Which Attributes of a Food Product are Most Important to Consumers A) The Australian state of Victoria is investing in a program to identify new opportunities for its food and agriculture industries. As part of this initiative the government conducted extensive research to identify which attributes of a food product are most important to consumers. As income levels rise and education levels improve, consumers around the world are becoming interested in more than just the price and quality of the food they eat. Indeed, some consumers are now willing to pay extra money for food with a special nutritional or health benefit. In addition, some consumers are also choosing food based on how it was produced, including the environmental and ethical impact of production. Victoria's Department of Primary Industries designed and researched a report that analyzes preferences for food products with "trust" attributes, specifically food safety, clean food, green food, animal welfare and ethical food production. The report also determines the relative importance of the five nominated "trust" attributes and evaluates their importance in relation to non-trust attributes, such as price and quality. B) "Consumers are becoming increasingly insightful when making purchasing decisions, and Victoria's a-bility to demonstrate the trustworthiness of food products will be vital to maintain consumer confidence in priority export markets," the report says. Between February and June 2004, the DPI interviewed 280 food industry shareholders, including retailers, wholesalers, foodservice managers, importers, distributors, and representatives of government, industry bodies and non-government organizations, in 21 of Victoria's major food markets, including France, Japan, the UK and the US. C) The research found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that price, quality and food safety were the most important factors for consumers, with each factor ranked as the most important by 18-22% of respondents. In fourth place, 8% of respondents felt taste flavor was the most important attribute of a food product for consumers, while 6% thought freshness was most important, and 3% thought the appearance packaging was most important. Health nutrition, brand image, and clean chemical free were each considered most important by just 1-2% of interviewees. D) Of the five specified "trust" factors—food safety, clean food, green food, animal welfare and ethical food production—food safety was ranked as being of high or very high importance to their organization by 95% of respondents. It is not just consumers that food safety is important to, as one Japanese wholesaler observed "It has taken a long time to build our reputation for reliability with our customers and just one accident would cause us to lose everything, especially if consumers are harmed." E) Clean food was ranked second in importance among the specified trust factors, with 90% of respondents rating clean food as being of high or very high importance to their organization. However, just 63% of respondents said clean food was of high or very high importance to consumers. The survey also found that there was regional variation in the definition of clean food—some respondents thought it should include Halal production methods, while others thought clean food should also be free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). F) Ethics was ranked fairly high in importance to organizations, but was considered less important to consumers. While 82% of respondents rated ethics as being of high or very high importance to their organization, just 31% considered ethics to be of high or very high importance to consumers. Another finding was that ethics included many of the other trust factors, as a German government representative pointed out "This issue covers a little of everything. It depends on the producer and on the way people, animals and the environment are treated. It depends on personal values." The researchers found that the importance of ethics varied according to what aspect was mentioned. The proving of claims made on product labels was considered to be of higher importance than issues such as workers' rights, corporate responsibility and local sourcing, because it is an issue that has impact on the consumer directly. G) Green food was ranked relatively low in importance, with just 50% of respondents rating it as being of high or very high importance to their organization, and just 19% rating it as being of high or very high importance to consumers. Many respondents cited low consumer awareness and lack of consumer interest, and some said they believed consumers were unwilling to pay a higher price for green food products, reflecting the overall finding that higher importance is attached to factors that has impact directly on consumers. H) "Consumers claim to want the choice, but the category has been disappointing, leading to oversup-ply and price pressures for high cost producers. Price always seems to focus the Dutch minds," said one global retailer based in the Netherlands. There was also some variation in opinions about what exactly constitutes green food, with several respondents seeing it as synonymous with organic production. Of issues associated with green food, organic production was seen as the most important to consumers, while impact on the environment, ecosystem health, bio-diversity and environmental management practices were rated relatively low in importance. I) Animal welfare was another low-rated trust factor, with 43% of respondents rating it as being of high or very high importance to organizations, and just 15% considering it to be of high or very high importance to consumers. Again, respondents pointed to low consumer awareness, lack of consumer interest and an unwillingness to pay an extra cost for "animal friendly" products. Many respondents also said there was a gap between what consumers say and what they do when it comes to purchasing behavior related to animal welfare issues. "This is a complex issue—it is of low importance to consumers in terms of translation into action, but high in terms of a discussion topic. A gap exists between theory and practice," said a representative of a non-government organization in India. J) However, the importance of animal welfare could be raised if there was a direct impact that can be seen on the consumer, for example where handling or feeding administrations affect product quality or food safety, as an airline catering supplier in Singapore illustrated "Animal welfare is important only in that it contributes to the quality of the product. The way the animal is treated and fed is crucial to the quality of the end product." K) Overall, respondents identified that consumers are more concerned about factors that affect them directly, such as food safety. Although consumers are considered to be generally less concerned about issues such as animal welfare and environmental management practices, these issues are not insignificant as they assume much greater importance when they have the potential to affect food quality or when public concern is heightened by specific interest groups or media reports. According to Bob Cameron, Victoria's minister for agriculture, the government's aim in carrying out such research was to develop new approaches to improve Victoria's access to international markets. It will be interesting to see how this information is used, and how it influences future product development.

In a step that should help make the Internet safer for consumers, anti-virus giant Symantec on Wednesday will introduce a protection system designed to anticipate new ill-meaning programs that try to steal onto your computer. For decades, anti-virus protection has worked by reacting to new ill-meaning programs. Researchers rush to identify bad code, then create and distribute filters for it. But cybercriminals have got so fast at escaping the latest filters that protection often comes too late. Symantec's new system, called Quorum, continuously predicts whether any new program that attempts to run on your PC is good or bad. It then takes steps to isolate the bad code. "We're closing a major gap the bad guys have been using to deliver their ill-meaning software," says Rowan Trollope, senior vice president of consumer products. Symantec becomes the fourth major anti-virus firm—and the largest—to add predictive capabilities to traditional reactive anti-virus systems. Since February, McAfee, Panda Security and Trend Micro have introduced similar predictive technologies. Computer infections most often spread when a PC user clicks on an altered Web link that arrives in an e-mail or social-network message, or appears in search results for questions on Google, Bing and Yahoo Search. What's more, millions of lawful Web pages—unknowingly altered by hackers—can also infect a PC during a page visit. Cybercriminals use infected PCs to spread junk e-mails, steal data and hijack online banking accounts. Infections can change hourly, forcing anti-virus firms to create and deliver thousands of filters each day. "The amount of ill-meaning software produced today has required all of us to change the approach we take in combating it," says Trend Micro senior manager Jon Clay. Trend began offering predictive protection to business customers in May. A consumer version is due next year. "There is a natural evolution taking place," says Mike Gallagher, chief technology officer for McAfee, which rolled out its Artemis system for consumers and businesses in February. Symantec introduces Quorum in its new Norton Internet Security 2010 system for consumers priced at $70 for a one-year subscription; McAfee's consumer subscription is priced similarly. Panda Security's free consumer version of its Panda Cloud anti-virus product has been out since April.

这天，家人团聚在一起，也会纪念家族的祖先。

风是一种潜力很大的新能源。风能(wind energy)既清洁又可再生，所以越来越受到世界各国的重视。我国的风力资源极为丰富，绝大多数地区的平均风速都在每秒3米以上。早在20世纪70年代，中国就开始了发展风力发电(wind power)的努力。到2010年，中国风电装机容量(installed wind power capacity)超过美国，成为风力发电的第一大国。风力发电为保护环境做出了巨大的贡献。

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如今大学生的生活方式正在发生着变化。越来越多的学生课余时间足不出户，变成了宅男宅女(indoors-man or indoorswoman)。网络为学生打发课余时间提供了许多选择。各种校园快捷服务(on-campus service)，从送餐到洗衣服务，促进了“宅文化”的发展。一些学生认为户外运动或是社交活动都不如宅在宿舍里玩电脑来得痛快。生活不规律、缺乏锻炼已经成为大学生的健康公敌。

中国古代的张骞被誉为“中国走向世界第一人”。公元前(B．C．)138年，张骞出使 西域 (the Western Regions)。他在途中被 匈奴部落 (the tribe of Xiongnu)俘虏，被迫在匈奴地区生活十多年。在此期间，他一直在等待机会返回祖国。张骞最终于公元前126年回到了 西汉 (the Western Han Dynasty)的都城长安。得益于这次经历，张骞对西域的地理、物产、风俗有了详细的了解，为开辟丝绸之路提供了宝贵的资料。

It Pays off to Focus on One Thing For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the saying "Better master one than engage in ten." You can cite examples to illustrate the importance of mastering one thing. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

BPart II Listening Comprehension/B

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BPart Ⅳ Translation/B

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在中国，如果不了解“面子”的含义，则很难理解许多行为言辞。面子通常可理解为社会对一个人名誉和 声望 (prestige)的看法。因此，中国人向来很重视面子问题。丢面子会导致一个人在人际交往中失去权威。中国人通常不会公开指出令人尴尬的事实，从而避免让另一个人丢面子。如果要给某人面子。则可以在大众面前赞美他，欣赏他的才能，或对他表示尊重。

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预计到2050年，全国将有三分之一的人口超过60岁。

他为人太过圆滑，所以没人喜欢他。

Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a profitable operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change. Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke's balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force. "Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years," said Jeffrey Seabright, Coke's vice president for environment and water resources, listing the problems that he said were also disrupting the company's supply of sugar cane and sugar beets (甜菜). "When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats." Coke reflects a growing view among American business leaders and mainstream economists who see global warming as a force that contributes to lower GDP's, higher food and commodity costs, broken supply chains and increased financial risk. Their position is at striking odds with the longstanding argument, advanced by the coal industry and others, that policies to curb carbon emissions are more economically harmful than the impacts of climate change. In Washington, the World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, has put climate change at the center of the bank's mission, citing global warming as chief contributor to rising global poverty rates and falling GDP's in developing nations. In Europe, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based club of 34 industrialized nations, has begun to warn of Ihe steep costs of increased carbon pollution. Nike, which has more than 700 factories in 49 countries, many in Southeast Asia, is also speaking out because of extreme weather that is disrupting its supply chain. In 2008, floods temporarily shut down four Nike factories in Thailand, and the company remains concerned about rising droughts in regions that produce cotton, which the company uses in its athletic clothes. Both Nike and Coke are responding internally: Coke uses water-conservation technologies and Nike is using more synthetic material that is less dependent on weather conditions. At Davos and in global capitals, the companies are also lobbying governments to enact environmentally friendly policies.

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