You were knocked down by a taxi the other day; a passer-by sent you to the hospital. Write a letter to the person to express your gratitude. Write your letter with no less than 100 words. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)

[A] Title: THE "PROJECT HOPE" [B] Time limit: 40 minutes [C] Word limit: 120-150 words (not including the given opening sentence) [D] Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence: "Education plays a very important role in the modernization of our country." [E] Your composition must be written neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (15 points) OUTLINE: 1. Present situation 2. Necessity of the project 3. My suggestion

Parents of children who happily eat what"s put in front of them might assume their kids are well nourished. But two new studies drive home the importance of varying that diet. Deficiencies of vitamin D, omega-3 fats, and other healthful compounds are common; it turns out—and consequential. Growing evidence links vitamin D deficiency not only to weak bones but al-so to impaired immunity, asthma, and diabetes among other problems. And some of the latest research finds that rates of asthma and related respiratory problems climb in kids who are short on other commonly missing essentials, including vitamins C and E and omega-3 fatty acids. A team at the Harvard School of Public Health evaluated the diet and respiratory (relating to the process of breathing) health of some 2,000 North American high school seniors and found that teens who lack of fruit, vegetables, and other healthful foods were most likely to have problems such as coughing, panting, episodes of bronchitis, and asthma. Vitamins C and E, which are abundant in fruit and dark-green vegetables, may "protect the lung from stress," says Harvard research fellow and study leader Jane Burns. Omega-3 reduces inflammation, a key feature of asthma, in which airways swell and make breathing difficult. Oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and tuna—as well as cod-liver oil—are rich in both omega-3 and vitaminD Vitamin D can also be obtained from multivitamin milk and sunshine—and many kids should be getting more of both. In another new study, researchers found that 55 percent of outwardly healthy children and teenagers they tested didn"t have enough vitamin D to grow healthy bones. Dark-skinned children were particularly likely to be short of the bone-building vitamin, according to Babette Zemel, an author of the study and director of the Nutrition and Growth Laboratory at Children"s Hospital of Philadelphia. The melanin (a natural dark brown colour in human skin, hair, and eyes) that makes their skin dark also blocks ultraviolet rays, which the body uses to make vitaminD In winter, when the sun was weakest, more than 90 percent of blacks in the study were vitamin D deficient. Researchers suggest pointing kids outside, and waiting a few minutes before putting on sun block; 10 minutes of midday summer sun provides 10,000 international units of the vitamin—more than enough for a day. Like melanin, sunblock prevents the skin from making vitamin D, so a bit of lotion-free exposure is necessary to grab the benefit.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

The Computer Department will hold an academic conference. You, the organizer of the meeting, write a letter to an eminent professor to invite him/her to be present at the meeting. The letter should include: 1) time and place of the academic conference, 2) the reasons why the professor is expected to attend the meeting, 3) the schedule of the professor in the academic conference. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

The idea that music makes you smarter has received considerable attention from scholars and the media. Current interest in【C1】______between music and intelligence stems from two independent areas of research. One focuses on short-term effects of【C2】______listening to music. The other is on a separate【C3】______of research, which examines whether music lessons have【C4】______benefits that extend to non-musical areas of cognition. Such【C5】______could be unique to children who take music lessons for long periods of time【C6】______their experiences differ substantially from those of other children. Music lessons【C7】_______long periods of focused attention, memorization of【C8】______musical passages, learning about a variety of musical structures, and【C9】______mastery of technical skills and the conventions【C10】______the expression of emotions in performance. This【C11】______of experiences could have a positive impact on cognition, particularly during the childhood years, when brain development is highly【C12】______and sensitive to environmental influence. Previous findings are【C13】______with the hypothesis that music lessons promote intellectual development. For example, natural musical gifts is associated with literacy.【C14】______correlational and experimental studies【C15】______that music lessons have positive relations with verbal memory, reading ability, selective attention, and mathematics achievement.【C16】______, the simplest explanation of these【C17】______relations is that they come from a common component, such as general intelligence. Put simply, children【C18】______high IQs are more likely than other children to take music lessons. To conclude that music lessons have a causal relation with IQ that is【C19】______to music, one must rule【C20】______potentially confusing factors such as socioeconomic status, and education, and demonstrate that non-musical, extracurricular activities do not have comparable effects on IQ.

[A]Ijustdon'tknowhowtomotivatethemtodoabetterjob.We'reinabudgetcrunchandIhaveabsolutelynofinancialrewardsatmydisposal.Infact,we'11probablyhavetolaysomepeopleoffinthenearfuture.It'shardformetomakethejobinterestingandchallengingbecauseitisn't—it'sboring,routinepaperwork,andthereisn'tmuchyoucandoaboutit.[B]Finally,Ican'tsaytothemthattheirpromotionswillhingeontheexcellenceoftheirpaperwork.Firstofall,theyknowit'snottrue.Iftheirperformanceisadequate,mostaremorelikelytogetpromotedjustbystayingontheforceacertainnumberofyearsthanforsomespecificoutstandingact.Second,theyweretrainedtodothejobtheydooutinthestreets,nottofilloutourforms.Allthroughtheircareeritisthearrestsandinterventionsthatgetnoticed.[C]I'vegotarealproblemwithmyofficers.Theycomeontheforceasyoung,inexperiencedmen,andwesendthemoutonthestreet,eitherincarsoronabeat.Theyseemtolikethecontacttheyhavewiththepublic,theactioninvolvedincrimeprevention,andtheapprehensionofcriminals.Theyalsolikehelpingpeopleoutatfires,accidents,andotheremergencies.[D]Somepeoplehavesuggestedanumberofthingslikeusingconvictionrecordsasaperformancecriterion.However,weknowthat'snotfair—toomanyotherthingsareinvolved.Badpaperworkincreasesthechancethatyouloseincourt,butgoodpaperworkdoesn'tnecessarilymeanyou'llwin.Wetriedsettingupteamcompetitionsbasedontheexcellenceofthereports,buttheguyscaughtontothatprettyquickly.Noonewasgettinganytypeofrewardforwinningthecompetition,andtheyfiguredwhyshouldtheylaborwhentherewasnopayoff.[E]Theproblemoccurswhentheygetbacktothestation.Theyhatetodothepaperwork,andbecausetheydislikeit,thejobisfrequentlyputoffordoneinadequately.Thislackofattentionhurtsuslateronwhenwegettocourt.Weneedclear,factualreports.Theymustbehighlydetailedandunambiguous.Assoonasonepartofareportisshowntobeinadequateorincorrect,therestofthereportissuspect.Poorreportingprobablycausesustolosemorecasesthananyotherfactor.[F]SoIjustdon'tknowwhattodo.I'vebeengropinginthedarkinanumberofyears.AndIhopethatthisseminarwillshedsomelightonthisproblemofmineandhelpmeoutinmyfuturework.[G]Alargemetropolitancitygovernmentwasputtingonanumberofseminarsforadministrators,managersand/orexecutivesofvariousdepartmentsthroughoutthecity.Atoneofthesesessionsthetopictobediscussedwasmotivation—howwecangetpublicservantsmotivatedtodoagoodjob.Thedifficultyofapolicecaptainbecamethecentralfocusofthediscussion.Order:

Since Henry Ford turned it into a mass-market product a century ago, the car has delivered many benefits. It has【C1】______economic growth, increased social mobility and given people a lot of【C2】______. No wonder mankind has taken to the vehicle with such【C3】______that there are now a billion automobiles on the world"s roads. 【C4】______the car has also brought many【C5】______. It pollutes the air, creates crowding and kills people. An【C6】______1.24m people die, and as many as 50m are hurt, in road accidents each year. Drivers and【C7】______waste around 90 billion hours in traffic jams each year. Fortunately, an【C8】______technology promises to make motoring more【C9】______less polluting and less【C10】______to hold-ups. "Connected cars"—which may eventually evolve into driverless cars but for the foreseeable future will still have a human at the【C11】______—can communicate wirelessly with each other and with traffic-management systems, avoid【C12】______and other vehicles and find open parking spots. Some parts of the【C13】______are already in place. Many new cars are already being fitted with equipment that lets them maintain their distance and stay in a motorway lane automatically at a range of speeds, and【C14】______a parking space and slot into it Singapore has led the way with using variable tolls to【C15】______traffic flows during rush-hours; Britain is【C16】______"smart motorways", whose speed limits vary constantly to achieve a similar effect. Combined, these【C17】______could create a much more efficient system in which cars and their drivers are constantly【C18】______to hazards and routed around blockages, traffic always flows at the【C19】______speed and vehicles can travel closer together, yet with less risk of【C20】______.

Over the years, as the musical "Rent" has reached milestone after milestone—playing around the world in more than 200 productions from Boise to Little Rock to Reykjavik—the thousands of people who have been affected by this vibrant, gritty and compassionate work may well wonder what its creator, Jonathan Larson, would have thought of it all. Another milestone came on Monday night. The original Broadway production of "Rent" opened at the Nederlander Theater l0 years ago this Saturday. That production, directed by Michael Greif, was an almost-intact transfer of the initial production at the New York Theater Workshop, which had opened three months earlier. To celebrate the anniversary the original cast members reassembled, rehearsed for two days and performed the show in a semi-staged version at the Nederlander on Monday. The event was a benefit for the New York Theater Workshop, for Friends in Deed (a support organization that gave comfort to several of Mr. Larson"s friends dealing with H.I.V. infections), and for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation, which was set up by his family after the enormous success of "Rent". Before the performance, the co-chairmen of the benefit told the star-studded audience that more than $2 million" had been raised. Also addressing the crowd were Senator Charles E. Schumer and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who praised "Rent" as a timeless work exemplifying "culture, community and creativity", in the mayor"s words, and saluted the show"s vast contributions to New York"s theatrical life. Once again you could only think, "Would Jonathan ever have imagined all this?" Mr. Larson, who wrote the music, lyrics and books for his stage works, struggled for more than 10 years to get a producer to take a shot at one of his shows. Now he was being posthumously thanked for giving Broadway a creative and economic boost. "Rent" is the seventh longest running show in Broadway history. I count myself among those who were personally affected by Mr. Larson"s work. Because of the inadvertent role I played in the last hours of his life. In 1996 an editor at The Times tipped me off to the opening of a rock musical, inspired by. "La Boehme", which transplanted Puccini"s struggling bohemians from Paris in the 1830"s to the "East Village in 1990"s. So on Jan. 24 I went to the New York Theater Workshop m see the dress rehearsal of "Rent", which was scheduled to open in February. That performance was pretty ragged, with technical glitches and a misbehaving sound system. But I was swept away by the sophistication and exuberance of Mr. Larson"s music and the mix of tenderness and cleverness in his lyrics. After the show Mr. Larson and I sat down for an interview in the tiny ticket booth of the theater, the only quiet space we could find amid the post-rehearsal confusion. For almost an hour, this sad-eyed and boyish, creator talked about his approach to songwriting, his determination to bring the American musical tradition to the MTV generation, and about friends snuggling with H.I.V. infection who had inspired the show.

Every culture attempts to create a "universe of discourse" for its members, a way in which people can interpret their experience and convey it to one another. Without a common system of codifying sensations, life would be absurd and all efforts to share meanings doomed to failure. This universe of discourse — one of the most precious of all cultural legacies — is transmitted to each generation in part consciously and in part unconsciously. Parents and teachers give explicit instruction in it by praising or criticizing certain ways of dressing, of thinking, of gesturing, of responding to the acts of others. But the most significant aspects of any cultural code may be conveyed implicitly, not by rule or lesson but through modeling behavior. A child is surrounded by others who, through the mere consistency of their actions as males and females, mothers and fathers, salesclerks and policemen, display what is appropriate behavior. Thus the grammar of any culture is sent and received largely unconsciously, making one"s own cultural assumptions and biases difficult to recognize. They seem so obviously right that they require no explanation. In The Open and Closed Mind, Milton Rokeach poses the problem of cultural understanding in its simplest form, but one that can readily demonstrate the complication of communication between cultures. It is called the "Denny Doodlebug Problem". Readers are given all the rules that govern this culture: Denny is an animal that always faces north, and can move only by jumping; he can jump large distances or small distances, but can change direction only after jumping four times in any direction; he can jump north, south, east or west, but not diagonally. Upon concluding a jump his master places some food three feet directly west of him. Surveying the situation, Denny concludes he must jump four times to reach the food. No more or less. And he is right. All the reader has to do is to explain the circumstances that make his conclusion correct. The large majority of people who attempt this problem fail to solve it, despite the fact that they are given all the rules that control behavior in this culture. If there is difficulty in getting inside the simplistic world of Denny Doodlebug — where the cultural code has already been broken and handed to us — imagine the complexity of comprehending behavior in societies whose codes have not yet been deciphered, and where even those who obey these codes are only vaguely aware and can rarely describe the underlying sources of their own actions.

Air is to us as water is to fish.

Living standards soared during the twentieth century, and economists expect them to continue rising in the decades ahead. Does that mean that we humans can look forward to increasing happiness? Easterlin admits that richer people are more likely to report themselves as being happier than poorer people are. But steady improvements in the American economy have not been accompanied by steady increases in people"s self-assessments of their own happiness. "There has been not improvement in average happiness in the United States over almost a half century—a period in which real GDP (gross domestic product) per capital more than doubled," Easterlin reports. The explanation for this paradox may be that people become less satisfied over time with a given level of income. In Easterlin"s word: "As incomes rise, the aspiration level does too, and the effect of this increase in aspirations is to invalidate the expected growth in happiness due to higher income." Money can buy happiness, Easterlin seems to be saying, but only if one"s amounts get bigger and other people aren"t getting more. His analysis helps to explain sociologist Lee Rainwater"s finding that Americans" perception of the income "necessary to get along" rose between 1950 and 1986 in the same proportion as actual per capital income. We feel rich if we have more than our neighbors, poor if we have less, and feeling relatively well off is equated with being happy. Easterlin"s findings challenge psychologist Abraham Maslow"s "hierarchy of wants" as a reliable guide to future human motivation. Maslow suggested that as people"s basic material wants are satisfied they seek to achieve nonmaterial or spiritual goals. But Easterlin"s evidence points to the persistence of materialism. Science has developed no cure for envy, so our wealth boosts our happiness only briefly while shrinking that of our neighbors. Thus the outlook for the future is gloomy in Easterlin"s view: "The future, then, to which the era of modem economic growth is leading is one of never ending economic growth, a world in which ever growing abundance is matched by ever rising aspirations, a world in which cultural difference is leveled in the constant race to achieve the good life of material plenty, it is a world founded on belief in science and the power of rational inquiry and in the ultimate capacity of humanity to shape its own destiny. The irony is that in this last respect the lesson of history appears to be otherwise: that there is no choice. In the end, it is not the triumph of humanity over material wants; rather, it is the triumph of material wants over humanity."

Additional social stresses may also occur because of the population explosion or problems arising from mass migration movements—themselves made relatively easy nowadays by modern means of transport.

The Students" Union of your university is planning an English Speaking Contest. Write an announcement which covers the following information: 1) the purpose of the contest, 2) time and place of the contest, 3) what is required of the candidates, 4) details of the judges and awards. You should write about 100 words neatly. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use Students" Union at the end of the announcement.

Until recently, the common factor in all the science used to figure out if a piece of art was forged was that it was concerned with the medium of the artwork, rather than the art itself. Matters of style and form were left to art historians, who could make erudite, but qualitative, judgments about whether a painting was really good enough to be, say, a Leonardo. But this is changing. A paper in this week"s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Hany Farid and his colleagues at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire uses statistical techniques to examine art itself—the message, not the medium. Dr. Farid employed a technique called wavelet analysis to examine 13 drawings that had at one time or another been attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a 16th-century Flemish painter. He also looked at Perugino"s "Madonna with Child", a 15th-century Italian -masterpiece lodged in the college"s Hood Museum of Art. He concluded, in agreement with art historians, that eight of the putative Bruegels are authentic, while the other five are imitations. In the case of "Madonna with Child", he analysed the six faces in the painting (Mary, the infant Jesus and several saints) and found that three of them were probably done by the same painter, while the other three were each done by a different hand. The view that four different painters worked on the canvas is, he says, consistent with the view of some art historians that Perugino"s apprentices did much of the work, although there is no clear consensus among art historians. As sceptics will doubtless point out, this is a small number of images. Furthermore, Dr. Farid knew before performing the analysis what results he expected. But he is the first to acknowledge that it is early days for his methodology. He hopes to study many more paintings. By looking at large numbers of paintings that are universally believed to be authentic, Dr. Farid hopes to be able to examine doubtful cases with confidence in the future. Even with the Bruegels—real and imitation—though, Dr. Farid"s results are persuasive. It is tricky to describe exactly what it is that distinguishes the real ones from the imitations, but Dr. Farid says that it can be thought of as the nature of the artist"s brushstroke. Unlike some analyses of Jackson Pollock"s work that have been done over the past few years by Richard Taylor of the University of Oregon, Dr. Farid says his technique could, in principle, be used for any artist. What Dr. Farid did was to convert each work of art into a set of mathematical functions. These so-called wavelets describe particular parts of the image as a series of peaks and troughs of variable height and wavelength. By expressing an image this way, it is possible to compress that image while losing very little information. The sums of the wavelets from different images can then be compared. Once he did this, Dr. Farid found that the types of wavelets used to express authentic Bruegels were noticeably different from those used to express the imitations. (The Perugino was analysed by treating the six faces as distinct paintings.) It seems that curators may s6on be able to add another weapon to their anti-forgery arsenal.

What if the United States of America, uniquely founded to preserve liberty, ceased to exist as a free and independent nation? What if the legal principles upon which the nation was founded, those that recognize the natural rights of man, were submerged and harmonized with the laws of other nations, laws alien to the traditions of freedom bequeathed to the nation by the brilliant wisdom of the Founding Fathers? Would individuals continue to be free to pursue their dreams? Would parents continue to be free to impart their own values to their children and to work for their future? Or would a veil of oppression slowly obscure the American dream? It seems preposterous , but the question of the age is whether America shall remain free and independent or whether it will be subordinated to some alien bureaucracy that will prevent our great country from pursuing its own destiny. An agreement was reached in 1993 through which international legal structures might actually force the abandonment of the entire governmental framework built so carefully by the Founding Fathers. That agreement was the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA)and upon it, as its proponents have argued, can be built the future integration of Canada and Mexico with the United States. Indeed, NAFTA alone already has had a substantially deleterious effect on the well-being of the citizens of the nation. But if left unchallenged, it poses a greater threat for the future: the potential final dissolution of the United States through the harmonization of U. S. law with that of Canada and Mexico. The American dream is made possible by our national independence and personal freedom. But internationalists have a conflicting dream, that of an integrated hemisphere modeled after the European Union. And that integration is coming quickly if internationalists have their way. In its report entitled Building a North American Community, the influential New York-based Council on Foreign Relations(CFR)calls for "the creation by 2010 of a North American community. . . Its boundaries will be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter within which the movement of people, products, and capital will be legal, orderly, and safe." It"s a plan that has the support of President Bush who, at the White House on February 16, 2001, announced that the United States, with Canada and Mexico, "will strive to consolidate a North American economic community. " It is NAFTA that is the basis for this planned integration. NAFTA is not about creating jobs and prosperity, as its backers allege. Instead, NAFTA is about formulating a North American Union, the next steps of which are just over the horizon. If, for future generations, we wish to preserve the American way of life, we must keep America free and independent—and that means withdrawing from NAFTA before it"s too late.

Though your parents probably meant your name to last a lifetime, remember that the hopes and dreams they cherished when they chose it may not match yours. If your name no longer seems to【B1】______you, don"t despair; you aren"t【B2】______with the label. Screen stars【B3】______tailor their names, and with some determination, you can, too. Legal rules are more【B4】______in this matter than you might expect. How many newlyweds,【B5】______, are aware that no law requires a woman to【B6】______her husband"s name? Not only that, but in most states parents can give their children any name they wish,【B7】______it"s not that of either parent. Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, for example, named their son Tony Garrity. If you do wish to【B8】______a new name, you don"t need an attorney to make the switch official.【B9】______common law, all that"s necessary is to start using the name of your choice. Remember,【B10】______, that you must use it everywhere—even【B11】______your mother—for it to become your【B12】______name. You must also change all your identification papers and【B13】______. Your Social Security number will remain the same; just fill【B14】______form SS-5 at your local Social Security office, and they"ll【B15】______the Internal Revenue Service. Be sure to practice your new signature until you write it naturally and【B16】______. Getting friends to call you Leah instead of Lola may be harder than any paperwork【B17】______, but you"ll probably encounter official resistance, too. Be assured that no law should【B18】______you from using whatever name you"ve established for any transaction,【B19】______it"s not for purposes of fraud, unfair competition, or to otherwise【B20】______any illegal activity.

Income Gap

A set of genes play a role in learning to read and do math, but this ability is not just gene-driven,【C1】______schooling and help from parents are also vital【C2】______. Early mathematical ability and literacy are known to【C3】______in some families, but the genes【C4】______affect this have until now been【C5】______unknown. Scientists looked into a data pool called the Twins Early Development Study, which【C6】______12-year-olds from nearly 2,800 British families. The team compared twins and【C7】______children to see how they【C8】______in tests for maths and reading comprehension, and then matched the children's genomes. Between 10 percent and half of the genes involved in reading were also involved in math, they found, and tiny variants in these【C9】______genes influence skill level. 【C10】______it's also clear how important our life experience is in making us better at one or the other. It's this complex【C11】______of nature and nurture as we grow up【C12】______shapes who we are. Professor Robert Plomin said the study was the first to estimate the【C13】______from DNA alone on learning ability. But, he stressed, the genetic variants that were identified were not【C14】______"literacy or numeracy" genes. 【C15】______they formed part of a more complex mechanism in which many genes each【C16】______a small, but combined, effect on learning ability. "Children differ【C17】______in how easy or difficult they find learning, and we need to recognize and【C18】______these individual differences," said Plomin. "Heritability does not【C19】______that anything is set in stone—it just means it may take more effort from parents, schools and teachers to【C20】______the child up to speed."

What our society suffers from most today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such consensus cannot be gained from society"s present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer"s epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their societies. Most societies derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for". There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose. Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, but just because ours is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth—a vision about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness—in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.