题目内容

While witchcraft was often feared, it was punished only infrequently. In the first 70 years of the New England settlement, about 100 people were formally charged with being witches; fewer than two dozen were convicted and fewer still were executed.
Then came 1692. In January of that year, two young girls living in the household of the Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village began experiencing strange fits. The doctor identified witchcraft as tile cause. After weeks of questioning, the girls named Tituba, Parris's female Indian slave, and two local women as the witches who were tormenting them.
Judging by previous incidents, one would have expected the episode to end there. But it didn't. Other young Salem women began to suffer fits as well. Before the crisis ended, 19 people formally accused others of afflicting them, 54 residents of Essex County confessed to being witches and nearly 150 people were charged with consorting with the devil. What led to this?
Traditionally, historians have argued that the witchcraft crisis resulted from factionalism in Salem Village, deliberate faking, or possibly the ingestion of hallucinogens by the afflicted. I believe another force was at work. The events in Salem were precipitated by a conflict with the Indians on the northeastern frontier, the most significant surge of violence in the region in nearly 40 years.
In two little-known wars, fought largely in Maine from 1675 to 1678 and from 1688 to 1699, English settlers suffered devastating losses at the hands of Wabanaki Indians and their French allies. The key afflicted accusers in the Salem crisis were frontier refugees whose families had been wiped out in the wars. These tormented young women said they saw the devil in the shape of an Indian. In testimony, they accused the witches—reputed ringleader—the Reverend George Burroughs, formerly pastor of Salem Village—of bewitching the soldiers dispatched to fight the Wabanakis. While Tituba, one of the first people accused of witchcraft, has traditionally been portrayed as a black or mulatto woman from Barbados, all the evidence points to her being an American Indian. To the Puritan settlers, who believed themselves to be God's chosen people, witchcraft explained why they were losing the war so badly. Their Indian enemies had the devil on their side.
In late summer, some prominent New Englanders began to criticize the witch prosecutions. In response to the dissent, Governor Sir William Phips of Massachusetts dissolved in October the special court be had established to handle the trials. But before he stopped the legal process, 14 women and 5 men had been hanged. Another man was crushed to death by stones for refusing to enter a plea. The war with the Indians continued for six more years, though sporadically. Slowly, northern New Englanders began to feel more secure. And they soon regretted the events of 1692.
Within five years, one judge and 12 jurors formally apologized as the colony declared a day of fasting and prayer to atone for the injustices that had been committed. In 1711, the state compensated the families of the victims.
And last year, more than three centuries after the settlers reacted to an external threat by lashing out irrationally, the convicted were cleared by name in a Massachusetts statute, it's a story worth remembering—and not just on Halloween.
Which of the following does NOT describe peo

A. Existent.
B. Mysterious.
C. Scared.
D. Fiendish.

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According to the passage, the author thinks WMAP's findings are

A. epoch-making.
B. incredible.
C. clear-cut.
D. mediocre.

The companies are lured by a booming market in which capitalist competition is still scarce. The number of university students is expected to double in the next 25 years to 170 million worldwide. Demand greatly exceeds supply, because the 1990s saw massive global investment in primary and secondary schools, but not in universities. The number of children enrolled in primary or secondary schools rose by 18 percent around the world—more than twice the rate of increase in any previous decade. Now these kids are often graduating from high school to find no openings in national universities, which nevertheless don't welcome for-profit competition. The Brazilian university teachers' union warned that foreign corporations would turn higher education into "a diploma industry". Critics raised the specter of declining quality and a loss of Brazil's "sovereign control" over education.
For-profit universities met with similar suspicion when they first opened in the United States. By the 1980s they were regularly accused of offering substandard education and had to fight for acceptance and respect. Lately, they have flourished by catering to older students who aren't looking for keg parties, just a shortcut to a better career. For-profit colleges now attract 8 percent of four-year students in the United States, up from 3 percent a decade ago. By cutting out frills, including sports teams, student centers and summer vacation, these schools can operate with profit margins of 20 to 30 percent.
In some countries, the American companies operate as they do at home. Apollo found an easy fit in Brazil, where few universities have dorms, students often take off time between high school and college, and there's no summer vacation—just two breaks in July and December. In other Latin countries, Sylvan has taken a different approach, buying traditional residential colleges like the Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM). It has boosted enrollment by adding and heavily advertising courses in career-track fields like business and engineering, and adding no-frills satellite campuses. Sensitive to the potential hostility against foreign buyers, Sylvan keeps original school names, adding its own brand, Sylvan International Universities, to publicity materials, and keeps tuition in line with local private schools.
Most of the schools that Sylvan has purchased were managed by for-profits to begin with, including the prestigious Les Roches Hotel Management School in Switzerland. But in general, Says Urdan, Sylvan's targets "have not been run with world-class business practices. They're not distressed, but there's an opportunity for them to be better managed." When Sylvan paid $ 50 million for a controlling stake in UVM two years ago, the school had revenues of about $ 80 million and an enrollment of 32,000. The success of the for-profits is nothing to be afraid of, says World Bank education expert Jamil Salmi: "I don't think they will replace traditional universities, but they can push some more traditional providers to be more innovative and more attentive to the needs of the labor market."
Some students at Sylvan schools in Latin America welcome the foreign invasion. At the Universidad de las Americas in Santiago, Daniels Villagrán says friends tease her for studying at "Yankee

Americans are arguing about the for-profit universities.
B. Americans used to pay little for university education.
C. Americans are in favor of the expansion of the universities.
D. Americans call for the supervision of the for-profit universities.

SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文:Cole: Good morning, Jack. Take a seat.
Jack: Good morning, Miss Cole. I came to enquire about a grant. You see, this is my last year at high school.
I want to take a course leading to a degree or a similar qualification when I leave school. I'd like to know some information about the grants. Where can I get a grant? And how much will it be?
Cole: I see. Well, the grant system is complex. Let me think about the easiest way to explain it to you.
Jack: Well, what is the difference between an "award" and a "grant"? People often talk about these two words.
Cole: Yes. The two words are often used interchangeably, but the regulations make a distinction between them. The award comprises of both a fee element and a maintenance element. The grant, represents only the maintenance element.
Jack: What is the fee element of the award?
Cole: The fee element of the award normally covers all tuition and other related courses for which you are liable, and is paid direct to your college or university by the local education authorities. We call these LEAs.
Jack: I see. And what's the maintenance grant?
Cole: The maintenance grant is paid to you, for your support during a term and short vacations. This part of the award is means-tested. So there is a further distinction between the gross grant and the net grant actually paid by the LEA. This of course is after any contributions from your parents or spouse have been deducted.
Jack: How many grants are there?
Cole: There are two types of grant but we deal mainly with mandatory grants. LEgs in England and Wales are required by law to pay these grants, but only to students who are attending designated courses, who are eligible, and who satisfy the qualifying conditions. If you are not eligible for a mandatory grant, or are not taking a designated course, you may still qualify for a discretionary grant. But each local authority decides its own policy on these and there are no general rules and conditions.
Jack: Well, wharfs the discretionary grant?
Cole: A discretionary grant is for a non-designated course and is determined by the LEA. These grants are sometimes competitive so your examination results may be taken into account. And you may be expected to study locally if a course similar to the one you want to take is available nearer your home. These restrictions do not apply to mandatory grants.
Jack: What courses would I get a grant for?
Cole: Mandatory grants are available for designated courses. In almost all cases these are full-time or sandwich courses.
Jack: Sorry, what.., what are sandwich courses?
Cole: They are the courses combining full-time study with periods of full-time training and experience in industry or commerce. Certain part-time initial teacher training courses may be designated for grant purposes. Designated courses are those leading to a first degree of a university in the UK or the CNAA, a Diploma of Higher Education, a University Certificate or Diploma, and other qualifications if the course is specifically designated as being comparable to a first degree course.
Jack: Who can get a grant?
Cole: To get a mandatory grant you have to be eligible as well as having been admitted to a designated course. The final decision on whether or not you are eligible rests with the LEA, but you will probably qualify if, A) you have been an ordinary resident in the British Islands for the 3 years preceding the academic year in which the course begins; B) you have not previously attended a course of higher education of more than 2 years with a grant. However, if you have previously attended a cours

A. enquiring about a degree
B. getting some information about a grant
C. inquiring about the qualification for a degree
D. discussing the complexity of the grant system

An eye for detail
Artist Susan Shepherd is best known for her flower paintings, and the large garden that surrounds her house is the source of many of her subjects. It is full of her favourite flowers, most especially varieties of tulips and poppies. Some of tile plants are unruly and seed themselves all over the garden. There is a harmony of colour, shape and structure in the two long flower borders that line the paved path which crosses the garden line 10 from east to west. Much of this is due to the previous owners, who were keen gardeners, and who left plants that appealed to Susan. She also inherited the gardener, Danny. 'In tact, it was really his garden,' she says. 'We got on very well. At first he would say, "Oh, it's not worth it" to some of the things I wanted to put in, but when I said I wanted to paint them, he recognised what I had in mind.'
Susan prefers to focus on detailed studies of individual plants rather than on the garden as a whole, though she will occasionally paint a group of plants where they are. More usually, she picks them and then takes them up to her studio. 'I don't set the whole thing up at once,' she says. 'I take one flower out and paint it, which might take a few days, and then I bring in another one and build up the painting that way. Sometimes it takes a couple of years to finish.'
Her busiest time of year is spring and early summer, when the tulips are out, followed by the poppies. 'They all come out together, and you're so busy,' she says. But tile gradual decaying process is also part of the fascination for her. With tulips, for example, 'you bring them in and put them in water, then leave them for perhaps a day and they each form. themselves into different shapes. They open out mad are fantastic. When you first put them in a vase, yon think they are boring, but they change all the time with twists and turns.'
Susan has always been interested in plants: 'I did botany at school and used to collect wild flowers from all around the countryside,' she says. 't wasn't particularly interested in gardening then; in fact, I didn't like garden flowers, I thought they were artificial—to me, the only real ones were wild.' Nowadays, the garden owes much to plants that originated in far-off lands, though they seem as much al home in her garden as they did in China or the Himalayas. She has a come-what-may attitude to the garden, rather like an affectionate any who is quite happy for children to run about undisciplined as long as they don't do any serious damage.
With two forthcoming exhibitions to prepare for, and a ready supply of subject material at her back door, finding time to work in the garden has been difficult recently. She now employs an extra gardener but, despite the need to paint, she knows that, to maintain her connection with her subject matter, 'you have to get your hands dirty'.
In the first paragraph, the writer describes Susan's garden as

A. having caused problems for the previous owners.
B. having a path lined with flowers.
C. needing a lot of work to keep it looking attractive.
D. being only partly finished.

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