壮族 (the Zhuang ethnic minority)是中国人口最多的少数民族，约有1900万人。超过90％的壮族人居住在广西，其余分布在云南、广东、贵州和湖南等南方省份。壮族人有自己的语言。壮语主要分为南北两大方言。由于南方地区气候温和， 雨量 (rainfall)充足，壮族的主要农产品是热带和 亚热带 (subtropical)作物，如水稻和玉米。大多数壮族人的日常食物与汉族的并无多大差别。

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For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay based on the chart below. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Children are a delight. They are our future. But sadly, hiring someone to take care of them while you go to work is getting more expensive by the year. Earlier this month, it was reported that the cost of enrolling an infant or small kid at a childcare center rose 3% in 2012, faster than the overall cost of living. There are now large strips of the country where daycare for an infant costs more than a tenth of the average married couple's income. This is not necessarily a new trend, but it is a somewhat puzzling one. The price of professional childcare has been rising since the 1980s. Yet during that time, pay for professional childcare workers has stood still. Actually caregivers make less today, in real terms, than they did in 1990. Considering that labor costs are responsible for up to 80% of a daycare center's expenses, one would expect flat wages to have meant flat prices. So who's to blame for higher childcare costs? Childcare is a carefully regulated industry. States lay down rules about how many children each employee is allowed to watch over, the space care centers need per child, and other minute details. And the stricter the regulations, the higher the costs. If it has to hire a caregiver for every two children, it can't really achieve any economics of scale on labor to save money when other expenses go up. In Massachusetts, where childcare centers must hire one teacher for every three infants, the price of care averaged more than $ 16,000 per year. In Mississippi, where centers must hire one teacher for every five infants, the price of care averaged less than $5,000. Unfortunately, I don't have all the daycare-center regulations handy. But I wouldn't be surprised if as the rules have become more elaborate, prices have risen. The tradeoff(交换)might be worth it in some cases; after all, the health and safety of children should probably come before cheap service. But certainly, it doesn't seem to be an accident that some of the cheapest daycare available is in the least regulated South.

为了让人们更好地记住年份，我们的祖先用12只动物来代表年份，即“ 十二生肖 ”(Chinese Zodiac)。每一年由一种动物代表，每隔12年进行一个循环，从鼠开始，以猪为结尾。每一种动物还有其独特的 文化内涵 (cultural connotation)。例如，牛年出生的人据说“勤奋、冷静、可靠”，虎年出生的人则“强大、勇敢、但又急躁”。十二生肖在亚洲的其他国家，如韩国和日本也很流行。

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景泰蓝 (Jing Tai Lan／Chinese cloisonne)是中国的一种传统艺术品。因其在 明朝 (the Ming Dynasty)景泰年间盛行，而且以蓝色为主，故而得名“景泰蓝”。它采用一些贵重金属作为原材料，集绘画、工艺、艺术为一体。景泰蓝典雅精美，具有独特的民族风格和浓厚的文化韵味。在 明清两朝 (the Ming and Qing Dynasties)，景泰蓝都是皇家专用的器物饰品，象征着尊贵与财富。景泰蓝也在此时开始随着商船走向海外。

Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaybasedonthepicturebelow.YoushouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandcommentonHumanFleshSearch.Youshouldwriteatleast120wordsbutnomorethan180words.

由于算盘操作方便、简单易学，因此在中国被广泛使用。

Topic Attitude Makes a Big Difference For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay entitled Attitude Makes a Big Difference by commenting on the saying, "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." You can cite examples to illustrate your point and then explain how people can be more optimistic. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

My View on Micro-blog 1．目前，微博用户数量持续增长 2．微博是一把双刃剑 3．我的看法

It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings even in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution.Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a "greenhouse effect"—holding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water. Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particulate matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature—a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to new ice age and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen, though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely. Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now.

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据报道， 北京市教委 (Beijing Municipal Commission of Education)将对 高考 (the college admissiontest)进行改革。英语的分数由150分减为100分，而语文由150分增至180分。现行的高考制度中，语文、数学、英语三门考试分数相同。有关官员称，此次高考改革方案既是一个符合实际的决定，也是一项关乎民族自豪感的重大举措，因为它强调了母语学习的基础性重要地位。但是，也有专家称此次高考改革只是微调，不会削减英语本身的重要性。