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When you leave a job with a traditional pension, don't assume you've lost the chance to collect it. You're entitled to whatever benefit you've earned——and you might even be entitled to take it now. “A lot of people forget they have it, or they think that by waiting until they're 65, they'll have a bigger benefit,” says Wayne Bogosian, president of the PFE Group, which provides corporate pre-retirement education.Your former employers should send you a certificate that says how much your pension is worth. If it's less than $ 5,000, or if the company offers a lump-sum payout, it will generally close your account and cash you out. It may not seem like much, but $5,000 invested over 20 years at eight percent interest is $23,000. If your pension is worth more than $ 5,000, or your company doesn't offer the lump-sum option, find out how much money you're eligible for at the plan's normal retirement age, the earlier age at which you can collect the pension, the more severe penalty for collecting it early. You'll probably still come out ahead by taking the money now and investing it.What if you left a job years ago, and you're realizing you may have unwittingly left behind a pension? Get help from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. It has an online search tool that has helped locate $47 million in lost benefits for more than 12,000 workers.If you have a traditional pension, retiring early costs more than you might expect. Most people assume you take a proportional cut for leaving before your plan's normal retirement age. For example, you might think that if you need to accrue 30 years of service and you leave three years early, you'd get a pension 90 percent of the full amount.But that's not how it works. Instead, you take an actuarial reduction, determined by the employer but often around five percent a year, for each year you leave early. So retiring three years early could leave you with only 85 percent of the total amount.When you retire early with a defined-contribution plan, the problem is you start spending investments on which you could be earning interest. If you retire when you're 55, for example, and start using the traditional pension then, by age 65 you'll have only about half of what you would have had if you'd kept working until 65.1. When one leaves a job with a traditional pension, ()2. If one leaves early before his plan's normal retirement age,()3. If one retires early with a defined-contribution plan, he is expected to()4.Which of the following can be used as the subtitle for the last three paragraphs?5.Which of the following is NOT true?

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Cultural norms so completely surround people, so permeate thought and action, that we never recognize the assumptions on which their lives and their sanity rest. As one observer put it, if birds were suddenly endowed with scientific curiosity they might examine many things, but the sky itself would be overlooked as a suitable subject; if fish were to become curious about the world, it would never occur to them to begin by investigating water. For birds and fish would take the sky and sea for granted, unaware of their profound influence because they comprise the medium for every fact. Human beings, in a similarly way, occupy a symbolic universe governed by codes that are unconsciously acquired and automatically employed. So much so that they rarely notice that the ways they interpret and talk about events are distinctively different from the ways people conduct their affairs in other cultures.As long as people remain blind to the sources of their meanings, they are imprisoned within them. These cultural frames of reference are no less confining simply because they cannot be seen or touched. Whether it is an individual neurosis that keeps an individual out of contact with his neighbors, or a collective neurosis that separates neighbors of different cultures, both are forms of blindness that limit what can be experienced and what can be learned from others.It would seem that everywhere people would desire to break out of the boundaries of their own experiential worlds. Their ability to react sensitively to a wider spectrum of events and peoples requires an overcoming of such cultural parochialism. But, in fact, few attain this broader vision. Some, of course, have little opportunity for wider cultural experience, though this condition should change as the movement of people accelerates. Others do not try to widen their experience because they prefer the old and familiar, seek from their affairs only further confirmation of the correctness of their own values. Still others recoil from such experiences because they feel it dangerous to probe too deeply into the personal or cultural unconscious. Exposure may reveal how tenuous and arbitrary many cultural norms are; such exposure might force people to acquire new bases for interpreting events. And even for the many who do seek actively to enlarge the variety of human beings with whom they are capable of communicating there are still difficulties.Cultural myopia persists not merely because of inertia and habit, but chiefly because it is so difficult to overcome. One acquires a personality and a culture in childhood, long before he is capable of comprehending either of them. To survive, each person masters the perceptual orientations, cognitive biases, and communicative habits of his own culture. But once mastered, objective assessment of these same processes is awkward since the same mechanisms that are being evaluated must be used in making the evaluations.1.The examples of birds and fish are used to ()2. The term "parochialism" (Line 3, Para. 3) most possibly means ()3. It can be inferred from the last two paragraphs that ()4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?5. The passage might be entitled “()''

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Extraordinary creative activity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation, highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle of organization. However, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits is misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though it may be valid for the sciences. Differences between highly creative art and highly creative science arise in part from differences in their goals. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new propositions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. Such phenomena as a brilliant diamond or a nesting bird are relegated to the role of data, serving as the means for formulating or testing a new theory. The goal of highly creative art is very different: the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shakespeare's Hamlet is not a tract about the behavior of indecisive princes or the uses of political power, nor is Picasso's painting Guernica primarily a propositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established limits, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particulars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.This is not to deny that a highly creative artist sometimes establishes a new principle of organization in the history of an artistic field: the composer Monteverdi, who created music of the highest aesthetic value, comes to mind. More generally, however, whether or not a composition establishes a new principle in the history of music has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is surely among the masterpieces of music even though its modest innovations are confined to extending existing means. It has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention. But a close study of his compositions reveals that Beethoven overturned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incomparable strategist who exploited limits--the rules, forms, and conventions that he inherited from predecessors such as Haydn and Mozart, Handel and Bach--in strikingly original ways.1.The author considers a new theory that coherently relates diverse phenomena to one another to be the()2.The passage supplies information for answering all of the following questions EXCEPT:()3.The author regards the idea that all highly creative artistic activity transcends limits with()4.The author implies that an innovative scientific contribution is one that()5. Which of the following statements would most logically conclude the last paragraph of the passage?

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A “scientific” view of language was dominant among philosophers and linguists who affected to develop a scientific analysis of human thought and behavior in the early part of this century. Under the force of this view, it was perhaps inevitable that the art of rhetoric should pass from the status of being regarded as of questionable worth (because although it might be both a source of pleasure and a means to urge people to right action, it might also be a means to distort truth and a source of misguided action) to the status of being wholly condemned. If people are regarded only as machines guided by logic, as they were by these “scientific” thinkers, rhetoric is likely to be held in low regard; for the most obvious truth about rhetoric is that it speaks to the whole person. It presents its arguments first to the person as a rational being, because persuasive discourse, if honestly conceived, always has a basis in reasoning. Logical argument is the plot, as it were, of any speech or essay that is respectfully intended to persuade people. Yet it is a characterizing feature of rhetoric that it goes beyond this and appeals to the parts of our nature that are involved in feeling, desiring, acting, and suffering. It recalls relevant instances of the emotional reactions of people to circumstances—real or fictional—that are similar to our own circumstances. Such is the purpose of both historical accounts and fables in persuasive discourse: they indicate literally or symbolically how people may react emotionally, with hope or fear, to particular circumstances. A speech attempting to persuade people can achieve little unless it takes into account the aspect of their being related to such hopes and fears.Rhetoric, then, is addressed to human beings living at particular times and in particular places. From the point of view of rhetoric, we are not merely logical thinking machines, creatures abstracted from time and space. The study of rhetoric should therefore be considered the most humanistic of the humanities, since rhetoric is not directed only to our rational selves. It takes into account what the “scientific” view leaves out. If it is a weakness to harbor feelings, then rhetoric may be thought of as dealing in weakness. But those who reject the idea of rhetoric because they believe it deals in lies and who at the same time hope to move people to action, must either be liars themselves or be very naive;pure logic has never been a motivating force unless it has been subordinated to human purposes, feelings, and desires, and thereby ceased to be pure logic.1.According to the passage, to reject rhetoric and still hope to persuade people is()2.It can be inferred from the passage that in the late nineteenth century rhetoric was regarded as()3.The passage suggests that a speech that attempts to persuade people to act is likely to fail if it does NOT()4.Which of the following persuasive devices is NOT used in the passage?5.Which of the following best states the author's main point about logical argument?

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Imagine eating everything delicious you want with none of the fat. That would be great, wouldn't it?New “fake fat” products appeared on store shelves in the United States recently, but not everyone is happy about it. Makers of the products, which contain a compound called olestra, say food manufacturers can now eliminate fat from certain foods, Critics, however, say that the new compound can rob the body of essential vitamins and nutrients and can also cause unpleasant side effects in some people. So it is up to consumers to decide whether the new fat-free products taste good enough to keep eating.Chemists discovered olestra in the late 1960s, when they were searching for a fat that could be digested by infants more easily. Instead of finding the desired fat, the researchers created a fat that can't be digested at all.Normally, special chemicals in the intestines “grab” molecules of regular fat and break them down so they can be used by the body. A molecule of regular fat is made up of three molecules of substances called fatty acids.The fatty acids are absorbed by the intestines and bring with them the essential vitamins A, D, E and K. When fat molecules are present in the intestines with any of those vitamins, the vitamins attach to the molecules and are carried into the bloodstream.Olestra, which is made from six to eight molecules of fatty acids, is too large for the intestines to absorb. It just slides through the intestines without being broken down. Manufacturers say it's that ability to slide unchanged through the intestines that makes olestra so valuable as a fat substitute. It provides consumers with the taste of regular fat without any bad effects on the body. But critics say olestra can prevent vitamins A, D, E, and K from being absorbed. It can also prevent the absorption of carotenoids, compounds that may reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, etc.Manufacturers are adding vitamins A, D, E and K as well as carotenoids to their products now. Even so, some nutritionists are still concerned that people might eat unlimited amounts of food made with the fat substitute without worrying about how many calories they are consuming.1.We learn from the passage that olestra is a substance that()2.The result of the search for an easily digestible fat turned out to be ()3.Olestra is different from ordinary fats in that ?4.What is a possible effect of olestra according to some critics?5.Why are nutritionists concerned about adding vitamins to olestra?

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In 1900 the United States had only three cities with more than a million residents-New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. By 1930, it had ten giant metropolises. The newer ones experienced remarkable growth, which reflected basic changes in the economy.Line The population of Los Angeles (114,000 in 1900) rose spectacularly in the early decades of the twentieth century, increasing a dramatic 1,400 percent from 1900 to 1930. A number of circumstances contributed to the meteoric rise of Los Angeles. The agricultural potential of the area was enormous if water for irrigation could be found, and the city founders had the vision and dating to obtain it by constructing a 225-mile aqueduct, completed in 1913, to tap the water of the Owens River. The city had a superb natural harbor, as well as excellent rail connections. The climate made it possible to shoot motion pictures year-round; hence Hollywood. Hollywood not only supplied jobs; it disseminated an image of the good life in Southern California on screens all across the nation. The most important single industry powering the growth of Los Angeles, however, was directly linked to the automobile. The demand for petroleum to fuel gasoline engines led to the opening of the Southern California oil fields, and made Los Angeles North America's greatest refining center.Los Angeles was a product of the auto age in another sense as well: its distinctive spatial organization depended on widespread private ownership of automobiles. Los Angeles was a decentralized metropolis, sprawling across the desert landscape over an area of 400 square miles. It was a city without a real center. The downtown business district did not grow apace with the city as a whole, and the rapid transit system designed to link the center with outlying areas withered away from disuse. Approximately 800,000 cars were registered in Los Angeles County in 1930, one per 2.7 residents. Some visitors from the east coast were dismayed at the endless urban sprawl and dismissed Los Angeles as a mere collection of suburbs in search of a city. But the freedom and mobility of a city built on wheels attracted floods of migrants to the city.1.What is the passage mainly about?2.The author characterizes the growth of new large cities in the United States after 1900 as resulting primarily from()3.The word "meteoric" in line 6 is closest in meaning to()4.According to the passage, the most important factor in the development of agriculture around Los Angeles was the()5.The visitors from the east coast mentioned in the passage thought that Los Angeles()

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Fishing and RightsAcidification, warming, the destruction of coral reefs: the biggest problems facing the sea are as vast, deep and seemingly intractable as the oceans themselves. So long as the world fails to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases, cause of the global warming behind these troubles, they will grow. By comparison, overfishing, another great cause, should be easier to put right, especially in the coastal waters where most fishing occurs. And yet it goes on, year after year.Fishermen have every reason to do something. Many fisheries are hurtling towards collapse ; stocks of large fish have been reduced by up to 90% . When stocks are overfished, they yield a smaller catch. The cost of mismanagement, in lost economic output, is huge: some $ 50 billion a year, according to the World Bank.One reason why the pillage continues is that knowledge of fish stocks is poor, especially in developing countries. A new statistical attempt at estimating the remaining shoals, from University of California, Santa Barbara, is therefore welcome— even if that is not true of its findings that stocks are even more ravaged than previously thought. The study found that better understood fisheries are likelier to be healthy. Another reason for overfishing is new technology ( developed, aptly enough, forbattlefields), which makes shoals easier to detect. As large boats and refrigeration have spread, fishing fleets have covered greater distances and hovered up larger catches. Because technology lets fishermen fish with less effort, it disguises just how fast the stocks are depleting.Fishermen generally understand the risks of overfishing. Yet still they flout quotas, where they exist. That is often because they take a short-term view of the asset—they would rather cash in now and invest the money in something else. And it is invariably compounded by a commons-despoiling feeing that if they don't plunder, others will.In most fisheries, the fishermen would make more money by husbanding their resource, and it should be possible to incentivize them to do so. The best way is to give them a defined, long-term right to a share of the fish. In regulated industrial fisheries, as in Iceland, New Zealand and America, this has taken the form of a tradable, individual share of a fishing quota. Developing countries, where law enforcement is weak, seem to do better when a group right over an expanse of water is given to a cooperative or village fleet. The principle is the same: fishermen who feel like owners are more likely to behave as responsible stewards. The new statistical study confirms that rights-based fisheries are generally healthier.Yet only a few hundred of the ocean's thousands of fisheries are run this way, mainly because such schemes are hard to get right. Limiting access to a common resource creates losers, and therefore discord. Cultural differences affect success rates ; not everyone is as law-abiding as Icelanders. Almost everywhere it takes time to convince fishermen, the last hunter-gatherers, to change their habits. But, barnacled by caveats though it may be, the rights-based approach is the best available.In rich countries, satellite imagery will increasingly help, by making monitoring cheaper and better. In many poor ones, devolution is making it easier to form local organizations. Another promising idea is to incorporate rights-based fisheries with no-catch zones. These safeguard breeding-stocks and are easier to monitor than individual catches. Where stocks are recovering, as a result of these reforms, fishermen are likelier to see scientifically determined quotas as in their self-interest. In the end, that may be the only hope.

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By 1776 the fine art of painting as it had developed in western Europe up to this time had been introduced into the American colonies through books and prints, European visitors and immigrants, and traveling colonists who brought back copies ( and a few original) of old master paintings and acquaintance with European art institutions.By the outbreak of the Revolution against British rule in 1776, the status of the artists had already undergone change. In the mid-eighteenth century, painters had been willing to assume such artisan-related tasks as varnishing, gilding teaching, keeping artists were described at the time suggests their status: "limner" was usually applied to the anonymous portrait painter up to the 1760's: "painter" characterized anyone who could paint a flat surface. By the second half of the century, colonial artists who were trained in England or educated in the classics rejected the status of laborer and thought of themselves as artists. Some colonial urban portraitists, such as John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, and Charles Wilson Peale, consorted with affluent patrons. Although subject to fluctuations in their economic status, all three enjoyed sufficient patronage to allow them to maintain an image of themselves as professional artists, an image indicated by their custom of signing their paintings. A few art collectors James Bowdoin III of Boston, William Byrd of Virginian, and the Aliens and Hamiltons of Philadelphia introduced European art traditions to those colonists privileged to visit their galleries, especially aspiring artists, and established in their respective communities the idea of the value of art and the need for institutions devoted to its encouragement.Although the colonists tended to favor portraits, they also accepted landscapes, historical works, and political engravings as appropriate artistic subjects. With the coming of independence from the British Crown, a sufficient number of artists and their works were available to serve nationalistic purposes. The achievements of the colonial artists, particularly those of Copley, West, and Peale, lent credence to the boast that the new nation was capable of encouraging genius and that political liberty was congenial to the development of taste — a necessary step before art could assume an important role in the new republic.1.What does the passage mainly discuss?2. According to the passage, before the American Revolution the main task of limners was to()3.It can be inferred from the passage that artists who were trained in England()4.According to the passage, artists such as Copley, West and Peale signed their paintings because this()5. The author mentions James Bowdoin III and William Byrd in Paragraph 2 as examples of which of the following?6.With which of the following would the author be most likely to agree?

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Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, citizens of the United States maintained a bias against big cities. Most lived on farms and in small towns and believed cities to be centers of corruption, crime, poverty, and moral degradation. Their distrust was caused, in part, by a national ideology they proclaimed fanning the greatest occupation and rural living superior to urban living. This attitude prevailed even as the number of urban dwellers increased and cities became an essential feature of the national landscape. Gradually, economic reality overcame ideology. Thousands abandoned the precarious life on the farm for more secure and better paying jobs in the city. But when these people migrated from the countryside, they carried their fears and suspicious with them. These new urbanities, already convinced that cities were overwhelmed with great problems, eagerly embrace the progressive reforms that promised to bring order out of the chaos of the city.One of many reforms came in the area of public utilities. Water and sewerage systems were usually operated by municipal governments, but the gas and electric networks were privately owned. Reformers feared that the privately owned utility companies would charge exorbitant rates for these essential services and deliver them only to people who could afford them. Some city and state governments responded by regulating the utility companies, but a number of cities began to supply these services themselves. Proponents of these reforms argued that public ownership and regulation would insure widespread access to these utilities and guarantee a fair price.While some reforms focused on government and public behavior, others looked at the cities as a whole. Civic leaders, convinced that physical environment influenced human behavior, argued that cities should develop master plans to guide their future growth and development. City planning was nothing new, but the rapid industrialization and urban growth of the late nineteenth century took place without any consideration for order. Urban renewal in the twentieth century followed several courses. Some cites introduced plans to completely rebuild the city core. Most other cities contented themselves with zoning plans for regulating future growth. Certain parts of town were restricted to residential use, while others were set aide for industrial or commercial development.1.What does the passage mainly discuss?2. The first paragraph suggests that most people who lived in rural areas()3. In the early twentieth century, many rural dwellers migrated to the city in order to ()4. What concern did reformers have about privately owned utility companies?5.All of the following were the direct result of public utility reforms EXCEPT ()6. Why does the author mention "industrialization" in Paragraph 3?

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Famed for their high-elevation forests, the Appalachian Mountains sweep south from Quebec to Alabama. Highest in New England and North Carolina, this broad system covers more than 1, 200 miles to form the rocky backbone of the eastern United States.The Blue Ridge Mountains form a substantial part, 615 miles, of the far-reaching Appalachians. They begin as a narrow, low ridge in Pennsylvania, then slowly spread and rise until they reach the height of 5, 938 feet at majestic Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. The Blue Ridge technically includes among its major spurs the Great Smoky Mountains and the Black Mountains ; Mount Mitchell, in the latter range, is at 6, 684 feet the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. Like the rest of the Appalachians, these mountains were once substantially higher and bolder. Their uplift was completed some 289 million years ago, and they have been drastically eroded ever since. At one time, immense continental glaciers covered the land as far south as Pennsylvania. Although they did not spread over the Blue Ridge, plants and animals far beyond their reach became adapted to the cold. When the climate warmed and the ice melted, the cold-adapted species retreated northward, surviving in the south only at higher, cooler elevations.Red Spruces and Fraser firs are remnants of the Ice Age, thriving in the higher elevations of the Blue Ridge; and local belches, birches, and red oaks are typical of forests farther to the north. Sharing the high peaks is another distinctive plant community. This is the "bald" 一 a treeless area covered with grass, or more commonly, with broad-leaved shrubs. Often large and vigorous, the latter include huckleberries, mountain laurel, and most especially, rhododendron, an evergreen shrub that blossoms in June and creates some of the most spectacular wild gardens on Earth.1.The southernmost point of the Appalachian Mountains is in ()2. The expression "the latter range" in paragraph two refers to ()3. According to the passage, the melting of glaciers caused some plant species to()4.The author mentions all of the following as plants that can be found in a "bald" EXCEPT ()5.Where in the passage does the author mention what has happened to the development of the mountains since they reached their highest point?6. According to the passage, a 615-mile expanse of the Appalachians is known as()

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In a perfectly free and open market economy, the type of employer — government or private — school have little or no impact on the earnings differentials between women and men. However, if there is discrimination against one sex, it is unlikely that the degree of discrimination by government and private employers will be the same. Differences in the degree of discrimination would result in earnings differentials associated with the type of employer. Given the nature of government and private employers, it seems most likely that discrimination by private employers would be greater. Thus, one would expect that, if women are being discriminated against, government employment would have a positive effect on women's earnings as compared with their earnings from private employment. The results of a study by Fuchs support this assumption. Fuchs,results suggest that the earnings of women in an industry composed entirely of government employers would be 14. 6 percent employers, other things being equal.In addition, both Fuchs and Sanborn have suggested that the effect of discrimination by consumers on the earnings of self-employed women may be greater than the effect of either government or private employer discrimination on the earnings of women employees. To test this hypothesis, Brown selected a large sample of White male and female workers from the 1970 Census and divided them into three categories: private employees, government employees, and self-employed. ( Black workers were excluded from the sample to avoid picking up earning differentials that were the result of racial disparities.) Brown's research design controlled for education, labor force participation, mobility, motivations, and age in order to eliminate these factors as explanations of the study's results. Brown's results suggest that men and women are not treated the same by employers and consumers. For men, self-employment is the highest earnings category, with private employment next, and government lowest. For women, this order is reversed.One can infer from Brown's results that consumer discriminate against self-employed women. In addition, self-employed women may have more difficulty than men in getting good employees and may encounter discrimination from suppliers and from financial institutions.Brown's results are clearly consistent with Fuchs' argument that discrimination by consumers has a greater impact on the earnings of women than does discrimination by either government or private employers. Also, the fact that women do better working for government than for private employers implies that private employers are discriminating against women. The results do not prove that government does not discriminate against women. They do, however, demonstrate that if government is discriminating against women, its discrimination is not having as much effect on women's earnings as is discrimination in the private sector.1.The passage mentions all of the following as difficulties that self-employed women may encounter except ()2.A study of the practices of financial institutions that revealed no discrimination against self-employed women would tend to contradict which of the following?3.According to Brown's study, women's earnings categories occur in which of the following orders, from highest earnings to lowest earnings?4.Which of the following questions does the passage explicitly answer?5. It can be inferred from the passage that the statements in the last paragraph are most probably ()6.Which of the following titles best describe the content of the passage as a whole?

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The legend of Paul Revere's midnight ride through the Massachusetts countryside in 1775 is known to most Americans, young and old. As the story goes, Paul Revere was a silversmith in Boston at the time of the American Revolution. When he learned that the British army planned to attack the towns and villages of Middlesex County, farmhouse and village hall, to warn the local revolutionary soldiers of the planned attack. Because of his warning (according to legend) the struggling American colonies were able to defeat the British in an important battle.One reason for the popularity of the legend may be the publicity it has received through Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's commemorative poem, Paul Revere’s Ride. Longfellow wrote the poem in 1861 and it has since then become one of the most well-known and well-loved poems in the country. The poem certainly captures the sense of danger and excitement, met with courage and ingenuity which many Americans associate with the American Revolution. It is easy to understand why the poem evokes such a large audience.However, Longfellow's poem contains a number of historical errors. According to Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere instructed a friend to watch the movement of the British troops and determine whether they marched inland or towards their boats. The friend was then to hang lanterns in the tower of the Old Church in Boston: one lantern if the British marched by land and two lanterns if they marched by sea. The expression "one if by land and two if by sea," taken from Longfellow's poem, has become very popular and is often quoted. But this idea contains two inaccuracies. First, the lanterns were hung in the tower of the Old Christ Church, not the Old North Church, which is in a completely different part of Boston and would not have been visible from Paul Revere's lookout point. Second, Longfellow confused the meaning of the number of lanterns to be hung: the actual arrangement was "two if by land and one if by sea.”Not all of Longfellow's historical mistakes are so minor. It seems as though Longfellow chose to emphasize the idea of one lone hero struggling against many opposing forces,with only his own abilities to rely on. But actually, Paul Revere was only one of three riders delegated to warn the Revolutionary soldiers about the coming attack.Some people feel that Longfellow's errors are insignificant, and that the ideals of courage and cunning are the important features of both the poem and the historical events which inspired it. But others feel that, while it probably makes little difference how many lanterns were hung from which church tower, the poem's emphasis on the solitary hero runs counter to the most valuable idea in the poem: the idea of unity and cooperation in the face of danger. Critics of the poem raise an important question: Longfellow's poem tells a famous story, and tells it powerfully — but is it the right story?1.According to the article, which of the following statements about Paul Revere is TRUE?2.Paul Revere RODE THROUGH Middlesex County because he wanted to warn the local townspeople that()3.According to the article, what is one of the factors that contribute to the popularity of the story of Paul Revere?4. According to the article, what the opponents of Longfellow's poem really mean()5. The lantern hung from the tower of Old North Church()6. The author thinks that Longfellow's poem()7. The author's attitude toward Longfellow's poem is ()

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Water is the giver and, at the same time, the taker of life. It covers most of the surface of the planet we live on and features large in the development of the human race. On present predictions, it is an cement that is set to assume even greater significance.Throughout history, water has had a huge impact on our lives. Humankind has always had a rather ambiguous relationship with water, on the one hand receiving enormous benefit from it, not just as a drinking source, but as a provider of food and a means whereby to travel and to trade. But forced to live close to water in order to survive and to develop, the relationship has not always been peaceful or beneficial. In fact, it has been quite the contrary. What has essentially been a necessity for survival was turned out in many instances to have a very destructive and life-threatening side.Through the ages, great floods alternated with long periods of drought have assaulted people and their environment, hampering their fragile fight for survival. The dramatic changes to the environment that are now a feature of our daily news are not exactly new: fields that were once lush and fertile are now barren; lakes and rivers that were once teeming with life are now long gone; savannah has been turned to desert. What perhaps is new is our native wonder when faced with the forces of nature.Today, we are more aware of climatic changes around the world. Floods in far-flung places are instant news for the whole world. Perhaps these events make us feel better as we face the destruction of our own property by floods and other natural disasters.In 2002, many parts of Europe suffered severe flood damage running into billions of euros. Properties across the continent collapsed into the sea as waves pounded the coastline wreaking havoc with sea defenses. But it was not just the seas. Rivers swollen by heavy rains and by the effects of deforestation carried large volumes of water that wrecked many communities.Building stronger and more sophisticated river defenses against flooding is the expensive short-term answer. There are simpler ways. Planting trees in highland areas, not just in Europe but in places like the Ganges Delta, is a cheaper and more attractive solution. Progress is already being made in convincing countries that the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is causing considerable damage to the environment. But more effort is needed in this direction.And the future? If we are to believe the forecasts, it is predicted that two thirds of the world population will be without fresh water by 2025. But for a growing number of regions of the world the future is already with us. While some areas are devastated by flooding, scarcity of water in many other places is causing conflict. The state of Texas in the United States of America is suffering a shortage of water with the Rio Grande failing to reach the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in 50 years in the spring of 2002, pitting region against region as they vie for water sources. With many parts of the globe running dry through drought and increased water consumption, there is now talk of water being the new oil.Other doom-laden estimates suggest that, while tropical areas will become drier and uninhabitable, coastal regions and some low-lying islands will in all probability be submerged by the sea as the polar ice caps melt. Popular exotic destinations now visited by countless tourists will become no-go areas. Today's holiday hotspots of southern Europe and elsewhere will literally become hotspots — too hot to live in or visit. With the current erratic behavior of the weather,it is difficult not to subscribe to such despair.Some might say that this despondency is ill-founded, but we have had ample proof that there is something not quite right with the climate. Many parts of the world have experienced devastating flooding. As the seasons revolve, the focus of the destruction moves from one continent to another. The impact on the environment is alarming and the cost to life depressing. It is a picture to which we will need to become accustomed.1.The writer believes that water()2.Humankind's relationship with water has been ()3.The writer suggests that()4.According to the passage, planting trees()5.By 2025, it is projected that ()6.According to the passage, in the future low-lying islands ()7. According to the writer,()

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In contrast to rock musicians, jazz players prefer to spend their time with their music and tend to measure success by that single standard, as a trombonist once put it: “A jazz musician would rather play a good concert for three people than a bad one for three thousand.” All the same, with their fellow players, jazzmen are collegiate and gregarious, exchange musical ideas in a spirit of mutual support or friendly competition, uniting in a collaborative effort to raise the level of their art. Even the greatest individuals have benefited from the talents of others.In this legendary band, Duke Ellington provided star soloists with the ideal framework for their abilities. At the same time, they inspired him with the rich material of their personal idioms and phrases, which found their way into his compositions. In fact, Ellington was so adept at recycling what he heard that one of them described him as " not a composer but a compiler".Ellington's creative gifts were genuine and vast, but for much of his life he did receive crucial assistance not only from the involvement of his band, but from an actual day-in, day-out collaborator. In 1938 he met Billy Strayhorn, a young pianist-composer who was immediately brought into the ducal fold. Strayhorn became Ellington's altered ego, contributing scores to the band but functioning even more importantly as a silent partner, completing pieces Ellington left unfinished, reworking others and acting as all-purpose composer — sometimes credited, more often not.Ellington provided Strayhorn with financial security, artistic respect and the creative medium of the Ellington band. Throughout their partnership—which lasted until Strayhorn's death in 1967—they never had a contract. Ellington simply paid all creative equal and friends, describing him as "my favorite human being", Strayhorn, a homosexual bon vivant, brilliant but self-effacing, let Ellington take both the glory and the strain of stardom, while he relieved some of the artistic pressure with a talent comparable to the leader's own.Though occasionally there was discord over the matter of official composer credit in their joint works, Ellington always publicly acknowledged his colleague's contributions, and the many Strayhorn originals in Ellington's book speak for themselves, including the band's famous theme and greatest hit, "Take the Train". Thought the young man was adept at imitating the ducal style, his own unique voice, full of subtle impressionist colors, influenced a generation of later jazz composers.1.According to the article, jazzmen()2.Which of the following statements is TRUE about Duke Ellington?3.Of the Strayhorn/Ellington relationship,the author believes()4.The author feels jazz musicians()5.It is indicated that Billy Strayhorn ()6.The title for this passage would be ()7. What is the possible meaning of the underlined word "hit" in the last paragraph?

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A simple idea underpins science: "trust, but verify" . Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better.But success can breed complacency. Modern scientists are doing too much trusting and not enough verifying—to the detriment of the whole of science, and of humanity.Too many of the findings that fill the academic ether are the result of shoddy experiments or poor analysis (see article). A rule of thumb among biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of published research cannot be replicated. Even that may be optimistic. Last year researchers at one biotech firm, Amgen, found they could reproduce just six of 53 "landmark" studies in cancer research. Earlier, a group at Bayer, a drug company, managed to repeat just a quarter of 67 similarly important papers. Aleading computer scientist frets that three-quarters of papers in his subfield are bunk. In 2000―2010 roughly 80, 000 patients took part in clinical trials based on research that was later retracted because of mistakes or improprieties.Even when flawed research does not put people's lives at risk—and much of it is too far from the market to do so—it squanders money and the efforts of some of the world's best minds. The opportunity costs of stymied progress are hard to quantify, but they are likely to be vast. And they could be rising.One reason is the competitiveness of science. In the 1950s, when modern academic research took shape after its successes in the Second World War, it was still a rarefied pastime. The entire club of scientists numbered a few hundred thousand. As their ranks have swelled, to 6m—7m active researchers on the latest reckoning, scientists have lost their taste for self-policing and quality control. The obligation to "publish or perish" has come to rule over academic life. Competition for jobs is cutthroat. Full professors in America earned on average $ 135, 000 in 2012—more than judges did. Every year six freshly minted PhDs vie for every academic post. Nowadays verification (the replication of other people's results) does little to advance a researcher's career. And without verification, dubious findings live on to mislead.Careerism also encourages exaggeration and the cherry-picking of results. In order to safeguard their exclusivity, the leading journals impose high rejection rates: in excess of 90% of submitted manuscripts. The most striking findings have the greatest chance of making it onto the page. Little wonder that one in three researchers knows of a colleague who has pepped up a paper by, say, excluding inconvenient data from results "based on a gut feeling". And as more research teams around the world work on a problem, the odds shorten that at least one will fall prey to an honest confusion between the sweet signal of a genuine discovery and a freak of the statistical noise. Such spurious correlations are often recorded in journals eager for startling papers. If they touch on drinking wine, going senile or letting children play video games, they may well command the front pages of newspapers, too.Conversely, failures to prove a hypothesis are rarely even offered for publication, let alone accepted. "Negative results" now account for only 14% of published papers, down from 30% in 1990. Yet knowing what is false is as important to science as knowing what is true. The failure to report failures means that researchers waste money and effort exploring blind alleys already investigated by other scientists.The hallowed process of peer review is not all it is cracked up to be, either. When a prominent medical journal ran research past other experts in the field, it found that most of the reviewers failed to spot mistakes it had deliberately inserted into papers, even after being told they were being tested.All this makes a shaky foundation for an enterprise dedicated to discovering the truth about the world. What might be done to shore it up? One priority should be for all disciplines to follow the example of those that have done most to tighten standards. A start would be getting to grips with statistics, especially in the growing number of fields that sift through untold oodles of data looking for patterns. Geneticists have done this, and turned an early torrent of specious results from genome sequencing into a trickle of truly significant ones.Ideally, research protocols should be registered in advance and monitored in virtual notebooks. This would curb the temptation to fiddle with the experiment's design midstream so as to make the results look more substantial than they are. (It is already meant to happen in clinical trials of drugs, but compliance is patchy.) Where possible, trial data also should be open for other researchers to inspect and test.The most enlightened journals are already becoming less averse to humdrum papers. Some government funding agencies, including America's National Institutes of Health, which dish out $30 billion on research each year, are working out how best to encourage replication. And growing numbers of scientists, especially young ones, understand statistics. But these trends need to go much further. Journals should allocate space for "uninteresting" work, and grant-givers should set aside money to pay for it. Peer review should be tightened—or perhaps dispensed with altogether, in favour of post-publication evaluation in the form of appended comments. That system has worked well in recent years in physics and mathematics. Lastly, policymakers should ensure that institutions using public money also respect the rules.Science still commands enormous—if sometimes bemused—respect. But its privileged status is founded on the capacity to be right most of the time and to correct its mistakes when it gets things wrong. And it is not as if the universe is short of genuine mysteries to keep generations of scientists hard at work. The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding.

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