No matter if you're leafing through those glossy admissions brochures, attending an information session on campus or browsing a college fair with your teen, there's always one big thought at the back of the mind of every parent: Wait, how much is this college degree going to cost me? Thankfully, there are some new tools out there to make figuring out costs a little easier. This September the Department of Education released its College Scorecard, a project designed to help parents and students make more informed decisions about higher education. The tool provides information on college costs, graduation rates, average starting salaries, post-graduation and information that can help people pick the best school for their financial and academic needs. With the College Scorecard, you see a breakdown of what you'd actually pay for a college education, based on your family's income. This is the most important aspect of this tool, because while the "sticker price" of a school may be high, you most likely won't pay full price to go there. For example, although Harvard's list price is around $ 60,000 according to its admissions website, the average family will pay just over $ 14,000 per year once you factor in grants and financial aid. The tool lets you compare schools' stats side by side, including their financial information. In the search function, you can filter out what kind of degree you want(two-year or four-year), location, public or private, size, major or program and more to make a really specific comparison. If any schools catch your eye, you can click on "View More Details" for a comprehensive summary(SAT/ACT scores to get in, what typical student debt is like, etc.). You can also search for a specific school to get all the stats you want on it. You can also check out NPR's college cost calculator, which uses the College Scorecard raw data of 150 major colleges and universities to show you right off the bat the net price(price of college minus financial aid, grants and scholarships)for various incomes compared to that scary sticker price. It's a quick but less detailed summary looking specifically at costs. While these tools can't determine the exact dollar amount you'll have to pay, they do give you a better ballpark estimate of what college costs you are expected to be able to pay. Knowing that now will help you decide what school makes the best financial sense for your family.
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Homo sapiens were not always so special. In the ancient past, other human forms lived beside us. The Neanderthals in Eurasia. Small, hobbit-like humans in Indonesia. The mysterious Denisovans in the Ural mountains. But our time alone may be nearing its end. Through the power of technology, humans are set to take on the role of Intelligent Designer. We can upgrade ourselves and surmount evolution. Ultimately, we can become entirely new beings that set the stage for a posthuman future. The scenario has played out for decades in science fiction but the prospect is raised more seriously by Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian, in his latest book, Sapiens. In it he sees trouble ahead. The latest human enhancements will be accessible only to the rich, leading to a 21st-century society more unequal than any that came before. The revolution Harari has in mind is borne of engineering and exploits mechanical, electronic, chemical and genetic progress. In place of treatments that correct biological deficits, like failing hearts, poor hearing and weak eyesight, will be procedures that improve on natural performance, making the fortunate recipients biologically better than the rest. "In the 20th century, the main task of medicine was to bring everybody to a certain level of health and capability. It was by definition an egalitarian aim," Harari told the Guardian. "In the 21st century medicine is moving onwards and trying to surpass the norm, to help people live longer, to have stronger memories, to have better control of their emotions. But upgrading like that is not an egalitarian project, it's an elitist project. No matter what norm you reach, there is always another upgrade which is possible. " The haves and have-nots are far from new. Cochlear implants which wire directly into the auditory nervous system have transformed the lives of a minority of deaf people. But they cost ￡40,000 apiece. Similarly, genetic tests that radically change patient care are beyond the means of many individuals and countries' healthcare systems. Harari argues that as science progresses the upgrades that become available will increasingly widen the gap between rich and poor. Research on implantable devices called brain-computer interfaces(BCIs)are in trials to help disabled people move their defunct limbs or robotic prosthetics. More advanced devices could link people's brains directly to the internet, giving them vast and faithful memory storage, and seamless access to information, even if that does include endless footage of cats in hats. Genetic engineering will be more disruptive still. A new genome editing procedure called Crispr has given scientists their first real hope of making safe, precise changes to the human genome. They have already used it to correct cells with genetic faults that cause cataracts and cystic fibrosis. Similar therapies might allow improvements to human performance. Western history has made many of today's researchers flinch at studies into the genetic basis of intelligence. But the Beijing Genomics Institute, the world's largest genomics research centre, has taken on the job. If the project bears fruit, it might drive attempts to boost human intelligence by genetically modifying embryos. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University, suggests another radical possibility. He has developed tools that can scramble the genetic code leaving it functional but unrecognisable to invading viruses. His first goal is to engineer a bacterium that is resistant to viral infection. But he does not dismiss the possibility of changing human DNA too leading to a biologically new kind of human. "In the 21st century, there is a real possibility of creating biological castes, with real biological differences between rich and poor," said Harari. "The end result could be speciation. We're used to being the only human species around, but there is no law of nature that says there can only be one species of human. With this kind of upgrading treatment we could have, in the not too distant future, more than one human species on Earth again. " Anders Sandberg, a researcher at the Future of Humanity Institute at the Oxford Martin School, said that while technology might drive an evolutionary split in humankind, the divide would not separate rich and poor. "Speciation might well happen, but instead of class, I think it'll be much more driven by culture. You might get a country that decides it wants to bring down its healthcare budget by subsidising an upgrade that makes people healthier. The end result might be that the Singaporeans become their own species. Or it could be a technological speciation, like Mac users versus PC users, which is probably even more horrifying," Sandberg said. Harari says the rich will always have first access to the latest enhancements. "When the aim is to upgrade, by definition, you want to be better than others. So no matter how much the cost goes down, there will always be the next treatment which is only available to the rich. The differences might become so big that if you miss the train it will be too late. "
{{B}}SECTION 3 TRANSLATION TESTDirections: Translate the following passage into Chinese and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}}
BTalks and ConversationsDirections: In this part of the test, you will hear several short talks and conversations. After each of these, you will hear a few questions. Listen carefully because you will hear the talk or conversation and questions ONLY ONCE, when you hear a question, read the four answer choices and choose the best answer to that question. Then write the letter of the answer you have chosen in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET./B
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Dolly was no ordinary lamb. She was cloned from a single mammary cell of an adult ewe, overturning long-held scientific dogma that had declared such a thing biologically impossible. Her birth set off a race in laboratories around the world to duplicate the breakthrough and raised the specter of human cloning. A decade later, scientists are starting to come to grips with just how different Dolly was. Dozens of animals have been cloned since that first little lamb and it's becoming increasingly clear that they are all, in one way or another, defective. It's tempting to think of clones as perfect carbon copies of the original—down to every hair and quirk of temperament. It turns out, though, that there are various degrees of genetic replication. Not only are clones separated from the original template by time—in Dolly's case, six years—but they are also the product of an unnatural molecular mechanism that turns out not to be very good at making identical copies. But scientists see a role for cloning in treating human diseases—and perhaps someday conquering some of man's most intractable conditions. It may be another 10 years or more before the approach yields anything safe and reliable enough to be used in real patients, and there is no guarantee that it will ever be successful. But nobody thought Dolly was possible until she made history that warm July night 10 years ago.
The first cases of the deadly H5N1 have been confirmed in【B1】______ where most efforts focus on trying to keep domestic birds away from wild【B2】______ birds and【B3】______ birds. In the Danube delta, thousands of【B4】______,【B5】______ and【B6】______ have already been slaughtered. 【B7】______ of birds, experts say, create a perfect environment for spreading disease. In the second confirmed bird-flu cluster in the delta,【B8】______ swans have died on a fish farm. In the third cluster,【B9】______ swans have died so far. But this is the【B10】______ of the avian influenza iceberg. Bird flu is believed to present in Romania,【B11】______,【B12】______, and 【B13】______ because white-fronted geese can travel【B14】______ kilometres in a single day! All expeditions to the delta have been banned and not a domestic bird in sight. They've all been gathered, 【B15】______, and buried. According to WHO, the 【B16】______ will remain for a long time in the region. The more cases to be【B17】______, the more quarantine【B18】______ will have to be launched, with【B19】______ killed, people closely【B20】______, and areas sealed off. No one can say how this story will end.
Passage 1
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{{B}}SECTION 6 TRANSLATION TESTDirections: Translate the following passage into English and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.{{/B}}
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{{B}}SECTION 1: LISTENING TEST{{/B}}
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On this day a year ago, a young woman lay dying, in a cold and spartan house, in a village in South Africa's remote Eastern Cape Province. AIDS had eaten into her body; she weighed less than four and half stone. 【C1】______ that she could barely leave her bed. Her mouth was infected with the thrush that makes it【C2】______. Her name was Prudence Radebe and she was resigned to her fate. Today, Prudence is still alive. In fact, she【C3】______ that it's hard to believe just how sick she was. Her weight has【C4】______, to sixty-one kilograms. Her skin is smooth and shiny. She carries【C5】______ from the well up the hill with no difficulty. And, every so often, she likes to does stretching exercises【C6】______behind her house. Prudence knows why she is still alive. "Anti-retroviral drugs saved my life", she says, matter-of-factly. I first met her【C7】______, when she started taking anti-retrovirals. Since then, I've been travelling down to the Eastern Cape every two months【C8】______. We do a lot of AIDS stories in this part of the world—but not many like this—with a happy ending. Prudence is a clever,cheerful person, with a loving family—【C9】_____ with a warm feeling, it shows there is hope amidst the dark,【C10】_____. Prudence is, above all, lucky. She'd heard that the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres had started an anti-retroviral project【C11】______, and she applied for treatment. A fluke of geography, if you like—there are almost【C12】______ people in the Eastern Cape, and only 4,000 are receiving free anti-retrovirals. But Prudence is not just lucky—she had to 【C13】______ that she was serious and dedicated. She had to learn about all 【C14】______ which she now needs to take every single day for the rest of her life. She discovered that she might build up resistance if she does not take them properly, and that they can 【C15】______. Today she has the zeal of a convert, her language is peppered with the terminology of【C16】______, viral-load, voluntary testing, nevirapine. If Prudence took you round her village, you would realise just how fortunate she is. This is one of the most beautiful parts of South Africa—【C17】______ the steep, green hillsides, and children's voices echo across the valleys. But it's a landscape that is haunted by death. Prudence is surrounded by tragedy. I fear the worst for her neighbour, Nontandozela,【C18】______ for the past six months, too weak to stand. Nontandozela's sister, Victoria, was also sick and lying in the bed on the other side of the room.【C19】______ Victoria died. Nontandozela's daughters watch in silence. Their faces betray no emotions, but I can't imagine their fear. The men in the family; the fathers of these young girls【C20】______; nobody knows how to contact them. And nobody has enough money to pay for a taxi to take Nontandozela to the clinic where Prudence started her treatment. If nothing happens, Nontandozela's days are numbered.
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{{B}}Task 2 Passage TranslationDirections: 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.{{/B}}
{{B}}Part A Note-taking And Gap-fillingDirections: In this part of the test you will hear a short talk. You will hear the talk ONLY ONCE. While listening to the talk, you may take notes on the important points so that you can have enough information to complete a gap-filling task on a separate ANSWER BOOKLET. You will not get your ANSWER BOOKLET until after you have listened to the talk.{{/B}}
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