makes nearly all the rich elements of human expression needed to establish a

rted a debate over the wisdom of spending billions of dollars to keep nearly 2 million people locked up. According to statistics, the United States ends 1999 with 1983084 men and women in prisons. That shows an increase of nearly 840,000 prisoners during the 1990s and makes the United States the country with the highest prisoner population in the world. With the cost of housing a prisoner at about $20,000 a year the cost in 1999 for keeping all these prisoners behind bars is about $39 billion.

Some experts argue that the money is well spent, saying the cost of keeping prisoners behind bars doesn't seem much in comparison in the 1990s coincided with (与……相一致) a steady drop in the US crime rates. It is reported that serious crime has decreased for seven years in a row. "There are noticeable number of people who don't do crimes because they don't want to go to prison," they say.

There is a heated debate among American experts because ______.

A．America has put 2 million people in prison

B．the cost for housing a prisoner keeps rising

C．billions of dollars has been spent on prisoners

D．the prisoner population is the largest in the world

Passage Two

America put more people in prison in the 1990s than in any decade in its history. That started a debate over the wisdom of spending billions of dollars to keep nearly 2 million people locked up. According to statistics, the United States ends 1999 with 1983084 men and women in prisons. That shows an increase of nearly 840,000 prisoners during the 1990s and makes the United States the country with the highest prisoner population in the world. With the cost of housing a prisoner at about $20,000 a year the cost in 1999 for keeping all these prisoners behind bars is about $39 billion.

Some experts argue that the money is well spent, saying the cost of keeping prisoners behind bars doesn't seem much in comparison in the 1990s coincided with (与……相一致) a steady drop in the US crime rates. It is reported that serious crime has decreased for seven years in a row. "There are noticeable number of people who don't do crimes because they don't want to go to prison," they say.

36. There is a heated debate among American experts because ______.

A. America has put 2 million people in prison

B. the cost for housing a prisoner keeps rising

C. billions of dollars has been spent on prisoners

D. the prisoner population is the largest in the world

"How was your weekend？"

This question comes up at workplaces all over the United States every Monday morning as people greet each other. It is another way of saying, "How did you spend your leisure time？"

In the Unites States the way people spend their leisure time is an important part of their identity. Perhaps everybody does nearly the same thing all day in the office or the factory, but leisure time is what makes people distinct and reveals who they are.

For many people, leisure time means going somewhere -- to a museum, a concert, a restaurant, or a baseball game. Or it means doing something such as playing volleyball, backpacking, swimming, singing in a chorus (合唱), or playing in a park with their children. For other people, free time means staying home with wonderful sources of entertainment, such as VCR, stereo or cable TV with dozens of channels. Others pursue creative activities such as cooking, gardening, and home improvement. The latest stay-at, home activity is "surfing (冲浪) the net" -- that is, looking for information and entertainment on the Internet.

In the United States, leisure time is big business. Enormous amounts of money are spent by competing enterprises that make and sell the goods and services that people use in their free time. In fact, shopping itself is an important leisure time activity. Spending a day at a giant mall has become, for some people, as interesting as spending the day at museum or amusement park.

People in the United States are ultimately not much different from others in what they do in their leisure time. The real difference may lie in the energy, time, money, and sheer enthusiasm that they devote to it.

Why do Americans often greet each other by asking "How did you spend your leisure time？"

A．Because they are interested in the different pastime activities.

B．Because leisure time is what makes people different from each other.

C．Because they are bored with the job they have done for the whole week.

D．Because everybody does the same thing all day long.

indings of a large, national survey that has been conducted annually for the last 25 years. The survey includes more than 200,000 students【C1】______nearly 300 colleges and asks them to【C2】______how their own mental health【C3】______their classmates —for example, is it "above average" or in the "highest 10%"？ This【C4】______unusual methodology typically results in the statistical Lake Woebegon effect in which most people【C5】______to overestimate themselves in relation to others (it refers to the fictional Lake Woebegon, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average").【C6】______the most recent results indicate that fewer and fewer freshmen feel like they are in top form. in terms of【C7】______stress. So whats going on？ Obviously, the economy and high unemployment might【C8】______the increase in stress. A much more precise large study recently found that empathy【C9】______college students had declined 40% since 2000—and since caring relationships are【C10】______to mental (and physical) health, a decline in empathy could also produce a decline in mental health and coping. My final point brings us back to my earlier post on a Stanford study that looked at the psychological【C11】______of comparing ourselves to others. It found that the way people are incline to【C12】______their negative emotions while broadcasting their happy ones makes the rest of us feel somehow "less than"—【C13】______all our friends and neighbors have better lives than we【C14】______ This【C15】______, too, might tie into why the new survey, "The American Freshman: National Norms, Fall 2011," found that students are feeling less【C16】______about their level of emotional and mental stability. If all the students around you are desperately trying to【C17】______a happy face—and you【C18】______that face as a true reflection of their【C19】______selves, even as you work to hide your own【C20】______—well, its not surprising that so many students might be getting a bit strained.

【C1】

A．possessing

B．attending

C．participating

D．joining

le of 56 works by Damien Hirst, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's in London on September 15th 2008. All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy.

The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising bewilderingly since 2003. At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics , a research firm—double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.

In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst's sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector, they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008. Within weeks the world's two biggest auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's, had to pay out nearly $200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them.

The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more fluctuant. But Edward Dolman, Christie's chief executive, says: " I'm pretty confident we're at the bottom. "

What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds—death, debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.

In the first paragraph, Damien Hirst's sale was referred to as "a last victory" because_________.

A．the art market had witnessed a succession of victories

B．the auctioneer finally got the two pieces at the highest bids

C．Beautiful Inside My Head Forever won over all masterpieces

D．it was successfully made just before the world financial crisis

which of the following statements is not true about maori population？

A. Maori population makes up nearly one-seventh of New Zealand s total population.

B. Maori population is younger than the total population.

C. Non-Maori women tend to have children earlier than Maori women.

D. Maori women tend to have more children than non-Maori women.

A.question

B.matter

C.case

D.problem

Nowadays nearly all banks have adopted the () system to ensure the security of customers’ financial deposit.

A、secret

B、password

C、clue

D、hidden

A.reverse

B.diverse

C.inverse

D.adverse