玉 (jade)是一种天然的矿产，质地坚硬，色彩多样。古人认为玉能益寿延年、保佑平安，所以中国和亚洲其他国家的人们都喜欢佩戴玉制饰品。现代医学证明玉所含的矿物质的确有利于身体健康。中国许多地方都出产玉石，以新疆和田玉最为著名。在中国传统文化中。玉常常和高贵的品质联系在一起，而玉器工艺也表现出中国人民的聪明智慧和创造才能。因此，北京奥运会奖牌使用了 “金镶玉” (jade inlaid)的制作工艺，向世界传播中国玉文化。

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, complaining about the poor service of a bookstore. You should write at least 150 words according to the outline given below in Chinese. 设想你买了一本英文词典，发现有这样那样的质量问题，书店的服务态度又不好，因此给报社编辑写信。信中必须包括以下内容： 1．事情的起因。 2．与书店交涉的经过。 3．呼吁服务行业必须提高服务质量。

The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work【C1】______which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a【C2】______thought. But, in fact, it could offer the【C3】______of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom. Employment became【C4】______when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and【C5】______work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places of employment until,【C6】______, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived. Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. It became【C7】______for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and families to his wife. It was not only women whose work status【C8】______As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were【C9】______. All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the idealist goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of【C10】______many people to manage without full-time jobs. A)amazing F)discouraging K)prospect B)concepts G)eventually L)removed C)customary H)excluded M)suffered D)definitely I)helping N)vision E)deprived J)patterns O)widespread

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

诸葛亮是 三国时期 (the Three Kingdoms Period)杰出的军事家和政治家。他帮助刘备打了一系列的战争，联合盟友，不断扩张刘备的领地、增强刘备的实力。 蜀国 (the Shu State)建立后，他被任命为 丞相 (Prime Minister)，管理政务、军事、民族交流和农业生产等事务。诸葛亮也是一位著名的艺术家，爱好 书法 (calligraphy)、绘画和音乐。他还发明或改造了一些运输工具和传统兵器。是一位优秀的发明家。中国人认为诸葛亮是个非常有智慧的人，他的传奇故事至今仍广泛流传。中国很多的传统习语都与他有关。

[此试题无题干]

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。

算盘(abacus)是汉族劳动人民发明创造的一种简便的计算工具。中国是算盘的故乡，在计算机已被普遍使用的今天，古老的算盘不仅没有被废弃，反而因它的灵便、准确等优点，在许多国家方兴未艾。因此，人们往往把算盘的发明与中国古代四大发明相提并论。由于珠算盘运算方便、快速，几千年来一直是汉族劳动人民普遍使用的计算工具，即使最先进的电子计算器也不能完全取代算盘的作用。2013年，算盘已正式成为人类非物质文化遗产。

[此试题无题干]

Parents can easily come down with an acute case of schizophrenia(精神分裂症)from reading the contradictory reports about the state of the public schools. One set of experts asserts that the schools are better than they have been for years. Others say that the schools are in terrible shape and are responsible for every national problem from urban poverty to the trade deficit One group of experts looks primarily at such indicators as test scores, and they cheer what they see: all the indicators—reading scores, minimum competency test results, the scholastic aptitude test scores—are up, some by substantial margins. Students are required to take more academic courses— more mathematics and science, along with greater stress on basic skills, including knowledge of computers. More than 40 state legislatures have mandated such changes. But in the eyes of another set of school reformers such changes are at best superficial and at worst counterproductive. These experts say that merely toughening requirements without either improving the quality of instruction or even more important, changing the way schools are organized and children are taught makes the schools worse rather than better. They challenge the nature of the tests, mostly multiple choice or true or false, by which children's progress is measured; they charge that raising the test scores by drilling pupils to come up with the right answers does not improve knowledge, understanding and the capacity to think logically and independently. In adoption, these critics fear that the get-tough approach to school reform will cause more of the youngsters at the bottom to give up and drop out. This, they say, may improve national scores but drain even further the nation's pool of educated people. The way to cut through the confusion is to understand the different yardsticks used by different observers. Compared with what schools used to be like "in the good old days", with lots of drill and uniform requirements, and the expectation that many youngsters who could not make it would drop out and find their way into unskilled jobs—by those yardsticks the schools have measurably improved in recent years. But by the yardsticks of those experts who believe that the old school was deficient in teaching the skills needed in the modern world, today's schools have not become better. These educators believe that rigid new mandates may actually have made the schools worse.

武术 (Chinese martial arts)是中华民族一项宝贵的文化遗产，在我国具有悠久的历史。它最早出现在商朝，是一种军事训练手段，具有明显的技击特性。在长期的历史演进过程中，受古代哲学、医学、 美学 (aesthetics)等方面的渗透和影响，武术已成为了一种独具民族风格的练功方法和运动形式。它不仅有健身和技击的价值，而且富有浓郁的艺术色彩。坚持练习武术，既能锻炼体魄和意志，又能提高自身的修养和审美能力，所以中国武术至今仍受到广泛的喜爱。

Parents' Homework: Find Perfect Teachers for KidsA)Tomi Hall did what she could to lobby for the best teachers for her two children, making her case this spring in letters to the principal. Then all she could do was waiting for news of their classroom assignments—and it' s been torturing. The Aurora mom knows her efforts carry no guarantees. One year her son didn't get the teacher Hall had hoped for, and he struggled for months with one whose relaxed style came across to him as uncaring. "Granted, I know it' s just kindergarten," said Hall, 39. "But... a teacher can make or break you."B)In the next few weeks, many families will rip open notification letters or go to school to see class lists posted on the front door. For parents accustomed to directing nearly every aspect of their child' s early learning it can be difficult to have little voice in teacher selection—a decision they view as critical. Some spend hours crafting the perfect letter or meet with the principal to make an argument. For their child's early learning, parents regard that teacher is critical.C)Principals, meanwhile, struggle to create balanced classrooms while juggling(同时应付)individual requests. They say they want input but find it increasingly necessary to discourage parents from asking for a specific teacher. Administrators don' t want the selection process to be a popularity contest—in part because what makes a teacher popular may have nothing to do with a particular child' s educational needs.D)"I'm bright enough to realize parents talk at soccer fields and baseball fields, but you have to realize your experience with Teacher A may be very different than someone else' s Teacher A," said Scott Meek, the new principal at Northbrook Junior High School who is making classroom assignments this summer for 600 students with the help of an office display board. He asks parents to focus their input on the student and his or her learning style and trust the school to make the right match.E)Some students also recognize that certain teachers bring out the best in them. "I need one of those strict kinds of teachers," said Hall's daughter Tori, 12, who is entering 7th grade. "When I get a not-so-strict teacher, I think they don't really care about me. I really don't want a bad teacher. I'll get lower grades."F)When Chaya Fish, 30, of West Rogers Park taught at a private school in New York, she said, it was obvious who the "in" teachers were. She said she automatically joined them after the principal' s son landed in her classroom. "It was ridiculous," said Fish. "The other teacher was probably better than me. It was how you dressed, how you talked" that often determined parental favor.G)Teachers said the most vocal parents often get their way so that all parties involved can avoid a difficult school year. But educators warn that parents who get what they wish for may be sorry afterward. "A lot of times when people orchestrate(精心安排)who they think their child is best suited for, they find they made a mistake," said Mark Friedman, superintendent(督学)for Libertyville Elementary School District 70. "I have many parents say later, ' I don' t know why I did this. It isn't working out this year.'" Friedman said he assures parents their comments will be considered but never guarantees a specific teacher. In fact, he tells them that if they do request a teacher and later regret that choice, "you have no one to blame but yourself."H)Some parents said they've learned their lesson about trying to guess which teacher would be best. Jamie Thompson said she was initially concerned when her daughter was assigned to a strict lst-grade teacher. She was aware other parents had lobbied for a different person, who had a more casual style. "At the end, it turned out that the other class was asking, 'Why isn't my child learning that?'" said Thompson, 36, of Arlington Heights. "That' s why I don't want to interfere too much."I)Yet parents have different reasons for requesting classes, and some have nothing to do with the teacher, said Michelle Van Every, 36, of Deerfield. She and other mothers once requested that their children not be placed in a classroom with a specific boy—not because of him, but to avoid his mother, who had created problems in the past, she said. "We didn 't want to cross paths with her," said Van Every, who added that the school complied with their request. "We didn't want to have to volunteer with her at a class party."J)Each district follows its own procedure for teacher selection. Some begin as early as April or May, officials said. Many ask parents to complete a form about their child's strengths and weaknesses. Typically, teachers have some say in the process by deciding early on which students should be separated or kept together, on the basis of academics, personalities and learning styles. The principal draws up the final class lists, often after meeting with parents or reviewing special requests, officials said. K)Many school districts wait until the last minute to announce class assignments, usually about two weeks before the start-up of school. That's because they have come to expect a flood of phone calls within hours from parents who beg or demand to switch teachers.L)Other schools handle it differently. At Sawyer Elementary School on Chicago's Southwest Side, the fall class assignments are handed out with the last report card the previous spring, said teacher Maureen "Moe" Forte. Forte said she is aware of colleagues and members of the Local School Council who have asked that their children be moved from one class into another. "It's not fair," Forte said. "I was very upset that one of the LSC parents moved her daughter to my classroom.The parent just felt my personality fit better with her child. And it' s not a personality contest."M)Denita Ricci of Lake Villa said she knows parents who request certain classes but tries to stay out of the process. Her son, Mason Wubs, 12, hopes to be placed in the same class as his best friend, easing the transition to 7th grade at a new school. "I trust the school's judgment," she said, though she secretly hopes Mason will share a class with his friend. "I think they need to learn to deal with people who are different from them, just like an employer."

舞狮(lion dance)是我国优秀的民间艺术。每逢佳节或集会庆典，民间都以舞狮来助兴。舞狮有南北之分，南方以广东的舞狮表演最为有名。狮子是由彩布条制作而成的。每头狮子由两个人合作表演，一人舞头，一人舞尾。表演者在锣鼓音乐下，装扮成狮子的样子，做出狮子的各种形态动作。在表演过程中，舞狮者要以各种招式来表现南派武功，非常富有阳刚之气(masculine)。舞狮成为元宵节(the Lantern Festival)和其他节日的习俗，人们以此来祈祷好运、平安和幸福。

在中国，小学生 负担过重 (heavy workload)一直是全国关注的问题。中国的应试教育以及家长过高的期望导致了小学生作业多、考试多、 课外辅导 (extra-curricular tutorship)多。过重的学业负担已经严重 抑制 (inhibit)了学生的创新力，损害了他们的身心健康。为了解决这些问题，中国教育部门已通过了法规，以减少小学生的学业负担。减轻学生的学业负担有助于培养学生的创造性，鼓励他们全面发展，适应未来的社会需要。但要有效执行减少学业负担的方针，需要教育部门、学校、家长和全社会的共同努力。

[此试题无题干]

BPart III Reading Comprehension/B

Forthispart-,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaybasedonthepicturebelow.Youshouldstartyouressaywithabriefdescriptionofthepictureandthendiscussthepurposeofgoingtoschool.Youshouldgivesoundargumentstosupportyourviewsandwriteatleast150wordsbutnomorethan200words."Iforgottomakeaback-upcopyofmybrain,soeverythingIlearnedlastsemesterwaslost."

The desire for achievement is one of life's great mysteries. Social scientists have devoted lifetimes studying the drives that spur us out of bed in the morning, compel us to work or study hard and spark all manner of human endeavors. Indeed, a 1992 textbook actually documents 32 distinct theories of human motivation. Given this diversity of thought, it's easy to forget that for half a century, American society has been dominated by the psychological school known as behaviorism, or Skinnerian psychology. Although behaviorism and its fundamental principle of "positive reinforcement" have long since lost their sway in academic circles, the Skinnerian legacy remains powerful in every realm of daily life, from the home and classroom to the workplace. Don't want to take the trash out? Do it, and you can go to the movies Friday night. Not in the mood for work? Keep plugging away, and you might get a bonus. Not interested in calculus? Strive for an A in the class, and you'll make the honor roll. The theory may be bankrupt, but incentives and rewards are so much a part of American culture that it's hard to imagine life without them. Yet that's exactly what a growing group of researchers are advocating today. A steady stream of research has found that rather than encouraging motivation and productivity, rewards actually can undermine genuine interest and diminish performance. "Our society is caught in a whopping paradox," asserts Alfie Kohn, author of the new book Punished by Rewards(Houghton Mifflin), which surveys recent research on the effectiveness of rewards. "We complain loudly about declining productivity, the crisis of our school and the distorted values of our children. But the very strategy we use to solve those problems—dangling rewards like incentive plans and grade and candy bars in front of people—is partly responsible for the fix we're in." It's tough argument to make in a culture that celebrates the spoils of success. Yet study after study shows that people tend to perform worse, to give up more easily and to lose interest more quickly when a reward is involved. Children who are given treats for doing artwork, for example, lose their initial love of art within weeks. Teenagers who are promised a reward for tutoring youngsters don't teach as enthusiastically as tutors offered nothing. And chief executive officers who have been awarded long-term incentive plans have often steered their companies toward lower returns.

{{B}}Part I Writing{{/B}}