问答题The President of the United States of America has more power than any other president in the democratic world—except the French president. It is he who formulates foreign policy and prepares laws for the home front. He is leader of the nation and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He represents the USA and, since the USA is a superpower, the eyes of the whole world are on him. The fate of the world is in his hands, or so the world believes, and one careless, ill-prepared speech could precipitate a crisis. Actually, a great deal of the President"s power is controlled by Congress. It is the Congress that declares war, not the President. Unlike the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or of Germany, he can make a treaty with a foreign power. But this treaty must be debated and agreed by Congress before it comes into force. The same control applies to laws at home. Congress has on several occasions refused to ratify treaties or give approval to laws proposed by the President. Some Americans have the feeling that idealism has gone out of politics and that personal ambition and money have taken place. The election campaign for the Presidency is unique in the amount of money poured into it. The wooing of voters lasts for months. But before the campaign for the election of the President can begin, each political party has to choose its candidate for the Presidency. This can lead to some very close contests. Many aspiring to be elected as the party candidate employ top public relations and advertising men, who invent clever catch phrases and set about "selling" their man. There are whistle stop tours by train, by plane, by car. The candidate delivers countless speeches and shakes countless hands. Big money is necessary to support a presidential candidate"s campaign, and the candidate himself must be rich enough to pay his share. An attractive wife is an advantage, too. Money is also needed to become the governor of a state, or a successful Senator, or members of the House of Representatives. Yet from this small group many excellent men have become President, and the same is true of members of Congress. It is unlikely that the President could ever become a dictator. Congress, the press and the people between them rule out such a possibility. Perhaps the most efficient safeguard of democracy is the Supreme Court, for one of its objects is to protect the individual against the government. It has the authority to cancel a law which it considers violates the Constitution. The court sits for at least four days a week, and any individual who has a grievance against the government can apply to it for help.

问答题 Questions 7～10 U.S. consumer prices climbed faster than expected in May, further fanning investor fears over inflation. Stock markets around the world have cracked sharply lower the past few weeks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing all the ground it had gained so far this year. Japan's stock market is down 11% on the year; gold has had its biggest slide in a decade and a half; and many emerging markets are wobbling. After Wednesday's Consumer Price Index report from the Labor Department, which showed a 0.4 percent increase in prices for May (core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3 percent), the stock market made a comeback. But with future interest rate hikes now starting to be priced into the market, investor fears that central bankers around the world will go overboard and continue to drive rates higher is set to further spook markets. This is no trading correction that investors have to absorb. The real risk of a jarring bear market has emerged. But while the trauma that inflation created for investors in the 1970s is still close to the surface, the sudden frenzy is misplaced. Powerful forces in the world economy continue to keep prices largely in check. Over the past decade, inflation has been a minor threat compared with brutal deflationary shocks. They started with the collapse of the Mexican peso in the mid-1990s. In 1997, much of eastern Asia's flourishing economy was leveled. Next were Russia, Turkey and Argentina; Brazil teetered on the brink. By early 2001, Silicon Valley, the pride of the U. S. economy, was crashing, while entire sectors of the so-called New Economy disintegrated. The tech wreck may be over, but it has left a legacy of low prices. Tech companies had to dump on the market everything from fiberoptic networks to computer chips, as desperate investors struggled to raise cash. That slashed telecommunication costs at the very moment that emerging markets were producing a skilled and hungry generation of information workers. Result? The offshore outsourcing revolution and downward pressure on global production costs that keeps inflation under control. Equally powerful are the ultra-low-cost emerging-market manufacturing bases, led by China. With more than 1 billion people set to enter the urban labor markets of China, India, Brazil and Indonesia in the next 20 years, all those pressures on prices will only intensify. More immediate forces are also at work to keep prices from surging. Despite some wishful thinking, growth in Europe is slowing, not accelerating. A large part of U. S. growth has been driven by booming real estate prices. But in the past two years, the Fed has increased rates 16 times, so real estate-driven consumption is yesterday's news. Tomorrow's story will be the sharp fall in U. S. growth as consumers face higher mortgage costs. That dynamic could become particularly nasty, given the record level of U. S. household debt, government deficit and unequaled current-account shortfall. Investors are often caught fiat-footed when markets slide. In 2001～2002, deflation was the fear of the day, but few investors at the time saw the opportunity in commodities, which were going for a fraction of today's prices. Today investors are obsessed with inflation, while government and top-tier corporate bonds are shunned. That should be telling us something. What is it? In the past few years, the central banks of Japan, the U.S. and Europe have cut interest rates so aggressively that the real cost of borrowing fell to, effectively, below zero. That spurred extraordinary amounts of debt financing by governments and corporations. But now, as the global credit cycle tightens, some of the marginal investments will quickly become unsustainable. If central bankers keep raising interest rates, deeper cracks would open in the world economy. What is really troubling markets is not inflation. It is the fear that central banks may have tightened too much, and will tighten further. If that happens, the recent market shock would be merely the precursor to a still more dramatic quake.

问答题Paraphrase the sentence: "Blogs have enabled economists to turn their microphones into megaphones". (Para. 9)

问答题Why do people believe now that Disney is setting the pace for the industry? (Para. 5)

问答题For years I have been mercilessly lampooned by friends and acquaintances alike for my unorthodox lifestyle choice of having no TV. In an age of increasingly large flat-screens and surround sound which accost you the minute you walk into someone's house, people regularly look at me like I'm either severely handicapped or chronically hard done by when I mention that I have no television. I can see the mixture of genuine pity, raw pathos and sheer disbelief in their faces as they stare at me open-mouthed. And no, contrary to the jokes and insinuations from the equally incredulous young people I mentor, it's not because I can't afford to pay the TV license. To be sure, television is a great invention, if handled in moderation. The composite etymological derivation (from the Greek and the Latin words—literally meaning "to see from afar") tells of a tremendous technological feat which certainly deserves to be applauded. What's more, if one is discerning, it can be the source of some quality entertainment, instruction and enjoyment. Some of the nature documentaries and arts programmers on BBC 2 are truly fantastic. But the sad reality is that young people are rarely discerning and, by dint of poor time management skills, often end up wasting an inordinate amount of precious, never-returning time watching trash, their brains wallowing in a trough of mental lethargy.

问答题1.Passage 1

问答题Culture shock is the term used to describe the experience many people have when they travel to another country. It shows what happens when an individual suddenly experiences the different culture rules of another social group. Culture shock is a complex phenomenon. But I’m going to focus on three main ideas today. First of all, we will consider the reasons why people experience culture shock. Secondly, I will describe the different stages of this experience. Finally, I’ll mention why we have spent so much time and money to study this phenomenon. You might think that culture shock affects, see, only travelers. But that is not the case; in fact cross-culture studies have immersed practical value for modern society.

问答题Passage 2

问答题It is too early to say whether the recent declines in global stock markets signal anything out of the ordinary. Though large, they are hardly unprecedented: 8 percent for the Dow, 19 percent for Japan"s Nikkei, 21.7 percent for Brazil"s Bovespa (all changes are measured from recent highs, in April or May, until yesterday"s closes). But the fact that they"ve occurred simultaneously suggests herd behavior. Spoiled by years of cheap credit, global investors seem to be reacting to the prospect of higher interest rates by fleeing stock markets almost everywhere. There is danger of a broader financial and economic setback. The riskiest and most mysterious aspect of the present situation is the increasingly global nature of investment capital. Once, capital was largely compartmentalized by nation. Americans saved and invested in the United States; Germans saved and invested in Germany. This world is disappearing. It is now routine for pension funds, mutual funds and many wealthy investors to move money in and out of American, European, Asian and Latin American stocks and bonds. The magnitudes are immense. For 2004 tile International Monetary Fund reports that: Americans invested $ 856 billion abroad, while foreigners invested $1.44 trillion in the United States. Some flows represented "foreign direct investment": buying factories, real estate or entire companies. But most flows involved corporate stocks and bonds, government bonds or international bank loans. The Japanese invested $414 billion abroad, and foreigners invested $273 billion in Japan. "Emerging market" countries (China, India, Brazil and many developing nations) received $570 billion in foreign investment and made $935 billion of investments abroad; About $515 billion of the outflow came from governments—dominated by China and other Asian nations—that reinvested their trade surpluses, often in U. S. Treasury bonds. Thirty years ago, these massive global money movements didn"t exist. Most countries had extensive "capital controls" restricting how much (or whether) their citizens could invest abroad and how much (or whether) foreigners could invest in their countries. The United States was a major exception. A turning point was France"s decision in the early 1980s to relax controls, says Rawi Abdelal of the Harvard Business School and author of the forthcoming "Capital Rules: The Construction of Global Finance." The French concluded that controls were so widely evaded by the wealthy that they were impractical, he says. Once France changed, Europe moved to liberalize capital flows. Many other countries gradually joined for fear of losing in the worldwide chase for investment funds. In theory, liberalization benefits everyone. Capital flows to the most productive investments. Savers earn higher returns. Countries with good investment opportunities expand more rapidly. Huge capital inflows have clearly helped China by financing new factories with modern technology. In many ways, the world economy seems healthy. In 2006, the IMF predicts the fourth consecutive year of growth exceeding 4 percent. But there"s a rub: Global finance has created new risks. At least two stand out. First, huge trade imbalances. The United States is running massive deficits, counterbalanced by big surpluses in China, Japan and other Asian countries. These imbalances occur in part because countries with trade surpluses can recycle their export earnings—heavily in dollars—rather than buying imports or selling dollars for other currencies, leading to a dollar depreciation. That would lower the American trade deficit by making U. S. imports more expensive and U. S. exports less expensive. Most economists consider today"s massive imbalances unsustainable. Second, worldwide financial crises. Global investors may move in herds, first pouring money into some countries—or investments—and then withdrawing abruptly. That"s what happened in the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Capital flight plunged countries into deep recessions; investors suffered large losses. There are now fears that hedge funds and others may be similarly overexposed in some markets. (Hedge funds are lightly regulated pools of money, mostly from big and wealthy investors. They are estimated to control more than $1 trillion in financial assets.) Some economists, most prominently Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, consider the recent stock market declines a healthy sign. They signal a retreat from blatantly speculative behavior. A prolonged period of cheap credit pushed too much money into risky investments. Some investors put money into emerging-market stocks and bonds; others preferred commodities (gold, copper). Housing was the small investor"s favorite. The result: a series of "bubbles" that are best punctured sooner rather than later.

问答题长期以来，科学同艺术之间的关系一直是剃头担子一头热：科学热恋着艺术，艺术却拒科学于千里之外。许多大科学家一生钟爱艺术，且懂艺术，从中汲取养料，善养浩然之气，或得到人生最大安慰。相反，热爱自然科学并且理解工程技术的文学艺术家真可谓凤毛麟角。艺术家对自然科学望而生畏，敬而远之，原因之一是里面有一大堆高深的数学公式。其实，撇开数学，绕过那一大堆公式，一门学科的基本思想还是可以被我们理解和欣赏的。这恰如我们虽然看不懂莫扎特乐曲的总谱，却照样能同它的主旋律产生共鸣，击节称赞。

问答题豫园是上海著名的古典园林，已有400多年历史。花园设计独特，具有明清两代南方的建筑艺术的风格。园内共有40余景，景色自然迷人，亭台楼阁、假山池塘和谐对称、协调均衡，其布局之精致自古至今闻名江南。 豫园原为明代一位大官的私家花园，始建于1559年，直到二十年后才建成。此后曾几经变迁，屡遭摧残。所幸的是，至1949年上海解放时，园内的主要景点尚完好无损。从1956年开始，豫园经过多次修缮，重现其昔日光彩。

问答题America's population hit the 300 million mark yesterday—at 7:46 a.m. Eastern time, according to Census Bureau estimates. Nobody knows exactly who became America's 300 millionth citizen. But demographers are summing up the milestone as a turning point that signals several trends to watch as the US—in contrast with Europe and Japan—deals with a steadily growing population. Politically and demographically, experts say, the shifts will begin to have an impact on regions of the country not yet used to the new diversity provided by the influx of Hispanics and Asians, which has already transformed California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and New York. In coming years, Midwesterners, those in the Great Plains, rural areas, and small towns everywhere will begin to deal with the challenges of new ethnic and racial residents, says William Frey, a population expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. And the country as a whole will begin to be more dominated by a young/old divide than the current liberal/conservative model that dominates political discourse. "This means we are going to transform the current, red/blue political dichotomy to one where the nation is separated by age ... young vs. old," says Mr. Frey. "The issues of younger generations dealing with children and opportunities for minorities will clash with those of the aging baby boomers whose voters are concerned with issues of aging and Social Security and Medicare," he adds. "Both parties will have to adjust to this new dichotomy. " The new milestone hasn't generated much hoopla. That's in sharp contrast to 1967, when President Johnson hailed the 200 millionth American, and Life magazine dispatched a cadre of photographers to find a baby born at the exact moment. One reason is that population growth has become controversial, especially in an election year when immigration is a hot-button issue and politicians are wary. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says the Bush administration is not playing down the milestone, though he had no plans for Tuesday. "I would hate to think that we are going to be low-key about this," he says, since growth helps the economy. While it's hard to prove that population growth spurs economic growth, the two often go hand in hand, according to experts quoted in the Monitor's recently published series: "US population. 300 million." For example, a nation with a rising population can support its retirees far more easily than one with a declining population. That's an advantage for the US, which is virtually the only developed nation expected to grow this century. But population growth has less rosy implications, the Monitor series points out. Some experts worry that the land can't sustain the extra 100 million people expected by 2043. Another challenge is sprawl, the dominant model of development, which gobbles up forest and prairie.

问答题近代以来，亚洲经历了曲折和艰难的发展历程。亚洲人们为改变自己的命运，始终以不屈的意志和艰辛的奋斗开辟前进道路。今天，人们所看到的亚洲发展成就，是勤劳智慧的亚洲人民不屈不挠、锲而不舍奋斗的结果。 亚洲人民深知，世界上没有放之四海而皆准的发展模式，也没有一成不变的发展道路，亚洲人民勇于变革创新，不断开拓进取，探索和开辟适应时代潮流，符合自身实际的发展道路，为经济社会发展打开了广阔前景。

问答题In-state tuition. For decades, it was the one advantage big state schools had that even the Ivy League couldn’t match, in terms of recruiting the best and the brightest to their campuses. But these days, that- s no longer necessarily the case. Starting this September, some students will find a Harvard degree cheaper than one from many public universities. Harvard officials sent shock wave through academia last December by detailing a new financial-aid policy that will charge families making up to $180,000 just 10% of their household income per year, substantially subsidizing the annual cost of more than $ 45,600 for all but its wealthiest students. The move was just the latest in what has amounted to a financial-aid bidding war in recent years among the U. S. , s elite universities. Though Harvard's is the most generous to date, Princeton, Yale and Stanford have all launched similar plans to cap tuition contributions for students from low- and middle-income families. Indeed, students on financial aid at nearly every Ivy stand a good chance of graduating debt-free, thanks to loan-elimination programs introduced over the past 5 years. And other exclusive schools have followed their lead by replacing loans with grants and work-study aid. And several more schools are joining the no-loan club this fall. Even more schools have taken steps to reduce debt among their neediest students.

问答题It sometimes seems that plans for emissions trading are piling up even faster than the greenhouse gases they are designed to curb. In late July the first emission exchange in Australia and Canada opened, in anticipation of mandatory carbon-trading schemes in both countries. America already has a healthy voluntary carbon market, and will soon add an obligatory one for utilities in certain states. But the evidence from the most advanced such "cap-and-trade" programme, the European Union"s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), suggests that companies are struggling to make the most of carbon markets. In theory, cap-and-trade schemes allow firms to reduce their emissions at the lowest possible cost. Governments put a limit on the amount firms can pollute, and issue an equivalent number of allowances. Those companies that find they do not have enough must either cut emissions or buy spare allowances from others. But for the system to work efficiently, firms must take advantage of all opportunities to reduce the costs of participation. Not all of them do, however. Last year, after the price of European allowances plunged, New Carbon Finance, a research firm, and Cantor CO2e, a brokerage, surveyed 452 participants in the ETS. The price had fallen because it had become obvious that governments had issued too many allowances and the market would soon be flooded. Yet 31% of respondents with allowances to spare said they would not sell them until the end of 2006, just in case a last minute surge in their emissions left them short. Another 16% said they would wait until the end of this year, when the first phase of the ETS winds up. This caution has cost them dearly. The price of permits, which was roughly 15 ($19) at the time, is now less than 0.15 ( $0.21). The root of the problem, says Guy Turner of New Carbon Finance, is that many companies view the ETS as a regulatory burden, rather than a chance to make money. They tend to put environmental experts, rather than financial whizzes, in charge of their participation in the scheme. The former, in turn, tend to concentrate on making sure that their firm has enough allowances, rather than on maximising their value. They are seldom used to trading, and are sometimes uncomfortable with the idea of "profiteering" from a system designed to cut pollution. Moreover, they have little incentive to stick their necks out by proposing elaborate transactions in the carbon markets, since they are unlikely to be rewarded if they succeed, but risk dismissal if something goes wrong. Governments do not help matters by handing out allowances to polluters for free, giving them little incentive to capitalise on what are actually valuable assets. James Emanuel of Cantor CO2e points to several signs that firms are not exploiting carbontrading opportunities to the full. One example is the difference in price between European allowances and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), which are carbon credits derived from emissions cuts in poor countries. Under the ETS, CERs are interchangeable with European allowances, within certain limits. Yet they are much cheaper. Firms holding European allowances could sell them now, buy CERs instead, and pocket the difference. The persistent difference in price suggests that few are doing so. By the same token, on the futures market, there is hardly any difference between the price of European allowances to be delivered in 2008 and those to be delivered in 2009. Since firms receive their allowances from governments more than a year before they actually need them for compliance purposes, they could sell them and sign a futures contract agreeing to buy the permits they need a year later, at only marginally higher cost. This is tantamount to taking out a loan at an enticingly low interest rate.

问答题

问答题It is said that the charitable contributions made by the rich in China are utterly inadequate compared to their income and their overseas counterparts. Statistics from the China Charity Federation indicated that 70 percent of charitable contributions to the federation came from foreign countries and from the Chinese regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, while those from wealthy benefactors in the Chinese mainland accounted for less than 15 percent of the total value of donations. Topic: Why are the rich in the Chinese mainland not willing to donate? Questions for Reference: 1. Compared with the rich in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan or in the foreign countries, the mainland rich are not willing to help. Are they mean or are there any other hidden reasons? 2. What can the government do to encourage the rich to donate? 3. Whose responsibility do you think it is to help the poor or those in need of help? What can we do to help others?

问答题目前，亚洲的发展面临着新的机遇，也面临着新的挑战。总体上，亚洲依然是当今世界最具经济活力和发展潜力的地区。经济全球化的深入发展和科学技术的迅猛进步，有利于亚洲各国利用国际资本，引进先进技术，开拓国际市场，推动本国经济的发展。但是亚洲某些地区的安全形势仍不容乐观，反对恐怖主义的斗争尚待深入。经济全球化在带来发展机遇的同时，也增加了国际经济环境的不确定性，增加了本地区内发展中经济体结构调整的难度和遭遇外部冲击的风险。

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