Standard & Poor’s maintains a cautious stance on cable-TV operators in the wake of Verizon’s (VZ) announcement in early May of aggressive price cuts for its digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet-access service. Our overall outlook for the S & P Cable & Broadcasting index, which also includes shares of over-the-air TV and radio broadcasters, is neutral to modestly positive. Cable operators have so far ruled out an overt price war on broadband services. However, expect to see near-term responses like increased bundling of services, extended free months, more aggressive marketing and promotions, even modest price cuts from cable outfits that offer multiple services such as broadband as they defend their high- growth Internet-access Business.
Continued rapid growth in digital cable and high-speed data services helped support the industry’s ongoing revenue growth. We at S & P are wary of price pressures on the long-term and short-term economics of cable’s broadband business. That’s especially true as another Baby Bell, SBC Communications (SBC), is also undercutting cable-service providers in many core markets.
In their traditional business segment, U.S. cable operators continue to benefit from a modest rebound in advertising spending, following a significant downturn during the economic slump that started in 2001. The industry has actually increased its share of total U. S. ad spending. The cable sector posted uninterrupted revenue growth during the recent downturn, as its greater reliance on subscriber revenues gives it a more defensive posture than broadcasters. Subscriptions remain the industry’s primary revenue source, accounting for roughly 65% of the total, with advertising makes up the rest.
Our near-term outlook for cable remains tempered by heightened levels of geopolitical anxieties, though the Iraq war’s end has alleviated their impact on advertising demand. Meanwhile, core subscription growth continues to be driven by robust rates of high-speed data sign-ups and by improved prospects for digital-video ancillary offerings like video-on-demand and high-definition TV.
We believe that successful media operators will continue to anticipate, rather than react to, the ever changing dynamics of an increasingly competitive media environment. Even with increased regulatory surveillance, vertically and horizontally integrated media operators should begin to wield increasing competitive advantages as they leverage operating efficiencies and realize synergies across multiple delivery platforms.
Which of the following will help create a bright outlook for cable

A:higher levels of geopolitical anxieties B:prospects of intensive competition C:war’s impact on advertising demand D:vigorous rates of high-speed data sign-ups

Text 2
Standard & Poor’s maintains a cautious stance on cable-TV operators in the wake of Verizon’s (VZ) announcement in early May of aggressive price cuts for its digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet-access service. Our overall outlook for the S & P Cable & Broadcasting index, which also includes shares of over-the-air TV and radio broadcasters, is neutral to modestly positive. Cable operators have so far ruled out an overt price war on broadband services. However, expect to see near-term responses like increased bundling of services, extended free months, more aggressive marketing and promotions, even modest price cuts from cable outfits that offer multiple services such as broadband as they defend their high growth Internet-access business.
Continued rapid growth in digital cable and high-speed data services helped support the industry’s ongoing revenue growth. We at S & P are wary of price pressures on the long-term and short-term economies of cable’s broadband business. That’s especially true as another Baby Bell, SBC Communications (SBC), is also undercutting cable-service providers in many core markets.
In their traditional business segment, U.S. cable operators continue to benefit from a modest rebound in advertising spending, following a significant downturn during the economic slump that started in 2001. The industry has actually increased its share of total U. S. ad spending. The cable sector posted uninterrupted revenue growth during the recent downturn, as its greater reliance on subscriber revenues gives it a more defensive posture than broadcasters. Subscriptions remain the industry’s primary revenue source, accounting for roughly 65% of the total, with advertising makes up the rest.
Our near-term outlook for cable remains tempered by heightened levels of geopolitical anxieties, though the Iraq war’s end has alleviated their impact on advertising demand. Meanwhile, core subscription growth continues to be driven by robust rates of high-speed data sign-ups and by improved prospects for digital-video ancillary offerings like video-on-demand and high-definition TV.
We believe that successful media operators will continue to anticipate, rather than react to, the ever-changing dynamics of an increasingly competitive media environment. Even with increased regulatory surveillance, vertically and horizontally integrated media operators should begin to wield increasing competitive advantages as they leverage operating efficiencies and realize synergies across multiple delivery platforms.

A:higher levels of geopolitical anxieties B:prospects of intensive competition C:war's impact on advertising demand D:vigorous rates of high-speed data sign-ups

Commencement is supposed to be filled with hope, but for the class of 2010, these are grim times. Over the past year, the unemployment rate for college graduates under age 25 has averaged 9.1 percent. For the roughly half of high school graduates under 25 and not in college, the average is 22.8 percent. Worse, a deep labor recession, like this one, may be more than a temporary hardship. It could signal a long-term decline in living standards—downward mobility.
Where you start out in your career has a big impact on where you end up. When jobs are scarce, more college grads start out in lower-level jobs with lower starting salaries. Academic research suggests that for many of these graduates, that correlates to overall lower levels of career attainment and lower lifetime earnings.
The pat answer is that college students should consider graduate school as a way to delay a job search until things turn around, and that more high school students should go to college to improve their prospects. For many undergraduates, especially those with large student debts, graduate school would be prohibitively expensive. And while more than half of this year’s high school grads are expected to be enrolled in college in the fall, most will have to work to help pay the bills. For them, college is not a retreat from a bad job market; a bad market is an obstacle to a college degree.
Washington has not been helping enough. The 2009 stimulus package has supported some 2. 5 million jobs, helping to avert a much deeper recession. The economy is still missing more than 10 million jobs, and unless more is done to spur employment, the impact on many new graduates and other workers will be harsh.
The measures should be passed quickly. But recent debates suggests that the Republicans—in their role as nouveau deficit hawks—are likely to oppose more job-related spending unless it is paid for. The deficit needs to be addressed when the economy recovers. Right now, tax increases or spending cuts would only reduce economic activity, weakening the boost the measures are supposed to provide.
In the longer term, Congress will also need to do more to foster jobs and industries of the future, like green technology. Several taxes could be enacted to help finance longer-term efforts, including the bank tax proposed by President Obama. Congress and the administration should also consider a financial transactions tax, both to curb speculation and to raise revenue to rebuild the economy that was damaged, in large part, by the banks’ recklessness.
Without a bigger vision, more money and political courage, the future for those just entering the job market and those already there looks bleak for years to come.
Many students who choose to enroll in college in 2010 will

A:find a comfortable retreat from a bad job market. B:be unable to find jobs when they graduate from college. C:be seriously affected by lack of job opportunities. D:have better job prospects waiting for them upon graduation.

Text 2

A:higher levels of geopolitical anxieties B:prospects of intensive competition C:war’s impact on advertising demand D:vigorous rates of high-speed data sign-ups

Up until a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largely—though by no means uniformly— glowingly positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all.
Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to.
But such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years—so why shouldn’t we Take a broader look at our species’ place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Look up Homo sapiens in the "Red List" of threatened species of the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no major threats resulting in an overall population decline."
So what does our deep future hold A growing number of researchers and organizations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a mechanical clock that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years hence.
Perhaps willfully, it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today’s technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it’s perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That’s one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future.
But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves.
This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come.
Which of the following would be the best title for the text

A:Uncertainty about Our Future B:Evolution of the Human Species C:The Ever-bright Prospects of Mankind D:Science, Technology and Humanity

Text 3 　　Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to pandemic flu to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to。 　　But such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years - so why shouldn’t we Take a broader look at our species’ place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years (see "100,000 AD: Living in the deep future”). Look up Homo sapiens in the IUCN’s "Red List" of threatened species, and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no major threats resulting in an overall population decline." 　　So what does our deep future hold A growing number of researchers and organisations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation, based in San Francisco, has created a forum where thinkers and scientists are invited to project the implications of their ideas over very long timescales. Its flagship project is a mechanical clock, buried deep inside a mountain in Texas, that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years hence。 　　Then there are scientists who are giving serious consideration to the idea that we should recognise a new geological era: the Anthropocene. They, too, are pulling the camera right back and asking what humanity’s impact will be on the planet - in the context of stratigraphic time。 　　Perhaps perversely, it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today’s technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it’s perhaps best left to science-fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That’s one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future。 　　But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves。 　　This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy: while our species may flourish, a great many individuals may not. But we are now knowledgeable enough to mitigate many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come. Thinking about our place in deep time is a good way to focus on the challenges that confront us today, and to make a future worth living in。 Which of the following would be the best title for the text

A:Uncertainty about Our Future B:Evolution of the Human Species C:The Ever-bright Prospects of Mankind。 D:Science, Technology and Humanity。

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A:China’s gold and silver reserves are among the largest in the world. B:China’s reserves of minerals are among the largest in the world. C:The development of science and technology will guarantee the discovery of more minerals. D:The prospects for more minerals are gloomy.

Your health can suffer simply from fear of losing your job, says Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. After crunching data from two large national surveys, she concluded that chronic job insecurity over a two--year period rivals the anxiety of a job loss or a major illness. Burgard adjusted her data for what psychologists call "neuroticism" and found that even people who aren’t typically worriers report worse health when they believe their jobs are in danger. Fears of poor job prospects may have similar consequences. When Swedish researchers asked 21 - year - olds about their health during a recession, they reported more problems than a comparison group during a boom.

A:According to Sarah Burgard, people’s health tend to get worse when they develop chronic diseases. B:they experience job insecurity. C:they see good job prospects. D:they have psychological problems.

Your health can suffer simply from fear of losing your job, says Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. After crunching data from two large national surveys, she concluded that chronic job insecurity over a two--year period rivals the anxiety of a job loss or a major illness. Burgard adjusted her data for what psychologists call "neuroticism" and found that even people who aren’t typically worriers report worse health when they believe their jobs are in danger. Fears of poor job prospects may have similar consequences. When Swedish researchers asked 21 - year - olds about their health during a recession, they reported more problems than a comparison group during a boom.
According to Sarah Burgard, people’s health tend to get worse when

A:they develop chronic diseases. B:they experience job insecurity. C:they see good job prospects. D:they have psychological problems.