What do the captains of the dragon boats do during the boats racing?()
A.Cheer loudly on the bank of the river
B.Preside the ceremony of the racing
C.Row the boats in the front
D.Wave small flags to help coordinate the rowing
A.Cheer loudly on the bank of the river
B.Preside the ceremony of the racing
C.Row the boats in the front
D.Wave small flags to help coordinate the rowing
Today, with very few exceptions, the stock of large U. S. corporations is held by financial institutions such as pension funds, foundations, or mutual funds—not by individual shareholders. And these financial institutions cannot legally become real capitalists who control what they own. How much they can invest in any one company is limited by law, as is how actively they can intervene in company decision making.
These shareholders and corporate managers have a very different agenda than dominant capitalists do, and therein lies the problem. They do not have the clout to change business decisions, corporate strategy, or incumbent managers with their voting power. They can enhance their wealth only by buying and selling shares based on what they think is going to happen to short-term profits. Minority shareholders have no choice but to be short-term traders.
And since shareholders are by necessity interested only in short-term trading, it is not surprising that managers' compensation is based not on long-term performance, but on current profits or sales. Managerial compensation packages are completely congruent with the short-run perspective of short run shareholders. Neither the manager nor the shareholder expects to be around very long. And neither has an incentive to watch out for the long term growth of the company.
We need to give managers and shareholders an incentive to nurture long-term corporate growth—in other words, to work as hard at enhancing productivity and output as they now work at improving short-term profitability.
Which of the following summarizes the main idea of the passage?
A.Most big companies are run by individual capitalists.
B.The problem is that there are no incentives for productivity growth.
C.Let's put capitalists back into capitalism.
D.Individual capitalists or shareholders with enough stock dominate big corporations.
A.They were protected by a strong United States Navy.
B.They were supported by a well-developed railroad.
C.Most crew members had experience on foreign ships.
D.As part owners of the ships, captains got some of the profits.
One of the earliest historians, a Greek named Herodotus, always tried to make sure that information was as accurate as possible. Herodotus lived in the 400's B.C. He wrote a detailed account of the Persian Wars, the great struggle between the Greeks and the Persians that had taken place in the years before he was born.
A great deal of our information about these wars exists only because Herodotus found it out and wrote it down. Here, to give one example, is his account of how the battle of Salamis began. This was a naval battle at which the Athenian ships defeated the Persians that had taken place in the year 480 B.C. It was one of the turning points of the war, and the question was how the Greeks, badly outnumbered, dared to fight. Here is how Herodotus explained it:
Themistocles, the Athenian leader, told them to board their ships, whereupon the Greeks put to sea. The fleet had hardly left shore when they were attacked by the Persians. At once, most of the Greeks began to retreat, and were about to touch land again when one of the Athenian captains shot forward and charged one of the enemy. The two ships became entangled, and could not be separated. At this the rest of the Greek fleet came up to help, and the battle began.
Ever since Herodotus, historians have recovered and preserved information about past events that otherwise would have been lost. Modern historians have continued to look for new information which helps us understand the past more clearly and more accurately. The usefulness of historians and their works has been recognized by a number of American Presidents, who have made professional historians part of their White House staffs.
15.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as one of the ways people used to keep record of their achievements?
16.Which of the following is NOT true about Herodotus?
17.How did the Greeks dare to fight according to Herodotus?
18.In what way do American Presidents recognize the usefulness of historians and their works?
(35)
A.They build monuments.
B.They tell stories from parents to children.
C.They write things down.
D.They make professional historians part of their governments' staffs.
Text 2
For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves ,but these could be obtained at coastal ports, without any need for going deep inland. Slavery had been an established institution in Africa. Prisoners of war had been enslaved, as were also debtors and individuals guilty of serious crimes. But these slaves usually were treated as part of the family. They had clearly defined rights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited. Therefore it is commonly argued that Africa's traditional slavery was mild compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by the Europeans. This argument ,however ,can be carried too far .ln the most recent study of this subject, some scholars warned against the illusion that "cruel and dehumanizing enslavement was a monopoly of the West. Slavery in its extreme forms ,including the taking of life, was common to both Africa and the West. The fact that African slavery had different origins and consequences should not lead us to deny what it was - the exploitation and control of human beings. "Neither can it be denied that the wholesale shipment of Africans to the slave plantations of the Americas was made possible by the participation of African chiefs who rounded up their fellow Africans and sold them as a handsome profit to European ship captains waiting along the coasts.
Granting all this ,the fact remains that the trans-Atlantic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different in quantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed' within Africa. From the beginning the European variety was primarily an economic institution rather than social ,as it had been in Africa. Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations ,and were quite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do so than to treat them more mercifully. This inhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in the African slave trade on a large scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization they gradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior ,and therefore destined to serve their white masters. Rationalization also may have been involved in the Europeans' use of religion to justify the traffic in human beings. It was argued ,for instance ,that enslavement assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.
46.1n the first paragraph, the author argues that
[ A] the Europeans were innocent in the trade of African slaves.
[ B] slavery in Africa and in the West was the same in nature.
[ C] the view in the most recent studies of enslavement is baseless.
[D] slaves had been treated even more cruelly in the African tradition.
Granting all this, the fact remains that the trans-Atlantic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different in quantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed within Africa. From the beginning the European variety was primarily an economic institution rather than social, as it had been in Africa. Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations, and were quite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do so than to treat them more mercifully. This inhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in the African slave trade on a large scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization they gradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior, and therefore destined to serve their white masters. Rationalization also may have been involved in the Europeans' use of religion to justify the traffic in human beings. It was argued, for instance, that enslavement assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.
In the first paragraph, the author argues that
A.the Europeans were innocent in the trade of African slaves.
B.slavery in Africa and in the West was the same in nature.
C.the view in the most recent studies of enslavement is baseless.
D.slaves had been treated even more cruelly in the African tradition.
What influenced you to do it?
A.affirmed
B.affected
C.invited
D.interested
What do you think of the weather that day?
A.Rainy
B.Warm
C.Cold
D.Changeable
To know what is good and ______are two different things.
A.doing what is right
B.to do what is right
C.did what was right
D.to do what was right
No captains and no pilots ever escaped the Triangle accidents.
A.Y
B.N
C.NG
What will Mr. Faulkner do?
A.Retire
B.Be promoted
C.Change jobs
D.Hire employees