老龄化社会(an aging society)是指老年人口占总人口达到或超过一定的比例的人口结构模型。按照联合国的传统标准是一个地区60岁以上的老人达到总人口的10%,新标准是65岁老人占总人口的7%,即该地区视为进入老龄化社会。老龄化的加速对经济社会都将产生巨大的压力。2009年10月26日,中国传统节日重阳节(the Double Ninth Festival)到来之际,中国正式启动了一项应对人口老龄化的战略研究,以积极应对持续加剧的人口老龄化危机。
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{{B}}Section BDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.{{/B}}
新能源汽车(new energy vehicle)是指采用非常规的车用燃料作为动力来源的汽车。近年来,政府高度关注新能源汽车的研发和产业化,形成了完整的新能源汽车研发和示范布局。我国的新能源汽车产销量逐年增长。发展新能源汽车可作为解决能源及环境问题、实现可持续发展的重要手段。目前,国家在新能源汽车方面给予了很大的政策和资金支持。国家决定免征新能源汽车购置税,这将进一步减轻消费者的购买负担,刺激私人购买新能源汽车。
Reporting From the Web's Underbelly A)In the last year, Eastern European cybercriminals have stolen Brian Krebs's identity a half dozen times, brought down his website, sent heroin to his doorstep, and called a SWAT team to his home just as his mother was arriving for dinner. Mr. Krebs, 41, tries to write pieces that cannot be found elsewhere. His widely read cybersecurity blog, "Krebs on Security", covers a particularly dark corner of the Internet. He covers this niche with much the same perseverance of his subjects, earning him their respect and occasional angry. B)Mr. Krebs is so entrenched in the digital underground that he is on a first-name basis with some of Russia's major cybercriminals. Many call him regularly, leak him documents about their rivals, and try to bribe and threaten him to keep their names and dealings off his blog. His clean-cut looks and plain-speaking manner seem more appropriate for a real-estate broker than a man who spends most of his waking hours studying the Internet's underbelly. But few have done more to shed light on the digital underground than Mr. Krebs. C)His obsession with hackers kicked in when he was just another victim. In 2001, a computer worm locked him out of his home computer. He started looking into it. And he kept looking, learning about spam, computer worms and the underground industry behind it. Eventually, his anger and curiosity turned into a full-time beat at The Post and then on his own blog. D)Today, he maintains extensive files on criminal syndicates(联合会)and their tools. Some security experts readily acknowledge that he knows more about Russia's digital underground than they do. "I would put him up against the best threat intelligence analyst," said Rodney Joffe, senior vice president at Neustar, an Internet infrastructure firm. "Many of us in the industry go to him to help us understand what the Eastern European criminals are doing, how they work with each other and who is doing what to whom." That proved the case in December when Mr. Krebs uncovered what could be the biggest known Internet credit-card robbery. That month, he had been poking around private, underground forums where criminals were bragging about a fresh haul of credit and debit cards. E)Soon after, one of Mr. Krebs's banking sources called to report a high number of fraudulent purchases and asked whether Mr. Krebs could discover exactly where they were coming from. The source said that he had bought a large batch of stolen cards from an underground site and that they all appeared to have been used at Target. Mr. Krebs checked with a source at a second bank that had also been dealing with a narrow sharp point in fraud, Together, they visited one forum and bought a batch of stolen cards. Again, the cards appeared to have one thing in common: They had been used at Target from late November to mid-December. F)On the morning of Dec. 18, Mr. Krebs called Target. The company's spokeswoman did not return his call until several hours later, but by then he had enough to run his article: Criminals had breached the registers in Target's stores and had made off with tens of millions of payment card numbers. In the following weeks, Mr. Krebs discovered breaches at Neiman Marcus; Michaels, the arts and crafts retailer; and White Lodging, which manages franchises for major hotel chains like Hilton, Marriott and Starwood Hotels. It is still unclear whether the attacks were related, but at least 10 other retailers may have been hit by the same hackers that hit Target and are reluctant to acknowledge it. G)That is where Mr. Krebs comes in. Unlike physical crime—a bank robbery, for example, quickly becomes public—online thefts are hushed up by companies that worry the disclosure will inflict more damage than the theft, allowing hackers to raid multiple companies before consumers hear about it. Mr. Krebs is "doing the security industry an enormous favor by disseminating(宣传)real-time threat information," said Barmak Meftah, chief executive of Alien Vault, a threat-detection service. "We are only as strong as our information. Unless we are very specific and effective about exchanging threat data when one of us gets breached, we will always be a step behind the attackers." The account of victims from the breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus and others now exceeds one-third of the United States population—a grim factoid(趣味小新闻)that may offer Mr. Krebs a strange sense of career vindication(澄清). H)He first developed an interest in computers because his father, an Air Force engineer, was obsessed with the latest devices. But he did little about it until 1998, when he began writing about technology for The Post, after working his way up from the mailroom. Cybersecurity became a bit of a focus after his own computer was infected by that worm in 2001. I)In 2005, he started The Post's Security Fix blog, occasionally frustrating editors with hacker jargon and unnerving some who worried he was becoming too close to sources. By 2006, Mr. Krebs was a fixture in hacker forums, learning code, and—ever the dutiful reporter—borrowing Russian language tapes from his local library since most of what he tracks originates in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. In 2009, The Post asked Mr. Krebs to broaden his focus to general technology news and policy. When he declined, he was let go. J)He used his severance(解职金)to start his own blog, Krebs on Security, from his "command centre," a guest room at the Annandale, Va., home he shares with his wife. There, three 19-inch computer screens help him keep tabs on the underworld, while another monitors security footage of his house. K)Mr. Krebs's readership is growing. In December, 850 000 readers visited his blog, mostly to learn more about the breach at Target. Though he will not disclose figures, Mr. Krebs says the salary he now makes from advertising, occasional speaking engagements and consulting work is a "nice bump" from what he earned at The Post. But there are risks implicit to being a one-man operation. "The work that he's done exposing Eastern European hackers has been seminal," said Tom Kellermann, vice president for cybersecurity at Trend Micro, a computer security company. "But Brian needs a bodyguard." L)Russian criminals routinely feed Mr. Krebs information about their rivals that they obtained through hacks. After that, he began receiving daily calls from a major Russian cybercriminal seeking his files back. Mr. Krebs is writing a book about the experience, called Spam Nation, to be published by Sourcebooks this year. M)In the meantime, hackers have been competing in a dangerous game of one-upmanship to see who can pull the worst trick on Mr. Krebs. They often steal his identity. One opened a $ 20 000 credit line in his name. Admirers have made more than $ 1 000 in bogus PayPal donations to his blog using hacked accounts. Others have paid his cable bill for three years with stolen credit cards. N)The antics(滑稽的动作)can be dangerous. In March, as Mr. Krebs was preparing to have his mother over for dinner, he opened his front door to find a police SWAT team pointing semiautomatic guns in his direction. Only after his wife returned home from the grocery store to find him handcuffed did the police realize Mr. Krebs had been the victim of "swatting." Someone had called the police and falsely reported a murder at their home. O)Mr. Krebs said he did plan to move and keep his new address secret. But these days it is almost impossible. Though he goes to great lengths to protect his personal information, last month his wife received an e-mail from Target informing her that their mailing address and other personal information had been stolen in the breach. "I got that letter," he said, "and I just had to laugh."
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“中国制造”指在中国制造的商品所附的标签。由于中国有丰富的劳动力资源和原材料资源等优势,中国制造的产品物美价廉,受到世界各国的欢迎。中国的制造业迅速发展,“中国制造”已经成为一个在全球广受认可的标签。目前中国已经成为世界制造业的中心,被称为“世界工厂”。尽管全球大量的电子产品和鞋都是中国制造。但这些产品的设计都是在欧美国家完成的。如今越来越多的中国公司致力于开创自己的品牌,希望实现从“中国制造”到“中国设计”的转变。
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Acting is such an over-crowded profession that the only advice that should be given to a young person thinking of going on the stage is "Don't!". But it is useless to try to discourage someone who feels that he must act, though the chances of his becoming famous are slim. The normal way to begin is to go to a drama school. Usually only students who show promise and talent are accepted, and the course lasts two years. Then the young actor or actress takes up work with a repertory company, usually as an assistant stage manager. This means doing everything that there is to do in the theatre: painting scenery, looking after the furniture, taking care of the costumes, and even acting in very small parts. It is very hard work indeed. The hours are long and the salary is tiny. But young actors with the stage in their blood are happy, waiting for the chances of working with a better company, or perhaps in films or television. Of course, some people have unusual chances which lead to fame and success without this long and dull training. Connie Pratt, for example, was just an ordinary girl working in a bicycle factory. A film producer happened to catch sight of her one morning waiting at a bus stop, as he drove past in his big car. He told the driver to stop, and he got out to speak to the girl. He asked her if she would like to go to the film studio to do a test, and at first she thought he was joking. Then she got angry and said she would call the police. It took the producer twenty minutes to tell Connie that he was serious. Then an appointment was made for her to go to the studio the next day. The test was successful. They gave her some necessary lessons and within a few weeks she was playing the leading part opposite one of the most famous actors of the day. Of course, she was given a more dramatic name, which is now world-famous. But chances like this happen once in a blue moon!
Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic(边缘的)system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia. Aging is a frequent cause. As humans advance in age, the heart's action, as well as the walls of blood vessels, change. It is thought that too little blood reaching brain cells, and sometimes the lack of certain nutrients, causes the death of small portions of the brain. Old memories and new ones are kept in different portions of the brain, and many older people can recall events that took place years before while being unable to remember what they ate at their last meal. An inability to store or learn new information may also occur with advanced age. Several degenerative(退化的)diseases of old age can cause profound amnesia. Primarily in older men, transient(暂时的)global amnesia causes severe loss of memory for minutes or hours. This is a progressive condition about which little can be done. Alcoholism is another leading cause of amnesia. Many heavy drinkers cannot recall the events of the time when they were intoxicated. In alcoholism of long duration, the gradual deterioration of brain cells takes place, and memory can become permanently confused. Injuries to the head often result in amnesia for the time just before and just after an accident. As the injury heals, memory gradually returns. Tumors or other growth in the brain that affect the limbic system can also cause amnesia, when treatment of the growth is successful, the amnesia is cured. Classic amnesia may be described as the condition of an otherwise healthy person who "wakes up" in a strange place unable to recall his name, where he came from, or where he is going. It is interesting to note that such a person, however, retains knowledge of language and social customs. This kind of amnesia is probably due to emotional stress and is called hysterical amnesia. It occurs when some event is seen as so shameful or when problems become so overwhelming that the person concerned is unable to face reality. Instead, complete amnesia develops. Hysterical amnesia is treated through psychotherapy and sometimes the administration of drugs such as sodium amobarbital, which causes a person to talk freely. Clues to the past may appear under the sedation, and the psychotherapist can use these to prod(促使)the memory of the patient.
近30年来,中国经济快速发展,居民生活水平有了显著提高,居民的
消费支出结构
(consumption expenditure structure)也日趋合理。城镇居民的消费重点已从基本生活消费品转向了住房、交通和教育这些领域。统计显示,中国城镇居民在教育、文化、娱乐、服务、医疗和保健等方面的投入占总开支的34%,这表明城镇居民越来越注重精神生活和健康方面的需求。为了使城镇居民消费结构更合理,政府需要提高居民收入水平。同时,大众媒体也应当引导居民进行理性消费。
The 35-year-old Beijing woman is watching an ad showing a giant television made by the Chinese company Haier. A stream of introduction for the television floats in and out of view, including one about receiving electronic mail over the tube. A surfer rides the waves between skyscrapers, his wash leaving an "@" in the water. The ad is "too direct", she tells an interviewer. "There is this guy talking, telling me all about the product, showing me some images. We get it—but we don't like it." Since a Shanghai television station aired China's first TV commercial in 1979, most have been the plain, straightforward, tell-the-name-of-the-product-and-what-it-does kind. Those started disappearing in the U.S. in the late 1960s in favor of more subtle pitches using irony and humor. Now a study says Chinese commercials don't have to talk down to consumers anymore either—at least the one-third of them living in China's prosperous cities, and who most interest advertisers. Even the Western agencies that win awards elsewhere for hip, inventive commercials usually keep it simple in China. After all this country only began opening up 20 years ago and is fairly new to advertising. And to consumer culture, too. China is still a developing nation where an income of just $20,000 a year qualifies an urban household as middle-class. On the other hand, city people who once aspired to own the "big three"—a television, refrigerator and washing machine—have already moved up to DVD players and mobile phones. And with a population of 1.3 billion, the world's largest, China is a huge market. That is why the world's largest companies, from Coca-Cola to Procter Gamble, are battling it out in China. Advertisers spent more than $500 million dollars through the first half of the year, estimates market researcher, making China the largest advertising market in Asia after Japan. The prevailing view of many of those advertisers and their agencies is that the Chinese don't yet get clever or subtle advertising and they prefer a straightforward ad with lots of information. But the April survey of almost 500 people in five China's largest cities discovered "a savvy urban population, tired of a diet of 'boring' ads and hungry to be treated as the sophisticated decision-makers they are." In short, the Chinese appreciation of what makes a good ad is no different from their counterparts anywhere else in the world.
{{B}}Part II Listening Comprehension{{/B}}
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Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on more and more people's moving to another country. You can give examples to illustrate your point. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.
{{B}}Section A{{/B}}
Secret E-Scores [A]Americans are obsessed with their scores. Credit scores, G.P.A.'s, SAT's, blood pressure and cholesterol(胆固醇)levels—you name it. So here's a new score to obsess about: the e-score, an online calculation that is assuming an increasingly important, and controversial, role in e-commerce. [B]These digital scores, known broadly as consumer valuation or buying-power scores, measure our potential value as customers. What's your e-score? You'll probably never know. That's because they are largely invisible to the public. But they are highly valuable to companies that want—or in some cases, don't want—to have you as their customer. [C]Online consumer scores are calculated by a handful of start-ups, as well as a few financial services, that specialize in the flourishing field of predictive consumer analytics. It is a Google like business, one fueled by almost unimaginable amounts of data and powered by complex computer algorithms(算法). The result is a private, digital ranking of American society unlike anything that has come before. A company, called eBureau, develops eScores—its name for custom scoring algorithms—to predict whether someone is likely to become a customer. Gordy Meyer, the founder and chief executive, says his system needs less than a second to size up a consumer and to transmit his or her score to an eBureau client. [D]It's true that credit scores, based on personal credit reports, have been around for decades. And direct marketing companies have long ranked consumers by their socioeconomic status. But e-scores go further. They can take into account facts like occupation, salary and home value to spending on luxury goods or pet food, and do it all with algorithms that their creators say accurately predict spending. [E]A growing number of companies, including banks, credit and debit card(借记卡)providers, insurers and online educational institutions are using these scores to choose whom to persuade on the Web. These scores can determine whether someone deserves a super credit card or a plain one, a full-service cable plan or none at all. They can determine whether a customer is routed promptly to an attentive service agent or moved to an overflow call center. [F]Federal regulators and consumer advocates worry that these scores could eventually put some consumers at a disadvantage, particularly those under financial stress. In effect, they say, the scores could create a new subprime class: people who are bypassed by companies online without even knowing it. Financial institutions, in particular, might avoid people with low scores, reducing those people's access to home loans, credit cards and insurance. [G]"The scoring is a tool to enable financial institutions to make decisions about financing based on unconventional methods," says David Vladeck, the director of the bureau of consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission. "We are troubled by these practices." [H]Federal law governs the use of old-fashioned credit scores. Companies must have a legally permissible purpose before checking consumers' credit reports and must alert them if they are denied credit or insurance based on information in those reports. But the law does not extend to the new valuation scores because they are derived from nontraditional data and promoted for marketing. Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the United States Public Interest Research Group in Washington, worries that federal laws haven't kept pace with change in the digital age. [I]"There's a nontransparent scoring system that collects information about you to generate a score— and what your score is results in the offers you get on the Internet," he says. "In most cases, you don't know who is collecting the information, you don't know what predictions they have made about you, or the potential for being denied choice or paying too much." [J]Here's how e-scores work: A client submits a data set containing names of tens of thousands of sales leads(线索)it has already bought, along with the names of leads who went on to become customers. EBureau then adds several thousand details—like age, income, occupation, property value, length of residence and retail history—from its databases to each customer profile. From those raw data points, the system calculates up to 50,000 additional variables per person. Then it searches thoroughly all that data for the rare common factors among the existing customer base. The result scores prospective customers based on their resemblance to previous customers. [K]E-scores might range from 0 to 99, with 99 indicating a consumer who is a likely return on investment and 0 indicating an unprofitable one. But in some industries, "knowing the bottom is more important than knowing the top," Mr. Meyer says. In online education, for instance, e-scores help schools distinguish prospective students who are not worth the investment of expensive course catalogs or attentive follow-up calls—like people who use fake names or adopt the identities of relatives. "If we can find 25 percent who have zero chance of enrolling, we can say 'don't waste your money on them,'" he says. EBureau charges clients 3 to 75 cents a score, depending on the industry and the volume of leads. Such scores increase the accuracy and speed with which companies can identify potential customers, says Mr. Weintraub of the LeadsCon conference. "Scores tell you 'this person might actually qualify, so let's focus on them,' " he says. "This way you are not focusing on people who really can't qualify." [L]Most people never see their value scores. But some services openly discuss how their measurements work. A case study on the eBureau site, for example, describes how the company ranked prospective customers for a national prepaid debit card issuer, assigning each a score of 0 to 998. People who scored above 950 were considered likely to become highly profitable customers, generating revenue over six months of an estimated $213 per card. Those who scored less than 550 were predicted to be unprofitable clients, with estimated revenue of $74 or less. With eBureau's system, the card issuer could identify and court the high scorers while avoiding low scorers. [M]For companies, this kind of scoring clearly increases the speed and reduces the cost of acquiring customers. But consumers are paying a heavy price for that increased corporate efficiency, public interests advocates say. The digital scores create a two-tiered system that invisibly prioritizes some online users for credit and insurance offers while denying the same opportunities to others, says Mr. Mierzwinski of the Public Interest Research Group. [N]Mr. Meyer and other eBureau executives disagree, saying the concerns are misplaced. EBureau, Mr. Meyer says, went to great lengths to build a system with both regulatory requirements and consumer privacy in mind. The company, he says, has put firewalls in place to separate databases containing federally regulated data, like credit or debt information used for purposes like risk management, from databases about consumers used to generate scores for marketing purposes. [O]He adds that eBureau's clients use the scores only to narrow their field of prospective customers— not for the purposes of approving people for credit, loans or insurance. Moreover, he says, the company does not sell consumer data to others, nor does it retain the scores it transmits to clients. "We are an evaluator," Mr. Meyer says. "We are trying to stay away from being intrusive to the consumer." [P]It's just another sign of the rise of what might be called the Scored Society. Google ranks our search results by our location and search history. Facebook scores us based on our online activities. Klout scores us by how many followers we have on Twitter, among other things. And now e-scores rank our potential value to companies.
