According to the passage, why is light coloring an advantage to large desert animals？A．It

What health problems do many elderly people have?

A．They lose some ability to walk or see or hear well.

B．They have got high blood pressure and heart problems.

C．They are suffering from lacking of money to see a doctor.

D．They are lonely because they don"t live with younger people.

dont argue against taxes. They just argue about how taxes should be collected. At present the federal government works with a "progressive tax". The tax covers a percentage of peoples wages. Not everyone pays the same percentage of his salary in taxes. Taxpayers fall into different "tax brackets" depending on their income. Poor people are in a low tax bracket. They pay the smallest percentage of income in taxes. Middle income workers pay a larger percentage than the poor. And the rich fall into the high tax brackets. Few rich people like the progressive tax. The government took a poll. Among other people, the government talked to Ray Mathers and Eve Winick. "Lets change to a flat rate tax," says Ray Mather. "Everyone should be taxed the same percentage. Its fair. And its easy to figure out. " Mathers is president of Trig Computer Company. He makes over $ 80 000 a year. "I dont want a flat rate income tax," says Eve Winick. Winick is a grammar school teacher. Her school is in a poor neighborhood. She makes $ 14 000 a year. "I dont care if its easier to figure out. What I want to know is, would I pay less tax?" Winick worries about her students parents. "Some of them can hardly support themselves. Why should they pay heavier taxes? Theyre the people who need government services. " Mathers thinks a flat rate would help in the long run. "The country could lower taxes after a while. See, if I paid fewer taxes, Id save money. Id put that money into my business and hire more people. Those people could pay taxes. Everybody would be better off. " Questions:

According to the progressive tax, who should pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes?

A．The rich.

B．The poor.

C．The middle class.

D．The lower class.

The author mentions Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to______.

A．show that it is a world famous university of the U. S.

B．illustrate that college tuition is increasing rapidly

C．prove that public colleges are better than private ones

D．suggest that it is very expensive to study in college nowadays

h as the telegraph, the steamboat and the weaving machine? Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the countrys excellent elementary schools; a labor force that welcomed the new technology; the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal, "spatial" thinking about things technological. Why mention the elementary schools? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics, especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states, were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry. Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage. As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported, "With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline, the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman. " A further stimulus to invention came from the "premium" system, which preceded our patent system and for years ran parallel with it. This approach, originated abroad, offered inventors medals, cash prizes and other incentives. In the United States, multitudes of premiums for new devices were awarded at country fairs and at the industrial fairs in major cities. Americans flocked to these fairs to admire the new machines and thus to renew their faith in the beneficence of technological advance. Given this optimistic approach to technological innovation, the American worker took readily to that special kind of nonverbal thinking required in mechanical technology. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, "A technologist thinks about objects that cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process.... The designer and the inventor... are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist. " This nonverbal "spatial" thinking can be just as creative as painting and writing. Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc. , like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea. " When all these shaping forces—schools, open attitudes, the premium system, a genius for spatial thinking—interacted with one another on the rich U. S. mainland, they produced that American characteristic emulation. Today that word implies mere imitation. But in earlier times it meant a friendly but competitive striving for fame and excellence. Questions:

According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to______.

A．elementary schools

B．enthusiastic workers

C．the attractive premium system

D．a special way of thinking

Why did Chester Arthur fail in the 1884 presidential election?

A．Because the officials in the Federal Customs Houses didn"t support and vote for him.

B．Because he lost the support of Republican Party and couldn"t win the nomination.

C．Because he punished too many corrupted officials and workers in the Post Office Department.

D．Because he lost the support of public and failed to win the presidential nomination.

What can we infer from the passage?

A．Universal employment is a sign of prosperity.

B．Employment in a way leads to discrimination between different sexes and people of different age groups.

C．The unemployed should take as many part-time jobs as possible.

D．Employment distances people from the places where they lived, but modern transportation will compensate for that.

of private satisfaction. Data collected by the Japanese government in 1993 show that only 23% of Japanese youth are thinking about supporting their aged parents, in contrast to 63% of young Americans. It appears that many younger-generation Japanese are losing both respect for their parents and a sense of responsibility to the family. Experts attribute the change to Japanese parents' over-spoiling of their children, material plentifulness, and growing concern for private matters. The shift toward individualism among Japanese is most striking among the very young. According to data provided in 1991, 50% of Japanese youth aged 16 to 19 can be labeled "self-centered", compared with 33% among those aged 25 to 29. To earn the label, the young people responded positively to such ideas as "I would like to make decisions without considering traditional values" and "I don't want to do anything I can't enjoy doing".

You are to write in no less than 120 words about the title " The Cooperation". You should base your composition on the outline given in Chinese below.

1. 合作的意义。

2．合作在工作中的重要性(举例)。

3．怎样培养合作的能力？

pment". You should base your composition on the outline given in Chinese below:

(1)竞争已成为现代社会的突出特征。

(2)竞争对于社会发展的积极作用。

(3)结论。

Many Ph. Ds are out of job because ____.

A．they are wrongly educated

B．they are of little commercial value to the society

C．there are fewer jobs in high schools

D．they prefer easy jobs with more money