Text 3Who's to blame? The trail of responsibility goes beyond poor maintenance of British railways, say industry critics. Stingy governments-both Labor and Tory-have cut down on investments in trains and rails.ln the mid-1990s a Conservative government pushed through the sale of the entire subsidy-guzzling rail network. Operating franchises were parceled out among private comparues and a separate firm,Railtrack, was awarded ownership of the tracks and stations. In the future, the theory ran back then, the private sector could pay for any improvements-with a little help from the state-and take the blame for any failings.Today surveys show that travelers believe privatization is one of the reasons for the railways 's failures. They ask whether the pursuit of profits is compatible with guaranteeing safety. Worse, splitting the network between companies has made coordination nearly impossible. "The railway was tom apart at privatization and the structure that was put in place was. . . designed, if we are honest, to maximize the proceeds to the Treasury," said Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett before resigning last month in the wake of the Hatfield crash.Generally, the contrasts with mainland Europe are stark. Over the past few decades the Germans, French and Italians have invested 50 percent more than the British in transportation infrastructure. As a result, a web of high-speed trains now crisscross the Continent, funded by governments willing to commit state funds to major capital projects. Spain is currently planning l,000 miles of new high- speed track.ln France superfast trains already shuttle between all major cities, often on dedicated lines. And in Britain? When the Eurostar trains that link Paris, London and Brussels emerge from the Channel Tunnel onto British soil and join the crowded local network, they must slow down from 186 mph to a maximum of 100 mph-and they usually have to go even slower.For once, the government is listening. After all, commuters are voters, too. In a pre-vote spending spree, the govemment has committed itself to huge investment in transportation, as well as education and the public health service. Over the next 10 years, the railways should get an extra ￡60 billion, partly through higher subsidies to the private companies. As Blair ackoowledged last month, " Britain has been underinvested in and investment is central to Britain's future. " You don't have to tell the 3 million passengers who use the railways every day. Last week trains to Darlington were an hour late-and crawling at Locomotion No.l speeds.51. In the first paragraph, the author tries to[ A] trace the tragedy to its defective origin.[ B] remind people of Britain's glonous past.[ C] explain the failure of Britain's rail network.[ D] call for impartiality in assessing the situation.
Text 3
Who's to blame? The trail of responsibility goes beyond poor maintenance of British railways, say industry critics. Stingy governments-both Labor and Tory-have cut down on investments in trains and rails.ln the mid-1990s a Conservative government pushed through the sale of the entire subsidy-guzzling rail network. Operating franchises were parceled out among private comparues and a separate firm,Railtrack, was awarded ownership of the tracks and stations. In the future, the theory ran back then, the private sector could pay for any improvements-with a little help from the state-and take the blame for any failings.
Today surveys show that travelers believe privatization is one of the reasons for the railways 's failures. They ask whether the pursuit of profits is compatible with guaranteeing safety. Worse, splitting the network between companies has made coordination nearly impossible. "The railway was tom apart at privatization and the structure that was put in place was. . . designed, if we are honest, to maximize the proceeds to the Treasury," said Railtrack boss Gerald Corbett before resigning last month in the wake of the Hatfield crash.
Generally, the contrasts with mainland Europe are stark. Over the past few decades the Germans, French and Italians have invested 50 percent more than the British in transportation infrastructure. As a result, a web of high-speed trains now crisscross the Continent, funded by governments willing to commit state funds to major capital projects. Spain is currently planning l,000 miles of new high- speed track.ln France superfast trains already shuttle between all major cities, often on dedicated lines. And in Britain? When the Eurostar trains that link Paris, London and Brussels emerge from the Channel Tunnel onto British soil and join the crowded local network, they must slow down from 186 mph to a maximum of 100 mph-and they usually have to go even slower.
For once, the government is listening. After all, commuters are voters, too. In a pre-vote spending spree, the govemment has committed itself to huge investment in transportation, as well as education and the public health service. Over the next 10 years, the railways should get an extra ￡60 billion, partly through higher subsidies to the private companies. As Blair ackoowledged last month, " Britain has been underinvested in and investment is central to Britain's future. " You don't have to tell the 3 million passengers who use the railways every day. Last week trains to Darlington were an hour late-and crawling at Locomotion No.l speeds.
51. In the first paragraph, the author tries to
[ A] trace the tragedy to its defective origin.
[ B] remind people of Britain's glonous past.
[ C] explain the failure of Britain's rail network.
[ D] call for impartiality in assessing the situation.
相关考题：
It was believed before 1980s that the government should play the central role in the promotion and maintenance of the social prosperity.() 此题为判断题(对，错)。
For years people have been saying that the railways are dead. We all keep hearing that trains are slow, that they lose money, that they’re dying. But this is far from the true. In these days of expensive oil, the railways have become highly competitive with motorcars and planes. If you want to carry people or goods from place to place, they’re cheaper than planes. And they have much in common with planes. A plane goes in a straight line and so does a railway. What is more, a railway takes you from the heart of a city center. It doesn’t hold you up as a car does, in endless traffic jams. And a single train can carry goods which no plane or motorcar could ever do.Far from being dead, the railways are very much alive. Modern railway lines give you a smooth, untroubled journey. Where else can you eat well, sleep in comfort, feel safe and enjoy the scene while you are traveling at speed at the same time? And we are only at the beginning. For we have just entered the age of super-fast trains, trains traveling at 150 miles an hour and more. Soon we will be wondering why we spent so much on motorways we can’t use because we have not enough money to buy the oil and planes we can’t fly in for the same reason.1. Some people think the railways are dead for many reasons EXCEPT that ____.A. planes and motorcars have taken the place of trainsB. oil is expensive todayC. trains are slowD. railways lose money2. The writers idea seems to be that ______.A. we can do without railwaysB. trains have much in common with motorcars and planesC. motorcars and planes are not as good as trainsD. trains are as good as motorcars and planes3. According to the writer, which of the following is NOT the advantage of railways?A. It is cheaper to travel by train than by plane.B. Super-fast trains travel even faster than planes.C. The railway station is usually at the center of a city.D. A train carries more goods than a motorcar or plane does.4. The writer thinks that the railways, far from being dead, are very much alive because ___________.A. we can have a smooth and untroubled journeyB. we’ll not have enough money to fly everywhereC. we can now travel in super-fast trainsD. all of the above5. The best title for this passage may be ________.A. The Best Choice: Train, Motorcar or PlaneB. The Dying RailwaysC. Super-fast Trains in the FutureD. Not the End, But the Beginning
I understand that the governor is considering a new plan_____. A、to cause that the amount of papers written in government offices reducedB、what would eliminate unnecessary writing in governmentC、that would eliminate unnecessary paperwork in governmentD、who want to cut down the amount of writing in government
The government decided to ____ its military expenditure. A. cut offB. cut upC. cut awayD. cut down on
The author is most critical of_____.［A］ the media ［B］ doctors ［C］ U. S. Legislators ［D］ the British government
The Law to Keep the Oil Industry under ControlThe Norwegian Government is doing its best to keep the oil industry under control.A new law limits exploration to an area south of the southern end of the long coastline;production limits have been laid down(though these have already beenraised);and oil companies have not been allowed to employ more than a limited number of foreign workers.But the oil industry has a way of getting over such problems,and few people believe that the Government will be able to hold things back for long.As on Norwegian politician said last week:“We will soon be changed beyond all recognition.”Ever since the war,the Government has been carrying out a programme of development in the area north of the ArcticCircle.During the past few years this programme has had a great deal of success:Tromso has been built up into a localcapital with a university,a large hospital and a healthy industry.But the oil industry has already started to draw people south,and within a few years the whole northern policy could be in ruins.The effects of the oil industry would not be limited to the north,however.With nearly 100 percent employment,everyonecan see a situation developing in which the service industries and the tourist industry will lose more of their workers to the oilindustry.Some smaller industries might even disappear altogether when it becomes cheaper to buy goods from abroad.Thereal argument over oil is its threat to the Norwegian way of life.Farmers and fishermen do not make up most of the population,but they are an important part of it,because Norwegians see in them many of the qualities that they regard with pride asessentially Norwegian.And it is the farmers and the fishermen who are most critical of the oil industry because of the damagethat it might cause to the countryside and to the sea.The Norwegian Government would prefer the oil industry to______.A.provide more jobs for foreign workers.B.slow down the rate of its development.C.sell the oil it is producing abroad.D.develop more quickly than at present.
Text 2 Obesity used to be regarded as a disease of afiluent societies.In a sense,of course,this is true:you cannot be obese if you cannot afford enough calories.But we now understand that the story is more complex,and that children from low-income groups are more likely to be obese than those from the highest-income groups.Our understanding of sleep deprivation has yet to see a similar evolution.Almost half the British population say they get six hours'sleep a night or less,compared with around a twelfth in 1942.Experts blame developments such as electriiication and the proliferation of entertainment,one neuroscientist went so far as to warn of a"catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic"recently.We need sleep for mental and physical recovery;for cognitive control,memory and leaming.Sleep loss is associated with everything from obesity and Alzheimer's disease to diabetes and poor mental health.Sleep evangelists（布i道者）such as Arianna Huffington portray a world of busy professionals sending emails into the early hours,teenagers watching televisions in their bedrooms and parents shopping online when they should be winding down.The solutions are obvious,even if we struggle to find the discipline to implement them:turn offyour phone and for goodness sake go to bed..The truth is that poorer people sleep worse.You cannot buy sleep itself,but you must pay for the circumstances likely to induce it.Overcrowded,noisy,cold or unsafe housing makes sleep harder.So does shift work-especially ifit is casualised and unpredictable.Poor nutrition and stress also take their toll.We worried about reaching for our smartphone at night,while those making the devices sleep on hard beds in shared dormitories with coworkers clattering to and fro,as Benjamin Reiss observes in his book Wild Nights."Social inequities are reproduced and even multiplied in sleep,"he writes;children in bad housing will struggle to concentrate in class after a poor night's sleep.The gap is racial too.Lauren Hale,an expert on social patrerns of sleep,notes that fewer black people get the recommended amount of sleep than any other ethnic group in the U.S.,and less of it is the most restorative kind.Racism may itself affect sleep,perhaps because of the stress it causes;African Americans who report discrimination are more likely to say they sleep poorly than those who do not.Sleep is a social justice issue,requiring social solutions.Telling people to cut down on coffee is easy;improving labour laws is harder.But when people's sleep problems reflect their lack of control over their lives,telling them they should change how they live is profoundly unhelpful.28.The plrrase"winding down"（Para.3）most probably meansA.dreaming up.B.calming down.C.lying down.D.hanging out.
Text 1 France,which prides itself as the global innovator of fashion,has decided its fashion industry has lost an absolute right to define physical beauty for women.Its lawmakers gave preliminary approval last week to a law that would make it a crime to employ ultra-thin models on runaways.The parliament also agreed to ban websites that“incite excessive thinness”by promoting extreme dieting.Such measures have a couple of uplifting motives.They suggest beauty should not be defined by looks that end up impinging on health.That’s a start.And the ban on ultra-thin models seems to go beyond protecting models from starving themselves to death-as some have done.It tells the fashion industry that it must take responsibility for the signal it sends women,especially teenage girls,about the social tape-measure they must use to determine their individual worth.The bans,if fully enforced,would suggest to women（and many men）that they should not let others be arbiters of their beauty.And perhaps faintly,they hint that people should look to intangible qualities like character and intellect rather than dieting their way to size zero or wasp-waist physiques.The French measures,however,rely too much on severe punishment to change a culture that still regards beauty as skin-deep-and bone-showing.Under the law,using a fashion model that does not meet a government-defined index of body mass could result in a$85,000 fine and six months in prison.The fashion industry knows it has an inherent problem in focusing on material adornment and idealized body types.In Denmark,the United States,and a few other countries,it is trying to set voluntary standards for models and fashion images that rely more on peer pressure for enforcement.In contrast to France’s actions,Denmark’s fashion industry agreed last month on rules and sanctions regarding the age,health,and other characteristics of models.The newly revised Danish Fashion Ethical Charter clearly states:“We are aware of and take responsibility for the impact the fashion industry has on body ideals,especially on young people.”The charter’s main tool of enforcement is to deny access for designers and modeling agencies to Copenhagen Fashion Week（CFW）,which is run by the Danish Fashion Institute.But in general it relies on a name-and-shame method of compliance.Relying on ethical persuasion rather than law to address the misuse of body ideals may be the best step.Even better would be to help elevate notions of beauty beyond the material standards of a particular industry.Which of the following may be the best title of the text?A.A Challenge to the Fashion Industry’s Body IdealsB.A Dilemma for the Starving Models in FranceC.Just Another Round of Struggle for BeautyD.The Great Threats to the Fashion Industry
Text 1 In the 2006 film version of The Devil Wears Prada,Miranda Priestly,played by Meryl Streep,scold her unattractive assistant for imagining that high fashion doesn’t affect her.Priestly explains how the deep blue color of the assistant’s sweater descended over the years from fashion shows to department stores and to the bargain bin in which the poor girl doubtless found her garment.This top-down conception of the fashion business couldn’t be more out of date or at odds with feverish world described in Overdressed,Elizabeth Cline’s three-year indictment of“fast fashion”.In the last decades or so,advances in technology have allowed mass-market labels such as Zara,Hher example,can’t be knocked off.Though several fast-fashion companies have made efforts to curb their impact on labor and the environment——including Hpeople will only start shopping more sustainably when they can’t afford to it.25.What is the subject of the text?A.Satire on an extravagant lifestyle.B.Challenge to a high-fashion myth.C.Criticism of the fast-fashion industry.D.Exposure of a mass-market secret.
资料： The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem. As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today’s relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor. People are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are Old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age. Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation, they have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job. Other poor people look for a job but cannot find one. Many poor adults never went to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer. At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways. First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer be below the poverty line. Second, if society invests in the poor, the poor will become more productive. If the government spends money on social programs, education, and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer. Then it is more likely that they can find jobs. Finally, if the government distributes society's income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non－poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare. In 1975 over 18 million people in the United States received welfare.Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.For the time being, what is the last solution to guarantee the basic standard of living?A.The growing national economyB.The tax collections from the non-poor classesC.More choices of selectable job vacanciesD.Goverrnment’s investments on the poor to improve their working skills
资料：American Airlines CEO takes blame for maintenance errors, disrupted flightsFriday, April 11,2008By TERRY MAXON and DAVE MICHAELS/The Dallas Morning NewsAmerican Airlines chairman and chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said Thursday that he is taking “personal responsibility” for the bad maintenance that has forced the carrier to cancel some 3,000 flights this week for aircraft inspections.MD-80s sat on the sidelines at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Thursday, when American Airlines canceled more than 930 flights as inspections continued. The Fort Worth-based carrier has canceled 570 flights scheduled today.“I run the company.” Mr.Arpey told reporters at an afternoon news conference.” so if there’s any blame to be had, it is my fault, and I take full responsibility for this.”American canceled more than 930 flights Thursday as its mechanics, quality assurance inspectors and engineers worked to ensure that the carrier’s fleet of 300 MD-80 jets would meet Federal Aviation Administration（FAA） regulations.The Fort Worth-based carrier canceled 570 flights for today as well, and expects the disruptions to continue into the weekend, although an airline spokesman said Saturday’s cancellations should be fewer than today’s.On Tuesday, American grounded its fleet of aging MD-80s,which have an average age of more than 18 years and include some past their 25th birthday, to redo checks of the wiring harnesses in the right wheel well of the jets-only two weeks after it had performed the same inspections.The FAA has said in recent days that its enforcement hasn’t changed or become stricter. But Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said airlines have told her they’ve noticed difference.“The standard is now being very, very rigidly enforced and leeway is being taken away.”Ms,Hutchison said.“I can’t say if it’s food or bad. But I know that it’s changed.”Today, the U.S. has five to eight aviation fatalities per 100 million people who fly each year; during the mid-1990s,it was about 45 deaths per 100 million people flown.The ultimate problem that prompted the grounding of the American Airlines fleet is that ______.A.it has not done any inspections beforeB.its airplanes are far too old to fly any moreC.it has not met the FAA maintenance standardD.the fatality rate has doubled in the last 15 years
共用题干第三篇Oil Industry in NorwayThe Norwegian Government is doing its best to keep the oil industry under control.A new law limits exploration to an area south of the southern end of the long coastline;production limits have been laid down(though these have already been raised);and oil companies have not been allowed to employ more than a limited number of foreign workers.But the oil industry has a way of getting over such problems,and few people believe that the Government will be able to hold things back for long.As an Norwegian politician said last week:"We will soon be changed beyond all recognition."Ever since the war,the Government has been carrying out a program of development in the area north of the Arctic Circle.During the past few years this program has had a great deal of success: Tromso has been built up into a local capital with a university,a large hospital and a healthy industry.But the oil industry has already started to draw people south,and within a few years the whole northern policy could be in ruins.The effects of the oil industry would not be limited to the north,however. With nearly 100 percent employment,everyone can see a situation developing in which the service industries and the tourist industry will lose more of their workers to the oil industry.Some smaller industries might even disappear altogether when it becomes cheaper to buy goods from abroad.The real argument over oil is its threat to the Norwegian way of life.Farmers and fishermen do not make up most of the population,but they are an important part of it,because Norwegians see in them many of the qualities that they regard with pride as essentially Norwegian.And it is the farmers and the fishermen who are most critical of the oil industry because of the damage that it might cause to the countryside and to the sea.The Norwegian Government would prefer the oil industry to________.A:provide more jobs for foreign workersB:slow down the rate of its developmentC:sell the oil it is producing abroadD:develop more quickly than at present
The government is spending（）on railways.Amillions of dollarsBmillion of dollarsCmillions of dollarDmillion dollars
Which of the following is not true of British iron and steel industry?（）A、Britain.s steel industry is declining.B、No more new discoveries of iron ore have been found in Britain.C、Supplies of iron ore are now mostly foreign.D、Compared with newer plants in the world,Britain.s steelworks are not efficient.
单选题Some medical care is paid by the U. S. government for _____.Apeople living in the countryBnon-government officialsCpeople with insuranceDthe poor and the old
单选题The purpose of Google’s investments is to _____.Ahelp poor peopleBdevelop new technologyCexpand its own businessDincrease the power of information
单选题The government is spending（）on railways.Amillions of dollarsBmillion of dollarsCmillions of dollarDmillion dollars
单选题Some members of the British government criticized Diana becauseAshe had not consulted the government before the visitBshe was ill-informed of the government’s policyCthey were actually opposed to banning landminesDthey believed that she had misinterpreted the situation in Angola
单选题AIncreasing government’s handouts to the poor.BGovernment’s creation of more jobs.CEncouraging people to find jobs themselves.DRelying on government relief.
单选题Which of the following statements is true of the tobacco industry?ATobacco is bad for people’s health but good for the national economy.BTobacco has had a favourable economic impact in many countries in recent years.CDeveloped countries such as UK and the U.S. should transfer their technology in the tobacco industry to the developing countries.DTobacco industry is bad for the economy for rich and poor countries alike.
问答题In this section, there is one passage followed by a summary. Read the passage carefully and complete the summary below by choosing a maximum of three words from the passage to fill in the spaces 76 - 80. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet. Questions 1-5 are based on the following passage. The British political scene is dominated by two major parties that have quite different political agendas. However, the ideological distance between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party has become less marked, and their policies more difficult to tell apart in recent years. In fact, it would be true to say that both parties consist of conservative, moderate and radical elements, and therefore the general public is often perplexed about which party to vote for. Nonetheless, it is usual to find that a British voter will lean towards supporting one of these two parties and remain faithful to that party for life. The Labour Party’s manifest objective is to safeguard the interests of the common working man and woman, and, in effect, give them political representation in Parliament. The Party has always had strong connections with the trade unions, and, before coming to power, was passionately committed to the concept of a welfare society in which people who are less fortunate than others are politically and financially assisted in their quest for a more equitable slice of the economic pie. The main problem is that such socialist agendas are extremely expensive to implement and maintain, even in a comparatively wealthy country with a large working and, hence, taxpaying population base. Welfare societies tend towards bankruptcy unless government spending is kept in check. Fortunately, the present government recognizes this, and has resisted reckless spending. The Conservative Party, on the other hand, argues that the best way to ensure a fair division of wealth in the country is to allow more freedom to create it. This, in turn, means more job opportunities created, and therefore more wealth available to all. Just how the poor are to share in the distribution of this wealth (beyond being given, at least in theory, the opportunity to create it)is, however, less well understood. Practice, of course, may make nonsense of even the best theoretical intensions, and often the less practically powerful are badly catered for under governments implementing “free-for-all” policies. It is surprising, given the current homogeneity of the two major parties, that less attention than elsewhere in Europe is paid to the smaller political parties such as the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. This may be because British voters distrust parties with platforms based around one or two major current issues alone; the Green Party, for example, is almost solely concerned with the environment. Moreover, when it comes to casting a vote, history shows that the British public tends to resist change and, thus, the status quo is maintained. Summary: Two parties control the British political scene: the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Although recently there are many similarities to be seen in their 1 British voters tend to stay loyal for life to the party of their choice. The Labour Party, encouraged by the 2 ,supports a welfare-based society, whereas the Conservative Party believes that 3 to pursue the creation of wealth ensures that all will eventually benefit from the 4 created. Oddly, Britons do not follow Europeans by paying much attention to smaller political parties, perhaps because their policies are based on just a few 5 political issues.
单选题When an engine is starting and has got a sufficiently high speed, say about 20 rpm,（）Athe starting air supply is cut off and fuel is injected into the cylindersBthe fuel feeding is cut off and the turning gear is put inCthe starting air supply is cut off and turning gear is taken outDthe electric blower is shut down and fuel is injected into the cylinders
单选题If it goes on to ______ its responsibilities, then the British government must act immediately in its place.AdisciplineBabdicateCbashDchallenge
单选题_____ is the primary opposition to the Conservatives.AThe Liberal PartyBThe Conservative PartyCThe Labor PartyDThe Liberal Democratic Party
单选题What is the text mainly about?AWays to cut down the cost of the coverage,BHow to make the report more attractive.CTo describe the work of the executive producer.DTo introduce the style and features of the news programme.
单选题Some medical care is paid by the U. S. government for ______.Apeople living in the countryBnon government officialsCpeople with insuranceDthe poor and the old