A recent article in The New York Times noted that Hollywood types now are wearing flip-flops(拖鞋)-- shoes appropriate for beachcombers--to business meetings. Decades ago, Californians were forgiven their sloppy attire as unique to their somewhat frivolous culture. Elsewhere during that bygone era, people were careful how they dressed when seen in public and certainly when going to the office. No one would think of traveling by plane in shorts or wearing anything but their best clothes for attending a church service, concert, wedding, or funeral. Look at old newsreels of baseball games and you will see most of the men in a shirt and tie. Walk through an airport today and you have to strain to find a man wearing a jacket (forget the shirt and tie) or a woman in a nice shirt. If so, they clearly are over 60. The standard for dressing down continues to decline. Neckties and suits no longer are fashionable; male models think it cool to have a face full of stubble(胡子茬). A rock star slouches onto the stage in his undershirt. Think about it: Dean Martin never failed to appear in Las Vegas in anything but his tux, and Frank Sinatra always was dressed to the nines when seen in public. That was the standard. Dress reflects many things about us and our culture. It tells us about standards, deportment, pride, and character. Somewhere along the way, our elites lost their self-confidence. Codes of dress fell by the wayside and, with them, standards of language and behavior. In a world stable and peaceful with no enemies lurking in the shadows to do us unspeakable harm, why would it matter what standards of courtesy we follow Life would go on as it is. Sadly, this is not a relaxed era such as the 1990s. It matters now what kind of the society we are. We must recapture the seriousness of a generation that won World War II and persevered through the Cold War. We may be involved in a struggle even more lengthy, deadly, and demanding than the Cold War. The watchwords must be sacrifice, vigilance, and determination. A sloppy, self-indulgent culture will not produce an effective effort against an enemy as fanatical as the Japanese Kamikaze(日本神风敢死队) pilots. Our seriousness in World War II and the early Cold War reflected the qualities of a generation of American leaders, embodying the virtues of public spiritedness, selflessness, courage, and integrity. These leaders were human and made mistakes, but they set the tone for an entire era. Their tough-minded policies and dignified appearance reflected their character. That is why it matters how we present ourselves in public. For in a time as serious as theirs-- and ours-- it is character that eventually will triumph. The underlined word "frivolous" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) most probably means ______.
A. colorful and variable.
B. playful and not sensible.
C. mysterious and attractive.
D. artistic and romantic.
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Has America gone insane Season six for American Idol has caused us to ask some fundamental questions about the reality television phenomenon. Show judge Simon Cowell repeatedly chides(斥责) contestants," This is a singing competition. But is it really When talented singers such as Gina Glocksen are voted off in favor of a tone-deaf Sanjaya Malakar, with his trainwreck performances, the question is whether Idol is really a singing competition, or something altogether different. Although Sanjaya was only in the middle of the pack for last week’s vote, on the Web he was the most searched for Idol contestant of the season, garnering(获得) more than twice the volume of searches than his nearest rival (not counting the continuing quests for racy photos of Antonella Barba, who is no longer in the competition). Theories abound as to Sanjaya’s staying power on the show, from suggestions of a flood of offshore voting to the texting power of pre-pubescent girls. There is one theory that can actually be quantified by Internet data: shock-jock Howard Stern’s campaigning for show-spoiler site Vote for the Worst" to support voting for the entertaining contestants who the producers would hate to see win on American Idol, according to site creator Dave Della Terza, who teaches a course in reality television at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Ill. While Votefortheworst.com is small compared to the official American Idol site, the fact that it gets nearly a fifth as many online visits gives it the strength to sway a vote. Vote for the Worst is gaining strength, with over a 50% growth since last season, which can be attributed largely to the self-proclaimed "King of All Media." But what does the American public think of the unlikely Idol star Of all of the searches for Sanjaya over the last four weeks, 41% were searching on variations of his name," Sanjaya, or" Sanjaya Malakar, and various misspellings. At least 2.9% searched for information on Sanjaya’s sister, who didn’t make the cut on the show. The next most popular search topic regarded questions about Sanjaya’s sexual orientation, with searches such as "Sanjaya Malakar gay", "Sanjaya gay" and" is Sanjaya gay What’s missing are searches related to Sanjaya’s musical selection or talent. The Sanjaya phenomenon, while amusing, highlights the biggest challenge to reality shows that depend on a public vote for show outcome. It’s not a singing contest, or even a popularity contest; it’s become a race to see who can make the biggest spectacle. In that context, Sanjaya has the advantage. It can be inferred from the opening paragraph that American Idol is the name of ______.
A. a TV play series.
B. a TV sitcom.
C. a TV entertaining program.
D. a singing contest.
根据破产法律制度的有关规定,和解协议成立后产生的债权人应受和解协议的约束。 ( )
A. 对
B. 错
What does the future hold for the problem of housing A good (1) depends, of course, on the meaning of" future". If one is thinking in (2) of science fiction and the space age (3) at least possible to assume that man will have solved such trivial and earthly problems as housing. Writers of science fiction have (4) the suggestion that men will live in great comfort, with every (5) device to make life smooth, healthy and easy, (6) not happy. But they have not said what his house will be made of.The problems of the next generation or two can more readily be imagined. Scientists have already pointed out that (7) something is done either to restrict the world’s rapid growth in population or to discover and develop new sources of food (or both), millions of people will be dying of starvation or, (8) , suffering from under feeding before this (9) is out. But nobody has worked out any plan for housing these growing populations. Admittedly the worse situations will occur in the (10) parts of the world, where housing can be of light structure, or in backward areas where standards are (11) low. But even the minimum shelter requires materials of (12) kind, and in the crowded, bulging towns the low-standard" housing" of flattened petrol mans and dirty canvas is far more wasteful (13) ground space than can be tolerated.Since the war, Hong Kong has suffered the kind of crisis which is likely to (14) in many other places during the next generation. (15) millions of refugees arrived to (16) the already growing population and emergency steps had to be taken to prevent squalor and disease and the (17) of crime. Hong Kong is only one small part of what will certainly become a vast problem and not (18) a housing problem, because when population grows at this rate there are (19) problems of education, transport, water supply and so on. Not every area may have the same resources as Hong Kong to (20) and the search for quicker and cheaper methods of construction must never cease. 2()
A. reference
B. respect
C. terms
D. consequence