Where does this conversation probably take place

正确

错误

He will lose weight quickly.

He will lose some weight after the diet.

He will gain weight.

He is twelve.

He is thirteen.

He is thirty.

Global energy demand is expected to triple by mid-century. The earth is unlikely to run out of fossil fuels by then, given its vast reserves of coal, but it seems unthinkable that we will continue to use them as we do now. It’s not just a question of supply and price, or even of the disease caused by filthy air. The terrorist assault on the World Trade Center raises other scary scenarios: how much easier would it be to crack open the Trans-Alaska pipeline and how much deadlier would it be to bomb a nuclear plant than to attack a wind arm

Skeptics may recall the burst of enthusiasm for conservation and renewable power when oil prices quadrupled in the 1970s. State-funded energy research and development surged, while tax incentives boosted solar, wind and other alternatives to petroleum and the atom. But when oil supplies loosened and prices dropped in the early 1990s, governments lost interest. In the state of California, subsidies evaporated, pushing wind companies into bankruptcy.

Clean energy has long way to go. Only 2.2% of the world’s energy comes from "new" renewables such as small hydroelectric dams, wind, solar and geothermal. How to boost that share--and at what pace--is debated in industrialized nations--from Japan, which imports 99.7 % of its oil, to Germany, where the nearby Chernobyl accident turned the public against nuclear plants, to the U.S., where the Bush Administration has strong ties to the oil industry. But the momentum toward clean renewables is undeniable. How soon we reach an era of clean, inexhaustible energy depends on technology. Solar and wind energies are intermittent: When the sky is cloudy or the breeze dies down, fossil fuel or nuclear plants must kick into compensate. But scientists are working on better ways to store electricity from renewable sources.

While developed nations debate how to fuel their power plants, however, some 1.6 billion people--a quarter of the globe’s population--have no access to electricity or gasoline. Many spend their days collecting firewood and cow dung, burning it in primitive stoves that belch smoke into their lungs. To emerge from poverty, they need modern energy. And renewables can help. From village-scale hydropower to household photovoltaic systems to bio-gas stoves that convert dung into fuel.

Ultimately, the earth can meet its energy needs without fouling the environment. "But it won’t happen," asserts Thomas Johansson, an energy adviser to the United Nations Development Program, "without political will." To begin with, widespread government subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy must be dismantled to level the playing field for renewables. Moreover, government should pressure utility to meet targets for renewable sources of energy.

Read the following passage. For each numbered blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choices the best one and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

Excitement, fatigue, and anxiety can all be detected from someone’s blinks, according to psychologist John Stern (21) Washington University in St. Louis. Stern specialized in the study on these tiny twitches, using them as sensitive (22) of how the brain works. "I use blinks as a psychological measure to make (23) about thinking because I have very little (24) in what you tell me about what you are thinking." He says. "If I ask you the question, ’what does the phrase a rolling stone gathers no moss mean’ you can’t tell me (25) you’ve started looking for the answer. But I can, by watching your eyes."

Blinks also tell Stern when you have understood his question--often long before he’s finished asking it--and when you’ve found an answer or part of (26) . "We blink at times (27) are psychologically important." He says. "You have listened to a question, you understand it, (28) you can take time out for a blink. Blinks are (29) marks. Their timing is tied to what is going on in your (30) ."

Stern has found that (31) suppress blinks when they are absorbing or anticipating (32) but not when they’re reciting it. People blink later, for example, (33) they have to memorize six numbers instead of two. "You don’t blink," he says, "until you have (34) the information to some short-term memory store." And if subjects are cued (35) the set of numbers is coming, say, five seconds, they’ll curb their blinks until the task is (36) . Similarly, the more important the information that people are taking in, the more likely they are to put their blinks on hold for (37) Pilots blink less when they’re (38) for flying a plane than when they (39) their eyes from the road to the rearview mirror. But if they see the flashing lights of a state trooper behind them, their (40) will move fast to the speed-meter and back to the mirror.

America.

Britain.

France.

Read the following passage. For each numbered blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choices the best one and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

Excitement, fatigue, and anxiety can all be detected from someone’s blinks, according to psychologist John Stern (21) Washington University in St. Louis. Stern specialized in the study on these tiny twitches, using them as sensitive (22) of how the brain works. "I use blinks as a psychological measure to make (23) about thinking because I have very little (24) in what you tell me about what you are thinking." He says. "If I ask you the question, ’what does the phrase a rolling stone gathers no moss mean’ you can’t tell me (25) you’ve started looking for the answer. But I can, by watching your eyes."

Blinks also tell Stern when you have understood his question--often long before he’s finished asking it--and when you’ve found an answer or part of (26) . "We blink at times (27) are psychologically important." He says. "You have listened to a question, you understand it, (28) you can take time out for a blink. Blinks are (29) marks. Their timing is tied to what is going on in your (30) ."

Stern has found that (31) suppress blinks when they are absorbing or anticipating (32) but not when they’re reciting it. People blink later, for example, (33) they have to memorize six numbers instead of two. "You don’t blink," he says, "until you have (34) the information to some short-term memory store." And if subjects are cued (35) the set of numbers is coming, say, five seconds, they’ll curb their blinks until the task is (36) . Similarly, the more important the information that people are taking in, the more likely they are to put their blinks on hold for (37) Pilots blink less when they’re (38) for flying a plane than when they (39) their eyes from the road to the rearview mirror. But if they see the flashing lights of a state trooper behind them, their (40) will move fast to the speed-meter and back to the mirror.

Another month, another dismal set of job figures. America pulled out of its last economic recession way back in November 2001, yet the country’s "jobs recession" finished only last autumn, when 2.7 million jobs had been lost since the start of the slowdown. Now, though economic growth has bounced back, new jobs refuse to do the same in this, the third year of recovery. In February, a mere 21,000 jobs were created, according to the official payroll survey, at a time when George Bush’s economists forecast 2.6 million new jobs for 2004 mounting alarm at the White House, and increased calls for protection against what a growing number of Americans see as the root of most ills: the "outsourcing" of jobs to places like China and India. Last week the Senate approved a bill that forbids the outsourcing of government contracts--a curious case of a government guaranteeing not to deliver value-for-money to taxpayers. American anxiety over the economy appears to have tipped over into paranoia and self-delusion.

Too strong Not really. As The Economist has recently argued--though in the face of many angry readers--the jobs lost are mainly a cyclical affair, not a structural one. They must also be set against the 24 million new jobs created during the 1990s. Certainly, the slow pace of job-creation today is without precedent, but so were the conditions that conspired to slow a booming economy at the beginning of the decade. A stock market bubble burst, and rampant business investment slumped. Then, when the economy was down, terrorist attacks were followed by a spate of scandals that undermined public trust in the way companies were run. These acted as powerful headwinds and, in the face of them, the last recession was remarkably mild. By the same token, the recovery is mild, too. Still, in the next year or so, today’s high productivity growth will start to translate into more jobs. Whether that is in time for Mr. Bush is another matter.

As for outsourcing, it is implausible now, as Lawrence Katz at Harvard University argues, to think that outsourcing has profoundly changed the structure of the American economy over just the past three or four years. After all, outsourcing was in full swing--both in manufacturing and in services--throughout the job-creating 1990s. Government statisticians reckon that outsourced jobs are responsible for well under 1% of those signed up as unemployed. And the jobs lost to outsourcing pale in comparison with the number of jobs lost and created each month at home.

Yes.

No.

Not mentioned.

Mother and son.

Teacher and student.

Doctor and patient.