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The availability to occupations depends also on shifts in the national economy and increasingly on economic developments worldwide. There are several ways to measure these effects, including the rate of unemployment, the international balance of trade, and the productivity of American workers. The unemployment rate is a standard measure of joblessness in a community, state, or nation as a whole. Computed by standards set by the United States Department of Labor, the measure is made by taking a random sample of households in an area. It is an estimate of the percentage of people who are not working but are looking for work. The unemployment rate has been said to under-represent the actual unemployed because those who have stopped looking for work are not counted. It is a comparable statistic from state to state, however, because it is computed in the same manner. Traditionally an unemployment rate of 4 percent is considered full employment because people quit, change jobs, or are fired regardless of the relative health of the economy. In contrast the national unemployment rate reached as high as 25 percent during the Great Depression of the 1930s. When unemployment is low, people work and receive payment. They in turn buy goods and services that keep the work force employed and growing. This is an expanding economy. When unemployment is high, there is less money to purchase goods and services because fewer people are working. Fewer goods are sold, and businesses lose money and reduce the number of workers. This is a contracting economy. The United States government has many safeguards for the economy. It cannot, however, prevent dislocations due to technological change. A manufacturing process can suddenly become obsolete when a new technology is developed. Economic hardship may occur in a region even though the same goods are still being produced. An example is the industrial Midwest in the early 1980s. Increasingly manufacturers, both in the United States and abroad, were using foreign steel to make products. More finished products were also being imported, replacing American-made goods. Many workers were laid off, causing disruption of normal economic activities. Meanwhile high-tech manufacturing processes were developing elsewhere. California’s so-called Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, became famous for its computer-related goods and computer-assisted design amid manufacturing processes. This was of little benefit to workers displaced by the obsolescence of traditional manufacturing. Because of a lack of transferable skills, many could not make the change. Some workers were laid-off indefinitely, forcing them to accept jobs that paid less or imposing upon them essentially permanent unemployment. Leaders of American business and education are sensitive to these issues. Increasingly concerned with the productivity of the individual worker, business people and educators have formed alliances to save local jobs by improving the work force and by redesigning the curricula of schools and training centers to encourage the development of useful skills. According to the passage, unemployment rate

A. by no means represents the actual unemployment.
B. somewhat represents the relative health of the economy.
C. is usually 4 percent regardless of the relative health of the economy.
D. is an estimate of the percentage of people without a job.

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Just as Roman gladiators drank the blood of foes to gain strength, modem Olympians have infused the blood of their own to gain endurance. Blood doping, which tainted the triumphs of some Olympians, has at last been banned. Blood doping, in short, means withdrawal of one unit of a little more of blood from an athlete’s system about four to six weeks before a competition. The blood is then stored in a frozen state while the body replenished the lost blood through natural processes. The extracted blood is unfrozen and then pumped back into the athlete’s system just before the competition. This increases the body’s hemoglobin count, hereby increasing the capacity for oxygen delivery and raising the level of endurance. A recent colloquium on the ethics of blood doping, summarized in The Physician and Sports Medicine, cited eases of runners getting blood transfusions so they could run fast enough to qualify for Boston Marathon and of blood doping in dog and horse racing. Blood doping may be surprisingly common among world-class endurance athletes, especially cyclists and runners. Blood doping is cheating and it is now banned by the International Olympic Committee, but it is still impossible to test, and till sure checks are found, one can only count on the personal ethics of the sportspersons concerned. Does blood doping really work Buick et al. and Williams et al. have made some studies in the laboratory. In one study, 11 highly trained male track athletes underwent extensive treadmill testing before and alter phlebotomy with re-infusion of 900mi of antilogous freeze-preserved red cells. The blood doping increased the mean hemoglobin concentration 8% (from 15.1% to 16.3% gnm/100ml) , maximal oxygen consumption 5% , and running time to exhaustion 35%. In another study, 12 experienced male distance runners who received 920ml of antilogous blood had a mean 7% increase in hemoglobin concentration and a mean 45-second improvement in time on a 5-mile treadmill run, compared with results after they received 920m1 saline. In the third study, 9 male college students who received two units antilogous blood had a significant increase in hemoglobin concentration and maximal oxygen consumption on a cycle ergo-meter. It is reasonable to conclude that blood doping does work when properly performed in the laboratory. But does it work in the field The problem in determining if blood doping works in the field is that almost all the reports are anecdotal. Whether it works or not, blood doping as it was done for the U.S. Olympic cyclists is to be condemned. Three of the cyclists developed flu-like symptoms 36 hours after transfusion, and one of them, when asked about blood doping, said, "Yeah, I did it. I got sick and it ruined me for the Olympics." To be sure, some of the cyclists who blood-doped won medals, but so did some who refused blood doping. Likewise, not all Olympians who admitted to blood doping were medal winners: an Italian runner who blood-doped for the marathon said he ran poorly and the national cross-country team alleged to have blood-doped ran poorly. In short, one cannot tell from anecdotal reports whether or not blood doping works in the field. Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage

A. Blood doping does afford athletes a competitive advantage though it is not quite safe.
Blood doping works in the laboratory, but there is no evidence to show it works in the field.
C. Blood doping is becoming increasingly common in the world of sports.
D. Athletes who Blood-dope for endurance can perform better than others.

10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything What does it take to succeed. A positive attitude Well, sure, but that’s hardly enough. The Law of Attraction The Secret These ideas might act as spurs to action, but without the action itself, they don’t do much. Success, however, it’s defined, takes action, and taking good and appropriate action takes skills. Some of these skills (not enough, though) are taught in school (not well enough, either), others are taught on the job, and still others we learn from general life experience. Below is a list of general skills that will help anyone get ahead in practically any field, from running a company to running a gardening club. Of course, there are skills specific to each field as well--but my concern here is with the skills that translate across disciplines, the ones that can be learned by anyone in any position. 1. Public Speaking The ability to speak clearly, persuasively, and forcefully in front of an audience--whether an audience of one or of thousands--is one of the most important skills anyone can develop. People who are effective speakers come across as more comfortable with themselves, more confident, and more attractive to be around. Being able to speak effectively means you can sell anything--products, of course, but also ideas, ideologies, worldview, and yourself--which means more opportunities for career advancement, bigger clients, or business funding. 2. Writing Writing well offers many of the same advantages that speaking well offers: good writers are better at selling products, ideas, and themselves than poor writers. Learning to write well involves not just mastery of grammar but the development of the ability to organize one’s thoughts into a coherent form and target it to an audience in the most effective way possible. Given the huge amount of text generated by almost every transaction--from court briefs and legislation running into the thousands of pages to those foot-long receipts you get when you buy gum these days--a person who is a master of the written word can expect doors to open in just about every field. 3. Self-management If success depends on effective action, effective action depends on the ability to focus your attention where it is needed most, when it is needed most. Strong organizational skills, effective productivity habits, and a strong sense of discipline are needed to keep yourself on track. 4. Networking Networking is not only for finding jobs or clients. In an economy dominated by ideas and innovation, networking creates the channel through which ideas flow and in which new ideas are created. A large network, carefully cultivated, ties one into not just a body of people but a body of relationships, and those relationships are more than just the sum of their parts. The interactions those relationships make possible give rise to innovation and creativity--and provide the support to nurture new ideas until they can be realized. 5. Critical Thinking We are exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of times more information on a daily basis than our great-grandparents were. Being able to evaluate that information, sort the potentially valuable from the trivial, analyze its relevance and meaning, and relate it to other information is crucial--and woefully under-taught. Good critical thinking skills immediately distinguish you from the mass of people these days. 6. Decision-Making The bridge that leads from analysis to action is effective decision-making--knowing what to do based on the information available. While not being critical can be dangerous, so too can over-analyzing, or waiting for more information before making a decision. Being able to take in the scene and respond quickly and effectively is what separates the doers from the wannabes. 7. Math You don’t have to be able to integrate polynomials (多项式) to be successful. However, the ability to quickly work with figures in your head, to make rough but fairly accurate estimates, and to understand things like compound interest and basic statistics gives you a big lead on most people. All of these skills will help you to analyze data more effectively--and more quickly--and to make better decisions based on it. 8. Research Nobody can be expected to know everything, or even a tiny fraction of everything. Even within your field, chances are there’s tar more that you don’t know than you do know. You don’t have to know everything--but you should be able to quickly and painlessly find out what you need to know. That means learning to use the Internet effectively, learning to use a library, learning to read productively, and learning how to leverage your network of contacts--and what kinds of research are going to work best in any given situation. 9. Relaxation Stress will not only kill you, it leads to poor decision-making, poor thinking, and poor socialization. So be failing to relax, you knock out at least three of the skills in this list--and really more. Plus, working yourself to death in order to keep up, and not having any time to enjoy the fruits of your work, isn’t really "success". It’s obsession. Being able to face even the most pressing crises with your wits about you and in the most productive way is possibly the most important thing on this list. 10. Basic Accounting It is a simple fact in our society that money is necessary. Even the simple pleasures in life, like hugging your child, ultimately need money--or you’re not going to survive to hug for very long. Knowing how to track and record your expenses and income is important just to survive, let alone to thrive. But more than that, the principles of accounting apply more widely to things like tracking the time you spend on a project or determining whether the value of an action outweighs the costs in money, time, and effort. It’s a shame that basic accounting isn’t a required part of the core K-12 curriculum. ______ is the bridge connecting analysis and action.

A. Responding quickly and effectively
Being critical
C. Knowing what to do
D. Making effective decisions

Now, more than ever, it doesn’t matter who you are but what you look like. Janet was just twenty-five years old. She had a great job and seemed happy. She committed suicide. In her suicide note she wrote that she felt "un-pretty" and that no man ever loved her. Amy was just fifteen when hospitalized for eating disorders. She suffered from both anorexia and bulimia. She lost more than one hundred pounds in two months. Both victims battled problems with their body image and physical appearance. "Oh, I am too fat." "My butt is too big and my breast is too small." "I hate my body and I feel ugly." "I want to be beautiful." The number of men and women who feel these things about themselves is increasing dramatically. I can identify two main categories of body-image problems: additive versus subtractive. Those who enhance their appearance through cosmetic surgery fall into the additive group; those who hope to improve their looks through starvation belong to the subtractive category. Both groups have two things in common: they are never satisfied and are always obsessed. Eating disorders afflict as many as five to ten million women and one million men in the United States. One out of four female college students suffer from an eating disorder. But why Card Kirby, a mental health counselor of Nebraska university, says that body image and eating disorders are continuum addictions in which individuals seek to discover their identities. The idea that we should look a certain way and possess a certain shape is instilled in us at a very early age. Young girls not only play with Barbie dolls that display impossible, even comical, proportions, but they are also bombarded with images as well," We immediately identify physical attractiveness to mean success and happiness." The media can be blamed for contributing to various body image illnesses. We cannot walk into a bookstore without being exposed to perfect male and female bodies on the covers of magazines. We see such images every day--on commercials, billboards, on television, and in movies. These images continually remind women and young girls that if you want to be happy you must be beautiful, and if you want to be beautiful you must be thin. This ideal may be the main objective of the fashion, cosmetic, diet, fitness, and plastic surgery industries that stand to make millions from body-image anxiety. But does it work for us Are women who lose weight in order to be toothpick thin really happy Are women who have had breast implants really happy What truly defines a person Is it his or her physical appearance or is it character Beauty is supposed to be "skin deep". But we can all be beautiful inside. People are killing themselves for unrealistic physical standards dictated by our popular culture. We need to be made more aware of this issue. To be celebrity-thin is not to be beautiful nor happy. It can also be unattractive. Individuals who are obsessed with their bodies are only causing damage to themselves and their loved ones. But as long as the media maintain their message that "Thin is in. ",then the medical and psychological problems our society faces will continue to grow. How does the author feel about this issue

A. Comprising.
B. Concerned.
C. Aggressive.
D. Sarcastic.

Questions 21 to 22 are based on the following news. At the end of the news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions. Now, listen to the news. According to this news, why did so many people from all over the world travel to New York

A. The people’s income has increased, so they can afford the vacation in New York City.
B. Now, traveling to New York City is not so expensive as before.
C. The weakened dollar made hotels, food and entertainment more affordable.
D. New York city becomes more beautiful than before.

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