BPart B/B

The technology industry is at war over intellectual property. On May 7th the first【C1】______of a three-part fight between Oracle and Google over patent and copyright claims relating to the Java programming language ended in a decision that denied outright victory to either firm. Apple, Samsung and others are【C2】______over smartphone patents. Facebook and Yahoo! are at【C3】______over internet patents. Accusations abound【C4】______innovation is taking a【C5】______seat to lawsuits. Only the lawyers are smiling. All of【C6】______makes this a good time to【C7】______a new approach to trading intellectual property, says Gerard Pannekoek, the boss of IPXI, a new financial【C8】______that lets companies buy, sell and hold patent rights, just like any other【C9】______. The idea is to offer a patent or group of patents as "unit licence rights"(ULRs), which can be bought and sold like【C10】______. A ULR【C11】______a one-time right to use a particular technology in【C12】______product: a new type of airbag sensor in a car, 【C13】______. If a company wants to use the technology in 100, 000 cars, it buys 100, 000 ULRs at the market price. ULRs are also expected to be traded on secondary markets. This is simpler, faster and cheaper than the lawyer-intensive process of negotiating bilateral licences for intellectual property, the high cost of which discriminates【C14】______small companies, leaves patents unused on the shelf and【C15】______innovation. IPXI's approach does not【C16】______for all types of intellectual property—it does not【C17】______exclusive licensing, for example—but should make it【C18】______for companies to make money from their inventions. "It's a good form of funding for start-ups, " suggests Mr. Pannekoek. The exchange has【C19】____ 30 members including Philips, an electronics giant, and several universities and research laboratories. On May 4th IPXI published the rulebook that【C20】______how the exchange will work, and it expects to open for business later this year. Its novel approach is ideal for the open, non-exclusive licensing of smartphone-related patents, says Ruud Peters, chief intellectual-property officer at Philips.

After receiving the flowers sent by her intimate friend Iris, Mary writes a letter to show her thanks to Iris. Mary wants to tell the following things: 1. thanks for the lovely flowers; 2. tell Iris her recovery; 3. hope to meet her friend. You should write about 100 words and do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Mary" instead. You do not need to write the address.

You live in a room in college which you share with another student. You find it very difficult to work there because your roommate always has friends visiting and has parties in the room. Write a letter to the Accommodation Officer at the college and ask for a new room next term. You would prefer a single room. Explain your reasons. 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 the address. (10 points)

BPart B/B

Amtrak—the largest railway company in the U.S.—was experiencing a downswing in ridership. 【C1】______ major concerns to Amtrak and its advertising agency DDB Needham, were the long-distance western routes【C2】______ridership had been declining【C3】______. At one time, trains were the only practical way to【C4】______the vast areas of the west. Trains were faster, luxurious, and quite convenient【C5】______to other forms of transportation existing at the time. However, times change and the automobile became America" s standard of convenience. Also, air travel had easily【C6】______ itself as the fastest method of traveling great distances.【C7】______, the task for DDB Needham was to【C8】______ consumers to consider other aspects of train travel in order to【C9】______their attitudes and increase the likelihood that trains would be considered【C10】______ travel in the west. Two portions of the total market were targeted: anxious fliers—those concerned with【C11】______, and travel-lovers—those【C12】______themselves as relaxed, casual, and interested in the travel experience as part of【C13】______ vacation. The agency then developed a campaign that focused on travel【C14】______such as freedom, escape, relaxation, and enjoyment of the great western outdoors. It【C15】______experiences gained by using the trains and portrayed western train trips as wonderful adventures. Advertisements showed pictures of the beautiful scenery that【C16】______be enjoyed along some of the more famous western routes and emphasized the romantic names of some of these trains (Empire Builder, etc.). These ads were strategically placed among【C17】______oriented TV shows and programs involving nature and America in order to most【C18】______reach target audiences. Results were【C19】______. The Empire Builder, which was focused on in one ad. enjoyed a 15 percent【C20】______in profits on its Chicago to Seattle route.

Divorce is one of those creations, like fast food and lite rock, that has more people willing to indulge Zin it than people willing to defend it. Back in the 1960s, easier divorce was hailed as a needed remedy for toxic relationships. But familiarity has bred contempt . In recent years, the divorce revolution has been blamed for worsening all sorts of problems without bringing happiness to people in unhappy marriages. There"s a lot of evidence that marital breakup does more social harm than good. In their 2000 book, The Case for Marriage, Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher document that adults who are married do better than singles in wealth, health, and personal satisfaction. Children living with a divorced or unwed single parent are more likely to fall into poverty, sickness, and crime than other kids. Marriage is a good thing, most people agree, while divorce is, at best, a necessary evil. So the laws that accompanied the divorce revolution have come under fire for destroying families and weakening safeguards for spouses who keep their vows. Waite and Gallagher argue that loose divorce laws harm even intact households by fostering chronic uncertainty. Louisiana, in line with this criticism, has gone so far as to provide a "covenant marriage" option for couples who want the protection of stricter divorce rules. It may seem obvious that easier divorce laws make for more divorce and more insecurity. But what is obvious is not necessarily true. What two scholars have found is that when you make divorce easier to get, you may actually produce better marriages. In the old days, anyone who wanted to escape from the trials of wedlock had to get his or her spouse to agree to a split, or else go to court to prove the partner had done something terribly wrong(such as committing adultery). The 1960s and 70s", brought "no-fault" divorce, which is also known as "unilateral divorce", since either party can bring it about without the consent of the other. The first surprise is that looser divorce laws have actually had little effect on the number of marriages that fall apart. Economist Justin Wolfers of Stanford University, in a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research(NBER), found that when California passed a no-fault divorce law in 1970, the divorce rate jumped, then fell back to its old level—and then fell some more. That was also the pattern in other states that loosened their laws. Over time, he estimates, the chance that a first marriage would break up rose by just one-fourth of one percentage point, which is next to nothing.

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. You are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A—G. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you.A. Dr. Daniel Stanley, an oceanographer, has found volcanic shards in Egypt that he believes are linked to the explosion. Computer simulations by Mike Rampino, a climate modeler from New York University, show that the resulting ash cloud could have plunged the area into darkness, as well as generating lightning and hail, two of the 10 plagues.B. The cloud could have also reduced the rainfall, causing a drought. If the Nile had then been poisoned by the effects of the eruption, pollution could have turned it red, as happened in a recent environmental disaster in America. The same pollution, could have driven millions of frogs on to the land, the second plague. On land the frogs would die, removing the only obstacle to an explosion of flies and lice-the third and fourth plagues. The flies could have transmitted fatal diseases to cattle (the fifth plague) and boils and blisters to humans (the sixth plague).C. Moses, which will be broadcast in December 2002, will suggest that much of the Bible story can be explained by a single natural disaster, a huge volcanic eruption on the Greek island of Santorini in the 16th century BC.D. The hour-long documentary argues that even the story of the parting of the Red Sea, which allowed Moses to lead the Hebrews to safety while the pursuing Egyptian army was drowned, may have its origins in the eruption. It repeats the theory that "Red Sea" is a mistranslation of the Sea of Reeds, a much shallower swamp.E. The programme tells the story of how Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt after a series of plagues had devastated the country. But it also uses new scientific research to argue that many of the events surrounding the exodus could have been triggered by the eruption, which would have been a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.F. Computer simulations show that the Santorini eruption could have triggered a 600-ft-high tidal wave, traveling at about 400 miles an hour, which would have been 6-ft-high and a hundred miles long when it reached the Egyptian delta. Such an event would have been remembered for generations, and may have provided the inspiration for the story.G. Fresh evidence that the Biblical plagues and the parting of the Red Sea were natural events rather than myths or miracles is to be presented in a new BBC documentary.Order: G is the first paragraph and F is the last.

The Democratic Party is the party of longest continuous existence.

You have just come back from Canada and found a music CD in your luggage that you forgot to return to Bob, your landlord there. Write him a letter to 1) make an apology, and 2) suggest a solution. You should write about 100 words on ANSWER SHEET 2. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address. (10 points)

Internet data shows that American younger adults have become the primary group mad about altering their personal appearance. Once the realm of the well-to-do female in her fifties, plastic surgery has become the attraction of the least rich【C1】______of younger Internet users. Search data【C2】______this phenomenon. One of the most popular sites visited from the search【C3】______"plastic surgery" is the【C4】______site of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Over 25% of visitors to the site fell【C5】______the 18- to 24-year-old demographic—that's up from 19.6% two years【C6】______. Looking at other health related sites visited by 18- to 24-year-olds,【C7】______just how mad this age group is about appearance.【C8】______their older counterparts who visit sites related to【C9】______and keeping healthy, younger Internet users【C10】______to sites that dwell on personal appearance, such as those【C11】______on bodybuilding, weight loss and skincare. And【C12】______plastic surgery. But if we track the trend in searches on topics such as "breast implants" or 'plastic surgery," there has been a steep【C13】______in all plastic surgery topics over the last year. What's【C14】______this downturn? It may very well be related to the failing U.S. economy and the【C15】______income group of visitors to cosmetic surgery sites—U.S. households that【C16】______less than $30,000 per year. In fact, if we look at the search patterns around popular surgeries, over the last year the term "cost" is the most【C17】______appearing qualifier. We see more searches such as "breast implant cost" and "plastic surgery cost".【C18】______older demographics continue to search for information on procedures such as face-lifts, it's the younger Internet users who in tough【C19】______times are focusing on improving their outer beauty, although at a(n) 【C20】______price.

When anyone opens a current account at a bank, he is lending the bank money. He may (1)_____ the repayment of the money at any time, either (2)_____ cash or by drawing a check in favor of another person. (3)_____, the banker-customer relationship is that of debtor and creditor who is (4)_____ depending on whether the customer"s account is (5)_____ credit or is overdrawn. But, in (6)_____ to that basically simple concept, the bank and its customer (7)_____ a large number of obligations to one another. Many of these obligations can give (8)_____ to problems and complications but a bank customer, unlike, say, a buyer of goods, cannot complain that the law is (9)_____ against him. The bank must (10)_____ its customer"s instructions, and not those of anyone else. (11)_____, for example, a customer opens an account, he instructs the bank to debit his account only in (12)_____ of checks drawn by himself. He gives the bank (13)_____ of his signature, and there is a very firm rule that the bank has no right or (14)_____ to pay out a customer"s money (15)_____ a check on which its customer"s signature has been (16)_____ It makes no difference that the forgery may have been a very (17)_____ one: the bank must recognize its customer"s signature. For this reason there is no (18)_____ to the customer in the practice, (19)_____ by banks, of printing the customer"s name on his checks. If this (20)_____ Forgery, it is the bank that will lose, not the customer.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

It' s a long time since I came to see you.

If they were just another product, the market would work its usual magic: supply would respond to high prices and rise to meet surging demand. But human kidneys are no ordinary commodity. Trading them is banned in most countries. So supply depends largely on the charity of individuals. Unsurprisingly, with altruism the only incentive, not enough people offer. Kidneys are the subject of a quietly growing global drama. As people in the rich world live longer and grow fatter, queues for kidneys are lengthening fast: at a rate of 7% a year in America, for example, where last year 4,039 people died waiting. Doctors are allowing older and more sluggish kidneys to be transplanted. Ailing, rich patients are buying kidneys from the poor and desperate in burgeoning black markets. In the face of all this, most countries are sticking with the worst of all policy options. Governments place the burden on their citizens to volunteer organs. A few European countries, including Spain, manage to push up supply a bit by presuming citizens" consent to having their organs transplanted when they die unless they specify otherwise. Whether or not such presumed consent is morally right, it does not solve the supply problem, in Spain or elsewhere. On the other hand, if just 0.06% of healthy Americans aged between 19 and 65 parted with one kidney, the country would have no waiting list. The way to encourage this is to legalize the sale of kidneys. That"s what Iran has done. An officially approved patients" organization oversees the transactions. Donors get $2,000-4,000. The waiting list has been eliminated. Many people will find the very idea of individuals selling their organs repulsive. Yet an organ market, in body parts of deceased people, already exists. Companies make millions out of it. It seems perverse, then, to exclude individuals. With proper regulation, a kidney market would be a big improvement on the current, sorry state of affairs. Sellers could be checked for disease and drug use, and cared for after operations. They could, for instance, receive health insurance as part of their payment—which would be cheap because properly screened donors appear to live longer than the average Joe with two kidneys. Buyers would get better kidneys, faster. Both sellers and buyers would do better than in the illegal market, where much of the money goes to the middleman. Instinct often trumps logic. Sometimes that"s right. But in this case, the instinct that selling bits of oneself is wrong leads to many premature deaths and much suffering. The logical answer, in this case, is the humane one.

"It is always better to buy a house; paying rent is like pouring money down the drain." For years, such advice has encouraged people to borrow heavily to get on the property ladder as soon as possible. But is it still sound advice? House prices are currently at record levels in relation to rents in many parts of the world and it now often makes more financial sense—especially for first—time buyers—to rent instead. Homebuyers tend to underestimate their costs. Once maintenance costs, insurance and property taxes are added to mortgage payments, total annual outgoings now easily exceed the cost of renting an equivalent property, even after taking account of tax breaks. Ah, but capital gains will more than make up for that, it is popularly argued. Over the past seven years, average house prices in America have risen by 65%, those in Britain, Spain, Australia and Ireland have more than doubled. But it is unrealistic to expect such gains to continue. Making the (optimistic) assumption that house prices instead rise in line with inflation, and including buying and selling costs, then over a period of seven years—the average time American owners stay in one house—our calculations show that you would generally be better off renting. Be warned, if you make such a bold claim at a dinner party, you will immediately be set upon. Paying rent is throwing money away, it will be argued. Much better to spend the money on a mortgage, and by so doing build up equity. The snag is that the typical first-time buyer keeps a house for less than five years, and during that time most mortgage payments go on interest, not on repaying the loan. And if prices fall, it could wipe out your equity. In any case, a renter can accumulate wealth by putting the money saved each year from the lower cost of renting into shares. There have, historically, yielded a higher return than housing. Putting all your money into a house also breaks the basic rule of prudent investing: diversify. And yes, it is true that a mortgage leverages the gains on your initial deposit on a house, but it also amplifies your losses if house prices fall. "I want to have a place to call home," is a popular retort. Renting provides less long-term security and you cannot paint all the walls orange if you want to. Home owner ship is an excellent personal goal, but it may not always make financial sense. The pride of "owning" your own home may quickly fade if you are saddled with a mortgage that costs much more than renting. Also, renting does have some advantages. Renters find it easier to move for job or family reasons. "If I don"t buy now, I"ll never get on the property ladder" is a common cry from first-time buyers. If house prices continue to outpace wages, that is true. But it now looks unlikely. When prices get out of line with what first-timers can afford, as they are today, they always eventually fall in real terms. The myth that buying is always better than renting grew out of the high inflation era of the 1970s and 1980s. First-time buyers then al ways ended up better off than renters, because inflation eroded the real value of mortgages even while it pushed up rents. Mortgage-interest tax relief was also worth more when inflation, and hence nominal interest rates, was high. With inflation now tamed, home owner ship is far less attractive. The divergence between rents and house prices is, of course, evidence of a housing bubble. Someday prices will fall relative to rents and wages. After they do, it will make sense to buy a home. Until they do, the smart money is on renting.

Nice guys knew it, now two studies have confirmed it: bad boys get the most girls. The finding may help explain why a nasty suite of anti-social personality traits known as the "dark triad" persists in the human population, despite their potentially grave cultural costs. The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and unfeeling behavior of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, these traits would be highly detrimental for life in traditional human societies. People with these personalities risk being shunned by others and shut out of relationships, leaving them without a mate, hungry and vulnerable to predators. But being just slightly evil could have an upside: a prolific sex life, says Peter Jonason at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. "We have some evidence that the three traits are really the same thing and may represent a successful evolutionary strategy." Jonason and his colleagues subjected 200 college students to personality tests designed to rank them for each of the dark triad traits. They also asked about their attitudes to sexual relationships and about their sex lives, including how many partners they"d had and whether they were seeking brief affairs. The study found that those who scored higher on the dark triad personality traits tended to have more partners and more desire for short-term relationships. But the correlation only held in males. James Bond epitomizes this set of traits, Jonason says. "He"s clearly disagreeable, very extroverted and likes trying new things—killing people, new women." Just as Bond seduces woman after woman, people with dark triad traits may be more successful with a quantity style or shotgun approach to reproduction, even if they don"t stick around for parenting. "The strategy seems to have worked. We still have these traits," Jonason says. This observation seems to hold across cultures. David Schmitt of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, presented preliminary results at the same meeting from a survey of more than 35,000 people in 57 countries. He found a similar link between the dark triad and reproductive success in men. "It is universal across cultures for high dark triad scorers to be more active in short-term mating," Schmitt says. "They are more likely to try and poach other people"s partners for a brief affair." Matthew Keller of the University of Colorado in Boulder remarks: "They still have to explain why it hasn"t spread to everyone? There must be some cost of the traits." One possibility, both Keller and Jonason suggest, is that the strategy is most successful when dark triad personalities are rare. Otherwise, others would become more wary and guarded.

Many foreigners who have not visited Britain call all the inhabitants English, for they are used to thinking of the British Isles as England. (1)_____, the British Isles contain a variety of peoples, and only the people of England call themselves English. The others (2)_____ to themselves as Welsh, Scottish, or Irish, (3)_____ the case may be; they are often slightly annoyed (4)_____ being classified as "English".Even in England there are many (5)_____ in regional character and speech. The chief (6)_____ is between southern England and northern England. South of a (7)_____ going from Bristol to London, people speak the type of English usually learnt by foreign students, (8)_____ there are local variations. Further north, regional speech is usually" (9)_____ "than that of southern Britain. Northerners are (10)_____ to claim that they work harder than Southerners, and are more (11)_____ They are openhearted and hospitable; foreigners often find that they make friends with them (12)_____. Northerners generally have hearty (13)_____: the visitor to Lancashire or Yorkshire, for instance, may look forward to receiving generous (14)_____ at meal times. In accent and character the people of the Midlands (15)_____ a gradual change from the southern to the northern type of Englishman. In Scotland the sound (16)_____ by the letter "R" is generally a strong sound, and "R" is often pronounced in words in which it would be (17)_____ in southern English. The Scots are said to be a serious, cautious, thrifty people, (18)_____ inventive and somewhat mystical. All the Celtic peoples of Britain (the Welsh, the Irish, the Scots) are frequently (19)_____ as being more "fiery" than the English. They are (20)_____ a race that is quite distinct from the English.

There is growing interest in East Japan Railway Co. ltd., one of the six companies, created out of the privatized national railway system. In an industry lacking exciting growth 【B1】______ its plan to use real-estate assets in and around train stations 【B2】______ is drawing interest. In a plan called "Station Renaissance" that it 【B3】______ in November, JR East said that it would 【B4】______ using its commercial spaces for shops and restaurants, extending them to 【B5】______ more suitable for the information age. It wants train stations as pick-up 【B6】______ for such goods as books, flowers and groceries 【B7】______ over the Internet. In a country where city 【B8】______ depend heavily on trains 【B9】______ commuting, about 16 million people a day go to its train stations anyway, the company 【B10】______ So, picking up commodities at train stations. 【B11】______ consumers extra travel and missed home deliveries. JR East already has been using its station 【B12】______ stores for this purpose, but it plans to create 【B13】______ spaces for the delivery of Internet goods. The company also plans to introduce 【B14】______ cards-known in Japan as IC cards because they use integrated circuit for 【B15】______ information 【B16】______ train tickets and commuter passes 【B17】______ the magnetic ones used today, integrating them into a/an 【B18】______ pass. This will save the company money, because 【B19】______ for IC cards are much less expensive than magnetic systems. Increased use of IC cards should also 【B20】______ the space needed for ticket vending.

"Ah, yes, divorce", Robin Williams once mused, "from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet". The derivation may not be found in dictionaries, but he was on well-trodden ground in linking divorce to money. This month a survey conducted among financial analysts, stockbrokers and hedge-fund managers by Mishcon de Reya, a law firm, suggested that the economic downturn will prompt an upsurge in divorces among high-earners in London's financial centre. This pattern is not without precedent; Sandra Davis, who commissioned the study, says that the recession of the early 1990s led to a wave of divorces among the City's wealthy people. A third of current inquiries to lawyers by those deciding to break the knot, she claims, are linked to the credit crunch. One explanation is that the defecting spouses of high earners are getting out before the crunch reduces the potential for profitable settlements. As the City boom turns to bust, redundancies are becoming commonplace and huge bonuses a distant dream. Since recent earnings are one of the factors taken into account in divorce settlements, it makes sense to divorce sooner rather than later. Others argue that money and the distractions it buys allow couples to avoid addressing difficulties in their relationship, which come to the fore in more financially-distressed times. For middle earners, the link between divorce rates and economic conditions is less clear-cut, not least since the main marital asset is houses rather than spouses. Rising inflation and falling house prices put pressure on marriages and might thus contribute to higher divorce rates. Yet the same factors also make splitting up more complicated. Falling property prices mean that selling the family home may not provide sufficient funds for two separate homes, especially now that lenders have become much more choosy. "A flagging economy clearly leads to an increase in misery; whether or not it causes a rise in the divorce rate is a debatable point," sums up Stephen Jenkins, director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research. One consequence is that more couples are living together after divorce, which raises its own problems. Godfrey Freeman, chairman of Resolution, an association of family lawyers, points out that the lower-earning partners in such couples may find it harder to claim benefits. They are usually refused help, he says, on the grounds that their mortgage is being paid, even if they have no cash of their own to cover everyday expenses.