W: Hello, Freddy.M: Hello, Mary. How nice to see you again. How’s everything goingW: Fine. Busy these daysM: Yeah. With lots of things to do. Would you like to join me for a drinkW: Ok, thanks.M: Any news recentlyW: Oh, well, I read in the local paper the other day that the government is planning to build an airport here, you know thatM: I’m afraid not.W: Well, my real objection to this idea of a new airport is, is the whole thing is so wasteful, I mean, we know we are currently in fuel crises, we know that we’ve got to conserve oil and fuel and all the rest of it, and get here the government seems quite deliberately to be encouraging people to,... to travel, to use and these jets use a hack of a lot of oil, I mean it takes a ton of oil, a ton of petrol before one of these big jets even takes off.M: Mm...W: It seems so completely short-sighted to me. Quite apart from all the ways to the land and so on, I can’t see, I can’t see the rationale behind really wanting an, an airport at all.M: Well, surely you must have to admit that the existing airport nearby are becoming swarmed. I mean, why should people, uhh...W: Well, they aren’t being swarmed.M: ... be treated like cattle when there is a chance of... a new airport here.W: But, but really people shouldn’t be traveling as much, that’s, that’s why most of the journeys, I mean, they swamped because there is far too much unnecessary tourism and soon. It isn’t necessary for people to travel so far or even so often.M: Well, you take the climate here in this country. Now just before Christmas, there was this dreadful cold spell, and there was a tremendous increase in number of people who wanted to leave and spent Christmas and the New Year in a reasonable climate of sun and, and a certain mild climate. And, and in summer, the same situation occurs. It is unbearably hot here and people want to go somewhere cool.W: Well, yes, I can sympathize with that. But it is still not really necessary to do, well, as it is necessary to, to conserve fuel and it is necessary to, well, not to Waste land. I mean land for a new airport could be used for far more important things which would benefit the people here far more. I mean it could be used for farming for instance.M: True.W: It could also he used for housing, or it could be used for parks, you know. People then could come and enjoy themselves without having to travel far.M: But, airports do bring some local advantages. They bring roads, there is obviously extra employment, for instance, new hotels, shops, restaurants will have to be built. This means more jobs for the locals and it is good for local economy.W: But you ask the people, you ask those who are now living near the airports, for instance, whether, whether they reckon that airports bring them advantages, although, all the airports bring in are noise and vast motorways, and the whole area is, is desolated, isn’t itM: But the airport infra,..., infrastructure relies on housing and other facilities for the great number of people who would be employed in the airport, the pilots even, the stewardess, they have to live somewhere near the airport, rightW: Yeah, but it’s, it’s just so, so damaging to the whole area. I think, airports, from my point of view, the whole concept is outdated, really. Umm, with modern technology, we can make a lot of travel unnecessary, really. For example, it won’t be necessary for businessmen to fly out to a foreign county to talk to somebody. They can just leave it to the telephone in the office, press the button, and say to the person they want to do business with. You see, business deals can be made without having to travel back and forth, rightM: Yes, you are right. But for a lot of people, personal contact is important. And this means travel, and means quick travel, air travel. And we just need a new airport. We learn from the conversation that Freddy is () Mary’s ideas.
A. strongly in favour of
B. mildly in favour of
C. strongly against
D. mildly against
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In the days before Diana became accustomed to daily hairdressers, high fashion and expertly applied makeup, she looked her best when she was wearing her least. No frilly blouses concealed her elegant neck, carefully cut skirts her long legs, or bulky sweaters her well-rounded figure. She was young and not fully aware of just how attractive she could be. But if she wanted to impress a young man, any young man, she always made it a point to go swimming or sailing or, at the very least, play a game of tennis.When Prince Charles saw her aboard Britannia at Cowes in the late summer of 1980, he wasn’t however particularly interested. She belonged to his younger brother Andrew’s set, and had come aboard, not at Chariest s invitation, but with Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones, his cousin and sixteen years his junior.Diana was three years older than Sarah, but still almost a generation away. And besides, Charles had his mind on other things—most particularly the breakup of his romance with the beautiful but self-willed Anna Wallace. There was also the fact that if he noticed Diana in anything more than passing, he thought about her as the sister of one of his former girlfriends—Lady Sarah Spencer—who had recently married (he hadn’t attended), and whatever others might have been plotting he most certainly was not thinking of renewing his romantic links with the Spencer girls.But if Charles was not instantly enchanted by the fresh, gambolling nineteen-year-old who spent some days aboard the Royal Yacht, his staff were. "She was so unassuming and so natural,’ one recalls. And in the manner of all servants, particularly ones who are in the employ of the bachelor Prince, they inevitably started speculating amongst themselves if she was the one for what they called "the job".So, it seems, did Diana. At the age of sixteen she had jokingly told a friend that she was "out to get’ Charles. But that may have been just romantic fantasizing on the part of a young girl whose main reading was the soapy romances penned by her step-grandmother, the redoubtable Barbara Cartland. The Prince’s late valet, Stephen Barry; insisted however: "She went after the Prince with single-minded determination. She wanted him—and she got him!"She had, of course, met him many times before in the years of her childhood spent as a near-neighbour of the Windsors at Sandringham when Charles used to pop his head round the nursery door where she was having tea with Andrew and Edward, or during a shooting party on Sandringham Estate where at the age of sixteen she was reintroduced to him by her sister Sarah. More recently she had encountered him at polo. But then he had always been busy or with a girlfriend in tow. This time he was alone.She made sure Charles was watching when she bravely followed his example and went windsurfing in the ehoppy and not-too-warm waters of the Solent. Naturally flirtatious, she made sure he noticed her long slim legs and trim figure. And he could not fail but start to take an interest—if only a comparative one—in the beautiful younger sister of a former girlfriend.Accounts of this first meeting vary. Some claim that it is where the famous romance began. Others insist that his interest was but a mild one; that with Anna still in mind, the timing was wrong and he simply regarded her as a new and pretty addition to his surprisingly limited circle of friends.But she had certainly impressed him enough for him to invite her up to Balmoral shortly afterwards. Diana accepted with alacrity. To impress a young man, Diana might choose to play a game of tennis, because ()。
A. she was a highly skilled tennis player
B. she looked attractive in her tennis outfit
C. she preferred tennis to swimming
D. her hair-style was fashionably designed
President Bush has proposed adding optional personal accounts as one of the central elements of a major Social Security reform proposal. Although many details remain to be worked out, the proposal would allow individuals who choose to do so to divert part of the money they currently pay in Social Security taxes into individual investment accounts. Individuals would have a choice of fund managers, and the return that they earn from those accounts would then partially determine the Social Security benefit they receive when they retire.Individual accounts pose a number of important and complex design and implementation issues, including how to lower the cost of administering accounts so that they do not erode the value of pensions that individuals receive when they retire, how many and what kinds of fund choices should be offered, and how to engage workers in choosing funds.In the late 1990s, Sweden added a mandatory individual accounts tier to its public pension system. This p01icy brief examines the Swedish experience and lessons it suggests for the United States about the design and implementation challenges of individual accounts.Sweden has one of the oldest and most comprehensive public pension systems in the world. But by the 1980s, several problems with the system were becoming evident, including current funding deficits and a very large projected funding shortfall as Sweden’s population, which is among the oldest in the world, continued to age.Between 1991 and 1998, Sweden adopted a new pension system built on three fundamental elements. A new "income pension" is intended to tie pension benefits more closely to contributions made over the entire course of an individual’ s working life, while lowering the overall cost of the system; it is financed entirely by a 16 percent payroll tax. A "guarantee pension" provides minimum income support for workers with low lifetime earnings. It is financed entirely by general government revenues and is income-tested against other public pension income.The third element is a "premium pension" financed by a 2.5 percent payroll tax. These funds are placed in an individual investment account. Individuals have a wide variety of fund choices. To lower administrative costs; and the administrative burden on employers, collection of premium pension contributions and fund choices are centrally administered by a new government agency, the Premium Pension Authority. Deposits into pension funds are made only once a year, after complete wage records for a calendar year are available from the state tax authorities. Employees choose up to five funds from a list of funds approved by the PPA. Swedes can change their fund allocations as often as they want without charge, but the system is not designed to facilitate "day trading"—switching funds often takes several days.The new pension system’s planners recognized that many workers might not make an active pension fund choice. They created a Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund to offer a default fund, called the Premium Savings Fund, for those who do not choose a fund or simply prefer to have the government invest for them. Which one is not the fundamental element of the Swedish new pension system()。
A new income pension
B. Workers with low lifetime earnings can receive minimum income support
C. A premium pension financed by personal income tax
D. A premium pension which is administered by a government agency
The tradition of christening and commissioning a ship dates back to ancient times when the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Vikings called upon the gods to protect their ships and crew from the perilous sea. Religion played an important role in these ceremonies. In fact, christenings originated as a way to appease the gods of the elements. Christening gave a ship its identity, and over the years, different cultures and people changed and shaped the way ceremonies were performed.Some of these traditions have been carried over into modem times. A ship is traditionally christened or given its name at the time it is launched into the water. When a ship is christened, it is a tradition to break a bottle across the ship’s bowl. This practice began in Britain in the late seventeenth century. Previously, an official would sip wine from a "standing cup," a large loving cup made of precious metal, then pour out the remaining wine onto the deck or over the ship’s bow. The cup was then tossed overboard. This practice soon became too costly and a net was used to catch the cup so it could be re-used at other launchings. Wine was the traditional liquid used to christen a ship, although other liquids were used such as whiskey, brandy and water. At the close of the nineteenth century champagne became the popular liquid with which to christen a ship. However, during prohibition in America, ships were christened with water.Ships’ sponsors were generally royalty or senior naval officers. In the nineteenth century, women became ship sponsors for the first time. Women sponsored ships more and more frequently, although it was not the rule. The actual physical process of launching a new ship from a building site to the water involved one of three principal methods. Oldest, most familiar and most widely used, was the "end-on" launch in which the vessel slid, usually stern first, down an inclined slipway. The "side launch," whereby the ship entered the water broadside, came into nineteenth-century use on inland waters, rivers and lakes. It was given major impetus in America by the World War II building program. Another method involved ships built in basins or graving docks, which were floated by admitting water into the dock. The commissioning ceremony then completed the cycle from christening and launching, to full status for active service. Which of the following, according to paragraph 3 was NOT a principal method of launching a ship()。
A. Sideways.
B. Lowering.
C. End-on.
D. Floating.
In the days before Diana became accustomed to daily hairdressers, high fashion and expertly applied makeup, she looked her best when she was wearing her least. No frilly blouses concealed her elegant neck, carefully cut skirts her long legs, or bulky sweaters her well-rounded figure. She was young and not fully aware of just how attractive she could be. But if she wanted to impress a young man, any young man, she always made it a point to go swimming or sailing or, at the very least, play a game of tennis.When Prince Charles saw her aboard Britannia at Cowes in the late summer of 1980, he wasn’t however particularly interested. She belonged to his younger brother Andrew’s set, and had come aboard, not at Chariest s invitation, but with Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones, his cousin and sixteen years his junior.Diana was three years older than Sarah, but still almost a generation away. And besides, Charles had his mind on other things—most particularly the breakup of his romance with the beautiful but self-willed Anna Wallace. There was also the fact that if he noticed Diana in anything more than passing, he thought about her as the sister of one of his former girlfriends—Lady Sarah Spencer—who had recently married (he hadn’t attended), and whatever others might have been plotting he most certainly was not thinking of renewing his romantic links with the Spencer girls.But if Charles was not instantly enchanted by the fresh, gambolling nineteen-year-old who spent some days aboard the Royal Yacht, his staff were. "She was so unassuming and so natural,’ one recalls. And in the manner of all servants, particularly ones who are in the employ of the bachelor Prince, they inevitably started speculating amongst themselves if she was the one for what they called "the job".So, it seems, did Diana. At the age of sixteen she had jokingly told a friend that she was "out to get’ Charles. But that may have been just romantic fantasizing on the part of a young girl whose main reading was the soapy romances penned by her step-grandmother, the redoubtable Barbara Cartland. The Prince’s late valet, Stephen Barry; insisted however: "She went after the Prince with single-minded determination. She wanted him—and she got him!"She had, of course, met him many times before in the years of her childhood spent as a near-neighbour of the Windsors at Sandringham when Charles used to pop his head round the nursery door where she was having tea with Andrew and Edward, or during a shooting party on Sandringham Estate where at the age of sixteen she was reintroduced to him by her sister Sarah. More recently she had encountered him at polo. But then he had always been busy or with a girlfriend in tow. This time he was alone.She made sure Charles was watching when she bravely followed his example and went windsurfing in the ehoppy and not-too-warm waters of the Solent. Naturally flirtatious, she made sure he noticed her long slim legs and trim figure. And he could not fail but start to take an interest—if only a comparative one—in the beautiful younger sister of a former girlfriend.Accounts of this first meeting vary. Some claim that it is where the famous romance began. Others insist that his interest was but a mild one; that with Anna still in mind, the timing was wrong and he simply regarded her as a new and pretty addition to his surprisingly limited circle of friends.But she had certainly impressed him enough for him to invite her up to Balmoral shortly afterwards. Diana accepted with alacrity. Which of the following is NOT true()。
A. Charles had very few friends.
B. The meeting aboard the ship was their first.
C. Diana went after Charles with determination.
D. Charles took an interest in Diana aboard the ship.