[单项选择]

The Catholic Church is changing in America at its most visible point: the parish church where believers pray, sing and clasp hands across pews to share the peace of God. Today there are fewer parishes and fewer priests than in 1990 and fewer of the nation’s 65 million Catholics in those pews. And there’s no sign of return.
Some blame the explosive 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal and its financial price tag. But a study of 176 Roman Catholic dioceses shows no statistically significant link between the decline in priests and parishes and the $ 772 million the church has spent to date on dealing with the scandal.
Rather, the changes are driven by a constellation of factors:
·Catholics are moving from cities in the Northeast and Midwest to the suburbs, South and Southwest.
·For decades, so few men have become priests that one in five dioceses now can’t put a priest in every parish.
·Mass attendance has fa
A. there are fewer parishes and priests now
B. few Catholics observe religious rules
C. people are losing enthusiasm for religion
D. the financial pressures are overwhelming

[单项选择]

The Catholic Church is changing in America at its most visible point: the parish church where believers pray, sing and clasp hands across pews to share the peace of God. Today there are fewer parishes and fewer priests than in 1990 and fewer of the nation’s 65 million Catholics in those pews. And there’s no sign of return.
Some blame the explosive 2002 clergy sexual abuse scandal and its financial price tag. But a study of 176 Roman Catholic dioceses shows no statistically significant link between the decline in priests and parishes and the $ 772 million the church has spent to date on dealing with the scandal.
Rather, the changes are driven by a constellation of factors:
·Catholics are moving from cities in the Northeast and Midwest to the suburbs, South and Southwest.
·For decades, so few men have become priests that one in five dioceses now can’t put a priest in every parish.
·Mass attendance has fa
A. Fewer prayers in the church
B. Fewer pews in the parish
C. Fewer Catholics in America
D. Fewer signs in the peace of God

[填空题]As a superpower, America spreads its culture to nearly every corner of the world.

[单项选择]

A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working hours. Currently, this company requires all employees to arrive at work at 8 a.m. The proposed policy would permit each employee to decide when to arrive—from as early as 6 a.m. to as late as 11 a.m.
The adoption of this policy would be most likely to decrease employees’ productivity if the employees’ job functions required them to（）

A. work without interruption from other employees
B. consult at least once a day with employees from other companies
C. submit their work for a supervisor’s eventual approval
D. interact frequently with each other throughout the entire workday
E. undertake projects that take several days to complete

[单项选择]Friction between America’s military and its civilian overseers is nothing new. America’s 220-year experiment in civilian control of the military is a recipe for friction. The nation’s history has seen a series of shifts in decision-making power among the White House, the civilian secretaries and the uniformed elite (精英). However, what may seem on the outside an unstable and special system of power sharing has, without a doubt, been a key to two centuries of military success.
In the infighting dated to the revolution, George Washington waged a continual struggle not just for money, but to control the actual battle plan. The framers of the Constitution sought to clarify things by making the president the "commander in chief. " Not since Washington wore his uniform and led the troops across the Alleghenies to quell (镇压) the Whiskey Rebellion has a sitting president taken command in the field. Yet the absolute authority of the president ensures his direct command. The president was bo
A. is unstable and strange
B. is a guarantee for American military success
C. has caused a series of quarrels
D. undermines the bases of American military power