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Backwhenwewerekids,thehoursspentwithfriendsweretoonumeroustocount.Thereweremarathontelephoneconversations,all-nightstudyingandgigglingsessions.Evenafterboyfriends,enteredthepicture,ourbestfriendsremainedirreplaceable.Andtimewasthemeansbywhichwenurturedthosefriendships.Nowasadultwomenweneverseemtohaveenoughtimeforanything.Husbands,kids,careersandavocations—allrequireattention;toooften,makingtimeforourfriendscomeslastonthelistofpriorities.Andyet,ironically,weneedourfriendsasmuchaseverinadulthood.Afriendshipnetworkisabsolutelycrucialforourwell-beingasadults.Wehavetodothehardworkofbuildingandsustainingthenetwork.Herearesomeimportantwaysforaccomplishingthis.Letgoofyourlesscentralfriendships.Manyofourfriendshipswerenevermeanttolastalifetime.It'snaturalthatsomefriendshipshavetimelimits.Furthermore,noweveryonehasabusysocialcalendar,sopullbackfromsomepeoplethatyoudon'treallywanttodrawclosetoandgivethemostpromisingfriendshipafairchancetogrow.【C1】Bewillingto"dropeverything"whenyou'retrulyneeded.Youmaygetacallfromafriendwhoisreallydepressedoveracertainproblemwhenyouarejustsittingdowntoenjoyaromanticdinnerwithyourhusband.Thisisjustoneofthoseinstanceswhenafriend'sneedsmatteredmore.【C2】Takeadvantageofthemails.Nearlyallofushavepalslivingfaraway—friendswemissverymuch.Giventhelimitedtimeavailableforvisitsandthehighpriceofphonecalls,writingisafinewaytokeepintouch—andmakesbothsenderandreceiverfeelgood.【C3】Riskexpressingnegativefeelings.Whentimetogetheristoughtocomeby,it'snaturaltowantthemoodduringthattimetobeupbeat.Andmanypeoplefearthatotherswillthinklessofyouifyouexpressthenegativefeelingslikeangerandhurt.【C4】Don'tmakeyourfriends'problemsyourown.Sharingyourfriend'sgriefisthewayyoushowdeepfriendship.Neverunderestimatethevalueofloyalty.Loyaltyhasalwaysbeenratedasoneofthemostdesiredqualitiesinfriends.Trueloyaltycanbeafairlysubtlething.Somepeoplefeelitmeansthat,nomatterwhat,yourfriendwillalwaystakeyouside.Butrealloyaltyisbeingacceptingtheperson,notnecessarilyofcertainactionsyourfriendmighttake.【C5】Givethegiftoftimeasoftenastimeallows.Timeiswhatwedon'thavenearlyenoughof—andyet,armedwithalittleingenuity,wecanmakeittogiveittoourfriends.Thelastbutnottheleastthingtokeepafriendshipaliveistosaytoyourfriends"Imissyouandloveyou."Sayingthatattheendofaphoneconversation,oravisit,orwritingitonabirthdaycard,cansustainyourfriendshipforthetimesyouaren'ttogether.[A]Thetrickisrememberingthatalittleisbetterthannoneandthatyoucandotwothingsatonce.Forinstance,ifyoubothgoforaweeklyaerobics,goonthesameday.Ifyoubothwanttogoonvacation,schedulethesamedestination.[B]Carefullistening,clearwriting,closereading,plainspeaking,andaccuratedescriptionwillbeinvaluable.Intomorrow'sfast-pacedbusinessenvironmenttherewillbepreciouslittletimetocorrectanymisunderstandings.Communicationsbreakdownmaywellbecomeafatalcorporatedisease.[C]Buttakingonyourfriend'spaindoesn'tmakethatpaingoaway.There'sabigdifferencebetweenempathyorrecognizingafriend'spain,andoveridentification,whichmakesthesuffererfeelevenweaker—"ImustbeinworsepainthanIeventhought,becausethepersonI'mconfidinginissufferingsomuch!"Remembertroubledpeoplejustneedtheirfriendstostaygroundedintheirownfeelings.[D]Rememberhonestyisthekeytokeepingafriendshipreal.Sharingyourpainwillactuallydeepenafriendship.[E]Besides,letters,cardsandpostcardshavethevirtueofbeingtangible—friendscankeepthemandrereadthemforyearstocome.[F]Sometimes,becauseofourunbreakablecommitmentsorothercircumstances,wesimplycan'tgiveaneedyfriendthetimewe'dlike.Ifyoucan'tbethereatthatgivenmoment,saysomethinglike,"IwishIcouldbewithyou—Icanhearthatyou'reinpain.MayIcallyoutomorrow?"Besureyourfriendknowsshe'scaredabout.

This room is three times larger than that one.

The food supply will not increase nearly enough to match this, which means that we are heading into a crisis in the matter of producing and marketing food.

Cillian Shepard is to announce a review of examination standards today as controversy surrounding university entrance procedures brings criticism over Britain"s educational performance. The Education and Employment Secretary is worried that continuing uncertainty over a levels in particular will undermine the Government"s drive to meet ambitious targets for improvement. She postponed an announcement until this year"s candidates had received their results, but is now determined to clear the air. Mrs. Shepard"s main advisers on schools have already asked her to sanction a 100,000 research project, comparing papers over the past 20 years. But she is expected to go further. Reports of universities admitting A-level failures to foundation courses will be referred to officials carrying out a review of higher education. Further research will focus on school examinations. Mrs. Shepard returned {mm holiday last week to find critics chiming that a seventh successive rise in pass rates indicated falling standards at A level, while new vocational equivalents had an alarming drop-out rate. Since then, she has become embroiled in controversy over higher education admissions, insisting that it was not the role of universities to prepare students for degree courses. Yesterday a retired mathematics lecturer said he had been ordered to admit students to a foundation course after rejecting: them for a degree, David Smalley, who teaches part-time at Brunel University in west London, said many of the students who were accepted subsequently would never be capable of degree-level mathematics. Mr. Smalley said a course for those without the necessary grades to study science had been set up earlier than planned when undergraduate recruitment dried up. He had been told to approach potential students from a pile of rejected applications. A university spokeswoman said students entering Brunel"s foundation courses in science and engineering had an average of two Cs at A level, enough to win a place on many degree courses. Half of the first in take in engineering secured upper second class degrees alter passing the foundation year. But Mr. Smalley said he was convinced standards had plummeted since the introduction of pre-degree courses. "We have had one or two success stories on them, but others could not add fractions. Some of the work would make your hair curl". Ian Wood, who set up Brunel"s first foundation course, m engineering, said some older lecturers found it difficult to adapt to teaching less able students. He added: "This year 26 students out of 60 got through a foundation year and one ended up with a first-class degree. I am sure there are spurious courses elsewhere put on just to bump up numbers, but our standards are high". The Higher Education Funding Council for England said it had no reason to question standards on foundation courses.

Comparisons were drawn between the development of television in the 20th century and the diffusion of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened【B1】______. As was discussed before, it was not【B2】______the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic【B3】______, following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the【B4】______of the periodical. It was during the same time that the communications revolution【B5】______up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading【B6】______through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion pictures【B7】______the 20th-century world of the motor car and the air plane. Not everyone sees that process in【B8】______. It is important to do so. It is generally recognized,【B9】______, that the introduction of the computer in the early 20th century,【B10】______by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process,【B11】______its impact on the media was not immediately【B12】______. As time went by, computers became smaller and more powerful, and they became "personal" too, as well as【B13】______, with display becoming sharper and storage【B14】______increasing. They were thought of, like people,【B15】______generations, with the distance between generations much【B16】______. It was within the computer age that the term "information society" began to be widely used to describe the【B17】______within which we now live. The communications revolution has【B18】______both work and leisure and how we think and feel both about place and time, but there have been【B19】______views about its economic, political, social and cultural implications. "Benefits" have been weighed【B20】______"harmful" outcomes. And generalizations have proved difficult.

Qingdao is going to hold a Beer Festival. Write a letter to invite your friend in Beijing to come to Qingdao to enjoy the festival. Your letter should include: (1) the reasons for the invitation; (2) arrangement for his or her stay in Qingdao; (3) recommendation about the transportation. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Hua" instead. You do not need to write the address.

"I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me", protested Robert Scoble, a little too loudly, on his blog last week, in a bid to end feverish speculation in the blogosphere about why, exactly, he had decided to leave Microsoft. The software giant"s "technical evangelist", Mr. Scoble has become the best-known example of a corporate blogger. On his blog, called Scobleizer, which he started in 2000, he writes about Microsoft"s products, and has sometimes criticised them fiercely—thereby both establishing his credibility and, by its willingness to tolerate him, helping to humanise his employer. As blogging"s influence has grown, so bas Mr. Scoble"s—both inside and outside Microsoft. Last year, after he blogged against Microsoft"s decision to abandon support for a law prohibiting discrimination against gays, the company"s managers backed down. He helped write a book, Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers, published in January, that has become essential reading for any boss trying to define a new-media strategy for his business. So why leave? Mr. Scoble has denied several of the theories circulating in the blogosphere, including that he had become fed up with having his expenses challenged or with sharing an office; that Microsoft challenged his views too often; that he had become, frustrated; and that the firm had not tried hard enough to keep him. Still, his friend Dave Winer, another blogger, described Microsoft as a "stifling organisation" before observing that "when he finally decided to leave, it"s as if a huge weight came off him, and all of a sudden, the old Scoble is back". He views Mr. Scoble"s departure as evidence that Microsoft has been unable to move with the times: "I"m glad to see my old friend didn"t go down with the ship". Another blogger says that his departure shows the "end of honest blogging". The real reason may be less sinister—though troubling for the growing number of employers encouraging their employees to biog. Blogging allows staff to build a personal brand separate from that of their firm; if they are good at it, and build up a readership, that brand may be more valuable to them elsewhere. Mr. Scoble is off to join PodTech. net, a rising star in video podcasting, which is now far more fashionable than blogging and potentially far more lucrative. It seems that Mr. Scoble is most impressed by Rocketboom, one of whose founders, Amanda Congdon, is said to be drawing 300000 viewers a day to her videoblog, and is about to start charging advertisers $85000 a week—almost as much, Mr. Scoble is reported as saying, "as I made in an entire year working at Microsoft".

Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher's pipelines. A few have already appeared.【F1】 The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology, geology, and biology have provided a consistent, unified, and constantly improving account of what happened.【F2】 Scientific creationism, which is being pushed by some for equal time in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are given, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of non-fundamentalist religious leaders have come to regard scientific creationism as bad science and bad religion. The first four chapters of Kitcher's book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating.【F3】 He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior. Kitcher is philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of his arguments.【F4】 The non-specialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory. The final chapter on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: This book stands for reason itself.【F5】 And so it does—and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.

That mythical beast, homo economicus, otherwise called Economic man, is utterly clear about the purpose of work: to get paid. He is keener on leisure than on work, and if money can be got without effort, he downs tools. If real people feel the same, then bountiful out-of-work benefits should be found in the same places as work-shy citizens. Yet a cross-country comparison of benefits and attitudes to work published on January 28th finds precisely the opposite pattern. Researchers ranked 13 countries according to their generosity (measured by comparing typical benefits to those out of work with the average wage of a production worker) and their citizens" commitment to work (gauged by asking whether they would work if they did not need the cash, and whether they regarded a job as merely a way to earn a living). They found that the more generous a state is the keener on work its people are. Britons, whose benefits were the stingiest (most ungenerous) after those that Americans get, were least keen of all on work. One reason may be the skills make-up of the British workforce. The researchers found, logically enough, that professionals and graduates were more positive about work than the unskilled and non-graduates. Fewer Britons than Norwegians (who came top on work commitment) have professional jobs or degrees. But this does not entirely explain their comparative immunity to the attractions of toil: Britons of every social class and level of education were less keen on work than their counterparts elsewhere. Could the "dependency culture" currently exercising British politicians be solved by raising benefits? Unlikely, says Alison Park, editor of the annual British Social Attitudes Report, in which the study appeared: attitudes to work vary from country to country for many reasons. The report states that the lavishness of what the report terms "encompassing" states, all Nordic with Lutheran traditions, may have been made possible by a strong work ethic, rather than a stronger commitment to work having emerged as a result of it. And work incentives are affected by features of welfare systems other than overall generosity: "corporatist" states such as Germany, which pay higher benefits to those with a longer work history, may be encouraging positive attitudes to work by such conditionality. Britain"s poor benefits, by contrast, are largely independent of previous employment, which may mean they are seen as an alternative to work, rather than as one of the good things that flow from it.

Apart from a new football stadium and some smart university buildings, most of Middlesbrough looks as though it came to a dead halt in the 1980s. It boomed on steel and chemicals after iron ore was discovered in 1850. Just over a century later, as Britain's traditional industries failed, it seemed to have reached the end of the road. Now government leaders hope that splendor and glamour can revive it. The most startling sign of this improbable ambition is an expensive art gallery. The ￡19.2 million Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art(MIMA)houses the local council's collection of modern British paintings and ceramics. It opens on January 28th with works on loan for the occasion by artists rarely seen in the region—Picasso, Matisse, Jackson Pollock—alongside pictures by contemporary names such as Chris Ofili and Damien Hirst. The glass-fronted modernist gallery, by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, sits on once-ruined land opposite the Victorian town hall and 1960s council buildings. The landscaped space in between has become a vast new square. "Middlesbrough lost its heart years ago," says Ray Mallon, the town's frank elected mayor. "Now we have created a new heart." Locals are dubious. It looks nice, but they can't see many people going to it; those who want culture go to Newcastle. Mr. Mallon is not worried by such comments. He says MIMA will lure some of the 7 million people who live within an hour and a half's drive from the town, and persuade them to spend money there. With 5% of the town's 137,600 residents claiming unemployment—twice the national average—and business registrations at half the national rate, outside money is needed. Using art for regeneration is a well-tried process, especially in northern England. Liverpool's Tate North gallery and Salford's Lowry Centre succeed because they are part of bigger attractions and in big cities. But Gateshead's Baltic Mills art gallery and Sunderland's National Glass Centre have struggled to draw visitors, and both have needed extra subsidies. Godfrey Worsdale, MIMA's director, reckons he will achieve his aim of 110,000 visitors a year. Galleries that run into trouble, he says, tend to have single themes with niche appeal Still, since 96% of MIMA's cost has come from public funds and as two-thirds of the ￡1 million running cost will fall on local taxpayers, the council is taking a risk. "It is not going to be profitable," says Mr. Mallon bravely. "What it can do is make the town profitable."

The "MyDoom" virus could presage a generation of computer attacks by organised gangs aiming to extract ransoms from online businesses, experts said yesterday. The warning came as the website run by SCO, a company that sells Unix computer software, in effect disappeared from the web under a blizzard of automated attacks from PCs infected by the virus, which first appeared a week ago. The "myDoom-A" version of the virus is reckoned to be the worst to have hit the internet, in terms of the speed of its spread, with millions of PCs worldwide believed to be infected. Such "zombie" machines begin to send out hundreds of copies of the virus every hour to almost any e-mail address in their files. On Sunday they began sending automated queries to SCO"s website, an attack that will continue until 12 February. The attack is the web equivalent of ringing the company"s doorbell and running away a million times a second, leaving its computers unable to deal with standard requests to view its pages. "You have to wonder about the time limit," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the antivirus company Sophos. "Someone could go to SCO after the 12th and say, "If you don"t want this to happen again, here are our demands"." Raimund Genes, European president of the security software firm Trend Micro, said: "Such a programme could take out any major website on the internet. It"s not terrorism, but it is somebody who is obviously upset with SCO." SCO has earned the enmity of computer users through a lawsuit it has filed against IBM. SCO claims ownership of computer code it says IBM put into the free operating system Linux, and is demanding licence fees and damages of $1bn. Mr. Cluley said: "It might be that whoever is behind this will say to SCO, "if you don"t want the next one to target you, drop the lawsuit"." SCO has offered $250,000(￡140,000) for information leading to the arrest of the person or people who wrote and distributed MyDoom. Nell Barrett, of the security company Information Risk Management, said, "I would give a lot of credence to the idea of gangs using viruses to extort money. It"s hard for law enforcement to track them down, because they"re using machines owned by innocent people." A second variant of MyDoom will start attacking part of Microsoft"s website later today. The antivirus company MessageLabs said it had blocked more than 16 million copies of the virus in transit over the net so far. But millions more will have reached their targets.

The country's inadequate mental health system gets the most attention after instances of mass violence that the nation has seen repeatedly over the past few months. Not all who【C1】______these sorts of cruelties are mentally ill, but【C2】______have been. After each, the national discussion quickly, but temporarily, turns toward the mental health services that may have【C3】______to prevent another attack. Mental illness usually is not as dangerous or dramatic.【C4】____ 23 million Americans live with mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Very few of these men and women are【C5】______mass-murderers; they need help for their own well-being and for that of their【C6】______. The Affordable Care Act has significantly increased insurance coverage【C7】______mental health care. But that may not be enough to expand【C8】______to insufficient mental-health-care resources. Rep. Tim Murphy has a bill that would do so. The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act is more【C9】______than other recent efforts to reform the system and perhaps has the brightest prospects in a divided Congress. The【C10】______would reorganize the billions the federal government pours into mental health services. It would【C11】______the way Medicaid pays for certain mental health treatments. It would fund mental health clinics that【C12】______certain medical standards. And it would【C13】______states to adopt policies that allow judges to order some severely mentally ill people to undergo treatment. Not everyone is satisfied. Some patients' advocates have【C14】______Mr. Murphy's approach as coercive and【C15】______to those who need help. The government should not be expanding the system' s capability to hospitalize or impose treatment on those【C16】______severe episodes, they say. It should instead be investing in community care that【C17】______the need for more serious treatment.【C18】______, for a small class who will not accept treatment between hospital visits or repeat arrests, they say, states have good reason to【C19】______them to accept care, under judicial supervision. Mr. Murphy's reform package may not prevent the next Sandy Hook.【C20】______the changes would help relieve a lot of suffering that does not make the front page.

Suppose you are Li Ming. You are going to graduate from the university two weeks later. You and your classmates will hold a dinner party at that time. You all want to invite Prof. Wang to the party and now you write a letter of invitation. And your writing should include: 1) your sincere invitation, 2) your pleasure for his acceptance, and 3) some further remarks. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

Light pollution now has become a big problem and led to much waste in our society. It has been estimated that 30% of the electricity generated for outdoor illumination is wasted. Important, too, are the environmental costs of producing the energy to power wasted light. For example, for every kilowatt-hour of electricity used, almost two pounds of carbon dioxide and almost two grams of sulphur dioxide are emitted into the environment. (46) Thus by simply eliminating wasted light, those amounts can be substantially reduced with no negative effect on necessary lighting and with decidedly positive environmental benefits for the region. For individuals and families another significant issue is that of light intrusion, the spilling of un-wanted light onto private property. This concern is already addressed in some local zoning codes where maximum light levels at property lines are established. (47) But as the problem becomes more common, homeowners may also sense that the intrusion of unwanted light keeps them from u-sing their outside property at night as they wish or may even interfere with indoor activities by shining into the house interior. Indeed, legal proceedings could result from such unwanted intrusion as a violation of property rights. Furthermore, poor quality lighting, whether commercial, municipal, or residential, can lessen the appeal of a neighborhood, lowering property values if the area begins to look too bright and gaudy. Yet the problem of light pollution is easily remedied. In general, good lighting uses only the amount of light necessary, for a specific purpose, and that light is directed properly. (48) Lights allowing no illumination above the horizontal plane of fixed objects and mounted at the proper height to do their job while avoiding glare and light intrusion are the ideal. In recent years, there has been a conscious effort by many municipalities, businesses, and individuals to better address the ways lighting is used. So the next time you are out at night, make a note of the way things are lit. (49) Remember, regardless of how we achieve the goal of reducing light pollution, the simple fact remains that we all win when sensible lighting is used. Good lighting saves energy and money, it reduces pollution, it improves the appearance of neighborhoods and maintains property values, it enhances the scientific and aesthetic appreciation of the glories of the night sky, and it preserves that beauty and inspiration for us and for our children. (50) So when you find yourself lucky enough to be in a place where it is still dark enough to see the sky sparkling with stars, think how much less beauty there would be in the world without it! And become an advocate for sensible and efficient lighting.

Suppose your cousin Zhang Wei has just been admitted to a university. Write him/her a letter to 1) congratulate him/her, and 2) give him/her suggestions on how to get prepared for university life. You should write about 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write your address. (10 points)

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

Before Dr. Luther L. Terry, then the Surgeon General of the United States, issued his office"s first "Report on Smoking and Health" more than 30 years ago, thousands of articles had already been written on the effects of tobacco use on the human body. (46) Tobacco companies had countered the reports—which aimed to show links between smoking and cancer and other serious diseases—with denials and competing studies. 47) So in 1964, Terry and his Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health knew they were stepping into a major pit of controversy when they announced "cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action". It was America"s first widely publicized acknowledgment that smoking cigarettes is a cause of serious diseases. But the issue wasn"t settled in 1964, nor is it settled in 1997, despite literally thousands more studies—and litigation that has forced at least one tobacco company to admit what some activists say they knew all along: cigarette smoke is hazardous to your health. 48) More than 30 years—and more than 20 Surgeon General reports—later, the issue appears headed for settlement in the courtroom rather than the laboratory. So what are the risks? Here"s what tobacco"s critics say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cigarette smoking is responsible for 151, 322 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Most of those—116,920—are from lung cancer. The CDC says men who smoke are 22 times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. Women who smoke are 12 times more likely to die from the disease. 49) Statistical studies have long shown that people who don"t smoke live longer than people who do and scientists have seen statistically the relationship between smoking and incidences of lung cancer since the 1950s. But a study earlier this year by Gerd Pfeifer of the Beckman Research Institute pinpointed specific carcinogens in cigarette smoke that target parts of a gene already known to be prominent in some cancers. Pfeifer wrote in Science that cigarette smoke causes changes in the gene p53, which protects against cancer when normal but promotes cancer growth when mutated. 50) Another study, published by the American Cancer Society, said that low-tar cigarettes offered no relief from the potential of cancer, and in fact were responsible for a type of cancer that reaches deeper into lung tissue. Other cancers are also affected by cigarette smoke. An American Cancer Society researcher reported earlier this year that smoking increased men"s risk of dying of prostate cancer, while other studies have linked tobacco use to increased risk of other cancers, including throat, breast and bowel cancer.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

Congratulations Write an e-mail of about 100 words based on the following situation: Your friend Barbara is graduating from Yale University. Now write her an e-mail to congratulate her and wish her good luck during her new career. Do not sign your own name at the end of the e-mail. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.