阅读理解 A new book by a former lawyer at Kirkland Ellis, one of the nation's largest law firms, has delivered a thrill to the already rattled legal profession. In The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis, Steven J. Harper argues that legal jobs are disappearing not because of short-term economic fluctuations but because of powerful long-term trends. The word bubble is an overstatement, but Harper deserves credit for sounding the alarm. The decline in the market for lawyers is being driven by an array of forces. For some time now, corporate clients have been less willing to sign off on bulky legal bills. They have increasingly been balking at the top hourly rates of $1,000 that some partners charge. And as a result of globalization, an increasing share of American legal work is being shipped overseas. Lawyers in India and other lower- wage markets are willing to do the work for a fraction of what American law firms would charge. Taking away even more of this work: newly sophisticated legal software that can do 'document review' and other tasks for which lawyers were once needed. The legal market is without question soft these days. Last June, the Association for Legal Career Professionals released a grim placement report stating that only 65.4% of law-school graduates had found jobs for which it was necessary to pass a state bar exam. And the Internet is full of first-hand accounts of law-school graduates who say that their law degree has not helped them get a law job-and, worse still, those who report that their degree has actually hurt their job prospects, since some employers now tell them they are overqualified for nonlegal positions. Harper argues that the profession's leaders are a big part of the problem. He contends that big-firm managers are too focused on maximizing profits for the biggest, most rainmaking partners-at the expense of junior lawyers and the long-term interest of the firm. And he faults law-school deans for putting the interests and salaries of law professors ahead of the interests of their underemployed, debt- laden students. Controversial as it is, Harper's big-picture argument is undoubtedly correct, and it is a real cause for concern. Bar associations and legal academics have begun talking about how the profession should adapt -discussions that are long overdue. The biggest problem with The Lawyer Bubble is not the warning it is sounding but its title; unlike tulips and other speculative bubbles in the past, lawyers will always be a necessity not a fad. But then, The Very, Very Challenging Job Market for Lawyers doesn't have the same ring to it.

阅读理解Passage 3 The expansion of universities is one marked feature of the social life in the present age

阅读理解Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and write your answers on the Answer Sheet.Passage TwoRussia’s new revolution in conservationWhen naturalist Sergei Smirenski set out to create Russia’s first private nature reserve since the Bolshvik revolution, he knew that the greatest obstacle would be overcoming bureaucratic resistance.The Moscow State University professor has charted a steep course through a variety of foes, from local wildlife service officials who covet his funding to government officials who saw more value in development than conservation. But with incredible dedication, and the support of a wide range of international donors form Japan to the United States, the Murovyovka Nature Reserve has finally come into being.Founded at a small ceremony last summer, the private reserve covers 11000 acres of pristine wetlands along the banks of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. Here, amid forests and marshes encompassing a variety of microhabitats, nest some of the world’s rarest birds—tall, elegant cranes whose numbers are counted in the mere hundreds.The creation of the park marks a new approach to nature conservation in Russia, one that combines traditional methods of protection with an attempt to adapt to the changing economic and political circumstances of the new Russia.“There must be a thousand ways to save a wetland. It is time for vision and risk, and also hard practicality,” wrote Jim Harris, deputy director of the International Crane Foundation, a Wisconsin-based organization dedicated to the study and preservation of cranes, which has been a major supporter of the Murovyovka project.Dr. Smirenski’s vision has been eminently down to earth. At every step, he has tried to involve local officials, businessmen and collective farms in the project, giving them a practical, economic stakes in its success. And with international support, he is trying to introduce new methods of organic farming that will be more compatible with preserving the wetlands.

阅读理解Section A I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, arescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley

阅读理解This text is most probably taken from（）.

阅读理解Which of the following is true of Buck?

阅读理解Passage 3 As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth century North American Colonies, the silversmith and the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it

阅读理解Passage 2 William Shakespeare described old age as second childishness no teeth, no eyes, no taste

阅读理解Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and write your answers on the Answer Sheet.Passage TwoGenetic engineering holds great potential payoffs for farmers and consumers by making crops resistant to pets, diseases, and even chemicals used to kill surrounding weeds. But new research raises concerns that altering crops to withstand such threats may pose new risks—from none other than the weeds themselves. This is due to the weeds’ ability to acquire genes from the neighboring agricultural crops. Researchers found that when a weed cross-breeds with a farm-cultivated relative and thus acquires new genetic traits—possibly including artificial genes engineered to make the crop hardier —the hybrid weed can pass along those traits to future generations.“The result may be very hardy, hard-to-kill weeds,” said Allison Snow, a plant ecologist at Ohio State University in Columbus who conducted the experiments over the past six years along with two colleagues. They presented their results last week at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Madison, Wisconsin.The findings suggest that genetic engineering done with the aim of improving crops—giving them new genetic traits such as resistance to herbicides or pests—could ultimately have unintended and harmful consequences for the crops if weeds acquire the same trait and use it to out- compete the crops. “Gene movement from crops to their wild relatives is an ongoing process that can be ultimately harmful to crops,” said Snow.The results of the experiments challenge a common belief that hybrids gradually die out over several generations, Snow explained. “There has been an assumption that genes wouldn’t persist in crop-weed hybrids, because hybrids are thought to be less successful at reproducing,” she said. However, Snow’s research contradicted this assumption: Hybrid wild radishes survived in all six generations that were grown since the study began.Although the genetic traits the scientists monitored were natural and not genetically engineered, the findings nonetheless suggest that artificial improvements introduced into crops through genetic engineering could spread to weeds and become permanent traits of the weed population.So strengthened, the weeds may pose a serious risk to the long-term health of agricultural crops. The anger exists in a number of crop plants— including rice, sunflower, sorghum, squash, and carrots—that are closely related to weeds with which they compete. Snow is concerned that the transfer of genes from crops to related weeds could rapidly render many herbicides ineffectual. That situation, she said, would be much like bacterial disease acquiring resistance to antibiotics.Because plant hybrids arise in a single generation, however, it could happen much more quickly. “Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on herbicides,” she said, “so people will notice when those don’t work anymore.”

阅读理解Greece, economically, is in the black

阅读理解 Hunger is no novelty. We can discount legends of golden ages, lands of Cockayne, and Megasthenes' statement that before Alexander's invasion of India, there had never been famine or food shortage there. Trustworthy historical records show that during the Renaissance one year in ten in Britain, and one in five in Europe, was a famine year. China, with a greater area and more diverse climate, had a famine in some region every year. Famine is a state of affairs in which people are dying in the streets. It therefore attracts the notice of historians and is recorded. The fact that it strikes people who are aware of having been properly fed and well is more important. Not only are the survivors more adjustable, they are also angry at the breakdown of the system and eager to do something about it though it is obvious from the record that they do not always have the means. Malnutrition is much more underhanded. It is a chronic state in which the total food supply or, more often, the supply of certain components such as protein or some of the vitamins, is inadequate. It seems probable that, either constantly or seasonally, it used to be the usual condition of mankind and was regarded as normal. The unhealthy appearance of the figures in medieval paintings and drawings is often put down to the incompetence of the artist: it is as likely that most people really did look like that. The plentifulness with which poets greeted the 'merry month of May' may, in our dull climate, have had a climatic basis: it is just as likely that in May, after six months' shortage, there was now an adequate vitamin supply. The promptness with which some sailors died of scurvy after leaving port suggests that they were normally on the edge of scurvy and needed only a slight worsening of conditions to get it acutely. Others will think of other examples. Hunger and malnutrition are components of a classic example of a vicious circle. They lead to enfeeblement or unfeelingness in which nothing either can be done, or seems to be worth doing, to alter the state of affairs, this leads to more hunger and malnutrition. There is good reason to think that, in much of the developing world, if the circle could once be broken, it need never return.

阅读理解 Robert F. Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures 'everything except that which makes life worthwhile.' With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to. The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a flawed concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UK's GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record tow unemployment and high growth figures. If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brexit, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country's economic prospects? A recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into well-being sheds some light on that question. Across the 163 countries measured, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing. While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes. Yes, there has been a budding economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline. Yet this isn't the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and environment. This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: When GDP is no longer regarded as the sole measure of a country's success, the world looks very different. So what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes—all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being. The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being rather than simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.

阅读理解We can begin our discussion of “population as a global issue” with what most person mean whenthey discuss “the population problem”: too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in thenumber added each year. The facts are not in dispute. It was quite right to employ a similar matterthat linked demographic (人口统计学) growth to “a long, thin power fuse that burns steadily fromtime to time until it finally reaches the limit, and explodes”.To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it isnecessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recentphenomenon. Looking back at the 8,000 years of demographic history. We find that population havebeen really stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, lifewas hard, often nasty, and very short. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one inten persons would live past forty, where infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often,societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could exceed their birth rates. Thus,the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.This pattern is important to know. Not only does it put the current problems of demographic growthinto a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recentyears is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions thattraditionally have caused high rate of death.Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth whichextended from about 8000 B.C. till approximately 1650 A.D. And a period of rapid growth since1650. In the first period of some 9,600 years, the population increased form some 8 million to 500million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million tomore than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2020 there will be 8 billion peoplethroughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is toreduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000 B.C. and 1650, anaverage of only 50,000 persons was being added annually to the world’s population each year. Atpresent, this number is added every six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.

阅读理解 The iPad's impending arrival has created a commercial intrigue. A group of big publishers, including Macmillan and HarperCollins, have been using Apple's interest in e-books to persuade Amazon to renegotiate its pricing model. Like many other parts of the media industry, publishing is being radically reshaped by the growth of the Internet. Online retailers are already among the biggest distributors of books. Now e-books threaten to undermine sales of the old-fashioned kind. Mobclix, an advertising outfit, reckons the number of programs, or apps, for books on Apple's iPhone recently surpassed that for games, previously the largest category. In response, publishers are trying to shore up their conventional business while preparing for a future in which e-books will represent a much bigger chunk of sales. For some time they have operated a 'wholesale' pricing model with Amazon under which the online retailer pays publishers for books and then decides what it charges the public for them. This has enabled it to set the price of many new e-book titles and bestsellers at $ 9.99, which is often less than it has paid for them. Amazon has kept prices low in order to boost demand for its Kindle, which dominates the e-reader market but faces stiff competition from Sony and others. Publishers fret that this has conditioned consumers to expect lower prices for all kinds of books. And they worry that the downward spiral will further erode their already thin margins—some have had to close imprints and lay off staff in recent years—as well as bring further dismay to struggling bricks-and-mortar booksellers. As a result, publishers have turned to Apple to help them twist Amazon's arm. Keen to line up lots of titles for new iPad owners, the company has agreed to an 'agency model' under which publishers get to set the price at which their e-books are sold, with Apple taking 30% of the revenue generated. Faced with these deals, Amazon has reportedly agreed similar terms with several big publishers. As a result, the price of some popular e-books is expected to rise to $12.99 or $14.99. Once Apple and Amazon have taken their cut, publishers are likely to make less money on e-books under this new arrangement than under the wholesale one—a price they seem willing to pay in order to limit Amazon's influence and bolster print sales. Yet there are good reasons to doubt whether this and other strategies, such as delaying the release of electronic versions of new books for several months after the print launch, will halt the creeping commoditization of books. The publishing firms that survive what promises to be a wrenching transition will be those whose bosses and employees can learn quickly to think like multimedia impresarios rather than purveyors of perfect prose. Not all of them will be able to turn that particular page successfully.

阅读理解Which of the following would be the best title of the text?

阅读理解Directions:In this part of the test，there will be 5 passages for you to read. Each passage is followed by 4 questions or unfinished statements, and each question or unfinished statement is followed by four choices marked A, B, C and D. You are to decide on the best choice by blackening the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET.Passage FiveOf all the people on my holiday shopping list, there was one little boy for whom buying a gift hadbecome increasingly difficult. He’s a wonderful child, adorable and loving, and he’s not fussy orirritable or spoiled. Though he lives across the country from me, I receive regular updates and photos,and he likes all the things that the boys his age want to play with. Shopping for him should be easy, butI find it hard to summon up any enthusiasm, because in all the years I’ve given him presents, he neveronce sent me a thank-you note.“Sending thank-you notes is becoming a lost art，” mourns Mary Mitchell, a syndicated columnistknown as “Ms. Demeanorv and author of six etiquette books. In her view, each generation, comparedwith the one before, is losing a sense of consideration for other people. “Without respect,n she says,“you have conflict. ”Ms. Demeanor would be proud of me ： I have figured out a way to ensure that my children alwayssend thank-you notes. And such a gesture is important, says Ms. Demeanor, because “a gratefulattitude is a tremendous life skill, an efficient and inexpensive way to set ourselves apart in the workforce and in our adult lives. Teach your children that the habit of manners comes from inside — it’s anattitude based on respecting other people. ”A few years ago, as my children descended like piranhas on their presents under the Christmastree, the only attitude I could see was greed. Where was the appreciation of time and effort?A thank-you note should contain three things： an acknowledgement of the gift (Love the tie withthe picture of a horse on it. ) ； a recognition of the time and effort spent to select it (You must haveshopped all over the state to find such a unique item! ) ; a prediction of how you will use your gift or theway it has enhanced your life (I’ll be sure to wear it to the next Mr. Ed convention!).So, five years ago, in one of my rare flashes of parental insight, I decided that the mostappropriate time to teach this basic courtesy is while the tinsel is hot. To the horror of my children, Iannounced that henceforth every gift received will be an occasion for a thank-you note writtenimmediately, on the spot. I have explained to my kids how I have reacted to not hearing from the littleboy — how it made me feel unappreciated and unmotivated to repeat the process next year.I have reluctantly given my kids the green light to send e-thank-you notes ； though hand-letteredones (at least to me) still seem friendlier. But pretty much any thank-you makes the gift giver feelspecial —just as, we hope, the recipient feels. It’s a gesture that perfectly captures the spirit of theholidays.

阅读理解 This year has turned out to be a surprisingly good one for the world economy. Global output has probably risen by close to 5%, well above its trend rate and a lot faster than forecasters were expecting 12 months ago. Most of the dangers that frightened financial markets during the year have failed to materialize. China's economy has not suffered a hard landing. America's mid-year slowdown did not become a double-dip recession. Granted, the troubles of the euro area's peripheral economies have proved all too real. Yet the euro zone as a whole has grown at a decent rate for an ageing continent, thanks to oomph from Germany, the fastest-growing big rich economy in 2010. The question now is whether 2011 will follow the same pattern. Many people seem to think so. Consumer and business confidence is rising in most parts of the world; global manufacturing is accelerating; and financial markets are buoyant. The MSCI index of global share prices has climbed by 20% since early July. Investors today are shrugging off news far more ominous than that which rattled them earlier this year, from the soaring debt yields in the euro zone's periphery to news of rising inflation in China. Earlier this year investors were too pessimistic. Now their breezy confidence seems misplaced. To oversimplify a little, the performance of the world economy in 2011 depends on what happens in three places: the big emerging markets, the euro area and America. These big three are heading in very different directions, with very different growth prospects and contradictory policy choices. Some of this divergence is inevitable: even to the casual observer, India's economy has always been rather different from America's. But new splits are opening up, especially in the rich world, and with them come ever more chances for friction. Begin with the big emerging markets, by far the biggest contributors to global growth this year. Where it can, foreign capital is pouring in. Isolated worries about asset bubbles have been replaced by a fear of broader overheating. With Brazilian shops packed with shoppers, inflation there has surged above 5% and imports in November were 44% higher than the previous year. Cheap money is often the problem. Though the slump of 2009 is a distant memory, monetary conditions are still extraordinarily loose, thanks, in many places, to efforts to hold down currencies. This combination is unsustainable. To stop prices accelerating, most emerging economies will need tighter policies next year. If they do too much, their growth could slow sharply. If they do too little, they invite higher inflation and a bigger tightening later. Either way, the chances of a macroeconomic shock coming from the emerging world are rising steeply.

阅读理解Christmas Gift Mary didnt know what to send to her grandparents for Christmas

阅读理解Text 1 How can the train operators possibly justify yet another increase to rail passenger fares? It has become a grimly reliable annual ritual: every January the cost of travelling by train rises, imposing a significant extra burden on those who have no option but to use the rail network to get to work or otherwise

阅读理解Passage H For office innovators, the unrealized dream of the paperless office is a classic example of high-tech hubris