BPart B/B

The date is January 18, 2008. You are a member of the student union of a university. Write a memorandum to the head of the student service department and ask him to have a television furnished for each dormitory. Your memorandum should be based on the following outline: 1) give reasons for your request; 2) express hope for prompt action. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the memorandum. Use "Ma He" instead.

You are supposed to invite Dr. King to make a speech about the future development of computer science at the annual conference of your department. Write a letter to Mr. King to 1) invite him on behalf of your department, 2) tell him the time and place of the conference. 3) promise to give him further details later. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Wang Ling" instead. You do not need to write the address.

Therehasbeenadiscussionrecentlyontheissueofjob-hopping.Writeanessaytothenewspaperto1.showyourunderstandingofthesymbolicmeaningofthepicturebelow1)thecontentofthepicture2)themeaning/yourunderstanding2.giveaspecificexample/comment,and3.presentyoursuggestionsYoushouldneatlywrite160—200words.

You are familiar with Prof. Peter, an expert in translation. Last night your colleague, Li Fang asked you to recommend him to Prof. Peter and wanted to be his assistant. Now you are asked to write a letter of recommendation. Write your letter with no less than 100 words; write it neatly and do not sign your own name at the end of letter; use "Li Ming "instead. You don"t need to write the address.

Harold Varmus is a man on a mission—a quest to liberate scientific knowledge from the bounds of journals and copyrights and make it free to all. This is no small issue to the Nobel winner, cancer researcher, and president of Memorial Sioan-Kettering Cancer Center.【C1】______ To Varmus, what scientists do, how they think, and what they write should be immediately and freely available online throughout the world. And if taxpayers support science, he says, sharing should be mandatory. Varmus began promoting "open access" in 1999 during his last year as director of the National Institutes of Health(NIH). Later, with a few colleagues and heavy philanthropic support, he established the Public Library of Science to show the way by publishing several prestigious open-access journals. Historically, scientific journals pay for peer reviews, editing, and other costs through ads and subscription fees.【C2】______By contrast, the open-access model calls for the researchers(or their grants)to pay for publishing at a cost of some $2,000 to $3,000 or more per article. It sounds sensible, but the author-pay approach has faced resistance on several fronts. Some scientists, particularly those younger and less well funded, worry that the fees will limit their publishing.【C3】______Journals fault a model that burdens relatively few researchers with costs now shared by the large reader base. And others worry about government intrusion. The push-back is something Varmus concedes he underestimated. But he got an inkling when an effort he led in 2000 fell flat. Thousands of scientists had pledged to boycott journals unwilling to make their articles free through the National Library of Medicine, but few kept their promise. Scientific careers still depend greatly on publishing in established journals. But Varmus persisted. He stressed that lay readers, not just scientists, were being deprived of knowledge. And now, more organizations are endorsing the concept. Varmus, 67, admits that the project has consumed more time than he had hoped. But it is succeeding so far because of his leadership. On this, he gives a nod to his Nobel Prize. "I don"t believe that some of the things that I"ve been able to do in the last few years would have been possible without that little ornament," he says. 【C4】______At Sloan-Kettering, as he did at NIH, he walks around tieless and carrying a backpack, and he works alongside students in his own research lab. As he does, he urges researchers to go beyond the lab, to become scientific activists for a better world.【C5】______The common language of science not only can help solve problems, he says; it also can unite people across unfriendly borders. A. It"s more than that, though. Informing his leadership is a passion for science—with its "special powers and special beauties"—and his identity as a working scientist, not just an administrator. B. If we speak that language, Varmus says, "we"ll build one world. If we don"t, we"re going to live in a fragmented world, as we do now." C. Access to scientific literature is only one step; poorer nations also need a greater share of scientific investment, he says. D. In fact, it is symbolic of Varmus"s view that science is critical to improving the human condition and, thus, must be shared. E. A bill in Congress would require scientists supported by the NIH to submit work only to journals that agree to make it free online within a year. F. Subscriptions often amount to hundreds of dollars per year, posing financial hurdles to readers, especially when multiplied by many journals. G. Others are concerned that hundreds of millions of NTH dollars will be diverted from research and into publishing.

Clattering keyboards may seem the white noise of the modern age, but they betray more information than unwary typists realize. Simply by analyzing audio recordings of keyboard clatter, computer scientists can now reconstruct an accurate transcript of what was typed--including passwords. (41) . Such snooping is possible because each key produces a characteristic dick, shaped by its position on the keyboard, the vigor and hand position of the typist, and the type of keyboard used. But past attempts to decipher keyboard sounds were only modestly successful, requiring a training session in which the computer matched a known transcript to an audio recording of each key being struck. (42) . Furthermore, each new typist or keyboard required a fresh transcript and training session, limiting the method"s appeal to would-be hackers. Now, in a blow to acoustic security, Doug Tygar and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have published details of an approach that reaches 96% accuracy, even without a labeled training transcript. (43) . The software tentatively assigns each click a letter based on its frequency, then tests the message created by this assignment using statistical models of the English language. For example, certain letters or words are more likely to occur together-if an unknown keystroke follows a "t", it is much more likely to be an "h" than an "x". Similarly, the words "for example" make likelier bedfellows than "fur example". In a final refinement, the researchers employed a method many students would do well to deploy on term papers., automated spellchecking. By repeatedly revising unlikely or incorrect letter assignments, Dr. Tygar"s software extracts sense from sonic chaos. That said, the method does have one limitation: in order to apply the language model, at least five minutes of the recorded typing had to be in standard English (though in principle any systematic language or alphabet would work). But once those requirements are met, the program can decode anything from epic prose to randomized, ten-character passwords. (44) . He says it is quite simple to find the instructions needed to build a parabolic or laser microphone on the web. You could just point one from outside through an office window to make a recording. And as he points out, would-be eavesdroppers might not even need their own recording equipment, as laptop computers increasingly come equipped with built-in microphones that could be hijacked. (45) . His computers were less successful at parsing recordings made in noisy rooms. Ultimately, though, more sophisticated recording arrays could overcome even background noise, rendering any typed text vulnerable. Dr. Tygar therefore recommends that typed passwords be phased out, to be replaced with biometric checks or multiple types of authorization that combine a password with some form of silent verification (clicking on a pre-chosen picture in a selection of images, for example). Loose lips may still sink ships, but for the moment it seems that an indiscreet keystroke can do just as much damage. [A] This sort of acoustic analysis might sound like the exclusive province of spies and spooks, but according to Dr. Tygar, such attacks are not as esoteric as you might expect. [B] The sounds of typing can be decoded, which can be used to decode password, so if you are typing random, secure passwords. [C] The new approach employs methods developed for speech-recognition software to group together all the similar-sounding keystrokes in a recording, generating an alphabet of clicks. [D] To protect against these sonic incursions, Dr. Tygar suggests a simple remedy: turn up the radio. [E] The major advance here is that it no longer requires hours of training the model in order to create a usable mapping of key sounds to letters. [F] And in contrast to many types of computer espionage, the process is simple, requiring only a cheap microphone and a desktop computer. [G] Thus schooled, the software could still identify only 80% of the characters in a different transcript of the same typist on the same machine.

Newspapers are becoming more balanced businesses, with a healthier mix of revenues from readers and advertisers. American papers have long been highly unusual in their reliance on ads. Fully 87% of their revenues came from advertising in 2006, according to the OECD. In Japan the proportion is 35%. Not surprisingly, Japanese newspapers are much more stable. The whirlwind that swept through newsrooms harmed everybody, but much of the damage has been concentrated in areas where newspapers are least distinctive. Car and film reviewers have gone. So have science and general business reporters. Foreign bureaus have been savagely pruned. Newspapers are less complete as a result. But completeness is no longer a virtue in the newspaper business. Just look at the fate of Otis Chandler"s creation. Thanks to family connections, Chandler ended up in control of the Los Angeles Times in 1960. The paper he inherited was parochial and conservative, reflecting the city it served. Chandler abandoned the anti-union dogma and set about building a west-coast rival to the New York Times. His paper was heavy on foreign news and serious, objective reporting. The result was hugely impressive—but not, as it turned out, suited to the internet era. In the past few years the paper has suffered repeated staff cuts. In 2007 it was acquired by a property magnate and in 2008 filed for bankruptcy protection. The problem with such newspapers is that, although they do much that is excellent, they do little that is distinctive enough for people to pay for it. The Los Angeles Times" foreign reporting is extremely good. But it is hard to argue that it is better than the stuff supplied by the New York Times or foreign papers. Similarly, it has never been clear why each major newspaper needs its own car reviewer a Corolla is a Corolla, whether it is driven in Albuquerque or Atlanta. Papers should concentrate on what they do best, which means, in many cases, local news and sport. If the rest is bought in from wire services or national organizations, readers are unlikely to complain—as long as there is enough competition between those larger providers to keep up standards. Specialization generally means higher quality. It is grim to forecast still more writers losing their jobs. But whether newspapers are thrown onto doorsteps or distributed digitally, they need to deliver something that is distinctive. New technologies like Apple"s iPad only make this more true. The mere acquisition of a smooth block of metal and glass does not magically persuade people that they should start paying for news. They will pay for news if they think it has value. Newspapers need to focus relentlessly on that.

Do animals have fights? This is how the question is usually put. It sounds like a useful, ground-clearing way to start. Actually, it isn"t, because it assumes that there is an agreed account of human rights, which is something the world does not have. On one view of rights, to be sure, it necessarily follows that animals have none. Some philosophers argue that rights exist only within a social contract, as part of an exchange of duties and entitlements. Therefore, animals cannot have rights. The idea of punishing a tiger that kills somebody is absurd, for exactly the same reason, so is the idea that tigers have fights. However, this is only one account, and by no means an uncontested one. It defiles tights not only to animals but also to some people—for instance, to infants, the mentally incapable and future generations, In addition, it is unclear what force a contract can have for people who never consented to it: how do you reply to some body who says" I don"t like this contract"? The point is this: without agreement on the rights of people, arguing about the rights of animals is fruitless. It leads the discussion to extremes at the outset: it invites you to think that animals should be treated either with the consideration humans extend to other humans, or with no consideration at all. This is a false choice. Better to start with another, more fundamental question: is the way we treat animals a moral issue at all? Many deny it. Arguing from the view that humans are different from animals in every relevant respect, extremists of this kind think that animals lie outside the area of moral choice. Any regard for the suffering of animals is seen as a mistake—a sentimental displacement of feeling that should properly be directed to other humans. This view, which holds that torturing a monkey is morally equivalent to chopping wood, may seem bravely "logical". In fact it is simply shallow: the confused center is right to reject it. The most elementary form of moral reasoning—the ethical equivalent of learning to crawl—is to weigh others" interests against one"s own. This in turn requires sympathy and imagination: without which there is no capacity for moral thought. To see an animal in pain is enough, for most, to engage sympathy. When that happens, it is not a mistake: it is man kind"s instinct for moral reasoning in action, an instinct that should be encouraged rather than laughed at.

English has been successfully promoted, and has been eagerly adopted in the global linguistic marketplace. One symptom of the impact of English is linguistic【C1】______. English intrudes on all the languages that it【C2】______. The technical terms "borrowing" and "loan words,"【C3】______Calvet has indicated long before, are【C4】______, since speakers of a language who borrow words from another have no【C5】______of returning anything. The transaction is purely【C6】______, and reflects the desirability of the product to the【C7】______. The only constraint on use is understandability—though states may【C8】______ban certain foreign forms and implement measures to devise new indigenous words and expressions. Borrowing is a phenomenon that has【C9】______users of other languages for more than a century. It has also generated an extensive【C10】______on linguistic borrowing from English. British English【C11】______a large number of words of American origin, often【C12】______the source being noticed. Many languages borrow gastronomic and haute couture terms from French;【C13】______, there is a carry-over from the use of English in many of the domains listed above into the【C14】______of other languages. The English linguistic invasion has been so【C15】______that some governments, representing both small linguistic communities, for instance Slovenia and【C16】______ones, for instance France, have adopted measures to【C17】______the tide and shore up their own languages,【C18】______in the area of neologisms for technical concepts. Such measures, which are【C19】______to be only partially successful, reflect an anxiety that essential cultural and linguistic values are【C20】______.

Salt, shells or metals are still used as money in out-the-way parts of the world today. Salt may seem rather a strange【C1】______to use as money, 【C2】______in countries where the food of the people is mainly vegetable, it is often an【C3】______necessity. Cakes of salt, stamped to show their【C4】______, were used as money in some countries until recent【C5】______, and cakes of salt【C6】______buy goods in Borneo and parts of Africa. Sea shells【C7】______as money at some time【C8】______another over the greater part of the Old World. These were【C9】______mainly from the beaches of the Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean, and were traded to India and China. In Africa, shells were traded right across the【C10】______from East to West. Metal, valued by weight, 【C11】______coins in many parts of the world. Iron, in lumps, bars or rings, is still used in many countries【C12】______paper money. It can either be exchanged【C13】______goods, or made into tools, weapons, or ornaments. The early money of China, apart from shells, was of bronze, 【C14】______in flat, round pieces with a hole in the middle, called "cash". The【C15】______of these are between three thousand and four thousand years old—older than the earlist coins of the eastern Mediterranean. Nowadays, coins and notes have【C16】______nearly all the more picturesque【C17】______of money, and【C18】______in one or two of the more remote countries people still keep it for future use on ceremonial【C19】______such as weddings and funerals, examples of【C20】______money will soon be found only in museums.

Children are getting so fat that they may be the first generation to die before their parents. To-day"s youngsters are already falling prey to potential killers such as diabetes because of their weight. (46) Fatty fast-food diets combined with sitting lifestyles dominated by televisions and computers could mean kids will die tragically young, says Professor Andrew Prentice, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. At the same time, the shape of the human body is going through a huge evolutionary shift because adults are getting so fat. Here in Britain, latest research shows that the average waist size for a man is 36-38in and may be 42-44in by 2032. This compares with only 32.6in in 1972. Women"s waists have grown from an average of 22in in 1920 to 24in in the Fifties and 30in now. One of the major reasons why children now are at greater risk is that we are getting fatter younger. In the UK alone, more than one million under-16s are classed as overweight or obese—double the number in the mid-Eighties. One in ten four-year-olds are also medically classified as obese. The obesity pandemic—an extensive epidemic—which started in the US, has now spread to Europe, Australasia, Central America and the Middle East. (47) Many nations now record more than 20 percent of their population as clinically fat and well over half the population as overweight. (48) Prof. Prentice said the change in our shape has been caused by an oversupply of easily available high-energy foods combined with a dramatic drop in the energy we use as a result of technology developments. He is not alone in his concern. Only last week one medical journal revealed how obesity was fuelling a rise in cancer cases. Obesity also increases the risk factor for strokes and heart disease as well as diabetes. (49) An averagely overweight person"s lifespan is shortened by around nine years while a severely overweight person by many more. Prof. Prentice said: "So will parents outlive their children, as claimed recently by an American obesity specialist? Yes, when the offspring become grossly obese. This is now becoming an alarmingly common occurrence in the US. (50) Such children and adolescents have a greatly reduced quality of life in terms of both their physical and psychosocial health. So say No to that doughnut and burger."

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A-G. Some of the paragraphs have been placed for you. (10 points)A. Although it does not look appealing, in reality these people have good lives. Their jobs do not pay a fortune but they love them and their lives are stress-free. And no one would guess that they make so little because they live much better than many of their friends who make a lot more. So if you want more money you have to count your pennies; there is no other way than to spend wisely.B. When it comes to money management you need to think long term. Money management "is not only how you manage your money right now; it is how you will make sure your income and wealth will increase over time. In order to make more money, most Americans take the easiest route: get a second job. This is easy; it will give more money immediately, but it may come at a very high cost.C. Look at the case of Melissa and her husband. They own a nice home, beautifully decorated in a nice neighborhood, they have regular cars in good condition (though with more than 100K miles on each car), they dress well and travel to exotic destinations once a year. How do they do it? They live wisely. They do not buy a new car just because people say that after 100K miles a car is good for nothing. Their cars look good and run well because they take care of them. They are not planning on buying a new car anytime soon. This is a huge expense that they do not want to take; they own their cars right now and they do not want additional debt.D. If you have children, it may come at the cost of precious time with them or your family. If you are single and have no children, it may cost you peace and time for relaxation. But beyond that, it may cost you long term: not being able to pursue bigger dreams.E. You can save money in many ways including buying less, or buying cheaper, or even buying smarter. People who seem to have money for everything and still do not carry credit card debt should be admired.F. Money and career wise you have to be smart and not take the shortest path, but the best, high value path. Beside what you do for a living, the money you save has to be invested well so that you have good returns. One of the best investments you can have is a home (unless you need to rent since you will be in a specific location only for a very short time). To pay rent is to literally put money down the drain. The home you buy has to be such that you can make profit in a few years so that you can buy a bigger home or a similar home and save the rest.G. In other words, if you devote your time to learn a new skill or start your own business, this will not give you money immediately, but in the long term it will give more money and personal satisfaction than a stupid second job.Order: B is the first paragraph and A is the last.

The Supreme Court"s decisions on physician-assisted suicide carry important implications for how medicine seeks to relieve dying patients of pain and suffering. Although it ruled that there is no constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, the Court in effect supported the medical principle of "double effect", a centuries-old moral principle holding that an action having two effects—a good one that is intended and a harmful one that is foreseen—is permissible if the doctor intends only the good effect. Doctors have used that principle in recent years to justify using high doses of morphine to control terminally ill patients" pain, even though increasing dosages will eventually kill the patient. Nancy Dubler, director of Montefiore Medical Center, contends that the principle will shield doctors who "until now have very, very strongly insisted that they could not give patients sufficient mediation to control their pain if that might has-ten death. "George Annas, chief of the health law department at Boston University, maintains that, as long as a doctor pre-scribes a drug for a legitimate medical purpose, the doctor has done nothing illegal even if the patient uses the drug to hasten death. "It"s like surgery," he says. "We don"t call those deaths homicides because the doctors didn"t intend to kill their patients, although they risked their death. If you"re a physician, you can risk your patient"s suicide as long as you don"t intend their suicide." On another level, many in the medical community acknowledge that the assisted-suicide debate has been fueled in part by the despair of patients for whom modern medicine has prolonged the physical agony of dying. Just three weeks before the Court"s ruling on physician-assisted suicide, the National Academy of Science (NAS) released a two-volume report, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. It identifies the undertreatment of pain and the aggressive use of "ineffectual and forced medical procedures that may prolong and even dishonor the period of dying" as the twin problems of end-of-life care. The profession is taking steps to require young doctors to train in hospices, to test knowledge of aggressive pain management therapies, to develop a Medicare billing code for hospital-based care, and to develop new standards for assessing and treating pain at the end of life. Annas says lawyers can play a key role in insisting that these well-meaning medical initiatives translate into better care. "Large numbers of physicians seem unconcerned with the pain their patients are needlessly and predictably suffering," to the extent that it constitutes "systematic patient abuse." He says medical licensing boards "must make it clear that painful deaths are presumptively ones that are incompetently managed and should result in license suspension."

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

TheComposingoftheDailyEnergyUsageinaVillageA.Studythechartcarefullyandwriteanessayof160-200words.B.Youressayshouldcoverthesethreepoints:1)thecomposingoftheenergyusageinthisvillage2)possiblereasons3)yoursuggestions

sooner or later

Digital photography is still new enough that most of us have yet to form an opinion about it, much less (1)_____ a point of view. But this hasn"t stopped many film and computer fans from agreeing (2)_____ the early (3)_____ wisdom about digital cameras—they"re neat (4)_____ for your PC, but they"re not suit able for everyday picture-taking. The fans are wrong: more than anything else, digital cameras are radically (5)_____ what photography means and what it can be. The venerable medium of photography as we know (6)_____ is beginning to seem out of (7)_____ with the way we live. In our computer and camcorder culture, saving pictures (8)_____ digital files and watching them on TV is no less (9)_____ and in many ways more (10)_____ than fumbling with rolls of film that must be sent off to be (11)_____. Paper is also terribly (12)_____ Pictures that are incorrectly framed, focused, or lighted are nonetheless (13)_____ to film and ultimately processed into prints. The digital medium changes the (14)_____. Still images that are (15)_____ digitally can immediately be shown on a computer monitor, TV screen, or a small liquid-crystal display (LCD) built right into the camera. And since the points of light that (16)_____ an image are saved as a series of digital bits in (17)_____ memory, (18)_____ being permanently etched onto film, they can be erased, retouched, and transmitted on-line. What"s it like to (19)_____ with one of these digital cameras? It"s a little like a first date—exciting, confusing and fraught with (20)_____.

He is very musical.

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A-G. Some of the paragraphs have been placed for you. (10 points)A. Nonetheless, the 1997-1998 El Nino was an unusual one. It developed so rapidly that every month between June and December 1997 set a new monthly record high for sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific. Anomalies (that is, deviations from normal in December 1997 were the highest ever recorded along the Equator in the eastern Pacific. Moreover, before 1997-1998, the previous record setting El Nino occurred in 1982-1983. These two "super El Ninos" were separated by only 15 years, compared with a typical 30-40 year gap between such events earlier in the 20th century.B. Identifying why it was so strong challenges our understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for El Nino. This is more than simply an academic question: the 1997-1998 El Nino severely disrupted global weather patterns and Pacific marine ecosystems, and by one estimate caused $33 billion in damage and cost 23,000 lives worldwide.C. There were warnings of a coming El Nino before it occurred but although many computer forecast models predicted that 1997 would be warm in the tropical Pacific up to three seasons in advance, none predicted the rapid development or ultimate intensity of the event before it began. Clearly we have much to learn from this experience. El Nino, Spanish for "the child" (and specifically the Christ child), is the name Peruvian fisherman gave to coastal sea-temperature warmings that first appeared around Christmas time. Now El Nino more generally refers to a warming of the tropical Pacific basin that occurs roughly every three to seven years in association with a weakening of the trade winds. The opposite side of El Nino, La Nina, is characterized by stronger than normal trade winds and unusually cold sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific. Both El Nino and La Nina are accompanied by swings in atmospheric pressure between the eastern and western Pacific. These swings are known as the Southern Oscillation. These phenomena are collectively referred to as ENSO or El Nino/ Southern Oscillation.D. Several factors may have contributed to the strength of the 1997—1998 El Nino. One is chaos, which some theories invoke to ac count for the irregularity of the ENSO cycle. Nonlinear resonances involving ENSO and the seasonal cycle have received special attention, but other chaotic interactions may affect ENSO as well.E. The general mechanisms underlying the ENSO involve large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions and equatorial ocean dynamics. But each El Nino and La Nina is unique in the combination of its strength, duration and pattern of development. Irregularity in the EN SO, cycle can be seen both in the record dating back to the middle of the 19th century, and in other supporting data, such as lake sediments, coral growth rings and tree rings, going back hundreds or even thousands of years. So in principle, it should not be surprising that an unusually strong El Nino occurs every so often.F. In 1997—1998, events possibly acted together to produce an extraordinarily strong El Nino simply dud to the underlying tendency towards chaos in the climate system.G. Just under a year ago, a sharp drop in equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperature indicated the end of the 1997—1998 El Nino. Called by someone "the climate event of the century", it was by several measures the strongest on record.Order: G is the first paragraph and F is the last one.