[单选题]Text 4 Alphabet Inc.'s most successful product-the Google search engine-may now be its most problematic.On Tuesday,the European Commission's top antitrust regulator levied a$2.7-billion fine against Alphabet and Google for the way the search engine handles requests for information about products.Specifically,Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google twisted its results to bury links to rival companies'comparison shopping sites while prominently featuring its own service,Google Shopping.Google responded that it's simply trying to give users what they want and denied"favoring ourselves,or any particular site or seller."It has a lot at stake:Google has integrated many different offerings into its search engine,including its mapping and travel services.The principle advanced by Vestager,however,is a good one:Giant online companies shoulcl not be able to take advantage of their dominance in one field to hurt competitors in another.Google's argument is:It integrated Google Shopping,which offers links to products at sites that advertise on Google.into its search engine because that gave users quicker access to the information they were seeking.And in the United States,the key question in antitrust!aw is whether a company's behavior hurts users,not whether it hurts the company's competitors.European regulators focus more on competitors,but they really are two sides of the same coin.If competitors are unfairly closed out,the public can miss out on the very real benefits that vigorous competition provides.At the same time,it's undeniable that the public has welcomed virtual monopolies in search,social media and other services in the Internet era.A large part of the appeal of sites like Facebook and Twitter is that so many people use them.There's a network effect for social media apps in particular-the more people who use the service,the more valuable it becomes to them.Meanwhile,start-ups come out of nowhere to create whole new categories of must-have apps and proclucts online.That means dominant companies have to innovate too,or else they can easily change from today's thing to yesterday's.And often,that innovation involves finding a better way to do something that a competitor is doing.The challenge for regulators is to provide the big companies space to try new things without grossly disrupting the market,closing out other companies and reducing consumer choice,which will ultimately lead to less innovation.A good place to start is by focusing on cases where there is evidence of intentional undermining of competitors-where a dominant company alters the platform it provides not just to feature its own services,but to make it harder to find or use its rivals'. The European antitrust law is similar to its American counterpart in——
A.the goal to defend the benefits of consumers
B.the principle of protecting market competitors
C.the criteria to decide whether a company is guilty
D.the way to penatize convicted companies

[单选题]Text l Americans,we are told,believe in competition.But a shockingly large number of workers-30 million-are shackled by what are called"noncompetes,"which are agreements forbidding employees to leave their job to work for a competitor or to start their own competing business.And the number is growing fast.Once reserved for a corporation's most treasured rainmakers,noncompetes are now routinely applied to low-wage workers like warehouse employees,fast-food workers and even dog sitters.Like other anti-competitive practices,they poison our economy in larger,less perceptible ways.A report from the Treasury Department suggests that noncompetes should be banned for all employees,regardless of skill,industry or wage;they simply do more harm than good.Because laws governing noncompetes vary from state to state,we can analyze the effects of these kinds of contracts on wages,competition and labor mobility.The evidence shows wages in states that enforce noncompetes are 10 percent lower than in states that restrict their use.The Treasury Department concluded in its recent report that"by reducing workers'job options,noncompete agreements force workers to accept lower wages in their current jobs,and may sometimes induce workers to leave their occupations entirely,forgoing accumulated human capital."Workers shackled by noncompetes cannot rely on outside offers and free-market competition to fairly value their talents.Without incentives to increase wages in-house,companies can allow salaries to plateau.California and Massachusetts offer a case study within the high-tech industry.California strictly voids all noncompete agreements.Massachusetts,like most other states,enforces noncompetes.Both states enjoyed an early boom within the high-tech market,but California's Silicon Valley has continued growing,while Massachusetts has sputtered.In Massachusetts the enforcement of those agreements kept out new businesses by preventing people most likely to start new businesses-experienced former employees-from staying in the region.Meanwhile,in Silicon Valley,entrepreneurial activity flourished;thanks to California's refusal to enforce all noncompetes（including those from other jurisdictions）,it remains the tech center of the world.The best companies already realize the damaging effect of post-employment restrictions.Companies with little turnover risk becoming stagnant and short-sighted.In fact,relying on noncompetes rather than active recruitment and retention creates a market for lemons-a business will end up with employees who stay despite their unhappiness.Smart leaders treat departing employees as alumni,rather than sour exes in a divorce.But too many other employers have become increasingly inclined to bring disagreements with their former employees to court,relying on noncompetes rather than positive incentives to retain the best talent and reduce the competition.The liberty to move in the job market not only supports workers'choice,equality and wage growth but also creates the competition that catalyzes entrepreneurship,innovation and overall economic growth.If we want a healthy and free market,we should not shackle workers to the first business that offers them a job.Let them compete. The word"shackled"（Line 2,Para.1）is closest in meaning to____.
A.authorized
B.united
C.guided
D.bound

[单选题]Text 3 At first glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving.More than 90%of presidents and prime ministers are male,as are nearly all big corporate bosses.Men dominate finance,technology,films,sports,music and even stand-up comedy.In much of the world they still enjoy social and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome.So it might seem odd to worry about the plight of men.Yet there is plenty of cause for concern.Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top.They are far more likely than women to be jailed,estranged from their children,or to kill themselves.They eam fewer university degrees than women.Boys in the developed world are 50%more likely to flunk basic maths,reading and science entirely.What can be done?Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes.Over the past generation,middte-class men have leamed that they need to help with child care,and have changed their behaviour.Working-class men need to catch up.Women have learned that they can be SUfgeons and physicists without losing their femininity.Men need to understand that traditional manual jobs arc not coming back,and that they can be nurses or hairdressers without losing their masculinity.Policymakers also need to lend a hand,because foolish laws are making the problem worse.America reduces the supply of marriageable men by locking up millions of young males for non-violent offences and then making it hard for them to find work when they get out（in Georgia,for example,felons are barred from feeding pigs,fighting fires or working in funeral homes）.A number of rich countries discourage poor people from marrying or cohabiting by cutting their benefits ifthey do.More generally,schools need to become more boy-friendly.They should recognise that boys like to rush around more than girls do:it's better to give them lots of organised sports and energy-eating games than to dose them with Ritalin or tell them off for fidgeting.They need to provide more male role models:employing more male teachers in primary schools will both supply boys with a male to whom they can relate and demonstrate that men can be teachers as well as firefighters.The growing equality of the sexes is one of the biggest achievements of the post-war era:people have greater opportunities than ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless of their gender.But some men have failed to cope with this new world.It is time to give them a hand. According to the text,in most countries,men have the final say in_____
A.doing household
B.nursing homes
C.law firms
D.business

[单选题]Text 4 A US drug company has increased the price of an acne cream by more than 3,900%to$9,561 in less than 18 months in the latest example of drug"price cheating",which has enraged the American public and become a central topic of debate in the presidential election campaign.Novum Pharma,a recently formed privately held Chicago-based company,bought the rights to drug Aloquin in May 2015.The 60g cream,which contains two cheap ingredients,was sold by its previous owner,Primus Pharmaceuticals,for$241.50.Nowm almost immediately increased the price by l,100%,and hiked the price higher still in January 2016.Figures seen by the Financial 77mes show the company increased the price a third time last week to take the cost to$9,561.So-called"price cheating",in which companies buy the rights to older drugs and then vastly increase their cost,has provoked outrage across the country and led to calls for reform of the US healthcare system.Earlier this month,Hillary Clinton claimed"It's time to move beyond talking about these price hikes and start acting to address them.AlI Americans deserve full access to the medications they need-without being burdened by excessive,unjustified costs."Clinton said she would change the law to allow the"emergency importation"of safe altemative treatments from abroad.Aloquin contains two cheap active ingredients:a decades-old antibiotic,iodoquinol,and an extract from the aloe vera plant.Iodoquinol can be bought for as little as$30 a tube and aloe vera cream costs a few dollars.The drug is labelled as"possibly effective",as the US Food and Drug Administration has stated that there is only limited evidence that the drug is effective.Novum has also drastically increased the price of its other two skin creams,Alcortin A and Novacort.The drugs are prescription only,with the cost being mostly covered by health insurance or government assistance.In instances when the full cost of the treatment isn't covered by insurance,Novum provides coupons to reduce the proportion that patients have to pay,while collecting the rest from the health plan.The company,which is privately held and does not publish figures on sales or profits,did not reply to requests for comment.A spokesman told the public that the firm was founded by"a group oflike-minded investors who believe in the firm's focus ofproviding therapeutic innovations that are affordable for patients".The quotation of Clinton indicates that——
A.emergency alternative drugs should be imported
B.Americans should decide the price of medicines
C.we should know the address ofthe medicine companies
D.prices ofAmerican drugs are too high to afford

[单选题]Text 2 As lawmakers fight over what conditions insurance companies should be required to cover,other areas of health-care reform remain painfully neglected.One major example:How much should insurance companies pay for what they cover?Consumers rarely care about health-care prices beyond what they personally pay for deductibles,co-payments and prescription drugs.But insurance payments are crucial to understanding why health-care prices have gotten so out of control in the United States.A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine makes this abundantly clear:Hospital emergency departments across the country are prone to excessively overcharge patients with private insurance,the study found,demanding that patients pay-on average-more than four times what Medicare pays for typical emergency procedures.This is not the heritage of sound medicine.This is the outcome of an extremely complicated and disjointed health-care system-and it's not necessarily the result of greedy hospitals trying to milk large profits out of vulnerable populations.Instead,it's the result of messy provider networks-rife with discounts and confusing contracts,designed by insurance companies and providers to attract customers.There are policy solutions to correct this system.Maryland,for example,has long operated under an"all-payer system"in which everyone pays the same rate for the same treatment-set by an independent state agency.Under this system,Medicare pays higher rates for care than in other states,but in the long run,it saves money-to the tune of$319 million-because the payment system incentivizes hospitals to reduce the number of people they admit.In other words,it encourages payment for quality of care,not quantity.Health-care providers have an incentive to work more closely with nursing facilities to deliver preventive care.Physicians also work more closely with patients to reduce preventable complications and hospital readmissions,which have dropped in Maryland faster than the national average in recent years.This innovative approach to solving price disparities in health-care costs is refreshing,although what works in Maryland might not work everywhere else.But other states have also passed laws to reduce price variation in health care,particularly for uninsured and low-income patients who would be most harmed by surprise medical bills.Unfortunately,reform efforts led by Republicans in Congress will likely worry the health-care industry enough to threaten state-led initiatives.Uncertainty-especially in terms of what our insurance markets will look like a year from now-makes it difficult,if not impossible,for states to experiment with different policies.That's a shame,because that's where the exciting and innovative reforms are happening. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Uncertainty in the Health-Care Industry
B."All-Payer System"in Maryland
C.The Health-Care Reform Ignored
D.Medicare vs.Private Insurance