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Astrophysicists wrestling with the study of a new kind of star, the flat, “two-dimensional” configurations known as accretion disks have recently gained new insights into the behavior of these stars. Accretion disks exist in a variety of situations where matters swirl around a compact star such as a white dwarf star or a neutron star. Accretion disks are also suspected of playing a part in more exotic situations, in which the central object is imagined to be a supermassive black hole, the ultimate form of collapsed matter, rather than a compact star. The modeling of accretion disks is still in its infancy, a situation analogous to the days when ordinary stars were modeled by using elementary scaling laws without benefit of knowledge of the nuclear processes that power the stars. Similarly, the basic physics of the power by which accretion disks radiate, thought to originate in a form of turbulent friction, is known only at the crudest level.Accretion disks were first defined in the context of Cataclysmic variables. In these systems, matter from the outer layers of an ordinary star is attracted by the gravitational influence of a nearby orbiting white dwarf star, the matter lost from the ordinary star cannot strike the surface of the tiny white dwarf directly but settles into an orbit around the star. The viscosity in the disk thus formed causes heating, radiation, and a slow spiraling of disk matter onto the surface of the white dwarf.The rapid advances made in x-ray astronomy in the past decade have identified a second type of system in which accretion disks occur. In such a system, an accretion disk whirls about a neutron star rather than a white dwarf. The inner reaches of the accretion disk extend deeply into the gravitational potential of the neutron star where very rapid motion is the rule. The energy released by friction and the actual raining of the material from the disk onto the surface of the neutron star is so great that radiation is given off in a powerful flood of x-rays. And in at least one case, x-ray astronomers believe that the object in the center of an accretion disk is a black hole, suggesting that a third system may exist.It had been assumed that portions of accretion disks would be unstable and that, as a result, clumping of their matter into rings would occur. There is no evidence from observation, however, that accretion disks do, in fact, suffer from these instabilities. In recent work, Abramowicz has shown that added gravitational effects due to general relativity may alter the expected Newtonian gravitational relationships in such a way that the disk remains stable, indicating that it is possible that these predicted instabilities do not occur.Further progress toward understanding accretion disks will involve defining and proposing solutions to restricted problems just as was done in this case and was done and continues to be done for ordinary stars. Abramowicz' work is a valuable example of the care that must be taken before reaching conclusions regarding accretion disks.1.The author of the passage is primarily concerned with(  ).2.It can be inferred from the passage that predictions of the instability of accretion disks were based on which of the following?3.The author’s attitude toward Abramowicz’ work can best be described as one of(  ).  4.The passage suggests which of the following about current scientific knowledge of the nuclear processes of ordinary stars?5.The passage suggests that Abramowicz’ work was motivated by which of the following assumptions?6.The passage implies which of the following about the progress of knowledge in astrophysics?7.The passage suggests that, compared to the study of ordinary stars, the study of accretion disks is(  ).  8.According to the passage, some accretion disks originated in(  ).  9.It can be inferred from the passage that the significance of Abramowicz’ work is that it(  ).

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Agricultural progress provided the stimulus necessary to set off economic expansion in medieval France. As long as those who worked the land were barely able to ensure their own subsistence and that of their landlords, all other activities had to be minimal, but when food surpluses increased, it became possible to release more people for governmental, commercial, religious and cultural pursuits.However, not all the funds from the agricultural surplus were actually available for commercial investment. Much of the surplus, in the form of food increases, probably went to raise the subsistence level; an additional amount, in the form of currency gained from the sale of food, went into the royal treasury to be used in waging war. Although Louis VII of France levied a less crushing tax burden on his subjects than did England’s Henry II, Louis VII did spend great sums on an unsuccessful crusade, and his vassals—both lay and ecclesiastic—took over spending where their sovereign stopped. Surplus funds were claimed both by the Church and by feudal landholders, whereupon cathedrals and castles mushroomed throughout France.The simultaneous progress of cathedral building and, for instance, vineyard expansion in Bordeaux illustrates the very real competition for available capital between the Church and commercial interests; the former produced inestimable moral and artistic riches, but the latter had a stronger immediate impact upon gross national product. Moreover, though all wars by definition are defensive, the frequent crossings of armies that lived off the land and impartially burned all the huts and barns on their path consumed considerable resources.Since demands on the agricultural surplus would have varied from year to year, we cannot precisely calculate their impact on the commercial growth of medieval France. But we must bear that impact in mind when estimating the assets that were likely to have been available for investment. No doubt castle and cathedral building was not totally barren of profit (for the builders, that is), and it produced intangible dividends of material and moral satisfaction for the community. Even wars handed back a fragment of what they took, at least to a few. Still, we cannot place on the same plane a primarily destructive activity and a constructive one, nor expect the same results from a new bell tower as from a new water mill. Above all, medieval France had little room for investment over and above the preservation of life. Granted that war cost much less than it does today, that the Church rendered all sorts of educational and recreational services that were unobtainable elsewhere, and that government was far less demanding than is the modern state—nevertheless, for medieval men and women, supporting commercial development required considerable economic sacrifice.1.According to the passage, agricultural revenues in excess of the amount needed for subsistence were used by medieval kings to( ).2.According to the passage, which of the following was an important source of revenue in medieval France?3.The passage suggests that which of the following would have reduced the assets immediately available for commercial investment in medieval France?I. Renovation of a large cathedral.II. A sharp increase in the birth rate.III. An invasion of France by Henry II.4.It can be inferred from the passage that more people could enter government and the Church in medieval France because( ). 5.The author implies that the reason we cannot expect the same results from a new bell tower as from a new water mill is that( ). 6.The author of the passage most probably bases his central argument on which of the following theoretical assumptions often made by economists?7.The author suggests that commercial expansion in medieval France “required considerable economic sacrifice” (lines 59-60) primarily for which of the following reasons?8.The passage implies that which of the following yielded the lowest dividend to medieval men and women relative to its cost?9.Which of the following statements best expresses the central idea of the passage?

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Behavior is one of two general responses available to endothermic (warm-blooded) species for the regulation of body temperature, the other being innate (reflexive) mechanisms of heat production and heat loss. Human beings rely primarily on the first to provide a hospitable thermal microclimate for themselves, in which the transfer of heat between the body and the environment is accomplished with minimal involvement of innate mechanisms of heat production and loss. Thermoregulatory behavior anticipates hyperthermia, and the organism adjusts its behavior to avoid becoming hyperthermic: it removes layers of clothing, it goes for a cool swim, etc. The organism can also respond to changes in the temperature of the body core, as is the case during exercise; but such responses result from the direct stimulation of thermoreceptors distributed widely within the central nervous system, and the ability of these mechanisms to help the organism adjust to gross changes in its environment is limited.Until recently it was assumed that organisms respond to microwave radiation in the same way that they respond to temperature changes caused by other forms of radiation. After all, the argument runs, microwaves are radiation and heat body tissues. This theory ignores the fact that the stimulus to a behavioral response is normally a temperature change that occurs at the surface of the organism. The thermoreceptors that prompt behavioral changes are located within the first millimeter of the skin’s surface, but the energy of a microwave field may be selectively deposited in deep tissues, effectively bypassing these thermoreceptors, particularly if the field is at near-resonant frequencies. The resulting temperature profile may well be a kind of reverse thermal gradient in which the deep tissues are warmed more than those of the surface. Since the heat is not conducted outward to the surface to stimulate the appropriate receptors, the organism does not “appreciate” this stimulation in the same way that it “appreciates” heating and cooling of the skin. In theory, the internal organs of a human being or an animal could be quite literally cooked well-done before the animal even realizes that the balance of its thermomicro climate has been disturbed.Until a few years ago, microwave irradiations at equivalent plane-wave power densities of about 100 mW/cm2 were considered unequivocally to produce “thermal” effects; irradiations within the range of 10 to 100 mW/cm2 might or might not produce “thermal” effects; while effects observed at power densities below 10 mW/cm2 were assumed to be “nonthermal” in nature. Experiments have shown this to be an oversimplification, and a recent report suggests that fields as weak as 1 mW/cm2 can be thermogenic. When the heat generated in the tissues by an imposed radio frequency (plus the heat generated by metabolism) exceeds the heat-loss capabilities of the organism, the thermoregulatory system has been compromised. Yet surprisingly, not long ago, an increase in the internal body temperature was regarded merely as “evidence” of a thermal effect.1.The author is primarily concerned with(  ).2.The author makes which of the following points about innate mechanisms for heat production?3.Which of the following would be the most logical topic for the author to take up in the paragraph following the final paragraph of the selection?4.The author implies that the proponents of the theory that microwave radiation acts on organisms in the same way as other forms of radiation based their conclusions primarily on(  ).  5.The tone of the passage can best be described as(  ).  6.The author is primarily concerned with(  ).

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Since World War II considerable advances have been made in the area of health-care services. These include better access to health care (particularly for the poor and minorities), improvements in physical plants, and increased numbers of physicians and other health personnel. All have played a part in the recent improvement in life expectancy. But there is mounting criticism of the large remaining gaps in access, unbridled cost inflation, the further fragmentation of service, excessive indulgence in wasteful high-technology “gadgeteering” and a breakdown in doctor-patient relationships. In recent years proposed panaceas and new programs, small and large, have proliferated at a feverish pace and disappointments multiply at almost the same rate. This has led to an increased pessimism—“everything has been tried and nothing works”—which sometimes borders on cynicism or even nihilism.It is true that the automatic “pass through” of rapidly spiraling costs to government and insurance carriers, which was set in a publicized environment of “the richest nation in the world”, produced for a time a sense of unlimited resources and allowed to develop a mood whereby every practitioner and institution could “do his own thing” without undue concern for the “Medical Commons”. The practice of full-cost reimbursement encouraged capital investment and now the industry is overcapitalized. Many cities have hundreds of excess hospital beds; hospitals have proliferated a superabundance of high-technology equipment; and structural ostentation and luxury were the order of the day. In any given day, one-fourth of all community beds are vacant; expensive equipment is underused or, worse, used unnecessarily. Capital investment brings rapidly rising operating costs.Yet, in part, this pessimism derives from expecting too much of health care. It must be realized that care is, for most people, a painful experience, often accompanied by fear and unwelcome results. Although there is vast room for improvement, health care will always retain some unpleasantness and frustration. Moreover, the capacities of medical science are limited. Humpty Dumpty cannot always be put back together again. Too many physicians are reluctant to admit their limitations to patients; too many patients and families are unwilling to accept such realities. Nor is it true that everything has been tried and nothing works, as shown by the prepaid group practice plans of the Kaiser Foundation and at Puget Sound. In the main, however, such undertakings have been drowned by a veritable flood of public and private moneys which have supported and encouraged the continuation of conventional practices and subsidized their shortcomings on a massive, almost unrestricted scale. Except for the most idealistic and dedicated, there were no incentives to seek change or to practice self-restraint or frugality. In this atmosphere, it is not fair to condemn as failures all attempted experiments; it may be more accurate to say many never had a fair trial.1.The author implies that the Kaiser Foundation and Puget Sound plans (lines 47-48) differed from other plans by(  ).2.The author mentions all of the following as consequences of full-cost reimbursement EXCEPT(  ).  3.The tone of the passage can best be described as(  ).  4.According to the author, the “pessimism” mentioned at line 35 is partly attributable to the fact that(  ).  5.The author cites the prepaid plans in lines 46-48 as(  ).  6.It can be inferred that the sentence “Humpty Dumpty cannot always be put back together again” means that(  ).  7.With which of the following descriptions of the system for the delivery of health-care services would the author most likely agree?8.Which of the following best describes the logical structure of the selection?9.The author’s primary concern is to(  ).  

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Directions: Translate the following three underlined parts from English into Chinese and write your translation on the ANSWER SHEET.Passenger jets of Japan’s air carrier All Nippon Airways are seen parked on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport in 2008. The Japanese airline is taking its weight-saving efforts to new heights, asking passengers on some of its flights to visit the restroom before flying.1. A Japanese airline is taking its weight-saving efforts to new heights, asking passengers on some of its flights to visit the restroom before flying. The unusual request is one of a number of measures being tried out by All Nippon Airways to reduce fuel consumption. ANA estimates that if half its passengers went to the bathroom before boarding, it could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 4. 2 tons a month, said company spokeswoman Megumi Tezuka.2. The airline will also recycle paper cups and plastic bottles, and use chopsticks produced from wood from forest thinning projects, as part of its efforts to become more environmentally friendly. The measures are being trialed on 38 domestic flights and four international flights—on the Tokyo-Singapore route—during October.3.The move follows earlier steps by airlines to reduce the weight of flights by trimming the size of in-flight magazines,slimming the handles of forks and spoons and using lighter drink trolleys and porcelain. ANA announced in April its first annual loss in six years as the global economic downturn reduced the number of people taking to the skies.It is not the only airline looking to the lavatory to save money. Irish budget airline Ryanair has previously said it is considering charging passengers to use on-board toilets.

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There is widespread belief that the emergence of giant industries has been accompanied by an equivalent surge in industrial research. A recent study of important inventions made since the turn of the century reveals that more than half were the product of individual inventors working alone, independent of organized industrial research. While industrial laboratories contributed such important products as nylon and transistors, independent inventors developed air conditioning, the automatic transmission, the jet engine, the helicopter, insulin, and streptomycin. Still other inventions, such as stainless steel, television, silicones, and Plexiglas were developed through the combined efforts of individuals and laboratory teams.Despite these finding, we are urged to support monopolistic power on the grounds that such power creates an environment supportive of innovation. We are told that the independent inventor, along with the small firm, cannot afford to undertake the important research needed to improve our standard of living while protecting our diminishing resources; that only the giant corporation or conglomerate, with its prodigious assets, can afford the kind of expenditures that produce the technological advances vital to economic progress. But when we examine expenditures for research, we find that of the more than $35 billion spent each year in this country, almost two-thirds is spent by the federal government. More than half of this government expenditure is funneled into military research and product development, accounting for the enormous increase in spending in such industries as nuclear energy, aircraft, missiles, and electronics. There are those who consider it questionable that these defense-linked research projects will either improve our standard of living or do much to protect our diminishing resources.Recent history has demonstrated that we may have to alter our longstanding conception of the process actuated by competition. The price variable, once perceived as the dominant aspect of the process, is now subordinate to the competition of the new product, the new business structure, and the new technology. While it can be assumed that in a highly competitive industry not dominated by a single corporation, investment in innovation — a risky and expensive budget item — might meet resistance from management and stockholders concerned about cost-cutting, efficient organization, and large advertising budgets, it would be an egregious error to equate the monopolistic producer with bountiful expenditures on research. Large-scale enterprises tend to operate more comfortably in stable and secure circumstances, and their managerial bureaucracies tend to promote the status quo and resist the threat implicit in change. Moreover, in some cases, industrial giants faced with little or no competition seek to avoid the capital loss resulting from obsolescence by deliberately obstructing technological progress. By contrast, small firms undeterred by large investments in plant and capital equipment often aggressively pursue new techniques and new products, investing in innovation in order to expand their market shares.The conglomerates are not, however, completely except from strong competitive pressures. There are instances in which they too must compete with another industrial Goliath, and then their weapons may include large expenditures for innovation.1.The primary purpose of the passage is to ( ).2.According to the passage, important inventions of the twentieth century ( ).3.Which of the following best describes the organization of the second paragraph of the passage?4.With which of the following statements would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?5.Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s main point?

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Painter Frida Kahlo (1910―1954) often used harrowing images derived from her Mexican heritage to express suffering caused by a disabling accident and a stormy marriage. Suggesting much personal and emotional content, her works—many of them self-portraits—have been exhaustively psychoanalyzed, while their political content has been less studied. Yet Kahlo was an ardent political activist who in her art sought not only to explore her own roots, but also to champion Mexico’s struggle for an independent political and cultural identity.Kahlo was influenced by Marxism, which appealed to many intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s, and by Mexican nationalism. Interest in Mexico’s culture and history had revived in the nineteenth century, and by the early 1900s, Mexican indigenista tendencies ranged from a violently anti-Spanish idealization of Aztec Mexico to an emphasis on contemporary Mexican Indians as the key to authentic Mexican culture. Mexican nationalism, reacting against contemporary United States political intervention in labor disputes as well as against past domination by Spain, identified the Aztecs as the last independent rulers of an indigenous political unit. Kahlo’s form of Mexicanidad, a romantic nationalism that focused upon traditional art uniting all indigenistas, revered the Aztecs as a powerful pre-Columbian society that had united a large area of the Middle Americas and that was thought to have been based on communal labor, the Marxist ideal.In her paintings, Kahlo repeatedly employed Aztec symbols, such as skeletons or bleeding hearts that were traditionally related to the emanation of life from death and light from darkness. These images of destruction coupled with creation speak not only to Kahlo’s personal battle for life, but also to the Mexican struggle to emerge as a nation—by implication, to emerge with the political and cultural strength admired in the Aztec civilization. Self-portrait on the Border between Mexico and the United States (1932), for example, shows Kahlo wearing a bone necklace, holding a Mexican flag, and standing between a highly industrialized United States and an agricultural, pre-industrial Mexico. On the United States side are mechanistic and modern images such as smokestacks, light bulbs, and robots. In contrast, the organic and ancient symbols on the Mexican side—a blood-drenched Sun, lush vegetation, an Aztec sculpture, a pre-Columbian temple, and a skull alluding to those that lined the walls of Aztec temples—emphasize the interrelation of life, death, the earth, and the cosmos.Kahlo portrayed Aztec images in the folkloric style of traditional Mexican paintings, thereby heightening the clash between modern materialism and indigenous tradition; similarly, she favored planned economic development, but not at the expense of cultural identity. Her use of familiar symbols in a readily accessible style also served her goal of being popularly understood; in turn, Kahlo is viewed by some Mexicans as a mythic figure representative of nationalism itself.1.Which one of the following best expresses the main point of the passage?2.Which one of the following statements concerning psychoanalytic and political interpretations of Kahlo's work would the author be most likely to agree?3.Which one of the following stances toward the United States does the passage mention as characterizing Mexican nationalists in the early twentieth century?4.In the context of the passage, which one of the following phrases could best be substituted for the word "romantic"(Paragraph 2, Line 7) without substantially changing the author's meaning?5.The passage implies that Kahlo's attitude toward the economic development of Mexico was().

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Medievalists usually distinguish medieval public law from private law: the former was concerned with government and military affairs and the latter with the family, social status, and land transactions. Examination on medieval women’s lives shows this distinction to be overly simplistic. Although medieval women were legally excluded from roles that categorized as public, such as soldier, justice, jury member, or professional administrative official, women’s control of land—usually considered a private or domestic phenomenon—had important political implications in the feudal system of thirteenth-century England. Since land equaled wealth and wealth equaled power, certain women exercised influence by controlling land. Unlike unmarried women who were legally subject to their guardians or married women who had no legal identity separate from their husbands, women who were widows had autonomy with respect to acquiring or disposing of certain property, suing in court, incurring liability for their own debts, and making wills.Although feudal lands were normally transferred through primogeniture (the eldest son inheriting all), when no sons survived, the surviving daughters inherited equal shares under what was known as partible inheritance. In addition to controlling any such land inherited from her parents and any bridal dowry—property a woman brought to the marriage from her own family—a widow was entitled to use of one-third of her late husband’s lands. Called “dower” in England, this grant had greater legal importance under common law than did the bridal dowry; no marriage was legal unless the groom endowed the bride with this property at the wedding ceremony. In 1215 Magna Carta (The charter of English political and civil liberties granted by King John at Runnymede in June 1215) guaranteed a widow’s right to claim her dower without paying a fine; this document also strengthened widow’s ability to control land by prohibiting forced remarriage. After 1272 women could also benefit from jointure: the groom could agree to hold part or all of his lands jointly with the bride, so that if one spouse died, the other received these lands.Since many widows had inheritances as well as dowers, widows were frequently the financial heads of the family; even though legal theory assumed the maintenance of the principle of primogeniture, the amount of land the widow controlled could exceed that of her son or of other male heirs. Anyone who held feudal land exercised authority over the people attached to the land—knights, rental tenants, and peasants—and had to hire estate administrators, oversee accounts, receive rents, protect tenants from outside encroachment, punish tenants for not paying rents, appoint priests to local parishes, and act as guardians of tenants, children and executors of their wills. Many married women fulfilled these duties as deputies for husbands away at court or at war, but widows could act on their own behalf. Widow’s legal independence is suggested by their frequent appearance in thirteenth-century English legal records. Moreover, the scope of their sway (a: a controlling influence b: sovereign power: DOMINION c: the ability to exercise influence or authority: DOMINANCE; synonyms see POWER.) is indicated by the fact that some controlled not merely single estates, but multiple counties.1.Which one of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?2.Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the word “sway” as it is used in Line 33 of the passage?3.Which one of the following most accurately describes the function of the second paragraph of the passage?4.According to information in the passage, a widow in early thirteenth-century England could control more land than did her eldest son if ( ).5.The primary purpose of the passage is to ( ).

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For years scholars have contrasted slavery in the United States and in Brazil, stimulated by the fact that racial patterns assumed such different aspects in the two countries after emancipation. Brazil never developed a system of rigid segregation of the sort that replaced slavery in the United States, and its racial system was fluid (a situation that is fluid is likely to change) because its definition of race was based as much on characteristics such as economic status as on skin color. Until recently, the most persuasive explanation for these differences was that Portuguese institutions especially the Roman Catholic church and Roman civil law, promoted recognition of the slave’s humanity. The English colonists, on the other hand, constructed their system of slavery out of whole cloth (whole cloth: pure fabrication usually used in the phrase out of whole cloth). There were simply no precedents in English common law, and separation of church and state barred Protestant clergy from the role that priests assumed in Brazil.But the assumption that institutions alone could so powerfully affect the history of two raw and malleable frontier (a new field for exploitative or developmental activity) countries seems, on reexamination, untenable. Recent studies focus instead on a particular set of contrasting economic circumstances and demographic profiles at significant periods in the histories of the two countries. Persons of mixed race quickly appeared in both countries. In the United States they were considered to be Black, a social definition that was feasible because they were in the minority. In Brazil, it was not feasible. Though intermarriage was illegal in both countries, the laws were unenforceable in Brazil since Whites formed a small minority in an overwhelmingly Black population. Manumission for persons of mixed race was also easier in Brazil, particularly in the nineteenth century when in the United States it was hedged about with difficulties. Furthermore, a shortage of skilled workers in Brazil provided persons of mixed race with the opportunity to learn crafts and trades, even before general emancipation, whereas in the United States entry into these occupations was blocked by Whites sufficiently numerous to fill the posts. The consequence was the development in Brazil of a large class of persons of mixed race, proficient in skilled trades and crafts, who stood waiting as a community for freed slaves to join.There should be no illusion that Brazilian society after emancipation was color-blind. Rather, the large population of persons of mixed race produced a racial system that included a third status, a bridge between the Black caste and the White, which could be traversed by means of economic or intellectual achievement, marriage, or racial heritage. The strict and sharp line between the races so characteristic of the United States in the years immediately after emancipation was simply absent. With the possible exception of New Orleans, no special “place” developed in the United States for persons of mixed race.Sad to say, every pressure of society worked to prevent their attaining anything approximating the economic and social position available to their counterparts in Brazil.1.In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with ( ).2.According to the passage, early scholars explained the differences between the racial systems that developed in the United States and in Brazil as the result of which of the following factors?3.In the context in which it is found, the phrase “constructed their system of slavery out of whole cloth” (Paragraph 1, Line 8) implies that the system of slavery established by theEnglish settlers was( ).4.The author implies that the explanation proposed by early scholars for the differences between the systems of slavery in the United States and in Brazils ( ) .5.The author mentions intermarriage, manumission, and the shortage of skilled workers in Brazil primarily in order to establish which of the following?

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Who won the World Cup 1994 football game? What happened at the United Nations? How did the critics like the new play?(1) an event takes place, newspapers are on the street (2) the details.(3) anything happens in the world, reporters are on the spot to gather the news.Newspapers have one basic (4) to get the news as quickly as possible from its source, from those who make it to those who want to (5) it.Radio, telegraph, television, and (6) inventions brought competition for newspapers. So did the development of magazines and other means of communication. (7), this competition merely spurred the newspapers on. They quickly made use of the newer and faster means of communication to improve the(8) and thus the efficiency of their own operations. Today more newspapers are(9) and read than ever before. Competition also led newspapers to (10) out into many other fields. Besides keeping readers informed of the latest news, today’s newspapers entertain and influence readers about politics and other important and serious (11) .Newspapers influence readers, economic choices (12) advertising. Most newspapers depend on advertising for their very (13) . Newspapers are sold at a price that (14) even a small fraction of the cost of production. The main (15) of income for most newspapers is commercial advertising. The (16) in selling advertising depends newspaper’s value to advertisers. This (17) in terms of circulation. How many people read the newspaper?Circulation depends (18) on the work of the circulation department and on the services or entertainment (19) in a newspaper’s pages. But for the most part, circulation depends on a newspaper’s value to readers as a source of information (20) the community, city, county, state, nation and world — and even outer space.

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Brenda Farmer and Willie Blanscet have sat across from each other on the Butterball bagging line for 17 years, 102 cold, raw turkeys sliding by in front of them every minute. “Me and Willie look at each other and say, ‘How in the world can anybody eat this much turkey? ’” The odds are good that yours may be one. 1. The women, along with workers at another Butterball plant a 90-minute drive away, help produce about a third of the 43 million turkeys the nation will eat today, according to the National Turkey Federation.This comer of northwest Arkansas is not the land of free-running heritage birds that command $16 a pound. A leisurely morning browsing the farmers, market is not how most people spend a Saturday.2. In this community of 3,000 on the Arkansas River, where everyone is cheering on the Hillbillies, the high school football team that made it to the state playoffs, turkey is an industry. And a job at the Butterball plant is one of the most reliable in town.The median income in Franklin County is just over $30, 000 a year. Unemployment is at 7. 3 percent. Every week, a dozen or so people show up at the plant looking for work. Maybe two get hired, plant managers said.It is not easy work. Turkeys need to be stunned and dispatched and gutted. Someone has to cut the oil gland out of the tail. Necks and gizzards and livers have to be cleaned and stuffed into a cavity. 3. During a six-week period that begins in October, the line runs seven days a week to process fresh turkey. It is a period people in town simply refer to as “fresh”, and it is grueling.“It’s a long battle when we’re working fresh, but I at least got some bills paid and Christmas money,” Mrs. Farmer said. “I just sit there and hum and sing and talk to my friend Willie. We get through it together.”

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Years of research had educated me about how sugar, fat, and salt change the brain. I understood some of the parallels between hyperpalatable foods and drugs of abuse, and about the links among sensory stimulation, cues, and memory. I’d met enough people like Claudia and Maria to understand how even the thought of food could cause them to lose control.But I wasn’t fully prepared for the discoveries I made about irresistibility and whoosh, the Monster Thick burger and Baked! Cheetos Flamin’ Hot, about indulgence and purple cows. Without necessarily understanding the underlying science, the food industry has discovered what sells.I was sitting at Chili’s Grill & Bar in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport waiting for a late-night flight. At a nearby table a couple in their early forties was deep into a meal. The woman was overweight, with about 180 pounds on her five-foot-four-inch frame. The Southwestern Eggrolls she had ordered were listed as a starter course, but the enormous platter in front of her had been heaped with food. The dish was described on the menu as "smoked chicken, black beans, com, Jack cheese, red peppers, and spinach wrapped inside a crispy flour tortilla," and it was served with a creamy avocado-ranch dipping sauce. Despite its name, the dish looked more like a burrito than an egg roll, an only-in-America fusion approach.I watched as the woman attacked her food with vigor and speed. She held the egg roll in one hand, dunked it into the sauce, and brought it to her mouth while using the fork in her other hand to scoop up more sauce. Occasionally she reached over and speared some of her companion’s French fries. The woman ate steadily, working her way around the plate with scant pause for conversation or rest. When she finally paused, only a little lettuce was left.Had she known someone was watching her, I’m sure she would have eaten differently. Had she been asked to describe what she had just eaten, she probably would have substantially underestimated her consumption. And she would probably have been surprised to learn what the ingredients in her meal really were.The woman might have been interested in how my industry source, who had called sugar, fat, and salt the three points of the compass, described her entree. Deep-frying the tortilla drives down its water content from 40 percent to about 5 percent and replaces the rest with fat. “The tortilla is really going to absorb a lot of fat,” he said. “It looks like an egg roll is supposed to look, which is crispy and brown on the outside.”The food consultant read through other ingredients on the label, keeping up a running commentary as he did. “Cooked white meat chicken, binder added, smoke flavor. People like smoky flavor — it’s the caveman in them.”“There’s green stuff in there,” he said, noting the spinach. “That makes me feel like I’m eating something healthy.”“Shredded Monterey Jack cheese... The increase in per-capita consumption of cheese is off the chart.”The hot peppers, he said, “add a little spice, but not too much to kill everything else off.” He believed the chicken had been chopped and formed much like a meat loaf, with binders added, which makes those calories easy to swallow. Ingredients that hold moisture, including autolyzed yeast extract, sodium phosphate, and soy protein concentrate, further soften the food. I noticed that salt appeared eight times on the label and that sweeteners were there five times, in the form of com-syrup solids, molasses, honey, brown sugar, and sugar.“This is highly processed?” I asked.“Absolutely, yes. All of this has been processed such that you can wolf it down fast... chopped up and made ultrapalatable... Very appealing looking, very high pleasure in the food, very high caloric density. Rules out all that stuff you have to chew.”By eliminating the need to chew, modern food processing techniques allow us to eat faster. “When you’re eating these things, you’ve had 500, 600, 800, 900 calories before you know it,” said the consultant. “Literally before you know it.” Refined food simply melts in the mouth.1.What can be inferred from the author’s description of the woman eating in paragraph four?2.According to the passage, the main reason why people overeat is that ( ).3.The following are all ingredients in the egg rolls EXCEPT ( ).4.Which of the following statements best describes the main idea of the passage?5.In the first sentence of Paragraph four, the word “vigor” most nearly means( ).

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In the eighteenth century, Japan’s feudal overlords, from the shogun to the humblest samurai, found themselves under financial stress. In part, this stress can be attributed to the overlords’ failure to adjust to a rapidly expanding economy, but the stress was also due to factors beyond the overlords’ control. Concentration of the samurai in castle-towns had acted as a stimulus to trade. Commercial efficiency, in turn, had put temptations in the way of buyers. Since most samurai had been reduced to idleness by years of peace, encouraged to engage in scholarship and martial exercises or to perform administrative tasks that took little time, it is not surprising that their tastes and habits grew expensive. Overlords’ income, despite the increase in rice production among their tenant farmers, failed to keep pace with their expenses. Although shortfalls in overlords’ income resulted almost as much from laxity among their tax collectors (the nearly inevitable outcome of hereditary office-holding) as from their higher standards of living, a misfortune like a fire or flood, bringing an increase in expenses or a drop in revenue, could put a domain in debt to the city rice-brokers who handled its finances. Once in debt, neither the individual samurai nor the shogun himself found it easy to recover.It was difficult for individual samurai over lords to increase their income because the amount of rice that farmers could be made to pay in taxes was not unlimited, and since the income of Japan’s central government consisted in part of taxes collected by the shogun from his huge domain, the government too was constrained. Therefore, the Tokugawa shoguns began to look to other sources for revenue. Cash profits from government-owned mines were already on the decline because the most easily worked deposits of silver and gold had been exhausted, although debasement of the coinage had compensated for the loss. Opening up new farmland was a possibility, but most of what was suitable had already been exploited and further reclamation was technically unfeasible. Direct taxation of the samurai themselves would be politically dangerous. This left the shoguns only commerce as a potential source of government income.Most of the country’s wealth, or so it seemed, was finding its way into the hands of city merchants. It appeared reasonable that they should contribute part of that revenue to ease the shogun’s burden of financing the state. A means of obtaining such revenue was soon found by levying forced loans, known as goyo-kin; although these were not taxes in the strict sense, since they were irregular in timing and arbitrary in amount, they were high in yield. Unfortunately, they pushed up prices. Thus, regrettably, the Tokugawa shoguns,search for solvency for the government made it increasingly difficult for individual Japanese who lived on fixed stipends to make ends meet.1.The passage is most probably an excerpt from( ).2.Which of the following financial situations is most analogous to the financial situation in which Japan’s Tokugawa shoguns found themselves in the eighteenth century?3.Which of the following best describes the attitude of the author toward the samurai discussed in Sentence 5, Paragraph 1?4.The passage suggests that, in eighteenth-century Japan, the office of tax collector( ).5.The passage implies that which of the following was the primary reason why the Tokugawa shoguns turned to city merchants for help in financing the state?

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