If U．S．software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye．Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry．Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top U．S．quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country．
Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India．That's largely because they have used new methods rejected by American software specialists．For example, for decades, quality specialists, W．Edwards Deming and J．M．Juran had urged U．S．software companies to change their attitudes to quality．But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U．S -- but not in Japan．By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better, cheaper products．They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs．In U．S．factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%．In software, it still is．
Watts S．Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance．But his advice was seldom paid attention to．He retired from IBM in 1986．In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(evaluating) and improving software quality．It has proved its value time and again．For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs．It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%．
Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home．The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India．Let's hope that U．S．lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems．
72．What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has?
A．India． B．The US． C．Brazil． D．Germany．
73．Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?
A．He is now still an IBM employer．B．He has worked for IBM for 37 years．
C．India honors him highly．
D．The US pays much attention to his quality advice．
74．By what means did Japan grab its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?
A．Its advertising was most successful．
B．Its products were cheaper in price and better in quality．
C．The US hardware industry was lagging behind
D．Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists．
75． What is the writer worrying about?
A．Many US software specialists are working for Japan．
B．The quality problem has become a worldwide problem．
C．India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US．
D．The US will no longer be the first software player in the world
What brings a nation together? Of the four choices — shared values, language, history, and religion, it’s shared values. In our latest poll (民意调査), seven out of 16 countries chose values as the greatest factor (因素）bringing a nation together, and six preferred language. Both choices scored high in the poll, suggesting that our values and how we express them are closely linked .Still, history was not forgotten in some countries, particularly in Mexico and Russia. Even Canada and the United States chose national histories as the second-most important factor uniting their people. The biggest surprise? Not one country picked religion as its top choice.
| Respect your elders In most countries, the oldest generation considered values more important to a nation than did those who are under 45 years old. |
Do you speak Canadian? Language scored lower in Canada than in all other countries polled, perhaps because the country speaks two official languages, French and English. |
Church and state Most people polled do not connect their religious beliefs to their national pride. Religion ranked last in 13 countries — with France scoring it at 1%, the lowest of all. |
According to the poll, what was the most important factor in bringing a nation together?
| A．Language. | B．Values. | C．History. | D．Religion. |
In which country did language score the lowest in their national pride?
| A．Canada. | B．Mexico. | C．France. | D．America. |
According to the charts, shared values and language were considered equally important in .
| A．Australia | B．Brazil | C．China | D．India |
Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet .... We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically.
Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brains to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale(秤) instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.
On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.
The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.
Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological and physical harm that comes from using them.From Paragraph 1, we learn that ______.
| A．diet products fail to bring out people’s potential |
| B．people have difficulty in choosing diet products |
| C．diet products are misleading people |
| D．people are fed up with diet products |
One psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to ______.
| A．try out a variety of diet foods |
| B．hesitate before they enjoy diet foods |
| C．pay attention to their own eating habits |
| D．watch their weight rather than their diet |
In Paragraph 3, “gain comes without pain” probably means ______.
| A．diet products bring no pain |
| B．it costs a lot to lose weight |
| C．losing weight is effortless |
| D．diet products are free from calories |
Diet products indirectly harm people physically because such products ______.
| A．are over-consumed |
| B．lack basic nutrients |
| C．are short of chemicals |
| D．provide too much energy |
Apparently，we are safe neither at home nor in the business office．We use water in both places，but the research shows that chemicals added to our local water supply to kill harmful bacteria can have unwanted side effects．These chemicals can cause potential harm through drinking and in seemingly harmless activities as cleaning one’s house．They are released(set free)from water by daily actions like water running out of tap，spraying from garden pipes，or splashing in dishwashers and washing machines．As the water is moving．these chemicals are released into the air and then breathed in. Once inside our bodies, they start to affect our health.
Does this mean we should stop bathing? No, say the scientists, but we should put all pollution into perspective. Activities at home such as the burning of coal, cooking oil, or even candles release carbon monoxide and particulates such as cigarette ashes which have been proven as harmful to health as working or living near heavy traffic. New tugs, bedding, and even clothing give off that“new smell, ”which is a sure sign of chemicals. In the office, newly applied paint, newly purchased telephones and other telecommunications equipment, and computers release polluting chemicals, too. As offices and homes often have inadequate ventilation (通风), these chemicals can build up to become health problems. Their poisonous effects are only now being slowly recognized.
These facts suggest that, at a minimum, proper airing of newly purchased goods with an obvious chemical smell is a wise warning. Home and office windows should be opened during good weather. Even one’s car needs to be ventilated as well while in the garage.
We need further research to understand better other potential health dangers, too. For example, the effects of overcrowding of schools (carbon dioxide build-up ), the factory work environment ( an endless list of potentially dangerous substances ), and even home heating and cooling (the air conditioner may be our enemies, not our friends) have only recently started to come to light. Until we understand the effects of our new technological environment better, we can only hope that“there is no place like home.”What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．The air we breathe in is harmful. |
| B．The water in everyday use is unsafe. |
| C．Chemicals are added to the drinking water. |
| D．Chemicals are released in the running water. |
In Paragraph 2, the underlined sentence means that.
| A．bathing should be done with caution |
| B．homes and offices should be aired often |
| C．any pollution should be taken into consideration |
| D．we should prevent any pollution from doing harm to us |
What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To call on us to guard our water. |
| B．To show us that no place is like home. |
| C．To make us aware of the pollution around us. |
| D．To argue that neither homes nor offices are safe. |
I passed all the other courses that I took at my university, but I could have never passed botany. This was because all botany students had to spend several hours a week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never once see a cell through a microscope. This used to make my professor angry. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the structure of flower cells, until he came to me. I would just be standing there. “I can’t see anything,”I would say. He would begin patiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up angrily, claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just pretended that I couldn’t. “It takes away from the beauty of flowers anyway.”I used to tell him.“We are not concerned with beauty in this course,”he would say.“We are concerned with the structure of flowers.” “Well,” I’d say.“I can’t see anything.” “Try it just once again,” he’d say, and I would put my eye to the microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again something unclear and milky. “You were supposed to see a clear, moving plant cells shaped like clocks.” “I see what looks like a lot of milk.” I would tell him. This, he claimed, was the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly, so he would readjust it for me, or rather, for himself. And I would look again and see milk.
I failed to pass botany that year, and had to wait a year and try again, or I couldn’t graduate. The next term the same professor was eager to explain cell-structure again to his classes. “Well,”he said to me, happily, “we’re going to see cells this time, aren’t we?” “Yes,sir,” I said. Students to the right of me and to the left of me and in front of me were seeing cells; what’s more, they were . Of course, I didn’t see anything.
So the professor and I tried with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. With only once did I see anything but blackness or the familiar milk, and that time I saw, to my pleasure and amazement, something like stars. These I hurriedly drew. The professor, noting my activity, came to me, a smile on his lips and his eyebrows high in hope. He looked at my cell drawing. “What’s that?”he asked.“That’s what I saw,”I said.“You didn’t, you didn’t, you didn’t!”he screamed, losing control of himself immediately, and he bent over and looked into the microscope. He raised his head suddenly. “That’s your eye!”he shouted.“You’ve adjusted the microscope so that it reflects!You’re drawn your eye!”Why couldn’t the writer see the flower cells through the microscope?.
| A．Because he had poor eyesight |
| B．Because the microscope didn’t work properly |
| C．Because he was not able to adjust the microscope properly |
| D．Because he was just playing jokes on his professor by pretending not to have seen it |
What does the writer mean by “his eyebrows high in hope”in the last paragraph?
| A．His professor expected him to have seen the cells and drawn the picture of them |
| B．His professor hoped he could perform his task with attention |
| C．His professor wished him to learn how to draw pictures |
| D．His professor looked forward to seeing all his students finish their drawings |
What is the thing like stars that the writer saw in the last paragraph?
| A．Real stars | B．His own eye |
| C．Something unknown | D．Milk |
In what writing style did the writer write the passage?
| A．Realistic | B．Romantic | C．Serious | D．Humorous |
Two men dressed as police officers stole about ＄200 million worth of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum early this morning.
The two burglars knocked on a side door of the museum at about 1:15 am. They told the two security guards on duty that there was a disturbance in the area. The guards then made the very serious mistake of allowing the two men to go into the building. After they went in, the two burglars tied the guards up with tape.
The two men stole 11 paintings and an ancient Chinese vase. The stolen works included three paintings by Rembrandt. A maintenance（保卫）worker discovered the two guards at about 7 am and called police.
One of the greatest losses was Rembrandt’s works, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” It was a very popular attraction at the museum and was one of the most valuable works stolen.
Museum officials said that the value of the stolen art is at least 200 million dollars, and may in fact be much more. The true value of the paintings is unknown, because they have not been on the market for nearly a century. This is considered to be the biggest theft ever in the United States. Officials are waiting to see whether the burglars will demand a ransom for the paintings or try to sell them to a private collector.
Museum officials and police are not sure why the burglars chose certain works and not others. There are other paintings in the museum that are even more valuable than the ones that were stolen.
Special investigators are looking into the theft and the museum’s security system. They believe that this is a “professional job,” because the people involved were well prepared and knew what they wanted. How did the two burglars get into the museum?
| A．They broke into the museum. |
| B．They had the key to the museum. |
| C．They tied the guards up with tape. |
| D．The security guards opened the door for them. |
According to the passage, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” was the following except that .
| A．it was the most valuable work at the museum |
| B．it was Rembrandt’s works |
| C．it was very attractive to visitors |
| D．it was one of the greatest losses |
Which of the following best explains “demand a ransom for the paintings”?
| A．Ask for money to give the paintings back. |
| B．Send the paintings to some foreign country. |
| C．Hide the paintings in a secret place. |
| D．Change them into more valuable things |
The investigators believe that this is a “professional job” because the burglars .
| A．were dressed as police officers |
| B．didn’t steal the most valuable works |
| C．liked Rembrandt’s work and made careful plans about the theft |
| D．made careful plans about the theft |