Write a composition on the topic ARE PETS GOOD FOR MANKIND on the outline below: 1. Pet-keeping is beneficial to people in several ways. 2. Economically, keeping-pet seems to be a kind of waste. 3. Your opinion about pets. You should write about 160-200 words neatly.

Tom Burke recently tried to print out a boarding pass from home before one of the frequent flights he takes. He couldn"t. His name, or one similar to it, is now on one of the Transportation Security Administration"s terrorist watch lists. Every day, thousands of people like Burke find themselves unable to do things like print a boarding pass and are pulled aside for extensive screening because their name, or a name that sounds like theirs, is on one of the watch lists. From the TSA"s perspective, the screening is just one of the many new layers of increased security that are designed to prevent terrorist activity. The inconvenience is regrettable, but a price that society has to pay for security. And for national security reasons, the FBI and other government agencies responsible for supplying names to the lists will not disclose the criteria they use. They say that would amount to tipping their hands to the terrorists. But civil libertarians are more concerned about the long-term consequence of the current lists. On Sept. 11, 2001, the no-fly list contained 16 names. Now, the combined lists are estimated to have as many as 20,000. Internal FBI memos from agents referred to the process as "really confused" and "not comprehensive and not centralized. Burke and others contend that such comments are disturbing, because it was during the first year after the attacks that the watch lists grew exponentially. "The underlying danger is not that Tom Burke can no longer get a boarding pass to get on an airline", says a lawyer. "It"s that the Tom Burkes in the world may forever more be associated (with the terrorist watch list)". Burke says they do know that the lists are frequent[y updated and distributed internationally, but they don"t know how the old lists are destroyed. They also hope to ensure that sometime in the future a person whose name is on the list, but is not a terrorist, does not run into further trouble if, say, law enforcement in another country that they"re visiting comes across their name on one of the old lists. In addition, airlines are concerned that the lists are not updated frequently enough. "We"ve been encouraging the TSA to work with all of the other federal law-enforcement agencies to get a regular review of the names that they submit to TSA, because there have been reports that these agencies have said that if there was a review, many of the names could be removed", says Diana Cronin of the Air Transport Association.

In theory, a government bailout should provide a short-term infusion of cash to give a struggling company the chance to right itself. But in its aggressive dealings with U.S. automakers, most recently General Motors, the Obama administration is coming dangerously close to engaging in financial engineering that ignores basic principles of fairness and economic realities to achieve political goals. It is now clear that there is no real difference between the government and GM. For all intents and purposes, the government, which is set to assume a 50 percent equity stake in the company, is GM, and it has been calling the shots in negotiations with creditors. While the Obama administration has been playing hardball with bondholders, it has been more than happy to play nice with the United Auto Workers(UAW). How else to explain why a retiree health-care fund controlled by the UAW is going to get a 39 percent equity stake in GM for its remaining $10 billion in claims while bondholders are being pressured to take a 10 percent stake for their $27 billion? It"s highly unlikely that the auto industry professionals at GM would have reached such a deal if the government had not been watching them—or providing the money needed to keep the factory doors open. GM is widely expected to file for bankruptcy before the end of this month. If this were a typical bankruptcy, the company would be allowedg by law to tear up its UAW collective bargaining agreement and negotiate for drastically reduced wages and benefits. Surely, the government won"t let that happen. Still, the threat of a contract abolition probably played a role in the union"s agreement to cost-cutting measures last week. It"s never easy for unions to make concessions, but the sting of handing back money is being softened by the government"s desire to give the union a huge ownership stake in GM. The administration argues that it could not risk alienating the union for fear of triggering a strike that could permanently cripple GM. It also assumes that it had to agree to protect suppliers and fund warranties in order to preserve jobs and reassure potential buyers that their cars would be serviced. These are legitimate concerns. But it"s too bad that the Obama administration has not thought more deeply about how its bullying of bondholders could convince future investors that the last thing they want to do is put money into any company that the government has—or could—become involved in.

Enjoy Leisure

The full influence of mechanization began shortly after 1850, when a variety of machines came rapidly into use. The introduction of these machines frequently created rebellions by workers who were fearful that the machines would rob them of their work. Patrick Bell, in Scoffland, and Cyrus McCormick, in United States, produced threshing machines. Ingenious improvements were made in plows to compensate for different soil types. Stream power came into use in 1860s on large farms. Hay rakes, hay-loaders, and various special harvesting machines were produced. Milking machines appeared. The internal-combustion engine run by gasoline became the chief power source for the farm. In time, the number of certain farm machines that came into use skyrocketed and changed the nature of fanning. Between 1940 and 1960, for example, 12 million horses and mules gave way to 5 million tractors. Tractors offer many features that are attractive to farmers. There are, for example, numerous attachments: cultivators that can penetrate the soil to varying depths, rotary hoes that chop needs; spray devices that can spray pesticides in bands 100 feet across, and many others. A piece of equipment has now been invented or adapted for virtually every laborious hand or animal operation on the farm. In the United States, for example, cotton, tobacco, hay, and grain are planted, treated for pests and diseases, fertilized, cultivated and harvested by machine. Large devices shake fruit and nut from trees; grain and blend feed, and dry grain and hay. Equipment is now available to put just the right amount of fertilizer in just the right place, to spray and exact row width, and to count out, space, and plant just the right number of seeds for a row. Mechanization is not used in agriculture in many parts of Latin America, Africa. Agriculture innovation is accepted fastest where agriculture is already profitable and progressive. Some mechanization has reached the level of plantation agriculture in parts of the tropics, but even today much of that land us laboriously worked by people leading draft animals pulling primitive plows. The problems of mechanization in some areas are not only cultural in nature. For examples, tropical soils and crops differ markedly from those in temperate areas that the machines are designed for, so adaptations have to be made. But the greatest obstacle to mechanization is the fear in underdeveloped countries that the workers who are displaced by machines would not find work elsewhere. Introducing mechanization into such areas requires careful planning.

When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money. He may【C1】______the repayment of the money at any time, either【C2】______cash or by drawing a check in favor of another person.【C3】______, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor—who is【C4】______depending on whether the customer"s account is【C5】______credit or is overdrawn. But, in【C6】______to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer【C7】______a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give【C8】______ to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is【C9】______against him. The bank must【C10】______its customer"s instructions, and not those of anyone else.【C11】______, for example, a customer opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in【C12】______of checks drawn by himself. He gives the bank【C13】______of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or 【C14】______to pay out a customer"s money【C15】______a check on which its customer"s signature has been【C16】______. It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very【C17】______one: the bank must recognize its customer" s signature. For this reason there is no【C18】______to the customer in the practice,【C19】______by banks, of printing the customer" s name on his checks. If this【C20】______forgery, it is the bank that will lose, not the customer.

Write a letter to recommend your student, Li Xu, for a position of administrator in a company. You should include the details you think necessary. 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)

Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented opportunities—as well as new and significant risks. Civil right activists have long argued that one of the principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups have difficulty establishing themselves in business is that they lack of access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses awarded federal contracts of more than $500,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government. Indeed, some federal and local agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works contracts to minority enterprises. Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from $77 million in 1972 to 1.1 billion in 1977. The projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 1980"s is estimated to be over $3 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large businesses, they often need to make substantial investment in new plants, staff, equipment and the like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small company"s efforts must soon result in orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer. A second risk is that White-owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionment through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire business that neither could acquire alone. But civil right groups and minority business owners have complained to Congress about minorities being set up as "fronts" with White backing, rather than being accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures. Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the danger of becoming and remaining dependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer bases; when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success.Notes:civil rights activists 公民权利激进分子。Hispanics 西班牙后裔美国人。sizable orders 大额订单。subcontract 转包合同。on forms filed with the government 在政府存档备案。percentage goals 指标。apportionment 分配，分派。public works 市政工程。letup 减弱，缓和。promising as it is...这是as引导的让步状语从句，表语倒装了。patronage 优惠。concern n.公司。and the like 以及诸如此类的。crippling fixed expenses 引起损失的固定开支。the world of 大量的。bid 投标。to cash in on...靠…赚钱。team up 一起工作，合作。"fronts" 在此处意为"摆门面"。complacency 自满。

Every human being has unique arrangement of skin on his fingers and this arrangement is unchangeable. Scientists and experts have proved the 【B1】______ of finger-prints and discovered that no 【B2】______ similar pattern is【B3】______ from parents to children, 【B4】______ nobody knows why this is the【B5】______. The ridge 【B6】______ on a person' finger doesn't change 【B7】______ growth and is not affected by 【B8】______ injuries, Burns, cuts and other damages to the【B9】______part of the skin will be replaced【B10】______by a new one which bears the reproduction of the【B11】______pattern. It is only when the inner skin is injured that the arrangement will be【B12】______. Some criminals make use of this to【B13】______their own finger-prints【B14】______this is a dangerous and rare step to【B15】______. Finger-prints can be made very easily with a printer's ink. They can be recorded easily. With special method,【B16】______can be achieved successfully within a short time.【B17】______the simplicity and economy of this system, finger-print have often been used as a method of solving criminal cases. A【B18】______man may deny the charge but this may be【B19】______. His finger-prints can prove who he is even his【B20】______has been changed by age or accident.

It has been necessary to refer repeatedly to the effects of the two world wars in promoting all kind of innovation. It should be (1)_____ also that technological innovations have (2)_____ the character of war itself by the (3)_____ of new mechanical and chemical device. One weapon developed during World War II (4)_____ a special mention. The (5)_____ of rocket propulsions was well known earlier, and its possibilities as a (6)_____ of achieving speeds sufficient to escape from the Earth"s gravitational pull had been (7)_____ by the Russian and the American scientists. The latter built experimental liquid-fuelled rockets in 1926. (8)_____, a group of German and Romanian pioneers was working (9)_____ the same lines and in the 1930s, it was this team that developed a rocket (10)_____ of delivering a warhead hundreds of miles away. Reaching a height of over 100 miles, the V-2 rocket (11)_____ the beginning of the Space Age, and members of its design team were (12)_____ in both the Soviet and United States space programs after the war. Technology had a tremendous social (13)_____ in the period 1900 1945. The automobile and electric power, (14)_____, radically changed both the scale and the quality of 20th-century life, (15)_____ a process of rapid urbanization and a virtual revolution (16)_____ living through mass production of household goods and (17)_____ The rapid development of the airplane, the cinema, and radio made the world seem suddenly smaller and more (18)_____. The development of many products of the chemical industry further transformed the life of most people. In the years (19)_____ 1945 the constructive and creative opportunities of modern technology could be (20)_____, although the process has not been without its problems.

BSection III Writing/B

Yesterday you were told that there was going to be a seminar sponsored by a newspaper. The discussion is centered upon juvenile psychology. You want to make your presentation during the seminar, and now write a letter to the editor-in-chief of the paper. Your writing should be based upon the following outline: 1) inquiry about relevant information, 2) a brief account of your expertise, 3) and expression of your interest. Write your letter in no less than 100 words and write it neatly. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter, use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

Much of the American anxiety about old age is a flight from the reality of death. One of the striking qualities of the American character is the unwillingness to face either the fact or meaning of death. In the more somber tradition of American literature-from Hawthorne and Melville and Poe to Faulkner and Hemingway—one finds a tragic depth that belies the surface thinness of the ordinary American death attitudes. By an effort of the imagination, the great writers faced problems that the culture in action is reluctant to face—the fact of death, its mystery, and its place in. the back-and-forth shuttling of the eternal recurrence. The unblinking confrontation of death in Greek time, the elaborate theological patterns woven around it in the Middle Ages, the ritual celebration of it in the rich, peasant cultures of Latin and Slavic Europe and in primitive cultures; these are difficult to find in American life. Whether through fear of the emotional depths, or because of a drying up of the sluices of religious intensity, the American avoids dwelling on death or even corning to terms with it; he finds it morbid and recoils from it, surrounding it with word avoidance (Americans never die; they "pass away"), and various taboos of speech and practice. A "funeral parlor" is decorated to look like a bank; everything in a funeral ceremony is done in hushed tones, as if it were something furtive, to be concealed from the world; there is so much emphasis on being dignified that the ceremony often loses its quality of dignity. In some of the primitive cultures, there is difficulty in understanding the muses of death; it seems puzzling and even unintelligible. Living in a scientific culture, Americans have a ready enough explanation of how it comes, yet they show little capacity to come to terms with the fact of death itself and with the grief that accompanies it. "We jubilate over birth and dance at weddings", writes Margaret Mead, "but more and more hustle the death off the scene without ceremony, without an opportunity for young and old to realize that death is as much a fact of life as is birth". And one may add, even in its hurry and brevity, the last stage of an American"s life—the last occasion of this relation to his society—is as standardized as the rest.

As usual, America"s Supreme Court ended its annual term this week by delivering a clutch of controversial decisions. The one that caught the attention of businessmen, and plenty of music lovers, was a ruling concerning the rampant downloading of free music from the internet. Nine elderly judges might have been forgiven for finding the entire subject somewhat baffling. In fact, their lengthy written decisions on the case betray an intense interest, as well as a great deal of knowledge. Moreover, they struck what looks like the best available balance under current laws between the claims of media firms, which are battling massive infringements of their copyrights, and tech firms, which are keen to keep the doors to innovation wide open. This case is only the latest episode in a long-running battle between media and technology companies. In 1984, in a case involving Sony"s Betamax video recorder, the Supreme Court ruled that technology firms are not liable if their users infringe copyright, provided the device is "capable of substantial non-infringing uses." For two decades, this served as a green light for innovations. Apple"s iTunes, the legal offspring of illegal internet file-sharing, is among the happy results. But lately, things have turned against the techies. In 2000, a California court shut down Napster, a distributor of peer-to-peer(P2P) file-sharing software. It had, the court decided, failed to stop copyright violations (though the firm relaunched as a legal online-music retailer). In its ruling this week, the court unanimously took the view that two other p2p firms, Grokster and StreamCast, could be held liable if they encourage users to infringe copy rights. The vast majority of content that is swapped using their software infringes copy rights, which media firms say eats into their sales. Although the software firms argued they should not be responsible for their customers" actions, the court found that they could be sued if they actually encouraged the infringement, and said that there was evidence that they had done so. On the other hand, the court did not go as far as media firms demanded: they wanted virtually any new technology to be vulnerable to legal action if it allowed any copyright infringement at all.

Researchers investigating brain size and mental ability say their work offers evidence that education protects the mind from the brain"s physical deterioration. (46) It is known that the brain shrinks as the body ages, but the effects on mental ability are different from person to person. Interestingly, in a study of elderly men and women, those who had more education actually had more brain shrinkage. "That may seem like bad news", said study author Dr. Edward Coffey, a professor of psychiatry and of neurology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. (47) However, he explained, the finding suggests that education allows people to withstand more brain tissue loss before their mental functioning begins to break down. The study, published in the July issue of Neurology, is the first to provide biological evidence to support a concept called the "reserve" hypothesis, according to the researchers. In recent years, investigators have developed the idea that people who are more educated have greater cognitive reserves to draw upon as the brain ages; in essence, they have more brain tissue to spare. (48) Examining brain scans of 320 healthy men and women aged 66 to 90, researchers found that for each year of education the subjects had, there was greater shrinkage of the outer layer of the brain known as the cortex. Yet on tests of cognition and memory, all participants scored in the range indicating normal. "Everyone has some degree of brain shrinkage", Coffey said. "People lose (on average) 2.5 percent per decade starting in adulthood". There is, however, a "remarkable range" of shrinkage among people who show no signs of mental decline, Coffey noted. Overall health, he said, accounts for some differences in brain size. Alcohol or drug use, as well as medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, contribute to brain tissue loss throughout adulthood. In the absence of such medical conditions, Coffey said, education level helps explain the range of brain shrinkage exhibited among the mentally-fit elderly. The more-educated can withstand greater loss. (49) Coffey and colleagues gauged shrinkage of the cortex by measuring the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain. The greater the amount of fluid, the greater the cortical shrinkage. Controlling for the health factors that contribute to brain injury, the researchers found that education was related to the severity of brain shrinkage. For each year of education from first grade on, subjects had an average of 1.77 milliliters more cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. Just how education might affect brain cells is unknown. (50) In their report, the researchers speculated that in people with more education, certain brain structures deeper than the cortex may stay intact to compensate for cortical shrinkage.

Enormouschangestookplaceinthelasttwodecadesofthe20thcentury,whichisrevealedinthechangesondinertables.Herearetwopairsofpictures.Youarerequiredto1)describethepictures,2)interpretthepictures,and3)makeacommentuponit.Youshouldwriteabout200wordsneatly.

BPart ADirections: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D./B

In the Second World War a "blockbuster" was a bomb that could eliminate whole streets. Today it is the kind of hit creation that every media executive prays for. Popular films, books, music albums and sports teams that bring in huge audiences—and vast profits—can determine whether a year is profitable or loss-making, and break a boss's career. The entertainment industry's search for the golden release is the focus of "Blockbusters" by Anita Elberse, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Conventional corporate wisdom maintains that spreading resources across many smaller properties is sounder than pushing money into a few big, concentrated bets. Ms Elberse uses case studies from the film, television, music and sporting worlds to argue that, counterintuitively, "the idea of smaller bets being 'safer' is a myth." Nurturing a few choice works and helps firms create superstars and super products, and is the key to far higher profits. Ms Elberse cites Grand Central Publishing as one example: the top 10% of its titles account for 64% of the publisher's costs, but 126% of its profits.The thesis that popular products earn more money might seem as obvious as the plot of the latest Hollywood film you saw. But it is not what business experts predicted would happen. In 2006 Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired and a former journalist at The Economist, wrote "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More", in which he argued that the internet would change the demand curve for entertainment products. With unlimited "shelf" space available online and more refined search algorithms to direct people to songs and books they might be interested in, niche products would attract more attention and a greater share of spending. Ms Elberse originally disagreed on Mr. Anderson's work in a 2008 article for the Harvard Business Review, which is the basis for her book. The tail has become longer, but the internet has helped bestsellers become even bigger, because people follow the recommendations of friends and casual consumers choose known quantities. In 2011 just 102 of the 8m digital musical tracks sold generated nearly a sixth of all sales. Blockbusters tend to be self-reinforcing, because firms spend more to promote products they think stand a better chance of becoming popular.

What impact can mobile phones have on their users" health? Many people worry about the supposed ill effects caused by radiation from handsets and base stations, (1)_____ the lack of credible evidence of any harm. But evidence for the beneficial effects of mobile phones on health is rather more (2)_____ Indeed, a systematic review (3)_____ out by Rifat Atun and his colleagues at Imperial College, rounds up 150 (4)_____ of the use of text-messaging in the (5)_____ of health care. These uses (6)_____ three categories: efficiency gains; public-health gains; and direct benefits to patients by (7)_____ text-messaging into treatment regimes. Using texting to (8)_____ efficiency is not profound science, but big savings can be achieved. Several (9)_____ carried out in England have found that the use of text-messaging reminders (10)_____ the number of missed appointments with family doctors by 26-39%, and the number of missed hospital appointments by 33-50%. If such schemes were (11)_____ nationally, this would translate (12)_____ annual savings of ￡256-364 million. Text messages can also be a good way to deliver public-health information, particularly to groups (13)_____ are hard to reach by other means. Text messages have been used in India to (14)_____ people about the World Health Organization"s strategy to control lung disease. In Iraq, text messages were used to support a (15)_____ to immunize nearly 5 million children (16)_____ paralysis. (17)_____, there are the uses of text-messaging as part of a treatment regime. These involve sending reminders to patients to (18)_____ their medicine, or to encourage accordance with exercise regimes. However, Dr. Rifat notes that the evidence for the effectiveness of such schemes is generally (19)_____, and more quantitative research is (20)_____.

It's no surprise that Jennifer Senior's insightful, provocative magazine cover story, "I love My Children, I Hate My Life," is arousing much chatter—nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience. Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or miserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition. Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that "the very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight." The magazine cover showing an attractive mother holding a cute baby is hardly the only Madonna-and-child image on newsstands this week. There are also stories about newly adoptive—and newly single— mom Sandra Bullock, as well as the usual "Jennifer Aniston is pregnant" news. Practically every week features at least one celebrity mom, or mom-to-be, smiling on the newsstands. In a society that so persistently celebrates procreation, is it any wonder that admitting you regret having children is equivalent to admitting you support kitten-killing? It doesn't seem quite fair, then, to compare the regrets of parents to the regrets of the childless. Unhappy parents rarely are provoked to wonder if they shouldn't have had kids, but unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world: obviously their misery must be a direct result of the gaping baby-size holes in their lives. Of course, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and People present is hugely unrealistic, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock. According to several studies concluding that parents are less happy than childless couples, single parents are the least happy of all. No shock there, considering how much work it is to raise a kid without a partner to lean on; yet to hear Sandra and Britney tell it, raising a kid on their "own"(read: with round-the-clock help)is a piece of cake. It' s hard to imagine that many people are dumb enough to want children just because Reese and Angelina make it look so glamorous: most adults understand that a baby is not a haircut. But it' s interesting to wonder if the images we see every week of stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthood aren't in some small, subconscious way contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience, in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting "the Rachel" might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston.