[填空题]The (47) employer-based health-insurance system exacerbates(加剧)concerns for women who are considering having a child. If a woman is unsure whether she will have the same job in nine months, she may be (48) to get pregnant for fear of losing or switching insurance plans. Federal law prevents group plans from (49) pregnancy as a pre-existing condition, but individual plans (50) and can end up charging women tens of thousands of dollars for a delivery.
But while anxiety about the economy has led some women to become more strict about their birth control use, the (51) has forced others to take more risk. Among women who use birth control pills, 18% reported skipping pills, skipping months or waiting to get a prescription filled in order to save money. All of these practices (52) ineffective the Pill’s use as a contraceptive(避孕剂), and yet a quarter of women who are (53) worse off than last year reported inc

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Online distance learning is an instructional system which connects learners with educational resources. Students work on their own at home, at work, or at school and communicate with faculty and other students by means of e-mail, electronic meetings, videoconferencing, chat rooms, instant messaging and other forms of computer-based communication. There are both advantages and disadvantages to online distance learning.
There are many benefits to using online distance learning environments. Online education is available all the time, anywhere and to all people. However, there are weaknesses for some learners. The online learner only has the written text and no other face-to-face hints. This may confuse the learner and cause misunderstanding. While distance learning allows for an openness, it is also difficult because it is done by e-mail messages and writing, and therefore may take more time than face-to-face learning. Sometimes the messages can be overwhelming for many onl
A. It has more disadvantages than advantages.
B. It is a learning form based on internet.
C. It is not available for some students.
D. It has only enrichment classes.

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Passage Two
Last month, the public address system at Earl’s Court subway station in London was ordered to get the noise down. Passengers, it seems, had had enough of being told the blindingly obvious: "Stand back or the train will run you over." "Don’t lean on the doors." "Stand back from the opening doors." "Do this." "Don’t do that."
Bossiness is not just aural. It is also written. As a commuter, I’m continually bombarded by notices on car walls. "Please take your feet off the seat." "Please turn down your personal stereo." And when I drive past the local primary, a sign flashes: "School. Slow down!"
The presumption behind these signs is that Britons must have everything spelled out because we are low, uncivilized people who were raised by wolves.
Britain didn’t use to be so bossy. When I was a boy, for instance, the loca
A. it is very noisy in public places
B. it is necessary to warn the passengers of their safety
C. people have realized the importance of public order
D. people have been tired of being bossed

[单项选择]We all know that programming language is the system of syntax, grammar, and symbols or words used to give instructions to a computer. Because computers work with binary numbers, first-generation languages, called machine languages, required the writing of long strings of binary numbers to represent such operations as add, subtract, and compare. Later improvements allowed octal, decimal, or hexadecimal representation of binary strings. It is difficult to write error-free programs in machine language; many languages have been created to make programming easier and faster. Symbolic, or assembly, languages-- second-generation languages-- were introduced in the early 1950s. They use simple mnemonics such as "A" for add or "M" for multiply, which are translated into machine language by a computer program called an assembler. An extension of such a language is the macro instruction, a mnemonic (such as "READ") for which the assembler substitutes a series of simpler mnemonics. In the mid-1950s
A. it is used in designing software.
B. it is hardware-independent.
C. is should be translated into the computer language by software.
D. it is designed to solve some specific problem.

[单项选择] To fight against computer crimes, a computer system needs a sure way of identifying its right users and rejecting those who are not entitled to use it. The identification system should be quick, simple, and convenient. At present, signatures are widely used to identify credit card holders, but it takes an expert to detect a good forgery. Sometimes even a human expert is fooled, and there is no reason to believe that a computer could do any better. Photographs are also sometimes used for identification. But, people find it inconvenient to stop by a credit-card company and to be photographed. Companies might lose business if they made the pictures under absolute requirement. Also, photographs are less useful these days, when people frequently change their appearance by changing the way they wear their hair. Finally, computer programs for analyzing photographs are still highly experimental. Cash-drawing systems often use two identification numbers: One is recorded on a
A. Voiceprints.
B. Fingerprints.
C. Photographs.
D. Signatures.