit from them
C.Customers should because they reap the profit in the end
D.The organizers should because it is their responsibility
Part A
Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)
Scholars and students have always been great travellers. The official case for "academic mobility" is now often stated in impressive terms as a fundamental necessity for economic and social progress in the world, and debated in the corridors of Europe, but it is certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready to go abroad in search of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous academies; in search of the purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the likeliest road to gold.
Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas, their transference across frontiers, their simultaneous impact upon many groups of people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with students or with colleagues; one presumes that only eccentrics have no interest in being credited with a startling discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone, confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect.
In the twentieth century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the wandering scholars have become vast highways. The vehicle which has made this possible has of course been the aeroplane, making contact between scholars even in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very rapid transmission of knowledge.
Apart from the vehicle itself, it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and require no further mention: there are far more centres of learning, and a far greater number of scholars and students.
In addition one must recognise the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced studies has produced an enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined. These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch with similar isolated groups in other countries.
Frequently these specializations lie in areas where very rapid developments are taking place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware of what is happening in different centres of research and to meet each other in conferences and symposia. From these meetings come the personal relationships which are at the bottom of almost all formalized schemes of cooperation, and provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus.
But as the specialisations have increased in number and narrowed in range, there had been an opposite movement towards interdisciplinary studies. These owe much to the belief that one cannot properly investigate the incredibly complex problems thrown up by the modern world, and by recent advances in our knowledge along the narrow front of a single discipline. This trend has led to a great deal of academic contact between disciplines, and a far greater emphasis on the pooling of specialist knowledge, reflected in the broad subjects chosen in many international conferences.
According to the passage, scholars and students are great travellers because______.
A.standards are higher at foreign universities
B.their governments encourage them to travel
C.salaries and conditions are better abroad
D.they are eager for new knowledge
A.friendships formed by scholars at meetings
B.articles in learned journals
C.the work of international agencies
D.programs initiated by governments