阅读理解 It is fashionable today to bash Big Business. And there is one issue on which the many critics agree: CEO pay. We hear that CEOs are paid too much (or too much relative to workers), or that they rig others' pay, or that their pay is insufficiently related to positive outcomes. But the more likely truth is CEO pay is largely caused by intense competition. While individual cases of overpayment definitely exist, in general, the determinants of CEO pay are not so mysterious and not so mired in corruption. In fact, overall CEO compensation for the top companies rises pretty much in lockstep with the value of those companies on the stock market. The best model for understanding the growth of CEO pay, though, is that of limited CEO talent in a world where business opportunities for the top firms are growing rapidly. The efforts of America's highest-earning 1% have been one of the more dynamic elements of the global economy. It's not popular to say, but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really have upped their game relative to many other workers in the U.S. economy. Today's CEO, at least for major American firms, must have many more skills than simply being able to 'run the company'. CEOs must have a good sense of financial markets and maybe even how the company should trade in them. They also need better public relations skills than their predecessors, as the costs of even a minor slipup can be significant. Then there's the fact that large American companies are much more globalized than ever before, with supply chains spread across a larger number of countries. To lead in that system requires knowledge that is fairly mind-boggling. The common idea that high CEO pay is mainly about ripping people off doesn't explain history very well. By most measures, corporate governance has become a lot tighter and more rigorous since the 1970s. Yet it is principally during this period of stronger governance that CEO pay has been high and rising. That suggests it is in the broader con)orate interest to recruit top candidates for increasingly tough jobs. Furthermore, the highest CEO salaries are paid to outside candidates, not to the cozy insider picks, another sign that high CEO pay is not some kind of depredation at the expense of the rest of the company. And the stock market reacts positively when companies tie CEO pay to, say, stock prices, a sign that those practices build up corporate value not just for the CEO.

阅读理解Text 3 Ellen Pao spent the last few years spotlighting the technology industrys lack of diversity, in court and beyond

阅读理解[A] Stay calm [B] Stay humble [C] Dont make judgments [D] Be realistic about the risks [E] Decide whether to wait [F] Ask permission to disagree [G] Identify a shared goal How to Disagree with Someone More Powerful than You Your boss proposes a new initiative you think wont work

阅读理解Text 4 Amold Schwarzenegger, Dia Mirza and Adrian Grenier have a message for you: Its easy to beat plastic

阅读理解Text 2 Running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy, according to a new review and analysis of past research about exercise and premature death

阅读理解Text 1 Unlike so-called basic emotions such as sadness, fear, and anger, guilt emerges a little later, in conjunction with a childs growing grasp of social and moral norms

阅读理解Text 4 Speaking two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world

作文题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.

作文题Directions: Suppose you are planning a tour of historical site for a group of international students 1

作文题Directions: Suppose you are organizing an online meeting

作文题Directions: Write an essay based on the chartbelow

单选题Shopping has always been something of an impulse activity, in which objects that catch our fancy while strolling are immediately bought on a whim. Advertisers and sellers have taken advantage of this fact, carefully positioning inexpensive but attractive items on paths that we are most likely to cross, hoping that our human nature will lead to a greater profit for them. With the dawn of the Internet and its exploding use across the world, the same tactics apply. Advertisers now place "banners", links to commercial web sites decorated with attractive pictures designed to catch our eyes while browsing the webs, on key web sites with heavy traffic. They pay top dollar for the right, thus creating profits for the hosting web site as well. These actions are performed in the hopes that during the course of our casual and leisurely web surfing, we'll click on that banner that sparks our interest and thus, in theory, buy the products advertised. Initial results have been positive. Web sites report a huge inflow of cash, both from the advertisers who tempt customers in with the banners and the hosting web sites, which are paid for allowing the banners to be put in place. As trust and confidence in Internet buying increases and information security is heightened with new technology, the volume of buying is increasing, leading to even greater profits. The current situation, however, is not quite as optimistic. Just as magazine readers tend to unconsciously ignore advertisements in their favorite periodicals, web browsers are beginning to allow banners to slip their notice as well. Internet users respond to the flood of banners by viewing them as annoyances, a negative image that is hurting sales, since users are now less reluctant to click on those banners, preferring not to support the system that puts them in place. If Internet advertising is to continue to be a viable and profitable business practice, new methods will need to be considered to reinvigorate the industry. With the recent depression in the technology sector and slowing economy, even new practices may not do the trick. As consumers are saving more and frequenting traditional real estate businesses over their Internet counterparts, the fate of Internet business is called into question. The coming years will be the only reliable indication of whether shopping on the worldwide web is the wave of the future or simply an impulse activity whose whim has passed.

单选题As I type these lines, my daughter, Harriet, who is 14, is on her iPhone skipping among no fewer than eight social media sites. My son, Penn, who is 15, will be asleep for hours yet. He was 1 all night with a friend playing two video games, in a jag fueled by his favorite foodlike 2 . I like that my kids are comfortable and alert in the wired world. But increasingly I am 3 for them. It"s more 4 every day that screens have gradually stolen them from themselves. My wife, Cree, and I have 5 them to drift quite distantly into the online world, and we fear our casualness has been a 6 . Each summer Cree and I resolve to 7 things back. This is 8 we draft rules for a new school year, strictures like: no laptops in bedrooms during the week; homework before screen time; no electronics after 10 p.m.. These rules invariably begin to 9 by Day 3. By Day 4, there is pleading, and the discreet slamming of doors. By Day 8, no one is sure what the 10 are anymore. We"re back where we started, and plump with fear. This year it 11 to me we needed help. So I sat down with a new book that 12 assistance, and understanding. It is The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, whose primary 13 , Catherine Steiner-Adair, is a clinical psychologist who teaches at Harvard Medical School. Her book is 14 on thousands of interviews, and it can be eloquent about the need to ration our children"s computer time. Here the author has pinned me. I like to think I"m a good father, perhaps even casually 15 in my better moments, 16 there is zero doubt that, without my iPhone in my palm, I feel I lose something since I"m fairly 17 . I must change my life a bit. Cree and I are still hammering out our kids" computer rules. We are trying to 18 in mind that we"re not our kids" best friends; we"re their 19 . And we are 20 if there"s an app for fortitude.

单选题The technology industry is at war over intellectual property. On May 7th the first 1 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 2 over smartphone patents. Facebook and Yahoo! are at 3 over internet patents. Accusations abound 4 innovation is taking a 5 seat to lawsuits. Only the lawyers are smiling. All of 6 makes this a good time to 7 a new approach to trading intellectual property, says Gerard Pannekoek, the boss of IPXI, a new financial 8 that lets companies buy, sell and hold patent rights, just like any other 9 . The idea is to offer a patent or group of patents as "unit licence rights" (ULRs), which can be bought and sold like 10 . A ULR 11 a one-time right to use a particular technology in 12 product: a new type of airbag sensor in a car, 13 . 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 14 small companies, leaves patents unused on the shelf and 15 innovation. IPXI"s approach does not 16 for all types of intellectual property—it does not 17 exclusive licensing, for example—but should make it 18 for companies to make money from their inventions. "It"s a good form of funding for start-ups," suggests Mr. Pannekoek. The exchange has 19 30 members including Philips, an electronics giant, and several universities and research laboratories. On May 4th IPXI published the rulebook that 20 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.

单选题 When it comes to the slowing economy, Ellen Spero isn't biting her nails just yet. But the 47-year-old manicurist isn't cutting, filling or polishing as many nails as she' d like to, either. Most of her clients spend $12 to $50 weekly, but last month two longtime customers suddenly stopped showing up. Spero blames the softening economy. "I'm a good economic indicator," she says. "I provide a service that people can do without when they' re concerned about saving some dollars. "So Spero is downscaling, shopping at middle-brow Dillard's department store near her suburban Cleveland home, instead of Neiman Marcus. "I don't know if other clients are going to abandon me, too" she says. Even before Alan Greenspan's admission that America's red-hot economy is cooling, lots of working folks had already seen signs of the slowdown themselves. From car dealerships to Gap outlets, sales have been lagging for months as shoppers temper their spending. For retailers, who last year took in 24 percent of their revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the cautious approach is coming at a crucial time. Already, experts say, holiday sales are off 7 percent from last year's pace. But don't sound any alarms just yet. Consumers seem only concerned, not panicked, and many say they remain optimistic about the economy's long-term prospects, even as they do some modest belt-tightening. Consumers say they're not in despair because, despite the dreadful headlines, their own fortunes still feel pretty good. Home prices are holding steady in most regions. In Manhattan, "there's a new gold rush happening in the $4 million to $10 million range, predominantly fed by Wall Street bonuses," says broker Barbara Corcoran. In San Francisco, prices are still rising even as frenzied overbidding quiets. "Instead of 20 to 30 offers, now maybe you only get two or three," says john Deadly, a Bay Area realestate broker. And most folks still feel pretty comfortable about their ability to find and keep a job. Many folks see silver linings to this slowdown. Potential home buyers would cheer for lower interest rates. Employers wouldn't mind a little fewer bubbles in the job market. Many consumers seem to have been influenced by stock-market swings, which investors now view as a necessary ingredient to a sustained boom. Diners might see an upside, too. Getting a table at Manhattan's hot new Alain Ducasse restaurant need to be impossible. Not anymore. For that, Greenspan & Co. may still be worth toasting.

单选题"Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?" Rick Scott, the Florida governor, once asked. A leader of a prominent Internet company once told me that the firm regards admission to Harvard as a useful proof of talent, but a college education itself as useless. Parents and students themselves are acting on these principles, retreating from the humanities. I"ve been thinking about this after reading Fareed Zakaria"s smart new book, In Defense of a Liberal Education. Like Mr. Zakaria, I think that the liberal arts teach critical thinking. So, to answer the skeptics, here are my three reasons the humanities enrich our souls and sometimes even our pocketbooks as well. First, liberal arts equip students with communications and interpersonal skills that are valuable and genuinely rewarded in the labour force, especially when accompanied by technical abilities. "A broad liberal arts education is a key pathway to success in the 21st-century economy," says Lawrence Katz, a labour economist at Harvard. Professor Katz says that the economic return to pure technical skills has flattened, and the highest return now goes to those who combine soft skills—excellence at communicating and working with people—with technical skills. My second reason: We need people conversant with the humanities to help reach wise public policy decisions, even about the sciences. Technology companies must constantly weigh ethical decisions. To weigh these issues, regulators should be informed by first-rate science, but also by first-rate humanism. When the President"s Council on Bioethics issued its report in 2002, "Human Cloning and Human Dignity," it depends upon the humanities to shape judgments about ethics, limits and values. Third, wherever our careers lie, much of our happiness depends upon our interactions with those around us, and there"s some evidence that literature nurtures a richer emotional intelligence. Science magazine published five studies indicating that research subjects who read literary fiction did better at assessing the feelings of a person in a photo than those who read nonfiction or popular fiction. Literature seems to offer lessons in human nature that help us decode the world around us and be better friends. Literature also builds bridges of understanding. In short, it makes eminent sense to study coding and statistics today, but also history and literature.

单选题Many are aware of the tremendous waste of energy in our environment, but fail to take advantage of straightforward opportunities to conserve that energy. For example, everyone knows that lights should be switched off when no one is in an office. Similarly, when employees are not using a meeting room, there is no need to regulate temperature. Fortunately, one need not rely on human intervention to conserve energy. With the help of smart sensing and network technology, energy conservation processes such as turning off lights and adjusting temperature can be readily automated. Ultimately, this technology will enable consumers and plant managers to better identify wasteful energy use and institute procedures that lead to smarter and more efficient homes, buildings and industrial plants. Until now, wires and cables for power and connectivity have limited the widespread adoption of sensor networks by making them difficult and expensive to install and maintain. Battery-powered wireless networks can simplify installation and reduce cost. But their high power consumption and the corresponding need for regular battery replacement has made wireless networks difficult and costly to maintain. Nobody wants to replace hundreds or thousands of window sensor batteries in a large building on a regular basis. The promise of wireless sensor networks can only be fully realized when the wiring for both the data communication and the power supply is eliminated. Doing so requires a true battery-free wireless solution, one that can utilize energy harvested directly from the environments. To facilitate the widespread deployment of wireless sensor networks, Greenpeak has developed an ultra-low-power communication technology that can utilize environmental energy sources such as light, motion and vibration. This technology, employing on-board power management circuits and computer software to monitor energy harvesters and make the best use of harvested energy, enables sensors to operate reliably in a battery-free environment. Wireless sensor networks deployed in our offices and homes will have an enormous impact on our daily lives, helping to build a smarter world in which energy is recycled and fully utilized. These wireless platforms, equipped with advanced sensing capability, will enable us to better control our lives, homes and environment, creating a truly connected world that enables people worldwide to live in a more comfortable, safer, and cleaner environment.

单选题A new examination of urban policies has been carded out recently by Patricia Romero Lankao. She is a sociologist specializing in climate change and 1 development. She warns that many of the world"s fast-growing urban areas, 2 in developing countries, will likely suffer from the impacts of changing climate. Her work also concludes that most cities are failing to 3 emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse 4 These gases are known to have great 5 on the atmosphere. "Climate change is a deeply local issue and 6 profound threats to the growing cities of the world," says Romero Lankao, "But too few cities are developing effective strategies to 7 their residents. " Cities are 8 sources of greenhouse gases. And urban populations are likely to be among those most severely affected by future climate change. Lankao"s findings highlight ways in which city-residents are particularly vulnerable, and suggest policy interventions that could offer immediate and longer-term 9 . The locations and dense construction patterns of cities often place their populations at greater risk for natural disasters. Potential 10 associated with climate include storm surges and prolonged hot weather. Storm surges can flood coastal areas and prolonged hot weather can heat 11 paved cities more than surrounding areas. The impacts of such natural events can be 12 serious in an urban environment. For example, a prolonged heat wave can increase existing levels of air pollution, causing widespread health problems. Poorer neighborhoods that may 13 basic facilities such as drinking water or a dependable network of roads, are especially vulnerable to natural disasters. Many residents in poorer countries live in substandard housing 14 access to reliable drinking water, roads and basic services. Local governments, 15 , should take measures to protect their residents. "Unfortunately, they tend to move towards rhetoric 16 meaningful responses," Romero Lankao writes, "They don"t impose construction standards 17 could reduce heating and air conditioning needs. They don"t emphasize mass transit and reduce 18 use. In fact, many local governments are taking a hands-off approach (不插手的政策)." Thus, she urges them to change their 19 policies and to take strong steps to prevent the harmful effects of climate change 20 cities.

单选题Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet. The American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in the World War II and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information. Donovan believed in using whatever tools came to hand in the "great game" of espionage—spying as a "profession. " These days the Net, which has already re-made such everyday pastimes as buying books and sending mail, is reshaping Donovan"s vocation as well. The latest revolution isn"t simply a matter of gentlemen reading other gentlemen"s e-mail. That kind of electronic spying has been going on for decades. In the past three or four years, the World Wide Web has given birth to a whole industry of point-and-click spying. The spooks call it "open-source intelligence," and as the Net grows, it is becoming increasingly influential. In 1995 the CIA held a contest to see who could compile the most data about Burundi. The winner, by a large margin, was a tiny Virginia company called Open Source Solutions, whose clear advantage was its mastery of the electronic world. Among the firms making the biggest splash in this new world is Straitford, Inc., a private intelligence-analysis firm based in Austin, Texas. Straitford makes money by selling the results of spying (covering nations from Chile to Russia) to corporations like energy-services firm McDermott International. Many of its predictions are available online at www. straitford. com. Straitford president George Friedman says he sees the online world as a kind of mutually reinforcing tool for both information collection and distribution, a spymaster"s dream. Last week his firm was busy vacuuming up data bits from the far corners of the world and predicting a crisis in Ukraine. "As soon as that report runs, we"ll suddenly get 500 new Internet sign-ups from Ukraine," says Friedman, a former political science professor. "And we"ll hear back from some of them. " Open-source spying does have its risks, of course, since it can be difficult to tell good information from bad. That"s where Straitford earns its keep. Friedman relies on a lean staff of 20 in Austin. Several of his staff members have military- intelligence backgrounds. He sees the farm"s outsider status as the key to its success. Straitford"s briefs don"t sound like the usual Washington back-and-forthing, whereby agencies avoid dramatic declarations on the chance they might be wrong. Straitford, says Friedman, takes pride in its independent voice.

单选题While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less harmful 1 is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology. The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is 2 . Viruses and other parasites control larger organisms, 3 resources in order to multiply and spread. Smartphones and other gadgets do the same thing, 4 ever-increasing amounts of human attention and electricity supplied 5 wire umbilici. It is tempting to 5 a "strategy" to both phages and phablets, neither of which is sentient. 6 , the process is evolutionary, consisting of many random evolutions, 7 experimented with by many product designers. This makes it all the more powerful. Tech 8 occurs through actively-learnt responses, or "operant conditioning" as animal behaviourists call it. The scientific parallel here also involves a rodent, typically a rat, which occupies a 9 cage called a Skinner Box. The animal is 10 with a food pellet for solving puzzles and punished with an electric shock when it fails. "Are we getting a positive boost of hormones when we 11 look at our phone, seeking rewards?" asks David Shuker, an animal behaviourist at St Andrews university, sounding a little like a man withholding serious scientific endorsement 13 an idea that a journalist had in the shower. Research is needed, he says. Tech tycoons would meanwhile 14 that the popularity of mobile devices is attributed to the brilliance of their designs. This is precisely what people whose thought processes have been 12 by an invasive pseudo-organism would believe. 13 , mobile technology causes symptoms less severe than physiological diseases. There are even benefits to 14 sufferers for shortened attention spans and the caffeine overload triggered by visits to Starbucks for the free Wi-Fi. Most importantly, you can 15 the Financial Times in places as remote as Alaska or Sidcup. In this 16 , a mobile device is closer to a symbiotic organism than a parasite. This would make it 17 to an intestinal bacterium that helps a person to stay alive, rather than a virus that may kill you.