[填空题]At the household level, personal saving rate in the U.S. is ______.

[单项选择]A. It can measure the driver’s alcohol level in the blood.
B. It bases its analysis on the driver’s heartbeat.
C. It can quicken the driver’s response to emergencies.
D. It monitors the signals transmitted from the driver’s brain.

[单项选择]Brass concert music was______ to a new level in the 1880s when John Philip Sousa took over the U. S. Marine Band. A strengthened B. headed C. lifted D. briefed

[单项选择]Opinion polls suggest that the approval rate of the president is on the increase.（　）
A. agreement
B. consensus
C. permission
D. support

[填空题]Most EU countries have the lowest birth rate in the world according to the statistics given by the Centre.

[单项选择]Passage Two
A. To maintain a high heart rate for the longest duration.
B. To reach and maintain your target heart rate for the entire exercise.
C. To burn calories as efficiently as possible.
D. To maximize your heart rate and get rid of extra fat.

[填空题]The nation’s murder rate declined last year for the first time in four years, dropping to the lowest level in 40 years. Experts said{{U}} (36) {{/U}}rather than national trends were mostly{{U}} (37) {{/U}}. The rates for all seven major crimes were down and the overall violent crime rate reached a 30 year low, according to the FBI’s annual{{U}} (38) {{/U}}of crimes reported to the police. There were 391 fewer murders{{U}} (39) {{/U}}in 2004 than the year before. The total of 16,137 worked out to 5.5 murders for every 100,000 people. That’s a decline of 3.3 percent from 2003 and the lowest murder{{U}} (40) {{/U}}since 1965, when it was 5.1. "The{{U}} (41) {{/U}}are relatively small compared to larger, steady drops in the 1990s, and the results are by no means the same across the{{U}} (42) {{/U}}," said Professor Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "We’re not seeing important national{{U}} (43) {{/U}}like the shrinking of

[填空题]

High Dropout Rate in US

Many young people in the United States never finish high school. Exactly how many dropouts is another issue. Recent studies of dropout rates have had conflicting results. For one thing, schools define and measure their dropout rates differently. Some researchers say about fifteen to twenty percent of public school students do not complete their education. But many other experts and policymakers believe that for the past twenty years, the dropout rate has been around thirty percent. For Latino and black students, the numbers are even higher. Researchers say almost half of them leave school.
At the Baltic time, almost half the states let students leave school before the age of eighteen without informing their parents. Finding a good job without a hilgh school education is more and more difficult. A Northeastern University study in 2002 found that almost half of all dropouts aged sixteen to twenty-four did no