| When there is blood in the water, it is
only natural that dorsal fins swirl around excitedly. Now that America’s housing
market is ailing, predators have their sights on the country’s credit-card
market. Analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon that credit-card losses could reach $
99 billion if contagion spreads from subprime mortgages to other forms of
consumer credit. Signs of strain are clearly visible. There are rises in both
the charge-off and delinquency rates, which measure the share of balances that
are uncollectable or more than 30 days late respectively. HSBC announced last
month that it had taken a $1.4 billion charge in its American consumer-finance
business, partly because of weakness among card borrowers. It is too early to panic, though. Charge-offs and delinquencies are still low. According to Moody’s, a rating agency, the A. To remind people of the potential danger. B. To attract the readers’ attention by presenting an interesting phenomenon. C. To show that the issue is rather serious, just as a dorsal fin is approaching. D. To present some fresh air at the beginning, thus making the narration more vivid. [单项选择]
A. Ten days ago. B. Just this morning. C. A week ago. D. Just yesterday. [单项选择]When one takes up something that is original,
A. he reaches his aim before others. B. he gets greater rewards. C. he has more byproducts. [单项选择]When researchers come up with a new treatment that makes us feel or work better, it’s usually not just the truly sick who end up going in for an upgrade. The progress in developing treatments for illnesses that ravage memory and thought raises an important question: might the same tools be used to improve the functioning of minds that by most standards are already running fairly smoothly We may well be approaching an era of designer brains, in which those of us feeling a little foggy or dull can have our IQ, fast recall, and self-confidence inflated up via the prescription pad. "Some brain-related conditions we think of as ordinary, "says one researcher, "may eventually become disorders, too"—including perhaps less-than-razor-sharp thinking.
The notion of a prescription IQ lift is hardly new. According to polls, about one in 20 college students, and higher percentages of professors, already illicitly pop some form of Ritalin or Modafinil—legitimately prescribed for attention-de A. Breakthrough in medicine has made it possible for human to defy genetics. B. Genes have been used successfully to create brain cells. C. Gene therapies could be harmlessly employed in brain cell repairing in the future. D. The environment has a much more powerful effect on brain than genetics. 我来回答: 提交
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