No reference book, perhaps no book of any kind except the Bible, is so widely used as “the dictionary“. Even houses that have few books or none at all possess at least one dictionary; most business offices have dictionaries, and most typists keep a copy on their desks; at one time or another most girls and boys are required by their teachers to obtain and use a dictionary. Admittedly, the dictionary is often used merely to determine the correct spelling of words, or to find out the accepted pronunciation, and such a use is perhaps not the most important from an intellectual point of view. Dictionaries may, however, have social importance, for it is often a matter of some concern to the person using the dictionary for such purpose that he should not suggest to others, by misspelling a word in a letter, or mispronouncing it in conversation, that he is not “well-bred“, and has not been well educated. Yet, despite this familiarity with the dictionary, the average person is likely to have many wrong ideas about it, and little idea of how to use it profitably, or interpret it rightly. For example, it is often believed that the mere presence of a word in a dictionary is evidence that it is acceptable in good writing. Though most dictionaries have a system of marking words as obsolete, or in use only as slang, many people, more especially if their use of a particular word has been challenged, are likely to conclude, if they find it in a dictionary, that it is accepted as being used by writers of established reputation. This would certainly have been true of dictionaries a hundred years or so ago. For a long time after they were first firmly established in the eighteenth century, their aim was to include only what was used by the best writers, and all else was suppressed, and the compiler frequently claimed that this dictionary contained “low“ words. Apparently this aspect of the dictionary achieved such importance in the mind of the average person that most people today are unaware of the great change that has taken place in the compilation of present-day dictionaries. Similarly, the ordinary man invariably supposes that one dictionary is as good and authoritative as another, and, moreover, believes that “the dictionary“ has absolute authority, and quotes it to clinch arguments. Although this is an advantage, in that the dictionary presents a definition the basic meaning of which can’t be altered by the speaker, yet it could be accepted only if all dictionaries agreed on the particular point in question. But ultimately the authority of the dictionary rests only on the authority of the man who compiled it, and, however careful he may be, a dictionary-maker is fallible: reputable dictionaries may disagree in their judgments, and indeed different sections of the same dictionary may differ.

The evolution of the social sciences has reached a crucial point that might be called a phase change in which old, atomistic, and impressionistic ways of doing research are superseded by a far more systematic and united methodology. To bring social sciences to the level of rigor already achieved by some of the physical sciences, a new type of facility will be needed. This will be a trans-disciplinary, Internet-based collaboratory that will provide social and behavioral scientists with the databases, software and hardware tools, and other resources to conduct worldwide research that integrates experimental, survey, geographic, and economic methodologies on a much larger scale than was possible previously. This facility will enable advanced research and professional education in economics, sociology, political science, social geography, and related fields. In many branches of social sciences, a new emphasis on the rigor of formal laboratory experimentation has driven researchers to develop procedure and software to conduct online interaction experiment using computer terminals attached to local area networks. The opportunity to open these laboratories to the Internet will reduce the cost per research participant and increase greatly the number of institutions, researchers, students, and research participants who can take part. The scale of social sciences experimentation can increase by an order of magnitude or more, examining a much wider range of phenomena and ensuring great confidence in results through multiple replication of crucial studies. Technology for administering questionnaires to very large numbers of respondents over the Internet will revolutionize survey research. Data from past questionnaire surveys can be the springboard for new surveys with vastly larger numbers of respondents at lower cost than by traditional methods. Integrated researches can combine modules using both questionnaire and experimental methods.Results can be linked via geographic analysis to other sources of data including census information, economic statistics, and data from other experiments and surveys. Longitudinal studies will conduct time-series comparisons across data sets to chart social and economic trends. Each new study will be designed so that the data automatically and instantly becomes part of the archives, and scientific publications will be linked to the data sets on which they are based so that the network becomes a universal knowledge system.

The Supreme Court’s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering. Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of “double effect,“ a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects--a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen--is permissible if the actor intends only the good effect. Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients’ pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient. Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who “until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient medication to control their pain if that might hasten death.“ George Annas, chair of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor prescribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. “It’s like surgery,“ he says. “We don’t call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn’t intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you’re a physician, you can risk your patient’s suicide as long as you don’t intend their suicide.“ On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying. Just three weeks before the Court’s ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment of pain and the aggressive use of “ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying“ as the twin problems of end-of-life care. The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life. Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. “Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering,“ to the extent that it constitutes “systematic patient abuse.“ He says medical licensing boards “must make it clear...that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension.“From the first three paragraphs, we learn that ______. doctors used to increase drug dosages to control their patients’ pain it is still illegal for doctors to help the dying end their lives the Supreme Court strongly opposes physician-assisted suicide patients have no constitutional right to commit suicide

Nowadays, we have technology that’s improved so that we can bring people back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now -- who knows if they’ll ever make it to the market -- that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine you fast-forward to 10 years down the line; and you’ve given a patient, whose heart has just stopped, this amazing drug; and actually what it does is, it slows everything down so that the things that would’ve happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions. But what is happening to the individual at that time? What’s really going on? Because there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 min. or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable, because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it’s not a moment; it’s a process that actually begins when the heart stops and culminates in the complete’ loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, ultimately what matters is, what’s going on to a person’s mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon as the heart stops? Does it cease activity within the first 2 sec., the first 2 min.? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after 10 min., after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don’t know.

慰问信

He will come to call on you the moment he ______ his work. will finish had finished finishes finished

It ______ by the end of last year ______ the new student dormitory building had been completed. was … which was … that had been … which had been … that

Although the false banknotes fooled many people, they did not ______ close examination. put up keep up stand up to look up to

If the value-added tax was done away with, it would act as a ______ to consumption. progression prime stimulus stability

The lawyer advised him to drop the ______, since he stands little chance to win. case event affair incident

It is said that one hundred dollars can hardly ______ one night at a top hotel in Shanghai. pay cover spend cost

After his uncle died, the young man ______ the beautiful estate with which he changed from a poor man to a wealthy noble. inhabited inherited inhibited inhaled

There is virtually no limit to how one can serve community interests, from spending a few hours a week with some charitable organizations to practically fulltime work for asocial agency. Just as there are opportunities for voluntary service【1】(VSO) for young people before they take up fulltime employment, so there are opportunities for overseas service for【2】technicians in developing countries. Some people, particularly those who retire early, offer their technical and business skills in countries【3】there is a special need. So in considering voluntary or paid community service there are more opportunities than there ever were when one first began work. Most voluntary organizations have only a small fulltime【4】, and depend very much on volunteers and part-timers. This means that working relationships are different from those in commercial organizations, and values may be different.【5】some ways they may seem more casual and less efficient, but one should not judge them by commercial criteria. The people who work with them do so for different reasons and with different【6】, both personal and organizational. One should not join them【7】to arm them with professional expertise; they must be joined with commitment to the cause, not business efficiency. Because salaries are small or non-existent. Many voluntary bodies offer modest expenses. But many retired people take part in community service for【8】, simply because they enjoy the work. Many community activities possible【9】retirement were also possible during one’s working life but they are to be undertaken no less seriously for that. Retired people who are just looking for something different or unusual to do should not consider【10】community service.

“I promise.“ “I swear to you it’ll never happen again.“ “I give you my word.“ “Honestly. Believe me.“ Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity, I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism (剽窃) appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student’s work with his or her name even if it’s missing from the upper left-hand corner. Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. “If you let me pass math I will…“ “Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll…“ Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché(陈词滥调) to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract, so why should anyone be the exception. Why not? Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of a PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing. I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it was his own work. I gave him the identical assignment and told him to write it in class, and that I’d understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays. “I promise …, I’m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I’m just nervous today.“ The head of the English department agreed with my findings, and the meeting with the dean had the boy’s parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy’s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation (留校查看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, “He’s only. a child“ and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such… except in this uncomfortable circumstance.

Nancy is so poor that even fifty dollars ______ a big sum to her. is are add equal

Black people are by no means ______ white people. inferior over more inferior than inferior to more inferior to

She had her finger ______ when she was cutting paper. cut cutting to cut cuts

Jean did not have time to go to the concert last night because she was busy ______ for her examination. to prepare preparing to be prepared being prepared

All ______ is a continuous supply of the basic necessities of life. what is needed the time needed for our needs that is needed

Life is a candle ______ to burn ever brighter. being meant meaning to mean meant

The high living standards of the US cause its present population to ______ 25 percent of the world’s oil. assume consume resume presume

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

By “the great change“ in present-day dictionaries, the author implies that

Many people do not realize that

When can one quote from dictionaries to settle his arguments decisively?

According to the author, differences between dictionaries or in a dictionary usually result from