Somepsychologistsarguethatthetraditional
Whydoestheauthorattachsomuchimportanceto
PromptnessisimportantinAmericanbusiness,
Promptness is important inAmerican business, academic, and social settings. The{{U}} (56) {{/U}}of punctuality is taught to young children at school. Today slips and the use of bells signal to the child that{{U}} (57) {{/U}}and time itself are to be respecteD、 People who keep{{U}} (58) {{/U}}are considered dependable. If people are late for job interviews, appointments, or classes, they are often{{U}} (59) {{/U}}unreliable and irresponsible. In the business setting, "time is money" and companies may{{U}} (60) {{/U}}their executive for tardiness to business meetings. Of course, it is not always possible to be punctual. Social and business etiquette also provides rules for{{U}} (61) {{/U}}arrivals.Calling{{U}} (62) {{/U}}the telephone if one is going to be more than a few minutes late for{{U}} (63) {{/U}}appointments is{{U}} (64) {{/U}}polite and is often expecteD、Keeping a friend waiting{{U}} (65) {{/U}}ten to twenty minutes is considered rude. Respecting deadlines is also important in academic and professional{{U}} (66) {{/U}}. Students who{{U}} (67) {{/U}}assignments late may be surprised to find that the professor will{{U}} (68) {{/U}}their grade or even refuse to{{U}} (69) {{/U}}their work. {{U}} (70) {{/U}}it is a question of arriving on time or of meeting a deadline, people are culturally expected to stick to the schedule time. |
单项选择
{{B}}Outline:{{/B}}1.Thefirstingrediento
{{B}}PassageOne{{/B}}Afewyearsago,whenen
A、few years ago, when environmentalists in Washington State began agitating to rid local dumps of toxic old computers and televisions, they found an unexpected ally: Hewlett-PackardCo. Teaming up with greens and retailers, hp took on IBM,AppleComputer, and several major TV manufacturers, which were resisting recycling programs because of the costs. Aided by hp’s energetic lobbying, the greens persuaded state lawmakers to adopt a landmark program that forces electronics companies to foot the bill for recycling their old equipment. "This bill puts our market-based economy to work for the environment," said Washington GovernorChristine O. Gregoire as she signed the plan into law on Mar 24. The movement to recycle electronic refuse, or "e-waste," is spreading across the nation, and so is hp’s clout. The company helped the greens win a big battle in Maine, In 2004 when the state passed the nation’s first e-waste "take-back" law. Washington followed suit. Now, Minnesota and New Jersey are preparing to act, and 19 other states are weighing legislation.Activists hope to banish high-tech junk from landfills and scrub the nation’s air and water of lead, chromium, mercury, and other toxins prevalent in digital debris, hp’s efforts have made it the darling of environmentalists. They say take-back laws are more effective at getting digital junk recycled than point-of-sale fees, which tax consumer electronics products to fund state-run recycling programs. They’re also pleased because effective programs in the U. S. reduce the likelihood that the products will be shipped to less developed countries and disassembled under unsafe conditions. But hp’s agenda isn’t entirely altruistiC、Take-back laws play to the company’s strategic strengths. For decades the computer maker has invested in recycling infrastructure, a move that has lowered its production costs, given it a leg up in the secondary market for equipment, and allowed it to build a customer service out of "asset management," which includes protection of dam that might remain on discarded gear. In 2005, hp recycled more than 70 000 tons of product, the equivalent of about 10% of company sales and a 15% increase from the year before.And it collected more than 2.5 million units (in excess of 25 000 tons) of hardware to be refurbished for resale or donation. No other electronics maker has a resale business on this scale.But the others may soon wish to emulate hp. "We see legislation coming," saysDavid Lear, hp’s vice-president for corporate, social, and environmental responsibility. "A、lot of companies haven’t stepped up to the plate.... If we do this right, it becomes an advantage to us." |
AtriptotheAntarcticisreasonablysafeifyou
Iwas(sointerestedin)thevideothatI(watche
Thefunofplayingthegamewasagreaterincenti
A:Haveyouheardthatallflightshavebeencanc
Thejudgeremainedsoberdespitethelawyer'sl
Anewwaterboilerwasinstalledinourbuilding
编者按语的功能主要有哪些?
Thecolorsintheseartificialflowersareguar
BenMickle,MattEdwards,andKshipraBhawalka
Oneofthemostwidelydiscussedsubjectsthese
One of the most widely discussed subjects these days is energy crisis.Automobile drivers cannot get gasoline; homeowners may not get enough heating oil; factories are {{U}} (56) {{/U}} by a fuel shortage. The crisis has {{U}} (57) {{/U}} questions about the large oil companies and windfall {{U}} (58) {{/U}} .Critics of the oil industry charge that the major companies are getting richer because of the oil shortage. Shortage, of course, drives prices up.As oil prices rise, the critics say, the oil companies will make more money (windfall profits) without doing a thing to {{U}} (59) {{/U}} the extra cash. "Windfall" profits are sudden unearned profits-profits made {{U}} (60) {{/U}} luck, or some special turn of events. The word itself tells what "windfall" means-- something blown down by the wind, such as trees, or fruit {{U}} (61) {{/U}} from trees.But the word has taken on a special meaning. This meaning (getting something unearned) was first used in medievalEnglanD、 This is {{U}} (62) {{/U}} it started: at that time much of the land was in the hands of {{U}} (63) {{/U}} barons. The rest of the people, commoners, lived and worked on their vast estates. They planted the seed, cared for the farm animals and harvested the crops. Not all the land, however, was used for farming.Every baron kept a large private forest for {{U}} (64) {{/U}} deer and wild bear. When hungry, the people sometimes would kill the animals in the lord’s forest for fooD、And there were times {{U}} (65) {{/U}} they might cut down trees for fuel. So, strong laws were passed to protect the forests, and the animals. Violations were severely {{U}} (66) {{/U}}. But there was one way people could get wood from the forest. If they found trees blown down by the wind ("windfall") they were free to take them for use as fuel in their homes.And that is the meaning that has come down to us-something good gotten by luck or {{U}} (67) {{/U}}. The common people of oldEngland, often hungry and cold, must often have prayed for a good strong winD、Critics today {{U}} (68) {{/U}} that the oil industry has also been praying for something just like it -some political or military {{U}} (69) {{/U}} that might produce a windfall-- a rise in oil prices and profits. The oil companies deny that this is so. InCongress, critics of the oil companies have proposed a {{U}} (70) {{/U}} on such profits. The debate on rising oil price will go on for some time, and most likely we will hear more and more about windfall profits. |
Inflationisaperiodofrapidrisesinprices.W
Inflation is a period of rapid rises in prices. When your money buys fewer goods so that you get{{U}} (56) {{/U}}for the same amount of money as before, inflation is the problem. Sometimes people describe inflation as a time when "a dollar is not{{U}} (57) {{/U}}a dollar anymore". Inflation is a problem for all consumers, especially people who live on a fixed income. Retired people, for instance, cannot{{U}} (58) {{/U}}on an increase in income as prices rise. They face serious problems in stretching their incomes to{{U}} (59) {{/U}}their needs in time of inflation. Many retired people must cut their spending to{{U}} (60) {{/U}}rising prices. In many cases they must stop{{U}} (61) {{/U}}some necessary items, such as food and clothing.Even{{U}} (62) {{/U}}working people whose incomes are going up, inflation can also be a problem. The{{U}} (63) {{/U}}of living goes up, and they must have even more money to maintain their standard of living. When incomes do not keep{{U}} (64) {{/U}}with rising prices, living standard goes down. People may be earning the same amount of money, but they are not living{{U}} (65) {{/U}}because they are not able to buy as many goods and services. Government units gather information about prices in our economy and publish it as price indexes{{U}} (66) {{/U}}the rate of price change can be determineD、A、price index measures changes in prices using the price for a{{U}} (67) {{/U}}year as the base. The base price is set{{U}} (68) {{/U}}100, and the other prices are reported as a{{U}} (69) {{/U}}of the base price.A、price index makes{{U}} (70) {{/U}}possible to compare current price with that in previous years. |
{{B}}PassageOne{{/B}}It’saclassicmystery
It’s a classic mystery of the deep. Why does the hammerhead shark (双髻鲨)have the bizarrely shaped head from which it gets its name There have been a variety of suggested explanations. Some simply say that the sharks use their heads to "hammer" and pin down their favourite fooD、More plausibly, others have speculated that the wide lobes(圆形突出部分)of the hammerhead allow it to have longer electrorecep-tots, the organs that all sharks use to detect the electric fields produced by nearby prey. This might allow hammerheads to sense subtler electric fields from more distant prey than their narrow-headed cousins. Now it turns out that the shark’s head does indeed help it find and capture prey, but not in the way that zoologists expecteD、Stephen Kajlura and Kim Holland of the University of Hawaii at Manoa set out to test the conventional theory by tricking young sharks into chasing phantom (虚构的)prey. Using a system of wires on the bottom of a shallow pool, they set up electric fields that mimicked those created by the bottom-dwelling shrimp and fish that form the sharks’ usual diet. Sure enough, hungry sharks abruptly turned towards an electric field when they detected it.But when the researchers measured the distance at which this happened they found it was the same for 13 young hammerheads as it was for 12 young sandbar sharks(沙堤鲨),which have normal-shaped heads. The two types of sharks proved equally adept at sensing the electric fields: each was able to detect the source from up to 30 centimetres away. That ruled out any improved sensitivity from the wider heaD、However, the hammerheads enjoy another more prosaic(平淡无奇的)advantage: their wider heads let them sweep more than twice as wide a swathe of the seafloor as they swim, which must boost their chance of encountering fooD、 The researchers also found that hammerheads could turn more sharply when they detected the phantom prey. "They’re a much more bendy shark , "says Kajlura, who is now at the University ofCalifornia at Irvine. In part, that’s because they have more slender bodies than the sandbar sharks. However, Kajiura has other unpublished data that suggests that the hammerheads’ broad heads can act as fins to improve manoeuvrability(机动性). So far, the researchers have only experimented with young sharks, so adult hammerheads may gain some other advantage from their head shape. |
边界层外的流动是有旋流动。
{{B}}PassageTwo{{/B}}ManyAmericansharbor
ManyAmericans harbor a grossly distorted and exaggerated view of most of the risks surrounding fooD、FergusClydesdale, head of the department of food science and nutrition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says bluntly that if the dangers from bacterially contaminated chicken were as great as some people believe, "the streets would be littered with people lying here and there." Though the public increasingly demands no-risk food, there is no such thing.BruceAmes, chairman of the biochemistry department at the University ofCalifornia,Berkeley, points out that up to 10% of a plant’s weight is made up of natural pesticide (杀虫剂). Says he, "Since plants do not have jaws or teeth to protect themselves, they employ chemical warfare."And many naturally produced chemicals, though occurring in tiny amounts, prove in laboratory tests to be strong carcinogens—a substance that can cause cancer. Mushrooms (蘑菇) might be banned if they were judged by the same standards that apply to food additives (添加剂).DeclaresChristina Stark, a nutritionist atCornell University: "We’ve got far worse natural chemicals in the food supply than anything man-made. Yet the issues are not that simple. WhileAmericans have no reason to be terrified to sit down at the dinner table, they have every reason to demand significant improvements in food and water safety. They unconsciously and unwillingly take in too much of too many dangerous chemicals. If food already contains natural carcinogens, it does not make much sense to add dozens of new man-made ones. Though most people will withstand the small amounts of contaminants generally found in food and water, at least a few individuals will probably get cancer one day because of what they eat and drink. To make good food and water supplies even better, the Government needs to tighten its regulatory standards, stiffen its inspection program and strengthen its enforcement policies. The food industry should modify some long-accepted practices or turn to less hazardous alternatives. Perhaps most important, consumers will have to do a better job of learning how to select and cook food properly. The problems that need to be tackled exist all along the food-supply chain, from fields to processing plants to kitchens. |