The collapse of the Earths magnetic field-which guards the planet and guides many of its c

em are considered to be both educational and harmlessly entertaining. One such game teaches geography and another trains pilots. Others train the player in logical thinking and literate, which is more important in this technology-driven era. But the dark side of the computer games has become more and more obvious. "A segment of games features anti-social themes of violence,sex and crude language,"says David Walsh,president of the National Institute on Media and Family. "Unfortunately. Its a segment that seems particularly popular with kids aged from eight to fifteen." One study showed that almost 90 percent of the computer and online games young people preferred contained violence. The investigators said: "There are not just games anymore. These are leaning machines. Were teaching kids in the most incredible manner what its like to pull the trigger. What they are not learning are the real-life consequences." They also said "The new and more sophisticated games are even worse,because they have better graphics and allow the player to participate in even more realistic violent acts." In the game Carmageddon.for example,the player will have driven over and killed up to 33,000 people by the time all levels are compelled. A description of the outcome of the game says:"Your victims not only squish under your tires and splatter blood on the windshield,they also get on their knees and beg for mercy,or commit suicide. If you like ,you can also dismember them." Is all this simulated violence harmful? Approximately 3,000 different studies have been conducted on this subject. Many have suggested that there is a connection between violence in games and increased aggressiveness in the players. Some specialists downplay the influence of the games,saying that other factors must be taken into consideration,such as the possibility that kids who already have violent tendencies are choosing such games. But could it be that violent games still play a contributing role? It seems unrealistic to insist that people are not influenced by what they see. If that were true,why would the commercial world spend billions of dollars annually for television advertising?

Which of the following computer games are NOT mentioned as educational and harmlessly entertaining?

A．Those that teach how to fly an airplane

B．Those that teach the features of the earth

C．Those that help people use computer language

D．Those that teach computer technology

ent followed by similar declarations by the other nuclear Powers will be fulfilled, before the end of the present session of the General Assembly. Granted that neither the Treaty nor Additional Protocol(议定书)II admit of reservations,the satisfaction that such declarations would give my delegation would not be affected by their similarity to that of the United Kingdom,i. e. by being accompanied by an interpretation of the kind given by Lord Caradon at the 1508th meeting.

ssor from Atlanta, needed career advancement advice, be didnt turn to colleagues, therapists or even his mom. He went to the Advice Ladies. Three thirty something New York women, advertising freelancers by day, have turned themselves into Saturday afternoon street-corner oracles, they pull up lawn chairs and a table on a lower Manhattan street corner and dish out free advice to passersby. Theyve claimed the corner of West Broadway and Broome Street in Soho as their own for the last several months. Amy Alkon, who, with longtime friends Marlowe Minnick and Carolyn Johnson, becomes a part-time shrink each weekend. "We use creative problem-solving to turn problem into fun," she says. On a recent steamy afternoon, a line has formed in front of the Advice Ladles table. Obviously,. New Yorkers need plenty of help. "People feel they have no control in this crazy world. And therapy can take years," Minnick says. "We solve problems instantly, its instant answer gratification." The three brainstorm before delivering advice on everything from pet discipline, closet-space management, even hair oare. But no legal advice "By far, most of our questions are love-related. Its amazing the intimate sexual problems that people will divulge to a total stranger," Alkon says. But they wont be strangers much longer. The Advice Ladies are putting together a book deal. And Robert De Nitro is creating a talk show around them, due nationally this fall from his Tribeca Pictures. "De Nitro asked us for advice, but we think hes already perfect," purrs Alkon. And their career advice to Franklin? "He s written a book, so we told him to get a manager and go on the touring circuit. Its great money and great publicity for the book." "Good advice", says Franklin.

There were____.

A．about 30 New York women who offered free advice by day

B．three women freelancers about 30 years old who offered advertising advice on Saturday

C．about 30 women advertising freelancers offered advice every Saturday afternoon in New York

D．three women about 30 years old, who did advertising as a job, offered free advice every Saturday afternoon

portant with reference to the development of the importance of money. Marriages based exclusively upon economic motives have not only existed in all periods and at all stages of development,but are particularly common among primitive groups and conditions where they do not cause any offence at all. The disparagement of personal dignity that nowadays arises in every marriage that is not based on personal affection-so that a sense of decency requires the concealment of economic motives-does not exist in simpler cultures. The reason for this development is that increasing individualization makes it increasingly contradictory and discreditable to enter into purely individual relationships for other than purely individual reasons. For nowadays the choice of a partner in marriage is no longer determined by social motives(though regard for the offspring may be considered to be such a motive),in so far as society does not insist upon the couple,s equal social status-a condition,however,that provides a great deal of latitude and only rarely leads to conflicts between individual and social interests. In a quite undifferentiated society it may be relatively irrelevant who marries whom,irrelevant not only for the mutual relationship of the couple but also for the offspring. This is because where the constitutions,state of health,temperament,internal and external forms of life and orientations are largely the same within the group,the chance that the children will turn out well depends less upon whether the parents agree and complement each other than it does in highly differentiated society. It therefore seems quite natural and expedient that the choice of the partner should be determined by reasons other than purely individual affection. Yet personal attraction should be decisive in a highly individualized society where a harmonious relationship between two individuals becomes increasingly rare. The declining frequency of marriage which is to be found everywhere in highly civilized cultural cir-cum-stances is undoubtedly due,in part,to the fact that highly differentiated people in general have difficu-lty in finding a completely sympathetic complement to themselves. Yet we do not possess any other crite-rion and indication for the advisability of marriage except mutual instinctive attraction. But,happiness is a purely personal matter,decided upon entirely by the couple themselves,and there would be no com-pelling reason for the official insistence on at least pretending love may be misleading—particularly in the higher strata,whose complicated circumstances often retard the growth of the purest instincts—no matter how much other conditions may affect the final results.it remains true that,with reference to procreation,love is decidedly superior to money as a factor selection. In fact,in this respect.it is the only fight and proper thing. Marriage for money directly creates a situation of panmixia—the indiscriminate pairing regardless of individual qualities—a condition that biology has demonstrated to be the cause of the most direct and detrimental degeneration of the human species. In the case of marriage for money,the union of a couple is determined by a factor that has absolutely nothing to do with racial appropriateness—just as the regard for money often enough keeps apart a couple who really belong together—and it should be considered as a factor in degeneration to the same extent to which the undoubted differentiation of individuals makes selection by personal attraction more and more important. This case too illustrates once more that the increasing individualization within society renders money increasingly unsuitable as a mediator of purely individual relationships.

According to the text,what is said to influence matrimonial compatibility and stability in simpler cultures?

A．Personal dignity

B．Economic decline

C．Monetary considerations

D．Financial growth

as a full chorus of spring peepers. It is not only that the voices of living things are calling once more after the long silence of winter,there is something about the atmosphere in which the chorus takes place that epitomizes the season. There is a certain moist smell in the air on rainy spring nights,slow mists rise from rafts of ice floating in dark marshes,everywhere on roads through wet areas the small white forms of migrating spring peepers,wood frogs,green frogs,and pickerel frogs appear,and all around you the air will be filled with a high bell-like ringing,a little like a distant horse-drawn sleigh. That distant chorus is the voice of the spring peeper,a small tree frog no larger than the end of a little finger. Throughout history naturally have referred to it as the voice of spring. In actuality you may be a long way from the pond or marsh that the peepers are calling from. The voice of spring peepers can carry as much as a mile on still spring nights,and once you learn to recognize the song,there will be nights when it is difficult to escape their incessant calling. The sound will accompany you through spring,a sort of background music to the events that will be taking place around you during the season.

What is the best title for this passage?

A．Spring Comes to the Country

B．The Voice of spring

C．Migration of Frogs

D．A Rainy Spring Night

So naturally, many people are concerned with the question: Am I getting enough vitamins, and am I getting the right kind? Even though very small amounts of each vitamin are enough for the needs of the body, the worry people have about vitamins has some basis. And this has something to do with their diet—the food they take in. A person eating a good variety of foods gets all the vitamins now known to be needed(with the possible exception of Vitamin D). The problem is that there are many people who dont choose foods wisely, dont get enough variety, and dont eat the basic foods they need to get their vitamins. So the answer to this question is: no extra vitamins are needed, providing you eat proper foods. In fact, many of the vitamins cannot be stored in the body, so when extra vitamins taken in, the body simply gets rid of them. It is even harmful to put too much of certain vitamins into the body. This has been found to be true of Vitamin A and D, when large amounts are taken in. What foods supply what vitamins? Here is a quick general idea. Vitamin A, for the health of the eyes, skin, teeth, and bones, is found in green vegetables, fruits, eggs, liver and butter. Vitamin Bl which helps the nervous and digestive system and prevents certain diseases, is found in cereals, pork and liver. Vitamin B2 is found in milk, eggs, green vegetables and meats. Vitamin C, which helps bones and teeth, is found in tomatoes, certain fruits and vegetables. These are only a few of the most important vitamins the body needs.

Vitamin A is needed by____and can be found in____.

A．bones pork

B．nervous system milk

C．eyes green vegetables

D．teeth meats

everything. They dont like American tourists wearing jeans to go into their luxurious and exquisite five-star restaurants. So one of the restaurants put a notice outside its front door. It read "No trousers, please! " A gourmet coffee was sold in Tokyo as an antidote to stress. Its name supposedly meant to people that it would soothe the troubled breast. Yet when it was printed in English, it turned out to be "Ease Your Bosoms". Swedes started a promotion stunt to promote the sales of their vacuum cleaner named Electro. Their original ad slogan was translated as "Nothing sucks Like Electro". The General Motors selling of Chevrolet was very bad in South America. And the reason? The translation of this brand sounds like "no va", which means "It doesnt go" in Spanish. When Pepsi-cola invaded the huge Chinese and German markets, the efforts initially fizzled. The products slogan, "Come alive with the Pepsi generation", was rendered into German as "come out of the grave with Pepsi". Coca-Cola also discovered something had gone wrong in Taiwan. The Chinese characters chosen for the world-famous product sound like "Bite the Wax Tadpole". A beer companys slogan "Turn it loose" became, in Spanish, equivalent to "suffer from diarrhea". A company translated its sticky tape slogan into Japanese and came up with a sticky problem. The slogan "Sticks like crazy" became literally "it sticks foolishly" in Japanese. A tonic produced in China is made of royal jelly and is supposed to be very effective for some chronic diseases. Yet it was translated as "oral liquid", which means "saliva" in English. In the brochure, it was described in this way: "it tastes like medicine", when the language in the original meant to use it as a food therapy. Even the wrong nonverbal cue can bring havoc to a product. A baby food company initially packaged their African products just the same as in the U.S. —with a cute baby picture on the jar. They didnt realize that because so many Africans cannot read, nearly all packaged products sold in African carry pictures of what is inside. Pureed baby! How horrible! In an Asian city, where traffic is really very bad, to secure peoples safety, the municipal government has built underground passageways. Pedestrians are asked to use them whenever they need to cross the main street. A sign was posted once on the roadside, pointing to the entrance to an underground passageway, intending to notify English-speaking passengers, "Go underground" . We chuckled at such clumsy translations. Is there anything wrong in the language? We must be aware that few words and idioms can be literally translated. Its best to hire the best for translation. Dont take it for granted that as long as one speaks a little English, he is autonomously able to do the translation. It takes a while to learn to be a good translator.

"No trousers, please! "sounds funny on the front door of a five-star restaurant, because it could mean "_____" in English.

A．Take off your trousers, then come in, please

B．We don"t sell any trousers here

C．We don"t have any pairs of trousers here

D．Anyone who does not wear trousers is not welcome

stants state-of-the-art boutique, you find yourself in the kingdom of Pariss king of chocolate, where the humble cocoa bean is turned into mouth-watering chocolate Easter eggs. Constant, who is a chef, admits that chocolate is his passion and main interest in life. He first developed a fascination with chocolate when he was working for Gaston Lentre, a famous French pastry chef. Every year he has a theme for decorating Easter eggs:this year his decorations are inspired by "Art Nouveau" . Tonight he has a dinner for 130 to organize and he has to prepare a three-foot-high Art Nouveau-style. Easter egg by noon tomorrow. This, for Constant, is a normal schedule. Constant believes that his chocolate creations are as much of a work of art as other sculptures. It is, therefore, understandable that the restaurant, which he opened last month, is situated in the National Monuments Museum in Paris. During the day the restaurant is a tearoom and offers chocolate in every imaginable form. Customers can choose from a selection of sweet chocolate desserts or try the more exotic spicy chocolates. Constant is also a professional "nose", working closely with the French Institute of Taste. He is capable of identifying 450 different tastes and flavors. Constant explains that the mouth, which can only taste four things—salt, sweet, acid and bitter—is "stupid" in comparison to the nose. He believes that the nose is everything. In his book The Taste of Chocolate, he explains how in 1502 Christopher Columbus came across an island and went ashore. He was greeted by an Indian chief bearing gifts, among which were huge sacks of beans which Columbus thought was local currency. To his surprise, they prepared a drink for him. But Columbus, who disliked the odd bitter taste, continued on his travels, ignorant of the fact that he had just tasted cocoa. Like Columbus, Constant travels the cocoa countries where he checks quality and works with local experts. Quality can vary depending on the region, year, and method of preparation. According to Constant, Venezuela and Trinidad have the best cocoa beans, which they export all over the world either as beans or as cocoa. Constant, who is a hard worker, only sleeps three hours a night. He talks long into the night with mem bers of a club he has formed. The club is called "The Chocolate Munchers". Their main official activity is to get together for monthly dinners where they eat a very tiny dinner and tons of chocolate desserts. "I am an addict," Constant admits, "and I dont want to be cured! "

Which of the following is the most inclusive title for the passage?

A．Chocolate—The Passion of a Lifetime

B．The Chocolate Munchers Club

C．Chocolate—A New Art Form

D．The Last Word in Good Taste

e parent is home most of the time. However, home schooling does not work in inner-city neighborhoods because parents either work during the day or actively look for work. Numerous estimates between 1 and 2 million have been made regarding the number of home-schooled children in this country. Home schooling will grow in the future as course materials and tutoring systems vastly improve. Not too many years ago, learning at home meant reading a book and doing homework with tutoring from a parent or older sibling. Today, homes have an outstanding tutor available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This tutor never loses its patience,becomes upset, turns critical,or scolds a child for poor performance. In fact, the new tutoring system constantly recognizes good performance and provides praise for progress in learning. This tutor is the multimedia personal computer. For decades, students have been learning via television programs. In recent years, students have learned how to use a personal computer. Now technology is bringing together the Internet, video, slides, CD-ROM, and the interactivity of a computer to create multimedia presentations that students enjoy. The cost of this tutoring system is about $ 1,200. It can be used for at least six years, so the annual cost is $ 200. If there are two students in the family, the annual cost drops to $ 100 per student. In many households, the parents also use the computer, which reduces the annual cost even further. The tutoring system allows home schoolers to explore subjects without a parent or teacher telling them what to do next. The computer also provides a safe environment for students to take risks. They see and hear immediate, positive reinforcement every time they learn something. Immediate, positive remediation also is available when the student doesnt fully understand the lesson. The computer is truly a break-through in student learning and in building self-esteem. At first, courseware developers thought they had to sell their products to curriculum directors, teacher committees, and school boards. Now, these companies sell courseware directly to parents. For example, instead of buying a leather-bound edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, working parents can purchase a computerized encyclopedia for $ 35 or less. Courseware quality and course materials improve annually because parents and students buy only high-quality and motivational courses. With millions of home schoolers and other children using these materials, the price per subject now varies from $ 20 to $ 40. In the early school years, one or two courseware systems are sufficient for the entire school year. The courseware market has become a multi-million-dollar industry in which quality increases and costs decrease constantly. Studies have shown that interactive courseware speeds learning by 30 to 50 percent over conventional teaching methods. Lesson retention also improves. Many home schoolers need to study only three or four hours, leaving them more than enough time for extracurricular activities. How will courseware impact the public schools? It can either be viewed as a sideshow that has no place in a school system, which would be a mistake, or public schools can study why courseware and home schooling have succeeded,Investing in outstanding course materials,learning systems,and tutoring systems have been home schoolings keys to success. This is exactly what most public schools do not do, even though they spend more than $ 300 billion in taxpayers money. Instead, they claim they have no money for outstanding course materials,learning systems, and tutoring systems. It should also be noted that most home-schooling parents are not former teachers. Many of them just have high school diplomas or have studied a year or two in community colleges. This information indicates that certified teachers within inner-city schools could be more successful if their classrooms had outstanding course materials, learning systems, and tutoring systems. Home schooling will grow in response to the violence in schools and to the constant drone of massages about poor student performance,but it cannot replace our public school systems because most parents are simply not available to provide home schooling. It is hoped, however, that public schools will begin to adopt the successful aspects of home schooling. In some communities,school districts are working with home-schooling families on special classes and extracurricular activities. This partnership helps solve the problem of overcrowded schools and helps reduce the massive building costs associated with new school buildings.

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Modern tutors are more patient than those in the past

B．Students are praised whenever they learn new things.

C．Courseware quality improves with the help of parents.

D．Tutoring systems can help students build self-esteem.

eer-reviewed evidence that there truly is a controversy that must be taught. "The Darwinists are bluffing, "he says over a plate of oysters at a downtown seafood restaurant. "They have the science of the steam engine era,and its not keeping up with the biology of the information age. " Meyer hands me a recent issue of Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews with an article by Carl Woese.an eminent microbiologist at the University of Illinois. In it. Woese decries the failure of reductionist biology—the tendency to Jook at systems as merely the sum of their parts—to keep up with the developments of molecular biology. Meyer says the conclusion of Woeses argument is that the Darwinian emperor has no clothes. Its a page out of the antievolution playbook: using evolutionary biologys own literature against it, selectively quoting from the likes of Stephen Jay Gould to illustrate natural selections downfalls. The institute marshals Journal articles discussing evolution to provide policymakers with evidence of the raging controversy surrounding the issue. Woese scoffs at Meyers claim when I call to ask him about the paper. "To say that my criticism of Darwinists says that evolutionists have no clothes,"Woese says, "is like saying that Einstein is criticizing Newton,therefore Newtonian physics is wrong". Debates about evolutions mechanisms,he continues. dont amount to challenges to the theory. And intelligent design "is not science. It makes no predictions and doesnt offer any explanation whatsoever, except forGod did it. " Of course Meyer happily acknowledges that Woese is an ardent evolutionist. The institute doesnt need to impress Woese or his peersjit can simply co-opt the vocabulary of science—"academic freedom. " "scientific objectivity,""teach the controversy"—and redirect it to a public trying to reconcile what ap-pear to be two contradictory scientific views. By appealing to a sense of fairness. ID finds a place at the political table,and by merely entering the debate it can claim victory. "We dont need to win every argu-ment to be a success,"Meyer says,"Were trying to validate a discussion thats been long suppressed. " This is precisely what happened in Ohio. "Im not a PhD in biology, "says board member Michael Cochran. "But when I have X number of PhD experts telling me this, and X number telling me the opposite, the answer is probably somewhere between the two." An exasperated Krauss claims that a truly representative debate would have had 10000 pro-evolution Scientists against two Discovery executives. "What these people want is for there to be a debate,"says Krauss. "People in the audience say,Hey,these people sound reasonable. They argue, people have different opinions, we should present those opinions in school.That is nonsense. Some people have opinions that the Holocaust never happened, but we dont teach that in history. " Eventually, the Ohio board approved a standard mandating that students learn to "describe how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory. "Proclaiming victory, Johnson barnstormed Ohio churches soon after notifying congregations of a new, ID-friendly standard. In response, anxious board members added a clause stating that the standard "does not mandate the teaching or testing of intelligent design."Both sides claimed victory. A press release from IDNet trumpeted the mere inclusion of the phrase intelligent design,saying that "the implication of the statement is that the teaching or testing of intelligent designis permitted. "Some pro-evolution scientists, meanwhile,say theres nothing wrong with teaching students how to scrutinize theory. "I dont have a problem with that," says Patricia Princehouse.a professor at Case Western Reserve and an outspoken opponent of ID."Critical analysis is exactly what scientists do."

Stephen Meyer seems to be criticizing Darwinists because_____.

A．the evidence for their theories is peer-reviewed

B．they were bom in the age of steam engine

C．their theories are already out of date

D．they can not catch up with the information technology