【M1】"There were a set of ideas and a set of initiatives that the university is undertaking

p to the seriousness of global warming. What is not so widely appreciated is that unless the US government acts urgently and decisively, this problem could very quickly get very much worse. For reasons both economic and political coal is poised to be the fuel of choice in the coming decades as the US weans itself off foreign oil. Coal combustion generates half the USs electricity and releases about 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. If present trends continue, these figures will more than double by 2050, much to the detriment of the worlds climate. Without an alternative fuel, the only solution is to capture and store carbon dioxide from burning coal. Overcoming the engineering obstacles in the way of large-scale sequestration of carbon dioxide will be hard enough, but the bigger challenge is one of political will. US companies as yet have no incentive to capture carbon emissions. While moves at state and congressional levels are pushing in the right direction, the ambiguity in the administrations policy is counterproductive. It is time for the US government to put a price on carbon emissions so utilities that invest in technologies to reduce carbon emissions will see their efforts rewarded: Such a move would not only reduce the risks associated with global warming, but also go a long way to restoring Americas green credentials.

According to the author, what adds to the seriousness of global warming?

A．The American public was ignorant of the problem.

B．The American government is doing nothing to deal with the problem.

C．The US will choose coal as the major fuel which will have large carbon emissions.

D．There is no alternative fuel other than foreign oil which has large carbon emissions.

in industrialization, especially in the development of mining, canals, and railways. It now shrewdly associated itself with the new wave of commercial expansion: most banks and insurance companies had a lord to add tone to the managerial board. It also shored up its fortunes by astute marriages, notably with the new aristocracy of wealth in the United States; the best-known example was the marriage of the duke of Marlborough to Consuelo Vanderbilt. By these means, many of the great aristocratic estates were preserved despite agricultural decline. But they were playthings as well as engines of wealth, and came to be treated as such. The aristocracy came to be known to the urban population chiefly through their representation in the popular press and magazines as men and women of leisure: racing, hunting, shooting, and fishing in the country, gambling and attending the season in London. In a population for which leisure was becoming increasingly important, this did not make the aristocracy unpopular.

In the second sentence of this passage, "had a lord to add tone to the managerial board" means that____.

A．the banks and insurance companies would hire a lord on the board to give advice to their management

B．having lords involved in the management gave the banks or companies a very good public image

C．lords worked for the banks and insurance companies to bring in more profits

D．it had become a fashion to have a lord on the managerial board of a bank or a company

ench.This is especially true in politics. Although the Americans infuse into their legislation far more general ideas than the English,and although they strive more than the latter to adjust the practice of affairs to theory,no political bodies in the United States have ever shown so much love for general ideas as the Constituent Assembly and the Convention in France.At no time has the American people laid hold on ideas of this kind with the passionate energy of the French people in the eighteenth century,or displayed the same blind confidence in the value and absolute truth of any theory. This difference between the Americans and the French originates in several causes,but principally in the following one.The Americans are a democratic people who have always directed public affairs them-selves.The French are a democratic people who for a long time could only speculate on the best manner of conducting them.The social condition of the French led them to conceive very general ideas on the subject of government, while their political constitution prevented them from correcting those ideas by experiment and from gradually detecting their insufficiency;whereas in America the two things constantly balance and correct each other. It may seem at first sight that this is very much opposed to what I have said before,that democratic nations derive their love of theory from the very excitement of their active life.A more attentive-examination will show that there is nothing contradictory in the proposition. Men living in democratic countries eagerly lay hold of general ideas because they have but little leisure and because these ideas spare them the trouble of studying particulars.This is true,but it is only to be understood of those matters which are not the necessary and habitual subjects of their thoughts.Mer-cantile men will take up very eagerly,and without any close scrutiny,all the general ideas on philosophy, politics,science,or the arts which may be presented to them;but for such as relate to commerce,they will not receive them without inquiry or adopt them without reserve.The same thing applies to statesman with regard to general ideas in politics. If,then,there is a subject upon which a democratic people is peculiarly liable to abandon itself,blindly and extravagantly,to general ideas,the best corrective that can be used will be to make that subject a part of their daily practical occupation.They will then be compelled to enter into details,and the details will teach them the weak points of the theory This remedy may frequently be a painful one, but its effect is certain. Thus it happens that the democratic institutions which compel every citizen to take a practical part in the government moderate that excessive taste for general theories in polities which the principle of equality suggests.

According to the writer,what kinds of ideas have been favored by the French people?

A．Political ideas that can be adjusted to the practice of government

B．Concrete ideas that they believe to be truthful

C．General ideas in political affairs

D．Eighteenth century ideas

Americans,there are innumerable aspects of African life which tend to take one by surprise. The unfamiliar lies hidden everywhere,and the presence of Western culture seems merely to emphasize this unfamiliarity. Basically, the essence of our reaction to the strange,the unfamiliar,is a sense of fear. Every country contains landscapes that arouse unease-whether it be some remote Alpine valley,the wild lavender fields of Upper Province,or a lonely Norwegian fjord at twilight. But in my own experience West Africa contains more weird and eerie regions-rain-forest,mangrove swamp,parched plains of red earth-than any other place that I have seen. It is not only in the foreigner that these landscapes evoke fear. A large part of all old African religions is devoted to soothing the unknown and the unseen-evil Spirits which live in a particular tree or a particular rock,a thousand varieties of ghosts and witches,the ever-present spirits of dead ancestors or relatives. I have myself been kept awake at night in Calabar by a friend from Lagos who was convinced that the witches of the east were out to get him,or that he was about to be kidnapped and eaten. During four and a half hours in a canoe along the creeks of the Niger delta, gliding over the still and colorless water beneath an equally still and colorless but burning sky,I,too,have experienced a sense of fear,or at least a sense of awe. Except for the ticking of the little outboard engine the silence was complete. On either hand stretched the silver-white swamps of mangrove,seeming,with their awkward exposed roots,to be standing knee-deep in the water. Where the creek narrowed you could peer deep into these thickets of mangroves-vistas secret, interminable and somehow meaningless. There was no sign of life except for the shrill screech of some unseen bird. I was on my way to the ancient slaving port of Bonny,which we reached in late afternoon. Scrambling up some derelict stone steps(slithery with slime and which had managed to detach themselves from the landing-stage so that you had to jump a two-foot gap to reach wet land),I found myself in an area of black mud and tumbled blocks of stone.

There are features of Western culture which are present in West Africa_____.

A．This fact makes it easier to accept the unfamiliarity of West Africa.

B．This fact makes West Africa seem even stranger.

C．This fact makes no difference to our reaction to West Africa.

D．This fact has been greatly overemphasized.

nsive laptops loaded【C1】______its new Windows Vista operating system. But the gifts generated controversy as well as good【C2】______,with some bloggers accusing Microsoft of bribery and their peers【C3】______ unethical behavior. Several bloggers reported last week that they had received Acer Ferrari laptops, which can sell【C4】______more than $ 2,200, from Microsoft. A spokeswoman for Microsoft confirmed Friday that the【C5】______had sent out about 90 computers to bloggers【C6】______wrote about technology and other subjects that could be【C7】______by the new operating system, like photography and, oddly, parenting. But while those on Microsofts mailing list initially greeted the machines with enthusiasm, many【C8】_______. bloggers soon objected-not because they had been left off the list but, they said, because bloggers are bound by the【C9】______rules as traditional journalists, who should not accept【C10】______gifts from companies they cover.

【C1】

caricatured frogs, wops, yids and goodness-gracious-me Pakis—are in clear breach of the codes of political correctness. His lewd disguises and overdone accents belong with black-and-white minstrel shows and clog-dancing—its the comedy of yesteryear. Have you tried listening to The Goon Show lately? It is a reworking of The Gang Show,excruciatingly bad and dated,and full of explosions,gunfire and jokes about Hitler and the War. Nonetheless,Sellers continues to obsess people. Hes already been the subject of biographies galore, including,back in 1994,a 1,200-page magnum opus by myself,which is now being turned into a biopic starring Geoffrey Rush. The appeal lies in the mythic dimensions of Sellersstory. He had everything and it wasnt enough. He was a comedian with a tragic inability to enjoy life. He was world-famous and desperately lonely. At the height of his fame,as Inspector Clouseau.his eccentricity tipped over the edge into genuine insanity. He was a basket case. This is irresistible material. Sellerssubversive and immoderate behavior. puts him in a class of his own. Picture my disappointment with Ed Skiovs tome,therefore. Heres a thick cook that tells us nothing new. For newcomers to Sellers,however,Mr. Strangelove is a perfect digest of the mans life and work, briskly told. Sellers was descended from a family of bare-knuckle East End prize-fighters, although his parents were music hall entertainers. His clinging,whining mother,Peg,was a quick-change artiste and his father, Bill, was a ukulele player and soft-shoe-shuffle merchant. The young Peter was raised in the ghostly,twilight world of shabby theatres and end-of-the-pier revues: dog acts,acrobatic midgets,incompetent conjurors and gypsy violinists. To go from these origins and become as big as The Beatles,as he was in the Sixties,is an amazing feat. Sellers spent the Second World War in the Air Force,impersonating officers and playing the drums to entertain the troops. When he was demobbed he worked in holiday camps and began getting spots on radio,culminating in The Goon Show. He dubbed the voices of Churchill and Humphrey Bogart on film soundtracks, and it was while hanging about the studios that he was offered walk-on roles. His breakthrough came with the part of a teddy boy in The Ladykillers.a film that improves with each viewing. This led to the role of Fred Kite,the shaven-headed,belligerent shop steward in Im All Right. Jack which won him British Academy Best Actor statuette. When Peter Ustinov dropped out of The Pink Panther on a Friday. Sellers flew to the set in Rome on Monday to replace him. The rest is history. Or notoriety. Sellers descent into madness was swift. He got rid of his wife and children and chased after Britt Ekland. whom he pounced on in The Dorchester and married ten days later. He took drugs to enhance his potency and this precipitated a heart attack. Having worked on Dr. Strangelove during the day. each evening he locked himself in the bathroom and threatened to commit suicide. Bryan Forbes and Nanette Newman had to come over and talk to him through the door. He then decided he wanted to marry Nanette. He also wanted to marry Sophia Loren, Princess Margaret and Liza Minnelli. His misbehavior. and unprofessionalism cost film studios millions of dollars. Sets had to be repainted and costumes remade if they were purple or green—colors of which he was morbidly superstitious. He enjoyed messing about during filming and blowing his lines;he pulled guns on people. He walked off Casino Royale and was discovered in Britt Eklands mothers house in Sweden. Meanwhile. Orson Welles and the rest of the cast were in full make-up and on full pay back at Pinewood. waiting for him to reappear. Sellers were happy only in the company of his gadgets,cameras and fast cars,which hed replace or a-bandon with manic frequency. Alone of his weddings.the maids of honor were the brides dogs. He was also selfish in the extreme:when his relationships broke up,hed send his henchmen round to retrieve his gifts.

People are still obsessed with Peter Sellers because____.

A．he was a genius

B．he was as big as The Beatles

C．his life was full of drama and contradiction

D．he led a very austere life

M2】But Detective Harold Gannon of the New Britain police said today that the job involved more policy as police work, and did not include the authority to charge or chide criminals.【M3】The gold badge was mere a university award.【M4】The governor said he would not ask for a resignation because Mr. Judd had made a "misiudgment" and had written a letter of apologizing. 【M5】Later, Mr. Judds lawyer, Paul J. McQuillan, issued a long apology from his superior, whom he described as "the best thing to happen to New Britain."【M6】"My experience and instinct as an E. M. T. and former police commissioner prompted me to involve myself with this matter," Mr. Judd said in the statement.【M7】"In hindsight, I see it was mine to manage."

【M1】

.("Paraphrase" means "to explain the meaning in your own English".)(75%) America Loses a Great Public Thinker Arthur Millers death last week meant more than the loss of an outstanding playwright. It was the loss of a great public thinker who believed strongly that the essence of America—its greatness was in its promises.【P1】Miller knew what ignorance and fear and the madness of crowds, especially when exploited by sinister leadership, could do to those promises.【P2】His greatest concerns, "were with the moral corruption brought on by bending ones ideals to societys dictates, buying into the values of a group when they conflict with the voice of personal conscience."【P3】The individual in Millers view, had an abiding moral responsibility for his or her own behavior, and for the behavior. of society as a whole. He said that "I felt that as improbable as it might seem, there were moments when an individual conscience was all that could keep a world from falling." Miller saw some of the differences in two sharply defined eras: the Depression-wracked 1930s and the prosperous postwar 1950s. It was perhaps around 1936, people who used to mind no polities began thinking for the first time of common action as a way out of their impossible conditions.【P4】By the early 50s the agony of the Depression was gone. McCarthvism was in flower. After the 50s, however, Americans became more practical and pragmatic. The dean of the University of Michigan was complaining that his students highest goal was to fit in with corporate America rather than to separate truth from falsehood.【P5】"They become experts at grade-getting, but theres less speculating about the wrongs of the world and ideal solutions something no employer was interested in." Now Miller is gone, and if we are not wise enough to pay attention, his uncomfortable truths will die with him.

【P1】

I must leave now._____, if you want that book I II bring it next time.

A．Accidentally

B．Incidentally

C．Eventually

D．Naturally

h has existed for at least six thousand years. It was always wicked and usually foolish,but in the past the human race managed to live with it. Modern ingenuity has changed this. Either Man will abolish war,or war will abolish Man. For the present.it is nuclear weapons that cause the gravest danger,but bacteriological or chemical weapons may,before long,offer an even greater threat. If we succeed in abolishing nuclear weapons,our work will not be done. It will never be done until we have succeeded in abolishing war. To do this,we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way,not as contests of force,in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in massacre,but by arbitration in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change age-old mental habits,but this is what must be attempted. There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology would prevent war. I believe this to be a profound error. All ideologies are based upon dogmatic assertions which are,at best,doubtful,and at worst,totally false. Their adherents believe in them so fanatically that they are willing to go to war in support of them. The movement of world opinion during the past two years has been very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a commonplace that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course very difficult problems remain in the international sphere, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has began to be though,even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die,that negotiations should reach agreements even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict nowadays is not between East and West,but between Man and the H-bomb.

This passage implies that war is now_____.

A．more wicked than in the past

B．as wicked as in the past

C．less wicked than in the past

D．what people try to live with