试题库在线考试题库-历年真题模拟试题及答案-考博英语在线试题测试中心-希赛网

江西师范大学

European farm ministers have ended three weeks of negotiations with a deal which they claim represents genuine reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). Will it be enough to kick start the Doha world trade negotiations?On the face of it, the deal agreed in the early hours of Thursday June 26th looks promising. Most subsidies linked to specific farm products are, at last, to be broken—the idea is to replace these with a direct payment to farmers, unconnected to particular products. Support prices for several key products, including milk and butter, are to be cut—that should mean European prices eventually falling towards the world market level. Cutting the link between subsidy and production was the main objective of proposals put forward by Mr. Fischler, which had formed the starting point for the negotiations.The CAP is hugely unpopular around the world. It subsidizes European farmers to such an extent that they can undercut farmers from poor countries, who also face trade barriers that largely exclude them from the potentially lucrative European market. Farm trade is also a key feature of the Doha round of trade talks, launched under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2001. Developing countries have lined up alongside a number of industrial countries to demand an end to the massive subsidies Europe pays its farmers. Several Doha deadlines have already been missed because of the EU’s intransigence, and the survival of the talks will be at risk if no progress is made by September, when the world’s trade ministers meet in Cancun, Mexico.But now even the French seem to have gone along with the deal hammered out in Luxembourg—up to a point, anyway. The package of measures gives the green light to the most eager reformers to move fast to implement the changes within their own countries. But there is an escape clause of sorts for the French and other reform-averse nations. They can delay implementation for up to two years. There is also a suggestion that the reforms might not apply where there is a chance that they would lead to a reduction in land under cultivation.These let-outs are potentially damaging for Europe’s negotiations in the Doha round. They could significantly reduce the cost savings that the reforms might otherwise generate and, in turn, keep European expenditure on farm support unacceptably high by world standards. More generally, the escape clauses could undermine the reforms by encouraging the suspicion that the new package will not deliver the changes that its supporters claim. Close analysis of what is inevitably a very complicated package might confirm the skeptics’ fears.1. The deal agreed on Thursday looks promising in that ________.2. It can be inferred from the third paragraph that ________.3. In what case might the escape clauses apply in reform-averse nations?4. The new package of measures is inevitably a complicated one due to ________.5. What is the passage mainly about?

Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers—using nonscientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been nonverbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details; and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them.The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should the valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions, such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock in trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail “hard thinking”, nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.If courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of 23 high-speed railroad cars loaded with high-tech controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because the fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations, they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.1. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with ________.2. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?3. It can be inferred that the author thinks engineering curricula are ________.4. Which of the following does the author seem to be in agreement with?5. The example of the early models of high-speed railroad cars is used to ________.

In recent years, backpacks have begun sporting outside pockets that are, not coincidentally, the perfect size for an iPod. Handbags routinely feature cell-phone compartments. And now, from practical to modern, the fashion industry is taking a cue from these gadgets, integrating their technologies into the fabrics rather than merely providing storage for them.Known as “haute tech”, these designs sometimes resemble costumes borrowed from the set of a sci-fi thriller. Like an old mood ring, one dress can sense the mood of its wearer by gauging his or her gestures and then respond with an appropriate song from its MP3-integrayed hoof. The innovations know no bounds, and can be quite funny; Erik De Nijs, a student at the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands, created a pair of tech jeans that incorporates a wireless Bluetooth keyboard into the lap of the pants. Speakers are integrated into the knees of the jeans and a mouse is conveniently stored in the back pocket. While some might find this kind of lap typing mildly vulgar, it highlights the way haute tech is pushing practical, wearable technology. Other garments use a nickel-and-titanium shape-memory alloy to move shining panels of fabric as if they are breathing, like coral shifting with the tide.“Clothing becomes the interface to tell a story,” says British haute tech designer Di Mainstone, an artist in residence at New York’s Eyebeam studio.One of Mainstone’s newest projects, Sharewear, stems from the idea that in today’s fast-paced society, time for “intimate homey encounters” is limited. So Mainstone created a costume made up of modules inspired by icons of the home, like the armrest of a favorite sofa. In addition to looking cool, Sharewear is meant to evoke the idea that clothing serves both to shelter and to define us—just like our homes. “I wanted that esthetic of something that was very familiar,” Mainstone says.Widely credited as the founder of haute tech, British designer Hussein Chalayan—twice named British designer of the year—is the subject of a fun and fascinating new exhibit at the London Design Museum called “From Fashion and Back” (through May 17), which highlights his 15-year career. Among the items on display: a garment made of crystals and 200 moving lasers to create a living light show, and two LED-screen video dresses that illuminate underwater sea life. Chalayan believes that integrating technology with fashion is “the only way in the world to create something new,” he says. “These are the prototypes for things to come. They need this investment.”1. Where do fashion designers get the idea of integrating technology into fabrics from?2. What does Erik De Nijs integrate into the fabrics of his design?3. Which of the following is one of Mainstone’s thoughts according to the passage?4. What does the word “these” (Line 7, Para.4) refer to?5. What conclusion can we draw from the passage?

In the wake of an increasing number of cheating cases and emergence of cheating by advanced technology, the academic honesty contract has been introduced at numerous campuses before examinations. It is assumed that such contracts may help discourage cheating. Do you believe that such a policy can work wonders?

Once upon a time, in the sixth century B.C.E., when the mists of antiquity still shrouded much of human history, three great sages were born in the cradles of three ancient civilizations. From the Hellenic world emerged Pythagoras; from India, Siddhartha Gautama; from China, Lao Tzu. Each of them gave priceless gifts to all of humanity: invaluable treasures that would transform individuals yet unborn and sustain great civilizations yet to come. From the mind of Pythagoras sprang rational mysticism. From the mind of Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince who became the first Buddha, sprang Buddhism. From the mind of Lao Tzu sprang the Dao De Jing. These three sages were contemporaries, but they never met, except perhaps in dreams. Together, they achieved the greatest leap forward that humanity has ever taken, an evolution neither of DNA, nor of technology, nor of politics. This triumvirate of sages engendered an evolution of consciousness, which is our most precious human possession, albeit (ironically) one that we frequently take for granted and fail to develop fully. Karl Jaspers, the multifaceted German philosopher, psychiatrist, and theologian, called this ancient era the Axial Age. Why? Because it was indeed a giant axis, around which the future promise of humanity revolved. Everything we need to know about happiness and fulfillment, peace and prosperity, love and family, creativity and art, good governance and sustainable civilization, can be learned from the Axial Age.

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