职称英语综合a练习题.doc

Creating a World without Smoking
Smoking will be banned in all pubs, clubs and workplaces from next year after historic votes in the Commons last night. After last-minute appeals from health campaigners, MPs opted for a blanket prohibition which will start in summer 2007, ending months of argument over whether smokers should be barred in pubs and restaurants only. They voted to ban smoking in all pubs and clubs by 384 to 184, a surprisingly large majority of 200.
Smoking will still be allowed in the home and in places considered to be homes, such as prisons, care homes and hotels.
Smokers lighting up in banned areas will face a fixed penality notice of ￡50 and spot fines of ￡200 will be introduced for failing to display no-smoking signs, with the possible penalty, if the issue goes to court, increasing to ￡1,000.
Carpline Flint, the Public Health Minister, also announced that the fine for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas would be increased to ￡2,500 - more than ten times the ￡200 originally proposed.
The Bill also allows the Government to increase the age for buying cigarettes. Ministers will consult on raising it from 16 to 18.
The Bill now goes to the Lords but will be through by the summer recess.
Even a plan to allow smoking to continue in private clubs was thrown out as MPs on all sides were given permission to vote with their conscience rather than on a party line.
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said the Health Bill would ban smoking in "virtually every enclosed public place and workplace" in England and save thousands of lives a year. Smoke-free workplaces and public places "will become the norm".
She said: "An additional 600,000 people will give up smoking as a result of this law and millions more will be protected from second-hand smoke."
Peter Hollins, director-general of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The vote is a landmark victory for the public health of this country and will save the lives of many people."
Things to Know about the UK
1 From Buckingham Palace to Oxford, the UK is loaded with wonderful icons (标志) of past eras. But it has also modernized with confidence. It’s now better known for vibrant (充满活力的) cities with great nightlife and attraction. Fashions, fine dining, clubbing, shopping - the UK is among the world’s best.
2 Most people have strong preconceptions about the British. But if you’re one of these people, you’d be wise to abandon those ideas. Visit a nightclub in one of the big cities, a football match, or a good local pub and you might more readily describe the English people as humorous and hospitable. It’s certainly true that no other country in the world has more bird-watchers, sports supporters, pet owners and gardeners than the UK.
3 Getting around England is pretty easy. Budget (廉价的) airlines like Easyjet and Rynnair fly domestically. Trains can deliver you very efficiently from one major city to another. Long distance express buses are called coaches. Where coaches and buses run on the same route, coaches are more expensive (though quicker) than buses. London’s famous black cabs are excellent but expensive. Minicabs are cheaper competitors, with freelance (个体的) drivers. But usually you need to give a call first. London’s underground is called the Tube. It’s very convenient and can get you to almost any part of the city.
4 The UK is not famous for its food. But you still need to know some of the traditional English foods. The most famous must be fish and chips. The fish and chips are deep fried in flour. English breakfast is something you need to try. It is fried bacon, sausages, fried eggs, black pudding, fried tomatoes, fried bread and baked beans, with toast and a pot of tea. Other things like shepherd’s pie and Yorkshire pudding are also well-known as a part of English food culture.
5 Pubbing and clubbing are the main forms of English nightlife, especially for the young. Pubbing means going to a pub with friends, having drinks, and chatting. Clubbing is different from pubbing and includes going to a pub, or a place of music, or a bar, or any other places to gather with friends. Clubbing can be found everywhere. Usually there is some kind of dress code for clubbing, such as no jeans, no sportswear, or smart clubwear, while pubbing is much more casual.

篇
Trying to Find a Partner
One of the most striking findings of a recent poll in the UK is that of the people Interviewed, one in two believes that it is becoming more difficult to meet someone to start a family with.
Why are many finding it increasingly difficult to start and sustain intimate relationships? Does modern life really make it harder to fall in love? Or are we making it harder for ourselves?
It is certainly the case today that contemporary couples benefit in different ways from relationships. Women no longer rely upon partners for economic security or status. A man doesn’t expect his spouse to be in sole charge of running his household and raising his children.
But perhaps the knowledge that we can live perfectly well without a partnership means that it takes much more to persuade people to abandon their independence.
In theory, finding a partner should be much simpler these days. Only a few generations ago, your choice of soulmate (心上人) was constrained by geography, social convention and family tradition. Although it was never explicit, many marriages were essentially arranged.
Now those barriers have been broken down. You can approach a builder or a brain surgeon in any bar in any city on any given evening. When the world is your oyster (牡蛎), you surely have a better chance of finding a pearl.
But it seems that the old conventions have been replaced by an even tighter constraint: the tyranny of choice.
The expectations of partners are inflated to an unmanageable degree: good looks, impressive salary, kind to grandmother, and right socks. There is no room for error in the first impression.
We think that a relationship can be perfect. If it isn’t, it is disposable. We work to protect ourselves against future heartache and don’t put in the hard emotional labor needed to build a strong relationship. Of course, this is complicated by realities. The cost of housing and child-rearing creates pressure to have a stable income and career before a life partnership.

第二篇
Milosevic’s Death
Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead last Saturday in his cell at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The 64-year-old had been on trial there since February 2002.
Born in provincial Pozarevac in 1941, he was the second son of a priest and a school teacher. Both of his parents died when he was still a young adult. The young Milosevic was "untypical", says Slavoljub Djukic, his unofficial biographer. He was "not interested in sports, avoided excursions (短途旅行) and used to come to school dressed in the old-fashioned way – white shirt and tie." One of his old friends said, he could "imagine him as a station-master or punctilious (一丝不苟的) civil servant."
Indeed that is exactly what he might have become, had he not married Mira. She was widely believed to be his driving force.
At university and beyond he did well. He worked for various firms and was a communist party member. By 1986 he was head of Serbia’s Central Committee. But still he had not yet really been noticed.
It was Kosovo that gave him his chance. An autonomous province of Serbia, Kosovo was home to an Albanian majority and a Serbian minority. In 1989, he was sent there to calm fears of Serbians who felt they were discriminated against. But instead he played the nationalist card and became their champion. In so doing, he changed into a ruthless (无情的) and determined man. At home with Mira he plotted the downfall of his political enemies. Conspiring (密谋) with the director of Serbian TV, he mounted a modern media campaign which aimed to get him the most power in the country.
He was elected Serbian president in 1990. In 1997, he became president of Yugoslavia. The rest of the story is well-known: his nationalist card caused Yugoslavia’s other ethnic groups to fight for their own rights, power and lands. Yugoslavia broke up when four of the six republics declared independence in 1991. War started and lasted for years and millions died. Then Western countries intervened. NATO bombed Yugoslavia, and he eventually stepped down as state leader in 2000.
Soon after this, Serbia’s new government, led by Zoran Djindjic, arrested him and sent him to face justice at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

第三篇
The World Cup
This summer’s World Cup competition will see teams competing to play the world’s best football. But the football they play will not all be of the same kind. The fans expect different styles of play from Brazil, Germany, or Italy.
What makes Brazilian football Brazilian? "Our style of playing football contrasts with the Europeans because of a combination of qualities of surprise, accuracy and good judgment. This style has won Brazil five world cups. Yet many Brazilian fans only count four of these victories. In 1994, the team abandoned this style for modern, scientific training and tactics. The team won the cup, but in a boring way.
The Italians think differently. "To many Italians, the score 0-0 has a glorious quality, suggesting perfection," says the British football writer Simon Kuper. In the Italian culture, the idea of face is very important. This is why Italian teams are traditionally built around strong defences. The Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff once said that Italian teams never exactly beat you. It’s just that you often lose to them.
In Holland, there is a tradition of decision making through argument and discussion. It is a society where everybody is expected to have a point of view. "Every Dutch player wants to control the game," says Arnold Muhren. "You play football with your brains and not your feet."
"A Dutch player argues," says Simon Kuper. "An English player obeys his superior. He is a soldier." The qualities valued in English football are military – strength, aggression and courage. This can make for exciting football. But it also means that the English find it difficult to use skillful players. David Beckham is usually criticized for his failure to defend – despite the fact that he is an attacker.
If the English like to fight, the Germans like to win. In recent years, Germany has tried to change its image as a country of ruthless efficiency and a desire for victory at all costs. But Germans are quite happy for these qualities to remain in their national football team. "Football is a simple game," Gary Lineker once said. "You kick a ball about for ninety minutes and in the end the Germans win."
It’s difficult to predict who will win this year’s World Cup. There is no strong favorite. But a look at the track record of previous winners shows that it is the nations with the strongest national characteristics in the football that perform best. It seems that you need to know where you come from if you want to get to the top.
American Dreams
There is a common response to America among foreign writers: the US is a land of extremes where the best of things are just as easily found as the worst. This is a cliché (陈词滥调).
In the land of black and white, people should not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between the rich and the poor in the world. But the American Dream offers a way out to everyone. __________ (46) No class system or government stands in the way.
Sadly, this old argument is no longer true. Over the past few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the American economy.
The gap between the rich and the poor has widened and widened. __________ (47)
Over the past 25 years the median US family income has gone up 18 per cent. For the top 1 per cent, however, it has gone up 200 per cent. Twenty-five years ago the top fifth of Americans had an average income 6.7 times that of the bottom fifth. __________ (48)
Inequalities have grown worse in different regions. In California, incomes for lower class families have fallen by 4 per cent since 1969. __________ (49) This has led to an economy hugely in favor of a small group of very rich Americans. The wealthiest 1 per cent of households now control a third of the national wealth. There are now 37 million Americans living in poverty. At 12.7 per cent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the developed world.
Yet the tax burden on America’s rich is falling, not growing. __________ (50) There was an economic theory holding that the rich spending more would benefit everyone as a whole. But clearly that theory has not worked in reality.

A Nobody is poor in the US.
B The top 0.01 per cent of households has seen its tax bite fall by a full 25 percentage points since 1980.
C For upper class families they have risen 41 per cent.
D Now it is 9.8 times.
E As it does so, the possibility to cross that gap gets smaller and smaller.
F All one has to do is to work hard and climb the ladder towards the top.

Sending E-mails to Professors
One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e-mail __________ (51) for copies of her teaching notes.
Another __________ (52) that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.
At colleges and universities in the US, e-mail has made professors more approachable (平易近人). But many say it has made them too accessible, __________(53)boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.
These days, professors say, students seem to view them as available __________(54)the clock, sending a steady stream of informal e-mails.
"The tone that they take in e-mails is pretty astounding (令人吃惊的)," said Michael Kessler, an assistant dean at Georgetown University. "They’ll __________ (55) you to help: ‘I need to know this.’"
"There’s a fine __________(56) between meeting their needs and at the same time maintaining a level of legitimacy (正统性) as an __________(57) who is in charge."
Christopher Dede, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said __________ (58)show that students no longer defer to (听从) their professors, perhaps because they realize that professors’ __________(59)could rapidly become outdated.
"The deference was driven by the__________(60)that professors were all-knowing sources of deep knowledge," Dede said, and that notion has __________(61).
For junior faculty members, e-mails bring new tension into their work, some say, as they struggle with how to __________ (62). Their job prospects, they realize, may rest in part on student evaluations of their accessibility.
College students say e-mail makes __________ (63) easier to ask questions and helps them learn.
But they seem unaware that what they write in e-mails could have negative effects__________ (64) them, said