A.Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanessayinnolessthan160—200words.B.Youressaymustbewrittenclearly.C.Youressayshouldmeettherequirementsbelow:1)Describethefollowingdrawing,2)interpretitsmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

You are going to read a text about the tips for developing self-esteem quotient, followed by a list of evidences. Choose the best evidence from the list A~G for each numbered subheading(1~5). There are two extra examples which you do not need to use. So, how do you raise your self-esteem? Here are several tips for developing your self-esteem quotient: 【C1】Be open-minded- hear critique and criticism, but only hear them as half-truths. Everyone has their own side to a story, as do you and other people who know you. " 【C2】Start praising and stop critiquing. By accepting others and their weaknesses, you start to accept yourself. 【C3】See successes take appropriate credit for your successes. Chalk them up to dedication, hard work and your positive thinking. 【C4】Provide Self-care pay attention to the needs of your heart, mind and body. Follow their lead and learn from yourself. When you learn to listen to your needs and wants and take action to meet them, you elevate your self-worth. You become important. How you treat yourself is how others learn to treat you. 【C5】Have goals be the person you are and become the person you want to be. In other words, participate in the act of living your life. Make choices. Be proactive. Give yourself one month for practicing the above tips and you will see a major difference in the growth of your healthy self-esteem. [A]When you stop finding fault in others, you learn to let up on yourself. This includes, stop criticizing yourself! Learn to view your failures and weaknesses as milestones to guide you on your way. Often you learn the most under pressure and from our hardest times. [B]This means accept compliments from others regardless of your belief behind their motivations. Look the complimenter in the eyes and say, " thank you. " They are immediately rewarded and acknowledged for their compliment and you are establishing patterns for more compliments in the future. Compliments definitely help in dire times and become a way of receiving instant, external confirmation and validation. [C]View your failures and weaknesses as temporary statements about your existence. By no means are they permanent, unless you perseverate about them. " Ask yourself what your ideal person with healthy self-esteem would do to move forward. Conjure up the answer and focus on the solution. Think present, not past! [D]Your road to a healthy self-esteem is paved by your choices in the present. Change(he way you evaluate your experiences and you can change the way you feel about yourself. Low self-esteem continues out of practice of bad habits. You can change a habit after thirty days of instilling a new behavior. [E]If you feel badly about some critique you received, do not stew on it instead ask another you respect what their take is. Do remember, that one"s negative talk about another is often just a projection of one"s own internal conflicts and fears. They dump these fears instead of owning them. [F]Try something new or give yourself permission to do something you have always wanted to do. Be gentle with your imperfections and shortcomings, and do not allow them to become roadblocks. Let go of perfection and focus on direction. [G]Do not believe in luck and chance. Instead, know that you magnetized your successes to you through an extension of your energy and efforts. Accept responsibility. Praise the successes in others. Know that their successes open the door to yours.

The California Public Employees" Retirement System(CalPERS) has positioned itself as the premier champion of investor rights, regularly singling out bad managers at some of the nation"s largest companies in its annual corporate-governance focus lists. And with $153 billion under management, Wall Street tends to listen when CalPERS speaks out. But the country"s largest pension fund has never taken on as big a fish as it did Dec. 16, when it filed a class action against the New York Stock Exchange and seven of its member firms. CalPERS" suit charges the NYSE and specialist firms with fraud, alleging that the exchange skirted its regulatory duties and allowed its members to trade stocks at the expense of investors. The move is a major slap in the face for the NYSE"s recently appointed interim Chairman John Reed. The former Citibank chairman and CEO came on board in September after the exchange"s longtime head, Richard Grasso, resigned under pressure over public outrage about his excessive compensation. Reed has been widely criticized by CalPERS and other institutional investors for not including representatives of investors on the exchange"s newly constituted board and not clearly separating the exchange"s regulatory function from its day-to-day operations. The CalPERS lawsuit is evidence that the investment communities" dissatisfaction hasn"t ebbed. "Our hopes were dashed when Mr. Reed didn"t perform," says Harrigan. The suit alleges that seven specialist firms profited by abusing and overusing a series of trading tactics. The tactics, which are not currently illegal, include "penny jumping", where a firm positions itself between two orders to capture a piece of the price differential, "front running", which involves trading in advance of customers based on confidential information obtained by their orders, and "freezing" the firm"s order book so that the firm can make trades on its own account first. Many of the suit"s allegations are based on a previously disclosed investigation of the exchange conducted by the Securities & Exchange Commission. According to the suit, the October SEC report found "serious deficiencies in the NYSE"s surveillance and investigative procedures, including a habit of ignoring repeat violations by specialist firms". The suit highlights the growing frustration that institutional investors have expressed with what they perceive as a system that needs to be revamped—if not eliminated. According to California State Comptroller Steve Westley, a CalPERS board member who participated in the Dec. 16 press conference, he has repeatedly called on the NYSE to end its use of specialist firms to facilitate trades and move to a system of openly matching of buyers and sellers. BLIND EYE? "There"s no reason not to move to a fully automated exchange," Westley says. "Every exchange in the world is using such a system. The time is now for the NYSE to move into the 21st century and remove the cloud that there"s self-dealing working against investors."

BSection III Writing/B

Suppose your name is Wudong, write a letter to your local English-language newspaper giving your views on a discussion inspired by an article they published entitled "Why do We Need English?" Your letter must be written in at least 200 words, excluding the addresses, etc. You should write dearly.

Half of the world's population will be speaking or learning English by 2015, researchers say. Two billion people are expected to start learning English within a decade and three billion will speak it, says a British Council estimate. Other languages, such as French, risk becoming the casualties of this "linguistic globalization".【F1】 But the boom will be over by 2050 and the English language teaching industry will have become a victim of its own success, says David Graddol, author of the report, The Future of English. Mr. Graddol's research was based on a computer model developed to estimate demand for English language teaching around the world.【F2】 The lecturer, who has worked in education and language studies at the Open University for the past 25 years, said the model charted likely student numbers through to 2050. It was compiled by looking at various estimates from the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)on education provision, demographic projections, government education policies and international student mobility figures.【F3】 The impact of educational innovations and other developments affecting the world population including the Chinese government's policy of one baby per family were also factored in. Based on its findings, Mr. Graddol has predicted that the world is about to be hit by a tidal wave of English. "Many governments, especially in countries which have relatively recently gained independence, are introducing the teaching of English under a utilitarian banner." "But English predominates in the business world, and for such countries to be able to compete for work, including profitable outsourcing contracts, English is being pushed heavily from kindergarten on." Even maths and science are being taught in English at secondary schools in Malaysia.【F4】 But demand for English teaching would drop as children progress through academia, and more universities across the world choose to teach in the language. Mr. Graddol also estimated that the boom would be over by 2050."English-language students will be down from two billion to 500 million then," he said, "Increasingly, as English spread across the globe, more people will become bilingual, even multi-lingual and such skills are highly prized in business. But Britain has not got the best reputation for learning other languages." 【F5】 The report also showed that English was not the only language spreading, and the world, far from being dominated by English, was to become more multi-lingual. Mr. Graddol said, "Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are all popular, and likely to be languages of the future."

Despite the scandals over leaked e-mails, the scientific evidence for global warming remains strong. The question, then, is to what extent have the controversies【C1】______the public"s trust in climate science or, worse, in the scientists themselves. There has【C2】______been some decline.【C3】______, a closer look at the data across multiple polls shows that,broadly speaking, the public trusts scientists, believes in global warming and wants governments to do something about it. The public seems to have done what the mainstream media could not: it has kept the scandals in【C4】______. The harsh verbal attacks on climate science and scientists are【C5】______coming from a relative 【C6】______of critics, and they do not reflect a【C7】______revival of skepticism. Yet few climate scientists are likely to take【C8】______in this news. For them, the real【C9】______of public trust is the level of political【C10】______on global warming: if people truly believe the science, then why have so few of them【C11】______action of their governments. The problem is that people assess information from any number of 【C12】______, not just scientists. And people make decisions on the basis of【C13】______and their own hopes, fears and values, which will not necessarily【C14】______what many researchers deem self-evident. The scientific community must【C15】______that the issues surrounding climate change can produce responses in the public and politicians on many different levels.【C16】______do matter. Scientists must continue to【C17】______the public in plain language,【C18】______out the evidence for climate change in a clear and compelling way. And they must provide policy-makers with accurate, credible and timely information. Scientists will be only as persuasive【C19】______they are trusted, which means that【C20】______the public"s trust must be the scientific community" s top priority.

How strange is the lot of us (1)_____! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper (2)_____ one knows from daily life that one exists for other people—first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly (3)_____, and then for the many unknown (4)_____ us, (5)_____ destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself (6)_____ my inner and outer life (7)_____ the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure (8)_____ I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue (9)_____ of the labor of my fellow-men. I regard class distinctions as unjustified and in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and (10)_____. I do not at all (11)_____ human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under (12)_____ compulsion but also (13)_____ inner necessity. Schopenhauer"s saying "A man can do what he wants; (14)_____ not want what he wants," has been a very real inspiration to me (15)_____ my youth; it has been a continual consolation (16)_____ life"s hardships, my own and (17)_____, and an unfailing well-spring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from (18)_____ ourselves and other people (19)_____ seriously; it is (20)_____ a view of life which, in particular, gives humor its due.

The U.S, Supreme Court"s decision Monday to let stand a ruling in an online defamation case will make it more difficult to determine correct legal jurisdictions in other Internet cases, legal experts said. By opting not to take the case, the high court effectively endorsed a lower court"s decision that a Colorado company that posts ratings of health plans on the Internet could be sued for defamation in a Washington court. The lower court ruling is one of several that makes it easier for plaintiffs to sue Web site operators in their own jurisdictions, rather than where the operators maintain a physical presence. The case involved a defamation suit filed by Chehalis, Wash.-based Northwest Healthcare Alliance against Lakewood, Colo.-based Healthgrades.com. The Alliance sued in Washington federal, court after Healthgrades.com posted a negative ranking of Northwest Healthcare"s home health services on the Internet. Healthgrades.com argued that it should not be subject to the jurisdiction of a court in Washington because its publishing operation is in Colorado. Observers said the fact that the Supreme Court opted not to hear the case only clouds the legal situation for Web site operators. Geoff Stewart, a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C., said that the Supreme Court eventually must act on the issue, as Internet sites that rate everything from automobile dealerships to credit offers could scale back their offerings to avoid lawsuits originating numerous jurisdictions. Online publishers also might have to worry about being dragged into lawsuits in foreign courts, said Dow Lohnes & Albertson attorney Jon Hart, who has represented the Online News Association. "The much more difficult problems for U.S. media companies arise when claims are brought in foreign countries over content published in the United States", Hart said. Hart cited a recent case in which an Australian court ruled that Dow Jones must appear in a Victoria, Australia court to defend its publication of all article on the U.S.-based Wall Street Journal Web site. According to Hart, the potential chilling effect of those sorts of jurisdictional decisions is substantial. "I have not yet seen publishers holding back on what they otherwise publish because they"re afraid they"re going to get sued in another country, but that doesn"t mean it won"t happen if we see a rash of U.S. libel cases against U.S. media companies being brought in foreign countries", he said. Until the high court decides to weigh in directly on this issue, Web site operators that offer information and services to users located outside of their home states must deal with a thorny legal landscape, said John Morgan, a partner at Perkins Cole LLP and an expert in Internet law.

Supposing the weather was bad, where would you go?

Today, some 30% of small business owners don"t have a Web presence at all, while the vast majority who do are watching their sites sit stale, waiting and wanting for business. Where did things go wrong? There are common principles followed by those whose dreams of online success have become reality. (1)Build your site around your customer: Thinking of your site as your online storefront, built around delivering the highest-quality customer experience from the moment your customer steps through the "door". (2)Just because you built it doesn" t mean they" 11 come: If you aren "t seeing a large volume of targeted traffic to your site, it" s time to up the ante. (3)Integrate customer loyalty programs and promotions: Methods contain discounts, news, or friendly service reminders. Use discount promotional offers to stay in touch with past visitors to your site. (4)Justify your monthly spending through product bundling: While pay-per-click Internet advertising is much more cost-effective than traditional media channels, bundling products together will not only increase your sales revenue, but also enable you to get more out of your per-click ad rates. (5)Measure your progress: Your site may be live, but how is it performing? Armed with these simple lessons, vow to make your business realize the true promise of the Internet. [A]A manufacturing company selling $50 items was having trouble justifying the cost of online keyword ads. By bundling products to create packages of $100 or more and advertising to wholesale customers looking to buy in bulk, the manufacturer dropped its sales representative agencies and focused on large-volume buyers, such as Wal-Mart and Target. Needless to say, the company had no trouble exceeding its yearly sales quota. [B]One of my past clients had a well-designed physical storefront, solid prices, and quality offerings. However, he wasn"t able to drive enough store traffic despite targeted advertising efforts in print publications and other offline venues. We decided to shift those ad dollars to an online pay-per-click campaign—in which the advertiser pays whenever someone clicks on its entry posted during the course of a site search based on keywords relevant to his business. The immediate impact was staggering. Online revenue soared tenfold to $1 million from $100,000 within only a few months. [C]With today"s technology, your return can be easily measured. If you rely on your Web site as a sales tool, you can"t afford not to invest in site analytics. Make sure your Web solution includes an easy-to-use reporting tool that presents this information in a clear, concise format. After all, while metrics are a critical part of the Web equation, you don"t have the time to spend hours digging through reams of data. [D]Years ago, I worked with a woman who sold purses online through a home-built site that lacked critical e -commerce components. After a simple redesign including product descriptions, comprehensive navigation, and a secure, user-friendly ordering system, her revenue increased fivefold. And she began receiving rave reviews from customers impressed with the ease and convenience of the online shopping experience. [E]Online success demands more than simple presence. Your Internet investment should pay for itself with new customers and increased sales. Find a trusted partner who can help you navigate today" s(and tomorrow" s)technology and who understands the bottom-line realities of your business. [F]One villa rental company had a Web site that generated very few calls and online bookings. I helped the company set up a "last minute deals" distribution list. By subscribing, site visitors would receive weekly e-mails offering 11th-hour discounts on villa rentals. As a result, the company captured contact information for thousands of possible customers, reduced its unused inventory to almost zero, and increased revenue significantly.

Now that the economy is at last growing again, the burning issue in Britain is the cost of living. Prices have exceeded wages for the past six years. But the thing that is really out of control is the cost of housing. In the past year wages have risen by 1%; property prices are up by 8.4%. This is merely the latest in a long surge. If since 1971 the price of groceries had risen as steeply as the cost of housing, a chicken would cost ￡51 ($83). By subsidising mortgages, and thus boosting demand, the government is aggravating the problem. But that is not the main reason for rising prices. Driven by a baby-boom, immigration and longer lives, Britain's population is growing by around 0.8% per year, faster than in most rich countries. Foreign wealth, in the meantime, is pouring into London. If supply were rising fast too, increasing demand would not matter; but it is not. Though some 221,000 additional households are formed in England annually, just 108,000 homes were built in the year to September 2013. The lack of housing is an economic drag. About three-quarters of English job growth last year was in London and its inland, but high prices make it hard for people to move there from less favoured spots. It also damages lives. New British homes are smaller than those anywhere else in Europe, household size is rising in London and slums are spreading as immigrants squash into shared houses (and, sometimes, garden sheds). Inequality is growing, because the higher property prices are, the greater the advantage that belongs to those whose parents own their homes. This is all the result of deliberate policymaking. Since the 1940s house-building in Britain has been regulated by a system designed to prevent urban sprawl, something it has achieved well. It is almost impossible to construct any new building anywhere without permission from the local council. In the places where people most want to live—suburbs at the edge of big cities—councils tend not to give it.

(46) But behind the deal is another Hewlett-Packard ambition: to extend the reach of its dominant printing and imaging division, which registered $ 20 billion in sales this year, 43 percent of the company"s revenue. In the last two decades, Hewlett-Packard built itself into the world"s largest vendor of desktop printers. It had done so under th6 command of Richard A. Hackbom, now a Hewlett-Packard board member and a leading advocate of the merger. (47) Today, the company tests so many printers, inks and papers that if one could stack up all the test sheets printed during an average month, the pile would reach 6,000 feet. (48) The printer division is widely regarded as the company"s crown jewel, but how Hewlett car best exploit it is a matter of dispute. Walter Hewlett, the oldest son of the company"s co-founder, and other critics of the Compaq acquisition argue that the deal will dilute the printing business by burying it in an even larger, slower-moving computer company. The division"s, $2 billion in operating profits this year propped up Hewlett-Packard"s sagging computer business, which lost $450 million. (49) Some analysts have advocated that instead of merging to become a larger company, Hewlett-Packard should sell off its other businesses and focus on selling more printers and imaging devices like digital cameras and scanners, which increase sales of ink cartridges and paper. The company, however, says it has no intention of narrowing its scope. Instead, proponents of the merger say the acquisition will fix Hewlett"s computing business, freeing up more research and development money for the printing division to tackle new markets, like the $400-billion-a-year commercial printing business. Hewlett-Packard wants to drive this transition to digital publishing, much as IBM, through a combination of products and services, helped businesses push into online sales in the late 1990"s. (50) If the strategy is successful, it would result in a surge in digital files that would stimulate sales of the powerful computing systems needed to create, store and move the files. To do that, Hewlett-Packard argues, it must become larger and stronger. The bigger it is, the more influence it will have on corporate technology managers.

Familiar as it may seem, gravity remains a mystery to modern physics. Despite several decades of trying, scientists have failed to fit Einstein"s general theory of relativity, which describes how gravity holds big objects together, with the quantum mechanics (an extension of statistical mechanics based on quantum theory) he pioneered, which describes the tiny fundamental particles of whichmatter consists and the forces by which they interact.Recent discoveries have highlighted further problems. Many physicists are therefore entertaining the idea that Einstein"s ideas about gravity must be wrong or at least incomplete. Showing exactly how and where the great man erred is the task of the scientists who gathered at the "Rethinking Gravity" conference at the University of Arizona in Tucson this week. One way to test general relativity is to examine ever more closely the assumptions on which it rests, such as the equivalence principle: that gravity accelerates all objects at the same rate, regardless of their mass or composition. This principle was famously demonstrated by Galileo Galilei some 400 years ago when he simultaneously dropped cannon and musket balls, and balls made of gold, silver and wood, from the Tower of Pisa. Each appeared to hit the ground at the same time. A more precise test requires a taller tower. In effect, researchers are sending balls all the way to the moon and back. Tom Murphy, of the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues fire laser beams from the deserts of New Mexico at reflectors placed on the moon by American and Russian spacecraft in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They use a telescope to capture the small fraction of the light that returns. Because the speed of light is known, they can calculate the distance between the Earth and the moon from the time taken for light to pass through it. According to general relativity, because the Earth and the moon orbit the sun, they should "fall" towards it at the same rate, in the same way as Galileo"s balls fell to the ground. By repeatedly measuring the distance between them, scientists can calculate the orbits of the Earth and the moon around the sun relative to each other. If the equivalence principle were violated, the moon"s orbit around the Earth would not appear straight, either towards or away from the sun So far, Dr Murphy told the conference, these experiments have merely confirmed the equivalence principle to one part in 10 trillion. Dr Murphy and his colleagues hope that even more precise measurements could ultimately show general relativity to be only approximately correct. This would usher in a new revolution in physics.

C.P. Snow once said: "A sense of the future is behind all good policies. Unless we have it, we can give nothing either wise or decent to the world." Thinking carefully about an outcome is an intelligent first step in many processes, especially when the stakes are high, possibly even dangerous. Do you have any experience in getting out of hazardous situations? In the most exceptional circumstances, a few good rules of thumb may save you. Here are five things to keep in mind. 1. Stay calm If a catastrophe threatens your life, panic will only make matters worse. Nothing but calmness can help you adequately take stock of the situation and take appropriate measures. 2. Remain confident Desperation can paralyze you or sap your energy, while confidence is the key to saving yourself. 3. Help each other You should organize for mutual assistance in case of an earthquake, flood, fire, etc. People working together can always cope more successfully with any adverse situation. Solidarity means strength: solidarity means victory. 4. Be obedient to superiors The best strategy when facing a catastrophe is to obey commands and keep order. More often than not, leaders are experts, or someone familiar with the situation or with rich experience. Being too individualistic and going your own way will usually make the situation worse for you and others. So, the best thing to do is to listen:to authorities and remain orderly. 5. Communicate When in danger it is best to seek help immediately so those with more resources can come to your aid. If you are at risk, use whatever means available as soon as possible to contact others for help, and take efforts to maintain communication once it is established. While every catastrophe is different in its own way, all can be met and hopefully overcome with the above-mentioned pieces of advice. By carefully considering what needs to be done, even under the worst of situations, one can find solutions, or endure until aided by others. [A]A person trapped in ruins in an earthquake, didn't lose hope. The victim overcame his pain and despair, and kept banging out signals on the fallen wall around him for help. Because of his efforts, a rescue team was able to find him and save his life. [B]For example, if numerous people are involved in a dangerous situation, some, out of fear or inclination, may not follow direction or heed sound advice. As a result of the disorder, rescue efforts are hindered , or worse more casualties are incurred. [C]Nine fishermen from Peru were hit by a severe storm, but they didn 't panic even though their boat was damaged so badly that they couldn't sail home. They maintained faith that they would surely to be saved, and their belief gave them strength. When there is hope, there is a way! They survived at sea for 40 days before they were finally rescued. Their story is a good sample for future people lost at sea. It is best to remember the proverb: God helps those who help themselves. [D]History shows that when people are in danger mutual assistance promotes confidence, and reassuring others not only helps them, but can calm you as well. Helping others is beneficial, especially in the direst circumstances. During the Sept. 11 attacks in America, people pulled together and supported each other. This not only reduced casualties, but also left a deep impression on people around world. Remember, helping others is helping yourself! [E]The Apollo 13 space mission suffered catastrophic mechanical problems en route to the Moon. Its malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank No. 2 in the service module. The NASA Mission Control Center immediately issued two orders. The second order was concerning navigation. But, can you guess what the first order was? Unbelievably, the astronauts were told to take two tranquillizer pills each! As a result, calmness helped the astronauts overcome a series of difficulties and return to earth. Calmness can work miracles in times of emergency. [F]The best way to prevent a catastrophe from happening is planning ahead. You should often check your circuits, stoves, electrical appliances and gas pipelines. Before sleeping in a hotel, you should be aware of the nearest exit in case of an emergency. "Preparation averts peril."

Britain"s gardeners have revealed one of their greatest pet hates—other people"s cats. Okay, they"re sadistic murderers—but is it fair that cats have been rated as being as detestable as rats in a poll of British gardeners? A new survey in the UK indicates that cats come second only to rats as the least favou77rite mammal to visit our gardens. (46) The UK"s 10 million cats have had its rough of late, drawing harsh criticism because of their bloodlust and habit of viewing the nation"s gardens as their own personal toilets. (47) Though the animals are the UK"s favorite pets, British gardeners have struck back by crowning the cat as one of the most unwelcome visitors—voting them only slightly more popular than rats in the new poll. The Mammal Society—which conducted the survey—says cats cut a swathe through the nation"s wildlife, killing around 300 million animals every year. "Cats are solitary predatory hunters. (48) People ask why they kill when they are clearly well-fed, but a cat"s motivation to hunt is quite separate from its desire to satisfy hunger." Even with a full stomach, a cat cannot resist the stimuli of prey passing nearby, says Ms. Heath, author of Why Does My Cat? "It doesn"t make sense for a cat to wait until it"s hungry to catch food—there may be none around then. Better to hunt when there"s the opportunity and hide the food away." A BBC television series has raised the question of whether cats should be kept indoors at night. (49) Wildlife experts say keeping cats locked up from dusk to dawn will prevent much of the killing they create, and will also mean they are less likely to be run over. Mammal expert Professor Steve Harris, from Bristol University, said: "The message is clear, most people are heartily sick of having their neighbors" cats in their garden". Owners who have resorted to collar bells to warn prey may have underestimated feline guile. "Some cats have learned to hold their heads to minimize noise coming from the bells around their necks. Perhaps we need to admire this skill, rather than get paranoid about it." Even today, some view the black cat as an omen of misfortune. Spiteful people are dubbed as being "catty". A raucous cry is a "caterwaul". At work, a greedy, lazy boss is a "fat cat". But, to be fair, the British can"t hate cats that much. (50) A recent report found that the generosity of the British towards the cat has caused one in four of the creatures to become clinically obese.

Studythefollowingtwopicturescarefullyandwriteanessayinwhichyoushould:1)describethecartoon,pointoutthemessageconveyed;2)giveyourcomment.Youshouldwriteabout160-200wordsneatly.

A.Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanessayinnolessthan160—200words.B.Youressaymustbewrittenclearly.C.Youressayshouldmeettherequirementsbelow.1)Describethepicture,2)interpretitsmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

Both the number and the percentage of people in the United States involved in nonagricultural pursuit expanded rapidly during the half century following the Civil War, with some of the most dramatic increases occurring in the domains of transportation, manufacturing and trade and distribution. The development of the railroad and telegraph systems during the middle of the nineteenth century led to significant improvements in the speed, volume, and regularity of shipments and communications, making possible a fundamental transformation in the production and distribution of goods. In agriculture, the transformation was marked by the emergence of the grain elevators, the cotton presses, the warehouses, and the commodity exchanges that seemed to so many of the nation"s farmers the visible sign of a vast conspiracy against them. In manufacturing, the transformation was marked by the emergence of a "new factory system" in which plants became larger, more complex, and more systematically organized and managed. And in distribution, the transformation was marked by the emergence of the jobber(中间商), the wholesaler, and "the mass retailer(零售商). These changes radically altered the nature of work during the half century between 1870 and 1920. To be sure, there were still small workshops, where skilled craftspeople manufactured products ranging from newspapers to cabinets to plumbing fixtures. There were the sweatshops in city tenements, where groups of men and women in household settings manufactured clothing or cigars on a piecework basis. And there were factories in occupations such as metalwork where individual contractors presided over what were essentially handicraft proprietorships that coexisted within a single building. But as the number of wage earners in manufacturing rose from 2.7 million in 1888 to 4.5 million in 1900 to 8.4 million in 1920, the number of huge plants like the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia burgeoned (迅速成长), as did the size of average plant. (The Baldwin Works had 600 employees in 1855, 3,000 in 1875, and 8,000 in 1900.) By 1920, at least in the northeastern United States where most of the nation"s manufacturing wage earners were concentrated, three-quarters of those worked in factories with more than 100 employees and 30 percent worked in factories with more than 100 employees.

Our ape-men forefathers had no obvious natural weapons in the struggle for【C1】______in the open. They had neither the powerful teeth nor the strong claws of the big cats. They could not【C2】______with the bear, whose strength, speed and claws【C3】______an impressive "small-fire" weaponry. They could not even defend themselves【C4】______running swiftly like the horses, zebras or small animals. If the ape-men had attempted to【C5】______on those terms in the open, they would have been【C6】______to failure and extinction. But they were【C7】______with enormous concealed advantages of a kind not possessed by any of their competitors. In the【C8】______for the pickings of the forest, the ape-men had【C9】______efficient stereoscopic vision and a sense of colour that the animals of the grasslands did not possess. The ability to see clearly at close range【C10】______the ape-men to study practical problems in a way that lay far【C11】______the reach of the original inhabitants of the grassland. Good long-distance sight was quite another matter. 【C12】______of long-distance vision had not been a problem for forest-dwelling apes and monkeys because the higher the viewpoint, the greater the range of sight—so【C13】______they had had to do was climb a tree. Out in the open, however, this simple solution was not【C14】______. Climbing a hill would have helped,【C15】______in many places the ground was flat. The ape-men【C16】______the only possible solution. They reared up as high as possible on their hind limbs and began to walk upright. This vital change of physical position brought about considerable【C17】______. It was extremely unstable and it meant that the already slow ape-men became slower still.【C18】______, they persevered and their bone structure gradually became【C19】______to the new, unstable position that【C20】______them the name Homo Erectus, upright man.