单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay commenting on the remark 'Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. The miracle is to make a single friend who will stand by your side even when hundreds are against you.' You can give examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you will do to make true friends. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

单选题 Visitors to Britain may find the best place to 28 local culture is in a traditional pub. But these friendly hostelries can be minefields of potential gaffes for the uninitiated. An anthropologist and a team of researchers have 29 some of the arcane rituals of British pubs—starting with the difficulty of getting a drink. Most pubs have no 30 —you have to go to the bar to buy drinks. A group of Italian youths waiting 45 minutes before they realized they would have to 31 their own. This may sound inconvenient, but there is a hidden purpose. Pub culture is designed to promote 32 in a society known for its reserve. Standing at the bar for service allows you to chat with others waiting to be served. The bar counter is possibly the only site in the British Isles in which friendly conversation with strangers is considered entirely 33 and really quite normal behaviour. 'If you haven't been to a pub, you haven't been to Britain.' This tip can be found in a booklet, Passport to the Pub: The Tourists' Guide to Pub Etiquette, a customer's 34 of conduct for those wanting to sample 'a central part of British life and culture'. The trouble is that if you do not 35 the local rules, the experience may fall flat. For example, if you are in a big group, it is best if only one or two people go to buy the drinks. Nothing 36 the regular customers and bar staff more than a gang of strangers 37 all access to the bar while they chat and dither about what to order. A. fetch B. offensive C. code D. blocking E. ingratiate F. sociability G. break H. unveiled I. sample J. irritates K. follow L. overturned M. appropriate N. waiters O. responsibility

单选题 Texting has long been bemoaned (哀叹) as the downfall of the written word, 'penmanship for illiterates, ' as one critic called it. To which the proper response is LOL. Texting properly isn’t writing at all. It’s a 'spoken' language that is getting richer and more complex by the year. First, some historical perspective. Writing was only invented 5 500 years ago, whereas language probably traces back at least 80 000 years. Thus talking came first; writing is just a craft that came along later. As such, the first writing was based on the way people talk, with short sentences. However, while talking is largely subconscious and rapid, writing is deliberate and slow. Over time, writers took advantage of this and started crafting long-winded sentences such as this one: 'The whole engagement lasted above 12hours, till the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a disorderly flight, of which the shameful example was given by the principal leaders and...' No one talks like that casually—or should. But it is natural to desire to do so for special occasions. In the old days, we didn’t much write like talking because there was no mechanism to reproduce the speed of conversation. But texting and instant messaging do—and a revolution has begun. It involves the crude mechanics of writing, but in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually a new kind of talking, with its own kind of grammar and conventions. Take LOL. It doesn’t actually mean 'laughing out loud' in a literal sense anymore. LOL has evolved into something much subtler and sophisticated and is used even when nothing is remotely amusing. Jocelyn texts 'Where have you been?' and Annabelle texts back 'LOL at the library studying for two hours.' LOL signals basic empathy (同感) between texters, easing tension and creating a sense of equality. Instead of having a literal meaning, it does something—conveying an attitude—just like the -ed ending conveys past tense rather than 'meaning' anything. LOL, of all things, is grammar. Of course no one thinks about that consciously. But then most of communication operates without being noticed. Over time, the meaning of a word or an expression drifts—meat used to mean any kind of food, silly used to mean, believe it or not, blessed. Civilization, then, is fine—people banging away on their smartphones are fluently using a code separate from the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Worldwide people speak differently from the way they write, and texting—quick, casual and only intended to be read once—is actually a way of talking with your fingers.

单选题 You might think you left the world of cliques (小团体) and in-crowds behind when you left high school. You'd be wrong. The benefits of being popular 28 all the way into the adult workplace, based on research in the latest issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. Just like children on the playground, co-workers not only agree on who's popular, but they also afford those lucky few more favourable treatment. This 29 more help and good manners, and less rudeness and withholding of helpful information, 30 on a study of 255 employees and their co-workers in hospital, restaurant, sales and administrative jobs. The researchers, Brent Scott of Michigan State University and Timothy Judge of the University of Florida, said popular workers 31 more co-worker support 32 of their status on the organisation chart. They also may gain an unfair advantage over less 33 colleagues, the researchers suggest, which may hinder a meritocracy (唯才是举). 'By valuing popularity, organisations may be promoting a certain 'clubby' atmosphere that imitates school culture' rather than 34 merit, the researchers write. I've been fortunate in working in meritocracies most of my life, but that's not the 35 among fictional examples, consider the television comedy 'The Office'. Who in his or her fight mind would promote the cold, manipulative Angela Martin over the friendly Jim Halpert? The popular paper salesman proves the study's point, rising 36 on the Dunder Mifflin organisation chart with his smart 'people skills', despite his 37 to his job. In fact, what these researchers call popularity, career coaches might call savvy (精明的) office politics the art of getting people in your comer. And it's clearly a big deal in many workplaces. A. based B. charming C. concludes D. drew E. enthusiasm F. extend G. fast H. get I. includes J. indifference K. norm L. ordinary M. regardless N. rewarding O. slowly

单选题 七夕节(Qixi Festival)遭到冷遇促使文化学者为这个情人节由衷地担心起来——七夕节从汉朝开始就世代相传，如今却正在消亡。有人甚至呼吁立法，把农历(lunar year)七月初七这个节日设为法定的“中国情人节”。然而，尽管保留传统节日的努力非常值得肯定，但是这种措施效果如何还是令人怀疑。越来越多的中国传统节日。例如端午节(Dragon Boat Festival)、中秋节(Mid-Autumn Festival)等，都面临和七夕节同样的命运。在抱怨传统节日丧失吸引力的同时，决策者们应该考虑文化保护的问题。

单选题 众所周知，对于心血管功能不好的人来说，太大的工作压力可能会引起心血管疾病(cardiovascular disease)。最近研究表明即便对于健康人来说，工作压力仍有可能夺去他们的生命。工作压力包含很多方面，如工作量过大、对工作感到不满意，或在工作中不得志等。许多人工作量也相当大，但是如果工作有成效，工作压力就会最小化。然而，如果工作量过大，又很少或完全不加以控制，再碰上不公平的管理和极少的工作机会，工作压力就会破坏健康。

单选题The Mystery of the Nazca Lines A. If you visit the Peruvian coastal desert from north to south, you will note that sporadically you come upon a green and fertile valley surrounded by sand. The valleys of the Peruvian Pacific coast are like elongated oasis, through which run narrow and torrential rivers that originate in the snow-capped mountains of the Andes and which flow to the Pacific Ocean. As you travel more towards the south, these valleys become smaller and the rivers are narrower. Many of these rivers nm dry for most part of the year with the exception of the rainy season in the mountains (from December to March). B. Nazca is one of these valleys. Here an important civilization developed during the first six centuries after Christ. It was a culture made up of noteworthy textile weavers and potters (the best paintings of ancient Peru can be found on the ceramics from Nazca. Great desert plains and plateaus extend to the north and south of this region, a land of complete aridness where there is no vegetation, where the air is very dry and where it seldom rains. Compared to the other nearby valleys, this valley is inhabited by no one. The Nazca Lines C. Across the plain between the Inca and Nazca Valleys, there lies an area measuring 37 miles long and mile wide, on which there is an assortment of perfectly straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming a grand geometric form. In and around the lines there are also trapezoidal zones, strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts all etched on a giant scale that can only be appreciated from the sky. D. The figures come in two types: biomorphs and geoglyphs. The biomorphs are some 70 animal and plant figures that include a spider, hummingbird, monkey and a 1,000-foot-long pelican. The biomorphs are grouped together in one area on the plain. Some archaeologists believe they were constructed around 200 B.C., about 500 years before the geoglyphs. E. There are about 900 geoglyphs on the plain. Geoglyphs are geometric forms that include straight lines, triangles, spirals, circles and trapezoids. They are enormous in size. The longest straight line goes nine miles across the plain. F. The forms are so difficult to see from the ground that they were not discovered until the 1930's when aircraft, when surveying for water, spotted them. The plain, crisscrossed, by these giant lines with many forming rectangles, has a striking resemblance to a modem airport. The Swiss writer, Erich von Daniken, even suggested they had been built for the convenience of ancient visitors from space to land their ships. As tempting as it might be to subscribe to this theory, the desert floor at Nazca is soft earth and loose stone, not tarmac, and would not support the landing wheels of either an aircraft or a flying saucer. How Were They Built? G. Straight lines can be made easily for distances with simple tools. Two wooden stakes placed as a straight line would be used to guide the placement of a third stake along the line. One person would sight along the first two stakes and instructs a second person in the placement of the new stake. This can be repeated as many times as needed to make an almost perfectly-straight line miles in length. The symbols were probably made by drawing the desired figure at some reasonable size, then using a grid system to divide it up. The symbol could then be redrawn at full scale by recreating the grid on the ground and working on each individual square one at a time. So Why Are the Lines There? H. The American explorer Paul Kosok, who made his first visit to Nazca in the 1940s, suggested that the lines were astronomically significant and that the plain acted as a giant observatory. He called them 'the largest astronomy book in the world.' Gerald Hawkins, an American astronomer, tested this theory in 1968 by feeding the position of a sample of lines into a computer and having a program calculate how many lines coincided with an important astronomical event. Hawkins showed the number of lines that were astronomically significant were only about the same number that would be the result of pure chance. This makes it seem unlikely Nazca is an observatory. I. Perhaps the best theory for the lines and symbols belongs to Tony Morrison, the English explorer. By researching the old folk ways of the people of the Andes mountains, Morrison discovered a tradition of wayside shrines (神殿) linked by straight pathways. The faithful would move from shrine to shrine praying and meditating. Often the shrine was as simple as a small pile of stones. Morrison suggests that the lines at Nazca were similar in purpose and on a vast scale. The symbols may have served as special enclosures for religious ceremonies. J. Recently two researchers, David Johnson and Steve Mabee, have advanced a theory that the geoglyphs may be related to water. The Nazca plain is one of the driest places on Earth, getting less than one inch of rain a year. Johnson, while looking for sources of water in the region, noticed that ancient aqueducts, called puqulos, seemed to be connected with some of the lines. Johnson thinks that the shapes may be a giant map of the underground water sources traced on the land. Mabee is working to gather evidence that might confirm this theory. K. Other scientists are more skeptical, but admit that in a region where finding water was vital to survival, there might well be some connection between the ceremonial purpose of the lines and water. Johan Reinhard, a cultural anthropologist with the National Geographic Society, found that villagers in Bolivia walk along a straight pathway to shrines while praying and dancing for rain. Something similar may have been done at the ancient Nasca lines. L. The lines at Nazca aren't the only landscape figures Peru boasts. About 850 miles south of the plain is the largest human figure in the world laid out upon the side of Solitary Mountain. The Giant of Atacama stands 393 feet high and is surrounded by lines similar to those at Nazca. M. Along the Pacific Coast in the foothills of the Andes Mountains is etched a figure resembling a giant candelabrum. Further south, Sierra Pintada, which means 'the painted mountain' in Spanish, is covered with vast pictures including spirals, circles, warriors and a condor. Archaeologists speculate that these figures, clearly visible from the ground, served as guideposts for Inca traders. Preserving the Nazca Lines N. It is difficult to keep the Nazca Lines free from outside intervention. As with all ancient ruins, such as Machu Piccu, weather by wind and rain, and human tampering will take their toll on these ancient Lines. In recent years the Nazca Lines have suffered gradual destruction, as tomb raiders seeking pre-Inca artifacts scar the terrain with hundreds of burrows, garbage, among other waste material. A boom in copper and gold mining-including a mine built in 1997 a few feet from a 2,000-year-old, two-mile-long trapezoid—is defacing parts of the Nazca Lines with tracks from truck traffic. O. The damage to the Lines underscores Peru's desperate struggle to preserve its national patrimony. Archaeologists say they are watching helplessly as the quest for scholarship and conservation in a country viewed as the cradle of New World civilization is losing out to commercial interests, bleak poverty and the growing popularity of heritage sites as tourist attractions.

单选题 Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on kindness by referring to the saying 'The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.' You can cite examples to illustrate your point and then explain what you can do to offer your kindness to other people. You should write at least 150 words but no more than 200 words.

单选题 He has influenced generations of artists but John Baldessari's own celebrity came relatively late. A physically imposing 79-year-old, he seemed slightly uncomfortable at a press conference at the Metropolitan Museum, where a travelling retrospective of his work has just opened for its final stop. Asked to distil his art for the many who have not heard of him, he responded cheerfully that it was not the job of an artist to 'spoon-feed' viewers but to make them feel intelligent. For decades Mr Baldessari has made art that challenges convention. Though his work is heavily conceptual, it is not designed to alienate—and is often very funny. In the wake of abstract expressionism, when painting was all, Mr Baldessari was investigating what it meant to make a painting, what the rules were, and how far he could stretch them. In the 1960s he created a series of works that featured mostly text on canvas, painted by sign professionals. One, in black letters on canvas, reads 'PURE BEAUTY'. The words sit there like a taunt (嘲弄), a question, a declaration. 'I do not believe in screwing the bourgeoisie,' Mr Baldessari explained in an interview. The irony in his work is not designed to reveal what is vacant in art, or what is silly about those who buy it. He just wants people to question what they are looking at. He pokes fun at the art establishment, but he lets viewers in on the joke. Art, he says, supplies 'spiritual nourishment'. Asked if a show at the Met sat uncomfortably with his subversive streak, Mr Baldessari did not miss a beat: 'I would be happy to hang in a broom closet at the Met. It's a huge honour.' Mr Baldessari attributes some of his experimentation to having grown up in National City, California, a suburb just north of the Mexican border and well beyond the reach of any art scene. He was culturally isolated, but also free from the pressures of rejection. 'I was trying to find out what was irreducibly art.' His boldest early work was his 'Cremation Project' in 1970, when he ceremonially burned nearly all the paintings he had made between 1953 and 1966. 'I really think it's my best piece to date,' he wrote of it at the time. He supported himself by teaching, mainly at the progressive California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. He earned a reputation for being a revolutionary and generous teacher who inspired students to renounce painting and view art as something that happens in the brain. 'Artists are indebted to him,' said Marla Prather, who organised the show at the Met. He taught countless people how to make art from the ordinary stuff of life. Now the man himself is finally getting his due.

单选题 Testing has replaced teaching in most public schools. My own children's school week is framed by pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then skim the text for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to state proudly and openly that they teach to the mandated (国家指定的) state test. Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon. Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn by themselves, and then using some reasonable methods of assessment to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to reverse the process. First, one looks at a commercially available test. Then, one distills (提取) the skills needed not to master reading, math, but to do well on the test. Finally, the test skills are taught. The ability to read or write or calculate might infer the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparation for a test of a skill with the acquisition of that skill. Too many discussions of the basics of skills make this fundamental confusion because people are test-centered rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught. Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple terms, the phenomenon of students with phonic and grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are capable of taking tests and filling in workbooks. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can't see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grade that they have no time or ease of mind to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary.

单选题 Questions6-9 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

单选题 Does the Internet Make You Dumber? A. The Roma- philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2000 years ago: 'To be everywhere is to be nowhere.' Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers. B. The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity (速度), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate (镇定的) and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle (同时应会) many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time. C. The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it 'meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory,' writes the Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist (神经科学家) Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts. D. When we're constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory. E. In an article published in Science last year, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance 'visual literacy skills', increasing the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and 'more automatic' thinking. F. In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture's content. While it's hardly surprising that Web surfing would distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning. G. Ms. Greenfield concluded that 'every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.' Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by 'new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes,' including 'abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination'. We're becoming, in a word, shallower. H. In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University's Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial. I. The researchers were surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their on-screen juggling. But that wasn't the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers weren't even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching between tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. 'Everything distracts them,' observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab. J. It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they don't. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we're not using the technology. K. The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being 'massively remodeled' by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkey's hand, the nerve cells in the animal's sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new 'mental map' of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be 'deadly'. L. What we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness. M. Reading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of what's going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that we'd overlook a nearby source of food. N. To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T.S. Eliot, in his poem 'Four Quartets', called 'the still point of the turning world'. We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind. O. It is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with.—Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of The Shallows. What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.

单选题 宫保鸡丁(Kung Pao Chicken)鸡丁、花生和红辣椒做成，是著名的传统川菜。这道菜以晚清时期的官员丁宝桢的名字命名。据说，丁宝桢很喜欢吃，尤其是“爆炒鸡丁”。丁宝桢在四川做巡抚(governor)时，他常常以爆炒鸡丁宴请宾客。为了迎合四川宾客的口味，丁宝桢改良了他最爱的“爆炒鸡丁”，加入了红辣椒。结果，辣的鸡丁比以前更美味。丁宝桢后来被授予“太子少保(Palace Guardian)”的官衔，也就是“宫保”。为了纪念丁宝桢，人们把他最爱的这道菜命名为“宫保鸡丁”。