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It' s widely agreed that girls generally start talking earlier than boys, and use more complex vocabulary. When they【C1】______school, most girls have slightly better verbal skills than boys—on average, they are a month or two ahead. As they progress through primary school, girls continue to【C2】______boys when it comes to verbal skills. By the time children leave primary school, girls are about a year ahead with reading and the【C3】______is even bigger for writing. However, it should be noted that boys are roughly【C4】______with girls when it comes to attainment in maths at primary school. The gap in attainment at the age of 16 had led some teachers to believe that single-sex lessons in core subjects are the way forward when it comes to【C5】______male students and improving boys' grades. They argue that boys, for instance, feel less【C6】______in subjects like literacy when there are no female students in the classroom to compete with. Others believe that girls and boys thrive best when the opposite sex is taken out of the equation completely, and【C7】______a single-sex environment, especially at secondary school level. Some schools believe that a male【C8】______—whether it is a male teacher or more involvement from dad at home—is a key factor in impelling boys and improving their grades. Others advocate a more "boy-friendly" environment at school, whether it' s【C9】______more books in the library that appeal to boys or trying out different teaching styles in lessons to【C10】______boys in learning.A)presence B)identical C)outperform D)stockingE)gap F)motivating G)disheartened H)sorryI)level J)engage K)cheering L)recommendingM)advocate N)start O)appearance

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青藏铁路是世界上线路最长海拔(elevation)最高的高原铁路，被誉为“天路”(Road to the Heaven)。

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay entitled Man and Artificial. Intelligence by commenting on the saying, "The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

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President Barack Obama's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, has spent 20 years as an environmental officer at the state and national levels. She'll need every bit of that experience to revive an agency that has been corrupted for years, say scientists and environmentalists who welcomed this week's announcement A 16-year veteran of EPA's Superfund site remediation (整治) program before taking the top environmental job for the state of New Jersey, Jackson holds a master's degree in chemical engineering. "She will be an outstanding administrator, committed to defending the integrity of the science on which EPA regulations must be based," says David Michaels, a research professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.G. That combination of skills and ethics is badly needed at EPA, say Michaels and other scientists. Kathryn Mahaffey, who left EPA this summer for GWU after 15 years of studying the risk to humans from exposure to pollutants, says that she was instructed three years ago by a politician to "go back and recalculate" her results on blood mercury levels among U.S. women. Political interference has grown so serious, she says, that outside scientists "aren't sure what scientific publications coming out of EPA they really should have confidence in." One issue waiting for the next EPA administrator is whether the agency will regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act Although the U.S. Supreme Court told EPA a few years ago to re-examine its opposition to doing so, agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said this summer that "the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job". An assistant to Obama said that Obama would instruct EPA to regulate carbon under the act if Congress didn't adopt a cap-and-trade system in the next 18 months. Another policy opposed by many environmentalists—to deny California and other states the right to tighten auto emission standards—could be reversed by the new EPA administrator. As head of New Jersey's EPA, Jackson developed a plan to slash the state's carbon emissions and worked with other Northeast states on a regional program to do the same. Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey, credits Jackson with making the state "a leader on global warming." At the same time, some groups have criticized Jackson for making inadequate progress on cleaning up toxic waste sites. This month, she became chief of staff to Governor Jon Corzine. If confirmed by the Senate, Jackson, 46, would become the first African-American to lead EPA.

Judging from recent surveys, most experts in sleep behavior agree that there is virtually an epidemic of sleepiness in the nation. "I can't think of a single study that hasn't found Americans getting less sleep than they ought to." says Dr. David. The beginning of our sleep deficit crisis can be【C1】______to the invention of the light bulb a century ago. From diary entries and other personal【C2】______from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night. By the 1950s and 1960s, that sleep schedule had been reduced【C3】______to between 7.5 and 8 hours, and most people had to wake to an alarm clock. "People cheat on their sleep, and they don't even【C4】______they're doing it," says Dr. David. "They think they're okay because they can get by on 6.5 hours, when they really need 7.5, 8 or even more to feel ideally【C5】______ Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep, researchers say, is the【C6】______of the day. Whenever pressures from work, family, friends and community mount, many people consider sleep the least【C7】______item on the agenda. "In our society, you're considered dynamic if you say you only need 5.5 hours' sleep. If you say you've got to get 8.5 hours, people think you lack【C8】______and ambition." To assess the【C9】______of sleep deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests. "We've found that if you're sleep-deprived, performance【C10】______says Dr. David. "Short-term memory is impaired, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate." A)consequences B)complexity C)ingenious D)dramatically E)suffers F)tracked G)realize H)expensive I)slightly J)traced K)detaches L)vigorous M)inspiration N)accounts O)drive

Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessaybasedonthepicturebelow.Youshouldfocusonthenegativeeffectsofover-relianceonthetechnology.Youarerequiredtowriteatleast150wordsbutnomorethan200words.

居民消费价格指数(CPI)不但与人们的生活密切相关，在国家的价格体系中也占有很重要的地位。

BSection A/B

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{{B}}Part Ⅳ Translation{{/B}}

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay entitled Electives for College Students. You should write at least 100 words according to the suggestions given below in Chinese. 1．各大学开设了各种各样的选修课。 2．学生因为各种原因选择了不同的选修课。 3．以你自己为例……

{{B}}Part Ⅳ Translation{{/B}}

In department stores and closets all over the world, they are waiting. Their outward appearance seems rather appealing because they come in a variety of styles, textures, and colors. But they are ultimately the biggest deception that exists in the fashion industry today. What are they? They are high heels—a woman's worst enemy(whether she knows it or not). High heel shoes are the downfall of modern society. Fashion myths have led women to believe that they are more beautiful or sophisticated for wearing heels, but in reality, heels succeed in posing short as well as long term hardships. Women should fight the high heel industry by refusing to use or purchase them in order to save the world from unnecessary physical and psychological suffering. For the sake of fairness, it must be noted that there is a positive side to high heels. First, heels are excellent for aerating(使通气)lawns. Anyone who has ever worn heels on grass knows what I am talking about A simple trip around the yard in a pair of those babies eliminates all need to call for a lawn care specialist, and provides the perfect-sized holes to give any lawn oxygen without all those messy chunks of dirt lying around. Second, heels are quite functional for defense against oncoming enemies, who can easily be scared away by threatening them with a pair of these sharp, deadly fashion accessories. Regardless of such practical uses for heels, the fact remains that wearing high heels is harmful to one's physical health. Talk to any podiatrist(足病医生), and you will hear that the majority of their business comes from high-heel-wearing women. High heels are known to cause problems such as deformed feet and torn toenails The risk of severe back problems and twisted or broken ankles is three times higher for a high heel wearer than for a flat shoe wearer. Wearing heels also creates the threat of getting a heel caught in a sidewalk crack or a sewer-grate(阴沟栅)and being thrown to the ground—possibly breaking a nose, back, or neck. And of course, after wearing heels for a day, any woman knows she can look forward to a night of pain as she tries to comfort her swollen, aching feet.

A blind baby is doubly handicapped. Not only is it unable to see, but because it cannot receive the visual stimulus from its environment that a sighted child does, it is likely to be slow in intellectual development. Now the ten-month old son of Dr. and Mrs. Dennis Daughters is the subject of an unusual psychological experiment designed to prevent a lag in the learning process. With the aid of a sonar-type electronic device that he wears on his head, infant Dennis is learning to identify the people and objects in the world around him by means of echoes. The device is a refinement of the "Sonicguide", an instrument produced by Telesensory Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., and used by blind adults in addition to a sane or guide dog. As adapted for Dennis, it consists of a battery-powered system about the size of a half dollar that is on a headgear. A transmitter emits an ultrasonic pulse that creates an 80 degree cone of sound at 6 feet. Echoes from objects within the cone are perceived as sounds that vary in pitch and volume with the size and distance of the object. The closer an object is, the lower the pitch, and the larger the object, the louder the signal. Hard surfaces produce a sharp ping, while soft ones send back signals with a slightly fuzzy quality. An object slightly to the right of Dennis sends back a louder sound to his right ear than to the left. Thus, by simply moving his head right and left and up and down, he can not only locate an object but also get some notion of its shape and size, thanks to the varying qualities of sounds reaching his ears as the cone of ultrasound passes its edges. Dennis likes to use the device to play a kind of peek-a-boo with his mother. Standing on her knee and facing her directly, he receives a strong signal in both ears. By turning his head away, he makes her seem to disappear. From the first time he wore it," says Mrs. Daughters, "it was like a light going on in his head." What remains to be determined is how well the device will help Dennis cope with his surroundings as he begins to walk and venture further into his environment. Meanwhile, Telesensory, Inc. is working on the development of sonar device with somewhat the same sensitivity as Dennis's for use by school-age children.

The world is going through the biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions(收购)ever witnessed. The process sweeps from hyperactive America to Europe and reaches the emerging countries with unsurpassed might. Many in these countries are looking at this process and worrying: "Won't the wave of business concentration turn into an uncontrollable anti-competitive force?" There's no question that the big are getting bigger and more powerful. Multinational corporations accounted for less than 20% of international trade in 1982. Today the figure is more than 25% and growing rapidly. International affiliates account for a fast-growing segment of production in economies that open up and welcome foreign investment. In Argentina, for instance, after the reforms of the early 1990s, multinationals went from 43% to almost 70% of the industrial production of the 200 largest firms. This phenomenon has created serious concerns over the role of smaller economic firms, of national businessmen and over the ultimate stability of the world economy. I believe that the most important forces behind the massive M&A wave .are the same that underlie the globalization process: falling transportation and communication costs, lower trade and investment barriers and enlarged markets that require enlarged operations capable of meeting customers' demands. All these, are beneficial, not detrimental, to consumers. As productivity grows, the world's wealth increases. Examples of benefits or costs of the current concentration wave are scanty. Yet it is hard to imagine that the merger of a few oil firms today could recreate the same threats to competition that were feared nearly a century ago in the U.S., when the Standard Oil trust was broken up. The mergers of telecom companies, such as World Com, hardly seem to bring higher prices for consumers or a reduction in the pace of technical progress. On the contrary, the price of communications is coming down fast. In cars, too, concentration is increasing—witness Daimler and Chrysler, Renault and Nissan—but it does not appear that consumers are being hurt. Yet the fact remains that the merger movement must be watched. A few weeks ago, Alan Greenspan warned against the mega mergers in the banking industry. Who is going to supervise, regulate and operate as lender of last resort with the gigantic banks that are being created? Won't multinationals shift production from one place to another when a nation gets too strict about violation to fair competition? And should one country take upon itself the role of "defending competition" on issues that affect many other nations, as in the U.S. vs. Microsoft case?