America"s Federal Reserve cut interest rates by another quarter-point, to 3.75%. Wall Street, which had been (1)_____ for a sixth half-point cut, was disappointed. The Dow fell by 2% (2)_____ the week. The past week"s economic statistics gave mixed signals. Exports dropped by 2% in both March and April, largely (3)_____ a decline in high-tech investment (4)_____; the merchandise-trade (5)_____ widened to $458 billion in the 12 months (6)_____ April. (7)_____, the Conference Board"s index of consumer confidence was higher than (8)_____ in June. Concerns (9)_____ inflation in the euro area (10)_____. Preliminary data (11)_____ that German consumer-price inflation fell to 3.1% in the year to June, from 3.5% in May; wage growth (12)_____ to 1.4% in April, a real pay cut of 1.5%. Some economists fear that Germany is on the (13)_____ of recession. The IFO index of business confidence dropped more (14)_____ than expected in May, and the institute has cut its forecast of GDP (15)_____ this year to only 1.2%, well (16)_____ the German government"s forecast of 2%. The euro area"s current-account deficit narrowed to $30 billion in the 12 months to April. Britain"s deficit in the first quarter was its smallest (17)_____ 1998, (18)_____ record investment income. There was more bad news from Japan, (19)_____ retail sales in large stores fell by 3.2% in May, the 37th consecutive monthly fall. The yen fell (20)_____ the dollar, touching almost Yen 125 on one point.

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

Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.YoushouldwriteneatlyontheANSWERSHEET.(20points)

Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanessayto1)describethepicture,2)deducethepurposeofthepainterofthepicture,3)giveyourcommentonthephenomenon.Youshouldwriteabout160—200wordsneatly.

President Bush has once again started speaking out for comprehensive immigration reform, and a draft plan to rally Republican senators on the issue is circulating just as Congressional hearings on the issue approach. Members of Congress recognize that voters are looking for real reform that rests on resolute, effective enforcement of our immigration laws. The only serious legislative proposal on the table offers such enforcement, because it focuses on making employers accountable for their hiring practices. To that end, the bill incorporates lessons learned from the largest immigration enforcement operation ever undertaken. Last December, Department of Homeland Security agents descended on meat processing plants run by Swirl & Company in six states, arresting more than 1,200 unauthorized workers. The arrests were astonishing because Swift participates in Basic Pilot, a voluntary Department of Homeland Security program that allows employers to electronically verify the work eligibility of newly hired workers against department and Social Security databases. The program is seen as the precursor for a verification system that would become mandatory with comprehensive immigration reform. Since Swirl was using the department"s system, how did it end up with illegal workers? The Basic Pilot program has a fatal flaw, which is that it requires only electronic verification of employment qualification. An effective program should also insist on tamper-proof identification documents for job-seekers, incorporating biometrics like digital photographs and fingerprints to prove identity. Only then would it be possible to establish not only that job applicants are authorized to work, but also that they are who they say they are. Otherwise, valid Social Security numbers can be presented to employers, and Basic Pilot will verify them, but the numbers may not belong to the workers who present them. To insist on secure documents with biometric identifiers is not a call for a national ID. Green cards, temporary work permits and passports are secure and reliable for hiring purposes. Adding Social Security cards to this list, establishing a single standard for their security features, and replacing old cards over a designated period would resolve the problem on a national scale. Only then would employers be able to comply reliably with verification requirements as the basis for sound enforcement and, by extension, border control. Legal immigrants and American citizens could prove their identities and qualifications to work without facing discrimination based on appearance or language. Scarce enforcement resources could be spent on apprehending real criminals and addressing national security threats. And a new system of enforcement would at last have a chance to win back public confidence in the nation"s immigration policies. After more than 20 years of failed efforts, Congress must not bake half a loaf. Secure biometric Social Security cards are an essential ingredient in any comprehensive immigration reform.

BSection III Writing/B

【F1】 The discovery last week of possible evidence of life on Mars has electrified debate over whether the universe is a barren void or a nursery pregnant with life. Scientists who have come stunningly close to repeating genesis, or the origin of life, in a test tube, say the building blocks for life exist everywhere. The challenge is putting them together. 【F2】 "The origin of life is a relatively easy concept and there's a wide variety of conditions under which it will take place," said late Stanley Miller, a professor at the University of California and a pioneer in the field. "Perhaps the remarkable thing is that even though Mars is not a favorable environment, the origin of life took place." Astronomers have found that the same gases present in our solar system are present throughout the universe. 【F3】 Efforts to make microscopic life from these basic elements on Earth suggests the chance of life arising under similar circumstances is the same everywhere, say chemists, biologists and other experts. "It seems fairly likely that life similar to ours, if there is water available ... would evolve in other environments in our galaxy or our universe," said James Ferris, a leading researcher and editor of the journal Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere. Underlying much of the research is the question: Was the development of life on Earth unique, or did the universe's chemical elements naturally evolve into life? 【F4】 The answer appears to be that at least the chemical reactions that set the stage for early life would be similar everywhere, but resultant living organisms would differ because of the genetic mutations in evolution. " If you've got the same starting materials and the same conditions, you're going to get the same compounds, that's for sure," Miller said. "The real question is whether or not there are chance elements in the formation of life." 【F5】 In a 1953 experiment, Miller mixed basic gases approximating the Earth's early atmosphere with an electric charge inside a glass chamber and produced amino acids, a primitive building block of life. He then suggested that life was a natural evolution. It seemed that science was on the verge of conjuring up creations in the laboratory, but the next 43 years were to present unexpected challenges. "Making the amino acids made it seem like the rest of the steps would be very easy; it's turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be," Miller said in an interview.

Your son kicked his ball through your neighbor"s window. Write a letter to tell your neighbor 1) your regret at hearing the news, 2) your intention to compensate for the damage, 3) your apology. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.

Tom, a friend of yours, would like to visit your part of China. Write a letter to give him advice about the following subjects: When and how to travel; what to bring; how long to stay; weather; health and medicine; which places to visit; what to buy. You should write about 100 words and do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

If it were only necessary to decide whether to teach elementary science to everyone on a mass basis or to find the gifted few and take them as far as they can go, our task would be fairly simple. The public school system, however, has no such【C1】______, 【C2】______the jobs must be carried 【C3】______at the same time. Because we depend so【C4】______upon science and technology for our 【C5】______, we must produce specialists in many fields. 【C6】______we live in a 【C7】______nation, whose citizens make the policies for the nation, large numbers of us must be educated to understand, to uphold, and【C8】______necessary, to judge the work of 【C9】______. The public school must educate both producers and 【C10】______of scientific services. In education, there should be a good balance【C11】______the branches of 【C12】______that contribute to effective thinking and 【C13】______ judgment. Such balance is defeated by【C14】______much emphasis on any one field. This 【C15】______of balance involves not only the【C16】______of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the arts but also relative emphasis among the natural sciences themselves. 【C17】______, we must have a balance between current and【C18】______knowledge. The attention of the public is continually drawn to new【C19】______in scientific fields and the discovery of new knowledge; these should not be allowed to turn our attention away from the sound, established materials that form the basis of【C20】______for beginners.

Exercise, everyone advises! But immediately, when you try, you run into trouble. (46) There is so much contradictory, sometimes incorrect advice about exercising that you become confused. Test yourself on the following true false quiz. It will tell you what you need to know. 1. The best way to reduce the mid-section is to do abdominal exercise. False. Many people believe that when specific muscles are exercised, the fatty tissues in the immediate area are "burned up". (47) The truth is that exercise burns fat from all over the body and not from one specific area, regardless of the type of exercise. Of course, if you reduce the fat throughout your body, you will certainly see results around your waistline too! 2. To maintain an adequate level of physical fitness, you need to exercise only twice a week. False. Studies conducted by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, show that unexercised muscles lose their strength very quickly. After 48 to 72 hours, you must use the muscles again to reestablish the good physical effect. And what does that mean to you? (48) NASA scientists concluded that while daily exercise is most beneficial, three alternating days each week will maintain an adequate level of physical fitness. 3. To lose weight you should always "work up a good sweat" when exercising. False. Sweating only lowers body temperature to prevent overheating; it does not help you reduce weight. You may weigh less immediately after a workout, but this is due to water loss. Once you replace the liquid, you replace the weight. 4. If your breathing doesn"t return to normal within minutes after you finish exercising, you"ve exercised too much. True. Five minutes or so after exercising, your breathing should be normal, your heart shouldn"t be pounding, and you shouldn"t be exhausted. (49) Beneficial exercise is not overly difficult, unpleasant, and exhausting; it is moderate, enjoyable, and refreshing. 5. Walking is one of the best exercises. True. Walking helps circulation of blood throughout the body, and thus has a direct effect or your overall feeling of health. 6. The minimum amount of time you should spend exercising in a day is 20 minutes. True. There are more than 400 muscles that attach to your skeleton. (50) A good exercise routine should contract and stretch all these muscles, and this simply cannot be done with four or five exercises in five to ten minutes. From experience, I"ve found that about 20 minutes is the minimum amount of time needed for an adequate workout.

In the following article, some sentences have been removed. Choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. At picnics, ants are pests. But they have their uses. In industries such as mining, farming and forestry, they can help gauge the health of the environment by just crawling around and being antsy. It has been recognized for decades that ants—which are highly sensitive to ecological change—can provide a near-percent barometer of the state of an ecosystem. Only certain species, for instance, will continue to thrive at a forest site that has been cleared of trees. (41)______. And still others will move in and take up residence. By looking at which species populate a deforested area, scientists can determine how "stressed" the land is. (42)______. Ants are used simply because the>; are so common and comprise so many species. Where mine sites are being restored, for example, some ant species will recolonize the stripped land more quickly than others. (43)______. Australian mining company Capricorn Coal Management has been successfully using ant surveys for years to determine the rate of recovery of land that it is replanting near its German Creek mine in Queensland. Ant surveys also have been used with mine-site recovery projects in Africa and Brazil, where warm climates encourage dense and diverse ant populations. "We found it worked extremely well there", says Jonathan Majer, a professor of environmental biology. Yet the surveys are perfectly suited to climates throughout Asia, he says, because ants are so common throughout the region. As Majer puts it. "That"s the great thing about ants." Ant surveys are so highly-regarded as ecological indicators that governments worldwide accept their results when assessing the environmental impact of mining and tree harvesting. (44)______. Why not? Because many companies can"t afford the expense or the laboratory time needed to sift results for a comprehensive survey. The cost stems, also, from the scarcity of ant specialists. (45)______.A. This allowed scientists to gauge the pace and progress of the ecological recovery.B. Yet in other businesses, such as farming and property development, ant surveys aren"t used widely.C. Employing those people are expensive.D. They do this by sorting the ants, counting their numbers and comparing the results with those of earlier surveys.E. The evolution of ant species may have a strong impact on our ecosystem.F. Others will die out for lack of food."G. Cretaceous ants shared a couple of wasp-like traits together with modern ant-like characteristics.

How to Tackle the Housing Problem in Big Cities?

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

When recruiting at British universities, PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big Four auditing firms with its headquarters in the New York City, presents candidates with an unusual exercise. They are asked to build a tall and sturdy tower using the smallest possible number of snap-together Lego bricks. Similarly, at Google Games, a recruiting event first staged by the search-engine giant in April, candidates are invited to build Lego bridges—the stronger the better. In each case, the company is trying to convey the idea that it offers a creative, fun working environment. "It was as much advertising as a way of trying to get recruits," says Brett Daniel, a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who built the Google Games" weakest bridge. A Danish firm, based in Billund, Denmark, has embraced the corporate use of its colored plastic bricks. As part of a scheme called "Serious Play" it is certifying a growing number of professional Lego consultants, now present in 25 countries. They coach managers by getting them to build "metaphorical abstractions" of such things as corporate strategy, says Lego"s Jesper Jensen, who runs the scheme. Hisham El-Gamal of Quest, a management consultancy based in Cairo that offers Serious Play workshops, says demand for the two-day, $7,000 courses is booming. Firms in crisis, such as those corrupted by scandal or in the pains of a takeover, tend to be most receptive to the idea of Lego workshops, says Francois de Boissezon of Imagics, a consultancy based in Brussels. The results can be embarrassing, particularly for senior managers. Tsai Yu-Chen of UGene Mentor, a Serious Play consultancy based in Taipei, says a common exercise is modeling, but not naming, "the people you hate most". One chief executive was modeled as a figure so fat that he blocked a hallway, suggesting he was clogging up the company. Lego workshops are effective because child-like play is a form of instinctive behavior not regulated by conscious thought, says Lucio Margulis of Juego Serio, a consultancy in Buenos Aires. This produces "Eureka" moments: a perfectionist who realizes the absurdity of frustration over an imperfect Lego construction; the owner of a firm with dismal customer relations who models headquarters as a fort under siege; or an arrogant boss who depicts his staff as soldiers headed into battle. Even in the office, it seems, Lego has a part to play.

land for peace

Isaac Newton was not a pleasant man. His relations with other academics were notorious, with most of his later life spent embroiled in heated disputes. Following publication of Principia Mathematica—surely the most influential book ever written in physics—Newton had risen rapidly into public prominence. He was appointed president of the Royal Society and became the first scientist ever to be knighted. Newton soon clashed with the Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who had earlier provided Newton with much needed data for Principia, but was now withholding information that Newton wanted. Newton would not take no for an answer; he had himself appointed to the governing body of the Royal Observatory and then tried to force immediate publication of the data. Eventually he arranged for Flamsteed"s work to he seized and prepared for publication by Flamsteed"s mortal enemy, Edmond Halley. But Flamsteed took the case to court, in the nick of time, and won a court order preventing distribution to the stolen work. Newton was incensed and sought his revenge by systematically deleting all reference to Flamsteed in later editions 9f Principia. A more serious dispute arose with the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Both Leibniz and Newton had independently developed a branch of mathematics called calculus, which underlies most of modern physics. Although we now know that Newton discovered calculus years before Leibniz, he published his work much later. A major row ensued over who had been first, with scientist vigorously defending both contenders. It is remarkable, however, that most of the articles appearing in defense of Newton were originally written by his own hand—and only published in the name of friends! As the row grew, Leibniz made the mistake of appealing to the Royal Society to resolve the dispute. Newton, as president, appointed an "impartial" committee to investigate, coincidentally consisting entirely of Newton"s friends! But that was not all: Newton then wrote the committee"s report himself and had the Royal Society publish it, officially accusing Leibniz of plagiarism. Still unsatisfied, he then wrote an anonymous review of the report in the Royal Society"s own periodical. Following the death of Leibniz, Newton is reported to have declared that he had taken great satisfaction in "breaking Leibniz"s heart. During the period of these two disputes, Newton had already left Cambridge and academe. He had been active in anti-Catholic politics at Cambridge, and later in Parliament, and was rewarded eventually with the lucrative pest of Warden of the Royal Mint. Here he used his talents for deviousness and vitriol in a more socially acceptable way, successfully conducting a major campaign against counterfeiting, even sending several men to their death on the gallows.

The Senate has a not-to-be-missed opportunity in the next few weeks to pass legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. It should move quickly—during the brief period of calm before the senators must grapple with health care reform and other difficult issues. A bill to grant the F. D. A. the needed authority was approved by the House last year. It stalled in the Senate in the face of Republican threats to filibuster, a veto threat from President George W. Bush, and a crowded legislative schedule before the November elections. The prospects may be better this year—provided the Senate jumps on the issue early. The House has already passed a strong bill by a 298-to-112 margin. President Barack Obama supported it. The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and hundreds of other respected organizations backed it. So did Philip Morris, the industry giant, which is apparently confident that it could dominate any regulated marketplace. The bill would empower the F. D. A. to regulate the content of tobacco products and their marketing. The agency could order a reduction in nicotine levels and the elimination or reduction of other harmful ingredients. It could restrict marketing and sales to young people to the extent allowed by the First Amendment, crack down on misleading health claims and require larger, more effective health warnings on packages and advertisements. No senator should be fooled by a weak substitute bill offered by two tobacco-state senators, Richard Burr, a Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat, both from North Carolina. Their bill would create a new regulatory agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to handle tobacco products on the superficially plausible rationale that the F. D. A. is already overburdened with its current regulation of drugs, medical devices and food safety. Such a fledgling agency would almost certainly be much less effective than the F. D. A. , especially since the senators don"t propose to grant it the broad powers and ample resources provided by the House-passed bill. As the Senate prepares for a bruising battle on health care reform, there would be no more fitting prelude than to authorize F. D. A. regulation of tobacco products that kill 400,000 Americans each year and impose huge costs on the health care system, corporations and the national economy.

In Europe, there has been a serious decline in physical activity over the past 50 years. Adults aged 20-60 years【C1】______500kcal less energy per day than they did 50 years ago. This is the 【C2】______ to the running of a marathon each week. Even【C3】______of participation in walking and cycling are declining, all of which suggests we should be【C4】______to the nearest gym. But the "green" policies of these establishments【C5】______to be pretty disappointing: factor in air-conditioning, laundering of towels, energy-consuming exercise【C6】______and the fact that 90% of exercisers【C7】______ to the gym. British Military Fitness, the UK"s leading【C8】______fitness provider, offers a programme of nationwide classes in parks, and on common lands, in the【C9】______of its Gym Intervention programme. The organisation【C10】______not just the fitness benefits of working out outside, also our need to spend time in the great outdoors to【C11】______overall mental and physical wellbeing. Group activity is declining as fast as our fit ness rates, so the complete ethical workout doesn"t merely【C12】______the greenness of the equipment, but also the social capital to be【C13】______by joining in.It also【C14】______to start early. Children urgently need to become more【C15】______, and yet according to Natural England, a public body that encourages people to enjoy their natural surroundings, the amount of time and【C16】______children have with nature is declining; fewer than 10% now play in natural places【C17】______woodlands, countryside and common land compared with 40% of children 40 years ago. Research shows that children who are【C18】______to nature will continue to visit【C19】______ landscapes in adulthood and be committed to【C20】______them.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B