Fill in the blanks with the following words: imperfect impractical imbalance independent inevitable irreplaceable We all have our own life, learning to be __________.

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. (40 points)

Forget Iraq and budget deficits. The most serious political problem on both sides of the Atlantic is none of these. It is a difficulty that has dogged the ruling classes for millennia. It is the servant problem.

In Britain David Blunkett, the home secretary, has resigned over an embarrassment (or one of many embarrassments, in a story involving his ex-girlfriend, her husband, two pregnancies and some DNA) concerning a visa for a Filipina nanny employed by his mistress. His office speeded it through for reasons unconnected to the national shortage of unskilled labour. Mr. Blunkett resigned ahead of a report by Sir Alan Budd, an economist who is investigating the matter at the government's request.

In America Bernard Kerik, the president's nominee for the Department of Homeland Security, withdrew last week because he had carelessly employed a Mexican nanny whose Play-Doh skills were in better order than her paperwork. Mr. Kerik also remembered that he hadn't paid her taxes. The nominee has one or two other "issues" (an arrest warrant in 1998, and allegations of dodgy business dealings and extra-marital affairs). But employing an illegal nanny would probably have been enough to undo him, as it has several other cabinet and judicial appointees in recent years.

There is an easy answer to the servant problem—obvious to economists, if not to the less clear-sighted. Perhaps Sir Alan, a dismal scientist of impeccable rationality, will be thoughtful enough to point it out in his report.

Parents are not the only people who have difficulty getting visas for workers. All employers face restrictive immigration policies which raise labour costs. Some may respond by trying to fiddle the immigration system, but most deal with the matter by exporting jobs. In the age of the global economy, the solution to the servant problem is simple: rather than importing the nanny, offshore the children.

According to the text, the servant problem is to the ruling class what

A．the political problem to the ruler.

B．the embarrassment to the home secretary.

C．the chronic ailment to the patient.

D．the government's request to the economist.

A．Iran militants stormed the US Embassy

B．Dozens of American hostages were killed in Iran.

C．The Iran government refused to give up nuclear experiments.

D．The military conflict between the two countries led to the break.

A．Iran militants stormed the US Embassy

B．Dozens of American hostages were killed in Iran.

C．The Iran government refused to give up nuclear experiments.

D．The military conflict between the two countries led to the break.

A．Space that could be better used for display is taken up for storage.

B．Artifacts discovered in one excavation often become separated from each other.

C．Such artifacts often remain uncatalogued and thus cannot be located once they are put in storage.

D．Such artifacts are often damaged by variations in temperature and humidity.

The image of drug industry

The drug industry's image problems are beginning to hurt pharmaceutical companies where it matters most-- at the bottom line.

A year after Merck's withdrawal of its arthritis medicine Vioxx led to an industry wide credibility crisis, the Food and Drug Administration is blocking new medicines that might previously have passed muster. Doctors are writing fewer prescriptions for antidepressants and other drugs whose safety has been challenged, like hormone replacement therapies for women in menopause.

Meanwhile, insurers and some states are taking advantage of the backlash against the industry to try shifting patients to older, generic drugs, arguing that they work as well as newer and more expensive branded medicines. Overall, prescriptions continue to rise slightly, but an increasing share of prescriptions are going to generic drugs. Also, consumers seem to be less responsive to aggressive drug marketing.

The industry lost trust

"A lot of the demand that the industry has created over the years has been through promotion, and for that promotion to be effective, there has to be trust," said Richard Evans, an analyst covering drug stocks at Sanford C. Bernstein and Company. "That trust has been lost."

In the background, new competitors are forcing the old-line drug giants to struggle to keep pace. Biotechnology companies like Genentech are taking the lead in finding new treatments for cancer, a promising and lucrative field.

Executives of the major drug companies say they expect public scrutiny in the wake of problems with Vioxx and other drugs. But they say they are concerned that consumer mistrust has led to unrealistic expectations about drug safety and risks, stunting the development of new medicines.

"I think there is an overall unreasonable expectation right now that there is such a thing as a risk free drug," said Sidney Taurel, chief executive of Eli Lilly & Company.

The major drug makers remain highly profitable. But at some, including Pfizer and Merck, the largest and third-largest American companies in terms of revenue, sales are stagnant and profits are failing, leading to layoffs and-- for the first time in years-- cuts in research budgets. The drug industry, which is dominated by companies based in this country, is hardly in a full-blown crisis, and layoffs are occurring mainly on the margins of its work force. Pfizer alone will make about ＄ 8 billion in profit this year, on sales of about ＄ 51 billion, and invest more than ＄ 7 billion in research and development although the company's research spending fell 6 percent in the third quarter of 2005 compared with the same period in 2004, and Pfizer expects it to stay flat or decline in the coming years. Overall, the industry spends more than ＄ 30 billion annually on research and development.

But for the companies, and for patients who are counting on industry research to produce new treatments for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, these are trying times. Wall Street has also taken notice of the industry's woes. Shares of Pfizer are near their lowest levels since 1997, closing Friday at ＄ 22.43, and a broad index of drug stocks has fallen 25 percent in five years. In contrast, shares of biotechnology companies are soaring.

Without new drugs to promote as patents expire, and with the bar set so high by the blockbusters of the last decade, the old-line companies have depended on stopgap measures to protect sales, like reformulating existing drugs so they can be taken once a week instead of once daily. At the same time, they have used consumer advertising to drive patient demand. But those strategies appear to be losing their effectiveness, as consumers become more skeptical and insurers rebel against high prices for drugs that are not

A．Y

B．N

C．NG