He has been at the helm (舵)of the Securities and Exchange Commission for only three months, but William Donaldson has given individual investors reason to believe that he will prove to be an effective champion of their interests as a vigilant regulator of the nation’s financial markets. The challenges ahead remain daunting, but Mr. Donaldson is steadily restoring the agency’s credibility in the wake of its disastrous stewardship by Harvey Pitt. The SEC. chairman passed his first big test by persuading William McDonough, the respected president of the New York Federal Reserve, to run the new accounting oversight board created by Congress last summer. He has also opened an important inquiry into trading practices at the New York Stock Exchange. The commission has issued rules to tighten corporate boards’ oversight over financial audits. Mr. Donaldson should now see that more is done to shore up shareholder democracy. A reassuring sign that there is a new sheriff(治安官)on Wall Street came in the aftermath of the recently announced landmark settlement with 10 brokerage(经纪人业务)firms over their tainted stock research. The SEC. chairman sternly rebuked Philip Purcell, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, for trying to minimize the extent of his firm’s involvement in the scandals. Mr. Donaldson, a former Wall Street banker himself, wrote a letter to Mr. Purcell describing concern over his "troubling lack of contrition" , and reminding him that Morgan could face further legal problems if it denied the settled charges. Besides being unusual, Mr. Donaldson’s move was a powerful use of his office’s bully pulpit (讲坛). With all the talk about whether the SEC. has enough material resources to pursue corporate malfeasance—the agency’s budget is being increased significantly—it was easy in the Harvey Pitt era to forget that a strong SEC chairman can wield a great deal of moral authority. This is especially true given financial institutions absolute need to retain public trust. Mr. Donaldson should be ready to use his bully pulpit often. Wall Street is awash in a "troubling lack of contrition" for its past misdeeds. In line 6 paragraph 2, what does "shore up" possibly mean
A. strengthen
B. lighten
C. go to the upside of the shore
D. reduce
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She was slim and he liked her that way. So he called a lawyer. The result was a contract. According to the document, the fresh-faced bride agreed to pay a fine for each pound she gained in weight, the money refundable upon its loss. The paper signed, and the wedding went on. This is a prenuptial (婚前的)agreement—one more indication of the strange pass of marriage in this most transactional decade. You are welcome to marriage, contractual style, where increasingly detailed legal documents spell out everything from who’s going to do the dishes to who’s going to get the house when you split. This is family planning taken to extreme. Once employed solely by the rich, second-timers and the old industrialist carrying off the latest young cookie, the prenuptial agreement—a written pact between a couple outlining the financial obligations in the event of divorce—is becoming commonplace in a litigious (爱打官司的),disillusioned and materialistic age in which one in every two marriages is projected to end in divorce. The only question is: What about love When asked whether anyone believes in Cupid (爱神)anymore, Dr. Michael Vincent Miller says, "Given a century that is full of sexual liberation, computer-dating services and so on, one feels tempted to reply,’ only in a mood of desperate nostalgia (怀旧 )’. ""Pre-nups" (prenuptial agreements)do assume negativity. Founded on disillusionment, they cannot be separated from the high divorce rate in the United States. The result, argues Miller, is a kind of defending mentality. "We’ve gotten good at managing finiteness, failure and trouble with a sort of ’What’ s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine’s realism’. We’ve seen it isn’t all about love. We’ve seen there’s power politics in there—a fight for control, and when you’ve got those things, you’re halfway to lawyers and money." In other ways, however, the compacts embody positive, even idealistic thinking about marriage, love and relations, a law scholar Isabel Marcus believes. Marcus says , "Contracts could spell the end of romantic love as salvation. They say love exists, but that it’s best accompanied by good, hard thinking about equitability (平等). By writing a contract, the couple gains control of its marriage. "What’s good is it contributes to honesty; what’s unfortunate is the idea that any contract can govern your emotions," says the author of the book "The Nature of Love.\ According to the passage, people ______.
A. know more about how to protect their interests
B. are enjoying more equality in their marriages
C. believe the law undoubtedly
D. have a high divorce rate
He has been at the helm (舵)of the Securities and Exchange Commission for only three months, but William Donaldson has given individual investors reason to believe that he will prove to be an effective champion of their interests as a vigilant regulator of the nation’s financial markets. The challenges ahead remain daunting, but Mr. Donaldson is steadily restoring the agency’s credibility in the wake of its disastrous stewardship by Harvey Pitt. The SEC. chairman passed his first big test by persuading William McDonough, the respected president of the New York Federal Reserve, to run the new accounting oversight board created by Congress last summer. He has also opened an important inquiry into trading practices at the New York Stock Exchange. The commission has issued rules to tighten corporate boards’ oversight over financial audits. Mr. Donaldson should now see that more is done to shore up shareholder democracy. A reassuring sign that there is a new sheriff(治安官)on Wall Street came in the aftermath of the recently announced landmark settlement with 10 brokerage(经纪人业务)firms over their tainted stock research. The SEC. chairman sternly rebuked Philip Purcell, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, for trying to minimize the extent of his firm’s involvement in the scandals. Mr. Donaldson, a former Wall Street banker himself, wrote a letter to Mr. Purcell describing concern over his "troubling lack of contrition" , and reminding him that Morgan could face further legal problems if it denied the settled charges. Besides being unusual, Mr. Donaldson’s move was a powerful use of his office’s bully pulpit (讲坛). With all the talk about whether the SEC. has enough material resources to pursue corporate malfeasance—the agency’s budget is being increased significantly—it was easy in the Harvey Pitt era to forget that a strong SEC chairman can wield a great deal of moral authority. This is especially true given financial institutions absolute need to retain public trust. Mr. Donaldson should be ready to use his bully pulpit often. Wall Street is awash in a "troubling lack of contrition" for its past misdeeds. From the first paragraph we can infer that Mr. William Donaldson is ______.
A. inexperienced as a steward
B. capable, alert and reliable
C. not much better than Harry Pitt
D. following the steps of Harry Pitt
"Humans should not try to avoid stress any more than they would shun food, love or exercise." said Dr. Hans Selye, the first physician to document the effects of stress on the body. While here’s no question that continuous stress is harmful, several studies suggest that challenging situations in which you’re able to rise to the occasion can be good for you. In a 2001 study of 158 hospital nurses, those who faced considerable work demands but coped with the challenge were more likely to say they were in good health than those who felt they couldn’t get the job done. Stress that you can manage may also boost immune(免疫的)function. In a study at the Academic Center for Dentistry in Amsterdam, researchers put volunteers through two stressful experiences. In the first, a timed task that required memorizing a list followed by a short test, subjects believed they had control over the outcome. In the second, they weren’t in control: They had to sit through a gory(血淋淋的)video on surgical procedures. Those who did go on the memory test had an increase in levels of immunoglobulin(免疫球蛋白)A, an antibody that’s the body’s first line of defense against germs. The video-watchers experienced a downturn in the antibody. Stress prompts the body to produce certain stress hormones. In short bursts these hormones have a positive effect, including improved memory function. "They can help nerve cells handle information and put it into storage," says Dr. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York. But in the long run these hormones can have a harmful effect on the body and brain. "Sustained stress is not good for you," says Richard Morimoto, a researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois studying the effects of stress on longevity (长寿),"It’s the occasional burst of stress or brief exposure to stress that could be protective. "(325w) The word "shun" (Line 1, Par
A. 1) most probably means ______.A. cut down onB. stay away fromC. run out ofD. put up with
She was slim and he liked her that way. So he called a lawyer. The result was a contract. According to the document, the fresh-faced bride agreed to pay a fine for each pound she gained in weight, the money refundable upon its loss. The paper signed, and the wedding went on. This is a prenuptial (婚前的)agreement—one more indication of the strange pass of marriage in this most transactional decade. You are welcome to marriage, contractual style, where increasingly detailed legal documents spell out everything from who’s going to do the dishes to who’s going to get the house when you split. This is family planning taken to extreme. Once employed solely by the rich, second-timers and the old industrialist carrying off the latest young cookie, the prenuptial agreement—a written pact between a couple outlining the financial obligations in the event of divorce—is becoming commonplace in a litigious (爱打官司的),disillusioned and materialistic age in which one in every two marriages is projected to end in divorce. The only question is: What about love When asked whether anyone believes in Cupid (爱神)anymore, Dr. Michael Vincent Miller says, "Given a century that is full of sexual liberation, computer-dating services and so on, one feels tempted to reply,’ only in a mood of desperate nostalgia (怀旧 )’. ""Pre-nups" (prenuptial agreements)do assume negativity. Founded on disillusionment, they cannot be separated from the high divorce rate in the United States. The result, argues Miller, is a kind of defending mentality. "We’ve gotten good at managing finiteness, failure and trouble with a sort of ’What’ s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine’s realism’. We’ve seen it isn’t all about love. We’ve seen there’s power politics in there—a fight for control, and when you’ve got those things, you’re halfway to lawyers and money." In other ways, however, the compacts embody positive, even idealistic thinking about marriage, love and relations, a law scholar Isabel Marcus believes. Marcus says , "Contracts could spell the end of romantic love as salvation. They say love exists, but that it’s best accompanied by good, hard thinking about equitability (平等). By writing a contract, the couple gains control of its marriage. "What’s good is it contributes to honesty; what’s unfortunate is the idea that any contract can govern your emotions," says the author of the book "The Nature of Love.\ According to paragraph 2, which .of the following statement is NOT true
A. Pre-nups was once employed solely by the rich, second-timers and the old industrialist.
B. The prenuptial agreement is written just in case the couple may divorce one day.
C. The divorce rates are high today.
D. It is a romantic and fantastic age in which people still believing in marriage and lov