单选题We have known for a long time that the organization of any particular society is influenced by the definition of the sexes and the distinction drawn between them. But we have realized only recently that the identity of each sex is not so easy to pin down, and that definitions evolve in accordance with different types of culture known to us, that is, scientific discoveries and ideological revolutions. Our nature is not considered as immutable, either socially or biologically. As we approach the beginning of the 21st century, the substantial progress made in biology and genetics is radically challenging the roles, responsibilities and specific characteristics attributed to each sex, and yet, scarcely twenty years ago, these were thought to be "beyond dispute". We can safely say, with a few minor exceptions, that the definition of the sexes and their respective functions remained unchanged in the West from the beginning of the 19th century to the 1960s. The role distinction, raised in some cases to the status of uncompromising dualism on a strongly hierarchical model, lasted throughout this period, appealing for its justification to nature, religion and customs alleged to have existed since the dawn of time. The woman bore children and took care of the home. The man set out to conquer the world and was responsible for the survival of his family, by satisfying their needs in peacetime and going to war when necessary. The entire world order rested on the divergence of the sexes. Any overlapping or confusion between the roles was seen as a threat to the time- honored order of things. It was felt to be against nature, a deviation from the norm. Sex roles were determined according to the "place" appropriate to each. Women's place was, first and foremost, in the home. The outside world, i. e. workshops, factories and business firms, belonged to men. This sex-based division of the world (private and public) gave rise to a strict dichotomy between the attitudes, which conferred on each its special identity. The woman, sequestered at home, "cared, nurtured and conserved". To do this, she had no need to be daring, ambitious, tough or competitive. The man, on the other hand, competing with his fellow men, was caught up every day in the struggle for survival, and hence developed those characteristics which were thought natural in a man. Today, many women go out to work, and their reasons for doing so have changed considerably. Besides the traditional financial incentives, we find ambition and personal fulfillment motivating those in the most favorable circumstances, and the wish to have a social life and to get out of their domestic isolation influencing others. Above all, for all women, work is invariably connected with the desire for independence.

单选题Want a glimpse of the future of health care? Take a look at the way the various networks of people involved in patient care are being connected to one another, and how this new connectivity is being exploited to deliver medicine to the patient-no matter where he or she may be. Online doctors offering advice based on standardized symptoms are the most obvious example. Increasingly, however, remote diagnosis (telemedicine) will be based on real physiological data from the actual patient. A group from the university of Kentucky has shown that by using an off-the shelf (现成的) PDA (personal data assistance) such as a Palm Pilot plus a mobile phone, it is perfectly feasible to transmit a patient's vital signs over the telephone. With this kind of equipment in a first- aid kit (急救包), the cry asking whether there was a doctor in the house could well be a thing of the past. Other medical technology groups are working on applying telemedicine to rural care. And at least one team wants to use telemedicine as a tool for disaster response-especially after earthquakes. Overall, the trend is towards providing global access to medical data and expertise. But there is one problem. Bandwidth is the limiting factor for transmitting complex medical images around the world-CT scans being one of the biggest bandwidth consumers. Communications satellites may be able to cope with the short-term needs during disasters such as earthquakes, wars or famines. But medicine is looking towards both the second-generation internet and third-generation mobile phones for the future of distributed medical intelligence. Doctors have met to discuss computer-based tools for medical diagnosis, training and telemedicine. With the falling price of broadband communications, the new technologies should usher in (迎来) an era when telemedicine and the sharing of medical information, expert opinion and diagnosis are common.

单选题Even in traditional offices, "the lingua franca of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago," said Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. "If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey, mission, passion. There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn"t talk about energy; we didn"t talk about passion." Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very "team"-oriented—and not by coincidence. "Let"s not forget sports—in male dominated corporate America, it"s still a big deal. It"s not explicitly conscious; it"s the idea that I"m a coach, and you"re my team, and we"re in this together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win." These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning—and, as Rakesh Khurana, another professor, points out, increase allegiance to the firm. "You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations: terms like vision, values, passion, and purpose," said Khurana. This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud debates over work-life balance. The "mommy wars." of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can"t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg"s Lean In, whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug, offline, life-hack, bandwidth, and capacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if your work is your "passion," you"ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed. But this seems to be the irony of office speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it, companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As a linguist once said, "You can get people to think it"s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it." In a workplace that"s fundamentally indifferent to your life and its meaning, office speak can help you figure out how you relate to your work—and how your work defines who you are.

单选题When global warming finally came, it stuck with a vengeance. In some regions, temperatures rose several degrees in less than a century. Sea levels shot up nearly 400 feet, flooding coastal settlements and forcing people to migrate inland. Deserts spread throughout the world as vegetation shifted drastically in North America, Europe and Asia. After driving many of the animals around them to near extinction, people were forced to abandon their old way of life for a radically new survival strategy that resulted in widespread starvation and disease. The adaptation was farming: the global-warming crisis that gave rise to it happened more than 10,000 years ago. As environmentalists convene in Rio de Janeiro this week to ponder the global climate of the future, earth scientists are in the midst of a revolution in understanding how climate has changed in the past—and how those changes have transformed human existence. Researchers have begun to piece together an illuminating picture of the powerful geological and astronomical forces that have combined to change the planet"s environment from hot to cold, wet to dry and back again over a time period stretching back hundreds of millions of years. Most important, scientists are beginning to realize that the climatic changes have had a major impact on the evolution of the human species. New research now suggests that climate shifts have played a key role in nearly every significant turning point in human evolution: from the dawn of primates some 65 million years ago to human ancestors rising up to walk on two legs, from the huge expansion of the human brain to the rise of agriculture. Indeed, the human history has not been merely-touched by global climate change, some scientists argue, it has in some instances been driven by it. The new research has profound implications for the environmental summit in Rio. Among other things, the findings demonstrate that dramatic climate change is nothing new for planet Earth. The benign global environment that has existed over the past 10,000 years—during which agriculture, writing, cities and most other features of civilization appeared—is a mere bright spot in a much larger pattern of widely varying climate over the ages. In fact, the pattern of climate change in the past reveals that Earth"s climate will almost certainly go through dramatic changes in the future—even without the influence of human activity.

单选题Women have been driving yellow cabs in New York since the 1940s, but 99% of drivers are male. Even among drivers of cars booked by phone or online, only 4% are women. That may change with the launch of SheTaxis, an app that lets female passengers insist on female drivers, and vice versa. It will be available in New York City, Westchester and Long Island, and the firm plans to expand to other cities. Stella Mateo, the founder, is betting that quite a few women are nervous and weary of getting into cars driven by men. The service may also appeal to those whose religious beliefs forbid them to travel with unrelated men. Each driver wears a pink pashmina. Men who ask for a ride will be directed to another car service. Similar services thrive in India, South Africa and several Middle Eastern cities. Japan has had women-only railway carriages on and off since 1912. Known as hana densha (flower trains), they offer shelter from the gropers who make rush hour in Tokyo so disagreeable. But SheTaxis faces two speed bumps. One is practical. Demand has been so great that the firm has had to decelerate its launch until it can recruit 500 drivers. The other obstacle is legal. By employing only female drivers, SheTaxis is obviously discriminating against men. Since anti-discrimination law is not always applied with common sense, that may be illegal. And there is no shortage of potential litigants. Yellow cabbies are furious at the growth of online taxi firms such as Uber. "It"s not hard to imagine a guy ... filing suit," says Sylvia Law of New York University Law School. "SheTaxis" defence would probably be that its drivers are all independent contractors." Because the firm caters only to women, it is discriminating against male customers, too. Is that legal? Angela Cornell of Cornell Law School thinks there could be a loophole. New York"s Human Rights Commission could make an exemption on the ground that SheTaxi offers a service that is in the public interest: women feel safer not getting into cars with strange men. Women-only colleges are allowed, so why not women-only cabs? The snag is that some men may also feel safer getting into cabs with female drivers. A study in 2010 found that 80% of crashes in New York City that kill or seriously injure pedestrians involve male drivers. Women drivers are simply better.

单选题In the United States, the first day nursery, was opened in 1854. Nurseries were established in various areas during the 1 half of the 19th century; most of 2 were charitable. Both in Europe and in the U.S., the day nursery movement received great 3 during the First World War, when 4 of manpower caused the industrial employment of unprecedented (前所未有) numbers of women. In some European countries nurseries were established 5 in munitions (军火) plants, under direct government sponsorship. 6 the number of nurseries in the U.S. also rose 7 , this rise was accomplished without government aid of any kind. During the years following the First World War, 8 , federal, State, and local governments gradually began to exercise a measure of control 9 the day nurseries, chiefly by 10 them. The 11 of the Second World War was quickly followed by an increase in the number of day nurseries in almost all countries, as women were 12 called up on to replace men in the factories. On this 13 the U.S. government immediately came to the support of the nursery schools, 14 $6,000,000 in July, 1942, for a nursery school program for the children of working mothers. Many States and local communities 15 this Federal aid. By the end of the war, in August, 1945, more than 100, 000 children were being cared 16 in daycare centers receiving Federal 17 . Soon afterward, the Federal government 18 cut down its expenditures for this purpose and later 19 them, causing a sharp drop in the number of nursery schools in operation. However, the expectation that most employed mothers would leave their 20 at the end of the war was only partly fulfilled.

单选题When it comes to Barbie"s body, it will no longer be one size fits all. On Thursday, Mattel unveiled curvy, petite and tall versions of its iconic fashion doll whose unrealistically thin shape has attracted criticism for decades. The three body types will also be sold in an assortment of skin tones, eye colors and hairstyles. The move is about more than just making Barbie look different. While Barbie was once Mattel"s powerhouse brand, sales have plummeted in recent years as the doll has struggled to remain relevant to little girls who do not look like her and who play with toys other than dolls. "This is about drawing a wider demographic that had turned away from Barbie back to Barbie," said Jim Silver, the editor of a toy review website. But some industry experts and academics have long doubted that cosmetic changes—whether racial or body shapes—can revive the popularity of the 57-year-old Barbie, whose sales have been declining by double-digits in recent years. Executives have been optimistic, pointing to signs that Barbie"s in-store sales began picking up last year. The slumping sales may also be partly attributed to the shift away from traditional toys toward electronics and games in recent years, as many parents and children have clamored for less gender-specific toys. Even Lego, the world"s top toymaker, has had to alter its strategy and some of its building block lines to accommodate the growth in the market for learning toys that appeal to boys and girls. Faced with weakening sales in its core brands like Barbie, and criticism that it was too slow to pick up on trends, Mattel has undertaken a number of efforts to improve innovation. Barbie"s new shapes also coincide with a progressive cultural shift already underway in stores and the toy aisles. Parents and many health experts have complained that too many dolls, models and even clothing companies conform to an extremely thin, even anorexic, body type and have pressured corporations to offer a broader variety of images and apparel sizes to give girls and boys more confidence in their own body shapes. And some parents, concerned about negative gender stereotypes (a racecar for a son, a princess doll for a daughter), have pushed retailers into more gender-neutral territory. The Disney Store, for example, decided to label all of its children"s Halloween costumes as "for kids," as opposed to for boys or girls. Amazon, which by some measures accounts for more than half of all online sales, has banished gender distinctions for its toys.

单选题Nationally, an ageing population is a problem. But locally it can be a boon. The over-50s control 80% of Britain"s wealth, and like to spend it on houses and high-street shopping. The young "generation rent", by contrast, is poor, distractible and liable to shop online. People aged between 50 and 74 spend twice as much as the under-30s on cinema tickets. Between 2000 and 2010 restaurant spending by those aged 65-74 increased by 33%, while the un- der-30s spent 18% less. And while the young still struggle to find work, older people are retiring later. During the financial crisis full-time employment fell for every age group but the over-65s, and there has been a rash of older entrepreneurs. Pensioners also support the working population by volunteering: some 100 retirees in Christchurch help out as business mentors. Even if they wanted to, most small towns and cities could not capture the cool kids. Mobile young professionals cluster, and greatly prefer to cluster in London. Even supposed meccas like Manchester are ageing: clubs in that city are becoming members-only. Towns that aim too young, like Bracknell and Chippenham, can find their high streets full of closed La Senzas (a lingerie chain) and struggling tattoo parlours. Companies often lag behind local authorities in working this out. They are London-obsessed, and have been slow to appreciate the growing economic heft of the old—who are assumed, often wrongly, to stick with products they learned to love in their youth. But Caroyln Freeman of Revelation Marketing reckons Britain could be on the verge of a marketing surge directed at the grey pound, "similar to what we saw with the pink". The window will not remain open forever: soon the baby boomers will start to ail, and no one else alive today is likely to have such a rich retirement. Meanwhile, with the over-50s holding the purse strings, the towns that draw them are likely to grow more and more pleasant. Decent restaurants and nice shops spring up in the favoured haunts of the old, just as they do in the trendy, revamped boroughs of London. Latimer House, a Christchurch furniture store full of retro clothing and 1940s music, would not look out of place in Hackney. Improved high streets then entice customers of all ages. Indeed, gentrification and gentrification can look remarkably similar. Old folk and young hipsters are similarly fond of vinyl and typewriters, and wander about in outsized spectacles. Some people never lose their edge.

单选题Obesity is an epidemic to some and an opportunity to others. More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Find a way to battle obesity, 1 a huge profit might be made. On February 22nd, 2013 one pharmaceutical firm, Virus, took a small 2 towards this goal. A committee advising America"s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended Vivus"s diet drug, Qnexa. 3 , the pill"s long-awaited final approval may not come until April. The announcement mostly served as a reminder of a struggle which 4 fat into gold. Medical-device and pharmaceutical companies are quite 5 treating the problems that come with obesity. However, they can"t help consumers 6 weight. Allergan, a device-maker, has tried to use its gastric bands to enter the obesity market. The band is fitted near the top of patients" stomach, which helps them feel full 7 during the meal. Allergan has captured about 70% of the worldwide market for gastric bands, but sales are now 8 . The recession has sapped consumers" desire for expensive surgery. Some patients have 9 bands removed because they slipped or proved 10 . In January David Pyott, Allergan"s chief executive, said he would cancel an effort to market the band for teenagers. He is now trying to convince insurers of the gastric band"s 11 . Drug companies have had even more 12 than device-makers. It has been 13 years since the FDA approved a 13 diet pill. That drug, Roche"s Xenical, has 14 side-effects. The FDA rejected Vivus"s Qnexa in 2010 over 15 for the safety of pregnant women and the quickening of patients" heart rates. However, Vivus"s new data in 2013 apparently satisfied the FDA"s advisory committee. But the agency may yet 16 the drug. 17 Qnexa is approved, it is unclear that patients will buy it. Qnexa 18 two medicines that are already on the market. Both medicines are generic, which means that doctors may 19 the existing drugs rather than Qnexa"s more expensive version. For now, it is more 20 to treat fat patients than to try to make them slim.

完形填空Weighing yourself regularly is a wonderful way to stay aware of any significant weight fluctuations

完形填空Its not difficult to set targets for staff

完形填空 Being a good parent is, of course, what every parent would like to be. But defining what it means to be a good parent is undoubtedly very 1 , particularly since children respond differently to the same style of parenting. A calm, rule-following child might respond better to a different sort of parenting than, 2 , a younger sibling. 3 , there's another sort of parent that's a bit easier to 4 : a patient parent. Children of every age benefit from patient parenting. Still, 5 every parent would like to be patient, this is no easy 6 . Sometimes parents get exhausted and frustrated and are unable to maintain a 7 and composed style with their kids. I understand this. You're only human, and sometimes your kids can 8 you just a little too far. And then the 9 happens: You lose your patience and either scream at your kids or say something that was a bit too 10 and does nobody any good. You wish that you could 11 the clock and start over. We've all been there. 12 , even though it's common, it's important to keep in mind that in a single moment of fatigue, you can say something to your child that you may 13 for a long time. This may not only do damage to your relationship with your child but also 14 your child's self-esteem. If you consistently lose your 15 with your kids, then you are inadvertently modeling a lack of emotional control for your kids. We are all becoming increasingly aware of the 16 of modeling tolerance and patience for the younger generation. This is a skill that will help them all throughout life. In fact, the ability to emotionally regulate or maintain emotional control when 17 by stress is one of the most important of all life's skills. Certainly, it's incredibly 18 to maintain patience at all times with your children. A more practical goal is to try, to the best of your ability, to be as tolerant and composed as you can when faced with 19 situations involving your children. I can promise you this: As a result of working toward this goal, you and your children will benefit and 20 from stressful moments feeling better physically and emotionally.

完形填空Being a good parent is, of course, what every parent would like to be

完形填空While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less harm- ful ____(1)____ is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology

完形填空_1_ job applications to eliminate discrimination is not easy

英译汉 It's almost impossible to go through life without experiencing some kind of failure. People who do so probably live so cautiously that they go nowhere. Put simply, they're not really living at all. But, the wonderful thing about failure is that it's entirely up to us to decide how to look at it. We can choose to see failure as 'the end of the world', or as proof of just how inadequate we are. Or, we can look at failure as the incredible learning experience that it often is. Every time we fail at something, we can choose to look for the lesson we're meant to learn. These lessons are very important; they're how we grow, and how we keep from making that same mistake again. Failures stop us only if we let them. Failure can also teach us things about ourselves that we would never have learned otherwise. For instance, failure can help you discover how strong a person you are. Failing at something can help you discover your truest friends, or help you find unexpected motivation to succeed.

写作题Part B Directions：Write an essay based on the chart below. In your writing , you should 1) interpret the chart, and 2) give your comments You should write about 150 words on the ANSWER SHEET.(15 points)

写作题Part A Directions：Suppose you have to cancel your travel plan and will not be able to visit professor Smith, write him an email to Suppose Professor Smith asked you to plan a debate on the theme of city traffic

写作题Part A Directions: Write an email of about 100 words to relevant departments to give some advice on how to live a low-carbon life

写作题Part A Directions: Suppose your uncle has just been promoted to a manager