单选题 Questions8-10 are based on the passage you have just heard.

单选题Millions of Americans are entering their 60s and are more concerned than ever about retirement. They know they need to save, but how much? And what exactly are they saving for—to spend more time 29 the grandkids, go traveling, or start another career? It turns out that husbands and wives may have 30 different ideas about the subject. The deepest divide is in the way spouses envisage their lifestyle in their later years. Fidelity Investments Inc. found 41 percent of the 500 couples it surveyed 31 on whether both or at least one spouse will work in retirement. Wives are generally right regarding their husbands’ retirement age, but men 32 the age their wives will be when they stop working. And husbands are slightly more 33 about their standard of living than wives are. Busy juggling (穷于应付) careers and families, most couples don’t take time to sit down, 34 or together, and think about what they would like to do 5, 10 or 20 years from now. They 35 they are on the same page, but the 36 is they have avoided even talking about it. If you are self-employed or in a job that doesn’t have a standard retirement age, you may be more apt to delay thinking about these issues. It is often a 37 retirement date that provides the catalyst (催化剂) to start planning. Getting laid off or accepting an early-retirement 38 can force your hand. But don’t wait until you get a severance (遣散费) check to begin planning. A. assume B. confidential C. disagree D. formula E. forthcoming F. illustrating G. mysteriously H. observe I. optimistic J. package K. radically L. reality M. separately N. spoiling O. underestimate

单选题 自行车王国 中国一度被称为“自行车王国”(kingdom of the bicycle)是因为骑自行车的人数众多。1995年中国的自行车产量高达4474万辆。然而，随着汽车行业(auto industry)的蓬勃发展，自行车市场需求急剧下降。到2000年，其产量降到2000万辆。当下人们倡导更健康的生活方式，自行车已再度回归人们的生活，重新成为人们重要的出行工具。然而过去只需要100～200元的自行车如今售价很高，其功能当然更加齐全，也更为专业。如今一些世界顶级汽车制造商所生产的自行车越来越受到人们的欢迎。

单选题 五四运动 五四运动(the May Fourth Movement)是1919年5月4日发生的一场反帝反封建(anti-imperialist, anti-feudal)的政治文化运动。这次运动以北京为中心，很快扩大到上海、天津、青岛等许多城市。五四运动是以青年学生为主力，市民、商人和工人等广泛参与的一次爱国运动。他们通过示威游行、罢工等各种活动来抗议软弱的政府，要求恢复国家主权(sovereignty)。五四运动对中国的政治、文化、教育，以及中国共产党(the Communist Party of China)的发展有着重要的作用。为了纪念这次运动，中华人民共和国成立后正式宣布54日为中国青年节(the Chinese Youth Day)。

单选题 You're sitting at a restaurant waiting for a friend. Twenty minutes after your designated meeting time, they arrive in a flutter with a list of excuses. Perhaps there was too much traffic or a meeting ran long. You've heard it a million times, yet their behavior never changes. Sound familiar? 'I think everyone has a person in their life that does this,' said Herb Reich, author of the book 2051 Things That Really Piss Me Off. 'Being late constantly, to me, means you are saying your time is more valuable than mine.' Reich said while it's easier to forgive friends and family for their lateness, we need to establish very clear boundaries for being on time when it comes to professional relationships. 'Sometimes I will establish consequences in the contract.' he said, 'It's always wise to let people know what you feel about their behavior.' And while Reich said lateness is a 'personality trait,' psychologist Pamela Brand said the behavior is neurological (神经学的). 'We call this a bio-psycho-socio pattern,' Brand said. The biological cause of lateness, she said, is when the person's organization and planning skills are underdeveloped. Socially, she said here can be learned behaviors or cultural communities that don't focus on time or being prompt. 'If someone wasn't raised ever looking at a watch things were kind of loose growing up, just knowing this can help us understand why they function a certain way,' she said. The psychological part of the pattern is when a person pardons or rationalizes their behavior with excuses. Brand said. So can people change their ways? 'It's my belief that all patterns can be changed if a person is conscious and wants it to be changed.' Brand said. 'There's a book called You Are Not Your Brain that I refer to often that outlines a four-step process of changing patterns in the brain. It does a wonderful job of giving a clear explanation of how patterns develop, how they are hard wired into the brain and how to shift patterns to support neurological shifting. 'This could take six months for a neurological change to stick.' she said. To lend support for someone who is trying to be more punctual. Brand said it helps to raise the stakes. 'A person is much less likely to be motivated if there are no consequences.' Brand said. 'If there is no threat to losing a relationship, losing a job or getting kicked out of school, things will stay the same. So if being late bothers you, you have to rally make the contract clear.' Reich agrees. 'Once, I was waiting for someone in my professional life, and after 15 minutes, I left.' he said. 'I explained why I did this, and that changed their behavior. My time is just as valuable as theirs and I don't want to sit around. They weren't late after that.'

单选题Happiness is U-shaped, for we are happier at the start and end of our lives but hit a slump when we are 25 , British and US researchers say. Economists from the University of Warwick, central England, and from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, looked at data on the 26 health of two million people from 80 countries. In Britain, the 27 of depression for men and women peaks at around 44 years of age, Warwick University said in a press release. In the United States, though, there was a big 28 between men and women. Among women, unhappiness peaked at around the age of 40, 29 among men, it was about 50. But the U-shape of happiness is constant around the world, and mid-life depression occurs regardless of marital status, changes in job or income. The study appears in Social Science Medicine, published by the Dutch publishing house Elsevier. 'It happens to men and women, to single and 30 people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children.' said co-author Andrew Oswald. One possibility may be that people realize they won't achieve many of their 31 at middle age, the researchers said. Another reason could be that after seeing their fellow middle-aged 32 begin to die, people begin to value their own remaining years and embrace life once more. But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and 33 healthy as a 20-year old. 'For the average persons in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year,' Oswald said, 'Only in their fifties do people 34 from this low period.' A. difference B. meanwhile C. completely D. mental E. tendency F. aspirations G. probability H. emerge I. physical J. middle-aged K. whereas L. peers M. mentally N. aged O. married

单选题 Now listen to the following recording and answer questions24-26.

单选题 Spiders are known for many things. Sociability is not one of them. Most spiders are more likely to try to eat their neighbours than befriend them. Given that there are at least 43,678 species of spiders, though, it is not too surprising that a few have overcome their natural bad-temper and teamed up to form societies. So far, about two dozen such social spiders have been identified. And among them, something really strange has just been found. For one type of spider society turns out to involve two different but closely related species. It is as though anthropologists (人类学家) had discovered villages populated both by human beings and chimpanzees. This was discovered by a team led by Lena Grinsted of Aarhus University in Denmark. They were studying a social species of spider called Chikunia nigra, living near Beratan Lake in Bali. Later, as they looked in more detail at their samples, they realised its genes showed that it was actually two species. It is not clear why the spiders being social. They do not hunt together. One explanation may be that the colony is acting like a huge kindergarten. Ms. Grinsted discovered this possibility by experiment. First, she identified 19 females who were looking after those who were recently born, and another 20 who had eggs. In each case she introduced a new comer, in the form of a spider from the same colony. Both mothers and mothers-to-be were surprisingly tolerant of what would, in most spider species, be a serious threat. Only 40% of the time did they attempt to chase the intruder away, or bite it. Ms. Grinsted then took another 40 spiders and replaced some of their little spiders. The result, she found, was that a female was as likely to look after and protect another's young spider as she was her own. Which is interesting, but not all that extraordinary in social groups which are composed of closely related individuals. Except that Ms. Grinsted now knows that this cannot always be the case for her spiders, since two different species are involved. The species in question are pretty similar, which would seem to exclude another common cause of co-action: different spiders doing different work in the group. Because Ms. Grinsted did not know at the time of her experiment that two species were involved, she cannot be sure how many of the newly-born spiders she interfered were cross-specific. The two species seem more or less equal in number, so chances are it was about half of them. If colony members are acting as foster mothers in the wild, something most odd is going on. Altruism(利他) is not a concept often associated with spiders. Xenophilic(种族间的) altruism is truly strange.