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

Ever since John Burrows and his wife Carol opened their first hair salon in 1983, they have been taking on apprentices. "In my generation, an apprenticeship was the way to learn a trade so it was the obvious way for us to get the skilled staff we needed," Mr. Burrows says. Today, the Burrows" salon, Upper Cut in Weston-super-Mare, employs 35 people. Of the 16 stylists, 13 progressed through apprenticeships and Mr. Burrows believes a strong culture of training is integral to the company"s success. "Without the apprenticeships scheme our business wouldn"t be anything like the size it is today," Mr. Burrows says. The high-quality training the apprenticeships provide guarantees growth. The more skills staff have, the more effective a business will become. Although Mr. Burrows is an advocate of the scheme, he concedes that occasionally he has suffered problems. They have experienced episodes of theft, poor time keeping and bad discipline, but these are the sort of thing you get when you employ any number of staff. "Sometimes we have to ask apprentices to leave but often they sort themselves out. One year we had 100 percent completion rate, but our average is around 80 percent, which is double the national rate." "There is a risk for small businesses but you can help minimize the potential for problems by looking at the person"s history and background." If Mr. Burrows had one criticism of the scheme, it is that the National Vocational Qualification certificates are very difficult for many of the apprentices to pass. "The qualifications are not easy—many of the youngsters on the scheme are not academically great and they find it difficult. They need a lot of one-to-one coaching and a lot of help to be able to pass. But when they do it can be extremely gratifying." One of our apprentices was a girl who was dyslexic and had been expelled from a couple of schools. She was difficult at first but the other girls in the salon helped her develop and she went on to achieve NVQ level four. Now she is working full-time and helping other girls through the scheme. Another small company making use of the apprenticeship scheme is the Topiary Tree, a floristry business with two shops in Malton and Helmsley, North Yorkshire. With only three full-time employees it is one of the smallest businesses in the country to have taken on an apprentice. Gemma Magson, the manager of the business, wanted an apprentice because she was once one herself and wanted to offer someone else the opportunity she had. Her apprentice, also called Gemma, spends four days a week at the shop in Malton and one day a week at the Askham Bryan Training College in York. "The business has really benefited from having Gemma around," Ms. Magson says.

My room is twice as large as yours.

TheLighthouseofKnowledgeWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

You arc going to read a text about negotiating rules for a raise, followed by a list of evidences. Choose the best evidence from the list A~F for each numbered subheading(1~5). There is one extra evidence which you do not need to use. Although women have certainly made plenty of progress in the workplace over the past three decades, the glass ceiling remains firmly in place at many companies—especially when it comes to compensation. But some experts now suggest that the wage imbalance between the sexes could have as much to do with women"s failure to negotiate well as any other factor. So how can women—and men too, for that matter negotiate better deals in the workplace? Miller recently spoke on the topic at a workshop organized by the Advertising Women of New York. Here"s a crash course on his findings: 【C1】Show enthusiasm. The most important mistake you can make is to act passive and wait for them to lure you with a fantastic offer. 【C2】Know what you want. You"re trying to get a better job than what you have, not a solution to all your problems. 【C3】Avoid showing your hand. In interviews, many candidates are asked: How much do you earn at your current job? Do you blurt it out? That"s a huge mistake—you lose a major bargaining tool. So how do you deal with it? Learn to say that it"s not about the money, but rather the job itself that attracts you to the company. 【C4】Show why you"re the best fit. Start by knowing that you already have the skills for the job if you get an interview, and that they" re talking to at least five other people in the same situation as you. What you have to do is to show that you are the perfect match for their needs. 【C5】Be on the lookout at all times. Even if you love your current job, it"s always good to have one foot in the marketplace. Network, network, network. Meet folks in the same industry by joining a professional organization and participate in high-visibility activities. Get to know people who are in a position to hire you before you"re in a position where you need a job. It"s easier to develop a relationship with people when you don"t need anything from them. Consider joining a social club or working for a charity. It not only helps introduce you to people in your area but also exposes you to people in other fields that you might be interested in exploring. [A]In fact, avoid talking about money until the last leg of the interview process, when they"re ready to make you an offer. Then you"ll know you"re the candidate they want, and the ball is in your court. [B]So don"t get too emotionally attached to the job for which you"re interviewing. Something may seem like a dream job from the outside, but it"s important to remain objective. You should be able to walk away without remorse if they can"t meet what you most want from the job. [C]It helps in determining your own worth and can give you another tool to negotiate a promotion or raise at your current job. So make sure you keep your ears perked up, albeit discreetly. [D]Dance around the number and ask what they"ve budgeted for the position. If pressed, be prepared with a number that reflects your total current compensation, including all benefits and bonus. [E]The car-buying approach with a dealer—"I"ll go elsewhere if you won"t give me the best deal" won"t work with employment. You have to show excitement and enthusiasm and make the employer want you. [F]Ask the right questions about the culture and the job requirements, and pepper the conversation with what your own expectations are. If it"s a team culture, give examples of situations where you have been a great team player. If the company centers more on individual performance, show how you generate great ideas.

While the ripples of America"s subprime-mortgage crisis have spread far and wide, Latin America—a place long associated with financial disaster—has remained improbably calm. Banks have reported no unpleasant surprises. Brazil and Peru have been blessed with coveted investment-grade ratings. Surprisingly, perhaps the fleetest country of all has been Argentina. Since it emerged from the financial crisis of 2001-02, it has been one of the world"s fastest-growing economies. It is expected to expand faster than most of its neighbors again this year. Quite simply, it barely has any credit. Back when its economy virtually collapsed, the country suffered a run on its banks, followed by a freeze on withdrawals, and a massive currency devaluation. As a result, bank lending to the private sector shrivelled, from 23.8% of GDP in 2000 to 10.8% in 2003. Since then, it has rebounded to a piddling 13% ; by contrast, the ratio in Brazil was 36.5% in 2006. Almost all of these loans in Argentina are accessible only on a short-term basis. Once its recovery began in June 2002, Argentina became a paradise for business. Unemployment of over 20% kept wages down, and the devaluation gave exporters an edge on foreign competitors. The ample productive capacity left idle by the crisis meant firms could expand without making big investments. And the windfall profits reaped by agricultural exporters, thanks to record commodities prices, enabled many of them to finance new projects out of earnings. Hence the economy could grow at almost 9% a year with little need for credit. But such a lucky confluence of factors could not last. Starting in early 2005 ,.inflation picked up, a sign that the installed capacity was starting to limit output. Salaries and prices for raw materials increased sharply, cutting into profits. And farmers were particularly hard hit when the government nearly doubled the taxes in farm exports. Now, just as companies need to embark on big investments if they are to keep growing, their margins are no longer big enough to pay for the expansion and they need to borrow. So, the time is ripe for the country"s financial system to recover. But a number of things are in the way. Foremost is Argentina"s business risk. Those in the informal economy (which represents over 40% of GDP) can neither save nor borrow legally, lest they become known to the taxmen. The rest remain cowed by memories of the crisis. Although Argentines have poured their savings into property, fuelling a construction boom, they still hold about four-fifths of their deposits abroad. Inflation, fuelled by a public-spending binge, state-mandated wage increases, and a cheap currency, is not helping either. No one knows how high it is. The consumer-price index is doctored to keep the official rate below 10%, but private estimates suggest it is near 25%. Without a reliable index of inflation, lending is almost impossible, even for the medium term. And the central bank has kept interest rates strongly negative in real terms, encouraging workers to spend their wages rather than to save.

The mass media is a big part of our culture, yet it can also be a helper, adviser and teacher to our young generation. The mass media affects the lives of our young by acting as a(n) 【C1】______for a number of institutions and social contacts. In this way, it【C2】______a variety of functions in human life. The time spent in front of the television screen is usually at the【C3】______of leisure: there is less time for games, amusement and rest.【C4】______by what is happening on the screen, children not only imitate what they see but directly【C5】______themselves with different characters. Americans have been concerned about the【C6】______of violence in the media and its【C7】______harm to children and adolescents for at least forty years. During this period, new media【C8】______, such as video games, cable television, music videos, and the Internet. As they continue to gain popularity, these media, 【C9】______television, 【C10】______public concern and research attention. Another large societal concern on our young generation【C11】______by the media, is body image.【C12】______forces can influence body image positively or negatively.【C13】______one, societal and cultural norms and mass media marketing【C14】______our concepts of beauty. In the mass media, the images of【C15】______beauty fill magazines and newspapers, 【C16】______from our televisions and entertain us【C17】______the movies. Even in advertising, the mass media【C18】______on accepted cultural values of thinness and fitness for commercial gain. Young adults are presented with a【C19】______defined standard of attractiveness , a(n) 【C20】______that carries unrealistic physical expectations.

For a long time psychoanalysis was the only formalized psychotherapy practiced in Western society. It was this type of therapy that gave rise to the classic picture of a bearded Viennese doctor seated behind a patient who is lying on a couch. Psychoanalysis is based on the theories of Sigmund Freud. (46) According to Freud"s views, psychological disturbances are due to anxiety about hidden conflicts in the unconscious parts of one"s personality; therefore, one of the psychoanalysts job is to help make the patients aware of the unconscious impulses, desires, and fears that are causing the anxiety. Psychoanalysts believe that if patients can understand their unconscious motives, they have taken, the first step toward gaining control of their problems. Such understanding is called insight. Psychoanalysis is a slow procedure. It may take years of fifty-minute sessions several times a week before the patient is able to make fundamental changes in her life. (47) Throughout this time, the analyst assists his patient in a complete examination of the unconscious motives behind her behavior. This task begins with the analyst telling the patient to relax and talk about everything that comes into her mind. This method is called free association. As the patient lies on the couch, she may describe her dreams, discuss private thoughts, or recall long-forgotten experiences. The psychoanalyst often says nothing for long periods of time. (48) The psycho-analyst also occasionally makes remarks or asks questions that guide the patient, or he may suggest an unconscious motive or factor that explains something the patient has been talking about, but most of the work is done by the patient herself. Psychoanalysis has sometimes been criticized for being" all talk and no action". In behavior therapy there is much more emphasis on action. (49) Rather than spending a large amount of time going into the patient"s past history or the details of his or her dreams, the behavior therapist concentrates on finding out what is specifically wrong with the patient"s current life and takes steps to change it. The idea behind behavior therapy is that a disturbed person is one who has learned to behave in the wrong way. The therapist"s job, therefore, is to "reeducate" the patient. (50) The reasons for the patient"s undesirable behavior are not important; what is important is to change the patient"s behavior which is formed and reinforced in stressed environment and to establish new patterns of behavior for the patient. One technique used by behavior therapists is systematic recovery. This method is used to overcome irrational fears and anxieties the patient has learned. The goal of systematic recovery therapy is to encourage people to imagine the feared situation while relaxing. Having been taught how to relax, the patient learns to think about the past experience without being afraid. During this process, the therapist attempts to replace anxiety with its opposite, relaxation.

Still more complex forms of realistic thinking seem to occur when tasks are presented in which the goal is impossible(or very difficult)to achieve directly. 【F1】 In such situations, people commonly appear to pass through intermediate stages of exploring and organizing their resources; indeed, one may first need to exert himself in understanding the problem itself before he can begin to seek possible directions toward a solution. 【F2】 Familiar examples of problem-solving tasks include anagrams(e. g. , rearrange "lpepa" to spell "apple"); mathematical problems; mechanical puzzles; verbal "brain teasers"(e. g. , is it legal for a man to marry his widow"s sister?); and, in a more practical sense, design and construction problems. Also of interest are issues of human relations, games, and questions pertinent to economics and politics. Problem-solving activity falls broadly into two categories: one emphasizes simple trial and error; the other requires some degree of insight.【F3】 In trial and error, the individual proceeds mainly by exploring and manipulating elements of the problem situation in an effort to sort out possibilities and to run across steps that might carry him closer to the goal. This behaviour is most likely to be observed when the problem solver lacks advance knowledge about the character of the solution, or when no single rule seems to underlie the solution. Trial-anderror activity is not necessarily overt(as in one"s observable attempts to fit together the pieces of a mechanical puzzle); it may be implicit or vicarious as well, the individual reflecting on the task and symbolically testing possibilities by thinking about them. In striving toward insight, a person tends to exhibit a strong orientation toward understanding principles that might bear on the solution sought. The person actively considers what is required by the problem, noting how its elements seem to be interrelated, and seeks some rule that might lead directly to the goal.【F4】 The insightful thinker is likely to centre on the problem to understand what is needed, to take the time to organize his resources, and to recentre on the problem(reinterpret the situation)in applying any principle that seems to hold promise. Direction and flexibility characterize insightful problem solving.【F5】 The thinker directs or guides his steps toward solution according to some plan; he exhibits flexibility in his ability to modify or to adapt procedures as required by his plan and in altering the plan itself. Both characteristics are influenced by the thinker"s attitudes and by environmental conditions.

In the angry debate over how much of IQ comes from the genes that children inherit from parents and how much comes from experiences, one little fact gets overlooked: no one has identified any genes (other than those in the case of retardation) that affect intelligence. So researchers led by Robert Plomin of London"s Institute of Psychiatry decided to look for some. Plomin"s colleagues drew blood from two groups of 51 children each. They are all White living in six counties around Cleveland. In one group, the average IQ is 136.@In the other group, the average IQ is 103.@Isolating the blood cells, the researchers then examined each child"s chromosome 6 (One of 23 human chromosomes along which genes made of DNA). Of the 37 landmarks on chromo-some 6 that the researchers looked for, one jumped out: a form of gene called IGF2R occurred in twice as many children in high-IQ group as in the average group—32 percent versus 16 percent. The survey concludes that it is this form of the IGF2R gene, called allele 5, that contributes to intelligence. Plomin cautions that "this is not a genius gene. h is one of many." (About half the differences in intelligence between one person and another are thought to reflect different genes, and half reflect different life experiences.) The gene accounts for no more than four extra IQ points. And it is neither necessary nor sufficient for high IQ: 23 percent of the average-IQ kids did have it, but 54 percent of genius kids did not. The smart gene is known by the interesting name "insulinlike growth factor 2 receptor" (IGF2R to its fun). It lets hormones like one similar to insulin dock with cells. Although a gene involved with insulin is not the most obvious candidate for an IQ gene, new evidence suggests it might indeed play the role. Sometimes when a hormone docks with the cell, it makes the cell grow; sometimes it makes the cell commit suicide. Both responses could organize the development of the brain. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health find that insulin can stimulate nerves to grow. And in rat brains, regions involved in learning and memory are chock full of insulin receptors. Even though this supports the idea that IGF2R can affect the brain and hence intelligence, some geneticists see major problem with the IQ-gene study. One is the possibility that Plomin"s group fell for what"s called the chopsticks fallacy. Geneticists might think they"ve found a gene for chopsticks skill, but all they"ve really found is a gene more common in Asian than, say, Africans. Similarly, Plomin"s IQ gene might simply be one that is more common in groups that emphasize academic achievement. "What if the gene they"ve found reflects ethnic differences?" asks geneticist Andrew Feinberg of Johns Hopkins University. "I would take these findings with a whole box of salt."

In May, USA Today reported that the federal government is collecting data on the phone calls made and received by tens of million of Americans. According to the program"s defenders, your grocery store, your cable company, and your credit card company can identify you based on your phone number, but the National Security Agency(NSA)can"t. At least, that"s the implication when people say the database is legal because the information in it has been "anonymized"—i. e. , stripped of names and addresses. But phone numbers can readily be linked to names and addresses using publicly available information. The claim that there" s really nothing personal or private about the phone call records— which tell the NSA who calls whom, when, and for how long—is a tenuous basis for defending data collection that ordinarily requires a court order or the customer"s consent. One major phone company, Qwest, refused to give the NSA its customers" records. Officials there knew they could face hefty penalties under at least two statutes, the Communications Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, if they revealed this information without their customers" permission unless they were legally required to do so. The NSA"s defenders cite Qwest"s refusal as evidence the program is voluntary and therefore legal. In fact, it indicates just the opposite: Had Qwest been presented with a lawful subpoena or court order demanding the data, it almost certainly would have complied. If it hadn"t, the government could have forced it to do so. Instead, USA Today reported, the NSA resorted to extra-legal methods, pressuring the phone companies to divulge the data through appeals to patriotism, warnings about terrorism, and threats of lost government contracts. Presumably it took this route because it would have had a hard time convincing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that every American"s phone records were "relevant" to a terrorism investigation. Maybe the NSA shouldn"t have to meet that standard when it does automated analyses of such data aimed at preventing terrorist attacks. If so, there"s a simple solution: Ask Congress to change the relevant statutes. Otherwise, divulging the records to the government violates the law.

A recent BBC documentary, "The Town That Never Retired", sought to show the effects of【C1】______the state pension age by putting retirees back to work.【C2】______the results were entertaining, they need not have【C3】______. Away from the cameras,【C4】______numbers of older people are staying in work. Since the start of the recession, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds in work has fallen by 597,000. Over the same【C5】______the number of workers over the age of 65 has increased by 240,000. The【C6】______of the British workforce dates back to around 2001,【C7】______when the proportion of older people working has nearly doubled. But it has【C8】______since the start of the recession. There are several【C9】______why. Happily, people are living longer and healthier lives, which makes staying in work less【C10】______than it was.【C11】______happily, low interest rates, a stagnant stock market and the end of many defined-benefit pension schemes make it a financial【C12】______And changing attitudes,【C13】______by rules against age discrimination, are making it easier than ever. Most older workers are simply【C14】______at the office: 63% of workers over state pension age have been with their employer for more than ten years. Over two-thirds of them work part-time, mostly doing jobs that they once【C15】______full-time. A big【C16】______is that they do not pay national insurance contributions—effectively a second income tax on younger workers. According to Stephen McNair, director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce, this【C17】______explains why older workers have not suffered so much in the slump.【C18】______reducing the workforce, as in previous recessions, many firms have【C19】______recruitment and cut working hours. At small businesses【C20】______, keeping on older workers is cheaper and less risky than training replacements.

In the following text, some sentences have been removed. Choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blanks. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the blanks. (10 points) Back in 1979, a fat, unhealthy property developer, Mel Zuckerman, and his exercise-fanatic wife, Enid, opened Canyon Ranch, "America"s first total vacation/fitness resort", on an old dude ranch in Tucson, Arizona. At the time, their outdoorsy, new age-ish venture seemed highly eccentric. Today Canyon Ranch is arguably the premium health-spa brand of choice for the super-rich. It is growing fast and now operates in several places, including the Queen Mary 2. (41)______. "There is a new market category called wellness lifestyle, and in a whole range of industries, if you are not addressing that category you are going to find it increasingly hard to stay in business", enthuses Kevin Kelly, Canyon Ranch"s president. This broad new category, Mr. Kelly goes on, "consolidates a lot of sub-categories" including spas, traditional medicine and alternative medicine, behavioural therapy, spirituality, fitness, nutrition and beauty. (42)______. "You can no longer satisfy the consumer with just fitness, just medical, just spa", says Mr. Kelly. Canyon Ranch"s strategy reflects this belief. (43)______. This year in Miami Beach it will open the first of what it expects to be many upmarket housing estates built around a spa, called Canyon Ranch Living. Together with the Cleveland Clinic, one of the world"s leading private providers of traditional medicine, it is launching an "executive health" product which combines diagnosis, treatment and, above all, prevention. It also has plans to produce food and skin-care products, a range of clothes and healthy-living educational materials. (44)______. Mr. Case reckons that one of the roots of today"s health-care crisis, especially in America, is that prevention and care are not suitably joined up. A growing number of employers now promote wellness at work, both to cut costs and to reduce stress and health-related absenteeism, says Jon Denoris of Catalyst Health, a gym business in London. He has been helping the British arm of Harley Davidson, a motorbike-maker, to develop a wellness programme for its workers. The desire to reduce health-care costs is one force behind the rise of the wellness industry; the other is the growing demand from consumers for things that make them feel healthier. Surveys find that three out of four adult Americans now feel that their lives are "out of balance", says Mr. Kelly. So there is a huge opportunity to offer them products and services that make them feel more "balanced". This represents a big change in consumer psychology, claims Mr. Kelly, and one that is likely to deepen over time: market research suggests that 35-year-olds have a much stronger desire to lead healthy lifestyles than 65-year-olds. (45)______. Another will be to maintain credibility in (and for) an industry that combines serious science with snake oil. One problem—or is it an opportunity?—in selling wellness products to consumers is that some of the things they demand may be faddish or nonsensical. Easy fixes, such as new-age therapies, may appeal to them more than harder but proven ways to improve health. One of Canyon Ranch"s answers to this problem has been to hire Richard Carmona, who was America"s surgeon-general until last summer. In that role, he moved prevention and wellness nearer to the centre of public-health policy. The last time a surgeon-general ventured into business, it ended disastrously: during the internet bubble, Everett Koop launched DrKoop.com, a medical-information site that went bust shortly after going public and achieving a market capitalisation of over $1 billion. This time around, the wellness boom seems unlikely to suffer such a nasty turn for the worse.A. It is expanding a brand built on $1,000-a-night retreats for the rich and famous in several different directions.B. Mr. Zuckerman, now a trim and sprightly 78-year-old, remains chairman of the firm.C. There is growing evidence that focusing holistically on wellness can reduce health-care costs by emphasizing prevention over treatment.D. One difficulty for wellness firms will be acquiring the expertise to operate in several different areas of the market.E. It is also one of the leading lights in "wellness", an increasingly mainstream—and profitable—business.F. As more customers demand a holistic approach to feeling well, firms that have hitherto specialised in only one or two of those areas are now facing growing market pressure, to broaden their business.G. And there is much debate about the health benefits of vitamin supplements, organic food and alternative medicines, let alone different forms of spirituality.

BPart CDirections: Read the following text carefully and then translate the underlined segments into Chinese./B

Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the great disparity between the native population of America in 1492—new estimates of which jump as high as 100 million, or approximately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the sharp decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics. Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more—were unknown in the pre-Columbian New World. The effects of their sudden introduction are demonstrated in the early chronicles of America, which contain reports of horrible epidemics and steep population declines, confirmed in many cases by quantitative analyzes of Spanish tribute records and other sources. The evidence provided by the documents of British and French colonies is not as definitive because the conquerors of those areas did not establish permanent settlements and began to keep continuous records until the seventeenth century, by which time the worst epidemics had probably already taken place. Furthermore, the British tended to drive the native populations away, rather than to enslave them as the Spaniards did, so that the epidemics of British America occurred beyond the range of colonists" direct observation. Even so, the surviving records of North America do contain references to deadly epidemics among the native population. In 1616—1619 an epidemic, possibly of pneumonic plague, swept coastal New England, killing as many as nine out of ten. During the 1630"s smallpox, the disease most fatal to the Native American people, eliminated half the population of the Huron and Iroquois confederations. In the 1820"s fever ruined the people of the Columbia River area, killing eight out of ten of them. Unfortunately, the documentation of these and other epidemics is slight and frequently unreliable, and it is necessary to supplement what little we do know with evidence from recent epidemics among Native Americans. For example, in 1952 an outbreak of measles among the Native American inhabitants of Ungava Bay, Quebec, affected 99 percent of the population and killed 7 percent, even though some had the benefit of modern medicine. Cases such as this demonstrate that even diseases that are not normally fatal can have destroying consequences when they strike an immunologically defenseless community.Notes:disparity差距virgin-soil处女地malady疾病chronicle编年史tribute贡品pneumonic plague肺鼠疫confederation同盟smallpox天花measles麻疹

You are going to read a list of headings and a text about the functions of advertisement. Choose the most suitable heading from the list for each numbered paragraph. There is one extra beading which you do not need to use.A. Advertisements add interests to lifeB. Advertisements help to save moneyC. Criticisms on advertisersD. Usefulness of small advertisementsE. True aesthetic value of advertisementF. Informing: the chief function of advertising (41)______. Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they"re always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. "It"s iniquitous", they say", that this entirely unproductive industry (ff we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don"t they stop advertising and reduce the price Of their goods? After ail, it"s the consumer who pay…" (42)______. The poor old consumer! He"d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn"t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement. (43)______. Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway laws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely-printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities. (44)______. We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programs is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price! (45)______. Another thing we mustn"t forget is the "small ads", which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the "hatch, match and dispatch" columns; but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or "agony" column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It"s the best advertisement for advertising there is!

Scientists have for the first time used cloning to create human embryos that live long enough in a laboratory dish to have their stem cells harvested. The feat could set the stage for physicians to produce cells and tissues, tailored to a patient"s genetic identity that can treat a wide variety of human illnesses. The accomplishment also provides a road map for how to clone a person, an even more divisive undertaking. The new work, performed in South Korea, represents "a major advance in stem cell research. It could help spur a medical revolution as important as antibiotics and vaccines", says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a company in Worcester, Mass., that"s also investigating the promising stem cell strategy called therapeutic cloning. "However, now that the methodology is publicly available", Lanza adds, "I think it is absolutely imperative that we pass laws worldwide to prevent the technology from being abused for reproductive-cloning purposes". While some fertility doctors and a religious cult have claimed success at creating a pregnancy via cloning, they"ve offered no convincing proof. In contrast, the South Korean research is being reported at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle and will appear in an upcoming Science. "This is reality", says stem cell researcher John Gearhart of Johns Hopkins University. "Here is a bona fide, refereed journal saying that a human embryo has been cloned and a cell line derived from it". Although ACT has not yet published a report of a cloned human blastocyst, Lanza says that the South Korean success is "consistent with our own results". Therapeutic cloning appeals to Lanza and physicians because cells made this way could have the same DNA as a patient"s cells do and thus avoid rejection after they"re transplanted. Seeking a compromise that would permit this strategy to be pursued, many scientists have called for legislation that would ban cloning to produce a baby but allow the creation of cloned embryos to generate stem cells for research or therapies. "The debate has been very polarized", notes bio-ethicist Laurie Zoloth of Northwestern University in Evanston.

The oceans are the main source of humidity, but plants also pour moisture into the air. In one day, a five-acre forest can release 20,000 gallons of water, enough to fill an average swimming, pool. A dryer extracts moisture from wet clothes, adding to humidity. Even breathing contributes to this sticky business. Every time we exhale, we expel nearly one pint of moist air into the atmosphere. Using sophisticated measuring devices, science is learning more and more about the far-reaching and often surprising impact humidity has on all of us. Two summers ago angry callers phoned American Television and Communications Corp."s cable-TV operation in northeastern Wisconsin, complaining about fuzzy pictures and poor reception. "What happened," said the chief engineer, "was that the humidity was interfering with our signals." When a blast of dry air invaded the state, the number of complaints dropped sharply. Humidity plays hob with our mechanical world as well. Water condensation on the playing beads and tapes of videocassette recorders produces a streaky picture. Humidity shortens the life of flashlight and smoke-detector batteries. When the weather gets sticky, the rubber belts that power the fan, air conditioner and alternator under the hood of our cars can get wet and squeak. Moisture also causes pianos to go out of tune, often in no time flat. At the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, where pianos are tuned twice a day during the summer concert season. Often a tuner stands in the wings, ready to make emergency adjustments during performances. Humidity speeds the deterioration of treasured family photos and warps priceless antiques. Your home"s wooden support beams, doors and window framers absorb extra moisture and expand-swelling up to three percent depending on the wood, its grain and the setting. Too much moisture promotes blight that attacks potato and green-bean crops—adding to food costs. It also causes rust in wheat, which can affect grain-product prices. Humidity affects our health, as well. We get more migraine headaches, ulcer attacks, blood clots and skin rashes in hot, humid weather. Since 1987, the Health, Weight and Stress Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has tested over 1700 patients for responses to high humidity. They have reported increased dizziness, stomachaches, chest pains, cramps, and visual disturbances such as double and blurred vision.

In recent years, reformers have sought to improve our failing public education system by tightening and standardizing the measures we use to judge performance. From the numerical requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act to California"s increased focus on assessment and accountability, there"s been a conscious attempt to use hard data to measure success at every level of the education system. But one group does not have its performance measured this way: teachers. Determining the effectiveness of individual teachers—are they helping our kids learn or not? remains a mostly subjective judgment. Yet there"s no reason why teachers shouldn"t also be evaluated against objective measures of student performance just as are schools, districts and states. Teacher evaluations focus on what they do in the classroom—the input of the learning process. In most school districts, principals show up at prearranged times to observe teachers" work, and then write their observations. In doing this, they typically use a checklist to guide their assessments. Evaluations usually consist of one or two written observations. This superficial and largely subjective approach to evaluating teachers is something of a farce. In many instances, principals can only rate teachers "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory". Multiple unsatisfactory evaluations can lead to dismissal. But faced with the prospect of battling the local teachers union to prove that a teacher"s unsatisfactory evaluation is valid, most principals capitulate and rate virtually all teachers as satisfactory. This rubber-stamp routine may make things easier for administrators, but not for the kids. Several researchers, among them Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and Jonah Rockoff of Columbia University, have shown that teachers are not interchangeable when it comes to student learning. Given a year with an effective teacher—one whose pupils previously showed test-score gains—students can advance their learning by a grade level or more, according to research done by William Sanders while he was at the University of Tennessee. He also found that under a weak teacher, kids" progress can stall, and they can fall behind. So why not include student test scores—the output of the learning process -in teachers " evaluations? Besides giving the evaluation process a much-needed shot of objectivity and rigor, this change could help administrators target assistance for struggling teachers and recognize those who are most effective in the classroom. In its report this month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger"s nonpartisan committee of education experts agreed. Among other things, it recommended that teacher evaluations should be based in part on student achievement.

The Freshman Dean's Office is seeking three interns during the summer of 2016. On behalf of the office, you will write an announcement to1) inform students of the job requirement and working period,2) inform students of the benefits and payments, and3) inform students of the application deadline.You should write about 100 words neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. Use "Freshman Dean's Office" at the end of the announcement.