BSection III Writing/B

Directions: You have just come back from Canada and found a music CD in your luggage that you forgot to return to Bob, your landlord there. Write him a letter to 1) make an apology, and 2) suggest a solution. You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use " Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)

For thousands of Canadians, bad service is neither make-believe nor amusing. It is an aggravating and worsening real-life phenomenon that encompasses(包含) behaviors ranging from indifference and rudeness to naked hostility and even physical violence. Across the country, better business bureaus report a lengthening litany of complaints about contractors, car dealers, and repair shops, moving companies, airlines and department stores. There s almost an adversarial(对抗的) feeling between businesses and consumers. Experts say there are several explanations for ill feeling in the marketplace. One is that customer service was an early and inevitable casualty when retailers responded to brutal competition by replacing employees with technology such as 1-800 numbers and voice mail. Another factor is that businesses have generally begun to place more emphasis on getting customers than on keeping them. Still another is that strident, frustrated and impatient shoppers vex(使生气) shop owners and make them even less hospitable—especially at busier times of the year like Christmas. On both sides, simple courtesy has gone by the board. And for a multitude of consumers, service went with it. The Better Business Bureau at Vancouver gets 250 complaints a week, twice as many as five years ago. The bureau then had one complaints counselor and now has four. People complain about being insulted, having their intelligence and integrity questioned, and being threatened. One will hear about people being hauled almost bodily out the door by somebody saying things like "I don't have to serve you!" or "This is private property, get out and don't come back!" What can customers do? If the bureau's arbitration(仲裁) process fails to settle a dispute, a customer's only recourse is to sue in claims court. But because of the costs and time it takes, relatively few ever do. There is a lot of support for the notion that service has, in part, fallen victim to generational change. Many young people regard retailing as just a bead-end job that you're just going to do temporarily on your way to a real job. Young clerks often lack both knowledge and civility. Employers have to train young people in simple manners because that is not being done at home. Salespeople today, especially the younger ones, have grown up in a television-computer society where they've interacted largely with machines. One of the biggest complaints from businesses about graduates is the lack of inter-personal skills. What customers really want is access. They want to get through when they call, they don't want busy signals, they don't want interactive systems telling them to push one for this and two for that — they don't want voice mail. And if customers do not get what they want, they defect. Some people go back to local small businesses; the Asian greengrocer, a Greek baker and a Greek fishmonger. They don't wear name tags, but one gets to know them, all by name.[A] business always emphasized the maintenance of customers.[B] they can directly get the service they need.[C] few customers will appeal to claims court.[D] impoliteness is a kind of bad service.[E] they regard retailing as a temporary job.[F] they have spent much time on TV and computers. [G] shoppers are usually strident, frustrated and impatient.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

Writeanessaybasedonthefollowingdiagram.Inyourwriting,youshould1)describethediagram,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.

Women are moody. By evolutionary design, we are hard-wired to be sensitive to our environments, empathic to our children' s needs and intuitive of our partners' intentions. This is basic to our survival and that of our offspring. Some research suggests that women are often better at articulating their feelings than men because as the female brain develops, more capacity is reserved for language, memory, hearing and observing emotions in others. These are observations rooted in biology, not intended to mesh with any kind of pro- or anti-feminist ideology. But they do have social implications. Women' s emotionality is a sign of health, not disease; it is a source of power. But we are under constant pressure to restrain our emotional lives. We have been taught to apologize for our tears, to suppress our anger and to fear being called hysterical. The pharmaceutical industry plays on that fear, targeting women in a barrage of advertising on daytime talk shows and in magazines. More Americans are on psychiatric medications than ever before, and in my experience they are staying on them far longer than was ever intended. Sales of an tidepressants and antianxiety meds have been booming in the past two decades, and they've recently been outpaced by an antipsychotic, Ability, that is the No. 1 seller among all drugs in the United States, not just psychiatric ones. At least one in four women in America now takes a psychiatric medication, compared with one in seven men. Women are nearly twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of depression or anxiety disorder than men are. For many women, these drugs greatly improve their lives. But for others they aren't necessary. The increase in prescriptions for psychiatric medications, often by doctors in other specialties, is creating a new normal, encouraging more women to seek chemical assistance. Whether a woman needs these drugs should be a medical decision, not a response to peer pressure and consumerism. Obviously, there are situations where psychiatric medications are called for. The problem is too many genuinely ill people remain untreated, mostly because of socioeconomic factors. People who don't really need these drugs are trying to medicate a normal reaction to an unnatural set of stressors: lives without nearly enough sleep, sunshine, nutrients, movement and eye contact, which is crucial to us as social primates.

Scientists have long argued over the relative contributions of practice and native talent to the development of elite performance. This debate swings back and forth every century, it seems, but a paper in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science illustrates where the discussion now stands and hints—more tantalizingly, for people who just want to do their best—at where the research will go next. The value-of-practice debate has reached a stalemate. In a landmark 1993 study of musicians, a research team led by K. Anders Ericsson found that practice time explained almost all the difference (about 80 percent) between elite performers and committed amateurs. The finding rippled quickly through the popular culture, perhaps most visibly as the apparent inspiration for the "10,000-hour rule" in Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling "Outliers" —a rough average of the amount of practice time required for expert performance. The new paper, the most comprehensive review of relevant research to date, comes to a different conclusion. Compiling results from 88 studies across a wide range of skills, it estimates that practice time explains about 20 percent to 25 percent of the difference in performance in music, sports and games like chess. In academics, the number is much lower—4 percent—in part because it's hard to assess the effect of previous knowledge, the authors wrote. One of those people, Dr. Ericsson, had by last week already written his critique of the new review. He points out that the paper uses a definition of practice that includes a variety of related activities, including playing music or sports for fun or playing in a group. But his own studies focused on what he calls deliberate practice: one-on-one lessons in which an instructor pushes a student continually, gives immediate feedback and focuses on weak spots. "If you throw all these kinds of practice into one big soup, of course you are going to reduce the effect of deliberate practice," he said in a telephone interview. Zach Hambrick, a co-author of the paper of the journal Psychological Science, said that using Dr. Ericsson' s definition of practice would not change the results much, if at all, and partisans on both sides have staked out positions. Like most branches of the nature-nurture debate, this one has produced multiple camps, whose estimates of the effects of practice vary by as much as 50 percentage points.

KentishTownRoadisahumdrumhighstreetinnorthLondon.Itcontainspawnbrokers,poundshops,hairdressersandsomelong-in-the-toothhardwarestores.UnlikeCamdenTowntothesouth,fullofbarsandtattooparlours,orHampsteadtothewest,withitsbistrosandboutiqueclothingshops,littleseemstohavechangedonthestreetforthepastthreedecades."It'sneverquitegotgoing,"admitsGaryMcLaren,alocalbookseller.Yetthelackofchangeisodd—andhintsatsomeofthestrangenessofLondon.KentishTownhasexcellenttransportlinkstocentralLondon,andplentyofresidentspreparedtopaygoodmoneyforthat.OffthehighstreetstretchrowsofprettyVictorianterracedhouses,whichsellforasmuchas2mapiece.Between2007and2014propertypricesinthepostcodeareasurroundingthemainTubeandrailwaystationmorethandoubled.AninfluxofFrenchparents,drawnbyaschoolthatopenedin2011,ispushingpricesevenhigher.YetKentishTown'sshopsandcafesarealmostinvariablyuntrendyandinsomecasesmouldering.Ahairsalon,abutcherandasportswearshophaveeachbeenownedbythesamemenformorethanaquarterofacentury.Why?Oneexplanationisthat,incommonwithotherpartsofLondon,KentishTownhaslotsofsocialhousingaswellascostlyVictorianterraces,CamdenCouncil,thelocalauthority,isbuildingevenmoreintheborough.Thishelpscheapershopssurvive,suggestsTonyTraversoftheLondonSchoolofEconomics;counciltenantsarelesslikelytodriveandsorelymoreonlocaloutlets.Andthesheervolumeofcarandlorrytrafficonthebusyhighstreet,whichisamainroadintothecity,mightdetershoppersfromvisitingandswankybusinessesfromsettingupinthearea.Demographyplaysapart,too.Fully72%ofthepopulationofKentishTowniswhite,includingagoodnumberofIrishresidents—higherthantheproportioninLondonasawhole,at60%.UnlikethehighstreetsaroundPeckhamandBrixtoninsouthLondon,whichcaterforAfricanshopperswhomaytravelfartoreachthem,fewspecialistshopsdrawpeopletoKentishTown."We'renotadestinationhighstreet,"sighsonelocaltrader.NIMBYshavenotalwayshelped.Lotsofcivicgroupsareactiveinthearea,campaigningagainstlatelicencesandthelike,saysDanCarrieroftheCamdenNewJournal,anewspaper.Alocalbusinessassociationisalsogoodatcomplaining.Partlybecauseofthis,abigsupermarkethasnotyetopenedonthehighstreet—thoughLidl,adiscounter,willsetupshopthisyear."Wequitelikethatitisrougharoundtheedges,"saysMichaelWilliams,awriterandlocal.Paradoxically,soaringhousepricesintheareamightbeanotherbrakeonchange.Wealthyfamilybuyersmeanthatsomehousesoncesplitintoflatshavebeenturnedbackintohomes,saysMrCarrier.Theresultisfewershoppersonthehighstreet.Wealthyresidentsaremorelikelytogettheirgroceriesonlineordrivetobiggerstores.AndmostwillgoouttotheWestEndratherthanalocalrestaurant.Such"counter-currents"willpreventKentishTownfromgentrifyingfully,suggestsGillianTin-dall,alocalhistorian.AndtheyaffectmanyotherstreetsinLondon,too.LupusStreetinPimlicoservesalargecouncilblockononesideandwhitestuccohousesontheother.CaledonianRoadinIslington,closetorapidly-changingKing'sCross,isstillfullofkebabshops.Londonisaglobalcity,butitisalsoacollectionofvillages,crankyandresistanttochange.

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. Estee Lauder was 29. These now iconic names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consider this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Face-book and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. The number of people in their mid-20s disrupting entire industries, taking on jobs usually reserved for people twice their age and doing it in the glare of millions of social media "followers" seems to be growing very rapidly. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success? Does age really have something to do with it? It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it' s about money. In other words, it' s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it's their persistence and zeal, the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That's not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They're not. The latest crop of liber-successful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm. In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel' s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you're over 29 years old and still haven't made your world-changing mark, don't despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn't invent the phonograph until he was 30.

BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B

BPart ADirections: Write a composition/letter of no less than 100 words on the following information./B

Directions:Writeanessaybasedonthechart.Inyourwriting,youshould1)describethediagram,and2)giveyourcomments.Youshouldwriteabout150words.

BSection III Writing/B

Sunlight is free, but that is no reason to waste it. Yet even the best silicon solar cells—by far the most【C1】______sort—convert only a quarter of the light that falls on them. Silicon has the【C2】______of being cheap: manufacturing improvements have brought its price to a point where it is snapping at the heels of fossil fuels.【C3】______many scientists would like to replace it【C4】______something fundamentally better. John Rogers, of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is one. The cells he has【C5】______can convert 42.5% of sunlight.【C6】______improved, Dr Rogers reckons, their efficiency could rise to 50%. Their【C7】______is that they are actually not one cell, but four, stacked one on top of another. Solar cells are made of semiconductors, and every type of semiconductor has a【C8】______called a band gap that is different from that of other semiconductors. The band gap【C9】______the longest wavelength of light a semiconductor can absorb (it is transparent to longer wavelengths). It also fixes the【C10】______amount of energy that can be【C11】______from shorter wavelength. The result is that long-wavelength photons are lost and short-wave ones incompletely utilised. Dr Rogers【C12】______this by using a different material for each layer of the stack. He chooses his materials【C13】______the bottom of the band gap of the top layer matches the top of the band gap of the one underneath, and so on【C14】______the stack. Each layer thus【C15】______off part of the spectrum, converts it efficiently into electrical energy and passes the rest on. The problem is that the materials needed to make these semiconductors are【C16】______But Dr Rogers has found a way to overcome this.【C17】______solar-cell modules are completely covered by semiconductor, but in his only 0.1% of the surface is so covered. The semiconducting stacks, each half a millimeter square, are【C18】______over that surface many dots. Each stack then has a pair of cheap glass lenses【C19】______over it. These focus the sun's light onto the stack, meaning that all【C20】______light meets a semiconductor.

How do you explain economics in plain English? The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been answering the question with an even more【C1】______tool: comic books. And it"s been doing that for【C2】______. The New York Fed has published comics about money and finance for【C3】______readers more interested in【C4】______since 1950s, according to Edward Steinberg, a former Fed employee who【C5】______several of the comic books【C6】______online today. In the latest ten years, Steinberg supervised a small team of writers and editors that produced the Fed"s print publications and educational【C7】______years, such as the comic books. Distributed free of charge to teachers, the comics were mostly【C8】______high school students, whom Steinberg felt weren"t learning enough about the economy and personal finance,【C9】______some of the more advanced titles, such as The Story of Monetary Policy, have been taught in several college classrooms. It"s no【C10】______that the comic books offer highly simplified opinions on the country"s complex financial systems, but they go out of their way to【C11】______dumbing down the content. Most of the booklets are more than 20 pages, and they"re packed with【C12】______and details that could【C13】______a teenager on a first read: The Story of the Federal Reserve System from 1999 starts off slow by comparing and contrasting the Fed with local neighborhood banks, but it soon【C14】______into specific information about monetary policy, open market operations, government securities, and reserve requirements. With guest【C15】______from Uncle Sam and a walking, talking bank, A Penny Saved offers a crash course in saving before touching【C16】______the advantages and disadvantages of【C17】______in the stock market, real estate, and fine art. But the【C18】______part of the series might be the fact that Steinberg doesn"t even like comics. "【C19】______the work that I did at the Fed, I don"t have an interest in comic books," Steinberg says over email. "It was appropriate,【C20】______, that I had a job writing comic books, because everybody can try to earn his living through humor."

Will the Apple launch have an audience of thousands clapping and cheering? Must be a new iPhone or iWatch? The truth may sound dull, but it matters as much as any fancy new product. What Apple's boss, Tim Cook, presented on June 2nd, at the company's annual conference for software developers in San Francisco, were upgraded operating systems, one for its Mac desktops and laptops and another for its mobile devices,plus a new programming language. These, combined with other moves to nurture the Apple "ecosystem" , should make its offerings even more attractive to both developers and consumers—and even more formidable to its rivals. Apple has long devoted to providing greater convenience and user experience. The new operating systems will do more than improve on the current versions when they are released in the autumn. They will allow devices to work together perfectly.

BSection III Writing/B

BPart ADirections: Write a composition/letter of no less than 100 words on the following information./B

There are few more sobering online activities than entering data into college-tuition calculators and gasping as the Web spits back a six-figure sum. But economists say families about to go into debt to fund four years of partying, as well as studying, can console themselves with the knowledge that college is an investment that, unlike many bank stocks, should yield huge dividends(红利). A 2008 study by two Harvard economists notes that the " labor-market premium (额外收益) to skill"—or the amount college graduates earned that' s greater than what high-school graduates earned—decreased for much of the 20th century, but has come back with a vengeance (报复) since the 1980s. In 2005, the typical full-time year-round U.S. worker with a four-year college degree earned $50 900, 62% more than the $31 500 earned by a worker with only a high-school diploma. There's no question that going to college is a smart economic choice. But a look at the strange variations in tuition reveals that the choice about which college to attend doesn't come down merely to dollars and cents. Does going to Columbia University (tuition, room and board $49 260 in 2007-2008) yield a 40% greater return than attending the University of Colorado at Boulder as an out-of-state student ($ 35 542) ? Probably not. Does being an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado at Boulder yield twice the amount of income as being an in-state student ($17 380) there? Not likely. No, in this consumerist age, most buyers aren't evaluating college as an investment, but rather as a consumer product—like a car or clothes or a house. And with such purchases, price is only one of many crucial factors to consider. As with automobiles, consumers in today's college marketplace have vast choices, and people search for the one that gives them the most comfort and satisfaction in line with their budgets. This accounts for the willingness of people to pay more for different types of experiences (such as attending a private liberal-arts college or going to an out-of-state public school that has a great marine-biology program). And just as two auto purchasers might spend an equal amount of money on very different cars, college students (or, more accurately, their parents) often show a willingness to pay essentially the same price for vastly different products. So which is it? Is college an investment product like a stock or a consumer product like a car? In keeping with the automotive world's hottest consumer trend, maybe it's best to characterize it as a hybrid (混合动力汽车) : an expensive consumer product that, over time, will pay rich dividends.

What impact can mobile phones have on their users' health? Many individuals are concerned about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations,【C1】______ the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more【C2】______ Indeed, a systematic review【C3】______ by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, London , gathers【C4】______ of the use of text-messaging in the 【C5】______ of health care. These uses【C6】______ three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by【C7】______ text-messaging into treatment regimes. Using texting to【C8】______ efficiency is not profound science, but big savings can be achieved. Several【C9】______ carried out in England have found that the use of text-messaging reminders【C10】______ the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39% , and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were【C11】______ nationally, this would translate【C12】______ annual savings of ￡256-364 million. Text messages can also be a good way to deliver public-health information, particularly to groups【C13】______ are hard to reach by other means. Text messages have been used in India to【C14】______ people about the World Health Organization's strategy to control tuberculosis(肺结核) . In Iraq, text messages were used to support a【C15】______ to immunize nearly 5 million children【C16】______ polio(小儿麻痹症). 【C17】______ , there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to【C18】______ their medicine, or to encourage compliance with exercise regimes or efforts to stop smoking. However, Dr. Rifat notes that the evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally【C19】______ . More quantitative research is【C20】______ —which is why his team also published three papers this week looking at the use of mobile phones in health care in more detail.