The conference is the world's largest university-level UN simulation. It is held each April, for a week, in New York, to give students a chance to debate international affairs. It is meant to mirror the real-life business of the UN.
Teams from more than 23 countries gathered this year to discuss and debate serious issues such as the AIDS epidemic and water shortages.
Some UN senior staff members, U.S. professors, and former student participants formed the judge panel.
The Chinese team applied to take part in the event and was assigned to represent Japan this year, working on various committees and arguing Japan's position on resolutions to problems like international migration.
According to Li Xiaocong, the Chinese team leader, their efforts in ~mding approaches to resolutions made them stand out. Li attributes their success to "solid training".
What's the purpose of the conference?
A. To give students a chance to debate international affairs and to mirror the real-life business of the UN.
B. To enlarge students' fields of vision.
C. To learn about other cultures.
D. To learn about how to portray their own.
1 Insomnia is underappreciated.
2 Many people would rather admit to their fetishes and contagious rashes than confess to insomnia. Insomnia is not merely a condition, at least not in our culture. It is a disorder. Insomnia is proof that you are not calm of mind, clear of conscience, at peace in your body. "Insomniac" sounds suspiciously like "maniac."
3 Anywhere you turn these days there's someone counseling us on how to avoid the insomnia plague, which, we're warned, can be caused by pizza, Scotch, depression, work, love, arthritis, coffee, red walls, Excedrin, Letterman and "Nightline". In short, insomniais caused by life.
4 In a recent New York Times article on two new sleeping pills, one expert called insomniacs "one of the largest potential pharmaceutical markets in the world.' Who needs tax cuts when you have sleep disorders to holster the economy?
5 But hang on. Insomnia deserves a defense, not just a pill.
6 Especially in winter, I hear a lot of Chicagoans complain of insomnia, and it's certainly the season when my eyes are likely to pop open between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. All of us who've ever suffered from insufficient sleep know its terrors -the crankiness, the disorientation, the hollow eyes, the bedraggled skin and spirit. We also know that one good night's sleep seems to cure almost everything, from premature aging to an Orwellian world view.
7 But the problem a lot of us mean when we talk about insomnia isn't insomnia. The problem is sleep deprivation, often caused by the lack of time to go back to sleep after a round of insomnia. Insomnia itself is something else, something that can come close to bliss.
8 Insomnia has given me exquisite moments in my life. In fact, it's when I finally gave in to my occasional insomniac bouts a few years ago that I came to relish those moments of stillness, freed from obligation, distraction and the hum of the busy, waking city.
9 In the tiny bedside light of 3 a. m. , with a concentration it's hard to muster in more chaotic hours, I've had the kind of ecstatic, fiercely engaged reading experiences it's hard to find past the age of 10. "A Fine Balance." "A Civil Action." Edward P. Jones' wonderful new novel, "Tile Known World.' One reason I remember these books so vividly is that I read them in the quiet of the middle of the night, when words, feelings and ideas seep deeper than they do in ordinary waking hours. And does anybody who's not insomniac have time for magazines?
By saying "insomnia is caused by life" (Para. 3), the author means that________.
A. any human being may be down with insomnia
B. any style. of life can lead to insomnia
C. any fragment of life can cause insomnia
D. any day of life can result in insomnia
1 "It is always consoling to think of suicide," the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, "in that way one gets through many a bad night."
2 Restless nights have returned to Oregon, thanks to U. S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft.
3 Despite more urgent matters on his platter these days, he has found time to make a backdoor assault on the Oregon law that permits doctor-assisted suicide.
4 In a Nov. 6 letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Ashcroft declared that any doctor who prescribes lethal drugs for the terminally ill can face revocation of his or her license to prescribe any drugs.
5 Oregon filed suit Nov. 7 and U. S. District Judge Robert E. Jones in Portland temporarily blocked the federal government from enforcing Ashcroft's order at least until Nov. 20.
6 I wish Oregon luck. After all, if executed criminals have the right to a pain-free death, why shouldn't the rest of us?
7 As in all dilemmas, this one offers a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives: allow the terminally ill to choose suicide, if they wish, or force them to hang on in an agony, too sick to live, not sick enough to die.
8 Some of us have been through the agony of watching a loved one endure an agonizing exit. For others, it is Simply a terrible thought. The thought of prolonged suffering at the end of our lives is probably more painful for many of us than our fear of death itself.
9 When there is some hope of recovery, people tend to hang on fiercely and heroically. But when hope is gone, when the doctor says it's just a matter of time, some of us would rather not prolong the inevitable.
10 Oregon voters debated and anguished and narrowly chose the right to choose physician-assisted suicide in 1994. When legal challenges came, voters returned to the polls three years later and reaffirmed their decision by a bigger margin, 60 percent to 40 percent.
11 Unlike the abortion issue, we are talking here about one's right to choose one's own death.
12 Under the state's "Death with Dignity Act", a terminally ill patient may take lethal drugs if two doctors agree the person has less than six months to live and is mentally competent to make the decision to end his or her life.
13 That should ease the worry that those who want to live might be terminated against their will by, say, greedy or simply impatient heirs.
14 And contrary to the dire predictions of critics, there has not been a stampede to the euthanasia parlors.
15 Since Oregon's law went into effect in late 1997, only about 70 terminally ill people have chosen to kill themselves this way, according to the Oregon Health Division. That averages out to fewer than 20 people a year.
16 Many more have picked up the lethal drugs from their doctors, yet died without taking them. Many are said to have found it spiritually therapeutic in their final days simply to know that the option of an early exit is there, were their remaining lives to become too painful to bear.
17 Assisted suicide, Ashcroft said, is not a "legitimate medical purpose" for prescribingor handing out drugs. If not, what is? Perhaps Ashcroft thinks medical treatment is legitimate only if it is intended to cure, not to comfort. Maybe he thinks medicine is not legitimate when it eases pain and discomfort, even among those whose conditions are terminal.
18 Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law is about as reasonable as such a law can be, but not reasonable enough for Ashcroft. Unable to overturn the law outright, Asheroft took a backdoor route to block the expressed will of the state's voters. In the words of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Aschcroft "tossed the ballots of Oregon voters in the trash can."
19 How ironic! As a candidate, G
Ashcraft turns to Bush for support
B. Ashcraft uses mean strategies
C. Ashcraft turns the federal Drug Enforcement Administration against a state issue
D. Ashcraft threatens to revoke doctors' license
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
听力原文: News Item One
Tornadoes swept through northern Bangladesh, killing at least 55 people, injuring hundreds and blowing away thousands of flimsy huts, officials said on Thursday.
The twisters hit nearly two dozen farming villages in the neighboring districts of Netrokona and Mymensingh on Wednesday night.
Most people were home after celebrating Pahela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year's Day, which features colorful parades and fairs.
At least 35 people, including children, were killed and nearly 700 injured in Netrokona, 80 miles north of the capital, Dhaka, officials said. At least 20 others were confirmed dead in Mymensingh, said rural council member Delwar Hossain. Thousands were left homeless and spent the night in open fields, witnesses said.
Rescue workers said the death toll could rise Because dozens of people were missing and close to 1,000 hurt, many of them seriously.
Eight bodies were found in the rubble of twisted tin roofs and trees in Mymensingh after a tornado swept through five farming villages in the region, said Delwar Hossain, a rural council member. Four others died in the hospital and at least 100 were injured.
Reporters at the scene said almost nothing was left standing along the path of the funnel cloud.
Bangladesh, a delta nation of 140 million people, is often buffeted by tropical storms.
Where and when did the tornadoes strike Bangladesh?
A. western Bangladesh on Wednesday night
B. northern Bangladesh on Monday night
C. northern Bangladesh on Wednesday night
D. western Bangladesh on Monday night