[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide acts rather like a one-way mirror—the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun's rays to enter but prevents the heat from escaping. According to a weather expert's prediction, the atmosphere will be 31 warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities. Also, the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere, possibly resulting in an alteration of the earth's chief food-growing zones. In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet. But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming: in other words, by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of fuels. Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth. However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures seem to be falling. Scientists conclude, therefore, that up to now natural influences on the weather have exceeded those caused by man. The question is: Which natural cause has most effect on the weather? One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun. Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot spots and "cold" spots(that is, the relatively less hot spots)on the sun. As the sun rotates, every 27.5 days, it presents hotter or "colder" faces to the earth, and different aspects to different parts of the earth. This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth's atmospheric pressure, and consequently on wind circulation. The sun is also variable over a long term: its heat output goes up and down in cycles, the latest trend being downward. Scientists are now finding mutual relations between models of solar-weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years, including the last Ice Age. The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is not. One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia(惯性)of the earth's climate. If this is right, the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful counter-balance to the sun's diminishing heat.

In the 1920s America enjoyed what was to become known as "an Age of Excess". From 1921-1929 manufacturing output increased with only a small check—the mild recession of 1924, and real GNP(1929 prices)rose 45.6 percent. In real terms it was a vigorous expansion with the added attractions of stable prices, rising real wages, and mainly "full" employment. So the 1920s' boom remains a legend in the American economic history. The boom was created by several factors that worked together. The three presidents of the twenties, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover were all Republicans who supported business and the stock market. The Republicans were against any kind of welfare state or the government regulating business. They introduced lower tax rates and raised tariffs on foreign goods so they could not compete with American business. This was known as "protectionism". America's economy had not suffered from World War I. In fact it had been strengthened by trading arms to the allies. In the twenties, there was a substantial growth in production, jobs, profits, wages and the standard of living. The growth in production created more jobs, and because more people had more money they could buy the newly produced goods. More goods needed to be produced so more jobs and profits were created. This led to the twenties seeing the start of mass production and consumerism. For the first time items like cars and refrigerators were available and affordable to the middle classes, and secondary industries such as advertising became very profitable. There was an inevitable change in the ideas and actions of society. People could afford to enjoy their leisure time and the leisure industries also boomed. Much of American Society was changed by the Boom. More people could go out and enjoy themselves because of the increased leisure time and affluence of society. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald called it "the Age of Excess". Jazz music had a massive effect on the youth of America, as they became more outgoing. More started smoking and going out, and women started to wear shorter skirts and other more outrageous fashions. Older generations hated the new music and showed apparent disrespect of younger people. A new kind of woman was created, called a "flapper". Hollywood promoted these women and their fashions as the rogue actresses became icons for other young ladies. To most, these women were nothing but a sign of the times, a decline in traditional standards.

Secondhand smoke is accountable for 42,000 deaths annually to nonsmokers in the United States, including nearly 900 infants, according to a new study. Altogether, annual deaths from secondhand smoke【C1】______ nearly 600,000 years of potential life lost—an average of 14.2 years per person—and $6.6 billion in lost productivity,【C2】______ to $158,000 per death, report the researchers. The new research reveals that despite public health efforts to reduce tobacco use, secondhand smoke continues to【C3】______ a grievous toll on nonsmokers. "In general, fewer people are smoking and many have made lifestyle changes, but our research shows that the impacts of secondhand smoke are【C4】______ very large," said lead author Wendy Max, PhD, professor of health economics at the University of California. "The【C5】______ of information on biomarker-measured (生物指标测量 ) exposure allows us to more accurately assess the impact of secondhand smoke exposure on health and productivity. The impact is particularly great for communities of color." Exposure to secondhand smoke is linked to a number of【C6】______ illnesses including heart and lung disease, as well as conditions affecting newborns such as low birth weight and respiratory distress syndrome. In the research, the scientists【C7】______ the economic implications— years of potential life lost and the value of lost productivity—on different racial and ethnic groups. "Our study probably underestimates the true economic impact of secondhand smoke on【C8】______ ," said Max. "The toll is substantial, with communities of color having the greatest【C9】______ . Interventions need to be designed to reduce the health and economic burden of smoking on smokers and nonsmokers alike, and on particularly【C10】______ groups."A) losses E) adhering I) fatal M) amountingB) turbulent F) generalized J) henceforth N) vulnerableC) nonetheless G) take K) mortality O) gaugedD) availability H) triumphs L) represent

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay entitled On Self-improvement by commenting on the saying, " There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man: true nobility is being superior to your former self. " You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

汉字(Chinese character)是世界上最古老的文字之一，其历史可以追溯到5000年前。

[此试题无题干]

Marketplace or peer-to-peer(P2P)lending matches borrowers and lenders on low-cost online platforms. By skirting banks, P2P lending allows borrower and lender alike to achieve better rates of interest. Essentially, P2P lending is a way of capitalizing on the network effect of social media and the volumes of data generated therein to allow cheaper access to capital. According to Liberum, P2P lending in the U. K. will grow at 98 percent year-on-year in 2015, with ￡3.5 billion presently lent out. Worldwide in 2015, it's estimated that $77 billion will be lent via P2P platforms— $60 billion China, $12 billion U. S. A. and $5 billion U. K. Morgan Stanley's Huw Steenis says, "While marketplace lending is still about 1 percent of unsecured consumer and SME lending in the U. S. , we think it can reach approximately 10 percent by 2020... We forecast the global market to grow to $150 - $490 billion by 2020. " As Liberum's Cormac Leech says, "We are witnessing the biggest changes to the banking sector for 400 years. " P2P lending offers huge opportunities, mainly at the expense of banks, whose biggest margins are traditionally in unsecured lending. Herein is the layer of fat P2P platforms are guzzling(大肆掠食的), picking off the banks' best customers. P2P platforms have also proved superior at harvesting and managing big data, and have lower cost bases than banks. A significant development is that institutional money is now alighting. The largest quoted institutional P2P lender, P2P Global Investment PLC, floated in London last year. It has raised nearly ￡500m and aims to double that this year. As a reward for lofting "transformational" amounts of cash on to various platforms, P2P Global has been accumulating warrants and options on their equity, notably Ratesetter, Zopa, Direct Money and Lending Works. In a twist to this development, Neil Woodford, Britain's most famous fund manager, recently upped his stake in P2P Global. Last August Woodford sold out of HSBC, fearing "fine inflation". This seems a ringing endorsement of this disruptive but nascent(初期的)sector. Perhaps most significantly, in May this year, Zopa, the P2P platform, announced its debut in secured(most P2P lending is unsecured)lending by collaborating with Uber. Uber drivers in U. K. will be able to borrow via Zopa to buy their cars, with loans secured against the cars themselves. Of course, the sector presents risks. The credit dry-up when interest rates rise. A P2P platform may go bust. But some investors, refugees from the banking sector perhaps, will simply like the idea of being on the right side of regulatory and technological upheaval(突变). And when the banks finally understand, how will they react? Who knows? So far, none of them have.

清明节是中国重要的传统节日，通常在阳历4月5日左右。它始于周朝。有2500多年的历史。清明节是中国人祭祀(offer sacrifices to)祖先的日子。在清明节祭祀逝去的先祖亲人实际上体现了生者对逝者的思念与敬爱。由于清明节与中国另一个传统节日 “寒食节” (Cold Food Day)临近，所以吃寒食也成为清明节的习俗之一。除了扫墓。清明节还有荡秋千等风俗活动。如今。清明节已经成为中国重要的 非物质文化遗产 (intangible cultural heritage)。

Depending on which player you ask, the "Fevernova" ball that sports equipment maker Adidas says provides the ultimate soccer experience is uncontrollable, too big or just simply "stupid". The ball also has its fans, like England's David Beckham, but so far they seem to have been outnumbered by critics. Adidas says the ball, splashed with gold coloring, is quite simply the best around—25 percent more accurate than the ball used at France 98 thanks to meticulous testing by scientists in Germany. The tongue-twisting nature of its contents confirms that the World Cup ball has come a long way from the leather-and-laces variety that was common as recently as the 1960s. The Fevernova's secret, Adidas says, is its radically improved Syntactic foam and unique knitted Raschel fabric. Given that this is supposed to make the ball faster and provide the free-kick specialists like Beckham with more power, it may not be surprising that goalkeepers like Buffon are unhappy. Spain goalkeeper Pedro Contreras said the ball acts "strangely", while Danish keeper Thomas Sorensen admitted gloomily that it would probably result in more spectacular goals. "As a goalkeeper, you have to live with the fact that the makers create balls for the benefit of strikers," he said before leaving Copenhagen for South Korea. But outfield players have also weighed in with criticism, many saying the ball is too light and therefore hard to control. "It's big and it's too light," Japan's Jiji news agency quoted Brazilian forward Edilson as saying earlier this month, while striker Rivaldo said it soared too far when kicked. Journalists at the main press centre in Yokohama have been given the chance to try out the Fevernova from the penalty spot, with the aim of hitting special targets in the goal. So far, few have been able to score more than five out of ten, although this may have little to do with the quality of the ball. Putz admits that the ball is on the light side of FIFA's 420 to 445 gram weight requirement, but says it is no bigger than previous balls. The controversy over the ball also has an off-pitch dimension. Industry insiders say it may be no coincidence that players from Brazil, sponsored by Adidas rival Nike, have been among the ball's most vociferous critics. The same might go for the praise dished out for the ball by Beckham, one of the main players used to promote Adidas equipment.

[此试题无题干]

[此试题无题干]

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a short essay based on the picture below. You should focus on the difficulty in acquiring useful information in spite of advanced information technology. You are required to write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words. "We have lots of information technology. We just don't have much useful information."

I've always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place. For as long as I can remember, I've loved learning new things and solving problems. So when I sat down at a computer for the first time in seventh grade, I was hooked. It was an old teletype machine and it could barely do anything compared to the computers we have today. But it changed my life. Computers have transformed how we learn, giving kids everywhere a window into all of the world's knowledge. They're helping us build communities around the things we care about and to stay close to the people who are important to us, no matter where they are. Like my friend Warren Buffett, I feel particularly lucky to do something every day that I love to do. He calls it "tap-dancing to work." My job at Microsoft is as challenging as ever, but what makes me "tap-dance to work" is when we show people something new, like a computer that can recognize your handwriting or your speech, or one that can store a lifetime's worth of photos, and they say, "I didn't know you could do that with a PC!" But for all the cool things that a person can do with a PC, there are lots of other ways we can put our creativity and intelligence to work to improve our world. There are still far too many people in the world whose most basic needs go unmet. Every year, for example, millions of people die from diseases that are easy to prevent or treat in the developed world. I believe that my own good fortune brings with it a responsibility to give back to the world. As a father, I believe that the death of a child in Africa is no less poignant or tragic than the death of a child anywhere else. And that it doesn't take much to make an immense difference in these children's lives. I'm still very much an optimist, and I believe that progress on even the world's toughest problems is possible—and it's happening every day. We're seeing new drugs for deadly diseases, new diagnostic tools, and new attention paid to the health problems in the developing world. I'm excited by the possibilities I see for medicine, for education and, of course, for technology. And I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we're going to make some amazing achievements in all these areas in my lifetime.

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.

[此试题无题干]