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单选题 Instinctively, the first thing we want to know about a disease is whether it is going to kill us. Twenty-five years ago, this was the only question about AIDS we could answer with any certainty; now, it is the only question we really cannot answer well at all. By now, those of us in the AIDS business long term have cared for thousands of patients. No one with that kind of personal experience can doubt for a moment the deadly potential of HIV or the life-saving capabilities of the drugs developed against it. But there are also now hundreds of footnotes and exceptions and modifications to those two facts that make the big picture ever murkier (扑朔迷离). We have patients scattered at every possible point., men and women who cruise on their medications with no problems at all, and those who never become stable on them and die of AIDS; those who refuse them until it is too late, and those who never need them at all; those who leave AIDS far behind only to die from lung cancer or breast cancer or liver failure, and those few who are killed by the medications themselves. So, when we welcome a new patient into our world, one whose fated place in this world is still unclear, and that patient asks us, as most do, whether this illness is going to kill him or not, it often takes a bit of mental stammering before we hazard an answer. Now, a complete rundown of all the news from the front would take hours. The statistics change almost hourly as new treatments appear. It is all too cold, too mathematical, too scary to dump on the head of a sick, frightened person. So we simplify. 'We have good treatments now,' we say. 'You should do fine.' Once, not so long ago, we were working in another universe. Now we have simply rejoined the carnival (嘉年华) of modern medicine, noisy and encouraging, confusing and contradictory, fueled by the eternal balancing of benefits and risks. You can win big, and why shouldn't you, with the usual fail-safe combination of luck and money. You have our very best hopes, so step right up: we sell big miracles but, offer no guarantees.
单选题 As parents, we want our children to reach their full academic potential. We read to them, encourage their special talents, and support them when they have problems. If they choose to participate in music or sports, we also help them reach their potential in those areas. These are all good goals. There is, however, an even more important goal. It is a goal more difficult than excellence in arithmetic or soccer or the violin. Parents are responsible for providing their children with a moral compass. They need to nurture and treasure goodness in their children. Every child has the capacity to become a good, decent human being. To fulfill this capacity, children need the guidance and support of parents and other adults. Raising good, moral children is the most important job we will have. What is a good, decent human being? While we may differ on some details, most would agree that respect for others, kindness and caring, honesty and honor, and a reverence (尊重) for life are key. Good, decent human beings are people with a firm sense of direction and purpose—a moral compass—to guide their lives. Children need our help to develop these characteristics and values. While most people try to act with honor and kindness, doing so consistently is difficult and requires lifelong effort. Goodness is not easy for an adult, and it is even more difficult for a child. They do not have the knowledge, experiences, or cognitive skills to understand the impact and consequences of their actions. Reinforcement is sometimes an efficient approach to building positive behavior. The child behaves in a desired way and the parents provide reinforcement. The behavior then typically increases in frequency. This approach works for teaching 'Please' and 'Thank you'. The new behavior is maintained, because it helps the child get along in the world. Loving, everyday interactions are the beginning of raising moral children. The child who falls and receives adult concern learns how to treat others kindly when they stumble (绊倒). The child who makes a mistake and is encouraged to try again learns how to support others. When parents intercede (调解）graciously for their child, the child can see the basis for friendship. When we treat children with respect and care, we provide a positive model of how to behave. These early experiences establish patterns for their treatment of others.
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Beauty and Body Image in the Media
A. Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell everything from food to cars. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Some have even been known to faint on the set from lack of food. Women's magazines are full of articles urging that if they can just lose those last twenty pounds, they'll have it all—the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. B. Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women, the majority of whom are naturally larger and more mature than any of the models? The roots, some analysts say, are economic. By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. And it's no accident that youth is increasingly promoted, along with thinness, as an essential criterion of beauty. If not all women need to lose weight, for sure they're all aging, says the Quebec Action Network for Women's Health in its 2001 report. And, according to the industry, age is a disaster that needs to be dealt with. C. The stakes are huge. On the one hand, women who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes, and diet aids. It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion (U. S.) a year selling temporary weight loss (90% to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight). On the other hand, research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies is linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. D. The American research group Anorexia Nervosa Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative (泻药) abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The pressure to be thin is also affecting young gifts: the Canadian Women's Health Network warns that weight control measures are now being taken by girls as young as 5 and 6. American statistics are similar. Several studies, such as one conducted by Marika Tiggemann and Levina Clark in 2006 titled 'Appearance Culture in 9- to 12-Year-Old Girls: Media and Peer Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, ' indicate that nearly half of all preadolescent girls wish to be thinner, and as a result have engaged in a diet or are aware of the concept of dieting. In 2003, Teen magazine reported that 35 percent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 percent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way. Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, 'Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight. ' E. Perhaps the most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea (慢性腹泻) and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad, President of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie), estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll. Still, the number of real life women and girls who seek a similarly underweight body is epidemic, and they can suffer equally devastating health consequences. In 2006 it was estimated that up to 450, 000 Canadian women were affected by an eating disorder. F. Researchers report that women's magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women's magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman's bodily appearance—-by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman's worth. Canadian researcher Gregory Fouts reports that over three-quarters of the female characters in TV situation comedies are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Heavier actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies ('How about wearing a sack?'), and 80 percent of these negative comments are followed by canned audience laughter. G. There have been efforts in the magazine industry to buck (抵制，反抗) the trend. For several years the Quebec magazine Coup de Pouce has consistently included full-sized women in their fashion pages and Chatelaine has pledged not to touch up photos and not to include models less than 25 years of age. In Madrid, one of the world's biggest fashion capitals, ultra-thin models were banned from the runway in 2006. Furthermore Spain has recently undergone a project with the aim to standardize clothing sizes through using a unique process in which a laser beam is used to measure real life women's bodies in order to find the most true to life measurement. H. Another issue is the representation of ethnically diverse women in the media. A 2008 study conducted by Juanita Covert and Travis Dixon titled 'A Changing View: Representation and Effects of the Portrayal of Women of Color in Mainstream Women's Magazines' found that although there was an increase in the representation of women of colour, overall white women were overrepresented in mainstream women's magazines from 1999 to 2004. I. The barrage of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tells 'ordinary' women that they are always in need of adjustment—and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Jean Kilboume argues that the overwhelming presence of media images of painfully thin women means that real women's bodies have become invisible in the mass media. The real tragedy, Kilbourne concludes, is that many women internalize these stereotypes, and judge themselves by the beauty industry's standards. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. This focus on beauty and desirability 'effectively destroys any awareness and action that might help to change that climate. '
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Computers and Humans
The ideal companion machine—the computer—would not only look, feel, and sound friendly but would also behave in a pleasant manner. Its informal conversational style make interaction comfortable, and yet the machine would remain slightly unpredictable (不可预知的) and therefore very interesting. In its first encounter it might be somewhat hesitant, but as it came to know the user it would progress to a more relaxed and intimate style. The machine would not be a passive participant but would add its own suggestions, information, and opinions; it would sometimes take the initiative in developing or changing the topic and would have a personality of its own. Friendships are not made in a day, and the computer would be more acceptable as a friend if it imitated the gradual changes that occur when one person is getting to know another. At an appropriate time it might also express the kind of affection that stimulates attachment and intimacy. The whole process would be accomplished in a subtle way to avoid giving an impression of over-familiarity that would be likely to produce irritation (恼怒). After experiencing a wealth of powerful, well-timed friendship indicators, the user would be very likely to accept the computer as far more than a machine and might well come to regard it as a friend. An artificial relationship of this type would provide many of the benefits that people obtain from interpersonal friendships. The computer would participate in interesting conversation that could continue from previous discussions. It would have a familiarity with the user's life as revealed in earlier contact, and it would be understanding and good-humored. The computer's own personality would be lively and impressive, and it would develop in response to that of the user. With features such as these, the computer might indeed become a very attractive social partner.
单选题Language barriers present a variety of challenges for children of any age. In Houston alone, bilingual education programs have helped many grade-school students 27 the trials that accompany not being able to speak English. In the past, such vital curriculum was not always readily 28 for children who needed it. One person who experienced the 29 of school life without a bilingual program was UH education professor Yolanda Padrón. As a child, Padrón and her family moved from Cuba to the United States. Settling in Landover, Mass., she was placed into elementary school, but had no working 30 of English. With that, she found herself at a 31 disadvantage. 'When I came here, I was in the fifth grade, but because I didn't speak English, they put me back a year,' she said. 'We lived there for about six months before we moved to Houston. When I came here, I still didn't speak English, so I was placed back another grade. At the time, that was the 32 to how to deal with children who didn't speak the language.' Despite the awkwardness of being placed back two grade levels, Padrón 33 some much-needed attention from concerned teachers. After being 34 , it was learned that she was on par with other students of her 35 age despite not knowing English. By the eighth grade, Padrón was 36 able to join students in her peer group. A. available B. basically C. difficulties D. finally E. happiness F. impossible G. knowledge H. little I. lost J. major K. overcome L. own M. received N. response O. tested
单选题 When researcher Josh Santarpia stands at the foot of a bed, taking measurements with a device that can detect tiny, invisible particles of saliva (唾液) that come out of someone's mouth and move through the air, he can tell whether the sick person is speaking or not just by looking at the read-out on his instrument. 'So clearly, the particles which that person is putting out are being breathed in by someone that is five feet away from them, at the foot of their bed,' says Santarpia, who studies biological aerosols (气溶胶) at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 'Do they contain vires? I don't know for sure.' He and his colleagues are doing their best to find out. Already, using another device that looks like a fancy dust collector, they've sucked up air samples from 11 isolation rooms that housed 13 people who tested positive for COVID-19 infection, all of whom had a variety of mild symptoms. In those air samples, researchers found the genetic fingerprint of the virus. 'It was more than half of the samples that we took. It was fairly everywhere,' says Santarpia, 'but the concentrations were really pretty low.' Finding the genetic material doesn't necessarily mean that there's living virus that could potentially make someone sick, he cautions. Some primary evidence indicates that this might be the case, but the team wants to do more work 'and try and be as certain as we possibly can whether or not certain samples had infectious virus in them or not.' They want to know that with a high degree of confidence because the question of whether or not the coronavirus (冠状病毒) can be transported by the air is extremely controversial right now—and it's a question that has real implications for what people should do to avoid getting infected. 'I personally think that transmission by breathing in virus in the air is happening,' says Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech. But she says so far, health experts have largely discounted the possibility of transmitting this coronavirus in this way.
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单选题 有一个事实我们不得不相信，那就是科技的发展已经彻底改变了我们的生活方式。以前，我们从没想到过生活质量会和科技之间有着如此紧密的联系。现如今，几乎人人都在使用网络，通过这个平台，我们学习、交朋友、获取信息的方式得以发生天翻地覆的转变。而且，大家普遍认为，这样的现象将会一直持续到未来很长一段时间。
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Dare to Dream
A. Dreams may affect our lives (and vice versa) more than we ever realized, says groundbreaking new research. Dream is a way for the subconscious to communicate with the conscious mind. Dreaming of something you are worried about, researchers say, is the brain's way of helping you get prepared for a disaster in case it occurs. Dreaming of a challenge, for example giving a presentation at work or playing sports, can enhance your performance. And cognitive (认知的) neuroscientist have discovered that dreams and the rapid eye movement (REM) that happens while you are dreaming are linked to our ability to learn and remember. B. Dreaming is a 'mood regulatory system,' says Dr. Cartwright, chairman of the psychology department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She has found that dreams help people work through the day's emotional ups and downs. It's like having a built-in therapist. While we sleep, dreams compare new emotional experience to old memories. As she puts it, 'you may wake up and think, what was Uncle Harry doing in my dream? I haven't seen him for 50 years. But the old and new images are emotionally related.' It's the job of the conscious mind to figure out the relationship. C. In fact, dream emotions can help real therapists treat patients undergoing traumatic(创伤性) life events. In a new study of 30 recently divorced adults, Cartwright tracked their dreams over a 5-month period, measuring their feelings toward their ex-spouses. She discovered that those who were angriest at the spouse while dreaming had the best chance of successfully coping with divorce. If their dreams were calm, they hadn't started to work through their emotions and deal with the divorce. For therapists, this finding will help to determine whether divorced men or women need counseling or have already dreamed their troubles away. D. No device lets researchers read the content of dreams while we sleep, but scientistsare finding new ways to interpret once we have awakened. Forget Sigmund Freud's notion that dreams contain images with universal meanings for all his undeniable authority in the field of dream interpretation. A new generation of psychologistsinsists that dream symbols differ depending on the dreamer. In a recent study, Joseph Konick, a psychology professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada, asked 13 volunteers to make two lists: one of details recalled from recent dreams, and another of recent events in their waking lives. When analysts were asked to match which volunteer experienced which dream, they failed. Koninck's conclusion: Each person understands his or her dreams better than anyone else including traditional psychoanalysts. 'There's just no evidence of universal dream symbols, ' says Koninck. 'My advice is to throw away your dream dictionary if you really want to interpret your dreams. ' E. A century after the Freud era, scientists are only now decoding the biology of we manufacture dreams. At the sleep Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Dr. Nofzinger 'looks into' the brains of sleeping subjects using PET scans normally employed to detect cancer and other diseases. By injecting subjects with a mildly radioactive substance, he has traced the source of the brain that controls emotions. During dreaming, the limbic system explodes like fireworks with neural (神经的) activity, filling our dreams with drama. 'That's why so many dreams are emotional states,' saysNofzinger, 'where we are running from danger or facing an anxious situation. The part of the brain that controls dreams also manages our instincts, drives, sexual behavior and fight-or-flight response.' That's why dreams are often strange combinations of events and people. F. For 11 years, a 58-year-old anthropologist (人类学家) kept a journal of nearly 5000 dreams. By analyzing color patterns in the dreams, Arizona-based researcher Robert Hoss could accurately predict certain things about the man's emotional state. Hoss correctly identified two separate years when the man experienced crises in his life. The anthropologist confirmed that in 1997 he had clashed with a colleague over a management issue, and in 2003 he'd had a falling out with a friend that left deep emotional scars. G. Today, psychologists are applying modern technology to probe the content of dreams. Hoss uses a computer-based approach called content analysis to interpret the colors in dreams. More than 80 percent of people dream in color, he says, though only a quarter of them recall the shades the next morning. To collect data, he analyzed nearly 24, 000 dreams, catalogued in two databases. His study suggested that specific colors represent particular emotions. For example, red means action, excitement and desire; blue equals calmness and harmony; black hints fear, anxiety and intimidation. The clues are in the colors. Hoss has been trying to determine the emotional states of a dreamer based on his/her dream colors. But, as with symbols and action, one size doesn't fit all when it comes to interpretation. Using color is your brain's way of painting dreams with your emotion, and different people have different ways of using color. H. Psychologists have long known that people can solve their problems at work and home by 'sleeping on it.' The challenge has always been to train yourself to dream up the solutions. Dr. Barret, editor of the journal Dreaming, advises individuals to consider questions just before falling asleep (Should I take this job? Should I marry this guy?), and then let the subconscious provide the answers. 'I've known artists looking for inspiration who simply dream up a future show of their art and wake up with plenty of new painting ideas,' says Barrett. 'More and more people are learning these techniques to control their dreams.' I. Some researchers believe you can guide your dreams while you are sleeping. In recent years, Stephen LaBerge, PhD, has pioneered a way of directing the sleeping mind through 'lucid dreaming,' in which a sleeping person realizes he/she is dreaming while it is happening. Lucid dreamers can experience fantasy adventures like flying to the moon, traveling through time or making love on a beach—while fully aware that they are dreaming. According to La Berge, lucid dreamers can use the experience for a variety of purposes, problem solving, developing creative ideas and healing. Patricia Keelin, a 55-year-old photographer has used lucid dreaming for everything from talking to her long-dead father to feasting on sweets. 'Chocolate always tastes better in lucid dreams since you don't have to worry about calories, 'she says 'Lucid dreaming is great and exciting, because it's free and available to everybody.' J. Well, not entirely free. Although everyone has the potential to dream lucidly, it rarely happens routinely without special training. Instructional workshops are needed to help individuals participate in their dreams. If you have repeating nightmares that make it difficult to sleep, try to change the endings. Once you awaken from a bad dream, imagine a change in the action to create a more positive outcome. If you are trapped, try to fly. In you dream, you can do what you want. Indeed, your dreams are like private movies where you are the star, director and writer all at once. And as the latest research indicates, you are also the most insightful movie critic. The best interpreter of your dreams is you.
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单选题Writeashortessaybasedonthepicturebelow.Youshouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandthenexplainhowyouunderstandit.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsbutnomorethan180words.
单选题 If the salinity of ocean waters is analyzed, it is found to vary only slightly from place to place. Nevertheless, some of these small changes are important. There are three basic processes that cause a change in oceanic salinity. One of these is the subtraction of water from the ocean by means of evaporation—conversion of liquid water to water vapor. In this manner, the salinity is increased, since the salts stay behind. If this is carded to the extreme, of course, white crystals of salt would be left behind. The opposite of evaporation is precipitation, such as rain, by which water is added to the ocean. Here the ocean is being diluted so that the salinity is decreased. This may occur in areas of high rainfall or in coastal regions where rivers flow into the ocean. Thus salinity may be increased by the subtraction of water by evaporation, or decreased by the addition of fresh water by precipitation or runoff. Normally, in tropical regions where the sun is very strong, the ocean salinity is somewhat higher than it is in other parts of the world where there is not as much evaporation. Similarly, in coastal regions where rivers dilute the sea, salinity is somewhat lower than in other oceanic areas. A third process by which salinity may be altered is associated with the formation and melting of sea ice. When seawater is frozen, the dissolved materials are left behind. In this manner, seawater directly beneath freshly formed sea ice has a higher salinity than it did before the ice appeared. Of course, when this ice melts, it will tend to decrease the salinity of the surrounding water. In the Weddell Sea, off Antarctica, the densest water in the oceans is formed as a result of this freezing process, which increases the salinity of cold water. This heavy water sinks and is found in the deeper portions of the oceans of the world.
单选题 Cleaning up our air may have made us healthier. A new analysis shows that the number of storms falls when pollution rises, and increases when pollution drops. Further tightening of present pollution controls 'could reduce aerosols (气溶胶；悬浮颗粒) so quickly that we have record numbers of tropical storms for the next decade or two', says Nick Dunstone of the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, UK. Earlier studies found no connection between storm numbers and aerosols' ability to cool the surface by scattering light in the open air. But aerosols also increase the brightness and lifetime of low-level marine clouds. When Nick Dunstone of the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, UK, added this effect into his climate models, the simulated clouds cooled the surface more than expected. Historically, this cooling effect has been strongest in the north Atlantic. Cooling the north Atlantic reduces the energy available to power hurricanes. It also shifts rising and falling air currents further south, increasing wind shear in the Atlantic hurricane nursery. This extra wind shear tears nascent storms apart before they can gain strength. In this way, Dunstone says, changes in aerosol emissions appear to drive cyclical variations in north Atlantic tropical storms. These variations have long been attributed to natural variations in ocean circulation. Throughout the 20th century, aerosol emissions increased with industrialization and decreased in economic slumps. Tropical storms were frequent from the 1930s through to the 1950s, but rarer in the better economic times of the 1960s to mid-1990s. Then pollution controls reduced aerosol levels, and Atlantic hurricanes came roaring back, with 19 in 1995, a record 28 in 2005, and 19 in each of the past three years. Dunstone expects the increase to continue for another two decades. After that, global warming may begin to reduce the number of tropical storms, by warming the air and thus reducing the temperature difference between the sea surface and the atmosphere. It is not clear whether aerosols affect the intensity of storms.
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单选题 There were limits to how green Bruce Letvin was willing to go. For years, the 53-year-old anatomy professor had wanted to install solar panels on his Manhattan Beach, Calif., home. But the up-front installation costs always outweighed the benefits for the environment and his conscience. This spring, however, he managed to work out green financing with the help of solar company SunPower. After determining that his electricity bills and roof exposure were large enough to make him a good candidate for its solar panels, the company helped him find a 15-year loan for the $64,500 system. Yes, his $550 loan payment is more than the $300 or so he used to spend each month on electricity bills,—so far, he has generated enough solar power that he doesn't need to take any juice from the grid—but after he pays off the loan, his power will be free. That stiff up-front cost has always been the biggest barrier to residential use of solar power. An average set of rooftop panels costs $20,000 to $30,000 and takes 10 to 15 years to produce enough electricity to pay for itself—a deal not unlike asking a new cell-phone owner to pay in advance for a decade's worth of minutes. But that equation will change as the cost of solar panels drops and the price of fossil-fuel-generated electricity rises. And now solar companies and banks are helping homeowners stretch the cost over the lifetime of the panels, and sunny California is at the forefront of this trend. SolarCity, one of the biggest panel installers in the state, began offering no-money-down leases for home installation. Says CEO Lyndon Rive, 'If you had the choice of using clean power over dirty power and paying less for it, wouldn't you take it?' Still, solar isn't for every home. Different parts of the U.S. receive vastly different amounts of sunlight, so a solar panel in sun-drenched Las Vegas will always be more productive than one in cloudy Seattle. Incentives vary from state to state and can tip the numbers as well. But financing means that at least you won't need a lot of excess green to go green.
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How a Poor, Abandoned Parisian Boy Became a Top Chef
A. The busy streets in Paris were uneven and caked in thick mud, but there was always a breathtaking sight to see in the shop windows of Patisserie de la Rue de la Paix. By 1814, people crowded outside the bakery, straining for a glimpse of the latest sweet food created by the young chef who worked inside. B. His name was Marie-Antoine Carême, and he had appeared, one day, almost out of nowhere. But in his short lifetime, which ended exactly 184 years ago today, he would forever revolutionize French gourmet food (美食), write best-selling cook books and think up magical dishes for royals and other important people. C. Carême's childhood was one part tragedy, equal part mystery. Born the 16th child to poor parents in Paris in either 1783 or 1784, a young Carême was suddenly abandoned at the height of the French Revolution. At 8 years old, he worked as a kitchen boy for a restaurant in Paris in exchange for room and board. By age 15, he had become an apprentice (学徒) to Sylvain Bailly, a well-known dessert chef with a successful bakery in one of Paris's most fashionable neighborhoods. D. Carême was quick at learning in the kitchen. Bailly encouraged his young apprentice to learn to read and write. Carême would often spend his free afternoons at the nearby National Library reading books on art and architecture. In the back room of the little bakery, his interest in design and his baking talent combined to work wonders—he shaped delicious masterpieces out of flour, butter and sugar. E. In his teenage years, Carême fashioned eatable copies of the late 18th century's most famous buildings—cookies in the shape of ruins of ancient Athens and pies in the shape of ancient Chinese palaces and temples. Sylvain Bailly, his master, displayed these luxuriant creations—often as large as 4 feet tall in his bakery windows. F. Carême creations soon captured the discriminating eye of a French diplomat, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Around 1804, Talleyrand challenged Carême to produce a full menu for his personal castle, instructing the young baker to use local, seasonal fruits and vegetables and to avoid repeating main dishes over the course of an entire year. The experiment was a grand success and G. Talleyrand's association with French nobility would prove a profitable connection for Carême. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was known to be unimpressed by the declining taste of early 18th century cooking, but under pressure to entertain Paris's high society, he too called Carême to his kitchen at Tuileries Palace. In 1810, Carême designed the extraordinary cake for the wedding of Napoleon and his second bride, Marie-Louise of Austria. He became one of the first modern chefs to focus on the appearance of his table, not just the flavor of his dishes. 'I want order and taste. A well-displayed meal is enhanced one hundred percent in my eyes,' he later wrote in one of his cook books. H. In 1816, Carême began a culinary (烹饪的) journey which would forever mark his place as history's first top chef. He voyaged to England to cook in the modern Great Kitchen of the prince regent (摄政王), George IV, and crossed continents to prepare grand banquets for the tables of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Never afraid to talk up his own accomplishments, a boastful Carême made a fortune as wealthy families with social ambitions invited him to their kitchens. Later, in his cook books, he would often include a sketch of himself, so that people on the street would be able to recognize—and admire—him. I. Carême's cooking displays became the symbol of fine French dining; they were plentiful, beautiful and imposing. Guests would fall silent in wonder as servants carried Carême's fancy creations into the dining hall. For a banquet celebrating the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia's visit to George IV's Brighton Pavillion on Jan. 18, 1817, the menu featured 120 different dishes, highlighting eight different soups, 40 main courses, and 32 desserts. J. As he traveled through the homes of early 19th century nobility, Carême forged the new art of French gourmet food. Locked in hot kitchens, Carême created his four 'mother sauces.' These sauces béchamel, velouté, espagnole and allemande—formed the central building blocks for many French main courses. He also perfected the soufflé—a baked egg dish, and introduced the standard chef's uniform—the same double-breasted white coat and tall white hat still worn by many chefs today. The white clothing conveyed an image of cleanliness, according to Carême—and in his realm, appearance was everything. K. Between meals, Carême wrote cook books that would be used in European kitchens for the next century. His manuals including The Royal Parisian Baker and the massive five-volume Art of French Cooking Series (1833-1847, completed after his death) first systematized many basic principles of cooking, complete with drawings and step-by-step directions. Long before television cooking shows, Carême walked readers through common kitchen tasks, instructing them to 'try this for yourself, at home' as famous American Chef Julia Child might do, many years later. L. In the end, however, it was the kitchen that did Carême in. Decades of working over coal fires in tight, closed spaces with little fresh air (to ensure his dishes would not get cold) had fatally damaged his lungs. On Jan. 12, 1833, Carême died just before he turned 50. M. But in his lifetime, Carême, ever confident, could see beyond his short domination in the kitchen. He wanted to 'set the standard for beauty in classical and modem cooking, and prove to the distant future that the French chefs of the 19th century were the most famous in the world,' as he wrote in his papers. N. Decades later, chef Auguste Escoffier would build upon Carême's concept of French cuisine (烹饪). But in the very beginning, there was just Carême, the top chef who elevated dining into art.
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单选题 Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to probe how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of one rebel teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the world's only liberal arts university for deaf people. When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something odd: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher. Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the 'hand talk' his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people dismissed their signing as 'substandard'. Stokoe's idea was academic heresy (异端邪说). It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a café near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades educators fought his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. 'What I said,' Stokoe explains, 'is that language is not mouth stuff—it's brain stuff.'
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单选题 Are you diligently exercising but seeing no results around your midsection (上腹部)? It's not just you. Two new studies may explain why many people who begin exercise programs often lose little to no weight in the long run. In the first study, published in the online science journal PLoS One, researchers compared the daily energy expenditures of Westerners and the Hadza, a population of hunter-gatherers living in northern Tanzania. Many believe modem Westerners burn fewer calories than in the past because their lives have become more sedentary (久坐的). The Hadza, who are generally very lean, hunt and look for food without modem tools such as vehicles or guns. Men walk about seven miles each day, while women walk about half that. What was surprising was that although the Hadza seem to be more active, the researchers found little difference in calories burned between the Hadza and the Westerners. The second study, published in Obesity Reviews, analyzed the effect of exercise interventions on body composition. The researchers found that—contrary to popular belief—when people exercise but keep their energy intake constant, their resting metabolic (新陈代谢的) rate actually goes down. Exercisers who ate more calories than they usually do did burn more fat than predicted, but some overate and negated the effects of their hard work. These studies suggest two things: exercise programs may not lead to as much calorie bum as you would think, and many people start eating more when they exercise, and they may eat too much. Bottom line, if you start exercising to lose weight, you won't succeed with the mentality of 'I can eat anything because I'll burn it off later.' You will have better results if you choose a healthy diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats while exercising. Although these two studies show that diet may be more important than exercise for weight loss, don't discount the other benefits of exercise, including decreased stress and anxiety, improved mood and reduced risk of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease, diabetes (糖尿病) and some cancers.
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单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write on the topic EQ (Emotional Quotient). You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
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Media Selection for Advertisements
A. After determining the target audience for a product or service, advertising agencies must select the appropriate media for the advertisement. We discuss here the major types of media used in advertising. We focus our attention on seven types of advertising: television, newspapers, radio, magazines, out-of-home, Internet, and direct mail. B. Television is an attractive medium for advertising because it delivers mass audiences to advertisers. When you consider that nearly three out of four Americans have seen the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You can understand the power of television to communicate with a large audience. When advertisers create a brand, for example, they want to impress consumers with the brand and its image. Television provides an ideal vehicle for this type of communication. But television is an expensive medium, and not all advertisers can afford to use it. C. Television's influence on advertising is fourfold. First, narrowcasting means that television channels are seen by an increasingly narrow segment of the audience. The Golf Channel, for instance, is watched by people who play golf. Home and Garden Television is seen by those interested in household improvement projects. Thus, audiences are smaller and more homogeneous (具有共同特点的) than they have been in the past. Second, there is an increase in the number of television channels available to viewers, and thus, advertisers. This has also resulted in an increase in the sheer number of advertisements to which audiences are exposed. Third, digital recording devices allow audience members more control over which commercials they watch. Fourth, control over programming is being passed from the networks to local cable operators and satellite programmers. D. After television, the medium attracting the next largest annual ad revenue is newspapers. The New York Times, which reaches a national audience, accounts for $1 billion in ad revenue annually. It has increased its national circulation (发行量) by 40% and is now available for home delivery in 168 cities. Locally, newspapers are the largest advertising medium. E. Newspapers are a less expensive advertising medium than television and provide a way for advertisers to communicate a longer, more detailed message to their audience than they can through television. Given new production techniques, advertisements can be printed in newspapers in about 48 hours, meaning newspapers are also a quick way of getting the message out. Newspapers are often the most important form of news for a local community, and they develop a high degree of loyalty from local readers. F. Advertising on radio continues to grow. Radio is often used in conjunction with outdoor billboards (广告牌) and the Internet to reach even more customers than television. Advertisers are likely to use radio because it is a less expensive medium than television, which means advertisers can afford to repeat their ads often. Internet companies are also turning to radio advertising. Radio provides a way for advertisers to communicate with audience members at all times of the day. Consumers listen to radio on their way to school or work, at work, on the way home, and in the evening hours. Two major changes—satellite and Internet radio—will force radio advertisers to adapt their methods. Both of these radio forms allow listeners to tune in stations that are more distant than the local stations they could receive in the past. As a result, radio will increasingly attract target audiences who live many miles apart. G. Newsweeklies, women's titles, and business magazines have all seen increases in advertising because they attract the high-end market. Magazines are popular with advertisers because of the narrow market that they deliver. A broadcast medium such as network television attracts all types of audience members, but magazine audiences are more homogeneous. If you read Sports Illustrated, for example, you have much in common with the magazine's other readers. Advertisers see magazines as an efficient way of reaching target audience members. H. Advertisers using the print media—magazines and newspapers—will need to adapt to two main changes. First, the Internet will bring larger audiences to local newspapers. These audiences will be more diverse and geographically dispersed (分散) than in the past. Second, advertisers will have to understand how to use an increasing number of magazines for their target audiences. Although some magazines will maintain national audiences, a large number of magazines will entertain narrower audiences. I. Out-of-home advertising, also called place-based advertising, has become an increasingly effective way of reaching consumers, who are more active than ever before. Many consumers today do not sit at home and watch television. Using billboards, newsstands, and bus shelters for advertising is an effective way of reaching these on-the-go consumers. More consumers travel longer distances to and from work, which also makes out-of-home advertising effective. Technology has changed the nature of the billboard business, making it a more effective medium than in the past. Using digital printing, billboard companies can print a billboard in 2 hours, compared with 6 days previously. This allows advertisers more variety in the types of messages they create because they can change their messages more quickly. J. As consumers become more comfortable with online shopping, advertisers will seek to reach this market. As consumers get more of their news and information from the Internet, the ability of television and radio to get the word out to consumers will decrease. The challenge to Internet advertisers is to create ads that audience members remember. Internet advertising will play a more prominent role in organizations' advertising in the near future. Internet audiences tend to be quite homogeneous, but small. Advertisers will have to adjust their methods to reach these audiences and will have to adapt their persuasive strategies to the online medium as well. K. A final advertising medium is direct mail, which uses mailings to consumers to communicate a client's message. Direct mail includes newsletters, postcards and special promotions. Direct mail is an effective way to build relationships with consumers. For many businesses, direct mail is the most effective form of advertising.
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单选题 Educators today are more and more often heard to say that computer literacy is absolutely necessary for college students. Many even argue that each incoming freshman should have permanent access to his or her own microcomputer. What advantages do computers offer the college students? Any student who has used a word processor will know one compelling reason to use a computer: to write papers. Although not all students feel comfortable composing on a word processor, most find revising and editing much easier on it. One can alter, insert, or delete just by pressing a few keys, thus eliminating the need to rewrite or re-type. Furthermore, since the revision process is less burdensome, students are more likely to revise as often as is necessary to end up with the best paper possible. For these reasons, many freshman English courses require the use of a word processor. Computers are also useful in the context of language courses, where they are used to drill students in basic skills. Software programs reinforce ESL (English as a Second Language) instruction, as well as instruction in French, German, Spanish, and other languages. By using these programs on a regular basis, students can improve their proficiency in a language while proceeding at their own pace. Science students take advantage of computers in many ways. Using computer graphic capabilities, for example, botany students can represent and analyze different plant growth patterns. Medical students can learn to interpret computerized images of internal body structures. Physics students can complete complex calculations far more quickly than they could without the use of computer. Similarly, business and accounting students find that computer spreadsheet programs are all but indispensable to many aspects of their work, while students pursuing careers in graphic arts, marketing, and public relations find that knowledge of computer graphic is important. Education majors learn to develop grading systems using computers, while social science students use computers for analyzing and graphically displacing their research results. It is no wonder, then, that educators support the purchase and use of microcomputers by students. A versatile tool, the computer can help students learn. And that is, after all, the reason for going to college.
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单选题 中秋节(Mid-Autumn Festival)源自于人们对月亮的崇拜。我国是古老的农业国家，古人经长期观察认为，月亮的运行同农业生产和季节变化有很大关系，因此祭月就成了祈祷国家长治久安的一项重要祭祀活动。在长期的历史进程中，人们在祭月拜月的同时，又出现了赏月的习俗。中秋节成为固定的节日，大约是在唐代。北宋时期，中秋节已经成为普遍的民俗节日。
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Haiti's Tourism
A. Like many of its Caribbean neighbors, Haiti once drew many tourists. But decades of political instability, repression and poverty, as well as natural disasters, led to the decay of the tourism infrastructure, and almost no visitors come now. Officials would like to change that. The arts town of Jacmel is one place they think could be a start. B. A couple of untidy aid workers were sucking down Sunday morning beers at the Hotel Florida here when the minister of tourism rolled up to the roadside, followed by the interior minister with body guards and then the star of the show, New York fashion designer Donna Karan of DKNY. The notables were in Jacmel , the funky(含有黑人韵味的爵士) art and carnival capital of Haiti, to plot the transformation of the earthquake-rattled port from a faded flower of the Caribbean to a resort destination for celebrities. C. 'We're trying to rebrand Haiti, and so we're bringing Donna here to help us with our vision,' Tourism Minister Stephanie Balrmir Villedrouin said in an interview. 'We're trying to raise the bar a little bit,' Said Karma, as she swept through the abandoned Hotel Jacmeliernne—its seaside swimming pool green with grass, its overgrown gardens littered with broken glass—Oh, We can definitely work with this!' D. As hard as it may be for young Haitians to believe, their country was once a tourist destination. Even during the bad old days of the Duvaiier dictatorships (独裁), tourists came. Or at least a few: see Graham Greene's 1966 novel The Comedians, set incidentally at a hotel and based on a real-life mansion (大厦), the Hotel Oloffson in the capital; the hotel is still in operation but is now run by Richard Morse, front man for the rock band RAM and the new government's special political envoy (大使) to the Americas. Today, nobody visits Haiti for fun, except Haitians returning from the abroad. The arrivals at the Port-au-Prince airport are filled with Baptist missionaries, UN officials and American nurses—not a real tourist in sight. E. Yet across the Caribbean, revenue from tourism represents about 16 percent of gross domestic product, and many island nations, such as the Bahamas, Barbados and Antigua, generate at least a third of their GDP from visitors. For most of the Caribbean, tourists' dollars, euros and pesos (比索) are the No.1 source of foreign investment. F. Haiti let its tourism infrastructure degrade over three decades of political instability, hurricanes, earth quakes and deadly disease. But the poorest country in the Western hemisphere has a lot to offer the adventuresome visitor, according to international planners and Haitian officials. The Creole French cuisine (美食) here is some of the best in the Caribbean; its artisans are of world renown, its blend of African and Spanish music unique. All this, and rock music, too. G. The still-evolving plans for Haiti forecast Jacmel as a stand-alone destination, meaning tourists would not land in the disordered, dangerous, poor capital, Port-au-Prince, but arrive directly here via air or boat. H. With development aid from banks and donor nations, the government of former carnival singer and current President Michel Martelly is planning to extend the airport runway at Jacmel so it can accomodate small jets that would shuttle from Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Puerto Rico; and Guadaloupe. The deserted port is also scheduled for restoration to allow big cruise ships to dock. I. In the late 1800s, Jacmel was an important Caribbean crossroads in Haiti—then called the 'Pearl of the Antilles'—and its downtown still harbors the Creole architecture of iron balconies and shuttered ware houses for coffee and orange peel. The town reminds many visitors of the French Quarter in New Orleans, and it hosts one of the best carnivals in the Caribbean, as well as a music festival and a film festival, now struggling to gain promotion again after the 2010 earthquake, seeing potential in rain. J. Donna Karan knows Jacmel well; she shot her fall catalog at the Hotel Florida. The New Yorker gamely jumped into the bed of a small track for a tour of town. It stopped at the Manoir Alexandre, once the most prominent building in the city and now a rain that is slowly being restored by Leon Paul, a Haitian American orthopedic surgeon from New York. K. 'We want to restore the mansion to its former glory, but as you can see, that is a big job,' Paul said as he walked Karan through the property, with its peeling wallpaper, holes in the roof, missing stair sand tilting balcony. L. He said Jacmel, his home town, will rise from the ruins, and he promised that someday soon, Haitian said visitors will be sitting in his restored mansion, listening to a band, drinking rum and celebrating. As Karan crawled through the ruins, she saw not despair, but hope: 'Wow! Look at this. These are my colors. The rust, yellow and blue. Take a picture. This is perfect!'
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单选题A. It's easy to be complacent (自满的，得意的) about weight and long-term health issues, especially when you're young, carefree and only living for tomorrow, but recent statistics provide a harsh wake-up call for teens and children. B. According to a report produced by the British Medical Association (BMA), the state of adolescent health in the UK is in a poor condition. A key problem is obesity, which is thought to be caused by a poor diet with too many high-fat, high-calorie foods, along with a lack of exercise. In fact, the report claims that excess body weight is 'now the most common childhood disorder in Europe', and a staggering one in five youngsters aged 13 to 16 are overweight and nearly one in five-15-year-olds are obese. C. The figures are worrying as being obese can cause both immediate and future serious health problems. These include the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It's also the 'most impotrtant dietary factor in cancer', said a spokesperson for the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), and can cause complications (并发症) during and after pregnancy. Type 2 diabetes used to only affect middle-aged people, but in recent years cases have been detected in teens as young as 13-year-old for the first time. This, in itself, is believed to be another direct factor linked to the rising levels of obesity. Health Implications D. Neville Rigby, from the International Obesity Task Force, expressed concern at the levels of teen obesity. 'It's very worrying because of the high' risk that people who are obese in their teenage years will continue to be in adulthood', he said. Putting things into perspective, he added, 'Children affected by obesity are likely to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.' E. As well as physical illness and disease, being obese or overweight can cause a range of psychological problems too. The BMA report highlighted that it can significantly affect well-being, 'with many adolescents developing a negative self-image and experiencing low self-esteem.' It can also lead to eating diseases, bullying, depression, and feelings of loneliness and nervousness. This is something that the charity Weight Concern is keen to emphasize. 'Obesity can have detrimental (有害的) effects on children's psychological well-being, ' said a spokesperson. 'Many overweight children report social difficulties, which in turn may contribute to anxiety and depression, and obese children are often subject to teasing and bullying. All this can have devastating effects on their self-esteem.' Weight Distribution F. Doctors use a measurement system called the body mass index (BMI) to assess whether people are a healthy weight, overweight or obese. It's worked out by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared. For example, if I am 1.7 meters tall and weigh 68 kilos. my BMI would be 23.5 (68 divided by 1.7×1.7), which fails into the desirable or healthy range. Adults (over 18) are overweight if they have a BMI of between 25 and 30, and they are obese if it's 30 or over. As well as BMI levels, the areas where the fat is deposited in the body is important, too, explained a spokesperson for the BNF. People who have extra fat around their middle, a body we call apple-shaped, are at a greater risk of some diseases than those who have most of the extra weight around their hips and thighs, or are pear-shaped. Prevention and Treatment G. When it comes to preventing and treating excess weight and obesity, experts believe a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise are crucial. The key to maintaining a good weight is to balance your energy intake and output, as weight is gained if you regularly eat more than you burn off. Obese children may require a specially developed program, said Weight Concern, which is likely to focus on healthy eating, exercise and social support. In the case of children, it's beneficial for the whole family to adopt healthier behaviors and it's important not to single out a child. H. Likewise, the Royal College of Paediatrics suggests parents should be actively involved in helping children manage their weight, and says obesity problems should be dealt with slowly, by making gradual changes to eating habits and physical activity. Losing weight can be tough, but although crash diets sometimes sound appealing, the Food Standards Agency stress that they don't work. Instead, their top tips for losing weight include eating the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day, cutting down on sugary and fatty foods, opting for lower-fat versions of dairy products and increasing your intake of starchy foods. I. Increasingly inactive lifestyles and couch-potato tendencies, for example watching television and playing computer games, are thought to be contributors to obesity, so being more active is very helpful. The minimum recommended level of activity is at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, five days a week. Moderate intensity means a state in which your breathing and heart rate are faster than normal. Siobhan Weir, physical activity program manager at the Health Protection Agency said, 'Getting people to take some moderate activity as opposed to being sedentary is likely to have the greatest beneficial effect on their health.' A good form of exercise for those who have been leading fairly inactive lives—and one that s tree—is walking, she says. 'Research shows that walking a mile briskly uses the same energy as running a mile and regular physical activity can reduce weight by as mush as one stone in three months. To really reap the benefits, aim to walk briskly so that you are feeling warmer and slightly out of breath.' If walking isn't for you, there's a whole range of other activities available, from team sports such as football, hockey or basketball, classes such as aerobics or sessions at the gym, to alternatives such as martial arts, yoga or tai chi. The key is to find something you enjoy and stick to it. J. It's easy to put off healthy eating habits and exercise, but the sooner we start, the better the outcome for our health. By starting at a young age, the chances are good habits will continue into the future, too.
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单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a news report to your campus newspaper on a visit to a local farm organized by your Student Union. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
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单选题Women in 2011 made no significant gains in winning more top US business jobs, according to a study, but the head of the study said women are poised to make 27 in the year ahead. The number of women who were board directors, corporate officers or top earners at Fortune 500 companies remained 28 unchanged, said the study by Catalyst, a nonprofit group that 29 opportunities for women in business. The percentage of companies with women on the board of directors was 15.1 percent this year, compared with 14.8 percent in 2010, Catalyst said. Also, the percentage of corporate officer positions 30 by women was 15.7 percent in 2011 and 15.4 percent in 2010, it said. The percentage of top earners in 2011 who were women was 6.2 percent, compared to 6.7 percent in 2010, it said. The research on the Fortune 500 companies was 31 on data as of March 31,2011. The slight changes in the numbers are not considered 32 significant, Catalyst said. Nevertheless, given the changes in U.S. politics, the future for women in business looks more 33 , said Ilene Lang, president and chief executive 34 of Catalyst. 'Overall we're 35 to see change next year,' Lang said. 'When we look at shareholders, decision makers, the general public, they're looking for change.' 'What they're basically saying is, 'Don't give us 36 of the status quo (现状). Get new ideas in there, get some fresh faces,'' she said. A. officer B. changes C. based D. positions E. more F. promising G. businesslike H. surveying I. essentially J. strides K. promotes L. statistically M. confused N. held O. expecting
单选题Directions:Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessay.Youshouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandthenexpressyourviewsontheindependenceofyoungpeopleinmodernsociety.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsbutnomorethan180words.
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单选题 Child psychologists—and kindergarten teachers—have long known that when children first show up for school, some of them speak a lot more fluently than others. Psychologists also know that children's socioeconomic status tends to be closely connected with their language facility. The better off and more educated a child's parents are, the better vocabulary ability that child tends to have by school age—and vocabulary skill is a key predictor for success in school. Children from low-income families, who may often start school knowing significantly fewer words than their better-off peers, will struggle for years to make up that ground. Previous studies have shown that wealthier, educated parents talk to their young children more, using more complex vocabulary and sentences, than parents of lesser means. And these differences may help explain why richer kids start school with richer vocabularies. But what goes on before children can talk, during that phase—familiar to any parent—when communication takes the form of pointing, waving, grabbing and other kinds of baby sign language? Do well—off parents also gesture more to their kids? Indeed they do, say psychologists Susan Goldin-Meadow and Meredith Rowe of the University of Chicago. The researchers found that at 14 months of age, babies already showed a wide range of 'speaking' ability through gestures, and that those differences were closely linked with their socioeconomic background and how frequently their parents used gestures to communicate. High-income, better-educated parents gestured more frequently to their children to convey meaning and new concepts, and in turn, their kids gestured more to them. When researchers tested the same children at 54 months of age, they found that those early gesturers turned out to have better vocabulary ability than other students. At 14 months of age, researches say, pointing toward an object is the way most kids use gestures. If a parent responds to that gesture by identifying the object in words—by saying, 'That's a doll,' for example—children get a head start on growing their original vocabularies. 'That's a teachable moment, and mothers are teaching the kids the word for an object,' says Goldin-Meadow.
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单选题 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Every Coin Has Two Sides. You can cite examples to illustrate how you understand the above saying. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
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The Causes of Conflict
A. The evidence taken from the observation of the behavior of apes and children suggests that there are three clearly separable groups of simple causes for the outbreak of fighting and the exhibition of aggressiveness by individuals. B. One of the most common causes of fighting among both children and apes was over the possession of external objects. The disputed ownership of any desired object—food, clothes, toys, females, and the affection of others—was sufficient ground for an appeal to force. On Monkey Hill disputes over females were responsible for the death of thirty out of thirty-three males. Two points are of particular interest to notice about these fights for possession. C. In the first place they are often carried to such an extreme that they end in the complete destruction of the objects of common desire. The aggression is so overriding (压倒一切的) once it has begun that it may utterly destroy the object for which the struggle began and even the self for whose advantage the struggle was undertaken. D. In the second place it is observable, at least in children, that the object for whose possession aggression is started may sometimes be desired by one person merely because it is desired by someone else. There were many cases observed by Dr. Isaacs where toys and other objects which had been discarded as useless were violently defended by their owners when they became the object of some other child's desire. Therefore, the grounds of possessiveness may be irrational (非理性的). Whether sensible or irrational, contests over possession are commonly the occasion for the most ruthless (残忍的) use of force among children and apes. E. One of the commonest kinds of object arousing possessive desire is the notice, good will, affection, and service of other members of the group. Among children one of the commonest causes of quarreling was 'jealousy'—the desire for the exclusive possession of the interest and affection of someone else, particularly the adults in charge of the children. This form of behavior is sometimes classified as a separate cause of conflict under the name of 'rivalry' (竞争) or a 'jealousy.' But, in point of fact, it seems to us that it is only one variety of possessiveness. The object of desire is not a material object—that is the only difference. The object is the interest and affection of other persons. What is wanted, however, is the exclusive right to that interest and affection—a property in emotions instead of in things. As subjective emotions and as causes of conflict, jealousy and rivalry are fundamentally similar to the desire for the possession of toys or food. Indeed, very often the persons and property which is desired, are the sources of toys and food. F. Possessiveness is, then, in all its forms a common cause of fighting. If we are to look behind the mere facts of behavior for an explanation of this phenomenon, a teleological (目的论的) cause is not far to seek. The exclusive right to objects of desire is a clear and simple advantage to the possessor of it. It carries with it the certainty and continuity of satisfaction. Where there is only one claimant to a good, frustration and the possibility of loss is reduced to a minimum. It is, therefore, obvious that, if the ends of the self are the only recognized ends, the whole powers of the agent, including the fullest use of his available force, will be used to establish and defend exclusive rights to possession. G. Another cause of aggression closely allied to possessiveness is the tendency for children and apes greatly to hate the intrusion (侵入) of a stranger into their group. A new child in the class may be laughed at, isolated, and disliked. A new monkey may be poked and bitten to death. This suggests strongly that the reason for the aggression is fundamentally possessiveness. The competition of the newcomers is feared. The present members of the group feel that there will be more rivals for the food or the attention of the adults. H. Finally, another common source of fighting among children is a failure or frustration in their own activity. Sometimes a child will be prevented either by natural causes such as bad weather or illness or by the opposition of some adult from doing something he wishes to do. The child may also frustrate himself by failing, through lack of skill or strength, to complete successfully some desired activity. Such a child will be in a bad temper. And, what is of interest from our point of view, the child will indulge in aggression—attacking and fighting other children or adults. Sometimes the object of aggression will simply be the cause of frustration, and it's a straightforward reaction. But sometimes the person or thing that suffers the aggression is irrelevant to offense. I. Of course, this kind of behavior is so common that everyone feels it to be obvious and to constitute no serious scientific problem. That a small boy should pull his sister's hair because it is raining does not appear to an ordinary person to be an occasion for solemn scientific inquiry. He is, as we should all say, 'in a bad temper.' Yet it is not, in fact, really obvious either why revenge should be taken on entirely innocent objects, since no good to the aggressor can come of it, or why children being miserable should seek to make others miserable also. It is just a fact of human behavior that cannot really be deduced from any general principle of reason. J. But it is, as we shall see, of very great importance for our purpose. It shows how it is possible, at the simplest and most primitive level, for aggression and fighting to spring from an entirely irrelevant and partially hidden cause. Fighting to possess a desired object is straightforward and rational, compared with fighting that occurs because, in a different and unrelated activity, some frustration has barred the road to pleasure. The importance of this possibility for an understanding of group conflict must already be obvious.
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单选题 关于中国美食(cuisine)的电视节目数不胜数，但像《舌尖上的中国》(A Bite of China)这样受欢迎的不多。这部最新的七集纪录片，从地域、历史以及文化等方面深入探讨了中国人的饮食。中国美食有悠久的历史和富有特色的传统烹饪手法。这一节目试图呈现出更多有关食物的文化元素，如饮食习惯和饮食道德(ethic)。在展现中国饮食文化辉煌成就的同时，也反映出中国的社会变迁。
单选题 Google researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to teach robots how to move like real animals (in this case, dogs). They describe their experiment in a blog released this week. 'First, we describe how robots can learn to move like a real animal by imitating their motions, producing fast and fluent movements like running slowly and hopping. Then, we discuss a system for automating the training of moving skills in the real world, which allows robots to learn to walk on their own, with minimal human assistance,' shared in the blog Xue Bin (Jason) Peng, Student Researcher and Sehoon Ha, Research Scientist, Robotics at Google. They achieved this impressive feat by using something called reinforcement learning (RL). They began by taking a reference video recorded from an animal and using RL to get the robot to imitate an animal's movement. 'By providing the system with different reference motions, we are able to train an animal-shaped robot to perform a diverse set of agile behaviors, ranging from fast walking to dynamic hops and turns. The policies are trained primarily in simulation(模拟，模仿), and then transferred to the real world using a space adaptation technique that can efficiently adapt a policy using only a few minutes of data from the real robot,' wrote the researchers in their blog. However, it is a well-known fact that simulators provide a poor approximation of the real world, meaning that simulations don't perform well in reality. This is where the researchers decided to use a sample-efficient space adaptation technique. They did so by introducing an element of randomness to the physical parameters(参数) used in the simulation by varying physical quantities, such as the robot's mass and friction. This resulted in a machine learning model that could account for all kinds of small changes and the complications they create. The end result is a robot that moves like a real dog. This kind of work is crucial as it can open opportunities to use robots to do sophisticated tasks in the real world.
单选题The greenhouse effect causes trouble by raising the temperature of the planet. The 30 rise is not very much, but the Earth's ecosystem is very weak, and small changes can have large effects. It has been believed that this 31 of one degree will happen by the year 2025. This could probably 32 the North American corn belt, which produces much of the world's grain, 33 to much higher food prices, and even less food for the Third World than they already have. However, it would also mean that some countries which are further north would be able to 34 crops they had never been able to before, although there is less land as you move north from the corn belt. The other serious worry is that rising sea levels from the melting of the polar ice could 35 flood many countries. A rise in sea levels of one meter, which many experts are 36 by the year 2100 (and some as soon as 2030), would flood 15 percent of Egypt, and 12 percent of Bangladesh. The Maldives in the Indian Ocean would almost 37 disappear. Most of the countries which would suffer most from a rise in sea levels are the poor 38 states, so the islands in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean have formed the Alliance of Small Island States, AOSIS, so they have a 39 voice in international politics and can make the richer developed world listen to their problems. A. severely B. damage C. island D. critical E. grow F. mainland G. louder H. predicting I. rise J. completely K. geometry L. actual M. extending N. leading O. develop
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单选题 The most pressing nuclear energy issue is the disposal of nuclear waste. Even if all the reactors in existence were completely safe to operate, there would still be unsolved issue of what to do with the waste from generating electricity by means of nuclear energy. Those who claim that they feel comfortable with nuclear energy are, none the less, concerned about waste disposal methods. Seven states, including California, have put the building of nuclear plants on hold until legislators are convinced that there is a safe way to dispose of the radioactive waste from the plants. In the meantime, pools of liquid waste and piles of solid waste from private industry and governmental bomb production grow. Since 1962, the volume of radioactive waste produced by the nuclear power industry has amounted to about 4,300 cubic meters. By the end of the twentieth century, if production continues at the same rate, there will be 40,000 cubic meters of nuclear waste. Power plants and bomb-making are not the only sources of waste. Uranium mining and milling operations have dumped 24 million metric tons of radioactive tailing wastes at dumping sites around the nation. At places where uranium is currently milled, there is another 100 million metric tons of tailings. Uranium tailings are solid materials in the slurry (or watery mixture) of depleted ore-bearing rock, chemicals, and liquids that result from milling. Usually, the slurry is piped to holding ponds. When a uranium mill goes out of business, the ponds are left to evaporate, uncovering piles of dried tailings. Uncovered piles of tailings give off radioactive radon gas. Once in the air, the gas finds its way into the water supply and the food chain. Consequently, many nuclear experts agree that uranium mill tailings may be more dangerous than high-level radioactive wastes from reactors and bombs.
单选题 假日经济(Holiday Economy)是在节假日期间的一种全民消费行为，十分有助于中国的经济增长。假日经济是伴随有中国特色的“黄金周”所出现的一种社会现象。由于人们生活观念的改变，更多人会选择利用七天的假期去旅游、购物、娱乐。全民消费刺激了旅游、零售、交通、影院、展览、体育和其他相关产业。这种经济模式既有益于人民也有利于国家。
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单选题 McDonald's is having a bit of an identity crisis. Recently, the burger giant announced a 5.2% drop in profits for the first three months of this year and a l.7% decrease in same store sales in the US. President and CEO Don Thompson emphasized that McDonald's would be focusing on its core products, like its Big Mac, Egg McMuffin, and its famous French fries. Thompson's back-to-basics vow comes in response to the sort of menu creep the chain experienced last year, when it rolled out a seemingly endless stream of limited time offers, like its Mighty Wings, a steak and egg burrito (蛋卷饼), a steak breakfast sandwich and so on. It's vital that McDonald's craft a consistent message, so customers' expectations are met when they choose to eat there. When McDonald's first got off the ground in the 1940s, it had a nine-item menu made up of hamburger, cheeseburger, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie. It built its iconic(标志性的) reputation on guaranteeing that these food and beverage items would have the same great taste no matter the McDonald's location at which they were served. Just as crucial, too much menu diversification, which McDonald's has suffered from lately, leads to longer customer wait times in an industry built on speed. 'What McDonald's workers do inside those four walls is really impressive. Everyone has their time and place, and their entire job is done in two or three steps,' says Howard Penney, managing director at Hedgeye Risk Management. Adding more processes that come with a bigger menu, specifically the smoothie(奶昔) and espresso machines, has disrupted McDonald's restaurants' time and motion, he says. It takes a lot longer to make a smoothie than it does to pour a fountain Coke. 'Everything they've done to become all things to all people has slowed service,' Penney says. Going back to its roots could be just what McDonald's needs. After all, it seems like a long shot for the fast food giant to become the next Chipotle or Panera since, as Penney puts lt, 'the core McDonald's customer is not looking for a wrap with a cucumber in it'.
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单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay on the importance of being a civilized tourist. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
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Thanks to Science, You Can Eat an Apple Every Day
A. Walk into a U.S. supermarket on any given day and you're pretty much guaranteed to find apples. In our globalized economy, we expect nothing less than to be able to consume our favorite fruits and vegetables all year, even when they're not in season locally. Placing strawberries from Mexico in your shopping cart in February and stocking up on kiwis (猕猴桃) from Chile in July—that's pretty much normal, even expected. B. But to buy an apple in March? That's a whole different story. We rarely need to go overseas for that. Only 5 percent of the apples consumed in the U.S. are imported, according to the U.S. Apple Association. That means most of our apples are picked from trees in Washington, New York, or Michigan—three of the country's largest apple-producing states—and they are picked during fall harvest. C. Harvest season for apples in the U.S. depends on the variety and the state, falling somewhere between early August and mid-November. So if it's March, your apple was likely harvested months ago. Yet it still tastes pretty fresh. This wasn't always the case. 'It's something we take for granted now,' says Chris Watkins, a professor of horticulture (园艺) at Cornell University and the director of Cornell's cooperative extension. During harvest season, Watkins and post-doctoral students drive a truck to farms all over New York State to collect apples and bring them back to their lab at Cornell. There they study how the apples react under different storage conditions. D. According to Watkins, we have a technology called Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage to thank for being able to eat an apple whenever we please. In CA storage rooms, the temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and humidity levels are adjusted to form hospitable hibernation environments for apples being stored after harvest. The perfect combination of temperature and gases, which differs for each variety, allows apples to stay fresh for longer after harvest than if they were simply refrigerated. Commercially refrigerating apples only preserves the fruit for a few months before it gets soft and dehydrated. And just keeping them in your home refrigerator? They'll likely only stay fresh for a few weeks. E. The concept of controlled atmosphere storage is not entirely new—modified atmosphere storage for food dates back to the 1800s. But the motivation of research for the facilities that we have today came from Cambridge University in the 1920s. The technique was improved when Robert Smock, a researcher in Cornell University, visited Cambridge in the late 1930s to observe the groundbreaking CA technology developed there. Smock, who studied post-harvest technologies for apples, pears, plums, and peaches, was trying to figure out how to extend the shelf life of the fruits. Smock brought what he learned back to New York and adapted CA to work for local apple varieties, focusing on how to make apples last until the spring. In his laboratory half-hidden in a barn near Cornell, Smock experimented by placing apples in sealed rooms at different temperatures and with various mixtures of oxygen and carbon dioxide to see how the fruit would respond. As a result of Smock's work, the first CA rooms in the U.S. were built in New York in the 1950s, and shortly after, the apple consumption season extended to the springtime nationwide. F. Controlled atmosphere is so widespread today that Watkins estimates that almost every apple you see in a grocery store out of season will have been, at some point in its lifetime, subjected to it. 'The apple industry as we know it today would not exist without CA,' Watkins says. G. The Crist family farm in the Hudson Valley, New York, is just one example. Jeff Crist is a fourth-generation apple farmer and storage facility manager at Crist Brothers Orchards. He estimates his family built their first CA storage facility shortly after Smock made his post-harvest research available for commercial use at Cornell, just an hour's drive away. At the orchard, 400,000 apple trees line different patches of the 550-acre property. The Crists grow apples for large retailers and grocery stores east of the Mississippi River from Florida to Maine—think Giant and Costco. H. And their storage facility allows them to get all of these apples to market when there's demand, not just in the fall. The Crists' CA storage facility has 30 rooms, each one 40- by 80-feet with 20-foot-high ceilings. The rooms are sealed with foam panels and lined with modem sliding doors. Each of the 30 controlled-atmosphere rooms can fit a bunch of apples—1,400,000 to be exact. The rooms fill up quickly during harvest time when employees bring in loads from the fields. I. Then, when the doors slide shut, Crist turns on the CA system right from his iPad. With the touch of his finger, he activates the coolers, lowers the oxygen in the room to about 1.5 to 2.5 percent (the oxygen around is about 21 percent), and adjusts the carbon dioxide, essentially putting the apples to sleep. When they're surrounded by less oxygen and more carbon than found in air, apples don't have enough energy to complete the ripening processes, says Jim Mattheis, a researcher at the USDA's Tree Fruit Research Laboratory located in Wenatchee, Washington. That's because like humans, apples breathe, taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. J. Sleepier apples have slower respiration rates and stay firm, colorful, flavorful and nutritionally dense for longer. The trick is to avoid bringing the oxygen levels too low, otherwise the apples will ferment. But not all apples ripen quite the same way, so figuring out the right way to do CA is kind of like a puzzle. 'Apples are like people—they are not all the same. One recipe for growing doesn't work with all the different varieties, and it's the same in the post-harvest environment,' Mattheis says. Some varieties are notoriously trickier to care for. For example, Honeycrisps are sensitive to low temperatures so you can't put them in cold environments right after they've been harvested. And Fujis don't always react well to high carbon dioxide levels, so you have to monitor them closely. K. With new apple varieties being developed frequently, post-harvest researchers like Watkins and Mattheis are hard at work. In their labs they test out what type of CA environment works best for these newly bred varieties. Then they take their research to growers like Crist so that when they open their CA rooms as the market demands, their apples are good-looking and tasty.
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公务员热
近些年来的“公务员热(civil servant fever)”使得国家公务员考试成为竞争最为激烈的考试之一。毕竟，人们都希望在风险最小而又轻松的情况下获得最高的回报。如果成为一名政府工作人员是一份比其他任何工作都富有成效的工作的话，那大学毕业生们这样选择就不足为奇了。同时，就业压力、工作保障和社会福利也都被认为是人们不遗余力想成为公务员的原因。
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Deborah Kenny's Born to Rise Tells Story of Harlem Village Academies
[A] Deborah Kenny, CEO of the Harlem Village Academies, is frustrated with the Nation's current education system. Unlike most, though, she decided to do something about it. Part declaration part record, her book Born to Rise writes clown her journey toward creating and running her own system of progressive charter schools in Harlem in New York City. What is your educational philosophy? [B] We want our students to receive the same high-quality education as students who are privileged to attend the best private schools in the country. Personally, I believe a progressive education is superior as long as it's delivered by really smart, talented teachers who know how to execute well. It's a sophisticated approach that really only works well in the hands of a really sophisticated educator. [C] We're dealing with a little bit of a challenge because students enter this school from the regular public system. And when they enter in fifth grade, they're not yet well-trained in the basic reading, writing, and math—which means that we have to catch them up on basic math skills, on the basics of writing. And many of them come in at a kindergarten, first-grade or second-grade level in reading. So we have to accelerate their mastery of the basics, but we reject the idea that if you do that you can't teach that at a high level. [D] We push ourselves constantly to think about how we can make sure that our students will catch up while we teach at the highest possible level. It means asking difficult, delicate questions, not accepting an answer that is not backed up by evidence, the kinds of things that you would expect to see in the best private schools. We aim for a high level in rich discussions where the students are asked to analyze a challenging text and where the teacher does not accept just any answer simply because the student is behaving. What makes the Harlem Village Academies different? [E] First of all, I have to say what we have in common with other charter schools because we have learned so much from them: creating an expectation that all students will attend college, naming classrooms after colleges, the longer school day, the longer school year. I feel it's important to give credit where credit is due because I learned from them. In those early years when I opened the school, most of these other schools had been around for seven years, ten years, some of them even longer. [F] As far as what makes us different, I'll tell you what the teachers say: teachers tell us that the level of professionalism and passion for teaching at a high level and teaching above the test, not to the test, and working in an environment, where everybody is trusted to do their job and continually learning—there's this incredible culture of learning. There's this incredible workplace culture where the adults are continually becoming better and learning more about how to become a better leader. [G] The teachers get to make all of the decisions about their own professional development rather than being enforced to attend the training. They are treated like professional-grade doctors and lawyers at the highest level. They actually make the decisions not only about what books to use and what teaching method to use, but even about what their own professional development looks like. [H] There's a very clear set of standards for what the students need to know and be able to do at the end of each year and quarter, and we hold teachers accountable for that end goal. But we give them complete freedom to decide how they're going to achieve it, which is how all professionals are treated. Unfortunately, it's not how most teachers are treated in this country. Most teachers are treated like factory workers, where there's a set of rules on how they have to do everything. What does the curriculum look like at Harlem Village Academy schools? [I] It looks like a classic liberal-arts curriculum, where math, reading and writing are not the only subjects taught. Even if the state focuses its testing on those things, we do not let the state dictate our curriculum. We are interested in a rich curriculum that includes art, music, science and social studies and a wide variety of electives. And character education is integrated throughout. How do you address the criticisms people have regarding charter schools? [J] I'd say that the main criticisms are stemming from the fact that in a charter system the teachers are not unionized, and they're treated as professionals instead of as manual laborers. The charter movement is challenging the current situation, it's coming along and saying we used to completely change the underlying premiere (前提) of how we go about public education. We should give power to all parents, regardless of socioeconomic level, to choose where they send their child, and that creates market competition: if you have an amazing school with caring teachers and great results, parents are going to choose that school. The charter movement is putting the needs of children first. It challenges the notion of tenure (终身教职), where there's no accountability at all. What's next for you and the Harlem Village Academies? [K] We are going to triple (增至三倍) in size in the next two years. We will have a full K-12 system. We're starting two new elementary schools, we will be serving 2,000 children, but we are not eager to grow super big. We want to use the platform of what we're learned and the results that we've produced. And building a team where teachers are trusted, happy and cooperative is really the foundation for an excellent school. So we want to find a way to get our message out nationally and continue to be part of the movement.
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单选题 中国银行(Bank of china)是中国四大国有商业银行之一。它在全球范围内为个人和企业客户提供全面、优质的金融服务。自1912年成立以来，中国银行一直在中国的金融史上扮演着十分重要的角色。中国银行的业务范围涵盖商业银行、投资银行、保险和航空租赁(aircraft leasing)。中国银行在世界各大金融中心都开设了分支机构，并在全球30多个国家和地区建立起机构网络。
单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on reasons of online game addiction and suggestions as to how to get rid of it. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
单选题For over three decades Intel has been providing Semi-conductor chips for computer hardware makers around the world. Intel's chips have been 28 many computers for years—both Macs and PCs. But, since tablet computers hit the market—the trend has shifted towards the small, mobile devices while sales of desktop computers 29 . Earlier this year, Intel introduced a new genre of laptops called 'ultra-book convertible laptops'. Intel Marketing Associate Mike Fard explains, 'This year it's all about touch, we have touch computers based on Windows 8 running the Intel 30 , but even more exciting than just touch, is the ultra-book convertible. What that means is that you have a standard laptop that converts into a tablet and we have multiple designs that 31 this capability of going from a tablet to a laptop. This is one from Lenovo; we also have one from Dell.' Intel has 32 a technology called 'Ivy Bridge' on its new line of chips 33 reduces power consumption 34 . This newest generation of laptops is sure to be a 35 with consumers, with lower prices than before. Earlier thin laptops were in the $1 000 price range. The ultra-book convertible 36 , is expected to sell for around $600—making it more 37 against regular tablet PCs. A. drop F. running K. however B. managed G. processors L. decreasing C. adopted H. hit M. feature D. core I. dramatically N. applied E. competitive J. competent O. which
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单选题 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay according to the following instructions. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
Suppose a mild earthquake takes place in your campus, what should you do to protect yourself from being hurt?
单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic On Environmental Protection. You should write at least 180 words following the outline given below:
1．近年来，地球环境遭到了人类严重的破坏
2．原因
3．解决这些问题的办法
单选题 Alex Pang's amusing new book The Distraction Addiction addresses those of us who feel panic without a cellphone or computer. And that, he claims, is pretty much all of us. When we're not online, where we spend four months annually, we're engaged in the stressful work of trying to get online. The Distraction Addiction is not framed as a self-help book. It's a thoughtful examination of the danger of our computing overdose and a historical overview of how technological advances change consciousness. A 'professional futurist', Pang urges an approach which he calls 'contemplative (沉思的) computing'. He asks that you pay full attention to 'how your mind and body interact with computers and how your attention and creativity arc influenced by technology'. Pang's first job is to free you from common misconception that doing two things at once allows you to get more done. What is commonly called multitasking is, in fact, switch-tasking, and its harmful effects on productivity are well documented. Pang doesn't advocate returning to a preinternet world. Instead, he asks you to 'take a more ecological (生态的) view of your relationships with technologies and look for ways devices or media may be making specific tasks easier or faster but at the same time making your work and life harder'. The Distraction Addiction is particularly fascinating on how technologies have changed certain field of labor—often for the worse. For architects, computer-aided design has become essential but in some ways has cheapened the design process. As one architect puts it, 'Architecture is first and foremost about thinking.., and drawing is a more productive way of thinking' than computer-aided design. Somewhat less amusing are Pang's solutions for kicking the Internet habit. He recommends the usual behavior-modification approaches, familiar to anyone who has completed a quit-smoking program. Keep logs to study your online profile and decide what you can knock out, download a program like Freedom that locks you out of your browser, or take a 'digital Sabbath (安息日)'; 'Unless you're a reporter or emergency-department doctor, you'll discover that your world doesn't fall apart when you go offline'.
单选题 During the Second World War, doctors tried to save severely burned pilots with grafts of donated skin. The grafted skin looked good for a few days, but then withered and died. Studies led by Peter Medawar—who won a 1960 Nobel Prize for his work—found that grafts of an individual's own skin did work, while those of a donor did not. We now know that the donor skin grafts failed because the recipient's immune system recognized the grafted skin as foreign and killed it. The same process leads to the rejection of donated organs. But how does our immune system learn what is self and what is foreign? As immunologist Daniel Davis explains in The Compatibility Gene, it is all down to specific genes—formally known as the major histocompatibility complex genes. Although our appearance, lifestyle and career path may make us feel unique, we are actually always one of a group: it is only our compatibility genes that define us as true individuals. Davis provides a well-written and easy-to-read account of the sometimes complicated biology behind the crucial genes that affect our lives so profoundly. From early on in the evolution of life, individual cells—and later multicellular organisms—developed the ability to recognize that which was the same as them, and that which was different. Davis recounts how, when we are growing as fetuses, our compatibility genes train the immune system to recognize our own cells and tissues as 'self' and so, in healthy people, they know what not to attack. Our cells are identified by the presence of unique surface molecules, coded for by the compatibility genes. Meanwhile, our immune systems make antibodies. These are randomly generated in a kind of lottery, which means they will be able to attack a great diversity of molecules, especially those of pathogens. By chance, though, a few of these antibodies will also match the compatibility-gene molecules on our own cells. Leaving such antibodies around would be suicide—literally. To stop this, Darwinian-style selection comes into play within the immune system, eliminating any cells that produce antibodies matching 'self'.
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单选题 丝绸之路(the Silk Road)起源于公元前1世纪，是一条具有重要历史意义的国际贸易路线。由于丝绸在这条线路的贸易中占有很大比重，1877年德国著名的地理学家费迪南·冯·李希霍芬(Ferdinand von Richthofen)将其命名为“丝绸之路”。它不仅是一条古代国际贸易线路，也是连接中国、印度、波斯(Persia)、希腊和罗马等国的一座光辉灿烂的文化桥梁。中国四大发明和西方宗教正是通过这一桥梁传入各国的。
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单选题 Psychologists take opposing views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and rewards, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Some other researchers who study various aspects of mental life, maintain those rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others. The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary rewards sparks in grade-school children suggesting that properly presented inducements indeed aid inventiveness, according to a study in the June Journal Personality and Social Psychology. 'If they know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity,' says Robert Esenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. 'But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much anticipation for rewards.' A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with uninspired students, Esenberger holds. As an example of the latter point, he notes growing efforts at major universities to tighten grading standards and restore falling grades. In earlier grades, the use of so-called token economics, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, the Delaware psychologist claims.
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单选题 English is what matters. It has displaced rivals to become the language of diplomacy, of business, of science, of the Internet and of world culture. Many more people speak Chinese—but even they, in vast numbers, are trying to learn English. So how did it happen, and why? Take the beginnings of bilingualism(两种语言 ) in India, for example, which has promoted the growth of the biggest English-speaking middle class in the new Anglosphere. That stems from a proposal by an English historian, Thomas Macaulay, in 1835, to train a new class of English speakers: 'A class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in morals, and in intellect.' At a stroke, notes Mr. McCrum, English became the 'Ianguage of government, education and advancement, at once a symbol of imperial rule as well as of self-improvement'. India's English-speaking middle class is now one of the engines of that country's development and a big asset in the race to catch up with China. Bit by bit, English displaced French from diplomacy and German from science. The reason for this was America's rise and the lasting bonds created by the British Empire. But the elastic(灵活的), forgiving nature of the language itself was another. English allows plenty of sub-variants, from Singlish in Singapore to Estglish in Estonia: the main words are familiar, but plenty of new ones dot the lexicon, along with distinctive grammar and syntax. English as spoken by non-natives, however, is different. Listen to a South Korean businessman negotiating with a Pole in English and you will hear the difference: the language is curt, emphatic, stripped-down. Yet within spoken 'Globish', as Mr. McCrum neatly names it, hierarchies(等级) are developing. Those who can make jokes in Globish have an advantage over those who can't. The big shift is towards a universally useful written Globish. Spellchecking and translation software mean that anyone can communicate in comprehensible written English. The English of e-mail, Twitter(一个社交网络和微博服务网站) and text messaging is becoming far more mutually comprehensible than spoken English, which is undermined by differences in pronunciation, politeness and emphasis. Mr. McCrum aptly names the new language 'an avenue for all thoughts'.
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Where Have All the People Gone?
A. Germans are getting used to a new kind of immigrant. In 1998, a pack of wolves crossed the Neisse River on the Polish-German border. In the empty landscape of eastern Saxony, dotted with abandoned mines and declining villages, the wolves found plenty of deer and few humans. Five years later, a second pack split from the original, so there're now two families of wolves in the region. A hundred years ago, a growing land-hungry population killed off the last of Germany's wolves. Today, it's the local humans whose numbers are under threat. B. Villages are empty, thanks to the region's low birth rate and rural flight. Home to 22 of the world's 25 lowest fertility rate countries, Europe will lose 30 million people by 2030, even with continued immigration. The biggest population decline will hit rural Europe. As Italians, Spaniards, Germans and others produce barely three-fifths of children needed to maintain status quo, and as rural flight sucks people Europe's suburbs and cities, the countryside will lose a quarter of its population. C. The implications of this demographic (人口的) change will be far-reaching. The postcard view of Europe is of a continent where every scrap of land has long been farmed, fenced off and settled. But the continent of the future may look rather different. Big parts of Europe will ren-aturalize. Bears are back in Austria. In Swiss Alpine valleys, farms have been receding and forests are growing back. In parts of France and Germany, wild cats and wolves have re-established their ranges. The shrub and forest that grow on abandoned land might be good for deer and wolves, but is vastly less species-rich than traditional farming, with its pastures, ponds and hedges. Once shrub cover everything, you lose the meadow habitat. All the flowers, herbs, birds, and butterflies disappear. A new forest doesn't get diverse until a couple of hundred years old. D. All this is not necessarily an environmentalist's dream it might seem. Take the Greek village of Prastos. An ancient hill town, Prastos once had 1000 residents, most of them working the land. Now only a dozen left, most in their 60s and 70s. The school has been closed since 1988. Sunday church bells no longer ring. Without farmers to tend the fields, rain has washed away the once fertile soil. As in much of Greece, land that has been orchards and pasture for some 2000 years is now covered with dry shrub that, in summer, frequently catches fire. E. Rural depopulation is not new. Thousands of villages like Prastos dot Europe, the result of a century or more of emigration, industrialization, and agricultural mechanization. But this time it's different because never has the rural birth rate so low. In the past, a farmer could usually find at least one of his offspring to take over the land. Today, the chances are that he has only a single son or daughter, usually working in the city and rarely willing to return. In Italy, more than 40% of the country's 1.9 million farmers are at least 65 years old. Once they die out, many of their farms will join the 6 million hectares one third of Italy's farmland that has already been abandoned. F. Rising economic pressures, especially from reduced government subsidies, will amplify the trend. One third of Europe's farmland is marginal, from the cold northern plains to the dry Mediterranean (地中海) hills. Most of these farmers rely on EU subsidies, since it's cheaper to import food from abroad. Without subsidies, some of the most scenic European landscapes wouldn't survive. In the Austrian or Swiss Alps, defined for centuries by orchards, cows, high mountain pastures, the steep valleys are labor-intensive to farm, with subsidies paying up to 90% of the cost. Across the border in France and Italy, subsidies have been reduced for mountain farming. Since then, across the southern Alps, villages have emptied and forests have grown back in. outside the range of subsidies, in Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, big tracts of land are returning to wild. G. The truth is varied and interesting. While many rural regions of Europe areemptying out, others will experience something of a renaissance. Already, attractive areas within in striking distance of prosperous cities are seeing robust revivals, driven by urban flight and an in-flooding of childless retirees. Contrast that with less-favored areas, from the Spanish interior to eastern Europe. These face dying villages, abandoned farms and changes in the land not seen for generations. Both types of regions will have to cope with steeply ageing population and its accompanying health and service needs. Rural Europe is the laboratory of demographic changes. H. For governments, the challenge has been to develop policies that slow the demographic decline or attract new residents. In some places such as Britain and France, large parts of countryside are reviving as increasingly wealthy urban middle class in search of second homes recolonises villages and farms. Villages in central Italy are counting on tourism to revive their town, turning farmhouses into hostels for tourists and hikers. But once baby boomers start dying out around 2020, populations will start to decline so sharply that there simply won't be enough people to reinvent itself. It's simply unclear how long current government policies can put off the inevitable. I.'We are now talking about civilized depopulation. We just have to make sure that old people we leave behind are taken care of.' Says Mats Johansson of Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The biggest challenge is finding creative ways to keep up services for the rising proportion of seniors. When the Austrian village of Klaus, thinly spread over the Alpine foothills, decided it could no longer afford a regular public bus service, the community set up a public taxi-on-demand service for the aged. In thinly populated Lapland where doctors are few and far between, tech-savvy Finns the rising demand for specialized health care with a service that uses videoconferencing and the Internet for remote medical examination. J. Another pioneer is the village of Aguaviva, one of rapidly depopulating areas in Spain. In 2000, Mayor Manznanares began offering free air-fares and housing for foreign families to settle in Aguvivia. Now the mud-brown town of about 600 has 130 Argentine and Romanian immigrants, and the town's only school has 54 pupils. Immigration was one solution to the problem. But most foreign immigrants continue to prefer cities. And within Europe migration only exports the problem. Western European look towards eastern Europe as a source for migrants, yet those countries have ultra-low birth rates of their own. K. Now the increasingly worried European governments are developing policies to make people have more children, from better childcare to monthly stipends (津贴) linked to family size. But while these measures might raise the birth rate slightly, across the much of the ageing continent there are just too few potential parents around.
单选题 2010年世界博览会(World Expo 2010)于5月1日至10月31日在中国上海举行。世博会吸引了190个国家和56个国际组织参展。超过7300万中外游客参观了世博园，参观人数是历届世博会中最多的一次。这届世博会的主题是“城市，让生活更美好”(Better City，Better Life)，体现了人类对更适宜居住环境、更美好生活的愿望。在世博园里所有的展馆(pavilion)中，中国展馆是最受欢迎的场馆之一。
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阅读理解Social isolation poses more health risks than obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to research published by Brigham Young University. The【C1】________is that loneliness is a huge, if silen
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阅读理解Passage One
Questions 21 to 25are based on the following passage
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Whose Rules Are These, Anyway?
A. The director of the art-rich yet cash-poor National Academy Museum in New York expected strong opposition when its board decided to sell two Hudson River School paintings for around $15 million. The director, Carmine Branagan, had already approached leaders of two groups to which the academy belonged about the prospect. She knew that both the American Association of Museums (AAM) and Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) had firm policies against museums' selling off artworks because of financial hardship and were not going to make an exception. B. Even so, she said, she was not prepared for the directors group's 'immediate and punitive' response to the sale. In an e-mail message on Dec. 5 to its 190 members, it condemned the academy, founded in 1825, for 'breaching (违反) one of the most basic and important AAMD's principles' and called on members 'to suspend any loans of works of art to and any collaboration on exhibitions with the National Academy.' Ms. Branagan, who had by that time withdrawn her membership from both groups, said she 'was shocked by the tone of the letter, like we had committed some crimes.' She called the withdrawal of loans 'a death knell (丧钟声)' for the museum, adding, 'What the AAMD have done is basically shoot US while we're wounded.' C. Beyond shaping the fate of any one museum, this exchange has parked larger questions over a principle that has long seemed sacred. Why, several experts ask, is it so wrong for a museum to sell art from its collection to raise badly-needed funds? And now that many institutions are facing financial hardship, should the ban on selling art to cover operating costs be eased? Lending urgency to the discussion are the painful efforts of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, which has one of the world's best collections of contemporary art but whose endowment (捐赠) is said to have shrunken to $6 million from more than $40 million over the last nine years. Wouldn't it be preferable, some people asked this month, to sell a Mark Rothko painting or a couple of Robert Rauschenberg's legendary 'combines' —the museum owns 11—than to risk closing its doors? (Ultimately, the museum announced $30 million bailout(援助) by the billionaire Eli Broad last week that would prevent the sales of any artworks.) D. Yet defenders of the prohibition warn that such sales can damage an institution and the damage is impossible to repair. 'Selling an object is a knee-jerk(下意识的) act, and it undermines core principles of a museum,' said Michael Conforti, president of the directors' association and director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. 'There are always other options.' E. The sale of artwork from a museum's permanent collection, known as deaccessioning, is not illegal in the United States, provided that any terms accompanying the original donation of artwork are respected. In Europe, by contrast, many museums are state-financed and prevented by national law from deaccessioning. But under the code of ethics of the American Association of Museums, the proceeds should be 'used only for the acquisition, preservation, protection or care of collections.' He code of the Association of Art Museum Directors is even stricter, specifying that funds should not be used 'for purposes other than acquisitions of works of art for the collection.' F. Donn Zaretsky, a New York lawyer who specializes in art cases, has sympathized with the National Academy, asking why a museum can sell art to buy more art but not to cover overhead costs or a much-needed education center. 'Why should we automatically assume that buying art always justifies a deaccessioning, but that no other use of proceeds—no matter how important to an institution's mission—ever can?' he wrote. Even Patty Gerstenblith, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago known for her strong standpoint on protecting cultural heritage, said her position had softened over the years. 'If it's really a life-or-death situation, if it's a choice between selling a Rauschenberg and keeping the museum doors open, I think there's some justification for selling the painting,' she said. But several directors drew a much harder line, noting that museums get tax-deductible donations of art and cash to safeguard art collections for the public. Selling off any holdings for profit would thus betray that trust, they say, not to mention robbing a community of art, so no exceptions for financial hardships should be allowed. G. Dan Monroe, a board member of the directors' group and the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass, said that almost any museum can claim financial hardship, especially now that endowments are suffering. 'It's wrong to look at the situation from the standpoint of a single institution,' he said. 'You have to look at what would happen if every institution went this route.' It's a classic slippery slope this thinking goes: letting one museum sell off two paintings paves the way for dozens of museums to sell off thousands of artworks, perhaps routinely. 'The fact is as soon as you breach this principle, everybody's got a hardship case,' Mr. Monroe said. 'It would be impossible to control the outcome.' Deaccessioning has proven thorny for museums even when the money is directed into accepted channels like acquisitions. H. Sometimes the controversy centers on the irreplaceable nature of the object for sale, as when Thomas Hoving, then the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, began aggressively sorting out its collection in the early 1970s, selling high-profile paintings like Van Gogh's 'Olive Pickers' and Rousseau's 'Tropics'. The Metropolitan owned only one other painting by Rousseau, and the resistance was fierce. Yet critics of strict deaccessioning rules make a public-access argument as well. 'Most big museums can't show 90 percent of the objects they own—it's all in storage,' said Michael O'Hare, a cultural policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. 'What's wrong with selling these objects to smaller museums or even private collectors, who are more likely to put them on display?' I. At the National Academy, Ms. Branagan called deaccessioning an act of last resort, one that she would not have considered without a 'long-range financial and programmatic' plan. Branagan said she told her members as much before they voted for the sale—181 to 2 in favor—in November: 'I remember saying unless you believe you can support sweeping change, then do not vote for deaccessioning,' she said. 'The tragedy isn't that we're going to sell these four pieces. That's not a tragedy. The tragedy would be if in 10 or 15 years we were back here having the same conversation.'
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听力题Questions 19 to 21 are based on the passage you have just heard
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听力题Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard
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How to Eat Well
A. Why do so many Americans eat tons of processed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk (垃圾) and should really carry warning labels? B. It's not because fresh ingredients are hard to come by. Supermarkets offer more variety than ever, and there are over four times as many farmers' markets in the US as there were 20 years ago. Nor is it for lack of available information. There are plenty of recipes (食谱), how-to videos and cooking classes available to anyone who has a computer, smartphone or television. If anything, the information is overwhelming. C. And yet we aren't cooking. If you eat three meals a day and behave like most Americans, you probably get at least a third of your daily calories (卡路里) outside the home. Nearly two-thirds of us grab fast food once a week, and we get almost 25% of our daily calories from snacks. So we're eating out or taking in, and we don't sit down—or we do, but we hurry. D. Shouldn't preparing—and consuming—food be a source of comfort, pride, health, well-being, relaxation, sociability? Something that connects us to other humans? Why would we want to outsource (外包) this basic task, especially when outsourcing it is so harmful? E. When I talk about cooking, I'm not talking about creating elaborate dinner parties or three-day science projects. I'm talking about simple, easy, everyday meals. My mission is to encourage green hands and those lacking time or money to feed themselves. That means we need modest, realistic expectations, and we need to teach people to cook food that's good enough to share with family and friends. F. Perhaps a return to real cooking needn't be far off. A recent Harris poll revealed that 79% of Americans say they enjoy cooking and 30% 'love it'; 14% admit to not enjoying kitchen work and just 7% won't go near the stove at all. But this doesn't necessarily translate to real cooking, and the result of this survey shouldn't surprise anyone: 52% of those 65 or older cook at home five or more times per week; only a third of young people do. G. Back in the 1950s most of us grew up in households where Mom cooked virtually every night. The intention to put a home-cooked meal on the table was pretty much universal. Most people couldn't afford to do otherwise. H. Although frozen dinners were invented in the '40s, their popularity didn't boom until televisions became popular a decade or so later. Since then, packaged, pre-prepared meals have been what's for dinner. The microwave and fast-food chains were the biggest catalysts (催化剂), but the big food companies—which want to sell anything except the raw ingredients that go into cooking—made the home cook an endangered species. I. Still, I find it strange that only a third of young people report preparing meals at home regularly. Isn't this the same crowd that rails against processed junk and champions craft cooking? And isn't this the generation who say they're concerned about their health and the well-being of the planet? If these are truly the values of many young people, then their behavior doesn't match their beliefs. J. There have been half-hearted but well-publicized efforts by some food companies to reduce calories in their processed foods, but the Standard American Diet is still the polar opposite of the healthy, mostly plant-based diet that just about every expert says we should be eating. Considering that the government's standards are not nearly ambitious enough, the picture is clear: by not cooking at home, we're not eating the right things, and the consequences are hard to overstate. K. To help quantify (量化) the costs of a poor diet, I recently tried to estimate this impact in terms of a most famous food, the burger (汉堡包). I concluded that the profit from burgers is more than offset (抵消) by the damage they cause in health problems and environmental harm. L. Cooking real food is the best defense—not to mention that any meal you're likely to eat at home contains about 200 fewer calories than one you would eat in a restaurant. M. To those Americans for whom money is a concern, my advice is simple: Buy what you can afford, and cook it yourself. The common prescription is to primarily shop the grocery store, since that's where fresh produce, meat and seafood, and dairy are. And to save money and still eat well you don't need local, organic ingredients; all you need is real food. I'm not saying local food isn't better; it is. But there is plenty of decent food in the grocery stores. N. The other sections you should get to know are the frozen foods and the canned goods. Frozen produce is still produce; canned tomatoes are still tomatoes. Just make sure you're getting real food without tons of added salt or sugar. Ask yourself, would Grandma consider this food? Does it look like something that might occur in nature? It's pretty much common sense: you want to buy food, not unidentifiable foodlike objects. O. You don't have to hit the grocery store daily, nor do you need an abundance of skill. Since fewer than half of Americans say they cook at an intermediate level and only 20% describe their cooking skills as advanced, the crisis is one of confidence. And the only remedy for that is practice. There's nothing mysterious about cooking the evening meal. You just have to do a little thinking ahead and redefine what qualifies as dinner. Like any skill, cooking gets easier as you do it more; every time you cook, you advance your level of skills. Someday you won't even need recipes. My advice is that you not pay attention to the number of steps and ingredients, because they can be deceiving. P. Time, I realize, is the biggest obstacle to cooking for most people. You must adjust your priorities to find time to cook. For instance, you can move a TV to the kitchen and watch your favorite shows while you're standing at the sink. No one is asking you to give up activities you like, but if you're watching food shows on TV, try cooking instead.
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How Alcohol Speeds Memory Loss in Men
Middle aged men who drink 2.5 drinks per day may accelerate memory loss by six years, according to a new study. Researchers from University College London in the UK assessed the drinking habits of 5,054 men and 2,099 women at three different times over a ten year period. When the participants turned 56, they took the first of three tests of their memory and executive function over the next 10 years. They report in the journal Neurology that men who downed an average of 2.5 drinks per day showed signs of memory loss sooner than men who didn't drink or men who were lighter to moderate drinkers. Even after they controlled for memory-affecting factors such as their diet and exercise habits and occupation, the connection held. The researchers didn't find a similar trend among women, although the heavier drinking women did show deficits in organization and planning skills. A drink was classified as beer, wine or liquor, and while those ardent spirits (烈性酒) like vodka (伏特加酒), gin or whiskey showed the fastest declines, there didn't appear to be any differences in memory loss among those drinking beer or wine. It's not the first study to document the negative effect that drinking can have on cognitive (认知的) functions. But it is among the first to look at its effects starting in younger, middle aged people. And it demonstrated bow little alcohol it takes to affect higher order functions like memory. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, for men, drinking up to four drinks a day is considered low risk drinking, while up to three drinks daily is considered low risk for women. When measuring potential health risks associated with drinking, the Centers for Disease Control says moderate consumption involves up to two drinks daily for men and one alcoholic beverage a day for women. The researchers speculate that alcohol somehow interferes with blood flow to the brain. Previous studies showed that excessive drinking can also damage nerve cells that can affect the brain's cognitive functions, but these latest findings suggest that the harm may begin sooner than experts had thought—and last longer than they had expected as well.
听力题Questions 5 to 7 are based on the news report you have just heard
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单选题 There is a new type of small advertisement becoming increasingly common in newspaper classified columns. It is sometimes placed among 'situations vacant', although it does not offer anyone a job, and sometimes it appears among 'situations wanted', although it is not placed by someone looking for a job, either. What it does is to offer help in applying for a job. 'Contact us before writing your application', or 'Make use of our long experience in preparing your curriculum vitae or job history', is how it is usually expressed. The growth and apparent success of such a specialized service is, of course, a reflection on the current high levels of unemployment. It is also an indication of the growing importance of the curriculum vitae (or job history), with the suggestion that it may now qualify as an art form in its own right. There was a time when job seekers simply wrote letters of application. 'Just put down your name, address, age and whether you have passed any exams', was about the average level of advice offered to young people applying for their first jobs when I left school. The letter was really just for openers, it was explained, everything else could and should be saved for the interview. And in those days of full employment the technique worked. The letter proved that you could write and were available for work. Your eager face and intelligent replies did the rest. Later, as you moved up the ladder, something slightly more sophisticated was called for. The advice then was to put something in the letter which would distinguish you from the rest. It might be the aggressive approach. 'Your search is over. I am the person you are looking for', was a widely used trick that occasionally succeeded. Or it might be some special feature specially designed for the job interview. There is no doubt, however, that it is increasing number of applicants with university education at all points in the process of engaging staff that has led to the greater importance of the curriculum vitae.
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单选题 中国是世界上发现与使用蚕丝最早的国家，人们在四五千年前就已经开始养蚕了。随着蚕丝的使用，刺绣工艺也逐渐兴起。宋代时期，崇尚刺绣服装的风气已逐渐在民间广泛流行，这也促使了中国刺绣工艺(Chinese Embroidery)的发展。刺绣的用途广泛，包括生活和艺术装饰等。刺绣作为中国优秀的民族传统工艺，在国外也享有很高的声誉，是中国文化艺术的杰出代表之一。
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中国象棋
中国象棋属于二人对抗战略型棋盘游戏，是最受欢迎的棋盘游戏之一。在中国古代，象棋被列为士大夫们的修身之艺，现在则被视为一种益智的活动。象棋由两人轮流走子，以“将死”对方的将(帅)为胜。象棋棋盘共有64格，中间的“河界”将之分为两个“敌对”的部分。每人各有棋子16枚，包括1枚将(帅)、2枚马、2枚车(chariot)、2枚象(相)、2枚士(仕)、2枚炮和5枚兵(pawn)(卒)。一般而言，执红色棋子的一方先走子。
单选题One in five US workers regularly attends after-work drinks with co-workers, where the most common 27 range from bad-mouthing (说……的坏话) another worker to kissing a colleague and drinking too much, according to a study 28 on Tuesday. Most workers attend so-called happy hours to 29 with colleagues, although 15 percent go to hear the latest office gossip and 13 percent go because they feel obligated, said the survey conducted for CareerBuilder.com, an online job site. As to what happens when the after-work drinks flow, 16 percent reported bad-mouthing a colleague, 10 percent shared a secret about a colleague, 8 percent kissed a colleague and 8 percent said they drank too much and acted 30 . 5 percent said they had shared a secret about the company, and 4 percent 31 to singing karaoke. While 21 percent of those who attend say happy hours are good for 32 , 85 percent said attending had not helped them get 33 to someone higher up or get a better position. An equal number of men and women said they attend happy hours with co-workers, with younger workers aged 25 to 34 most likely and workers over 55 least 34 to attend. Overall, 21 percent of workers attend happy hours with co-workers and, of those, 35 a quarter go at least once a month. The survey was 36 online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 6,987 full-time employees. A. bond B. acknowledged C. nearly D. specially E. anywhere F. mishaps G. obligated H. likely I. conducted J. idly K. unprofessionally L. networking M. released N. confessed O. researched
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单选题 How do you get the most out of your revision time, and end up with the best grades you can? Or, if you're a different sort of student, how can you get the same grades you're getting now, but spend less time revising? Decades of research carried out by psychologists about learning and memory has produced some clear advice on doing just that. First, space your practice. Our analysis showed that people who leave longer gaps between practice attempts go on to score higher. In fact, the longer the gaps, the higher the scores. If you want to study effectively, you should spread out your revision rather than cramming. This is easier said than done, but if you are organized enough, you can spend less time revising and remember more. Second, make sure you fail occasionally. A new result from our analysis shows that people who are most inconsistent when they first start have better scores later on. Our theory is that these people are exploring how the game works, rather than trying to get the very highest score they can every time. Players even finish the game with a score that tells them how good they are. Invest some time in trying things out, which may mean failing occasionally, if you want to maximize learning in the long run. Third, practice the thing you'll be tested on. Writing exam answers is a skill, just like playing an online game is a skill. You wouldn't try and improve at a game by trying to memorize moves, you'd practice making them. Fourth, structure information, don't try to remember it. Just looking at your notes won't help you learn them. Instead, you need to reorganize the information in some way. This approach, called 'depth of processing', is the way to ensure material gets lodged in your memory. Fifth, rest and sleep. Even napping can help consolidate your memories, and maybe even make you more creative. This is great news for those people who like to nap during the day, and is a signal that staying up all night to revise probably isn't a good idea. No matter what method you use, you need to know how to learn better.
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单选题Directions:Forthispart,youareaskedtowriteanessaybasedonthefollowingchart.Inyourwriting,youshouldinterpretthechart,andgiveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsbutnomorethan180words.全球电子商务成交额统计图(Unit:$billion/单位:亿美元)
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阅读理解Nowadays you can’t buy anything without then being asked to provide a rating of a company’s performance on a five-star scale. I’ve been asked to rate my store 【C1】________ on the EFTPOS terminal before I can pay. Even the most【C2】________activities, such as calling Telstra or picking up a parcel from Australia Post, are followed by texts or emails with surveys asking, How did we do? Online purchases are【C3】________followed up by a customer satisfaction survey. Companies are so【C4】________for a hit of stars that if you delete the survey the company sends you another one. We’re【C5】________to rate our apps when we’ve barely had a chance to use them. One online course provider I use asks you what you think of the course after you’ve only completed【C6】________2 per cent of it. Economist Jason Murphy says that companies use customer satisfaction ratings because a【C7】________display of star feedback has become the nuclear power sources of the modern economy. However, you can’t help but【C8】________if these companies are basing their business on fabrications (捏造的东西). I 【C9】________that with online surveys 1 just click the【C10】________that’s closest to my mouse cursor (光标) to get the damn thing off my screen. Often the star rating I give has far more to do with the kind of day I’m having than the purchase 1 just made.A)announceB) commonplacC) confessD) desperateE) experienceF) fascinatedG) optionH)promptedI) roughlyJ) routinelyK) shiningL)ShoweringM) varietN) voyageO) wonder
作文题For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay titled "Do violent video games lead to violence? " You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
听力题Questions 12 to 15 are based on the conversation you have just heard
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听力题此题为音频题
阅读理解Educatorsandbusinessleadershavemoreincommonthanitmayseem.Teacherswanttopreparestudentsforasuccessfulfuture.TechnologycompanieshaveaninterestindevelopingaworkforcewiththeSTEM(science,technology,engineeringandmath)skillsneededtogrowthecompanyandadvancetheindustry.Howcantheyworktogethertoachievethesegoals?Playmaybetheanswer.FocusingonSTEMskillsisimportant,buttherealityisthatSTEMskillsareenhancedandmorerelevantwhencombinedwithtraditional,hands-oncreativeactivities.Thiscombinationisprovingtobethebestwaytopreparetoday’schildrentobethemakersandbuildersoftomorrow.Thatiswhytechnologycompaniesarepartneringwitheducatorstobringbackgood,old-fashionedplay.Infactmanyexpertsarguethatthemostimportant21st-centuryskillsaren’trelatedtospecifictechnologiesorsubjectmatter,buttocreativity;skillslikeimagination,problem-findingandproblem-solving,teamwork,optimism,patienceandtheabilitytoexperimentandtakerisks.Theseareskillsacquiredwhenkidstinker(鼓捣小玩意).High-techindustriessuchasNASA’sJetPropulsionLaboratoryhavefoundthattheirbestoverallproblemsolversweremastertinkerersintheiryouth.Therearecognitive(培养)benefitsofdoingthingsthewaywedidaschildren—buildingsomething,tearingitdown,thenbuildingitupagain.Researchshowsthatgiven15minutesoffreeplay,four-andfive-year-oldswillspendathirdofthistimeengagedinspatial,mathematical,andarchitecturalactivities.Thistypeofplay—especiallywithbuildingblocks—helpschildrendiscoveranddevelopkeyprinciplesinmathandgeometry.Ifplayandbuildingarecriticalto21st-centuryskilldevelopment,that’sreallygoodnewsfortworeasons;Childrenarebornbuilders,makers,andcreators,sofostering(培养)21st-centuryskillsmaybeassimpleasgivingkidsroomtoplay,tinkerandtrythingsout,evenastheygrowolder.Secondly,itdoesn’ttake21st-centurytechnologytofoster21st-centuryskills.Thisisespeciallyimportantforunder-resourcedschoolsandcommunities.Takingwhatevermaterialsarehandyandtinkeringwiththemisasimplewaytoengagethoseimportantmakerskills.Andanyone,anywhere,candoit.
听力题此题为音频题
听力题此题为音频题
阅读理解Being an information technology, or IT, worker is not a job I envy. They are the ones who, right in the middle of a critical meeting, are expected to instantly fix the projector that’s no longer working. They have to tolerate the bad tempers of colleagues frustrated at the number of times they’ve had to call the help desk for the same issue. They are also the ones who know there are systems that are more powerful, reliable and faster, but their employer simply will not put up the funds to buy them. According to a recent survey, employees who have a job reliant on IT support consider IT a major source of job dissatisfaction. Through no fault of their own, they can suddenly find their productivity deteriorating or quality control non-existent. And there’s little they can do about it. The experience of using IT penetrates almost the entire work field. It has become a crucial part of employees’ overall work experience. When IT is operating as it should, employee self-confidence swells. Their job satisfaction, too, can surge when well-functioning machines relieve them of dull tasks or repetitive processes. But if there’s one thing that triggers widespread employee frustration, it’s an IT transformation project gone wrong, where swollen expectations have been popped and a long list of promised efficiencies have been reversed. This occurs when business leaders implement IT initiatives with little consideration of how those changes will impact the end user. Which is why managers should appreciate just how influential the IT user experience is to their employees, and exert substantial effort in ensuring their IT team eliminates programming errors and application crashes. Adequate and timely IT support should also be available to enable users to cope with technological issues at work. More importantly, IT practitioners need to understand what employees experience mentally when they use IT. Therefore, businesses need to set up their IT infrastructure so that it is designed to fit in with their employees’ work, rather than adjust their work to fit in with the company’s IT limitations.
阅读理解What happens when a language has no words for numbers?A) Numbers do not exist in all cultures. There are numberless hunter-gatherers in Amazonia, living along branches of the world’s largest
听力题此题为音频题
阅读理解Thestartofhighschooldoesn’thavetobestressfulA)Thismonth,morethan4millionstudentsacrossthenationwillbeginhighschool.Manywilldowell.Butmanywillnot.Considerthatnearlytwo-thirdsofstudentswillexperiencetheninth-gradeshock,whichreferstoadramaticdropinastudent’sacademicperformance.Somestudentscopewiththisshockbyavoidingchallenges.Forinstance,theymaydropdifficultcoursework.Othersmayexperienceahopelessnessthatresultsinfailingtheircoreclasses,suchasEnglish,scienceandmath.B)Thisshouldmatteragreatdealtoparents,teachersandpolicymakers.Ultimatelyitshouldmattertothestudentsthemselvesandsocietyatlarge,becausestudents’experienceoftransitioning(过渡)totheninthgradecanhavelong-termconsequencesnotonlyforthestudentsthemselvesbutfortheirhomecommunities.Wemaketheseobservationsasresearchpsychologistswhohavestudiedhowschoolsandfamiliescanhelpyoungpeoplethrive.C)Inthenewglobaleconomy,studentswhofailtofinishtheninthgradewithpassinggradesincollegepreparatorycourseworkareveryunlikelytograduateontimeandgoontogetjobs.Onestudyhascalculatedthatthelifetimebenefittothelocaleconomyforasingleadditionalstudentwhocompleteshighschoolishalfamilliondollarsormore.Thisisbasedonhigherearningsandavoidedcostsinhealthcare,crime,welfaredependenceandotherthings.D)Theconsequencesofdoingpoorlyintheninthgradecanimpactmorethanstudents’abilitytofindagoodjob.Itcanalsoimpacttheextenttowhichtheyenjoylife.Studentslosemanyofthefriendstheyturnedtoforsupportwhentheymovefromtheeighthtotheninthgrade.Onestudyofninth-gradestudentsfoundthat50percentoffriendshipsamongninthgraderschangedfromonemonthtothenext,signalingstrikinginstabilityinfriendships.E)Inaddition,studiesfindthefirstyearofhighschooltypicallyshowsoneofthegreatestincreasesindepressionofanyyearoverthelifespan.Researchersthinkthatoneexplanationisthattiestofriendsarebrokenwhileacademicdemandsarerising.Furthermore,mostadultcasesofclinicaldepressionfirstemergeinadolescence(青春期).TheWorldHealthOrganizationreportsthatdepressionhasthegreatestburdenofdiseaseworldwide,intermsofthetotalcostoftreatmentandthelossofproductivity.F)Givenallthat’sridingonhavingasuccessfulninthgradeexperience,itpaystoexplorewhatcanbedonetomeettheacademic,socialandemotionalchallengesofthetransitiontohighschool.Sofar,ourstudieshaveyieldedonemaininsight:Students’beliefsaboutchange—theirbeliefsaboutwhetherpeoplearestuckonewayforever,orwhetherpeoplecanchangetheirpersonalitiesandabilities—arerelatedtotheirabilitytocope,succeedacademicallyandmaintaingoodmentalhealth.Pastresearchhascalledthesebeliefsmindsets(思维模式),withafixedmindsetreferringtothebeliefthatpeoplecannotchangeandagrowthmindsetreferringtothebeliefthatpeoplecanchange.G)Inonerecentstudy,weexamined360adolescents’beliefsaboutthenatureofsmartness—thatis,theirfixedmindsetsaboutintelligence.Wethenassessedbiologicalstressresponsesforstudentswhosegradesweredroppingbyexaminingtheirstresshormones(荷尔蒙).Studentswhobelievedthatintelligenceisfixed—thatyouarestuckbeingnotsmartifyoustruggleinschool—showedhigherlevelsofstresshormoneswhentheirgradesweredecliningatthebeginningoftheninthgrade.Ifstudentsbelievedthatintelligencecouldimprove—thatistosay,whentheyheldmoreofagrowthmindsetofintelligence—theyshowedlowerlevelsofstresshormoneswhentheirgradesweredeclining.Thiswasanexcitingresultbecauseitshowedthatthebody’sstressresponsesarenotdeterminedsolelybyone’sgrades.Instead,declininggradesonlypredictedworsestresshormonesamongstudentswhobelievedthatworseninggradeswereapermanentandhopelessstateofaffairs.H)Wealsoinvestigatedthesocialsideofthehighschooltransition.Inthisstudy,insteadofteachingstudentsthattheirsmartnesscanchange,wetaughtthemthattheirsocialstanding—thatis,whethertheyarebulliedorexcludedorleftout—canchangeovertime.Wethenlookedathighschoolstudents’stressresponsestodailysocialdifficulties.Thatis,wetaughtthemagrowthmindsetabouttheirsociallives.Inthisstudy,studentscameintothelaboratoryandwereaskedtogiveapublicspeechinfrontofupper-yearstudents.Thetopicofthespeechwaswhatmakesonepopularinhighschool.Followingthis,studentshadtocompleteadifficultmentalmathtaskinfrontofthesameupper-yearstudents.I)Experimentresultsshowedthatstudentswhowerenottaughtthatpeoplecanchangeshowedpoorstressresponses.Whenthesestudentsgavethespeech,theirbloodvesselscontractedandtheirheartspumpedlessbloodthroughthebody—bothresponsesthatthebodyshowswhenitispreparingfordamageordefeatafteraphysicalthreat.Thentheygaveworsespeechesandmademoremistakesinmath.Butwhenstudentsweretaughtthatpeoplecanchange,theyhadbetterresponsestostress,inpartbecausetheyfeltliketheyhadtheresourcestodealwiththedemandingsituation.Studentswhogotthegrowthmindsetintervention(干预)showedless-contractedbloodvesselsandtheirheartspumpedmoreblood—bothofwhichcontributedtomoreoxygengettingtothebrain,and,ultimately,betterperformanceonthespeechandmentalmathtasks.J)Thesefindingsleadtoseveralpossibilitiesthatweareinvestigatingfurther.First,weareworkingtoreplicate(复制)thesefindingsinmorediverseschoolcommunities.Wewanttoknowinwhichtypesofschoolsandforwhichkindsofstudentsthesegrowthmindsetideashelpyoungpeopleadapttothechallengesofhighschool.Wealsohopetolearnhowteachers,parentsorschoolcounselorscanhelpstudentskeeptheirongoingacademicorsocialdifficultiesinperspective.Wewonderwhatwouldhappenifschoolshelpedtomakebeliefsaboutthepotentialforchangeandimprovementalargerfeatureoftheoverallschoolculture,especiallyforstudentsstartingtheninthgrade.
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单选题 聘金(endowment)是中国传统习俗的一部分。这一习惯在整个中国都很普遍。但是近几年来其标准不断上升，致使大多数家庭都很难达到。高额的聘礼常常“抢劫”了新郎父母毕生的积蓄，甚至引起家庭纠纷。此外，许多新婚夫妇被迫举行奢侈的婚礼宴会，在这个过程中，大量债务的累积可能使他们的新婚生活变得辛酸，至少在最初阶段是这样。想想老一辈节俭的婚礼，虽然简简单单，但也幸福美满，没有给他们婚后的生活带来任何影响。
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单选题 Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child—or even an animal, such as a pigeon—can learn to recognize faces, we all take this ability for granted. We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone's personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others. Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone's personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a 'nice face' looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you were asked to describe a 'nice person', you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth. There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon Allport, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people's behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing or typing his personality. Bookworms, conservatives, military types-people are described with such terms. People have always tried to 'type' each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain's (坏人) or the hero's role. In fact, the words 'person' and 'personality' come from the Latin persona, meaning 'mask'. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys' because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
单选题In Hard Economy for All Ages, Older Isn't Better...It's Brutal. A. Young graduates are in debt, out of work and on their patents' couches. People in their 30s and 40s can't afford to buy homes or have children. Retirees are earning near-zero interest on their savings. B. In the current listless(缺乏活力的) economy, every generation has a claim to having been most injured. But the Labor Department's latest jobs reports and other recent data present a strong case for crowning baby boomers(二战后生育高峰期出生的人) as the greatest victims of the recession and its dreadful consequences. C. These Americans in their 50s and early 60s—those near retirement age who do not yet have access to Medicare and Social Security—have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their household incomes 10 percent below what they made when the recovery began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis company. Their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst possible time: just before they needed to cash out. They are supporting both aged parents and unemployed young-adult children, earning them the unlucky nickname 'Generation Squeeze'. D. New research suggests that they may die sooner, because their health, income security and mental well-being were battered(重创) by recession at a crucial time in their lives. A recent study by economists at Wellesley College found that people who lost their jobs in the few years before becoming qualified for Social Security lost up to three years from their life expectancy(预期寿命), largely because they no longer had access to affordable health care. E. Unemployment rates for Americans nearing retirement are far lower than those for young people, who are recently out of school, with fewer skills and a shorter work history. But once out of a job, older workers have a much harder time finding another one. Over the last year, the average duration of unemployment for older people was 53 weeks, compared with 19 weeks for teenagers, according to the Labor Department's jobs report released on Friday. F. The lengthy process is partly because older workers are more likely to have been laid off from industries that are downsizing, like manufacturing. Compared with the rest of the population, older people are also more likely to own their own homes and be less mobile than renters, who can move to new job markets. G. Older workers are more likely to have a disability of some sort, perhaps limiting the range of jobs that offer realistic choices. They may also be less inclined, at least initially, to take jobs that pay far less than their old positions. H. Displaced boomers also believe they are victims of age discrimination, because employers can easily find a young, energetic worker who will accept lower pay and who can potentially stick around for decades rather than a few years. I. In a survey by the center of older workers who were laid off during the recession, just one in six had found another job, and half of that group had accepted pay cuts. 14% of the re-employed said the pay in their new job was less than half what they earned in their previous job. 'I just say to myself, 'Why me? What have I done to deserve this?'' said John Agati, 56, whose last full-time job, as a product developer, ended four years ago when his employer went out of business. That position paid $90,000, and his résumé lists jobs at companies like American Express, Disney and USA Networks. Since being laid off, though, he has worked a series of part-time, low-wage, temporary positions, including selling shoes at Lord Taylor and making sales calls for a car company. J. The last few years have taken a toll not only on his family's finances, but also on his feelings of self worth. 'You just get sad,' Mr. Agati said. 'I see people getting up in the morning, going out to their careers and going home. I just wish I was doing that. Some people don't like their jobs, or they have problems with their jobs, but at least they're working. I just wish I was in their shoes.' He said he cannot afford to go back to school, as many younger people without jobs have done. Even if he could afford it, economists say it is unclear whether older workers like him benefit much from more education. K. 'It just doesn't make sense to offer retraining for people 55 and older,' said Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor. 'Discrimination by age, long-term unemployment, and the fact that they're now at the end of the hiring queue just don't make it sensible to invest in them'. L. Many displaced older workers are taking this message to heart and leaving the labor force entirely. The share of older people applying for Social Security early rose quickly during the recession as people sought whatever income they could find. The penalty they will pay is permanent, as retirees who take benefits at age 62 will receive as much as 30% less in each month's check for the rest of their lives than they would if they had waited until full retirement age(66 for those born after 1942). M. Those not yet eligible for Social Security are increasingly applying for another, comparable kind of income support that often goes to people who expect never to work again: disability benefits. More than one in eight people in their late 50s is now on some form of federal disability insurance program, according to Mark Duggan, chairman of the department of business economies and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. N. The very oldest Americans, of course, were battered by some of the same ill winds that tormented those now nearing retirement, but at least the most senior were cushioned by a more readily available social safety net. More important, in a statistical twist, they may have actually benefited from the financial crisis in the most fundamental way: prolonged lives. O. Death rates for people over 65 have historically fallen during recessions, according to a November 2011 study by economists at the University of California, Davis. Why? The researchers argue that weak job markets push more workers into accepting relatively undesirable work at nursing homes, leading to better care for residents.
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单选题 It is all very well to blame traffic jams, the cost of petrol and the quick pace of modern life, but manners on the roads are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men become monsters behind the wheel. You might tolerate the odd road hog, the rude and inconsiderate driver, but nowadays the well-mannered motorist is the exception to the rule. Perhaps the situation calls for a 'Be Kind to Other Drivers' campaign; otherwise it may get completely out of hand. Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed and good- tempered of drivers to resist the temptation to revenge when subjected to uncivilized behavior. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards relieving the tensions of motoring. A friendly nod or a wave of acknowledgement in response to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of goodwill and tolerance so necessary in modem traffic conditions. But such acknowledgements of politeness are all too rare today. Many drivers nowadays don't even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it. However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who brakes violently to allow a car to emerge from a side street at some hazard to following traffic, when a few seconds later the road would be clear anyway; or the man who waves a child across a zebra crossing into the path of oncoming vehicles that may be unable to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they care to. A veteran driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if motorists learnt to filter correctly into traffic streams one at a time without causing the total blockages that give rise to bad temper. Unfortunately, modem motorists can't even learn to drive, let alone master the subtler aspects of roadmanship. Years ago the experts warned us that the car ownership explosion would demand a lot more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.
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单选题Directions:Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessay.YoushouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandthenexpressyourviewsonInternetandthedistanceamongpeople.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsbutnomorethan180words.WriteyouressayonAnswerSheet1.
单选题Some marriages seem to collapse so suddenly that you'd need a crystal ball to predict their demise (灭亡). In other 27 , though, the seeds of marital dissolution are not only easier to see but they may be planted even before the honeymoon bills come 28 . According to UCLA psychologist Thomas Bradbury, Ph. D., the way a newlywed 29 when his or her spouse is facing a personal problem—work stress, say, or a recent weight gain—is a 30 good window into their marital future. Bradbury and Lauri Pasch, Ph.D., invited 57 couples, all married less than six months, to 31 a difficulty that each partner was having. While some couples proved to be superstars at providing emotional support, others were woefully inept (笨拙的). You just cringed (退缩) when you watched them, Bradbury says. Two years later, nine of the couples had already 32 and five other marriages were intact but hanging by a thread. These 14 couples, it turned out, had been far less likely to provide support to one another as newlyweds than the other 43 couples whose marriages were 33 . Bradbury thinks a couple's inability to help each other through 34 times is what often blossoms into full-fledged marital discord (不和谐)—and ultimately divorce. All of which suggests an obvious antidote (轶事) to the sky-high divorce rate: ff couples can learn how to provide emotional support before they marry, they 35 a better chance of staying together. The trouble, Bradbury says, is that couples who go for premarital counseling—where they can learn such skills— 36 to be the ones with a lesser risk for marital problems in the first place. A. thriving B. comments C. tough D. tend E. committing F. cases G. stand H. intends I. due J. reacts K. surprisingly L. durable M. split N. regularly O. discuss
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单选题 Imagine donating your DNA to a project aimed at discovering links between genes and diseases. You consent to your genome (基因组) sequence being released anonymously into the public domain, though you are warned there is a remote possibility that it might one day be possible to link it back to you. A few years later, that remote possibility comes to pass. How should you feel? This is no longer a hypothetical (假定) situation. The researchers' intentions were honorable. They have not revealed these identities, and the original data has been adjusted to make a repeat using the same technique impossible. All they wanted to do was expose privacy issues. Consider them exposed. It is clear that genomics (基因学) has entered a new phase, similar to that which social media went through a few years ago, when concerns were raised about people giving away too much personal information. What happens when the same applies to our DNA? Having your genome open to public examination obviously raises privacy issues. Employers and insurers may be interested. Embarrassing family secrets may be exposed. But overall, personal genetic information is probably no more revealing than other sorts. In fact there are reasons to believe that it is less so: would an insurance company really go to the trouble of decoding a genome to discover a slightly elevated risk of cancer or Alzheimer's disease? The available evidence suggests not. In 2006, Harvard University set out to sequence the genomes of 100,000 volunteers and make them publicly available, along with personal information such as names and medical records. One of the goals was to see what happens when such data is open to all. The answer seems to be 'not a lot'. So far this Personal Genome Project has published 148 people's full genomes. Not one volunteer has reported a privacy issue. This is not a reason for arrogance but it suggests that our genomic secrets are less interesting to other people than we might like to believe.
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阅读理解Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage
问答题Why it matters that teens are reading lessA) Most of us spend much more time with digital media than we did a decade ago. But today’s teens have grown up with smartphones. Compared with teens a couple of decades ago, the way they interact with traditional media like books and movies is fundamentally different.B) Analysis of surveys of over one million teens in the United States collected since 1976 reveals a major shift in how teens are spending their leisure time. Paper books are being ignored, in favor of screens. Digital devices are changing other behaviors, too. More and more, young people choose spending time on their electronic devices over engaging in other activities, regardless of the type. Indeed, by 2016, the average American high school senior said they spent six hours a day writing text messages, on social media, and online during their free time. And that covers just three activities, and if other digital media activities were included, that estimate would no doubt rise.C) Teens did not always spend that much time with digital media. Online time has doubled since 2006, and social media use has moved from a periodic activity to a daily one in the same period. By 2016, nearly nine out of ten young women in the 12th grade said they visited social media sites every day. Meanwhile, time spent playing video games rose from under an hour a day to an hour and a half on average. One out of ten American 8th grade students in 2016 spent 40 hours a week or more playing video games. Let me emphasize that this is equal to the time most adults spend per week at work.D) If teens are spending so much time using electronic devices, does that mean they have to give up some other activities? Maybe not. Over the years, many scholars have insisted that time online does not necessarily take away time spent engaging with traditional media or on other activities. Some people, they argue, are just more interested in certain kinds of media and entertainment. Thus, using more of one type of media does not necessarily mean less of the other.E) That may be true, but that still does not tell us much about what happens across a whole generation of people when time spent on digital media grows. Large surveys conducted over the course of many years tell us that American youth are not going to the cinema nearly as often as they did in the past. While 70 percent of 8th and 10th grade students used to go to the movies once a month or more, now only about half do this. More and more, watching a movie is something teens choose to do on their electronic devices. Why is this a problem? One reason is that going to the cinema is generally a social activity. Now, watching movies is something that most teens do alone. This fits a larger pattern. In another analysis, researchers found that today’s teens go out with their friends much less often than previous generations did.F) But the trends related to movies are less disturbing compared with the change in how teens spend their time. Research has revealed an enormous decline in reading. In 1980, about 60 percent of senior high school students said they read a book, newspaper or magazine every day that was not assigned for school. By 2016, only 16 percent did. This is a huge drop and it is important to note that this was not merely a decline in reading paper books, newspapers or magazines. The survey allowed for reading materials on a digital device.G) Indeed, the number of senior high school students who said they had not read any books for pleasure in the last year was one out of three by 2016. That is triple the number from two decades ago. For today’s youth, books, newspapers and magazines have less and less of a presence in their daily lives. Of course, teens are still reading. But they are generally reading short texts. Most of them are not reading long articles or books that explore deep themes and require critical thinking and reflection. Perhaps not accidentally, in 2016 reading scores were the lowest they have ever been since 1972.H) This might present problems for young people later on. When high school students go on to college, their past and current reading habits will influence their academic performance. Imagine going from reading texts as short as one or two sentences to trying to read entire books written in complex language and containing sophisticated ideas. Reading and comprehending longer books and chapters takes practice, and American teens are no longer getting that practice.I) So how can this problem be solved? Should parents and teachers take away teens’ smartphones and replace them with paper books? Probably not. Research has shown that smartphones are currently American teens’ main form of social communication. This means that, without a smartphone, teens are likely to feel isolated from their peers. However, that does not mean teens need to use electronic devices as often as they do now. Data connecting excessive digital media time to mental health issues suggests a limit of two hours a day of free time spent with screens, a restriction that will also allow time for other activities—like going to the movies with friends or reading longer, more complicated texts.J) The latter is especially important. I would argue that of all the changes brought about by the widespread use of digital devices, the huge decline in reading is likely to have the biggest negative impact on today’s teens because reading books and longer articles is one of the best ways to learn critical thinking. It helps people to understand complex issues and to separate fact from fiction. Thus, deep reading is crucial for being a good citizen, a successful college student and a productive employee. If serious reading dies, a lot will go with it.
作文题For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay titled "Are people becoming addicted to technology ? ".You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
问答题How to not be boringA) Humans are creatures of habit. We love to establish a routine and stick with it. Then we often put ourselves on auto-pilot. Routines can be incredibly useful in helping you get things done. However, too much of a routine can also make you incredibly boring. Nevertheless, many people live lives that are boringly predictable, or live a life where everything is outlined or planned.B) To tell the truth, interesting people are more popular among their friends. If you don’t arouse someone’s curiosity or brighten someone’s day, you probably come across as being a little bit dull. But that doesn’t mean your life has ended and you can’t do anything to change it. If you find yourself searching for something to say beyond small talk, try these tactics to find more interesting approaches to conversation.C) Recently, I was at a gathering of colleagues when someone turned to me and asked, "So, what’s new with you?" Ordinarily, I think I’m a good conversationalist. After all, it’s literally my job to talk to people and tell their stories or share their advice. And that’s not exactly an unexpected question. Still, the only "new-to-me" topics that came to mind were my daughter’s basketball tournament (锦标赛) and my feelings about that morning’s political headlines—neither amusing nor appropriate topics at that moment.D) Oh, no, I thought. Have I become boring? But sharing our experiences in an authentic way to connect with other people is what makes us interesting, says associate professor Michael Pirson. The hesitation I felt in not sharing the ordinary things that were happening in my life, and the wild mental search for something more interesting, may have backfired and made me seem less interesting.E) "If someone is making up some conversation that might be interesting, it’s probably not going to land well," says Pirson, whose expertise includes trust and well-being, mindfulness, and humanistic management. "It’s going to feel like a made-up conversation that people don’t necessarily want to tune in to."F) The most interesting people aren’t those who’ve gone on some Eat, Pray, Love journey to find themselves. Instead, Pirson says, they’re those who examine the ordinary. "Often, the ’boring things’ may not be boring at all. Maybe they are actually little miracles," he says. Share your observations about the world around you—interesting stories you heard or things you noticed—and you may be surprised by the universal connection they inspire.G) This is essentially how Jessica Hagy starts her day. The author of How to Be Interesting-. An Instruction Manual, Hagy spends a lot of time thinking about what’s interesting to her. People who are interesting are persistently curious, she says.H) Think about the everyday things around you and ask questions about them. What is that roadside monument I see on my way to work every day? Who built that interesting building in my city? What nearby attractions haven’t I visited? Why do people do things that way? Use what you find to ask more questions and learn more about the world around you. "Having that sort of curiosity is almost like a protective gear from getting into boredom," she says. And when you find things that are truly interesting to you, share them.I) Television veteran Audrey Morrissey, executive producer of NBC’s The Voice, is always looking for what will make a person or story interesting to viewers: It’s usually a matter of individuality. "Having a strong point of view, signature style, or being a super-enthusiast in a particular field makes someone interesting," she says. That means embracing what is truly interesting or unique about yourself. "Many people are ’ not boring’ in the way that they can carry a conversation or can be good at a social gathering, etc. To be interesting means that you have lived life, taken risks, traveled, sought out experience to learn for yourself and share with others," she says.J) Of course, it’s possible to be a fountain of knowledge and a boring person, says public relations consultant Andrea Pass. Paying attention to the listener is an important part of having a conversation that’s interesting to both parties. Talking on and on about what’s interesting to you isn’t going to make you an interesting person, she says.K) "If the listener is not paying attention, it’s your sign to shorten the story or change direction. Make sure to bring the audience into the conversation so that it is not one-sided," Pass says. Be a better listener yourself, and give others opportunities to participate in the conversation by inviting them with questions or requests to share their own experiences or thoughts, (e. g. , "Now, tell me about your favorite book," or "Have you ever been to that attraction?") Questions are a powerful tool, especially when they encourage others to disclose information about themselves. A 2012 study from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that roughly 40% of the time we are talking, we’re disclosing subjective information about our experience. And when we’re doing so, our brains are more engaged. So one strategy to leave others with the impression that you’re a sparkling conversation partner is to get others to talk about themselves.L) Being relatable is also essential, Morrissey says. "The best entertainment and storytelling comes from people who are relatable—those who don’t shy away from opening up but freely share who they are and what they care about. These are the people viewers most relate to and find interesting. Being authentic, honest, and vulnerable is always interesting."M) I have now come to realize that being boring, in actuality, is not only about who you are as a person, but also how you present yourself. No matter what, make sure you are having fun in life. Because when you are enjoying, people around you will begin to enjoy as well. Show some interest in them and they will definitely show some in you. If you are a very reserved person, this could be a little difficult at first. But with a little effort, you can definitely improve.
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单选题此题为音频题
写作题Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to a foreign friend who wants to learn Chinese
阅读理解Questions 1 to 10are based on the following passage
单选题Nationwide, only about three percent of early childhood teachers are male in the U. S. Experts say this can have an impact on young children whose understanding of gender roles and identity are rapidly forming. Research has found that having access to diverse teachers is beneficial for children. For the youngest learners, it means they are more likely to get exposed to different varieties of play and communication. It also helps them develop healthy ideas around gender. "In our world and our society, we have very specific stereotypes (模式化形象) of gender roles," said Mindi Reich-Shapiro, an assistant professor in the teacher education department of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, and one of the authors of a recent study. "It’s important for children to see other possibilities and other paths they can take. " Despite mostly feeling supported by colleagues and family members, many of the male educators surveyed in the study reported facing social or cultural resistance in their careers as early education teachers. Some also reported that there were parents surprised or concerned that their child had a male teacher. And they had been advised by colleagues or other staff not to hug children. Reich-Shapiro and fellow researchers made several recommendations to increase male representation in the field. Low pay has long been acknowledged as a major issue in the early childhood field. Over 70% of male educators who said they intended to stay in the early education workforce noted an increased salary was a major motivating factor for them to commit to the career long-term. The report suggests paying all early childhood educators the way elementary school teachers are paid. Cities and programs should establish support groups for male early childhood educators and provide mentoring and professional development advice for male educators and their program leaders. The authors also suggest that traditional recruitment approaches for early childhood educators "do not address the gender gap in the field." They recommend providing young men opportunities to work with children through training and volunteer programs, targeting groups of men who are considering a career change, such as fathers.
单选题From climate change to the ongoing pandemic (大流行病) and beyond, the issues facing today’s world are increasingly complex and dynamic. Yet solving problems like these requires new approaches that extend beyond traditional ways of thinking. A study led by Yale Professor of Psychology, Paul O’Keefe, found that having a growth mindset (思维倾向) of interest may spark this type of innovation. Professor O’Keefe established in earlier studies that people hold different beliefs about the nature of interest. Those with a growth mindset of interest tend to believe that interests can be developed and cultivated, while those with a fixed mindset of interest tend to believe that interests are inherent (与生俱有的) and simply need to be ’found. ’ Building on these findings, the latest research examined how a growth mindset of interest can boost integrative thinking across the traditional disciplinary boundaries of arts and sciences. For example, in one task, research participants were instructed to create new college majors by combining two or more existing academic Arts or Science programs at their university. After coding and analyzing the ideas they generated, the team found that people with a growth mindset of interest were more likely to bridge programs across the arts and sciences to create new majors like computational economics rather than creating majors that drew from only one of those areas, like computational chemistry. As Professor O’Keefe pointed out, "This research provides a useful direction for organizations whose products and services call for integrated and creative solutions. Take smartphones for example. You need not only computer science and engineering knowledge, but also an understanding of psychology and visual design to create a better product. Employees with a growth mindset may be more likely to devise innovative ideas that bridge multiple areas of knowledge to achieve better solutions." The benefits of a growth mindset of interest may also extend to those seeking employment. This is a pressing issue because many people are becoming unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Having a growth mindset of interest can help job seekers expand their interests and become more adaptable to different fields, and take the initiative to learn new skills.
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汉译英龙井Longjing是一种绿茶，主要产自中国东部沿海的浙江省。龙井茶独特的香味和口感为其赢得了“中国名茶”的称号，在中国深受大众的欢迎，在海外饮用的人也越来越多。龙井茶通常手工制作，其价格可能极其昂贵，也可能比较便宜，这取决于茶的生长地、采摘时间和制作工艺。龙井茶富含维生素C和其他多种有益健康的元素。经常喝龙井茶有助于减轻疲劳、延缓衰老。
单选题With obesity now affecting 29% of the population in England, and expected to rise to 35% by 2030, should we now recognise it as a disease? Obesity, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that health may be adversely affected, meets the dictionary definition of disease, argues Professor John Wilding. He points out that more than 200 genes influence weight. "Thus body weight is strongly influenced by biology—it is not an individual’s fault if they develop obesity." Yet the widespread view is that obesity is self-induced and that it is entirely the individual’s responsibility to do something about it. Recognising obesity as a chronic disease with severe complications rather than a lifestyle choice "should help reduce the stigma (耻辱) and discrimination experienced by many people with obesity," he adds. Professor Wilding disagrees that labelling a high proportion of the population as having a disease removes personal responsibility or may overwhelm health services, pointing out that other common diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, require people to take action to manage their condition. He suggests that most people with obesity will eventually develop complications. "But unless we accept that obesity is a disease, we are not going to be able to tackle it," he concludes. But Dr. Richard Pile, a physician with a special interest in diabetes, argues that adopting this approach "could actually result in worse outcomes for individuals and society." He believes that the dictionary definition of disease "is so vague that we can classify almost anything as a disease" and says the question is not whether we can, but whether we should, and to what end. If labelling obesity as a disease was harmless then it wouldn’t really matter, he writes. But labelling obesity as a disease "risks reducing autonomy, disempowering and robbing people of the intrinsic (内在的) motivation that is such an important enabler of change." What’s more, making obesity a disease "may not benefit patients, but it will benefit healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical (制药的) industry when health insurance and clinical guidelines promote treatment with drugs and surgery," he warns.
阅读理解A South Korean city designed for the future takes on a life of its own
A) Getting around a city is one thing and then theres the matter of getting from one city to another
单选题The human thirst for knowledge is the driving force behind our successful development as a species. But curiosity can also be dangerous, leading to setbacks or even downfalls. Given curiosity’s complexity, scientists have found it hard to define. While pinning down a definition has proven tricky, the general consensus is it’s some means of information gathering. Psychologists also agree curiosity is intrinsically (内在的) motivated. Curiosity covers such a large set of behaviors that there probably isn’t any single "curiosity gene" that makes humans wonder about and explore their environment. That said, curiosity does have a genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity. Regardless of their genetic makeup, infants have to learn an incredible amount of information in a short time, and curiosity is one of the tools humans have found to accomplish that gigantic task. Hundreds of studies show that infants prefer novelty. It’s what motivates non-human animals, human infants and probably human adults to explore and seek out new things before growing less interested in them after continued exposure. But curiosity often comes with a cost. In some situations, the stakes are low and failure is a healthy part of growth. For instance, many babies are perfectly proficient crawlers, but they decide to try walking because there’s more to see and do when they stand upright. But this milestone comes at a small cost. A study of 12- to 19-month-olds learning how to walk documented that these children fell down a lot. Seventeen times per hour, to be exact. But walking is faster than crawling, so this motivates expert crawlers to transition to walking. Sometimes, however, testing out a new idea can lead to disaster. For instance, the Inuit people of the Arctic regions have created incredible modes to deal with the challenges of living in northern climates, but what we forget about are the tens of thousands of people that tried and failed to make it in those challenging landscapes.
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问答题Suppose your school is organizing an orientation program to help the freshmen adapt to the new environment and academic studies. You are now to write a proposal, which may include its aim, duration, p
问答题 坎儿井Karez是新疆干旱地区的一种水利系统，由地下渠道将水井连接而成。该系统将春夏季节渗入seep into地下大量雨水及积雪融水收集起来，通过山体的自然坡度引到地面，用于灌溉农田和满足人们的日常用水需求。坎儿井减少了水在地面的蒸发evaporation，对地表破坏很小，因而有效地保护了自然资源与生态环境。坎儿井体现了我国人民与自然和谐共存的智慧，是对人类文明的一大贡献。
听力题Questions 22 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard
单选题As many office workers adapt to remote work, cities may undergo fundamental change if offices remain under-utilized. Who will benefit if working from home becomes the norm? Employers argue they make considerable savings on real estate when workers shift from office to home work. However, these savings result from passing costs on to workers. Unless employees are fully compensated, this could become a variant of parasitic (寄生的) capitalism, whereby corporate profits increasingly rely on extracting value from the public—and now personal—realm, rather than on generating new value. Though employers are backed by a chorus of remote work advocates, others note the loneliness, reduced productivity and inefficiencies of extended remote work. If working from home becomes permanent, employees will have to dedicate part of their private space to work. This requires purchasing desks, chairs and office equipment. It also means having private space dedicated to work: the space must be heated, cleaned, maintained and paid for. That depends on many things, but for purposes of illustration, I have run some estimates for Montreal. The exercise is simple but important, since it brings these costs out of the realm of speculation into the realm of meaningful discussion. Rough calculations show that the savings made by employers when their staff works from home are of similar value to the compensation workers should receive for setting up offices at home. What does this mean for offices in cities? One of two things may happen: Employers pass these costs onto employees. This would be a form of expropriation (侵占), with employees absorbing production costs that have traditionally been paid by the employer. This represents a considerable transfer of value from employees to employers. When employees are properly compensated, employers’ real estate savings will be modest. If savings are modest, then the many advantages of working in offices—such as lively atmosphere, rapidity of communication, team-building and acclimatization (适应环境) of new employees—will encourage employers to shelve the idea of remote work and, like Yahoo in 2013, encourage employees to work most of the time from corporate office space.
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阅读理解Can you remember what you ate yesterday? If asked, most people will be able to give a vague description of their main meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. But can you be sure you’ve noted every snack bar in your car, or every handful of nuts at your desk? Most people will have a feeling that they’ve missed something out. We originally had this suspicion back in 2016, puzzled by the fact that national statistics showed calorie consumption falling dramatically over past decades. We found reliable evidence that people were drastically under-reporting what they ate. Now the Office for National Statistics has confirmed that we are consuming 50% more calories than our national statistics claim. Why is this happening? We can point to at least three potential causes. One is the rise in obesity levels itself. Under-reporting rates are much higher for obese people, because they simply consume more food, and thus have more to remember. Another cause is that the proportion of people who are trying to lose weight has been increasing over time. People who want to lose weight are more likely to under-report their eating—regardless of whether they are overweight or not. This may be driven partly by self-deception or wishful thinking. The final potential cause is an increase in snacking and eating out over recent decades—both in terms of how often they happen and how much they contribute to our overall energy intake. Again, there is evidence that food consumed out of the home is one of the most poorly recorded categories in surveys. So, what’s the message conveyed? For statistics, we should invest in more accurate measurement options. For policy, we need to focus on options that make it easy for people to eat fewer calories. If people do not know how much they are eating, it can be really hard for them to stick to a diet. Also, we should be looking for new ways to ensure what people eat wouldn’t have much impact on their waistlines. If this works, it won’t matter if they can’t remember what they ate yesterday.
问答题Many people believe that passion and commitment are the foundations of strong romantic relationships. But a relationship is made of two【C1】________individuals. And the personality traits (特性) these individuals【C2】________or lack can often make a relationship more—or less—likely to【C3】________. Recent research has found that one trait in particular—humility (谦逊)—is an important indicator of successful relationships. Humility can sometimes be【C4】________with a lack of confidence. But researchers have come to realize that being humble generally indicates the【C5】________of deeply admirable personal qualities. Being humble means you have the ability to accurately【C6】________your deficiencies without denying your skills and strengths. For example, you might recognize that you are intelligent, but realize that you are not a【C7】________. Thus, humility leads to an honest view of one’s own advantages and shortcomings. Humble people do not ignore, avoid, or try to deny their limits or deficiencies. They can【C8】________mistakes, see value in things that are far from perfect and identify areas for improvement. Perhaps it is not【C9】________, then, that humility appears to be a huge asset to relationships. One study found that people tend to rate this quality【C10】________in their spouse. The study also found that someone who is humble is more likely to initiate a romantic relationship, perhaps because they are less likely to see themselves as "too good" for someone else. Thus, a humble partner might be your ideal partner.A) acknowledgeB) assessC) confusedD) endureE) extremelyF) geniusG) highlyH) permanentI) possess J) presence K) puzzled L) status M) surprising N) thoroughly O) unique
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单选题此题为音频题
问答题Suppose you have just participated in a school project of collecting used books on campus. You are now to write a report about the project, which may include its aim, organizers, participants and acti
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听力题Questions 3 and 4 are based on the news report you have just heard
汉译英普洱Puer茶深受中国人喜爱。最好的普洱茶产自云南的西双版纳xishuangbanna，那里的气候和环境为普洱茶树的生长提供了最佳条件。普洱茶颜色较深，味道与其他许多茶截然不同。普洱茶渔brew的时间越长越有味道。许多爱喝茶的人尤其喜欢其独特的香味和口感。普洱茶含有多种有益健康的元素，常饮普洱茶有助于保护心脏和血管，还有减肥、消除疲劳和促进消化的功效。
问答题It is commonly believed that the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. But it is impossible to know the【C1】________day on which he was born. Church records show he was baptized (施洗礼) on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newly born baby. Shakespeare’s date of death is【C2】________known, however: it was April 23, 1616. He was 52 and had retired to Stratford three years before. Although few plays have been performed or analyzed as extensively as the 38 plays Shakespeare wrote, there are few surviving details about his life. This 【C3】________of biographical information is due primarily to his social【C4】________; he was not a noble, but the son of a leather trader. Shakespeare【C5】________attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read【C6】________literature. He did not go to university and at age 18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his【C7】________. They had four children, including the twins, Hamnet and Judith. Nothing is known of the period between the birth of the twins and Shakespeare’s【C8】________as a dramatist in London in the early 1590s. In a million words written over 20 years, he【C9】________the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a【C10】________that remains sharp today. As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, "He was not of an age, but for all time."A) capturedB) classicalC) conclusivelyD) emergenceE) exactF) generatedG) particular H) positionI) precision J) probably K) quality L) scarcity M) senior N) separated O) systematically
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单选题此题为音频题
问答题 都江堰Dujiangyan坐落在成都平原西部的岷江上，距成都市约50公里，始建于公元前三世纪。它的独特之处在于无需用堤坝调控水流。两千多年来，都江堰一直有效地发挥着防洪与灌溉作用，使成都平原成为旱涝保收的沃土和中国最重要的粮食产地之一。都江堰工程体现了我国人民与自然和谐共存的智慧，是全世界年代最久、仍在使用、无坝控水的水利工程。
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问答题The sheets are damp with sweat. You’re cold, but your heart is racing as if a killer just chased you down a dark street. It was just a nightmare, you tell yourself; there’s nothing to be afraid of. But you’re still filled with【C1】________. Given how unsettling and haunting nightmares can be, is there a way for dreamers to【C2】________, or even turn off, these bad dreams as they happen? Research is【C3】________, but some studies suggest that people who can master lucid dreaming—that is, the ability to be【C4】________that a nightmare is happening and possibly even control it without waking up—may hold the【C5】________. Nightmares are part of the human experience, especially for kids. Doctors【C6】________don’t consider occasional nightmares a problem. They can just be symptoms of a sleep disorder that can【C7】________from an unpleasant experience, stress, or certain drugs. To treat the disorder, there are a number of medicines and therapies that are backed by【C8】________research, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which analyzed the available research on the treatment of nightmare disorder in a recent【C9】________published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. However, nightmares are complicated, and researchers are still struggling to understand them, said Dr. Rachel Salas, an expert on sleep disorders and an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. What we do know is that people【C10】________to have different kinds of nightmares at different points during the sleep cycle.A) amountB) answerC) avoidD) awareE) departF) drasticallyG) fear H) limitedI) mechanical J) result K) review L) rigorous M) tend N) timidity O) typically
完形填空MostanimalsseekshadewhentemperaturesintheSaharaDesertsoarto120degreesFahrenheit.ButfortheSaharansilverant,【C1】________fromtheirundergroundnestsintothesun’sbrutalraysto【C2】________forfood,thisistheperfecttimetoseeklunch.In2015theseantswerejoinedinthedesertbyscientistsfromtwoBelgianuniversities,whospentamonthinthe【C3】________heattrackingtheantsanddiggingouttheirnests.Thegoalwassimple,todiscoverhowthe【C4】________adaptedtothekindofheatthatcan【C5】________meltthebottomofshoes.BackinBelgium,thescientistslookedattheantsunderanelectronicmicroscopeandfoundthattheir【C6】________,triangularhairreflectslightlikeaprism(棱镜),givingthemametallicreflectionandprotectingthemfromthesun’sawfulheat.WhenPh.D.studentQuentinWillot【C7】________thehairfromanantwitha【C8】________knifeandputitunderaheatlamp,itstemperaturejumped.Theants’methodofstayingcoolis【C9】________amonganimals.Couldthisreflectivetypeofhairprotectpeople?Willotsayscompaniesareinterestedin【C10】________theseants’methodofheatprotectionforhumanuse,includingeverythingfromhelpingtoprotectthelivesoffirefighterstokeepinghomescoolinsummer.A)adaptingB)consciouslyC)crawlingD)crowdedE)extremeF)huntG)literallyH)moderateI)remoteJ)removedK)speciesL)specimensM)thickN)tinyO)unique
问答题 大运河Grand Canal是世界上最长的人工河，北起北京，南至杭州。它是中国历史上最宏伟的工程之一。大运河始建于公元前4世纪，公元13世纪末建成。修建之初是为了运输粮食，后来也用于运输其他商品。大运河沿线区域逐渐发展成为中国的工商业中心。长久以来，大运河对中国的经济发展发挥了重要作用，有力地促进了南北地区之间的人员往来和文化交流。
听力题Questions 1 and 2 are based on the news report you have just heard
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单选题Have you ever wondered how acceptable it is to hug or touch someone? While it may sound safe to avoid all physical contact so as not to offend anyone, the lack of touching might imply cold attitudes or indifference in interpersonal relationships. So, what should we do? The simple answer is to thoroughly learn unique cultural norms for physical contact. In nonverbal communication terminology (术语), physical contact and the study of touching are generally referred to as haptics. Haptics in communication often suggest the level of intimacy. They are usually classified into two groups: high-contact and low-contact. Asia and quite surprisingly the United States, Canada and Britain belong to low-contact cultures. People from the rest of the world, such as Latin America, are considered to be in high-contact cultures, where they tend to expect touching in social interactions and feel more comfortable with physical closeness. Despite the classification, there are more complex factors such as relational closeness, gender, age, and context that can affect how someone views physical contact. One common French custom of greetings is cheek-kissing, but it is mostly restricted to friends, close acquaintances and family members. While cheek-kissing for Latin Americans is also a universal greeting form, it does not require such a high degree of relational closeness. However, gender matters more for them because cheek-kissing often only happens between women or a man and a woman but not two men. In contrast, in certain Arabian, African, and Asian countries, men can publicly hold hands or show physical affection as signs of brotherhood or friendship while these behaviors may suggest a romantic relationship in other parts of the world. Although men’s touching is more normal in these cultures, physical contact between persons of opposite sexes who are not family members is negatively perceived in Arabian countries. These factors could definitely affect the degree to which someone is comfortable with tactile (触觉的 ) communication and physical intimacy. Therefore, if you are someone who loves to show physical affection, you should not be afraid to show it or drastically change your behaviors—just ask for consent beforehand!
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写作题For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay titled "Is technology making people lazy? ".You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.
阅读理解Boredom has become trendy. Studies point to how boredom is good for creativity and innovation, as well as mental health. It is found that people are more creative following the completion of a tedious task. When people are bored, they have an increase in associative thought—the process of making new connections between ideas, which is linked to innovative thinking. These studies are impressive, but in reality, the benefits of boredom may be related to having time to clear your mind, be quiet, or daydream. In our stimulation-rich world, it seems unrealistic that boredom could occur at all. Yet, there are valid reasons boredom may feel so painful. As it turns out, boredom might signal the fact that you have a need that isn’t being met. Our always-on world of social media may result in more connections, but they are superficial and can get in the way of building a real sense of belonging. Feeling bored may signal the desire for a greater sense of community and the feeling that you fit in with others around you. So take the step of joining an organization to build face-to-face relationships. You’ll find depth that you won’t get from your screen no matter how many likes you get on your post. Similar to the need for belonging, bored people often report that they feel a limited sense of meaning. It’s a fundamental human need to have a larger purpose and to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. When people are bored, they’re more likely to feel less meaning in their lives. If you want to reduce boredom and increase your sense of meaning, seek work where you can make a unique contribution, or find a cause you can support with your time and talent. If your definition of boredom is being quiet, mindful, and reflective, keep it up. But if you’re struggling with real boredom and the emptiness it provokes, consider whether you might seek new connections and more significant challenges. These are the things that will genuinely relieve boredom and make you more effective in the process.
翻译题中国家庭十分重视孩子的教育
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单选题
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问答题Suppose your university student union is planning to hold a speech contest. You are now to write a proposal for organizing the contest. The proposal may include the topic, aim , procedure and selectio
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单选题
单选题
汉译英铁观音是中国最受欢迎的茶之一，原产于福建省安溪县西坪镇，如今安溪全县普遍种植，但该县不同地区生产的铁观音又各具风味。铁观音一年四季均可采摘，尤以春秋两季采摘的茶叶品质最佳。铁观音的加工非常复杂，需要专门的技术和丰富的经验。铁观音含有多种维生素，喝起来口感独特。常饮铁观音有助于预防心脏病、降低血压、增强记忆力。
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阅读理解Science of setbacks : How failure can improve career prospectsA) How do early career setbacks affect our long-term success? Failures can help us learn and overcome our fears. But disasters can still wound us. They can screw us up and set us back. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was genuine, scientifically documented truth to the expression what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger ?B) One way social scientists have probed the effects of career setbacks is to look at scientists of very similar qualifications. These scientists, for reasons that are mostly arbitrary, either just missed getting a research grant or just barely made it. In social sciences, this is known as examining near misses and narrow wins in areas where merit is subjective. That allows researchers to measure only the effects of being chosen or not. Studies in this area have found conflicting results. In the competitive game of biomedical science, research has been done on scientists who narrowly lost or won grant money. It suggests that narrow winners become even bigger winners down the line. In other words, the rich get richer.C) A 2018 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for example, followed researchers in the Netherlands. Researchers concluded that those who just barely qualified for a grant were able to get twice as much money within the next eight years as those who just missed out. And the narrow winners were 50 percent more likely to be given a professorship.D) Others in the US have found similar effects with National Institutes of Health early-career fellowships launching narrow winners far ahead of close losers. The phenomenon is often referred to as the Matthew effect, inspired by the Bible’s wisdom that to those who have, more will be given. There’s a good explanation for the phenomenon in the book The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert Laszlo Barabasi. According to Barabasi, it’s easier and less risky for those in positions of power to choose to hand awards and funding to those who’ve already been so recognized.E) This is bad news for the losers. Small early career setbacks seem to have a disproportionate effect down the line. What didn’t kill them made them weaker. But other studies using the same technique have shown there’s sometimes no penalty to a near miss. Students who just miss getting into top high schools or universities do just as well later in life as those who just manage to get accepted. In this case, what didn’t kill them simply didn’t matter. So is there any evidence that setbacks might actually improve our career prospects? There is now.F) In a study published in Nature Communications, Northwestern University sociologist Dashun Wang tracked more than 1,100 scientists who were on the border between getting a grant and missing out between 1990 and 2005. He followed various measures of performance over the next decade. These included how many papers they authored and how influential those papers were, as measured by the number of subsequent citations. As expected, there was a much higher rate of attrition (减员) among scientists who didn’t get grants. But among those who stayed on, the close losers performed even better than the narrow winners. To make sure this wasn’t by chance, Wang conducted additional tests using different performance measures. He examined how many times people were first authors on influential studies, and the like.G) One straightforward reason close losers might outperform narrow winners is that the two groups have comparable ability. In Wang’s study, he selected the most determined, passionate scientists from the loser group and culled (剔除) what he deemed the weakest members of the winner group. Yet the persevering losers still came out on top. He thinks that being a close loser might give people a psychological boost, or the proverbial kick in the pants.H) Utrecht University sociologist Arnout van de Rijt was the lead author on the 2018 paper showing the rich get richer. He said the new finding is apparently reasonable and worth some attention. His own work showed that although the narrow winners did get much more money in the near future, the actual performance of the close losers was just as good.I) He said the people who should be paying regard to the Wang paper are the funding agents who distribute government grant money. After all, by continuing to pile riches on the narrow winners, the taxpayers are not getting the maximum bang for their buck if the close losers are performing just as well or even better. There’s a huge amount of time and effort that goes into the process of selecting who gets grants, he said, and the latest research shows that the scientific establishment is not very good at distributing money. Maybe we should spend less money trying to figure out who is better than who,he said, suggesting that some more equal dividing up of money might be more productive and more efficient. Van de Rijt said he’s not convinced that losing out gives people a psychological boost. It may yet be a selection effect. Even though Wang tried to account for this by culling the weakest winners, it’s impossible to know which of the winners would have quit had they found themselves on the losing side.J) For his part, Wang said that in his own experience, losing did light a motivating fire. He recalled a recent paper he submitted to a journal, which accepted it only to request extensive editing, and then reversed course and rejected it. He submitted the unedited version to a more respected journal and got accepted.K) In sports and many areas of life, we think of failures as evidence of something we could have done better. We regard these disappointments as a fate we could have avoided with more careful preparation, different training, a better strategy, or more focus. And there it makes sense that failures show us the road to success. These papers deal with a kind of failure people have little control over—rejection. Others determine who wins and who loses. But at the very least, the research is starting to show that early setbacks don’t have to be fatal. They might even make us better at our jobs. Getting paid like a winner, though? That’s a different matter.
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问答题There’s a stress gap between men and womenA) "I used to work very hard. I love to create things, grow them and solve problems," said Meng Li, a successful app developer in San Francisco. "I didn’t really care about my mind and my body until they decided to go on strike. "B) Ms. Li said her stress led to sleeplessness. When she did sleep, she experienced "problem-solving dreams," which left her feeling unrested when she woke up. "After I became a first-time mother, I quickly realized I was so busy caring for other people and work that I felt like I’d lost myself," she said.C) It’s a common story—one we frequently ridicule and readily dismiss, for example, by claiming that women tend to complain more than men, despite the growing sum of research that underlines the problem. Women are twice as likely to suffer from severe stress and anxiety as men, according to a 2016 study published in The Journal of Brain and even more stressed. After her own struggle with this, Ms. Li took a step back and used her experience to build Sanity & Self, a self-care app and platform for overworked women. "The realizations I had in that process helped me gain insights and ultimately got me ready to integrate self-care into my daily life," she said.I) The stress problem extends beyond mental health when you consider the link between stress, anxiety and heart health. Worse, most of what we know about heart disease comes from studies involving men. However, "there are many reasons to think that it’s different in women," Harvard Medical School reported. For example, women are more likely to experience disturbed sleep, anxiety and unusual fatigue before a heart attack. Stress is so normalized that it is easy for women to shrug off those symptoms as simply the consequences of stress. Many women also do not experience chest pain before a heart attack the way men do, which leads to fewer women discovering problematic heart issues. Harvard reports that women are "much more likely than men to die within a year of having a heart attack" and "many women say their physicians sometimes don’t even recognize the symptoms."J) The good news is, women are more likely than men to take charge of their stress and manage it, the American Psychological Association reports. The concept of self-care, at its core, is quite simple. "The basics of adequate sleep, healthy diet and exercise are a good place to start," Dr. Joyce said. "Support from trusted relationships is vital. This includes professional support from various health and wellness providers if stress is becoming increasingly overwhelming. "K) Disconnecting from work and home responsibilities is also obviously important. But it’s much easier said than done. It is important to understand what causes your stress in the first place. "Get really specific with what’s stressing you out," Ms. Li said. "We often chalk up our stress to broad experiences like work. But work stress can take many different forms. Is a colleague being disrespectful of your time? Is a boss undermining your day-to-day control over decision making? These are different causes of stress and can benefit from different kinds of self-care." L) Ideally, your spouse or partner will be supportive, rather than dismissive, of your stress. It is important to talk through these issues before they come to a head. "Women working outside of the home should make an effort to have a conscious conversation with their partners about more equitable sharing of household and family responsibilities," Dr. Joyce said.
听力题Questions 8 to 11 are based on the conversation you have just heard
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阅读理解Sugar shocked. That describes the reaction of many Americans this week following revelations that, 50 years ago, the sugar industry paid Harvard scientists for research that shifted the focus away
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阅读理解Success was once defined as being able to stay at a company for a long time and move up the corporate ladder. The goal was to reach the top, accumulate wealth and retire to a life of ease. My fathe