题目内容
Questions I to 3 are based on the following conversation. At the end of the conversation, you will be given 15 seconds to answer the questions.Now listen to the conversation. Which of the following did the woman NOT mention
查看答案
搜索结果不匹配？点我反馈
更多问题
The third quarter GDP figures released on November lst surpassed expectations for once. The economy grew by 0.5%, the fastest quarterly rate for more than a year. The estimate was flattered by a bounce back from a weak second quarter, when output was temporarily depressed by the royal wedding and by interruptions to supplies after the Japanese earthquake. In any case, growing anxiety about a double-dip recession meant the half-decent growth figures were barely celebrated. Prospects for the fourth quarter are dim. The Bank of England’s monetary-policy committee reckons that output will be flat, but even that may prove optimistic. The closely watched purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing plunged from 50.8 to 47.4 in October (a reading below 50 points to falling activity). Order books are slimmer. Manufacturers say nervous customers are delaying new purchases and running down stocks. The immediate source of trouble is the euro area, which is struggling to stop the spread of its sovereign debt crisis. Two-fifths of Britain’s exports go to the 17-country currency block. Even Germany, the euro- zone’s economic motor and its most credit worthy sovereign, has been dragged down by uncertainty over Greece’s bail-out (求助) and the failed efforts to protect Italy and Spain. German manufacturing shrank in October, according to the purchasing managers’ index, and unemployment rose for the first time in 18 months. Britain cannot easily shake off trouble in its export markets. Domestic demand is weak because the government and many householders are struggling with debts of their own. And Britain’s stake in the Eurozone is not confined to trade. British banks are exposed to the region’s trouble spots. Their loans to Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, the five countries on the euro-zone’s circumference whose sovereign debts are under question by bond markets, amount to ＄350 billion, reckons the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the bank for central banks. A tenth of that was public debt: a larger part was loans to banks; most of it was lending to businesses and consumers. A cynic’s view of the euro-zone’s sovereign bail-out schemes is that they were put in place to preserve French and German banks from losses. That suspicion, along with a widespread conviction among Conservative politicians that the euro is doomed, helps explain why some is Britain complain about the country’s notional exposure through IMF membership (even though the fund is always first in the queue to get its money back). The value of British bank loans to the euro-zone periphery (周围) looks small compared to the ＄680 billion owed to French banks, equivalent to almost a quarter to France’s GDP. But Britain’s bank exposure is still huge, and a shade larger as a share of GDP, at 14.7%, than Germany’s. What is the view of Conservative politicians
Taxing Sodas for a Healthier Economy A. The average American drinks a gallon of soda a week, which delivers roughly 1,000 calories and no nutrition. The average American is also overweight or obese. Could changing one of those things help change the other B. A growing number of elected officials think so, which accounts for a spate of proposed new taxes on soda as a way to discourage consumption while at the same time raising money to fund other obesity- fighting initiatives. Some 20 states and cities, from New Mexico to Baltimore, contemplated soda taxes this spring. C. The reaction against them has been swift and fierce. In March, scores of soda-company employees sporting Pepsi, Coke and 7-Up gear swarmed the Kansas state senate to fight a proposal that would have added a penny in tax for each teaspoon of sugar in a nonjuice drink. That would have increased the price of a 12 oz soda by about 10 cents and generated some ＄90 million in revenue a year. D. "I thought we might kill two birds with one stone," says state senator John Vratil, who, like counterparts across the country, has been struggling to address both a recession-induced budget gap and rising public- health costs stemming from obesity. Instead, he got an earful about how a soda tax would kill jobs, burden the poor. and constitute an unwelcome government intrusion into the American diet. E. Government involvement in what Americans eat is nothing new — consider the corn-industry subsidies that keep sweetener cheap in the first place. But why tax soda and not. Say, ice cream, pizza or Oreos — or, for that matter, the video games that discourage kids from going outside to run around Washington city-council member Mary Cheh says it’s because soda is where scientists have .observed the clearest link to excess pounds. F. When Cheh set out to fund her Healthy Schools Act, which would raise food and physical, education standards at schools in DC — where about 40% of kids are overweight or obese—she didn’t know she’d wind up going after soda. But the data overwhelmed her. The amount of soda the typical American drinks has grown by roughly 500% over the past 60 years, and of the 250 to 300 calories a day Americans have, on average, added to their diets since the late 1970s, nearly half come from sugared beverages. "but if we were going to only target one thing to made a material difference, soda would be it." G. And while taxing drinks isn’t perfectly clear-cut — should sweetened tea be included what about diet soda, which doesn’t have the calories but may affect appetite control — a soda tax is still a lot easier to implement than a snack-food sales tax, which a number of states and cities have tried over the years. In 2001, DC replied its sales tax on soda, junk food and candy, partly because it was too difficult for merchants to determine which items to tax at the register. In Cheh’s proposal, soda wholesalers would be charged a penny per ounce of sugared drink. That cost, amounting to 68 cents for a two-litre bottle, would be included in the price tag on the shelf. H. The tougher question is whether increasing the price of soda would, in fact, reduce the number of calories people consume. Some research indicates the answer is yes. Last year, in the New England Journal of Medicine, the directors of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and Yale University’s Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity wrote that a penny-per-ounce tax on soda could be expected to reduce consumption 13%, eliminating about 8,000 calories annually from the typical American’s diet. That translates to 2.3 fewer pounds a year. I. Other research leaves room for doubt. While various studies show that a 10% increase in the price of soda leads people to purchase about 10% less of it, that doesn’t necessarily mean folks aren’t making up for those calories elsewhere. A recent study by researchers at Yale, Emory University and Bates College found that taxes on soda do reduce the amount that children and adolescents drink. But kids then tend to increase their consumption of other caloric drink like whole milk and fruit juice. Switching out a 140-calorie can of soda for a 225-caforic glass of milk may still be desirable — milk in nutritious; soda isn’t — but the substitution illustrates, the risk of assuming that reducing soda consumption necessarily reduces weight. J. Health concerns aside, part of the reason taxing soda is becoming so popular is that recession-racked states and cities are desperate for cash. In April, Washington State passed a tax of 2 cents for each 12 oz. of soda, The motivation was less about addressing obesity than closing a ＄2.8 billion budget gap. In addition to soda, the legislature added or increased taxes on beer, candy, bottled water and cigarettes. K. But either way, the soda industry is out to stop the trend in its tracks. In the first three months of this year, the American Beverage Association spent ＄5.4 million on lobbying, compared with just ＄140,000 in the same period last year. When the governor of New York floated the idea of a soda tax, Pepsi responded by saying it might move its headquarters out of the state. L. And in Washington State, the soda industry’s main lobbying group is spending ＄1.5 million to drum up the 240,000 signatures necessary to force a statewide vote on the just-passed tax. Legislators were worried this might happen. Two years ago, after Maine added a tax on soda, beer and wine to pay for a programme that helps people buy health insurance, the beverage-backed group Fed Up with Taxes spent some ＄5 million collecting signatures to force a referendum and purchasing TV and newspaper ads to convince voters to repeal the tax — which they did. M. How do people feel about soda taxes when they’re not being bombarded with a multi-million-dollar ad campaign The answer is not clear. In April, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked residents of New York State if they supported or opposed a "fat tax" on nondiet sugared soda. Thirty-one percent were in favour, and 66% were opposed. Yet when asked if they would support such a tax if the money raised were used to fund health care, people changed their opinions dramatically, with 48% in favour and just 49% opposed. N. Elected officials are far from unanimously convinced that taxing soda is the best solution. Of the 20- odd proposals on the table this year, most went nowhere. In Washington, the city council wasn’t ready to impose a penny-per-ounce tax, though it did remove soda’s exemption from the district’s 6% sales tax. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. was against the larger per-ounce tax for a litany of reasons, including the fact that soda companies sponsor a lot of events with the city’s department of parks and recreation. "It’s easy to make this group of people a villain," he says, "but they’ve helped in many ways." O. Back in the Kansas state senate, Vratil’s soda-tax proposal didn’t even make it out of committee. But he’s not too down about it. "I figured it wouldn’t pass in the first year," he says. "It normally takes two or three years to educate legislators." In Washington, Cheh is already gearing up to reintroduce her original measure. "You don’t win right away," she says, "but one day we’ll look back and say,’What took us so long" Soda taxes may not have passed en masse (全体地) this year, but there’s plenty of reason to think they’ll bubble up again. According to the research by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, knowing the tax money would go to health care changed people’s opinions on soda taxes.
You’re sitting at a restaurant waiting for a friend. Twenty minutes after your designated meeting time, they arrive in a flutter with a list of excuses. Perhaps there was too much traffic or a meeting ran long. You’ve heard it a million times, yet their behavior never changes. Sound familiar "I think everyone has a person in their life that does this," said Herb Reich, author of the book 2051 Things That Really Piss Me Off. "Being late constantly, to me, means you are saying your time is more valuable than mine." Reich said while it’s easier to forgive friends and family for their lateness, we need to establish very clear boundaries for being on time when it comes to professional relationships. "Sometimes I will establish consequences in the contract." he said, "It’s always wise to let people know what you feel about their behavior." And while Reich said lateness is a "personality trait," psychologist Pamela Brand said the behavior is neurological (神经学的)." We call this a bio-psycho-socio pattern," Brand said. The biological cause of lateness, she said, is when the person’s organization and planning skills are underdeveloped. Socially, she said here can be learned behaviors or cultural communities that don’t focus on time or being prompt. "If someone wasn’t raised ever looking at a watch things were kind of loose growing up, just knowing this can help us understand why they function a certain way," she said. The psychological part of the pattern is when a person pardons or rationalizes their behavior with excuses. Brand said. So can people change their ways "It’s my belief that all patterns can be changed if a person is conscious and wants it to be changed." Brand said. "There’s a book called You Are Not Your Brain that I refer to often that outlines a four-step process of changing patterns in the brain. It does a wonderful job of giving a clear explanation of how pattems develop, how they are hard wired into the brain and how to shift pattems to support neurological shifting. "This could take six months for a neurological change to stick." she said. To lend support for someone who is trying to be more punctual. Brand said it helps to raise the stakes. "A person is much less likely to be motivated if there are no consequences." Brand said. "If there is no threat to losing a relationship, losing a job or getting kicked out of school, things will stay the same. So if being late bothers you, you have to rally make the contract clear." Reich agrees. "Once, I was waiting for someone in my professional life, and after 15 minutes, I left." he said. "I explained why I did this, and that changed their behavior. My time is just as valuable as theirs and I don’t want to sit around. They weren’t late after that.\ What do we learn about the book You Are Not Your Brain
舞龙(Dragon dance)是中国文化中一种传统的舞蹈与表演形式。它起源于汉朝，由信仰并尊敬龙的中国人所开创。人们认为舞龙一开始是农耕文化的组成部分，起初也是治病和防病的一种方法。舞龙在宋朝(Song Dynasty)就已经成为一项流行的活动。舞龙是中国文化和传统的重要组成部分，已经传遍了中国乃至全世界，而且已经成为中国体育活动中的一种特殊的艺术表演。它象征着在来年为世界上所有的人带来好运和兴旺。
微信支付 
支付宝支付