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问答题Americans do not go in for envy. The gap between rich and poor is bigger than in any other advanced country, but most people are unconcerned. Whereas Europeans fret about the way the economic pie is divided, Americans want to join the rich, not soak them. Eight out often, more than anywhere else, believe that though you may start poor, if you work hard, you can make pots of money. It is a central part of the American Dream. The political consensus, therefore, has sought to pursue economic growth rather than the redistribution of income, in keeping with John Kennedy"s adage that "a rising tide lifts all boats." The tide has been rising fast recently. Thanks to a jump in productivity growth after 1995, America"s economy has outpaced other rich countries" for a decade. Its workers now produce over 30% more each hour they work than ten years ago. In the late 1990s everybody shared in this boom. Though incomes were rising fastest at the top, all workers" wages far outpaced inflation.

问答题 A Mixed Economy: the United States System The economic system of the United States is principally one of private ownership. This system, often referred to as a "free enterprise system", can be contrasted with a socialist economic system, which depends heavily on government planning and public ownership of the means of production. It should be noted that although the United States operates a system of private enterprise, government has to some extent always been involved in regulating and guiding the U.S. economy. At the same time, U.S. citizens have always had the freedom to choose for whom they will work and what they will buy. Most important, they vote for officials who set economic policy. In the U.S. economic system, consumers, producers and government make economic decisions on a daily basis, mainly through the price system. The dynamic interaction of these three groups makes the economy function. The market's primary force, however, is the interaction of producers and consumers. This has led analysts to dub the U.S. economic system a "market economy". As a rule, consumers look for the best values for what they spend while producers seek the best price and profit for what they have to sell. Government, at the federal, state, and local level, seeks to promote the public security, assure fair competition, and provide a range of services believed to be better performed by public rather than private enterprises. Some of these public services include education (although there are many private schools and training centers), the postal (but not the telephone) service, the road system, social statistical reporting and, of course, national defense. In the United States most people are simultaneously consumers and producers; they are also voters who help influence the decisions of government. The mixture among consumers, producers and members of government changes constantly, making a dynamic rather than a static economy. In recent years consumers have made their concern known, and government has responded by creating agencies to protect consumer interests and promote general public welfare. The U.S. economy has changed in other ways as well. The population and the labor force have moved dramatically from farms to cities, from fields to factories and, above a11, to service industries, thus providing more personal and public services. In today's economy, these providers of services far outnumber producers of agricultural and manufactured goods. Statistics also reveal a rather startling shift away from self-employment to working for others. Generally, there are three kinds of businesses: (1)those started and managed personally by single owners or single entrepreneurs; (2)the partnership where two or more people share the risks and rewards of business, and(3)the corporation where shareholders as owners can buy or sell their shares at any time on the open market. This latter structure, by far the most important, permits the amassing of large sums of money by combining the investments of many people, making possible large-scale enterprises.

问答题 Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. Questions 1～3 High unemployment is spreading in New York City beyond the poorest neighborhoods to once-secure middle-class enclaves, where some residents are falling behind on rent and mortgage payments. Among the hardest-hit spots are the northern Bronx and southeastern Queens. Both areas have seen unemployment double since the third quarter of 2007, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "The recovery in the labor market is a long way off and it will be a long time coming to middle-income neighborhoods," said James Parrott, the institute's deputy director and chief economist. New York City has shed 144,000 jobs since August 2008, leaving it with an unemployment rate of 10% as of November. The Bronx, with its big public-housing complexes, lower education levels and large unskilled population, long has had the highest unemployment rate in the city. In the third quarter, the Bronx's jobless rate was 13%, the institute said. But in the northernmost stretch, populated by middle-and working-class families, bordering Westchester County suburbs, unemployment was 12.2% in the third quarter, more than double the rate of two years earlier, the institute found. Residents, city officials and economists said there have been more foreclosure cases this year in that northern part of the Bronx, as well as an increase in small-business closings, illegal renting of bedrooms and basements, and court petitions by landlords seeking back rent. Restaurant employee Gregory Ramsden, a 46-year-old renter in the Norwood neighborhood of the north Bronx, has been looking for full-time work since June 2008. He has been teaching classes in English as a second language, but hasn't had enough money to pay the rent on his apartment since July. His landlord has begun eviction proceedings. "I'd take anything. I'd take a job cleaning toilets," said Mr. Ramsden, who, as a full-time waiter, used to make $ 50,000 a year, the area's median income. "I believe I'm running out of options." On the southeastern strip of Queens, where generations of families have entered the middle class by buying starter homes, unemployment has doubled in the past two years to 12.2%. In 2008, there were more than 1,800 foreclosure cases filed in the area, and 1,589 filed as of the third quarter of this year, according to the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University. Residents said vacant homes in the area—known largely as Jamaica—have attracted illegal dumping, more rodents and break-ins. "You've got squatters going in," said Yvonne Reddick, district manager of a community board for the area. The Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan think tank, has found that food, housing and utility costs for New Yorkers rose significantly between 2002 and 2007 while wages in boroughs other than Manhattan stagnated. "The path into the middle class has gotten a lot harder for New Yorkers," said Jonathan Bowles, director of the think tank.

问答题 American Dream The term "American dream" is widely used today. But what exactly does this concept mean? Where does the term come from? Has the meaning of the term changed over time? Questions like these can complicate a seemingly simple term and lead us to an even more important question: is the American dream a myth or a reality today? The term "American dream" first appeared in a ramous novel written by Horatio Alger in 1867. The novel, Ragged Dick, was a "rags to riches" story about a little orphan boy who lived in New York. The boy saved all his pennies, worked very hard, and eventually became rich. The novel sent the message to the American public that anyone could succeed in America if they were honest, worked hard, and showed determination to succeed. No matter what your background, no matter where you were from, no matter if you had no money or no family, hard work and perseverance would always lead to success. Today, the message from Alger's novel is still a prevalent one in this country. It is still used to define the American dream. A very basic definition of the American dream is that it is the hope of the American people to have a better quality of life and a higher standard of living than their parents. This can mean that each generation hopes for better jobs, or more financial security, or ownership of land or a home. However, new versions and variations of the American dream have surfaced since Alger's novel was published. For one thing, the idea that Americans are always seeking to improve their lifestyle also suggests that each generation wants more than the previous generation had. Some people would argue that this ever-increasing desire to improve the quality of one's life may have started out on a smaller scale, in the past, but today has led to an out-of-control consumerism and materialism. Another, more benign view of the American dream is that it is about the desire to create opportunities for ourselves, usually through hard work. A hallmark of the American dream, some would argue, is the classic "self-starter," the person who starts out with very little in life—little money, few friends, few opportunities—and works hard to make his or her way in the world. A classic example of this type of American dreamer would be former president Abraham Lincoln, who was born in a log cabin, was largely self-educated, and yet worked his way up in the world to eventually become a United States president. This view of the American dream has also been associated with immigrants and their quests for a better life in a new country. Americans have long been fascinated by immigrant stories, and many feel great pride about their own families who may have come from other countries, worked very hard, and created a better life for future generations. A more recent interpretation of the American dream has to do with equality. Civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used some of the rhetoric associated with the American dream to urge people to work for equal opportunities for all Americans, not just some Americans. A harsh reality was becoming clear to some people, especially in the 1960s and 1970s: not everyone had the same opportunities. If people were denied jobs, education, or other opportunities because of their race, ethnic background, or gender, was the American dream only a myth?

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问答题The lobbying carried out by food manufacturers to block a European-wide food labelling system backed by doctors is laid bare in a series of private emails published today by The Independent. In a flurry of statements and position papers to MEPs in the run up to key votes, Kellogg' s, Danone, Coca-Cola, Nestle and other manufacturers claimed that colour-coded traffic lights were incapable of informing shoppers about the right diet. They claimed that studies showed that their favoured percentage-based Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) had wide consumer acceptance. Polls by the National Heart Forum and the consumer group Which? that looked at both systems found shoppers preferred colour-coding. On Wednesday, the European Parliament rejected the traffic light system devised by the Food Standards Agency vote in favour of GDAs. At the same time, they backed the compulsory labeling of harmful trans-fats and country of origin on processed products. Glenis Willmott, the leader of Labour' s MEPs, accused the food industry of heavy-handed tactics. "People weren't being told the full facts and the amount of time and money poured in by lobbyists was huge," she said. "It must have had an impact. " Mette Kahlin, policy advocate for Which?, said. "While I was lobbying in Brussels for Which? it was clear I was outnumbered by industry lobbyists 100-1. Consumer and health organisations don't have enough money to match that. " Devised by the UK Food Standards Agency in 2006, traffic lights show red lights for high levels of salt, fat and sugar, and amber and green for lower amounts. The British Medical Association, British Dietetic Association and British Heart Foundation are among the health groups that support the scheme. On Monday, the Ad Hoc GDA Group, representing 11 manufacturers including Kellogg's Mars, Nestle and Unilever, emailed Mps in a last-ditch attempt to swing their vote. "We still believe that a traffic light approach provides too judgmental an assessment of foodstuffs--the complex nutritional composition of a food and its place in the diet cannot be reduced to a single colour," they wrote. In an earlier email, Nestle France warned that the introduction of a colour-coded system would "create an arbitrary judgment about the food and this, in total disconnection with dietary requirements. " Coca-cola even claimed that a diet based upon green lights could be harmful. In a document headed "Food labelling basic elements for discussion", sent in 2008, the US fizzy drinks giant told MEPs. "Colour coding gives the consumer false assurances. A diet based upon products with green lights would lead to chronic nutritional deficiencies. " "The briefings are not based on evidence," protested Ms Kahlin, of Which? "In the UK we have had traffic lights and no one has been admitted to hospital with malnutrition from eating food signed with green lights. People still eat products marked red but they become aware of what is in their food. " The EU wants to introduce a unified labelling system to cut obesity, diabetes and other illnesses, which are causing millions of lost days at work and billions of pounds in health costs. At the request of the Food Standards Agency, retailers Sainsbury's and Asda have put traffic lights on their own-label products, but they have been fiercely opposed by Tesco and multinational manufacturers. In recent months, Pepsico, Danone and other global food giants and trade groups have mounted one of the biggest lobbying operations in EU history. Lobbyists accosted MEPs in bars and restaurants and began turning up in their offices without appointments. They bombarded MEPs with documents, reports and fact-sheets praising GDAs and undermining traffic lights. The lobbying was aimed at members of the Environment committee before a key vote in March, when it rejected traffic lights by 32-30. All 736 MEPs were targeted in the run-up to Wednesday's vote. Manufacturers maintained the lobbying was based on solid evidence. Kellogg's said.. "If we' re to win the obesity battle, consumers need a labelling scheme that gives them a much greater understanding of what's in their food so they can make informed choices. GDAs do this in a way traffic lights simply can't, and that's why we' ll continue to use and support them. " Coca-Cola said.- "Our communication to MEPs was based on thorough research of European consumers that is publicly available. " Nestle said. "GDAs are factual and objective and ensure consumers can evaluate a product's role in their daily diet. " Unilever, Mars and Danone were unavailable for comment.1.What is the traffic light system discussed in the passage? What is the function of such traffic light system?

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问答题Why are postal firms—once threatened by the emergence of the internet—now finding salvation from it? Give some examples.

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问答题舒舍予，字老舍，现年四十岁，面黄无须，生于北平，三岁失怙，可谓无父，志学之年，帝王不存，可谓无君，无父无君，特别孝爱老母。幼读三百篇，不求甚解。继学师范，遂奠教书匠之基。及壮，糊口四方，教书为业。甚难发财，每购奖券，以得末奖为荣，示甘为寒贱也。二十七岁，发愤著书，科学哲学无所终，故写小说，博大家一笑，没什么了不得。三十四岁结婚，今已有一男一女，均狡猾可喜。书无所不读，全无所惑，并不着急，教书做事，均甚认真，往往吃亏，也不后悔，如此而已。再活四十年，也许能有点出息。

问答题What does the author want to tell us from the success of Antigone Rising in the first paragraph?

问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 2 English passages. You will hear the passages ONLY ONCE. After you have heard each passage, translate it into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. You may take notes while you are listening.

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问答题Introduce briefly America's economic situation in the recent years.

问答题Directions: In this part of the test, you will hear 2 English passages. You will hear the passages ONLY ONCE. After you have heard each passage, translate it into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET. You may take notes while you are listening.