In ___ and ___ you can shop for cheap and used clothes.

Human beings have used tools for a very long time. In some parts of the world you can still find tools that people used more than two million years ago. They made these tools by hitting one stone against another. In this way they broke off pieces from one of the stones. These chips of stone were usually sharp on one side. People used them for cutting meat and skin from dead animals, and also for making other tools out of wood. Human beings needed to use tools because they did not have sharp teeth like other meat-eating animals, such as lions and tigers. Tools helped people to get food more easily.

Working with tools also helped to develop human intelligence. The human brain grew bigger, and human beings began to invent more and more tools and machines. The stone chip was one of the first tools that people used, and perhaps it is the most important. Some scientists say that it was the key to the success of mankind.

Since 1960 a new kind of tool has appeared. This is the silicon chip --a little chip of silicon crystal. It is smaller than a finger-nail, but it can store more than a million" bits" of information. It is an electronic brain.

Every year these chips get cleverer, but their size gets smaller, and their cost gets less. They are used in watches, calculators and intelligent machines that we can use in many ways.

In the future we will not need to work with tools in the old way. Machines will do everything for us. They will even talk and play games with us. People will have plenty of spare time. But what will they do with it?

Human beings used stone chips for more than two million years, but human life changed very little in that time. We have used silicon chips for only a few years, but life is changing faster every day. What will life be like twenty years from now? What will the world be like two million years from now?

In the ancient days, human beings needed to use tools because______.

A．Human beings didn't have sharp teeth like other meat-eating animals and tools helped them to get food more easily.

B．Tools helped to develop human intelligence.

C．Tools helped the human beings to cut meat and skin from dead animals.

D．It was easy to make stone tools.

听力原文：M: Come in, come in! What can I do for you?

W: Professor Johnson, are you giving your Advanced Geology course again next semester?

M: Yes, I'm planning on it.

W: I wonder if I could enroll in it. I know it's a graduate course and I'm only a junior, but...

M: Aren' t you a bit young? I've allowed qualified seniors to take the course and they usually have a hard time keeping up.

W: ! know, but the geology of the American West is my major interest and I've done a lot of reading in the field. Last semester I took Professor Williams' s course and I didn' t find it nearly challenging enough.

M: I see. You certainly aren't one of those students who are out for easy grades.

W: I should say not. I really want to learn something.

M: Well, I'll speak to Professor Williams about it, ff he thinks you're ready, I'll let you enroll.

W: Oh, thanks. Professor Johnson, that's really very nice of you.

The woman talks to the professor______

A．because she wants him to recommend books

B．because she wants to apply to graduate schools

C．because she wants to take an advanced course

D．because she wants him to give her a good grade

听力原文：M: Come in! Come in! What can I do for you? W: Prof. Donner, are you giving your Advanced Geology course again next semester?

M: Yes, I'm planning on it.

W: I wonder if I could enroll in it. I know it's a graduate course and I'm only a junior, but...

M: Aren't you a bit young? I've allowed qualified seniors to take the course and they usually have a hard timekeeping up.

W: I know, but the geology of the American West is my favorite interest and I've done a lot of reading in the field. Last semester I took Prof. Burman's course and I didn't find it challenging enough.

M: I see. You certainly aren't one of those students who are out for easy grades.

W: I should say not. I really want to learn something.

M: Well, I'll speak to Prof. Burman. If he thinks you're ready, I'll let you enroll.

W: Oh, thanks. Professor Donner, that's really very nice of you.

Why did the woman talk to the professor?

A．She wants to apply to graduate schools.

B．She wants him to recommend books.

C．She Wants to take an advanced course.

D．She wants him to give her a good grade.

听力原文：W: Professor Smith will be back in just a minute. You can wait for him if you want.

M: No, thanks. I'll just leave this note for him.

Q: What does the man ask the woman to do?

(15)

A．Write a note to Professor Smith.

B．Wait a minute for Professor Smith.

C．Give a message to Professor Smith.

D．Return Professor Smith's notebook.

Your vessel is broken down and rolling in heavy seas.You can reduce the possibility of capsizing by __.

A.Constantly shifting the rudder

B.Rigging a sea anchor

C.Moving all personnel aft

D.Moving all personnel forward and low

We live, it is said, in a world of standardization: a place in which increasingly you can buy the same things—cappuccinos, food, cosmetics, fashions—in similar shops, in similar mails, in similar cities. The heart laments this and hopes it isn't really happening. The head, though, has to accept that it has advantages, for standardized products save time, reduce confusion, and may be cheaper and more predictable, especially when attached to a trusted brand. There is one market, however, in which hearts and heads alike are forcing things in a different direction: women's clothing. There, the customer is queen, and she seems to prefer confusion.

It is not the fashions themselves that are flouting standardization. It is the sizes in which they are sold. Once upon a time these were predictable and numerological, even if the numbers used varied from country to country. It did not matter if a size 12 dress in Britain was called a 38 in Germany and a 44 in Italy, for a simple conversion chart would suffice. No longer. Increasingly, size is a matter of vanity not of measurement, for women have, well, become larger in various ways. Not surprisingly, they would like to have their cake, eat it, and stay exactly the same dress size. Some clothing firms have accommodated such delusional desires by sticking to the same sizing numbers but making the clothes larger. Others have resorted to therapeutic words—petite, regular, "missy". In America, it is even possible to buy women's clothes in size 0; presumably negative sizing cannot be far behind.

Men are, of course, going through the same dimensional change. They are not, however, encountering, or inviting, the same confusion. Occasionally it may be hard to work out what exactly is meant by "medium" or "extra large", but mainly real measurements still rule. This may be because men have another option: for suit-wearers the best trick is to buy not the right new size but a size too big, for then the suit looks loose and people may be fooled into thinking you are getting slimmer, not fatter. Or perhaps their vanity is of a more primitive sort. A (possibly apocryphal) story about Winston Churchill has the great man recommending that among aid shipments sent during the second world war should be packages of British condoms, all large size but labeled "small".

But for women, meanwhile, shopping is becoming harder: more things must be tried on, taking more time, and buying online is a poor option. Central planners, ignoring the fact that this is the result of expressed female preferences, would want standardization reimposed. Here's an alternative suggestion for our freer era: clothing firms could agree a standard sizing to be put on some sort of bar code or tag. Then those who want speed and clarity could buy (or be given) an electronic reader to find out the easily comparable truth. Those who would rather fool themselves can continue to do so by reading the written labels. Such are the workings of invisible hands.

Which of the following topics is mainly discussed in the passage?

A．World Standardization Organization

B．some new development in women's clothes

C．standardization in various aspects of social life

D．the dynamics of free market economy in the world of fashion

A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.

Tuesday's Republican victory in the Massachusetts special election means that Democrats can't send a modified health care bill back to the Senate. That's a shame because the bill that would have emerged from House-Senate negotiations would have been better than the bill the Senate has already passed. ① But the Senate bill is much, much better than nothing. And all that has to happen to make it law is for the House to pass the same bill, and send it to President Obama's desk. Right now, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, says that she doesn't have the votes to pass the Senate bill. But there is no good alternative.

Some are urging Democrats to scale back their proposals in the hope of gaining Republican support. But anyone who thinks that would work must have spent the past year living on another planet. The fact is that the Senate bill is a centrist document, which moderate Republicans should find entirely acceptable. In fact, it's very similar to the plan Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts just a few years ago. Yet it has faced lock-step opposition from the G. O. P. , which is determined to prevent Democrats from achieving any successes.② Why would this change now that Republicans think they're on a roll?

Alternatively, some call for breaking the health care plan into pieces so that the Senate can vote the popular pieces into law. But anyone who thinks that would work hasn't paid attention to the actual policy issues. Think of health care reform. as being like a three-legged stool．You would, rightly, ridicule anyone who proposed saving money by leaving Off one or two of the legs. Well, those who propose doing only the popular pieces of health care reform. deserve the same kind of ridicule.

Now what about the suggestion that Democrats use reconciliation to enact health reform? That's a real option, which may become necessary. But reconciliation, which is basically limited to matters of taxing and spending，probably can't be used to enact many important aspects of reform. ③ In fact, it's not even clear if it could be used to ban discrimination based on medical history.

Ladies and gentlemen, the nation is waiting. Stop whining, and do what needs to be done.

阅读以上文章，回答 93～97 题

第 93 题 We can infer that the author is __________ Democrats' proposals in the health care bill.

[A] in favor of

[B] in opposition to

[C] indifferent to

[D] doubtful about