In the world of entertainment, TV talk shows have undoubtedly flooded every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one varies in style and format. But no two shows are more profoundly opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows. Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of "trash talk (废话)". The topics on his show are as shocking as shocking can be. For example, the show takes the ever-common talk show themes of love, sex, cheating, guilt, hate, conflict and morality to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is a display and exploitation of society"s moral catastrophes (灾难), yet people are willing to eat up the intriguing predicaments (困境) of other people"s lives. Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its extreme, but Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show focuses on the improvement of society and an individual"s quality of life. Topics range from teaching your children responsibility, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors. Compared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being dumped on society. Jerry ends every show with a "final word". He makes a small speech that sums up the entire moral of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable. Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The show"s main target audience are middle-class Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and stability to deal with life"s tougher problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of an association with the young adults of society. These are 18 to 21-year-olds whose main troubles in life involve love, relationship, sex, money and peers. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned underneath the show"s exploitation. While the two shows are as different as night and day, both have ruled the talk show circuit for many years now. Each one caters to a different audience while both have a strong following from large groups of fans. Ironically, both could also be considered pioneers in the talk show world. (388 words) Despite their different approaches, the two talk shows are both______.
A. ironical
B. sensitive
C. instructive
D. cynical
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Tina, a 10-lb 2-oz baby, was born into the Rodriguez home. The parents were delighted to have her, and she was given much love and attention. She seemed to grow up very normally, but did learn to talk a bit later than her two older siblings did. One day when she was about 3 years old, she fell off a swing and hurt her head, and had to have a few stitches to close a small wound. Several times after this the parents noticed that she would forget little things. It did not bother them until she enrolled in school, when she was 5 years and 10 months of age. At first she was anxious to go to school, but soon things began to change. She complained of being sick, and very often at school she had to use the restroom. The teacher complained that the child spent much of her time just gazing. She liked to talk to her friends, and often got into trouble with the teacher because she would not get her work done. Most times she completed no more than half an assignment. Her parents noted that she seemed to have lost her cheerfulness at home, and she often came home grumpy and complained that no one wanted to play with her. The longer she stayed in school, the worse her behavior became, and to top it all, in early spring the teacher concluded that Tina was not learning anything and was going to have to repeat the first grade. From the passage, we conclude that Tina"s problem is most probably______.
A. due to lack of parental love
B. due to the wound in her head
C. the result of a bad school system
D. the trouble every parent will face
Take the case of public education alone. The principal difficulty faced by the schools has been the tremendous increase in the number of pupils. This has been caused by the advance of the legal age for going into industry and the impossibility of finding a job even when the legal age has been reached. In view of the technological improvements in the last few years, business will require in the future proportionately fewer workers than ever before. The result will be still further raising of the legal age for going into employment, and still further difficulty in finding employment when that age has been attained. If we cannot put our children to work, we must put them in school. We may also be quite confident that the present trend toward a shorter day and a shorter week will be maintained. We have developed and shall continue to have a new leisure class. Already the public agencies for adult education are swamped by the tide that has swept over them since the depression began. They will be little better off when it is over. Their support must come from the taxpayer. It is surely too much to hope that these increases in the cost of public education can be borne by the local communities. They cannot care for the present restricted and inadequate system. The local communities have failed in their efforts to cope with unemployment. They cannot expect to cope with public education on the scale on which we must attempt it. The answer to the problem of unemployment has been Federal relief. The answer to the problem of public education may have to be much the same, and properly so. If there is one thing in which the citizens of all parts of the country have an interest, it is in the decent education of the citizens of all parts of the country. Our income tax now goes in part to keep our neighbors alive. It may have to go in part as well to make our neighbors intelligent. We are now attempting to preserve the present generation through Federal relief of the destitute (贫民). Only a people determined to ruin the next generation will refuse such Federal funds as public education may require. (378 words) According to the author, the answer to the problem of public education is that the Federal government______.
A. should allocate Federal funds for public education
B. should demand that local communities provide support
C. should raise taxes to meet the needs of public education
D. should first of all solve the problem of unemployment
What might driving on an automated highway be like The answer depends on what kind of system is ultimately adopted. Two distinct types are on the drawing board. The first is a special-purpose lane system, in which certain lanes are reserved for automated vehicles. The second is a mixed traffic system: fully automated vehicles would share the road with partially automated or manually driven cars. A special-purpose lane system would require more extensive physical modifications to existing highways, but it promises the greatest gains in freeway (高速公路) capacity. Under either scheme, the driver would specify the desired destination, furnishing this information to a computer in the car at the beginning of the trip or perhaps just before reaching the automated highway. If a mixed traffic system was in place, automated driving could begin whenever the driver was on suitably equipped roads. If special-purpose lanes were available, the car could enter them and join existing traffic in two different ways. One method would use is a special onramp (人口引道). As the driver approached the point of entry for the highway, devices installed on the roadside would electronically check the vehicle to determine its destination and to ascertain that it had the proper automation equipment in good working order. Assuming it passed such tests, the driver would then be guided through a gate and toward an automated lane. In this case, the transition from manual to automated control would take place on the entrance ramp. An alternative technique could employ conventional lanes, which would be shared by automated and regular vehicles. The driver would steer onto the highway and move in normal fashion to a "transition" lane. The vehicle would then shift under computer control onto a lane reserved for automated traffic. (The limitation of these lanes to automated traffic would, presumably, be well respected, because all trespassers (非法进入者) could be swiftly identified by authorities. ) Either approach to joining, a lane of automated traffic would harmonize the movement of newly entering vehicles with those already traveling. Automatic control here should allow for smooth merging, without the usual uncertainties and potential for accidents. And once a vehicle had settled into automated travel, the drive would be free to release the wheel, open the morning paper or just relax. (392 words) We know from the passage that a car can enter a special-purpose lane______.
A. by smoothly merging with cars on the conventional lane
B. by way of a ramp with electronic control devices
C. through a specially guarded gate
D. after all trespassers are identified and removed
Tina, a 10-lb 2-oz baby, was born into the Rodriguez home. The parents were delighted to have her, and she was given much love and attention. She seemed to grow up very normally, but did learn to talk a bit later than her two older siblings did. One day when she was about 3 years old, she fell off a swing and hurt her head, and had to have a few stitches to close a small wound. Several times after this the parents noticed that she would forget little things. It did not bother them until she enrolled in school, when she was 5 years and 10 months of age. At first she was anxious to go to school, but soon things began to change. She complained of being sick, and very often at school she had to use the restroom. The teacher complained that the child spent much of her time just gazing. She liked to talk to her friends, and often got into trouble with the teacher because she would not get her work done. Most times she completed no more than half an assignment. Her parents noted that she seemed to have lost her cheerfulness at home, and she often came home grumpy and complained that no one wanted to play with her. The longer she stayed in school, the worse her behavior became, and to top it all, in early spring the teacher concluded that Tina was not learning anything and was going to have to repeat the first grade. When her first year in school came to an end, Tina______.
A. left her assignments half finished
B. came out a top student in her class
C. made no progress and had to start from the beginning
D. was troubled severely by her wound and left school