Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield stirred up controversy recently by criticizing the violent grade inflation at his institution, stating, "I was told that the most frequently given grade at Harvard right now is an A-." A recent【C1】______of 200 colleges and universities also found that more than 40 percent of all grades awarded were in the A range. Some argue that these inflated grades are【C2】______for the competitive job market, but at the national level it is a negative-sum game that【C3】______serious costs on society. Because grades are【C4】______at A or A+, grade inflation results in a greater concentration of students at the【C5】______of the distribution. This【C6】______of grades diminishes their value as a(n) 【C7】______of student abilities. There is also evidence that【C8】______grading reduces student effort. As giving low grades puts students at a disadvantage【C9】______to their peers, professors face strong【C10】______to award inflated grades. 【C11】______universities need to take steps to bring it under【C12】______. Recently, some universities have experimented with【C13】______information about the grade distribution for each course either online or on student transcripts. So, if employers are aware that grades in a particular course were high, they might be less【C14】______with the students who earned those grades. Thus, students might seek out tougher courses,【C15】______professors to offer such courses in【C16】______. The administration of Princeton issued a【C17】______that no more than 35 percent of grades awarded in undergraduate courses should be in the A range. These steps may not be【C18】______with students and professors, but it's necessary to prevent higher education from【C19】______into Lake Wobegon— "where... all the children are above【C20】______."

BPart BDirections: Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the following information./B

You had a wonderful weekend with Frank"s family at Pine Ridge. Write a letter to Frank in which you should: 1) express your gratitude, 2) recall the experience at Pine Ridge, 3) show your appreciation again. You should write 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write your address.

According to psychologists, an emotion is aroused when a man or animal views something as either bad or good. When a person feels like running away from something he thinks will hurt him, we call this emotion fear. If the person wants to re move the danger by attacking it, we call the emotion anger. The emotions of joy and love are aroused when we think some thing can help us. An emotion does not have to be created by something in the outside world. It can be created by a per son"s thoughts. Everyone has emotions. Many psychologists believe that infants are born without emotions. They believe children learn emotions just as they learn to read and write. A growing child not only learns his emotions but learns how to act in certain situations because of an emotion. Psychologists think that there are two types of emotions: positive and negative. Positive emotions include love, liking, joy, delight, and hope. They are aroused by something that appeals to a person. Negative emotions make a person unhappy or dissatisfied. They include anger, fear, despair, sadness, and disgust. In growing up, a person learns to cope with the negative emotions in order to be happy. Emotions may be weak or strong. Some strong emotions are so unpleasant that a person will try any means to escape from them. In order to feel happy, the person may choose unusual ways to avoid the emotion. Strong emotions can make it hard to think and to solve problems. They may prevent a person from learning or paying attention to what he is doing. For example, a student taking an examination may be so worried about failing that he cannot think properly. The worry drains valuable mental energy he needs for the examination.

美国的知识分子 ——2006年英译汉及详解 Is it true that the American intellectual is rejected and considered of no account in his society? I am going to suggest that it is not true. Father Bruckberger told part of the story when he observed that it is the intellectuals who have rejected America. But they have done more than that. They have grown dissatisfied with the role of intellectual. It is they, not America, who have become anti-intellectual. First, the object of our study pleads for definition. What is an intellectual?【F1】 I shall define him as an individual who has elected as his primary duty and pleasure in life the activity of thinking in a Socratic way about moral problems. He explores such problems consciously, articulately, and frankly, first by asking factual questions, then by asking moral questions, finally by suggesting action which seems appropriate in the light of the factual and moral information which he has obtained.【F2】 His function is analogous to that of a judge, who must accept the obligation of revealing in as obvious a manner as possible the course of reasoning which led him to his decision. This definition excludes many individuals usually referred to as intellectuals—the average scientist, for one.【F3】 I have excluded him because, while his accomplishments may contribute to the solution of moral problems, he has not been charged with the task of approaching any but the factual aspects of those problems. Like other human beings, he encounters moral issues even in the everyday performance of his routine duties—he is not supposed to cook his experiments, manufacture evidence, or doctor his reports.【F4】 But his primary task is not to think about the moral code which governs his activity, any more than a businessman is expected to dedicate his energies to an exploration of rules of conduct in business. During most of his waking life he will take his code for granted, as the businessman takes his ethics. The definition also excludes the majority of teachers, despite the fact that teaching has traditionally been the method whereby many intellectuals earn their living.【F5】 They may teach very well and more than earn their salaries, but most of them make little or no independent reflections on human problems which involve moral judgment. This description even fits the majority of eminent scholars. Being learned in some branch of human knowledge is one thing, living in "public and illustrious thoughts," as Emerson would say, is something else.

"It is an evil influence on the youth of our country." A politician condemning video gaming? Actually, a clergyman denouncing rock and roll 50 years ago. But the sentiment could just as easily have been voiced by Hillary Clinton in the past few weeks, as she blamed video games for "a silent epidemic of media desensitization" and "stealing the innocence of our children". The gaming future centers on "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", a popular and notoriously violent cops and robbers game that turned out to contain hidden sex scenes that could be unlocked using a patch downloaded from the Internet. The resulting outcry (mostly from Democratic politicians playing to the centre) caused the game"s rating in America to be changed from "mature", which means you have to be 17 to buy it, to "adults only", which means you have to be 18, but also means that big retailers such as Wal-Mart will not stock it. As a result the game has been banned in Australia; and, this autumn, America"s Federal Trade Commission will investigate the complaints. That will give gaming"s opponents an opportunity to vent their wrath on the industry. Skepticism of new media is a tradition with deep roots, going back at least as far as Socrates objections to written texts, outlined in Plato"s Phaedrus. Socrates worried that relying on written texts, rather than the oral tradition, would "create forgetfulness in the learners" souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves." (He also objected that a written version of a speech was no substitute for the ability to interrogate the speaker, since, when questioned, the text "always gives one unvarying answer". His objection, in short, was that books were not interactive. Perhaps Socrates would have thought more highly of video games.) Novels were once considered too low-brow for university literature courses, but eventually the disapproving professors retired. Waltz music and dancing were condemned in the 19th century; all that twirling was thought to be "intoxicating" and "depraved", and the music was outlawed in some places. Today it is hard to imagine what the fuss was about. And rock and roll was thought to encourage violence, promiscuity and Satanism but today even grannies buy Coldplay albums.

In science fiction there is to be found the recurrent theme of the omniscient computer which ultimately takes over the ordering of human life and affairs. Is this possible? I believe is it not: but also believe that the arguments commonly advanced to refute this possibility are the wrong ones. First it is often said that computers "do not really think". This I submit is nonsense: if computers do not think, then nor do human beings. For how do I define the process of thinking? I present data—say, an examination paper—to a student, which he scans with a photoelectric organ we call an "eye", the computer scans its data with a photoelectric organ we call a "tape-reader". There is then a period when nothing obvious happens, through electroencephalogram—for the student. Lastly, information based on the data is transcribed by means of a mechanical organ called a "hand" by the student and a "teleprinter" by the computer. In other words, the actions of man and machine differ only in the appliances they use. Secondly, it is said that computers "only do what they are told", that they have to be programmed for every computation they undertake. But I do not believe that I was born with an innate ability to solve quadratic equations or to identify common members of the Britain flora: I, too, had to be programmed for these activities, but I happened to call my programmers by different names, such as "schoolteacher", "lecture" or "professor". Lastly, we are told that computers, unlike human beings, cannot interpret their own results. But interpretation is always of one set of information in the light of another set of information: it consists simply of finding the joint pattern in two sets of data. The mathematics of doing this is cumbersome but well known; the computer would be perfectly willing to do the job if asked.

历史研究的方法论 ——1999年英译汉及详解 【F1】 While there are almost as many definitions of history as there are historians, modern practice most closely conforms to one that sees history as the attempt to recreate and explain the significant events of the past. Caught in the web of its own time and place, each generation of historians determines anew what is significant for it in the past. In this search the evidence found is always incomplete and scattered; it is also frequently partial or partisan. The irony of the historian"s craft is that its practitioners always know that their efforts are but contributions to an unending process. 【F2】 Interest in historical methods has arisen less through external challenge to the validity of history as an intellectual discipline and more from internal quarrels among historians themselves. While history once revered its affinity to literature and philosophy, the emerging social sciences seemed to afford greater opportunities for asking new questions and providing rewarding approaches to an understanding of the past. Social science methodologies had to be adapted to a discipline governed by the primacy of historical sources rather than the imperatives of the contemporary world.【F3】 During this transfer, traditional historical methods were augmented by additional methodologies designed to interpret the new forms of evidence in the historical study. Methodology is a term that remains inherently ambiguous in the historical profession.【F4】 There is no agreement whether methodology refers to the concepts peculiar to historical work in general or to the research techniques appropriate to the various branches of historical inquiry. Historians, especially those so blinded by their research interests that they have been accused of "tunnel method", frequently fall victim to the"technicist fallacy". Also common in the natural sciences, the technicist fallacy mistakenly identifies the discipline as a whole with certain parts of its technical implementation. 【F5】 It applies equally to traditional historians who view history as only the external and internal criticism of sources, and to social science historians who equate their activity with specific techniques.

Menorca or Majorca? It is that time of the year again. The brochures are piling up in travel agents while newspapers and magazines bulge with advice about where to go. But the traditional packaged holiday, a British innovation that provided many timid natives with their first experience of warm sand, is not what it was. Indeed, the industry is anxiously awaiting a High Court ruling to find out exactly what it now is. Two things have changed the way Britons research and book their holidays: low-cost airlines and the Internet. Instead of buying a ready-made package consisting of a flight, hotel, car hire and assorted entertainment from a tour operator's brochure, it is now convenient to put together a trip using an online travel agent like Expedia or Travelocity , which last July bought Lastminute. com for ￡577 million, or from the proliferating websites of airlines, hotels and car-rental firms. This has led some to sound the death knell for high-street travel agents and tour operators. There have been upheavals and closures, but the traditional firms are starting to fight back, in part by moving more of their business online. First Choice Holidays, for instance, saw its pre-tax profit rise by 16% to ￡114 million in the year to the end of October. Although the total number of holidays booked has fallen, the company is concentrating on more valuable long-haul and adventure trips. First Choice now sells more than half its trips directly, either through the Internet, over the telephone or from its own travel shops. It wants that to reach 75% within a few years. Other tour operators are showing similar hustle. MyTravel managed to cut its loss by almost half in 2005. Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays, now both German owned, are also bullish about the coming holiday season. Highstreet travel agents are having a tougher time, though, not least because many leading tour operations have cut the commissions they pay. Some high-street travel agents are also learning to live with the Internet, helping people book complicated trips which they have researched online, providing advice and tacking on other services. This is seen as a growth area. But if an agent puts together separate flights, and hotel accommodation, is that a package, too? The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says it is and the agent should hold an Air Travel Organisers Licence, which provides financial guarantees to repatriate people and provide refunds. The scheme dates from the early 1970s, when some large British travel firms went bust, stranding customers on the Costas. Although such failures are less common these days, the CAA had to help out some 30,000 people last year. The Association of British Travel Agents went to the High Court in November to argue such bookings are not traditional packages and so do not require agents to acquire the costly licences. While the court decides, millions of Britons will happily click away buying online holidays, unaware of the difference.

It's true that she's ill.

A Thank-you Speech Write a thank-you speech of about 100 words based on the following situation: You have received an award which means much to you. Now write a thank-you speech which you should deliver at the ceremony.

Now that we are alone, we can speak freely.

Writeanessayof160~200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.YoushouldwriteneatlyontheANSWERSHEET.(20points)

The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is shot through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre teaching and scholarship. Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business. Even so, our system has strengths. It boasts many top-notch schools and allows almost anyone to go to college. But mediocrity is pervasive. We push as many freshmen as possible through the door, regardless of qualifications. We create more graduate degrees of dubious worth. Does anyone believe the MBA explosion has improved management? You won't hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research. Private schools will, for better or worse, be influenced by state actions. The states need to do three things. First, create genuine entrance requirements. States should raising tuitions sharply and coupling the increase with generous scholarships based on merit and income. To get scholarships, students would have to pass meaningful entrance exams. Ideally, the scholarships should be available for use at in-state private schools. All schools would then compete for students on the basis of academic quality and costs. Today' s system of general tuition subsidies provides aid to well-to-do families that don' t need it or to unqualified students who don' t deserve it. Next, states should raise faculty teaching loads. This would cut costs and reemphasize the primacy of teaching at most schools. "You can't do more of one (research) without less of the other (teaching)," says Fairweather. "People are working hard—it's just where they're working." Finally, states should reduce or eliminate the least useful graduate programs. Journalism or communications, business and education are prime candidates. A lot of what they teach can—and should—be learned on the job. If colleges and universities did a better job of teaching undergraduates, there would be less need for graduate degrees. Our colleges and universities need to provide a better education to deserving students. Higher education could become a bastion of excellence, if we would only try.

A motion at the Labour party conference, which begins on Sunday, is expected to call on the party to take advantage of break clauses in agreements between the government and private operators. Last week, the Labour leader announced that his party would take back routes as contracts expired rather than opening the contracts to new bids. The motion will cause further anxiety among some shadow cabinet members who believe the party is already too hostile towards big business under Corbyn and his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which is behind the conference motion, said Labour should consider speeding up re-nationalization through invoking break clauses. "The franchises should be brought back into public ownership as they expire, but to accelerate this, Labour should think about using break clauses within the franchises if this is in the interests of passengers." Every franchise would have a break clause through which the contract could be ended earlier than planned, Cortes said. "If Labour takes over (in 2020), only five franchises are up for (full) renewal over that parliament," he said. "The last time a private company (Railtrack) ran the tracks, we ended up with two major accidents at Hatfield and Potters Bar." It is understood that TSSA could use provisions for emergency motions to update their wording to welcome Corbyn's announcement on public ownership. Train drivers' union Aslef is expected to second the call . Its leader, Mick Whelan, said: "We will support any opportunity for the railways to be bought back into public ownership." In the run-up to the election, former leader Ed Miliband stopped short of endorsing full re-nationalization , saying that publicly owned enterprises could bid to take back contracts when franchises expired. In a sign he wants a clearer policy than his predecessor, Corbyn told the Independent on Sunday: "We know there is overwhelming support from the British people for a people's railway, better and more efficient services, proper integration and fairer fares. On this issue, it won't work to have a nearly-but-not-quite position. Labour will commit to a clear plan for a fully integrated railway in public ownership." A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators, questioned the logic of enforced re-nationalization by breaking with existing contracts. "When rail franchising was introduced, the railway ran at a ￡ 2bn-a-year loss in terms of its day-to-day costs but today, it virtually covers its running expenses." "There is more to do to improve rail services but why get rid of a model that is working for passengers and taxpayers?"

Suppose you are a witness of a traffic accident, Li Ming. Please write a report to the principal of the Traffic Accident Investigation Unit of the Police Station according to your information: 时间：2008年2月8日； 地点：市中心，第二拐角处； 原因：卡车司机开车前饮酒过量，开车头晕，失控撞翻一辆摩托车； 伤亡情况：摩托车司机当场死亡，卡车司机受重伤； 影响：交通中断2小时； 经济损失：2万元。 You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.

Every second, 1 hectare of the world"s rainforest is destroyed. That"s equivalent to two football fields. An area the size of New York City is lost every day. In a year, that adds up to 31 million hectares—more than the land area of Poland. This alarming rate of destruction has serious consequences for the environment; scientists estimate, for example, that 137 species of plant, insect or animal become extinct every day due to logging. In British Columbia, where, since 1990, thirteen rainforest valleys have been clear cut, 142 species of salmon have already become extinct, and the habitats of grizzly bears, wolves and many other creatures are threatened. Logging, however, provides jobs, profits, taxes for the government and cheap products of all kinds for consumers, so the government is reluctant to restrict or control it. Much of Canada"s forestry production goes towards making pulp and paper. According to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, Canada supplies 34% of the world"s wood pulp and 49% of its newsprint paper. If these paper products could be produced in some other way, Canadian forests could be preserved. Recently, a possible alternative way of producing paper has been suggested by agriculturalists and environmentalists: a plant called hemp. Hemp has been cultivated by many cultures for thousands of years. It produces fiber which can be made into paper, fuel, oils, textiles, food, and rope. For many centuries, it was essential to the economies of many countries because it was used to make the ropes and cables used on sailing ships; colonial expansion and the establishment of a world wide trading network would not have been possible without hemp. Nowadays, ships" cables are usually made from wire or synthetic fibres, but scientists are now suggesting that the cultivation of hemp should be revived for the production of paper and pulp. According to its proponents, four times as much paper can be produced from land using hemp rather than trees, and many environmentalists believe that the large-scale cultivation of hemp could reduce the pressure on Canada"s forests. However, there is a problem: hemp is illegal in many countries of the world. This plant, so useful for fiber, rope, oil, fuel and textiles, is a species of cannabis, related to the plant from which marijuana is produced. In the late 1930s, a movement to ban the drug marijuana began to gather force, resulting in the eventual banning of the cultivation not only of the plant used to produce the drug, but also of the commercial fiber-producing hemp plant. Although both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp in large quantities on their own land, any American growing the plant today would soon find himself in prison—despite the fact that marijuana cannot be produced from the hemp plant, since it contains almost no THC(the active ingredient in the drug). In recent years, two major movements for legalization have been gathering strength. One group of activists believes that all cannabis should be legal—both the hemp plant and the marijuana plant—and that the use of the drug marijuana should not be an offense. They argue that marijuana is not dangerous or addictive, and that it is used by large numbers of people who are not criminals but productive members of society. They also point out that marijuana is less toxic than alcohol or tobacco. The other legalization movement is concerned only with the hemp plant used to produce fiber; this group wants to make it legal to cultivate the plant and sell the fiber for paper and pulp production. This second group has had a major triumph recently: in 1997, Canada legalized the farming of hemp for fiber. For the first time since 1938, hundreds of farmers are planting this crop, and soon we can expect to see pulp and paper produced from this new source.

BSection III Writing/B

Your foreign friend Clare has just graduated from Beifang University in China and plans to go back to the United States soon. Write her a letter congratulating her graduation and expressing your best wishes to her. Write your letter with no less than 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter; use "Li Ming" instead. You do not need to write the address.

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