Which of the following verbs is NOT formed by "back-formation"?
A. Burgle.
B. Peddle.
C. Destroy.
D. Edit.
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
听力原文: Nearly 900,000 U.S. children were neglected or abused in 2002 and 1,400 died as a result, the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) department reported on Thursday. Although there has been an improvement in the situation over the previous decade, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement, "The abuse of children remains a national tragedy that demands our commitment and action".
Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona announced he would create a working group to focus attention on the problem and find ways to tackle it.
Statistics gathered by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System showed child protective service agencies received 2.6 million reports of possible maltreatment in 2002. Of these, 896,000 were substantiated and most involved neglect.
HHS said the rate of child neglect and abuse in 2002 was about 20 percent lower than the rate in 1993, when maltreatment peaked at an estimated 15.3 out of every 1,000 children. The rate is now 12.3 out of every 1,000 children.
What is the speaker's attitude towards child neglect and abuse in the U.S.?
A. Concerned.
B. Indifferent.
C. Optimistic.
D. Pessimistic.
What changed from 1968 to 1996?
A. Publicity.
B. Information.
Communication.
D. The average soundbite.
Political Spins
Last week, US White House spokesman Tony Snow sent journalists digging for their dictionaries. He called recent criticism by the former President Bill Clinton ."chutzpah" (大胆放肆). With just one sentence, Snow managed to make headlines, a joke and a defense of President George W. Bush. Interestingly, this is how battles are fought and won in US politics - with carefully-worded one-liners (一行字幕新闻) made for TV which often lack substance and clarity (清晰度).
"The amount of information that candidates attempt to communicate to people is actually getting smaller and smaller," said Mark Smith, a political science professor at Cedarville University. This has been accompanied by a changing media environment, Smith said. In 1968, the average TV or radio soundbite (演讲中的句子或短语) was 48 seconds, according to Smith. In 1996, the average soundbite had shrunk to 8 seconds. Thus, politicians wanting publicity try to make their public communication as quotable as possible.
Campaigning politicians also use 30-second TV ads and clever campaign slogans to boost their messages. Republican presidential candidate John McCain rides to campaign stops in a bus named the "Straight-Talk Express". McCain hopes the name will convince voters he plans to tell people the truth - whether it's in fashion or not. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has chosen the campaign slogan "Let the conversation begin". She hopes it will help her appear open-minded and friendly.
But one-liners, TV ads and campaign slogans all have a single key ingredient: something commonly called political "spin". Brooks Jackson, a former journalist and the currant director of the non-partisan (无党派的) website FactCheck.org, calls spin "just a polite word for deception (欺骗)."
"I do believe that very often politicians believe their own spin," said Jackson.
"Strong partisans suffer from a universal human tendency: They ignore the evidence that would force them into the uncomfortable position of having to change their minds and admit that they were wrong."
Which statement is NOT true of one-liners?
A. They are unclear.
B. They contain a lot of information.
C. They lack substance.
D. They are carefully constructed.